-------------------------------------------------------- | * transcriber's note: every effort has been made | | to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, | | including obsolete and variant spellings and other | | inconsistencies. where the text has been changed | | to correct an obvious error by the publisher, the | | word has been marked with an asterisk. | -------------------------------------------------------- [illustration: a map of lewis and clark's track, across the western portion of north america, from the mississippi to the pacific ocean; by order of the executive of the united states, in , & . copied by samuel lewis from the original drawing by wm. clark.] history of the expedition under the command of _captains lewis and clark,_ to the sources of the missouri, thence across the rocky mountains and down the river columbia to the pacific ocean. performed during the years - - . by order of the government of the united states. prepared for the press by paul allen, esquire. in two volumes. vol. i. _philadelphia_ published by bradford and inskeep; and abm. h. inskeep, new york. j. maxwell, printer . district of pennsylvania, to wit: be it remembered, that on the twenty-second day of january, in the thirty-eighth year of the independence of the united states of america, a.d. , bradford and inskeep, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "history of the expedition under the command of captains lewis and clark, to the sources of the missouri, thence across the rocky mountains, and down the river columbia to the pacific ocean. performed during the years - - , by order of the government of the united states. prepared for the press by paul allen, esquire." in conformity to the act of congress of the united states, entitled "an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." and also to the act, entitled, "an act supplementary to an act, entitled, "an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." david caldwell, clerk of the district of pennsylvania. preface. in presenting these volumes to the public, the editor owes equally to himself and to others, to state the circumstances which have preceded the publication, and to explain his own share in compiling them. it was the original design of captain lewis to have been himself the editor of his own travels, and he was on his way towards philadelphia for that purpose when his sudden death frustrated these intentions. after a considerable and unavoidable delay, the papers connected with the expedition were deposited with another gentleman, who, in order to render the lapse of time as little injurious as possible, proceeded immediately to collect and investigate all the materials within his reach. of the incidents of each day during the expedition, a minute journal was kept by captain lewis or captain clark, and sometimes by both, which was afterwards revised and enlarged at the different periods of leisure which occurred on the route. these were carefully perused in conjunction with captain clark himself, who was able from his own recollection of the journey, as well as from a constant residence in louisiana since his return, to supply a great mass of explanations, and much additional information with regard to part of the route which has been more recently explored. besides these, recourse was had to the manuscript journals kept by two of the serjeants, one of which, the least minute and valuable, has already been published. that nothing might be wanting to the accuracy of these details, a very intelligent and active member of the party, mr. george shannon, was sent to contribute whatever his memory might add to this accumulated fund of information. from these copious materials the narrative was sketched nearly in its present form, when other pursuits diverted the attention of the writer, and compelled him to transfer his manuscript, in its unfinished state, with all the documents connected with it, to the present editor, to prepare them for the press and superintend the publication. that he may not seem to arrogate any thing from the exertions of others, he should therefore state that, although the whole work was thus submitted to his entire discretion, he found but little to change, and that his labour has been principally confined to revising the manuscript, comparing it with the original papers, and inserting such additional matter as appears to have been intentionally deferred by the writer till the period of a more mature revisal. these circumstances, which would otherwise be indifferent to the public, are mentioned merely to account for imperfections, which are in some degree inseparable from any book of travels not written by the traveller. in a work of pure description indeed, like the present, where the incidents themselves are the sole objects of attraction, the part of an editor is necessarily subordinate, nor can his humble pretensions aspire beyond the merit of rigid adherence to facts as they are stated to him. this has been very diligently attempted, and for this, in its full extent, the editor deems himself responsible. the present volumes, it will be perceived, comprise only the narrative of the journey. those parts of the work which relate to the various objects of natural history, observed or collected during the journey, as well as the alphabets of the indian languages, are in the hands of professor bartou, and will, it is understood, shortly appear. to give still further interest to the work, the editor addressed a letter to mr. jefferson, requesting some authentic memoirs of captain lewis. for the very curious and valuable information contained in his answer, the public, as well as the editor himself, owe great obligations to the politeness and knowledge of that distinguished gentleman. paul allen. philadelphia, january , . life of captain lewis. _monticello, august , ._ sir, in compliance with the request conveyed in your letter of may , i have endeavoured to obtain, from the relations and friends of the late governor lewis, information of such incidents of his life as might be not unacceptable to those who may read the narrative of his western discoveries. the ordinary occurrences of a private life, and those also while acting in a subordinate sphere in the army, in a time of peace, are not deemed sufficiently interesting to occupy the public attention; but a general account of his parentage, with such smaller incidents as marked his early character are briefly noted; and to these are added, as being peculiarly within my own knowledge, whatever related to the public mission, of which an account is now to be published. the result of my inquiries and recollections shall now be offered, to be enlarged or abridged as you may think best; or otherwise to be used with the materials you may have collected from other sources. meriwether lewis, late governor of louisiana, was born on the eighteenth of august, , near the town of charlottesville, in the county of albemarle, in virginia, of one of the distinguished families of that state. john lewis, one of his father's uncles was a member of the king's council, before the revolution. another of them, fielding lewis, married a sister of general washington. his father, william lewis, was the youngest of five sons of colonel robert lewis, of albemarle, the fourth of whom, charles, was one of the early patriots who stepped forward in the commencement of the revolution and commanded one of the regiments first raised in virginia, and placed on continental establishment. happily situated at home, with a wife and young family, and a fortune placing him at ease, he left all to aid in the liberation of his country from foreign usurpations, then first unmasking their ultimate end and aim. his good sense, integrity, bravery, enterprise, and remarkable bodily powers, marked him as an officer of great promise; but he unfortunately died early in the revolution. nicholas lewis, the second of his father's brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the successful expedition of , against the cherokee indians; who, seduced by the agents of the british government to take up the hatchet against us, had committed great havoc on our southern frontier, by murdering and scalping helpless women and children, according to their cruel and cowardly principles of warfare. the chastisement they then received closed the history of their wars, and prepared them for receiving the elements of civilization, which, zealously inculcated by the present government of the united states, have rendered them an industrious, peaceable, and happy people. this member of the family of lewises, whose bravery was so usefully proved on this occasion, was endeared to all who knew him by his inflexible probity, courteous disposition, benevolent heart, and engaging modesty and manners. he was the umpire of all the private differences of his county--selected always by both parties. he was also the guardian of meriwether lewis, of whom we are now to speak, and who had lost his father at an early age. he continued some years under the fostering care of a tender mother, of the respectable family of meriwethers, of the same county; and was remarkable even in infancy for enterprise, boldness, and discretion. when only eight years of age he habitually went out, in the dead of night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be taken. in this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct his purpose--plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams in pursuit of his object. at thirteen he was put to the latin school, and continued at that until eighteen, when he returned to his mother, and entered on the cares of his farm; having, as well as a younger brother, been left by his father with a competency for all the correct and comfortable purposes of temperate life. his talent for observation, which had led him to an accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of his own country, would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the age of twenty, yielding to the ardour of youth, and a passion for more dazzling pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia which were called out by general washington, on occasion of the discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of the united states; and from that situation he was removed to the regular service as a lieutenant in the line. at twenty-three he was promoted to a captaincy; and, always attracting the first attention where punctuality and fidelity were requisite, he was appointed paymaster to his regiment. about this time a circumstance occurred which, leading to the transaction which is the subject of this book, will justify a recurrence to its original idea. while i resided in paris, john ledyard, of connecticut, arrived there, well known in the united states for energy of body and mind. he had accompanied captain cook on his voyage to the pacific ocean; and distinguished himself on that voyage by his intrepidity. being of a roaming disposition, he was now panting for some new enterprise. his immediate object at paris was to engage a mercantile company in the fur-trade of the western coast of america, in which, however, he failed. i then proposed to him to go by land to kamschatka, cross in some of the russian vessels to nootka sound, fall down into the latitude of the missouri, and penetrate to, and through, that to the united states. he eagerly seized the idea, and only asked to be assured of the permission of the russian government. i interested, in obtaining that, m. de simoulin, minister plenipotentiary of the empress at paris, but more especially the baron de grimm, minister plenipotentiary of saxe-gotha, her more special agent and correspondent there in matters not immediately diplomatic. her permission was obtained, and an assurance of protection while the course of the voyage should be through her territories. ledyard set out from paris, and arrived at st. petersburgh after the empress had left that place to pass the winter, i think, at moscow. his finances not permitting him to make unnecessary stay at st. petersburgh, he left it with a passport from one of the ministers; and at two hundred miles from kamschatka, was obliged to take up his winter quarters. he was preparing, in the spring, to resume his journey, when he was arrested by an officer of the empress, who by this time had changed her mind, and forbidden his proceeding. he was put into a close carriage, and conveyed day and night, without ever stopping, till they reached poland; where he was set down and left to himself. the fatigue of this journey broke down his constitution; and when he returned to paris his bodily strength was much impaired. his mind, however, remained firm, and he after this undertook the journey to egypt. i received a letter from him, full of sanguine hopes, dated at cairo, the fifteenth of november, , the day before he was to set out for the head of the nile; on which day, however, he ended his career and life: and thus failed the first attempt to explore the western part of our northern continent. in , i proposed to the american philosophical society that we should set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to explore that region in the opposite direction; that is, by ascending the missouri, crossing the stony mountains, and descending the nearest river to the pacific. captain lewis being then stationed at charlottesville, on the recruiting service, warmly solicited me to obtain for him the execution of that object. i told him it was proposed that the person engaged should be attended by a single companion only, to avoid exciting alarm among the indians. this did not deter him; but mr. andre michaux, a professed botanist, author of the flora boreali-americana, and of the histoire des chesnes d'amerique, offering his services, they were accepted. he received his instructions, and when he had reached kentucky in the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken by an order from the minister of france, then at philadelphia, to relinquish the expedition, and to pursue elsewhere the botanical inquiries on which he was employed by that government: and thus failed the second attempt for exploring that region. in , the act for establishing trading houses with the indian tribes being about to expire, some modifications of it were recommended to congress by a confidential message of january th, and an extension of its views to the indians on the missouri. in order to prepare the way, the message proposed the sending an exploring party to trace the missouri to its source, to cross the highlands, and follow the best water-communication which offered itself from thence to the pacific ocean. congress approved the proposition, and voted a sum of money for carrying it into execution. captain lewis, who had then been near two years with me as private secretary, immediately renewed his solicitations to have the direction of the party. i had now had opportunities of knowing him intimately. of courage undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country, against losing time in the description of objects already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous, that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves; with all these qualifications, as if selected and implanted by nature in one body for this express purpose, i could have no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him. to fill up the measure desired, he wanted nothing but a greater familiarity with the technical language of the natural sciences, and readiness in the astronomical observations necessary for the geography of his route. to acquire these he repaired immediately to philadelphia, and placed himself under the tutorage of the distinguished professors of that place, who with a zeal and emulation, enkindled by an ardent devotion to science, communicated to him freely the information requisite for the purposes of the journey. while attending too, at lancaster, the fabrication of the arms with which he chose that his men should be provided, he had the benefit of daily communication with mr. andrew ellicot, whose experience in astronomical observation, and practice of it in the woods, enabled him to apprise captain lewis of the wants and difficulties he would encounter, and of the substitutes and resources offered by a woodland and uninhabited country. deeming it necessary he should have some person with him of known competence to the direction of the enterprise, in the event of accident to himself, he proposed william clarke, brother of general george rogers clarke, who was approved, and, with that view, received a commission of captain. in april, , a draught of his instructions was sent to captain lewis, and on the twentieth of june they were signed in the following form: "to meriwether lewis, esquire, captain of the first regiment of infantry of the united states of america: "your situation as secretary of the president of the united states, has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential message of january , , to the legislature; you have seen the act they passed, which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into execution. "instruments for ascertaining, by celestial observations, the geography of the country through which you will pass, have been already provided. light articles for barter and presents among the indians, arms for your attendants, say for from ten to twelve men, boats, tents, and other travelling apparatus, with ammunition, medicine, surgical instruments, and provisions, you will have prepared, with such aids as the secretary at war can yield in his department; and from him also you will receive authority to engage among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of attendants abovementioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer, are invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case. "as your movements, while within the limits of the united states, will be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. what follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the united states. "your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from france, spain, and great britain, and through them to their governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects, as we trust will satisfy them. the country of louisiana having been ceded by spain to france, the passport you have from the minister of france, the representative of the present sovereign of the country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from the minister of england will entitle you to the friendly aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet. "the object of your mission is to explore the missouri river, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the pacific ocean, whether the columbia, oregan, colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water-communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce. "beginning at the mouth of the missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river, and especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and other places and objects distinguished by such natural marks and characters, of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognised hereafter. the courses of the river between these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by time, corrected by the observations themselves. the variations of the needle, too, in different places, should be noticed. "the interesting points of the portage between the heads of the missouri, and of the water offering the best communication with the pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the missouri. "your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy; to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places at which they were taken; and are to be rendered to the war-office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the united states. several copies of these, as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times, and put into the care of the most trust-worthy of your attendants to guard, by multiplying them against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. a further guard would be, that one of these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common paper. "the commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people important. you will therefore endeavour to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers; "the extent and limits of their possessions; "their relations with other tribes or nations; "their language, traditions, monuments; "their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the implements for these; "their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations; "the diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use; "moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know; "peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions; "and articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what extent. "and, considering the interest which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them; as it may better enable those who may endeavour to civilize and instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom they are to operate. "other objects worthy of notice will be-- "the soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions, especially those not of the united states; "the animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the united states; "the remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct; "the mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpetre; salines and mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances as may indicate their character; "volcanic appearances; "climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth, or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles or insects. "although your route will be along the channel of the missouri, yet you will endeavour to inform yourself, by inquiry, of the character and extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially on its southern side. the north river, or rio bravo, which runs into the gulf of mexico, and the north river, or rio colorado, which runs into the gulf of california, are understood to be the principal streams heading opposite to the waters of the missouri, and running southwardly. whether the dividing grounds between the missouri and them are mountains or flat lands, what are their distance from the missouri, the character of the intermediate country, and the people inhabiting it, are worthy of particular inquiry. the northern waters of the missouri are less to be inquired after, because they have been ascertained to a considerable degree, and are still in a course of ascertainment by english traders and travellers; but if you can learn any thing certain of the most northern source of the missisipi, and of its position relatively to the lake of the woods, it will be interesting to us. some account too of the path of the canadian traders from the missisipi, at the mouth of the onisconsing to where it strikes the missouri, and of the soil and rivers in its course, is desirable. "in all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit; allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey; satisfy them of its innocence; make them acquainted with the position, extent, character, peaceable and commercial dispositions of the united states; of our wish to be neighbourly, friendly, and useful to them, and of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, and the articles of most desirable interchange for them and us. if a few of their influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us, arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to call on our officers on their entering the united states, to have them conveyed to this place at the public expense. if any of them should wish to have some of their young people brought up with us, and taught such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care of them. such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of young people, would give some security to your own party. carry with you some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may be of its efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox, and instruct and encourage them in the use of it. this may be especially done wherever you winter. "as it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with which you are to pursue your journey. we value too much the lives of citizens to offer them to probable destruction. your numbers will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized opposition of individuals, or of small parties; but if a superior force, authorized, or not authorized, by a nation, should be arrayed against your further passage, and inflexibly determined to arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit and return. in the loss of yourselves we should lose also the information you will have acquired. by returning safely with that, you may enable us to renew the essay with better calculated means. to your own discretion, therefore, must be left the degree of danger you may risk, and the point at which you should decline, only saying, we wish you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your party safe, even if it be with less information. "as far up the missouri as the white settlements extend, an intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the spanish posts of st. louis opposite cahokia, or st. genevieve opposite kaskaskia. from still further up the river the traders may furnish a conveyance for letters. beyond that you may perhaps be able to engage indians to bring letters for the government to cahokia, or kaskaskia, on promising that they shall there receive such special compensation as you shall have stipulated with them. avail yourself of these means to communicate to us, at seasonable intervals, a copy of your journal, notes and observations of every kind, putting into cypher whatever might do injury if betrayed. "should you reach the pacific ocean, inform yourself of the circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advantageously at the head of the missouri (convenient as is supposed to the waters of the colorado and oregan or columbia) as at nootka sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade be consequently conducted through the missouri and united states more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practised. "on your arrival on that coast, endeavour to learn if there be any port within your reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation, and to send two of your trusty people back by sea, in such way as shall appear practicable, with a copy of your notes; and should you be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will be imminently dangerous, then ship the whole, and return by sea, by the way either of cape horn, or the cape of good hope, as you shall be able. as you will be without money, clothes, or provisions, you must endeavour to use the credit of the united states to obtain them; for which purpose open letters of credit shall be furnished you, authorizing you to draw on the executive of the united states, or any of its officers, in any part of the world, on which draughts can be disposed of, and to apply with our recommendations to the consuls, agents, merchants, or citizens of any nation with which we have intercourse, assuring them, in our name, that any aids they may furnish you shall be honourably repaid, and on demand. our consuls, thomas hewes, at batavia, in java, william buchanan, in the isles of france and bourbon, and john elmslie, at the cape of good hope, will be able to supply your necessities, by draughts on us. "should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after sending two of your party round by sea, or with your whole party, if no conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on your return as may serve to supply, correct, or confirm those made on your outward journey. "on reentering the united states and reaching a place of safety, discharge any of your attendants who may desire and deserve it, procuring for them immediate payment of all arrears of pay and clothing which may have incurred since their departure, and assure them that they shall be recommended to the liberality of the legislature for the grant of a soldier's portion of land each, as proposed in my message to congress, and repair yourself, with your papers, to the seat of government. "to provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy, dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total failure of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any instrument signed and written in your own hand, to name the person among them who shall succeed to the command on your decease, and by like instruments to change the nomination, from time to time, as further experience of the characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness; and all the powers and authorities given to yourself are, in the event of your death, transferred to, and vested in the successor so named, with further power to him and his successors, in like manner to name each his successor, who, on the death of his predecessor, shall be invested with all the powers and authorities given to yourself. given under my hand at the city of washington, this twentieth day of june, . "thomas jefferson, "_president of the united states of america_." while these things were going on here, the country of louisiana, lately ceded by spain to france, had been the subject of negotiation at paris between us and this last power; and had actually been transferred to us by treaties executed at paris on the thirtieth of april. this information, received about the first day of july, increased infinitely the interest we felt in the expedition, and lessened the apprehensions of interruption from other powers. every thing in this quarter being now prepared, captain lewis left washington on the fifth of july, , and proceeded to pittsburg, where other articles had been ordered to be provided for him. the men too were to be selected from the military stations on the ohio. delays of preparation, difficulties of navigation down the ohio, and other untoward obstructions, retarded his arrival at cahokia until the season was so far advanced as to render it prudent to suspend his entering the missouri before the ice should break up in the succeeding spring. from this time his journal, now published, will give the history of his journey to and from the pacific ocean, until his return to st. louis on the twenty-third of september, . never did a similar event excite more joy through the united states. the humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impatience for the information it would furnish. their anxieties too for the safety of the corps had been kept in a state of excitement by lugubrious rumours, circulated from time to time on uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters, or other direct information, from the time they had left the mandan towns, on their ascent up the river in april of the preceding year, , until their actual return to st. louis. it was the middle of february, , before captain lewis, with his companion captain clarke, reached the city of washington, where congress was then in session. that body granted to the two chiefs and their followers the donation of lands which they had been encouraged to expect in reward of their toil and dangers. captain lewis was soon after appointed governor of louisiana, and captain clarke a general of its militia, and agent of the united states for indian affairs in that department. a considerable time intervened before the governor's arrival at st. louis. he found the territory distracted by feuds and contentions among the officers of the government, and the people themselves divided by these into factions and parties. he determined at once to take no side with either; but to use every endeavour to conciliate and harmonize them. the even-handed justice he administered to all soon established a respect for his person and authority; and perseverance and time wore down animosities, and reunited the citizens again into one family. governor lewis had, from early life, been subject to hypochondriac affections. it was a constitutional disposition in all the nearer branches of the family of his name, and was more immediately inherited by him from his father. they had not, however, been so strong as to give uneasiness to his family. while he lived with me in washington i observed at times sensible depressions of mind: but knowing their constitutional source, i estimated their course by what i had seen in the family. during his western expedition, the constant exertion which that required of all the faculties of body and mind, suspended these distressing affections; but after his establishment at st. louis in sedentary occupations, they returned upon him with redoubled vigour, and began seriously to alarm his friends. he was in a paroxysm of one of these, when his affairs rendered it necessary for him to go to washington. he proceeded to the chickasaw bluffs, where he arrived on the sixteenth of september, , with a view of continuing his journey thence by water. mr. neely, agent of the united states with the chickasaw indians, arriving there two days after, found him extremely indisposed, and betraying at times some symptoms of a derangement of mind. the rumours of a war with england, and apprehensions that he might lose the papers he was bringing on, among which were the vouchers of his public accounts, and the journals and papers of his western expedition, induced him here to change his mind, and to take his course by land through the chickasaw country. although he appeared somewhat relieved, mr. neely kindly determined to accompany and watch over him. unfortunately, at their encampment, after having passed the tennessee one day's journey, they lost two horses, which obliging mr. neely to halt for their recovery, the governor proceeded, under a promise to wait for him at the house of the first white inhabitant on his road. he stopped at the house of a mr. grinder, who not being at home, his wife, alarmed at the symptoms of derangement she discovered, gave him up the house and retired to rest herself in an out-house, the governor's and neely's servants lodging in another. about three o'clock in the night he did the deed which plunged his friends into affliction, and deprived his country of one of her most valued citizens, whose valour and intelligence would have been now employed in avenging the wrongs of his country, and in emulating by land the splendid deeds which have honoured her arms on the ocean. it lost too to the nation the benefit of receiving from his own hand the narrative now offered them of his sufferings and successes, in endeavouring to extend for them the boundaries of science, and to present to their knowledge that vast and fertile country, which their sons are destined to fill with arts, with science, with freedom and happiness. to this melancholy close of the life of one, whom posterity will declare not to have lived in vain, i have only to add, that all the facts i have stated are either known to myself, or communicated by his family or others, for whose truth i have no hesitation to make myself responsible; and i conclude with tendering you the assurances of my respect and consideration. th. jefferson. mr. paul allen, philadelphia. contents. vol. i. chapter i. the party set out on the expedition and pass wood river. description of the town of st. charles. osage woman river. gasconade and osage rivers described. character of the osage indians; curious traditionary account of their origin. the party proceed and pass the mine river. the two charitons. the kanzas, nodawa, newahaw, neeshuabatona, little nemahar, each of which are particularly described. they encamp at the mouth of the river platte. a particular description of the surrounding country. the various creeks, bays, islands, prairies, &c. given in the course of the route. chapter ii. some account of the pawnee indians. council held with the otto and missouri indians. council held with another party of the ottoes. death of sergeant floyd. the party encamp near the mouth of whitestone river. the character of the missouri, with the rivers that enter it. the surrounding country. the various islands, bays, creeks, &c. given in the course of the expedition. chapter iii. whimsical instance of superstition of the sioux indians. council held with the sioux. character of that tribe, their manners, &c. a ridiculous instance of their heroism. ancient fortifications. quieurre river described. vast herds of buffaloe. account of the petit chien or little dog. narrow escape of george shannon. description of white river. surprising fleetness of the antelope. pass the river of the sioux. description of the grand le tour, or great bend. encamp on the teton river. chapter iv. council held with the tetons. their manners, dances, &c. cheyenne river described. council held with the ricara indians. their manners and habits. strange instance of ricara idolatry. another instance. cannonball river. arrival among the mandans. character of the surrounding country, and of the creeks, islands, &c. chapter v. council held with the mandans. a prairie on fire, and a singular instance of preservation. peace established between the mandans and ricaras. the party encamp for the winter. indian mode of catching goats. beautiful appearance of northern lights. friendly character of the indians. some account of the mandans. the anahaways and the minnetarees. the party acquire the confidence of the mandans by taking part in their controversy with the sioux. religion of the mandans, and their singular conception of the term medicine. their tradition. the sufferings of the party from the severity of the season. indian game of billiards described. character of the missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. chapter vi. the party increase in the favour of the mandans. description of a buffaloe dance. medicine dance. the fortitude with which the indians bear the severity of the season. distress of the party for want of provisions. the great importance of the blacksmith in procuring it. depredations of the sioux. the homage paid to the medicine stone. summary act of justice among the minnetarees. the process by which the mandans and ricaras make beads. character of the missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. chapter vii. indian method of attacking the buffaloe on the ice. an enumeration of the presents sent to the president of the united states. the party are visited by a ricara chief. they leave their encampment, and proceed on their journey. description of the little missouri. some account of the assiniboins. their mode of burying the dead. whiteearth river described. great quantity of salt discovered on its banks. yellowstone river described. a particular account of the country at the confluence of the yellowstone and missouri. description of the missouri, the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. chapter viii. unusual appearance of salt. the formidable character of the white bear. porcupine river described. beautiful appearance of the surrounding country. immense quantities of game. milk river described. extraordinary character of bigdry river. an instance of uncommon tenacity of life in a white bear. narrow escape of one of the party from that animal. a still more remarkable instance. muscleshell river described. chapter ix. the party continue their route. description of judith river. indian mode of taking the buffaloe. slaughter river described. phenomena of nature. of walls on the banks of the missouri. the party encamp on the banks of the river to ascertain which of the streams constitute the missouri. captain lewis leaves the party to explore the northern fork, and captain clarke explores the southern. the surrounding country described in the route of captain lewis. narrow escape of one of his party. chapter x. return of captain lewis. account of captain clarke's researches with his exploring party. perilous situation of one of his party. tansy river described. the party still believing the southern fork the missouri, captain lewis is resolves to ascend it. mode of making a place to deposit provisions, called cache. captain lewis explores the southern fork. falls of the missouri discovered, which ascertains the question. romantic scenery of the surrounding country. narrow escape of captain lewis. the main body under captain clarke approach within five miles of the falls, and prepare for making a portage over the rapids. chapter xi. description and romantic appearance of the missouri at the junction of the medicine river. the difficulty of transporting the baggage at the falls. the party employed in the construction of a boat of skins. the embarrassments they had to encounter for the want of proper materials. during the work the party much troubled by white bears. violent hail-storm, and providential escape of captain clarke and his party. description of a remarkable fountain. singular explosion heard from the black mountains. the boat found to be insufficient, and the serious disappointment of the party. captain clarke undertakes to repair the damage by building canoes, and accomplishes the task. chapter xii. the party embark on board the canoes. description of smith's river. character of the country, &c. dearborne's river described. captain clarke precedes the party for the purpose of discovering the indians of the rocky mountains. magnificent rocky appearances on the borders of the river denominated the gates of the rocky mountains. captain clarke arrives at the three forks of the missouri without overtaking the indians. the party arrive at the three forks, of which a peculiar and interesting description is given. chapter xiii. the name of the missouri changed, as the river now divides itself into three forks, one of which is called after jefferson, the other madison, and the other after gallatin. their general character. the party ascend the jefferson branch. description of the river philosophy which enters into the jefferson. captain lewis and a small party go in advance in search of the shoshonees. description of the country, &c. bordering on the river. captain lewis still preceding the main party in quest of the shoshonees. a singular accident which prevented captain clarke from following captain lewis's advice, and ascending the middle fork of the river. description of philanthropy river, another stream running into the jefferson. captain lewis and a small party having been unsuccessful in their first attempt, set off a second time in quest of the shoshonees. chapter xiv. captain lewis proceeds before the main body in search of the shoshonees; his ill success on the first interview. the party with captain lewis at length discover the source of the missouri. captain clarke with the main body still employed in ascending the missouri or jefferson river. captain lewis's second interview with the shoshonees attended with success. the interesting ceremonies of his first introduction to the natives, detailed at large. their hospitality. their mode of hunting the antelope. the difficulties encountered by captain clarke and the main body in ascending the river. the suspicions entertained of captain lewis by the shoshonees, and his mode of allaying them. the ravenous appetites of the savages illustrated by singular adventure. the indians still jealous, and the great pains taken by captain lewis to preserve their confidence. captain clarke arrives with the main body exhausted by the difficulties they underwent. chapter xv. affecting interview between the wife of chaboneau and the chief of the shoshonees. council held with that nation, and favourable result. the extreme navigable point of the missouri mentioned. general character of the river and of the country through which it passes. captain clarke in exploring the source of the columbia falls in company with another party of shoshonees. the geographical information acquired from one of that party. their manner of catching fish. the party reach lewis river. the difficulties which captain clarke had to encounter in his route. friendship and hospitality of the shoshonees. the party with captain lewis employed in making saddles, and preparing for the journey. chapter xvi. contest between drewyer and a shoshonee. the fidelity and honour of that tribe. the party set out on their journey. the conduct of cameahwait reproved, and himself reconciled. the easy parturition of the shoshonee women. history of this nation. their terror of the pawkees. their government and family economy in their treatment of their women. their complaints of spanish treachery. description of their weapons of warfare. their curious mode of making a shield. the caparison of their horses. the dress of the men and of the women particularly described. their mode of acquiring new names. chapter xvii. the party, after procuring horses from the shoshonees, proceed on their journey through the mountains. the difficulties and dangers of the route. a council held with another band of the shoshonees, of whom some account is given. they are reduced to the necessity of killing their horses for food. captain clarke with a small party precedes the main body in quest of food, and is hospitably received by the pierced-nose indians. arrival of the main body amongst this tribe, with whom a council is held. they resolve to perform the remainder of their journey in canoes. sickness of the party. they descend the kooskooskee to its junction with lewis river, after passing several dangerous rapids. short description of the manners and dress of the pierced-nose indians. lewis and clarke's expedition up the missouri. chap. i. the party set out on the expedition and pass wood river--description of the town of st. charles--osage woman river--gasconade and osage rivers described--character of the osage indians--curious traditionary account of their origin--the party proceed and pass the mine river--the two charitons--the kanzas, nodawa, newahaw, neeshnabatona, little nemahar, each of which are particularly described--they encamp at the mouth of the river platte--a particular description of the surrounding country--the various creeks, bays, islands, prairies, &c., given in the course of the route. on the acquisition of louisiana, in the year , the attention of the government of the united states, was early directed towards exploring and improving the new territory. accordingly in the summer of the same year, an expedition was planned by the president for the purpose of discovering the courses and sources of the missouri, and the most convenient water communication thence to the pacific ocean. his private secretary captain meriwether lewis, and captain william clarke, both officers of the army of the united states, were associated in the command of this enterprize. after receiving the requisite instructions, captain lewis left the seat of government, and being joined by captain clarke at louisville, in kentucky, proceeded to st. louis, where they arrived in the month of december. their original* intention was to pass the winter at la charrette, the highest settlement on the missouri. but the spanish commandant of the province, not having received an official account of its transfer to the united states, was obliged by the general policy of his government, to prevent strangers from passing through the spanish territory. they therefore encamped at the mouth of wood river, on the eastern side of the mississippi, out of his jurisdiction, where they passed the winter in disciplining the men, and making the necessary preparations for setting out early in the spring, before which the cession was officially announced. the party consisted of nine young men from kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the united states army who volunteered their services, two french watermen--an interpreter and hunter--and a black servant belonging to captain clarke--all these, except the last, were enlisted to serve as privates during the expedition, and three sergeants appointed from amongst them by the captains. in addition to these were engaged a corporal and six soldiers, and nine watermen to accompany the expedition as far as the mandan nation, in order to assist in carrying the stores, or repelling an attack which was most to be apprehended between wood river and that tribe. the necessary stores were subdivided into seven bales, and one box, containing a small portion of each article in case of accident. they consisted of a great variety of clothing, working utensils, locks, flints, powder, ball, and articles of the greatest use. to these were added fourteen bales and one box of indian presents, distributed in the same manner, and composed of richly laced coats and other articles of dress, medals, flags, knives, and tomahawks for the chiefs--ornaments of different kinds, particularly beads, lookingglasses, handkerchiefs, paints, and generally such articles as were deemed best calculated for the taste of the indians. the party was to embark on board of three boats: the first was a keel boat fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet water, carrying one large squaresail and twenty-two oars, a deck of ten feet in the bow, and stern formed a forecastle and cabin, while the middle was covered by lockers, which might be raised so as to form a breast-work in case of attack. this was accompanied by two perioques or open boats, one of six and the other of seven oars. two horses were at the same time to be led along the banks of the river for the purpose of bringing home game, or hunting in case of scarcity. of the proceedings of this expedition, the following is a succinct and circumstantial narrative. all the preparations being completed, we left our encampment on monday, may th, . this spot is at the mouth of wood river, a small stream which empties itself into the mississippi, opposite to the entrance of the missouri. it is situated in latitude ° ' - / " north, and longitude from greenwich, ° ' ". on both sides of the mississippi the land for two or three miles is rich and level, but gradually swells into a high pleasant country, with less timber on the western than on the eastern side, but all susceptible of cultivation. the point which separates the two rivers on the north, extends for fifteen or twenty miles, the greater part of which is an open level plain, in which the people of the neighbourhood cultivate what little grain they raise. not being able to set sail before four o'clock p.m., we did not make more than four miles, and encamped on the first island opposite a small creek called cold water. may . the rain, which had continued yesterday and last night, ceased this morning. we then proceeded, and after passing two small islands about ten miles further, stopped for the night at piper's landing, opposite another island. the water is here very rapid and the banks falling in. we found that our boat was too heavily laden in the stern, in consequence of which she ran on logs three times to-day. it became necessary to throw the greatest weight on the bow of the boat, a precaution very necessary in ascending both the missouri and mississippi rivers, in the beds of which, there lie great quantities of concealed timber. the next morning we set sail at five o'clock. at the distance of a few miles, we passed a remarkable large coal hill on the north side, called by the french la charbonniere, and arrived at the town of st. charles. here we remained a few days. st. charles is a small town on the north bank of the missouri, about twenty-one miles from its confluence with the mississippi. it is situated in a narrow plain, sufficiently high to protect it from the annual risings of the river in the month of june, and at the foot of a range of small hills, which have occasioned its being called petite cote, a name by which it is more known to the french than by that of st. charles. one principal street, about a mile in length and running parallel with the river, divides the town, which is composed of nearly one hundred small wooden houses, besides a chapel. the inhabitants, about four hundred and fifty in number, are chiefly descendants from the french of canada; and, in their manners, they unite all the careless gayety, and the amiable hospitality of the best times of france: yet, like most of their countrymen in america, they are but ill qualified for the rude life of a frontier; not that they are without talent, for they possess much natural genius and vivacity; nor that they are destitute of enterprize, for their hunting excursions are long, laborious, and hazardous: but their exertions are all desultory; their industry is without system, and without perseverance. the surrounding country, therefore, though rich, is not, in general, well cultivated; the inhabitants chiefly subsisting by hunting and trade with the indians, and confine their culture to gardening, in which they excel. being joined by captain lewis, who had been detained by business at st. louis, we again set sail on monday, may st, in the afternoon, but were prevented by wind and rain from going more than about three miles, when we encamped on the upper point of an island, nearly opposite a creek which falls in on the south side. on the d we made about eighteen miles, passing several small farms on the bank of the river, a number of islands, and a large creek on the south side, called bonhomme, or goodman's river. a small number of emigrants from the united states have settled on the sides of this creek, which are very fertile. we also passed some high lands, and encamped, on the north side, near a small creek. here we met with a camp of kickapoo indians who had left us at st. charles, with a promise of procuring us some provisions by the time we overtook them. they now made us a present of four deer, and we gave them in return two quarts of whiskey. this tribe reside on the heads of the kaskaskia and illinois river, on the other side of the mississippi, but occasionally hunt on the missouri. may . two miles from our camp of last night, we reached a river emptying itself on the north side, called osage woman river. it is about thirty yards wide, and has now a settlement of thirty or forty families from the united states. about a mile and a half beyond this is a large cave, on the south side at the foot of cliffs nearby three hundred feet high, overhanging the water, which becomes very swift at this place. the cave is one hundred and twenty feet wide, forty feet deep, and twenty high, it is known by the name of the tavern, among the traders who have written their names on the rock, and painted some images which command the homage of the indians and french. about a little further we passed a small creek called tavern creek, and encamped on the south side of the river, having gone nine miles. early the next morning we ascended a very difficult rapid, called the devil's race ground, where the current sets for half a mile against some projecting rocks on the south side. we were less fortunate in attempting a second place of equal difficulty. passing near the southern shore, the bank fell in so fast as to oblige us to cross the river instantly, between the northern side and a sandbar which is constantly moving and banking with the violence of the current. the boat struck on it, and would have upset immediately, if the men had not jumped into the water and held her, till the sand washed from under her. we encamped on the south side, having ascended ten miles, and the next day, may , passed on the south side the mouth of wood river, on the north, two small creeks and several islands, and stopped for the night at the entrance of a creek on the north side, called by the french la charrette, ten miles from our last encampment, and a little above a small village of the same name. it consists of seven small houses, and as many poor families who have fixed themselves here for the convenience of trade, and form the last establishment of whites on the missouri. it rained last night, yet we found this morning that the river had fallen several inches. may . the wind being favourable we made eighteen miles to-day. we passed in the morning several islands, the largest of which is buffaloe island, separated from the southern side by a small channel which receives the waters of buffaloe creek. on the same side is shepherd's creek, a little beyond which we encamped on the northern side. the next day we sailed along a large island called otter island, on the northern side, extending nearly ten miles in length, narrow but high in its situation, and one of the most fertile in the whole river. between it and the northern shore, three small creeks, one of which has the same name with the island, empty themselves. on the southern shore is a creek twenty yards wide, called ash creek. in the course of the day we met two canoes loaded with furs, which had been two months on their route, from the mahar nation, residing more than seven hundred miles up the river--one large raft from the pawnees on the river platte, and three others from the grand osage river. at the distance of fifteen miles we encamped on a willow island, at the entrance of the river gasconade. this river falls into the missouri from the south, one hundred miles from the mississippi. its length is about one hundred and fifty miles in a course generally northeast through a hilly country. on its banks are a number of saltpetre caves, and it is believed some mines of lead in the vicinity. its width at the mouth is one hundred and fifty-seven yards, and its depth nineteen feet. here we halted for the purpose of hunting and drying our provisions, and making the necessary celestial observations. this being completed, we set sail on the th at four o'clock, and at four miles distance encamped on the south-side, above a small creek, called deer creek. the next day, th, we set out early, and at two miles distant reached a large cave, on the north, called montbrun's tavern, after a french trader of that name, just above a creek called after the same person. beyond this is a large island, and at the distance of four miles, rush creek coming in from the south, at eleven, big-muddy river on the north, about fifty yards wide; three miles further, is little-muddy river on the same side, opposite to which we encamped at the mouth of grindstone creek. the rain which began last night continued through the day, accompanied with high wind and some hail. the river has been rising fast for two days, and the country around appears full of water. along the sides of the river to day we observe much timber, the cotton wood, the sycamore, hickory, white walnut, some grapevines, and rushes--the high west wind and rain compelled us to remain all the next day, may . in the afternoon a boat came down from the grand osage river, bringing a letter from a person sent to the osage nation on the arkansaw river, which mentioned that the letter announcing the cession of louisiana was committed to the flames--that the indians would not believe that the americans were owners of that country, and disregarded st. louis and its supplies. the party was occupied in hunting, in the course of which, they caught in the woods several very large rats. we set sail early the next morning, june st, and at six miles distant passed bear creek, a stream of about twenty-five yards width; but the wind being ahead and the current rapid, we were unable to make more than thirteen miles to the mouth of the osage river; where we encamped and remained the following day, for the purpose of making celestial observations. the osage river empties itself into the missouri, at one hundred and thirty-three miles distance from the mouth of the latter river. its general course is west and west southwest through a rich and level country. at the junction the missouri is about eight hundred and seventy-five yards wide, and the osage three hundred and ninety-seven. the low point of junction is in latitude ° ' ", and at a short distance from it is a high commanding position, whence we enjoyed a delightful prospect of the country. the osage river gives or owes its name to a nation inhabiting its banks at a considerable distance from this place. their present name however, seems to have originated from the french traders, for both among themselves and their neighbours they are called the wasbashas. they number between twelve and thirteen hundred warriors, and consist of three tribes: the great osages of about five hundred warriors, living in a village on the south bank of the river--the little osages, of nearly half that number, residing at the distance of six miles from them--and the arkansaw band, a colony of osages, of six hundred warriors, who left them some years ago, under the command of a chief called the bigfoot, and settled on the vermillion river, a branch of the arkansaw. in person the osages are among the largest and best formed indians, and are said to possess fine military capacities; but residing as they do in villages, and having made considerable advance in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war, than their northern neighbours, to whom the use of rifles gives a great superiority. among the peculiarities of this people, there is nothing more remarkable than the tradition relative to their origin. according to universal belief, the founder of the nation was a snail passing a quiet existence along the banks of the osage, till a high flood swept him down to the missouri, and left him exposed on the shore. the heat of the sun at length ripened him into a man, but with the change of his nature, he had not forgotten his native seats on the osage, towards which, he immediately bent his way. he was however soon overtaken by hunger, and fatigue, when happily the great spirit appeared, and giving him a bow and arrow, showed him how to kill and cook deer, and cover himself with the skin. he then proceeded to his original residence, but as he approached the river, he was met by a beaver, who inquired haughtily who he was, and by what authority he came to disturb his possession. the osage answered that the river was his own, for he had once lived on its borders. as they stood disputing, the daughter of the beaver came, and having by her entreaties reconciled her father to this young stranger, it was proposed that the osage should marry the young beaver, and share with her family the enjoyment of the river. the osage readily consented, and from this happy union there soon came the village and the nation of the wasbasha, or osages, who have ever since preserved a pious reverence for their ancestors, abstaining from the chace of the beaver, because in killing that animal, they killed a brother of the osage. of late years, however, since the trade with the whites has rendered beaver skins more valuable, the sanctity of these maternal relatives has visibly reduced, and the poor animals have nearly lost all the privileges of kindred. on the afternoon of june , we proceeded, and at three miles distant, reached a creek called cupboard creek, from a rock of that appearance near its entrance. two miles further we encamped at moreau creek, a stream of twenty yards width, on the southern side. the next morning, we passed at an early hour, cedar island on the north, so called from the abundance of the tree of that name; near which is a small creek, named nightingale creek, from a bird of that species, who sang for us during the night. beyond cedar island, are some others of a smaller extent, and at seven miles distance a creek fifteen or twenty yards wide, entering from the north, and known by the name of cedar creek. at seven and a half miles further, we passed on the south side another creek, which we called mast creek, from the circumstance of our mast being broken by running under a concealed tree; a little above is another creek on the left, one mile beyond which we encamped on the southern shore under high projecting cliffs. the french had reported that lead ore was to be found in this place, but on examining the hills, we could discern no appearance of that mineral. along the river on the south, is a low land covered with rushes, and high nettles, and near the mouths of the creeks, supplied with oak, ash, and walnut timber. on the north the land is rich and well situated. we made seventeen and a half miles this day. the river is falling slowly. we continued our route the next morning early: a small creek called lead creek, on the south; another on the north, known to the french by the name of little good woman's creek, and again big rock creek on the south were the only streams we passed this morning. at eleven o'clock we met a raft made of two canoes joined together, in which two french traders were descending, from eighty leagues up the river kanzas, where they had wintered, and caught great quantities of beaver, but had lost much of their game by fires from the prairies. they told us that the kanzas nation is now hunting buffaloe in the plains, having passed the last winter in this river. two miles further, we reached on the south little manitou creek, which takes its name from a strange figure resembling the bust of a man, with the horns of a stag, painted on a projecting rock, which may represent some spirit or deity. near this is a sandbar extending several miles, which renders the navigation difficult, and a small creek called sand creek on the south, where we stopped for dinner, and gathered wild cresses and tongue grass from the sandbar. the rapidity of the currents added to our having broken our mast, prevented our going more than twelve and a half miles. the scouts and hunters whom we always kept out, report that they have seen fresh tracks of indians. the next morning we left our camp, which was on the south side, opposite to a large island in the middle of the river, and at five miles reached a creek on the north side, of about twenty yards wide, called split rock creek, from a fissure in the point of a neighbouring rock. three miles beyond this, on the south is saline river, it is about thirty yards wide, and has its name from the number of salt licks, and springs, which render its water brackish; the river is very rapid and the banks falling in. after leaving saline creek, we passed one large island and several smaller ones, having made fourteen miles. the water rose a foot during the last night. the next day, june , we passed at four and a half miles big manitou creek, near which is a limestone rock inlaid with flint of various colours, and embellished, or at least covered with uncouth paintings of animals and inscriptions. we landed to examine it, but found the place occupied by a nest of rattlesnakes, of which we killed three. we also examined some licks and springs of salt water, two or three miles up this creek. we then proceeded by some small willow islands, and encamped at the mouth of good woman river on the north. it is about thirty-five yards wide, and said to be navigable for boats several leagues. the hunters, who had hitherto given us only deer, brought in this evening three bears, and had seen some indication of buffaloe. we had come fourteen miles. june , we saw several small willow islands, and a creek on the south, near which are a number of deerlicks; at nine miles distance we came to mine river. this river, which falls into the missouri from the south, is said to be navigable for boats eighty or ninety miles, and is about seventy yards wide at its mouth. it forks about five or six leagues from the missouri, and at the point of junction are some very rich salt springs; the west branch in particular, is so much impregnated, that, for twenty miles, the water is not palatable: several branches of the manitou and good woman are equally tinctured. the french report also, that lead ore has been found on different parts of the river. we made several excursions near the river through the low rich country on its banks, and after dinner went on to the island of mills, where we encamped. we met with a party of three hunters from the sioux river; they had been out for twelve months, and collected about nine hundred dollars worth of peltries and furs. we ascended this river twelve miles. on the th, we set out early, and reached a cliff of rocks, called the arrow rock, near to which is a prairie called the prairies of arrows, and arrow creek, a small stream about eight yards wide, whose source is in the adjoining prairies on the south. at this cliff the missouri is confined within a bed of two hundred yards; and about four miles to the south east is a large lick and salt spring of great strength. about three miles further is blackbird creek on the north side, opposite to which, is an island and a prairie inclosing a small lake. five miles beyond this we encamped on the south side, after making, in the course of the day, thirteen miles. the land on the north is a high rich plain. on the south it is also even, of a good quality, and rising from fifty to one hundred feet. the next morning, th, we passed deer creek, and at the distance of five miles, the two rivers called by the french the two charatons, a corruption of thieraton, the first of which is thirty, the second seventy yards wide, and enter the missouri together. they are both navigable for boats: the country through which they pass is broken, rich, and thickly covered with timber. the ayauway nation, consisting of three hundred men, have a village near its head-waters on the river de moines. farther on we passed a large island called _chicot_ or stump island, and encamped on the south, after making ten miles. a head wind forced us to remain there all the next day, during which we dried the meat we had killed, and examined the surrounding country, which consists of good land, well watered, and supplied with timber: the prairies also differ from those eastward of the mississippi, inasmuch as the latter are generally without any covering except grass, whilst the former abound with hazel, grapes and other fruits, among which is the osage plum of a superior size and quality. on the morning of the th, we passed through difficult places in the river, and reached plum creek on the south side. at one o'clock, we met two rafts loaded, the one with furs, the other with the tallow of buffaloe; they were from the sioux nation, and on their way to st. louis; but we were fortunate enough to engage one of them, a mr. durion, who had lived with that nation more than twenty years, and was high in their confidence, to accompany us thither. we made nine miles. on the th, we passed at between four and five miles, a bend of the river, and two creeks on the north, called the round bend creeks. between these two creeks is the prairie, in which once stood the ancient village of the missouris. of this village there remains no vestige, nor is there any thing to recall this great and numerous nation, except a feeble remnant of about thirty families. they were driven from their original seats by the invasions of the sauks and other indians from the mississippi, who destroyed at this village two hundred of them in one contest, and sought refuge near the little osage, on the other side of the river. the encroachment of the same enemies forced, about thirty years since, both these nations from the banks of the missouri. a few retired with the osage, and the remainder found an asylum on the river platte, among the ottoes, who are themselves declining. opposite the plain there was an island and a french fort, but there is now no appearance of either, the successive inundations having probably washed them away, as the willow island which is in the situation described by du pratz, is small and of recent formation. five miles from this place is the mouth of grand river, where we encamped. this river follows a course nearly south, or south east, and is between eighty and a hundred yards wide where it enters the missouri, near a delightful and rich plain. a racoon, a bear, and some deer were obtained to day. we proceeded at six o'clock the next morning. the current was so rapid and the banks on the north falling in so constantly, that we were obliged to approach the sandbars on the south. these were moving continually, and formed the worst passage we had seen, and which we surmounted with much difficulty. we met a trading raft from the pawnee nation on the river platte, and attempted unsuccessfully to engage one of their party to return with us. at the distance of eight miles, we came to some high cliffs, called the snake bluffs, from the number of that animal in the neighbourhood, and immediately above these bluffs, snake creek, about eighteen yards wide, on which we encamped. one of our hunters, a half indian, brought us an account of his having to day passed a small lake, near which a number of deer were feeding, and in the pond he heard a snake making a guttural noise like a turkey. he fired his gun, but the noise became louder. he adds, that he has heard the indians mention this species of snake, and this story is confirmed by a frenchman of our party. all the next day, the river being very high, the sandbars were so rolling and numerous, and the current so strong, that we were unable to stem it even with oars added to our sails; this obliged us to go nearer the banks, which were falling in, so that we could not make, though the boat was occasionally towed, more than fourteen miles. we passed several islands and one creek on the south side, and encamped on the north opposite a beautiful plain, which extends as far back as the osage river, and some miles up the missouri. in front of our encampment are the remains of an old village of the little osage, situated at some distance from the river, and at the foot of a small hill. about three miles above them, in view of our camp is the situation of the old village of the missouris after they fled from the sauks. the inroads of the same tribe compelled the little osage to retire from the missouri a few years ago, and establish themselves near the great osages. the river, which is here about one mile wide, had risen in the morning, but fell towards evening. early this morning, june th, we joined the camp of our hunters, who had provided two deer and two bear, and then passing an island and a prairie on the north covered with a species of timothy, made our way through bad sandbars and a swift current, to an encampment for the evening, on the north side, at ten miles distance. the timber which we examined to day was not sufficiently strong for oars; the musquitoes and ticks are exceedingly troublesome. on the th, we set out early and having come to a convenient place at one mile distance, for procuring timber and making oars, we occupied ourselves in that way on this and the following day. the country on the north of the river is rich and covered with timber; among which we procured the ash for oars. at two miles it changes into extensive prairies, and at seven or eight miles distance becomes higher and waving. the prairie and high lands on the south commence more immediately on the river; the whole is well watered and provided with game, such as deer, elk, and bear. the hunters brought in a fat horse which was probably lost by some war party--this being the crossing place for the sauks, ayauways, and sioux, in their excursions against the osage. june , the oars being finished, we proceeded under a gentle breeze by two large and some smaller islands. the sandbars are numerous and so bad, that at one place we were forced to clear away the driftwood in order to pass: the water too was so rapid that we were under the necessity of towing the boat for half a mile round a point of rocks on the south side. we passed two creeks, one called tiger creek on the north, twenty-five yards wide at the extremity of a large island called panther island; the other tabo creek on the south, fifteen yards wide. along the shores are gooseberries and raspberries in great abundance. at the distance of seventeen and a half miles we encamped on the south, near a lake about two miles from the river and several in circumference; and much frequented by deer and all kinds of fowls. on the north the land is higher and better calculated for farms than that on the south, which ascends more gradually, but is still rich and pleasant. the musquitoes and other animals are so troublesome that musquitoe biers or nets were distributed to the party. the next morning we passed a large island, opposite to which on the north is a large and beautiful prairie, called sauk prairie, the land being fine and well timbered on both sides the river. pelicans were seen to day. we made six and three quarter miles, and encamped at the lower point of a small island, along the north side of which we proceeded the next day, june st, but not without danger in consequence of the sands and the rapidity of the water which rose three inches last night. behind another island come in from the south two creeks, called eau, beau, or clear water creeks; on the north is a very remarkable bend, where the high lands approach the river, and form an acute angle at the head of a large island produced by a narrow channel through the point of the bend. we passed several other islands, and encamped at seven and a half miles on the south. d. the river rose during the night four inches. the water is very rapid and crowded with concealed timber. we passed two large islands and an extensive prairie on the south, beginning with a rich low land, and rising to the distance of seventy or eighty feet of rolling clear country. the thermometer at three o'clock p.m. was at °. after coming ten and a half miles we encamped on the south, opposite a large creek called fire prairie river. d. the wind was against us this morning, and became so violent that we made only three and a half miles, and were obliged to lie to during the day at a small island. this is separated from the northern side by a narrow channel which cannot be passed by boats, being choaked by trees and drifted wood. directly opposite on the south, is a high commanding position, more than seventy feet above high water mark, and overlooking the river which is here of but little width; this spot has many advantages for a fort, and trading house with the indians.[a] the river fell eight inches last night. [footnote a: the united states built in september, , a factory and fort at this spot, which is very convenient for trading with the osages, ayauways and kanzas.] the next day, th, we passed at eight miles distance, hay cabin creek coming in from the south, about twenty yards wide, and so called from camps of straw built on it; to the north are some rocks projecting into the river, and a little beyond them a creek on the same side, called charaton scarty; that is, charaton like the otter. we halted, after making eleven and a half miles, the country on both sides being fine and interspersed with prairies, in which we now see numerous herds of deer, pasturing in the plains or feeding on the young willows of the river. th. a thick fog detained us till eight o'clock, when we set sail, and at three miles reached a bank of stone coal on the north, which appeared to be very abundant: just below it is a creek called after the bank la charbonniere. four miles further, and on the southern side, comes in a small creek, called la benite. the prairies here approach the river and contain many fruits, such as plums, raspberries, wild apples, and nearer the river vast quantities of mulberries. our encampment was at thirteen miles distance on an island to the north, opposite some hills higher than usual, and almost one hundred and sixty or one hundred and eighty feet. th. at one mile we passed at the end of a small island, blue water creek, which is about thirty yards wide at its entrance from the south.[a] here the missouri is confined within a narrow bed, and the current still more so by counter currents or whirls on one side and a high bank on the other. we passed a small island and a sandbar, where our tow rope broke twice, and we rowed round with great exertions. we saw a number of parroquets, and killed some deer; after nine and three quarter miles we encamped at the upper point of the mouth of the river kanzas: here we remained two days, during which we made the necessary observations, recruited the party, and repaired the boat. the river kanzas takes its rise in the plains between the arkansaw and platte rivers, and pursues a course generally east till its junction with the missouri which is in latitude ° ' "; here it is three hundred and forty and a quarter yards wide, though it is wider a short distance above the mouth. the missouri itself is about five hundred yards in width; the point of union is low and subject to inundations for two hundred and fifty yards, it then rises a little above high water mark, and continues so as far back as the hills. on the south of the kanzas the hills or highlands come within one mile and a half of the river; on the north of the missouri they do not approach nearer than several miles; but on all sides the country is fine. the comparative specific gravities of the two rivers is, for the missouri seventy-eight, the kanzas seventy-two degrees; the waters of the latter have a very disagreeable taste, the former has risen during yesterday and to day about two feet. on the banks of the kanzas reside the indians of the same name, consisting of two villages, one at about twenty, the other forty leagues from its mouth, and amounting to about three hundred men. they once lived twenty-four leagues higher than the kanzas, on the south bank of the missouri, and were then more numerous, but they have been reduced and banished by the sauks and ayauways, who being better supplied with arms have an advantage over the kanzas, though the latter are not less fierce or warlike than themselves. this nation is now hunting in the plains for the buffaloe which our hunters have seen for the first time. [footnote a: a few miles up the blue water creek are quarries of plaster of paris, since worked and brought down to st. louis.] on the th, we set out late in the afternoon, and having passed a sandbar, near which the boat was almost lost, and a large island on the north, we encamped at seven and a quarter miles on the same side in the low lands, where the rushes are so thick that it is troublesome to walk through them. early the next morning, th, we reached, at five miles distance, the mouth of a river coming in from the north, and called by the french, petite riviere platte, or little shallow river; it is about sixty yards wide at its mouth. a few of the party who ascended informed us, that the lands on both sides are good, and that there are several falls well calculated for mills; the wind was from the south west, and the weather oppressively warm, the thermometer standing at ° above at three o'clock p.m. one mile beyond this is a small creek on the south, at five miles from which we encamped on the same side, opposite the lower point of an island called diamond island. the land on the north between the little shallow river, and the missouri is not good and subject to overflow--on the south it is higher and better timbered. july st. we proceeded along the north side of diamond island, where a small creek called biscuit creek empties itself. one and a half miles above the island is a large sandbar in the middle of the river, beyond which we stopped to refresh the men, who suffered very much from the heat. here we observed great quantities of grapes and raspberries. between one and two miles farther are three islands a creek on the south known by the french name of remore. the main current which is now on the south side of the largest of the three islands, ran three years, as we were told on the north, and there was then no appearance of the two smaller islands. at the distance of four and a half miles we reached the lower point of a cluster of small islands, two large and two small, called isles des pares or field islands. paccaun trees were this day seen, and large quantities of deer and turkies on the banks. we had advanced twelve miles. july d. we left our encampment, opposite to which is a high and beautiful prairie on the southern side, and passed up the south of the islands, which are high meadows, and a creek on the north called pare creek. here for half an hour the river became covered with drift wood, which rendered the navigation dangerous, and was probably caused by the giving way of some sandbar, which had detained the wood. after making five miles we passed a stream on the south called turky creek, near a sandbar, where we could scarcely stem the current with twenty oars, and all the poles we had. on the north at about two miles further is a large island called by the indians, wau-car-da-war-card-da, or the bear medicine island. here we landed and replaced our mast, which had been broken three days ago, by running against a tree, overhanging the river. thence we proceeded, and after night stopped on the north side, above the island, having come eleven and a half miles. opposite our camp is a valley, in which was situated an old village of the kanzas, between two high points of land, and on the bank of the river. about a mile in the rear of the village was a small fort, built by the french on an elevation. there are now no traces of the village, but the situation of the fort may be recognized by some remains of chimnies, and the general outline of the fortification, as well as by the fine spring which supplied it with water. the party, who were stationed here, were probably cut off by the indians, as there are no accounts of them. july d. a gentle breeze from the south carried us eleven and a quarter miles this day, past two islands, one a small willow island, the other large, and called by the french isle des vaches, or cow island. at the head of this island, on the northern shore, is a large pond containing beaver, and fowls of different kinds. after passing a bad sandbar, we stopped on the south side at an old trading house, which is now deserted, and half a mile beyond it encamped on the south. the land is fine along the rivers, and some distance back. we observed the black walnut and oak, among the timber; and the honey-suckle and the buck's-eye, with the nuts on them. the morning of the th july was announced by the discharge of our gun. at one mile we reached the mouth of a bayeau or creek, coming from a large lake on the north side, which appears as if it had once been the bed of the river, to which it runs parallel for several miles. the water of it is clear and supplied by a small creek and several springs, and the number of goslins which we saw on it, induced us to call it the gosling lake. it is about three quarters of a mile wide, and seven or eight miles long. one of our men was bitten by a snake, but a poultice of bark and gunpowder was sufficient to cure the wound. at ten and a quarter miles we reached a creek on the south about twelve yards wide and coming from an extensive prairie, which approached the borders of the river. to this creek which had no name, we gave that of fourth of july creek; above it is a high mound, where three indian paths centre, and from which is a very extensive prospect. after fifteen miles sail we came to on the north a little above a creek on the southern side, about thirty yards wide, which we called independence creek, in honour of the day, which we could celebrate only by an evening gun, and an additional gill of whiskey to the men. the next day, th, we crossed over to the south and came along the bank of an extensive and beautiful prairie, interspersed with copses of timber, and watered by independence creek. on this bank formerly stood the second village of the kanzas; from the remains it must have been once a large town. we passed several bad sandbars, and a small creek to the south, which we called yellow ochre creek, from a bank of that mineral a little above it. the river continues to fall. on the shores are great quantities of summer and fall grapes, berries and wild roses. deer is not so abundant as usual, but there are numerous tracks of elk around us. we encamped at ten miles distance on the south side under a high bank, opposite to which was a low land covered with tall rushes, and some timber. july . we set sail, and at one mile passed a sandbar, three miles further an island, a prairie to the north, at the distance of four miles called reevey's prairie, after a man who was killed there; at which place the river is confined to a very narrow channel, and by a sandbar from the south. four miles beyond is another sandbar terminated by a small willow island, and forming a very considerable bend in the river towards the north. the sand of the bar is light, intermixed with small pebbles and some pit coal. the river falls slowly, and, owing either to the muddiness of its water, or the extreme heat of the weather, the men perspire profusely. we encamped on the south having made twelve miles. the bird called whip-poor-will sat on the boat for some time. in the morning, july th, the rapidity of the water obliged us to draw the boat along with ropes. at six and three quarter miles, we came to a sandbar, at a point opposite a fine rich prairie on the north, called st. michael's. the prairies of this neighbourhood have the appearance of distinct farms, divided by narrow strips of woodland, which follow the borders of the small runs leading to the river. above this, about a mile, is a cliff of yellow clay on the north. at four o'clock we passed a narrow part of the channel, where the water is confined within a bed of two hundred yards wide, the current running directly against the southern bank with no sand on the north to confine it or break its force. we made fourteen miles, and halted on the north, after which we had a violent gust about seven o'clock. one of the hunters saw in a pond to the north which we passed yesterday a number of young swans. we saw a large rat, and killed a wolf. another of our men had a stroke of the sun; he was bled, and took a preparation of nitre which relieved him considerably. july . we set out early, and soon passed a small creek on the north, which we called ordway's creek, from our sergeant of that name who had been sent on shore with the horses, and went up it. on the same side are three small islands, one of which is the little nodawa, and a large island called the great nodawa* extending more than five miles, and containing seven or eight thousand acres of high good land, rarely overflowed, and one of the largest islands of the missouri. it is separated from the northern shore by a small channel of from forty-five to eighty yards wide, up which we passed, and found near the western extremity of the island the mouth of the river nodawa. this river persues nearly a southern course, is navigable for boats to some distance, and about seventy yards wide above the mouth, though not so wide immediately there, as the mud from the missouri contracts its channel. at twelve and a quarter miles, we encamped on the north side, near the head of nodawa island, and opposite a smaller one in the middle of the river. five of the men were this day sick with violent headache. the river continues to fall. july th. we passed the island opposite to which we last night encamped, and saw near the head of it a creek falling in from a pond on the north, to which we gave the name of pike pond, from the numbers of that animal which some of our party saw from the shore. the wind changed at eight from n.e. to s.w. and brought rain. at six miles we passed the mouth of monter's creek on the south, and two miles above a few cabins, where one of our party had encamped with some frenchmen about two years ago. further on we passed an island on the north, opposite some cliffs on the south side, near which loup or wolf river falls into the missouri. this river is about sixty yards wide, it heads near the same sources as the kanzas, and is navigable for boats, at some distance up. at fourteen miles we encamped on the south side. tuesday th. we proceeded on by a prairie on the upper side of wolf river, and at four miles passed a creek fifteen yards wide on the south, called pape's creek after a spaniard of that name, who killed himself there. at six miles we dined on an island called by the french isle de salomon, or solomon's island, opposite to which on the south is a beautiful plain covered with grass, intermixed with wild rye and a kind of wild potatoe. after making ten miles we stopped for the night on the northern side, opposite a cliff of yellow clay. the river has neither risen nor fallen to day. on the north the low land is very extensive, and covered with vines; on the south, the hills approach nearer the river, and back of them commence the plains. there are a great many goslins along the banks. wednesday th. after three miles sailing we came to a willow island on the north side, behind which enters a creek called by the indians tarkio. above this creek on the north the low lands are subject to overflow, and further back the undergrowth of vines particularly, is so abundant that they can scarcely be passed. three miles from the tarkio we encamped on a large sand island on the north, immediately opposite the river nemahaw. thursday th. we remained here to day for the purpose of refreshing the party, and making lunar observations. the nemahaw empties itself into the missouri from the south, and is eighty yards wide at the confluence, which is in lat. ° ' ". capt. clarke ascended it in the perioque about two miles to the mouth of a small creek on the lower side. on going ashore he found in the level plain several artificial mounds or graves, and on the adjoining hills others of a larger size. this appearance indicates sufficiently the former population of this country; the mounds being certainly intended as tombs; the indians of the missouri still preserving the custom of interring the dead on high ground. from the top of the highest mound a delightful prospect presented itself--the level and extensive meadows watered by the nemahaw, and enlivened by the few trees and shrubs skirting the borders of the river and its tributary streams--the lowland of the missouri covered with undulating grass, nearly five feet high, gradually rising into a second plain, where rich weeds and flowers are interspersed with copses of the osage plum; further back are seen small groves of trees; an abundance of grapes; the wild cherry of the missouri, resembling our own, but larger, and growing on a small bush; and the chokecherry, which we observed for the first time. some of the grapes gathered to-day are nearly ripe. on the south of the nemahaw, and about a quarter of a mile from its mouth, is a cliff of freestone, in which are various inscriptions and marks made by the indians. the sand island where we are encamped, is covered with the two species of willow, broad and narrow leaf. july th. we proceeded at sunrise with a fair wind from the south, and at two miles, passed the mouth of a small river on the north, called big tarkio. a channel from the bed of the missouri once ran into this river, and formed an island called st. joseph's, but the channel is now filled up, and the island is added to the northern shore. further on to the south, is situated an extensive plain, covered with a grass resembling timothy in its general appearance, except the seed which is like flaxseed, and also a number of grapevines. at twelve miles, we passed an island on the north, above which is a large sandbar covered with willows: and at twenty and a half miles, stopped on a large sandbar, in the middle of the river opposite a high handsome prairie, which extends to the hills four or five miles distant, though near the bank the land is low, and subject to be overflowed. this day was exceedingly fine and pleasant, a storm of wind and rain from north-northeast, last night, having cooled the air. july . we had some hard showers of rain before seven o'clock, when we set out. we had just reached the end of the sand island, and seen the opposite banks falling in, and so lined with timber that we could not approach it without danger, when a sudden squall, from the northeast, struck the boat on the starboard quarter, and would have certainly dashed her to pieces on the sand island, if the party had not leaped into the river, and with the aid of the anchor and cable kept her off: the waves dashing over her for the space of forty minutes; after which, the river became almost instantaneously calm and smooth. the two periogues were ahead, in a situation nearly similar, but fortunately no damage was done to the boats or the loading. the wind having shifted to the southeast, we came at the distance of two miles, to an inland on the north, where we dined. one mile above, on the same side of the river, is a small factory, where a merchant of st. louis traded with the ottoes and pawnees two years ago. near this is an extensive lowland, part of which is overflowed occasionally, the rest is rich and well timbered. the wind again changed to northwest by north. at seven and a half miles, we reached lower point of a large island, on the north side. a small distance above this point, is a river, called by the maha indians, nishnahbatona. this is a considerable creek, nearly as large as the mine river, and runs parallel to the missouri the greater part of its course, being fifty yards wide at the mouth. in the prairies or glades, we saw wild-timothy, lambsquarter, cuckleberries, and on the edges of the river, summer-grapes, plums, and gooseberries. we also saw to-day, for the first time, some elk, at which some of the party shot, but at too great a distance. we encamped on the north side of the island, a little above nishnahbatona, having made nine miles. the river fell a little. july . a thick fog prevented our leaving the encampment before seven. at about four miles, we reached the extremity of the large island, and crossing to the south, at the distance of seven miles, arrived at the little nemaha, a small river from the south, forty yards wide a little above its mouth, but contracting, as do almost all the waters emptying into the missouri, at its confluence. at nine and three quarter miles, we encamped on a woody point, on the south. along the southern bank, is a rich lowland covered with peavine, and rich weeds, and watered by small streams rising in the adjoining prairies. they too, are rich, and though with abundance of grass, have no timber except what grows near the water; interspersed through both are grapevines, plums of two kinds, two species of wild-cherries, hazlenuts, and gooseberries. on the south there is one unbroken plain; on the north the river is skirted with some timber, behind which the plain extends four or five miles to the hills, which seem to have little wood. july . we continued our route between a large island opposite to our last night's encampment, and an extensive prairie on the south. about six miles, we came to another large island, called fairsun island, on the same side; above which is a spot, where about twenty acres of the hill have fallen into the river. near this, is a cliff of sandstone for two miles, which is much frequented by birds. at this place the river is about one mile wide, but not deep; as the timber, or sawyers, may be seen, scattered across the whole of its bottom. at twenty miles distance, we saw on the south, an island called by the french, l'isle chance, or bald island, opposite to a large prairie, which we called baldpated prairie, from a ridge of naked hills which bound it, running parallel with the river as far as we could see, and from three to six miles distance. to the south the hills touch the river. we encamped a quarter of a mile beyond this, in a point of woods on the north side. the river continues to fall. tuesday, july . we remained here this day, in order to make observations and correct the chronometer, which ran down on sunday. the latitude we found to be ° ' " / . the observation of the time proved our chronometer too slow, by ' " / . the highlands bear from our camp, north ° west, up the river. captain lewis rode up the country, and saw the nishnahbatona, about ten or twelve miles from its mouth, at a place not more than three hundred yards from the missouri, and a little above our camp. it then passes near the foot of the baldhills, and is at least six feet below the level of the missouri. on its banks are the oak, walnut, and mulberry. the common current of the missouri, taken with the log, is fathoms in ", at some places, and even ". wednesday, july . the morning was fair, and a gentle wind from southeast by south, carried us along between the prairie on the north, and bald island to the south: opposite the middle of which, the nishnahbatona approaches the nearest to the missouri. the current here ran fifty fathoms in ". at thirteen and a half miles, we reached an island on the north, near to which the banks overflow; while on the south, the hills project over the river and form high cliffs. at one point a part of the cliff, nearly three quarters of a mile in length, and about two hundred feet in height, has fallen into the river. it is composed chiefly of sandstone intermixed with an iron ore of bad quality; near the bottom is a soft slatestone with pebbles. we passed several bad sandbars in the course of the day, and made eighteen miles, and encamped on the south, opposite to the lower point of the oven islands. the country around is generally divided into prairies, with little timber, except on low points, islands, and near creeks, and that consisting of cottonwood, mulberry, elm, and sycamore. the river falls fast. an indian dog came to the bank; he appeared to have been lost and was nearly starved: we gave him some food, but he would not follow us. thursday, july . the oven islands are small, and two in number; one near the south shore, the other in the middle of the river. opposite to them is the prairie, called terrien's oven, from a trader of that name. at four and a half miles, we reached some high cliffs of a yellow earth, on the south, near which are two beautiful runs of water, rising in the adjacent prairies, and one of them with a deerlick, about two hundred yards from its mouth. in this neighbourhood we observed some iron ore in the bank. at two and a half miles above the runs, a large portion of the hill, for nearly three quarters of a mile, has fallen into the river. we encamped on the western extremity of an island, in the middle of the river, having made ten and three quarter miles. the river falls a little. the sandbars which we passed to-day, are more numerous, and the rolling sands more frequent and dangerous, than any we have seen; these obstacles increasing as we approach the river platte. the missouri here is wider also than below, where the timber on the banks resists the current; while here the prairies which approach, are more easily washed and undermined. the hunters have brought for the last few days, no quadruped, but deer: great quantities of young geese are seen to-day: one of them brought calamus, which he had gathered opposite our encampment, and a large quantity of sweet-flag. friday, july . there was a heavy dew last night, and this morning was foggy and cool. we passed at about three miles distance, a small willow island to the north, and a creek on the south, about twenty-five yards wide, called by the french, l'eau qui pleure, or the weeping water, and emptying itself just above a cliff of brown clay. thence we made two and a half miles to another island; three miles further to a third: six miles beyond which is a fourth island; at the head of which we encamped on the southern shore; in all eighteen miles. the party, who walked on the shore to-day, found the plains to the south, rich, but much parched with frequent fires, and with no timber, except the scattering trees about the sources of the runs, which are numerous and fine. on the north, is a similar prairie country. the river continues to fall. a large yellow wolf was this day killed. for a month past the party have been troubled with biles, and occasionally with the dysentery. these biles were large tumours which broke out under the arms, on the legs, and, generally, in the parts most exposed to action, which sometimes became too painful to permit the men to work. after remaining some days, they disappeared without any assistance, except a poultice of the bark of the elm, or of indian meal. this disorder, which we ascribe to the muddiness of the river water, has not affected the general health of the party, which is quite as good, if not better, than that of the same number of men in any other situation. saturday, july . we had a breeze from the southeast, by the aid of which we passed, at about ten miles, a willow island on the south, near high lands covered with timber, at the bank, and formed of limestone with cemented shells: on the opposite side is a bad sandbar, and the land near it is cut through at high water, by small channels forming a number of islands. the wind lulled at seven o'clock, and we reached, in the rain, the mouth of the great river platte, at the distance of fourteen miles. the highlands which had accompanied us on the south, for the last eight or ten miles, stopped at about three quarters of a mile from the entrance of the platte. captains lewis and clarke ascended the river in a periogue, for about one mile, and found the current very rapid; rolling over sands, and divided into a number of channels; none of which are deeper than five or six feet. one of our frenchmen, who spent two winters on it, says that it spreads much more at some distance from the mouth; that its depth is generally not more than five or six feet; that there are many small islands scattered through it, and that from its rapidity and the quantity of its sand, it cannot be navigated by boats or periogues, though the indians pass it in small flat canoes made of hides. that the saline or salt river, which in some seasons is too brackish to be drank, falls into it from the south about thirty miles up, and a little above it elkhorn river from the north, running nearly parallel with the missouri. the river is, in fact, much more rapid than the missouri, the bed of which it fills with moving sands, and drives the current on the northern shore, on which it is constantly encroaching. at its junction the platte is about six hundred yards wide, and the same number of miles from the mississippi. with much difficulty we worked round the sandbars near the mouth, and came to above the point, having made fifteen miles. a number of wolves were seen and heard around us in the evening. july . the next morning we set sail, and having found at the distance of ten miles from the platte, a high and shaded situation on the north, we encamped there, intending to make the requisite observations, and to send for the neighbouring tribes, for the purpose of making known the recent change in the government, and the wish of the united states to cultivate their friendship. chap. ii. some account of the pawnee indians--council held with the otto and missouri indians--council held with another party of the ottoes--death of sergeant floyd--the party encamp near the mouth of whitestone river--the character of the missouri, with the rivers that enter it--the surrounding country--the various islands, bays, creeks, &c. given in the course of the expedition. our camp is by observation in latitude ° ' ". immediately behind it is a plain about five miles wide, one half covered with wood, the other dry and elevated. the low grounds on the south near the junction of the two rivers, are rich, but subject to be overflowed. farther up, the banks are higher, and opposite our camp the first hills approach the river, and are covered with timber, such as oak, walnut, and elm. the intermediate country is watered by the papillon, or butterfly creek, of about eighteen yards wide, and three miles from the platte; on the north are high open plains and prairies, and at nine miles from the platte, the musquitoe creek, and two or three small willow islands. we stayed here several days, during which we dried our provisions, made new oars, and prepared our despatches and maps of the country we had passed, for the president of the united states, to whom we intend to send them by a periogue from this place. the hunters have found game scarce in this neighbourhood; they have seen deer, turkies, and grouse; we have also an abundance of ripe grapes; and one of our men caught a white catfish, the eyes of which were small, and its tail resembling that of a dolphin. the present season is that in which the indians go out into the prairies to hunt the buffaloe; but as we discovered some hunter's tracks, and observed the plains on fire in the direction of their villages, we hoped that they might have returned to gather the green indian corn, and therefore despatched two men to the ottoes or pawnee villages with a present of tobacco, and an invitation to the chiefs to visit us. they returned after two days absence. their first course was through an open prairie to the south, in which they crossed butterfly creek. they then reached a small beautiful river, called come de cerf, or elkhorn river, about one hundred yards wide, with clear water and a gravelly channel. it empties a little below the ottoe village into the platte, which they crossed, and arrived at the town about forty-five miles from our camp. they found no indians there, though they saw some fresh tracks of a small party. the ottoes were once a powerful nation, and lived about twenty miles above the platte, on the southern bank of the missouri. being reduced, they migrated to the neighborhood of the pawnees, under whose protection they now live. their village is on the south side of the platte, about thirty miles from its mouth; and their number is two hundred men, including about thirty families of missouri indians, who are incorporated with them. five leagues above them, on the same side of the river, resides the nation of pawnees. this people were among the most numerous of the missouri indians, but have gradually been dispersed and broken, and even since the year , have undergone some sensible changes. they now consist of four bands; the first is the one just mentioned, of about five hundred men, to whom of late years have been added the second band, who are called republican pawnees, from their having lived on the republican branch of the river kanzas, whence they emigrated to join the principal band of pawnees: the republican pawnees amount to nearly two hundred and fifty men. the third, are the pawnees loups, or wolf pawnees, who reside on the wolf fork of the platte, about ninety miles from the principal pawnees, and number two hundred and eighty men. the fourth band originally resided on the kanzas and arkansaw, but in their wars with the osages, they were so often defeated, that they at last retired to their present position on the red river, where they form a tribe of four hundred men. all these tribes live in villages, and raise corn; but during the intervals of culture rove in the plains in quest of buffaloe. beyond them on the river, and westward of the black mountains, are the kaninaviesch, consisting of about four hundred men. they are supposed to have emigrated originally from the pawnees nation; but they have degenerated from the improvements of the parent tribe, and no longer live in villages, but rove through the plains. still further to the westward, are several tribes, who wander and hunt on the sources of the river platte, and thence to rock mountain. these tribes, of which little more is known than the names and the population, are first, the staitan, or kite indians, a small tribe of one hundred men. they have acquired the name of kites, from their flying; that is, their being always on horseback; and the smallness of their numbers is to be attributed to their extreme ferocity; they are the most warlike of all the western indians; they never yield in battle; they never spare their enemies; and the retaliation of this barbarity has almost extinguished the nation. then come the wetapahato, and kiawa tribes, associated together, and amounting to two hundred men; the castahana, of three hundred men, to which are to be added the cataka of seventy-five men, and the dotami. these wandering tribes, are conjectured to be the remnants of the great padouca nation, who occupied the country between the upper parts of the river platte, and the river kanzas. they were visited by bourgemont, in , and then lived on the kanzas river. the seats, which he describes as their residence, are now occupied by the kanzas nation; and of the padoucas, there does not now exist even the name. july . having completed the object of our stay, we set sail, with a pleasant breeze from the n.w. the two horses swam over to the southern shore, along which we went, passing by an island, at three and a half miles, formed by a pond, fed by springs: three miles further is a large sand island, in the middle of the river; the land on the south being high, and covered with timber; that on the north, a high prairie. at ten and a half miles from our encampment, we saw and examined a curious collection of graves or mounds, on the south side of the river. not far from a low piece of land and a pond, is a tract of about two hundred acres in circumference, which is covered with mounds of different heights, shapes, and sizes: some of sand, and some of both earth and sand; the largest being nearest the river. these mounds indicate the position of the ancient village of the ottoes, before they retired to the protection of the pawnees. after making fifteen miles, we encamped on the south, on the bank of a high handsome prairie, with lofty cottonwood in groves, near the river. july . at one mile, this morning we reached a bluff, on the north, being the first highlands, which approach the river on that side, since we left the nadawa. above this, is an island and a creek, about fifteen yards wide, which, as it has no name, we called indian knob creek, from a number of round knobs bare of timber, on the highlands, to the north. a little below the bluff, on the north, is the spot where the ayauway indians formerly lived. they were a branch of the ottoes, and emigrated from this place to the river desmoines. at ten and three quarter miles, we encamped on the north, opposite an island, in the middle of the river. the land, generally, on the north, consists of high prairie and hills, with timber: on the south, low and covered with cottonwood. our hunter brought to us in the evening, a missouri indian, whom he had found, with two others, dressing an elk; they were perfectly friendly, gave him some of the meat, and one of them agreed to accompany him to the boat. he is one of the few remaining missouris, who live with the ottoes: he belongs to a small party, whose camp is four miles from the river; and he says, that the body of the nation is now hunting buffaloe in the plains: he appeared quite sprightly, and his language resembled that of the osage, particularly in his calling a chief, inca. we sent him back with one of our party next morning, sunday, july , with an invitation to the indians, to meet us above on the river, and then proceeded. we soon came to a northern bend in the river, which runs within twenty yards of indian knob creek, the water of which is five feet higher than that of the missouri. in less than two miles, we passed boyer's creek on the north, of twenty-five yards width. we stopped to dine under a shade, near the highland on the south, and caught several large catfish, one of them nearly white, and all very fat. above this highland, we observed the traces of a great hurricane, which passed the river obliquely from n.w. to s.e. and tore up large trees, some of which perfectly sound, and four feet in diameter, were snapped off near the ground. we made ten miles to a wood on the north, where we encamped. the missouri is much more crooked, since we passed the river platte, though generally speaking, not so rapid; more of prairie, with less timber, and cottonwood in the low grounds, and oak, black walnut, hickory, and elm. july . we went early in the morning, three and a quarter miles, and encamped on the south, in order to wait for the ottoes. the land here consists of a plain, above the highwater level, the soil of which is fertile, and covered with a grass from five to eight feet high, interspersed with copses of large plums, and a currant, like those of the united states. it also furnishes two species of honeysuckle; one growing to a kind of shrub, common about harrodsburgh (kentucky), the other is not so high: the flowers grow in clusters, are short, and of a light pink colour; the leaves too, are distinct, and do not surround the stalk, as do those of the common honeysuckle of the united states. back of this plain, is a woody ridge about seventy feet above it, at the end of which we formed our camp. this ridge separates the lower from a higher prairie, of a good quality, with grass, of ten or twelve inches in height, and extending back about a mile, to another elevation of eighty or ninety feet, beyond which is one continued plain. near our camp, we enjoy from the bluffs a most beautiful view of the river, and the adjoining country. at a distance, varying from four to ten miles, and of a height between seventy and three hundred feet, two parallel ranges of highland affords a passage to the missouri, which enriches the low grounds between them. in its winding course, it nourishes the willow islands, the scattered cottonwood, elm, sycamore, lynn, and ash, and the groves are interspersed with hickory, walnut, coffeenut, and oak. july . the meridian altitude of this day made the latitude of our camp ° ' - / ". the hunters supplied us with deer, turkies, geese, and beaver; one of the last was caught alive, and in a very short time was perfectly tamed. catfish are very abundant in the river, and we have also seen a buffaloefish. one our men brought in yesterday an animal called, by the pawnees, chocartoosh, and, by the french, blaireau, or badger. the evening is cool, yet the musquitoes are still very troublesome. we waited with much anxiety the return of our messenger to the ottoes. the men whom we despatched to our last encampment, returned without having seen any appearance of its having been visited. our horses too had strayed; but we were so fortunate as to recover them at the distance of twelve miles. our apprehensions were at length relieved by the arrival of a party of about fourteen ottoe and missouri indians, who came at sunset, on the second of august, accompanied by a frenchman, who resided among them, and interpreted for us. captains lewis and clarke went out to meet them, and told them that we would hold a council in the morning. in the mean time we sent them some roasted meat, pork, flour, and meal; in return for which they made us a present of watermelons. we learnt that our man liberte had set out from their camp a day before them: we were in hopes that he had fatigued his horse, or lost himself in the woods, and would soon return; but we never saw him again. august . the next morning the indians, with their six chiefs, were all assembled under an awning, formed with the mainsail, in presence of all our party, paraded for the occasion. a speech was then made, announcing to them the change in the government, our promises of protection, and advice as to their future conduct. all the six chiefs replied to our speech, each in his turn, according to rank: they expressed their joy at the change in the government; their hopes that we would recommend them to their great father (the president), that they might obtain trade and necessaries; they wanted arms as well for hunting as for defence, and asked our mediation between them and the mahas, with whom they are now at war. we promised to do so, and wished some of them to accompany us to that nation, which they declined, for fear of being killed by them. we then proceeded to distribute our presents. the grand chief of the nation not being of the party, we sent him a flag, a medal, and some ornaments for clothing. to the six chiefs who were present, we gave a medal of the second grade to one ottoe chief, and one missouri chief; a medal of the third grade to two inferior chiefs of each nation: the customary mode of recognizing a chief, being to place a medal round his neck, which is considered among his tribe as a proof of his consideration abroad. each of these medals was accompanied by a present of paint, garters, and cloth ornaments of dress; and to this we added a cannister of powder, a bottle of whiskey, and a few presents to the whole, which appeared to make them perfectly satisfied. the airgun too was fired, and astonished them greatly. the absent grand chief was an ottoe named weahrushhah, which, in english, degenerates into little thief. the two principal chieftains present were, shongotongo, or big horse; and wethea, or hospitality; also shosgusean, or white horse, an ottoe; the first an ottoe, the second a missouri. the incidents just related, induced us to give to this place the name of the council-bluff; the situation of it is exceedingly favourable for a fort and trading factory, as the soil is well calculated for bricks, and there is an abundance of wood in the neighbourhood, and the air being pure and healthy. it is also central to the chief resorts of the indians: one day's journey to the ottoes; one and a half to the great pawnees; two days from the mahas; two and a quarter from the pawnees loups village; convenient to the hunting grounds of the sioux; and twenty-five days journey to santa fee. the ceremonies of the council being concluded, we set sail in the afternoon, and encamped at the distance of five miles, on the south side, where we found the musquitoes very troublesome. august . a violent wind, accompanied by rain, purified and cooled the atmosphere last night; we proceeded early, and reached a very narrow part of the river, where the channel is confined within a space of two hundred yards, by a sand point on the north, and a bend on the south; the banks in the neighbourhood washing away, the trees falling in, and the channel filled with buried logs. above this is a trading house, on the south, where one of our party passed two years, trading with the mahas. at nearly four miles, is a creek on the south, emptying opposite a large island of sand; between this creek and our last night's encampment, the river has changed its bed, and encroached on the southern shore. about two miles further, is another creek on the south, which, like the former, is the outlet of three ponds, communicating with each other, and forming a small lake, which is fed by streams from the highlands. at fifteen miles, we encamped on the south. the hills on both sides of the river are nearly twelve or fifteen miles from each other; those of the north containing some timber, while the hills of south are without any covering, except some scattering wood in the ravines, and near where the creeks pass into the hills; rich plains and prairies occupying the intermediate space, and partially covered, near the water, with cottonwood. there has been a great deal of pumice stone on shore to-day. august th. we set out early, and, by means of our oars, made twenty and a half miles, though the river was crowded with sandbars. on both sides the prairies extend along the river; the banks being covered with great quantities of grapes, of which three different species are now ripe; one large and resembling the purple grape. we had some rain this morning, attended by high wind; but generally speaking, have remarked that thunder storms are less frequent than in the atlantic states, at this season. snakes too are less frequent, though we killed one to-day of the shape and size of the rattlesnake, but of a lighter colour. we fixed our camp on the north side. in the evening, captain clarke, in pursuing some game, in an eastern direction, found himself at the distance of three hundred and seventy yards from the camp, at a point of the river whence we had come twelve miles. when the water is high, this peninsula is overflowed, and judging from the customary and notorious changes in the river, a few years will be sufficient to force the main current of the river across, and leave the great bend dry. the whole lowland between the parallel range of hills seems formed of mud or ooze of the river, at some former period, mixed with sand and clay. the sand of the neighbouring banks accumulates with the aid of that brought down the stream, and forms sandbars, projecting into the river; these drive the channel to the opposite banks, the loose texture of which it undermines, and at length deserts its ancient bed for a new and shorter passage; it is thus that the banks of the missouri are constantly falling, and the river changing its bed. august . in the morning, after a violent storm of wind and rain from n.w. we passed a large island to the north. in the channel separating it from the shore, a creek called soldier's river enters; the island kept it from our view, but one of our men who had seen it, represents it as about forty yards wide at its mouth. at five miles, we came to a bend of the river towards the north, a sandbar, running in from the south, had turned its course so as to leave the old channel quite dry. we again saw the same appearance at our encampment, twenty and a half miles distant on the north side. here the channel of the river had encroached south, and the old bed was without water, except a few ponds. the sandbars are still very numerous. august . we had another storm from the n.w. in the course of the last evening; in the morning we proceeded, having the wind from the north, and encamped on the northern shore, having rowed seventeen miles. the river is here encumbered with sandbars, but no islands, except two small ones, called detachment islands, and formed on the south side by a small stream. we despatched four men back to the ottoes village in quest of our man, liberte, and to apprehend one of the soldiers, who left us on the th, under pretence of recovering a knife which he had dropped a short distance behind, and who we fear has deserted. we also sent small presents to the ottoes and missouris, and requested that they would join us at the maha village, where a peace might be concluded between them. august . at two miles distance, this morning we came to a part of the river, where there was concealed timber difficult to pass. the wind was from the n.w. and we proceeded in safety. at six miles, a river empties on the northern side, called by the sioux indians, eaneahwadepon, or stone river; and by the french, petite riviere des sioux, or little sioux river. at its confluence it is eighty yards wide. our interpreter, mr. durion, who has been to the sources of it, and knows the adjoining country, says that it rises within about nine miles of the river desmoines; that within fifteen leagues of that river it passes through a large lake nearly sixty miles in circumference, and divided into two parts by rocks which approach each other very closely: its width is various: it contains many islands, and is known by the name of the lac d'esprit: it is near the dogplains, and within four days march of the mahas. the country watered by it, is open and undulating, and may be visited in boats up the river for some distance. the desmoines, he adds, is about eighty yards wide where the little sioux river approaches it: it is shoaly, and one of its principal branches is called cat river. two miles beyond this river is a long island which we called pelican island, from the numbers of that animal which were feeding on it: one of these being killed, we poured into his bag five gallons of water. an elk, too, was shot, and we had again to remark that snakes are rare in this part of the missouri. a meridian altitude near the little sioux river made the latitude ° ' ". we encamped on the north, having come sixteen miles. august . a thick fog detained us until past seven o'clock, after which we proceeded with a gentle breeze from the southeast. after passing two sandbars we reached, at seven and a half miles, a point of highland on the left, near which the river has forced itself a channel across a peninsula, leaving on the right a circuit of twelve or eighteen miles, which is now recognised by the ponds and islands it contains. at seventeen and a half miles, we reached a point on the north, where we encamped. the hills are at a great distance from the river for the last several days; the land, on both sides low, and covered with cottonwood and abundance of grape vines. an elk was seen to-day, a turkey also shot, and near our camp is a beaver den: the musquitoes have been more troublesome than ever for the two last days. august . at two and a half miles, we came to a place, called coupee a jacques, where the river has found a new bed, and abridged a circuit of several miles: at twelve and a half miles, a cliff of yellow stone on the left. this is the first highland near the river above the council-bluff. after passing a number of sandbars we reached a willow island at the distance of twenty-two and a half miles, which we were enabled to do with our oars and a wind from the s.w. and encamped on the north side. august . after a violent wind from the n.w. attended with rain, we sailed along the right of the island. at nearly five miles, we halted on the south side for the purpose of examining a spot where one of the great chiefs of the mahas named blackbird, who died about four years ago of the smallpox, was buried. a hill of yellow soft sandstone rises from the river in bluffs of various heights, till it ends in a knoll about three hundred feet above the water; on the top of this a mound, of twelve feet diameter at the base and six feet high, is raised over the body of the deceased king; a pole of about eight feet high is fixed in the centre; on which we placed a white flag, bordered with red, blue, and white. the blackbird seems to have been a personage of great consideration; for ever since his death he is supplied with provisions, from time to time, by the superstitious regard of the mahas. we descended to the river and passed a small creek on the south, called, by the mahas, waucandipeeche, (great spirit is bad.) near this creek and the adjoining hills the mahas had a village, and lost four hundred of their nation by the dreadful malady which destroyed the blackbird. the meridian altitude made the latitude ° ' - / " north. we encamped, at seventeen miles distance, on the north side in a bend of the river. during our day's course it has been crooked; we observed a number of places in it where the old channel is filled up, or gradually becoming covered with willow and cottonwood; great numbers of herons are observed to-day, and the mosquitoes annoy us very much. august . a gentle breeze from the south, carried us along about ten miles, when we stopped to take meridian altitude, and sent a man across to our place of observation: yesterday he stepped nine hundred and seventy-four yards, and the distance we had come round, was eighteen miles and three quarters. the river is wider and shallower than usual. four miles beyond this bend a bluff begins, and continues several miles; on the south it rises from the water at different heights, from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet, and higher as it recedes on the river: it consists of yellow and brown clay, with soft sandstone imbeded in it, and is covered with timber, among which may be observed some red cedar: the lands on the opposite side are low and subject to inundation, but contain willows, cottonwood, and many grapes. a prairie-wolf came near the bank and barked at us; we attempted unsuccessfully to take him. this part of the river abounds in beaver. we encamped on a sand-island in a bend to the north, having made twenty miles and a quarter. august . set out at daylight with a breeze from the southeast, and passed several sandbars. between ten and eleven miles, we came to a spot on the south, where a mr. mackay had a trading establishment in the year and , which he called fort charles. at fourteen miles, we reached a creek on the south, on which the mahas reside, and at seventeen miles and a quarter, formed a camp on a sandbar, to the south side of the river, opposite the lower point of a large island. from this place sergeant ordway and four men were detached to the maha village with a flag and a present, in order to induce them to come and hold a council with us. they returned at twelve o'clock the next day, august . after crossing a prairie covered with high grass, they reached the maha creek, along which they proceeded to its three forks, which join near the village: they crossed the north branch and went along the south; the walk was very fatiguing, as they were forced to break their way through grass, sunflowers and thistles, all above ten feet high, and interspersed with wild pea. five miles from our camp they reached the position of the ancient maha village: it had once consisted of three hundred cabins, but was burnt about four years ago, soon after the smallpox had destroyed four hundred men, and a proportion of women and children. on a hill, in the rear of the village, are the graves of the nation; to the south of which runs the fork of the maha creek: this they crossed where it was about ten yards wide, and followed its course to the missouri, passing along a ridge of hill for one and a half mile, and a long pond between that and the missouri: they then recrossed the maha creek, and arrived at the camp, having seen no tracks of indians nor any sign of recent cultivation. in the morning th, some men were sent to examine the cause of a large smoke from the northeast, and which seemed to indicate that some indians were near; but they found that a small party, who had lately passed that way, had left some trees burning, and that the wind from that quarter blew the smoke directly towards us. our camp lies about three miles northeast from the old maha village, and is in latitude ° ' ". the accounts we have had of the effects of the smallpox on that nation are most distressing; it is not known in what way it was first communicated to them, though probably by some war party. they had been a military and powerful people; but when these warriors saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their phrenzy was extreme; they burnt their village, and many of them put to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an affliction, and that all might go together to some better country. on the th, we still waited for the indians: a party had gone out yesterday to the maha creek, which was damned up by the beaver between the camp and the village: a second went to-day. they made a kind of drag with small willows and bark, and swept the creek: the first company brought three hundred and eighteen, the second upwards of eight hundred, consisting of pike, bass, fish resembling salmon, trout, redhorse, buffaloe, one rockfish, one flatback, perch, catfish, a small species of perch called, on the ohio, silverfish, a shrimp of the same size, shape and flavour of those about neworleans, and the lower part of the mississippi. we also found very fat muscles; and on the river as well as the creek, are different kinds of ducks and plover. the wind, which in the morning had been from the northwest, shifted round in the evening to the southeast, and as usual we had a breeze, which cooled the air and relieve us from the musquitoes, who generally give us great trouble. friday . the wind continued from the southeast, and the morning was fair. we observe about us a grass resembling wheat, except that the grain is like rye, also some similar to both rye and barley, and a kind of timothy, the seed of which branches from the main stock, and is more like a flaxseed than a timothy. in the evening, one of the party sent to the ottoes, returned with the information that the rest were coming on with the deserter: they had also caught liberte, but, by a trick, he made his escape: they were bringing three of the chiefs in order to engage our assistance in making peace with the mahas. this nation having left their village, that desirable purpose cannot be effected; but in order to bring in any neighbouring tribes, we set the surrounding prairies on fire. this is the customary signal made by traders to apprize the indians of their arrival: it is also used between different nations as an indication of any event which they have previously agreed to announce in that way; and as soon as it is seen collects the neighbouring tribes, unless they apprehend that it is made by their enemies. august . in the afternoon the party arrived with the indians, consisting of the little thief and the big horse, whom we had seen on the third, together with six other chiefs, and a french interpreter. we met them under a shade, and after they had finished a repast with which we supplied them, we inquired into the origin of the war between them and the mahas, which they related with great frankness. it seems that two of the missouris went to the mahas to steal horses, but were detected and killed; the ottoes and missouris thought themselves bound to avenge their companions, and the whole nations were at last obliged to share in the dispute; they are also in fear of a war from the pawnees, whose village they entered this summer, while the inhabitants were hunting, and stole their corn. this ingenuous confession did not make us the less desirous of negotiating a peace for them; but no indians have as yet been attracted by our fire. the evening was closed by a dance; and the next day, august , the chiefs and warriors being assembled at ten o'clock, we explained the speech we had already sent from the council-bluffs, and renewed our advice. they all replied in turn, and the presents were then distributed: we exchanged the small medal we had formerly given to the big horse for one of the same size with that of little thief: we also gave a small medal to a third chief, and a kind of certificate or letter of acknowledgment to five of the warriors expressive of our favour and their good intentions: one of them dissatisfied, returned us the certificate; but the chief, fearful of our being offended, begged that it might be restored to him; this we declined, and rebuked them severely for having in view mere traffic instead of peace with their neighbours. this displeased them at first; but they at length all petitioned that it should be given to the warrior, who then came forward and made an apology to us; we then delivered it to the chief to be given to the most worthy, and he bestowed it on the same warrior, whose name was great blue eyes. after a more substantial present of small articles and tobacco, the council was ended with a dram to the indians. in the evening we exhibited different objects of curiosity, and particularly the airgun, which gave them great surprise. those people are almost naked, having no covering, except a sort of breechcloth round the middle, with a loose blanket or buffaloe robe painted, thrown over them. the names of these warriors, besides those already mentioned were karkapaha, (or crow's head) and nenasawa (or black cat) missouris; and sananona (or iron eyes) neswaunja (or big ox) stageaunja (or big blue eyes) and wasashaco (or brave man) all ottoes. these two tribes speak very nearly the same language: they all begged us to give them whiskey. the next morning, august , the indians mounted their horses and left us, having received a canister of whiskey at parting. we then set sail, and after passing two islands on the north, came to on that side under some bluffs; the first near the river since we left the ayauwa village. here we had the misfortune to lose one of our sergeants, charles floyd. he was yesterday seized with a bilious cholic, and all our care and attention were ineffectual to relieve him: a little before his death, he said to captain clark, "i am going to leave you," his strength failed him as he added "i want you to write me a letter," but he died with a composure which justified the high opinion we had formed of his firmness and good conduct. he was buried on the top of the bluff with the honours due to a brave soldier; and the place of his interment marked by a cedar post, on which his name and the day of his death were inscribed. about a mile beyond this place, to which we gave his name, is a small river about thirty yards wide, on the north, which we called floyd's river, where we encamped. we had a breeze from the southeast, and made thirteen miles. august . the same breeze from the southeast carried us by a small willow creek on the north, about one mile and a half above floyd's river. here began a range of bluffs which continued till near the mouth of the great sioux river, three miles beyond floyd's. this river comes in from the north, and is about one hundred and ten yards wide. mr. durion, our sioux interpreter, who is well acquainted with it, says that it is navigable upwards of two hundred miles to the falls, and even beyond them; that its sources are near those of the st. peters. he also says, that below the falls a creek falls in from the eastward, after passing through cliffs of red rock: of this the indians make their pipes; and the necessity of procuring that article, has introduced a sort of law of nations, by which the banks of the creek are sacred, and even tribes at war meet without hostility at these quarries, which possess a right of asylum. thus we find even among savages certain principles deemed sacred, by which the rigours of their merciless system of warfare are mitigated. a sense of common danger, where stronger ties are wanting, gives all the binding force of more solemn obligations. the importance of preserving the known and settled rules of warfare among civilized nations, in all their integrity, becomes strikingly evident; since even savages, with their few precarious wants, cannot exist in a state of peace or war where this faith is once violated. the wind became southerly, and blew with such violence that we took a reef in our sail: it also blew the sand from the bars in such quantities, that we could not see the channel at any distance ahead. at four and a quarter miles, we came to two willow islands, beyond which are several sandbars; and at twelve miles, a spot where the mahas once had a village, now no longer existing. we again passed a number of sandbars, and encamped on the south; having come twenty-four and three quarter miles. the country through which we passed has the same uniform appearance ever since we left the river platte: rich low-grounds near the river, succeeded by undulating prairies, with timber near the waters. some wolves were seen to-day on the sandbeaches to the south; we also procured an excellent fruit, resembling a red currant, growing on a shrub like the privy, and about the height of a wild plum. august . about three miles distance, we joined the men who had been sent from the maha village with our horses, and who brought us two deer. the bluffs or hills which reach the river at this place, on the south, contain allum, copperas, cobalt which had the appearance of soft isinglass, pyrites, and sandstone, the two first very pure. above this bluff comes in a small creek on the south, which we call rologe creek. seven miles above is another cliff, on the same side, of allum rock, of a dark brown colour, containing in its crevices great quantities of cobalt, cemented shells, and red earth. from this the river bends to the eastward, and approaches the sioux river within three or four miles. we sailed the greater part of the day, and made nineteen miles to our camp on the north side. the sandbars are as usual numerous: there are also considerable traces of elk; but none are yet seen. captain lewis in proving the quality of some of the substances in the first cliff, was considerably injured by the fumes and taste of the cobalt, and took some strong medicine to relieve him from its effects. the appearance of these mineral substances enable us to account for disorders of the stomach, with which the party had been affected since they left the river sioux. we had been in the habit of dipping up the water of the river inadvertently and making use of it, till, on examination, the sickness was thought to proceed from a scum covering the surface of the water along the southern shore, and which, as we now discovered, proceeded from these bluffs. the men had been ordered, before we reached the bluffs, to agitate the water, so as to disperse the scum, and take the water, not at the surface, but at some depth. the consequence was, that these disorders ceased: the biles too which had afflicted the men, were not observed beyond the sioux river. in order to supply the place of sergeant floyd, we permitted the men to name three persons, and patrick gass having the greatest number of votes was made a sergeant. august . we set out early, and at four miles came to a small run between cliffs of yellow and blue earth: the wind, however, soon changed, and blew so hard from the west, that we proceeded very slowly; the fine sand from the bar being driven in such clouds, that we could scarcely see. three and a quarter miles beyond this run, we came to a willow island, and a sand island opposite, and encamped on the south side, at ten and a quarter miles. on the north side is an extensive and delightful prairie, which we called buffaloe prairie, from our having here killed the first buffaloe. two elk swam the river to-day and were fired at, but escaped: a deer was killed from the boat; one beaver was killed; and several prairie wolves were seen. august . it began to rain last night, and continued this morning: we proceeded, however, two and a quarter miles, to the commencement of a bluff of blue clay, about one hundred and eighty, or one hundred and ninety feet on the south side: it seems to have been lately on fire; and even now the ground is so warm that we cannot keep our hands in it at any depth: there are strong appearances of coal, and also great quantities of cobalt, or a crystalized substance resembling it. there is a fruit now ripe which looks like a currant, except that it is double the size, and grows on a bush like a privy, the size of a damson, and of a delicious flavour; its indian name means rabbit-berries. we then passed, at the distance of about seven miles, the mouth of a creek on the north side, called by an indian name, meaning whitestone river. the beautiful prairie of yesterday, has changed into one of greater height, and very smooth and extensive. we encamped on the south side, at ten and a quarter miles, and found ourselves much annoyed by the musquitoes. chap. iii. whimsical instance of superstition of the sioux indians--council held with the sioux--character of that tribe, their manners, &c.--a ridiculous instance of their heroism--ancient fortifications--quieurre river described--vast herds of buffaloe--account of the petit chien or little dog--narrow escape of george shannon--description of whiteriver--surprising fleetness of the antelope--pass the river of the sioux--description of the grand le tour, or great bend--encamp on the teton river. august . captains lewis and clarke, with ten men, went to see an object deemed very extraordinary among all the neighbouring indians. they dropped down to the mouth of whitestone river, about thirty yards wide, where they left the boat, and at the distance of two hundred yards, ascended a rising ground, from which a plain extended itself as far as the eye could discern. after walking four miles, they crossed the creek where it is twenty-three yards wide, and waters an extensive valley. the heat was so oppressive that we were obliged to send back our dog to the creek, as he was unable to bear the fatigue; and it was not till after four hours march that we reached the object of our visit. this was a large mound in the midst of the plain about n. ° w. from the month of whitestone river, from which it is nine miles distant. the base of the mound is a regular parallelogram, the longest side being about three hundred yards, the shorter sixty or seventy: from the longest side it rises with a steep ascent from the north and south to the height of sixty-five or seventy feet, leaving on the top a level plain of twelve feet in breadth and ninety in length. the north and south extremities are connected by two oval borders which serve as new bases, and divide the whole side into three steep but regular gradations from the plain. the only thing characteristic in this hill is its extreme symmetry, and this, together with its being totally detached from the other hills which are at the distance of eight or nine miles, would induce a belief that it was artificial; but, as the earth and the loose pebbles which compose it, are arranged exactly like the steep grounds on the borders of the creek, we concluded from this similarity of texture that it might be natural. but the indians have made it a great article of their superstition: it is called the mountain of little people, or little spirits, and they believe that it is the abode of little devils, in the human form, of about eighteen inches high and with remarkably large heads; they are armed with sharp arrows, with which they are very skilful, and are always on the watch to kill those who should have the hardihood to approach their residence. the tradition is, that many have suffered from these little evil spirits, and among others, three maha indians fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. this has inspired all the neighbouring nations, sioux, mahas, and ottoes, with such terror, that no consideration could tempt them to visit the hill. we saw none of these wicked little spirits; nor any place for them, except some small holes scattered over the top: we were happy enough to escape their vengeance, though we remained some time on the mound to enjoy the delightful prospect of the plain, which spreads itself out till the eye rests upon the n.w. hills at a great distance, and those of n.e. still farther off, enlivened by large herds of buffaloe feeding at a distance. the soil of these plains is exceedingly fine; there is, however, no timber except on the missouri: all the wood of the whitestone river not being sufficient to cover thickly one hundred acres. the plain country which surrounds this mound has contributed not a little to its bad reputation: the wind driving from every direction over the level ground obliges the insects to seek shelter on its leeward side, or be driven against us by the wind. the small birds, whose food they are, resort of course in great numbers in quest of subsistence; and the indians always seem to discover an unusual assemblage of birds as produced by some supernatural cause: among them we observed the brown martin employed in looking for insects, and so gentle that they did not fly until we got within a few feet of them. we have also distinguished among numerous birds of the plain, the blackbird, the wren or prairie bird, and a species of lark about the size of a partridge, with a short tail. the excessive heat and thirst forced us from the hill, about one o'clock, to the nearest water, which we found in the creek, at three miles distance, and remained an hour and a half. we then went down the creek, through a lowland about one mile in width, and crossed it three times, to the spot where we first reached it in the morning. here we gathered some delicious plums, grapes and blue currants, and afterwards arrived at the mouth of the river about sunset. to this place the course from the mound is s. twenty miles, e. nine miles; we there resumed our periogue, and on reaching our encampment of last night set the prairies on fire, to warn the sioux of our approach. in the mean time, the boat under serjeant pryor had proceeded in the afternoon one mile, to a bluff of blue clay on the south, and after passing a sandbar and two sand islands fixed their camp at the distance of six miles on the south. in the evening some rain fell. we had killed a duck and several birds: in the boat, they had caught some large catfish. sunday, august . we rejoined the boat at nine o'clock before she set out, and then passing by an island, and under a cliff on the south, nearly two miles in extent and composed of white and blue earth, encamped at nine miles distance, on a sandbar towards the north. opposite to this, on the south, is a small creek called petit arc or little bow, and a short distance above it, an old village of the same name. this village, of which nothing remains but the mound of earth about four feet high surrounding it, was built by a maha chief named little bow, who being displeased with blackbird, the late king, seceded with two hundred followers and settled at this spot, which is now abandoned, as the two villages have reunited since the death of blackbird. we have great quantities of grapes, and plums of three kinds; two of a yellow colour, and distinguished by one of the species being longer than the other; and a third round and red: all have an excellent flavour, particularly those of the yellow kind. august . the morning star appeared much larger than usual. a gentle breeze from the southeast carried us by some large sandbars, on both sides and in the middle of the river, to a bluff, on the south side, at seven and a half miles distant; this bluff is of white clay or chalk, under which is much stone, like lime, incrusted with a clear substance, supposed to be cobalt, and some dark ore. above this bluff we set the prairie on fire, to invite the sioux. after twelve and a half miles, we had passed several other sandbars, and now reached the mouth of a river called by the french jacques (james river) or yankton, from the tribe which inhabits its banks. it is about ninety yards wide at the confluence: the country which it waters is rich prairie, with little timber: it becomes deeper and wider above its mouth, and may be navigated a great distance; as its sources rise near those of st. peter's, of the mississippi, and the red river of lake winnipeg. as we came to the mouth of the river, an indian swam to the boat; and, on our landing, we were met by two others, who informed us that a large body of sioux were encamped near us: they accompanied three of our men, with an invitation to meet us at a spot above the river: the third indian remained with us: he is a maha boy, and says that his nation have gone to the pawnees to make peace with them. at fourteen miles, we encamped on a sandbar to the north. the air was cool, the evening pleasant, the wind from the southeast, and light. the river has fallen gradually, and is now low. tuesday, th. we passed, with a stiff breeze from the south, several sandbars. on the south is a prairie which rises gradually from the water to the height of a bluff, which is, at four miles distance, of a whitish colour, and about seventy or eighty feet high. further on is another bluff, of a brownish colour, on the north side; and at the distance of eight and a half miles is the beginning of calumet bluff, on the south side, under which we formed our camp, in a beautiful plain, to wait the arrival of the sioux. at the first bluff the young indian left us and joined their camp. before reaching calumet bluff one of the periogues ran upon a log in the river, and was rendered unfit for service; so that all our loading was put into the second periogue. on both sides of the river are fine prairies, with cotton wood; and near the bluff there is more timber in the points and valleys than we have been accustomed to see. wednesday, th. we had a violent storm of wind and rain last evening; and were engaged during the day in repairing the periogue, and other necessary occupations; when, at four o'clock in the afternoon, sergeant pryor and his party arrived on the opposite side, attended by five chiefs, and about seventy men and boys. we sent a boat for them, and they joined us, as did also mr. durion, the son of our interpreter, who happened to be trading with the sioux at this time. he returned with sergeant pryor to the indians, with a present of tobacco, corn, and a few kettles; and told them that we would speak to their chiefs in the morning. sergeant pryor reported, that on reaching their village, which is at twelve miles distance from our camp, he was met by a party with a buffaloe robe, on which they desired to carry their visitors: an honour which they declined, informing the indians that they were not the commanders of the boats: as a great mark of respect, they were then presented with a fat dog, already cooked, of which they partook heartily, and found it well flavoured. the camps of the sioux are of a conical form, covered with buffaloe robes, painted with various figures and colours, with an aperture in the top for the smoke to pass through. the lodges contain from ten to fifteen persons, and the interior arrangement is compact and handsome, each lodge having a place for cooking detached from it. august th. thursday. the fog was so thick that we could not see the indian camp on the opposite side, but it cleared off about eight o'clock. we prepared a speech, and some presents, and then sent for the chiefs and warriors, whom we received, at twelve o'clock, under a large oak tree, near to which the flag of the united states was flying. captain lewis delivered a speech, with the usual advice and counsel for their future conduct. we then acknowledged their chiefs, by giving to the grand chief a flag, a medal, a certificate, with a string of wampum; to which we added a chief's coat; that is, a richly laced uniform of the united states artillery corps, and a cocked hat and red feather. one second chief and three inferior ones were made or recognised by medals, and a suitable present of tobacco, and articles of clothing. we then smoked the pipe of peace, and the chiefs retired to a bower, formed of bushes, by their young men, where they divided among each other the presents, and smoked and eat, and held a council on the answer which they were to make us to-morrow. the young people exercised their bows and arrows in shooting at marks for beads, which we distributed to the best marksmen; and in the evening the whole party danced until a late hour, and in the course of their amusement we threw among them some knives, tobacco, bells, tape, and binding, with which they were much pleased. their musical instruments were the drum, and a sort of little bag made of buffaloe hide, dressed white, with small shot or pebbles in it, and a bunch of hair tied to it. this produces a sort of rattling music, with which the party was annoyed by four musicians during the council this morning. august . in the morning, after breakfast, the chiefs met, and sat down in a row, with pipes of peace, highly ornamented, and all pointed towards the seats intended for captains lewis and clarke. when they arrived and were seated, the grand chief, whose indian name, weucha, is, in english shake hand, and, in french, is called le liberateur (the deliverer) rose, and spoke at some length, approving what we had said, and promising to follow our advice: "i see before me," said he, "my great father's two sons. you see me, and the rest of our chiefs and warriors. we are very poor; we have neither powder nor ball, nor knives; and our women and children at the village have no clothes. i wish that as my brothers have given me a flag and a medal, they would give something to those poor people, or let them stop and trade with the first boat which comes up the river. i will bring chiefs of the pawnees and mahas together, and make peace between them; but it is better that i should do it than my great father's sons, for they will listen to me more readily. i will also take some chiefs to your country in the spring; but before that time i cannot leave home. i went formerly to the english, and they gave me a medal and some clothes: when i went to the spanish they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep it from my skin; but now you give me a medal and clothes. but still we are poor; and i wish, brothers, you would give us something for our squaws." "when he sat down, mahtoree, or white crane, rose: "i have listened," said he, "to what our father's words were yesterday; and i am, to-day, glad to see how you have dressed our old chief. i am a young man, and do not wish to take much: my fathers have made me a chief: i had much sense before, but now i think i have more than ever. what the old chief has declared i will confirm, and do whatever he and you please: but i wish that you would take pity on us, for we are very poor." another chief, called pawnawneahpahbe, then said; "i am a young man, and know but little: i cannot speak well; but i have listened to what you have told the old chief, and will do whatever you agree." the same sentiments were then repeated by aweawechache. we were surprised at finding that the first of these titles means "struck by the pawnee," and was occasioned by some blow which the chief had received in battle, from one of the pawnee tribe. the second is, in english, "half man," which seems a singular name for a warrior, till it was explained to have its origin, probably, in the modesty of the chief; who, on being told of his exploits, would say, "i am no warrior: i am only half a man." the other chiefs spoke very little; but after they had finished, one of the warriors delivered a speech, in which he declared he would support them. they promised to make peace with the ottoes and missouris, the only nations with whom they are at war. all these harangues concluded by describing the distress of the nation: they begged us to have pity on them: to send them traders: that they wanted powder and ball; and seemed anxious that we should supply them with some of their great father's milk, the name by which they distinguish ardent spirits. we then gave some tobacco to each of the chiefs, and a certificate to two of the warriors who attended the chief. we prevailed on mr. durion to remain here, and accompany as many of the sioux chiefs as he could collect, down to the seat of government. we also gave his son a flag, some clothes, and provisions, with directions to bring about a peace between the surrounding tribe, and to convey some of their chiefs to see the president. in the evening they left us, and encamped on the opposite bank, accompanied by the two durions. during the evening and night we had much rain, and observed that the river rises a little. the indians, who have just left us, are the yanktons, a tribe of the great nation of sioux. these yanktons are about two hundred men in number; and inhabit the jacques, desmoines, and sioux rivers. in person they are stout, well proportioned, and have a certain air of dignity and boldness. in their dress they differ nothing from the other bands of the nation whom we saw, and will describe afterwards: they are fond of decorations, and use paint, and porcupine quills, and feathers. some of them wore a kind of necklace of white bear's claws, three inches long, and closely strung together round their necks. they have only a few fowling pieces, being generally armed with bows and arrows, in which, however, they do not appear as expert as the more northern indians. what struck us most was an institution, peculiar to them, and to the kite indians, further to the westward, from whom it is said to have been copied. it is an association of the most active and brave young men, who are bound to each other by attachment, secured by a vow, never to retreat before any danger, or give way to their enemies. in war they go forward without sheltering themselves behind trees, or aiding their natural valour by any artifice. this punctilious determination, not to be turned from their course, became heroic, or ridiculous, a short time since, when the yanktons were crossing the missouri on the ice. a hole lay immediately in their course, which might easily have been avoided, by going round. this the foremost of the band disdained to do; but went straight forward, and was lost. the others would have followed his example, but were forcibly prevented by the rest of the tribe. these young men sit, and encamp, and dance together, distinct from the rest of the nation: they are generally about thirty or thirty-five years old; and such is the deference paid to courage, that their seats in council are superior to those of the chiefs, and their persons more respected. but, as may be supposed, such indiscreet bravery will soon diminish the numbers of those who practise it; so that the band is now reduced to four warriors, who were among our visitors. these were the remains of twenty-two, who composed the society not long ago; but, in a battle with the kite indians, of the black mountains, eighteen of them were killed, and these four were dragged from the field by their companions. whilst these indians remained with us we made very minute inquiries relative to their situation and numbers, and trade, and manners. this we did very satisfactorily, by means of two different interpreters; and from their accounts, joined to our interviews with other bands of the same nation, and much intelligence acquired since, we were enabled to understand, with some accuracy, the condition of the sioux hitherto so little known. the sioux, or dacorta indians, originally settled on the mississippi, and called by carver, madowesians, are now subdivided into tribes, as follow: first, the yanktons: this tribe inhabits the sioux, desmoines, and jacques rivers, and number about two hundred warriors. second, the tetons of the burnt woods. this tribe numbers about three hundred men, who rove on both sides of the missouri, the white, and teton rivers. third. the tetons okandandas, a tribe consisting of about one hundred and fifty men, who inhabit both sides of the missouri below the chayenne river. fourth, tetons minnakenozzo, a nation inhabiting both sides of the missouri, above the chayenne river, and containing about two hundred and fifty men. fifth, tetons saone; these inhabit both sides of the missouri below the warreconne river, and consist of about three hundred men. sixth, yanktons of the plains, or big devils; who rove on the heads of the sioux, jacques, and red river; the most numerous of all the tribes, and number about five hundred men. seventh, wahpatone; a nation residing on the st. peter's, just above the mouth of that river, and numbering two hundred men. eighth, mindawarcarton, or proper dacorta or sioux indians. these possess the original seat of the sioux, and are properly so denominated. they rove on both sides of the mississippi, about the falls of st. anthony, and consist of three hundred men. ninth, the wahpatoota, or leaf beds. this nation inhabits both sides of the river st. peter's, below yellow-wood river, amounting to about one hundred and fifty men. tenth, sistasoone: this nation numbers two hundred men, and reside at the head of the st. peter's. of these several tribes, more particular notice will be taken hereafter. saturday, september , . we proceeded this morning under a light southern breeze, and passed the calumet bluffs; these are composed of a yellowish red, and brownish clay as hard as chalk, which it much resembles, and are one hundred and seventy, or one hundred and eighty feet high. at this place the hills on each side come to the verge of the river, those on the south being higher than on the north. opposite the bluffs is a large island covered with timber; above which the highlands form a cliff over the river on the north side, called white bear cliff; an animal of that kind being killed in one of the holes in it, which are numerous and apparently deep. at six miles we came to a large sand island covered with cottonwood; the wind was high, and the weather rainy and cloudy during the day. we made fifteen miles to a place on the north side, at the lower point of a large island called bonhomme, or goodman's island. the country on both sides has the same character of prairies, with no timber; with occasional lowlands covered with cottonwood, elm and oak: our hunters had killed an elk and a beaver: the catfish too are in great abundance. september . it rained last night, and this morning we had a high wind from the n.w. we went three miles to the lower part of an ancient fortification on the south side, and passed the head of bonhomme island, which is large and well timbered: after this the wind became so violent, attended by a cold rain, that we were compelled to land at four miles on the northern side, under a high bluff of yellow clay, about one hundred and ten feet in height. our hunters supplied us with four elk; and we had grapes and plums on the banks: we also saw the beargrass and rue, on the side of the bluffs. at this place there are highlands on both sides of the river which become more level at some distance back, and contain but few streams of water. on the southern bank, during this day, the grounds have not been so elevated. captain clarke crossed the river to examine the remains of the fortification we had just passed. [illustration: fortification] this interesting object is on the south side of the missouri, opposite the upper extremity of bonhomme island, and in a low level plain, the hills being three miles from the river. it begins by a wall composed of earth, rising immediately from the bank of the river and running in a direct course s. °, w. ninety six yards; the base of this wall or mound is seventy-five feet, and its height about eight. it then diverges in a course s. ° w. and continues at the same height and depth to the distance of fifty-three yards, the angle being formed by a sloping descent; at the junction of these two is an appearance of a hornwork of the same height with the first angle: the same wall then pursues a course n. ° w. for three hundred yards: near its western extremity is an opening or gateway at right angles to the wall, and projecting inwards; this gateway is defended by two nearly semicircular walls placed before it, lower than the large walls; and from the gateway there seems to have been a covered way communicating with the interval between these two walls: westward of the gate, the wall becomes much larger, being about one hundred and five feet at its base, and twelve feet high: at the end of this high ground the wall extends for fifty-six yards on a course n. ° w; it then turns n. ° w. for seventy-three yards: these two walls seems to have had a double or covered way; they are from ten to fifteen feet eight inches in height, and from seventy-five to one hundred and five feet in width at the base; the descent inwards being steep, whilst outwards it forms a sort of glacis. at the distance of seventy-three yards, the wall ends abruptly at a large hollow place much lower than the general level of the plain, and from which is some indication of a covered way to the water. the space between them is occupied by several mounds scattered promiscuously through the gorge, in the centre of which is a deep round hole. from the extremity of the last wall, in a course n. ° w. is a distance of ninety-six yards over the low ground, where the wall recommences and crosses the plain in a course n. ° w. for eighteen hundred and thirty yards to the bank of the missouri. in this course its height is about eight feet, till it enters, at the distance of five hundred and thirty-three yards, a deep circular pond of seventy-three yards diameter; after which it is gradually lower, towards the river: it touches the river at a muddy bar, which bears every mark of being an encroachment of the water, for a considerable distance; and a little above the junction, is a small circular redoubt. along the bank of the river, and at eleven hundred yards distance, in a straight line from this wall, is a second, about six feet high, and of considerable width: it rises abruptly from the bank of the missouri, at a point where the river bends, and goes straight forward, forming an acute angle with the last wall, till it enters the river again, not far from the mounds just described, towards which it is obviously tending. at the bend the missouri is five hundred yards wide; the ground on the opposite side highlands, or low hills on the bank; and where the river passes between this fort and bonhomme island, all the distance from the bend, it is constantly washing the banks into the stream, a large sandbank being already taken from the shore near the wall. during the whole course of this wall, or glacis, it is covered with trees, among which are many large cotton trees, two or three feet in diameter. immediately opposite the citadel, or the part most strongly fortified, on bonhomme island, is a small work in a circular form, with a wall surrounding it, about six feet in height. the young willows along the water, joined to the general appearance of the two shores, induce a belief that the bank of the island is encroaching, and the missouri indemnifies itself by washing away the base of the fortification. the citadel contains about twenty acres, but the parts between the long walls must embrace nearly five hundred acres. these are the first remains of the kind which we have had an opportunity of examining; but our french interpreters assure us, that there are great numbers of them on the platte, the kanzas, the jacques, &c. and some of our party say, that they observed two of those fortresses on the upper side of the petit arc creek, not far from its mouth; that the wall was about six feet high, and the sides of the angles one hundred yards in length. september . the morning was cold, and the wind from the northwest. we passed at sunrise, three large sandbars, and at the distance of ten miles reached a small creek, about twelve yards wide, coming in from the north, above a white bluff: this creek has obtained the name of plum creek, from the number of that fruit which are in the neighbourhood, and of a delightful quality. five miles further, we encamped on the south near the edge of a plain; the river is wide, and covered with sandbars to-day: the banks are high and of a whitish colour; the timber scarce, but an abundance of grapes. beaver houses too have been observed in great numbers on the river, but none of the animals themselves. september . we set out early, with a very cold wind from s.s.e. and at one mile and a half, reached a small creek, called whitelime creek, on the south side. just above this is a cliff, covered with cedar trees, and at three miles a creek, called whitepaint creek, of about thirty yards wide: on the same side, and at four and a half miles distance from the whitepaint creek, is the rapid river, or, as it is called by the french, la riverequi court; this river empties into the missouri, in a course s.w. by w. and is one hundred and fifty-two yards wide, and four feet deep at the confluence. it rises in the black mountains, and passes through a hilly country, with a poor soil. captain clark ascended three miles to a beautiful plain, on the upper side, where the pawnees once had a village: he found that the river widened above its mouth, and much divided by sands and islands, which, joined to the great rapidity of the current, makes the navigation very difficult, even for small boats. like the platte its waters are of a light colour; like that river too it throws out into the missouri, great quantities of sand, coarser even than that of the platte, which form sandbars and shoals near its mouth. we encamped just above it, on the south, having made only eight miles, as the wind shifted to the south, and blew so hard that in the course of the day we broke our mast: we saw some deer, a number of geese, and shot a turkey and a duck: the place in which we halted is a fine low-ground, with much timber, such as red cedar, honeylocust, oak, arrowwood, elm and coffeenut. september , wednesday. the wind was again high from the south. at five miles, we came to a large island, called pawnee island, in the middle of the river; and stopped to breakfast at a small creek on the north, which has the name of goat creek, at eight and a half miles. near the mouth of this creek the beaver had made a dam across so as to form a large pond, in which they built their houses. above this island the river poncara falls into the missouri from the south, and is thirty yards wide at the entrance. two men whom we despatched to the village of the same name, returned with information that they had found it on the lower side of the creek; but as this is the hunting season, the town was so completely deserted that they had killed a buffaloe in the village itself. this tribe of poncaras, who are said to have once numbered four hundred men, are now reduced to about fifty, and have associated for mutual protection with the mahas, who are about two hundred in number. these two nations are allied by a similarity of misfortune; they were once both numerous, both resided in villages, and cultivated indian corn; their common enemies, the sioux and small-pox, drove them from their towns, which they visit only occasionally for the purposes of trade; and they now wander over the plains on the sources of the wolf and quieurre rivers. between the pawnee island and goat creek on the north, is a cliff of blue earth, under which are several mineral springs, impregnated with salts: near this we observed a number of goats, from which the creek derives its name. at three and a half miles from the creek, we came to a large island on the south, along which we passed to the head of it, and encamped about four o'clock. here we replaced the mast we had lost, with a new one of cedar: some bucks and an elk were procured to-day, and a black tailed deer was seen near the poncara's village. thursday, september . there was a storm this morning from the n.w. and though it moderated, the wind was still high, and the weather very cold; the number of sandbars too, added to the rapidity of the current, obliged us to have recourse to the towline: with all our exertions we did not make more than eight and a half miles, and encamped on the north, after passing high cliffs of soft, blue, and red coloured stone, on the southern shore. we saw some goats, and great numbers of buffaloe, in addition to which the hunters furnished us with elk, deer, turkies, geese, and one beaver: a large catfish too was caught in the evening. the ground near the camp, was a low prarie, without timber, though just below is a grove of cottonwood. friday, september . the morning was very cold and the wind southeast. at five and a half miles, we reached and encamped at the foot of a round mountain, on the south, having passed two small islands. this mountain, which is about three hundred feet at the base, forms a cone at the top, resembling a dome at a distance, and seventy feet or more above the surrounding highlands. as we descended from this dome, we arrived at a spot, on the gradual descent of the hill, nearly four acres in extent, and covered with small holes: these are the residence of a little animal, called by the french, petit chien (little dog) who sit erect near the mouth, and make a whistling noise, but when alarmed take refuge in their holes. in order to bring them out, we poured into one of the holes five barrels of water without filling it, but we dislodged and caught the owner. after digging down another of the holes for six feet, we found, on running a pole into it, that we had not yet dug half way to the bottom: we discovered, however, two frogs in the hole, and near it we killed a dark rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small prairie dog: we were also informed, though we never witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard, and a snake, live habitually with these animals. the petit chien are justly named, as they resemble a small dog in some particulars, though they have also some points of similarity to the squirrel. the head resembles the squirrel in every respect, except that the ear is shorter, the tail like that of the ground-squirrel, the toe-nails are long, the fur is fine, and the long hair is gray. saturday, september . the wind still continued from the southeast, but moderately. at seven miles we reached a house on the north side, called the pawnee house, where a trader, named trudeau, wintered in the year - : behind this, hills, much higher than usual, appear to the north, about eight miles off. before reaching this house, we came by three small islands, on the north side, and a small creek on the south; and after leaving it, reached another, at the end of seventeen miles, on which we encamped, and called it boat island: we here saw herds of buffaloe, and some elk, deer, turkies, beaver, a squirrel, and a prairie dog. the party on the north represent the country through which they passed, as poor, rugged, and hilly, with the appearance of having been lately burnt by the indians; the broken hills, indeed, approach the river on both sides, though each is bordered by a strip of woodland near the water. sunday, september . we coasted along the island on which we had encamped, and then passed three sand and willow islands, and a number of smaller sandbars. the river is shallow, and joined by two small creeks from the north, and one from the south. in the plains, to the south, are great numbers of buffaloe, in herds of nearly five hundred; all the copses of timber appear to contain elk or deer. we encamped on a sandbar, on the southern shore, at the distance of fourteen and a quarter miles. september , monday. the next day we made twenty miles. the morning was cloudy and dark, but a light breeze from the southeast carried us past two small islands on the south, and one on the north; till, at the distance of ten and a half miles, we reached an island, extending for two miles in the middle of the river, covered with red cedar, from which it derives its name of cedar island. just below this island, on a hill, to the south, is the backbone of a fish, forty-five feet long, tapering towards the tail, and in a perfect state of petrifaction, fragments of which were collected and sent to washington. on both sides of the river are high dark-coloured bluffs. about a mile and a half from the island, on the southern shore, the party on that side discovered a large and very strong impregnated spring of water; and another, not so strongly impregnated, half a mile up the hill. three miles beyond cedar island is a large island on the north, and a number of sandbars. after which is another, about a mile in length, lying in the middle of the river, and separated by a small channel, at its extremity, from another above it, on which we encamped. these two islands are called mud islands. the river is shallow during this day's course, and is falling a little. the elk and buffaloe are in great abundance, but the deer have become scarce. september , tuesday. at six and a half miles we passed the upper extremity of an island on the south; four miles beyond which is another on the same side of the river; and about a quarter of a mile distant we visited a large village of the barking-squirrel. it was situated on a gentle declivity, and covered a space of nine hundred and seventy yards long, and eight hundred yards wide; we killed four of them. we then resumed our course, and during five and a half miles passed two islands on the north, and then encamped at the distance of sixteen miles, on the south side of the river, and just above a small run. the morning had been cloudy, but in the afternoon it began raining, with a high northwest wind, which continued during the greater part of the night. the country seen to-day consists of narrow strips of lowland, rising into uneven grounds, which are succeeded, at the distance of three miles, by rich and level plains, but without any timber. the river itself is wide, and crowded with sandbars. elk, deer, squirrels, a pelican, and a very large porcupine, were our game this day; some foxes too were seen, but not caught. in the morning we observed a man riding on horseback down towards the boat, and we were much pleased to find that it was george shannon, one of our party, for whose safety we had been very uneasy. our two horses having strayed from us on the th of august, he was sent to search for them. after he had found them he attempted to rejoin us, but seeing some other tracks, which must have been those of indians, and which he mistook for our own, he concluded that we were ahead, and had been for sixteen days following the bank of the river above us. during the first four days he exhausted his bullets, and was then nearly starved, being obliged to subsist, for twelve days, on a few grapes, and a rabbit which he killed by making use of a hard piece of stick for a ball. one of his horses gave out, and was left behind; the other he kept as a last resource for food. despairing of overtaking us, he was returning down the river, in hopes of meeting some other boat; and was on the point of killing his horse, when he was so fortunate as to join us. wednesday, september . the day was dark and cloudy; the wind from the northwest. at a short distance we reached an island in the middle of the river, which is covered with timber, a rare object now. we with great difficulty were enabled to struggle through the sandbars, the water being very rapid and shallow, so that we were several hours in making a mile. several times the boat wheeled on the bar, and the men were obliged to jump out and prevent her from upsetting; at others, after making a way up one channel, the shoalness of the water forced us back to seek the deep channel. we advanced only four miles in the whole day and encamped on the south. along both sides of the river are high grounds; on the southern side particularly, they form dark bluffs, in which may be observed slate and coal intermixed. we saw also several villages of barking-squirrels; great numbers of growse, and three foxes. september , thursday. we made twelve miles to-day through a number of sandbars, which make it difficult to find the proper channel. the hills on each side are high, and separated from the river by a narrow plain on its borders. on the north, these lowlands are covered in part with timber, and great quantities of grapes, which are now ripe: on the south we found plenty of plums, but they are not yet ripe; and near the dark bluffs, a run tainted with allum and copperas; the southern side being more strongly impregnated with minerals than the northern. last night four beaver were caught in the traps; a porcupine was shot as it was upon a cottontree, feeding on its leaves and branches. we encamped on the north side, opposite to a small willow island. at night the musquitoes were very troublesome, though the weather was cold and rainy and the wind from the northwest. friday, september . at two miles we reached a round island on the northern side; at about five, a run on the south; two and a half miles further, a small creek; and at nine miles encamped near the month of a creek, on the same side. the sandbars are very numerous, and render the river wide and shallow, and obliged the crew to get into the water and drag the boat over the bars several times. during the whole day we searched along the southern shore, and at some distance into the interior, to find an ancient volcano which we heard at st. charles was somewhere in this neighbourhood; but we could not discern the slightest appearance of any thing volcanic. in the course of their search the party shot a buck-goat and a hare. the hills, particularly on the south, continue high, but the timber is confined to the islands and banks of the river. we had occasion here to observe the rapid undermining of these hills by the missouri: the first attacks seem to be on the hills which overhang the river; as soon as the violence of the current destroys the grass at the foot of them, the whole texture appears loosened, and the ground dissolves and mixes with the water: the muddy mixture is then forced over the low-grounds, which it covers sometimes to the depth of three inches, and gradually destroys the herbage; after which it can offer no resistance to the water, and becomes at last covered with sand. saturday, september . we passed, at an early hour, the creek near our last night's encampment; and at two miles distance reached the mouth of white river, coming in from the south. we ascended a short distance, and sent a sergeant and another man to examine it higher up. this river has a bed of about three hundred yards, though the water is confined to one hundred and fifty: in the mouth is a sand island, and several sandbars. the current is regular and swift, with sandbars projecting from the points. it differs very much from the platte, and quieurre, in throwing out, comparatively, little sand, but its general character is like that of the missouri. this resemblance was confirmed by the sergeant, who ascended about twelve miles; at which distance it was about the same width as near the mouth, and the course, which was generally west, had been interrupted by islands and sandbars. the timber consisted chiefly of elm; they saw pine burrs, and sticks of birch were seen floating down the river; they had also met with goats, such as we have heretofore seen; great quantities of buffaloe, near to which were wolves, some deer, and villages of barking squirrels. at the confluence of white river with the missouri is an excellent position for a town; the land rising by three gradual ascents, and the neighbourhood furnishing more timber than is usual in this country. after passing high dark bluffs on both sides, we reached the lower point of an island towards the south, at the distance of six miles. the island bears an abundance of grapes, and is covered with red cedar: it also contains a number of rabbits. at the end of this island, which is small, a narrow channel separates it from a large sand island, which we passed, and encamped, eight miles on the north, under a high point of land opposite a large creek to the south, on which we observe an unusual quantity of timber. the wind was from the northwest this afternoon, and high, the weather cold, and its dreariness increased by the howlings of a number of wolves around us. september , sunday. early this morning, having reached a convenient spot on the south side, and at one mile and a quarter distance, we encamped just above a small creek, which we called corvus, having killed an animal of that genus near it. finding that we could not proceed over the sandbars, as fast as we desired, while the boat was so heavily loaded, we concluded not to send back, as we originally intended, our third periogue, but to detain the soldiers until spring, and in the mean time lighten the boat by loading the periogue: this operation, added to that of drying all our wet articles, detained us during the day. our camp is in a beautiful plain, with timber thinly scattered for three quarters of a mile, and consisting chiefly of elm, cottonwood, some ash of an indifferent quality, and a considerable quantity of a small species of white oak: this tree seldom rises higher than thirty feet, and branches very much; the bark is rough, thick and of a light colour; the leaves small, deeply indented, and of a pale green; the cup which contains the acorn is fringed on the edges, and embraces it about one half: the acorn itself, which grows in great profusion, is of an excellent flavour, and has none of the roughness which most other acorns possess; they are now falling, and have probably attracted the number of deer which we saw on this place, as all the animals we have seen are fond of that food. the ground having been recently burnt by the indians, is covered with young green grass, and in the neighbourhood are great quantities of fine plums. we killed a few deer for the sake of their skins, which we wanted to cover the periogues, the meat being too poor for food: the cold season coming on, a flannel shirt was given to each man, and fresh powder to those who had exhausted their supply. monday, september . whilst some of the party were engaged in the same way as yesterday, others were employed in examining the surrounding country. about a quarter of a mile behind our camp, and at an elevation of twenty feet above it, a plain extends nearly three miles parallel to the river, and about a mile back to the hills, towards which it gradually ascends. here we saw a grove of plum-trees loaded with fruit, now ripe, and differing in nothing from those of the atlantic states, except that the tree is smaller and more thickly set. the ground of the plain is occupied by the burrows of multitudes of barking squirrels, who entice hither the wolves of a small kind, hawks, and polecats, all of which animals we saw, and presumed that they fed on the squirrel. this plain is intersected nearly in its whole extent by deep ravines and steep irregular rising grounds from one to two hundred feet. on ascending the range of hills which border the plain, we saw a second high level plain stretching to the south as far as the eye could reach. to the westward, a high range of hills about twenty miles distant runs nearly north and south, but not to any great extent, as their rise and termination is embraced by one view, and they seemed covered with a verdure similar to that of the plains. the same view extended over the irregular hills which border the northern side of the missouri; all around the country had been recently burnt, and a young green grass about four inches high covered the ground, which was enlivened by herds of antelopes and buffaloe; the last of which were in such multitudes, that we cannot exaggerate in saying that at a single glance we saw three thousand of them before us. of all the animals we had seen the antelope seems to possess the most wonderful fleetness: shy and timorous they generally repose only on the ridges, which command a view of all the approaches of an enemy: the acuteness of their sight distinguishes the most distant danger, the delicate sensibility of their smell defeats the precautions of concealment, and when alarmed their rapid career seems more like the flight of birds than the movements of an earthly being. after many unsuccessful attempts, captain lewis at last, by winding around the ridges, approached a party of seven, which were on an eminence, towards which the wind was unfortunately blowing. the only male of the party frequently encircled the summit of the hill, as if to announce any danger to the females, who formed a group at the top. although they did not see captain lewis, the smell alarmed them, and they fled when he was at the distance of two hundred yards: he immediately ran to the spot where they had been, a ravine concealed them from him, but the next moment they appeared on a second ridge at the distance of three miles. he doubted whether it could be the same, but their number and the extreme rapidity with which they continued their course, convinced him that they must have gone with a speed equal to that of the most distinguished racehorse. among our acquisitions to-day was a mule-deer, a magpie, the common deer, and buffaloe: captain lewis also saw a hare, and killed a rattlesnake near the burrows of the barking squirrels. tuesday, september . having everything in readiness we proceeded, with the boat much lightened, but the wind being from the n.w. we made but little way. at one mile we reached an island in the middle of the river, nearly a mile in length, and covered with red cedar; at its extremity a small creek comes in from the north; we then met some sandbars, and the wind being very high and ahead, we encamped on the south, having made only seven miles. in addition to the common deer, which were in great abundance, we saw goats, elk, buffaloe, the black tailed deer; the large wolves too are very numerous, and have long hair with coarse fur, and are of a light colour. a small species of wolf about the size of a gray fox was also killed, and proved to be the animal which we had hitherto mistaken for a fox: there are also many porcupines, rabbits, and barking squirrels in the neighbourhood. september . we this day enjoyed a cool clear morning, and a wind from the southeast. we reached at three miles a bluff on the south, and four miles farther, the lower point of prospect island, about two and a half miles in length; opposite to this are high bluffs, about eighty feet above the water, beyond which are beautiful plains gradually rising as they recede from the river: these are watered by three streams which empty near each other; the first is about thirty-five yards wide, the ground on its sides high and rich, with some timber; the second about twelve yards wide, but with less timber; the third is nearly of the same size, and contains more water, but it scatters its waters over the large timbered plain, and empties itself into the river at three places. these rivers are called by the french les trois rivieres des sioux, the three sioux rivers; and as the sioux generally cross the missouri at this place, it is called the sioux pass of the three rivers. these streams have the same right of asylum, though in a less degree than pipestone creek already mentioned. two miles from the island we passed a creek fifteen yards wide; eight miles further, another twenty yards wide; three miles beyond which, is a third of eighteen yards width, all on the south side: the second which passes through a high plain we called elm creek; to the third we gave the name of night creek, having reached it late at night. about a mile beyond this is a small island on the north side of the river, and is called lower island, as it is situated at the commencement of what is known by the name of the grand detour, or great bend of the missouri. opposite is a creek on the south about ten yards wide, which waters a plain where there are great numbers of the prickley pear, which name we gave to the creek. we encamped on the south, opposite the upper extremity of the island, having made an excellent day's sail of twenty six and a quarter miles. our game this day consisted chiefly of deer, of these four were black tails, one a buck with two main prongs of horns on each side and forked equally. large herds of buffaloe, elk and goats, were also seen. thursday, september . finding we had reached the big bend, we despatched two men with our only horse across the neck, to hunt there and wait our arrival at the first creek beyond it. we then set out with fair weather and the wind from s.e. to make the circuit of the bend. near the lower island the sandbars are numerous, and the river shallow. at nine and a half miles is a sand island, on the southern side. about ten miles beyond it is a small island on the south, opposite to a small creek on the north. this island, which is near the n.w. extremity of the bend, is called solitary island. at about eleven miles further, we encamped on a sandbar, having made twenty-seven and a half miles. captain clarke, who early this morning had crossed the neck of the bend, joined us in the evening. at the narrowest part, the gorge is composed of high and irregular hills of about one hundred and eighty or one hundred and ninety feet in elevation; from this descends an unbroken plain over the whole of the bend, and the country is separated from it by this ridge. great numbers of buffaloe, elk, and goats are wandering over these plains, accompanied by grouse and larks. captain clarke saw a hare also, on the great bend. of the goats killed to-day, one is a female differing from the male in being smaller in size; its horns too are smaller and straighter, having one short prong, and no black about the neck: none of these goats have any beard, but are delicately formed, and very beautiful. friday, september . between one and two o'clock the serjeant on guard alarmed us, by crying that the sandbar on which we lay was sinking; we jumped up, and found that both above and below our camp the sand was undermined and falling in very fast: we had scarcely got into the boats and pushed off, when the bank under which they had been lying, fell in, and would certainly have sunk the two periogues if they had remained there. by the time we reached the opposite shore the ground of our encampment sunk also. we formed a second camp for the rest of the night; and at daylight proceeded on to the gorge or throat of the great bend, where we breakfasted. a man, whom we had despatched to step off the distance across the bend, made it two thousand yards: the circuit is thirty miles. during the whole course, the land of the bend is low, with occasional bluffs; that on the opposite side, high prairie ground, and long ridges of dark bluffs. after breakfast, we passed through a high prairie on the north side, and a rich cedar lowland and cedar bluff on the south, till we reached a willow island below the mouth of a small creek. this creek, called tyler's river, is about thirty-five yards wide, comes in on the south, and is at the distance of six miles from the neck of the great bend. here we found a deer, and the skin of a white wolf, left us by our hunters ahead: large quantities of different kinds of plover and brants are in this neighbourhood, and seen collecting and moving towards the south; the catfish are small, and not in such plenty as we had found them below this place. we passed several sandbars, which make the river very shallow and about a mile in width, and encamped on the south, at the distance of eleven and a half miles. on each side the shore is lined with hard rough gulleystones, rolled from the hills and small brooks. the most common timber is the cedar, though, in the prairies, there are great quantities of the prickly pear. from this place we passed several sandbars, which make the river shallow, and about a mile in width. at the distance of eleven and a half miles, we encamped on the north at the lower point of an ancient island, which has since been connected with the main land by the filling up of the northern channel, and is now covered with cottonwood. we here saw some tracks of indians, but they appeared three or four weeks old. this day was warm. september . a thick fog detained us until seven o'clock; our course was through inclined prairies on each side of the river, crowded with buffaloe. we halted at a point on the north side, near a high bluff on the south, and took a meridian altitude, which gave us the latitude of ° ' - / ". on renewing our course, we reached first a small island on the south, at the distance of four and a half miles, immediately above which is another island opposite to a creek fifteen yards wide. this creek, and the two islands, one of which is half a mile long, and the second three miles, are called the three sisters: a beautiful plain extending on both sides of the river. this is followed by an island on the north, called cedar island, about one mile and a half in length and the same distance in breadth, and deriving its name from the quality of the timber. on the south side of this island, is a fort and a large trading house, built by a mr. loisel, who wintered here during the last year, in order to trade with the sioux, the remains of whose camps are in great numbers about this place. the establishment is sixty or seventy feet square, built with red cedar and picketted in with the same materials. the hunters who had been sent ahead joined us here. they mention that the hills are washed in gullies, in passing over which, some mineral substances had rotted and destroyed their moccasins; they had killed two deer and a beaver. at sixteen miles distance we came to on the north side at the mouth of a small creek. the large stones which we saw yesterday on the shores are now some distance in the river, and render the navigation dangerous. the musquitoes are still numerous in the low grounds. sunday, september . we passed, with a light breeze from the southeast, a small island on the north, called goat island; above which is a small creek, called by the party smoke creek, as we observed a great smoke to the southwest on approaching it. at ten miles we came to the lower point of a large island, having passed two small willow islands with sandbars projecting from them. this island, which we called elk island, is about two and a half miles long, and three quarters of a mile wide, situated near the south, and covered with cottonwood, the red currant, and grapes. the river is here almost straight for a considerable distance, wide and shallow, with many sandbars. a small creek on the north, about sixteen yards wide, we called reuben's creek; as reuben fields, one of our men, was the first of the party who reached it. at a short distance above this we encamped for the night, having made twenty miles. the country, generally, consists of low, rich, timbered ground on the north, and high barren lands on the south: on both sides great numbers of buffaloe are feeding. in the evening three boys of the sioux nation swam across the river, and informed us that two parties of sioux were encamped on the next river, one consisting of eighty, and the second of sixty lodges, at some distance above. after treating them kindly we sent them back with a present of two carrots of tobacco to their chiefs, whom we invited to a conference in the morning. monday, september . the wind was from the east, and the day fair; we soon passed a handsome prairie on the north side, covered with ripe plums, and the mouth of a creek on the south, called highwater creek, a little above our encampment. at about five miles we reached an island two and a half miles in length, and situated near the south. here we were joined by one of our hunters, who procured four elk, but whilst he was in pursuit of the game the indians had stolen his horse. we left the island, and soon overtook five indians on the shore: we anchored and told them from the boat we were friends and wished to continue so, but were not afraid of any indians; that some of their young men had stolen the horse which their great father had sent for their great chief, and that we could not treat with them until he was restored. they said that they knew nothing of the horse, but if he had been taken he should be given up. we went on, and at eleven and a half miles, passed an island on the north, which we called good-humoured island; it is about one and a half miles long, and abounds in elk. at thirteen and a half miles, we anchored one hundred yards off the mouth of a river on the south side, where we were joined by both the periogues and encamped; two thirds of the party remained on board, and the rest went as a guard on shore with the cooks and one periogue; we have seen along the sides of the hills on the north a great deal of stone; besides the elk, we also observed a hare; the five indians whom we had seen followed us, and slept with the guard on shore. finding one of them was a chief we smoked with him, and made him a present of tobacco. this river is about seventy yards wide, and has a considerable current. as the tribe of the sioux which inhabit it are called teton, we gave it the name of teton river. chap. iv. council held with the tetons--their manners, dances, &c.--chayenne river--council held with the ricara indians--their manners and habits--strange instance of ricara idolatry--another instance--cannonball river--arrival among the mandans--character of the surrounding country, and of the creeks, islands, &c. september . the morning was fine, and the wind continued from the southeast. we raised a flagstaff and an awning, under which we assembled at twelve o'clock, with all the party parading under arms. the chiefs and warriors from the camp two miles up the river, met us, about fifty or sixty in number, and after smoking delivered them a speech; but as our sioux interpreter, mr. durion, had been left with the yanktons, we were obliged to make use of a frenchman who could not speak fluently, and therefore we curtailed our harangue. after this we went through the ceremony of acknowledging the chiefs, by giving to the grand chief a medal, a flag of the united states, a laced uniform coat, a cocked hat and feather: to the two other chiefs a medal and some small presents; and to two warriors of consideration certificates. the name of the great chief is untongasabaw, or black buffaloe; the second tortohonga, or the partisan; the third tartongawaka, or buffaloe medicine: the name of one of the warriors was wawzinggo; that of the second matocoquepa, or second bear. we then invited the chiefs on board, and showed them the boat, the airgun, and such curiosities as we thought might amuse them: in this we succeeded too well; for after giving them a quarter of a glass of whiskey, which they seemed to like very much, and sucked the bottle, it was with much difficulty that we could get rid of them. they at last accompanied captain clarke on shore in a periogue with five men; but it seems they had formed a design to stop us; for no sooner had the party landed than three of the indians seized the cable of the periogue, and one of the soldiers of the chief put his arms round the mast: the second chief who affected intoxication, then said, that we should not go on, that they had not received presents enough from us; captain clarke told him that he would not be prevented from going on; that we were not squaws, but warriors; that we were sent by our great father, who could in a moment exterminate them: the chief replied, that he too had warriors, and was proceeding to offer personal violence to captain clarke, who immediately drew his sword, and made a signal to the boat to prepare for action. the indians who surrounded him, drew their arrows from their quivers and were bending their bows, when the swivel in the boat was instantly pointed towards them, and twelve of our most determined men jumped into the periogue and joined captain clarke. this movement made an impression on them, for the grand chief ordered the young men away from the periogue, and they withdrew and held a short council with the warriors. being unwilling to irritate them, captain clarke then went forward and offered his hand to the first and second chiefs, who refused to take it. he then turned from them and got into the periogue, but had not gone more than ten paces when both the chiefs and two of the warriors waded in after him, and he brought them on board. we then proceeded on for a mile and anchored off a willow island, which from the circumstances which had just occurred, we called badhumoured island. wednesday, september . our conduct yesterday seemed to have inspired the indians with fear of us, and as we were desirous of cultivating their acquaintance, we complied with their wish that we should give them an opportunity of treating us well, and also suffer their squaws and children to see us and our boat, which would be perfectly new to them. accordingly, after passing at one and a half mile a small willow island and several sandbars, we came to on the south side, where a crowd of men, women and children were waiting to receive us. captain lewis went on shore and remained several hours, and observing that their disposition was friendly we resolved to remain during the night to a dance, which they were preparing for us. captains lewis and clarke, who went on shore one after the other, were met on landing by ten well dressed young men, who took them up in a robe highly decorated and carried them to a large council house, where they were placed on a dressed buffaloe skin by the side of the grand chief. the hall or council-room was in the shape of three quarters of a circle, covered at the top and sides with skins well dressed and sewed together. under this shelter sat about seventy men, forming a circle round the chief, before whom were placed a spanish flag and the one we had given them yesterday. this left a vacant circle of about six feet diameter, in which the pipe of peace was raised on two forked sticks, about six or eight inches from the ground, and under it the down of the swan was scattered: a large fire, in which they were cooking provisions, stood near, and in the centre about four hundred pounds of excellent buffaloe meat as a present for us. as soon as we were seated, an old man got up, and after approving what we had done, begged us to take pity on their unfortunate situation. to this we replied with assurances of protection. after he had ceased, the great chief rose and delivered an harangue to the same effect: then with great solemnity he took some of the most delicate parts of the dog, which was cooked for the festival, and held it to the flag by way of sacrifice: this done, he held up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it towards the heavens, then to the four quarters of the globe, and then to the earth, made a short speech, lighted the pipe, and presented it to us. we smoked, and he again harangued his people, after which the repast was served up to us. it consisted of the dog which they had just been cooking, this being a great dish among the sioux and used on all festivals; to this were added, pemitigon, a dish made of buffaloe meat, dried or jerked, and then pounded and mixed raw with grease and a kind of ground potatoe, dressed like the preparation of indian corn called hominy, to which it is little inferior. of all these luxuries which were placed before us in platters with horn spoons, we took the pemitigon and the potatoe, which we found good, but we could as yet partake but sparingly of the dog. we eat and smoked for an hour, when it became dark: every thing was then cleared away for the dance, a large fire being made in the centre of the house, giving at once light and warmth to the ballroom. the orchestra was composed of about ten men, who played on a sort of tambourin, formed of skin stretched across a hoop; and made a jingling noise with a long stick to which the hoofs of deer and goats were hung; the third instrument was a small skin bag with pebbles in it: these, with five or six young men for the vocal part, made up the band. the women then came forward highly decorated; some with poles in their hands, on which were hung the scalps of their enemies; others with guns, spears or different trophies, taken in war by their husbands, brothers, or connexions. having arranged themselves in two columns, one on each side of the fire, as soon as the music began they danced towards each other till they met in the centre, when the rattles were shaken, and they all shouted and returned back to their places. they have no step, but shuffle along the ground; nor does the music appear to be any thing more than a confusion of noises, distinguished only by hard or gentle blows upon the buffaloe skin: the song is perfectly extemporaneous. in the pauses of the dance, any man of the company comes forward and recites, in a sort of low guttural tone, some little story or incident, which is either martial or ludicrous; or, as was the case this evening, voluptuous and indecent; this is taken up by the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat it in a higher strain and dance to it. sometimes they alternate; the orchestra first performing, and when it ceases, the women raise their voices and make a music more agreeable, that is, less intolerable than that of the musicians. the dances of the men, which are always separate from those of the women, are conducted very nearly in the same way, except that the men jump up and down instead of shuffling; and in the war dances the recitations are all of a military cast. the harmony of the entertainment had nearly been disturbed by one of the musicians, who thinking he had not received a due share of the tobacco we had distributed during the evening, put himself into a passion, broke one of the drums, threw two of them into the fire, and left the band. they were taken out of the fire: a buffaloe robe held in one hand and beaten with the other, by several of the company, supplied the place of the lost drum or tambourin, and no notice was taken of the offensive conduct of the man. we staid till twelve o'clock at night, when we informed the chiefs that they must be fatigued with all these attempts to amuse us, and retired accompanied by four chiefs, two of whom spent the night with us on board. while on shore we saw twenty-five squaws, and about the same number of children, who had been taken prisoners two weeks ago, in a battle with their countrymen the mahas. in this engagement the sioux destroyed forty lodges, killed seventy-five men, of which we saw many of the scalps, and took these prisoners; their appearance is wretched and dejected; the women too seem low in stature, coarse and ugly; though their present condition may diminish their beauty. we gave them a variety of small articles, such as awls and needles, and interceded for them with the chiefs, to whom we recommended to follow the advice of their great father, to restore the prisoners and live in peace with the mahas, which they promised to do. the tribe which we this day saw, are a part of the great sioux nation, and are known by the name of the teton okandandas: they are about two hundred men in number, and their chief residence is on both sides of the missouri, between the chayenne and teton rivers. in their persons they are rather ugly and ill made, their legs and arms being too small, their cheekbones high, and their eyes projecting. the females, with the same character of form, are more handsome; and both sexes appear cheerful and sprightly; but in our intercourse with them we discovered that they were cunning and vicious. the men shave the hair off their heads, except a small tuft on the top, which they suffer to grow and wear in plaits over the shoulders; to this they seem much attached, as the loss of it is the usual sacrifice at the death of near relations. in full dress, the men of consideration wear a hawk's feather, or calumet feather worked with porcupine quills, and fastened to the top of the head, from which it falls back. the face and body are generally painted with a mixture of grease and coal. over the shoulders is a loose robe or mantle of buffaloe skin dressed white, adorned with porcupine quills loosely fixed so as to make a gingling noise when in motion, and painted with various uncouth figures unintelligible to us, but to them emblematic of military exploits, or any other incident; the hair of the robe is worn next the skin in fair weather, but when it rains the hair is put outside, and the robe is either thrown over the arm, or wrapped round the body, all of which it may cover. under this in the winter season they wear a kind of shirt resembling ours, and made either of skin or cloth, and covering the arms and body. round the middle is fixed a girdle of cloth or procured dressed elk-skin, about an inch in width and closely tied to the body, to this is attached a piece of cloth or blanket or skin about a foot wide, which passes between the legs and is tucked under the girdle both before and behind; from the hip to the ancle he is covered by leggings of dressed antelope skins, with seams at the sides two inches in width, and ornamented by little tufts of hair the produce of the scalps they have made in war, which are scattered down the leg. the winter moccasins are of dressed buffaloe-skin, the hair being worn inwards, and soaled with thick elk-skin parchment: those for summer are of deer or elk-skin, dressed without the hair, and with soals of elk-skin. on great occasions, or wherever they are in full dress, the young men drag after them the entire skin of a polecat fixed to the heel of the moccasin. another skin of the same animal is either tucked into the girdle or carried in the hand, and serves as a pouch for their tobacco, or what the french traders call the bois roule: this is the inner bark of a species of red willow, which being dried in the sun or over the fire, is rubbed between the hands and broken into small pieces, and is used alone or mixed with tobacco. the pipe is generally of red earth, the stem made of ash, about three or four feet long, and highly decorated with feathers, hair and porcupine quills. the hair of the women is suffered to grow long, and is parted from the forehead across the head, at the back of which it is either collected into a kind of bag, or hangs down over the shoulders. their moccasins are like those of the men, as are also the leggings, which do not however reach beyond the knee, where it is met by a long loose shift of skin which reaches nearly to the ancles: this is fastened over the shoulders by a string and has no sleeves, but a few pieces of the skin hang a short distance down the arm. sometimes a girdle fastens this skin round the waist, and over all is thrown a robe like that worn by the men. they seem fond of dress. their lodges are very neatly constructed, in the same form as those of the yanktons; they consist of about one hundred cabins, made of white buffaloe hide dressed, with a larger one in the centre for holding councils and dances. they are built round with poles about fifteen or twenty feet high, covered with white skins; these lodges may be taken to pieces, packed up, and carried with the nation wherever they go, by dogs which bear great burdens. the women are chiefly employed in dressing buffaloe skins: they seem perfectly well disposed, but are addicted to stealing any thing which they can take without being observed. this nation, although it makes so many ravages among its neighbours, is badly supplied with guns. the water which they carry with them is contained chiefly in the paunches of deer and other animals, and they make use of wooden bowls. some had their heads shaved, which we found was a species of mourning for relations. another usage, on these occasions, is to run arrows through the flesh both above and below the elbow. while on shore to-day we witnessed a quarrel between two squaws, which appeared to be growing every moment more boisterous, when a man came forward, at whose approach every one seemed terrified and ran. he took the squaws, and without any ceremony whipped them severely; on inquiring into the nature of such summary justice, we learnt that this man was an officer well known to this and many other tribes. his duty is to keep the peace, and the whole interior police of the village is confided to two or three of these officers, who are named by the chief and remain in power some days, at least till the chief appoints a successor; they seem to be a sort of constable or sentinel, since they are always on the watch to keep tranquillity during the day, and guarding the camp in the night. the short duration of their office is compensated by its authority: his power is supreme, and in the suppression of any riot or disturbance no resistance to him is suffered: his person is sacred, and if in the execution of his duty he strikes even a chief of the second class, he cannot be punished for this salutary insolence. in general they accompany the person of the chief, and when ordered to any duty, however dangerous, it is a point of honour rather to die than to refuse obedience. thus, when they attempted to stop us yesterday, the chief ordered one of these men to take possession of the boat: he immediately put his arms round the mast, and, as we understood, no force except the command of the chief would have induced him to release his hold. like the other men their bodies are blackened, but their distinguishing mark is a collection of two or three raven skins fixed to the girdle behind the back in such a way, that the tails stick out horizontally from the body. on his head too is a raven skin split into two parts, and tied so as to let the beak project from the forehead. thursday september . we rose early, and the two chiefs took off, as a matter of course and according to their custom, the blanket on which they had slept. to this we added a peck of corn as a present to each. captain lewis and the chiefs went on shore to see a part of the nation that was expected, but did not come. he returned at two o'clock, with four of the chiefs and a warrior of distinction, called wadrapa, (or on his guard); they examined the boat and admired whatever was strange, during half an hour, when they left it with great reluctance. captain clarke accompanied them to the lodge of the grand chief, who invited them to a dance, where, being joined by captain lewis, they remained till a late hour. the dance was very similar to that of yesterday. about twelve we left them, taking the second chief and one principal warrior on board: as we came near the boat the man who steered the periogue, by mistake, brought her broadside against the boat's cable, and broke it. we called up all hands to their oars; but our noise alarmed the two indians: they called out to their companions, and immediately the whole camp crowded to the shore; but after half an hour they returned, leaving about sixty men near us. the alarm given by the chiefs was said to be that the mahas had attacked us, and that they were desirous of assisting us to repel it; but we suspected that they were afraid we meant to set sail, and intended to prevent us from doing so; for in the night the maha prisoners had told one of our men, who understood the language, that we were to be stopped. we therefore, without giving any indication of our suspicion, prepared every thing for an attack, as the loss of our anchor obliged to come to near a falling bank, very unfavourable for defence. we were not mistaken in these opinions; for when in the morning, friday, september , after dragging unsuccessfully for the anchor, we wished to set sail, it was with great difficulty that we could make the chiefs leave the boat. at length we got rid of all except the great chief; when just as we were setting out, several of the chief's soldiers sat on the rope which held the boat to the shore. irritated at this we got every thing ready to fire on them if they persisted, but the great chief said that these were his soldiers and only wanted some tobacco. we had already refused a flag and some tobacco to the second chief, who had demanded it with great importunity; but willing to leave them without going to extremities, we threw him a carrot of tobacco, saying to him, "you have told us that you were a great man, and have influence; now show your influence, by taking the rope from those men, and we will then go without any further trouble." this appeal to his pride had the desired effect; he went out of the boat, gave the soldiers the tobacco, and pulling the rope out of their hands delivered it on board, and we then set sail under a breeze from the s.e. after sailing about two miles we observed the third chief beckoning to us: we took him on board, and he informed us that the rope had been held by the order of the second chief, who was a double-faced man. a little farther on we were joined by the son of the chief, who came on board to see his father. on his return we sent a speech to the nation, explaining what we had done, and advising them to peace; but if they persisted in their attempts to stop us, we were willing and able to defend ourselves. after making six miles, during which we passed a willow island on the south and one sandbar, we encamped on another in the middle of the river. the country on the south-side was a low prairie, that on the north highland. september . we set out early, but were again impeded by sandbars, which made the river shallow; the weather was however fair; the land on the north side low and covered with timber contrasted with the bluffs to the south. at nine o'clock we saw the second chief and two women and three men on shore, who wished us to take two women offered by the second chief to make friends, which was refused; he then requested us to take them to the other band of their nation, who were on the river not far from us: this we declined; but in spite of our wishes they followed us along shore. the chief asked us to give them some tobacco; this we did, and gave more as a present for that part of the nation which we did not see. at seven and a half miles we came to a small creek on the southern side, where we saw great numbers of elk, and which we called notimber creek from its bare appearance. above the mouth of this stream, a ricara band of pawnees had a village five years ago: but there are no remains of it except the mound which encircled the town. here the second chief went on shore. we then proceeded, and at the distance of eleven miles encamped on the lower part of a willow island, in the middle of the river, being obliged to substitute large stones in the place of the anchor which we lost. september . the wind was this morning very high from the southeast, so that we were obliged to proceed under a double-reefed mainsail, through the rain. the country presented a large low prairie covered with timber on the north side; on the south, we first had high barren hills, but after some miles it became of the same character as that on the opposite side. we had not gone far when an indian ran after us, and begged to be carried on board as far as the ricaras, which we refused: soon after, we discovered on the hills at a distance, a great number of indians, who came towards the river and encamped ahead of us. we stopped at a sandbar, at about eleven miles, and after breakfasting proceeded on a short distance to their camp, which consisted of about four hundred souls. we anchored one hundred yards from the shore, and discovering that they were tetons belonging to the band which we had just left: we told them that we took them by the hand, and would make each chief a present of tobacco; that we had been badly treated by some of their band, and that having waited for them two days below, we could not stop here, but referred them to mr. durion for our talk and an explanation of our views: they then apologized for what had past, assured us that they were friendly, and very desirous that we should land and eat with them: this we refused, but sent the periogue on shore with the tobacco, which was delivered to one of the soldiers of the chief, whom we had on board. several of them now ran along the shore after us, but the chief threw them a twist of tobacco, and told them to go back and open their ears to our counsels; on which they immediately returned to their lodges. we then proceeded past a continuation of the low prairie on the north, where we had large quantities of grapes, and on the south saw a small creek and an island. six miles above this, two indians came to the bank, looked at us about half an hour, and then went without speaking over the hills to the southwest. after some time, the wind rose still higher, and the boat struck a log, turned, and was very near taking in water. the chief became so much terrified at the danger, that he hid himself in the boat, and as soon as we landed got his gun and told us that he wanted to return, that we would now see no more tetons, and that we might proceed unmolested: we repeated the advice we had already given, presented him with a blanket, a knife, some tobacco, and after smoking with him he set out. we then continued to a sandbar on the north side, where we encamped, having come twenty and a half miles. in the course of the day we saw a number of sandbars which impede the navigation. the only animal which we observed was the white gull, then in great abundance. october st, . the weather was very cold and the wind high from the southeast during the night, and continued so this morning. at three miles distance, we had passed a large island in the middle of the river, opposite to the lower end of which the ricaras once had a village on the south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now, except a circular wall three or four feet in height, which encompassed the town. two miles beyond this island is a river coming in from the southwest, about four hundred yards wide; the current gentle, and discharging not much water, and very little sand: it takes its rise in the second range of the cote noire or black mountains, and its general course is nearly east; this river has been occasionally called dog river, under a mistaken opinion that its french name was chien, but its true appellation is chayenne, and it derives this title from the chayenne indians: their history is the short and melancholy relation of the calamities of almost all the indians. they were a numerous people and lived on the chayenne, a branch of the red river of lake winnipeg. the invasion of the sioux drove them westward; in their progress they halted on the southern side of the missouri below the warreconne, where their ancient fortifications still exist; but the same impulse again drove them to the heads of the chayenne, where they now rove, and occasionally visit the ricaras. they are now reduced, but still number three hundred men. although the river did not seem to throw out much sand, yet near and above its mouth we find a great many sandbars difficult to pass. on both sides of the missouri, near the chayenne, are rich thinly timbered lowlands, behind which are bare hills. as we proceeded, we found that the sandbars made the river so shallow, and the wind was so high, that we could scarcely find the channel, and at one place were forced to drag the boat over a sandbar, the missouri being very wide and falling a little. at seven and a half miles we came to at a point, and remained three hours, during which time the wind abated: we then passed within four miles two creeks on the south, one of which we called centinel creek, and the other lookout creek. this part of the river has but little timber; the hills are not so high as we have hitherto seen, and the number of sandbars extends the river to more than a mile in breadth. we continued about four and a half miles further, to a sandbar in the middle of the river, where we spent the night, our progress being sixteen miles. on the opposite shore, we saw a house among the willows and a boy to whom we called, and brought him on board. he proved to be a young frenchman in the employ of a mr. valle a trader, who is now here pursuing his commerce with the sioux. tuesday, october . there had been a violent wind from s.e. during the night, which having moderated we set sail with mr. valle, who visited us this morning and accompanied us for two miles. he is one of three french traders who have halted here, expecting the sioux who are coming down from the ricaras, where they now are, for the purposes of traffic. mr. valle tells us that he passed the last winter three hundred leagues up the chayenne under the black mountains. that river he represents as very rapid, liable to sudden swells, the bed and shores formed of course gravel, and difficult of ascent even for canoes. one hundred leagues from its mouth it divides into two branches, one coming from the south, the other at forty leagues from the junction enters the black mountains. the land which it waters from the missouri to the black mountains, resembles the country on the missouri, except that the former has even less timber, and of that the greater proportion is cedar. the chayennes reside chiefly on the heads of the river, and steal horses from the spanish settlement, a plundering excursion which they perform in a month's time. the black mountains he observes are very high, covered with great quantities of pine, and in some parts the snow remains during the summer. there are also great quantities of goats, white bear, prairie cocks, and a species of animal which from his description must resemble a small elk, with large circular horns. at two and a half miles we had passed a willow island on the south, on the north side of the river were dark bluffs, and on the south low rich prairies. we took a meridian altitude on our arrival at the upper end of the isthmus of the bend, which we called the lookout bend, and found the latitude to be ° ' ". this bend is nearly twenty miles round, and not more than two miles across. in the afternoon we heard a shot fired, and not long after observed some indians on a hill: one of them came to the shore and wished us to land, as there were twenty lodges of yanktons or boisbrule there; we declined doing so, telling him that we had already seen his chiefs, and that they might learn from mr. durion the nature of the talk we had delivered to them. at nine miles we came to the lower point of a long island on the north, the banks of the south side of the river being high, those of the north forming a low rich prairie. we coasted along this island, which we called caution island, and after passing a small creek on the south encamped on a sandbar in the middle of the river, having made twelve miles. the wind changed to the northwest, and became very high and cold. the current of the river is less rapid, and the water though of the same colour contains less sediment than below the chayenne, but its width continues the same. we were not able to hunt to-day; for as there are so many indians in the neighbourhood, we were in constant expectation of being attacked, and were therefore forced to keep the party together and be on our guard. wednesday, october . the wind continued so high from the northwest, that we could not set out till after seven: we then proceeded till twelve o'clock, and landed on a bar towards the south, where we examined the periogues, and the forecastle of the boat, and found that the mice had cut several bags of corn, and spoiled some of our clothes: about one o'clock an indian came running to the shore with a turkey on his back: several others soon joined him, but we had no intercourse with them. we then went on for three miles, but the ascent soon became so obstructed by sandbars and shoal water, that after attempting in vain several channels, we determined to rest for the night under some high bluffs on the south, and send out to examine the best channel. we had made eight miles along high bluffs on each side. the birds we saw were the white gulls and the brant which were flying to the southward in large flocks. thursday, th. on examination we found that there was no outlet practicable for us in this channel, and that we must retread our steps. we therefore returned three miles, and attempted another channel in which we were more fortunate. the indians were in small numbers on the shore, and seemed willing had they been more numerous to molest us. they called to desire that we would land, and one of them gave three yells and fired a ball ahead of the boat: we however took no notice of it, but landed on the south to breakfast. one of these indians swam across and begged for some powder, we gave him a piece of tobacco only. at eight and a half miles we had passed an island in the middle of the river, which we called goodhope island. at one and a half mile we reached a creek on the south side about twelve yards wide, to which we gave the name of teal creek. a little above this is an island on the north side of the current, about one and a half mile in length and three quarters of a mile in breadth. in the centre of this island is an old village of the ricaras, called lahoocat; it was surrounded by a circular wall, containing seventeen lodges. the ricaras are known to have lived therein , and the village seems to have been deserted about five years since; it does not contain much timber. we encamped on a sandbar making out from the upper end of this island; our journey to-day being twelve miles. friday, october . the weather was very cold: yesterday evening and this morning there was a white frost. we sailed along the highlands on the north side, passing a small creek on the south, between three and four miles. at seven o'clock we heard some yells and saw three indians of the teton band, who asked us to come on shore and begged for some tobacco, to all which we gave the same answer as hitherto. at eight miles we reached a small creek on the north. at fourteen we passed an island on the south, covered with wild rye, and at the head a large creek comes in from the south, which we named whitebrant creek, from seeing several white brants among flocks of dark-coloured ones. at the distance of twenty miles we came to on a sandbar towards the north side of the river, with a willow island opposite; the hills or bluffs come to the banks of the river on both sides, but are not so high as they are below: the river itself however continues of the same width, and the sandbars are quite as numerous. the soil of the banks is dark coloured, and many of the bluffs have the appearance of being on fire. our game this day was a deer, a prairie wolf, and some goats out of a flock that was swimming across the river. saturday, october . the morning was still cold, the wind being from the north. at eight miles we came to a willow island on the north, opposite a point of timber, where there are many large stones near the middle of the river, which seem to have been washed from the hills and high plains on both sides, or driven from a distance down the stream. at twelve miles we halted for dinner at a village which we suppose to have belonged to the ricaras; it is situated in a low plain on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagon form, neatly covered with earth, placed as close to each other as possible, and picketed round. the skin canoes, mats, buckets, and articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it had been left in the spring. we found three different sorts of squashes growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two wolves. on leaving the village the river became shallow, and after searching a long time for the main channel, which was concealed among sandbars, we at last dragged the boat over one of them rather than go back three miles for the deepest channel. at fourteen and a half miles we stopped for the night on a sandbar, opposite a creek on the north, called otter creek, twenty-two yards in width, and containing more water than is common for creeks of that size. the sides of the river during the day are variegated with high bluffs and low timbered grounds on the banks: the river is very much obstructed by sandbars. we saw geese, swan, brants and ducks of different kinds on the sandbars, and on shore numbers of the prairie hen; the magpie too is very common, but the gulls and plover, which we saw in such numbers below, are now quite rare. sunday, october . there was frost again last evening, and this morning was cloudy and attended with rain. at two miles we came to the mouth of a river; called by the ricaras, sawawkawna, or pork river; the party who examined it for about three miles up, say that its current is gentle, and that it does not seem to throw out much sand. its sources are in the first range of the black mountains, and though it has now only water of twenty yards width, yet when full it occupies ninety. just below the mouth is another village or wintering camp of the ricaras, composed of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday, with willow and straw mats, baskets and buffaloe-skin canoes remaining entire in the camp. we proceeded under a gentle breeze from the southwest: at ten o'clock we saw two indians on the north side, who told us they were a part of the lodge of tartongawaka, or buffaloe medicine, the teton chief whom we had seen on the twenty-fifth, that they were on the way to the ricaras, and begged us for something to eat, which we of course gave them. at seven and a half miles is a willow island on the north, and another on the same side five miles beyond it, in the middle of the river between highlands on both sides. at eighteen and a half miles is an island called grouse island, on which are the walls of an old village; the island has no timber, but is covered with grass and wild rye, and owes its name to the number of grouse that frequent it. we then went on till our journey for the day was twenty-two miles: the country presented the same appearance as usual. in the low timbered ground near the mouth of the sawawkawna, we saw the tracks of large white bear, and on grouse island killed a female blaireau, and a deer of the black-tailed species, the largest we have ever seen. monday, october . we proceeded early with a cool northwest wind, and at two and a half miles above grouse island, reached the mouth of a creek on the south, then a small willow island, which divides the current equally; and at four and a half miles came to a river on the southern side where we halted. this river, which our meridian altitude fixes at ° ' " north latitude, is called by the ricaras wetawhoo; it rises in the black mountains, and its bed which flows at the mouth over a low soft slate stone, is one hundred and twenty yards wide, but the water is now confined within twenty yards, and is not very rapid, discharging mud with a small proportion of sand: here as in every bend of the river, we again observe the red berries resembling currants, which we mentioned before. two miles above the wetawhoo, and on the same side, is a small river called maropa by the indians; it is twenty yards in width, but so dammed up by mud that the stream creeps through a channel of not more than an inch in diameter, and discharges no sand. one mile further we reached an island close to the southern shore, from which it is separated by a deep channel of sixty yards. about half way a number of ricara indians came out to see us. we stopped and took a frenchman on board, who accompanied us past the island to our camp on the north side of the river, which is at the distance of twelve miles from that of yesterday. captain lewis then returned with four of the party to see the village; it is situated in the centre of the island, near the southern shore, under the foot of some high, bald, uneven hills, and contains about sixty lodges. the island itself is three miles long, and covered with fields in which the indians raise corn, beans, and potatoes. several frenchmen living among these indians as interpreters, or traders, came back with captain lewis, and particularly a mr. gravelines, a man who has acquired the language. on setting out we had a low prairie covered with timber on the north, and on the south highlands, but at the mouth of the wetawhoo the southern country changes, and a low timbered plain extends along the south, while the north has a ridge of barren hills during the rest of the day's course. tuesday, th. the wind was so cold and high last night and during all the day, that we could not assemble the indians in council; but some of the party went to the village. we received the visits of the three principal chiefs with many others, to whom we gave some tobacco, and told them that we would speak to them to-morrow. the names of these chiefs were first, kakawissassa or lighting crow; second chief pocasse or hay; third chief piaheto or eagle's feather. notwithstanding the high waves, two or three squaws rowed to us in little canoes made of a single buffaloe skin, stretched over a frame of boughs interwoven like a basket, and with the most perfect composure. the object which appeared to astonish the indians most, was captain clark's servant york, a remarkable stout strong negro. they had never seen a being of that colour, and therefore flocked round him to examine the extraordinary monster. by way of amusement he told them that he had once been a wild animal, and caught and tamed by his master, and to convince them, showed them feats of strength which added to his looks made him more terrible than we wished him to be. opposite our camp is a small creek on the south, which we distinguished by the name of the chief kakawissassa. wednesday, th. the weather was this day fine, and as we were desirous of assembling the whole nation at once, we despatched mr. gravelines, who with mr. tabeau another french trader had breakfeasted with us, to invite the chiefs of the two upper villages to a conference. they all assembled at one o'clock, and after the usual ceremonies we addressed them in the same way in which we had already spoken to the ottoes and sioux: we then made or acknowledged three chiefs, one for each of the three villages; giving to each a flag, a medal, a red coat, a cocked hat and feather, also some goods, paint and tobacco, which they divided among themselves: after this the airgun was exhibited, very much to their astonishment, nor were they less surprised at the colour and manner of york. on our side we were equally gratified at discovering that these ricaras made use of no spirituous liquors of any kind, the example of the traders who bring it to them so far from tempting having in fact disgusted them. supposing that it was as agreeable to them as to the other indians, we had at first offered them whiskey; but they refused it with this sensible remark, that they were surprised that their father should present to them a liquor which would make them fools. on another occasion they observed to mr. tabeau, that no man could be their friend who tried to lead them into such follies. the council being over they retired to consult on their answer, and the next morning, thursday, th, at eleven o'clock we again met in council at our camp. the grand chief made a short speech of thanks for the advice we had given, and promised to follow it; adding that the door was now open and no one dare shut it, and that we might depart whenever we pleased, alluding to the treatment we had received from the sioux: they also brought us some corn, beans, and dried squashes, and in return we gave them a steel mill with which they were much pleased. at one o'clock we left our camp with the grand chief and his nephew on board, and at about two miles anchored below a creek on the south, separating the second and third village of the ricaras, which are about half a mile distant from each other. we visited both the villages, and sat conversing with the chiefs for some time, during which they presented us with a bread made of corn and beans, also corn and beans boiled, and a large rich bean which they take from the mice of the prairie, who discover and collect it. these two villages are placed near each other in a high smooth prairie; a fine situation, except that having no wood the inhabitants are obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered lowland opposite to them. we told them that we would speak to them in the morning at their villages separately. thursday, th. accordingly after breakfast we went on shore to the house of the chief of the second village named lassel, where we found his chiefs and warriors. they made us a present of about seven bushels of corn, a pair of leggings, a twist of their tobacco, and the seeds of two different species of tobacco. the chief then delivered a speech expressive of his gratitude for the presents and the good counsels which we had given him; his intention of visiting his great father but for fear of the sioux; and requested us to take one of the ricara chiefs up to the mandans and negociate a peace between the two nations. to this we replied in a suitable way, and then repaired to the third village. here we were addressed by the chief in nearly the same terms as before, and entertained with a present of ten bushels of corn, some beans, dried pumpkins, and squashes. after we had answered and explained the magnitude and power of the united states, the three chiefs came with us to the boat. we gave them some sugar, a little salt, and a sunglass. two of them then left us, and the chief of the third, by name ahketahnasha or chief of the town, accompanied us to the mandans. at two o'clock we left the indians, who crowded to the shore to take leave of us, and after making seven and a half miles landed on the north side, and had a clear, cool, pleasant evening. the three villages which we have just left, are the residence of a nation called the ricaras. they were originally colonies of pawnees, who established themselves on the missouri, below the chayenne, where the traders still remember that twenty years ago they occupied a number of villages. from that situation a part of the ricaras emigrated to the neighbourhood of the mandans, with whom they were then in alliance. the rest of the nation continued near the chayenne till the year , in the course of which, distressed by their wars with the sioux, they joined their countrymen near the mandans. soon after a new war arose between the ricaras and the mandans, in consequence of which the former came down the river to their present position. in this migration those who had first gone to the mandans kept together, and now live in the two lower villages, which may thence be considered as the ricaras proper. the third village was composed of such remnants of the villages as had survived the wars, and as these were nine in number a difference of pronunciation and some difference of language may be observed between them and the ricaras proper, who do not understand all the words of these wanderers. the villages are within the distance of four miles of each other, the two lower ones consisting of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred men each, the third of three hundred. the ricaras are tall and well proportioned, the women handsome and lively, and as among other savages to them falls all the drudgery of the field and the labours of procuring subsistence, except that of hunting: both sexes are poor, but kind and generous, and although they receive with thankfulness what is given to them, do not beg as the sioux did, though this praise should be qualified by mentioning that an axe was stolen last night from our cooks. the dress of the men is a simple pair of moccasins, legings, and a cloth round the middle, over which a buffaloe robe is occasionally thrown, with their hair, arms and ears decorated with different ornaments. the women wear moccasins, legings, a long shirt made of goats' skins, generally white and fringed, which is tied round the waist; to those they add, like the men, a buffaloe robe without the hair, in summer. these women are handsomer than the sioux; both of them are however, disposed to be amorous, and our men found no difficulty in procuring companions for the night by means of the interpreters. these interviews were chiefly clandestine, and were of course to be kept a secret from the husband or relations. the point of honour indeed, is completely reversed among the ricaras; that the wife or the sister should submit to a stranger's embraces without the consent of her husband or brother, is a cause of great disgrace and offence, especially as for many purposes of civility or gratitude the husband and brother will themselves present to a stranger these females, and be gratified by attentions to them. the sioux had offered us squaws, but while we remained there having declined, they followed us with offers of females for two days. the ricaras had been equally accommodating; we had equally withstood their temptation; but such was their desire to oblige that two very handsome young squaws were sent on board this evening, and persecuted us with civilities. the black man york participated largely in these favours; for instead of inspiring any prejudice, his colour seemed to procure him additional advantages from the indians, who desired to preserve among them some memorial of this wonderful stranger. among other instances of attention, a ricara invited him into his house and presenting his wife to him, retired to the outside of the door: while there one of york's comrades who was looking for him came to the door, but the gallant husband would permit no interruption before a reasonable time had elapsed. the ricara lodges are in a circular or octagonal form, and generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter: they are made by placing forked posts about six feet high round the circumference of the circle; these are joined by poles from one fork to another, which are supported also by other forked poles slanting from the ground: in the centre of the lodge are placed four higher forks, about fifteen feet in length, connected together by beams; from these to the lower poles the rafters of the roof are extended so as to leave a vacancy in the middle for the smoke: the frame of the building is then covered with willow branches, with which is interwoven grass, and over this mud or clay: the aperture for the door is about four feet wide, and before it is a sort of entry about ten feet from the lodge. they are very warm and compact. they cultivate maize or indian corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, squashes, and a species of tobacco peculiar to themselves. their commerce is chiefly with the traders who supply them with goods in return for peltries, which they procure not only by their own hunting, but in exchange for corn from their less civilized neighbours. the object chiefly in demand seemed to be red paint, but they would give any thing they had to spare for the most trifling article. one of the men to-day gave an indian a hook made out of a pin, and he gave him in return a pair of moccasins. they express a disposition to keep at peace with all nations, but they are well armed with fusils, and being much under the influence of the sioux, who exchanged the goods which they get from the british for ricara corn, their minds are sometimes poisoned and they cannot be always depended on. at the present moment they are at war with the mandans. we are informed by mr. gravelines, who had passed through that country, that the yankton or jacques river rises about forty miles to the east or northeast of this place, the chayenne branch of the red river about twenty miles further, passing the sioux, and the st. peter's about eighty. saturday, th. in the morning our visitors left us, except the brother of the chief who accompanies us and one of the squaws. we passed at an early hour a camp of sioux on the north bank, who merely looked at us without saying a word, and from the character of the tribe we did not solicit a conversation. at ten and a half miles we reached the mouth of a creek on the north, which takes its rise from some ponds a short distance to the northeast: to this stream we gave the name of stoneidol creek, for after passing a willow and sand island just above its mouth, we discovered that a few miles back from the missouri there are two stones resembling human figures, and a third like a dog; all which are objects of great veneration among the ricaras. their history would adorn the metamorphoses of ovid. a young man was deeply enamoured with a girl whose parents refused their consent to the marriage. the youth went out into the fields to mourn his misfortunes; a sympathy of feeling led the lady to the same spot, and the faithful dog would not cease to follow his master. after wandering together and having nothing but grapes to subsist on, they were at last converted into stone, which beginning at the feet gradually invaded the nobler parts leaving nothing unchanged but a bunch of grapes which the female holds in her hands to this day. whenever the ricaras pass these sacred stones, they stop to make some offering of dress to propitiate these deities. such is the account given by the ricara chief which we had no mode of examining, except that we found one part of the story very agreeably confirmed; for on the river near where the event is said to have occurred, we found a greater abundance of fine grapes than we had yet seen. above this is a small creek four and a half miles from stoneidol creek, which is fifteen yards wide, comes in from the south, and received from us the name of pocasse or hay creek, in honour of the chief of the second village. above the ricara island, the missouri becomes narrow and deeper, the sandbars being generally confined to the points; the current too is much more gentle; the timber on the lowlands is also in much greater quantities, though the high grounds are still naked. we proceeded on under a fine breeze from the southeast, and after making eighteen miles encamped on the north near a timbered low plain, after which we had some rain and the evening was cold. the hunters killed one deer only. sunday, th. we set out in the rain which continued during the day. at five miles we came to a creek on the south, about fifteen yards wide, and named by us piaheto or eagle's feather, in honour of the third chief of the ricaras. after dinner we stopped on a sandbar, and executed the sentence of a court martial which inflicted corporal punishment on one of the soldiers. this operation affected the indian chief very sensibly, for he cried aloud during the punishment: we explained the offence and the reasons of it. he acknowledged that examples were necessary, and that he himself had given them by punishing with death; but his nation never whipped even children from their birth. after this we continued with the wind from the northeast, and at the distance of twelve miles, encamped in a cove of the southern bank. immediately opposite our camp on the north side are the ruins of an ancient fortification, the greater part of which is washed into the river: nor could we distinguish more than that the walls were eight or ten feet high. the evening is wet and disagreeable, and the river which is somewhat wider than yesterday, continues to have an unusual quantity of timber. the country was level on both sides in the morning, but afterwards we passed some black bluffs on the south. monday, th. we stopped at three miles on the north a little above a camp of ricaras who are hunting, where we were visited by about thirty indians. they came over in their skin canoes, bringing us meat, for which we returned them beads and fishhooks. about a mile higher we found another encampment of ricaras on the south, consisting of eight lodges: here we again ate and exchanged a few presents. as we went we discerned numbers of other indians on both sides of the river; and at about nine miles we came to a creek on the south, where we saw many high hills resembling a house with a slanting roof; and a little below the creek an old village of the sharha or chayenne indians. the morning had been cloudy, but the evening became pleasant, the wind from the northeast, and at sunset we halted, after coming ten miles over several sandbars and points, above a camp of ten ricara lodges on the north side. we visited their camp, and smoked and eat with several of them; they all appeared kind and pleased with our attentions, and the fair sex received our men with more than hospitality. york was here again an object of astonishment; the children would follow him constantly, and if he chanced to turn towards them, run with great terror. the country of to-day is generally low and covered with timber on both sides, though in the morning we passed some barren hills on the south. tuesday, th. at this camp the squaw who accompanied the chief left us; two others were very anxious to go on with us. just above our camp we passed a circular work or fort where the sharha or chayennes formerly lived: and a short distance beyond, a creek which we called chayenne creek. at two miles is a willow island with a large sandbar on both sides above it, and a creek, both on the south, which we called sohaweh, the ricara name for girl; and two miles above a second creek, to which we gave the name of chapawt, which means woman in the same language. three miles further is an island situated in a bend to the north, about a mile and a half long, and covered with cottonwood. at the lower end of this island comes in a small creek from the north, called keetooshsahawna or place of beaver. at the upper extremity of the island a river empties itself from the north: it is called warreconne, or elk shed their horns, and is about thirty-five yards wide: the island itself is named carp island by evans, a former traveller. as we proceeded there were great numbers of goats on the banks of the river, and we soon after saw large flocks of them in the water: they had been gradually driven into the river by the indians who now lined the shore so as to prevent their escape, and were firing on them, while sometimes boys went into the river and killed them with sticks: they seemed to be very successful, for we counted fifty-eight which they had killed. we ourselves killed some, and then passing the lodges to which these indians belonged, encamped at the distance of half a mile on the south, having made fourteen and a half miles. we were soon visited by numbers of these ricaras, who crossed the river hallooing and singing: two of them then returned for some goats' flesh and buffaloe meat dried and fresh, with which they made a feast that lasted till late at night, and caused much music and merriment. wednesday th. the weather was pleasant: we passed a low ground covered with small timber on the south, and barren hills on the north which come close to the river; the wind from the northwest then become so strong that we could not move after ten o'clock, until late in the afternoon, when we were forced to use the towline, and we therefore made only six miles. we all went out hunting and examining the country. the goats, of which we see large flocks coming to the north bank of the river, spend the summer, says mr. gravelines, in the plains east of the missouri, and at the present season are returning to the black mountains, where they subsist on leaves and shrubbery during the winter, and resume their migrations in the spring. we also saw buffaloe, elk, and deer, and a number of snakes; a beaver house too was seen, and we caught a whippoorwill of a small and uncommon kind: the leaves are fast falling; the river wider than usual and full of sandbars: and on the sides of the hills are large stones, and some rock of a brownish colour in the southern bend below us. our latitude by observation was ° ' ". thursday . after three miles we reached the mouth of le boulet or cannonball river: this stream rises in the black mountains, and falls into the missouri on the south; its channel is about one hundred and forty yards wide, though the water is now confined within forty, and its name is derived from the numbers of perfectly round large stones on the shore and in the bluffs just above. we here met with two frenchmen in the employ of mr. gravelines, who had been robbed by the mandans of their traps, furs, and other articles, and were descending the river in a periogue, but they turned back with us in expectation of obtaining redress through our means. at eight miles is a creek on the north, about twenty-eight yards wide, rising in the northeast, and called chewah or fish river; one mile above this is another creek on the south: we encamped on a sandbar to the south, at the distance of thirteen miles, all of which we had made with oars and poles. great numbers of goats are crossing the river and directing their course to the westward; we also saw a herd of buffaloe and of elk; a pelican too was killed, and six fallow deer, having found, as the ricaras informed us, that there are none of the black-tail species as high up as this place. the country is in general level and fine, with broken short high grounds, low timbered mounds on the river, and a rugged range of hills at a distance. friday . we set sail with a fine morning, and a southeast wind, and at two and a half miles passed a creek on the north side: at eleven and a half miles we came to a lake or large pond on the same side, in which were some swans. on both banks of the missouri are low grounds which have much more timber than lower down the river: the hills are at one or two miles distance from the banks, and the streams which rise in them are brackish, and the mineral salts appear on the sides of the hills and edges of the runs. in walking along the shore we counted fifty-two herds of buffaloe, and three of elk, at a single view. besides these we also observed elk, deer, pelicans, and wolves. after seventeen and a half miles we encamped on the north, opposite to the uppermost of a number of round hills, forming a cone at the top, one being about ninety, another sixty feet in height, and some of less elevation. our chief tells us that the calumet bird lives in the holes formed by the filtration of the water from the top of these hills through the sides. near to one of these moles, on a point of a hill ninety feet above the plain, are the remains of an old village which is high, strong, and has been fortified; this our chief tells us is the remains of one of the mandan villages, and are the first ruins which we have seen of that nation in ascending the missouri: opposite to our camp is a deep bend to the south, at the extremity of which is a pond. saturday . we proceeded early with a southeast wind, which continued high all day, and came to a creek on the north at two miles distance, twenty yards wide. at eight miles we reached the lower point of an island in the middle of the river, though there is no current on the south. this island is covered with willows and extends about two miles, there being a small creek coming in from the south at its lower extremity. after making twelve miles we encamped on the south, at the upper part of a bluff containing stone-coal of an inferior quality; immediately below this bluff and on the declivity of a hill, are the remains of a village covering six or eight acres, formerly occupied by the mandans, who, says our ricara chief, once lived in a number of villages on each side of the river, till the sioux forced them forty miles higher; whence after a few years residence, they moved to their present position. the country through, which we passed has wider bottoms and more timber than those we have been accustomed to see, the hills rising at a distance and by gradual ascents. we have seen great numbers of elk, deer, goats, and buffaloe, and the usual attendants of these last, the wolves, who follow their movements and feed upon those who die by accident, or who are too poor to keep pace with the herd; we also wounded a white bear, and saw some fresh tracks of those animals which are twice as large as the track of a man. sunday . last night the weather was cold, the wind high from the northeast, and the rain which fell froze on the ground. at daylight it began to snow, and continued till the afternoon, when it remained cloudy and the ground was covered with snow. we however, set out early, and just above our camp came to a creek on the south, called chisshetaw, about thirty yards wide and with a considerable quantity of water. our ricara chief tells us, that at some distance up this river is situated a large rock which is held in great veneration, and visited by parties who go to consult it as to their own or their nations' destinies, all of which they discern in some sort of figures or paintings with which it is covered. about two miles off from the mouth of the river the party on shore saw another of the objects of ricara superstition: it is a large oak tree, standing alone in the open prairie, and as it alone has withstood the fire which has consumed every thing around, the indians naturally ascribe to it extraordinary powers. one of their ceremonies is to make a hole in the skin of their necks through which a string is passed and the other end tied to the body of the tree; and after remaining in this way for some time they think they become braver. at two miles a from our encampment we came to the ruins of a second mandan village, which was in existence at the same time with that just mentioned. it is situated on the north at the foot of a hill in a beautiful and extensive plain, which is now covered with herds of buffaloe: nearly opposite are remains of a third village on the south of the missouri; and there is another also about two miles further on the north, a little off the river. at the distance of seven miles we encamped on the south, and spent a cold night. we procured to-day a buffaloe and an otter only. the river is wide and the sandbars numerous, and a low island near our encampment. monday . in the morning we passed an old mandan village on the south, near our camp; at four miles another on the same side. about seven o'clock we came to at a camp of eleven sioux of the teton tribe, who are almost perfectly naked, having only a piece of skin or cloth round the middle, though we are suffering from the cold. from their appearance, which is warlike, and from their giving two different accounts of themselves, we believe that they are either going to or returning from the mandans, to which nations the sioux frequently make excursions to steal horses. as their conduct displeased as, we gave them nothing. at six we reached an island about one mile in length, at the head of which is a mandan village on the north in ruins, and two miles beyond a bad sandbar. at eight miles are remains of another mandan village on the south; and at twelve miles encamped on the south. the hunters brought in a buffaloe bull, and mentioned that of about three hundred which they had seen, there was not a single female. the beaver is here in plenty, and the two frenchmen who are returning with us catch several every night. these villages which are nine in number are scattered along each side of the river within a space of twenty miles; almost all that remains of them is the wall which surrounded them, the fallen heaps of earth which covered the houses, and occasionally human skulls and the teeth and bones of men, and different animals, which are scattered on the surface of the ground. tuesday . the weather was cloudy and we had some snow; we soon arrived at five lodges where the two frenchmen had been robbed, but the indians had left it lately as we found the fires still burning. the country consists as usual of timbered low grounds, with grapes, rushes, and great quantities of a small red acid fruit, known among the indians by a name signifying rabbitberries, and called by the french graisse de buffle or buffaloe fat. the river too, is obstructed by many sandbars. at twelve miles we passed an old village on the north, which was the former residence of the ahnahaways who now live between the mandans and minnetarees. after making thirteen miles we encamped on the south. wednesday . the day was again dark and it snowed a little in the morning. at three miles we came to a point on the south, where the river by forcing a channel across a former bend has formed a large island on the north. on this island we found one of the grand chiefs of the mandans, who with five lodges was on a hunting excursion. he met his enemy the ricara chief, with great ceremony and apparent cordiality, and smoked with him. after visiting his lodges, the grand chief and his brother came on board our boat for a short time; we then proceeded and encamped on the north, at seven miles from our last night's station and below the old village of the mandans and ricaras. here four mandans came down from a camp above, and our ricara chief returned with them to their camp, from which we auger favourably of their pacific views towards each other. the land is low and beautiful, and covered with oak and cottonwood, but has been too recently hunted to afford much game. th. the morning was cold and the wind gentle from the southeast: at three miles we passed a handsome high prairie on the south, and on an eminence about forty feet above the water and extending back for several miles in a beautiful plain, was situated an old village of the mandan nation which has been deserted for many years. a short distance above it, on the continuation of the same rising ground are two old villages of ricaras, one on the top of the hill, the other in the level plain, which have been deserted only five years ago. above these villages is an extensive low ground for several miles, in which are situated, at three or four miles from the ricara villages, three old villages of mandans near together. here the mandans lived when the ricaras came to them for protection, and from this they moved to their present situation above. in the low ground the squaws raised their corn, and the timber, of which there was little near the villages, was supplied from the opposite side of the river, where it was and still is abundant. as we proceeded several parties of mandans both on foot and horseback came along the river to view us, and were very desirous that we should land and talk to them: this we could not do on account of the sandbreaks on the shore, but we sent our ricara chief to them in a periogue. the wind too having shifted to the southwest and being very high it required all our precautions on board, for the river was full of sandbars which made it very difficult to find the channel. we got aground several times, and passed a very bad point of rocks, after which we encamped on a sandpoint to the north, above a handsome plain covered with timber, and opposite to a high hill on the south side at the distance of eleven miles. here we were joined by our ricara chief, who brought an indian to the camp where he remained all night. th. we set out early with a southwest wind, and after putting the ricara chief on shore to join the mandans who were in great numbers along it, we proceeded to the camp of the grand chiefs four miles distant. here we met a mr. m'cracken one of the northwest or hudson bay company, who arrived with another person about nine days ago to trade for horses and buffaloe robes. two of the chiefs came on board with some of their household furniture, such as earthern pots and a little corn and went on with us; the rest of the indians following on shore. at one mile beyond the camp we passed a small creek, and at three more a bluff of coal of an inferior quality on the south. after making eleven miles we reached an old field where the mandans had cultivated grain last summer, and encamped for the night on the south side, about half a mile below the first village of the mandans. in the morning we had a willow low ground on the south and highland on the north, which occasionally varied in the course of the day. there is but little wood on this part of the river, which is here subdivided into many channels and obstructed by sandbars. as soon as we arrived a crowd of men, women, and children came down to see us. captain lewis returned with the principal chiefs to the village, while the others remained with us during the evening; the object which seemed to surprise them most, was a cornmill fixed to the boat which we had occasion to use, and delighted them by the ease with which it reduced the grain to powder. among others who visited us was the son of the grand chief of the mandans, who had his two little fingers cut off at the second joints. on inquiring into this accident, we found that it was customary to express grief for the death of relations by some corporeal suffering, and that the usual mode was to lose two joints of the little fingers, or sometimes the other fingers. the wind blew very cold in the evening from the southwest. two of the party are affected with rheumatic complaints. chapter v. council held with the mandans--a prairie on fire, and a singular instance of preservation--peace established between the mandans and ricaras--the party encamp for the winter--indian mode of catching goats--beautiful appearance of northern lights--friendly character of the indians--some account of the mandans--the ahnahaways and the minnetarees--the party acquire the confidence of the mandans by taking part in their controversy with the sioux--religion of the mandans, and their singular conception of the term medicine--their tradition--the sufferings of the party from the severity of the season--indian game of billiards described--character of the missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. saturday, october . at an early hour we proceeded and anchored off the village. captain clarke went on shore, and after smoking a pipe with the chiefs, was desired to remain and eat with them. he declined on account of his being unwell; but his refusal gave great offence to the indians, who considered it disrespectful not to eat when invited, till the cause was explained to their satisfaction. we sent them some tobacco, and then proceeded to the second village on the north, passing by a bank containing coal, and a second village, and encamped at four miles on the north, opposite to a village of ahnahaways. we here met with a frenchman, named jesseaume, who lives among the indians with his wife and children, and who we take as an interpreter. the indians had flocked to the bank to see us as we passed, and they visited in great numbers the camp, where some of them remained all night. we sent in the evening three young indians with a present of tobacco for the chiefs of the three upper villages, inviting them to come down in the morning to a council with us. accordingly the next day, sunday, october , we were joined by many of the minnetarees and ahnahaways from above, but the wind was so violent from the southwest that the chiefs of the lower villages could not come up, and the council was deferred till to-morrow. in the mean while we entertained our visitors by showing them what was new to them in the boat; all which, as well our black servant, they called great medicine, the meaning of which we afterwards learnt. we also consulted the grand chief of the mandans, black cat, and mr. jesseaume, as to the names, characters, &c. of the chiefs with whom we are to hold the council. in the course of the day we received several presents from the women, consisting of corn, boiled hominy, and garden stuffs: in our turn we gratified the wife of the great chief with a gift of a glazed earthen jar. our hunter brought us two beaver. in the afternoon we sent the minnetaree chiefs to smoke for us with the great chief of the mandans, and told them we would speak in the morning. finding that we shall be obliged to pass the winter at this place, we went up the river about one and a half miles to-day, with a view of finding a convenient spot for a fort, but the timber was too scarce and small for our purposes. monday, october . the morning was fine and we prepared our presents and speech for the council. after breakfast we were visited by an old chief of the ahnahaways, who finding himself growing old and weak had transferred his power to his son, who is now at war against the shoshonees. at ten o'clock the chiefs were all assembled under an awning of our sails, stretched so as to exclude the wind which had become high; that the impression might be the more forcible, the men were all paraded, and the council opened by a discharge from the swivel of the boat. we then delivered a speech, which like those we had already made intermingled advice with assurances of friendship and trade: while we were speaking the old ahnahaway chief grew very restless, and observed that he could not wait long as his camp was exposed to the hostilities of the shoshonees; he was instantly rebuked with great dignity by one of the chiefs for this violation of decorum at such a moment, and remained quiet during the rest of the council. towards the end of our speech we introduced the subject of our ricara chief, with whom we recommended a firm peace: to this they seemed well disposed, and all smoked with him very amicably. we all mentioned the goods which had been taken from the frenchmen, and expressed a wish that they should he restored. this being over, we proceeded to distribute the presents with great ceremony: one chief of each town was acknowledged by a gift of a flag, a medal with the likeness of the president of the united states, a uniform coat, hat and feather: to the second chiefs we gave a medal representing some domestic animals, and a loom for weaving; to the third chiefs medals with the impressions of a farmer sowing grain. a variety of other presents were distributed, but none seemed to give them more satisfaction than an iron corn mill which we gave to the mandans. the chiefs who were made to-day are: shahaka or big white, a first chief, and kagohami or little raven, a second chief of the lower village of the mandans, called matootonha: the other chiefs of an inferior quality who were recommended were, . ohheenaw, or big man, a chayenne taken prisoner by the mandans who adopted him, and he now enjoys great consideration among the tribe. . shotahawrora, or coal, of the second mandan village which is called rooptahee. we made poscopsahe, or black cat, the first chief of the village, and the grand chief of the whole mandan nation: his second chief is kagonomokshe, or raven man chief; inferior chiefs of this village were, tawnuheo, and bellahsara, of which we did not learn the translation. in the third village which is called mahawha, and where the arwacahwas reside, we made one first chief, tetuckopinreha, or white buffaloe robe unfolded, and recognized two of an inferior order: minnissurraree, or neighing horse, and locongotiha, or old woman at a distance. of the fourth village where the minnetarees live, and which is called metaharta, we made a first chief, ompsehara, or black moccasin: a second chief, ohhaw, or little fox. other distinguished chiefs of this village were, mahnotah, or big thief, a man whom we did not see as he is out fighting, and was killed soon after; and mahserassa, or tail of the calumet bird. in the fifth village we made a first chief eapanopa, or red shield; a second chief wankerassa, or two tailed calumet bird, both young chiefs; other persons of distinction are, shahakohopinnee, or little wolf's medicine; ahrattanamoekshe, or wolfman chief, who is now at war, and is the son of the old chief we have mentioned, whose name is caltahcota, or cherry on a bush. the presents intended for the grand chief of the minnetarees, who was not at the council, were sent to him by the old chief caltahcota; and we delivered to a young chief those intended for the chief of the lower village. the council was concluded by a shot from our swivel, and after firing the airgun for their amusement, they retired to deliberate on the answer which they are to give to-morrow. in the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames: so rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burnt to death before they could reach a place of safety; another man with his wife and child were much burnt, and several other persons narrowly escaped destruction. among the rest a boy of the half white breed escaped unhurt in the midst of the flames; his safety was ascribed to the great medicine spirit, who had preserved him on account of his being white. but a much more natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who seeing no hopes of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground, and covering him with the fresh hide of a buffaloe, escaped herself from the flames; as soon as the fire had passed, she returned and found him untouched, the skin having prevented, the flame from reaching the grass on which he lay. tuesday . we were this morning visited by two persons from the lower village, one the big white the chief of the village, the other the chayenne called the big man; they had been hunting, and did not return yesterday early enough to attend the council. at their request we repeated part of our speech of yesterday, and put the medal round the neck of the chief. captain clarke took a periogue and went up the river in search of a good wintering place, and returned after going seven miles to the lower point of an island on the north side, about one mile in length; he found the banks on the north side high, with coal occasionally, and the country fine on all sides; but the want of wood and the scarcity of game up the river, induced us to decide on fixing ourselves lower down during the winter. in the evening our men danced among themselves to the great amusement of the indians. wednesday . a second chief arrived this morning with an invitation from the grand chief of the mandans, to come to his village where he wished to present some corn to us and to speak with us. captain clarke walked down to his village; he was first seated with great ceremony on a robe by the side of the chief, who then threw over his shoulders another robe handsomely ornamented. the pipe was then smoked with several of the old men who were seated around the chief; after some time he began his discourse, by observing that he believed what we had told him, and that they should soon enjoy peace, which would gratify him as well as his people, because they could then hunt without fear of being attacked, and the women might work in the fields without looking every moment for the enemy, and at night put off their moccasins, a phrase by which is conveyed the idea of security when the women could undress at night without fear of attack. as to the ricaras, he continued, in order to show you that we wish peace with all men, that chief, pointing to his second chief, will go with some warriors back to the ricaras with their chief now here and smoke with that nation. when we heard of your coming all the nations around returned from their hunting to see you, in hopes of receiving large presents; all are disappointed and some discontented; for his part he was not much so, though his village was. he added that he would go and see his great father the president. two of the steel traps stolen from the frenchmen were then laid before captain clarke, and the women brought about twelve bushels of corn. after the chief had finished, captain clarke made an answer to the speech and then returned to the boat, where he found the chief of the third village and kagohami (the little raven) who smoked and talked about an hour. after they left the boat the grand chief of the mandans came dressed in the clothes we had given him, with his two children, and begged to see the men dance, in which they willingly gratified him. thursday, november st. mr. m'cracken, the trader whom we found here, set out to-day on his return to the british fort and factory on the assiniboin river, about one hundred and fifty miles from this place. he took a letter from captain lewis to the northwest company, inclosing a copy of the passport granted by the british minister in the united states. at ten o'clock the chiefs of the lower village arrived; they requested that we would call at their village for some corn, that they were willing to make peace with the ricaras, that they had never provoked the war between them, but as the ricaras had killed some of their chiefs, they had retaliated on them; that they had killed them like birds, till they were tired of killing them, so that they would send a chief and some warriors to smoke with them. in the evening we dropped down to the lower village where captain lewis went on shore, and captain clarke proceeded to a point of wood on the north side. friday, november . he therefore went up to the village where eleven bushels of corn were presented to him. in the meantime captain clarke went down with the boats three miles, and having found a good position where there was plenty of timber, encamped and began to fell trees to build our huts. our ricara chief set out with one mandan chief and several minnetaree and mandan warriors; the wind was from the southeast, and the weather being fine a crowd of indians came down to visit us. saturday . we now began the building of our cabins, and the frenchmen who are to return to st. louis are building a periogue for the purpose. we sent six men in a periogue to hunt down the river. we were also fortunate enough to engage in our service a canadian frenchmen, who had been with the chayenne indians on the black mountains, and last summer descended thence by the little missouri. mr. jessaume our interpreter also came down with his squaw and children to live at our camp. in the evening we received a visit from kagohami or little raven, whose wife accompanied him, bringing about sixty weight of dried meat, a robe and a pot of meal. we gave him in return a piece of tobacco, to his wife an axe and a few small articles, and both of them spent the night at our camp. two beavers were caught in traps this morning. sunday . we continued our labours: the timber which we employ is large and heavy, and chiefly consists of cottonwood and elm with some ash of an inferior size. great numbers of the indians pass our camp on their hunting excursions: the day was clear and pleasant, but last night was very cold and there was a white frost. monday . the indians are all out on their hunting parties: a camp of mandans caught within two days one hundred goats a short distance below us: their mode of hunting them is to form a large strong pen or fold, from which a fence made of bushes gradually widens on each side: the animals are surrounded by the hunters and gently driven towards this pen, in which they imperceptibly find themselves inclosed and are then at the mercy of the hunters. the weather is cloudy and the wind moderate from the northwest. late at night we were awaked by the sergeant on guard to see the beautiful phenomenon called the northern light: along the northern sky was a large space occupied by a light of a pale but brilliant white colour: which rising from the horizon extended itself to nearly twenty degrees above it. after glittering for some time its colours would be overcast, and almost obscured, but again it would burst out with renewed beauty; the uniform colour was pale light, but its shapes were various and fantastic: at times the sky was lined with light coloured streaks rising perpendicularly from the horizon, and gradually expanding into a body of light in which we could trace the floating columns sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating and shaping into infinite forms, the space in which they moved. it all faded away before the morning. at daylight, tuesday , the clouds to the north were darkening and the wind rose high from the northwest at eight o'clock, and continued cold during the day. mr. gravelines and four others who came with us returned to the ricaras in a small periogue, we gave him directions to accompany some of the ricara chiefs to the seat of government in the spring. wednesday . the day was temperate but cloudy and foggy, and we were enabled to go on with our work with much expedition. thursday . the morning again cloudy; our huts advance very well, and we are visited by numbers of indians who come to let their horses graze near us: in the day the horses are let loose in quest of grass, in the night they are collected and receive an armful of small boughs of the cottonwood, which being very juicy, soft and brittle, form nutritious and agreeable food: the frost this morning was very severe, the weather during the day cloudy and the wind from the northwest. we procured from an indian a weasel perfectly white except the extremity of the tail which was black: great numbers of wild geese are passing to the south, but their flight is too high for us to procure any of them. november . we had again a raw day, a northwest wind, but rose early in hopes of finishing our works before the extreme cold begins. a chief who is a half pawnee came to us and brought a present of half a buffaloe, in return for which we gave him some small presents and a few articles to his wife and son: he then crossed the river in a buffaloe skin canoe; his wife took the boat on her back and carried it to the village three miles off. large flocks of geese and brant, and also a few ducks are passing towards the south. sunday . the weather is cold. we received the visit of two squaws, prisoners from the rock mountains, and purchased by chaboneau. the mandans at this time are out hunting the buffaloe. monday . the last night had been cold and this morning we had a very hard frost: the wind changeable during the day, and some ice appears on the edges of the rivers; swans too are passing to the south. the big white came down to us, having packed on the back of his squaw about one hundred pounds of very fine meat: for which we gave him as well as the squaw some presents, particularly an axe to the woman with which she was very much pleased. tuesday . we this morning unloaded the boat and stowed away the contents in a storehouse which we have built. at half past ten ice began to float down the river for the first time: in the course of the morning we were visited by the black cat, poscapsahe, who brought an assiniboin chief and seven warriors to see us. this man, whose name is chechawk, is a chief of one out of three bands of assiniboins who wander over the plains between the missouri and assiniboin during the summer, and in the winter carry the spoils of their hunting to the traders on the assiniboin river, and occasionally come to this place: the whole three bands consist of about eight hundred men. we gave him a twist of tobacco to smoke with his people, and a gold cord for himself: the sioux also asked for whiskey which we refused to give them. it snowed all day and the air was very cold. wednesday . the river rose last night half an inch, and is now filled with floating ice. this morning was cloudy with some snow: about seventy lodges of assiniboins and some knistenaux are at the mandan village, and this being the day of adoption and exchange of property between them all, it is accompanied by a dance, which prevents our seeing more than two indians to-day: these knistenaux are a band of chippeways whose language they speak; they live on the assiniboin and saskashawan rivers, and are about two hundred and forty men. we sent a man down on horseback to see what had become of our hunters, and as we apprehend a failure of provisions we have recourse to our pork this evening. two frenchmen who had been below returned with twenty beaver which they had caught in traps. thursday . the morning again cloudy, and the ice running thicker than yesterday, the wind variable. the man came back with information that our hunters were about thirty miles below, and we immediately sent an order to them to make their way through the floating ice, to assist them in which we sent some tin for the bow of the periogue and a towrope. the ceremony of yesterday seem to continue still, for we were not visited by a single indian. the swan are still passing to the south. friday . we had a very hard white frost this morning, the trees are all covered with ice, and the weather cloudy. the men this day moved into the huts, although they are not finished. in the evening some horses were sent down to the woods near us in order to prevent their being stolen by the assiniboins, with whom some difficulty is now apprehended. an indian came down with four buffaloe robes and some corn, which he offered for a pistol, but was refused. saturday, november . last night was very cold, and the ice in the river to-day is thicker than hitherto. we are totally occupied with our huts, but received visits from several indians. sunday, november . to-day we had a cold windy morning; the black cat came to see us, and occupied us for a long time with questions on the usages of our country. he mentioned that a council had been held yesterday to deliberate on the state of their affairs. it seems that not long ago, a party of sioux fell in with some horses belonging to the minnetarees, and carried them off; but in their flight they were met by some assiniboins, who killed the sioux and kept the horses: a frenchman too who had lived many years among the mandans, was lately killed on his route to the british factory on the assiniboin; some smaller differences existed between the two nations, all of which being discussed, the council decided that they would not resent the recent insults from the assiniboins and knistenaux, until they had seen whether we had deceived them or not in our promises of furnishing them with arms and ammunition. they had been disappointed in their hopes of receiving them from mr. evans and were afraid that we too, like him, might tell them what was not true. we advised them to continue at peace, that supplies of every kind would no doubt arrive for them, but that time was necessary to organize the trade. the fact is that the assiniboins treat the mandans as the sioux do the ricaras; by their vicinity to the british they get all the supplies, which they withhold or give at pleasure to the remoter indians: the consequence is, that however badly treated, the mandans and ricaras are very slow to retaliate lest they should* lose their trade altogether. monday . the ice continues to float in the river, the wind high from the northwest, and the weather cold. our hunters arrived from their excursion below, and bring a very fine supply of thirty-two deer, eleven elk, and five buffaloe, all of which was hung in a smokehouse. tuesday . we this day moved into our huts which are now completed. this place which we call fort mandan, is situated in a point of low ground, on the north side of the missouri, covered with tall and heavy cottonwood. the works consist of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an angle where they joined each other; each row containing four rooms, of fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling*, and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of which is eighteen feet from the ground: the backs of the huts formed a wall of that height, and opposite the angle the place of the wall was supplied by picketing; in the area were two rooms for stores and provisions. the latitude by observation is ° ' ", and the computed distance from the mouth of the missouri sixteen hundred miles. in the course of the day several indians came down to partake of our fresh meat; among the rest, three chiefs of the second mandan village. they inform us that the sioux on the missouri above the chayenne river, threaten to attack them this winter; that these sioux are much irritated at the ricaras for having made peace through our means with the mandans, and have lately ill treated three ricaras who carried the pipe of peace to them, by beating them and taking away their horses. we gave them assurances that we would protect them from all their enemies. november st. the weather was this day fine: the river clear of ice and rising a little: we are now settled in our new winter habitation, and shall wait with much anxiety the first return of spring to continue our journey. the villages near which we are established are five in number, and are the residence of three distinct nations: the mandans, the ahnahaways, and the minnetarees. the history of the mandans, as we received it from our interpreters and from the chiefs themselves, and as it is attested by existing monuments, illustrates more than that of any other nation the unsteady movements and the tottering fortunes of the american nations. within the recollection of living witnesses, the mandans were settled forty years ago in nine villages, the ruins of which we passed about eighty miles below, and situated seven on the west and two on the east side of the missouri. the two finding themselves wasting away before the small-pox and the sioux, united into one village, and moved up the river opposite to the ricaras. the same causes reduced the remaining seven to five villages, till at length they emigrated in a body to the ricara nation, where they formed themselves into two villages, and joined those of their countrymen who had gone before them. in their new residence they were still insecure, and at length the three villages ascended the missouri to their present position. the two who had emigrated together still settled in the two villages on the northwest side of the missouri, while the single village took a position on the southeast side. in this situation they were found by those who visited them in ; since which the two villages have united into one. they are now in two villages, one on the southeast of the missouri, the other on the opposite side, and at the distance of three miles across. the first, in an open plain, contains about forty or fifty lodges, built in the same way as those of the ricaras: the second, the same number, and both may raise about three hundred and fifty men. on the same side of the river, and at the distance of four miles from the lower mandan village, is another called mahaha. it is situated in a high plain at the mouth of knife river, and is the residence of the ahnahaways. this nation, whose name indicates that they were "people whose village is on a hill," formerly resided on the missouri, about thirty miles below where they now live. the assiniboins and sioux forced them to a spot five miles higher, where the greatest part of them were put to death, and the rest emigrated to their present situation, in order to obtain an assylum near the minnetarees. they are called by the french, soulier noir or shoe indians; by the mandans, wattasoons, and their whole force is about fifty men. on the south side of the same knife river, half a mile above the mahaha and in the same open plain with it, is a village of minnetarees surnamed metaharta, who are about one hundred and fifty men in number. on the opposite side of knife river, and one and a half mile above this village is a second of minnetarees, who may be considered as the proper minnetaree nation. it is situated in a beautiful low plain, and contains four hundred and fifty warriors. the accounts which we received of the minnetarees were contradictory. the mandans say that this people came out of the water to the east, and settled near them in their former establishment in nine villages; that they were very numerous, and fixed themselves in one village on the southern side of the missouri. a quarrel about a buffaloe divided the nation, of which two bands went into the plains, and were known by the name of crow and paunch indians, and the rest moved to their present establishment. the minnetarees proper assert, on the contrary, that they grew where they now live, and will never emigrate from the spot; the great spirit having declared that if they moved they would all die. they also say that the minnetarees metaharta, that is minnetarees of the willows, whose language with very little variation is their own, came many years ago from the plains and settled near them, and perhaps the two traditions may be reconciled by the natural presumption that these minnetarees were the tribe known to the mandans below, and that they ascended the river for the purpose of rejoining the minnetarees proper. these minnetarees are part of the great nation called fall indians, who occupy the intermediate country between the missouri and the saskaskawan, and who are known by the name of minnetarees of the missouri, and minnetarees of fort de prairie; that is, residing near or rather frequenting the establishment in the prairie on the saskaskawan. these minnetarees indeed, told us that they had relations on the saskaskawan, whom they had never known till they met them in war, and having engaged in the night were astonished at discovering that they were fighting with men who spoke their own language. the name of grosventres, or bigbellies is given to these minnetarees, as well as to all the fall indians. the inhabitants of these five villages, all of which are within the distance of six miles, live in harmony with each other. the ahnahaways understand in part the language of the minnetarees: the dialect of the mandans differs widely from both; but their long residence together has insensibly blended their manners, and occasioned some approximation in language, particularly as to objects of daily occurrence and obvious to the senses. november . the morning was fine, and the day warm. we purchased from the mandans a quantity of corn of a mixed colour, which they dug up in ears from holes made near the front of their lodges, in which it is buried during the winter: this morning the sentinel informed us that an indian was about to kill his wife near the fort; we went down to the house of our interpreter where we found the parties, and after forbidding any violence, inquired into the cause of his intending to commit such as atrocity. it appeared that some days ago a quarrel had taken place between him and his wife, in consequence of which she had taken refuge in the house where the two squaws of our interpreter lived: by running away she forfeited her life, which might have been lawfully taken by the husband. about two days ago she had returned to the village, but the same evening came back to the fort much beaten and stabbed in three places, and the husband now came for the purpose of completing his revenge. he observed that he had lent her to one of our serjeants for a night, and that if he wanted her he would give her to him altogether: we gave him a few presents and tried to persuade him to take his wife home; the grand chief too happened to arrive at the same moment, and reproached him with his violence, till at length they went off together, but by no means in a state of much apparent love. november . again we had a fair and warm day, with the wind from the southeast: the river is now at a stand having risen four inches in the whole. november . the wind continued from the same quarter and the weather was warm: we were occupied in finishing our huts and making a large rope of elk-skin to draw our boat on the bank. sunday, november . the weather is still fine, warm and pleasant, and the river falls one inch and a half. captain lewis went on an excursion to the villages accompanied by eight men. a minnetaree chief, the first who has visited us, came down to the fort: his name was waukerassa, but as both the interpreters had gone with captain lewis we were obliged to confine our civilities to some presents with which he was much pleased: we now completed our huts, and fortunately too, for the next day, monday, november , before daylight the wind shifted to the northwest, and blew very hard, with cloudy weather and a keen cold air, which confined us much and prevented us from working: the night continued very cold, and, tuesday , the weather cloudy, the wind continuing from the northwest and the river crowded with floating ice. captain lewis returned with two chiefs mahnotah, an ahnahaway, and minnessurraree a minnetaree, and a third warrior: they explained to us that the reason of their not having come to see us, was that the mandans had told them that we meant to combine with the sioux and cut them off in the course of the winter: a suspicion increased by the strength of the fort, and the circumstance of our interpreters having both removed there with their families: these reports we did not fail to disprove to their entire satisfaction, and amused them by every attention, particularly by the dancing of the men which diverted them highly. all the indians whom captain lewis had visited were very well disposed, and received him with great kindness, except a principal chief of one of the upper villages, named mabpahpaparapassatoo or horned weasel, who made use of the civilized indecorum of refusing to be seen, and when captain lewis called he was told the chief was not at home. in the course of the day seven of the northwest company's traders arrived from the assiniboin river, and one of their interpreters having undertaken to circulate among the indians unfavourable reports, it become necessary to warn them of the consequences if they did not desist from such proceedings. the river fell two inches to-day and the weather became very cold. wednesday . about eight o'clock last evening it began to snow and continued till daybreak, after which it ceased till seven o'clock, but then resumed and continued during the day, the weather being cold and the river full of floating ice: about eight o'clock poscopsahe came down to visit us, with some warriors; we gave them presents and entertained them with all that might amuse their curiosity, and at parting we told them that we had heard of the british trader, mr. laroche, having attempted to distribute medals and flags among them, but that those emblems could not be received from any other than the american nation without incurring the displeasure of their great father the president. they left us much pleased with their treatment. the river fell one inch to-day. thursday . the wind is again from the northwest, the weather cold, and the snow which fell yesterday and this night is thirteen inches in depth. the river closed during the night at the village above, and fell two feet; but this afternoon it began to rise a little. mr. laroche, the principal of the seven traders, came with one of his men to see us; we told him that we should not permit him to give medals and flags to the indians; he declared that he had no such intention, and we then suffered him to make use of one of our interpreters, on his stipulating not to touch any subject but that of his traffic with them. an unfortunate accident occurred to sergeant pryor, who in taking down the boat's mast dislocated his shoulder, nor was it till after four trials that we replaced it. friday . about eight o'clock an indian came to the opposite bank of the river, calling out that he had something important to communicate, and on sending for him, he told us that five mandans had been met about eight leagues to the southwest by a party of sioux, who had killed one of them, wounded two, and taken nine horses; that four of the wattasoons were missing, and that the mandans expected an attack. we thought this an excellent opportunity to discountenance the injurious reports against us, and to fix the wavering confidence of the nation. captain clarke therefore instantly crossed the river with twenty-three men strongly armed, and circling the town approached it from behind. his unexpected appearance surprised and alarmed the chiefs, who came out to meet him, and conducted him to the village. he then told them that having heard of the outrage just committed, he had come to assist his dutiful children; that if they would assemble their warriors and those of the nation, he would lead them against the sioux and avenge the blood of their countrymen. after some minutes conversation, oheenaw the chayenne arose; "we now see," said he, "that what you have told us is true, since as soon as our enemies threaten to attack us you come to protect us and are ready to chastise those who have spilt our blood. we did indeed listen to your good talk, for when you told us that the other nations were inclined to peace with us, we went out carelessly in small parties, and some have been killed by the sioux and ricaras. but i knew that the ricaras were liars, and i told their chief who accompanied you, that his whole nation were liars and bad men; that we had several times made a peace with them which they were the first to break; that whenever we pleased we might shoot them like buffaloe, but that we had no wish to kill them; that we would not suffer them to kill us, nor steal our horses; and that although we agreed to make peace with them, because our two fathers desired it, yet we did not believe that they would be faithful long. such, father, was my language to them in your presence, and you see that instead of listening to your good counsels they have spilt our blood. a few days ago two ricaras came here and told us that two of their villages were making moccasins, that the sioux were stirring them up against us, and that we ought to take care of our horses; yet these very ricaras we sent home as soon as the news reached us to-day, lest our people should kill them in the first moment of grief for their murdered relatives. four of the wattasoons whom we expected back in sixteen days have been absent twenty-four, and we fear have fallen. but father the snow is now deep, the weather cold, and our horses cannot travel through the plains; the murderers have gone off: if you will conduct us in the spring, when the snow has disappeared, we will assemble all the surrounding warriors and follow you." captain clarke replied that we were always willing and able to defend them; that he was sorry that the snow prevented their marching to meet the sioux, since he wished to show them that the warriors of their great father would chastise the enemies of his obedient children who opened their ears to his advice; that if some ricaras had joined the sioux, they should remember that there were bad men in every nation, and that they should not be offended at the ricaras till they saw whether these ill-disposed men were countenanced by the whole tribe; that the sioux possessed great influence over the ricaras, whom they supplied with military stores, and sometimes led them astray, because they were afraid to oppose them: but that this should be the less offensive since the mandans themselves were under the same apprehensions from the assiniboins and knistenaux, and that while they were thus dependant, both the ricaras and mandans ought to keep on terms with their powerful neighbours, whom they may afterwards set at defiance, when we shall supply them with arms, and take them under our protection. after two hours conversation captain clarke left the village. the chief repeatedly thanked him for the fatherly protection he had given them, observing that the whole village had been weeping all night and day for the brave young man who had been slain, but now they would wipe their eyes and weep no more as they saw that their father would protect them. he then crossed the river on the ice and returned on the north side to the fort. the day as well as the evening was cold, and the river rose to its former height. saturday, december . the wind was from the northwest, and the whole party engaged in picketing the fort. about ten o'clock the half-brother of the man who had been killed, came to inform us that six sharhas or chayenne indians had arrived, bringing a pipe of peace, and that their nation was three days march behind them. three pawnees had accompanied the sharhas, and the mandans being afraid of the sharhas on account of their being at peace with the sioux, wished to put both them and the three pawnees to death; but the chiefs had forbidden it as it would be contrary to our wishes. we gave him a present of tobacco, and although from his connexion with the sufferer, he was more embittered against the pawnees than any other mandan, yet he seemed perfectly satisfied with our pacific counsels and advice. the mandans, we observe, call all the ricaras by the name of pawnees; the name of ricaras being that by which the nation distinguishes itself. in the evening we were visited by a mr. henderson, who came from the hudson bay company to trade with the minnetarees. he had been about eight days on his route in a direction nearly south, and brought with him tobacco, beeds, and other merchandize to trade for furs, and a few guns which are to be exchanged for horses. sunday, december . the latter part of the evening was warm, and a thaw continued till the morning, when the wind shifted to the north. at eleven o'clock the chiefs of the lower village brought down four of the sharhas. we explained to them our intentions, and advised them to remain at peace with each other: we also gave them a flag, some tobacco, and a speech for their nation. these were accompanied by a letter to messrs. tabeau and gravelines at the ricara village, requesting them to preserve peace if possible, and to declare the part which we should be forced to take if the ricaras and sioux made war on those whom we had adopted. after distributing a few presents to the sharhas and mandans, and showing them our curiosities we dismissed them, apparently well pleased at their reception. monday, december . the morning was fine, but in the afternoon the weather became cold with the wind from the northwest. the father of the mandan who was killed brought us a present of dried pumpkins and some pemitigon, for which we gave him some small articles. our offer of assistance to avenge the death of his son seemed to have produced a grateful respect from him, as well as from the brother of the deceased, which pleased us much. tuesday th. the wind continues from the northwest, the weather cloudy and raw, and the river rose one inch, oscapsahe and two young chiefs pass the day with us. the whole religion of the mandans consists in the belief of one great spirit presiding over their destinies. this being must be in the nature of a good genius since it is associated with the healing art, and the great spirit is synonymous with great medicine, a name also applied to every thing which they do not comprehend. each individual selects for himself the particular object of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either some invisible being or more commonly some animal, which thenceforward becomes his protector or his intercessor with the great spirit; to propitiate whom every attention is lavished, and every personal consideration is sacrificed. "i was lately owner of seventeen horses," said a mandan to us one day, "but i have offered them all up to my medicine and am now poor." he had in reality taken all his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and turning them loose committed them to the care of his medicine and abandoned them forever. the horses less religious took care of themselves, and the pious votary travelled home on foot. their belief in a future state is connected with this tradition of their origin: the whole nation resided in one large village under ground near a subterraneous lake; a grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation and gave them a view of the light: some of the most adventurous climed up the vine and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found covered with buffaloe and rich with every kind of fruits: returning with the grapes they had gathered, their countrymen were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms of the upper region; men, women and children ascended by means of the vine; but when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a corpulent woman who was clambering up the vine broke it with her weight, and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the sun. those who were left on earth made a village below where we saw the nine villages; and when the mandans die they expect to return to the original seats of their forefathers; the good reaching the ancient village by means of the lake, which the burden of the sins of the wicked will not enable them to cross. wednesday . the morning was cold and disagreeable, the wind from the southeast accompanied with snow: in the evening there was snow again and the wind shifted to the northeast: we were visited by several indians with a present of pumpkins, and by two of the traders of the northwest company. thursday . the wind was violent from the north northwest with some snow, the air keen and cold. at eight o'clock a.m. the thermometer stood at ten degrees above , and the river rose an inch and a half in the course of the day. friday, december . the wind still continued from the northwest and the day is very cold: shahaka the chief of the lower village came to apprise us that the buffaloe were near, and that his people were waiting for us to join them in the chase: captain clark with fifteen men went out and found the indians engaged in killing the buffaloe, the hunters mounted on horseback and armed with bows and arrows encircle the herd, and gradually drive them into a plain or an open place fit for the movements of horse; they then ride in among them, and singling out a buffaloe, a female being preferred, go as close as possible and wound her with arrows till they think they have given the mortal stroke; when they pursue another till the quiver is exhausted: if, which rarely happens, the wounded buffaloe attacks the hunter, he evades his blow by the agility of his horse which is trained for the combat with great dexterity. when they have killed the requisite number they collect their game, and the squaws and attendants come up from the rear and skin and dress the animals. captain clarke killed ten buffaloe, of which five only were brought to the fort, the rest which could not be conveyed home being seized by the indians, among whom the custom is that whenever a buffaloe is found dead without an arrow or any particular mark, he is the property of the finder; so that often a hunter secures scarcely any of the game he kills if the arrow happens to fall off: whatever is left out at night falls to the share of the wolves, who are the constant and numerous attendants of the buffaloe. the river closed opposite the fort last night, an inch and a half in thickness. in the morning the thermometer stood at one degree below . three men were badly frostbitten in consequence of their exposure. saturday . the thermometer stood at twelve degrees below , that is at forty-two degrees below the freezing point: the wind was from the northwest. captain lewis with fifteen men went out to hunt the buffaloe; great numbers of which darkened the prairies for a considerable distance: they did not return till after dark, having killed eight buffaloe and one deer. the hunt was, however, very fatiguing, as they were obliged to make a circuit at the distance of more than seven miles; the cold too, was so excessive that the air was filled with icy particles resembling a fog, and the snow generally six or eight inches deep and sometimes eighteen, in consequence of which two of the party were hurt by falls, and several had their feet frostbitten. sunday . the wind was this day from the east, the thermometer at seven degrees above , and the sun shone clear: two chiefs visited us, one in a sleigh drawn by a dog and loaded with meat. monday . captain clarke who had gone out yesterday with eighteen men to bring in the meat we had killed the day before, and to continue the hunt, came in at twelve o'clock. after killing nine buffaloe and preparing that already dead, he had spent a cold disagreeable night on the snow, with no covering but a small blanket, sheltered by the hides of the buffaloe they had killed. we observe large herds of buffaloe crossing the river on the ice, the men who were frostbitten are recovering, but the weather is still exceedingly cold, the wind being from the north, and the thermometer at ten and eleven degrees below : the rise of the river is one inch and a half. tuesday . the weather became so intensely cold that we sent for all the hunters who had remained out with captain clarke's party, and they returned in the evening several of them frostbitten. the wind was from the north and the thermometer at sunrise stood at twenty-one below , the ice in the atmosphere being so thick as to render the weather hazy and give the appearance of two suns reflecting each other. the river continues at a stand. pocapsahe made us a visit to-day. wednesday, december . the wind is still from the north, the thermometer being at sunrise thirty-eight degrees below . one of the ahnahaways brought us down the half of an antelope killed near the fort; we had been informed that all these animals return to the black mountains, but there are great numbers of them about us at this season which we might easily kill, but are unwilling to venture out before our constitutions are hardened gradually to the climate. we measured the river on the ice, and find it five hundred yards wide immediately opposite the fort. thursday . last night was clear and a very heavy frost covered the old snow, the thermometer at sun rise being twenty degrees below , and followed by a fine day. the river falls. friday . the morning was fine, and the weather having moderated so far, that the mercury stood at , captain lewis went down with a party to hunt; they proceeded about eighteen miles, but the buffaloe having left the banks of the river they saw only two, which were so poor as not to be worth killing, and shot two deer. notwithstanding the snow we were visited by a large number of the mandans. saturday . captain lewis finding no game returned to the fort hunting on both sides of the river, but with no success. the wind being from the north, the mercury at sunrise eight degrees below , and the snow of last night an inch and a half in depth. the indian chiefs continue to visit us to-day with presents of meat. sunday . the morning is clear and cold, the mercury at sunrise ° below . a mr. haney with two other persons from the british establishment on the assiniboin, arrived in six days with a letter from mr. charles chabouilles, one of the company, who with much politeness offered to render us any service in his power. monday . the weather to-day was colder than any we had yet experienced, the thermometer at sunrise being ° below , and about eight o'clock it fell to ° below the freezing point. from mr. haney, who is a very sensible intelligent man, we obtained much geographical information with regard to the country between the missouri and mississippi, and the various tribes of sioux who inhabit it. tuesday . the thermometer at sunrise was ° below . the indians had invited us yesterday to join their chace to-day, but the seven men whom we sent returned in consequence of the cold, which was so severe last night that we were obliged to have the sentinel relieved every half hour. the northwest traders however left us on their return home. wednesday . the weather moderated, and the river rose a little, so that we were enabled to continue the picketing of the fort. notwithstanding the extreme cold, we observe the indians at the village engaged out in the open air at a game which resembled billiards more than any thing we had seen, and which we inclined to suspect may have been acquired by ancient intercourse with the french of canada. from the first to the second chief's lodge, a distance of about fifty yards, was covered with timber smoothed and joined so as to be as level as the floor of one of our houses, with a battery at the end to stop the rings: these rings were of clay-stone and flat like the chequers for drafts, and the sticks were about four feet long, with two short pieces at one end in the form of a mace, so fixed that the whole will slide along the board. two men fix themselves at one end, each provided with a stick, and one of them with a ring: they then run along the board, and about half way slide the sticks after the ring. thursday . the wind was from the n.w. the weather moderate, the thermometer ° above at sunrise. we availed ourselves of this change to picket the fort near the river. friday . the day was fine and warm, the wind n.w. by w. the indian who had been prevented a few days ago from killing his wife, came with both his wives to the fort, and was very desirous of reconciling our interpreter, a jealousy against whom on account of his wife's taking refuge in his house, had been the cause of his animosity. a woman brought her child with an abscess in the lower part of the back, and offered as much corn as she could carry for some medicine; we administered to it of course very cheerfully. saturday, d. a number of squaws and men dressed like squaws brought corn to trade for small articles with the men. among other things we procured two horns of the animal called by the french the rock mountain sheep, and known to the mandans by the name of ahsahta. the animal itself is about the size of a small elk or large deer: the horns winding like those of a ram which they resemble also in texture, though larger and thicker. sunday, d. the weather was fine and warm like that of yesterday: we were again visited by crowds of indians of all descriptions, who came either to trade or from mere curiosity. among the rest kogahami, the little raven, brought his wife and son loaded with corn, and she then entertained us with a favourite mandan dish, a mixture of pumpkins, beans, corn, and chokecherries with the stones, all boiled together in a kettle, and forming a composition by no means unpalatable. monday, th. the day continued warm and pleasant, and the number of visitors became troublesome. as a present to three of the chiefs, we divided a fillet of sheepskin which we brought for spunging into three pieces each of two inches in width; they were delighted at the gift, which they deemed of equal value with a fine horse. we this day completed our fort, and the next morning being christmas, tuesday, th, we were awaked before day by a discharge of three platoons from the party. we had told the indians not to visit us as it was one of our great medicine days; so that the men remained at home and amused themselves in various ways, particularly with dancing in which they take great pleasure. the american flag was hoisted for the first time in the fort; the best provisions we had were brought out, and this, with a little brandy, enabled them to pass the day in great festivity. wednesday, th. the weather is again temperate, but no indians have come to see us. one of the northwest traders who came down to request the aid of our minnetaree interpreter, informs us that a party of minnetarees who had gone in pursuit of the assiniboins who lately stole their horses had just returned. as is their custom, they came back in small detachments, the last of which brought home eight horses which they had captured or stolen from an assiniboin camp on mouse river. thursday, th. a little fine snow fell this morning and the air was colder than yesterday, with a high northwest wind. we were fortunate enough to have among our men a good blacksmith, whom we set to work to make a variety of articles; his operations seemed to surprise the indians who came to see us, but nothing could equal their astonishment at the bellows, which they considered as a very great medicine. having heretofore promised a more particular account of the sioux, the following may serve as a general outline of their history: almost the whole of that vast tract of country comprised between the mississippi, the red river of lake winnepeg, the saskaskawan, and the missouri, is loosely occupied by a great nation whose primitive name is darcota, but who are called sioux by the french, sues by the english. their original seats were on the mississippi, but they have gradually spread themselves abroad and become subdivided into numerous tribes. of these, what may be considered as the darcotas are the mindawarcarton, or minowakanton, known to the french by the name of the gens du lac, or people of the lake. their residence is on both sides of the mississippi near the falls of st. anthony, and the probable number of their warriors about three hundred. above them, on the river st. peter's, is the wahpatone, a smaller band of nearly two hundred men; and still farther up the same river below yellow-wood river are the wahpatootas or gens de feuilles, an inferior band of not more than one hundred men; while the sources of the st. peter's are occupied by the sisatoones, a band consisting of about two hundred warriors. these bands rarely if ever approach the missouri, which is occupied by their kinsmen the yanktons and the tetons. the yanktons are of two tribes, those of the plains, or rather of the north, a wandering race of about five hundred men, who roam over the plains at the heads of the jacques, the sioux, and the red river; and those of the south, who possess the country between the jacques and sioux rivers and the desmoine. but the bands of sioux most known on the missouri are the tetons. the first who are met on ascending the missouri is the tribe called by the french the tetons of the boise brule or burntwood, who reside on both sides of the missouri, about white and teton rivers, and number two hundred warriors. above them on the missouri are the teton okandandas, a band of one hundred and fifty men living below the chayenne river, between which and the wetarhoo river is a third band, called teton minnakenozzo, of nearly two hundred and fifty men; and below the warreconne is the fourth and last tribe of tetons of about three hundred men, and called teton saone. northward of these, between the assiniboin and the missouri, are two bands of assiniboins, one on mouse river of about two hundred men, and called assiniboin menatopa; the other, residing on both sides of white river, called by the french gens de feuilles, and amounting to two hundred and fifty men. beyond these a band of assiniboins of four hundred and fifty men, and called the big devils, wander on the heads of milk, porcupine, and martha's rivers; while still farther to the north are seen two bands of the same nation, one of five hundred and the other of two hundred, roving on the saskaskawan. those assiniboins are recognised by a similarity of language, and by tradition as descendents or seceders from the sioux; though often at war are still acknowledged as relations. the sioux themselves, though scattered, meet annually on the jacques, those on the missouri trading with those on the mississippi. chapter vi. the party increase in the favour of the mandans--description of a buffaloe dance--medicine dance--the fortitude with which the indians bear the severity of the season--distress of the party for want of provisions--the great importance of the blacksmith in procuring it--depredations of the sioux--the homage paid to the medicine stone--summary act of justice among the minnetarees--the process by which the mandans and ricaras make beads--character of the missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. friday, th. the wind continued high last night, the frost severe, and the snow drifting in great quantities through the plains. saturday, th. there was a frost fell last night nearly one quarter of an inch in depth, which continued to fall till the sun had gained some height: the mercury at sunrise stood at ° below : there were a number of indians at the fort in the course of the day. sunday, th. the weather was cold, and the thermometer ° below . we killed one deer, and yesterday one of the men shot a wolf. the indians brought corn, beans, and squashes, which they very readily gave for getting their axes and kettles mended. in their general conduct during these visits they are honest, but will occasionally pilfer any small article. monday, . during the night there was a high wind which covered the ice with hillocks of mixed sand and snow: the day was however fine, and the indians came in great numbers for the purpose of having their utensils repaired. tuesday, january , . the new year was welcomed by two shot from the swivel and a round of small arms. the weather was cloudy but moderate; the mercury which at sunrise was at °, in the course of the day rose to ° above : towards evening it began to rain, and at night we had snow, the temperature for which is about . in the morning we permitted sixteen men with their music to go up to the first village, where they delighted the whole tribe with their dances, particularly with the movements of one of the frenchmen who danced on his head. in return they presented the dancers with several buffaloe robes and quantities of corn. we were desirous of showing this attention to the village, because they had received an impression that we had been wanting in regard for them, and they had in consequence circulated invidious comparisons between us and the northern traders: all these however they declared to captain clarke, who visited them in the course of the morning, were made in jest. as captain clarke was about leaving the village, two of their chiefs returned from a mission to the grosventres or wandering minnetarees. these people were encamped about ten miles above, and while there one of the ahnahaways had stolen a minnetaree girl: the whole nation immediately espoused the quarrel, and one hundred and fifty of their warriors were marching down to revenge the insult on the ahnahaways. the chief of that nation took the girl from the ravisher, and giving her to the mandans requested their intercession. the messengers went out to meet the warriors, and delivered the young damsel into the hands of her countrymen, smoked the pipe of peace with them, and were fortunate enough to avert their indignation and induce them to return. in the evening some of the men came to the fort and the rest slept in the village. pocapsahe also visited us and brought some meat on his wife's back. wednesday, january . it snowed last night, and during this day the same scene of gayety was renewed at the second village, and all the men returned in the evening. thursday . last night it became very cold, and this morning we had some snow: our hunters were sent out for buffaloe, but the game had been frightened from the river by the indians, so that they obtained only one: they however killed a hare and a wolf. among the indians who visited us was a minnetaree who came to seek his wife: she had been much abused and came here for protection, but returned with him; as we had no authority to separate those whom even the mandan rites had united. friday . the morning was cloudy and warm, the mercury being ° above : but towards evening the wind changed to northwest, and the weather became cold. we sent some hunters down the river, but they killed only one buffaloe and a wolf. we received the visit of kagohami who is very friendly, and to whom we gave a hankerchief and two files. saturday . we had high and boisterous winds last night and this morning: the indians continue to purchase repairs with grain of different kinds. in the first village there has been a buffaloe dance for the last three nights, which has put them all into commotion, and the description which we received from those of the party who visited the village and from other sources, is not a little ludicrous: the buffaloe dance is an institution originally intended for the benefit of the old men, and practised at their suggestion. when buffaloe becomes scarce they send a man to harangue the village, declaring that the game is far off and that a feast is necessary to bring it back, and if the village be disposed a day and place is named for the celebration of it. at the appointed hour the old men arrive, and seat themselves crosslegged on skins round a fire in the middle of the lodge with a sort of doll or small image, dressed like a female, placed before them. the young men bring with them a platter of provisions, a pipe of tobacco, and their wives, whose dress on the occasion is only a robe or mantle loosely thrown round the body. on their arrival each youth selects the old man whom he means to distinguish by his favour, and spreads before him the provisions, after which he presents the pipe and smokes with him. mox senex vir simulacrum parvæ puellæ ostensit. tune egrediens eætu, jecit effigium solo et superincumbens, senili ardore veneris complexit. hoc est signum. denique uxor e turba recessit, et jactu corporis, fovet amplexus viri solo recubante. maritus appropinquans senex vir dejecto vultu, et honorem et dignitatem ejus conservare amplexu uxoris illum oravit. forsitan imprimis ille refellit; dehine, maritus multis precibus, multis lachrymis, et multis donis vehementer intercessit. tune senex amator perculsus miserecordia, tot precibus, tot lachrymis, et tot donis, conjugali amplexu submisit. multum ille jactatus est, sed debilis et effoetus senectute, frustra jactatus est. maritus interdum stans juxta guadit multum honore, et ejus dignitati sic conservata. unus nostrum sodalium multum alacrior et potentior juventute, hac nocte honorem quartour maritorum custodivit. sunday . a clear cold morning with high wind: we caught in a trap a large gray wolf, and last night obtained in the same way a fox who had for some time infested the neighbourhood of the fort. only a few indians visited us to-day. monday . the weather was again clear and cold with a high northwest wind, and the thermometer at sunrise ° below ; the river fell an inch. shahaka the big white chief dined with us, and gave a connected sketch of the country as far as the mountains. tuesday . the wind was still from the northwest, the day cold, and we received few indians at the fort. besides the buffaloe dance we have just described, there is another called medicine dance, an entertainment given by any person desirous of doing honour to his medicine or genius. he announces, that on such a day he will sacrifice his horses, or other property, and invites the young females of the village to assist in rendering homage to his medicine; all the inhabitants may join in the solemnity, which is performed in the open plain and by daylight, but the dance is reserved for the virgins or at least the unmarried females, who disdain the incumbrance or the ornament of dress. the feast is opened by devoting the goods of the master of the feast to his medicine, which is represented by a head of the animal itself, or by a medicine bag if the deity be an invisible being. the young women then begin the dance, in the intervals of which each will prostrate herself before the assembly to challenge or reward the boldness of the youth, who are often tempted by feeling or the hopes of distinction to achieve the adventure. wednesday . the weather is cold, the thermometer at sunrise ° below . kagohami breakfasted with us, and captain clarke with three or four men accompanied him and a party of indians to hunt, in which they were so fortunate as to kill a number of buffaloe: but they were incommoded by snow, by high and squally winds, and by extreme cold; several of the indians came to the fort nearly frozen, others are missing, and we are uneasy, for one of our men who was separated from the rest during the chase has not returned: in the morning, thursday , however, he came back just as we were sending out five men in search of him. the night had been excessively cold, and this morning at sunrise the mercury stood at ° below , or below the freezing point. he had however, made a fire and kept himself tolerably warm. a young indian, about thirteen years of age, also came in soon after. his father who came last night to inquire after him very anxiously, had sent him in the afternoon to the fort: he was overtaken by the night, and was obliged to sleep on the snow with no covering except a pair of antelope skin moccasins and leggings and a buffaloe robe: his feet being frozen we put them into cold water, and gave him every attention in our power. about the same time an indian who had also been missing returned to the fort, and although his dress was very thin, and he had slept on the snow without a fire, he had not suffered the slightest inconvenience. we have indeed observed that these indians support the rigours of the season in a way which we had hitherto thought impossible. a more pleasing reflection occurred at seeing the warm interest which the situation of these two persons had excited in the village, the boy had been a prisoner and adopted from charity, yet the distress of the father proved that he felt for him the tenderest affection, the man was a person of no distinction, yet the whole village was full of anxiety for his safety and when they came to us, borrowed a sleigh to bring them home with ease, if they survived, or to carry their bodies if they had perished. friday . we despatched three hunters to join the same number whom we had sent below about seven miles to hunt elk. like that of yesterday the weather to-day was cold and clear, the thermometer standing at ° below . poscopsahe and shotahawrora visited us, and past the night at the fort. saturday . the weather continues very cold, the mercury at sunrise being ° below . three of the hunters returned, having killed three elk. sunday . we have a continuation of clear weather, and the cold has increased, the mercury having sunk to ° below . nearly one half of the mandan nation passed down the river to hunt for several days; in these excursions men, women and children, with their dogs, all leave the village together, and after discovering a spot convenient for the game, fix their tents; all the family bear their part in the labour, and the game is equally divided among the families of the tribe. when a single hunter returns from the chase with more than is necessary for his own immediate consumption, the neighbours are entitled by custom to a share of it: they do not however ask for it, but send a squaw, who without saying any thing, sits down by the door of the lodge till the master understands the hint, and gives her gratuitously a part for her family. chaboneau who with one man had gone to some lodges of minnetarees near the turtle mountain, returned with their faces much frostbitten. they had been about ninety miles distant, and procured from the inhabitants some meat and grease, with which they loaded the horses. he informs us that the agent of the hudson bay company at that place, had been endeavouring to make unfavourable impressions with regard to us on the mind of the great chief, and that the n.w. company intend building a fort there. the great chief had in consequence spoken slightly of the americans, but said that if we would give him our great flag he would come and see us. monday . the mandans continue to pass down the river on their hunting party, and were joined by six of our men. one of those sent on thursday returned, with information that one of his companions had his feet so badly frostbitten that he could not walk home. in their excursion they had killed a buffaloe, a wolf, two porcupines and a white hare. the weather was more moderate to-day, the mercury being at ° below , and the wind from the s.e. we had however some snow, after which it remained cloudy. tuesday . the morning is much warmer than yesterday, and the snow begins to melt, though the wind after being for some time from the s.e. suddenly shifted to n.w. between twelve and three o'clock a.m. there was a total eclipse of the moon, from which we obtained a part of the observation necessary for ascertaining the longitude. we were visited by four of the most distinguished men of the minnetarees, to whom we showed marked attentions, as we knew that they had been taught to entertain strong prejudices against us; these we succeeded so well in removing, that when in the morning, wednesday , about thirty mandans, among whom six were chiefs came to see us, the minnetarees reproached them with their falsehoods, declaring that they were bad men and ought to hide themselves. they had told the minnetarees that we would kill them if they came to the fort, yet on the contrary they had spent a night there and been treated with kindness by the whites, who had smoked with them and danced for their amusement. kagohami visited us and brought us a little corn, and soon afterwards one of the first war chiefs of the minnetarees came accompanied by his squaw, a handsome woman, whom he was desirous we should use during the night. he favoured us with a more acceptable present, a draft of the missouri in his manner, and informed us of his intention to go to war in the spring against the snake indians; we advised him to reflect seriously before he committed the peace of his nation to the hazards of war; to look back on the numerous nations whom war has destroyed, that if he wished his nation to be happy he should cultivate peace and intercourse with all his neighbours, by which means they would procure more horses, increase in numbers, and that if he went to war he would displease his great father the president, and forfeit his protection. we added that we had spoken thus to all the tribes whom we had met, that they had all opened their ears, and that the president would compel those who did not voluntarily listen to his advice. although a young man of only twenty-six years of age, this discourse seemed to strike him. he observed that if it would be displeasing to us he would not go to war, since he had horses enough, and that he would advise all the nation to remain at home, until we had seen the snake indians, and discovered whether their intentions were pacific. the party who went down with the horses for the man who was frostbitten returned, and we are glad to find his complaint not serious. thursday . the day was very windy from the north; the morning clear and cold, the thermometer at sunrise being at : we had several indians with us. friday . the weather is fine and moderate. messrs. laroche and m'kenzie, two of the n.w. company's traders, visited us with some of the minnetarees. in the afternoon two of our hunters returned, having killed four wolves and a blaireau. saturday . another cloudy day. the two traders set out on their return, and we sent two men with the horses thirty miles below to the hunting camp. sunday . the day fair and cold. a number of indians visit us with corn to exchange for articles, and to pay for repairs to their household utensils. monday . the weather was fine and moderate. the hunters all returned, having killed during their absence three elk, four deer, two porcupines, a fox and a hare. tuesday . the cold having moderated and the day pleasant, we attempted to cut the boats out of the ice, but at the distance of eight inches came to water, under which the ice became three feet thick, so that we were obliged to desist. wednesday . the cold weather returned, the mercury having sunk ° below , and the snow fell four inches deep. thursday . the day was colder than any we have had lately, the thermometer being at ° below . the hunters whom we sent out returned unsuccessful, and the rest were occupied in cutting wood to make charcoal. friday . the thermometer was at ° below , the wind from n.w. and the day fair, so that the men were employed in preparing coal, and cutting the boats out of the ice. a band of assiniboins headed by their chief, called by the french, son of the little calf, have arrived at the villages. saturday . a fine warm day: a number of indians dine with us: and one of our men is attacked with a violent pleurisy. sunday . another warm and pleasant day: we again attempted to get the boat out of the ice. the man who has the pleurisy was blooded and sweated, and we were forced to take off the toes of the young indian who was frostbitten some time since. our interpreter returned from the villages, bringing with him three of mr. laroche's horses which he had sent in order to keep them out of the way of the assiniboins, who are very much disposed to steal, and who have just returned to their camp. monday . the weather to-day is clear and cold: we are obliged to abandon the plan of cutting the boat through the ice, and therefore made another attempt the next day, tuesday , by heating a quantity of stones so as to warm the water in the boat, and thaw the surrounding ice: but in this too we were disappointed, as all the stones on being put into the fire cracked into pieces: the weather warm and pleasant: the man with the pleurisy is recovering. wednesday . the morning was fair, but afterwards became cloudy. mr. laroche the trader from the northwest company paid us a visit, in hopes of being able to accompany us on our journey westward, but this proposal we thought it best to decline. thursday . it snowed last night, and the morning is cold and disagreeable, with a high wind from the northwest: we sent five hunters down the river. another man is taken with the pleurisy. friday, february . a cold windy day: our hunters returned having killed only one deer. one of the minnetaree war chiefs, a young man named maubuksheahokeah or seeing snake, came to see us and procure a war hatchet: he also requested that we would suffer him to go to war against the sioux and ricaras who had killed a mandan some time ago: this we refused for reasons which we explained to him. he acknowledged that we were right, and promised to open his ears to our counsels. saturday . the day is fine: another deer was killed. mr. laroche who has been very anxious to go with us left the fort to-day, and one of the squaws of the minnetaree interpreter is taken ill. sunday . the weather is again pleasant: disappointed in all our efforts to get the boats free, we occupied ourselves in making iron spikes so as to prize them up by means of long poles. monday . the morning fair and cold, the mercury at sunrise being ° below , and the wind from the northwest. the stock of meat which we had procured in november and december being now nearly exhausted, it became necessary to renew our supply; captain clarke therefore took eighteen men, and with two sleighs and three horses descended the river for the purpose of hunting, as the buffaloe has disappeared from our neighbourhood, and the indians are themselves suffering for want of meat. two deer were killed to-day but they were very lean. tuesday . a pleasant fair morning with the wind from northwest: a number of the indians come with corn for the blacksmith, who being now provided with coal has become one of our greatest resources for procuring grain. they seem particularly attached to a battle axe, of a very inconvenient figure: it is made wholly of iron, the blade extremely thin, and from seven to nine inches long; it is sharp at the point and five or six inches on each side, whence they converge towards the eye, which is circular and about an inch in diameter, the blade itself being not more than an inch wide, the handle is straight, and twelve or fifteen inches long; the whole weighing about a pound. by way of ornament, the blade is perforated with several circular holes. the length of the blade compared with the shortness of the handle render it a weapon of very little strength, particularly as it is always used on horseback: there is still however another form which is even worse, the same sort of handle being fixed to a blade resembling an espontoon. wednesday, february . the morning was fair and pleasant, the wind n.w. a number of indian chiefs visited us and withdrew after we had smoked with them contrary to their custom, for after being once introduced into our apartment they are fond of lounging about during the remainder of the day. one of the men killed three antelopes. our blacksmith has his time completely occupied, so great is the demand for utensils of different kinds. the indians are particularly fond of sheet iron, out of which they form points for arrows and instruments for scraping hides, and when the blacksmith cut up an old cambouse of that metal, we obtained for every piece of four inches square seven or eight gallons of corn from the indians, who were delighted at the exchange. thursday . the morning was fair and much warmer than for some days, the thermometer being at ° above , and the wind from the s.e. a number of indians continue to visit us; but learning that the interpreter's squaws had been accustomed to unbar the gate during the night, we ordered a lock put on it, and that no indian should remain in the fort all night, nor any person admitted during the hours when the gate is closed, that is from sunset to sunrise. friday . a fair pleasant morning, with s.e. winds. pocopsahe came down to the fort with a bow, and apologized for his not having finished a shield which he had promised captain lewis, and which the weather had prevented him from completing. this chief possesses more firmness, intelligence, and integrity, than any indian of this country, and he might be rendered highly serviceable in our attempts to civilize the nation. he mentioned that the mandans are very much in want of meat, and that he himself had not tasted any for several days. to this distress they are often reduced by their own improvidence, or by their unhappy situation. their principal article of food is buffaloe-meat, their corn, beans, and other grain being reserved for summer, or as a last resource against what they constantly dread, an attack from the sioux, who drive off the game and confine them to their villages. the same fear too prevents their going out to hunt in small parties to relieve their occasional wants, so that the buffaloe is generally obtained in large quantities and wasted by carelessness. saturday . the morning was fair and pleasant, the wind from the s.e. mr. m'kenzie from the n.w. company establishment visited us. sunday . a slight snow fell in the course of the night, the morning was cloudy, and the northwest wind blew so high that although the thermometer was ° above , the day was cooler than yesterday, when it was only ° above the same point. mr. m'kenzie left us, and chaboneau returned with information that our horses loaded with meat were below, but could not cross the ice not being shod. monday . we sent down a party with sleds, to relieve the horses from their loads; the weather fair and cold, with a n.w. wind. about five o'clock one of the wives of chaboneau was delivered of a boy; this being her first child she was suffering considerable, when mr. jessaume told captain lewis that he had frequently administered to persons in her situation, a small dose of the rattle of the rattlesnake which had never failed to hasten the delivery. having some of the rattle, captain lewis gave it to mr. jessaume who crumbled two of the rings of it between his fingers, and mixing it with a small quantity of water gave it to her. what effect it may really have had it might be difficult to determine, but captain lewis was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before the delivery took place. tuesday . the morning is fair though cold, the mercury being ° below the wind from the s.e. about four o'clock the horses were brought in much fatigued; on giving them meal bran moistened with water they would not eat it, but preferred the bark of the cottonwood, which as is already observed forms their principal food during the winter. the horses of the mandans are so often stolen by the sioux, ricaras, and assiniboins, that the invariable rule now is to put the horses every night in the same lodge with the family. in the summer they ramble in the plains in the vicinity of the camp, and feed on the grass, but during cold weather the squaws cut down the cottonwood trees as they are wanted, and the horses feed on the boughs and bark of the tender branches, which are also brought into the lodges at night and placed near them. these animals are very severely treated; for whole days they are pursuing the buffaloe, or burdened with the fruits of the chase, during which they scarcely ever taste food, and at night return to a scanty allowance of wood; yet the spirit of this valuable animal sustains him through all these difficulties, and he is rarely deficient either in flesh or vigour. wednesday . the morning was cloudy, the thermometer at ° below , the wind from the southeast. captain clarke returned last evening with all his hunting party: during their excursion they had killed forty deer, three buffaloe, and sixteen elk; but most of the game was too lean for use, and the wolves, who regard whatever lies out at night as their own, had appropriated a large part of it: when he left the fort on the th instant, he descended on the ice twenty-two miles to new mandan island, near some of their old villages, and encamped, having killed nothing, and therefore without food for the night. early on the th, the hunters went out and killed two buffaloe and a deer, but the last only could be used, the others being too lean. after breakfast they proceeded down to an indian lodge and hunted during the day: the next morning, th, they encamped forty-four miles from the fort on a sand point near the mouth of a creek on the southwest side, which they call hunting creek, and during this and the following day hunted through all the adjoining plains, with much success, having killed a number of deer and elk. on the th, the best of the meat was sent with the horses to the fort, and such parts of the remainder as were fit for use were brought to a point of the river three miles below, and after the bones were taken out, secured in pens built of logs, so as to keep off the wolves, ravens and magpies, who are very numerous and constantly disappoint the hunter of his prey: they then went to the low grounds near the chisshetaw river where they encamped, but saw nothing except some wolves on the hills, and a number of buffaloe too poor to be worth hunting. the next morning th, as there was no game and it would have been inconvenient to send it back sixty miles to the fort, they returned up the river, and for three days hunted along the banks and plains, and reached the fort in the evening of the twelfth much fatigued, having walked thirty miles that day on the ice and through the snow in many places knee deep, the moccasins too being nearly worn out: the only game which they saw besides what is mentioned, was some growse on the sandbars in the river. thursday . last night the snow fell three inches deep; the day was, however, fine. four men were despatched with sleds and three horses to bring up the meat which had been collected by the hunters. they returned however, with intelligence that about twenty-one miles below the fort a party of upwards of one hundred men, whom they supposed to be sioux, rushed on them, cut the traces of the sleds, and carried off two of the horses, the third being given up by intercession of an indian who seemed to possess some authority over them; they also took away two of the men's knifes, and a tomahawk, which last however they returned. we sent up to the mandans to inform them of it, and to know whether any of them would join a party which intended to pursue the robbers in the morning. about twelve o'clock two of their chiefs came down and said that all their young men were out hunting, and that there were few guns in the village. several indians however, armed some with bows and arrows, some with spears and battle-axes, and two with fusils, accompanied captain lewis, who set out, friday , at sunrise with twenty-four men. the morning was fine and cool, the thermometer being at ° below . in the course of the day one of the mandan chiefs returned from captain lewis's party, his eye-sight having become so bad that he could not proceed. at this season of the year the reflexion from the ice and snow is so intense as to occasion almost total blindness. this complaint is very common, and the general remedy is to sweat the part affected by holding the face over a hot stone, and receiving the fumes from snow thrown on it. a large red fox was killed to-day. saturday . the morning was warm, mercury at ° above , the weather cloudy: several of the indians who went with captain lewis returned, as did also one of our men, whose feet had been frostbitten. sunday . the weather continued as yesterday, though in the afternoon it became fair. shotawhorora and his son came to see us, with about thirty pounds of dried buffaloe meat and some tallow. monday . the morning was cloudy with some snow, but in the latter part of the day it cleared up. mr. m'kenzie who had spent yesterday at the fort now left us. our stock of meat is exhausted, so that we must confine ourselves to vegetable diet, at least till the return of the party: for this, however, we are at no loss, since both on this and the following day, tuesday , our blacksmith got large quantities of corn from the indians who came in great numbers to see us. the weather was fair and warm, the wind from the south. wednesday, th. the day was delightfully fine; the mercury being at sunrise ° and in the course of the day ° above , the wind southerly. kagohami came down to see us early: his village is afflicted by the death of one of their eldest men, who from his account to us must have seen one hundred and twenty winters. just as he was dying, he requested his grandchildren to dress him in his best robe when he was dead, and then carry him on a hill and seat him on a stone, with his face down the river towards their old villages, that he might go straight to his brother who had passed before him to the ancient village under ground. we have seen a number of mandans who have lived to a great age; chiefly however the men, whose robust exercises fortify the body, while the laborious occupations of the women shorten their existence. thursday . we had a continuation of the same pleasant weather. oheenaw and shahaka came down to see us, and mentioned that several of their countrymen had gone to consult their medicine stone as to the prospects of the following year. this medicine stone is the great oracle of the mandans, and whatever it announces is believed with implicit confidence. every spring, and on some occasions during the summer, a deputation visits the sacred spot, where there is a thick porous stone twenty-feet in circumference, with a smooth surface. having reached the place the ceremony of smoking to it is performed by the deputies, who alternately take a whiff themselves and then present the pipe to the stone; after this they retire to an adjoining wood for the night, during which it may be safely presumed that all the embassy do not sleep; and in the morning they read the destinies of the nation in the white marks on the stone, which those who made them are at no loss to decypher. the minnetarees have a stone of a similar kind, which has the same qualities and the same influence over the nation. captain lewis returned from his excursion in pursuit of the indians. on reaching the place where the sioux had stolen our horses, they found only one sled, and several pair of moccasins which were recognised to be those of the sioux. the party then followed the indian tracks till they reached two old lodges where they slept, and the next morning pursued the course of the river till they reached some indian camps, where captain clarke passed the night some time ago, and which the sioux had now set on fire, leaving a little corn near the place in order to induce a belief that they were ricaras. from this point the sioux tracks left the river abruptly and crossed into the plains; but perceiving that there was no chance of overtaking them, captain lewis went down to the pen where captain clarke had left some meat, which he found untouched by the indians, and then hunted in the low grounds on the river, till he returned with about three thousand pounds of meat, some drawn in a sled by fifteen of the men, and the rest on horseback; having killed thirty-six deer, fourteen elk, and one wolf. friday, nd. the morning was cloudy and a little snow fell, but in the afternoon the weather became fair. we were visited by a number of indians, among whom was shotawhorora, a chief of much consideration among the mandan, although by birth a ricara. saturday, d. the day is warm and pleasant. having worked industriously yesterday and all this morning we were enabled to disengage one of the periogues and haul it on shore, and also nearly to cut out the second. the father of the boy whose foot had been so badly frozen, and whom we had now cured, came to-day and carried him home in a sleigh. sunday, th. the weather is again fine. we succeeded in loosening the second periogue and barge, though we found a leak in the latter. the whole of the next day, monday, th, we were occupied in drawing up the boats on the bank: the smallest one we carried there with no difficulty, but the barge was too heavy for our elk-skin ropes which constantly broke. we were visited by orupsehara, or black moccasin, and several other chiefs, who brought us presents of meat on the backs of their squaws, and one of the minnetarees requested and obtained permission for himself and his two wives to remain all night in the fort. the day was exceedingly pleasant. tuesday . the weather is again fine. by great labour during the day we got all the boats on the bank by sunset, an operation which attracted a great number of indians to the fort. wednesday . the weather continues fine. all of us employed in preparing tools to build boats for our voyage, as we find that small periogues will be much more convenient than the barge in ascending the missouri. thursday . the day is clear and pleasant. sixteen men were sent out to examine the country for trees suitable for boats, and were successful in finding them. two of the n.w. company traders arrived with letters; they had likewise a root which is used for the cure of persons bitten by mad dogs, snakes, and other venomous animals: it is found on high grounds and the sides of hills, and the mode of using it is to scarify the wound, and apply to it an inch or more of the chewed or pounded root, which is to be renewed twice a day; the patient must not however chew or swallow any of the root, as an inward application might be rather injurious than beneficial. mr. gravelines with two frenchmen and two indians arrived from the ricara nation, with letters from mr. anthony tabeau. this last gentleman informs us that the ricaras express their determination to follow our advice, and to remain at peace with the mandans and minnetarees, whom they are desirous of visiting; they also wish to know whether these nations would permit the ricaras to settle near them, and form a league against their common enemies the sioux. on mentioning this to the mandans they agreed to it, observing that they always desired to cultivate friendship with the ricaras, and that the ahnahaways and minnetarees have the same friendly views. mr. gravelines states that the band of tetons whom we had seen was well disposed to us, owing to the influence of their chief the black buffaloe; but that the three upper bands of tetons, with the sisatoons, and the yanktons of the north, mean soon to attack the indians in this quarter, with a resolution to put to death every white man they encounter. moreover, that mr. cameron of st. peter's has armed the sioux against the chippeways, who have lately put to death three of his men. the men who had stolen our horses we found to be all sioux, who after committing the outrage went to the ricara villages, where they said that they had hesitated about killing our men who were with the horses, but that in future they would put to death any of us they could, as we were bad medicines and deserved to be killed. the ricaras were displeased at their conduct and refused to give them any thing to eat, which is deemed the greatest act of hostility short of actual violence. friday, march . the day is fine, and the whole party is engaged, some in making ropes and periogues, others in burning coal, and making battle axes to sell for corn. saturday . mr. laroche one of the n.w. company's traders has just arrived with merchandise from the british establishments on the assiniboin. the day is fine, and the river begins to break up in some places, the mercury being between ° and ° above , and the wind from the n.e. we were visited by several indians. sunday . the weather pleasant, the wind from the e. with clouds; in the afternoon the clouds disappeared and the wind came from the n.w. the men are all employed in preparing the boats; we are visited by poscapsahe and several other indians with corn. a flock of ducks passed up the river to-day. monday . a cloudy morning with n.w. wind, the latter part of the day clear. we had again some indian visitors with a small present of meat. the assiniboins, who a few days since visited the mandans, returned, and attempted to take horses from the minnetarees, who fired on them; a circumstance which may occasion some disturbance between the two nations. tuesday . about four o'clock in the morning there was a slight fall of snow, but the day became clear and pleasant with the mercury ° above . we sent down an indian and a frenchman to the ricara villages with a letter to mr. tabeau. wednesday . the day was cloudy and smoky in consequence of the burning of the plains by the minnetarees; they have set all the neighbouring country on fire in order to obtain an early crop of grass which may answer for the consumption of their horses, and also as an inducement for the buffaloe and other game to visit it. the horses stolen two days ago by the assiniboins have been returned to the minnetarees. ohhaw second chief of the lower minnetaree village came to see us. the river rose a little and overran the ice, so as to render the crossing difficult. thursday, th. the day was somewhat cloudy, and colder than usual; the wind from the northeast. shotawhorora visited us with a sick child, to whom some medicine was administered. there were also other indians who brought corn and dried buffaloe meat in exchange for blacksmith's work. friday . the day cold and fair with a high easterly wind: we were visited by two indians who gave us an account of the country and people near the rocky mountains where they had been. saturday . the morning cloudy and cool, the wind from the north. the grand chief of the minnetarees, who is called by the french le borgne, from his having but one eye, came down for the first time to the fort. he was received with much attention, two guns were fired in honour of his arrival, the curiosities were exhibited to him, and as he said that he had not received the presents which we had sent to him on his arrival, we again gave him a flag, a medal, shirt, armbraces and the usual presents on such occasions, with all which he was much pleased. in the course of the conversation, the chief observed that some foolish young men of his nation had told him there was a person among us who was quite black, and he wished to know if it could be true. we assured him that it was true, and sent for york: the borgne was very much surprised at his appearance, examined him closely, and spit on his finger and rubbed the skin in order to wash off the paint; nor was it until the negro uncovered his head, and showed his short hair, that the borgne could be persuaded that he was not a painted white man. sunday . a cold windy day. tetuckopinreha, chief of the ahnahaways, and the minnetaree chief ompsehara, passed the day with us, and the former remained during the night. we had occasion to see an instance of the summary justice of the indians: a young minnetaree had carried off the daughter of cagonomokshe, the raven man, second chief of the upper village of the mandans; the father went to the village and found his daughter, whom he brought home, and took with him a horse belonging to the offender: this reprisal satisfied the vengeance of the father and of the nation, as the young man would not dare to reclaim his horse, which from that time became the property of the injured party. the stealing of young women is one of the most common offenses against the police of the village, and the punishment of it always measured by the power or the passions of the kindred of the female. a voluntary elopement is of course more rigorously chastised. one of the wives of the borgne deserted him in favour of a man who had been her lover before the marriage, and who after some time left her, and she was obliged to return to her father's house. as soon as he heard it the borgne walked there and found her sitting near the fire: without noticing his wife, he began to smoke with the father; when they were joined by the old men of the village, who knowing his temper had followed in hopes of appeasing him. he continued to smoke quietly with them, till rising to return, he took his wife by the hair, led her as far as the door, and with a single stroke of his tomahawk put her to death before her father's eyes: then turning fiercely upon the spectators, he said that if any of her relations wished to avenge her, they might always find him at his lodge; but the fate of the woman had not sufficient interest to excite the vengeance of the family. the caprice or the generosity of the same chief gave a very different result to a similar incident which occurred some time afterwards. another of his wives eloped with a young man, who not being able to support her as she wished they both returned to the village, and she presented herself before the husband, supplicating his pardon for her conduct: the borgne sent for the lover: at the moment when the youth expected that he would be put to death, the chief mildly asked them if they still preserved their affection for each other; and on their declaring that want, and not a change of affection had induced them to return, he gave up his wife to her lover, with the liberal present of three horses, and restored them both to his favour. monday . the weather was cloudy in the morning and a little snow fell, the wind then shifted from southeast to northwest and the day became fair. it snowed again in the evening, but the next day, tuesday , was fair with the wind from the northwest. wednesday . we had a fine day, and a southwest wind. mr. m'kenzie came to see us, as did also many indians who are so anxious for battle-axes that our smiths have not a moment's leisure, and procure us an abundance of corn. the river rose a little to-day, and so continued. thursday . the wind being from the west, and the day fine, the whole party were employed in building boats and in shelling corn. friday . the day is clear, pleasant and warm. we take advantage of the fine weather to hang all our indian presents and other articles out to dry before our departure. saturday . the weather is cloudy, the wind from the southeast. a mr. garrow, a frenchman who has resided a long time among the ricaras and mandans, explained to us the mode in which they make their large beads, an art which they are said to have derived from some prisoners of the snake indian nation, and the knowledge of which is a secret even now confined to a few among the mandans and ricaras: the process is as follows: glass of different colours is first pounded fine and washed, till each kind, which is kept separate, ceases to stain the water thrown over it: some well seasoned clay, mixed with a sufficient quantity of sand to prevent its becoming very hard when exposed to heat, and reduced by water to the consistency of dough, is then rolled on the palm of the hand, till it becomes of the thickness wanted for the hole in the bead; these sticks of clay are placed upright, each on a little pedestal or ball of the same material about an ounce in weight, and distributed over a small earthen platter, which is laid on the fire for a few minutes, when they are taken off to cool: with a little paddle or shovel three or four inches long and sharpened at the end of the handle, the wet pounded glass is placed in the palm of the hand: the beads are made of an oblong form wrapped in a cylindrical form round the stick of clay which is laid crosswise over it, and gently rolled backwards and forwards till it becomes perfectly smooth. if it be desired to introduce any other colour, the surface of the bead is perforated with the pointed end of the paddle and the cavity filled with pounded glass of that colour: the sticks with the string of beads are then replaced on their pedestals, and the platter deposited on burning coals or hot embers: over the platter an earthern pot containing about three gallons, with a mouth large enough to cover the platter, is reversed, being completely closed except a small aperture at the top, through which are watched the bead: a quantity of old dried wood formed into a sort of dough or paste is placed round the pot so as almost to cover it, and afterwards set on fire: the manufacturer then looks through the small hole in the pot, till he sees the beads assume a deep red colour, to which succeeds a paler or whitish red, or they become pointed at the upper extremity; on which the fire is removed and the pot suffered to cool gradually: at length it is removed, the beads taken out, the clay in the hollow of them picked out with an awl or needle, and it is then fit for use. the beads thus formed are in great demand among the indians, and used as pendants to their ears and hair, and are sometimes worn round the neck. sunday . a windy but clear and pleasant day, the river rising a little and open in several places. our minnetaree interpreter chaboneau, whom we intended taking with us to the pacific, had some days ago been worked upon by the british traders, and appeared unwilling to accompany us, except on certain terms; such as his not being subject to our orders, and do duty, or to return whenever he chose. as we saw clearly the source of his hesitation, and knew that it was intended as an obstacle to our views, we told him that the terms were inadmissible, and that we could dispense with his services: he had accordingly left us with some displeasure. since then he had made an advance towards joining us, which we showed no anxiety to meet; but this morning he sent an apology for his improper conduct, and agreed to go with us and perform the same duties as the rest of the corps; we therefore took him again into our service. monday . the weather was cold and cloudy, the wind from the north. we were engaged in packing up the goods into eight divisions, so as to preserve a portion of each in case of accident. we hear that the sioux have lately attacked a party of assiniboins and knistenaux, near the assiniboin river, and killed fifty of them. tuesday . some snow fell last night, and this morning was cold, windy, and cloudy. shahaka and kagohami came down to see us, as did another indian with a sick child, to whom we gave some medicine. there appears to be an approaching war, as two parties have already gone from the minnetarees, and a third is preparing. wednesday . the morning was cold and cloudy, the wind high from the north, but the afternoon was pleasant. the canoes being finished, four of them were carried down to the river, at the distance of a mile and a half from where they were constructed. thursday . the remaining periogues were hauled to the same place, and all the men except three, who were left to watch them returned to the fort. on his way down, which was about six miles, captain clarke passed along the points of the high hills, where he saw large quantities of pumicestone on the foot, sides and tops of the hills, which had every appearance of having been at some period on fire. he collected specimens of the stone itself, the pumicestone, and the hard earth; and on being put into the furnace the hard earth melted and glazed, the pumicestone melted, and the hardstone became a pumicestone glazed. chapter vii. indian method of attacking the buffaloe on the ice--an enumeration of the presents sent to the president of the united states--the party are visited by a ricara chief--they leave their encampment, and proceed on their journey--description of the little missouri--some account of the assiniboins--their mode of burying the dead--whiteearth river described--great quantity of salt discovered on its banks--yellowstone river described--a particular account of the country at the confluence of the yellowstone and missouri--description of the missouri, the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks, islands, &c. friday . this was a clear pleasant day, with the wind from the s.s.w. we were visited by the second chief of the minnetarees, to whom we gave a medal and some presents, accompanied by a speech. mr. m'kenzie and mr. laroche also came to see us. they all took their leave next day. saturday . soon after their departure, a brother of the borgne with other indians came to the fort. the weather was fine, but in the evening we had the first rain that has fallen during the winter. sunday . the morning cloudy, but the afternoon fair, the wind from the n.e. we are employed in preparing for our journey. this evening swans and wild geese flew towards the n.e. monday . a fine day, the wind s.w. the river rose nine inches, and the ice began breaking away in several places, so as to endanger our canoes which we are hauling down to the fort. tuesday . the river rose only half an inch, and being choaked up with ice near the fort, did not begin to run till towards evening. this day is clear and pleasant. wednesday . the wind is still high from the s.w.: the ice which is ocasionally stopped for a few hours is then thrown over shallow sandbars when the river runs. we had all our canoes brought down, and were obliged to cauk and pitch very attentively the cracks so common in cottonwood. thursday . the day is fair. some obstacle above has prevented the ice from running. our canoes are now nearly ready, and we expect to set out as soon as the river is sufficiently clear to permit us to pass. friday . the weather clear, and the wind from n.w. the obstruction above gave way this morning, and the ice came down in great quantities; the river having fallen eleven inches in the course of the last twenty-four hours. we have had few indians at the fort for the last three or four days, as they are now busy in catching the floating buffaloe. every spring as the river is breaking up the surrounding plains are set on fire, and the buffaloe tempted to cross the river in search of the fresh grass which immediately succeeds to the burning: on their way they are often insulated on a large cake or mass of ice, which floats down the river: the indians now select the most favourable points for attack, and as the buffaloe approaches dart with astonishing agility across the trembling ice, sometimes pressing lightly a cake of not more than two feet square: the animal is of course unsteady, and his footsteps insecure on this new element, so that he can make but little resistance, and the hunter, who has given him his death wound, paddles his icy boat to the shore and secures his prey. saturday . the day was clear and pleasant, the wind n.w. and the ice running in great quantities. all our indian presents were again exposed to the air, and the barge made ready to descend the missouri. monday . early this morning it rained, and the weather continued cloudy during the day; the river rose nine inches, the ice not running so much as yesterday. several flocks of geese and ducks fly up the river. monday, april , . this morning there was a thunder storm, accompanied with large hail, to which succeeded rain for about half an hour. we availed ourselves of this interval to get all the boats in the water. at four o'clock p.m. it began to rain a second time, and continued till twelve at night. with the exception of a few drops at two or three different times, this is the first rain we have had since the th of october last. tuesday . the wind was high last night and this morning from n.w. and the weather continued cloudy. the mandans killed yesterday twenty-one elk, about fifteen miles below, but they were so poor as to be scarcely fit for use. wednesday . the weather is pleasant, though there was a white frost and some ice on the edge of the water. we were all engaged in packing up our baggage and merchandize. thursday . the day is clear and pleasant, though the wind is high from n.w. we now packed up in different boxes a variety of articles for the president, which we shall send in the barge. they consisted of a stuffed male and female antelope with their skeletons, a weasel, three squirrels from the rocky mountains, the skeleton of the prairie wolf, those of the white and gray hare, a male and female blaireau, or burrowing dog of the prairie, with a skeleton of the female, two burrowing squirrels, a white weasel, and the skin of the louservia, the horns of the mountain ram, or big-horn, a pair of large elk horns, the horns and tail of the black-tailed deer, and a variety of skins, such as those of the red fox, white hare, martin, yellow bear obtained from the sioux; also, a number of articles of indian dress, among which was a buffaloe robe, representing a battle fought about eight years since between the sioux and ricaras against the mandans and minnetarees, in which the combatants are represented on horseback. it has of late years excited much discussion to ascertain the period when the art of painting was first discovered: how hopeless all researches of this kind are, is evident from the foregoing fact. it is indebted for its origin to one of the strongest passions of the human heart; a wish to preserve the features of a departed friend, or the memory of some glorious exploit: this inherits equally the bosoms of all men either civilized or savage. such sketches, rude and imperfect as they are, delineate the predominant character of the savage nations. if they are peaceable and inoffensive, the drawings usually consist of local scenery, and their favourite diversions. if the band are rude and ferocious, we observe tomahawks, scalpingknives, bows, arrows, and all the engines of destruction. a mandan bow and quiver of arrows; also some ricara tobacco-seed and an ear of mandan corn; to these were added a box of plants, another of insects, and three cases containing a burrowing squirrel; a prairie hen, and four magpies, all alive. friday, th. fair and pleasant, but the wind high from the northwest: we were visited by a number of mandans, and are occupied in loading our boats in order to proceed on our journey. saturday, th. another fine day with a gentle breeze from the south. the mandans continue to come to the fort; and in the course of the day informed us of the arrival of a party of ricaras on the other side of the river. we sent our interpreter to inquire into their reason for coming; and in the morning, sunday, th, he returned with a ricara chief and three of his nation. the chief, whose name is kagohweto, or brave raven, brought a letter from mr. tabeau, mentioning the wish of the grand chiefs of the ricaras to visit the president, and requesting permission for himself and four men to join our boat when it descends; to which we consented, as it will then be manned with fifteen hands and be able to defend itself against the sioux. after presenting the letter, he told us that he was sent with ten warriors by his nation to arrange their settling near the mandans and minnetarees, whom they wished to join; that he considered all the neighboring nations friendly except the sioux, whose persecution they would no longer withstand, and whom they hoped to repel by uniting with the tribes in this quarter: he added that the ricaras intended to follow our advice and live in peace with all nations, and requested that we would speak in their favour to the assiniboin indians. this we willingly promised to do, and assured them that their great father would protect them and no longer suffer the sioux to have good guns, or to injure his dutiful children. we then gave him a small medal, a certificate of his good conduct, a carrot of tobacco, and some wampum, with which he departed for the mandan village well satisfied with his reception. having made all our arrangements, we left the fort about five o'clock in the afternoon. the party now consisted of thirty-two persons. besides ourselves were serjeants john ordway, nathaniel pryor, and patrick gass: the privates were william bratton, john colter, john collins, peter cruzatte, robert frazier, reuben fields, joseph fields, george gibson, silas goodrich, hugh hall, thomas p. howard, baptiste lapage, francis labiche, hugh m'neal, john potts, john shields, george shannon, john b. thompson, william werner, alexander willard, richard windsor, joseph whitehouse, peter wiser, and captain clarke's black servant york. the two interpreters, were george drewyer and toussaint chaboneau. the wife of chaboneau also accompanied us with her young child, and we hope may be useful as an interpreter among the snake indians. she was herself one of that tribe, but having been taken in war by the minnetarees, by whom she was sold as a slave to chaboneau, who brought her up and afterwards married her. one of the mandans likewise embarked with us, in order to go to the snake indians and obtain a peace with them for his countrymen. all this party with the baggage was stowed in six small canoes and two large periogues. we left the fort with fair pleasant weather though the northwest wind was high, and after making about four miles encamped on the north side of the missouri, nearly opposite the first mandan village. at the same time that we took our departure, our barge manned with seven soldiers, two frenchmen, and mr. gravelines as pilot, sailed for the united states loaded with our presents and despatches. monday, th. the day was clear and cool, the wind from the northwest, so that we travelled slowly. after breakfasting at the second mandan village we passed the mahaha at the mouth of knife river, a handsome stream about eighty yards wide. beyond this we reached the island which captain clarke had visited on the th october. this island has timber as well as the lowlands on the north, but its distance from the water had prevented our encamping there during the winter. from the head of this island we made three and a half miles to a point of wood on the north, passing a high bluff on the south, and having come about fourteen miles. in the course of the day one of our boats filled and was near sinking; we however saved her with the loss of a little biscuit and powder. tuesday, april . we set off as soon as it was light, and proceeded five miles to breakfast, passing a low ground on the south, covered with groves of cottonwood timber. at the distance of six miles, we reached on the north a hunting camp of minnetarees consisting of thirty lodges, and built in the usual form of earth and timber. two miles and a quarter farther, comes in on the same side miry creek, a small stream about ten yards wide, which, rising in some lakes near the mouse river, passes through beautiful level fertile plains without timber in a direction nearly southwest; the banks near its entrance being steep, and rugged on both sides of the missouri. three miles above this creek we came to a hunting party of minnetarees, who had prepared a park or inclosure and were waiting the return of the antelope: this animal, which in the autumn retires for food and shelter to the black mountains during the winter, recross the river at this season of the year, and spread themselves through the plains on the north of the missouri. we halted and smoked a short time with them, and then proceeded on through handsome plains on each side of the river, and encamped at the distance of twenty-three and a half miles on the north side: the day was clear and pleasant, the wind high from the south, but afterwards changed to a western steady breeze. the bluffs which we passed to-day are upwards of one hundred feet high, composed of a mixture of yellow clay and sand, with many horizontal strata of carbonated wood resembling pit-coal, from one to five feet in depth, and scattered through the bluff at different elevations, some as high as eighty feet above the water: the hills along the river are broken, and present every appearance of having been burned at some former period; great quantities of pumicestone and lava or rather earth, which seems to have been boiled and then hardened by exposure, being seen in many parts of these hills where they are broken and washed down into gullies by the rain and melting snow. a great number of brants pass up the river: there are some of them perfectly white, except the large feathers of the first and second joint of the wing which are black, though in every other characteristic they resemble common gray brant: we also saw but could not procure an animal that burrows in the ground, and similar in every respect to the burrowing squirrel, except that it is only one third of its size. this may be the animal whose works we have often seen in the plains and prairies; they resemble the labours of the salamander in the sand hills of south carolina and georgia, and like him, the animals rarely come above ground; they consist of a little hillock of ten or twelve pounds of loose ground which would seem to have been reversed from a pot, though no aperture is seen through which it could have been thrown: on removing gently the earth, you discover that the soil has been broken in a circle of about an inch and a half diameter, where the ground is looser though still no opening is perceptible. when we stopped for dinner the squaw went out, and after penetrating with a sharp stick the holes of the mice, near some drift wood, brought to us a quantity of wild artichokes, which the mice collect and hoard in large numbers; the root is white, of an ovate form, from one to three inches long, and generally of the size of a man's finger, and two, four, and sometimes six roots are attached to a single stalk. its flavour as well as the stalk which issues from it resemble those of the jerusalem artichoke, except that the latter is much larger. a large beaver was caught in a trap last night, and the musquitoes begin to trouble us. wednesday . we again set off early with clear pleasant weather, and halted about ten for breakfast, above a sandbank which was falling in, and near a small willow island. on both sides of the missouri, after ascending the hills near the water, one fertile unbroken plain extends itself as far as the eye can reach, without a solitary tree or shrub, except in moist situations or in the steep declivities of hills where they are sheltered from the ravages of fire. at the distance of twelve miles we reached the lower point of a bluff on the south; which is in some parts on fire and throws out quantities of smoke which has a strong sulphurous smell, the coal and other appearances in the bluffs being like those described yesterday: at one o'clock we overtook three frenchmen who left the fort a few days before us, in order to make the first attempt on this river of hunting beaver, which they do by means of traps: their efforts promise to be successful for they have already caught twelve which are finer than any we have ever seen: they mean to accompany us as far as the yellowstone river in order to obtain our protection against the assiniboins who might attack them. in the evening we encamped on a willow point to the south opposite to a bluff, above which a small creek falls in, and just above a remarkable bend in the river to the southwest, which we called the little basin. the low grounds which we passed to-day possess more timber than is usual, and are wider: the current is moderate, at least not greater than that of the ohio in high tides; the banks too fall in but little; so that the navigation comparatively with that lower down the missouri is safe and easy. we were enabled to make eighteen and a half miles: we saw the track of a large white bear, there were also a herd of antelopes in the plains; the geese and swan are now feeding in considerable quantities on the young grass in the low prairies; we shot a prairie hen, and a bald eagle of which there were many nests in the tall cottonwood trees; but could procure neither of two elk which were in the plain. our old companions the musquitoes have renewed their visit, and gave us much uneasiness. thursday, th. we set out at daylight, and after passing bare and barren hills on the south, and a plain covered with timber on the north, breakfasted at five miles distance: here we were regaled with a deer brought in by the hunters, which was very acceptable as we had been for several days without fresh meat; the country between this and fort mandan being so frequently disturbed by hunters that the game has become scarce. we then proceeded with a gentle breeze from the south which carried the periogues on very well; the day was however so warm that several of the men worked with no clothes except round the waist, which is the less inconvenient as we are obliged to wade in some places owing to the shallowness of the river. at seven miles we reached a large sandbar making out from the north. we again stopped for dinner, after which we went on to a small plain on the north covered with cottonwood where we encamped, having made nineteen miles. the country around is much the same as that we passed yesterday: on the sides of the hills, and even on the banks of the rivers, as well as on the sandbars, is a white substance which appears in considerable quantities on the surface of the earth, and tastes like a mixture of common salt with glauber salts: many of the streams which come from the foot of the hills, are so strongly impregnated with this substance, that the water has an unpleasant taste and a purgative effect. a beaver was caught last night by one of the frenchmen; we killed two geese, and saw some cranes, the largest bird of that kind common to the missouri and mississippi, and perfectly white except the large feathers on the two first joints of the wing which are black. under a bluff opposite to our encampment we discovered some indians with horses, whom we supposed were minnetarees, but the width of the river prevented our speaking to them. friday, th. we set off early and passed a high range of hills on the south side, our periogues being obliged to go over to the south in order to avoid a sandbank which was rapidly falling in. at six miles we came to at the lower side of the entrance of the little missouri, where we remained during the day for the purpose of making celestial observations. this river empties itself on the south side of the missouri, one thousand six hundred and ninety-three miles from its confluence with the mississippi. it rises to the west of the black mountains, across the northern extremity of which it finds a narrow rapid passage along high perpendicular banks, then seeks the missouri in a northeastern direction, through a broken country with highlands bare of timber, and the low grounds particularly supplied with cottonwood, elm, small ash, box, alder, and an undergrowth of willow, redwood, sometimes called red or swamp-willow, the redberry and chokecherry. in its course it passes near the northwest side of the turtle mountain, which is said to be only twelve or fifteen miles from its mouth in a straight line a little to the south of west, so that both the little missouri and knife river have been laid down too far southwest. it enters the missouri with a bold current, and is one hundred and thirty-four yards wide, but its greatest depth is two feet and a half, and this joined to its rapidity and its sandbars, make the navigation difficult except for canoes, which may ascend it for a considerable distance. at the mouth, and as far as we could discern from the hills between the two rivers about three miles from their junction, the country is much broken, the soil consisting of a deep rich dark coloured loam, intermixed with a small proportion of fine sand and covered generally with a short grass resembling blue grass. in its colour, the nature of its bed, and its general appearance, it resembles so much the missouri as to induce a belief that the countries they water are similar in point of soil. from the mandan villages to this place the country is hilly and irregular, with the same appearance of glauber salts and carbonated wood, the low grounds smooth, sandy, and partially covered with cottonwood and small ash; at some distance back there are extensive plains of a good soil, but without timber or water. we found great quantities of small onions which grow single, the bulb of an oval form, white, about the size of a bullet with a leaf resembling that of the chive. on the side of a neighbouring hill, there is a species of dwarf cedar: it spreads its limbs along the surface of the earth, which it almost conceals by its closeness and thickness, and is sometimes covered by it, having always a number of roots on the under side, while on the upper are a quantity of shoots which with their leaves seldom rise higher than six or eight inches; it is an evergreen, its leaf more delicate than that of the common cedar, though the taste and smell is the same. the country around has been so recently hunted that the game are extremely shy, so that a white rabbit, two beaver, a deer, and a bald eagle were all that we could procure. the weather had been clear, warm, and pleasant in the morning, but about three we had a squall of high wind and rain with some thunder, which lasted till after sunset when it again cleared off. saturday . we set out at sunrise, and at nine o'clock having the wind in our favour went on rapidly past a timbered low ground on the south, and a creek on the north at the distance of nine miles, which we called onion creek, from the quantity of that plant which grows in the plains near it: this creek is about sixteen yards wide at a mile and a half above its mouth, it discharges more water than is usual for creeks of that size in this country, but the whole plain which it waters is totally destitute of timber. the missouri itself widens very remarkably just above the junction with the little missouri: immediately at the entrance of the latter, it is not more than two hundred yards wide, and so shallow that it may be passed in canoes with setting poles, while a few miles above it is upwards of a mile in width: ten miles beyond onion creek we came to another, discharging itself on the north in the centre of a deep bend: on ascending it for about a mile and a half, we found it to be the discharge of a pond or small lake, which seemed to have been once the bed of the missouri: near this lake were the remains of forty-three temporary lodges which seem to belong to the assiniboins, who are now on the river of the same name. a great number of swan and geese were also in it, and from this circumstance we named the creek goose creek, and the lake by the same name: these geese we observe do not build their nests on the ground or in sandbars, but in the tops of lofty cottonwood trees: we saw some elk and buffaloe to-day but at too great a distance to obtain any of them, though a number of the carcases of the latter animal are strewed along the shores, having fallen through the ice, and been swept along when the river broke up. more bald eagles are seen on this part of the missouri than we have previously met with; the small or common hawk, common in most parts of the united states, are also found here: great quantities of geese are feeding in the prairies, and one flock of white brant or goose with black wings, and some gray brant with them pass up river, and from their flight they seem to proceed much farther to the northwest. we killed two antelopes which were very lean, and caught last night two beaver: the french hunters who had procured seven, thinking the neighborhood of the little missouri a convenient hunting ground for that animal, remained behind there: in the evening we encamped in a beautiful plain on the north thirty feet above the river, having made twenty-two and a half miles. sunday . we set off early with pleasant and fair weather: a dog joined us, which we suppose had strayed from the assiniboin camp on the lake. at two and a half miles we passed timbered low grounds and a small creek: in these low grounds are several uninhabited lodges built with the boughs of the elm, and the remains of two recent encampments, which from the hoops of small kegs found in them we judged could belong to assiniboins only, as they are the only missouri indians who use spirituous liquors: of these they are so passionately fond that it forms their chief inducement to visit the british on the assiniboin, to whom they barter for kegs of rum their dried and pounded meat, their grease, and the skins of large and small wolves, and small foxes. the dangerous exchange is transported to their camps with their friends and relations, and soon exhausted in brutal intoxication: so far from considering drunkenness as disgraceful, the women and children are permitted and invited to share in these excesses with their husbands and fathers, who boast how often their skill and industry as hunters has supplied them with the means of intoxication: in this, as in their other habits and customs, they resemble the sioux from whom they are descended: the trade with the assiniboins and knistenaux is encouraged by the british, because it procures provision for their _engages_ on their return from rainy lake to the english river and the athabasky country where they winter; these men being obliged during that voyage to pass rapidly through a country but scantily supplied with game. we halted for dinner near a large village of burrowing squirrels, who we observe generally select a southeasterly exposure, though they are sometimes found in the plains. at ten and a quarter miles we came to the lower point of an island, which from the day of our arrival there we called sunday island: here the river washes the bases of the hills on both sides and above the island, which with its sandbar extends a mile and a half: two small creeks fall in from the south; the uppermost of these, which is the largest, we called chaboneau's creek, after our interpreter who once encamped on it several weeks with a party of indians. beyond this no white man had ever been except two frenchmen, one of whom lapage is with us, and who having lost their way straggled a few miles further, though to what point we could not ascertain: about a mile and a half beyond this island we encamped on a point of woodland on the north, having made in all fourteen miles. the assiniboins have so recently left the river that game is scarce and shy. one of the hunters shot at an otter last evening; a buffaloe too was killed, and an elk, both so poor as to be almost unfit for use; two white bear were also seen, and a muskrat swimming across the river. the river continues wide and of about the same rapidity as the ordinary current of the ohio. the low grounds are wide, the moister parts containing timber, the upland extremely broken, without wood, and in some places seem as if they had slipped down in masses of several acres in surface. the mineral appearances of salts, coal, and sulphur, with the burnt hill and pumicestone continue, and a bituminous water about the colour of strong lye, with the taste of glauber salts and a slight tincture of allum. many geese were feeding in the prairies, and a number of magpies who build their nest much like those of the blackbird in trees, and composed of small sticks, leaves and grass, open at top: the egg is of a bluish brown color, freckled with reddish brown spots. we also killed a large hooting owl resembling that of the united states, except that it was more booted and clad with feathers. on the hills are many aromatic herbs, resembling in taste, smell and appearance the sage, hysop, wormwood, southern wood, juniper and dwarf cedar; a plant also about two or three feet high, similar to the camphor in smell and taste, and another plant of the same size, with a long, narrow, smooth, soft leaf, of an agreeable smell and flavour, which is a favourite food of the antelope, whose necks are often perfumed by rubbing against it. monday . we proceeded under a fine breeze from the south, and clear pleasant weather. at seven miles we reached the lower point of an island in a bend to the south, which is two miles in length. captain clarke, who went about nine miles northward from the river reached the high grounds, which, like those we have seen, are level plains without timber; here he observed a number of drains, which descending from the hills pursue a northeast course, and probably empty into the mouse river, a branch of the assiniboin, which from indian accounts approaches very near to the missouri at this place. like all the rivulets of this neighbourhood these drains were so strongly impregnated with mineral salts that they are not fit to drink. he saw also the remains of several camps of assiniboins; the low grounds on both sides of the river are extensive, rich, and level. in a little pond on the north, we heard for the first time this season the croaking of frogs, which exactly resembles that of the small frogs in the united states: there are also in these plains great quantities of geese, and many of the grouse, or prairie hen, as they are called by the n.w. company traders; the note of the male, as far as words can represent it, is cook, cook, cook, coo, coo, coo, the first part of which both male and female use when flying; the male too drums with his wings when he flies in the same way, though not so loud as the pheasant; they appear to be mating. some deer, elk, and goats were in the low grounds, and buffaloe on the sand beaches, but they were uncommonly shy; we also saw a black bear, and two white ones. at fifteen miles we passed on the north side a small creek twenty yards wide, which we called goatpen creek, from a park or enclosure for the purpose of catching that animal, which those who went up the creek found, and which we presume to have been left by the assiniboins. its water is impregnated with mineral salts, and the country through which it flows consists of wide and very fertile plains, but without any trees. we encamped at the distance of twenty-three miles, on a sandpoint to the south; we passed in the evening a rock in the middle of the river, the channel of which a little above our camp, is confined within eighty yards. tuesday . the morning was clear, the wind light from the s.e. the country presents the same appearance of low plains and meadows on the river, bounded a few miles back by broken hills, which end in high level fertile lands, the quantity of timber is however increasing. the appearance of minerals continues as usual, and to-day we found several stones which seemed to have been wood, first carbonated and then petrified by the water of the missouri, which has the same effect on many vegetable substances. there is indeed reason to believe that the strata of coal in the hills cause the fire and appearances which they exhibit of being burned. whenever these marks present themselves in the bluffs on the river, the coal is seldom seen, and when found in the neighborhood of the strata of burnt earth, the coal with the sand and sulphurous matter usually accompanying it, is precisely at the same height and nearly of the same thickness with those strata. we passed three small creeks or rather runs, which rise in the hills to the north. numbers of geese, and few ducks chiefly of the mallard and bluewinged teal, many buffaloe, elk and deer were also observed, and in the timbered low grounds this morning we were surprised to observe a great quantity of old hornets' nests: we encamped in a point of woods on the south, having come eighteen miles, though the circuits which we were obliged to make around sandbars very much increased the real distance. wednesday, april . we set off early, the weather being fine, and the wind so favourable as to enable us to sail the greater part of the course. at ten and three quarter miles we passed a creek ten yards wide on the south; at eighteen miles a little run on the north, and at night encamped in a woody point on the south. we had travelled twenty-six miles through a country similar to that of yesterday, except that there were greater appearances of burnt hills, furnishing large quantities of lava and pumicestone, of the last of which we observe some pieces floating down the river, as we had previously done, as low as the little missouri. in all the copses of wood are the remains of the assiniboin encampments; around us are great quantities of game, such as herds of buffaloe, elk, antelopes, some deer and wolves, the tracks of bears, a curlue was also seen, and we obtained three beaver, the flesh of which is more relished by the men than any other food which we have. just before we encamped we saw some tracks of indians, who had passed twenty-four hours before, and left four rafts, and whom we supposed to be a band of assiniboins on their return from war against the indians on the rocky mountains. thursday . we had again a pleasant day, and proceeded on with a westerly wind, which however changed to n.w. and blew so hard that we were obliged to stop at one o'clock and remain four hours, when it abated and we then continued our course. we encamped about dark on a woody bank having made thirteen miles. the country presented the usual variety of highlands interspersed with rich plains. in one of these we observed a species of pea bearing a yellow flower, which is now in blossom, the leaf and stalk resembling the common pea. it seldom rises higher than six inches, and the root is perennial. on the rose bushes we also saw a quantity of the hair of the buffaloe, which had become perfectly white by exposure, and resembled the wool of the sheep, except that it was much finer and more soft and silky. a buffaloe which we killed yesterday had shed his long hair, and that which remained was about two inches long, thick, fine, and would have furnished five pounds of wool, of which we have no doubt an excellent cloth may be made. our game to-day was a beaver, a deer, an elk, and some geese. the river has been crooked all day and bearing towards the south. on the hills we observed considerable quantities of dwarf juniper, which seldom grows higher than three feet. we killed in the course of the day an elk, three geese and a beaver. the beaver on this part of the missouri are in greater quantities, larger and fatter, and their fur is more abundant and of a darker colour than any we had hitherto seen: their favourite food seems to be the bark of the cottonwood and willow, as we have seen no other species of tree that has been touched by them, and these they gnaw to the ground through a diameter of twenty inches. the next day, friday, th, the wind was so high from northwest that we could not proceed, but being less violent on saturday, th, we set off about seven o'clock, and had nearly lost one of the canoes as we left the shore, by the falling in of a large part of the bank. the wind too became again so strong that we could scarcely make one mile an hour, and the sudden squalls so dangerous to the small boats, that we stopped for the night among some willows on the north, not being able to advance more than six and a half miles. in walking through the neighbouring plains we found a fine fertile soil covered with cottonwood, some box, alder, ash, red elm, and an undergrowth of willow, rosebushes, honeysuckle, red willow, gooseberry, currant, and serviceberries, and along the foot of the hills great quantities of hysop. our hunters procured elk and deer which are now lean, and six beaver which are fatter and more palatable. along the plain there were also some indian camps; near one of these was a scaffold about seven feet high, on which were two sleds with their harness, and under it the body of a female, carefully wrapped in several dressed buffaloe skins; near it lay a bag made of buffaloe skin, containing a pair of moccasins, some red and blue paint, beaver's nails, scrapers for dressing hides, some dried roots, several plaits of sweet grass, and a small quantity of mandan tobacco. these things as well as the body itself had probably fallen down by accident, as the custom is to place them on the scaffold. at a little distance was the body of a dog not yet decayed, who had met this reward for having dragged thus far in the sled the corpse of his mistress, to whom according to the indian usage he had been sacrificed. sunday, st. last night there was a hard white frost, and this morning the weather cold, but clear and pleasant: in the course of the day however it became cloudy and the wind rose. the country is of the same description as within the few last days. we saw immense quantities of buffaloe, elk, deer, antelopes, geese, and some swan and ducks, out of which we procured three deer, four buffaloe calves, which last are equal in flavour to the most delicious veal; also two beaver, and an otter. we passed one large and two small creeks on the south side, and reached at sixteen miles the mouth of whiteearth river, coming in from the north. this river before it reaches the low grounds near the missouri, is a fine bold stream sixty yards wide, and is deep and navigable, but it is so much choked up at the entrance by the mud of the missouri, that its mouth is not more than ten yards wide. its course, as far as we could discern from the neighbouring hills, is nearly due north, passing through a beautiful and fertile valley, though without a tree or bush of any description. half a mile beyond this river we encamped on the same side below a point of highland, which from its appearance we call cut bluff. monday, d. the day clear and cold: we passed a high bluff on the north and plains on the south, in which were large herds of buffaloe, till breakfast, when the wind became so strong ahead that we proceeded with difficulty even with the aid of the towline. some of the party now walked across to the whiteearth river, which here at the distance of four miles from its mouth approaches very near to the missouri. it contains more water than is usual in streams of the same size at this season, with steep banks about ten or twelve feet high, and the water is much clearer than that of the missouri; the salts which have been mentioned as common on the missouri, are here so abundant that in many places the ground appears perfectly white, and from this circumstance it may have derived its name; it waters an open country and is navigable almost to its source, which is not far from the saskaskawan, and judging from its size and course, it is probable that it extends as far north as the fiftieth degree of latitude. after much delay in consequence of the high wind, we succeeded in making eleven miles, and encamped in a low ground on the south covered with cottonwood and rabbitberries. the hills of the missouri near this place exhibit large irregular broken masses of rocks and stones, some of which, although two hundred feet above the water, seem at some remote period to have been subject to its influence, being apparently worn smooth by the agitation of the water. these rocks and stones consist of white and gray granite, a brittle black rock, flint, limestone, freestone, some small specimens of an excellent pebble, and occasionally broken stratas of a black coloured stone like petrified wood, which make good whetstones. the usual appearances of coal, or carbonated wood, and pumicestone still continue, the coal being of a better quality and when burnt affords a hot and lasting fire, emitting very little smoke or flame. there are huge herds of deer, elk, buffaloe, and antelopes in view of us: the buffaloe are not so shy as the rest, for they suffer us to approach within one hundred yards before they run, and then stop and resume their pasture at a very short distance. the wolves to-day pursued a herd of them, and at length caught a calf that was unable to keep up with the rest; the mothers on these occasions defending their young as long as they can retreat as fast as the herd, but seldom returning any distance to seek for them. tuesday . a clear and pleasant morning, but at nine o'clock the wind became so high that the boats were in danger of upsetting; we therefore were forced to stop at a place of safety till about five in the afternoon, when the wind being lower we proceeded and encamped on the north at the distance of thirteen and a half miles: the party on shore brought us a buffaloe calf and three blacktailed deer: the sand on the river has the same appearances as usual, except that the quantity of wood increases. wednesday . the wind blew so high during the whole day that we were unable to move; such indeed was its violence, that although we were sheltered by high timber the waves wet many articles in the boats: the hunters went out and returned with four deer, two elk, and some young wolves of the small kind. the party are very much afflicted with sore eyes, which we presume are occasioned by the vast quantities of sand which are driven from the sandbars in such clouds as often to hide from us the view of the opposite bank. the particles of this sand are so fine and light that it floats for miles in the air like a column of thick smoke, and is so penetrating that nothing can be kept free from it, and we are compelled to eat, drink, and breathe it very copiously. to the same cause we attribute the disorder of one of our watches, although her cases are double and tight; since without any defect in its works, that we can discover, it will not run for more than a few minutes without stopping. thursday . the wind moderated this morning, but was still high; we therefore set out early, the weather being so cold that the water froze on the oars as we rowed, and about ten o'clock the wind increased so much that we were obliged to stop. this detention from the wind and the reports from our hunters of the crookedness of the river, induced us to believe that we were at no great distance from the yellowstone river. in order therefore to prevent delay as much as possible, captain lewis determined to go on by land in search of that river, and make the necessary observations, so as to be enabled to proceed on immediately after the boats should join him; he therefore landed about eleven o'clock on the south side, accompanied by four men; the boats were prevented from going until five in the afternoon, when they went on a few miles further and encamped for the night at the distance of fourteen and a half miles. friday . we continued our voyage in the morning and by twelve o'clock encamped at eight miles distance, at the junction of the missouri and yellowstone rivers; where we were soon joined by captain lewis. on leaving us yesterday he pursued his route along the foot of the hills, which he ascended at the distance of eight miles; from these the wide plains watered by the missouri and the yellowstone spread themselves before the eye, occasionally varied with the wood of the banks, enlivened by the irregular windings of the two rivers, and animated by vast herds of buffaloe, deer, elk, and antelope. the confluence of the two rivers was concealed by the wood, but the yellowstone itself was only two miles distant to the south. he therefore descended the hills and encamped on the bank of the river, having killed as he crossed the plain four buffaloes; the deer alone are shy and retire to the woods, but the elk, antelope, and buffaloe suffered him to approach them without alarm, and often followed him quietly for some distance. this morning he sent a man up the river to examine it, while he proceeded down to the junction: the ground on the lower side of the yellowstone near its mouth, is flat, and for about a mile seems to be subject to inundation, while that at the point or junction, as well as on the opposite side of the missouri, is at the usual height of ten or eighteen feet above the water, and therefore not overflown. there is more timber in the neighbourhood of this place, and on the missouri, as far below as the whiteearth river, than on any other part of the missouri on this side of the chayenne: the timber consists principally of cottonwood, with some small elm, ash, and box alder. on the sandbars and along the margin of the river grows the small-leafed willow; in the low grounds adjoining are scattered rosebushes three or four feet high, the redberry, serviceberry and redwood. the higher plains are either immediately on the river, in which case they are generally timbered, and have an undergrowth like that of the low grounds, with the addition of the broad-leafed willow, gooseberry, chokecherry, purple currant, and honeysuckle; or they are between the low grounds and the hills, and for the most part without wood or any thing except large quantities of wild hysop; this plant rises about two feet high, and like the willow of the sandbars is a favourite food of the buffaloe, elk, deer, grouse, porcupine, hare, and rabbit. this river which had been known to the french as the roche jaune, or as we have called it the yellowstone, rises according to indian information in the rocky mountains; its sources are near those of the missouri and the platte, and it may be navigated in canoes almost to its head. it runs first through a mountainous country, but in many parts fertile and well timbered; it then waters a rich delightful land, broken into vallies and meadows, and well supplied with wood and water till it reaches near the missouri open meadows and low grounds, sufficiently timbered on its borders. in the upper country its course is represented as very rapid, but during the two last and largest portions, its current is much more gentle than that of the missouri, which it resembles also in being turbid though with less sediment. the man who was sent up the river, reported in the evening that he had gone about eight miles, that during that distance the river winds on both sides of a plain four or five miles wide, that the current was gentle and much obstructed by sandbars, that at five miles he had met with a large timbered island, three miles beyond which a creek falls in on the s.e. above a high bluff, in which are several strata of coal. the country as far as he could discern, resembled that of the missouri, and in the plain he met several of the bighorn animals, but they were too shy to be obtained. the bed of the yellowstone, as we observed it near the mouth, is composed of sand and mud, without a stone of any kind. just above the confluence we measured the two rivers, and found the bed of the missouri five hundred and twenty yards wide, the water occupying only three hundred and thirty, and the channel deep: while the yellowstone, including its sandbar, occupied eight hundred and fifty-eight yards, with two hundred and ninety-seven yards of water: the deepest part of the channel is twelve feet, but the river is now falling and seems to be nearly at its summer height. april . we left the mouth of the yellowstone. from the point of junction a wood occupies the space between the two rivers, which at the distance of a mile comes within two hundred and fifty yards of each other. there a beautiful low plain commences, and widening as the rivers recede, extends along each of them for several miles, rising about half a mile from the missouri into a plain twelve feet higher than itself. the low plain is a few inches above high water mark, and where it joins the higher plain there is a channel of sixty or seventy yards in width, through which a part of the missouri when at its greatest height passes into the yellowstone. at two and a half miles above the junction and between the high and low plain is a small lake, two hundred yards wide, extending for a mile parallel with the missouri along the edge of the upper plain. at the lower extremity of this lake, about four hundred yards from the missouri, and twice that distance from the yellowstone, is a situation highly eligible for a trading establishment; it is in the high plain which extends back three miles in width, and seven or eight miles in length, along the yellowstone, where it is bordered by an extensive body of woodland, and along the missouri with less breadth, till three miles above it is circumscribed by the hills within a space four yards in width. a sufficient quantity of limestone for building may easily be procured near the junction of the rivers; it does not lie in regular stratas, but is in large irregular masses, of a light colour and apparently of an excellent quality. game too is very abundant, and as yet quite gentle; above all, its elevation recommends it as preferable to the land at the confluence of the rivers, which their variable channels may render very insecure. the n.w. wind rose so high at eleven o'clock, that we were obliged to stop till about four in the afternoon, when we proceeded till dusk. on the south a beautiful plain separates the two rivers, till at about six miles there is a timbered piece of low ground, and a little above it bluffs, where the country rises gradually from the river; the situations on the north more high and open. we encamped on that side, the wind, the sand which it raised, and the rapidity of the current having prevented our advancing more than eight miles; during the latter part of the day the river becomes wider and crowded with sandbars: although the game is in such plenty we kill only what is necessary for our subsistence. for several days past we have seen great numbers of buffaloe lying dead along the shore, and some of them partly devoured by the wolves; they have either sunk through the ice during the winter, or been drowned in attempting to cross, or else, after crossing to some high bluff, found themselves too much exhausted either to ascend or swim back again, and perished for want of food; in this situation we found several small parties of them. there are geese too in abundance, and more bald-eagles than we have hitherto observed; the nests of these last being always accompanied by those of two or three magpies, who are their inseparable attendants. chapter viii. unusual appearance of salt--the formidable character of the white bear--porcupine river described--beautiful appearance of the surrounding country--immense quantities of game--milk river described--extraordinary character of bigdry river--an instance of uncommon tenacity of life in a white bear--narrow escape of one of the party from that animal--a still more remarkable instance--muscleshell river described. sunday . the day was clear and pleasant, and the wind having shifted to southeast, we could employ our sails, and went twenty-four miles to a low ground on the north opposite to steep bluffs: the country on both sides is much broken, the hills approaching nearer to the river, and forming bluffs, some of a white and others of a red colour, and exhibiting the usual appearances of minerals, and some burnt hills though without any pumicestone; the salts are in greater quantities than usual, and the banks and sandbars are covered with a white incrustation like frost. the low grounds are level, fertile and partially timbered, but are not so wide as for a few days past. the woods are now green, but the plains and meadows seem to have less verdure than those below: the only streams which we met to-day are two small runs on the north and one on the south, which rise in the neighbouring hills, and have very little water. at the distance of eighteen miles the missouri makes a considerable bend to the southeast: the game is very abundant, the common, and mule or blacktailed deer, elk, buffaloe, antelope, brown bear, beaver, and geese. the beaver have committed great devastation among the trees, one of which, nearly three feet in diameter, has been gnawed through by them. monday . we proceeded early with a moderate wind: captain lewis who was on shore with one hunter met about eight o'clock two white bears: of the strength and ferocity of this animal, the indians had given us dreadful accounts: they never attack him but in parties of six or eight persons, and even then are often defeated with the loss of one or more of the party. having no weapons but bows and arrows, and the bad guns with which the traders supply them, they are obliged to approach very near to the bear; and as no wound except through the head or heart is mortal, they frequently fall a sacrifice if they miss their aim. he rather attacks than avoids a man, and such is the terror which he has inspired, that the indians who go in quest of him paint themselves and perform all the superstitious rites customary when they make war on a neighbouring nation. hitherto those we had seen did not appear desirous of encountering us, but although to a skilful rifleman the danger is very much diminished, yet the white bear is still a terrible animal: on approaching these two, both captain lewis and the hunter fired and each wounded a bear: one of them made his escape; the other turned upon captain lewis and pursued him seventy or eighty yards, but being badly wounded he could not run so fast as to prevent him from reloading his piece, which he again aimed at him, and a third shot from the hunter brought him to the ground: he was a male not quite full grown, and weighed about three hundred pounds: the legs are somewhat longer than those of the black bear, and the talons and tusks much larger and longer. the testicles are also placed much farther forward and suspended in separate pouches from two to four inches asunder, while those of the black bear are situated back between the thighs and in a single pouch like those of the dog: its colour is a yellowish brown, the eyes small, black, and piercing, the front of the fore legs near the feet is usually black, and the fur is finer, thicker, and deeper than that of the black bear: add to which, it is a more furious animal, and very remarkable for the wounds which it will bear without dying. we are surrounded with deer, elk, buffaloe, antelopes, and their companions the wolves, who have become more numerous and make great ravages among them: the hills are here much more rough and high, and almost overhang the banks of the river. there are greater appearances of coal than we have hitherto seen, the stratas of it being in some places six feet thick, and there are stratas of burnt earth, which are always on the same level with those of coal. in the evening after coming twenty-five miles we encamped at the entrance of a river which empties itself into a bend on the north side of the missouri: this stream which we called martha's river, is about fifty yards wide, with water for fifteen yards, the banks are of earth, and steep, though not high, and the bed principally of mud. captain clarke, who ascended it for three miles, found that it continued of the same width with a gentle current, and pursuing its course about north ° west, through an extensive, fertile, and beautiful valley, but without a single tree. the water is clear, and has a brownish yellow tint; at this place the highlands which yesterday and to-day had approached so near the river became lower, and receding from the water left a valley seven or eight miles wide. tuesday . the wind was high from the north during last evening and continued so this morning: we however continued, and found the river more winding than usual and with a number of sand islands and bars, on one of which last we encamped at the distance of twenty-four miles. the low grounds are fertile and extensive but with very little timber, and that cottonwood, very bad of its kind, being too small for planks, and broken and dead at the top and unsound in the centre of the trunk. we passed some ancient lodges of driftwood which do not appear to have been lately inhabited. the game continues abundant: we killed the largest male elk we have yet seen; on placing it in its natural erect position, we found that it measured five feet three inches from the point of the hoof to the top of the shoulder. the antelopes are yet lean and the females are with young: this fleet and quick-sighted animal is generally the victim of its curiosity: when they first see the hunters they run with great velocity; if he lies down on the ground and lifts up his arm, his hat, or his foot, the antelope returns on a light trot to look at the object, and sometimes goes and returns two or three times till they approach within reach of the rifle; so too they sometimes leave their flock to go and look at the wolves who crouch down, and if the antelope be frightened at first repeat the same manoeuvre, and sometimes relieve each other till they decoy it from the party when they seize it. but generally the wolves take them as they are crossing the rivers, for although swift of foot they are not good swimmers. wednesday, may . the wind was in our favour and we were enabled to use the sails till twelve o'clock, when the wind became so high and squally that we were forced to come to at the distance of ten miles on the south, in a low ground stocked with cottonwood, and remain there during the day; one of the canoes being separated from us, and not able to cross over in consequence of the high waves. the country around is more pleasant than that through which we had passed for several days, the hills being lower, the low grounds wider and better supplied with timber, which consists principally of cottonwood: the undergrowth willow on the banks and sandbars, rosebushes, redwillow, and the broad-leafed willow in the low plains, while the high country on both sides is one extensive plain without wood, though the soil is a dark, rich, mellow loam. our hunters killed a buffaloe, an elk, a goat, and two beaver, and also a bird of the plover kind. thursday, d. the wind continued high during the night, and at daylight it began to snow and did not stop till ten o'clock, when the ground was covered an inch deep, forming a striking contrast with the vegetation which is now considerably advanced; some flowers having put forth, and the cottonwood leaves as large as a dollar. the wind lulled about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we then proceeded along wide fertile low grounds and high level plains, and encamped at the distance of four miles. our game to-day was deer, elk, and buffaloe: we also procured three beaver who are quite gentle, as they have not been hunted, but when the hunters are in pursuit they never leave their huts during the day: this animal we esteem a great delicacy, particularly the tail, which when boiled resembles in flavor the flesh tongues and sounds of the codfish, and is generally so large as to afford a plentiful meal for two men. one of the hunters in passing near an old indian camp found several yards of scarlet cloth, suspended on the bough of a tree as a sacrifice to the deity by the assiniboins: the custom of making these offerings being common among that people as indeed among all the indians on the missouri. the air was sharp this evening; the water froze on the oars as we rowed, and in the morning. friday, d, the weather became quite cold, the ice was a quarter of an inch thick in the kettle, and the snow still continued on the hills though it has melted from the plains. the wind too continued high from the west, but not so violently as to prevent our going on. at two miles from our encampment we passed a curious collection of bushes about thirty feet high and ten or twelve in diameter, tied in the form of a fascine and standing on end in the middle of the low ground: this too we supposed to have been left by the indians as a religious sacrifice: at twelve o'clock the usual hour we halted for dinner. the low grounds on the river are much wider than common, sometimes extending from five to nine miles to the highlands, which are much lower than heretofore, not being more than fifty or sixty feet above the lower plain: through all this valley traces of the ancient bed of the river are every where visible, and since the hills have become lower, the stratas of coal, burnt earth, and pumicestone have in a great measure ceased, there being in fact none to-day. at the distance of fourteen miles we reached the mouth of a river on the north, which from the unusual number of porcupines near it, we called porcupine river. this is a bold and beautiful stream one hundred and twelve yards wide, though the water is only forty yards at its entrance: captain clarke who ascended it several miles and passed it above where it enters the highlands, found it continued nearly of the same width and about knee deep, and as far as he could distinguish for twenty miles from the hills, its course was from a little to the east of north. there was much timber on the low grounds: he found some limestone also on the surface of the earth in the course of his walk, and saw a range of low mountains at a distance to the west of north, whose direction was northwest; the adjoining country being every where level, fertile, open, and exceedingly beautiful. the water of this river is transparent, and is the only one that is so of all those that fall into the missouri: before entering a large sandbar through which it discharges itself, its low grounds are formed of a stiff blue and black clay, and its banks which are from eight to ten feet high and seldom if ever overflow are composed of the same materials. from the quantity of water which this river contains, its direction, and the nature of the country through which it passes, it is not improbable that its sources may be near the main body of the saskaskawan, and as in high water it can be no doubt navigated to a considerable distance, it may be rendered the means of intercourse with the athabasky country, from which the northwest company derive so many of their valuable furs. a quarter of a mile beyond this river a creek falls in on the south, to which on account of its distance from the mouth of the missouri, we gave it the name of two-thousand mile creek: it is a bold stream with a bed thirty yards wide. three miles and a half above porcupine river, we reached some high timber on the north, and encamped just above an old channel of the river, which is now dry. we saw vast quantities of buffaloe, elk, deer, principally of the long tailed kind, antelopes, beaver, geese, ducks, brant, and some swan. the porcupines too are numerous, and so careless and clumsy that we can approach very near without disturbing them as they are feeding on the young willows; towards evening we also found for the first time, the nest of a goose among some driftwood, all that we have hitherto seen being on the top of a broken tree on the forks, and invariably from fifteen to twenty feet or more in height. saturday . we were detained till nine in order to repair the rudder of one of the boats, and when we set out the wind was ahead; at six and a half miles we passed a small creek in a deep bend on the south with a sand island opposite to it, and then passing along an extensive plain which gradually rises from the north side of the river, encamped at the distance of eighteen miles in a point of woodland on the north: the river is this day wider than usual, and crowded with sandbars on all sides: the country is level, fertile, and beautiful, the low grounds extensive and contain a much greater portion of timber than is common: indeed all the forepart of the day the river was bordered with timber on both sides, a circumstance very rare on the missouri, and the first that has occurred since we left the mandans. there are as usual vast quantities of game, and extremely gentle; the male buffaloe particularly will scarcely give way to us, and as we approach will merely look at us for a moment, as something new, and then quietly resume their feeding. in the course of the day we passed some old indian hunting camps, one of which consisted of two large lodges fortified with a circular fence, twenty or thirty feet in diameter, and made of timber laid horizontally, the beams overlaying each other to the height of five feet, and covered with the trunks and limbs of trees that have drifted down the river: the lodges themselves are formed by three or more strong sticks about the size of a man's leg or arm, and twelve feet long, which are attached at the top by a whith of small willows, and spreading out so as to form at the base a circle of ten or fourteen feet in diameter: against these are placed pieces of driftwood and fallen timber, usually in three ranges one on the other, and the interstices are covered with leaves, bark, and straw, so as to form a conical figure about ten feet high, with a small aperture in one side for the door. it is, however, at best a very imperfect shelter against the inclemencies of the seasons. sunday . we had a fine morning, and the wind being from the east we used our sails. at the distance of five miles we came to a small island, and twelve miles farther encamped on the north, at the distance of seventeen miles. the country like that of yesterday is beautiful in the extreme. among the vast quantities of game around us, we distinguish a small species of goose differing considerably from the common canadian goose; its neck, head, and beak, being much thicker, larger, and shorter in proportion to its size, which is nearly a third smaller; the noise too resembling more that of the brant or of a young goose that has not yet fully acquired its note; in other respects its colour, habits, and the number of feathers in the tail, the two species correspond; this species also associates in flocks with the large geese, but we have not seen it pair off with them. the white brant is about the size of the common brown brant, or two thirds of the common goose, than which it is also six inches shorter from the extremity of the wings, though the beak, head, and neck are larger and stronger: the body and wings are of a beautiful pure white, except the black feathers of the first and second joints of the wings; the beak and legs are of a reddish or flesh-coloured white, the eye of a moderate size, the pupil of a deep sea-green incircled with a ring of yellowish brown, the tail consists of sixteen feathers equally long, the flesh is dark and as well as its note differs but little from those of the common brant, whom in form and habits it resembles, and with whom it sometimes unites in a common flock; the white brant also associate by themselves in large flocks, but as they do not seem to be mated or paired off, it is doubtful whether they reside here during the summer for the purpose of rearing their young. the wolves are also very abundant, and are of two species. first, the small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies, which are found in almost all the open plains. it is of an intermediate size between the fox and dog, very delicately formed, fleet and active. the ears are large, erect, and pointed, the head long and pointed, like that of the fox; the tail long and bushy; the hair and fur of a pale reddish brown colour, though much coarser than that of the fox; the eye of a deep sea-green colour, small and piercing; the talons rather longer than those of the wolf of the atlantic states, which animal as far as we can perceive is not to be found on this side of the river platte. these wolves usually associate in bands of ten or twelve, and are rarely if ever seen alone, not being able singly to attack a deer or antelope. they live and rear their young in burrows, which they fix near some pass or spot much frequented by game, and sally out in a body against any animal which they think they can overpower, but on the slightest alarm retreat to their burrows making a noise exactly like that of a small dog. the second species is lower, shorter in the legs and thicker than the atlantic wolf; their colour, which is not affected by the seasons, is of every variety of shade, from a gray or blackish brown to a cream coloured white. they do not burrow, nor do they bark, but howl, and they frequent the woods and plains, and skulk along the skirts of the buffaloe herds, in order to attack the weary or wounded. captain clarke and one of the hunters met this evening the largest brown bear we have seen. as they fired he did not attempt to attack, but fled with a most tremendous roar, and such was its extraordinary tenacity of life, that although he had five balls passed through his lungs and five other wounds, he swam more than half across the river to a sandbar, and survived twenty minutes. he weighed between five and six hundred pounds at least, and measured eight feet seven inches and a half from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, five feet ten inches and half round the breast, three feet eleven inches round the neck, one foot eleven inches round the middle of the foreleg, and his talons, five on each foot, were four inches and three eighths in length. it differs from the common black bear in having its talons much longer and more blunt; its tail shorter; its hair of a reddish or bay brown, longer, finer, and more abundant; his liver, lungs, and heart, much larger even in proportion to his size, the heart particularly being equal to that of a large ox; his maw ten times larger; his testicles pendant from the belly and in separate pouches four inches apart: besides fish and flesh he feeds on roots, and every kind of wild fruit. the antelope are now lean and with young, so that they may readily be caught at this season, as they cross the river from s.w. to n.e. monday . the morning being fair and the wind favourable, we set sail, and proceeded on very well the greater part of the day. the country continues level, rich, and beautiful; the low grounds wide and comparatively with the other parts of the missouri, well supplied with wood. the appearances of coal, pumicestone, and burnt earth have ceased, though the salts of tartar or vegetable salts continue on the banks and sandbars, and sometimes in the little ravines at the base of the low hills. we passed three streams on the south; the first at the distance of one mile and a half from our camp was about twenty-five yards wide, but although it contained some water in standing pools it discharges none; this we called littledry creek, about eight miles beyond which is bigdry creek; fifty yards wide, without any water; the third is six miles further, and has the bed of a large river two hundred yards wide, yet without a drop of water: like the other two this stream, which we called bigdry river, continues its width undiminished as far as we can discern. the banks are low, this channel formed of a fine brown sand, intermixed with a small proportion of little pebbles of various colours, and the country around flat and without trees. they had recently discharged their waters, and from their appearance and the nature of the country through which they pass, we concluded that they rose in the black mountains, or in the level low plains which are probably between this place and the mountains; that the country being nearly of the same kind and of the same latitude, the rains of spring melting the snows about the same time, conspire with them to throw at once vast quantities of water down these channels, which are then left dry during the summer, autumn, and winter, when there is very little rain. we had to-day a slight sprinkling. but it lasted a very short time. the game is in such plenty that it has become a mere amusement to supply the party with provisions. we made twenty-five miles to a clump of trees on the north where we passed the night. tuesday . the morning was pleasant and we proceeded at an early hour. there is much driftwood floating, and what is contrary to our expectation, although the river is rising, the water is somewhat clearer than usual. at eleven o'clock the wind became so high that one of the boats was nearly sunk, and we were obliged to stop till one, when we proceeded on, and encamped on the south, above a large sandbar projecting from the north, having made fifteen miles. on the north side of the river are the most beautiful plains we have yet seen: they rise gradually from the low grounds on the water to the height of fifty or sixty feet, and then extend in an unbroken level as far as the eye can reach: the hills on the south are more broken and higher, though at some distance back the country becomes level and fertile. there are no more appearances of burnt earth, coal, or pumicestone, though that of salt still continues, and the vegetation seems to have advanced but little since the twenty-eighth of last month: the game is as abundant as usual. the bald-eagles, of whom we see great numbers, probably feed on the carcases of dead animals, for on the whole missouri we have seen neither the blue-crested fisher, nor the fishing-hawks, to supply them with their favourite food, and the water of the river is so turbid that no bird which feeds exclusively on fish can procure a subsistence. wednesday . a light breeze from the east carried us sixteen miles, till we halted for dinner at the entrance of a river on the north. captain clarke who had walked on the south, on ascending a high point opposite to its entrance discovered a level and beautiful country which it watered; that its course for twelve or fifteen miles was n.w. when it divided into two nearly equal branches, one pursuing a direction nearly north, the other to the w. of n.w: its width at the entrance is one hundred and fifty yards, and on going three miles up, captain lewis found it to be of the same breadth, and sometimes more; it is deep, gentle, and has a large quantity of water; its bed is principally of mud, the banks abrupt, about twelve feet in height, and formed of a dark, rich loam and blue clay; the low grounds near it are wide and fertile, and possess a considerable proportion of cottonwood and willow. it seems to be navigable for boats and canoes, and this circumstance joined to its course and the quantity of water, which indicates that it passes through a large extent of country, we are led to presume that it may approach the saskashawan and afford a communication with that river. the water has a peculiar whiteness, such as might be produced by a tablespoon full of milk in a dish of tea, and this circumstance induced us to call it milk river. in the evening we had made twenty-seven miles, and encamped on the south. the country on that side consists in general of high broken hills, with much gray, black and brown granite scattered over the surface of the ground. at a little distance from the river there is no timber on either side, the wood being confined as below to the margin of the river; so that unless the contrary is particularly mentioned, it is always understood that the upland is perfectly naked, and that we consider the low grounds well timbered if even a fifth be covered with wood. the wild liquorice is found in great abundance on these hills, as is also the white apple. as usual we are surrounded by buffaloe, elk, common and blacktailed deer, beaver, antelopes and wolves. we observed a place where an indian had recently taken the hair off an antelope's skin, and some of the party thought they distinguished imperfectly some smoke and indian lodges up milk river, marks which we are by no means desirous of realizing, as the indians are probably assiniboins, and might be very troublesome. thursday, th. we again had a favourable wind and sailed along very well. between four and five miles we passed a large island in a deep bend to the north, and a large sandbar at the upper point. at fifteen and a quarter miles we reached the bed of a most extraordinary river which presents itself on the south: though as wide as the missouri itself, that is about half a mile, it does not discharge a drop of water and contains nothing but a few standing pools. on ascending it three miles we found an eminence from which we saw the direction of the channel, first south for ten or twelve miles, then turning to the east of southeast as far as we could see; it passes through a wide valley without timber, and the surrounding country consists of waving low hills interspersed with some handsome level plains; the banks are abrupt and consist of a black or yellow clay; or of a rich sandy loam, but though they do not rise more than six or eight feet above the bed, they exhibit no appearance of being overflowed: the bed is entirely composed of a light brown sand, the particles of which like those of the missouri are extremely fine. like the dry rivers we passed before, this seemed to have discharged its waters recently, but the watermark indicated that its greatest depth had not been more than two feet: this stream, if it deserve the name, we called bigdry river. about a mile below is a large creek on the same side, which is also perfectly dry: the mineral salts and quartz are in large quantities near this neighbourhood. the sand of the missouri from its mouth to this place has been mixed with a substance which we had presumed to be a granulated chalk, but which is most probably this quartz. the game is now in great quantities, particularly the elk and buffaloe, which last is so gentle that the men are obliged to drive them out of the way with sticks and stones. the ravages of the beaver are very apparent: in one place the timber was entirely prostrated for a space of three acres in front on the river and one in depth, and great part of it removed, although the trees were in large quantities, and some of them as thick as the body of a man. at the distance of twenty-four miles we encamped, after making twenty-five and a half miles, at the entrance of a small creek in a bend on the north; to which we gave the name of werner's creek after one of our men. for several days past the river has been as wide as it generally is near its mouth, but as it is much shallower, crowded with sandbars, and the colour of the water has become much clearer, we do not yet despair of reaching the rock mountains, for which we are very anxious. friday, th. we had not proceeded more than four and a quarter miles when the violence of the wind forced us to halt for the day under some timber in a bend on the south side. the wind continued high, the clouds thick and black, and we had a slight sprinkling of rain several times in the course of the day. shortly after our landing a dog came to us, and as this induced us to believe that we are near the hunting grounds of the assiniboins, who are a vicious ill-disposed people, it was necessary to be on our guard: we therefore inspected our arms which we found in good order, and sent several hunters to scour the country, but they returned in the evening having seen no tents, nor any recent tracks of indians. biles and imposthumes are very common among the party, and sore eyes continue in a greater or less degree with all of us; for the imposthumes we use emollient poultices, and apply to the eyes a solution of two grains of white vitriol and one of sugar of lead with one ounce of water. saturday, th. the wind blew very hard in the night, but having abated this morning we went on very well, till in the afternoon the wind arose and retarded our progress; the current too was strong, the river very crooked, and the banks as usual constantly precipitating themselves in large masses into the water. the highlands are broken and approach nearer the river than they do below. the soil however of both hills and low grounds appear as fertile as that further down the river: it consists of a black looking loam with a small portion of sand, which cover the hills and bluffs to the depth of twenty or thirty feet, and when thrown in the water dissolves as readily as loaf-sugar, and effervesces like marle; there are also great appearances of quartz and mineral salts: the first is most commonly seen in the faces of the bluffs, the second is found on the hills as well as the low grounds, and in the gullies which come down from the hills; it lies in a crust of two or three inches in depth, and may be swept up with a feather in large quantities. there is no longer any appearance of coal burnt earth or pumicestone. we saw and visited some high hills on the north side about three miles from the river, whose tops were covered with the pitch-pine: this in the first pine we have seen on the missouri, and it is like that of virginia, except that the leaves are somewhat longer; among this pine is also a dwarf cedar, sometimes between three or four feet high, but generally spreading itself like a vine along the surface of the earth, which it covers very closely, putting out roots from the under side. the fruit and smell resemble those of the common red cedar, but the leaf is finer and more delicate. the tops of the hills where these plants grow have a soil quite different from that just described, the basis of it is usually yellow or white clay, and the general appearance light coloured, sandy, and barren, some scattering tufts of sedge being almost its only herbage. about five in the afternoon one of our men who had been afflicted with biles, and suffered to walk on shore, came running to the boats with loud cries and every symptom of terror and distress: for some time after we had taken him on board he was so much out of breath as to be unable to describe the cause of his anxiety, but he at length told us that about a mile and a half below he had shot a brown bear which immediately turned and was in close pursuit of him; but the bear being badly wounded could not overtake him. captain lewis with seven men immediately went in search of him, and having found his track followed him by the blood for a mile, and found him concealed in some thick brushwood, and shot him with two balls through the skull. though somewhat smaller than that killed a few days ago, he was a monstrous animal and a most terrible enemy: our man had shot him through the centre of the lungs, yet he had pursued him furiously for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, and with his talons had prepared himself a bed in the earth two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when they found him, which was at least two hours after he received the wound. the wonderful power of life which these animals possess render them dreadful: their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found eleven inches long and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming; and we had rather encounter two indians than meet a single brown bear. there is no chance of killing them by a single shot unless the ball goes through the brains, and this is very difficult on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead, and the sharp projection of the centre of the frontal bone, which is also thick. our encampment was on the south at the distance of sixteen miles from that of last night; the fleece and skin of the bear were a heavy burden for two men, and the oil amounted to eight gallons. sunday, th. the weather being clear and calm, we set out early. within a mile we came to a small creek, about twenty yards wide, emptying itself on the south. at eleven and three quarter miles we reached a point of woodland on the south, opposite to which is a creek of the same width as the last, but with little water, which we called pine creek. at eighteen and three quarter miles we came to on the south opposite to the lower point of a willow island, situated in a deep bend of the river to the southeast: here we remained during the day, the wind having risen at twelve so high that we could not proceed: it continued to blow violently all night, with occasional sprinklings of rain from sunset till midnight. on both sides of the river the country is rough and broken, the low grounds becoming narrower; the tops of the hills on the north exhibits some scattered pine and cedar, on the south the pine has not yet commenced, though there is some cedar on the sides of the hills and in the little ravines. the chokecherry, the wild hysop, sage, fleshy-leafed thorn, and particularly the aromatic herb on which the antelope and hare feed, are to be found on the plains and hills. the soil of the hills has now altered its texture considerably: their bases, like that of the river plains, is as usual a rich, black loam, while from the middle to the summits they are composed of a light brown-coloured earth, poor and sterile, and intermixed with a coarse white sand. monday, th. the wind was so strong that we could not proceed till about one o'clock, when we had to encounter a current rather stronger than usual. in the course of a mile and a half we passed two small creeks on the south, one of eighteen the other of thirty yards width, but neither of them containing any water, and encamped on the south at a point of woodland, having made only seven miles. the country is much the same as yesterday, with little timber in the low grounds, and a small quantity of pine and cedar on the northern hills. the river however continues to grow clearer, and this as well as the increased rapidity induces us to hope for some change of country. the game is as usual so abundant that we can get without difficulty all that is necessary. tuesday, th. there was some fog on the river this morning, which is a very rare occurrence. at the distance of a mile and a half we reached an island in a bend on the north, which continued for about half a mile, when at the head of it a large creek comes in on the north, to which we gave the name of gibson's creek. at seven and a half miles is a point of rocks on the south, above a creek on the same side, which we called sticklodge creek: five miles further is a large creek on the south, which like the two others has no running water; and at sixteen and a half miles a timbered point on the north, where we encamped for the night. the country is like that of yesterday, except that the low grounds are wider; there are also many high black bluffs along the banks: the game too is in great abundance. towards evening the men in the hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds, about three hundred paces from the river: six of them, all good hunters, immediately went to attack him, and concealing themselves by a small eminence came unperceived within forty paces of him: four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of them directly through the lungs: the furious animal sprung up and ran openmouthed upon them; as he came near, the two hunters who had reserved their fire gave him two wounds, one of which breaking his shoulder retarded his motion for a moment; but before they could reload he was so near that they were obliged to run to the river, and before they reached it he had almost overtaken them: two jumped into the canoe; the other four separated, and concealing themselves in the willows fired as fast as each could reload: they struck him several times, but instead of weakening the monster each shot seemed only to direct him towards the hunter, till at last he pursued two of them so closely, that they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the river; the bear sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters on shore shot him in the head and finally killed him: they dragged him to the shore, and found that eight balls had passed through him in different directions; the bear was old and the meat tough, so that they took the skin only, and rejoined us at camp, where we had been as much terrified by an accident of a different kind. this was the narrow escape of one of our canoes containing all our papers, instruments, medicine, and almost every article indispensible for the success of our enterprise. the canoe being under sail, a sudden squall of wind struck her obliquely, and turned her considerably. the man at the helm, who was unluckily the worst steersman of the party, became alarmed, and instead of putting her before the wind luffed her up into it. the wind was so high that it forced the brace of the squaresail out of the hand of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the canoe, which would have turned bottom upwards but for the resistance made by the awning. such was the confusion on board, and the waves ran so high, that it was half a minute before she righted, and then nearly full of water, but by baling out she was kept from sinking until they rowed ashore; besides the loss of the lives of three men who not being able to swim would probably have perished, we should have been deprived of nearly every thing necessary for our purpose, at a distance of between two and three thousand miles from any place where we could supply the deficiency. wednesday . as soon as a slight shower of rain had passed, we spread out the articles to dry; but the weather was so damp and cloudy that they derived little benefit from exposure. our hunters procured us deer, buffaloe, and beaver. thursday . the morning was fair and we were enabled to dry and repack our stores: the loss we sustained is chiefly in the medicines, many articles of which are completely spoiled, and others considerably injured. at four o'clock we embarked, and after making seven miles encamped on the north near some wood: the country on both sides is broken, the low grounds narrower and with less timber, though there are some scattered pine and cedar on the steep declivities of the hills, which are now higher than usual. a white bear tore the coat of one of the men which he had left on shore; and two of the party wounded a large panther who was feasting on a deer. we caught some lean antelopes as they were swimming the river, and killed two buffaloe. friday . we set out early and proceeded on very well; the banks being firm and the shore bold we were enabled to use the towline, which, whenever the banks will permit it, is the safest and most expeditious mode of ascending the river, except under a sail with a steady breeze. at the distance of ten and a half miles we came to the mouth of a small creek on the south, below which the hills approach the river, and continue near it during the day: three miles further is a large creek on the north, and again six and three quarter miles beyond it, another large creek to the south, which contain a small quantity of running water of a brackish taste. the last we called rattlesnake creek from our seeing that animal near it. although no timber can be observed on it from the missouri, it throws out large quantities of driftwood, among which were some pieces of coal brought down by the stream. we continued on one mile and a quarter, and encamped on the south, after making twenty and a half miles. the country in general is rugged, the hills high, with their summits and sides partially covered with pine and cedar, and their bases on both sides washed by the river: like those already mentioned the lower part of these hills is a dark rich loam, while the upper region for one hundred and fifty feet consists of a whitish brown sand, so hard as in many places to resemble stone, though in fact very little stone or rock of any kind is to be seen on the hills. the bed of the missouri is much narrower than usual, being not more than between two and three hundred yards in width, with an uncommonly large proportion of gravel; but the sandbars, and low points covered with willows have almost entirely disappeared: the timber on the river consists of scarcely any thing more than a few scattered cottonwood trees. the saline incrustations along the banks and the foot of the hills are more abundant than usual. the game is in great quantities, but the buffaloe are not so numerous as they were some days ago: two rattlesnakes were seen to-day, and one of them killed: it resembles those of the middle atlantic states, being about two feet six inches long, of a yellowish brown on the back and sides, variegated with a row of oval dark brown spots lying transversely on the back from the neck to the tail, and two other rows of circular spots of the same colour on the sides along the edge of the scuta: there are one hundred and seventy-six scuta on the belly, and seventeen on the tail. captain clarke saw in his excursions a fortified indian camp which appeared to have been recently occupied, and was, we presumed, made by a party of minnetarees who went to war last march. late at night we were roused by the sergeant of the guard in consequence of a fire which had communicated to a tree overhanging our camp. the wind was so high, that we had not removed the camp more than a few minutes when a large part of the tree fell precisely on the spot it had occupied, and would have crushed us if we had not been alarmed in time. saturday . the wind continued high from the west, but by means of the towline we were able to make nineteen miles, the sandbars being now few in number, the river narrow and the current gentle; the willow has in a great measure disappeared, and even the cottonwood, almost the only timber remaining, is growing scarce. at twelve and three quarter miles we came to a creek on the north, which was perfectly dry. we encamped on the south opposite the lower point of an island. sunday . the last night was disagreeably cold; and in the morning there was a very heavy fog which obscured the river so much as to prevent our seeing the way. this is the first fog of any degree of thickness which we have experienced: there was also last evening a fall of dew, the second which we have seen since entering this extensive open country. about eight o'clock the fog dispersed, and we proceeded with the aid of the towline: the island near which we were encamped, was three quarters of a mile in length. the country resembles that of yesterday, high hills closely bordering the river. in the afternoon the river became crooked, and contained more sawyers or floating timber than we have seen in the same space since leaving the platte. our game consisted of deer, beaver, and elk: we also killed a brown bear, who, although shot through the heart, ran at his usual pace nearly a quarter of a mile before he fell. at twenty-one miles is a willow island half a mile in length, on the north side, a quarter of a mile beyond which is a shoal of rapid water under a bluff: the water continued very strong for some distance beyond it: at half a mile we came to a sandbar on the north, from which to our place of encampment was another half mile, making in all twenty-two and a quarter miles. the saline substances which we have mentioned continue to appear; and the men are much afflicted with sore eyes and imposthumes. monday . as usual we set out early, and the banks being convenient for that purpose, we used the towline: the river is narrow and crooked, the water rapid, and the country much like that of yesterday: at the distance of two and a quarter miles we passed a large creek with but little water, to which we gave the name of blowingfly creek, from the quantity of those insects found in its neighbourhood. they are extremely troublesome, infesting our meat whilst cooking and at our meals. after making seven miles we reached by eleven o'clock the mouth of a large river on the south, and encamped for the day at the upper point of its junction with the missouri. this stream which we suppose to be that called by the minnetarees the muscleshell river, empties into the missouri two thousand two hundred and seventy miles above the mouth of the latter river, and in latitude ° ' " north. it is one hundred and ten yards wide, and contains more water than streams of that size usually do in this country; its current is by no means rapid, and there is every appearance of its being susceptible of navigation by canoes for a considerable distance: its bed is chiefly formed of coarse sand and gravel, with an occasional mixture of black mud; the banks abrupt and nearly twelve feet high, so that they are secure from being overflowed: the water is of a greenish yellow cast and much more transparent than that of the missouri, which itself, though clearer than below, still retains its whitish hue and a portion of its sediment. opposite to the point of junction the current of the missouri is gentle, and two hundred and twenty-two yards in width, the bed principally of mud (the little sand remaining being wholly confined to the points) and still too deep to use the setting pole. if this be, as we suppose, the muscleshell, our indian information is, that it rises in the first chain of the rocky mountains not far from the sources of the yellowstone, whence in its course to this place it waters a high broken country, well timbered particularly on its borders, and interspersed with handsome fertile plains and meadows. we have reason, however, to believe, from their giving a similar account of the timber where we now are, that the timber of which they speak is similar to that which we have seen for a few days past, which consists of nothing more than a few straggling small pine and dwarf cedar, on the summits of the hills, nine-tenths of the ground being totally destitute of wood, and covered with a short grass, aromatic herbs, and an immense quantity of prickly pears: though the party who explored it for eight miles represented low grounds on the river as well supplied with cottonwood of a tolerable size, and of an excellent soil. they also reported that the country is broken and irregular like that near our camp; that about five miles up a handsome river about fifty yards wide, which we named after chaboneau's wife, sahcajahweah, or birdwoman's river, discharges itself into the muscleshell on the north or upper side. another party found at the foot of the southern hills, about four miles from the missouri, a fine bold spring, which in this country is so rare that since we left the mandans we have found only one of a similar kind, and that was under the bluffs on the south side of the missouri, at some distance from it, and about five miles below the yellowstone: with this exception all the small fountains of which we have met a number are impregnated with the salts which are so abundant here, and with which the missouri is itself most probably tainted, though to us who have been so much accustomed to it, the taste is not perceptible. among the game to-day we observed two large owls, with remarkably long feathers resembling ears on the sides of the head, which we presume are the hooting owls, though they are larger and their colours are brighter than those common in the united states. tuesday . the morning being very fine we were able to employ the rope and made twenty miles to our camp on the north. the shores of the river are abrupt, bold and composed of a black and yellow clay, the bars being formed of black mud, and a small proportion of fine sand; the current strong. in its course the missouri makes a sudden and extensive bend towards the south, to receive the waters of the muscleshell. the neck of land thus formed, though itself high is lower than the surrounding country, and makes a waving valley extending for a great distance to the northward, with a fertile soil which, though without wood, produces a fine turf of low grass, some herbs and vast quantities of prickly pear. the country on the south is high, broken, and crowned with some pine and dwarf cedar; the leaf of this pine is longer than that of the common pitch or red pine of virginia, the cone is longer and narrower, the imbrications wider and thicker, and the whole frequently covered with rosin. during the whole day the bends of the river are short and sudden; and the points covered with some cottonwood, large or broad leaved willow, and a small quantity of redwood; the undergrowth consisting of wild roses, and the bushes of the small honeysuckle. the mineral appearances on the river are as usual. we do not find the grouse or prairie hen so abundant as below, and think it probable that they retire from the river to the plains during this season. the wind had been moderate during the fore part of the day, but continued to rise towards evening, and about dark veered to northeast, and blew a storm all night. we had encamped on a bar on the north, opposite the lower point of an island, which from this circumstance we called windy island; but we were so annoyed by clouds of dust and sand that we could neither eat nor sleep, and were forced to remove our camp at eight o'clock to the foot of an adjoining hill, which shielded us in some degree from the wind: we procured elk, deer, and buffaloe. wednesday . the wind blew so violently that it was deemed prudent to wait till it had abated, so that we did not leave the camp till ten o'clock, when we proceeded principally by the towline. we passed windy island which is about three quarters of a mile in length: and five and a half miles above it a large island in a bend to the north: three miles beyond this we came to the entrance of a creek twenty yards wide, though with little water, which we called grouse creek, from observing near its mouth a quantity of the prairie hen with pointed tails, the first we have seen in such numbers for several days: the low grounds are somewhat wider than usual and apparently fertile, though the short and scanty grass on the hills does not indicate much richness of soil. the country around is not so broken as that of yesterday, but is still waving, the southern hills possessing more pine than usual, and some appearing on the northern hills, which are accompanied by the usual salt and mineral appearances. the river continues about two hundred and fifty yards wide, with fewer sandbars, and the current more gentle and regular. game is no longer in such abundance, since leaving the muscleshell. we have caught very few fish on this side of the mandans, and these were the white catfish of two to five pounds. we killed a deer and a bear: we have not seen in this quarter the black bear, common in the united states and on the lower parts of the missouri, nor have we discerned any of their tracks, which may easily be distinguished by the shortness of its talons from the brown, grizzly, or white bear, all of which seem to be of the same family, which assumes those colours at different seasons of the year. we halted earlier than usual, and encamped on the north, in a point of woods, at the distance of sixteen and a half miles. chapter ix. the party continue their route--description of judith river--indian mode of taking the buffaloe--slaughter river described--phenomena of nature--of walls on the banks of the missouri--the party encamp on the banks of the river to ascertain which of the streams constitute the missouri--captain lewis leaves the party to explore the northern fork, and captain clarke explores the southern--the surrounding country described in the route of captain lewis--narrow escape of one of his party. thursday . last night the frost was severe, and this morning the ice appeared along the edges of the river, and the water froze on our oars. at the distance of a mile we passed the entrance of a creek on the north, which we named teapot creek; it is fifteen yards wide, and although it has running water at a small distance from its mouth, yet it discharges none into the missouri, resembling, we believe, most of the creeks in this hilly country, the waters of which are absorbed by the thirsty soil near the river. they indeed afford but little water in any part, and even that is so strongly tainted with salts that it is unfit for use, though all the wild animals are very fond of it. on experiment it was found to be moderately purgative, but painful to the intestines in its operation. this creek seems to come from a range of low hills, which run from east to west for seventy miles, and have their eastern extremity thirty miles to the north of teapot creek. just above its entrance is a large assemblage of the burrowing squirrels on the north side of the river. at nine miles we reached the upper point of an island in a bend on the south, and opposite the centre of the island, a small dry creek on the north. half a mile further a small creek falls in on the same side; and six and a half miles beyond this another on the south. at four and a half we passed a small island in a deep bend to the north, and on the same side in a deep northeastern bend of the river another small island. none of these creeks however possessed any water, and at the entrances of the islands, the two first are covered with tall cottonwood timber, and the last with willows only. the river has become more rapid, the country much the same as yesterday, except that there is rather more rocks on the face of the hills, and some small spruce pine appears among the pitch. the wild roses are very abundant and now in bloom; they differ from those of the united states only in having the leaves and the bush itself of a somewhat smaller size. we find the musquitoes troublesome, notwithstanding the coolness of the morning. the buffaloe is scarce to-day, but the elk, deer, and antelope, are very numerous. the geese begin to lose the feathers of the wings, and are unable to fly. we saw five bears, one of which we wounded, but in swimming from us across the river, he become entangled in some driftwood and sank. we formed our camp on the north opposite to a hill and a point of wood in a bend to the south, having made twenty-seven miles. friday . the water in the kettles froze one eighth of an inch during the night; the ice appears along the margin of the river, and the cottonwood trees which have lost nearly all their leaves by the frost, are putting forth other buds. we proceeded with the line principally till about nine o'clock, when a fine breeze sprung up from the s.e. and enabled us to sail very well, notwithstanding the rapidity of the current. at one mile and a half is a large creek thirty yards wide, and containing some water which it empties on the north side, over a gravelly bed, intermixed with some stone. a man who was sent up to explore the country returned in the evening, after having gone ten miles directly towards the ridge of mountains to the north, which is the source of this as well as of teapot creek. the air of these highlands is so pure, that objects appear much nearer than they really are, so that although our man went ten miles without thinking himself by any means half way to the mountains, they do not from the river appear more than fifteen miles distant; this stream we called northmountain creek. two and a half miles higher is a creek on the south which is fifteen yards wide, but without any water, and to which we gave the name of littledog creek, from a village of burrowing squirrels opposite to its entrance, that being the name given by the french watermen to those animals. three miles from this a small creek enters on the north, five beyond which is an island a quarter of a mile in length, and two miles further a small river: this falls in on the south, is forty yards wide, and discharges a handsome stream of water; its bed rocky with gravel and sand, and the banks high: we called it southmountain creek, as from its direction it seemed to rise in a range of mountains about fifty or sixty miles to the s.w. of its entrance. the low grounds are narrow and without timber; the country high and broken; a large portion of black rock, and brown sandy rock appears in the face of the hills, the tops of which are covered with scattered pine, spruce and dwarf cedar: the soil is generally poor, sandy near the tops of the hills, and nowhere producing much grass, the low grounds being covered with little else than the hysop, or southern wood, and the pulpy-leafed thorn. game is more scarce, particularly beaver, of which we have seen but few for several days, and the abundance or scarcity of which seems to depend on the greater or less quantity of timber. at twenty-four and a half miles we reached a point of woodland on the south, where we observed that the trees had no leaves, and encamped for the night. the high country through which we have passed for some days, and where we now are, we suppose to be a continuation of what the french traders called the cote noire or black hills. the country thus denominated consists of high broken irregular hills and short chains of mountains; sometimes one hundred and twenty miles in width, sometimes narrower, but always much higher than the country on either side. they commence about the head of the kanzas, where they diverge; the first ridge going westward, along the northern shore of the arkansaw; the second approaches the rock mountains obliquely in a course a little to the w. of n.w. and after passing the platte above its forks, and intersecting the yellowstone near the bigbend, crosses the missouri at this place, and probably swell the country as far as the saskashawan, though as they are represented much smaller here than to the south, they may not reach that river. saturday, th. two canoes which were left behind yesterday to bring on the game, did not join us till eight o'clock this morning, when we set out with the towline, the use of which the banks permitted. the wind was, however, ahead, the current strong, particularly round the points against which it happened to set, and the gullies from the hills having brought down quantities of stone, those projected into the river, forming barriers for forty or fifty feet round, which it was very difficult to pass. at the distance of two and three quarter miles we passed a small island in a deep bend on the south, and on the same side a creek twenty yards wide, but with no running water. about a mile further is an island between two and three miles in length, separated from the northern shore by a narrow channel, in which is a sand island at the distance of half a mile from its lower extremity. to this large island we gave the name of teapot island; two miles above which is an island a mile long, and situated on the south. at three and a half miles is another small island, and one mile beyond it a second three quarters of a mile in length, on the north side. in the middle of the river two miles above this is an island with no timber, and of the same extent as this last. the country on each side is high, broken, and rocky; the rock being either a soft brown sandstone, covered with a thin stratum of limestone, or else a hard black rugged granite, both usually in horizontal stratas, and the sandrock overlaying the other. salts and quartz as well as some coal and pumicestone still appear: the bars of the river are composed principally of gravel; the river low grounds are narrow, and afford scarcely any timber; nor is there much pine on the hills. the buffaloe have now become scarce: we saw a polecat this evening, which was the first for several days: in the course of the day we also saw several herds of the big-horned animals among the steep cliffs on the north, and killed several of them. at the distance of eighteen miles we encamped on the south, and the next morning, sunday, th, proceeded on at an early hour by means of the towline, using our oars merely in passing the river, to take advantage of the best banks. there are now scarcely any low grounds on the river, the hills being high and in many places pressing on both sides to the verge of the water. the black rock has given place to a very soft sandstone, which seems to be washed away fast by the river, and being thrown into the river renders its navigation more difficult than it was yesterday: above this sandstone, and towards the summits of the hills, a hard freestone of a yellowish brown colour shows itself in several stratas of unequal thickness, frequently overlaid or incrusted by a thin stratum of limestone, which seems to be formed of concreted shells. at eight and a quarter miles we came to the mouth of a creek on the north, thirty yards wide, with some running water and a rocky bed: we called it windsor creek, after one of the party. four and three quarter miles beyond this we came to another creek in a bend to the north, which is twenty yards wide, with a handsome little stream of water: there is however no timber on either side of the river, except a few pines on the hills. here we saw for the first time since we left the mandans several soft shelled turtles, though this may be owing rather to the season of the year than to any scarcity of the animal. it was here that after ascending the highest summits of the hills on the north side of the river, that captain lewis first caught a distant view of the rock mountains, the object of all our hopes, and the reward of all our ambition. on both sides of the river and at no great distance from it, the mountains followed its course: above these, at the distance of fifty miles from us, an irregular range of mountains spread themselves from west to northwest from his position. to the north of these a few elevated points, the most remarkable of which bore north ° west, appeared above the horizon, and as the sun shone on the snows of their summits he obtained a clear and satisfactory view of those mountains which close on the missouri the passage to the pacific. four and a half miles beyond this creek we came to the upper point of a small sand island. at the distance of five miles between high bluffs, we passed a very difficult rapid, reaching quite across the river, where the water is deep, the channel narrow, and gravel obstructing it on each side: we had great difficulty in ascending it, although we used both the rope and the pole, and doubled the crews: this is the most considerable rapid on the missouri, and in fact the only place where there is a sudden descent: as we were labouring over them, a female elk with its fawn swam down through the waves, which ran very high, and obtained for the place the name of the elk rapids. just above them is a small low ground of cottonwood trees, where, at twenty-two and a quarter miles we fixed our encampment, and were joined by captain lewis, who had been on the hills during the afternoon. the country has now become desert and barren: the appearances of coal, burnt earth, pumicestone, salts, and quartz, continue as yesterday: but there is no timber except the thinly scattered pine and spruce on the summits of the hills, or along the sides. the only animals we have observed are the elk, the bighorn, and the hare, common in this country. in the plain where we lie are two indian cabins made of sticks, and during the last few days we have passed several others in the points of timber on the river. monday, . the wind was so high that we did not start till ten o'clock, and even then were obliged to use the line during the greater part of the day. the river has become very rapid with a very perceptible descent: its general width is about two hundred yards: the shoals too are more frequent, and the rocky points at the mouth of the gullies more troublesome to pass: great quantities of this stone lie in the river and on its banks, and seem to have fallen down as the rain washed away the clay and sand in which they were imbedded. the water is bordered by high rugged bluffs, composed of irregular but horizontal stratas of yellow and brown or black clay, brown and yellowish white sand, soft yellowish white sandstone: hard dark brown freestone; and also large round kidney formed irregular separate masses of a hard black ironstone, imbedded in the clay and sand; some coal or carbonated wood also makes its appearance in the cliffs, as do also its usual attendants the pumicestone and burnt earth. the salts and quartz are less abundant, and generally speaking the country is if possible more rugged and barren than that we passed yesterday; the only growth of the hills being a few pine, spruce, and dwarf cedar, interspersed with an occasional contrast once in the course of some miles, of several acres of level ground, which supply a scanty subsistence for a few little cottonwood trees. soon after setting out we passed a small untimbered island on the south: at about seven miles we reached a considerable bend which the river makes towards the southeast, and in the evening, after making twelve and a half miles, encamped on the south near two dead cottonwood trees, the only timber for fuel which we could discover in the neighbourhood. tuesday, . the weather was dark and cloudy; the air smoky, and there fell a few drops of rain. at ten o'clock we had again a slight sprinkling of rain, attended with distant thunder, which is the first we have heard since leaving the mandans. we employed the line generally, with the addition of the pole at the ripples and rocky points, which we find more numerous and troublesome than those we passed yesterday. the water is very rapid round these points, and we are sometimes obliged to steer the canoes through the points of sharp rocks rising a few inches above the surface of the water, and so near to each other that if our ropes give way the force of the current drives the sides of the canoe against them, and must inevitably upset them or dash them to pieces. these cords are very slender, being almost all made of elkskin, and much worn and rotted by exposure to the weather: several times they gave way, but fortunately always in places where there was room for the canoe to turn without striking the rock; yet with all our precautions it was with infinite risk and labour that we passed these points. an indian pole for building floated down the river, and was worn at one end as if dragged along the ground in travelling; several other articles were also brought down by the current, which indicate that the indians are probably at no great distance above us, and judging from a football which resembles those used by the minnetarees near the mandans, we conjecture that they must be a band of the minnetarees of fort de prairie. the appearance of the river and the surrounding country continued as usual, till towards evening, at about fifteen miles, we reached a large creek on the north thirty-five yards wide, discharging some water, and named after one of our men thompson's creek. here the country assumed a totally different aspect; the hills retired on both sides from the river, which now spreads to more than three times its former size, and is filled with a number of small handsome islands covered with cottonwood. the low grounds on the river are again wide, fertile, and enriched with trees; those on the north are particularly wide, the hills being comparatively low and opening into three large vallies, which extend themselves for a considerable distance towards the north: these appearances of vegetation are delightful after the dreary hills over which we have passed, and we have now to congratulate ourselves at having escaped from the last ridges of the black mountains. on leaving thompson's creek we passed two small islands, and at twenty-three miles distance encamped among some timber on the north, opposite to a small creek, which we named bull creek. the bighorn is in great quantities, and must bring forth their young at a very early season, as they are now half grown. one of the party saw a large bear also, but being at a distance from the river, and having no timber to conceal him, he would not venture to fire. wednesday, . last night we were alarmed by a new sort of enemy. a buffaloe swam over from the opposite side and to the spot where lay one of our canoes, over which he clambered to the shore: then taking fright he ran full speed up the bank towards our fires, and passed within eighteen inches of the heads of some of the men, before the sentinel could make him change his course: still more alarmed he ran down between four fires and within a few inches of the heads of the second row of the men, and would have broken into our lodge if the barking of the dog had not stopped him. he suddenly turned to the right and was out of sight in a moment, leaving us all in confusion, every one seizing his rifle and inquiring the cause of the alarm. on learning what had happened, we had to rejoice at suffering no more injury than the damage to some guns which were in the canoe which the buffaloe crossed. in the morning early we left our camp, and proceeded as usual by the cord. we passed an island and two sandbars, and at the distance of two and a half miles we came to a handsome river which discharges itself on the south, and which we ascended to the distance of a mile and a half: we called it judith's river: it rises in the rock mountains in about the same place with the muscleshell and near the yellowstone river. its entrance is one hundred yards wide from one bank to the other, the water occupying about seventy-five yards, and in greater quantity than that of the muscleshell river, and though more rapid equally navigable, there being no stones or rocks in the bed, which is composed entirely of gravel and mud with some sand: the water too is clearer than any which we have yet seen; and the low grounds, as far as we could discern, wider and more woody than those of the missouri: along its banks we observed some box-alder intermixed with the cottonwood and the willow; the undergrowth consisting of rosebushes, honeysuckle, and a little red willow. there was a great abundance of the argalea or bighorned animals in the high country through which it passes, and a great number of the beaver in its waters: just above the entrance of it we saw the fires of one hundred and twenty-six lodges, which appeared to have been deserted about twelve or fifteen days, and on the other side of the missouri a large encampment, apparently made by the same nation. on examining some moccasins which we found there, our indian woman said that they did not belong to her own nation the snake indians, but she thought that they indicated a tribe on this side of the rocky mountain, and to the north of the missouri; indeed it is probable that these are the minnetarees of fort de prairie. at the distance of six and a half miles the hills again approach the brink of the river, and the stones and rocks washed down from them form a very bad rapid, with rocks and ripples more numerous and difficult than those we passed on the th and th; here the same scene was renewed, and we had again to struggle and labour to preserve our small craft from being lost. near this spot are a few trees of the ash, the first we have seen for a great distance, and from which we named the place ash rapids. on these hills there is but little timber, but the salts, coal, and other mineral appearances continue. on the north we passed a precipice about one hundred and twenty feet high, under which lay scattered the fragments of at least one hundred carcases of buffaloes, although the water which had washed away the lower part of the hill must have carried off many of the dead. these buffaloe had been chased down the precipice in a way very common on the missouri, and by which vast herds are destroyed in a moment. the mode of hunting is to select one of the most active and fleet young men, who is disguised by a buffaloe skin round his body; the skin of the head with the ears and horns fastened on his own head in such a way as to deceive the buffaloe: thus dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient distant between a herd of buffaloe and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for some miles. his companions in the meantime get in the rear and side of the herd, and at a given signal show themselves, and advance towards the buffaloe: they instantly take the alarm, and finding the hunters beside them, they run towards the disguised indian or decoy, who leads them on at full speed toward the river, when suddenly securing himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left on the brink of the precipice: it is then in vain for the foremost to retreat or even to stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till the whole are precipitated and the shore is strewn with their dead bodies. sometimes in this perilous seduction the indian is himself either trodden under root by the rapid movements of the buffaloe, or missing his footing in the cliff is urged down the precipice by the falling herd. the indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the rest is abandoned to the wolves, and create a most dreadful stench. the wolves who had been feasting on these carcases were very fat, and so gentle that one of them was killed with an esponton. above this place we came to for dinner at the distance of seventeen miles, opposite to a bold running river of twenty yards wide, and falling in on the south. from the objects we had just passed we called this stream slaughter river. its low grounds are narrow, and contain scarcely any timber. soon after landing it began to blow and rain, and as there was no prospect of getting wood for fuel farther on, we fixed our camp on the north, three quarters of a mile above slaughter river. after the labours of the day we gave to each man a dram, and such was the effect of long abstinence from spirituous liquors, that from the small quantity of half a gill of rum, several of the men were considerably affected by it, and all very much exhilirated. our game to-day consisted of an elk and two beaver. thursday, . the rain which commenced last evening continued with little intermission till eleven this morning, when the high wind which accompanied it having abated, we set out. more rain has now fallen than we have had since the st of september last, and many circumstances indicate our approach to a climate differing considerably from that of the country through which we have been passing: the air of the open country is astonishingly dry and pure. observing that the case of our sextant, though perfectly seasoned, shrank and the joints opened, we tried several experiments, by which it appeared that a tablespoon full of water exposed in a saucer to the air would evaporate in thirty-six hours, when the mercury did not stand higher than the temperate point at the greatest heat of the day. the river, notwithstanding the rain, is much clearer than it was a few days past; but we advance with great labour and difficulty; the rapid current, the ripples and rocky points rendering the navigation more embarrassing than even that of yesterday, in addition to which the banks are now so slippery after the rain, that the men who draw the canoes can scarcely walk, and the earth and stone constantly falling down the high bluffs make it dangerous to pass under them; still however we are obliged to make use of the cord, as the wind is strong ahead, the current too rapid for oars, and too deep for the pole. in this way we passed at the distance of five and a half miles a small rivulet in a bend on the north, two miles further an island on the same side, half a mile beyond which came to a grove of trees at the entrance of a run in a bend to the south, and encamped for the night on the northern shore. the eight miles which we made to-day cost us much trouble. the air was cold and rendered more disagreeable by the rain, which fell in several slight showers in the course of the day; our cords too broke several times, but fortunately without injury to the boats. on ascending the hills near the river, one of the party found that there was snow mixed with the rain on the heights: a little back of these the country becomes perfectly level on both sides of the river. there is now no timber on the hills, and only a few scattering cottonwood, ash, box-alder, and willows, along the water. in the course of the day we passed several encampments of indians, the most recent of which seemed to have been evacuated about five weeks since, and from the several apparent dates we supposed that they were made by a band of about one hundred lodges who were travelling slowly up the river. although no part of the missouri from the minnetarees to this place exhibit signs of permanent settlements, yet none seem exempt from the transient visits of hunting parties. we know that the minnetarees of the missouri extend their excursions on the south side of the river, as high as the yellowstone; and the assiniboins visit the northern side, most probably as high as porcupine river. all the lodges between that place and the rocky mountains we supposed to belong to the minnetarees of fort de prairie, who live on the south fork of the saskashawan. friday, . we proceeded in two periogues, leaving the canoes to bring on the meat of two buffaloes killed last evening. soon after we set off it began to rain, and though it ceased at noon, the weather continued cloudy during the rest of the day. the obstructions of yesterday still remain and fatigue the men excessively: the banks are so slippery in some places and the mud so adhesive that they are unable to wear their moccasins; one fourth of the time they are obliged to be up to their armpits in the cold water, and sometimes walk for several yards over the sharp fragments of rocks which have fallen from the hills: all this added to the burden of dragging the heavy canoes is very painful, yet the men bear it with great patience and good humour. once the rope of one of the periogues, the only one we had made of hemp, broke short, and the periogue swung and just touched a point of rock which almost overset her. at nine miles we came to a high wall of black rock rising from the water's edge on the south, above the cliffs of the river: this continued about a quarter of a mile, and was succeeded by a high open plain, till three miles further a second wall two hundred feet high rose on the same side. three miles further a wall of the same kind about two hundred feet high and twelve in thickness, appeared to the north: these hills and river cliffs exhibit a most extraordinary and romantic appearance: they rise in most places nearly perpendicular from the water, to the height of between two and three hundred feet, and are formed of very white sandstone, so soft as to yield readily to the impression of water, in the upper part of which lie imbedded two or three thin horizontal stratas of white freestone insensible to the rain, and on the top is a dark rich loam, which forms a gradually ascending plain, from a mile to a mile and a half in extent, when the hills again rise abruptly to the height of about three hundred feet more. in trickling down the cliffs, the water has worn the soft sandstone into a thousand grotesque figures, among which with a little fancy may be discerned elegant ranges of freestone buildings, with columns variously sculptured, and supporting long and elegant galleries, while the parapets are adorned with statuary: on a nearer approach they represent every form of elegant ruins; columns, some with pedestals and capitals entire, others mutilated and prostrate, and some rising pyramidally over each other till they terminate in a sharp point. these are varied by niches, alcoves, and the customary appearances of desolated magnificence: the allusion is increased by the number of martins, who have built their globular nests in the niches and hover over these columns; as in our country they are accustomed to frequent large stone structures. as we advance there seems no end to the visionary enchantment which surrounds us. in the midst of this fantastic scenery are vast ranges of walls, which seem the productions of art, so regular is the workmanship: they rise perpendicularly from the river, sometimes to the height of one hundred feet, varying in thickness from one to twelve feet, being equally broad at the top as below. the stones of which they are formed are black, thick, and durable, and composed of a large portion of earth, intermixed and cemented with a small quantity of sand, and a considerable proportion of talk or quartz. these stones are almost invariably regular parallelipeds of unequal sizes in the wall, but equally deep, and laid regularly in ranges over each other like bricks, each breaking and covering the interstice of the two on which it rests: but though the perpendicular interstice be destroyed, the horizontal one extends entirely through the whole work: the stones too are proportioned to the thickness of the wall in which they are employed, being largest in the thickest walls. the thinner walls are composed of a single depth of the paralleliped, while the thicker ones consist of two or more depths: these walls pass the river at several places, rising from the water's edge much above the sandstone bluffs which they seem to penetrate; thence they cross in a straight line on either side of the river, the plains over which they tower to the height of from ten to seventy feet, until they lose themselves in the second range of hills: sometimes they run parallel in several ranges near to each other, sometimes intersect each other at right angles, and have the appearance of walls of ancient houses or gardens. the face of some of these river hills, is composed of very excellent freestone of a light yellowish brown colour, and among the cliffs we found a species of pine which we had not yet seen, and differing from the virginia pitchpine in having a shorter leaf, and a longer and more pointed cone. the coal appears only in small quantities, as do the burnt earth and pumicestone: the mineral salts have abated. among the animals are a great number of the bighorn, a few buffaloe and elk, and some mule-deer, but none of the common deer nor any antelopes. we saw but could not procure a beautiful fox, of a colour varied with orange, yellow, white, and black, rather smaller than the common fox of this country, and about the same size as the red fox of the united states. the river to-day has been from about one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty yards wide, with but little timber. at the distance of two miles and a half from the last stone wall, is a stream on the north side, twenty-eight yards in width, and with some running water. we encamped just above its mouth having made eighteen miles. saturday, june . the weather was cloudy with a few drops of rain. as we proceeded by the aid of our cord we found the river cliffs and bluffs not so high as yesterday, and the country more level. the timber too is in greater abundance on the river, though there is no wood on the high ground; coal however appears in the bluffs. the river is from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet wide, the current more gentle, the water becoming still clearer and fewer rocky points and shoals than we met yesterday, though those which we did encounter were equally difficult to pass. game is by no means in such plenty as below; all that we obtained were one bighorn, and a mule-deer though we saw in the plains a quantity of buffaloe, particularly near a small lake about eight miles from the river to the south. notwithstanding the wind was ahead all day, we dragged the canoes along the distance of twenty-three miles. at fourteen and a quarter miles, we came to a small island opposite a bend of the river to the north: two and a half miles to the upper point of a small island on the north; five miles to another island on the south side and opposite to a bluff. in the next two miles we passed an island on the south, a second beyond it on the north, and reached near a high bluff on the north a third on which we encamped. in the plains near the river are the chokecherry, yellow and red currant-bushes, as well as the wild rose and prickly pear, both of which are now in bloom. from the tops of the river hills, which are lower than usual, we enjoyed a delightful view of the rich fertile plains on both sides, in many places extending from the river cliffs to a great distance back. in these plains we meet occasionally large banks of pure sand, which were driven apparently by the southwest winds, and there deposited. the plains are more fertile some distance from the river than near its banks, where the surface of the earth is very generally strewed with small pebbles, which appear to be smoothed and worn by the agitation of the waters with which they were no doubt once covered. a mountain or part of the north mountain approaches the river within eight or ten miles, bearing north from our encampment of last evening; and this morning a range of high mountains bearing s.w. from us and apparently running to the westward, are seen at a great distance covered with snow. in the evening we had a little more rain. sunday . the wind blew violently last night, and a slight shower of rain fell, but this morning was fair. we set out at an early hour, and although the wind was ahead by means of the cord went on much better than for the last two days, as the banks were well calculated for towing. the current of the river is strong but regular, its timber increases in quantity, the low grounds become more level and extensive, and the bluffs on the river are lower than usual. in the course of the day we had a small shower of rain, which lasted a few minutes only. as the game is very abundant we think it necessary to begin a collection of hides for the purpose of making a leathern boat, which we intend constructing shortly. the hunters who were out the greater part of the day brought in six elk, two buffaloe, two mule-deer and a bear. this last animal had nearly cost us the lives of two of our hunters who were together when he attacked them: one of them narrowly escaped being caught, and the other after running a considerable distance, concealed himself in some thick bushes, and while the bear was in quick pursuit of his hiding place, his companion came up and fortunately shot the animal through the head. at six and at half miles we reached an island on the northern side; one mile and a quarter thence is a timbered low ground on the south: and in the next two and three quarter miles we passed three small islands, and came to a dark bluff on the south: within the following mile are two small islands on the same side. at three and a quarter miles we reached the lower part of a much larger island near a northern point, and as we coasted along its side, within two miles passed a smaller island, and half a mile above reached the head of another. all these islands are small, and most of them contain some timber. three quarters of a mile beyond the last, and at the distance of eighteen miles from our encampment, we came to for the night in a handsome low cottonwood plain on the south, where we remained for the purpose of making some celestial observations during the night, and of examining in the morning a large river which comes in opposite to us. accordingly at an early hour, monday, d, we crossed and fixed our camp in the point, formed by the junction of the river with the missouri. it now became an interesting question which of these two streams is what the minnetarees call ahmateahza or the missouri, which they described as approaching very near to the columbia. on our right decision much of the fate of the expedition depends; since if after ascending to the rocky mountains or beyond them, we should find that the river we were following did not come near the columbia, and be obliged to return; we should not only lose the travelling season, two months of which had already elapsed, but probably dishearten the men so much as to induce them either to abandon the enterprise, or yield us a cold obedience instead of the warm and zealous support which they had hitherto afforded us. we determined, therefore, to examine well before we decided on our future course; and for this purpose despatched two canoes with three men up each of the streams with orders to ascertain the width, depth, and rapidity of the current, so as to judge of their comparative bodies of water. at the same time parties were sent out by land to penetrate the country, and discover from the rising grounds, if possible, the distant bearings of the two rivers; and all were directed to return towards evening. while they were gone we ascended together the high grounds in the fork of these two rivers, whence we had a very extensive prospect of the surrounding country: on every side it was spread into one vast plain covered with verdure, in which innumerable herds of buffaloe were roaming, attended by their enemies the wolves: some flocks of elk also were seen, and the solitary antelopes were scattered with their young over the face of the plain. to the south was a range of lofty mountains, which we supposed to be a continuation of the south mountain, stretching themselves from southeast to northwest, and terminating abruptly about southwest from us. these were partially covered with snow; but at a great distance behind them was a more lofty ridge completely covered with snow, which seemed to follow the same direction as the first, reaching from west to the north of northwest, where their snowy tops were blended with the horizon. the direction of the rivers could not however be long distinguished, as they were soon lost in the extent of the plain. on our return we continued our examination; the width of the north branch is two hundred yards, that of the south is three hundred and seventy-two. the north, although narrower and with a gentler current, is deeper than the south: its waters too are of the same whitish brown colour, thickness, and turbidness: they run in the same boiling and rolling manner which has uniformly characterized the missouri; and its bed is composed of some gravel, but principally mud. the south fork is deeper, but its waters are perfectly transparent: its current is rapid, but the surface smooth and unruffled; and its bed too is composed of round and flat smooth stones like those of rivers issuing from a mountainous country. the air and character of the north fork so much resemble those of the missouri that almost all the party believe that to be the true course to be pursued. we however, although we have given no decided opinion, are inclined to think otherwise, because, although this branch does give the colour and character to the missouri, yet these very circumstances induce an opinion that it rises in and runs through an open plain country, since if it came from the mountains it would be clearer, unless, which from the position of the country is improbable, it passed through a vast extent of low ground after leaving them: we thought it probable that it did not even penetrate the rocky mountains, but drew it sources from the open country towards the lower and middle parts of the saskashawan, in a direction north of this place. what embarrasses us most is, that the indians who appeared to be well acquainted with the geography of the country, have not mentioned this northern river; for "the river which scolds at all others," as it is termed, must be according to their account one of the rivers which we have passed; and if this north fork be the missouri, why have they not designated the south branch which they must also have passed, in order to reach the great falls which they mention on the missouri. in the evening our parties returned, after ascending the rivers in canoes for some distance, then continuing on foot, just leaving themselves time to return by night. the north fork was less rapid, and therefore afforded the easiest navigation: the shallowest water of the north was five feet deep, that of the south six feet. at two and a half miles up the north fork is a small river coming in on the left or western side, sixty feet wide, with a bold current three feet in depth. the party by land had gone up the south fork in a straight line, somewhat north of west for seven miles, where they discovered that this little river came within one hundred yards of the south fork, and on returning down it found it a handsome stream, with as much timber as either of the larger rivers, consisting of the narrow and wide-leafed cottonwood, some birch and box-alder, amid undergrowth of willows, rosebushes, and currants: they also saw on this river a great number of elk and some beaver. all these accounts were however very far from deciding the important question of our future route, and we therefore determined each of us to ascend one of the rivers during a day and a half's march, or farther if necessary, for our satisfaction. our hunters killed two buffaloe, six elk, and four deer to-day. along the plains near the junction, are to be found the prickly pear in great quantities; the chokecherry is also very abundant in the river low grounds, as well as the ravines along the river bluffs; the yellow and red currants are not yet ripe; the gooseberry is beginning to ripen, and the wildrose which now covers all the low grounds near the rivers is in full bloom. the fatigues of the last few days have occasioned some falling off in the appearance of the men, who not having been able to wear moccasins, had their feet much bruised and mangled in passing over the stones and rough ground. they are however perfectly cheerful, and have an undiminished ardour for the expedition. tuesday, june . at the same hour this morning captain lewis and captain clarke set out to explore the two rivers: captain lewis with six men crossed the north fork near the camp, below a small island from which he took a course n. ° w. for four and a half miles to a commanding eminence. here we observed that the north mountain, changing its direction parallel to the missouri, turned towards the north and terminated abruptly at the distance of about thirty miles, the point of termination bearing n. ° e. the south mountain too diverges to the south, and terminates abruptly, its extremity bearing s. ° w. distant about twenty miles: to the right of, and retreating from this extremity, is a separate mountain at the distance of thirty-five miles in a direction s. ° w. which from its resemblance to the roof of a barn, we called the barn mountain. the north fork, which is now on the left, makes a considerable bend to the northwest, and on its western border a range of hills about ten miles long, and bearing from this spot n. ° w. runs parallel with it: north of this range of hills is an elevated point of the river bluff on its south side, bearing n. ° w. about twelve miles from us; towards this he directed his course across a high, level, dry open plain; which in fact embraces the whole country to the foot of the mountains. the soil is dark, rich, and fertile, yet the grass by no means so luxuriant as might have been expected, for it is short and scarcely more than sufficient to cover the ground. there are vast quantities of prickly pears, and myriads of grasshoppers, which afford food for a species of curlew which is in great numbers in the plain. he then proceeded up the river to the point of observation they had fixed on; from which he went two miles n. ° w. to a bluff point on the north side of the river: thence his course was n. ° w. for two miles to the entrance of a large creek on the south. the part of the river along which he passed is from forty to sixty yards wide, the current strong, the water deep and turbid, the banks falling in, the salts, coal and mineral appearances are as usual, and in every respect, except as to size, this river resembles the missouri. the low grounds are narrow but well supplied with wood: the bluffs are principally of dark brown yellow, and some white clay with freestone in some places. from this point the river bore n. ° e. to a bluff on the south, at the distance of twelve miles: towards this he directed his course, ascending the hills which are about two hundred feet high, and passing through plains for three miles, till he found the dry ravines so steep and numerous that he resolved to return to the river and follow its banks. he reached it about four miles from the beginning of his course, and encamped on the north in a bend among some bushes which sheltered the party from the wind: the air was very cold, the northwest wind high, and the rain wet them to the skin. besides the game just mentioned, he observed buffaloe, elk, wolves, foxes, and we got a blaireau and a weasel, and wounded a large brown bear, whom it was too late to pursue. along the river are immense quantities of roses which are now in full bloom, and which make the low grounds a perfect garden. wednesday . the rain fell during the greater part of the last night, and in the morning the weather was cloudy and cold, with a high northwest wind: at sunrise he proceeded up the river eight miles to the bluff on the left side, towards which he had been directing his course yesterday. here he found the bed of a creek twenty-five yards wide at the entrance, with some timber, but no water, notwithstanding the rain: it is, indeed, astonishing to observe the vast quantities of water absorbed by the soil of the plains, which being opened in large crevices presents a fine rich loam: at the mouth of this stream (which he called lark creek) the bluffs are very steep and approach the river so that he ascended them, and crossing the plains reached the river, which from the last point bore n. ° w: four miles from this place it extended north two miles. here he discovered a lofty mountain standing alone at the distance of more than eighty miles in the direction of n. ° w. and which from its conical figure he called tower mountain. he then proceeded on these two hills and afterwards in different courses six miles, when he again changed for a western course across a deep bend along the south side: in making this passage over the plains he found them like those of yesterday, level and beautiful, with great quantities of buffaloes, and some wolves, foxes, and antelopes, and intersected near the river by deep ravines. here at the distance of from one to nine miles from the river, he met the largest village of barking squirrels which we had yet seen: for he passed a skirt of their territory for seven miles. he also saw near the hills a flock of the mountain cock or a large species of heath hen with a long pointed tail, which the indians below had informed us were common among the rock mountains. having finished his course of ten miles west across a bend, he continued two miles n. ° w. and from that point discovered some lofty mountains to the northwest of tower mountain and bearing n. ° w. at eighty or one hundred miles distance: here he encamped on the north side in a handsome low ground, on which were several old stick lodges: there had been but little timber on the river in the forepart of the day, but now there is a greater quantity than usual. the river itself is about eighty yards wide, from six to ten feet deep, and has a strong steady current. the party had killed five elk, and a mule-deer; and by way of experiment roasted the burrowing squirrels, which they found to be well flavoured and tender. thursday . captain lewis was now convinced that this river pursued a direction too far north for our route to the pacific, and therefore resolved to return; but waited till noon to take a meridian altitude. the clouds, however, which had gathered during the latter part of the night continued and prevented the observation: part of the men were sent forward to a commanding eminence, six miles s. ° w; from which they saw at the distance of about fifteen miles s. ° w. a point of the south bluff of the river, which thence bore northwardly. in their absence two rafts had been prepared, and when they returned about noon, the party embarked: but they soon found that the rafts were so small and slender that the baggage was wet, and therefore it was necessary to abandon them, and go by land. they therefore crossed the plains, and at the distance of twelve miles came to the river, through a cold storm from the northeast, accompanied by showers of rain. the abruptness of the cliffs compelled them, after going a few miles, to leave the river and meet the storm in the plains. here they directed their course too far northward, in consequence of which they did not meet the river till late at night, after having travelled twenty-three miles since noon, and halted at a little below the entrance of lark creek. they had the good fortune to kill two buffaloe which supplied them with supper, but spent a very uncomfortable night without any shelter from the rain, which continued till morning, friday , when at an early hour they continued down the river. the route was extremely unpleasant, as the wind was high from the n.e. accompanied with rain, which made the ground so slippery that they were unable to walk over the bluffs which they had passed on ascending the river. the land is the most thirsty we have ever seen; notwithstanding all the rain which has fallen, the earth is not wet for more than two inches deep, and resembles thawed ground; but if it requires more water to saturate it than the common soils, on the other hand it yields its moisture with equal difficulty. in passing along the side of one of these bluffs at a narrow pass thirty yards in length, captain lewis slipped, and but for a fortunate recovery, by means of his espontoon, would then have been precipitated into the river over a precipice of about ninety feet. he had just reached a spot where by the assistance of his espontoon he could stand with tolerable safety, when he heard a voice behind him cry out, good god captain what shall i do? he turned instantly and found it was windsor who had lost his foothold about the middle of the narrow pass, and had slipped down to the very verge of the precipice where he lay on his belly, with his right arm and leg over the precipice, while with the other leg and arm he was with difficulty holding on to keep himself from being dashed to pieces below. his dreadful situation was instantly perceived by captain lewis, who stifling his alarm, calmly told him that he was in no danger; that he should take his knife out of his belt with the right hand, and dig a hole in the side of the bluff to receive his right foot. with great presence of mind he did this, and then raised himself on his knees; captain lewis then told him to take off his moccasins and come forward on his hands and knees, holding the knife in one hand and his rifle in the other. he immediately crawled in this way till he came to a secure spot. the men who had not attempted this passage, were ordered to return and wade the river at the foot of the bluff, where they found the water breast high. this adventure taught them the danger of crossing the slippery heights of the river; but as the plains were intersected by deep ravines almost as difficult to pass, they continued down the river, sometimes in the mud of the low grounds, sometimes up to their arms in the water, and when it became too deep to wade, they cut footholds with their knives in the sides of the banks. in this way they travelled through the rain, mud, and water, and having made only eighteen miles during the whole day, encamped in an old indian lodge of sticks, which afforded them a dry shelter. here they cooked part of six deer they had killed in the course of their walk, and having eaten the only morsel they had tasted during the whole day slept comfortably on some willow boughs. chapter x. return of captain lewis--account of captain clarke's researches with his exploring party--perilous situation of one of his party--tansy river described--the party still believing the southern fork the missouri, captain lewis resolves to ascend it--mode of making a place to deposit provisions, called cache--captain lewis explores the southern fork--falls of the missouri discovered, which ascertains the question--romantic scenery of the surrounding country--narrow escape of captain lewis--the main body under captain clarke approach within five miles of the falls, and prepare for making a portage over the rapids. saturday . it continued to rain moderately all last night, and the morning was cloudy till about ten o'clock, when it cleared off, and became a fine day. they breakfasted about sunrise and then proceeded down the river in the same way as they had done yesterday, except that the travelling was somewhat better, as they had not so often to wade, though they passed some very dangerous bluffs. the only timber to be found is in the low grounds which are occasionally on the river, and these are the haunts of innumerable birds, who, when the sun began to shine, sang very delightfully. among these birds they distinguished the brown thrush, robin, turtledove, linnet, goldfinch, the large and small blackbird, the wren, and some others. as they came along, the whole of the party were of opinion that this river was the true missouri, but captain lewis being fully persuaded that it was neither the main stream, nor that which it would be advisable to ascend, gave it the name of maria's river. after travelling all day they reached the camp at five o'clock in the afternoon, and found captain clarke and the party very anxious for their safety, as they had staid two days longer than had been expected, and as captain clarke had returned at the appointed time, it was feared that they had met with some accident. captain clarke on setting out with five men on the th, went seven miles on a course s. ° w. to a spring; thence he went s. ° w. for eight miles to the river where was an island, from which he proceeded in a course n. ° w. and approached the river at the distance of three, five, and thirteen miles, at which place they encamped in an old indian lodge made of sticks and bark. in crossing the plains they observed several herds of buffaloe, some muledeer, antelopes and wolves. the river is rapid and closely hemmed in by high bluffs, crowded with bars of gravel, with little timber on the low grounds, and none on the highlands. near the camp this evening, a white bear attacked one of the men, whose gun happening to be wet, would not go off; he instantly made towards a tree, but was so closely pursued, that as he ascended the tree he struck the bear with his foot. the bear not being able to climb, waited till he should be forced to come down; and as the rest of the party were separated from him by a perpendicular cliff of rocks, which they could not descend, it was not in their power to give him any assistance: fortunately however at last the bear became frighted at their cries and firing, and released the man. in the afternoon it rained, and during the night there fell both rain and snow, and in the morning. june , the hills to the s.e. were covered with snow, and the rain continued. they proceeded on in a course n. ° w. near the river several miles, till at the distance of eleven miles they reached a ridge, from the top of which on the north side they could plainly discern a mountain to the s. and w. at a great distance covered with snow; a high ridge projecting from the mountains to the southeast approaches the river on the southeast side, forming some cliffs of dark hard stone. they also saw that the river ran for a great distance west of south, with a rapid current, from which as well as its continuing of the same width and depth, captain clarke thought it useless to advance any further, and therefore returned across the level plain in a direction north ° east, and reached at the distance of twenty miles the little river which is already mentioned as falling into the north fork, and to which they gave the name of tansy river, from the great quantity of that herb growing on its banks. here they dined, and then proceeded on a few miles by a place where the tansy breaks through a high ridge on its north side and encamped. the next day, th, the weather was cold, raw and cloudy, with a high northeast wind. they set out early, down the tansy, whose low grounds resemble precisely, except as to extent, those of the missouri before it branches, containing a great proportion of a species of cottonwood, with a leaf like that of the wild cherry. after halting at twelve o'clock for dinner, they ascended the plain, and at five o'clock reached the camp through the rain, which had fallen without intermission since noon. during his absence the party had been occupied in dressing skins, and being able to rest themselves were nearly freed from their lameness and swollen feet. all this night and the whole of the following day, th, it rained, the wind being from the southwest off the mountains: yet the rivers are falling, and the thermometer ° above . the rain continued till the next day, th, at ten o'clock, when it cleared off, and the weather became fine, the wind high from the southwest. the rivers at the point have now fallen six inches since our arrival, and this morning the water of the south fork became of a reddish brown colour, while the north branch continued of its usual whitish appearance. the mountains to the south are covered with snow. sunday, th. we now consulted upon the course to be pursued. on comparing our observations, we were more than ever convinced of what we already suspected, that mr. arrowsmith is incorrect in laying down in the chain of rocky mountains one remarkable mountain called the tooth, nearly as far south as °, and said to be so marked from the discoveries of mr. fidler. we are now within one hundred miles of the rocky* mountains and in the latitude of ° ' " , and therefore it is highly improbable that the missouri should make such a bend to the south before it reaches the rocky mountains, as to have suffered mr. fidler to come as low as ° along the eastern borders without touching that river: yet the general course of maria's river from this place for fifty-nine miles, as far as captain lewis ascended, was north ° west, and the south branch, or what we consider the missouri, which captain clarke had examined as far as forty-five miles in a straight line, ran in a course south ° west, and as far as it could be seen went considerably west of south, whence we conclude that the missouri itself enters the rocky mountains to the north of °. in writing to the president from our winter quarters, we had already taken the liberty of advancing the southern extremity of mr. fidler's discoveries about a degree to the northward, and this from indian information as to the bearing of the point at which the missouri enters the mountain; but we think actual observation will place it one degree still further to the northward. this information of mr. fidler however, incorrect as it is, affords an additional reason for not pursuing maria's river; for if he came as low even as ° and saw only small streams coming down from the mountains, it is to be presumed that these rivulets do not penetrate the rocky mountains so far as to approach any navigable branch of the columbia, and they are most probably the remote waters of some northern branch of the missouri. in short, being already in latitude ° ' we cannot reasonably hope by going farther to the northward to find between this place and the saskashawan any stream which can, as the indians assure us the missouri does, possess a navigable current for some distance in the rocky mountains: the indians had assured us also that the water of the missouri was nearly transparent at the falls; this is the case with the southern branch; that the falls lay a little to the south of sunset from them; this too is in favour of the southern fork, for it bears considerably south of this place which is only a few minutes to the northward of fort mandan; that the falls are below the rocky mountains and near the northern termination of one range of those mountains: now there is a ridge of mountains which appear behind the south mountains and terminates to the southwest of us, at a sufficient distance from the unbroken chain of the rocky mountains to allow space for several falls, indeed we fear for too many of them. if too the indians had ever passed any stream as large as this southern fork on their way up the missouri, they would have mentioned it; so that their silence seems to prove that this branch must be the missouri. the body of water also which it discharges must have been acquired from a considerable distance in the mountains, for it could not have been collected in the parched plains between the yellowstone and the rocky mountains, since that country could not supply nourishment for the dry channels which we passed on the south, and the travels of mr. fidler forbid us to believe that it could have been obtained from the mountains towards the northwest. these observations which satisfied our mind completely we communicated to the party: but every one of them were of a contrary opinion; and much of their belief depended on crusatte, an experienced waterman on the missouri, who gave it as his decided judgment that the north fork was the genuine missouri. the men therefore mentioned that although they would most cheerfully follow us wherever we should direct, yet they were afraid that the south fork would soon terminate in the rocky mountains and leave us at a great distance from the columbia. in order that nothing might be omitted which could prevent our falling into an error, it was agreed that one of us should ascend the southern branch by land until we reached either the falls or the mountains. in the meantime in order to lighten our burdens as much as possible, we determined to deposit here one of the periogues and all the heavy baggage which we could possibly spare, as well as some provision, salt, powder, and tools: this would at once lighten the other boats, and give them the crew which had been employed on board the periogue. monday, . the weather being fair and pleasant we dried all our baggage and merchandize and made our deposit. these holes or _caches_ as they are called by the missouri traders are very common, particularly among those who deal with the sioux, as the skins and merchandize will keep perfectly sound for years, and are protected from robbery: our cache is built in this manner: in the high plain on the north side of the missouri and forty yards from a steep bluff, we chose a dry situation, and then describing a small circle of about twenty inches diameter, removed the sod as gently and carefully as possible: the hole is then sunk perpendicularly for a foot deep, or more if the ground be not firm. it is now worked gradually wider as they descend, till at length it becomes six or seven feet deep, shaped nearly like a kettle or the lower part of a large still with the bottom somewhat sunk at the centre. as the earth is dug it is handed up in a vessel and carefully laid on a skin or cloth, in which it is carried away and usually thrown into the river or concealed so as to leave no trace of it. a floor of three or four inches in thickness is then made of dry sticks, on which is thrown hay or a hide perfectly dry. the goods being well aired and dried are laid on this floor, and prevented from touching the wall by other dried sticks in proportion as the merchandize is stowed away: when the hole is nearly full, a skin is laid over the goods, and on this earth is thrown and beaten down until with the addition of the sod first removed the whole is on a level with the ground, and there remains not the slightest appearance of an excavation. in addition to this we made another of smaller dimensions, in which we placed all the baggage, some powder, and our blacksmith's tools, having previously repaired such of the tools we carry with us as require mending. to guard against accident, we hid two parcels of lead and powder in the two distinct places. the red periogue was drawn up on the middle of a small island at the entrance of maria's river, and secured by being fastened to the trees from the effect of any floods. in the evening there was a high wind from the southwest accompanied with thunder and rain. we now made another observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, and found that the mean latitude of the entrance of maria's river, as deduced from three observations, is ° ' " north. we saw a small bird like the blue thrush or catbird which we had not before met, and also observed that the beemartin or kingbird is common to this country although there are no bees here, and in fact we have not met with the honey-bee since leaving the osage river. tuesday . this morning captain lewis with four men set out on their expedition up the south branch. they soon reached the point where the tansy river approaches the missouri, and observing a large herd of elk before them, descended and killed several which they hung up along the river so that the party in the boats might see them as they came along. they then halted for dinner; but captain lewis who had been for some days afflicted with the dysentery, was now attacked with violent pains attended by a high fever and was unable to go on. he therefore encamped for the night under some willow boughs: having brought no medicine he determined to try an experiment with the small twigs of the chokecherry, which being stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two inches long were boiled in pure water, till they produced a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste; a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose an hour afterwards. by ten o'clock he was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration ensued, his fever abated and in the morning he was quite recovered. one of the men caught several dozen fish of two species: the first is about nine inches long, of a white colour, round in shape; the mouth is beset both above and below with a rim of fine sharp teeth, the eye moderately large, the pupil dark, and the iris narrow, and of a yellowish brown colour: in form and size it resembles the white chub of the potomac, though its head is proportionably smaller; they readily bite at meat or grasshoppers; but the flesh though soft and of a fine white colour is not highly flavoured. the second species is precisely of the form and about the size of the fish known by the name of the hickory shad or old wife, though it differs from it in having the outer edge of both the upper and lower jaw set with a rim of teeth, and the tongue and palate also are defended by long sharp teeth bending inwards, the eye is very large, the iris wide and of a silvery colour; they do not inhabit muddy water, and the flavour is much superior to that of the former species. of the first kind we had seen a few before we reached maria's river; but had found none of the last before we caught them in the missouri above its junction with that river. the white cat continues as high as maria's river, but they are scarce in this part of the river, nor have we caught any of them since leaving the mandans which weighed more than six pounds. of other game they saw a great abundance even in their short march of nine miles. wednesday . this morning captain lewis left the bank of the river in order to avoid the steep ravines which generally run from the shore to the distance of one or two miles in the plain: having reached the opened country he went for twelve miles in a course a little to the west of southwest, when the sun becoming warm by nine o'clock, he returned to the river in quest of water and to kill something for breakfast, there being no water in the plain, and the buffaloe discovering them before they came within gunshot took to flight. they reached the banks in a handsome open low ground with cottonwood, after three miles walk. here they saw two large brown bears, and killed them both at the first fire, a circumstance which has never before occurred since we have seen that animal. having made a meal of a part and hung the remainder on a tree with a note for captain clarke, they again ascended the bluffs into the open plains. here they saw great numbers of the burrowing squirrel, also some wolves, antelopes, muledeer, and vast herds of buffaloe. they soon crossed a ridge considerably higher than the surrounding plains, and from its top had a beautiful view of the rocky mountains, which are now completely covered with snow: their general course is from southeast to the north of northwest, and they seem to consist of several ranges which successively rise above each other till the most distant mingles with the clouds. after travelling twelve miles they again met the river, where there was a handsome plain of cottonwood; and although it was not sunset, and they had only come twenty-seven miles, yet captain lewis felt weak from his late disorder, and therefore determined to go no further that night. in the course of the day they killed a quantity of game, and saw some signs of otter as well as beaver, and many tracks of the brown bear: they also caught great quantities of the white fish mentioned yesterday. with the broad-leafed cottonwood, which has formed the principal timber of the missouri, is here mixed another species differing from the first only in the narrowness of its leaf and the greater thickness of its bark. the leaf is long, oval, acutely pointed, about two and a half or three inches long and from three quarters of an inch to an inch in width; it is smooth and thick sometimes slightly grooved or channeled with the margin a little serrate, the upper disk of a common, the lower of a whitish green. this species seems to be preferred by the beaver to the broad-leaved, probably because the former affords a deeper and softer bark. thursday . they left their encampment at sunrise, and ascending the river hills went for six miles in a course generally southwest, over a country which though more waving than that of yesterday may still be considered level. at the extremity of this course they overlooked a most beautiful plain, where were infinitely more buffaloe than we had ever before seen at a single view. to the southwest arose from the plain two mountains of a singular appearance and more like ramparts of high fortifications than works of nature. they are square figures with sides rising perpendicularly to the height of two hundred and fifty feet, formed of yellow clay, and the tops seemed to be level plains. finding that the river here bore considerably to the south, and fearful of passing the falls before reaching the rocky mountains, they now changed their course to the south, and leaving those insulated hills to the right proceeded across the plain. in this direction captain lewis had gone about two miles when his ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water, and as he advanced a spray which seemed driven by the high southwest wind arose above the plain like a column of smoke and vanished in an instant. towards this point he directed his steps, and the noise increasing as he approached soon became too tremendous to be mistaken for any thing but the great falls of the missouri. having travelled seven miles after first hearing the sound he reached the falls about twelve o'clock, the hills as he approached were difficult of access and two hundred feet high: down these he hurried with impatience and seating himself on some rocks under the centre of the falls, enjoyed the sublime spectacle of this stupendous object which has since the creation had been lavishing its magnificence upon the desert, unknown to civilization. [illustration: the falls and portage] the river immediately at its cascade is three hundred yards wide, and is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff on the left, which rises to about one hundred feet and extends up the stream for a mile; on the right the bluff is also perpendicular for three hundred yards above the falls. for ninety or a hundred yards from the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth even sheet, over a precipice of at least eighty feet. the remaining part of the river precipitates itself with a more rapid current, but being received as it falls by the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below, forms a splendid prospect of perfectly white foam two hundred yards in length, and eighty in perpendicular elevation. this spray is dissipated into a thousand shapes, sometimes flying up in columns of fifteen or twenty feet, which are then oppressed by larger masses of the white foam, on all which the sun impresses the brightest colours of the rainbow. as it rises from the fall it beats with fury against a ledge of rocks which extend across the river at one hundred and fifty yards from the precipice. from the perpendicular cliff on the north, to the distance of one hundred and twenty yards, the rocks rise only a few feet above the water, and when the river is high the stream finds a channel across them forty yards wide, and near the higher parts of the ledge which then rise about twenty feet, and terminate abruptly within eighty or ninety yards of the southern side. between them and the perpendicular cliff on the south, the whole body of water runs with great swiftness. a few small cedars grow near this ridge of rocks which serves as a barrier to defend a small plain of about three acres shaded with cottonwood, at the lower extremity of which is a grove of the same tree, where are several indian cabins of sticks; below the point of them the river is divided by a large rock, several feet above the surface of the water, and extending down the stream for twenty yards. at the distance of three hundred yards from the same ridge is a second abutment of solid perpendicular rock about sixty feet high, projecting at right angles from the small plain on the north for one hundred and thirty-four yards into the river. after leaving this, the missouri again spreads itself to its usual distance of three hundred yards, though with more than its ordinary rapidity. the hunters who had been sent out now returned loaded with buffaloe meat, and captain lewis encamped for the night under a tree near the falls. the men were again despatched to hunt for food against the arrival of the party, and captain lewis walked down the river to discover if possible some place where the canoes might be safely drawn on shore, in order to be transported beyond the falls. he returned however without discovering any such spot, the river for three miles below being one continued succession of rapids and cascades, overhung with perpendicular bluffs from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high; in short, it seems to have worn itself a channel through the solid rock. in the afternoon they caught in the falls some of both kinds of the white fish, and half a dozen trout from sixteen to twenty-three inches long, precisely resembling in form and the position of its fins the mountain or speckled trout of the united states, except that the specks of the former are of a deep black, while those of the latter are of a red or gold colour: they have long sharp teeth on the palate and tongue, and generally a small speck of red on each side behind the front ventral fins; the flesh is of a pale yellowish red, or when in good order of a rose-coloured red. friday . this morning one of the men was sent to captain clarke with an account of the discovery of the falls, and after employing the rest in preserving the meat which had been killed yesterday, captain lewis proceeded to examine the rapids above. from the falls he directed his course southwest up the river: after passing one continued rapid, and three small cascades, each three or four feet high, he reached at the distance of five miles a second fall. the river is about four hundred yards wide, and for the distance of three hundred throws itself over to the depth of nineteen feet, and so irregularly that he gave it the name of the crooked falls. from the southern shore it extends obliquely upwards about one hundred and fifty yards, and then forms an acute angle downwards nearly to the commencement of four small islands close to the northern side. from the perpendicular pitch to these islands, a distance of more than one hundred yards, the water glides down a sloping rock with a velocity almost equal to that of its fall. above this fall the river bends suddenly to the northward: while viewing this place captain lewis heard a loud roar above him, and crossing the point of a hill for a few hundred yards, he saw one of the most beautiful objects in nature: the whole missouri is suddenly stopped by one shelving rock, which without a single niche and with an edge as straight and regular as if formed by art, stretches itself from one side of the river to the other for at least a quarter of a mile. over this it precipitates itself in an even uninterrupted sheet to the perpendicular depth of fifty feet, whence dashing against the rocky bottom it rushes rapidly down, leaving behind it a spray of the purest foam across the river. the scene which it presented was indeed singularly beautiful, since without any of the wild irregular sublimity of the lower falls, it combined all the regular elegances which the fancy of a painter would select to form a beautiful waterfall. the eye had scarcely been regaled with this charming prospect, when at the distance of half a mile captain lewis observed another of a similar kind: to this he immediately hastened, and found a cascade stretching across the whole river for a quarter of a mile with a descent of fourteen feet, though the perpendicular pitch was only six feet. this too in any other neighborhood would have been an object of great magnificence, but after what he had just seen it became of secondary interest; his curiosity being however awakened, he determined to go on even should night overtake him to the head of the falls. he therefore pursued the southwest course of the river, which was one constant succession of rapids and small cascades, at every one of which the bluffs grew lower, or the bed of the river became more on a level with the plains. at the distance of two and a half miles he arrived at another cataract of twenty-six feet. the river is here six hundred yards wide, but the descent is not immediately perpendicular, though the river falls generally with a regular and smooth sheet; for about one third of the descent a rock protrudes to a small distance, receives the water in its passage and gives it a curve. on the south side is a beautiful plain a few feet above the level of the falls; on the north the country is more broken, and there is a hill not far from the river. just below the falls is a little island in the middle of the river well covered with timber. here on a cottonwood tree an eagle had fixed its nest, and seemed the undisputed mistress of a spot, to contest whose dominion neither man nor beast would venture across the gulfs that surround it, and which is further secured by the mist rising from the falls. this solitary bird could not escape the observation of the indians who made the eagle's nest a part of their description of the falls, which now proves to be correct in almost every particular, except that they did not do justice to their height. just above this is a cascade of about five feet, beyond which, as far as could be discerned, the velocity of the water seemed to abate. captain lewis now ascended the hill which was behind him, and saw from its top a delightful plain extending from the river to the base of the snow mountains to the south and southwest. along this wide level country the missouri pursued its winding course, filled with water to its even and grassy banks, while about four miles above it was joined by a large river flowing from the northwest through a valley three miles in width, and distinguished by the timber which adorned its shores; the missouri itself stretches to the south in one unruffled stream of water as if unconscious of the roughness it must soon encounter, and bearing on its bosom vast flocks of geese, while numerous herds of buffaloe are feeding on the plains which surround it. captain lewis then descended the hill, and directed his course towards the river falling in from the west. he soon met a herd of at least a thousand buffaloe, and being desirous of providing for supper shot one of them; the animal began to bleed, and captain lewis who had forgotten to reload his rifle, was intently watching to see him fall, when he beheld a large brown bear who was stealing on him unperceived, and was already within twenty steps. in the first moment of surprise he lifted his rifle, but remembering instantly that it was not charged, and that he had not time to reload, he felt that there was no safety but in flight. it was in the open level plain, not a bush nor a tree within three hundred yards, the bank of the river sloping and not more than three feet high, so that there was no possible mode of concealment: captain lewis therefore thought of retreating in a quick walk as fast as the bear advanced towards the nearest tree; but as soon as he turned the bear ran open mouth and at full speed upon him. captain lewis ran about eighty yards, but finding that the animal gained on him fast, it flashed on his mind that by getting into the water to such a depth that the bear would be obliged to attack him swimming, there was still some chance of his life, he therefore turned short, plunged into the river about waist deep, and facing about presented the point of his espontoon. the bear arrived at the water's edge within twenty feet of him, but as soon as he put himself in this position of defence, he seemed frightened, and wheeling about, retreated with as much precipitation as he had pursued. very glad to be released from this danger, captain lewis returned to the shore, and observed him run with great speed, sometimes looking back as if he expected to be pursued, till he reached the woods. he could not conceive the cause of the sudden alarm of the bear, but congratulated himself on his escape when he saw his own track torn to pieces by the furious animal, and learnt from the whole adventure never to suffer his rifle to be a moment unloaded. he now resumed his progress in the direction which the bear had taken towards the western river, and found it a handsome stream about two hundred yards wide, apparently deep, with a gentle current; its waters clear, and its banks, which were formed principally of dark brown and blue clay, are about the same height as those of the missouri, that is from three to five feet. what was singular was that the river does not seem to overflow its banks at any season, while it might be presumed from its vicinity to the mountains, that the torrents arising from the melting of the snows, would sometimes cause it to swell beyond its limits. the contrary fact would induce a belief that the rocky mountains yield their snows very reluctantly and equably to the sun, and are not often drenched by very heavy rains. this river is no doubt that which the indians call medicine river, which they mentioned as emptying into the missouri, just above the falls. after examining medicine river, captain lewis set out at half after six o'clock in the evening on his return towards the camp, which he estimated at the distance of twelve miles. in going through the low grounds on medicine river he met an animal which at a distance he thought was a wolf, but on coming within sixty paces, it proved to be some brownish yellow animal standing near its burrow, which, when he came nigh, crouched and seemed as if about to spring on him. captain lewis fired and the beast disappeared in its burrow. from the track and the general appearance of the animal he supposed it to be of the tiger kind. he then went on, but as if the beasts of the forests had conspired against him, three buffaloe bulls which were feeding with a large herd at the distance of half a mile, left their companions and ran at full speed towards him. he turned round, and unwilling to give up the field advanced towards them: when they came within a hundred yards, they stopped, looked at him for some time, and then retreated as they came. he now pursued his route in the dark, reflecting on the strange adventures and sights of the day which crowded on his mind so rapidly that he should have been inclined to believe it all enchantment if the thorns of the prickly pear piercing his feet did not dispel at every moment the illusion. he at last reached the party, who had been very anxious for his safety, and who had already decided on the route which each should take in the morning to look for him. being much fatigued he supped and slept well during the night. saturday, . the men were again sent out to bring in the game killed yesterday and to procure more: they also obtained a number of fine trout and several small catfish weighing about four pounds, and differing from the white catfish lower down the missouri. on awaking this morning captain lewis found a large rattlesnake coiled on the trunk of a tree under which he had been sleeping. he killed it, and found it like those we had seen before, differing from those of the atlantic states, not in its colours but in the form and arrangement of them; it had one hundred and seventy-six scuta on the abdomen, and seventeen half-formed scuta on the tail. there is a heavy dew on the grass about the camp every morning, which no doubt proceeds from the mist of the falls, as it takes place no where in the plains nor on the river except here. the messenger sent to captain clarke returned with information of his having arrived five miles below at a rapid, which he did not think it prudent to ascend and would wait till captain lewis and his party rejoined him. on tuesday th, the day when captain lewis left us, we remained at the entrance of maria's river and completed the deposits of all the articles with which we could dispense. the morning had been fair with a high wind from the southwest, which shifted in the evening to northwest, when the weather became cold and the wind high. the next morning, wednesday, , we left our encampment with a fair day and a southwest wind. the river was now so crowded with islands that within the distance of ten miles and a half we passed eleven of different dimensions before reaching a high black bluff in a bend on the left, where we saw a great number of swallows. within one mile and a half farther we passed four small islands, two on each side, and at fifteen miles from our encampment reached a spring which the men called grog spring: it is on the northern shore, and at the point where tansy river approaches within one hundred yards of the missouri. from this place we proceeded three miles to a low bluff on the north opposite to an island, and spent the night in an old indian encampment. the bluffs under which we passed were composed of a blackish clay and coal for about eighty feet, above which for thirty or forty feet is a brownish yellow earth. the river is very rapid and obstructed by bars of gravel and stone of different shapes and sizes, so that three of our canoes were in great danger in the course of the day. we had a few drops of rain about two o'clock in the afternoon. the only animals we killed were elk and deer; but we saw great numbers of rattlesnakes. thursday, . the morning was fair and there was some dew on the ground. after passing two islands we reached at the distance of a mile and a half a small rapid stream fifty yards wide, emptying itself on the south, rising in a mountain to the southeast about twelve or fifteen miles distant, and at this time covered with snow. as it is the channel for the melted snow of that mountain we called it snow river: opposite to its entrance is another island: at one mile and three quarters is a black bluff of slate on the south; nine miles beyond which, after passing ten islands, we came to on the southern shore near an old indian fortified camp, opposite the lower point of an island, having made thirteen miles. the number of islands and shoals, the rapidity of the river, and the quantity of large stones, rendered the navigation very disagreeable: along the banks we distinguished several low bluffs or cliffs of slate. there were great numbers of geese and goslings; the geese not being able to fly at this season. gooseberries are ripe and in great abundance; the yellow currant is also common, but not yet ripe. our game consisted of buffaloe and goats. friday, . again the day is fine. we made two miles to a small island in the southern bend, after passing several bad rapids. the current becomes indeed swifter as we ascend and the canoes frequently receive water as we drag them with difficulty along. at the distance of six miles we reached captain clarke's camp on the fourth, which is on the north side and opposite to a large gravelly bar. here the man sent by captain lewis joined us with the pleasing intelligence that he had discovered the falls, and was convinced that the course we were pursuing was that of the true missouri. at a mile and a half we reached the upper point of an island, three quarters of a mile beyond which we encamped on the south, after making only ten and a quarter miles. along the river was but little timber, but much hard slate in the bluffs. saturday, . the morning being warm and fair we set out at the usual hour, but proceeded with great difficulty in consequence of the increased rapidity of the current. the channel is constantly obstructed by rocks and dangerous rapids. during the whole progress the men are in the water hauling the canoes, and walking on sharp rocks and round stones which cut their feet or cause them to fall. the rattlesnakes too are so numerous that the men are constantly on their guard against being bitten by them; yet they bear the fatigues with the most undiminished cheerfulness. we hear the roar of the falls very distinctly this morning. at three and three quarter miles we came to a rock in a bend to the south, resembling a tower. at six and three quarter miles we reached a large creek on the south, which after one of our men we called shield's creek. it is rapid in its course, about thirty yards wide, and on sending a person five miles up it proved to have a fall of fifteen feet, and some timber on its low ground. above this river the bluffs of the missouri are of red earth mixed with stratas of black stone; below it we passed some white clay in the banks which mixes with water in every respect like flour. at three and three quarter miles we reached a point on the north opposite an island and a bluff; and one mile and a quarter further, after passing some red bluffs, came to on the north side, having made twelve miles. here we found a rapid so difficult that we did not think proper to attempt the passage this evening, and therefore sent to captain lewis to apprise him of our arrival. we saw a number of geese, ducks, crows, and blackbirds to-day, the two former with their young. the river rose a little this evening, but the timber is still so scarce that we could not procure enough for our use during the night. sunday, june . some rain fell last night, and this morning the weather was cloudy and the wind high from the southwest. we passed the rapid by doubly manning the periogue and canoes, and halted at the distance of a mile and a quarter to examine the rapids above, which we found to be a continued succession of cascades as far as the view extended, which was about two miles. about a mile above where we halted was a large creek falling in on the south, opposite to which is a large sulphur spring falling over the rocks on the north: captain lewis arrived at two from the falls about five miles above us, and after consulting upon the subject of the portage, we crossed the river and formed a camp on the north, having come three quarters of a mile to-day. from our own observation we had deemed the south side to be the most favourable for a portage, but two men sent out for the purpose of examining it, reported that the creek and the ravines intersected the plain so deeply that it was impossible to cross it. captain clarke therefore resolved to examine more minutely what was the best route: the four canoes were unloaded at the camp and then sent across the river, where by means of strong cords they were hauled over the first rapid, whence they may be easily drawn into the creek. finding too, that the portage would be at all events too long to enable us to carry the boats on our shoulders, six men were set to work to make wheels for carriages to transport them. since leaving maria's river the wife of chaboneau, our interpreter, has been dangerously ill, but she now found great relief from the mineral water of the sulphur spring. it is situated about two hundred yards from the missouri, into which it empties over a precipice of rock about twenty-five feet high. the water is perfectly transparent, strongly impregnated with sulphur, and we suspect iron also, as the colour of the hills and bluffs in the neighbourhood indicates the presence of that metal. in short the water to all appearance is precisely similar to that of bowyer's sulphur spring in virginia. monday . captain clarke set out with five men to explore the country; the rest were employed in hunting, making wheels and in drawing the five canoes and all the baggage up the creek, which we now called portage creek: from this creek there is a gradual ascent to the top of the high plain, while the bluffs of the creek lower down and of the missouri, both above and below its entrance, were so steep as to have rendered it almost impracticable to drag them up from the missouri. we found great difficulty and some danger in even ascending the creek thus far, in consequence of the rapids and rocks of the channel of the creek, which just above where we brought the canoes has a fall of five feet, and high and sleep bluffs beyond it: we were very fortunate in finding just below portage creek a cottonwood tree about twenty-two inches in diameter, and large enough to make the carriage wheels; it was perhaps the only one of the same size within twenty miles; and the cottonwood, which we are obliged to employ in the other parts of the work, is extremely soft and brittle. the mast of the white periogue which we mean to leave behind, supplied us with two axletrees. there are vast quantities of buffaloe feeding in the plains or watering in the river, which is also strewed with the floating carcases and limbs of these animals. they go in large herds to water about the falls, and as all the passages to the river near that place are narrow and steep, the foremost are pressed into the river by the impatience of those behind. in this way we have seen ten or a dozen disappear over the falls in a few minutes. they afford excellent food for the wolves, bears, and birds of prey; and this circumstance may account for the reluctance of the bears to yield their dominion over the neighbourhood. tuesday . the periogue was drawn up a little below our camp and secured in a thick copse of willow bushes. we now began to form a cache or place of deposit and to dry our goods and other articles which required inspection. the wagons too are completed. our hunters brought us ten deer, and we shot two out of a herd of buffaloe that came to water at the sulphur spring. there is a species of gooseberry growing abundantly among the rocks on the sides of the cliffs: it is now ripe, of a pale red colour, about the size of the common gooseberry, and like it is an ovate pericarp of soft pulp enveloping a number of small whitish coloured seeds, and consisting of a yellowish slimy mucilaginous substance, with a sweet taste; the surface of the berry is covered with a glutinous adhesive matter, and its fruit though ripe retains its withered corolla. the shrub itself seldom rises more than two feet high, is much branched, and has no thorns. the leaves resemble those of the common gooseberry except in being smaller, and the berry is supported by separate peduncles or footstalks half an inch long. there are also immense quantities of grasshoppers of a brown colour in the plains, and they no doubt contribute to the lowness of the grass, which is not generally more than three inches high, though it is soft, narrow-leafed and affords a fine pasture for the buffaloe. wednesday . the wind blew violently to-day, as it did yesterday, and as it does frequently in this open country, where there is not a tree to break or oppose its force. some men were sent for the meat killed yesterday which fortunately had not been discovered by the wolves. another party went to medicine river in quest of elk, which we hope may be induced to resort there, from there being more wood in that neighborhood than on the missouri. all the rest were occupied in packing the baggage and mending their moccasins, in order to prepare for the portage. we caught a number of the white fish, but no catfish or trout. our poor indian woman, who had recovered so far as to walk out, imprudently ate a quantity of the white apple, which with some dried fish occasioned a return of her fever. the meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb, as observed with octant by back observation, was ° ', giving as the latitude of our camp, ° ' " "'. thursday . as we were desirous of getting meat enough to last us during the portage, so that the men might not be diverted from their labour to look for food, we sent out four hunters to-day: they killed eleven buffaloe. this was indeed an easy labour, for there are vast herds coming constantly to the opposite bank of the river to water; they seem also to make much use of the mineral water of the sulphur spring, but whether from choice, or because it is more convenient than the river, we cannot determine, as they sometimes pass near the spring and go on to the river. besides this spring, brackish water or that of a dark colour impregnated with mineral salts, such as we have frequently met on the missouri, may be found in small quantities in some of the steep ravines on the north side of the river opposite to us and at the falls. captain clarke returned this evening, having examined the whole course of the river and fixed the route most practicable for the portage. the first day, th, he was occupied in measuring the heights and distances along the banks of the river, and slept near a ravine at the foot of the crooked falls, having very narrowly escaped falling into the river, where he would have perished inevitably, in descending the cliffs near the grand cataract. the next day, th, he continued the same occupation and arrived in the afternoon at the junction of medicine and missouri rivers: up the latter he ascended, and passed at the distance of a mile an island and a little timber in an eastwardly bend of the river. one mile beyond this he came to the lower point of a large island; another small island in the middle of the river, and one near the left shore at the distance of three miles, opposite to the head of which he encamped near the mouth of a creek which appeared to rise in the south mountain. these three islands are opposite to each other, and we gave them the name of the whitebear islands from observing some of those animals on them. he killed a beaver, an elk and eight buffaloe. one of the men who was sent a short distance from the camp to bring home some meat, was attacked by a white bear, and closely pursued within forty paces of the camp, and narrowly escaped being caught. captain clarke immediately went with three men in quest of the bear, which he was afraid might surprise another of the hunters who was out collecting the game. the bear was however too quick, for before captain clarke could reach the man, the bear had attacked him and compelled him to take refuge in the water. he now ran off as they approached, and it being late they deferred pursuing him till the next morning. chapter xi. description and romantic appearance of the missouri at the junction of the medicine river--the difficulty of transporting the baggage at the falls--the party employed in the construction of a boat of skins--the embarrassments they had to encounter for want of proper materials--during the work the party much troubled by white bears--violent hail-storm, and providential escape of captain clarke and his party--description of a remarkable fountain--singular explosion heard from the black mountains--the boat found to be insufficient, and the serious disappointment of the party--captain clarke undertakes to repair the damage by building canoes, and accomplishes the task. on the th, captain clarke not being able to find the bear mentioned in the last chapter, spent the day in examining the country both above and below the whitebear islands, and concluded that the place of his encampment would be the best point for the extremity of the portage. the men were therefore occupied in drying the meat to be left here. immense numbers of buffaloe are every where round, and they saw a summer duck which is now sitting. the next morning, th, he crossed the level plain, fixed stakes to mark the route of the portage, till he passed a large ravine which would oblige us to make the portage farther from the river: after this there being no other obstacle he went to the river where he had first struck it, and took its courses and distances down to the camp. from the draught and survey of captain clarke, we had now a clear and connected view of the falls, cascades, and rapids of the missouri. this river is three hundred yards wide at the point where it receives the waters of medicine river, which is one hundred and thirty-seven yards in width. the united current continues three hundred and twenty-eight poles to a small rapid on the north side, from which it gradually widens to one thousand four hundred yards, and at the distance of five hundred and forty-eight poles reaches the head of the rapids, narrowing as it approaches them. here the hills on the north which had withdrawn from the bank closely border the river, which, for the space of three hundred and twenty poles, makes its way over the rocks with a descent of thirty feet: in this course the current is contracted to five hundred and eighty yards, and after throwing itself over a small pitch of five feet, forms a beautiful cascade of twenty-six feet five inches; this does not however fall immediately perpendicular, being stopped by a part of the rock which projects at about one third of the distance. after descending this fall, and passing the cottonwood island on which the eagle has fixed its nest, the river goes on for five hundred and thirty-two poles over rapids and little falls, the estimated descent of which is thirteen feet six inches till it is joined by a large fountain boiling up underneath the rocks near the edge of the river, into which it falls with a cascade of eight feet. it is of the most perfect clearness and rather of a bluish cast; and even after falling into the missouri it preserves its colour for half a mile. from this fountain the river descends with increased rapidity for the distance of two hundred and fourteen poles, during which the estimated descent is five feet from this for a distance of one hundred and thirty-five poles, the river descends fourteen feet seven inches including a perpendicular fall of six feet seven inches. the river has now become pressed into a space of four hundred and seventy-three yards, and here forms a grand cataract by falling over a plain rock the whole distance across the river to the depth of forty-seven feet eight inches: after recovering itself the missouri then proceeds with an estimated descent of three feet, till at the distance of one hundred and two poles it again is precipitated down the crooked falls of nineteen feet perpendicular; below this at the mouth of a deep ravine is a fall of five feet, after which for the distance of nine hundred and seventy poles the descent is much more gradual, not being more than ten feet, and then succeeds a handsome level plain for the space of one hundred and seventy-eight poles with a computed descent of three feet, making a bend towards the north. thence it descends during four hundred and eight poles, about eighteen feet and a half, when it makes a perpendicular fall of two feet, which is ninety poles beyond the great cataract, in approaching which it descends thirteen feet within two hundred yards, and gathering strength from its confined channel, which is only two hundred and eighty yards wide, rushes over the fall to the depth of eighty-seven feet and three quarters of an inch. after raging among the rocks and losing itself in foam, it is compressed immediately into a bed of ninety-three yards in width: it continues for three hundred and forty poles to the entrance of a run or deep ravine where there is a fall of three feet, which, joined to the decline of the river during that course, makes the descent six feet. as it goes on the descent within the next two hundred and forty poles is only four feet: from this passing a run or deep ravine the descent for four hundred poles is thirteen feet; within two hundred and forty poles a second descent of eighteen feet; thence one hundred and sixty poles a descent of six feet; after which to the mouth of portage creek, a distance of two hundred and eighty poles, the descent is ten feet. from this survey and estimate it results that the river experiences a descent of three hundred and fifty-two feet in the course of two and three quarter miles, from the commencement of the rapids to the mouth of portage creek, exclusive of the almost impassable rapids which extend for a mile below its entrance. the latitude of our camp below the entrance of portage creek, was found to be ° ' " , as deduced from a meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb taken with octant by back observation giving ° '. friday, june . having made the necessary preparations for continuing our route, a part of the baggage was carried across the creek into the high plain, three miles in advance and placed on one of the carriages with truck wheels: the rest of the party was employed in drying meat and dressing elk skins. we killed several muledeer and an elk, and observed as usual vast quantities of buffaloe who came to drink at the river. for the first time on the missouri we have seen near the falls a species of fishing duck, the body of which is brown and white, the wings white, and the head and upper part of the neck of a brick red, with a narrow beak, which seems to be of the same kind common in the susquehanna, potomac and james' river. the little wood which this neighbourhood affords consists of the broad and narrow-leafed cottonwood, the box alder, the narrow and broad-leafed willow, the large or sweet willow, which was not common below maria's river, but which here attains the same size and has the same appearance as in the atlantic states. the undergrowth consists of roses, gooseberries, currants, small honeysuckles, and the redwood, the inner part of which the _engages_ or watermen are fond of smoking when mixed with tobacco. saturday, . we now set out to pass the portage and halted for dinner at eight miles distance near a little stream. the axletrees of our carriage, which had been made of an old mast, and the cottonwood tongues broke before we came there: but we renewed them with the timber of the sweet willow, which lasted till within half a mile of our intended camp, when the tongues gave way and we were obliged to take as much baggage as we could carry on our backs down to the river, where we formed an encampment in a small grove of timber opposite to the whitebear islands. here the banks on both sides of the river are handsome, level, and extensive; that near our camp is not more than two feet above the surface of the water. the river is about eight hundred yards wide just above these islands, ten feet deep in most places, and with a very gentle current. the plains however on this part of the river are not so fertile as those from the mouth of the muscleshell and thence downwards; there is much more stone on the sides of the hills and on the broken lands than is to be found lower down. we saw in the plains vast quantities of buffaloe, a number of small birds, and the large brown curlew, which is now sitting, and lays its eggs, which are of a pale blue with black-specks, on the ground without any nest. there is also a species of lark much resembling the bird called the oldfield lark, with a yellow breast and a black spot on the croup; though it differs from the latter in having its tail formed of feathers of an unequal length and pointed; the beak too is somewhat longer and more curved, and the note differs considerably. the prickly pear annoyed us very much to-day by sticking through our moccasins. as soon as we had kindled our fires we examined the meat which captain clarke had left here, but found that the greater part of it had been taken by the wolves. sunday, . after we had brought up the canoe and baggage captain clarke went down to the camp at portage creek, where four of the men had been left with the indian woman. captain lewis during the morning prepared the camp, and in the afternoon went down in a canoe to medicine river to look after the three men who had been sent thither to hunt on the th, and from whom nothing had as yet been heard. he went up the river about half a mile and then walked along on the right bank, hallooing as he went, till at the distance of five miles he found one of them who had fixed his camp on the opposite bank, where he had killed seven deer and dried about six hundred pounds of buffaloe meat, but had killed no elk, the animal chiefly wanted. he knew nothing of his companions except that on the day of their departure from camp he had left them at the falls and come on to medicine river, not having seen them since. as it was too late to return captain lewis passed over on a raft which he made for the purpose and spent the night at shannon's camp, and the next morning, monday, , sent j. fields up the river with orders to go four miles and return, whether he found the two absent hunters or not; then descending the southwest side of medicine river, he crossed the missouri in the canoe, and sent shannon back to his camp to join fields and bring the meat which they had killed: this they did, and arrived in the evening at the camp on whitebear islands. a part of the men from portage creek also arrived with two canoes and baggage. on going down yesterday captain clarke cut off several angles of the former route so as to shorten the portage considerably, and marked it with stakes: he arrived there in time to have two of the canoes carried up in the high plain about a mile in advance. here they all repaired their moccasins, and put on double soals to protect them from the prickly pear and from the sharp points of earth which have been formed by the trampling of the buffaloe during the late rains: this of itself is sufficient to render the portage disagreeable to one who had no burden; but as the men are loaded as heavily as their strength will permit, the crossing is really painful: some are limping with the soreness of their feet, others are scarcely able to stand for more than a few minutes from the heat and fatigue: they are all obliged to halt and rest frequently, and at almost every stopping place they fall and many of them are asleep in an instant; yet no one complains and they go on with great cheerfulness. at their camp drewyer and fields joined them, and while captain lewis was looking for them at medicine river, they returned to report the absence of shannon about whom they had been very uneasy. they had killed several buffaloe at the bend of the missouri above the falls: and dried about eight hundred pounds of meat and got one hundred pounds of tallow: they had also killed some deer, but had seen no elk. after getting the party in motion with the canoes captain clarke returned to his camp at portage creek. we were now occupied in fitting up a boat of skins, the frame of which had been prepared for the purpose at harper's ferry. it was made of iron, thirty-six feet long, four feet and a half in the beam, and twenty-six inches wide in the bottom. two men had been sent this morning for timber to complete it, but they could find scarcely any even tolerably straight sticks four and a half feet long, and as the cottonwood is too soft and brittle we were obliged to use the willow and box-alder. tuesday, . the party returned to the lower camp. two men were sent on the large island to look for timber. j. fields was sent up the missouri to hunt elk; but he returned about noon and informed us that a few miles above he saw two white bear near the river, and in attempting to fire at them came suddenly on a third, who being only a few steps off immediately attacked him; that in running to escape from the monster he leaped down a steep bank of the river, where falling on a bar of stone he cut his hand and knee and bent his gun; but fortunately for him the bank concealed him from his antagonist or he would have been most probably lost. the other two returned with a small quantity of bark and timber, which was all they could find on the island; but they had killed two elk: these were valuable, as we are desirous of procuring the skins of that animal in order to cover the boat, as they are more strong and durable than those of the buffaloe, and do not shrink so much in drying. the party that went to the lower camp had one canoe and the baggage carried into the high plain to be ready in the morning, and then all who could make use of their feet had a dance on the green to the music of a violin. we have been unsuccessful in our attempt to catch fish, nor does there seem to be any in this part of the river. we observe a number of water terrapins. there are quantities of young blackbirds in these islands just beginning to fly. among the vegetable productions we observe a species of wild rye which is now heading: it rises to the height of eighteen or twenty inches, the beard remarkably fine and soft; the culen is jointed, and in every respect except in height it resembles the wild rye. great quantities of mint too, like the peppermint, are found here. the winds are sometimes violent in these plains. the men inform us that as they were bringing one of the canoes along on truck-wheels, they hoisted the sail and the wind carried her along for some distance. wednesday . two men were sent on the opposite side of the river for bark and timber, of which they procured some, but by no means enough for our purposes. the bark of the cottonwood is too soft, and our only dependence is on the sweet willow, which has a tough strong bark; the two hunters killed seven buffaloe. a party arrived from below with two canoes and baggage, and the wind being from the southeast, they had made considerable progress with the sails. on their arrival one of the men who had been considerably heated and fatigued, swallowed a very hearty draught of water, and was immediately taken ill; captain lewis bled him with a penknife, having no other instrument at hand, and succeeded in restoring him to health the next day. captain clarke formed a second cache or deposit near the camp, and placed the swivel under the rocks near the river. the antelopes are still scattered through the plains; the females with their young, which are generally two in number, and the males by themselves. thursday . the party were employed in preparing timber for the boat, except two who were sent to hunt. about one in the afternoon a cloud arose from the southwest and brought with it violent thunder, lightning, and hail: soon after it passed the hunters came in from about four miles above us. they had killed nine elk, and three bear. as they were hunting on the river they saw a low ground covered with thick brushwood, where from the tracks along shore they thought a bear had probably taken refuge: they therefore landed, without making a noise, and climbed a tree about twenty feet above the ground. having fixed themselves securely, they raised a loud shout, and a bear instantly rushed towards them. these animals never climb, and therefore when he came to the tree and stopped to look at them, drewyer shot him in the head; he proved to be the largest we have yet seen, his nose appeared to be like that of a common ox, his fore feet measured nine inches across, and the hind feet were seven inches wide, and eleven and three quarters long, exclusive of the talons. one of these animals came within thirty yards of the camp last night, and carried off some buffaloe meat which we had placed on a pole. in the evening after the storm the water on this side of the river became of a deep crimson colour, probably caused by some stream above washing down a kind of soft red stone, which we observed in the neighbouring bluffs and gullies. at the camp below, the men who left us in the morning were busy in preparing their load for to-morrow, which were impeded by the rain, hail, and the hard wind from the northwest. friday . the party all occupied in making the boat; they obtained a sufficient quantity of willow bark to line her, and over these were placed the elk skins, and when they failed we were obliged to use the buffaloe hide. the white bear have now become exceedingly troublesome; they constantly infest our camp during the night, and though they have not attacked us, as our dog who patroles all night gives us notice of their approach, yet we are obliged to sleep with our arms by our sides for fear of accident, and we cannot send one man alone to any distance, particularly if he has to pass through brushwood. we saw two of them to-day on the large island opposite to us, but as we are all so much occupied now, we mean to reserve ourselves for some leisure moment, and then make a party to drive them from the islands. the river has risen nine inches since our arrival here. at portage creek captain clarke completed the cache, in which we deposited whatever we could spare from our baggage; some ammunition, provisions, books, the specimens of plants and minerals, and a draught of the river from its entrance to fort mandan. after closing it he broke up the encampment, and took on all the remaining baggage to the high plain, about three miles. portage creek has risen considerably in consequence of the rain, and the water had become of a deep crimson colour, and ill tasted; on overtaking the canoe he found that there was more baggage than could be carried on the two carriages, and therefore left some of the heavy articles which could not be injured, and proceeded on to willowrun where he encamped for the night. here they made a supper on two buffaloe which they killed on the way; but passed the night in the rain, with a high wind from the southwest. in the morning, saturday , finding it impossible to reach the end of the portage with their present load, in consequence of the state of the road after the rain, he sent back nearly all his party to bring on the articles which had been left yesterday. having lost some notes and remarks which he had made on first ascending the river, he determined to go up to the whitebear islands along its banks, in order to supply the deficiency. he there left one man to guard the baggage, and went on to the falls accompanied by his servant york, chaboneau and his wife with her young child. on his arrival there he observed a very dark cloud rising in the west which threatened rain, and looked around for some shelter, but could find no place where they would be secure from being blown into the river if the wind should prove as violent as it sometimes does in the plains. at length about a quarter of a mile above the falls he found a deep ravine where there were some shelving rocks, under which he took refuge. they were on the upper side of the ravine near the river, perfectly safe from the rain, and therefore laid down their guns, compass, and other articles which they carried with them. the shower was at first moderate, it then increased to a heavy rain, the effects of which they did not feel: soon after a torrent of rain and hail descended; the rain seemed to fall in a solid mass, and instantly collecting in the ravine came rolling down in a dreadful current, carrying the mud and rocks, and every thing that opposed it. captain clarke fortunately saw it a moment before it reached them, and springing up with his gun and shotpouch in his left hand, with his right clambered up the steep bluff, pushing on the indian woman with her child in her arms; her husband too had seized her hand and was pulling her up the hill, but he was so terrified at the danger that but for captain clark, himself and his wife and child would have been lost. so instantaneous was the rise of the water, that before captain clark had reached his gun and began to ascend the bank, the water was up to his waist, and he could scarce get up faster than it rose, till it reached the height of fifteen feet with a furious current, which had they waited a moment longer would have swept them into the river just above the great falls, down which they must inevitable have been precipitated. they reached the plain in safety, and found york who had separated from them just before the storm to hunt some buffaloe, and was now returning to find his master. they had been obliged to escape so rapidly that captain clarke lost his compass and umbrella. chaboneau left his gun, shotpouch, and tomahawk, and the indian woman had just time to grasp her child, before the net in which it lay at her feet was carried down the current. he now relinquished his intention of going up the river and returned to the camp at willowrun. here he found that the party sent this morning for the baggage, had all returned to camp in great confusion, leaving their loads in the plain. on account of the heat they generally go nearly naked, and with no covering on their heads. the hail was so large and driven so furiously against them by the high wind, that it knocked several of them down: one of them particularly was thrown on the ground three times, and most of them bleeding freely and complained of being much bruised. willow run had risen six feet since the rain, and as the plains were so wet that they could not proceed, they passed the night at their camp. at the whitebear camp also, we had not been insensible to the hail-storm, though less exposed. in the morning there had been a heavy shower of rain, after which it became fair. after assigning to the men their respective employments, captain lewis took one of them and went to see the large fountain near the falls. for about six miles he passed through a beautiful level plain, and then on reaching the break of the river hills, was overtaken by the gust of wind from the southwest attended by lightning, thunder, and rain: fearing a renewal of the scene on the th, they took shelter in a little gully where there were some broad stones with which they meant to protect themselves against the hail; but fortunately there was not much, and that of a small size; so that they felt no inconvenience except that of being exposed without shelter for an hour, and being drenched by the rain: after it was over they proceeded to the fountain which is perhaps the largest in america. it is situated in a pleasant level plain, about twenty-five yards from the river, into which it falls over some steep irregular rocks with a sudden ascent of about six feet in one part of its course. the water boils up from among the rocks and with such force near the centre, that the surface seems higher there than the earth on the sides of the fountain, which is a handsome turf of fine green grass. the water is extremely pure, cold and pleasant to the taste, not being impregnated with lime or any foreign substance. it is perfectly transparent and continues its bluish cast for half a mile down the missouri, notwithstanding the rapidity of the river. after examining it for some time captain lewis returned to the camp. sunday . in the morning captain clarke sent the men to bring up the baggage left in the plains yesterday. on their return the axletrees and carriages were repaired, and the baggage, conveyed on the shoulders of the party across willow run which had fallen as low as three feet. the carriages being then taken over, a load of baggage was carried to the six-mile stake, deposited there, and the carriages brought back. such is the state of the plains that this operation consumed the day. two men were sent to the falls to look for the articles lost yesterday; but they found nothing but the compass covered with mud and sand at the mouth of the ravine; the place at which captain clarke had been caught by the storm, was filled with large rocks. the men complain much of the bruises received yesterday from the hail. a more than usual number of buffaloe appeared about the camp to-day, and furnished plenty of meat: captain clarke thought that at one view he must have seen at least ten thousand. in the course of the day there was a heavy gust of wind from the southwest, after which the evening was fair. at the whitebear camp we had a heavy dew this morning, which is quite a remarkable occurrence. the party continues to be occupied with the boat, the crossbars for which are now finished, and there remain only the strips to complete the wood work: the skins necessary to cover it have already been prepared and they amount to twenty-eight elk skins and four buffaloe skins. among our game were two beaver, which we have had occasion to observe always are found wherever there is timber. we also killed a large bat or goatsucker of which there are many in this neighbourhood, resembling in every respect those of the same species in the united states. we have not seen the leather-winged bat for some time, nor are there any of the small goatsucker in this part of the missouri. we have not seen either that species of goatsucker or nighthawk called the whippoorwill, which is commonly confounded in the united states with the large goatsucker which we observe here; this last prepares no nest but lays its eggs in the open plains; they generally begin to sit on two eggs, and we believe raise only one brood in a season: at the present moment they are just hatching their young. monday, july . after a severe day's work captain clarke reached our camp in the evening, accompanied by his party and all the baggage except that left at the six-mile stake, for which they were too much fatigued to return. the route from the lower camp on portage creek to that near whitebear island, having been now measured and examined by captain clarke was as follows: from our camp opposite the last considerable rapid to the entrance of portage creek south ° east for three quarters of a mile: thence on a course south ° east for two miles, though for the canoes the best route is to the left of this course, and strikes portage one mile and three quarters from its entrance, avoiding in this way a very steep hill which lies above portage creek; from this south ° west for four miles, passing the head of a drain or ravine which falls into the missouri below the great falls, and to the willow run which has always a plentiful supply of good water and some timber: here the course turns to south ° west for four miles further; then south ° west three miles, crossing at the beginning of the course the head of a drain which falls into the missouri at the crooked falls, and reaching an elevated point of the plain from which south ° west. on approaching the river on this course there is a long and gentle descent from the high plain, after which the road turns a little to the right of the course up the river to our camp. the whole portage is seventeen and three quarter miles. at the whitebear camp we were occupied with the boat and digging a pit for the purpose of making some tar. the day has been warm, and the mosquitoes troublesome. we were fortunate enough to observe equal altitudes of the sun with sextant, which since our arrival here we have been prevented from doing, by flying clouds and storms in the evening. tuesday, july d. a shower of rain fell very early this morning. we then despatched some men for the baggage left behind yesterday, and the rest were engaged in putting the boat together. this was accomplished in about three hours, and then we began to sew on the leather over the crossbars or iron on the inner side of the boat which form the ends of the sections. by two o'clock the last of the baggage arrived, to the great delight of the party who were anxious to proceed. the mosquitoes we find very troublesome. having completed our celestial observations we went over to the large island to make an attack upon its inhabitants the bears, who have annoyed us very much of late, and who were prowling about our camp all last night. we found that the part of the island frequented by the bear forms an almost impenetrable thicket of the broad-leafed willow: into this we forced our way in parties of three; but could see only one bear, who instantly attacked drewyer. fortunately as he was rushing on the hunter shot him through the heart within twenty paces and he fell, which enabled drewyer to get out of his way: we then followed him one hundred yards and found that the wound had been mortal. not being able to discover any more of these animals we returned to camp: here in turning over some of the baggage we caught a rat somewhat larger than the common european rat, and of a lighter colour: the body and outer parts of the legs and head of a light lead colour; the inner side of the legs as well as the belly, feet and ears are white; the ears are not covered with hair, and are much larger than those of the common rat; the toes also are longer, the eyes black and prominent, the whiskers very long and full; the tail rather longer than the body, and covered with fine fur and hair of the same size with that on the back, which is very close, short, and silky in its texture. this was the first we had met, although its nests are very frequent among the cliffs of rocks and hollow trees, where we also found large quantities of the shells and seed of the prickly pear, on which we conclude they chiefly subsist. the musquitoes are uncommonly troublesome. the wind was again high from the southwest: these winds are in fact always the coldest and most violent which we experience, and the hypothesis which we have formed on that subject is, that the air coming in contact with the snowy mountains immediately becomes chilled and condensed, and being thus rendered heavier than the air below it descends into the rarified air below or into the vacuum formed by the constant action of the sun on the open unsheltered plains. the clouds rise suddenly near these mountains and distribute their contents partially over the neighbouring plains. the same cloud will discharge hail alone in one part, hail and rain in another, and rain only in a third, and all within the space of a few miles; while at the same time there is snow falling on the mountains to the southeast of us. there is at present no snow on those mountains; that which covered them on our arrival as well as that which has since fallen having disappeared. the mountains to the north and northwest of us are still entirely covered with snow, and indeed there has been no perceptible diminution of it since we first saw them, which induces a belief either that the clouds prevailing at this season do not reach their summits or that they deposit their snow only. they glisten with great beauty when the sun shines on them in a particular direction, and most probably from this glittering appearance have derived the name of the shining mountains. wednesday, . nearly the whole party were employed in different labours connected with the boat, which is now almost completed: but we have not as yet been able to obtain tar from our kiln, a circumstance that will occasion us not a little embarrassment. having been told by the indians that on leaving the falls we should soon pass the buffaloe country, we have before us the prospect of fasting occasionally; but in order to provide a supply we sent out the hunters who killed only a buffaloe and two antelopes, which added to six beaver and two otter have been all our game for two or three days. at ten in the morning we had a light shower which scarcely wet the grass. thursday, july th. the boat was now completed except what is in fact the most difficult part, the making her seams secure. we had intended to despatch a canoe with part of our men to the united states early this spring; but not having yet seen the snake indians, or knowing whether to calculate on their friendship or enmity, we have decided not to weaken our party which is already scarcely sufficient to repel any hostility. we were afraid too that such a measure might dishearten those who remain; and as we have never suggested it to them, they are all perfectly and enthusiastically attached to the enterprise, and willing to encounter any danger to ensure its success. we had a heavy dew this morning. since our arrival at the falls we have repeatedly heard a strange noise coming from the mountains in a direction a little to the north of west. it is heard at different periods of the day and night, sometimes when the air is perfectly still and without a cloud, and consists of one stroke only, or of five or six discharges in quick succession. it is loud and resembles precisely the sound of a six pound piece of ordnance at the distance of three miles. the minnetarees frequently mentioned this noise like thunder, which they said the mountains made; but we had paid no attention to it, believing it to have been some superstition or perhaps a falsehood. the watermen also of the party say that the pawnees and ricaras give the same account of a noise heard in the black mountains to the westward of them. the solution of the mystery given by the philosophy of the watermen is, that it is occasioned by the bursting of the rich mines of silver confined within the bosom of the mountain. an elk and a beaver are all that were killed to-day: the buffaloe seemed to have withdrawn from our neighbourhood, though several of the men who went to-day to visit the falls for the first time, mention that they are still abundant at that place. we contrived however to spread not a very sumptuous but a comfortable table in honour of the day, and in the evening gave the men a drink of spirits, which was the last of our stock. some of them appeared sensible to the effects of even so small a quantity, and as is usual among them on all festivals, the fiddle was produced and a dance begun, which lasted till nine o'clock, when it was interrupted by a heavy shower of rain. they continued however their merriment till a late hour. friday . the boat was brought up into a high situation and fires kindled under her in order to dry her more expeditiously. despairing now of procuring any tar, we formed a composition of pounded charcoal with beeswax and buffaloe tallow to supply its place; should this resource fail us it will be very unfortunate, as in every other respect the boat answers our purposes completely. although not quite dry she can be carried with ease by five men; her form is as complete as could be wished; very strong, and will carry at least eight thousand pounds with her complement of hands. besides our want of tar, we have been unlucky in sewing the skins with a needle which had sharp edges instead of a point merely, although a large thong was used in order to fill the hole, yet it shrinks in drying and leaves the hole open, so that we fear the boat will leak. a large herd of buffaloe came near us and we procured three of them: besides which were killed two wolves and three antelopes. in the course of the day other herds of buffaloe came near our camp on their way down the river: these herds move with great method and regularity. although ten or twelve herds are seen scattered from each other over a space of many miles, yet if they are undisturbed by pursuit they will be uniformly travelling in the same direction. saturday . last night there were several showers of rain and hail, attended with thunder and lightning: and about day break a heavy storm came on from the southwest with one continued roar of thunder, and rain and hail. the hail which was as large as musket balls, covered the ground completely; and on collecting some of it, it lasted during the day and served to cool the water. the red and yellow currant is abundant and now ripe, although still a little acid. we have seen in this neighbourhood what we have not met before, a remarkably small fox which associates in bands and burrows in the prairie, like the small wolf, but have not yet been able to obtain any of them, as they are extremely vigilant, and betake themselves on the slightest alarm to their burrows which are very deep. sunday . the weather is warm but cloudy, so that the moisture retained by the bark after the rain leaves it slowly, though we have small fires constantly under the boat. we have no tents, and therefore are obliged to use the sails to keep off the bad weather. our buffaloe skins too, are scarcely sufficient to cover our baggage, but the men are now dressing others to replace their present leather clothing, which soon rots by being so constantly exposed to water. in the evening the hunters returned with the skins of only three buffaloe, two antelope, four deer, and three wolf skins, and reported that the buffaloe had gone further down the river; two other hunters who left us this morning could find nothing except one elk: in addition to this we caught a beaver. the musquitoes still disturb us very much, and the blowing-flies swarm in vast numbers round the boat. at four in the afternoon we had a light shower of rain attended with some thunder and lightning. monday . in order more fully to replace the notes of the river which he had lost, and which he was prevented from supplying by the storm of the twenty-ninth ult. captain clarke set out after breakfast, taking with him nearly the whole party with a view of shooting buffaloe if there should be any near the falls. after getting some distance in the plains the men were divided into squads, and he with two others struck the missouri at the entrance of medicine river, and thence proceeded down to the great cataract. he found that the immense herds of buffaloe have entirely disappeared, and he thought had gone below the falls. having made the necessary measurements, he returned through the plains and reached camp late in the evening; the whole party had killed only three buffaloe, three antelopes and a deer; they had also shot a small fox, and brought a living ground-squirrel somewhat larger than those of the united states. the day was warm and fair, but a slight rain fell in the afternoon. the boat having now become sufficiently dry, we gave it a coat of the composition, which after a proper interval was repeated, and the next morning, tuesday , she was launched into the water, and swam perfectly well: the seats were then fixed and the oars fitted; but after we had loaded her, as well as the canoes, and were on the point of setting out a violent wind caused the waves to wet the baggage, so that we were forced to unload them. the wind continued high till evening, when to our great disappointment we discovered that nearly all the composition had separated from the skins, and left the seams perfectly exposed; so that the boat now leaked very much. to repair this misfortune without pitch is impossible, and as none of that article is to be procured, we therefore, however reluctantly, are obliged to abandon her, after having had so much labour in the construction. we now saw that the section of the boat covered with buffaloe skins on which hair had been left, answered better than the elk skins and leaked but little; while that part which was covered hair about one eighth of an inch, retained the composition perfectly, and remained sound and dry. from this we perceived that had we employed buffaloe instead of elk skins, and not singed them so closely as we have done, carefully avoiding to cut the leather in sewing, the boat would have been sufficient even with the present composition, or had we singed instead of shaving the elk skins we might have succeeded. but we discovered our error too late: the buffaloe had deserted us, the travelling season was so fast advancing that we had no time to spare for experiments, and therefore finding that she could be no longer useful she was sunk in the water, so as to soften the skins and enable us the more easily to take her to pieces. it now became necessary to provide other means for transporting the baggage which we had intended to stow in her. for this purpose we shall want two canoes, but for many miles below the mouth of the muscleshell river to this place, we have not seen a single tree fit to be used in that way. the hunters however who had hitherto been sent after timber, mention that there is a low ground on the opposite side of the river, about eight miles above us by land, and more than twice that distance by water, in which we may probably find trees large enough for our purposes. captain clarke therefore determined to set out by land for that place with ten of the best workmen who would be occupied in building the canoes till the rest of the party, after taking the boat to pieces and making the necessary deposits, should transport the baggage and join them with the other six canoes. wednesday . he accordingly passed over to the opposite side of the river with his party, and proceeded on eight miles by land, the distance by water being twenty-three and three quarter miles. here he found two cottonwood trees, but on cutting them down, one proved to be hollow, split at the top in falling, and both were much damaged at the bottom. he searched the neighbourhood but could find none which would suit better, and therefore was obliged to make use of those which he had felled, shortening them in order to avoid the cracks, and supplying the deficiency by making them as wide as possible. they were equally at a loss for wood of which they might make handles for their axes, the eyes of which not being round they were obliged to split the timber in such a manner that thirteen of the handles broke in the course of the day, though made of the best wood they could find for the purpose, which was the chokecherry. the rest of the party took the frame of the boat to pieces, deposited it in a cache or hole, with a draught of the country from fort mandan to this place, and also some other papers and small articles of less importance. after this we amused ourselves with fishing, and although we had thought on our arrival that there were none in this part of the river, we caught some of a species of white chub below the falls, but few in number, and small in size. serjeant ordway with four canoes and eight men had set sail in the morning, with part of the baggage to the place where captain clarke had fixed his camp, but the wind was so high that he only reached within three miles of that place, and encamped for the night. thursday, july . in the morning one of the canoes joined captain clarke: the other three having on board more valuable articles, which would have been injured by the water, went on more cautiously, and did not reach the camp till the evening. captain clarke then had the canoes unloaded and sent back, but the high wind prevented their floating down nearer than about eight miles above us. his party were busily engaged with the canoes, and their hunters supplied them with three fat deer and a buffaloe, in addition to two deer and an antelope killed yesterday. the few men who were with captain lewis were occupied in hunting, but with not much success, having killed only one buffaloe. they heard about sunset two discharges of the tremendous mountain artillery: they also saw several very large gray eagles, much larger than those of the united states, and most probably a distinct species, though the bald eagle of this country is not quite so large as that of the united states. the men have been much afflicted with painful whitlows, and one of them disabled from working by this complaint in his hand. friday, . in consequence of the wind the canoes did not reach the lower camp till late in the afternoon, before which time captain lewis sent all the men he could spare up the river to assist in building the boats, and the day was too far advanced to reload and send them up before morning. the mosquitoes are very troublesome, and they have a companion not less so, a large black gnat which does not sting, but attacks the eyes in swarms. the party with captain clarke are employed on the canoes: in the course of the work serjeant pryor dislocated his shoulder yesterday, but it was replaced immediately, and though painful does not threaten much injury. the hunters brought in three deer and two otter. this last animal has been numerous since the water has become sufficiently clear for them to take fish. the blue-crested fisher, or as it is sometimes called, the kingfisher, is an inhabitant of this part of the river; it is a bird rare on the missouri: indeed we had not seen more than three or four of them from its entrance to maria's river, and even those did not seem to reside on the missouri but on some of the clearer streams which empty into it, as they were seen near the mouths of those streams. saturday . the morning being fair and calm captain lewis had all the remaining baggage embarked on board the six canoes, which sailed with two men in each for the upper camp. then with a sick man and the indian woman, he left the encampment, and crossing over the river went on by land to join captain clarke. from the head of the whitebear islands he proceeded in a southwest direction, at the distance of three miles, till he struck the missouri, which he then followed till he reached the place where all the party were occupied in boat-building. on his way he passed a very large indian lodge, which was probably designed as a great council-house, but it differs in its construction from all that we have seen lower down the missouri or elsewhere. the form of it was a circle two hundred and sixteen feet in circumference at the base, and composed of sixteen large cottonwood poles about fifty feet long, and at their thicker ends, which touched the ground, about the size of a man's body: they were distributed at equal distances, except that one was omitted to the east, probably for the entrance. from the circumference of this circle the poles converged towards the centre where they were united and secured by large withes of willow brush. there was no covering over this fabric, in the centre of which were the remains of a large fire, and round it the marks of about eighty leathern lodges. he also saw a number of turtledoves, and some pigeons, of which he shot one differing in no respect from the wild pigeon of the united states. the country exhibits its usual appearances, the timber confined to the river, the country on both sides as far as the eye can reach being entirely destitute of trees or brush. in the low ground in which we are building the canoes, the timber is larger and more abundant than we have seen it on the missouri for several hundred miles. the soil too is good, for the grass and weeds reach about two feet high, being the tallest we have observed this season, though on the high plains and prairies the grass is at no season above three inches in height. among these weeds are the sandrush, and nettle in small quantities; the plains are still infested by great numbers of the small birds already mentioned, among whom is the brown curlew. the current of the river is here extremely gentle; the buffaloe have not yet quite gone, for the hunters brought in three in very good order. it requires some diligence to supply us plentifully, for as we reserve our parched meal for the rocky mountains, where we do not expect to find much game, our principal article of food is meat, and the consumption of the whole thirty-two persons belonging to the party, amounts to four deer, an elk and a deer, one buffaloe every twenty four hours. the musquitoes and gnats persecute us as violently as below, so that we can get no sleep unless defended by biers, with which we are all provided. we here found several plants hitherto unknown to us, and of which we preserved specimens. serjeant ordway proceeded with the six canoes five miles up the river, but the wind becoming so high as to wet the baggage he was obliged to unload and dry it. the wind abated at five o'clock in the evening, when he again proceeded eight miles and encamped. the next morning, sunday, july , he joined us about noon. on leaving the whitebear camp he passed at a short distance a little creek or run coming in on the left. this had been already examined and called flattery run; it contains back water only, with very extensive low grounds, which rising into large plains reach the mountains on the east; then passed a willow island on the left within one mile and a half, and reached two miles further a cliff of rocks in a bend on the same side. in the course of another mile and a half he passed two islands covered with cottonwood, box-alder, sweet-willow, and the usual undergrowth, like that of the whitebear islands. at thirteen and three quarter miles he came to the mouth of a small creek on the left; within the following nine miles he passed three timbered islands, and after making twenty-three and a quarter miles from the lower camp, arrived at the point of woodland on the north where the canoes were constructed. the day was fair and warm; the men worked very industriously, and were enabled by the evening to lanch the boats, which now want only seats and oars to be complete. one of them is twenty-five, the other thirty-three feet in length and three feet wide. captain lewis walked out between three and four miles over the rocky bluffs to a high situation, two miles from the river, a little below fort mountain creek. the country which he saw was in most parts level, but occasionally became varied by gentle rises and descents, but with no timber except along the water. from this position, the point at which the missouri enters the first chain of the rocky mountains bore south ° west about twenty-five miles, according to our estimate. the northern extremity of that chain north ° west at the distance of eighty miles. to the same extremity of the second chain north ° west one hundred and fifty miles. to the most remote point of a third and continued chain of these mountains north ° west about two hundred miles. the direction of the first chain was from south ° east to north ° west; of the second, from south ° east to north ° west; but the eye could not reach their southern extremities, which most probably may be traced to mexico. in a course south ° west, and at the distance of eight miles is a mountain, which from its appearance we shall call fort mountain. it is situated in the level plain, and forms nearly a square, each side of which is a mile in extent. these sides, which are composed of a yellow clay with no mixture of rock or stone whatever, rise perpendicularly to the height of three hundred feet, where the top becomes a level plain covered, as captain lewis now observed, with a tolerably fertile mould two feet thick, on which was a coat of grass similar to that of the plain below: it has the appearance of being perfectly inaccessible, and although the mounds near the falls somewhat resemble it, yet none of them are so large. chapter xii. the party embark on board the canoes--description of smith's river--character of the country, &c.--dearborne's river described--captain clarke precedes the party for the purpose of discovering the indians of the rocky mountains--magnificent rocky appearances on the borders of the river denominated the gates of the rocky mountains--captain clarke arrives at the three forks of the missouri without overtaking the indians--the party arrive at the three forks, of which a particular and interesting description is given. monday, july . we rose early, embarked all our baggage on board the canoes, which though light in number are still heavily loaded, and at ten o'clock set out on our journey. at the distance of three miles we passed an island, just above which is a small creek coming in from the left, which we called fort mountain creek, the channel of which is ten yards wide but now perfectly dry. at six miles we came to an island opposite to a bend towards the north side; and reached at seven and a half miles the lower point of a woodland at the entrance of a beautiful river, which in honour of the secretary of the navy we called smith's river. this stream falls into a bend on the south side of the missouri, and is eighty yards wide. as far as we could discern its course it wound through a charming valley towards the southeast, in which many herds of buffaloe were feeding, till at the distance of twenty five miles it entered the rocky mountains, and was lost from our view. after dining near this place we proceeded on four and three quarter miles to the head of an island; four and a quarter miles beyond which is a second island on the left; three and a quarter miles further in a bend of the river towards the north, is a wood where we encamped for the night, after making nineteen and three quarter miles. we find the prickly pear, one of the greatest beauties as well as the greatest inconveniences of the plains, now in full bloom. the sunflower too, a plant common on every part of the missouri from its entrance to this place, is here very abundant and in bloom. the lambsquarter, wild-cucumber, sandrush, and narrowdock are also common. two elk, a deer, and an otter, were our game to-day. the river has now become so much more crooked than below that we omit taking all its short meanders, but note only its general course, and lay down the small bends on our daily chart by the eye. the general width is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards. along the banks are large beds of sand raised above the plains, and as they always appear on the sides of the river opposite to the southwest exposure, seem obviously brought there from the channel of the river by the incessant winds from that quarter: we find also more timber than for a great distance below the falls. tuesday . there was a heavy dew last night. we soon passed about forty little booths, formed of willow bushes as a shelter against the sun. these seemed to have been deserted about ten days, and as we supposed by the snake indians, or shoshonees, whom we hope soon to meet, as they appeared from the tracks to have a number of horses with them. at three and three quarter miles we passed a creek or run in a bend on the left side, and four miles further another run or small rivulet on the right. after breakfasting on a buffaloe shot by one of the hunters, captain lewis resolved to go on ahead of the party to the point where the river enters the rocky mountains and make the necessary observations before our arrival. he therefore set out with drewyer and two of the sick men to whom he supposed the walk would be useful: he travelled on the north side of the river through a handsome level plain, which continued on the opposite side also, and at the distance of eight miles passed a small stream on which he observed a considerable quantity of the aspen tree. a little before twelve o'clock he halted on a bend to the north in a low ground well covered with timber, about four and a half miles below the mountains, and obtained a meridian altitude, by which he found the latitude was n. ° ' " "'. his route then lay through a high waving plain to a rapid where the missouri first leaves the rocky mountains, and here he encamped for the night. in the meantime we had proceeded after breakfast one mile to a bend in the left, opposite to which was the frame of a large lodge situated in the prairie, constructed like that already mentioned above the whitebear islands, but only sixty feet in diameter: round it were the remains of about eighty leathern lodges, all which seemed to have been built during the last autumn; within the next fifteen and a quarter miles we passed ten islands, on the last of which we encamped near the right shore, having made twenty-three miles. the next morning, wednesday , we set out early, and at four miles distance joined captain lewis at foot of the rapids, and after breakfast began the passage of them: some of the articles most liable to be injured by the water were carried round. we then double manned the canoes, and with the aid of the towing-line got them up without accident. for several miles below the rapids the current of the missouri becomes stronger as you approach, and the spurs of the mountains advance towards the river, which is deep and not more than seventy yards wide: at the rapids the river is closely hemmed in on both sides by the hills, and foams for half a mile over the rocks which obstruct its channel. the low grounds are now not more than a few yards in width, but they furnish room for an indian road which winds under the hills on the north side of the river. the general range of these hills is from southeast to northwest, and the cliffs themselves are about eight hundred feet above the water, formed almost entirely of a hard black granite, on which are scattered a few dwarf pine and cedar trees. immediately in the gap is a large rock four hundred feet high, which on one side is washed by the missouri, while on its other sides a handsome little plain separates it from the neighbouring mountains. it may be ascended with some difficulty nearly to its summit, and affords a beautiful prospect of the plains below, in which we could observe large herds of buffaloe. after ascending the rapids for half a mile we came to a small island at the head of them, which we called pine island from a large pine tree at the lower end of it, which is the first we have seen near the river for a great distance. a mile beyond captain lewis's camp we had a meridian altitude which gave us the latitude of ° ' " "'. as the canoes were still heavily loaded all those not employed in working them walked on shore. the navigation is now very laborious. the river is deep but with little current and from seventy to one hundred yards wide; the low grounds are very narrow, with but little timber and that chiefly the aspen tree. the cliffs are steep and hang over the river so much that often we could not cross them, but were obliged to pass and repass from one side of the river to the other in order to make our way. in some places the banks are formed of rocks, of dark black granite rising perpendicularly to a great height, through which the river seems in the progress of time to have worn its channel. on these mountains we see more pine than usual, but it is still in small quantities. along the bottoms, which have a covering of high grass, we observe the sunflower blooming in great abundance. the indians of the missouri, and more especially those who do not cultivate maize, make great use of the seed of this plant for bread or in thickening their soup. they first parch and then pound it between two stones until it is reduced to a fine meal. sometimes they add a portion of water, and drink it thus diluted: at other times they add a sufficient proportion of marrow grease to reduce it to the consistency of common dough and eat it in that manner. this last composition we preferred to all the rest, and thought it at that time a very palatable dish. there is however little of the broad-leafed cottonwood on this side of the falls, much the greater part of what we see being of the narrow-leafed species. there are also great quantities of red, purple, yellow and black currants. the currants are very pleasant to the taste, and much preferable to those of our common garden. the bush rises to the height of six or eight feet; the stem simple, branching and erect. these shrubs associate in corps either in upper or timbered lands near the water courses. the leaf is peteolate, of a pale green, and in form resembles the red currant so common in our gardens. the perianth of the fruit is one leaved, five cleft, abbriviated and tubular. the corolla is monopetallous, funnel-shaped, very long, and of a fine orange colour. there are five stamens and one pistillum of the first, the filaments are capillar, inserted in the corolla, equal and converging, the anther ovate and incumbent. the germ of the second species is round, smooth, inferior and pidicelled: the style long and thicker than the stamens, simple, cylindrical, smooth and erect. it remains with the corolla until the fruit is ripe, the stamen is simple and obtuse, and the fruit much the size and shape of our common garden currants, growing like them in clusters supported by a compound footstalk. the peduncles are longer in this species, and the berries are more scattered. the fruit is not so acid as the common currant, and has a more agreeable flavour. the other species differs in no respect from the yellow currant excepting in the colour and flavour of the berries. the serviceberry differs in some points from that of the united states. the bushes are small, sometimes not more than two feet high, and rarely exceed eight inches. they are proportionably small in their stems, growing very thickly, associated in clumps. the fruit is of the same form, but for the most part larger and of a very dark purple. they are now ripe and in great perfection. there are two species of gooseberry here, but neither of them yet ripe: nor are the chokecherry, though in great quantities. besides there are also at that place the box alder, red willow and a species of sumach. in the evening we saw some mountain rams or big-horned animals, but no other game of any sort. after leaving pine island we passed a small run on the left, which is formed by a large spring rising at the distance of half a mile under the mountain. one mile and a half above the island is another, and two miles further a third island, the river making small bends constantly to the north. from this last island to a point of rocks on the south side the low grounds become rather wider, and three quarters of a mile beyond these rocks, in a bend on the north, we encamped opposite to a very high cliff, having made during the day eleven and a half miles. thursday . this morning early before our departure we saw a large herd of the big-horned animals, who were bounding among the rocks in the opposite cliff with great agility. these inaccessible spots secure them from all their enemies, and the only danger is in wandering among these precipices, where we should suppose it scarcely possible for any animal to stand; a single false step would precipitate them at least five hundred feet into the water. at one mile and a quarter we passed another single cliff on the left; at the same distance beyond which is the mouth of a large river emptying itself from the north. it is a handsome, bold, and clear stream, eighty yards wide, that is nearly as broad as the missouri, with a rapid current over a bed of small smooth stones of various figures. the water is extremely transparent, the low grounds are narrow, but possess as much wood as those of the missouri; and it has every appearance of being navigable, though to what distance we cannot ascertain, as the country which it waters, is broken and mountainous. in honour of the secretary at war we called it dearborn's river. being now very anxious to meet with the shoshonees or snake indians, for the purpose of obtaining the necessary information of our route, as well as to procure horses, it was thought best for one of us to go forward with a small party and endeavour to discover them, before the daily discharge of our guns, which is necessary for our subsistence, should give them notice of our approach: if by an accident they hear us, they will most probably retreat to the mountains, mistaking us for their enemies who usually attack them on this side. accordingly captain clarke set out with three men, and followed the course of the river on the north side; but the hills were so steep at first that he was not able to go much faster than ourselves. in the evening however he cut off many miles of the circuitous course of the river, by crossing a mountain over which he found a wide indian road which in many places seems to have been cut or dug down in the earth. he passed also two branches of a stream which he called ordway's creek, where he saw a number of beaver-dams extending in close succession towards the mountains as far as he could distinguish: on the cliffs were many of the big-horned animals. after crossing this mountain he encamped near a small stream of running water, having travelled twenty miles. on leaving dearborn's river we passed at three and a half miles a small creek, and at six beyond it an island on the north side of the river, which makes within that distance many small bends. at two and a half miles further is another island: three quarters of a mile beyond this is a small creek on the north side. at a mile and a half above the creek is a much larger stream thirty yards wide, and discharging itself with a bold current on the north side: the banks are low, and the bed formed of stones altogether. to this stream we gave the name of ordway's creek, after serjeant john ordway. at two miles beyond this the valley widens: we passed several bends of the river, and encamped in the centre of one on the south, having made twenty-one miles. here we found a small grove of the narrow-leafed cottonwood, there being no longer any of the broad-leafed kind since we entered the mountains. the water of these rivulets which come down from the mountains is very cold, pure, and well tasted. along their banks as well as on the missouri the aspen is very common, but of a small kind. the river is somewhat wider than we found it yesterday; the hills more distant from the river and not so high; there are some pines on the mountains, but they are principally confined to the upper regions of them: the low grounds are still narrower and have little or no timber. the soil near the river is good, and produces a luxuriant growth of grass and weeds; among these productions the sunflower holds a very distinguished place. for several days past we have observed a species of flax in the low grounds, the leaf-stem and pericarp of which resemble those of the flax commonly cultivated in the united states: the stem rises to the height of two and a half or three feet, and spring to the number of eight or ten from the same root, with a strong thick bark apparently well calculated for use: the root seems to be perennial, and it is probable that the cutting of the stems may not at all injure it, for although the seeds are not yet ripe, there are young suckers shooting up from the root, whence we may infer that the stems which are fully grown and in the proper stage of vegetation to produce the best flax, are not essential to the preservation or support of the root, a circumstance which would render it a most valuable plant. to-day we have met with a second species of flax smaller than the first, as it seldom obtains a greater height than nine or twelve inches: the leaf and stem resemble those of the species just mentioned, except that the latter is rarely branched, and bears a single monopetalous bell-shaped blue flower, suspended with its limb downwards. we saw several herds of the big-horn, but they were in the cliffs beyond our reach. we killed an elk this morning and found part of a deer which had been left for us by captain clarke. he pursued his route, friday, , early in the morning, and soon passed the remains of several indian camps formed of willow brush, which seemed to have been deserted this spring. at the same time he observed that the pine trees had been stripped of their bark about the same season, which our indian woman say her countrymen do in order to obtain the sap and the soft parts of the wood and bark for food. about eleven o'clock he met a herd of elk and killed two of them, but such was the want of wood in the neighbourhood that he was unable to procure enough to make a fire, and he was therefore obliged to substitute the dung of the buffaloe, with which he cooked his breakfast. they then resumed their course along an old indian road. in the afternoon they reached a handsome valley watered by a large creek, both of which extend a considerable distance into the mountain: this they crossed, and during the evening travelled over a mountainous country covered with sharp fragments of flint-rock: these bruised and cut their feet very much, but were scarcely less troublesome than the prickly pear of the open plains, which have now become so abundant that it is impossible to avoid them, and the thorns are so strong that they pierce a double soal of dressed deer skin: the best resource against them is a soal of buffaloe hide in parchment. at night they reached the river much fatigued, having passed two mountains in the course of the day and having travelled thirty miles. captain clarke's first employment on lighting a fire was to extract from his feet the briars, which he found seventeen in number. in the meantime we proceeded on very well, though the water appears to increase in rapidity as we advance: the current has indeed been strong during the day and obstructed by some rapids, which are not however much broken by rocks, and are perfectly safe: the river is deep, and its general width is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide. for more than thirteen miles we went along the numerous bends of the river and then reached two small islands; three and three quarter miles beyond which is a small creek in a bend to the left, above a small island on the right side of the river. we were regaled about ten o'clock p.m. with a thunder storm of rain and hail which lasted for an hour, but during the day in this confined valley, through which we are passing, the heat is almost insupportable; yet whenever we obtain a glimpse of the lofty tops of the mountains we are tantalized with a view of the snow. these mountains have their sides and summits partially varied with little copses of pine, cedar, and balsam fir. a mile and a half beyond this creek the rocks approach the river on both sides, forming a most sublime and extraordinary spectacle. for five and three quarter miles these rocks rise perpendicularly from the water's edge to the height of nearly twelve hundred feet. they are composed of a black granite near its base, but from its lighter colour above and from the fragments we suppose the upper part to be flint of a yellowish brown and cream colour. nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks, which project over the river and menace us with destruction. the river, of one hundred and fifty yards in width, seems to have forced its channel down this solid mass, but so reluctantly has it given way that during the whole distance the water is very deep even at the edges, and for the first three miles there is not a spot except one of a few yards, in which a man could stand between the water and the towering perpendicular of the mountain: the convulsion of the passage must have been terrible, since at its outlet there are vast columns of rock torn from the mountain which are strewed on both sides of the river, the trophies as it were of the victory. several fine springs burst out from the chasms of the rock, and contribute to increase the river, which has now a strong current, but very fortunately we are able to overcome it with our oars, since it would be impossible to use either the cord or the pole. we were obliged to go on some time after dark, not being able to find a spot large enough to encamp on, but at length about two miles above a small inland in the middle of the river we met with a spot on the left side, where we procured plenty of lightwood and pitchpine. this extraordinary range of rocks we called the gates of the rocky mountains. we had made twenty-two miles; and four and a quarter miles from the entrance of the gates. the mountains are higher to-day than they were yesterday. we saw some big-horns, a few antelopes and beaver, but since entering the mountains have found no buffaloe: the otter are however in great plenty: the musquitoes have become less troublesome than they were. saturday . by employing the towrope whenever the banks permitted the use of it, the river being too deep for the pole, we were enabled to overcome the current which is still strong. at the distance of half a mile we came to a high rock in a bend to the left in the gates. here the perpendicular rocks cease, the hills retire from the river, and the vallies suddenly widen to a greater extent than they have been since we entered the mountains. at this place was some scattered timber, consisting of the narrow-leafed cottonwood, the aspen, and pine. there are also vast quantities of gooseberries, serviceberries, and several species of currant, among which is one of a black colour, the flavour of which is preferable to that of the yellow, and would be deemed superior to that of any currant in the united states. we here killed an elk which was a pleasant addition to our stock of food. at a mile from the gates, a large creek comes down from the mountains and empties itself behind an island in the middle of a bend to the north. to this stream which is fifteen yards wide we gave the name of potts's creek, after john potts, one of our men. up this valley about seven miles we discovered a great smoke, as if the whole country had been set on fire; but were at a loss to decide whether it had been done accidentally by captain clarke's party, or by the indians as a signal on their observing us. we afterwards learnt that this last was the fact; for they had heard a gun fired by one of captain clarke's men, and believing that their enemies were approaching had fled into the mountains, first setting fire to the plains as a warning to their countrymen. we continued our course along several islands, and having made in the course of the day fifteen miles, encamped just above an island, at a spring on a high bank on the left side of the river. in the latter part of the evening we had passed through a low range of mountains, and the country became more open, though still unbroken and without timber, and the lowlands not very extensive: and just above our camp the river is again closed in by the mountains. we found on the banks an elk which captain clarke had left us, with a note mentioning that he should pass the mountains just above us and wait our arrival at some convenient place. we saw but could not procure some redheaded ducks and sandhill cranes along the sides of the river, and a woodpecker about the size of the lark-woodpecker, which seems to be a distinct species: it is as black as a crow with a long tail, and flies like a jaybird. the whole country is so infested by the prickly pear that we could scarcely find room to lie down at our camp. captain clarke on setting out this morning had gone through the valley about six miles to the right of the river. he soon fell into an old indian road which he pursued till he reached the missouri, at the distance of eighteen miles from his last encampment, just above the entrance of a large creek, which we afterwards called whiteearth creek. here he found his party so much cut and pierced with the sharp flint and the prickly pear that he proceeded only a small distance further, and then halted to wait for us. along his track he had taken the precaution to strew signals, such as pieces of cloth, paper and linen, to prove to the indians, if by accident they met his track, that we were white men. but he observed a smoke some distance ahead, and concluded that the whole country had now taken the alarm. sunday . on leaving our camp we passed an island at half a mile, and reached at one mile a bad rapid at the place where the river leaves the mountain: here the cliffs are high and covered with fragments of broken rocks, the current is also strong, but although more rapid the river is wider and shallower, so that we are able to use the pole occasionally, though we principally depend on the towline. on leaving this rapid which is about half a mile in extent, the country opens on each side; the hills become lower; at one mile is a large island on the left side, and four and a half beyond it a large and bold creek twenty-eight yards wide, coming in from the north, where it waters a handsome valley: we called it pryor's creek after one of the sergeants, john pryor. at a mile above this creek on the left side of the missouri we obtained a meridian altitude, which gave ° ' " "' as the latitude of the place. for the following four miles, the country, like that through which we passed during the rest of the day, is rough and mountainous as we found it yesterday; but at the distance of twelve miles, we came towards evening into a beautiful plain ten or twelve miles wide and extending as far the eye could reach. this plain or rather valley is bounded by two nearly parallel ranges of high mountains whose summits are partially covered with snow, below which the pine is scattered along the sides down to the plain in some places, though the greater part of their surface has no timber and exhibits only a barren soil with no covering except dry parched grass or black rugged rocks. on entering the valley the river assumes a totally different aspect; it spreads to more than a mile in width, and though more rapid than before, is shallow enough in almost every part for the use of the pole, while its bed is formed of smooth stones and some large rocks, as it has been indeed since we entered the mountains: it is also divided by a number of islands some of which are large near the northern shore. the soil of the valley is a rich black loam apparently very fertile, and covered with a fine green grass about eighteen inches or two feet in height; while that of the high grounds is perfectly dry and seems scorched by the sun. the timber though still scarce is in greater quantities in this valley than we have seen it since entering the mountains, and seems to prefer the borders of the small creeks to the banks of the river itself. we advanced three and a half miles in this valley and encamped on the left side, having made in all fifteen and a half miles. our only large game to-day was one deer. we saw however two pheasants of a dark brown colour, much larger than the same species of bird in the united states. in the morning too, we saw three swans which, like the geese, have not yet recovered the feathers of the wing, and were unable to fly: we killed two of them, and the third escaped by diving and passing down the current. these are the first we have seen on the river for a great distance, and as they had no young with them, we presume that they do not breed in this neighbourhood. of the geese we daily see great numbers, with their young perfectly feathered except on the wings, where both young and old are deficient; the first are very fine food, but the old ones are poor and unfit for use. several of the large brown or sandhill crane are feeding in the low grounds on the grass which forms their principal food. the young crane cannot fly at this season: they are as large as a turkey, of a bright reddish bay colour. since the river has become shallow we have caught a number of trout to-day, and a fish, white on the belly and sides, but of a bluish cast on the back, and a long pointed mouth opening somewhat like that of the shad. this morning captain clarke wishing to hunt but fearful of alarming the indians, went up the river for three miles, when finding neither any of them nor of their recent tracks returned, and then his little party separated to look for game. they killed two bucks and a doe, and a young curlew nearly feathered: in the evening they found the musquitoes as troublesome as we did: these animals attack us as soon as the labours and fatigues of the day require some rest, and annoy us till several hours after dark, when the coldness of the air obliges them to disappear; but such is their persecution that were it not for our biers we should obtain no repose. monday, . we set out at an early hour. the river being divided into so many channels by both large and small islands, that it was impossible to lay it down accurately by following in a canoe any single channel, captain lewis walked on shore, took the general courses of the river, and from the rising grounds laid down the situation of the islands and channels, which he was enabled to do with perfect accuracy, the view not being obstructed by much timber. at one mile and a quarter we passed an island somewhat larger than the rest, and four miles further reached the upper end of another, on which we breakfasted. this is a large island forming in the middle of a bend to the north a level fertile plain ten feet above the surface of the water and never overflowed. here we found great quantities of a small onion about the size of a musket ball, though some were larger; it is white, crisp, and as well flavoured as any of our garden onions; the seed is just ripening, and as the plant bears a large quantity to the square foot, and stands the rigours of the climate, it will no doubt be an acquisition to settlers. from this production we called it onion island. during the next seven and three quarter miles we passed several long circular bends, and a number of large and small islands which divide the river into many channels, and then reached the mouth of a creek on the north side. it is composed of three creeks which unite in a handsome valley about four miles before they discharge themselves into the missouri, where it is about fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep, with clear transparent water. here we halted for dinner, but as the canoes took different channels in ascending it was some time before they all joined. here we were delighted to find that the indian woman recognizes the country; she tells us that to this creek her countrymen make excursions to procure a white paint on its banks, and we therefore call it whiteearth creek. she says also that the three forks of the missouri are at no great distance, a piece of intelligence which has cheered the spirits of us all, as we hope soon to reach the head of that river. this is the warmest day except one we have experienced this summer. in the shade the mercury stood at ° above , which is the second time it has reached that height during this season. we encamped on an island after making nineteen and three quarter miles. in the course of the day we saw many geese, cranes, small birds common to the plains, and a few pheasants: we also observed a small plover or curlew of a brown colour, about the size of the yellow-legged plover or jack curlew, but of a different species. it first appeared near the mouth of smith's river, but is so shy and vigilant that we were unable to shoot it. both the broad and narrow-leafed willow continue, though the sweet willow has become very scarce. the rosebush, small honeysuckle, the pulpy-leafed thorn, southern wood, sage and box-alder, narrow-leafed cottonwood, redwood, and a species of sumach, are all abundant. so too are the red and black gooseberries, serviceberries, chokecherry, and the black, red, yellow, and purple currant, which last seems to be a favourite food of the bear. before encamping we landed and took on board captain clarke with the meat he had collected during this day's hunt, which consisted of one deer and an elk: we had ourselves shot a deer and an antelope. the musquitoes and gnats were unusually fierce this evening. tuesday, . captain clarke again proceeded with four men along the right bank. during the whole day the river divided by a number of islands, which spread it out sometimes to the distance of three miles: the current is very rapid and has many ripples; and the bed formed of gravel and smooth stones. the banks along the low grounds are of a rich loam, followed occasionally by low bluffs of yellow and red clay, with a hard red slatestone intermixed. the low grounds are wide, and have very little timber but a thick underbrush of willow, and rose and currant bushes: these are succeeded by high plains extending on each side to the base of the mountains, which lie parallel to the river about eight or twelve miles apart, and are high and rocky, with some small pine and cedar interspersed on them. at the distance of seven miles a creek twenty yards wide, after meandering through a beautiful low ground on the left for several miles parallel to the river, empties itself near a cluster of small islands: the stream we called whitehouse creek after joseph whitehouse one of the party, and the islands from their number received the name of the "ten islands." about ten o'clock we came up with drewyer, who had gone out to hunt yesterday, and not being able to find our encampment had staid out all night: he now supplied us with five deer. three and a quarter miles beyond whitehouse creek we came to the lower point of an island where the river is three hundred yards wide, and continued along it for one mile and a quarter, and then passed a second island just above it. we halted rather early for dinner in order to dry some part of the baggage which had been wet in the canoes: we then proceeded, and at five and a half miles had passed two small islands. within the next three miles we came to a large island, which from its figure we called broad island. from that place we made three and a half miles, and encamped on an island to the left, opposite to a much larger one on the right. our journey to-day was twenty-two and a quarter miles, the greater part of which was made by means of our poles and cords, the use of which the banks much favoured. during the whole time we had the small flags hoisted in the canoes to apprise the indians, if there were any in the neighbourhood, of our being white men and their friends; but we were not so fortunate as to discover any of them. along the shores we saw great quantities of the common thistle, and procured a further supply of wild onions and a species of garlic growing on the highlands, which is now green and in bloom: it has a flat leaf, and is strong, tough, and disagreeable. there was also much of the wild flax, of which we now obtained some ripe seed, as well as some bullrush and cattail flag. among the animals we met with a black snake about two feet long, with the belly as dark as any other part of the body, which was perfectly black, and which had one hundred and twenty-eight scuta on the belly and sixty-three on the tail: we also saw antelopes, crane, geese, ducks, beaver, and otter; and took up four deer which had been left on the water side by captain clarke. he had pursued all day an indian road on the right side of the river, and encamped late in the evening at the distance of twenty-five miles from our camp of last night. in the course of his walk he met besides deer a number of antelopes and a herd of elk, but all the tracks of indians, though numerous, were of an old date. wednesday, . we proceeded for four and a quarter miles along several islands to a small run, just above which the low bluffs touch the river. within three and a half miles further we came to a small island on the north, and a remarkable bluff composed of earth of a crimson colour, intermixed with stratas of slate, either black or of a red resembling brick. the following six and three quarter miles brought us to an assemblage of islands, having passed four at different distances; and within the next five miles we met the same number of islands, and encamped on the north after making nineteen and a half miles. the current of the river was strong and obstructed, as indeed it has been for some days by small rapids or ripples which descend from one to three feet in the course of one hundred and fifty yards, but they are rarely incommoded by any fixed rocks, and therefore, though the water is rapid, the passage is not attended with danger. the valley through which the river passes is like that of yesterday; the nearest hills generally concealing the most distant from us; but when we obtain a view of them they present themselves in amphitheatre, rising above each other as they recede from the river till the most remote are covered with snow. we saw many otter and beaver to-day: the latter seem to contribute very much to the number of islands and the widening of the river. they begin by damming up the small channels of about twenty yards between the islands; this obliges the river to seek another outlet, and as soon as this is effected the channel stopped by the beaver becomes filled with mud and sand. the industrious animal is then driven to another channel which soon shares the same fate, till the river spreads on all sides, and cuts the projecting points of the land into islands. we killed a deer and saw great numbers of antelopes, cranes, some geese, and a few redheaded ducks. the small birds of the plains and the curlew are still abundant: we saw but could not come within gunshot of a large bear. there is much of the track of elk but none of the animals themselves, and from the appearance of bones and old excrement, we suppose that buffaloe have sometimes strayed into the valley, though we have as yet seen no recent sign of them. along the water are a number of snakes, some of a brown uniform colour, others black, and a third speckled on the abdomen, and striped with black and a brownish yellow in the back and sides. the first, which are the largest, are about four feet long; the second is of the kind mentioned yesterday, and the third resembles in size and appearance the garter-snake of the united states. on examining the teeth of all these several kinds we found them free from poison: they are fond of the water, in which they take shelter on being pursued. the mosquitoes, gnats, and prickly pear, our three persecutors, still continue with us, and joined with the labour of working the canoes have fatigued us all excessively. captain clarke continued along the indian road which led him up a creek. about ten o'clock he saw at the distance of six miles a horse feeding in the plains. he went towards him, but the animal was so wild that he could not get within several hundred paces of him: he then turned obliquely to the river where he killed a deer and dined, having passed in this valley five handsome streams, only one of which had any timber; another had some willows, and was very much dammed up by the beaver. after dinner he continued his route along the river and encamped at the distance of thirty miles. as he went along he saw many tracks of indians, but none of recent date. the next morning, thursday, , at the distance of a few miles he arrived at the three forks of the missouri. here he found that the plains had been recently burnt on the north side, and saw the track of a horse which seemed to have passed about four or five days since. after breakfast he examined the rivers, and finding that the north branch, although not larger, contained more water than the middle branch, and bore more to the westward, he determined to ascend it. he therefore left a note informing captain lewis of his intention, and then went up that stream on the north side for about twenty-five miles. here chaboneau was unable to proceed any further, and the party therefore encamped, all of them much fatigued, their feet blistered and wounded by the prickly pear. in the meantime we left our camp, and proceeded on very well, though the water is still rapid and has some occasional ripples. the country is much like that of yesterday: there are however fewer islands, for we passed only two. behind one of them is a large creek twenty-five yards wide, to which we gave the name of gass's creek, from one of our serjeants, patrick gass: it is formed by the union of five streams, which descend from the mountains and join in the plain near the river. on this island we saw a large brown bear, but he retreated to the shore and ran off before we could approach him. these animals seem more shy than they were below the mountains. the antelopes have again collected in small herds, composed of several females with their young, attended by one or two males, though some of the males are still solitary or wander in parties of two over the plains, which the antelope invariably prefers to the woodlands, and to which it always retreats if by accident it is found straggling in the hills, confiding no doubt in its wonderful fleetness. we also killed a few young geese, but as this game is small and very incompetent to the subsistence of the party, we have forbidden the men any longer to waste their ammunition on them. about four and a half miles above gass's creek, the valley in which we have been travelling ceases, the high craggy cliffs again approach the river, which now enters or rather leaves what appears to be a second great chain of the rocky mountains. about a mile after entering these hills or low mountains we passed a number of fine bold springs, which burst out near the edge of the river under the cliffs on the left, and furnished a fine freestone water: near these we met with two of the worst rapids we have seen since entering the mountains; a ridge of sharp pointed rocks stretching across the river, leaving but small and dangerous channels for the navigation. the cliffs are of a lighter colour than those we have already passed, and in the bed of the river is some limestone which is small and worn smooth, and seems to have been brought down by the current. we went about a mile further and encamped under a high bluff on the right opposite to a cliff of rocks, having made sixteen miles. all these cliffs appeared to have been undermined by the water at some period, and fallen down from the hills on their sides, the stratas of rock sometimes lying with their edges upwards, others not detached from the hills are depressed obliquely on the side next the river as if they had sunk to fill up the cavity formed by the washing of the river. in the open places among the rocky cliffs are two kinds of gooseberry, one yellow and the other red. the former species was observed for the first time near the falls, the latter differs from it in no respect except in colour and in being of a larger size; both have a sweet flavour, and are rather indifferent fruit. friday . we again found the current strong and the ripples frequent: these we were obliged to overcome by means of the cord and the pole, the oar being scarcely ever used except in crossing to take advantage of the shore. within three and three quarter miles we passed seven small islands and reached the mouth of a large creek which empties itself in the centre of a bend on the left side: it is a bold running stream fifteen yards wide, and received the name of howard creek after john p. howard one of the party. one mile beyond it is a small run which falls in on the same side just above a rocky cliff. here the mountains recede from the river, and the valley widens to the extent of several miles. the river now becomes crowded with islands of which we passed ten in the next thirteen and three quarter miles, then at the distance of eighteen miles we encamped on the left shore near a rock in the centre of a bend towards the left, and opposite to two more islands. this valley has wide low grounds covered with high grass, and in many with a fine turf of green sward. the soil of the highlands is thin and meagre, without any covering except a low sedge and a dry kind of grass which is almost as inconvenient as the prickly pear. the seeds of it are armed with a long twisted hard beard at their upper extremity, while the lower part is a sharp firm point, beset at its base with little stiff bristles, with the points in a direction contrary to the subulate point to which they answer as a barb. we see also another species of prickly pear. it is of a globular form, composed of an assemblage of little conic leaves springing from a common root to which their small points are attached as a common centre, and the base of the cone forms the apex of the leaf which is garnished with a circular range of sharp thorns like the cochineal plant, and quite as stiff and even more keen than those of the common flat-leafed species. between the hills the river had been confined within one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards, but in the valley it widens to two hundred or two hundred and fifty yards, and sometimes is spread by its numerous islands to the distance of three quarters of a mile. the banks are low, but the river never overflows them. on entering the valley we again saw the snow-clad mountains before us, but the appearance of the hills as well as of the timber near us is much as heretofore. finding chaboneau unable to proceed captain clarke left him with one of the men, and accompanied by the other went up the river about twelve miles to the top of a mountain. here he had an extensive view of the river valley upwards and saw a large creek which flowed in on the right side. he however discovered no fresh sign of the indians, and therefore determined to examine the middle branch and join us by the time we reached the forks: he descended the mountain by an indian path which wound through a deep valley, and at length reached a fine cold spring. the day had been very warm, the path unshaded by timber, and his thirst was excessive; he was therefore tempted to drink: but although he took the precaution of previously wetting his head, feet and hands, he soon found himself very unwell; he continued his route, and after resting with chaboneau at his camp, resumed his march across the north fork near a large island. the first part was knee deep, but on the other side of the island the water came to their waists and was so rapid that chaboneau was on the point of being swept away, and not being able to swim would have perished if captain clarke had not rescued him. while crossing the island they killed two brown bear and saw great quantities of beaver. he then went on to a small river which falls into the north fork some miles above its junction with the two others: here, finding himself grow more unwell, he halted for the night at the distance of four miles from his last encampment. saturday . we proceeded on but slowly, the current being still so rapid as to require the utmost exertions of us all to advance, and the men are losing their strength fast in consequence of their constant efforts. at half a mile we passed an island, and a mile and a quarter further again entered a ridge of hills which now approach the river with cliffs apparently sinking like those of yesterday. they are composed of a solid limestone of a light lead colour when exposed to the air, though when freshly broken it is of a deep blue, and of an excellent quality and very fine grain. on these cliffs were numbers of the bighorn. at two and a half miles we reached the centre of a bend towards the south passing a small island, and at one mile and a quarter beyond this reached about nine in the morning the mouth of a river seventy yards wide, which falls in from the southeast. here the country suddenly opens into extensive and beautiful meadows and plains, surrounded on every side with distant and lofty mountains. captain lewis went up this stream for about half a mile, and from the height of a limestone cliff could observe its course about seven miles, and the three forks of the missouri, of which this river is one. its extreme point bore s. ° e. and during the seven miles it passes through a green extensive meadow of fine grass dividing itself into several streams, the largest passing near the ridge of hills on which he stood. on the right side of the missouri a high, wide and extensive plain succeeds to this low meadow which reaches the hills. in the meadow a large spring rises about a quarter of a mile from this southeast fork, into which it discharges itself on the right side about four hundred paces from where he stood. between the southeast and middle forks a distant range of snow-topped mountains spread from east to south above the irregular broken hills nearer to this spot: the middle and southwest forks unite at half a mile above the entrance of the southeast fork. the extreme point at which the former can be seen, bears s. ° e. and at the distance of fourteen miles, where it turns to the right round the point of a high plain and disappears from the view. its low grounds are several miles in width, forming a smooth and beautiful green meadow, and like the southeast fork it divides itself into several streams. between these two forks and near their junction with that from the southwest, is a position admirably well calculated for a fort. it is a limestone rock of an oblong form, rising from the plain perpendicularly to the height of twenty-five feet on three of its sides; the fourth towards the middle fork being a gradual ascent and covered with a fine green sward, as is also the top which is level and contains about two acres. an extensive plain lies between the middle and southwest forks, the last of which after watering a country like that of the other two branches, disappears about twelve miles off, at a point bearing south ° west. it is also more divided and serpentine in its course than the other two, and possesses more timber in its meadows. this timber consists almost exclusively of the narrow-leafed cottonwood, with an inter-mixture of box alder and sweet-willow, the underbrush being thick and like that of the missouri lower down. a range of high mountains partially covered with snow is seen at a considerable distance running from south to west, and nearly all around us are broken ridges of country like that below, through which those united streams appear to have forced their passage: after observing the country captain lewis descended to breakfast. we then left the mouth of the southeast fork, to which in honour of the secretary of the treasury we called gallatin's river, and at the distance of half a mile reached the confluence of the southwest and middle branch of the missouri. here we found the letter from captain clarke, and as we agreed with him that the direction of the southwest fork gave it a decided preference over the others, we ascended that branch of the river for a mile, and encamped in a level handsome plain on the left: having advanced only seven miles. here we resolved to wait the return of captain clarke, and in the meantime make the necessary celestial observations, as this seems an essential point in the geography of the western world, and also to recruit the men and air the baggage. it was accordingly all unloaded and stowed away on shore. near the three forks we saw many collections of the mud-nests of the small martin attached to the smooth faces of the limestone rock, where they were sheltered by projections of the rock above it: and in the meadows were numbers of the duck or mallard with their young, who are now nearly grown. the hunters returned towards evening with six deer, three otter and a muskrat; and had seen great numbers of antelopes, and much sign of the beaver and elk. during all last night captain clarke had a high fever and chills accompanied with great pain. he however pursued his route eight miles to the middle branch, where not finding any fresh indian track he came down it and joined us about three o'clock, very much exhausted with fatigue and the violence of his fever. believing himself bilious he took a dose of rush's pills, which we have always found sovereign in such cases, and bathing the lower extremities in warm water. we are now very anxious to see the snake indians. after advancing for several hundred miles into this wild and mountainous country, we may soon expect that the game will abandon us. with no information of the route we may be unable to find a passage across the mountains when we reach the head of the river, at least such a one as will lead us to the columbia, and even were we so fortunate as to find a branch of that river, the timber which we have hitherto seen in these mountains does not promise us any fit to make canoes, so that our chief dependence is on meeting some tribe from whom we may procure horses. our consolation is, that this southwest branch can scarcely head with any other river than the columbia, and that if any nation of indians can live in the mountains we are able to endure as much as they, and have even better means of procuring subsistence. chapter xiii. the name of the missouri changed, as the river now divides itself into three forks, one of which is called after jefferson, the other madison, and the other after gallatin--their general character--the party ascend the jefferson branch--description of the river philosophy which enters into the jefferson--captain lewis and a small party go in advance in search of the shoshonees--description of the country, &c. bordering on the river--captain lewis still preceding the main party in quest of the shoshonees--a singular accident which prevented captain clarke from following captain lewis's advice, and ascending the middle fork of the river--description of philanthropy river, another stream running into the jefferson--captain lewis and a small party having been unsuccessful in their first attempt, set off a second time in quest of the shoshonees. sunday, july . captain clarke continued very unwell during the night, but was somewhat relieved this morning. on examining the two streams it became difficult to decide which was the larger or the real missouri; they are each ninety yards wide and so perfectly similar in character and appearance that they seem to have been formed in the same mould. we were therefore induced to discontinue the name of missouri, and gave to the southwest branch the name of jefferson in honour of the president of the united states, and the projector of the enterprise: and called the middle branch madison, after james madison secretary of state. these two, as well as gallatin river, run with great velocity and throw out large bodies of water. gallatin river is however the most rapid of the three, and though not quite as deep, yet navigable for a considerable distance. madison river though much less rapid than the gallatin, is somewhat more rapid than the jefferson; the beds of all of them are formed of smooth pebble and gravel, and the waters are perfectly transparent. the timber in the neighbourhood would be sufficient for the ordinary uses of an establishment, which, however, it would be adviseable to build of brick, as the earth appears calculated for that purpose, and along the shores are some bars of fine pure sand. the greater part of the men, having yesterday put their deer skins in water, were this day engaged in dressing them, for the purpose of making clothing. the weather was very warm, the thermometer in the afternoon was at ° above , and the musquitoes more than usually inconvenient: we were, however, relieved from them by a high wind from the southwest, which came on at four o'clock, bringing a storm of thunder and lightning, attended by refreshing showers, which continued till after dark. in the evening the hunters returned with eight deer and two elk; and the party who had been sent up the gallatin, reported that after passing the point, where it escaped from captain* lewis's view yesterday, it turned more towards the east, as far as they could discern the opening of the mountains, formed by the valley which bordered it. the low grounds were still wide but not so extensive as near its mouth, and though the stream is rapid and much divided by islands, it is still sufficiently deep for navigation with canoes. the low grounds, although not more than eight or nine feet above the water, seem never to be overflowed, except a part on the west side of the middle fork, which is stony and seems occasionally inundated, are furnished with great quantities of small fruit, such as currants and gooseberries: among the last of which is a black species, which we observe not only in the meadows but along the mountain rivulets. from the same root rise a number of stems to the height of five or six feet, some of them particularly branched and all reclining. the berry is attached by a long peduncle to the stem, from which they hang of a smooth ovate form, as large as the common garden gooseberry, and as black as jet, though the pulp is of a bright crimson colour. it is extremely acid: the form of the leaf resembles that of the common gooseberry, though larger. the stem is covered with very sharp thorns or briars: the grass too is very luxuriant and would yield fine hay in parcels of several acres. the sand-rushes will grow in many places as high as a man's breast, and as thick as stalks of wheat; it would supply the best food during the winter to cattle of any trading or military post. sacajawea, our indian woman, informs us that we are encamped on the precise spot where her countrymen, the snake indians, had their huts five years ago, when the minnetarees of knife river first came in sight of them, and from which they hastily retreated three miles up the jefferson, and concealed themselves in the woods. the minnetarees, however, pursued and attacked them, killed four men, as many women, and a number of boys; and made prisoners of four other boys, and all the females, of whom sacajawea was one: she does not, however, show any distress at these recollections, nor any joy at the prospect of being restored to her country; for she seems to possess the folly or the philosophy of not suffering her feelings to extend beyond the anxiety of having plenty to eat and a few trinkets to wear. monday . this morning the hunters brought in some fat deer of the long-tailed red kind, which are quite as large as those of the united states, and are, indeed, the only kind we have found at this place: there are numbers of the sandhill cranes feeding in the meadows; we caught a young one of the same colour as the red deer, which, though it had nearly attained its full growth could not fly; it is very fierce and strikes a severe blow with its beak. the kingfisher has become quite common on this side of the falls: but we have seen none of the summer duck since leaving that place. the mallard duck, which we saw for the first time on the th instant, with their young, are now abundant, though they do not breed on the missouri, below the mountains. the small birds already described are also abundant in the plains; here too, are great quantities of grasshoppers or crickets; and among other animals, a large ant with a reddish brown body and legs, and a black head and abdomen, who build little cones of gravel, ten or twelve inches high, without a mixture of sticks, and but little earth. in the river we see a great abundance of fish, but we cannot tempt them to bite by any thing on our hooks. the whole party have been engaged in dressing skins, and making them into moccasins and leggings. captain clarke's fever has almost left him, but he still remains very languid and has a general soreness in his limbs. the latitude of our camp, as the mean of two observations of the meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb with octant by back observation is n. ° ' " "'. tuesday . captain clarke was this morning much restored; and, therefore, having made all the observations necessary to fix the longitude, we reloaded our canoes, and began to ascend jefferson river. the river now becomes very crooked, and forms bends on each side; the current too is rapid, and cut into a great number of channels, and sometimes shoals, the beds of which consist of coarse gravel. the islands are unusually numerous: on the right are high plains occasionally forming cliffs of rocks and hills; while the left was an extensive low ground and prairie intersected by a number of bayous or channels falling into the river. captain lewis, who had walked through it with chaboneau, his wife, and two invalids, joined us at dinner, a few miles above our camp. here the indian woman said was the place where she had been made prisoner. the men being too few to contend with the minnetarees, mounted their horses, and fled as soon as the attack began. the women and children dispersed, and sacajawea as she was crossing at a shoal place, was overtaken in the middle of the river by her pursuers. as we proceeded, the low grounds were covered with cottonwood and a thick underbrush, and on both sides of the river, except where the high hills prevented it, the ground was divided by bayous, which are dammed up by the beaver, which are very numerous here. we made twelve and a quarter miles, and encamped on the north side. captain lewis proceeded after dinner, through an extensive low ground of timber and meadow land intermixed; but the bayous were so obstructed by beaver dams, that in order to avoid them he directed his course towards the high plain on the right. this he gained with some difficulty, after wading up to his waist through the mud and water of a number of beaver dams. when he desired to rejoin the canoes he found the underbrush so thick, and the river so crooked, that this, joined to the difficulty of passing the beaver dams, induced him to go on and endeavour to intercept the river at some point where it might be more collected into one channel and approach nearer to the high plain. he arrived at the bank about sunset, having gone only six miles in a direct course from the canoes: but he saw no traces of the men, nor did he receive any answer to his shouts nor the firing of his gun. it was now nearly dark; a duck lighted near him and he shot it. he then went on the head of a small island where he found some driftwood, which enabled him to cook his duck for supper, and he laid down to sleep on some willow brush. the night was cool, but the driftwood gave him a good fire, and he suffered no inconvenience except from the mosquitoes. wednesday . the next morning he waited till after seven o'clock, when he became uneasy lest we should have gone beyond his camp last evening and determined to follow us. just as he had set out with this intention, he saw one of the party in advance of the canoes; although our camp was only two miles below him, in a straight line, we could not reach him sooner, in consequence of the rapidity of the water and the circuitous course of the river. we halted for breakfast, after which captain lewis continued his route. at the distance of one mile from our encampment we passed the principal entrance of a stream on the left, which rises in the snowy mountains to the southwest, between jefferson and madison rivers, and discharges itself by seven mouths, five below, and one three miles above this, which is the largest, and about thirty yards wide: we called it philosophy river. the water of it is abundant and perfectly clear, and the bed like that of the jefferson consists of pebble and gravel. there is some timber in the bottoms of the river, and vast numbers of otter and beaver, which build on its smaller mouths and the bayous of its neighbourhood. the jefferson continues as yesterday, shoaly and rapid, but as the islands though numerous are small, it is however more collected into one current than it was below, and is from ninety to one hundred and twenty yards in width. the low ground has a fertile soil of rich black loam, and contains a considerable quantity of timber, with the bullrush and cattail flag very abundant in the moist parts, while the drier situations are covered with fine grass, tansy, thistles, onions, and flax. the uplands are barren, and without timber: the soil is a light yellow clay intermixed with small smooth pebble and gravel, and the only produce is the prickly-pear, the sedge, and the bearded grass, which is as dry and inflammable as tinder. as we proceeded the low grounds became narrower, and the timber more scarce, till at the distance of ten miles the high hills approach and overhang the river on both sides, forming cliffs of a hard black granite, like almost all those below the limestone cliffs at the three forks of the missouri: they continue so for a mile and three quarters, where we came to a point of rock on the right side, at which place the hills again retire, and the valley widens to the distance of a mile and a half. within the next five miles we passed four islands, and reached the foot of a mountain in a bend of the river to the left: from this place we went a mile and a quarter to the entrance of a small run discharging itself on the left, and encamped on an island just above it, after making seventeen and three quarter miles. we observe some pine on the hills on both sides of our encampment, which are very lofty. the only game which we have seen are one bighorn, a few antelopes, deer, and one brown bear, which escaped from our pursuit. nothing was, however, killed to-day, nor have we had any fresh meat except one beaver for the last two days, so that we are now reduced to an unusual situation, for we have hitherto always had a great abundance of flesh. thursday, august . we left our encampment early, and at the distance of a mile, reached a point of rocks on the left side, where the river passes though perpendicular cliffs. two and three quarter miles further we halted for breakfast under a cedar tree in a bend to the right: here as had been previously arranged, captain lewis left us, with sergeant gass, chaboneau, and drewyer, intending to go on in advance in search of the shoshonees. he began his route along the north side of the river over a high range of mountains, as captain clarke who ascended them on the th had observed from them a large valley spreading to the north of west, and concluded that on leaving the mountain the river took that direction; but when he reached that valley, captain lewis found it to be the passage of a large creek falling just above the mountain into the jefferson, which bears to the southwest. on discovering his error, he bent his course towards that river, which he reached about two in the afternoon, very much exhausted with heat and thirst. the mountains were very bare of timber, and the route lay along the steep and narrow hollows of the mountain, exposed to the mid-day sun, without air, or shade, or water. just as he arrived there a flock of elk passed, and they killed two of them, on which they made their dinner, and left the rest on the shore for the party in the canoes. after dinner they resumed their march, and encamped on the north side of the river, after making seventeen miles; in crossing the mountains captain lewis saw a flock of the black or dark brown pheasant, of which he killed one. this bird is one third larger than the common pheasant of the atlantic states; its form is much the same. the male has not however the tufts of long black feathers on the side of the neck so conspicuous in the atlantic pheasant, and both sexes are booted nearly to the toes. the colour is a uniform dark brown with a small mixture of yellow or yellowish brown specks on some of the feathers, particularly those of the tail, though the extremities of these are perfectly black for about an inch. the eye is nearly black, and the iris has a small dash of yellowish brown; the feathers of the tail are somewhat longer than those of our pheasant, but the same in number, eighteen, and nearly equal in size, except that those of the middle are somewhat the longest; their flesh is white and agreeably flavoured. he also saw among the scattered pine near the top of the mountain, a blue bird about the size of a robin, but in action and form something like a jay; it is constantly in motion, hopping from spray to spray, and its note which is loud and frequent, is, as far as letters can represent it, char ah! char ah! char ah! after breakfast we proceeded on: at the distance of two and a quarter miles the river enters a high mountain, which forms rugged cliffs of nearly perpendicular rocks. these are of a black granite at the lower part, and the upper consists of a light coloured freestone; they continue from the point of rocks close to the river for nine miles, which we passed before breakfast, during which the current is very strong. at nine and a quarter miles we passed an island, and a rapid fall with a fall of six feet, and reached the entrance of a large creek on the left side. in passing this place the towline of one of the canoes broke just at the shoot of the rapids, swung on the rocks and had nearly upset. to the creek as well as the rapid we gave the name of frazier, after robert* frazier one of the party: here the country opens into a beautiful valley from six to eight miles in width: the river then becomes crooked and crowded with islands; its lowgrounds wide and fertile, but though covered with fine grass from nine inches to two feet high; possesses but a small proportion of timber, and that consists almost entirely of a few narrow-leafed cottonwood distributed along the verge of the river. the soil of the plain is tolerably fertile, and consists of a black or dark yellow loam. it gradually ascends on each side to the bases of two ranges of high mountains which lie parallel* to the river; the tops of them are yet in part covered with snow, and while in the valley we are nearly suffocated with heat during the day, and at night the air is so cold that two blankets are not more than sufficient covering. in passing through the hills we observed some large cedar trees, and some juniper also. from frazier's creek we went three and three quarter miles, and encamped on the left side, having come thirteen miles. directly opposite our camp is a large creek which we call field's creek, from reuben fields, one of our men. soon after we halted two of the hunters went out and returned with five deer, which, with one bighorn, we killed in coming through the mountain on which we dined; and the elk left by captain lewis. we were again well supplied with fresh meat. in the course of the day we saw a brown bear but were not able to shoot him. friday, august . captain lewis, who slept in the valley a few miles above us, resumed his journey early, and after making five miles and finding that the river still bore to the south, determined to cross it in hopes of shortening the route: for the first time therefore he waded across it, although there are probably many places above the falls where it might be attempted with equal safety. the river was about ninety yards wide, the current rapid, and about waist deep: the bottom formed of smooth pebble with a small mixture of coarse gravel. he then continued along the left bank of the river till sunset and encamped, after travelling twenty-four miles. he met no fresh tracks of indians. throughout the valley are scattered the bones and excrement of the buffaloe* of an old date, but there seems no hope of meeting the animals themselves in the mountains: he saw an abundance of deer and antelope, and many tracks of elk and bear. having killed two deer they feasted sumptuously, with a desert of currants of different colours; two species of red, others yellow, deep purple, and black: to these were added black gooseberries and deep purple serviceberries, somewhat larger than ours, from which it differs also in colour, size, and the superior excellence of its flavour. in the low grounds of the river were many beaver-dams formed of willow brush, mud, and gravel, so closely interwoven that they resist the water perfectly: some of them were five feet high and overflowed several acres of land. in the meantime we proceeded on slowly, the current being so strong as to require the utmost exertions of the men to make any advance even with the aid of the cord and pole, the wind being from the northwest. the river is full of large and small islands, and the plain cut by great numbers of bayous or channels, in which are multitudes of beaver. in the course of the day we passed some villages of barking squirrels: we saw several rattlesnakes in the plain; young ducks, both of the duckon-mallard and red-headed fishing duck species; some geese; also the black woodpecker, and a large herd of elk. the channel, current, banks, and general appearance of the river, are like that of yesterday. at fourteen and three quarter miles we reached a rapid creek or bayou about thirty yards wide, to which we gave the name of birth creek. after making seventeen miles we halted in a smooth plain in a bend towards the left. saturday, . captain lewis continued his course along the river through the valley, which continued much as it was yesterday, except that it now widens to nearly twelve miles; the plains too are more broken and have some scattered pine near the mountains, where they rise higher than hitherto. in the level parts of the plains and the river bottoms there is no timber except small cottonwood near the margin, and an undergrowth of narrow-leafed willow, small honeysuckle, rosebushes, currants, serviceberry, and gooseberry, and a little of a small species of birch; it is a finely indented oval of a small size and a deep green colour; the stem is simple, ascending and branching, and seldom rises higher than ten or twelve feet. the mountains continue high on each side of the valley, but their only covering is a small species of pitch-pine with a short leaf, growing on the lower and middle regions, while for some distance below the snowy tops there is neither timber nor herbage of any kind. about eleven o'clock drewyer killed a doe on which they breakfasted, and after resting two hours continued till night, when they reached the river near a low ground more extensive than usual. from the appearance of the timber captain lewis supposed that the river forked above him, and therefore encamped with an intention of examining it more particularly in the morning. he had now made twenty-three miles, the latter part of which were for eight miles through a high plain covered with prickly pears and bearded grass, which rendered the walking very inconvenient: but even this was better than the river bottoms we crossed in the evening, which, though apparently level, were formed into deep holes as if they had been rooted up by hogs, and the holes were so covered with thick grass that they were in danger of falling at every step. some parts of these low grounds, however, contain turf or peat of an excellent quality for many feet deep apparently, as well as the mineral salts which we have already mentioned on the missouri. they saw many deer, antelopes, ducks, geese, some beaver, and great traces of their work, and the small birds and curlews as usual. the only fish which they observed in this part of the river is the trout and a species of white fish, with a remarkably long small mouth, which one of our men recognize as the fish called in the eastern states the bottlenose. on setting out with the canoes we found the river as usual much crowded with islands, the current more rapid as well as shallower, so that in many places they were obliged to man the canoes double, and drag them over the stone and gravel of the channel. soon after we set off captain clarke who was walking on shore observed a fresh track which he knew to be that of an indian from the large toes being turned inwards, and on following it found that it led to the point of a hill from which our camp of last night could be seen. this circumstance strengthened the belief that some indian had strayed thither, and had run off alarmed at the sight of us. at two and a quarter miles, is a small creek in a bend towards the right, which runs down from the mountains at a little distance; we called it panther creek from an animal of that kind killed by reuben fields at its mouth. it is precisely the same animal common to the western parts of the united states, and measured seven and a half feet from the nose to the extremity of the tail. six and three quarter miles beyond this stream is another on the left formed by the drains which convey the melted snows from a mountain near it, under which the river passes, leaving the low grounds on the right side, and making several bends in its course. on this stream are many large beaver dams. one mile above it is a small run on the left, and after leaving which begins a very bad rapid, where the bed of the river is formed of solid rock: this we passed in the course of a mile, and encamped on the lower point of an island. our journey had been only thirteen miles, but the badness of the river made it very laborious, as the men were compelled to be in the water during the greater part of the day. we saw only deer, antelopes, and the common birds of the country. saturday . this morning captain lewis proceeded early, and after going southeast by east for four miles, reaching a bold running creek, twelve yards wide, with clear cold water, furnished apparently by four drains from the snowy mountains on the left; after passing this creek he changed his direction to southeast, and leaving the valley in which he had travelled for the last two days, entered another which bore east. at the distance of three miles on this course he passed a handsome little river, about thirty yards wide, which winds through the valley: the current is not rapid nor the water very clear, but it affords a considerable quantity of water, and appears as if it might be navigable for some miles. the banks are low, and the bed formed of stone and gravel. he now changed his route to southwest, and passing a high plain which separates the vallies, returned to the more southern or that which he had left: in passing this he found a river about forty-five yards wide, the water of which has a whitish blue tinge, with a gentle current, and a gravelly bottom. this he waded and found it waist deep. he then continued down it, till at the distance of three quarters of a mile he saw the entrance of the small river he had just passed; as he went on two miles lower down, he found the mouth of the creek he had seen in the morning. proceeding further on three miles, he arrived at the junction of this river, with another which rises from the southwest, runs through the south valley about twelve miles before it forms its junction, where it is fifty yards wide: we now found that our camp of last night was about a mile and a half above the entrance of this large river, on the right side. this is a bold, rapid, clear stream, but its bed is so much obstructed by gravelly bars, and subdivided by islands, that the navigation must be very insecure, if not impracticable. the other or middle stream, has about two thirds its quantity of water, and is more gentle, and may be safely navigated. as far as it could be observed, its course was about southwest, but the opening of the valley induced him to believe that farther above it turned more towards the west. its water is more turbid and warmer than that of the other branch, whence it may be presumed to have its sources at a greater distance in the mountains, and to pass through a more open country. under this impression he left a note recommending to captain clarke the middle fork, and then continued his course along the right side of the other, or more rapid branch. after travelling twenty-three miles he near a place where the river leaves the valley and enters the mountain. here he encamped for the night. the country he passed is like that of the rest of this valley, though there is more timber in this part on the rapid fork than there has been on the river in the same extent since we entered it; for on some parts of the valley the indians seem to have destroyed a great proportion of the little timber there was, by setting fire to the bottoms. he saw some antelopes, deer, cranes, geese and ducks of the two species common to this country, though the summer duck has ceased to appear, nor does it seem to be an inhabitant of this part of the river. we proceeded soon after sunrise: the first five miles we passed four bends on the left, and several bayous on both sides. at eight o'clock we stopped to breakfast, and found the note captain lewis had written on the d instant. during the next four miles, we passed three small bends of the river to the right, two small islands, and two bayous on the same side. here we reached a bluff on the left; our next course was six miles to our encampment. in this course we met six circular bends on the right, and several small bayous, and halted for the night in a low ground of cottonwood on the right. our days journey, though only fifteen miles in length, was very fatiguing. the river is still rapid and the water though clear is very much obstructed by shoals or ripples at every two or three hundred yards: at all these places we are obliged to drag the canoes over the stones as there is not a sufficient depth of water to float them, and in the other parts the current obliges us to have recourse to the cord. but as the brushwood on the banks will not permit us to walk on shore, we are under the necessity of wading through the river as we drag the boats. this soon makes our feet tender, and sometimes occasions severe falls over the slippery stones; and the men by being constantly wet are becoming more feeble. in the course of the day the hunters killed two deer, some geese and ducks, and the party saw antelopes, cranes, beaver and otter. monday . this morning chaboneau complained of being unable to march far to-day, and captain lewis therefore ordered him and serjeant gass to pass the rapid river and proceed through the level low ground, to a point of high timber on the middle fork, seven miles distant, and wait his return. he then went along the north side of the rapid river about four miles, where he waded it, and found it so rapid and shallow that it would be impossible to navigate it. he continued along the left side for a mile and a half, when the mountains came close on the river, and rise to a considerable height with a partial covering of snow. from this place the course of the river was to the east of north. after ascending with some difficulty a high point of the mountain, he had a pleasing view of the valley he had passed, and which continued for about twenty miles further on each side of the middle fork, which then seemed to enter the mountains, and was lost to the view. in that direction, however, the hills which terminate the valley are much lower than those along either of the other forks, particularly the rapid one, where they continue rising in ranges above each other us far as the eye could reach. the general course too of the middle fork, as well as that of the gap which it forms on entering the mountains, is considerably to the south of west; circumstances which gave a decided preference to this branch as our future route. captain lewis now descended the mountain, and crossed over to the middle fork, about five miles distant, and found it still perfectly navigable. there is a very large and plain indian road leading up it, but it has at present no tracks, except those of horses which seem to have used it last spring. the river here made a great bend to the southeast, and he therefore directed his course, as well as he could, to the spot where he had directed chaboneau and gass to repair, and struck the river about three miles above their camp. it was now dark, and he, therefore, was obliged to make his way through the thick brush of the pulpy-leafed thorn and the prickly pear, for two hours before he reached their camp. here he was fortunate enough to find the remains of some meat, which was his only food during the march of twenty-five miles to-day. he had seen no game of any sort except a few antelopes who were very shy. the soil of the plains is a meagre clay, of a light yellow colour, intermixed with a large proportion of gravel, and producing nothing but twisted or bearded grass, sedge and prickly pears. the drier parts of the low grounds are also more indifferent in point of soil than those further down the river, and although they have but little grass, are covered with southern wood, pulpy-leafed thorn, and prickly pears, while the moist parts are fertile, and supplied with fine grass and sandrushes. we passed within the first four and a quarter miles three small islands, and the same number of bad rapids. at the distance of three quarters of a mile is another rapid of difficult passage: three miles and three quarters beyond this are the forks of the river, in reaching which we had two islands and several bayous on different sides to pass. here we had come nine miles and a quarter. the river was straighter and more rapid than yesterday, the labour of the navigation proportionally increased, and we therefore proceeded very slowly, as the feet of several of the men were swollen, and all were languid with fatigue. we arrived at the forks about four o'clock, but unluckily captain lewis's note had been left on a green pole which the beaver had cut down and carried off with the note, an accident which deprived us of all information as to the character of the two branches of the river. observing therefore that the northwest fork was most in our direction, and contained as much water as the other, we ascended it; we found it extremely rapid, and its waters were scattered in such a manner, that for a quarter of a mile we were forced to cut a passage through the willowbrush that leaned over the little channels and united at the top. after going up it for a mile we encamped on an island which had been overflowed, and was still so wet that we were compelled to make beds of brush to keep ourselves out of the mud. our provision consisted of two deer which had been killed in the morning. tuesday . we proceeded up the northwest fork, which we found still very rapid, and divided by several islands, while the plains near it were intersected by bayous. after passing with much difficulty over stones and rapids, we reached a bluff on the right, at the distance of nine miles, our general course south ° west, and halted for breakfast. here we were joined by drewyer, who informed us of the state of the two rivers and of captain lewis's note, and we immediately began to descend the river in order to take the other branch. on going down one of the canoes upset, and two others filled with water, by which all the baggage was wet, and several articles irrecoverably lost. as one of them swung round in a rapid current, whitehouse was thrown out of her, and whilst down the canoe passed over him, and had the water been two inches shallower would have crushed him to pieces; but he escaped with a severe bruise of his leg. in order to repair these misfortunes we hastened to the forks, where we were joined by captain lewis, and then passed over to the left side opposite to the entrance of the rapid fork, and encamped on a large gravelly bar, near which there was plenty of wood. here we opened and exposed to dry all the articles which had suffered from the water; none of them were completely spoiled except a small keg of powder; the rest of the powder, which was distributed in the different canoes was quite safe, although it had been under the water upwards of an hour. the air is indeed so pure and dry that any wood-work immediately shrinks, unless it is kept filled with water; but we had planned our powder in small canisters of lead, each containing powder enough for the canister when melted into bullets, and smeared with cork and wax, which answered our purpose perfectly. captain lewis had risen very early, and having nothing to eat, sent out drewyer to the woodland on the left in search of a deer, and directed sergeant gass to keep along the middle branch to meet us if we were ascending it. he then set off with chaboneau towards the forks, but five miles above them, hearing us on the left, struck the river as we were descending, and came on board at the forks. in the evening we killed three deer and four elk, which furnished us once more with a plentiful supply of meat. shannon, the same man who was lost before for fifteen days, was sent out this morning to hunt, up the northwest fork; when we decided on returning, drewyer was directed to go in quest of him, but he returned with information that he had gone several miles up the river without being able to find shannon. we now had the trumpet sounded, and fired several guns, but he did not return, and we fear he is again lost. wednesday . we remained here this morning for the purpose of making some celestial observations, and also in order to refresh the men, and complete the drying of the baggage. we obtained a meridian altitude which gave the latitude of our camp at north ° ' " "'. we were now completely satisfied that the middle branch was the most navigable, and the true continuation of the jefferson. the northwest fork seems to be the drain of the melting snows of the mountains, its course cannot be so long as the other branch, and although it contains now as great a quantity of water, yet the water has obviously overflowed the old bed, and spread into channels which leave the low grounds covered with young grass, resembling that of the adjoining lands, which are not inundated; whence we readily infer that the supply is more precarious than that of the other branch, the waters of which though more gentle are more constant. this northwest fork we called wisdom river. as soon as the baggage was dried, it was reloaded on board the boats, but we now found it so much diminished, that we would we able to proceed with one canoe less. we therefore hauled up the superfluous one into a thicket of brush where we secured her against being swept away by the high tide. at one o'clock all set out, except captain lewis who remained till the evening in order to complete the observation of equal altitudes: we passed several bends of the river both to the right and left, as well as a number of bayous on both sides, and made seven miles by water, though the distance by land is only three. we then encamped on a creek which rises in a high mountain to the northeast, and after passing through an open plain for several miles, discharges itself on the left, where it is a bold running stream twelve yards wide. we called it turf creek, from the number of bogs and the quantity of turf on its waters. in the course of the afternoon there fell a shower of rain attended with thunder and lightning, which lasted about forty minutes, and the weather remained so cloudy all night that we were unable to take any lunar observations. uneasy about shannon, we sent r. fields in search of him this morning, but we have as yet no intelligence of either of them. our only game to-day was one deer. thursday . there was a heavy dew this morning. having left one of the canoes, there are now more men to spare for the chace; and four were sent out at an early hour, after which we proceeded. we made five miles by water along two islands and several bayous, but as the river formed seven different bends towards the left, the distance by land was only two miles south of our encampment. at the end of that course we reached the upper principal entrance of a stream which we called philanthropy river. this river empties itself into the jefferson on the southeast side, by two channels a short distance from each other: from its size and its southeastern course, we presume that it rises in the rocky mountains near the sources of the madison. it is thirty yards wide at its entrance, has a very gentle current, and is navigable for some distance. one mile above this river we passed an island, a second at the distance of six miles further, during which the river makes a considerable bend to the east. reuben fields returned about noon with information that he had gone up wisdom river till its entrance into the mountains, but could find nothing of shannon. we made seven miles beyond the last island, and after passing some small bayous, encamped under a few high trees on the left, at the distance of fourteen miles above philanthropy river by water, though only six by land. the river has in fact become so very crooked that although by means of the pole which we now use constantly we make a considerable distance, yet being obliged to follow its windings, at the end of the day, we find ourselves very little advanced on our general course. it forms itself into small circular bends, which are so numerous that within the last fourteen miles we passed thirty-five of them, all inclining towards the right; it is however much more gentle and deep than below wisdom river, and its general width is from thirty-five to forty-five yards. the general appearance of the surrounding country is that of a valley five or six miles wide, enclosed between two high mountains. the bottom is rich, with some small timber on the islands and along the river, which consists rather of underbrush, and a few cottonwood, birch, and willow-trees. the high grounds have some scattered pine, which just relieve the general nakedness of the hills and the plain, where there is nothing except grass. along the bottoms we saw to-day a considerable quantity of the buffaloe clover, the sunflower, flax, green sward, thistle and several species of rye grass, some of which rise to the height of three or four feet. there is also a grass with a soft smooth leaf which rises about three feet high, and bears its seed very much like the timothy, but it does not grow luxuriantly nor would it apparently answer so well in our meadows as that plant. we preserved some of its seed, which are now ripe, in order to make the experiment. our game consisted of deer and antelope, and we saw a number of geese and ducks just beginning to fly, and some cranes. among the inferior animals we have an abundance of the large biting or hare fly, of which there are two species, one black, the other smaller and brown, except the head which is green. the green or blowing flies unite with them in swarms to attack us, and seem to have relieved the eye-gnats who have now disappeared. the musquitoes too are in large quantities, but not so troublesome as they were below. through the valley are scattered bogs, and some very good turf, the earth of which the mud is composed is of a white or bluish white colour, and seems to be argilaceous. on all the three rivers, but particularly on the philanthropy, are immense quantities of beaver, otter and muskrat. at our camp there was an abundance of rosebushes and briars, but so little timber that we were obliged to use willow brush for fuel. the night was again cloudy which prevented the lunar observations. on our right is the point of a high plain, which our indian woman recognizes as the place called the beaver's-head from a supposed resemblance to that object. this she says is not far from the summer retreat of her countrymen, which is on a river beyond the mountains, and running to the west. she is therefore certain that we shall meet them either on this river, or on that immediately west of its source, which judging from its present size, cannot be far distant. persuaded of the absolute necessity of procuring horses to cross the mountains, it was determined that one of us should proceed in the morning to the head of the river, and penetrate the mountains till he found the shoshonees or some other nation who could assist us in transporting our baggage, the greater part of which we shall be compelled to leave without the aid of horses. friday . the morning was fair and fine. we set off early, and proceeded on very well, though there were more rapids in the river than yesterday. at eight o'clock we halted for breakfast, part of which consisted of two fine geese killed before we stopped. here we were joined by shannon for whose safety we had been so uneasy. the day on which he left us on his way up wisdom river, after hunting for some time and not seeing the party arrive, he returned to the place where he had left us. not finding us there he supposed we had passed him, and he therefore marched up the river during all the next day, when he was convinced that we had not gone on, as the river was no longer navigable. he now followed the course of the river down to the forks, and then took the branch which we are pursuing. during the three days of his absence, he had been much wearied with his march, but had lived plentifully, and brought the skins of three deer. as far as he had ascended wisdom river it kept its course obliquely down towards the jefferson. immediately after breakfast, captain lewis took drewyer, shields and m'neal, and slinging their knapsacks they set out with a resolution to meet some nation of indians before they returned, however long they might be separated from the party. he directed his course across the low ground to the plain on the right, leaving the beaver's-head about two miles to the left. after walking eight miles to the river, which they waded, they went on to a commanding point from which he saw the place at which it enters the mountain, but as the distance would not permit his reaching it this evening, he descended towards the river, and after travelling eight miles further, encamped for the evening some miles below the mountain. they passed before reaching their camp a handsome little stream formed by some large springs which rise in the wide bottom on the left side of the river. in their way they killed two antelopes, and took with them enough of the meat for their supper and breakfast the next morning. in the meantime we proceeded, and in the course of eleven miles from our last encampment passed two small islands, sixteen short round bends in the river, and halted in a bend towards the right where we dined. the river increases in rapidity as we advance, and is so crooked that the eleven miles, which have cost us so much labour, only bring us four miles in a direct line. the weather became overcast towards evening, and we experienced a slight shower attended with thunder and lightning. the three hunters who were sent out killed only two antelopes; game of every kind being scarce. saturday, . captain lewis continued his route at an early hour through the wide bottom along the left bank of the river. at about five miles he passed a large creek, and then fell into an indian road leading towards the point where the river entered the mountain. this he followed till he reached a high perpendicular cliff of rocks where the river makes its passage through the hills, and which he called the rattlesnake cliff, from the number of that animal which he saw there: here he kindled a fire and waited the return of drewyer, who had been sent out on the way to kill a deer: he came back about noon with the skin of three deer and the flesh of one of the best of them. after a hasty dinner they returned to the indian road which they had left for a short distance to see the cliff. it led them sometimes over the hills, sometimes in the narrow bottoms of the river, till at the distance of fifteen miles from the rattlesnake cliffs they reached a handsome open and level valley, where the river divided into two nearly equal branches. the mountains over which they passed were not very high, but are rugged and continue close to the river side. the river, which before it enters the mountain was rapid, rocky, very crooked, much divided by islands, and shallow, now becomes more direct in its course as it is hemmed in by the hills, and has not so many bends nor islands, but becomes more rapid and rocky, and continues as shallow. on examining the two branches of the river it was evident that neither of them was navigable further. the road forked with the river; and captain lewis therefore sent a man up each of them for a short distance, in order that by comparing their respective information he might be able to take that which seemed to have been most used this spring. from their account he resolved to choose that which led along the southwest branch of the river which was rather the smaller of the two: he accordingly wrote a note to captain clarke informing him of the route, and recommending his staying with the party at the forks till he should return: this he fixed on a dry willow pole at the forks of the river, and then proceeded up the southwest branch; but after going a mile and a half the road became scarcely distinguishable, and the tracks of the horses which he had followed along the jefferson were no longer seen. captain lewis therefore returned to examine the other road himself, and found that the horses had in fact passed along the western or right fork which had the additional recommendation of being larger than the other. this road he concluded to take, and therefore sent back drewyer to the forks with a second letter to captain clarke apprising him of the change, and then proceeded on. the valley of the west fork through which he now passed, bears a little to the north of west, and is confined within the space of about a mile in width, by rough mountains and steep cliffs of rock. at the distance of four and a half miles it opens into a beautiful and extensive plain about ten miles long and five or six in width: this is surrounded on all sides by higher rolling or waving country, intersected by several little rivulets from the mountains, each bordered by its wide meadows. the whole prospect is bounded by these mountains, which nearly surround it, so as to form a beautiful cove about sixteen or eighteen miles in diameter. on entering this cove the river bends to the northwest, and bathes the foot of the hills to the right. at this place they halted for the night on the right side of the river, and having lighted a fire of dry willow brush, the only fuel which the country affords, supped on a deer. they had travelled to-day thirty miles by estimate: that is ten to the rattlesnake cliff, fifteen to the forks of jefferson river, and five to their encampment. in this cove some parts of the low grounds are tolerably fertile, but much the greater proportion is covered with prickly pear, sedge, twisted grass, the pulpy-leafed thorn, southern-wood, and wild sage, and like the uplands have a very inferior soil. these last have little more than the prickly pear and the twisted or bearded grass, nor are there in the whole cove more than three or four cottonwood trees, and those are small. at the apparent extremity of the bottom above, and about ten miles to the westward, are two perpendicular cliffs rising to a considerable height on each side of the river, and at this distance seem like a gate. in the meantime we proceeded at sunrise, and found the river not so rapid as yesterday, though more narrow and still very crooked, and so shallow that we were obliged to drag the canoes over many ripples in the course of the day. at six and a half miles we had passed eight bends on the north, and two small bayous on the left, and came to what the indians call the beaver's-head, a steep rocky cliff about one hundred and fifty feet high, near the right side of the river. opposite to this at three hundred yards from the water is a low cliff about fifty feet in height, which forms the extremity of a spur of the mountain about four miles distant on the left. at four o'clock we were overtaken by a heavy shower of rain, attended with thunder, lightning and hail. the party were defended from the hail by covering themselves with willow bushes, but they got completely wet, and in this situation, as soon as the rain ceased, continued till we encamped. this we did at a low bluff on the left, after passing in the course of six and a half miles, four islands and eighteen bends on the right, and a low bluff and several bayous on the same side. we had now come thirteen miles, yet were only four on our route towards the mountains. the game seems to be declining, for our hunters procured only a single deer, though we found another for us that had been killed three days before by one of the hunters during an excursion, and left for us on the river. chapter xiv. captain lewis proceeds before the main body in search of the shoshonees--his ill success on the first interview--the party with captain lewis at length discover the source of the missouri--captain clarke with the main body still employed in ascending the missouri or jefferson river--captain lewis's second interview with the shoshonees attended with success--the interesting ceremonies of his first introduction to the natives, detailed at large--their hospitality--their mode of hunting the antelope--the difficulties encountered by captain clarke and the main body in ascending the river--the suspicions entertained of captain lewis by the shoshonees, and his mode of allaying them--the ravenous appetites of the savages illustrated by a singular adventure--the indians still jealous, and the great pains taken by captain lewis to preserve their confidence--captain clarke arrives with the main body exhausted by the difficulties which they underwent. sunday, august . captain lewis again proceeded on early, but had the mortification to find that the track which he followed yesterday soon disappeared. he determined therefore to go on to the narrow gate or pass of the river which he had seen from the camp, in hopes of being able to recover the indian path. for this purpose he waded across the river, which was now about twelve yards wide, and barred in several places by the dams of the beaver, and then went straight forward to the pass, sending one man along the river to his left, and another on the right, with orders to search for the road, and if they found it to let him know by raising a hat on the muzzle of their guns. in this order they went along for about five miles, when captain lewis perceived with the greatest delight a man on horseback at the distance of two miles coming down the plain towards them. on examining him with the glass, captain lewis saw that he was of a different nation from any indians we had hitherto met: he was armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows; mounted on an elegant horse without a saddle, and a small string attached to the under jaw answered as a bridle. convinced that he was a shoshonee, and knowing how much of our success depended on the friendly offices of that nation, captain lewis was full of anxiety to approach without alarming him, and endeavour to convince him that he was a white man. he therefore, proceeded on towards the indian at his usual pace, when they were within a mile of each other the indian suddenly stopt, captain lewis immediately followed his example, took his blanket from his knapsack, and holding it with both hands at the two corners, threw it above his head and unfolded it as he brought it to the ground as if in the act of spreading it. this signal which originates in the practice of spreading a robe or a skin, as a seat for guests to whom they wish to show a distinguished kindness, is the universal sign of friendship among the indians on the missouri and the rocky mountains. as usual, captain lewis repeated this signal three times: still the indian kept his position, and looked with an air of suspicion on drewyer and shields who were now advancing on each side. captain lewis was afraid to make any signal for them to halt, lest he should increase the suspicions of the indian, who began to be uneasy, and they too distant to hear his voice. he, therefore, took from his pack some beads, a looking-glass and a few trinkets, which he had brought for the purpose, and leaving his gun advanced unarmed towards the indian. he remained in the same position till captain lewis came within two hundred yards of him, when he turned his horse, and began to move off slowly; captain lewis then called out to him, in as loud a voice as he could, repeating the word, tabba bone! which in the shoshonee language means white man; but looking over his shoulder the indian kept his eyes on drewyer and shields, who were still advancing, without recollecting the impropriety of doing so at such a moment, till captain lewis made a signal to them to halt; this drewyer obeyed, but shields did not observe it, and still went forward: seeing drewyer halt the indian turned his horse about as if to wait for captain lewis who now reached within one hundred and fifty paces, repeating the word tabba bone, and holding up the trinkets in his hand, at the same time stripping up the sleeve of his shirt to show the colour of his skin. the indian suffered him to advance within one hundred paces, then suddenly turned his horse, and giving him the whip, leaped across the creek, and disappeared in an instant among the willow bushes: with him vanished all the hopes which the sight of him had inspired of a friendly introduction to his countrymen. though sadly disappointed by the imprudence of his two men, captain lewis determined to make the incident of some use, and therefore calling the men to him they all set off after the track of the horse, which they hoped might lead them to the camp of the indian who had fled, or if he had given the alarm to any small party, their track might conduct them to the body of the nation. they now fixed a small flag of the united states on a pole, which was carried by one of the men as a signal of their friendly intentions, should the indians observe them as they were advancing. the route lay across an island formed by a nearly equal division of the creek in the bottom: after reaching the open grounds on the right side of the creek, the track turned towards some high hills about three miles distant. presuming that the indian camp might be among these hills, and that by advancing hastily he might be seen and alarm them, captain lewis sought an elevated situation near the creek, had a fire made of willow brush, and took breakfast. at the same time he prepared a small assortment of beads, trinkets, awls, some paint and a looking glass, and placed them on a pole near the fire, in order that if the indians returned they might discover that the party were white men and friends. whilst making these preparations a very heavy shower of rain and hail came on, and wet them to the skin: in about twenty minutes it was over, and captain lewis then renewed his pursuit, but as the rain had made the grass which the horse had trodden down rise again, his track could with difficulty be distinguished. as they went along they passed several places where the indians seemed to have been digging roots to-day, and saw the fresh track of eight or ten horses, but they had been wandering about in so confused a manner that he could not discern any particular path, and at last, after pursuing it about four miles along the valley to the left under the foot of the hills, he lost the track of the fugitive indian. near the head of the valley they had passed a large bog covered with moss and tall grass, among which were several springs of pure cold water: they now turned a little to the left along the foot of the high hills, and reached a small creek where they encamped for the night, having made about twenty miles, though not more than ten in a direct line from their camp of last evening. the morning being rainy and wet we did not set out with the canoes till after an early breakfast. during the first three miles we passed three small islands, six bayous on different sides of the river, and the same number of bends towards the right. here we reached the lower point of a large island which we called three-thousand-mile island, on account of its being at that distance from the mouth of the missouri. it is three miles and a half in length, and as we coasted along it we passed several small bends of the river towards the left, and two bayous on the same side. after leaving the upper point of three-thousand-mile island, we followed the main channel on the left side, which led us by three small islands and several small bayous, and fifteen bends towards the right. then at the distance of seven miles and a half we encamped on the upper end of a large island near the right. the river was shallow and rapid, so that we were obliged to be in the water during a great part of the day, dragging the canoes over the shoals and ripples. its course too was so crooked, that notwithstanding we had made fourteen miles by water, we were only five miles from our encampment of last night. the country consists of a low ground on the river about five miles wide, and succeeded on both sides by plains of the same extent which reach to the base of the mountains. these low grounds are very much intersected by bayous, and in those on the left side is a large proportion of bog covered with tall grass, which would yield a fine turf. there are very few trees, and those small narrow-leafed cottonwood: the principal growth being the narrow-leafed willow, and currant bushes, among which were some bunches of privy near the river. we saw a number of geese, ducks, beaver, otter, deer and antelopes, of all which one beaver was killed with a pole from the boat, three otters with a tomahawk, and the hunters brought in three deer and an antelope. monday, . this morning as soon as it was light captain lewis sent drewyer to reconnoitre if possible the route of the indians: in about an hour and a half he returned, after following the tracks of the horse which we had lost yesterday to the mountains, where they ascended and were no longer visible. captain lewis now decided on making the circuit along the foot of the mountains which formed the cove, expecting by that means to find a road across them, and accordingly sent drewyer on one side, and shields on the other. in this way they crossed four small rivulets near each other, on which were some bowers or conical lodges of willow brush, which seemed to have been made recently. from the manner in which the ground in the neighbourhood was torn up the indians appeared to have been gathering roots; but captain lewis could not discover what particular plant they were searching for, nor could he find any fresh track, till at the distance of four miles from his camp he met a large plain indian road which came into the cove from the northeast, and wound along the foot of the mountains to the southwest, approaching obliquely the main stream he had left yesterday. down this road he now went towards the southwest: at the distance of five miles it crossed a large run or creek, which is a principal branch of the main stream into which it falls, just above the high cliffs or gates observed yesterday, and which they now saw below them: here they halted and breakfasted on the last of the deer, keeping a small piece of pork in reserve against accident: they then continued through the low bottom along the main stream near the foot of the mountains on their right. for the first five miles the valley continues towards the southwest from two to three miles in width; then the main stream, which had received two small branches from the left in the valley, turns abruptly to the west through a narrow bottom between the mountains. the road was still plain, and as it led them directly on towards the mountain the stream gradually became smaller, till after going two miles it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the men in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the river, thanked god that he had lived to bestride the missouri. as they went along their hopes of soon seeing the waters of the columbia arose almost to painful anxiety, when after four miles from the last abrupt turn of the river, they reached a small gap formed by the high mountains which recede on each side, leaving room for the indian road. from the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains, which rises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issues the remotest water of the missouri. they had now reached the hidden sources of that river, which had never yet been seen by civilized man; and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy fountain--as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean, they felt themselves rewarded for all their labours and all their difficulties. they left reluctantly this interesting spot, and pursuing the indian road through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge, from which they saw high mountains partially covered with snow still to the west of them. the ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of the atlantic and pacific oceans. they followed a descent much steeper than that on the eastern side, and at the distance of three quarters of a mile reached a handsome bold creek of cold clear water running to the westward. they stopped to taste for the first time the waters of the columbia; and after a few minutes followed the road across steep hills and low hollows, till they reached a spring on the side of a mountain: here they found a sufficient quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, and therefore halted for the night; and having killed nothing in the course of the day supped on their last piece of pork, and trusted to fortune for some other food to mix with a little flour and parched meal, which was all that now remained of their provisions. before reaching the fountain of the missouri they saw several large hawks nearly black, and some of the heath cocks: these last have a long pointed tail, and are of a uniform dark brown colour, much larger than the common dunghill fowl, and similar in habits and the mode of flying to the grouse or prairie hen. drewyer also wounded at the distance of one hundred and thirty yards an animal which we had not yet seen, but which after falling recovered itself and escaped. it seemed to be of the fox kind, rather larger than the small wolf of the plains, and with a skin in which black, reddish brown, and yellow, were curiously intermixed. on the creek of the columbia they found a species of currant which does not grow as high as that of the missouri, though it is more branching, and its leaf, the under disk of which is covered with a hairy pubescence, is twice as large. the fruit is of the ordinary size and shape of the currant, and supported in the usual manner, but is of a deep purple colour, acid, and of a very inferior flavour. we proceeded on in the boats, but as the river was very shallow and rapid, the navigation is extremely difficult, and the men who are almost constantly in the water are getting feeble and sore, and so much wore down by fatigue that they are very anxious to commence travelling by land. we went along the main channel which is on the right side, and after passing nine bends in that direction, three islands and a number of bayous, reached at the distance of five and a half miles the upper point of a large island. at noon there was a storm of thunder which continued about half an hour; after which we proceeded, but as it was necessary to drag the canoes over the shoals and rapids, made but little progress. on leaving the island we passed a number of short bends, several bayous, and one run of water on the right side, and having gone by four small and two large islands, encamped on a smooth plain to the left near a few cottonwood trees: our journey by water was just twelve miles, and four in a direct line. the hunters supplied us with three deer and a fawn. tuesday . very early in the morning captain lewis resumed the indian road, which led him in a western direction, through an open broken country; on the left was a deep valley at the foot of a high range of mountains running from southeast to northwest, with their sides better clad with timber than the hills to which we have been for some time accustomed, and their tops covered in part with snow. at five miles distance, after following the long descent of another valley, he reached a creek about ten yards wide, and on rising the hill beyond it had a view of a handsome little valley on the left, about a mile in width, through which they judged, from the appearance of the timber, that some stream of water most probably passed. on the creek they had just left were some bushes of the white maple, the sumach of the small species with the winged rib, and a species of honeysuckle, resembling in its general appearance and the shape of its leaf the small honeysuckle of the missouri, except that it is rather larger, and bears a globular berry, about the size of a garden pea, of a white colour, and formed of a soft white mucilaginous substance, in which are several small brown seeds irregularly scattered without any cell, and enveloped in a smooth thin pellicle. they proceeded along a waving plain parallel to this valley for about four miles, when they discovered two women, a man and some dogs on an eminence at the distance of a mile before them. the strangers first viewed them apparently with much attention for a few minutes, and then two of them sat down as if to await captain lewis's arrival. he went on till he reached within about half a mile, then ordered his party to stop, put down his knapsack and rifle, and unfurling the flag advanced alone towards the indians. the females soon retreated behind the hill, but the man remained till captain lewis came within a hundred yards from him, when he too went off, though captain lewis called out tabba bone! loud enough to be heard distinctly. he hastened to the top of the hill, but they had all disappeared. the dogs however were less shy, and came close to him; he therefore thought of tying a handkerchief with some beads round their necks, and then let them loose to convince the fugitives of his friendly disposition, but they would not suffer him to take hold of them, and soon left him. he now made a signal to the men, who joined him, and then all followed the track of the indians, which led along a continuation of the same road they had been already travelling. it was dusty and seemed to have been much used lately both by foot passengers and horsemen. they had not gone along it more than a mile when on a sudden they saw three female indians, from whom they had been concealed by the deep ravines which intersected the road, till they were now within thirty paces of each other; one of them a young woman immediately took to flight, the other two, an elderly woman and a little girl, seeing we were too near for them to escape, sat on the ground, and holding down their heads seemed as if reconciled to the death which they supposed awaited them. the same habit of holding down the head and inviting the enemy to strike, when all chance of escape is gone, is preserved in egypt to this day. captain lewis instantly put down his rifle, and advancing towards them, took the woman by the hand, raised her up, and repeated the word tabba bone! at the sane time stripping up his shirt sleeve to prove that he was a white man, for his hands and face had become by constant exposure quite as dark as their own. she appeared immediately relieved from her alarm, and drewyer and shields now coming up, captain lewis gave them some beads, a few awls, pewter mirrors, and a little paint, and told drewyer to request the woman to recall her companion who had escaped to some distance, and by alarming the indians might cause them to attack him without any time for explanation. she did as she was desired, and the young woman returned almost out of breath: captain lewis gave her an equal portion of trinkets, and painted the tawny cheeks of all three of them with vermillion, a ceremony which among the shoshonees is emblematic of peace. after they had become composed, he informed them by signs of his wish to go to their camp in order to see their chiefs and warriors; they readily obeyed, and conducted the party along the same road down the river. in this way they marched two miles, when they met a troop of nearly sixty warriors mounted on excellent horses riding at full speed towards them. as they advanced captain lewis put down his gun, and went with the flag about fifty paces in advance. the chief who with two men were riding in front of the main body, spoke to the women, who now explained that the party was composed of white men, and showed exultingly the presents they had received. the three men immediately leaped from their horses, came up to captain lewis and embraced him with great cordiality, putting their left arm over his right shoulder and clasping his back, applying at the same time their left cheek to his, and frequently vociferating ah hi e! ah hi e! "i am much pleased, i am much rejoiced." the whole body of warriors now came forward, and our men received the caresses, and no small share of the grease and paint of their new friends. after this fraternal embrace, of which the motive was much more agreeable than the manner, captain lewis lighted a pipe and offered it to the indians who had now seated themselves in a circle around the party. but before they would receive this mark of friendship they pulled off their moccasins, a custom as we afterwards learnt, which indicates the sacred sincerity of their professions when they smoke with a stranger, and which imprecates on themselves the misery of going barefoot forever if they are faithless to their words, a penalty by no means light to those who rove over the thorny plains of their country. it is not unworthy to remark the analogy which some of the customs of those wild children of the wilderness bear to those recorded in holy writ. moses is admonished to pull off his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. why this was enjoined as an act of peculiar reverence; whether it was from the circumstance that in the arid region in which the patriarch then resided, it was deemed a test of the sincerity of devotion to walk upon the burning sands barefooted, in some measure analogous to the pains inflicted by the prickly pear, does not appear. after smoking a few pipes, some trifling presents were distributed amongst them, with which they seemed very much pleased, particularly with the blue beads and the vermillion. captain lewis then informed the chief that the object of his visit was friendly, and should be explained as soon as he reached their camp; but that in the meantime as the sun was oppressive, and no water near, he wished to go there as soon as possible. they now put on their moccasins, and their chief, whose name was cameahwait, made a short speech to the warriors. captain lewis then gave him the flag, which he informed him was among white men the emblem of peace, and now that he had received it was to be in future the bond of union between them. the chief then moved on, our party followed him, and the rest of the warriors in a squadron, brought up the rear. after marching a mile they were halted by the chief, who made a second harangue, on which six or eight young men rode forward to their camp, and no further regularity was observed in the order of march. at the distance of four miles from where they had first met, they reached the indian camp, which was in a handsome level meadow on the bank of the river. here they were introduced into an old leathern lodge which the young men who had been sent from the party had fitted up for their reception. after being seated on green boughs and antelope skins, one of the warriors pulled up the grass in the centre of the lodge so as to form a vacant circle of two feet diameter, in which he kindled a fire. the chief then produced his pipe and tobacco, the warriors all pulled off their moccasins, and our party was requested to take off their own. this being done, the chief lighted his pipe at the fire within the magic circle, and then retreating from it began a speech several minutes long, at the end of which he pointed the stem towards the four cardinal points of the heavens, beginning with the east and concluding with the north. after this ceremony he presented the stem in the same way to captain lewis, who supposing it an invitation to smoke, put out his hand to receive the pipe, but the chief drew it back, and continued to repeat the same offer three times, after which he pointed the stem first to the heavens, then to the centre of the little circle, took three whiffs himself, and presented it again to captain lewis. finding that this last offer was in good earnest, he smoked a little, the pipe was then held to each of the white men, and after they had taken a few whiffs was given to the warriors. this pipe was made of a dense transparent green stone, very highly polished; about two and an half inches long, and of an oval figure, the bowl being in the same situation with the stem. a small piece of burnt clay is placed in the bottom of the bowl to separate the tobacco from the end of the stem, and is of an irregularly round figure, not fitting the tube perfectly close, in order that the smoke may pass with facility. the tobacco is of the same kind with that used by the minnetarees, mandans and ricaras of the missouri. the shoshonees do not cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the rocky mountain indians, and some of the bands of their own nation who live further south. the ceremony of smoking being concluded, captain lewis explained to the chief the purposes of his visit, and as by this time all the women and children of the camp had gathered around the lodge to indulge in a view of the first white men they had ever seen, he distributed among them the remainder of the small articles he had brought with him. it was now late in the afternoon, and our party had tasted no food since the night before. on apprising the chief of this circumstance, he said that he had nothing but berries to eat, and presented some cakes made of serviceberry and chokecherries which had been dried in the sun. on these captain lewis made a hearty meal, and then walked down towards the river: he found it a rapid clear stream forty yards wide and three feet deep; the banks were low and abrupt, like those of the upper part of the missouri, and the bed formed of loose stones and gravel. its course, as far as he could observe it, was a little to the north of west, and was bounded on each side by a range of high mountains, of which those on the east are the lowest and most distant from the river. the chief informed him that this stream discharged itself at the distance of half a day's march, into another of twice its size, coming from the southwest; but added, on further inquiry, that there was scarcely more timber below the junction of those rivers than in this neighbourhood, and that the river was rocky, rapid, and so closely confined between high mountains, that it was impossible to pass down it, either by land or water to the great lake, where as he had understood the white men lived. this information was far from being satisfactory; for there was no timber here that would answer the purpose of building canoes, indeed not more than just sufficient for fuel, and even that consisted of the narrow-leafed cotton wood, the red and the narrow-leafed willow, the chokecherry, serviceberry and a few currant bushes such as are common on the missouri. the prospect of going on by land is more pleasant; for there are great numbers of horses feeding in every direction round the camp, which will enable us to transport our stores if necessary over the mountains. captain lewis returned from the river to his lodge, and on his way an indian invited him into his bower and gave him a small morsel of boiled antelope and a piece of fresh salmon roasted. this was the first salmon he had seen, and perfectly satisfied him that he was now on the waters of the pacific. on reaching this lodge, he resumed his conversation with the chief, after which he was entertained with a dance by the indians. it now proved, as our party had feared, that the men whom they had first met this morning had returned to the camp and spread the alarm that their enemies, the minnetarees of fort de prairie, whom they call pahkees, were advancing on them. the warriors instantly armed themselves and were coming down in expectation of an attack, when they were agreeably surprised by meeting our party. the greater part of them were armed with bows and arrows, and shields, but a few had small fusils, such as are furnished by the northwest company traders, and which they had obtained from the indians on the yellowstone, with whom they are now at peace. they had reason to dread the approach of the pahkees, who had attacked them in the course of this spring and totally defeated them. on this occasion twenty of their warriors were either killed or made prisoners, and they lost their whole camp except the leathern lodge which they had fitted up for us, and were now obliged to live in huts of a conical figure made with willow brush. the music and dancing, which was in no respect different from those of the missouri indians, continued nearly all night; but captain lewis retired to rest about twelve o'clock, when the fatigues of the day enabled him to sleep though he was awaked several times by the yells of the dancers. whilst all these things were occurring to captain lewis we were slowly and laboriously ascending the river. for the first two and a half miles we went along the island opposite to which we encamped last evening, and soon reached a second island behind which comes in a small creek on the left side of the river. it rises in the mountains to the east and forms a handsome valley for some miles from its mouth, where it is a bold running stream about seven yards wide: we called it m'neal's creek, after hugh m'neal one of our party. just above this stream and at the distance of four miles from our camp is a point of limestone rock on the right, about seventy feet high, forming a cliff over the river. from the top of it the beaver's-head bore north ° east twelve miles distant, the course of wisdom river, that is the direction of its valley through the mountains is north ° west, while the gap through which the jefferson enters the mountains is ten miles above us on a course south ° west. from this limestone rock we proceeded along several islands, on both sides, and after making twelve miles arrived at a cliff of high rocks on the right, opposite to which we encamped in a smooth level prairie, near a few cottonwood trees; but were obliged to use the dry willow brush for fuel. the river is still very crooked, the bends short and abrupt, and obstructed by so many shoals, over which the canoes were to be dragged, that the men were in the water three fourths of the day. they saw numbers of otter, some beaver, antelopes, ducks, geese, and cranes, but they killed nothing except a single deer. they, however, caught some very fine trout, as they have done for several days past. the weather had been cloudy and cool during the forepart of the day, and at eight o'clock a shower of rain fell. wednesday . in order to give time for the boats to reach the forks of jefferson river, captain lewis determined to remain here and obtain all the information he could collect with regard to the country. having nothing to eat but a little flour and parched meal, with the berries of the indians, he sent out drewyer and shields, who borrowed horses from the natives, to hunt for a few hours. about the same time the young warriors set out for the same purpose. there are but few elk or blacktailed deer in this neighbourhood, and as the common red-deer secrete themselves in the bushes when alarmed, they are soon safe from the arrows, which are but feeble weapons against any animals which the huntsmen cannot previously run down with their horses. the chief game of the shoshonees, therefore, is the antelope, which when pursued retreats to the open plains, where the horses have full room for the chase. but such is its extraordinary fleetness and wind that a single horse has no possible chance of outrunning it, or tiring it down; and the hunters are therefore obliged to resort to stratagem. about twenty indians, mounted on fine horses, and armed with bows and arrows, left the camp; in a short time they descried a herd of ten antelopes: they immediately separated into little squads of two or three, and formed a scattered circle round the herd for five or six miles, keeping at a wary distance, so as not to alarm them till they were perfectly inclosed, and usually selecting some commanding eminence as a stand. having gained their positions, a small party rode towards the herd, and with wonderful dexterity the huntsman preserved his seat, and the horse his footing, as he ran at full speed over the hills, and down the steep ravines, and along the borders of the precipices. they were soon outstripped by the antelopes, which on gaining the other extremity of the circle were driven back and pursued by the fresh hunters. they turned and flew, rather than ran in another direction; but there too, they found new enemies. in this way they were alternately pursued backwards and forwards, till at length, notwithstanding the skill of the hunters, they all escaped, and the party after running for two hours returned without having caught any thing, and their horses foaming with sweat. this chase, the greater part of which was seen from the camp, formed a beautiful scene; but to the hunters is exceedingly laborious, and so unproductive, even when they are able to worry the animal down and shoot him, that forty or fifty hunters will sometimes be engaged for half a day without obtaining more than two or three antelopes. soon after they returned, our two huntsmen came in with no better success. captain lewis therefore made a little paste with the flour, and the addition of some berries formed a very palatable repast. having now secured the good will of cameahwait, captain lewis informed him of his wish that he would speak to the warriors and endeavour to engage them to accompany him to the forks of jefferson river, where by this time another chief with a large party of white men were waiting his return: that it would be necessary to take about thirty horses to transport the merchandize; that they should be well rewarded for their trouble; and that when all the party should have reached the shoshonee camp they would remain some time among them, and trade for horses, as well as concert plans for furnishing them in future with regular supplies of merchandize. he readily consented to do so, and after collecting the tribe together he made a long harangue, and in about an hour and a half returned, and told captain lewis that they would be ready to accompany him in the morning. as the early part of the day was cold, and the men stiff and sore from the fatigues of yesterday: we did not set out till seven o'clock. at the distance of a mile we passed a bold stream on the right, which comes from a snowy mountain to the north, and at its entrance is four yards wide, and three feet in depth: we called it track creek: at six miles further we reached another stream which heads in some springs at the foot of the mountains on the left. alter passing a number of bayous and small islands on each side, we encamped about half a mile by land below the rattlesnake cliffs. the river was cold, shallow, and as it approached the mountains formed one continued rapid, over which we were obliged to drag the boats with great labour and difficulty. by using constant exertions we succeeded in making fourteen miles, but this distance did not carry us more than six and a half in a straight line: several of the men have received wounds and lamed themselves in hauling the boats over the stones. the hunters supplied them with five deer and an antelope. thursday . captain lewis rose early, and having eaten nothing yesterday except his scanty meal of flour and berries felt the inconveniences of extreme hunger. on inquiry he found that his whole stock of provisions consisted of two pounds of flour. this he ordered to be divided into two equal parts, and one half of it boiled with the berries into a sort of pudding: and after presenting a large share to the chief, he and his three men breakfasted on the remainder. cameahwait was delighted at this new dish; he took a little of the flour in his hand tasted and examined it very narrowly, asking if it was made of roots; captain lewis explained the process of preparing it, and he said it was the best thing he had eaten for a long time. this being finished, captain lewis now endeavoured to hasten the departure of the indians who still hesitated, and seemed reluctant to move, although the chief addressed them twice for the purpose of urging them: on inquiring the reason, cameahwait told him that some foolish person had suggested that he was in league with their enemies the pahkees, and had come only to draw them into ambuscade, but that he himself did not believe it: captain lewis felt uneasy at this insinuation: he knew the suspicious temper of the indians, accustomed from their infancy to regard every stranger as an enemy, and saw that if this suggestion were not instantly checked, it might hazard the total failure of the enterprise. assuming therefore a serious air, he told the chief that he was sorry to find they placed so little confidence in him, but that he pardoned their suspicions because they were ignorant of the character of white men, among whom it was disgraceful to lie or entrap even an enemy by falsehood; that if they continued to think thus meanly of us they might be assured no white men would ever come to supply them with arms and merchandize; that there was at this moment a party of white men waiting to trade with them at the forks of the river; and that if the greater part of the tribe entertained any suspicion, he hoped there were still among them some who were men, who would go and see with their own eyes the truth of what he said, and who, even if there was any danger, were not afraid to die. to doubt the courage of an indian is to touch the tenderest string of his mind, and the surest way to rouse him to any dangerous achievement. cameahwait instantly replied, that he was not afraid to die, and mounting his horse, for the third time harangued the warriors: he told them that he was resolved to go if he went alone, or if he were sure of perishing; that he hoped there were among those who heard him some who were not afraid to die, and who would prove it by mounting their horses and following him. this harangue produced an effect on six or eight only of the warriors, who now joined their chief. with these captain lewis smoked a pipe, and then fearful of some change in their capricious temper set out immediately. it was about twelve o'clock when his small party left the camp, attended by cameahwait and the eight warriors; their departure seemed to spread a gloom over the village; those who would not venture to go were sullen and melancholy, and the woman were crying and imploring the great spirit to protect their warriors as if they were going to certain destruction: yet such is the wavering inconstancy of these savages, that captain lewis's party had not gone far when they were joined by ten or twelve more warriors, and before reaching the creek which they had passed on the morning of the th, all the men of the nation and a number of women had overtaken them, and had changed from the surly ill temper in which they were two hours ago, to the greatest cheerfulness and gayety. when they arrived at the spring on the side of the mountain where the party had encamped on the th, the chief insisted on halting to let the horses graze; to which captain lewis assented and smoked with them. they are excessively fond of the pipe, in which however they are not able to indulge much as they do not cultivate tobacco themselves, and their rugged country affords them but few articles to exchange for it. here they remained for about an hour, and on setting out, by engaging to pay four of the party, captain lewis obtained permission for himself and each of his men to ride behind an indian; but he soon found riding without stirrup more tiresome than walking, and therefore dismounted, making the indian carry his pack. about sunset they reached the upper part of the level valley in the cove through which he had passed, and which they now called shoshonee cove. the grass being burnt on the north side of the river they crossed over to the south, and encamped about four miles above the narrow pass between the hills noticed as they traversed the cove before. the river was here about six yards wide, and frequently dammed up by the beaver. drewyer had been sent forward to hunt, but he returned in the evening unsuccessful, and their only supper therefore was the remaining pound of flour stirred in a little boiling water and then divided between the four white men and two of the indians. in order not to exhaust the strength of the men, captain clarke did not leave his camp till after breakfast. although, he was scarcely half a mile below the rattlesnake cliffs he was obliged to make a circuit of two miles by water before he reached them. the river now passed between low and rugged mountains and cliffs formed of a mixture of limestone and a hard black rock, with no covering except a few scattered pines. at the distance of four miles is a bold little stream which throws itself from the mountains down a steep precipice of rocks on the left. one mile farther is a second point of rocks, and an island, about a mile beyond which is a creek on the right, ten yards wide and three feet three inches in depth, with a strong current: we called it willard's creek after one of our men, alexander willard. three miles beyond this creek, after passing a high cliff on the right opposite to a steep hill, we reached a small meadow on the left bank of the river. during its passage through these hills to willard's creek the river had been less torturous than usual, so that in the first six miles to willard's creek we had advanced four miles on our route. we continued on for two miles, till we reached in the evening a small bottom covered with clover and a few cottonwood trees: here we passed the night near the remains of some old indian lodges of brush. the river is as it has been for some days shallow and rapid; and our men, who are for hours together in the river, suffer not only from fatigue, but from the extreme coldness of the water, the temperature of which is as low as that of the freshest springs in our country. in walking along the side of the river, captain clarke was very near being bitten twice by rattlesnakes, and the indian woman narrowly escaped the same misfortune. we caught a number of fine trout; but the only game procured to-day was a buck, which had a peculiarly bitter taste, proceeding probably from its favourite food, the willow. friday, . as neither our party nor the indians had any thing to eat, captain lewis sent two of his hunters ahead this morning to procure some provision: at the same time he requested cameahwait to prevent his young men from going out, lest by their noise they might alarm the game; but this measure immediately revived their suspicions: it now began to be believed that these men were sent forward in order to apprise the enemy of their coming, and as captain lewis was fearful of exciting any further uneasiness, he made no objection on seeing a small party of indians go on each side of the valley under pretence of hunting, but in reality to watch the movements of our two men: even this precaution however did not quiet the alarms of the indians, a considerable part of whom returned home, leaving only twenty-eight men and three women. after the hunters had been gone about an hour, captain lewis again mounted with one of the indians behind him, and the whole party set out; but just as they passed through the narrows they saw one of the spies coming back at full speed across the plain: the chief stopped and seemed uneasy, the whole band were moved with fresh suspicions, and captain lewis himself was much disconcerted, lest by some unfortunate accident some of their enemies might have perhaps straggled that way. the young indian had scarcely breath to say a few words as he came up, when the whole troop dashed forward as fast as their horses could carry them, and captain lewis astonished at this movement was borne along for nearly a mile before he learnt with great satisfaction that it was all caused by the spy's having come to announce that one of the white men had killed a deer. relieved from his anxiety he now found the jolting very uncomfortable; for the indian behind him being afraid of not getting his share of the feast had lashed the horse at every step since they set off; he therefore reined him in and ordered the indian to stop beating him. the fellow had no idea of losing time in disputing the point, and jumping off the horse ran for a mile at full speed. captain lewis slackened his pace, and followed at a sufficient distance to observe them. when they reached the place where drewyer had thrown out the intestines, they all dismounted in confusion and ran tumbling over each other like famished dogs: each tore away whatever part he could and instantly began to eat it; some had the liver, some the kidneys, in short no part on which we are accustomed to look with disgust escaped them: one of them who had seized about nine feet of the entrails was chewing at one end, while with his hand he was diligently clearing his way by discharging the contents at the other. it was indeed impossible to see these wretches ravenously feeding on the filth of animals, and the blood streaming from their mouths, without deploring how nearly the condition of savages approaches that of the brute creation: yet though suffering with hunger they did not attempt, as they might have done, to take by force the whole deer, but contented themselves with what had been thrown away by the hunter. captain lewis now had the deer skinned, and after reserving a quarter of it gave the rest of the animal to the chief to be divided among the indians, who immediately devoured nearly the whole of it without cooking. they now went forward towards the creek where there was some brushwood to make a fire, and found drewyer who had killed a second deer: the same struggle for the entrails was renewed here, and on giving nearly the whole deer to the indians, they devoured it even to the soft part of the hoofs. a fire being made captain lewis had his breakfast, during which drewyer brought in a third deer: this too, after reserving one quarter, was given to the indians, who now seemed completely satisfied and in good humour. at this place they remained about two hours to let the horses graze, and then continued their journey, and towards evening reached the lower part of the cove having on the way shot an antelope, the greater part of which was given to the indians. as they were now approaching the place where they had been told by captain lewis they would see the white men, the chief insisted on halting: they therefore all dismounted, and cameahwait with great ceremony and as if for ornament, put tippets or skins round the necks of our party, similar to those worn by themselves. as this was obviously intended to disguise the white men, captain lewis in order to inspire them with more confidence put his cocked hat and feather on the head of the chief, and as his own over-shirt was in the indian form, and his skin browned by the sun, he could not have been distinguished from an indian: the men followed his example, and the change seemed to be very agreeable* to the indians. in order to guard however against any disappointment captain lewis again explained the possibility of our not having reached the forks in consequence of the difficulty of the navigation, so that if they should not find us at that spot they might be assured of our not being far below. they again all mounted their horses and rode on rapidly, making one of the indians carry their flag, so that we might recognise them as they approached us; but to the mortification and disappointment of both parties on coming within two miles of the forks, no canoes were to be seen. uneasy lest at this moment he should be abandoned, and all his hopes of obtaining aid from the indians be destroyed, captain lewis gave the chief his gun, telling him that if the enemies of his nation were in the bushes he might defend himself with it; that for his own part he was not afraid to die, and that the chief might shoot him as soon as they discovered themselves betrayed. the other three men at the same time gave their guns to the indians, who now seemed more easy, but still wavered in their resolutions. as they went on towards the point, captain lewis perceiving how critical his situation had become, resolved to attempt a stratagem which his present difficulty seemed completely to justify. recollecting the notes he had left at the point for us, he sent drewyer for them with an indian who witnessed his taking them from the pole. when they were brought, captain lewis told cameahwait that on leaving his brother chief at the place where the river issues from the mountains, it was agreed that the boats should not be brought higher than the next forks we should meet; but that if the rapid water prevented the boats from coming on as fast as they expected, his brother chief was to send a note to the first forks above him to let him know where the boats were; that this note had been left this morning at the forks, and mentioned that the canoes were just below the mountains, and coming slowly up in consequence of the current. captain lewis added, that he would stay at the forks for his brother chief, but would send a man down the river, and that if cameahwait doubted what he said, one of their young men would go with him whilst he and the other two remained at the forks. this story satisfied the chief and the greater part of the indians, but a few did not conceal their suspicion, observing that we told different stories, and complaining that the chief exposed them to danger by a mistaken confidence. captain lewis now wrote by the light of some willow brush a note to captain clarke, which he gave to drewyer, with an order to use all possible expedition in ascending the river, and engaged an indian to accompany him by a promise of a knife and some beads. at bedtime the chief and five others slept round the fire of captain lewis, and the rest hid themselves in different parts of the willow brush to avoid the enemy, who they feared would attack them in the night. captain lewis endeavoured to assume a cheerfulness he did not feel to prevent the despondency of the savages: after conversing gayly with them he retired to his musquitoe bier, by the side of which the chief now placed himself: he lay down, yet slept but little, being in fact scarcely less uneasy than his indian companions. he was apprehensive that finding the ascent of the river impracticable, captain clarke might have stopped below the rattlesnake bluff, and the messenger would not meet him. the consequence of disappointing the indians at this moment would most probably be, that they would retire and secrete themselves in the mountains, so as to prevent our having an opportunity of recovering their confidence: they would also spread a panic through all the neighbouring indians, and cut us off from the supply of horses so useful and almost so essential to our success: he was at the same time consoled by remembering that his hopes of assistance rested on better foundations than their generosity--their avarice, and their curiosity. he had promised liberal exchanges for their horses; but what was still move seductive, he had told them that one of their country-women who had been taken with the minnetarees accompanied the party below; and one of the men had spread the report of our having with us a man perfectly black, whose hair was short and curled. this last account had excited a great degree of curiosity, and they seemed more desirous of seeing this monster than of obtaining the most favourable barter for their horses. in the meantime we had set out after breakfast, and although we proceeded with more ease than we did yesterday, the river was still so rapid and shallow as to oblige us to drag the large canoes during the greater part of the day. for the first seven miles the river formed a bend to the right so as to make our advance only three miles in a straight line; the stream is crooked, narrow, small, and shallow, with highlands occasionally on the banks, and strewed with islands, four of which are opposite to each other. near this place we left the valley, to which we gave the name of serviceberry valley, from the abundance of that fruit now ripe which is found in it. in the course of the four following miles we passed several more islands and bayous on each side of the river, and reached a high cliff on the right. two and a half miles beyond this the cliffs approach on both sides and form a very considerable rapid near the entrance of a bold running stream on the left. the water was now excessively cold, and the rapids had been frequent and troublesome. on ascending an eminence captain clarke saw the forks of the river and sent the hunters up. they must have left it only a short time before captain lewis's arrival, but fortunately had not seen the note which enabled him to induce the indians to stay with him. from the top of this eminence he could discover only three trees through the whole country, nor was there along the sides of the cliffs they had passed in the course of the day, any timber except a few small pines: the low grounds were supplied with willow, currant bushes, and serviceberries. after advancing half a mile further we came to the lower point of an island near the middle of the river, and about the centre of the valley: here we halted for the night, only four miles by land, though ten by water, below the point where captain lewis lay. although we had made only fourteen miles, the labours of the men had fatigued and exhausted them very much: we therefore collected some small willow brush for a fire, and lay down to sleep. chapter xv. affecting interview between the wife of chaboneau and the chief of the shoshonees--council held with that nation, and favourable result--the extreme navigable point of the missouri mentioned--general character of the river and of the country through which it passes--captain clarke in exploring the source of the columbia falls in company with another party of shoshonees--the geographical information acquired from one of that party--their manner of catching fish--the party reach lewis river--the difficulties which captain clarke had to encounter in his route--friendship and hospitality of the shoshonees--the party with captain lewis employed in making saddles, and preparing for the journey. saturday, august . captain lewis rose very early and despatched drewyer and the indian down the river in quest of the boats. shields was sent out at the same time to hunt, while m'neal prepared a breakfast out of the remainder of the meat. drewyer had been gone about two hours, and the indians were all anxiously waiting for some news, when an indian who had straggled a short distance down the river, returned with a report that he had seen the white men, who were only a short distance below, and were coming on. the indians were all transported with joy, and the chief in the warmth of his satisfaction renewed his embrace to captain lewis, who was quite as much delighted as the indians themselves; the report proved most agreeably true. on setting out at seven o'clock, captain clarke with chaboneau and his wife walked on shore, but they had not gone more than a mile before captain clarke saw sacajawea, who was with her husband one hundred yards ahead, began to dance, and show every mark of the most extravagant joy, turning round him and pointing to several indians, whom he now saw advancing on horseback, sucking her fingers at the same time to indicate that they were of her native tribe. as they advanced captain clarke discovered among them drewyer dressed like an indian, from whom he learnt the situation of the party. while the boats were performing the circuit, he went towards the forks with the indians, who as they went along, sang aloud with the greatest appearance of delight. we soon drew near to the camp, and just as we approached it a woman made her way through the crowd towards sacajawea, and recognising each other, they embraced with the most tender affection. the meeting of these two young women had in it something peculiarly touching, not only in the ardent manner in which their feelings were expressed, but from the real interest of their situation. they had been companions in childhood, in the war with the minnetarees they had both been taken prisoners in the same battle, they had shared and softened the rigours of their captivity, till one of them had escaped from the minnetarees, with scarce a hope of ever seeing her friend relieved from the hands of her enemies. while sacajawea was renewing among the women the friendships of former days, captain clarke went on, and was received by captain lewis and the chief, who after the first embraces and salutations were over, conducted him to a sort of circular tent or shade of willows. here he was seated on a white robe; and the chief immediately tied in his hair six small shells resembling pearls, an ornament highly valued by these people, who procured them in the course of trade from the seacoast. the moccasins of the whole party were then taken off, and after much ceremony the smoking began. after this the conference was to be opened, and glad of an opportunity of being able to converse more intelligibly, sacajawea was sent for; she came into the tent, sat down, and was beginning to interpret, when in the person of cameahwait she recognised her brother: she instantly jumped up, and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket and weeping profusely; the chief was himself moved, though not in the same degree. after some conversation between them she resumed her seat, and attempted to interpret for us, but her new situation seemed to overpower her, and she was frequently interrupted by her tears. after the council was finished, the unfortunate woman learnt that all her family were dead except two brothers, one of whom was absent, and a son of her eldest sister, a small boy, who was immediately adopted by her. the canoes arriving soon after, we formed a camp in a meadow on the left side, a little below the forks; took out our baggage, and by means of our sails and willow poles formed a canopy for our indian visitors. about four o'clock the chiefs and warriors were collected, and after the customary ceremony of taking off the moccasins and smoking a pipe, we explained to them in a long harangue the purposes of our visit, making themselves one conspicuous object of the good wishes of our government, on whose strength as well as its friendly disposition we expatiated. we told them of their dependance on the will of our government for all future supplies of whatever was necessary either for their comfort or defence; that as we were sent to discover the best route by which merchandize could be conveyed to them, and no trade would be begun before our return, it was mutually advantageous that we should proceed with as little delay as possible; that we were under the necessity of requesting them to furnish us with horses to transport our baggage across the mountains, and a guide to show us the route, but that they should be amply remunerated for their horses, as well as for every other service they should render us. in the meantime our first wish was, that they should immediately collect as many horses as were necessary to transport our baggage to their village, where, at our leisure we would trade with them for as many horses as they could spare. the speech made a favourable impression: the chief in reply thanked us for our expressions of friendship towards himself and his nation, and declared their willingness to render us every service. he lamented that it would be so long before they should be supplied with firearms, but that till then they could subsist as they had heretofore done. he concluded by saying that there were not horses here sufficient to transport our goods, but that he would return to the village to-morrow, and bring all his own horses, and encourage his people to come over with theirs. the conference being ended to our satisfaction, we now inquired of cameahwait what chiefs were among the party, and he pointed out two of them. we then distributed our presents: to cameahwait we gave a medal of the small size, with the likeness of president jefferson, and on the reverse a figure of hands clasped with a pipe and tomahawk: to this was added an uniform coat, a shirt, a pair of scarlet leggings, a carrot of tobacco, and some small articles. each of the other chiefs received a small medal struck during the presidency of general washington, a shirt, handkerchief, leggings, a knife, and some tobacco. medals of the same sort were also presented to two young warriors, who though not chiefs were promising youths and very much respected in the tribe. these honorary gifts were followed by presents of paint, moccasins, awls, knives, beads and looking-glasses. we also gave them all a plentiful meal of indian corn, of which the hull is taken off by being boiled in lye; and as this was the first they had ever tasted, they were very much pleased with it. they had indeed abundant sources of surprise in all they saw: the appearance of the men, their arms, their clothing, the canoes, the strange looks of the negro, and the sagacity of our dog, all in turn shared their admiration, which was raised to astonishment by a shot from the airgun: this operation was instantly considered as a _great medicine_, by which they as well as the other indians mean something emanating directly from the great spirit, or produced by his invisible and incomprehensible agency. the display of all these riches had been intermixed with inquiries into the geographical situation of their country; for we had learnt by experience, that to keep the savages in good temper their attention should not be wearied with too much business; but that the serious affairs should be enlivened by a mixture of what is new and entertaining. our hunters brought in very seasonably four deer and an antelope, the last of which we gave to the indians, who in a very short time devoured it. after the council was over, we consulted as to our future operations. the game does not promise to last here for a number of days, and this circumstance combined with many others to induce our going on as soon as possible. our indian information as to the state of the columbia is of a very alarming kind, and our first object is of course to ascertain the practicability of descending it, of which the indians discourage our expectations. it was therefore agreed that captain clarke should set off in the morning with eleven men, furnished, besides their arms, with tools for making canoes; that he should take chaboneau and his wife to the camp of the shoshonees, where he was to leave them, in order to hasten the collection of horses; that he was then to lead his men down to the columbia, and if he found it navigable, and the timber in sufficient quantity, begin to build canoes. as soon as he had decided as to the propriety of proceeding down the columbia or across the mountains, he was to send back one of the men with information of it to captain lewis, who by that time would have brought up the whole party, and the rest of the baggage as far as the shoshonee village. preparations were accordingly made this evening for such an arrangement. the sun is excessively hot in the day time, but the nights very cold, and rendered still more unpleasant from the want of any fuel except willow brush. the appearances too of game, for many days' subsistence, are not very favourable. sunday . in order to relieve the men of captain clarke's party from the heavy weight of their arms provisions and tools, we exposed a few articles to barter for horses, and soon obtained three very good ones, in exchange for which we gave a uniform coat, a pair of leggings, a few handkerchiefs, three knifes and some other small articles, the whole of which did not in the united states cost more than twenty dollars: a fourth was purchased by the men for an old checkered shirt, a pair of old leggings and a knife. the indians seemed to be quite as well pleased as ourselves at the bargains they had made. we now found that the two inferior chiefs were somewhat displeased at not having received a present equal to that given to the great chief, who appeared in a dress so much finer than their own. to allay their discontent, we bestowed on them two old coats, and promised them that if they were active in assisting us across the mountains they should have an additional present. this treatment completely reconciled them, and the whole indian party, except two men and two women, set out in perfect good humour to return home with captain clarke. after going fifteen miles through a wide level valley with no wood but willows and shrubs, he encamped in the shoshonee cove near a narrow pass where the highlands approach within two hundred yards of each other, and the river is only ten yards wide. the indians went on further, except the three chiefs and two young men, who assisted in eating two deer brought in by the hunters. after their departure every thing was prepared for the transportation of the baggage, which was now exposed to the air and dried. our game was one deer and a beaver, and we saw an abundance of trout in the river for which we fixed a net in the evening. we have now reached the extreme navigable point of the missouri, which our observation places in latitude ° ' " north. it is difficult to comprise in any general description the characteristics of a river so extensive, and fed by so many streams which have their sources in a great variety of soils and climates. but the missouri is still sufficiently powerful to give to all its waters something of a common character, which is of course decided by the nature of the country through which it passes. the bed of the river is chiefly composed of a blue mud from which the water itself derives a deep tinge. from its junction here to the place near which it leaves the mountains, its course is embarrassed by rapids and rocks which the hills on each side have thrown into its channel. from that place, its current, with the exception of the falls, is not difficult of navigation, nor is there much variation in its appearance till the mouth of the platte. that powerful river throws out vast quantities of coarse sand which contribute to give a new face to the missouri, which is now much more impeded by islands. the sand, as it is drifted down, adheres in time to some of the projecting points from the shore, and forms a barrier to the mud, which at length fills to the same height with the sandbar itself; as soon as it has acquired a consistency, the willow grows there the first year, and by its roots assists the solidity of the whole: as the mud and sand accumulate the cottonwood tree next appears; till the gradual excretion of soils raises the surface of the point above the highest freshets. thus stopped in its course the water seeks a passage elsewhere, and as the soil on each side is light and yielding, what was only a peninsula, becomes gradually an island, and the river indemnifies itself for the usurpation by encroaching on the adjacent shore. in this way the missouri like the mississippi is constantly cutting off the projections of the shore, and leaving its ancient channel, which is then marked by the mud it has deposited and a few stagnant ponds. the general appearance of the country as it presents itself on ascending may be thus described: from its mouth to the two charletons, a ridge of highlands borders the river at a small distance, leaving between them fine rich meadows. from the mouth of the two charletons the hills recede from the river, giving greater extent to the low grounds, but they again approach the river for a short distance near grand river, and again at snake creek. from that point they retire, nor do they come again to the neighbourhood of the river till above the sauk prairie, where they are comparatively low and small. thence they diverge and reappear at the charaton searty, after which they are scarcely if at all discernible, till they advance to the missouri nearly opposite to the kanzas. the same ridge of hills extends on the south side, in almost one unbroken chain, from the mouth of the missouri to the kanzas, though decreasing in height beyond the osage. as they are nearer the river than the hills on the opposite sides, the intermediate low grounds are of course narrower, but the general character of the soil is common to both sides. in the meadows and along the shore, the tree most common is the cottonwood, which with the willow forms almost the exclusive growth of the missouri. the hills or rather high grounds, for they do not rise higher than from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, are composed of a good rich black soil, which is perfectly susceptible of cultivation, though it becomes richer on the hills beyond the platte, and are in general thinly covered with timber. beyond these hills the country extends into high open plains, which are on both sides sufficiently fertile, but the south has the advantage of better streams of water, and may therefore be considered as preferable for settlements. the lands, however, become much better and the timber more abundant between the osage and the kanzas. from the kanzas to the nadawa the hills continue at nearly an equal distance, varying from four to eight miles from each other, except that from the little platte to nearly opposite the ancient kanzas village, the hills are more remote, and the meadows of course wider on the north side of the river. from the nadawa the northern hills disappear, except at occasional intervals, where they are seen at a distance, till they return about twenty-seven miles above the platte near the ancient village of the ayoways. on the south the hills continue close to the river from the ancient village of the kanzas up to council bluff, fifty miles beyond the platte; forming high prairie lands. on both sides the lands are good, and perhaps this distance from the osage to the platte may be recommended as among the best districts on the missouri for the purposes of settlers. from the ayoway village the northern hills again retire from the river, to which they do not return till three hundred and twenty miles above, at floyd's river. the hills on the south also leave the river at council bluffs, and reappear at the mahar village, two hundred miles up the missouri. the country thus abandoned by the hills is more open and the timber in smaller quantities than below the platte, so that although the plain is rich and covered with high grass, the want of wood renders it less calculated for cultivation than below that river. the northern hills after remaining near the missouri for a few miles at floyd's river, recede from it at the sioux river, the course of which they follow; and though they again visit the missouri at whitestone river, where they are low, yet they do not return to it till beyond james river. the highlands on the south, after continuing near the river at the mahar villages, again disappear, and do not approach it till the cobalt bluffs, about forty-four miles from the villages, and then from those bluffs to the yellowstone river, a distance of about one thousand miles, they follow the banks of the river with scarcely any deviation. from the james river, the lower grounds are confined within a narrow space by the hills on both sides, which now continue near each other up to the mountains. the space between them however varies from one to three miles as high as the muscleshell river, from which the hills approach so high as to leave scarcely any low grounds on the river, and near the falls reach the waters edge. beyond the falls the hills are scattered and low to the first range of mountains. the soil during the whole length of the missouri below the platte is generally speaking very fine, and although the timber is scarce, there is still sufficient for the purposes of settlers; but beyond that river, although the soil is still rich, yet the almost total absence of timber, and particularly the want of good water, of which there is but a small quantity in the creeks, and even that brackish, oppose powerful obstacles to its settlement. the difficulty becomes still greater between the muscleshell river and the falls, where besides the greater scarcity of timber, the country itself is less fertile. the elevation of these highlands varies as they pass through this extensive tract of country. from wood river they are about one hundred and fifty feet above the water, and continue at that height till they rise near the osage, from which place to the ancient fortification they again diminish in size. thence they continue higher till the mandan village, after which they are rather lower till the neighbourhood of muscleshell river, where they are met by the northern hills, which have advanced at a more uniform height, varying from one hundred and fifty to two hundred or three hundred feet. from this place to the mountains the height of both is nearly the same, from three hundred to five hundred feet, and the low grounds so narrow that the traveller seems passing through a range of high country. from maria's river to the falls, the hills descend to the height of about two or three hundred feet. monday . the morning was cold, and the grass perfectly whitened by the frost. we were engaged in preparing packs and saddles to load the horses as soon as they should arrive. a beaver was caught in a trap, but we were disappointed in trying to catch trout in our net; we therefore made a seine of willow brush, and by hauling it procured a number of fine trout, and a species of mullet which we had not seen before: it is about sixteen inches long, the scales small; the nose long, obtusely pointed, and exceeding the under jaw; the mouth opens with folds at the sides; it has no teeth, and the tongue and palate is smooth. the colour of its back and sides is a bluish brown, while the belly is white: it has the faggot bones, whence we concluded it to be of the mullet species. it is by no means so well flavoured a fish as the trout, which are the same as those we first saw at the falls, larger than the speckled trout of the mountains in the atlantic states, and equally well flavoured. in the evening the hunters returned with two deer. captain clarke, in the meantime, proceeded through a wide level valley, in which the chief pointed out a spot where many of his tribe were killed in battle a year ago. the indians accompanied him during the day, and as they had nothing to eat, he was obliged to feed them from his own stores, the hunters not being able to kill any thing. just as he was entering the mountains, he met an indian with two mules and a spanish saddle, who was so polite as to offer one of them to him to ride over the hills. being on foot, captain clarke accepted his offer and gave him a waistcoat as a reward for his civility. he encamped for the night on a small stream, and the next morning, tuesday, august , he set out at six o'clock. in passing through a continuation of the hilly broken country, he met several parties of indians. on coming near the camp, which had been removed since we left them two miles higher up the river, cameahwait requested that the party should halt. this was complied with: a number of indians came out from the camp, and with great ceremony several pipes were smoked. this being over captain clarke was conducted to a large leathern lodge prepared for his party in the middle of the encampment, the indians having only shelters of willow bushes. a few dried berries, and one salmon, the only food the whole village could contribute, were then presented to him; after which he proceeded to repeat in council, what had been already told them, the purposes of his visit; urged them to take their horses over and assist in transporting our baggage, and expressed a wish to obtain a guide to examine the river. this was explained and enforced to the whole village by cameahwait, and an old man was pointed out who was said to know more of their geography to the north than any other person, and whom captain clarke engaged to accompany him. after explaining his views he distributed a few presents, the council was ended, and nearly half the village set out to hunt the antelope, but returned without success. captain clarke in the meantime made particular inquiries as to the situation of the country, and the possibility of soon reaching a navigable water. the chief began by drawing on the ground a delineation of the rivers, from which it appeared that his information was very limited. the river on which the camp is he divided into two branches just above us, which, as he indicated by the opening of the mountains, were in view: he next made it discharge itself into a larger river ten miles below, coming from the southwest: the joint stream continued one day's march to the northwest, and then inclined to the westward for two day's march farther. at that place he placed several heaps of sand on each side, which, as he explained them, represented, vast mountains of rock always covered with snow, in passing through which the river was so completely hemmed in by the high rocks, that there was no possibility of travelling along the shore; that the bed of the river was obstructed by sharp-pointed rocks, and such its rapidity, that as far as the eye could reach it presented a perfect column of foam. the mountains he said were equally inaccessible, as neither man nor horse could cross them; that such being the state of the country neither he nor any of his nation had ever attempted to go beyond the mountains. cameahwait said also that he had been informed by the chopunnish, or pierced-nose indians, who reside on this river west of the mountains, that it ran a great way towards the setting sun, and at length lost itself in a great lake of water which was ill-tasted, and where the white men lived. an indian belonging to a band of shoshonees who live to the southwest, and who happened to be at camp, was then brought in, and inquiries made of him as to the situation of the country in that direction: this he described in terms scarcely less terrible than those in which cameahwait had represented the west. he said that his relations lived at the distance of twenty days' march from this place, on a course a little to the west of south and not far from the whites, with whom they traded for horses, mules, cloth, metal, beads, and the shells here worn as ornaments, and which are those of a species of pearl oyster. in order to reach his country we should be obliged during the first seven days to climb over steep rocky mountains where there was no game, and we should find nothing but roots for subsistence. even for these however we should be obliged to contend with a fierce warlike people, whom he called the broken-moccasin, or moccasin with holes, who lived like bears in holes, and fed on roots and the flesh of such horses as they could steal or plunder from those who passed through the mountains. so rough indeed was the passage, that the feet of the horses would be wounded in such a manner that many of them would be unable to proceed. the next part of the route was for ten days through a dry parched desert of sand, inhabited by no animal which would supply us with subsistence, and as the sun had now scorched up the grass and dried up the small pools of water which are sometimes scattered through this desert in the spring, both ourselves and our horses would perish for want of food and water. about the middle of this plain a large river passes from southeast to northwest, which, though navigable, afforded neither timber nor salmon. three or four days' march beyond this plain his relations lived, in a country tolerably fertile and partially covered with timber, on another large river running in the same direction as the former; that this last discharges itself into a third large river, on which resided many numerous nations, with whom his own were at war, but whether this last emptied itself into the great or stinking lake, as they called the ocean, he did not know: that from his country to the stinking lake was a great distance, and that the route to it, taken by such of his relations as had visited it, was up the river on which they lived, and over to that on which the white people lived, and which they knew discharged itself into the ocean. this route he advised us to take, but added, that we had better defer the journey till spring, when he would himself conduct us. this account persuaded us that the streams of which he spoke were southern branches of the columbia, heading with the rio des apostolos, and rio colorado, and that the route which he mentioned was to the gulf of california: captain clarke therefore told him that this road was too much towards the south for our purpose, and then requested to know if there was no route on the left of the river where we now are, by which we might intercept it below the mountains; but he knew of none except that through the barren plains, which he said joined the mountains on that side, and through which it was impossible to pass at this season, even if we were fortunate enough to escape the broken-moccasin indians. captain clarke recompensed the indian by a present of a knife, with which he seemed much gratified, and now inquired of cameahwait by what route the pierced-nose indians, who he said lived west of the mountains, crossed over to the missouri: this he said was towards the north, but that the road was a very bad one; that during the passage he had been told they suffered excessively from hunger, being obliged to subsist for many days on berries alone, there being no game in that part of the mountains, which were broken and rocky, and so thickly covered with timber that they could scarcely pass. surrounded by difficulties as all the other routes are, this seems to be the most practicable of all the passages by land, since, if the indians can pass the mountains with their women and children, no difficulties which they could encounter could be formidable to us; and if the indians below the mountains are so numerous as they are represented to be, they must have some means of subsistence equally within our power. they tell us indeed that the nations to the westward subsist principally on fish and roots, and that their only game were a few elk, deer, and antelope, there being no buffaloe west of the mountain. the first inquiry however was to ascertain the truth of their information relative to the difficulty of descending the river: for this purpose captain clarke set out at three o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by the guide and all his men, except one whom he left with orders to purchase a horse and join him as soon as possible. at the distance of four miles he crossed the river, and eight miles from the camp halted for the night at a small stream. the road which he followed was a beaten path through a wide rich meadow, in which were several old lodges. on the route he met a number of men, women, and children, as well as horses, and one of the men who appeared to possess some consideration turned back with him, and observing a woman with three salmon obtained them from her, and presented them to the party. captain clarke shot a mountain cock or cock of the plains, a dark brown bird larger than the dunghill fowl, with a long and pointed tail, and a fleshy protuberance about the base of the upper chop, something like that of the turkey, though without the snout. in the morning, wednesday , he resumed his march early, and at the distance of five miles reached an indian lodge of brush, inhabited by seven families of shoshonees. they behaved with great civility, gave the whole party as much boiled salmon as they could eat, and added as a present several dried salmon and a considerable quantity of chokecherries. after smoking with them all he visited the fish weir, which was about two hundred yards distant; the river was here divided by three small islands, which occasioned the water to pass along four channels. of these three were narrow, and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near each other to prevent the passage of the fish. about the centre of each was placed a basket formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir. the main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other that they could not move, and were taken out by untying the small end of the willow basket. the weir in the main channel was formed in a manner somewhat different; there were in fact two distinct weirs formed of poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other obliquely with an aperture in each side near the angle. this is made by tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream. to these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally, with willow bark and wythes, and willow sticks joined in with these crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. this is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them to give any direction which they wish to the water. these two weirs being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, is provided with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are placed at the apertures of the weir. after examining these curious objects, he returned to the lodges, and soon passed the river to the left, where an indian brought him a tomahawk which he said he had found in the grass, near the lodge where captain lewis had staid on his first visit to the village. this was a tomahawk which had been missed at the time, and supposed to be stolen; it was however the only article which had been lost in our intercourse with the nation, and as even that was returned the inference is highly honourable to the integrity of the shoshonees. on leaving the lodges captain clarke crossed to the left side of the river, and despatched five men to the forks of it, in search of the man left behind yesterday, who procured a horse and passed by another road as they learnt, to the forks. at the distance of fourteen miles they killed a very large salmon, two and a half feet long, in a creek six miles below the forks: and after travelling about twenty miles through the valley, following the course of the river, which runs nearly northwest, halted in a small meadow on the right side, under a cliff of rocks. here they were joined by the five men who had gone in quest of crusatte. they had been to the forks of the river, where the natives resort in great numbers for the purpose of gigging fish, of which they made our men a present of five fresh salmon. in addition to this food, one deer was killed to-day. the western branch of this river is much larger than the eastern, and after we passed the junction we found the river about one hundred yards in width, rapid and shoaly, but containing only a small quantity of timber. as captain lewis was the first white man who visited its waters, captain clarke gave it the name of lewis's river. the low grounds through which he had passed to-day were rich and wide, but at his camp this evening the hills begin to assume a formidable aspect. the cliff under which he lay is of a reddish brown colour, the rocks which have fallen from it are a dark brown flintstone. near the place are gullies of white sandstone, and quantities of a fine sand, of a snowy whiteness: the mountains on each side are high and rugged, with some pine trees scattered over them. thursday . he soon began to perceive that the indian accounts had not exaggerated: at the distance of a mile he passed a small creek, and the points of four mountains, which were rocky, and so high that it seemed almost impossible to cross them with horses. the road lay over the sharp fragments of rocks which had fallen from the mountains, and were strewed in heaps for miles together, yet the horses altogether unshod, travelled across them as fast as the men, and without detaining them a moment. they passed two bold-running streams, and reached the entrance of a small river, where a few indian families resided. they had not been previously acquainted with the arrival of the whites, the guide was behind, and the wood so thick that we came upon them unobserved, till at a very short distance. as soon as they saw us, the women and children fled in great consternation; the men offered us every thing they had, the fish on the scaffolds, the dried berries and the collars of elk's tushes worn by the children. we took only a small quantity of the food, and gave them in return some small articles which conduced very much to pacify them. the guide now coming up, explained to them who we were, and the object of our visit, which seemed to relieve the fears, but still a number of the women and children did not recover from their fright, but cryed during our stay, which lasted about an hour. the guide, whom we found a very intelligent friendly old man, informed us that up this river there was a road which led over the mountains to the missouri. on resuming his route, he went along the steep side of a mountain about three miles, and then reached the river near a small island, at the lower part of which he encamped; he here attempted to gig some fish, but could only obtain one small salmon. the river is here shoal and rapid, with many rocks scattered in various directions through its bed. on the sides of the mountains are some scattered pines, and of those on the left the tops are covered with them; there are however but few in the low grounds through which they passed, indeed they have seen only a single tree fit to make a canoe, and even that was small. the country has an abundant growth of berries, and we met several women and children gathering them who bestowed them upon us with great liberality. among the woods captain clarke observed a species of woodpecker, the beak and tail of which were white, the wings black, and every other part of the body of a dark brown; its size was that of the robin, and it fed on the seeds of the pine. friday . captain clarke set off very early, but as his route lay along the steep side of a mountain, over irregular and broken masses of rocks, which wounded the horses' feet, he was obliged to proceed slowly. at the distance of four miles he reached the river, but the rocks here became so steep, and projected so far into the river, that there was no mode of passing, except through the water. this he did for some distance, though the river was very rapid, and so deep that they were forced to swim their horses. after following the edge of the water for about a mile under this steep cliff, he reached a small meadow, below which the whole current of the river beat against the right shore on which he was, and which was formed of a solid rock perfectly inaccessible to horses. here too, the little track which he had been pursuing terminated. he therefore resolved to leave the horses and the greater part of the men at this place, and examine the river still further, in order to determine if there were any possibility of descending it in canoes. having killed nothing except a single goose to-day, and the whole of our provision being consumed last evening, it was by no means advisable to remain any length of time where they were. he now directed the men to fish and hunt at this place till his return, and then with his guide and three men he proceeded, clambering over immense rocks, and along the side of lofty precipices which bordered the river, when at about twelve miles distance he reached a small meadow, the first he had seen on the river since he left his party. a little below this meadow, a large creek twelve yards wide, and of some depth, discharges itself from the north. here were some recent signs of an indian encampment, and the tracks of a number of horses, who must have come along a plain indian path, which he now saw following the course of the creek. this stream his guide said led towards a large river running to the north, and was frequented by another nation for the purpose of catching fish. he remained here two hours, and having taken some small fish, made a dinner on them with the addition of a few berries. from the place where he had left the party, to the mouth of this creek, it presents one continued rapid, in which are five shoals, neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes; and the baggage must therefore be transported for a considerable distance over the steep mountains, where it would be impossible to employ horses for the relief of the men. even the empty canoes must be let down the rapids by means of cords, and not even in that way without great risk both to the canoes as well as to the men. at one of these shoals, indeed the rocks rise so perpendicularly from the water as to leave no hope of a passage or even a portage without great labour in removing rocks, and in some instances cutting away the earth. to surmount these difficulties would exhaust the strength of the party, and what is equally discouraging would waste our time and consume our provisions, of neither of which have we much to spare. the season is now far advanced, and the indians tell us we shall shortly have snow: the salmon too have so far declined that the natives themselves are hastening from the country, and not an animal of any kind larger than a pheasant or a squirrel, and of even these a few only will then be seen in this part of the mountains: after which we shall be obliged to rely on our own stock of provisions, which will not support us more than ten days. these circumstances combine to render a passage by water impracticable in our present situation. to descend the course of the river on horseback is the other alternative, and scarcely a more inviting one. the river is so deep that there are only a few places where it can be forded, and the rocks approach so near the water as to render it impossible to make a route along the waters' edge. in crossing the mountains themselves we should have to encounter, besides their steepness, one barren surface of broken masses of rock, down which in certain seasons the torrents sweep vast quantities of stone into the river. these rocks are of a whitish brown, and towards the base of a gray colour, and so hard, that on striking them with steel, they yield a fire like flint. this sombre appearance is in some places scarcely relieved by a single tree, though near the river and on the creeks there is more timber, among which are some tall pine: several of these might be made into canoes, and by lashing two of them together, one of tolerable size might be formed. after dinner he continued his route, and at the distance of half a mile passed another creek about five yards wide. here his guide informed him that by ascending the creek for some distance he would have a better road, and cut off a considerable bend of the river towards the south. he therefore pursued a well-beaten indian track up this creek for about six miles, when leaving the creek to the right he passed over a ridge, and after walking a mile again met the river, where it flows through a meadow of about eighty acres in extent. this they passed and then ascended a high and steep point of a mountain, from which the guide now pointed out where the river broke through the mountains about twenty miles distant. near the base of the mountains a small river falls in from the south: this view was terminated by one of the loftiest mountains captain clarke had ever seen, which was perfectly covered with snow. towards this formidable barrier the river went directly on, and there it was, as the guide observed, that the difficulties and dangers of which he and cameahwait had spoken commenced. after reaching the mountain, he said, the river continues its course towards the north for many miles, between high perpendicular rocks, which were scattered through its bed: it then penetrated the mountain through a narrow gap, on each side of which arose perpendicularly a rock as high as the top of the mountain before them; that the river then made a bend which concealed its future course from view, and as it was alike impossible to descend the river or clamber over that vast mountain, eternally covered with snow, neither he nor any of his nation had ever been lower than at a place where they could see the gap made by the river on entering the mountain. to that place he said he would conduct captain clarke if he desired it by the next evening. but he was in need of no further evidence to convince him of the utter impracticability of the route before him. he had already witnessed the difficulties of part of the road, yet after all these dangers his guide, whose intelligence and fidelity he could not doubt, now assured him that the difficulties were only commencing, and what he saw before him too clearly convinced him of the indian's veracity. he therefore determined to abandon this route, and returned to the upper part of the last creek we had passed, and reaching it an hour after dark encamped for the night: on this creek he had seen in the morning an indian road coming in from the north. disappointed in finding a route by water, captain clarke now questioned his guide more particularly as to the direction of this road which he seemed to understand perfectly. he drew a map on the sand, and represented this road as well as that we passed yesterday on berry creek as both leading towards two forks of the same great river, where resided a nation called tushepaws, who having no salmon on their river, came by these roads to the fish weirs on lewis's river. he had himself been among these tushepaws, and having once accompanied them on a fishing party to another river he had there seen indians who had come across the rocky mountains. after a great deal of conversation, or rather signs, and a second and more particular map from his guide, captain clarke felt persuaded that his guide knew of a road from the shoshonee village they had left, to the great river to the north, without coming so low down as this on a route impracticable for horses. he was desirous of hastening his return, and therefore set out early, saturday , and after descending the creek to the river, stopped to breakfast on berries in the meadow above the second creek. he then went on, but unfortunately fell from a rock and injured his leg very much; he however walked on as rapidly as he could, and at four in the afternoon rejoined his men. during his absence they had killed one of the mountain cocks, a few pheasants, and some small fish, on which with haws and serviceberries they had subsisted. captain clarke immediately sent forward a man on horseback with a note to captain lewis, apprising him of the result of his inquiries, and late in the afternoon set out with the rest of the party and encamped at the distance of two miles. the men were much disheartened at the bad prospect of escaping from the mountains, and having nothing to eat but a few berries which have made several of them sick, they all passed a disagreeable night, which was rendered more uncomfortable by a heavy dew. sunday . the want of provisions urged captain clarke to return as soon as possible; he therefore set out early, and halted an hour in passing the indian camp near the fish weirs. these people treated them with great kindness, and though poor and dirty they willingly give what little they possess; they gave the whole party boiled salmon and dried berries, which were not however in sufficient quantities to appease their hunger. they soon resumed their old road, but as the abstinence or strange diet had given one of the men a very severe illness, they were detained very much on his account, and it was not till late in the day they reached the cliff under which they had encamped on the twenty-first. they immediately began to fish and hunt, in order to procure a meal. we caught several small fish, and by means of our guide, obtained two salmon from a small party of women and children, who, with one man, were going below to gather berries. this supplied us with about half a meal, but after dark we were regaled with a beaver which one of the hunters brought in. the other game seen in the course of the day were one deer, and a party of elk among the pines on the sides of the mountains. monday . the morning was fine, and three men were despatched ahead to hunt, while the rest were detained until nine o'clock, in order to retake some horses which had strayed away during the night. they then proceeded along the route by the forks of the river, till they reached the lower indian camp where they first were when we met them. the whole camp immediately flocked around him with great appearance of cordiality, but all the spare food of the village did not amount to more than two salmon, which they gave to captain clarke, who distributed them among his men. the hunters had not been able to kill any thing, nor had captain clarke or the greater part of the men any food during the twenty-four hours, till towards evening one of them shot a salmon in the river, and a few small fish were caught, which furnished them with a scanty meal. the only animals they had seen were a few pigeons, some very wild hares, a great number of the large black grasshopper, and a quantify of ground lizards. tuesday . the men, who were engaged last night in mending their moccasins, all except one, went out hunting, but no game was to be procured. one of the men however killed a small salmon, and the indians made a present of another, on which the whole party made a very slight breakfast. these indians, to whom this life is familiar, seem contented, although they depend for subsistence on the scanty productions of the fishery. but our men who are used to hardships, but have been accustomed to have the first wants of nature regularly supplied, feel very sensibly their wretched situation; their strength is wasting away; they begin to express their apprehensions of being without food in a country perfectly destitute of any means of supporting life, except a few fish. in the course of the day an indian brought into the camp five salmon, two of which captain clarke bought, and made a supper for the party. wednesday . there was a frost again this morning. the indians gave the party two salmon out of several which they caught in their traps, and having purchased two more, the party was enabled to subsist on them during the day. a camp of about forty indians from the west fork passed us to-day, on their route to the eastward. our prospect of provisions is getting worse every day: the hunters who had ranged through the country in every direction where game might be reasonably expected, have seen nothing. the fishery is scarcely more productive, for an indian who was out all day with his gig killed only one salmon. besides the four fish procured from the indians, captain clarke obtained some fishroe in exchange for three small fish-hooks, the use of which he taught them, and which they very readily comprehended. all the men who are not engaged in hunting, are occupied in making pack-saddles for the horses which captain lewis informed us he had bought. august . two hunters were despatched early in the morning, but they returned without killing any thing, and the only game we procured was a beaver, who was caught last night in a trap which he carried off two miles before he was found. the fur of this animal is as good as any we have ever seen, nor does it in fact appear to be ever out of season on the upper branches of the missouri. this beaver, with several dozen of fine trout, gave us a plentiful subsistence for the day. the party were occupied chiefly in making pack-saddles, in the manufacture of which we supply the place of nails and boards, by substituting for the first thongs of raw hide, which answer very well; and for boards we use the handles of our oars, and the plank of some boxes, the contents of which we empty into sacks of raw hides made for the purpose. the indians who visit us behave with the greatest decorum, and the women are busily engaged in making and mending the moccasins of the party. as we had still some superfluous baggage which would be too heavy to carry across the mountains, it became necessary to make a cache or deposit. for this purpose we selected a spot on the bank of the river, three quarters of a mile below the camp, and three men were set to dig it, with a sentinel in the neighbourhood, who was ordered if the natives were to straggle that way, to fire a signal for the workmen to desist and separate. towards evening the cache was completed without being perceived by the indians, and the packages prepared for deposit. chapter xvi. contest between drewyer and a shoshonee--the fidelity and honour of that tribe--the party set out on their journey--the conduct of cameahwait reproved, and himself reconciled--the easy parturition of the shoshonee women--history of this nation--their terror of the pawkees--their government and family economy in their treatment of their women--their complaints of spanish treachery--description of their weapons of warfare--their curious mode of making a shield--the caparison of their horses--the dress of the men and of the women particularly described--their mode of acquiring new names. wednesday, august . the weather was very cold; the water which stood in the vessels exposed to the air being covered with ice a quarter of an inch thick: the ink freezes in the pen, and the low grounds are perfectly whitened with frost: after this the day proved excessively warm. the party were engaged in their usual occupations, and completed twenty saddles with the necessary harness, all prepared to set off as soon as the indians should arrive. our two hunters who were despatched early in the morning have not returned, so that we were obliged to encroach on our pork and corn, which we consider as the last resource when our casual supplies of game fail. after dark we carried our baggage to the cache, and deposited what we thought too cumbrous to carry with us: a small assortment of medicines, and all the specimens of plants, seeds, and minerals, collected since leaving the falls of the missouri. late at night drewyer, one of the hunters, returned with a fawn and a considerable quantity of indian plunder, which he had taken by way of reprisal. while hunting this morning in the shoshonee cove, he came suddenly upon an indian camp, at which were an old man, a young one, three women, and a boy: they showed no surprise at the sight of him and he therefore rode up to them, and after turning his horse loose to graze sat down and began to converse with them by signs. they had just finished a repast on some roots, and in about twenty minutes one of the women spoke to the rest of the party, who immediately went out, collected their horses and began to saddle them. having rested himself, drewyer thought that he would continue his hunt, and rising went to catch his horse who was at a short distance, forgetting at the moment to take up his rifle. he had scarcely gone more than fifty paces when the indians mounted their horses, the young man snatched up the rifle, and leaving all their baggage, whipt their horses, and set off at full speed towards the passes of the mountains: drewyer instantly jumped on his horse and pursued them. after running about ten miles the horses of the women nearly gave out, and the women finding drewyer gain on them raised dreadful cries, which induced the young man to slacken his pace, and being mounted on a very fleet horse rode round them at a short distance. drewyer now came up with the women, and by signs persuaded them that he did not mean to hurt them: they then stopped, and as the young man came towards them drewyer asked him for his rifle, but the only part of the answer which he understood was pahkee, the name by which they call their enemies, the minnetarees of fort de prairie. while they were thus engaged in talking, drewyer watched his opportunity, and seeing the indian off his guard, galloped up to him and seized his rifle: the indian struggled for some time, but finding drewyer getting too strong for him, had the presence of mind to open the pan and let the priming fall out; he then let go his hold, and giving his horse the whip escaped at full speed, leaving the women to the mercy of the conqueror. drewyer then returned to where he had first seen them, where he found that their baggage had been left behind, and brought it to camp with him. thursday, . this morning early two men were sent to complete the covering of the cache, which could not be so perfectly done during the night as to elude the search of the indians. on examining the spoils which drewyer had obtained, they were found to consist of several dressed and undressed skins; two bags wove with the bark of the silk grass, each containing a bushel of dried serviceberries, and about the same quantity of roots; an instrument made of bone for manufacturing the flints into heads for arrows; and a number of flints themselves: these were much of the same colour and nearly as transparent as common black glass, and when cut detached itself into flakes, leaving a very sharp edge. the roots were of three kinds, and folded separate from each in hides of buffaloe made into parchment. the first is a fusiform root six inches long, and about the size of a man's finger at the largest end, with radicles larger than is usual in roots of the fusiform sort: the rind is white and thin, the body is also white, mealy, and easily reducible, by pounding, to a substance resembling flour, like which it thickens by boiling, and is of an agreeable flavour: it is eaten frequently in its raw state either green or dried. the second species was much mutilated, but appeared to be fibrous; it is of a cylindrical form about the size of a small quill, hard and brittle. a part of the rind which had not been detached in the preparation was hard and black, but the rest of the root was perfectly white; this the indiana informed us was always boiled before eating; and on making the experiment we found that it became perfectly soft, but had a bitter taste, which was nauseous to our taste, but which the indians seemed to relish; for on giving the roots to them they were very heartily swallowed. the third species was a small nut about the size of a nutmeg, of an irregularly rounded form, something like the smallest of the jerusalem artichokes, which, on boiling, we found them to resemble also in flavour, and is certainly the best root we have seen in use among the indians. on inquiring of the indians from what plant these roots were procured, they informed us that none of them grew near this place. the men were chiefly employed in dressing the skins belonging to the party who accompanied captain clarke. about eleven o'clock chaboneau and his wife returned with cameahwait, accompanied by about fifty men with their women and children. after they had encamped near us and turned loose their horses, we called a council of all the chiefs and warriors and addressed them in a speech; additional presents were then distributed, particularly to the two second chiefs, who had agreeably to their promises exerted themselves in our favour. the council was then adjourned, and all the indians were treated with an abundant meal of boiled indian corn and beans. the poor wretches, who had no animal food and scarcely any thing but a few fish, had been almost starved, and received this new luxury with great thankfulness. out of compliment to the chief we gave him a few dried squashes which we had brought from the mandans, and he declared it was the best food he had ever tasted except sugar, a small lump of which he had received from his sister: he now declared how happy they should all be to live in a country which produced so many good things, and we told him that it would not be long before the white men would put it in their power to live below the mountains, where they might themselves cultivate all these kinds of food instead of wandering in the mountains. he appeared to be much pleased with this information, and the whole party being now in excellent temper after their repast, we began our purchase of horses. we soon obtained five very good ones on very reasonable terms; that is, by giving for each merchandise which cost us originally about six dollars. we have again to admire the perfect decency and propriety of their conduct; for although so numerous, they do not attempt to crowd round our camp or take any thing which they see lying about, and whenever they borrow knives or kettles or any other article from the men, they return them with great fidelity. towards evening we formed a drag of bushes, and in about two hours caught five hundred and twenty-eight very good fish most of them large trout. among them we observed for the first time ten or twelve trout of a white or silvery colour, except on the back and head where they are of a bluish cast: in appearance and shape they resemble exactly the speckled trout, except that they are not quite so large, though the scales are much larger, and the flavour equally good. the greater part of the fish was distributed among the indians. friday . our visitors seem to depend wholly on us for food, and as the state of our provisions obliges us to be careful of our remaining stock of corn and flour, this was an additional reason for urging our departure; but cameahwait requested us to wait till the arrival of another party of his nation who were expected to-day. knowing that it would be in vain to oppose his wish, we consented, and two hunters were sent out with orders to go further up the southeast fork than they had hitherto been. at the same time the chief was informed of the low state of our provisions, and advised to send out his young men to hunt. this he recommended them to do, and most of them set out: we then sunk our canoes by means of stones to the bottom of the river, a situation which better than any other secured them against the effects of the high waters, and the frequent fires of the plains; the indians having promised not to disturb them during our absence, a promise we believe the more readily, as they are almost too lazy to take the trouble of raising them for fire-wood. we were desirous of purchasing some more horses, but they declined selling any until we reached their camp in the mountains. soon after starting the indian hunters discovered a mule buck, and twelve of their horsemen pursued it, for four miles. we saw the chase, which was very entertaining, and at length they rode it down and killed it. this mule buck was the largest deer of any kind we have seen, being nearly as large as a doe elk. besides this they brought in another deer and three goats; but instead of a general distribution of the meat, and such as we have hitherto seen among all tribes of indians, we observed that some families had a large share, while others received none. on inquiring of cameahwait the reason of this custom, he said that meat among them was scarce; that each hunter reserved what he killed for the use of himself and his own family, none of the rest having any claim on what he chose to keep. our hunters returned soon after with two mule deer and three common deer, three of which we distributed among the families who had received none of the game of their own hunters. about three o'clock the expected party consisting of fifty men, women and children arrived. we now learnt that most of the indians were on their way down the valley towards the buffaloe country, and some anxiety to accompany them appeared to prevail among those who had promised to assist us in crossing the mountains. we ourselves were not without some apprehension that they might leave us, but as they continued to say that they would return with us nothing was said upon the subject. we were, however, resolved to move early in the morning; and therefore despatched two men to hunt in the cove and leave the game on the route we should pass to-morrow. saturday . as the indians who arrived yesterday had a number of spare horses, we thought it probable they might be willing to dispose of them, and desired the chief to speak to them for that purpose. they declined giving any positive answer, but requested to see the goods which we proposed to exchange. we then produced some battle-axes which we had made at fort mandan, and a quantity of knives; with both of which they appeared very much pleased; and we were soon able to purchase three horses by giving for each an axe, a knife, a hankerchief and a little paint. to this we were obliged to add a second knife, a shirt, a handkerchief and a pair of leggings; and such is the estimation in which those animals are held, that even at this price, which was double that for a horse, the fellow who sold him took upon himself great merit in having given away a mule to us. they now said that they had no more horses for sale, and as we had now nine of our own, two hired horses, and a mule, we began loading them as heavily as was prudent, and placing the rest on the shoulders of the indian women, left our camp at twelve o'clock. we were all on foot, except sacajawea, for whom her husband had purchased a horse with some articles which we gave him for that purpose; an indian however had the politeness to offer captain lewis one of his horses to ride, which he accepted in order better to direct the march of the party. we crossed the river below the forks, directing our course towards the cove by the route already passed, and had just reached the lower part of the cove when an indian rode up to captain lewis to inform him that one of his men was very sick, and unable to come on. the party was immediately halted at a run which falls into the creek on the left, and captain lewis rode back two miles, and found wiser severely afflicted with the colic: by giving him some of the essence of peppermint and laudanum, he recovered sufficiently to ride the horse of captain lewis, who then rejoined the party on foot. when he arrived he found that the indians who had been impatiently expecting his return, at last unloaded their horses and turned them loose, and had now made their camp for the night. it would have been fruitless to remonstrate, and not prudent to excite any irritation, and therefore, although the sun was still high, and we had made only six miles, we thought it best to remain with them: after we had encamped there fell a slight shower of rain. one of the men caught several fine trout; but drewyer had been sent out to hunt without having killed any thing. we therefore gave a little corn to those of the indians who were actually engaged in carrying our baggage, and who had absolutely nothing to eat. we also advised cameahwait, as we could not supply all his people with provisions, to recommend to all who were not assisting us, to go on before us to their camp. this he did: but in the morning, sunday , a few only followed his advice, the rest accompanying us at some distance on each side. we set out at sunrise and after going seventeen miles halted for dinner within two miles of the narrow pass in the mountains. the indians who were on the sides of our party had started some antelopes, but were obliged after a pursuit of several hours to abandon the chase: our hunters had in the meantime brought in three deer, the greater part of which was distributed among the indians. whilst at dinner we learnt by means of sacajawea, that the young men who left us this morning, carried a request from the chief, that the village would break up its encampment and meet this party to-morrow, when they would all go down the missouri into the buffaloe country. alarmed at this new caprice of the indians which, if not counteracted, threatened to leave ourselves and our baggage on the mountains, or even if we reached the waters of the columbia, prevent our obtaining horses to go on further, captain lewis immediately called the three chiefs together. after smoking a pipe he asked them if they were men of their words, and if we can rely on their promises. they readily answered in the affirmative. he then asked, if they had not agreed to assist us in carrying our baggage over the mountains. to this they also answered yes; and why then, said he, have you requested your people to meet us to-morrow, where it will be impossible for us to trade for horses, as you promised we should. if, he continued, you had not promised to help us in transporting our goods over the mountains, we should not have attempted it, but have returned down the river, after which no white men would ever have come into your country. if you wish the whites to be your friends, and to bring you arms and protect you from your enemies, you should never promise what you do not mean to perform: when i first met you, you doubted what i said, yet you afterwards saw that i told you the truth. how therefore can you doubt what i now tell you; you see that i have divided amongst you the meat which my hunters kill, and i promise to give all who assist us a share of whatever we have to eat. if therefore you intend to keep your promise, send one of the young men immediately to order the people to remain at the village till we arrive. the two inferior chiefs then said, that they had wished to keep their words and to assist us; that they had not sent for the people, but on the contrary had disapproved of the measure which was done wholly by the first chief. cameahwait remained silent for some time: at last he said that he knew he had done wrong, but that seeing his people all in want of provisions, he had wished to hasten their departure for the country where their wants might be supplied. he however now declared, that having passed his word he would never violate it, and counter orders were immediately sent to the village by a young man, to whom we gave a handkerchief in order to ensure despatch and fidelity. this difficulty being now adjusted, our march was resumed with an unusual degree of alacrity on the part of the indians. we passed a spot, where six years ago the shoshonees* suffered a very severe defeat from the minnetarees; and late in the evening we reached the upper part of the cove where the creek enters the mountains. the part of the cove on the northeast side of the creek has lately been burnt, most probably as a signal on some occasion. here we were joined by our hunters with a single deer, which captain lewis gave, as a proof of his sincerity, to the women and children, and remained supperless himself. as we came along we observed several large hares, some ducks, and many of the cock of the plains: in the low grounds of the cove were also considerable quantities of wild onions. monday . the morning was excessively cold, and the ice in our vessels was nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness: we set out at sunrise, and soon reached the fountain of the missouri, where we halted for a few minutes, and then crossing the dividing ridge reached the fine spring where captain lewis had slept on the th in his first excursion to the shoshonee camp. the grass on the hill sides is perfectly dry and parched by the sun, but near the spring was a fine green grass: we therefore halted for dinner and turned our horses to graze. to each of the indians who were engaged in carrying our baggage was distributed a pint of corn, which they parched, then pounded, and made a sort of soup. one of the women who had been leading two of our pack horses halted at a rivulet about a mile behind, and sent on the two horses by a female friend: on inquiring of cameahwait the cause of her detention, he answered with great appearance of unconcern, that she had just stopped to lie in, but would soon overtake us. in fact we were astonished to see her in about an hour's time come on with her new born infant and pass us on her way to the camp, apparently in perfect health. this wonderful facility with which the indian women bring forth their children, seems rather some benevolent gift of nature, in exempting them from pains which their savage state would render doubly grievous, than any result of habit. if as has been imagined, a pure dry air or a cold and elevated country are obstacles to easy delivery, every difficulty incident to that operation might be expected in this part of the continent; nor can another reason, the habit of carrying heavy burthens during pregnancy, be at all applicable to the shoshonee women, who rarely carry any burdens, since their nation possesses an abundance of horses. we have indeed been several times informed by those conversant with indian manners, and who asserted their knowledge of the fact, that indian women pregnant by white men experience more difficulty in child-birth than when the father is an indian. if this account be true, it may contribute to strengthen the belief, that the easy delivery of the indian women is wholly constitutional. the tops of the high irregular mountains to the westward are still entirely covered with snow; and the coolness which the air acquires in passing them, is a very agreeable relief from the heat, which has dried up the herbage on the sides of the hills. while we stopped, the women were busily employed in collecting the root of a plant with which they feed their children, who like their mothers are nearly half starved and in a wretched condition. it is a species of fennel which grows in the moist grounds; the radix is of the knob kind, of a long ovate form, terminating in a single radicle, the whole being three or four inches long, and the thickest part about the size of a man's little finger: when fresh, it is white, firm, and crisp; and when dried and pounded makes a fine white meal. its flavour is not unlike that of aniseed, though less pungent. from one to four of these knobbed roots are attached to a single stem which rises to the height of three or four feet, and is jointed, smooth, cylindric, and has several small peduncles, one at each joint above the sheathing leaf. its colour is a deep green, as is also that of the leaf, which is sheathing, sessile, and _polipartite_, the divisions being long and narrow. the flowers, which are now in bloom, are small and numerous, with white and umbellifferous petals: there are no root leaves. as soon as the seeds have matured, the roots of the present year as well as the stem decline, and are renewed in the succeeding spring from the little knot which unites the roots. the sunflower is also abundant here, and the seeds, which are now ripe, are gathered in considerable quantities, and after being pounded and rubbed between smooth stones, form a kind of meal, which is a favourite dish among the indians. after dinner we continued our route and were soon met by a party of young men on horseback, who turned with us and went to the village. as soon as we were within sight of it, cameahwait requested that we would discharge our guns; the men were therefore drawn up in a single rank, and gave a running fire of two rounds, to the great satisfaction of the indians. we then proceeded to the encampment where we arrived about six o'clock, and were conducted to the leathern lodge in the centre of thirty-two others made of brush. the baggage was arranged near this tent, which captain lewis occupied, and surrounded by those of the men so as to secure it from pillage. this camp was in a beautiful smooth meadow near the river, and about three miles above their camp when we first visited the indians. we here found colter, who had been sent by captain clarke with a note apprising us that there were no hopes of a passage by water, and that the most practicable route seemed to be that mentioned by his guide, towards the north. whatever road we meant to take, it was now necessary to provide ourselves with horses; we therefore informed cameahwait of our intention of going to the great river beyond the mountains, and that we would wish to purchase twenty more horses: he said the minnetarees had stolen a great number of their horses this spring, but he still hoped they could spare us that number. in order not to loose the present favourable moment, and to keep the indians as cheerful as possible, the violins were brought out and our men danced to the great diversion of the indians. this mirth was the more welcome because our situation was not precisely that which would most dispose us for gayety, for we have only a little parched corn to eat, and our means of subsistence or of success, depend on the wavering temper of the natives, who may change their minds to-morrow. the shoshonees are a small tribe of the nation called snake indians, a vague denomination, which embraces at once the inhabitants of the southern parts of the rocky mountains and of the plains on each side. the shoshonees with whom we now are, amount to about one hundred warriors, and three times that number of women and children. within their own recollection they formerly lived in the plains, but they have been driven into the mountains by the pawkees, or the roving indians of the sascatchawain, and are now obliged to visit occasionally, and by stealth, the country of their ancestors. their lives are indeed migratory. from the middle of may to the beginning of september, they reside on the waters of the columbia, where they consider themselves perfectly secure from the pawkees who have never yet found their way to that retreat. during this time they subsist chiefly on salmon, and as that fish disappears on the approach of autumn, they are obliged to seek subsistence elsewhere. they then cross the ridge to the waters of the missouri, down which they proceed slowly and cautiously, till they are joined near the three forks by other bands, either of their own nation or of the flatheads, with whom they associate against the common enemy. being now strong in numbers, they venture to hunt buffaloe in the plains eastward of the mountains, near which they spend the winter, till the return of the salmon invites them to the columbia. but such is their terror of the pawkees, that as long as they can obtain the scantiest subsistence, they do not leave the interior of the mountains; and as soon as they collect a large stock of dried meat, they again retreat, and thus alternately obtaining their food at the hazard of their lives, and hiding themselves to consume it. in this loose and wandering existence they suffer the extremes of want; for two thirds of the year they are forced to live in the mountains, passing whole weeks without meat, and with nothing to eat but a few fish and roots. nor can any thing be imagined more wretched than their condition at the present time, when the salmon is fast retiring, when roots are becoming scarce, and they have not yet acquired strength to hazard an encounter with their enemies. so insensible are they however to these calamities, that the shoshonees are not only cheerful but even gay; and their character, which is more interesting than that of any indians we have seen, has in it much of the dignity of misfortune. in their intercourse with strangers they are frank and communicative, in their dealings perfectly fair, nor have we had during our stay with them, any reason to suspect that the display of all our new and valuable wealth, has tempted them into a single act of dishonesty. while they have generally shared with us the little they possess, they have always abstained from begging any thing from us. with their liveliness of temper, they are fond of gaudy dresses, and of all sorts of amusements, particularly to games of hazard; and like most indians fond of boasting of their own warlike exploits, whether real or fictitious. in their conduct towards ourselves, they were kind and obliging, and though on one occasion they seemed willing to neglect us, yet we scarcely knew how to blame the treatment by which we suffered, when we recollected how few civilized chiefs would have hazarded the comforts or the subsistence of their people for the sake of a few strangers. this manliness of character may cause or it may be formed by the nature of their government, which is perfectly free from any restraint. each individual is his own master, and the only control to which his conduct is subjected, is the advice of a chief supported by his influence over the opinions of the rest of the tribe. the chief himself is in fact no more than the most confidential person among the warriors, a rank neither distinguished by any external honor, nor invested by any ceremony, but gradually acquired from the good wishes of his companions and by superior merit. such an officer has therefore strictly no power; he may recommend or advise or influence, but his commands have no effect on those who incline to disobey, and who may at any time withdraw from their voluntary allegiance. his shadowy authority which cannot survive the confidence which supports it, often decays with the personal vigour of the chief, or is transferred to some more fortunate or favourite hero. in their domestic economy, the man is equally sovereign. the man is the sole proprietor of his wives and daughters, and can barter them away, or dispose of them in any manner he may think proper. the children are seldom corrected; the boys, particularly, soon become their own masters; they are never whipped, for they say that it breaks their spirit, and that after being flogged they never recover their independence of mind, even when they grow to manhood. a plurality of wives is very common; but these are not generally sisters, as among the minnetarees and mandans, but are purchased of different fathers. the infant daughters are often betrothed by the father to men who are grown, either for themselves or for their sons, for whom they are desirous of providing wives. the compensation to the father is usually made in horses or mules; and the girl remains with her parents till the age of puberty, which is thirteen or fourteen, when she is surrendered to her husband. at the same time the father often makes a present to the husband equal to what he had formerly received as the price of his daughter, though this return is optional with her parent. sacajawea had been contracted in this way before she was taken prisoner, and when we brought her back, her betrothed was still living. although he was double the age of sacajawea, and had two other wives, he claimed her, but on finding that she had a child by her new husband, chaboneau, he relinquished his pretensions and said he did not want her. the chastity of the women does not appear to be held in much estimation. the husband will for a trifling present lend his wife for a night to a stranger, and the loan may be protracted by increasing the value of the present. yet strange as it may seem, notwithstanding this facility, any connexion of this kind not authorized by the husband, is considered highly offensive and quite as disgraceful to his character as the same licentiousness in civilized societies. the shoshonees are not so importunate in volunteering the services of their wives as we found the sioux were; and indeed we observed among them some women who appeared to be held in more respect than those of any nation we had seen. but the mass of the females are condemned, as among all savage nations, to the lowest and most laborious drudgery. when the tribe is stationary, they collect the roots, and cook; they build the huts, dress the skins and make clothing; collect the wood, and assist in taking care of the horses on the route; they load the horses and have the charge of all the baggage. the only business of the man is to fight; he therefore takes on himself the care of his horse, the companion of his warfare; but he will descend to no other labour than to hunt and to fish. he would consider himself degraded by being compelled to walk any distance; and were he so poor as to possess only two horses, he would ride the best of them, and leave the other for his wives and children and their baggage; and if he has too many wives or too much baggage for the horse, the wives have no alternative but to follow him on foot; they are not however often reduced to those extremities, for their stock of horses is very ample. notwithstanding their losses this spring they still have at least seven hundred, among which are about forty colts, and half that number of mules. there are no horses here which can be considered as wild; we have seen two only on this side of the muscleshell river which were without owners, and even those although shy, showed every mark of having been once in the possession of man. the original stock was procured from the spaniards, but they now raise their own. the horses are generally very fine, of a good size, vigorous and patient of fatigue as well as hunger. each warrior has one or two tied to a stake near his hut both day and night, so as to be always prepared for action. the mules are obtained in the course of trade from the spaniards, with whose brands several of them are marked, or stolen from them by the frontier indians. they are the finest animals of that kind we have ever seen, and at this distance from the spanish colonies are very highly valued. the worst are considered as worth the price of two horses, and a good mule cannot be obtained for less than three and sometimes four horses. we also saw a bridle bit, stirrups and several other articles which, like the mules, came from the spanish colonies. the shoshonees say that they can reach those settlements in ten days' march by the route of the yellowstone river; but we readily perceive that the spaniards are by no means favourites. they complain that the spaniards refuse to let them have fire arms under pretence that these dangerous weapons will only induce them to kill each other. in the meantime, say the shoshonees, we are left to the mercy of the minnetarees, who having arms, plunder them of their horses, and put them to death without mercy. "but this should not be," said cameahwait fiercely, "if we had guns, instead of hiding ourselves in the mountains and living like the bears on roots and berries, we would then go down and live in the buffaloe country in spite of our enemies, whom we never fear when we meet on equal terms." as war is the chief occupation, bravery is the first virtue among the shoshonees. none can hope to be distinguished without having given proofs of it, nor can there be any preferment, or influence among the nation, without some warlike achievement. those important events which give reputation to a warrior, and which entitle him to a new name, are killing a white bear, stealing individually the horses of the enemy, leading out a party who happen to be successful either in plundering horses or destroying the enemy, and lastly scalping a warrior. these acts seem of nearly equal dignity, but the last, that of taking an enemy's scalp, is an honour quite independent of the act of vanquishing him. to kill your adversary is of no importance unless the scalp is brought from the field of battle, and were a warrior to slay any number of his enemies in action, and others were to obtain the scalps or first touch the dead, they would have all the honours, since they have borne off the trophy. although thus oppressed by the minnetarees, the shoshonees are still a very military people. their cold and rugged country inures them to fatigue; their long abstinence makes them support the dangers of mountain warfare, and worn down as we saw them, by want of sustenance, have a look of fierce and adventurous courage. the shoshonee warrior always fights on horseback; he possesses a few bad guns, which are reserved exclusively for war, but his common arms are the bow and arrow, a shield, a lance and a weapon called by the chippeways, by whom it was formerly used, the poggamoggon. the bow is made of cedar or pine covered on the outer side with sinews and glue. it is about two and a half feet long, and does not differ in shape from those used by the sioux, mandans and minnetarees. sometimes, however, the bow is made of a single piece of the horn of an elk, covered on the back like those of wood with sinews and glue, and occasionally ornamented by a strand wrought of porcupine quills and sinews, which is wrapped round the horn near its two ends. the bows made of the horns of the bighorn, are still more prized, and are formed by cementing with glue flat pieces of the horn together, covering the back with sinews and glue, and loading the whole with an unusual quantity of ornaments. the arrows resemble those of the other indians except in being more slender than any we have seen. they are contained, with the implements for striking fire, in a narrow quiver formed of different kinds of skin, though that of the otter seems to be preferred. it is just long enough to protect the arrows from the weather, and is worn on the back by means of a strap passing over the right shoulder and under the left arm. the shield is a circular piece of buffaloe hide about two feet four or five inches in diameter, ornamented with feathers, and a fringe round it of dressed leather, and adorned or deformed with paintings of strange figures. the buffaloe hide is perfectly proof against any arrow, but in the minds of the shoshonees, its power to protect them is chiefly derived from the virtues which are communicated to it by the old men and jugglers. to make a shield is indeed one of their most important ceremonies: it begins by a feast to which all the warriors, old men and jugglers are invited. after the repast a hole is dug in the ground about eighteen inches in depth and of the same diameter as the intended shield: into this hole red hot stones are thrown and water poured over them, till they emit a very strong* hot steam. the buffaloe skin, which must be the entire hide of a male two years old, and never suffered to dry since it was taken from the animal, is now laid across the hole, with the fleshy side to the ground, and stretched in every direction by as many as can take hold of it. as the skin becomes heated, the hair separates and is taken off by the hand; till at last the skin is contracted into the compass designed for the shield. it is then taken off and placed on a hide prepared into parchment, and then pounded during the rest of the festival by the bare heels of those who are invited to it. this operation sometimes continues for several days, after which it is delivered to the proprietor, and declared by the old men and jugglers to be a security against arrows; and provided the feast has been satisfactory, against even the bullets of their enemies. such is the delusion, that many of the indians implicitly believe that this ceremony has given to the shield supernatural powers, and that they have no longer to fear any weapons of their enemies. the paggamoggon is an instrument, consisting of a handle twenty-two inches long, made of wood, covered with dressed leather about the size of a whip-handle: at one end is a thong of two inches in length, which is tied to a round stone weighing two pounds and held in a cover of leather: at the other end is a loop of the same material, which is passed round the wrist so as to secure the hold of the instrument, with which they strike a very severe blow. besides these, they have a kind of armour something like a coat of mail, which is formed by a great many folds of dressed antelope skins, united by means of a mixture of glue and sand. with this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses, and find it impervious to the arrow. the caparison of their horses is a halter and a saddle: the first is either a rope of six or seven strands of buffaloe hair platted or twisted together, about the size of a man's finger and of great strength; or merely a thong of raw hide, made pliant by pounding and rubbing; though the first kind is much preferred. the halter is very long, and is never taken from the neck of the horse when in constant use. one end of it is first tied round the neck in a knot and then brought down to the under jaw, round which it is formed into a simple noose, passing through the mouth: it is then drawn up on the right side and held by the rider in his left hand, while the rest trails after him to some distance. at other times the knot is formed at a little distance from one of the ends, so as to let that end serve as a bridle, while the other trails on the ground. with these cords dangling along side of them the horse is put to his full speed without fear of falling, and when he is turned to graze the noose is merely taken from his mouth. the saddle in formed like the pack-saddles used by the french and spaniards, of two flat thin boards which fit the sides of the horse, and are kept together by two cross pieces, one before and the other behind, which rise to a considerable height, ending sometimes in a flat point extending outwards, and always making the saddle deep and narrow. under this a piece of buffaloe skin, with the hair on, is placed so as to prevent the rubbing of the boards, and when they mount they throw a piece of skin or robe over the saddle, which has no permanent cover. when stirrups are used, they consist of wood covered with leather; but stirrups and saddles are conveniences reserved for old men and women. the young warriors rarely use any thing except a small leather pad stuffed with hair, and secured by a girth made of a leathern thong. in this way they ride with great expertness, and they have a particular dexterity in catching the horse when he is running at large. if he will not immediately submit when they wish to take him, they make a noose in the rope, and although the horse may be at a distance, or even running, rarely fail to fix it on his neck; and such is the docility of the animal, that however unruly he may seem, he surrenders as soon as he feels the rope on him. this cord is so useful in this way that it is never dispensed with, even when they use the spanish bridle, which they prefer, and always procure when they have it in their power. the horse becomes almost an object of attachment: a favourite is frequently painted and his ears cut into various shapes: the mane and tail, which are never drawn nor trimmed, are decorated with feathers of birds, and sometimes a warrior suspends at the breast of his horse the finest ornaments he possesses. thus armed and mounted the shoshonee is a formidable enemy, even with the feeble weapons which he is still obliged to use. when they attack at full speed they bend forward and cover their bodies with the shield, while with the right hand they shoot under the horses neck. the only articles of metal which the shoshonees possess are a few bad knives, some brass kettles, some bracelets or armbands of iron and brass, a few buttons worn as ornaments in their hair, one or two spears about a foot in length, and some heads for arrows made of iron and brass. all these they had obtained in trading with the crow or rocky mountain indians, who live on the yellowstone. the few bridle-bits and stirrups they procured from the spanish colonies. the instrument which supplies the place of a knife among them, is a piece of flint with no regular form, and the sharp part of it not more than one or two inches long: the edge of this is renewed, and the flint itself is formed into heads for arrows, by means of the point of a deer or elk horn, an instrument which they use with great art and ingenuity. there are no axes or hatchets; all the wood being cut with flint or elk-horn, the latter of which is always used as a wedge in splitting wood. their utensils consist, besides the brass kettles, of pots in the form of a jar, made either of earth, or of a stone found in the hills between madison and jefferson rivers, which, though soft and white in its natural state, becomes very hard and black after exposure to the fire. the horns of the buffaloe and the bighorn supply them with spoons. the fire is always kindled by means of a blunt arrow, and a piece of well-seasoned wood of a soft spongy kind, such as the willow or cottonwood. the shoshonees are of a diminutive stature, with thick flat feet and ankles, crooked legs, and are, generally speaking, worse formed than any nation of indians we have seen. their complexion resembles that of the sioux, and is darker than that of the minnetarees, mandans, or shawnees. the hair in both sexes is suffered to fall loosely over the face and down the shoulders: some men, however, divide it by means of thongs of dressed leather or otter skin into two equal queues, which hang over the ears and are drawn in front of the body; but at the present moment, when the nation is afflicted by the loss of so many relations killed in war, most of them have the hair cut quite short in the neck, and cameahwait has the hair cut short all over his head, this being the customary mourning for a deceased kindred. the dress of the men consists of a robe, a tippet, a shirt, long leggings and moccasins. the robe is formed most commonly of the skins of antelope, bighorn, or deer, though when it can be procured, the buffaloe hide is preferred. sometimes too they are made of beaver, moonax, and small wolves, and frequently during the summer of elk skin. these are dressed with the hair on, and reach about as low as the middle of the leg. they are worn loosely over the shoulders, the sides being at pleasure either left open or drawn together by the hand, and in cold weather kept close by a girdle round the waist. this robe answers the purpose of a cloak during the day, and at night is their only covering. the tippet is the most elegant article of indian dress we have ever seen. the neck or collar of it is a strip about four or five inches wide, cut from the back of the otter skin, the nose and eyes forming one extremity, and the tail another. this being dressed with the fur on, they attach to one edge of it, from one hundred to two hundred and fifty little rolls of ermine skin, beginning at the ear, and proceeding towards the tail. these ermine skins are the same kind of narrow strips from the back of that animal, which are sewed round a small cord of twisted silkgrass thick enough to make the skin taper towards the tail which hangs from the end, and are generally about the size of a large quill. these are tied at the head into little bundles, of two, three or more according to the caprice of the wearer, and then suspended from the collar, and a broad fringe of ermine skin is fixed so as to cover the parts where they unite, which might have a coarse appearance. little tassels of fringe of the same materials are also fastened to the extremities of the tail, so as to show its black colour to greater advantage. the centre of the collar is further ornamented with the shells of the pearl oyster. thus adorned, the collar is worn close round the neck, and the little rolls fall down over the shoulders nearly to the waist, so as to form a sort of short cloak, which has a very handsome appearance. these tippets are very highly esteemed, and are given or disposed of on important occasions only. the ermine is the fur known to the northwest traders by the name of the white weasel, but is the genuine ermine; and by encouraging the indians to take them, might no doubt be rendered a valuable branch of trade. these animals must be very abundant, for the tippets are in great numbers, and the construction of each requires at least one hundred skins. the shirt is a covering of dressed skin without the hair, and formed of the hide of the antelope, deer, bighorn, or elk, though the last is more rarely used than any other for this purpose. it fits the body loosely, and reaches half way down the thigh. the aperture at the top is wide enough to admit the head, and has no collar, but is either left square, or most frequently terminates in the tail of the animal, which is left entire, so as to fold outwards, though sometimes the edges are cut into a fringe, and ornamented with quills of the porcupine. the seams of the shirt are on the sides, and are richly fringed and adorned with porcupine quills, till within five or six inches of the sleeve, where it is left open, as is also the under side of the sleeve from the shoulder to the elbow, where it fits closely round the arm as low as the wrist, and has no fringe like the sides, and the under part of the sleeve above the elbow. it is kept up by wide shoulder straps, on which the manufacturer displays his taste by the variety of figures wrought with porcupine quills of different colours, and sometimes by beads when they can be obtained. the lower end of the shirt retains the natural shape of the fore legs and neck of the skin, with the addition of a slight fringe; the hair too is left on the tail and near the hoofs, part of which last is retained and split into a fringe. the leggings are generally made of antelope skins, dressed without the hair, and with the legs, tail and neck hanging to them. each legging is formed of a skin nearly entire, and reaches from the ancle to the upper part of the thigh, and the legs of the skin are tucked before and behind under a girdle round the waist. it fits closely to the leg, the tail being worn upwards, and the neck highly ornamented with fringe and porcupine quills, drags on the ground behind the heels. as the legs of the animal are tied round the girdle, the wide part of the skin is drawn so high as to conceal the parts usually kept from view, in which respect their dress is much more decent than that of any nation of indians on the missouri. the seams of the leggings down the sides, are also fringed and ornamented, and occasionally decorated with tufts of hair taken from enemies whom they have slain. in making all these dresses, their only thread is the sinew taken from the backs and loins of deer, elk, buffaloe, or any other animal. the moccasin is of the deer, elk, or buffaloe skin, dressed without the hair, though in winter they use the buffaloe skin with the hairy side inward, as do most of the indians who inhabit the buffaloe country. like the mandan moccasin, it is made with a single seam on the outer edge, and sewed up behind, a hole being left at the instep to admit the foot. it is variously ornamented with figures wrought with porcupine quills, and sometimes the young men most fond of dress, cover it with the skin of a polecat, and trail at their heels the tail of the animal. the dress of the women consists of the same articles as that of their husbands. the robe though smaller is worn in the same way: the moccasins are precisely similar. the shirt or chemise reaches half way down the leg, is in the same form, except that there is no shoulder-strap, the seam coming quite up to the shoulder; though for women who give suck both sides are open, almost down to the waist. it is also ornamented in the same way with the addition of little patches of red cloth, edged round with beads at the skirts. the chief ornament is over the breast, where there are curious figures made with the usual luxury of porcupine quills. like the men they have a girdle round the waist, and when either sex wishes to disengage the arm, it is drawn up through the hole near the shoulder, and the lower part of the sleeve thrown behind the body. children alone wear beads round their necks; grown persons of both sexes prefer them suspended in little bunches from the ear, and sometimes intermixed with triangular pieces of the shell of the pearl oyster. sometimes the men tie them in the same way to the hair of the forepart of the head, and increase the beauty of it by adding the wings and tails of birds, and particularly the feathers of the great eagle or calumet bird, of which they are extremely fond. the collars are formed either of sea shells procured from their relations to the southwest, or of the sweet-scented grass which grows in the neighbourhood, and which they twist or plait together, to the thickness of a man's finger, and then cover with porcupine quills of various colours. the first of these is worn indiscriminately by both sexes, the second principally confined to the men, while a string of elk's tusks is a collar almost peculiar to the women and children. another collar worn by the men is a string of round bones like the joints of a fish's back, but the collar most preferred, because most honourable, is one of the claws of the brown bear. to kill one of these animals is as distinguished an achievement as to have put to death an enemy, and in fact with their weapons is a more dangerous trial of courage. these claws are suspended on a thong of dressed leather, and being ornamented with beads, are worn round the neck by the warriors with great pride. the men also frequently wear the skin of a fox, or a strip of otter skin round the head in the form of a bandeau. in short, the dress of the shoshonees is as convenient and decent as that of any indians we have seen. they have many more children than might have been expected, considering their precarious means of support and their wandering life. this inconvenience is however balanced by the wonderful facility with which their females undergo the operations of child-birth. in the most advanced state of pregnancy they continue their usual occupations, which are scarcely interrupted longer than the mere time of bringing the child into the world. the old men are few in number and do not appear to be treated with much tenderness or respect. the tobacco used by the shoshonees is not cultivated among them, but obtained from the indians of the rocky mountains, and from some of the bands of their own nation who live south of them; it is the same plant which is in use among the minnetarees, mandans, and ricaras. their chief intercourse with other nations seems to consist in their association with other snake indians, and with the flatheads when they go eastward to hunt buffaloe, and in the occasional visits made by the flatheads to the waters of the columbia for the purpose of fishing. their intercourse with the spaniards is much more rare, and it furnishes them with a few articles, such as mules, and some bridles, and other ornaments for horses, which, as well as some of their kitchen utensils, are also furnished by the bands of snake indians from the yellowstone. the pearl ornaments which they esteem so highly come from other bands, whom they represent as their friends and relations, living to the southwest beyond the barren plains on the other side of the mountains: these relations they say inhabit a good country, abounding with elk, deer, bear, and antelope, where horses and mules are much more abundant than they are here, or to use their own expression, as numerous as the grass of the plains. the names of the indians varies in the course of their life: originally given in childhood, from the mere necessity of distinguishing objects, or from some accidental resemblance to external objects, the young warrior is impatient to change it by some achievement of his own. any important event, the stealing of horses, the scalping an enemy, or killing a brown bear, entitles him at once to a new name which he then selects for himself, and it is confirmed by the nation. sometimes the two names subsist together: thus, the chief cameahwait, which means, "one who never walks," has the war name of tooettecone, or "black gun," which he acquired when he first signalized himself. as each new action gives a warrior a right to change his name, many of them have had several in the course of their lives. to give to a friend his own name is an act of high courtesy, and a pledge like that of pulling off the moccasin of sincerity and hospitality. the chief in this way gave his name to captain clarke when he first arrived, and he was afterwards known among the shoshonees by the name of cameahwait. the diseases incident to this state of life may be supposed to be few, and chiefly the result of accidents. we were particularly anxious to ascertain whether they had any knowledge of the venereal disorder. after inquiring by means of the interpreter and his wife, we learnt that they sometimes suffered from it, and that they most usually die with it; nor could we discover what was their remedy. it is possible that this disease may have reached them in their circuitous communications with the whites through the intermediate indians; but the situation of the shoshonees is so insulated, that it is not probable that it could have reached them in that way, and the existence of such a disorder among the rocky mountains seems rather a proof of its being aboriginal. chapter xvii. the party, after procuring horses from the shoshonees, proceed on their journey through the mountains--the difficulties and dangers of the route--a council held with another band of the shoshonees, of whom some account is given--they are reduced to the necessity of killing their horses for food--captain clarke with a small party precedes the main body in quest of food, and is hospitably received by the pierced-nose indians--arrival of the main body amongst this tribe, with whom a council is held--they resolve to perform the remainder of their journey in canoes--sickness of the party--they descend the kooskooskee to its junction with lewis river, after passing several dangerous rapids--short description of the manners and dress of the pierced-nose indians. august . we were now occupied in determining our route and procuring horses from the indians. the old guide who had been sent on by captain clarke, now confirmed, by means of our interpreter, what he had already asserted, of a road up berry creek which would lead to indian establishments on another branch of the columbia: his reports however were contradicted by all the shoshonees. this representation we ascribed to a wish on their part to keep us with them during the winter, as well for the protection we might afford against their enemies, as for the purpose of consuming our merchandise amongst them; and as the old man promised to conduct us himself, that route seemed to be the most eligible. we were able to procure some horses, though not enough for all our purposes. this traffic, and our inquiries and councils with the indians, consumed the remainder of the day. august . the purchase of horses was resumed, and our stock raised to twenty-two. having now crossed more than once the country which separates the head waters of the missouri from those of the columbia, we can designate the easiest and most expeditious route for a portage; it is as follows: from the forks of the river north ° west, five miles to the point of a hill on the right: then south ° west, ten miles to a spot where the creek is ten miles wide, and the highlands approach within two hundred yards; southwest five miles to a narrow part of the bottom; then turning south ° west, two miles to a creek on the right: thence south ° west, three miles to a rocky point opposite to a thicket of pines on the left; from that place west, three miles to the gap where is the fountain of the missouri: on leaving this fountain south ° west, six miles across the dividing ridge, to a run from the right passing several small streams north ° west, four miles over hilly ground to the east fork of lewis's river, which is here forty yards wide. thursday . captain clarke joined us this morning, and we continued our bargains for horses. the late misfortunes of the shoshonees make the price higher than common, so that one horse cost a pistol, one hundred balls, some powder and a knife; another was changed for a musket, and in this way we obtained twenty-nine. the horses themselves are young and vigorous, but they are very poor, and most of them have sore backs in consequence of the roughness of the shoshonee saddle. we are therefore afraid of loading them too heavily and are anxious to obtain one at least for each man to carry the baggage, or the man himself, or in the last resource to serve as food; but with all our exertions we could not provide all our men with horses. we have, however, been fortunate in obtaining for the last three days a sufficient supply of flesh, our hunters having killed two or three deer every day. friday . the weather was fine, and having now made all our purchases, we loaded our horses, and prepared to start. the greater part of the band who had delayed their journey on our account, were also ready to depart. we then took our leave of the shoshonees, who set out on their visit to the missouri at the same time that we accompanied by the old guide, his four sons, and another indian, began the descent of the river, along the same road which captain clarke had previously pursued. after riding twelve miles we encamped on the south bank of the river, and as the hunters had brought in three deer early in the morning we did not feel the want of provisions. saturday . at sunrise we resumed our journey, and halted for three hours on salmon creek to let the horses graze. we then proceeded to the stream called berry creek eighteen miles from the camp of last night: as we passed along, the vallies and prairies were on fire in several places, in order to collect the bands of the shoshonees and the flatheads, for their journey to the missouri. the weather was warm and sultry, but the only inconvenience which we apprehend is a dearth of food, of which we had to-day an abundance, having procured a deer, a goose, one duck and a prairie fowl. on reaching tower creek we left the former track of captain clarke, and began to explore the new route, which is our last hope of getting out of the mountains. for four miles the road, which is tolerably plain, led us along berry creek to some old indian lodges where we encamped for the night; the next day, sunday, september , , we followed the same road which here left the creek and turned to the northwest across the hills. during all day we were riding over these hills, from which are many drains and small streams running into the river to the left, and at the distance of eighteen miles, came to a large creek called fish creek emptying into the columbia which is about six miles from us. it had rained in the course of the day, and commenced raining again towards evening. we therefore determined not to leave the low grounds to night, and after going up fish creek four miles formed our encampment. the country over which we passed is well watered, but poor and rugged or stony, except the bottoms of fish creek, and even these are narrow. two men were sent to purchase fish of the indians at the mouth of the creek, and with the dried fish which they obtained, and a deer and a few salmon killed by the party, we were still well supplied. two bear also were wounded but we could procure neither of them. monday . this morning all the indians left us, except the old guide, who now conducted us up fish creek: at one mile and a half we passed a branch of the river coming in through a low ground covered with pine on the left, and two and a half miles further is a second branch from the right; after continuing our route along the hills covered with pine, and a low ground of the same growth, we arrived at the distance of three and a half miles at the forks of the creek. the road which we were following now turned up the east side of these forks, and as our guide informed us led to the missouri. we were therefore left without any track; but as no time was to be lost we began to cut our road up the west branch of the creek. this we effected with much difficulty; the thickets of trees and brush through which we were obliged to cut our way required great labour; the road itself was over the steep and rocky sides of the hills where the horses could not move without danger of slipping down, while their feet were bruised by the rocks and stumps of trees. accustomed as these animals were to this kind of life they suffered severely, several of them fell to some distance down the sides of the hills, some turned over with the baggage, one was crippled, and two gave out exhausted with fatigue. after crossing the creek several times we at last made five miles, with great fatigue and labour, and encamped on the left side of the creek in a small stony low ground. it was not, however, till after dark that the whole party was collected, and then, as it rained, and we killed nothing, we passed an uncomfortable night. the party had been too busily occupied with the horses to make any hunting excursion, and though as we came along fish creek we saw many beaver dams we saw none of the animals themselves. in the morning, tuesday , the horses were very stiff and weary. we sent back two men for the load of the horse which had been crippled yesterday, and which we had been forced to leave two miles behind. on their return, we set out at eight o'clock, and proceeded up the creek, making a passage through the brush and timber along its borders. the country is generally supplied with pine, and in the low grounds is a great abundance of fir trees, and under bushes. the mountains are high and rugged, and those to the east of us, covered with snow. with all our precautions the horses were very much injured in passing over the ridges and steep points of the hills, and to add to the difficulty, at the distance of eleven miles, the high mountains closed the creek, so that we were obliged to leave the creek to the right, and cross the mountain abruptly. the ascent was here so steep that several of the horses slipped and hurt themselves, but at last we succeeded in crossing the mountain, and encamped on a small branch of fish creek. we had now made fourteen miles in a direction nearly north from the river; but this distance, though short, was very fatiguing, and rendered still more disagreeable by the rain which began at three o'clock. at dusk it commenced snowing, and continued till the ground was covered to the depth of two inches, when it changed into a sleet. we here met with a serious misfortune the last of our thermometers being broken by accident. after making a scanty supper on a little corn and a few pheasants killed in the course of the day, we laid down to sleep, and next morning, wednesday , found every thing frozen, and the ground covered with snow. we were obliged to wait some time in order to thaw the covers of the baggage, after which we began our journey at eight o'clock. we crossed a high mountain which joins the dividing ridge between the waters of the creek we had been ascending, and those running to the north and west. we had not gone more than six miles over the snow, when we reached the head of a stream from the right, which directed its course more to the westward. we descended the steep sides of the hills along its border, and at the distance of three miles found a small branch coming in from the eastward. we saw several of the argalia, but they were too shy to be killed, and we therefore made a dinner from a deer shot by one of the hunters. then we pursued the course of the stream for three miles, till it emptied itself into a river from the east. in the wide valley at their junction, we discovered a large encampment of indians: when we had reached them and alighted from our horses, we were received with great cordiality. a council was immediately assembled, white robes were thrown over our soldiers, and the pipe of peace introduced. after this ceremony, as it was too late to go any further, we encamped, and continued smoking and conversing with the chiefs till a late hour. the next morning, thursday , we assembled the chiefs and warriors, and informed them who we were, and the purpose for which we visited their country. all this was however conveyed to them through so many different languages, that it was not comprehended without difficulty. we therefore proceeded to the more intelligible language of presents, and made four chiefs by giving a medal and a small quantity of tobacco to each. we received in turn from the principal chief, a present consisting of the skins of a braro, an otter, and two antelopes, and were treated by the women to some dried roots and berries. we then began to traffic for horses, and succeeded in exchanging seven, purchasing eleven, for which we gave a few articles of merchandise. this encampment consists of thirty-three tents, in which were about four hundred souls, among whom eighty were men. they are called ootlashoots, and represent themselves as one band of a nation called tushepaws, a numerous people of four hundred and fifty tents, residing on the heads of the missouri and columbia rivers, and some of them lower down the latter river. in person these indians are stout, and their complexion lighter than that common among indians. the hair of the men is worn in queues of otter skin, falling in front over the shoulders. a shirt of dressed skin covers the body to the knee, and on this is worn occasionally a robe. to these were added leggings and moccasins. the women suffer their hair to fall in disorder over the face and shoulders, and their chief article of covering is a long shirt of skin, reaching down to the ancles, and tied round the waist. in other respects, as also in the few ornaments which they possess, their appearance is similar to that of the shoshonees; there is however a difference between the language of these people which is still farther increased by the very extraordinary pronunciation of the ootlashoots. their words have all a remarkably guttural sound, and there is nothing which seems to represent the tone of their speaking more exactly than the clucking of a fowl, or the noise of a parrot. this peculiarity renders their voices scarcely audible, except at a short distance, and when many of them are talking, forms a strange confusion of sounds. the common conversation we overheard, consisted of low guttural sounds occasionally broken by a loud word or two, after which it would relapse and scarcely be distinguished. they seem kind and friendly and willingly shared with us berries and roots, which formed their only stock of provisions. their only wealth is their horses, which are very fine, and so numerous that this party had with them at least five hundred. friday . we continued this morning with the ootlashoots, from whom we purchased two more horses, and procured a vocabulary of their language. the ootlashoots set off about two o'clock to join the different bands who were collecting at the three forks of the missouri. we ourselves proceeded at the same time, and taking a direction n. w. crossed within the distance of one mile and a half, a small river from the right, and a creek coming in from the north. this river is the main stream, and when it reaches the end of the valley, where the mountains close in upon it, is joined by the river on which we encamped last evening, as well as by the creek just mentioned. to the river thus formed we gave the name of captain clarke, he being the first white man who had ever visited its waters. at the end of five miles on this course we had crossed the valley, and reached the top of a mountain covered with pine; this we descended along the steep sides and ravines for a mile and a half, when we came to a spot on the river, where the ootlashoots had encamped a few days before. we then followed the course of the river, which is from twenty-five to thirty yards wide, shallow, stony, and the low grounds on its borders narrow. within the distance of three and a half miles, we crossed it several times, and after passing a run on each side, encamped on its right bank, after making ten miles during the afternoon. the horses were turned out to graze, but those we had lately bought were secured and watched, lest they should escape, or be stolen by their former owners. our stock of flour was now exhausted, and we had but little corn, and as our hunters had killed nothing except two pheasants, our supper consisted chiefly of berries. saturday, . the greater part of the day the weather was dark and rainy: we continued through the narrow low grounds along the river, till at the distance of six miles we came to a large creek from the left, after which the bottoms widen. four miles lower is another creek on the same side, and the valley now extends from one to three miles, the mountains on the left being high and bald, with snow on the summits, while the country to the right is open and hilly. four miles beyond this is a creek running from the snow-top'd mountains, and several runs on both sides of the river. two miles from this last is another creek on the left. the afternoon was now far advanced, but not being able to find a fit place to encamp we continued six miles further till after dark, when we halted for the night. the river here is still shallow and stony, but is increased to the width of fifty yards. the valley through which we passed is of a poor soil, and its fertility injured by the quantity of stone scattered over it. we met two horses which had strayed from the indians and were now quite wild. no fish was to be seen in the river, but we obtained a very agreeable supply of two deer, two cranes, and two pheasants. sunday, . we set out early: the snow-top'd hills on the left approach the river near our camp, but we soon reached a valley four or five miles wide, through which we followed the course of the river in a direction due north. we passed three creeks on the right, and several runs emptying themselves into the opposite side of the river. at the distance of eleven miles the river turned more towards the west: we pursued it for twelve miles, and encamped near a large creek coming in from the right, which, from its being divided into four different channels, we called scattering creek. the valley continues to be a poor stony land, with scarcely any timber, except some pine trees along the waters and partially scattered on the hills to the right, which, as well as those on the left, have snow on them. the plant which forces itself most on our attention is a species of prickly pear very common on this part of the river: it grows in clusters, in an oval form about the size of a pigeon's egg, and its thorns are so strong and bearded, that when it penetrates our feet it brings away the pear itself. we saw two mares and a colt, which, like the horses seen yesterday, seemed to have lost themselves and become wild. our game to-day consisted of two deer, an elk, and a prairie fowl. monday, . we resumed our journey through the valley, and leaving the road on our right crossed the scattering creek, and halted at the distance of twelve miles on a small run from the east, where we breakfasted on the remains of yesterday's hunt: we here took a meridian altitude, which gave the latitude of ° ' " "': we then continued, and at the distance of four miles passed over to the left bank of the river, where we found a large road through the valley. at this place is a handsome stream of very clear water, a hundred yards wide with low banks, and a bed formed entirely of gravel: it has every appearance of being navigable, but as it contains no salmon, we presume there must be some fall below which obstructs their passage. our guide could not inform us where this river discharged its waters; he said that as far as he knew its course it ran along the mountains to the north, and that not far from our present position it was joined by another stream nearly as large as itself, which rises in the mountains to the east near the missouri, and flows through an extensive valley or open prairie. through this prairie is the great indian road to the waters of the missouri; and so direct is the route, that in four days' journey from this place we might reach the missouri about thirty miles above what we called the gates of the rocky mountains, or the spot where the valley of that river widens into an extensive plain on entering the chain of mountains. at ten miles from our camp is a small creek falling in from the eastward, five miles below which we halted at a large stream which empties itself on the west side of the river. it is a fine bold creek of clear water about twenty yards wide, and we called it _traveller's-rest_ creek; for as our guide told us that we should here leave the river, we determined to remain for the purpose of making celestial observations and collecting some food, as the country through which we are to pass has no game for a great distance. the valley of the river through which we have been passing is generally a prairie from five to six miles in width, and with a cold gravelly white soil. the timber which it possesses is almost exclusively pine, chiefly of the long-leafed kind, with some spruce, and a species of fir resembling the scotch fir: near the water courses are also seen a few narrow-leafed cottonwood trees, and the only underbrush is the redwood, honeysuckle, and rosebushes. our game was four deer, three geese, four ducks, and three prairie fowls; one of the hunters brought in a red-headed woodpecker of the large kind common in the united states, but the first of the kind we have seen since leaving the illinois. tuesday, . the morning being fair all the hunters were sent out, and the rest of the party employed in repairing their clothes: two of them were sent to the junction of the river from the east, along which the indians go to the missouri: it is about seven miles below traveller's-rest creek; the country at the forks is seven or eight miles wide, level and open, but with little timber; its course is to the north, and we incline to believe that this is the river which the minnetarees had described to us as running from south to north along the west side of the rocky mountains, not far from the sources of medicine river: there is moreover reason to suppose, that after going as far northward as the head-waters of that river it turns to the westward and joins the tacootchetessee. towards evening one of the hunters returned with three indians, whom he had met in his excursion up traveller's-rest creek: as soon as they saw him they prepared to attack him with arrows, but he quieted them by laying down his gun and advancing towards them, and soon persuaded them to come to the camp. our shoshonee guide could not speak the language of these people, but by the universal language of signs and gesticulations, which is perfectly intelligible among the indians, he found that these were three tushepaw flatheads in pursuit of two men, supposed to be shoshonees, who had stolen twenty-three of their horses: we gave them some boiled venison and a few presents; such as a fishhook, a steel to strike fire, and a little powder; but they seemed better pleased with a piece of riband which we tied in the hair of each of them. they were however in such haste, lest their horses should be carried off, that two of them set off after sunset in quest of the robbers: the third however was persuaded to remain with us and conduct us to his relations: these he said were numerous, and resided on the columbia in the plain below the mountains. from that place he added, the river was navigable to the ocean; that some of his relations had been there last fall and seen an old white man who resided there by himself, and who gave them some handkerchiefs like those we have. the distance from this place is five sleeps or days' journey. when our hunters had all joined us we found our provisions consisted of four deer, a beaver, and three grouse. the observation of to-day gave ° ' " as the latitude of travellers-rest creek. wednesday . two of our horses having strayed away we were detained all the morning before they were caught. in the meantime our tushepaw indian became impatient of the delay, and set out to return home alone. as usual we had dispatched four of our best hunters ahead, and as we hoped with their aid and our present stock of provisions to subsist on the route, we proceeded at three o'clock up the right side of the creek, and encamped under some old indian huts at the distance of seven miles. the road was plain and good; the valley is however narrower than that which we left and bordered by high and rugged hills to the right, while the mountains on the left were covered with snow. the day was fair and warm, the wind from the northwest. thursday . there was a white frost this morning. we proceeded at seven o'clock and soon passed a stream falling in on the right, near which was an old indian camp with a bath or sweating-house covered with earth. at two miles distance we ascended a high, and thence continued through a hilly and thickly timbered country for nine miles, when we came to the forks of the creek, where the road branches up each fork. we followed the western route, and finding that the creek made a considerable bend at the distance of four miles, crossed a high mountain in order to avoid the circuit. the road had been very bad during the first part of the day, but the passage of the mountain, which was eight miles across, was very painful to the horses, as we were obliged to go over steep stony sides of hills and along the hollows and ravines, rendered more disagreeable* by the fallen timber, chiefly pine, spruce pine and fir. we at length reached the creek, having made twenty-three miles of a route so difficult that some of the party did not join us before ten o'clock. we found the account of the scantiness of game but too true, as we were not able to procure any thing during the whole of yesterday, and to-day we killed only a single pheasant. along the road we observed many of the pine trees pealed off, which is done by the indians to procure the inner bark for food in the spring. friday . two of the horses strayed away during the night, and one of them being captain lewis's, he remained with four men to search for them while we proceeded up the creek: at the distance of two miles we came to several springs issuing from large rocks of a coarse hard grit, and nearly boiling hot. those seem to be much frequented as there are several paths made by elk, deer and other animals, and near one of the springs a hole or indian bath, and roads leading in different directions. these embarrassed our guide, who mistaking the road took us three miles out of the proper course over an exceedingly bad route. we then fell into the right road, and proceeded on very well, when having made five miles we stopped to refresh the horses. captain lewis here joined us, but not having been able to find his horse two men were sent back to continue the search. we then proceeded along the same kind of country which we passed yesterday, and after crossing a mountain and leaving the sources of the travellers-rest creek on the left, reached after five miles riding a small creek which also came in from the left hand, passing through open glades, some of which were half a mile wide. the road which had been as usual rugged and stony, became firm, plain and level after quitting the head of travellers-rest. we followed the course of this new creek for two miles and encamped at a spot where the mountains close on each side. other mountains covered with snow are in view to the southeast and southwest. we were somewhat more fortunate to-day in killing a deer and several pheasants which were of the common species, except that the tail was black. saturday . the day was very cloudy with rain and hail in the vallies, while on the top of the mountains some snow fell. we proceeded early, and continuing along the right side of glade creek crossed a high mountain, and at the distance of six miles reached the place where it is joined by another branch of equal size from the right. near the forks the tushepaws have had an encampment which is but recently abandoned, for the grass is entirely destroyed by horses, and two fish weirs across the creek are still remaining; no fish were however to be seen. we here passed over to the left side of the creek and began the ascent of a very high and steep mountain nine miles across. on reaching the other side we found a large branch from the left, which seems to rise in the snowy mountains to the south and southeast. we continued along the creek two miles further, when night coming on we encamped opposite a small island at the mouth of a branch on the right side of the river. the mountains which we crossed to-day were much more difficult than those of yesterday; the last was particularly fatiguing, being steep and stony, broken by fallen timber, and thickly overgrown by pine, spruce, fir, haematack and tamarac. although we had made only seventeen miles we were all very weary. the whole stock of animal food was now exhausted, and we therefore killed a colt, on which we made a hearty supper. from this incident we called the last creek we had passed from the south colt-killed creek. the river itself is eighty yards wide, with a swift current, and a stony channel. its indian name is kooskooskee. sunday . at an early hour we proceeded along the right side of the kooskooskee over steep rocky points of land, till at the distance of four miles we reached an old indian fishing place: the road here turned to the right of the water, and began to ascend a mountain: but the fire and wind had prostrated or dried almost all the timber on the south side, and the ascents were so steep that we were forced to wind in every direction round the high knobs which constantly impeded our progress. several of the horses lost their foot-hold and slipped: one of them which was loaded with a desk and small trunk, rolled over and over for forty yards, till his fall was stopped by a tree. the desk was broken; but the poor animal escaped without much injury. after clambering in this way for four miles, we came to a high snowy part of the mountain where was a spring of water, at which we halted two hours to refresh our horses. on leaving the spring the road continued as bad as it was below, and the timber more abundant. at four miles we reached the top of the mountain, and foreseeing no chance of meeting with water, we encamped on the northern side of the mountain, near an old bank of snow, three feet deep. some of this we melted, and supped on the remains of the colt killed yesterday. our only game to-day was two pheasants, and the horses on which we calculated as a last resource begin to fail us, for two of them were so poor, and worn out with fatigue, that we were obliged to leave them behind. all around us are high rugged mountains, among which is a lofty range from southeast to northwest, whose tops are without timber, and in some places covered with snow. the night was cloudy and very cold, and three hours before daybreak, monday , it began to snow, and continued all day, so that by evening it was six or eight inches deep. this covered the track so completely, that we were obliged constantly to halt and examine, lest we should lose the route. in many places we had nothing to guide us except the branches of the trees which, being low, have been rubbed by the burdens of the indian horses. the road was, like that of yesterday, along steep hill sides, obstructed with fallen timber, and a growth of eight different species of pine, so thickly strewed that the snow falls from them as we pass, and keeps us continually wet to the skin, and so cold, that we are anxious lest our feet should be frozen, as we have only thin moccasins to defend them. at noon we halted to let the horses feed on some long grass on the south side of the mountains, and endeavoured by making fires to keep ourselves warm. as soon as the horses were refreshed, captain clarke went ahead with one man, and at the distance of six miles reached a stream from the right, and prepared fires by the time of our arrival at dusk. we here encamped in a piece of low ground, thickly timbered, but scarcely large enough to permit us to lie level. we had now made thirteen miles. we were all very wet, cold, and hungry: but although before setting out this morning, we had seen four deer, yet we could not procure any of them, and were obliged to kill a second colt for our supper. tuesday . our horses became so much scattered during the night, that we were detained till one o'clock before they were all collected. we then continued our route over high rough knobs, and several drains and springs, and along a ridge of country separating the waters of two small rivers. the road was still difficult, and several of the horses fell and injured themselves very much, so that we were unable to advance more than ten miles to a small stream, on which we encamped. we had killed a few pheasants, but these being insufficient for our subsistence, we killed another of the colts. this want of provisions, and the extreme fatigue to which we were subjected, and the dreary prospects before us, began to dispirit the men. it was therefore agreed that captain clarke should go on ahead with six hunters, and endeavour to kill something for the support of the party. he therefore set out, wednesday , early in the morning in hopes of finding a level country from which he might send back some game. his route lay s. ° w., along the same high dividing ridge, and the road was still very bad; but he moved on rapidly, and at the distance of twenty miles was rejoiced on discovering far off an extensive plain towards the west and southwest, bounded by a high mountain. he halted an hour to let the horses eat a little grass on the hill sides, and then went on twelve and a half miles till he reached a bold creek, running to the left, on which he encamped. to this stream he gave the very appropriate name of hungry creek; for having procured no game, they had nothing to eat. in the meantime we were detained till after eight o'clock by the loss of one of our horses which had strayed away and could not be found. we then proceeded, but having soon finished the remainder of the colt killed yesterday, felt the want of provisions, which was more sensible from our meeting with no water, till towards nightfall we found some in a ravine among the hills. by pushing on our horses almost to their utmost strength, we made eighteen miles. we then melted some snow, and supped on a little portable soup, a few canisters of which, with about twenty weight of bears oil, are our only remaining means of subsistence. our guns are scarcely of any service, for there is no living creature in these mountains, except a few small pheasants, a small species of gray squirrel, and a blue bird of the vulture kind about the size of a turtle dove or jay, and even these are difficult to shoot. thursday . captain clarke proceeded up the creek, along which the road was more steep and stony than any he had yet passed, at six miles distance he reached a small plain, in which he fortunately found a horse, on which he breakfasted, and hung the rest on a tree for the party in the rear. two miles beyond this he left the creek, and crossed three high mountains, rendered almost impassable from the steepness of the ascent and the quantity of fallen timber. after clambering over these ridges and mountains, and passing the heads of some branches of hungry creek, he came to a large creek running westward. this he followed for four miles, then turned to the right down the mountain, till he came to a small creek to the left. here he halted, having made twenty-two miles on his course, south eighty degrees west, though the winding route over the mountains almost doubled the distance. on descending the last mountain, the heat became much more sensible after the extreme cold he had experienced for several days past. besides the breakfast in the morning, two pheasants were their only food during the day, and the only kinds of birds they saw were the blue jay, a small white-headed hawk, a larger hawk, crows, and ravens. we followed soon after sunrise. at six miles the ridge terminated and we had before us the cheering prospect of the large plain to the southwest. on leaving the ridge we again ascended and went down several mountains, and six miles further came to hungry creek where it was fifteen yards wide, and received the waters of a branch from the north. we went up it on a course nearly due west, and at three miles crossed a second branch flowing from the same quarter. the country is thickly covered with pine timber, of which we have enumerated eight distinct species. three miles beyond this last branch of hungry creek we encamped, after a fatiguing route of eighteen miles. the road along the creek is a narrow rocky path near the borders of very high precipices, from which a fall seems almost inevitable destruction. one of our horses slipped and rolling over with his load down the hill side, which was nearly perpendicular and strewed with large irregular rocks, nearly a hundred yards, and did not stop till he fell into the creek: we all expected he was killed, but to our astonishment, on taking off his load, he rose, and seemed but little injured, and in twenty minutes proceeded with his load. having no other provision we took some portable soup, our only refreshment during the day. this abstinence, joined with fatigue, has a visible effect on our health. the men are growing weak and losing their flesh very fast: several are afflicted with the dysentery, and eruptions of the skin are very common. friday . captain clarke went on through a country as rugged as usual, till on passing a low mountain he came at the distance of four miles to the forks of a large creek. down this he kept on a course south ° west for two miles, then turning to the right, continued over a dividing ridge where were the heads of several little streams, and at twelve miles distance descended the last of the rocky mountains and reached the level country. a beautiful open plain partially supplied with pine now presented itself. he continued for five miles when he discovered three indian boys, who, on observing the party, ran off and hid themselves in the grass. captain clarke immediately alighted, and giving his horse and gun to one of the men went after the boys. he soon relieved their apprehensions and sent them forward to the village about a mile off with presents of small pieces of riband. soon after the boys had reached home, a man came out to meet the party, with great caution, but he conducted them to a large tent in the village, and all the inhabitants gathered round to view with a mixture of fear and pleasure these wonderful strangers. the conductor now informed captain clarke by signs, that the spacious tent was the residence of the great chief, who had set out three days ago with all the warriors to attack some of their enemies towards the southwest; that he would not return before fifteen or eighteen days, and that in the meantime there were only a few men left to guard the women and children. they now set before them a small piece of buffaloe meat, some dried salmon, berries, and several kinds of roots. among these last is one which is round and much like an onion in appearance and sweet to the taste: it is called quamash, and is eaten either in its natural state, or boiled into a kind of soup or made into a cake, which is then called pasheco. after the long abstinence this was a sumptuous treat; we returned the kindness of the people by a few small presents, and then went on in company with one of the chiefs to a second village in the same plain, at the distance of two miles. here the party was treated with great kindness and passed the night. the hunters were sent out, but though they saw some tracks of deer were not able to procure any thing. we were detained till ten o'clock before we could collect our scattered horses; we then proceeded for two miles, when to our great joy we found the horse which captain clarke had killed, and a note apprising us of his intention of going to the plains towards the southwest, and collect provisions by the time we reached him. at one o'clock we halted on a small stream, and made a hearty meal of horse flesh. on examination it now appeared that one of the horses was missing, and the man in whose charge he had been, was directed to return and search for him. he came back in about two hours without having been able to find the horse; but as the load was too valuable to be lost, two of the best woodsmen were directed to continue the search while we proceeded. our general course was south ° west through a thick forest of large pine, which has fallen in many places, and very much obstructs the road. after making about fifteen miles we encamped on a ridge where we could find but little grass and no water. we succeeded, however, in procuring a little from a distance, and supped on the remainder of the horse. on descending the heights of the mountains the soil becomes gradually more fertile, and the land through which we passed this evening, is of an excellent quality. it has a dark gray soil, though very broken, and with large masses of gray free-stone above the ground in many places. among the vegetable productions we distinguished the alder, honeysuckle, and huckleberry, common in the united states, and a species of honeysuckle, known only westward of the rocky mountains, which rises to the height of about four feet, and bears a white berry. there is also a plant resembling the chokecherry, which grows in thick clumps eight or ten feet high, and bears a black berry with a single stone of a sweetish taste. the arbor vitæ too, is very common, and grows to a great size, being from two to six feet in diameter. saturday . the free use of food, to which he had not been accustomed, made captain clarke very sick both yesterday evening and during the whole of to-day. he therefore sent out all the hunters and remained himself at the village, as well on account of his sickness as for the purpose of avoiding suspicion and collecting information from the indians as to the route. the two villages consist of about thirty double tents, and the inhabitants call themselves chopunnish or pierced-nose. the chief drew a chart of the river, and explained, that a greater chief than himself, who governed this village and was called the twisted-hair, was now fishing at the distance of half a day's ride down the river: his chart made the kooskooskee fork a little below his camp, a second fork below, still further on a large branch flowed in on each side, below which the river passed the mountains: here was a great fall of water, near which lived white people, from whom were procured the white beads and brass ornaments worn by the women. a chief of another band made a visit this morning, and smoked with captain clarke. the hunters returned without having been able to kill any thing; captain clarke purchased as much dried salmon, roots, and berries as he could, with the few articles he chanced to have in his pockets, and having sent them by one of the men and a hired indian back to captain lewis, he went on towards the camp of the twisted-hair. it was four o'clock before he set out, and the night soon came on; but having met an indian coming from the river, they engaged him by a present of a neckcloth, to guide them to the twisted-hair's camp. for twelve miles they proceeded through the plain before they reached the river hills, which are very high and steep. the whole valley from these hills to the rocky mountain is a beautiful level country, with a rich soil covered with grass: there is, however, but little timber, and the ground is badly watered: the plain is so much lower than the surrounding hills, or so much sheltered by them, that the weather is quite warm, while the cold of the mountains was extreme. from the top of the river hills they proceeded down for three miles till they reached the water side, between eleven and twelve o'clock at night: here we found a small camp of five squaws and three children, the chief himself being encamped, with two others, on a small island in the river: the guide called to him and he soon came over. captain clarke gave him a medal, and they smoked together till one o'clock. we could not set out till eleven o'clock, because being obliged in the evening to loosen our horses to enable them to find subsistence, it is always difficult to collect them in the morning. at that hour we continued along the ridge on which we had slept, and at a mile and a half reached a large creek running to our left, just above its junction with one of its branches. we proceeded down the low grounds of this creek, which are level, wide, and heavily timbered, but turned to the right at the distance of two and a half miles, and began to pass the broken and hilly country; but the thick timber had fallen in so many places that we could scarcely make our way. after going five miles we passed the creek on which captain clarke had encamped during the night of the th, and continued five miles further over the same kind of road, till we came to the forks of a large creek. we crossed the northern branch of this stream, and proceeded down it on the west side for a mile: here we found a small plain where there was tolerable grass for the horses, and therefore remained during the night, having made fifteen miles on a course s. ° w. the arbor vitæ increases in size and quantity as we advance: some of the trees we passed to-day being capable of forming periogues at least forty-five feet in length. we were so fortunate also as to kill a few pheasants and a prairie wolf, which, with the remainder of the horse, supplied us with one meal, the last of our provisions, our food for the morrow being wholly dependent on the chance of our guns. sunday, . captain clarke passed over to the island with the twisted-hair, who seemed to be cheerful and sincere in his conduct. the river at this place is about one hundred and sixty yards wide, but interrupted by shoals, and the low grounds on its borders are narrow. the hunters brought in three deer; after which captain clarke left his party, and accompanied by the twisted-hair and his son, rode back to the village, where he arrived about sunset: they then walked up together to the second village, where we had just arrived. we had intended to set out early, but one of the men having neglected to hobble his horse he strayed away, and we were obliged to wait till nearly twelve o'clock. we then proceeded on a western course for two and a half miles, when we met the hunters sent by captain clarke from the village, seven and a half miles distant, with provisions. this supply was most seasonable, as we had tasted nothing since last night, and the fish, and roots, and berries, in addition to a crow which we killed on the route, completely satisfied our hunger. after this refreshment we proceeded in much better spirits, and at a few miles were overtaken by the two men who had been sent back after a horse on the th. they were perfectly exhausted with the fatigue of walking and the want of food; but as we had two spare horses they were mounted and brought on to the village. they had set out about three o'clock in the afternoon of the th with one horse between them: after crossing the mountain they came to the place where we had eaten the horse. here they encamped, and having no food made a fire and roasted the head of the horse, which even our appetites had spared, and supped on the ears, skin, lips, &c. of the animal. the next morning, st, they found the track of the horse, and pursuing it recovered the saddle-bags, and at length about eleven o'clock, the horse himself. being now both mounted, they set out to return and slept at a small stream: during the day they had nothing at all except two pheasants, which were so torn to pieces by the shot, that the head and legs were the only parts fit for food. in this situation they found the next morning, d, that during the night their horses had run away from them or been stolen by the indians. they searched for them until nine o'clock, when seeing that they could not recover them and fearful of starving if they remained where they were, they set out on foot to join us, carrying the saddle-bags alternately. they walked as fast as they could during the day, till they reached us in a deplorable state of weakness and inanition. as we approached the village, most of the women, though apprised of our being expected, fled with their children into the neighbouring woods. the men, however, received us without any apprehension, and gave us a plentiful supply of provisions. the plains were now crowded with indians, who came to see the persons of the whites and the strange things they brought with them: but as our guide was perfectly a stranger to their language we could converse by signs only. our inquiries were chiefly directed to the situation of the country, the courses of the rivers, and the indian villages, of all which we received information from several of the indians, and as their accounts varied but little from each other, we were induced to place confidence in them. among others, the twisted-hair drew a chart of the river on a white elk skin. according to this, the kooskooskee forks a few miles from this place; two days towards the south is another and larger fork on which the shoshonee or snake indians fish: five days' journey further is a large river from the northwest into which clarke's river empties itself: from the mouth of that river to the falls is five days' journey further: on all the forks as well as on the main river great numbers of indians reside, and at the falls are establishments of whites. this was the story of the twisted-hair. monday . the chiefs and warriors were all assembled this morning, and we explained to them where we came from, the objects of our visiting them, and our pacific intentions towards all the indians. this being conveyed by signs, might not have been perfectly comprehended, but appeared to give perfect satisfaction. we now gave a medal to two of the chiefs, a shirt in addition to the medal already received by the twisted-hair, and delivered a flag and a handkerchief for the grand chief on his return. to these were added a knife, a handkerchief and a small piece of tobacco for each chief. the inhabitants did not give us any provisions gratuitously. we therefore purchased a quantity of fish, berries (chiefly red haws) and roots; and in the afternoon went on to the second village. the twisted-hair introduced us into his own tent, which consisted however of nothing more than pine bushes and bark, and gave us some dried salmon boiled. we continued our purchases, and obtained as much provision as our horses could carry in their present weak condition as far as the river. the men exchanged a few old canisters for dressed elk skins, of which they made shirts: great crowds of the natives are round us all night, but we have not yet missed any thing except a knife and a few other articles stolen yesterday from a shot pouch. at dark we had a hard wind from the southwest accompanied with rain which lasted half an hour, but in the morning, tuesday , the weather was fair. we sent back colter in search of the horses lost in the mountains, and having collected the rest set out at ten o'clock along the same route already passed by captain clarke towards the river. all round the village the women are busily employed in gathering and dressing the pasheco root, of which large quantities are heaped up in piles over the plain. we now felt severely the consequence of eating heartily after our late privations: captain lewis and two of the men were taken very ill last evening, and to-day he could scarcely sit on his horse, while others were obliged to be put on horseback, and some from extreme weakness and pain, were forced to lie down along side of the road for some time. at sunset we reached the island where the hunters had been left on the d. they had been unsuccessful, having killed only two deer since that time, and two of them are very sick. a little below this island is a larger one on which we encamped, and administered rush's pills to the sick. wednesday . the weather was very hot, and oppressive to the party, most of whom are now complaining of sickness. our situation indeed, rendered it necessary to husband our remaining strength, and it was determined to proceed down the river in canoes. captain clarke therefore set out with the twisted-hair and two young men, in quest of timber for canoes. as he went down the river he crossed at the distance of a mile a creek from the right, which from the rocks that obstructed its passage, he called rockdam river. the hills along the river are high and steep: the low grounds are narrow, and the navigation of the river embarrassed by two rapids. at the distance of three miles further he reached two nearly equal forks of the river, one of which flowed in from the north. here he rested for an hour, and cooked a few salmon which one of the indians caught with a gig. here too, he was joined by two canoes of indians from below: they were long, steady, and loaded with the furniture and provisions of two families. he now crossed the south fork, and returned to the camp on the south side, through a narrow pine bottom the greater part of the way, in which was found much fine timber for canoes. one of the indian boats with two men, set out at the same time, and such was their dexterity in managing the pole, that they reached camp within fifteen minutes after him, although they had to drag the canoe over three rapids. he found captain lewis, and several of the men still very sick; and distributed to such as were in need of it, salts and tartar emetic. thursday . having resolved to go down to some spot calculated for building canoes, we set out early this morning and proceeded five miles, and encamped on low ground on the south, opposite the forks of the river. but so weak were the men that several were taken sick in coming down; the weather being oppressively hot. two chiefs and their families followed us, and encamped with a great number of horses near us: and soon after our arrival we were joined by two indians, who came down the north fork on a raft. we purchased some fresh salmon, and having distributed axes, and portioned off the labour of the party, began, friday , at an early hour, the preparations for making five canoes. but few of the men, however, were able to work, and of these several were soon taken ill, as the day proved very hot. the hunters too, returned without any game, and seriously indisposed, so that nearly the whole party was now ill. we procured some fresh salmon; and colter, who now returned with one of the horses, brought half a deer, which was very nourishing to the invalids: several indians from a camp below, came up to see us. saturday . the men continue ill, though some of those first attacked are recovering. their general complaint is a heaviness at the stomach, and a lax, which is rendered more painful by the heat of the weather, and the diet of fish and roots, to which they are confined, as no game is to be procured. a number of indians collect about us in the course of the day to gaze at the strange appearance of every thing belonging to us. sunday . the morning was cool, the wind from the southwest; but in the afternoon the heat returned. the men continue ill; but all those who are able to work are occupied at the canoes. the spirits of the party were much recruited by three deer brought in by the hunters; and the next day, monday th, the sick began to recruit their strength, the morning being fair and pleasant. the indians pass in great numbers up and down the river, and we observe large quantities of small duck going down this morning. tuesday, october , . the morning was cool, the wind easterly, but the latter part of the day was warm. we were visited by several indians from the tribes below, and others from the main south fork. to two of the most distinguished men, we made presents of a ring and broach, and to five others a piece of riband, a little tobacco, and the fifth part of a neckcloth. we now dried our clothes and other articles, and selected some articles such as the indians admire, in order to purchase some provisions, as we have nothing left except a little dried fish, which operates as a complete purgative. wednesday . the day is very warm. two men were sent to the village with a quantity of these articles to purchase food. we are now reduced to roots, which produce violent pains in the stomach. our work continued as usual, and many of the party are convalescent. the hunters returned in the afternoon with nothing but a small prairie-wolf, so that our provisions being exhausted, we killed one of the horses to eat, and provide soup for the sick. thursday . the fine cool morning and easterly wind had an agreeable effect upon the party, most of whom are now able to work. the indians from below left us, and we were visited by others from different quarters. friday . again we had a cool east wind from the mountains. the men were now much better, and captain lewis himself so far recovered as to walk about a little. three indians arrived to-day from the great river to the south. the two men also returned from the village with roots and fish, and as the flesh of the horse killed yesterday was exhausted, we were confined to that diet, although unwholesome as well as unpleasant. the afternoon was warm. saturday . the wind easterly, and the weather cool. the canoes being nearly finished it became necessary to dispose of our horses. they were therefore collected to the number of thirty-eight, and being branded and marked were delivered to three indians, the two brothers and the son of a chief, who promises to accompany us down the river. to each of those men we gave a knife and some small articles, and they agreed to take good care of the horses till our return. the hunters with all their diligence are unable to kill any thing, the hills being high and rugged, and the woods too dry to hunt deer, which is the only game in the country. we therefore continue to eat dried fish and roots, which are purchased from the squaws, by means of small presents, but chiefly white beads, of which they are extravagantly fond. some of these roots seem to possess very active properties, for after supping on them this evening, we were swelled to such a degree as to be scarcely able to breathe for several hours. towards night we lanched two canoes which proved to be very good. sunday . this morning is again cool, and the wind easterly. the general course of the winds seems to resemble that which we observed on the east side of the mountain. while on the head waters of the missouri, we had every morning a cool wind from the west. at this place a cool breeze springs up during the latter part of the night, or near daybreak, and continues till seven or eight o'clock, when it subsides, and the latter part of the day is warm. captain lewis is not so well as he was, and captain clarke was also taken ill. we had all our saddles buried in a cache near the river, about half a mile below, and deposited at the same time a canister of powder, and a bag of balls. the time which could be spared from our labours on the canoes, was devoted to some astronomical observations. the latitude of our camp as deduced from the mean of two observations is ° ' " "' north. monday . this morning all the canoes were put in the water and loaded, the oars fixed, and every preparation made for setting out but when we were all ready, the two chiefs who had promised to accompany us, were not to be found, and at the same time we missed a pipe tomahawk. we therefore proceeded without them. below the forks this river is called the kooskooskee, and is a clear rapid stream, with a number of shoals and difficult places. for some miles the hills are steep, the low grounds narrow, but then succeeds an open country with a few trees scattered along the river. at the distance of nine miles is a small creek on the left. we passed in the course of the day ten rapids, in descending which, one of the canoes struck a rock, and sprung a leak: we however continued for nineteen miles, and encamped on the left side of the river, opposite to the mouth of a small run. here the canoe was unloaded and repaired, and two lead canisters of powder deposited; several camps of indians were on the sides of the river, but we had little intercourse with any of them. tuesday . we set out at nine o'clock. at eight and a half miles we passed an island: four and a half miles lower a second island, opposite a small creek on the left side of the river. five miles lower is another island on the left: a mile and a half below which is a fourth. at a short distance from this is a large creek from the right, to which we gave the name of colter's creek, from colter one of the men. we had left this creek about a mile and a half, and were passing the last of fifteen rapids which we had been fortunate enough to escape, when one of the canoes struck, and a hole being made in her side, she immediately filled and sunk. the men, several of whom could not swim, clung to the boat till one of our canoes could be unloaded, and with the assistance of an indian boat, they were all brought to shore. all the goods were so much wet, that we were obliged to halt for the night, and spread them out to dry. while all this was exhibited, it was necessary to place two sentinels over the merchandise, for we found that the indians, though kind and disposed to give us every aid during our distress, could not resist the temptation of pilfering some of the small articles. we passed during our route of twenty miles to-day, several encampments of indians on the islands, and near the rapids, which places are chosen as most convenient for taking salmon. at one of these camps we found our two chiefs, who after promising to descend the river with us, had left us; they however willingly came on board after we had gone through the ceremony of smoking. wednesday, . the morning was as usual, cool; but as the weather both yesterday and to-day was cloudy, our merchandise dried but slowly. the boat, though much injured, was repaired by ten o'clock so as to be perfectly fit for service; but we were obliged to remain during the day till the articles were sufficiently dry to be reloaded: the interval we employed in purchasing fish for the voyage and conversing with the indians. in the afternoon we were surprised at hearing that our old shoshonee guide and his son had left us, and been seen running up the river several miles above. as he had never given any notice of his intention, nor had even received his pay for guiding us, we could not imagine the cause of his desertion, nor did he ever return to explain his conduct. we requested the chief to send a horseman after him to request that he would return and receive what we owed him. from this however he dissuaded us, and said very frankly, that his nation, the chopunnish, would take from the old man any presents that he might have on passing their camp. the indians came about our camp at night, and were very gay and good-humoured with the men. among other exhibitions was that of a squaw who appeared to be crazy: she sang in a wild incoherent manner, and would offer to the spectators all the little articles she possessed, scarifying herself in a horrid manner if any one refused her present: she seemed to be an object of pity among the indians, who suffered her to do as she pleased without interruption. thursday, . a fine morning. we loaded the canoes and set off at seven o'clock. at the distance of two and a half miles we had passed three islands, the last of which is opposite to a small stream on the right. within the following three and a half miles is another island and a creek on the left, with wide low grounds, containing willow and cottonwood trees, on which were three tents of indians. two miles lower is the head of a large island, and six and a half miles further we halted at an encampment of eight lodges on the left, in order to view a rapid before us: we had already passed eight, and some of them difficult; but this was worse than any of them, being a very hazardous ripple strewed with rocks: we here purchased roots and dined with the indians. among them was a man from the falls, who says that he saw white people at that place and is very desirous of going down with us; an offer which however we declined. just above this camp we had passed a tent, near which was an indian bathing himself in a small pond or hole of water, warmed by throwing in hot stones. after finishing our meal we descended the rapid with no injury, except to one of our boats which ran against a rock, but in the course of an hour was brought off with only a small split in her side. this ripple, from its appearance and difficulty, we named the rugged rapid. we went on over five other rapids of a less dangerous kind, and at the distance of five miles reached a large fork of the river from the south; and after coming twenty miles, halted below the junction on the right side of the river: our arrival soon attracted the attention of the indians, who flocked in all directions to see us. in the evening the indian from the falls, whom we had seen at the rugged rapid, joined us with his son in a small canoe, and insisted on accompanying us to the falls. being again reduced to fish and roots we made an experiment to vary our food by purchasing* a few dogs, and after having been accustomed to horse-flesh, felt no disrelish to this new dish. the chopunnish have great numbers of dogs which they employ for domestic purposes, but never eat; and our using the flesh of that animal soon brought us into ridicule as dog-eaters. the country at the junction of the two rivers is an open plain on all sides, broken towards the left by a distant ridge of highland, thinly covered with timber: this is the only body of timber which the country possesses; for at the forks there is not a tree to be seen, and during almost the whole descent of sixty miles down the kooskooskee from its forks there are very few. this southern branch is in fact the main stream of lewis's river on which we encamped when among the shoshonees. the indians inform us that it is navigable for sixty miles; that not far from its mouth it receives a branch from the south; and a second and larger branch, two days' march up, and nearly parallel to the first chopunnish villages, we met near the mountains. this branch is called pawnashte, and is the residence of a chief, who, according to their expression, has more horses than he can count. the river has many rapids, near which are situated many fishing camps; there being ten establishments of this before reaching the first southern branch; one on that stream, five between that and the pawnashte; one on that river, and two above it; besides many other indians who reside high up on the more distant waters of this river. all these indians belong to the chopunnish nation, and live in tents of an oblong form, covered with flat roofs. at its mouth lewis's river is about two hundred and fifty yards wide, and its water is of a greenish blue colour. the kooskooskee, whose waters are clear as crystal, one hundred and fifty yards in width, and after the union the river enlarges to the space of three hundred yards: at the point of the union is an indian cabin, and in lewis's river a small island. the chopunnish or pierced-nose nation, who reside on the kooskooskee and lewis's rivers, are in person stout, portly, well-looking men: the women are small, with good features, and generally handsome, though the complexion of both sexes is darker than that of the tushepaws. in dress they resemble that nation, being fond of displaying their ornaments. the buffaloe or elk-skin robe decorated with beads, sea-shells, chiefly mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar and hung in the hair, which falls in front in two queues; feathers, paints of different kinds, principally white, green, and light blue, all of which they find in their own country: these are the chief ornaments they use. in the winter they wear a short shirt of dressed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins, and a plait of twisted grass round the neck. the dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long shirt of argalia or ibex skin, reaching down to the ankles without a girdle: to this are tied little pieces of brass and shells and other small articles; but the head is not at all ornamented. the dress of the female is indeed more modest, and more studiously so than any we have observed, though the other sex is careless of the indelicacy of exposure. the chopunnish have very few amusements, for their life is painful and laborious; and all their exertions are necessary to earn even their precarious subsistence. during the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. in the winter they hunt the deer on snow shoes over the plains, and towards spring cross the mountains to the missouri for the purpose of trafficking for buffaloe robes. the inconveniences of that comfortless life are increased by frequent encounters with their enemies from the west, who drive them over the mountains with the loss of their horses, and sometimes the lives of many of the nation. though originally the same people, their dialect varies very perceptibly from that of the tushepaws: their treatment to us differed much from the kind and disinterested services of the shoshonees: they are indeed selfish and avaricious; they part very reluctantly with every article of food or clothing; and while they expect a recompense for every service however small, do not concern themselves about reciprocating any presents we may give them. they are generally healthy--the only disorders which we have had occasion to remark being of a scrophulous kind, and for these, as well as for the amusement of those who are in good health, hot and cold bathing is very commonly used. the soil of these prairies is of a light yellow clay intermixed with small smooth grass: it is barren, and produces little more than a bearded grass about three inches high, and a prickly pear, of which we now found three species: the first is of the broad-leafed kind, common to the missouri. the second has the leaf of a globular form, and is also frequent on the upper part of the missouri, particularly after it enters the rocky mountains. the third is pecular to this country, and is much more inconvenient than the other two: it consists of small thick leaves of a circular form, which grow from the margin of each other as in the broad-leafed pear of the missouri: these leaves are armed with a greater number of thorns, which are stronger, and appear to be barbed; and as the leaf itself is very slightly attached to the stem, as soon as one thorn touches the moccasin it adheres and brings with it the leaf, which is accompanied by a reenforecement of thorns. end of volume . the journals of lewis and clark by meriwether lewis and and william clark - transcriber's note: these journals are from may , , the day the expedition left the mississippi river, to september , , a day or two after they arrived back in st. louis. it includes all possible journal entries of lewis and clark. most of the "courses and distances" and "celestial observations" have been omitted. the notes and most of the corrections of past editors have been removed. there are a few ocr errors, but most of the misspellings are almost years old. the dates with the names in the brackets are a little redundent. they are included to provide the correct date in a consistent format. pg editor's note: misspellings, inventive punctuation and lack of punctuation along with variable capitalization, and not entirely clear abbreviations have been left as is. dw [clark, may , ] may the th-monday set out from camp river a dubois at oclock p.m. and proceded up the missouris under sail to the first island in the missouri and camped on the upper point opposit a creek on the south side below a ledge of limestone rock called colewater, made / miles, the party consisted of , self one frenchman and men in the boat of ores, serjt. & french in a large perogue, a corp and soldiers in a large perogue. a cloudy rainey day. wind from the n e. men in high spirits [clark, may , ] monday may th rained the forepart of the day i determined to go as far as st. charles a french village leags. up the missourie, and wait at that place untill capt. lewis could finish the business in which he was obliged to attend to at st louis and join me by land from that place miles; by this movement i calculated that if any alterations in the loading of the vestles or other changes necessary, that they might be made at st. charles i set out at oclock p.m. in the presence of many of the neighbouring inhabitents, and proceeded on under a jentle brease up the missourie to the upper point of the st island miles and camped on the island which is situated close on the right (or starboard) side, and opposit the mouth of a small creek called cold water, a heavy rain this after-noon the course of this day nearly west wind from n. e [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th it rained during the greater part of last night and continued untill ock. a.m. after which the prarty proceeded, passed two islands and incamped on the stard. shore at mr. fifer's landing opposite an island, the evening was fair. some wild gees with their young brudes were seen today. the barge run foul three several times--on logs, and in one instance it was with much difficulty they could get her off; happily no injury was sustained, tho the barge was several minutes in eminent danger; this was cased by her being too heavily laden in the stern. persons accustomed to the navigation of the missouri and the mississippi also below the mouth of this river, uniformly take the precaution to load their vessels heavyest in the bow when they ascend the stream in order to avoid the danger incedent to runing foul of the concealed timber which lyes in great quantities in the beds of these rivers. [clark, may , ] tuesday --rained all last night and this morning untill oclock, all our fire extinguished, some provisions on the top of the perogus wet, i sent two men to the countrey to hunt, & proceed on at oclock, and proceeded on miles and camped at a mr pip. landing just below a coal bank on the south side the prarie comes with / of a mile of the river on the n. side i sent to the setlements in the pairie & purchased fowls &. one of the perogue are not sufficently maned to keep up. refurences from the th of may ( ) a large island to the starboard; ( ) passed a small island in the bend to the starbord, opposit passage de soux and with / miles of the mississippi, observed a number of gosselins on the edge of the river many passing down, strong water & wind from the n e--passed a place lbord called the plattes, a flat rock projecting from the foot of a hill, where there is a farm, ( ) pass an small isld near the center of the river, run on several logs this after noon, camped at mr. pipers landing. [clark, may , ] may th tuesday rained the greater part of the last night, and this morning untile oclock--at oclock set out and proceeded on miles passed two islands & incamped on the starbd. side at a mr. pipers landing opposit an island, the boat run on logs three times to day, owing her being too heavyly loaded a sturn, a fair after noon, i saw a number of goslings to day on the shore, the water excessively rapid, & banks falling in-. [clark, may , ] wednesday may th a fair morning, set out at oclock passed the coal hill (call by the natives carbonear) this hill appears to contain great quantytes of coal, and also ore of a rich appearance haveing greatly the resemblance of silver arrived opposit st charles at oclock, this village is at the foot of a hill from which it takes its real name peeteite coete or the little hill, it contains about indefferent houses, and abot inhabetents principally frinch, those people appear pore and extreemly kind, the countrey around i am told is butifull. interspursed with praries & timber alturnetly and has a number of american settlers took equal altituds with sextion m a ° ' " dined with the comdr. & mr. ducetts family--( ) passed an island on the l side just above the bank one just above, two small ones oposut under the st. shore, one on lb. side below st charles, arrived at this place at oclock a fine day [clark, may , ] may th wednesday a fair morning set out at oclk pass a remarkable coal hill on the larboard side called by the french carbonere, this hill appear to contain great quantity of coal & ore of a ____ appearance from this hill the village of st charles may be seen at miles distance--we arrived at st. charles at oclock a number spectators french & indians flocked to the bank to see the party. this village is about one mile in length, situated on the north side of the missourie at the foot of a hill from which it takes its name petiete coete or the little hill this village contns. about houses, the most of them small and indefferent and about inhabitents chiefly french, those people appear pore, polite & harmonious--i was invited to dine with a mr. ducett this gentleman was once a merchant from canadia, from misfortunes aded to the loss of a cargo sold to the late judge turner he has become somewhat reduced, he has a charming wife an eligent situation on the hill serounded by orchards & a excellent gardain. [clark, may , ] thursday the th a fine day men confined for misconduct, i had a court martial & punishment several indians, who informed me that the saukees had lately crossed to war against the osage nation som aplicasions, i took equal altitudes made the m a. to be ° ' " measured the missouries at this place and made it yards wide, in banks. a boat came up this evening, i punished hall agreeable to his sentence in part, a fine after noon; suped with mr. ducett an agreeable man more agreeable lady, this gentleman has a delightfull situation & garden. [clark, may , ] may the th thursday a fair day compelled to punish for misconduct. several kickapoos indians visit me to day, george drewyer arrive. took equal altitudes of suns l l made it ° ' " ap t. measured the river found it to be yards wide, a keel boat came up to day--several of the inhabitents came abord to day receved several speces of vegatables from the inhabitents to day [ordway, may , ] orders st. charles thursdy the th of may - a sergeant and four men of the party destined for the missourri expidition will convene at oclock to day on the quarter deck of the boat, and form themselves into a court martial to hear and determine (in behalf of the capt.) the evidences aduced against william warner & hugh hall for being absent last night without leave; contrary to orders;-& john collins st for being absent without leave-- nd for behaveing in an unbecomeing manner at the ball last night-- rdly for speaking in a language last night after his return tending to bring into disrespect the orders of the commanding officer signd. w. clark comdg. detail for court martial segt. john ordway prs. members r. fields r. windsor j. whitehouse jo. potts the court convened agreeable to orders on the th of may sgt. john ordway p. members joseph whitehouse rueben fields potts richard windsor after being duly sworn the court proceded to the trial of william warner & hugh hall on the following charges viz: for being absent without leave last night contrary to orders, to this charge the prisoners plead guilty. the court one of oppinion that the prisoners warner & hall are both guilty of being absent from camp without leave it being a breach of the rules and articles of war and do sentence them each to receive twentyfive lashes on their naked back, but the court recommend them from their former good conduct, to the mercy of the commanding officer.--at the same court was tried john collins charged st for being absent without leave-- d. for behaveing in an unbecomming manner at the ball last night idly for speaking in a languguage after his return to camp tending to bring into disrespect the orders of the commanding officer--the prisoner pleads guilty to the first charge but not guilty to the two last chrges.--after mature deliberation & agreeable to the evidence aduced. the court are of oppinion that the prisnair is guilty of all the charges alledged against him it being a breach of the rules & articles of war and do sentence him to receive fifty lashes on his naked back--the commanding officer approves of the proceedings & desicon of the court martial and orders that the punishment of john collins take place this evening at sun set in the presence of the party.--the punishment ordered to be inflicted on william warner & hugh hall, is remitted under the assurence arriveing from a confidence which the commanding officer has of the sincerity of the recommendation from the court.--after the punishment, warner hall & collins will return to their squads and duty the court is disolved. sign. wm. clark [clark, may , ] friday may the th a fine morning took equal altitude and made it ° ' " m. a i had the boat & pierogue reloded so as to cause them to be heavyer in bow than asturn recved of mr. lyon lb. tobacco on act. of mr. choteau gave out tin cups & knives to the french hands, mr. lauriesme returned from the kickapoo town to day delayed a short time & set out for st. louis, i sent george drewyer with mr. lauriesmus to st louis & wrote to cap lewis mr. ducett made me a present of rivr catts & some herbs our french hands bring me eggs milk &c. &. to day the wind hard from the s. w. two keel boats came up to this place to day from kentucky [clark, may , ] may the th friday a fine morning, i had the loading in the boat & perogue examined and changed so as the bow of each may be heavyer laded than the stern, mr. lauremus who had been sent by cap lewis to the kickapoo town on public business return'd and after a short delay proceeded on to st louis, i sent george drewyer with a letter to capt lewis two keel boats arrive from kentucky to day loaded with whiskey hats &c. &. the wind from the sw. took equal altitudes with sexetn made it ° ' " mt. [clark, may , ] satturday may the th a violent wind last night from the w. s w, suckceeded by rain with lasted som hours, a cloudy morning, many persons came to the boat to day i took equal altitudes. mar time ° ' " i heard of my brothers illness to day which has given me much concurn, i settle with the men and take receipts for pay up to the st of decr. next, i am invited to a ball in the village, let several of the men go,--r fields kill a deer george drewyear returned with a hundred dollars, he lost [clark, may , ] may th satturday a violent wind last night from the w. s. w. accompanied with rain which lasted about three hours cleared away this morn'g at oclock, i took receipt for the pay of the men up to the st. of decr. next, r. fields kill a deer to day, i recve an invitation to a ball, it is not in my power to go. george drewyer return from st louis and brought dollars, he lost a letter from cap lewis to me, seven ladies visit me to day [lewis, may , ] sunday may th the morning was fair, and the weather pleasent; at ock a m. agreably to an appointment of the preceeding day, i was joined by capt. stoddard, lieuts. milford & worrell together with messrs. a. chouteau, c. gratiot, and many other respectable inhabitants of st. louis, who had engaged to accompany me to the vilage of st. charles; accordingly at oclk after bidding an affectionate adieu to my hostis, that excellent woman the spouse of mr. peter chouteau, and some of my fair friends of st. louis, we set forward to that village in order to join my friend companion and fellow labourer capt. william clark who had previously arrived at that place with the party destined for the discovery of the interior of the continent of north america the first miles of our rout laid through a beatifull high leavel and fertile prarie which incircles the town of st. louis from n. w. to s. e. the lands through which we then passed are somewhat broken up fertile the plains and woodlands are here indiscriminately interspersed untill you arrive within three miles of the vilage when the woodland commences and continues to the missouri the latter is extreamly fertile. at half after one p.m. our progress was interrupted the near approach of a violent thunder storm from the n. w. and concluded to take shelter in a little cabbin hard by untill the rain should be over; accordingly we alighted and remained about an hour and a half and regailed ourselves with a could collation which we had taken the precaution to bring with us from st. louis. the clouds continued to follow each other in rapaid succession, insomuch that there was but little prospect of it's ceasing to rain this evening; as i had determined to reach st. charles this evening and knowing that there was now no time to be lost i set forward in the rain, most of the gentlemen continued with me, we arrived at half after six and joined capt clark, found the party in good health and sperits. suped this evening with monsr. charles tayong a spanish ensign & late commandant of st. charles at an early hour i retired to rest on board the barge--st. charles is situated on the north bank of the missouri miles above it's junction with the mississippi, and about the same distance n. w. from st. louis; it is bisected by one principal street about a mile in length runing nearly parrallel with the river, the plain on which it stands-is narrow tho sufficiently elivated to secure it against the annual inundations of the river, which usually happen in the month of june, and in the rear it is terminated by a range of small hills, hence the appellation of petit cote, a name by which this vilage is better known to the french inhabitants of the illinois than that of st. charles. the vilage contains a chappel, one hundred dwelling houses, and about inhabitants; their houses are generally small and but illy constructed; a great majority of the inhabitants are miserably pour, illiterate and when at home excessively lazy, tho they are polite hospitable and by no means deficient in point of natural genious, they live in a perfect state of harmony among each other; and plase as implicit confidence in the doctrines of their speritual pastor, the roman catholic priest, as they yeald passive obedience to the will of their temporal master the commandant. a small garden of vegetables is the usual extent of their cultivation, and this is commonly imposed on the old men and boys; the men in the vigor of life consider the cultivation of the earth a degrading occupation, and in order to gain the necessary subsistence for themselves and families, either undertake hunting voyages on their own account, or engage themselves as hirelings to such persons as possess sufficient capital to extend their traffic to the natives of the interior parts of the country; on those voyages in either case, they are frequently absent from their families or homes the term of six twelve or eighteen months and alwas subjected to severe and incessant labour, exposed to the ferosity of the lawless savages, the vicissitudes of weather and climate, and dependant on chance or accident alone for food, raiment or relief in the event of malady. these people are principally the decendants of the canadian french, and it is not an inconsiderable proportian of them that can boast a small dash of the pure blood of the aboriginees of america. on consulting with my friend capt. c. i found it necessary that we should pospone our departure untill p m. the next day and accordingly gave orders to the party to hold themselves in readiness to depart at that hour. captn. clark now informed me that having gotten all the stores on board the barge and perogues on the evening of the th of may he determined to leave our winter cantainment at the mouth of river dubois the next day, and to ascend the missouri as far as the vilage of st. charles, where as it had been previously concerted between us, he was to wait my arrival; this movement while it advanced us a small distance on our rout, would also enable him to determine whether the vessels had been judiciously loaded and if not timely to make the necessary alterations; accordingly at p.m. on monday the th of may , he embarked with the party in the presence of a number of the neighbouring citizens who had assembled to witness his departure. during the fore part of this day it rained excessively hard. in my last letter to the president dated at st. louis i mentioned the departure of capt. clark from river dubois on the th inst, which was the day that had been calculated on, but having completed the arrangements a day earlyer he departed on the th as before mentioned. on the evening of the th the party halted and encamped on the upper point of the first island which lyes near the larbord shore, on the same side and nearly opposite the center of this island a small creek disimbogues called couldwater. the course and distance of this day was west miles the wind from n. e. [clark, may , ] sunday th may a cloudy morning rained and a hard wind last night i continue to write rolls, send men to church to day one man sick capt lewis and several gentlemen arrive from st louis thro a violent shoure of rain, the most of the party go to the church. [clark, may , ] sunday th may a cloudy morning rained and hard wind from the ____ last night, the letter george lost yesterday found by a country man, i gave the party leave to go and hear a sermon to day delivered by mr. ____ a romon carthlick priest at oclock capt. lewis capt. stoddard accompanied by the officers & several gentlemen of st louis arrived in a heavy showr of rain mssr. lutenants minford & werness. mr. choteau grattiot, deloney, laber dee ranken dr. sodrang rained the greater part of this evening. suped with mr. charles tayon, the late comdt. of st charles a spanish ensign. [clark, may , ] monday st may dine with mr. ducete & set out from st. charles at three oclock after getting every matter arranged, proceeded on under a jentle breese, at one mile a violent rain with wind from the s. w. we landed at the upper point of the first island on the stbd side & camped, soon after it commenced raining & continued the greater part of the night; french men got leave to return to town, and return early (refur to fig. .) st refured to fig. left st. charles may st . steered n. ° w / ms n °w to the upper point of the island and camped dureing a rain which had been falling half an hour, opposit this isd. corns in a small creek on the st. sd. and at the head one on the ld. side rains powerfully. [clark, may , ] may st monday all the forepart of the day arranging our party and prcureing the different articles necessary for them at this place--dined with mr. ducett and set out at half passed three oclock under three cheers from the gentlemen on the bank and proceeded on to the head of the island (which is situated on the stbd side) miles soon after we set out to day a hard wind from the w. s w accompanied with a hard rain, which lasted with short intervales all night, opposit our camp a small creek corns in on the lbd side- [clark, may , ] tuesday may nd delayed a short time for the three french men who returned and we set out at oclock a cloudy morning rained violently hard last night saw several people on the bank to day & passed several small farms. capt. lewis walk on shore a little & passed a camp of kickapoo indians, & incamped in the mouth of a small creek in a large bend on the stbd side. [clark, may , ] may nd tuesday a cloudy morning delay one hour for french men who got liberty to return to arrange some business they had forgotten in town, at oclock we proceeded on, passed several small farms on the bank, and a large creek on the lbd. side called bonom a camp of kickapoos on the st. side those indians told me several days ago that they would come on & hunt and by the time i got to their camp they would have some provisions for us, we camped in a bend at the mo. of a small creek, soon after we came too the indians arrived with deer as a present, for which we gave them two qts. of whiskey- this day we passed several islands, and some high lands on the starboard side, verry hard water. [clark, may , ] wednesday may rd indians kick. came to camp with meat we recved their pesents of deer & gave them whisky. set out early run on a log under water and detained one hour proceeded on the same course of last night, ( miles) passed the mouth of a creek on the sbd. side called woman of osage river about yds. over, abounding in fish, stoped one hour where their was maney people assembled to see us, halted at an endented part of a rock which juted over the water, called by the french the tavern which is a cave yds. long with the river feet deep & about feet high, this is a place the indians & french pay omage to, many names are wrote up on the rock mine among others, at one mile above this rock coms in a small creek called tavern creek, abov one other small creek, camped at oclock (after expirencing great dificuselty in passing some drifts) on the stb side, examined the mens arms found all in good order except the detachment of solds in the perogue--r field killed a deer. [clark, may , ] may rd course of last night s w contined miles to the said point st. side passed the upper point of the island thence s ° w. miles to a pt. on st. sd. passing tavern island two small isd. in a bend to the st. side the mo. of oge womans river at m. the cave called the tavern, lbd side at m. situated in the clifts, opposit a small island on the stbd side (r. & jo. fields came in) with many people, passed the tavern cave, capt lewis assended the hill which has peninsulis projecting in raged points to the river, and was near falling from a peninsulia hard water all day saved himself by the assistance of his knife, passed a creek yds. wide at mile called creek of the tavern on the lbd. side, camped opposit the pt. which the last course was to. one man sick. [clark, may , ] may rd wednesday we set out early ran on a log and detained one hour, proceeded the course of last night miles to the mouth of a creek on the stbd. side called osage womans r, about yds. wide, opposit a large island and a settlement. (on this creek or famlys are settled) crossed to the settlemt. and took in r & jo. fields who had been sent to purchase corn & butter &c. many people came to see us, we passed a large cave on the lbd. side about feet wide feet deep & feet high many different immages are painted on the rock at this place. the inds & french pay omage. many hams are wrote on the rock, stoped about one mile above for capt lewis who had assended the clifts which is at the said cave fee high, hanging over the water, the water excessively swift to day, we incamped below a small isld. in the meadle of the river, sent out two hunters, one killed a deer this evening we examined the arms and amunition found those mens arms in the perogue in bad order a fair evening capt. lewis near falling from the pencelia of rocks feet, he caught at foot. [clark, may , ] thursday may the th set out early passed a small isd in the midlle of the river, opposit the on the lbd. side is projecting rock of / a mile in extent against which the current runs, this place is called the devils race grounds, above this coms in a small creek called the little quiver, a sand island on the stbd side, passed several islands & creeks, on the stbd side a small island on the lbd side above we wer verry near loseing our boat in toeing she struck the sands the violence of the current was so great that the toe roap broke, the boat turned broadside, as the current washed the sand from under her she wheeled & lodged on the bank below as often as three times, before we got her in deep water, nothing saved her but [clark, may , ] may th set out early, killed a deer last night. examined the mens arms, & saw that all was prepared for action, passed an island in the m. r, opposit a hard place of water called the devill race grown, s ° w miles to a point on the sd. starboard side n w to a point on lbd side ms. passd. a small willow island on the lbd. side to the point of a isd. l side--s ° w to a point on stbd side miles, passed the upper point of the island. crossed and in a verry bad place we got our boat a ground & she bocke the toe roap & turned the land, the in wheeling three times, got off returned to the head of the aforesaid island, and came up under a falling bank. hard water this place being the worst i ever saw, i call it the retregrade bend. camped at an old house. [clark, may , ] may th thursday set out early passed a verry bad part of the river called the deavels race ground, this is where the current sets against some projecting rocks for half a mile on the labd. side, above this place is the mouth of a small creek called queivere, passed several islands, two small creeks on the stbd. side, and passed between a isld. an the lbd. shore a narrow pass above this isld is a verry bad part of the river, we attempted to pass up under the lbd. bank which was falling in so fast that the evident danger obliged us to cross between the starbd. side and a sand bar in the middle of the river, we hove up near the head of the sand bar, the sand moveing & banking caused us to run on the sand. the swiftness of the current wheeled the boat, broke our toe rope, and was nearly over setting the boat, all hand jumped out on the upper side and bore on that side untill the sand washed from under the boat and wheeled on the next bank by the time she wheeled a rd time got a rope fast to her stern and by the means of swimmers was carred to shore and when her stern was down whilst in the act of swinging a third time into deep water near the shore, we returned, to the island where we set out and assended under the bank which i have just mentioned, as falling in, here george drewyer & willard, two of our men who left us at st. charles to come on by land joined us, we camped about mile above where we were so nearly being lost, on the labd side at a plantation. all in spirits. this place i call the retragrade bend as we were obliged to fall back miles [clark, may , ] may set out early course west to a point on sbd. side at miles passd a willow isd. in a bend to the lbd. a creek called wood rivr lbd. side n ° w. to a pt. on the sb. side miles passed the mouth of a creek st. side called le quever, this same course continued to a point ld. side / miles further. opposit a isd. on sd side passed a creek called r. la freeau at the pt. n ° w miles to a small french village called la charatt of five families only, in the bend to the starbord this is the last settlement of whites, an island opposit [clark, may , ] may th friday rain last night river fall several inches, set out early psd. several islands passed wood river on the lbd side at miles passed creek on the st. side called la querer at miles passed a creek at mile, opsd. an isd. on the lbd side, camped at the mouth of a creek called river a chauritte, above a small french village of houses and as many families, settled at this place to be convt. to hunt, & trade with the indians, here we met with mr. louisell imedeately down from the seeeder isld. situated in the countrey of the suxex leagues up he gave us a good deel of information some letters he informed us that he saw no indians on the river below the poncrars--some hard rain this evening the people at this village is pore, houses small, they sent us milk & eggs to eat. [clark, may , ] may th . set out at oclock after a hard rain & wind, & proceed on verry well under sale. wind from the e n e the wind favourable to day we made miles a cloud rais & wind & rain closed the day [clark, may , ] may the th sattarday . set out at oclock after a heavy shour of rain (george drewyer & john shields, sent by land with the two horses with directions to proceed on one day & hunt the next) the wind favourable from the e n e passed beef island and river on lbd side at / ms passed a creek on the lbd. side called shepperds creek, passed several islands to day great deal of deer sign on the bank one man out hunting, w camped on an island on the starboard side near the southern extrem of luter island. [lewis, may , ] detatchment orders. may th . the commanding officers direct, that the three squads under the command of sergts. floyd ordway and pryor heretofore forming two messes each, shall untill further orders constitute three messes only, the same being altered and organized as follows (viz) sergt. charles floyd. ( ) privates: hugh mcneal patric gass reubin fields ( ) john b thompson + john newman richard winsor + francis rivet & joseph fields ( ) sergt. john ordway. privates. william bratton ( ) john colter ( ) x moses b. reed alexander willard william warner silas goodrich john potts & hugh hall sergt. nathaniel pryor. ( ) privates. george gibson ( ) george shannon ( ) john shields ( ) john collins joseph whitehouse peter wiser f peter crusat & f francis labuche the commanding officers further direct that the remainder of the detatchmen shall form two messes; and that the same be constituded as follows. (viz) patroon, baptist dechamps engages etienne mabbauf paul primaut charles hébert baptist la jeunesse peter pinaut peter roi & joseph collin corpl. richard warvington. privates. robert frasier john boleye john dame ebinezer tuttle & isaac white the commanding officers further direct that the messes of sergts. floyd, ordway and pryor shall untill further orders form the crew of the batteaux; the mess of the patroon la jeunesse will form the permanent crew of the red perogue; corpl. warvington's mess forming that of the white perogue. whenever by any casualty it becomes necessary to furnish additional men to assist in navigating the perogues, the same shall be furnished by daily detale from the privates who form the crew of batteaux, exempting only from such detale, thomas p. howard and the men who are assigned to the two bow and the two stern oars.--for the present one man will be furnished daily to assist the crew of the white perogue; this man must be an expert boatman. the posts and duties of the sergts. shall be as follows (viz)--when the batteaux is under way, one sergt. shall be stationed at the helm, one in the center on the rear of the starboard locker, and one at the bow. the sergt. at the helm, shall steer the boat, and see that the baggage on the quarterdeck is properly arranged and stowed away in the most advantageous manner; to see that no cooking utensels or loos lumber of any kind is left on the deck to obstruct the passage between the burths--he will also attend to the compas when necessary. the sergt at the center will command the guard, manage the sails, see that the men at the oars do their duty; that they come on board at a proper season in the morning, and that the boat gets under way in due time; he will keep a good lookout for the mouths of all rivers, creeks, islands and other remarkable places and shall immediately report the same to the commanding officers; he will attend to the issues of sperituous liquors; he shall regulate the halting of the batteaux through the day to give the men refreshment, and will also regulate the time of her departure taking care that not more time than is necessary shall be expended at each halt--it shall be his duty also to post a centinel on the bank, near the boat whenever we come too and halt in the course of the day, at the same time he will (acompanied by two his guard) reconnoiter the forrest arround the place of landing to the distance of at least one hundred paces. when we come too for the purpose of encamping at night, the sergt. of the guard shall post two centinels immediately on our landing; one of whom shal be posted near the boat, and the other at a convenient distance in rear of the encampment; at night the sergt. must be always present with his guard, and he is positively forbidden to suffer any man of his guard to absent himself on any pretext whatever; he will at each relief through the night, accompanyed by the two men last off their posts, reconnoiter in every direction around the camp to the distance of at least one hundred and fifty paces, and also examine the situation of the boat and perogues, and see that they ly safe and free from the bank it shall be the duty of the sergt. at the bow, to keep a good look out for all danger which may approach, either of the enimy, or obstructions which may present themselves to passage of the boat; of the first he will notify the sergt. at the center, who will communicate the information to the commanding officers, and of the second or obstructions to the boat he will notify the sergt. at the helm; he will also report to the commanding officers through the sergt. at the center all perogues boats canoes or other craft which he may discover in the river, and all hunting camps or parties of indians in view of which we may pass. he will at all times be provided with a seting pole and assist the bowsman in poling and managing the bow of the boat. it will be his duty also to give and answer all signals, which may hereafter be established for the government of the perogues and parties on shore. the sergts. will on each morning before our departure relieve each other in the following manner--the sergt. at the helm will parade the new guard, relieve the sergt. and the old guard, and occupy the middle station in the boat; the sergt. of the old guard will occupy the station at the bow, and the sergt. who had been stationed the preceeding day at the bow will place himself at the helm.--the sergts. in addition to those duties are directed each to keep a seperate journal from day today of all passing occurences, and such other observations on the country &c. as shall appear to them worthy of notice the sergts. are relieved and exempt from all labour of making fires, pitching tents or cooking, and will direct and make the men of their several messes perform an equal propotion of those duties. the guard shall hereafter consist of one sergeant and six privates & engages. patroon, dechamp, copl. warvington, and george drewyer, are exempt from guad duty; the two former will attend particularly to their perogues at all times, and see that their lading is in good order, and that the same is kept perfectly free from rain or other moisture; the latter will perform certain duties on shore which will be assigned him from time to time. all other soldiers and engaged men of whatever discription must perform their regular tour of guad duty. all detales for guard or other duty will be made in the evening when we encamp, and the duty to be performed will be entered on, by the individuals so warned, the next morning.--provision for one day will be issued to the party on each evening after we have encamped; the same will be cooked on that evening by the several messes, and a proportion of it reserved for the next day as no cooking will be allowed in the day while on the mach sergt. john ordway will continue to issue the provisions and make the detales for guard or other duty.--the day after tomorrow lyed corn and grece will be issued to the party, the next day poark and flour, and the day following indian meal and poark; and in conformity to that ratiene provisions will continue to be issued to the party untill further orders.--should any of the messes prefer indian meal to flour they may recieve it accordingly--no poark is to be issued when we have fresh meat on hand. labuche and crusat will man the larboard bow oar alternately, and the one not engaged at the oar will attend as the bows-man, and when the attention of both these persons is necessary at the bow, their oar is to be maned by any idle hand on board. meriwether lewis capt. wm. clark cpt. [clark, may , ] sunday may th as we were setting out this morning two canoos loaded with bever elk deer skins & buffalow robes, from the mahars nation, they inform that they left that place months, a gentle breese from the s. e, we camped on an isd in the mouth of gasconade r, this river is yards wide a butifull stream of clear water. foot deep hills on the lower side [clark, may , ] may th sunday as we were pushing off this morning two canoos loaded with fur &c. came to from the mahars nation, which place they had left two months, at about oclock cajaux or rafts loaded with furs and peltres came too one from the paunees, the other from grand osage, they informed nothing of consequence, passed a creek on the lbd side called ash creek yds wide, passed the upper point of a large island on the stbd side back of which comes in three creeks one called orter creek, her the men we left hunting came in we camped on a willow island in the mouth of gasconnade river. george shannon killed a deer this evening [clark, may , ] monday th may rained hard all the last night some wind from the s w, one deer killed to day, one man fell in with six indians hunting, onloaded the perogue, & found several articles wet, some tobacco spoiled. river begin to rise [clark, may , ] may th munday gasconnade rained hard all last night some thunder & lightening hard wind in the forepart of the night from the s w. ruben fields killed a deer several hunter out to day i measured the river found the gasconnade to be yds. wide and foot deep the course of this r. is s ° w, one of the hunters fell in with inds. hunting, onloaded the large perogue on board of which was french hands found many things wet by their cearlenessness, put all the articles which was wet out to dry--this day so cloudy that no observations could be taken, the river begin to rise, examine the mens arms and equapage, all in order [clark, may , ] tuesday th may sent out hunters, got a morning obsvtn and one at oclock, rained last night, the river rises fast the musquetors are verry bad, load the pierogue [clark, may , ] may th set out from the mouth of the gasconnade, where we took obsevn &c. left a perogue for a man lost in the woods, course n. w m to a point lb. side. passed the isd. on which we camped, river still rised, water verry muddey n. ° w ms. to a pt. on lb side passed two willow islands first smaller and a creek on lbd. called deer creek one oposit the point st. side and incamped on the lb side rain all night the tents together along the n; w poles s w, to the point above--s ° to the pot below the river [clark, may , ] may th tuesday rained last night, cloudy morning hunters sent out with orders to return at oclock took equal altitudes of suns lower limb found it ° ' " cap lewis observed meridean altitude of sun u l-back observation with the octant & artificeal horozen--gave for altitude on the limb ° ' " sun octant error + had the perogues loaded and all perpared to set out at oclock after finishing the observations & all things necessary found that one of the hunters had not returned, we deturmined to proceed on & leave one perogue to wate for him, accordingly at half past four we set out and came on miles & camped on the lbd side above a small creek called deer creek, soon after we came too we heard several guns fire down the river, we answered them by a discharge of a swivile on the bow [clark, may , ] may th, wednesday, set out at oclock after a heavy rain, rained all last night, a little after dark last night several guns were herd below, i expect the french men fireing for whitehous who was lost in the woods. [clark, may , ] may th wednesday rained all last night set out at oclock after a heavy shower, and proceeded on, passed a large island a creek opposit on the st. side just abov a cave called monbrun tavern & river, passed a creek on the lbd. side call rush creek at miles several showers of rain the current verry swift river riseing fast passed big miry river at miles on the starboard side, at the lower point of a island, this river is about yards wide, camped at the mouth of a creek on lbd sd of abt yds. wide called grinestone creek, opposit the head of a isd. and the mouth of little miry river on the st side, a heavy wind accompanied with rain & hail we made miles to day, the river continue to rise, the county on each side appear full of water. [clark, may , ] may st thursday rained the greater part of last night, the wind from the west raised and blew with great force untile oclock p.m.which obliged us to lay by a cajaux of bear skins and pelteries came down from the grand osarge, one french man one indian, and a squar, they had letters from the man mr. choteau sent to that part of the osarge nation settled on arkansa river mentioning that his letter was commited to the flaims, the inds. not believeing that the americans had possession of the countrey they disregarded st louis & their supplies &c.--several rats of considerable size was cought in the woods to day--capt lewis went out to the woods & found many curious plants & srubs, one deer killed this evening [clark, june , ] june st friday set out early, the same course s ° w of wednesday contd. ms passed the mouth of little miry on the stb & high rich land on the lb side, s. °w to an island opposit a hill on the s. sd. ms. this isd is on the lbd. passed the mo. of bear creek yds wide at ms. & three small isd., some swift water and banks falling in, wind a head from the west, s ° w ms. to the pt. above the mouth of osage river larb side, camped fell a number of trees in the point to take observation a fair after noon, sit up untill oclock to take som observations &c. [clark, june , ] june st friday set out early a fair morning passed the mouth bear creek yds. wide at miles, several small islands in the river the wind a head from the west the current exceedingly rapid came to on the point of the osarges river on the labd side of missouries this osages river verry high, felled all the trees in the point to make observations sit up untill oclock taken oservation this night [clark, june , ] june nd--took the dirts. of son & moon &c &c. i measured the osage & missouris at this place made ther width as follows, the missoure yd. wide the osage r yds. wide, the distance between the rivers poles up is ps. took equal altitudes & mredian altitude also-and made them ____ i assended the hill in the point ps. from the pt. found it about foot high, on the top is graves, or mouns, a delightfull prospect from this hill which comds. both rivers drewyer & shields came to the opposit side to day at sunset we sent across & brought them over, they had been absent days swam many creeks, much worsted. they informed us that the countrey on both sides of muddy river's to the hill called by the french ____ ms. below this place, a small praries below the hill, deer killed to day i assend a hill &. after measuring the river &c. &c. &c. [clark, june , ] june nd satturday cap lewis took the time & distance of suns & moons nearest limbs, the sun east--and meridean altitude of suns u. l. with octant, back observation gave for altitude ° " ". error of octant ° ' " +. made several other observations--i made an angle for the wedth of the two rivers. the missourie from the point to the n. side is yards wide the osage river from the point to the s. e side is yards wide, the destance between the two rivers at the pt. of high land (ioo foot above the bottom) and poles up the missouries from the point is poles, on the top of this high land under which is a limestone rock two mouns or graves are raised--from this pt. which comds both rivers i had a delightful) prospect of the missouries up & down, also the osage r. up. george drewyer & john shields who we had sent with the horses by land on the n side joined us this evening much worsted, they being absent seven days depending on their gun, the greater part of the time rain, they were obliged to raft or swim many creeks, those men gave a flattering account of the countrey commencing below the first hill on the n side and extendg parrelal with the river for or ms. the two muddey river passing thro & som fine springs & streams our hunters kill several deer to day, some small licks on the s e of the osage river. [clark, june , ] june sunday rd the fore part of the day fair i attempted to take equal alltitudes, & m altitudes, but was disapointed, the clouds obsured the sun, took the d. of sun & moon capt lewis & george drewyer went out & killed a deer, we set out at oclock p m cloudy & rain, west ms. to the mo. of murrow creek lb sd. a pt. st. side keeping along the lbd side ms., passed the mouth of a creek on lbd side ms., i call cupboard, creek, mouths behind a rock which projects into the river, camped in the mouth of the creek aforesaid, at the mouth of this creek i saw much fresh signs of indians, haveing crossed deer killed to day. i have a verry sore throat, & am tormented with musquetors & small ticks. [clark, june , ] june rd sunday the forepart of the day fair took meridional altitude of suns u:l with the octant and glass horrison adjusted back observation. the instrument gave ° ' "--it was cloudy and the suns disk much obsured, and cannot be depended on. we made other observations in the evening after the return of capt lewis from a walk of three or four ms. round--we set out at oclock p.m. proceeded on five miles to the mouth of a creek on the l. s. yds. wide called murow, passed a creek at ms. which i call cupbord creek as it mouths above a rock of that appearance. several deer killed to dayat the mouth of the murow creek i saw much sign of war parties of inds. haveing crossed from the mouth of this creek. i have a bad cold with a sore throat. near west miles [clark, june , ] june th monday, a fair day sent out hunters, our mast broke by the boat running under a tree passed an islands on stbd side on which grow seeder a creek at ____ miles on the starbd sd. course n. ° w ms. to pt. on st. side below d isd. passed a creek on lbd side yd. wide, i call nightingale creek. this bird sang all last night and is the first of the kind i ever herd, below this creek and the last passed a small isd on the stbd. n. w. ms. to a pt. on st. sd. passed a sm. isd. on st. sd. and seeder creek on the same side yds wide passed a creek on lbd sd. yd wide, i call mast creek, this is a short creek, fine land above & below the mouth. jentle rise of about foot, delightfull timber of oake ash walnut hickory &c. &c. wind from n w. by w. n. ° w. / ms. passed a creek called zoncar on the lbd side, n w me. to a pt, s. sd. called batue a de charm, a plain on the hill opposit. i got out & walked on the l sd. thro a charming bottom of rich land about one mile then i assended a hill of about foot on the top of which is a moun and about acres of land of dead timber on this hill one of the party says he has found lead ore a verry extensive cave under this hill next the river, the land on the top is fine, this is a very bad part of the river seven deer killed to day by our hunters--one of the horses is snaged, the other lost his shous to day the bottom on the st. side to day is covered with rushes, not verry good ____ the high land comes to the bank on the labd side and good d rate land. [clark, june , ] june th monday a fair day three men out on the right flank passed a large island on the st. side called seeder island, this isd. has a great deel of ceedar on it, passed a small creek at ms. yd. wide which we named nightingale creek from a bird of that discription which sang for us all last night, and is the first of the kind i ever heard. passed the mouth of seeder creek at ms. on the s. s. abt. yds. wide above some small isds. passed a creek on the l. s. abt. yds. wide. mast creek, here the sergt. at the helm run under a bending tree & broke the mast, some delightful) land, with a jentle assent about the creek, well timbered, oake, ash, walnut &c. &c. passed, wind n w. by w. passed a small creek called zan can c on the l. s; at this last point i got out and walked on the l. sd. thro a rush bottom for miles & a short distance thro nettles as high as my brest assended a hill of about foot to a place where the french report that lead ore has been found, i saw no mineral of that description, capt lewis camped imediately under this hill, to wate which gave me some time to examine the hill, on the top is a moun of about foot high and about acres of land which the large timber is dead in decending about foot a projecting lime stone rock under which is a cave at one place in this projecting rocks i went on one which spured up and hung over the water from the top of this rock i had a prospect of the river for or ms. up, from the cave which incumposed the hill i decended by a steep decent to the foot, a verry bad part of the river opposit this hill, the river continu to fall slowly, our hunters killed deer to day the land our hunters passed thro to day on the s. s. was verry fine the latter part of to day. the high land on the s. s. is about d rate [clark, june , ] june th tuesday, jurked the vennison killed yesterday, after seting over the scouting party or hunder of men set out at oclock course n ° w to a pt. on s. sd. ms. passed a creek on l. sd. i call lead c of yds passed one on the s. called lit. good-womans creek about yds. wide passed a willow isd. a butifull prarie approaching near the river above lead c & extends to the mine river in a westerly derection, passed the mouth of the creek of the big rock yds wide at ms. on the lbd sd. at oclock brought a caissie in which was men, from league up the kansias river, where they wintered and caught a great qty of beever but unfortunatey lost it by the burning of the plains, the kansas nation hunted on the missourie last winter and are now persueing the buffalow in the plains, passed a projecting rock called the manitou a painting from this deavel to the pt. on the lbd side n ° w / ms. the same course / ms. creek cld. manitou passed a on the lbd. side about yd. wide, a sand bar in the middle of the river passed up between the sand & l. shore one mile to a small creek yd. wide, (i call sand c). we run on the sand and was obliged to return to the starbd side, i am verry unwell with a slight feever from a bad cold caught three days ago at the grand so r--passed a small willow isd. on s. side, a large one in the middle of the river, york swam to the isd. to pick greens, and swam back with his greens, the boat drew too much water to cross the quick sands which intervened, she draws foot water, a fair wind our mast being broke by accidence provented our takeing the advantage of it passed the lower point of a large island, opposit the current devides between small isds on the st side. we found the water excessively hard for miles as we were oblged to pass up the center of the current between two of the isds. & round the heads of the other the current setting imediately against the points which was choked up with drift for a mile--above those isd. on the st. side we camped altogether our hunter or spis discovered the sign of a war party of abt. men [clark, june , ] june th tuesday after jurking the meet killed yesterday and crossing the hunting party we set out at oclock, from the last course & distance, n ° w. ms. to a pt. on the st. sd. passed a small creek on the ld. s. i call lead c. passed a creek on the s. s. of yds. wide cald. lit. good womans c. on the l. s. a prarie extends from lead c. parrelel with the river to mine river, at ms. passed the creek of the big rock about yds. wide on the l. sd. at oclock brought too a small caissee in which was two french men, from leagues up the kansias r. where they wintered, and cought a great quantity of beaver, the greater part of which they lost by fire from the praries, those men inform that the kansas nation are now out in the plains hunting buffalow, they hunted last winter on this river passed a projecting rock on which was painted a figue and a creek at ms. above called little manitou creek from the painted rock this creek yds. wide on the l. sd. passed a small creek on l. s. opposit a verry bad sand bar of several ms. in extent, which we named sand c here my servent york swam to the sand bar to geather greens for our dinner and returnd with a sufficent quantity wild creases or teng grass, we passed up for ms on the l. s. of this sand and was obliged to return, the watr. uncertain the quick sand moveing we had a fine wind, but could not make use of it, our mast being broke, we passed between small islands in the middle of the current, & round the head of three a rapid current for one mile and camped on the s. s. opsd. a large island in the middle of the river; one perogue did not get up for two hours, our scout discovd. the fresh sign of about inds. i expect that those indians are on their way to war against the osages nation probably they are the saukees [clark, june , ] wednesday the th of june . mended our mast this morning and set out at oclock, under a jentle braise from the s, e by s n ° w / miles to a hill on st sd. passg the n. beige of the island called split rock island, the river rose last night a foot the countrey about this isd. is delightfull large rush bottom of rushes below on the st. side n ° w, / ms. to the mouth of split rock river ____ yds. wide on the starboard side opod. the pt. of a isd. passed a place in the projecting rock called the hole thro the rock, a round cave pass thro the pt. of rock's west / ms. to a pt. on std. sd. opposit a clift of rocks abt foot n ° w. ms / to a pt. on l. side passed saline creek on the l. side a large salt lick & spring me. up the creek, one bushel of water will make lb. of good salt (information) took meridian altitude of sun limb. ° ' " equat to ____ of lattidude. on this creek, so great a no of salt springs are on it that the water is brackish n ° w to a belge of an isd on the s. sd. at ms. passed a willow isd. in middle, some wind in the after part of to day from the s e, (the banks are falling in greatly in this part of the river) as also is one side or the other in all the course, we assended on the north side of the isd. and finding that the perogues could not keep up camped hs. by sun. on the sd sd the land below this is good. [clark, june , ] june th wednesday mended our mast this morning &, set out at oclock under a jentle breise from s. e. by s passed the large island, and a creek called split rock creek at ms. on the s. s. psd. a place to the rock from which yds we. this creek takes its name, a projecting rock with a hole thro a point of the rock, at ms. passed the mouth of a creek called saline or salt r on the l. sd. this river is about yds. wide, and has so many licks & salt springs on its banks that the water of the creek is brackish, one verry large lick is ms. up on the left side the water of the spring in this lick is strong as one bushel of the water is said to make lb. of good salt passed a large isd. & several small ones, the water excessivly strong, so much so that we camped sooner than the usial time to waite for the pirogue, the banks are falling in verry much to day river rose last night a foot. capt. lewis took meridean altd. of suns u. l. with the octant above split rock c. &made the altitude ° ' error of octt. as useal ° ' " + the countrey for several miles below is good, on the top of the high land back is also tolerable land some buffalow sign to day i am still verry unwell with a sore throat & head ake [clark, june , ] thursday th of june set out early passed the head of the isd from the isd. n. ° w. to the mouth of a creek called big monitu on st. sd. / ms. psd. a sand bar in the river, som buffalow sign sent out george drewyer & newmon to hunt capt lewis and men went to a lick up this creek on the right side over mes. & other not far above the water runs out of the bank & not verry strong. to g for a bushell. s ° w. miles to a pt. on lbd. side, high bluff on the stbd. side, monitou creek is yds. wide at the mouth, passed a painted part of a projecting rock we found ther a den of rattle snakes, killed proceeded on passed, s °w ms. to apt. on s. side passed an island in the middle of the river, s. ° w. to a pt. of high land on the l. s. pass'g over the middle of a willow island, ms. / proceed on / a mile on this course a camped at the mouth of good womans river on the s. s. about yds wide, & navagable som d. our hunters brought in bear this evening-& infd. that the countrey between this r. & the monitou r is rich and well watered, capt. lewis went out an hour this evening [clark, june , ] june th thursday set out early passed the head of the island opposit which we camped last night, and brackfast at the mouth of a large creek on the s. s. of yds wide called big monetou, from the pt. of the isd. or course of last night to the mouth of this creek is n ° w / ms. a short distance above the mouth of this creek, is several courious paintings and carveing in the projecting rock of limestone inlade with white red & blue flint, of a verry good quallity, the indians have taken of this flint great quantities. we landed at this inscription and found it a den of rattle snakes, we had not landed minutes before three verry large snakes wer observed on the crevises of the rocks & killed--at the mouth of the last mentioned creek capt. lewis took four or five men & went to some licks or springs of salt water from two to four miles up the creek on rt. side the water of those springs are not strong, say from to gs. of water for a bushel of salt passed some small willow islands and camped at the mouth of a small river called good womans river this river is about yards wide and said to be navagable for perogues several leagues capt. lewis with men went up the creek a short distance. our hunters brought in three bear this evening, and informs that the countrey thro which they passed from the last creek is fine rich land, & well watered. [clark, june , ] june th friday set out at daylight proceeded on the course of last night s ° w ms passed a willow island, from the point of last course s ° w. ms. to a pt. on s. s. passd a ____ isd. in the middle of the river, passd a run on the ld s. above a pt. of rocks ms. on which thir is a number of deer licks, n ° w. ms. to a pt l s. n. ° w ms. to the mo of mine river, psd an isd.--this river is yards wide & navagable for perogues about ms. i went out on the l s. about ms. below this r. and found the countrey for one mile back good land and well watered the hills not high with a gentle assent from the river, well timbered with oake, walnit hickory ash, &c. the land still further back becoms thin and open, with black & rasp berries, and still further back the plains commence, the french inform that lead ore is found on this river in several places, it heads up between the osagees & kansas river the right hand folk passes in a short distance of the missourie at the antient little ozages villages our hunter killed, deer, after staying one hour at the mouth of this river, cap lewis went out & proceeded on one mile & came in, he fount the land in the point high and fine course n. ° w ms. to a pt. on s. s. n. ° w to the lower pot a id. on l. s. passed a small isd. in the m. r. at ( ms.) met men on a caussee from r dis soux, above the mahar nation loaded with fur. camped on the lower point of an id. l. s. called the mills, here i found kegs an pummey stone, and a place that fur or skins had been burred by the hunters our hunters killed deer, some rain, the countrey on the s. s. is verry fine [clark, june , ] th of june, friday set out this morning at daylight proceeden on the course of last night passed two willow islands & a small creek above a rock point on the l. s. at miles on which there is a number of deer licks, passed the mine river at ms. this river is about yards wide at its mouth and is said to be navagable for perogues or ms. the main branch passes near the place where the little osage village formerly stood on the missouries, & heads between the osarge & kansias rivers, the left hand fork head with nearer branches of the osage river, the french inform that lead ore has been found in defferent parts of this river, i took sjt. floyd and went out ms. below this river, i found the land verry good for a mile or / ms. back and sufficiently watered with small streams which lost themselves in the missouries bottom, the land rose gradeuelly from the river to the summit of the high countrey which is not more that foot above high water mark, we joined the boat & dined in the point above the mouth of this river, capt. lewis went out above the river & proceeded on one mile, finding the countrey rich, the wedes & vines so thick & high he came to the boat--proceeded on passed an island and camped at the lower point of an island on the l. s. called the island of mills about ms. above mine river at this place i found kanteens, axs, pumey stone & peltrey hid & buried (i suppose by some hunters) none of them (except the pumey stone) was teched by one of our party, our hunters killed deer to day, commenced raining soon after we came too which prevented the party cooking their provisions- our spies inform that the countrey they passed thro on s. s. is a fine high bottom, no water. this day we met men on a cajaux from the river of the soux above the mahar nation those men had been hunting mo. & made about $ in pelts. & furs they were out of provesions and out of powder. rained this night [clark, june , ] th of june satterday set out early, water verry swift got fast on a log, detained us / hour hard rain last night. n ° w / ms. to a pt. on the s. s. opposit the commencement of the st prarie, called prarie of the arrows, the river at this place about yds. wide passed a small creek, arrow creek yds. wide l. sd. the current exceedingly strong n ° e ms. to the belg of a small island situated on the l. sd. passed the mo. of arrow creek n °w / ms. to a pt on l. s. opposit black bird c small passed the head of the isd. & a small willow one to the l. s. (os merdn. altd. back obsvn. ' ) n. ° w ms. to a pt. of high land on the l. side opst. a pt. on st. s. river about yds. wide at this pt. a wind from the s at oclock (handson sutn) on the high pt. a prarie & small lake below n ° e / ms. to a pt. on l. s. passed an isld. in the mid r--in passing up on the s. s. opsd. the isd. the sturn of the boat struck a log which was not proceiveable the curt. struck her bow and turn the boat against some drift & snags which below with great force; this was a disagreeable and dangerous situation, particularly as immense large trees were drifting down and we lay imediately in their course,--some of our men being prepared for all situations leaped into the water swam ashore with a roap, and fixed themselves in such situations, that the boat was off in a fiew minits, i can say with confidence that our party is not inferior to any that was ever on the waters of the missoppie we crossed to the island and camped, our hunters lay on the s. s. the wind from the s. w. the river continue to rise slowly current excessive rapid--the countrey on the s. s. high bottom & delghtfull land that on the l. s. is up land or hills of from to foot higher than the bottom & a thinly wooded, countrey, lands tolerably good; comminced raining at oclock and continued by intervales the greater part of the night. we discovered that one of our french hands had a conpt.--we commsd doctering, i hope the success in this case, usial to [clark, june , ] th of june satturday a fair morning, the river rise a little we got fast on a snag soon after we set out which detained us a short time passed the upper point of the island several small chanels running out of the river below a bluff & prarie (called the prariee of arrows) where the river is confined within the width of yds. passed a creek of yds. wide called creek of arrows, this creek is short and heads in the praries on the l. s. passed a small creek called blackbird creek s. s. and one islands below & a prarie above on the l. s. a small lake above the prarie--opposit the lower point of the d. island on the s. s. we had like to have stove our boat, in going round a snag her stern struck a log under water & she swung round on the snag, with her broad side to the current expd. to the drifting timber, by the active exertions of our party we got her off in a fiew mints. without engerey and crossed to the island where we campd. our hunters lay on the s. s. the perogue crossed without seeing them & the banks too uncertain to send her over- some wind from the s accompanied with rain this evening--the lands on the s. s. is a high rich bottom the l. s. appears oven and of a good quallity runing gradually to from fifty to foot. [clark, june , ] june th sunday some rain last night we set out early saw a number of goslings this morning, continued on the course of last night, thence n. e. / ms. to a pt. on the l. s. passed a part of the river that the banks are falling in takeing with them large trees of cotton woods which is the common groth in the bottoms subject to the flud north me along the l. side n. ° w. ms. along the l, s. opposit the two charletons, on the n. side, those rivers mouth together, the st yds. wide the next yds. wide and navagable some distance in the countrey, the land below is high & not verry good. came to and took mdnl. altd. of sons u. l. back obsvn. with the octant made it ° ' ", delayed / hour. n. ° w / of a me. along the l. sd.--s ° w / m. on l. s. the same course to the pt. s. s. / ms. we halted and capt lewis killed a buck the current is excessively swift about this place n. ° w. ms to a pt. on s. s. passed a isd. called sheeco islan wind from the n w camped in a prarie on the l. s., capt lewis & my self walked out ms. found the country roleing open & rich, with plenty of water, great qts of deer i discovered a plumb which grows on bushes the hight of hasle, those plumbs are in great numbers, the bushes beare verry full, about double the sise of the wild plumb called the osage plumb & am told they are finely flavoured. [clark, june , ] th of june a hard rain last night, we set out this morning verry early passed some bad placies in the river saw a number of goslings morning pass near a bank which was falling in at the time we passed, passed the two river of charletons which mouth together, above some high land which has a great quantity of stone calculated for whetstons the first of those rivers is about yds. wide & the other is yds wd. and heads close to the r. dumoin the aieways nation have a village on the head of these river they run through an even countrey and is navagable for perogues cap lewis took medn. altd. of sun u. l with octant, back obsvn. made it ° ' "--delayd / hours. capt. lewis killed a large buck, passed a large isd. called shecco and camped in a prarie on the l. s. i walked out three miles, found the prarie composed of good land and plenty of water roleing & interspursed with points of timberd land, those praries are not like those, or a number of those e. of the mississippi void of every thing except grass, they abound with hasel grapes & a wild plumb of a superior quallity, called the osages plumb grows on a bush the hight of a hasel and hang in great quantities on the bushes i saw great numbers of deer in the praries, the evening is cloudy, our party in high spirits. [clark, june , ] june monday--as the wind blew all this day from the n, w. which was imedeately a head we could not stur, but took the advantage of the delay and dried our wet articles examined provisons and cleaned arms, my cold is yet verry bad--the river begining to fall our hunters killed two deer, g drewry killed bear in the prareie to day, men verry lively danceing & singing &c. [clark, june , ] th june monday the n w. wind blew hard & cold as this wind was imediately a head, we could not proceed we took the advantage of this delay and dried our wet articles examin'd provisions &c. &c. the river begining to fall the hunters killed two deer g. drewyer killed two bear in the prarie, they were not fat. we had the meat jurked and also the venison, which is a constant practice to have all the fresh meat not used, dried in this way. [clark, june , ] th of june, tuesday we set out early, passed thro a verry bad bend n. ° w. / to apt. l. s. n. ° w. / ms to apt. on s. s. passed a sand bar-n ° w / ms. to a pt. on s. s. passed plumb. c at / a me. on l. s. and halted to dine, and caussease came down from the soux nation, we found in the party an old man who had been with the soux years & had great influence with them, we provld. on this old man mr. duriaur to return with us, with a view to get some of the soux chiefs to go to the u. s. purchased lb. of voyagers grece @ $ hd. made some exchanges & purchuses of mockersons & found it late & concluded to incamp. those people inform that no indians are on the river, the countrey on each side of the river is good [clark, june , ] th of june, tuesday set out early passed some bad placies, and a small creek on the l. s. called plumb creek at abt. me. at oclock we brought too two chaussies one loaded with furs & pelteries, the other with greece buffalow grease & tallow we purchased lb. of greese, and finding that old mr. durioun was of the party we questioned him untill it was too late to go further and concluded to camp for the night, those people inform nothing of much information colcluded to take old durioun back as fur as the soux nation with a view to get some of their chiefs to visit the presdt. of the united s. (this man being a verry confidential friend of those people, he having resided with the nation odd years) and to accompany them on [clark, june , ] th june wednesday we set out early passed a verry round bend to l. s. passed two creeks me. apt. called creeks of the round bend, between those creeks stbd s. is a butifull prarie, in which the antient missourie indians had a village, at this place of them were killed by the saukees, a fair day. passed the antient missouries villages on right course n ° w / pt. l s., s ° w ms. pt. s. s., this nation once the most noumerous is now almost extinct, about of them, liveing with otteaus on the r. platt, the remainder all distroyed, took altd. of s. u l with qdt. which gave n w. / ms to a pt. s. s. passed some charming land, i have not seen any high hils above charliton and the hits below for several days cannot to turmed hills but high land, not exceeding abov the high water mark n ° w, to a pt. l. s. ms. passed a verry bad sand bar, where the boat was nearly turning & fastening in the quick sand and came too in the mouth of grand r. s. s. this river is about yards wide and navigable for purogues a great distance, it heads with the river dumoine, passing the river carlton. a butifull open prarie coms to the river below its mouth, we landed and walked to the hills which is abt. / a mile. the lower prarie over flows. the hunters killd. a bare & dere, this is a butifull place the prarie rich & extinsive, took some looner observations which kept cap l. & my self up untill half past oclock. [clark, june , ] th june wednesday, we set out early passed a round bend to the s. s. and two creeks called the round bend creeks between those two creeks and behind a small willow island in the bend is a prarie in which the missouries indians once lived and the spot where of them fell a sacrifise to the fury of the saukees this nation (missouries) once the most noumerous nation in this part of the continent now reduced to about fes. and that fiew under the protection of the otteaus on r platt who themselves are declineing passed som willow isds. and bad sand bars, twook medn. altitude with octent back observation it gave for altd. on its low l ° ' " the e enstrement ° ' " +. the hills or high land for several days past or above the charletons does not exceed foot passed a batteau or sand roleing where the boat was nearly turning over by her strikeing & turning on the sand. we came too in the mouth of grand river on s. s. and camped for the night, this river is from to yards wide at its mouth and navagable for perogues a great distance this river heads with the r. dumoine below its mouth is a butifull plain of bbttom land the hills rise at / a mile back the lands about this place is either plain or over flown bottom capt lewis and my self walked to the hill from the top of which we had a butifull prospect of serounding countrey in the open prarie we caught a racoon, our hunters brought in a bear & deer we took some luner observation this evening. [clark, june , ] th june, thursday we set out at oclock after a thick fog proceeded on verry well s. w ms. to the lower pt of an isld. s. s. s. ° w. thro a narrow me channel to a small prarie s. s. opposit this isd. on l. l. is a butifull high plain. from the isd. s. 'w. to a pt. l. s. / ms. just below a piec of high land on the s. s. called the place of snakes, passed the worst place i have seen on l. s. a sand bar makeing out / cross the river sand collecting &c forming bars and bars washg a way, the boat struck and turned, she was near oversetting we saved her by some extrodany exertions of our party (ever ready to inconture any fatigue for the premotion of the enterpris), i went out to walk on the sand beech, & killed a deer & turky during the time i was from the boat a caussee came too from the pania nation loaded with furs we gave them some whiskey and tobacco & settled some desputes & parted s. e. ms. to pt. on s. s. passed a creek s. s. yds. wd. called snake creek or (____) passed a bad sand bar s. s. in passing which we were obliged to run great sesque of loseing both boat & men, camped above, g. drewyer tels of a remarkable snake inhabiting a small lake ms. below which gobbles like a turkey & may be herd several miles, this snake is of size. [clark, june , ] th, june thursday we set out at oclock, after a thick fog passed thro a narrow pass on the s. s. which forms a large isd. opposit the upper point of this island on the l. s. is one of the worst quick or moveing sand bars which i have seen not withstanding all our precaustons to clear the sands & pass between them (which was the way we were compd. to pass from the immens current & falling banks on the s. s.) the boat struck the point of one from the active exertions of the men, prevented her turning, if she had turned she must have overset. we met a causseu from the pania on the river platt, we detained hours with a view of engageing one of the hands to go to the pania nation with a view to get those people to meet us on the river. i went out (shot a deer) we passd a highland &clay bluff on the s. s. called the snake bluff from the number of snakes about this place, we passd a creek above the bluff about yds. wide, this creek is called snake creek, a bad sand bar just below which we found difficuelty in passing & campd above, our hunters came in. george drewyer, gives the following act. of a pond, & at abt. miles below the s. s. passed a small lake in which there was many deer feeding he heard in this pond a snake makeing goubleing noises like a turkey. he fired his gun & the noise was increased, he has heard the indians mention this species of snake one frenchman give a similar account [clark, june , ] june friday , we set out early proceeded on about me. and the boat turned on a sawyer which was near doeing her great damage, the river is riseing fast & the water exceedingly swift, passd. a bad sand bar on which we stuck for a short time this is said to be the worst part of the river and camped opsd. the bend in which the antient villages of the little osarge & missouries, the lower or first of those villagies (l. osages) is situated in butifull plain at the foot of some riseing land, in front of their viliges next the river is a butifull bottom plain in which they raised their corn &c. back of the village the high prarie extends back to the osarge river, about ms. above & in view the missouries nation resided under the protection of the osarges, after their nation was riducd by the saukees below, thos built their village in the same low prarie and lived there many years, the war was so hot & both nations becom so reduced that the little osage & a fiew of the missoures moved & built a village ms near the grand osage, the rest of the missoures went and took protection under the otteaus on platt river [clark, june , ] th, june, friday set out early and had not proceeded far e'er we wheeled on a sawyer which was near injuring us verry much, passed a plain on the l. s. a small isd. in the midle the river riseing, water verry swift passed a creek on the l. s. passed between two islands, a verry bad place, moveing sands, we were nearly being swallowed up by the roleing sands over which the current was so strong that we could not stem it with our sales under a stiff breese in addition to our ores, we were compelled to pass under a bank which was falling in, and use the toe rope occasionally, continued up pass two other small islands and camped on the s. s. nearly opposit the antient village of the little osarges and below the antt. village of the missoures both situations in view an within three ms. of each other, the osage were settled at the foot a hill in a butifell plain which extends back quite to the osage river, in front of the vilg. next to the river is an ellegent bottom plain which extends several miles in length on the river in this low prarie the missouries lived after they were reduced by the saukees at their town some dists. below. the little osage finding themselves much oppressed by the saukees & other nations, left this place & built a village ms. from the grand osarge town about ____ years ago. a few of the missoures accompanied them, the remainder of that nation went to the otteaus on the river platt. the river at this place is about ms. wide our hunters did not come in this evening the river beginning to fall [clark, june , ] th june satterday set out at oclock proceed on n. °w. / ms. passed a isd. close on the s. s. at the lower point drewer & willard had camped & had with them bear & deer we took in the meat & proceeded on. some rain this morning west ms. pass an isd on s. s. & prarie, to a belge of snag isd. l. s. a butifull extensive prarie on s. s. hills to about ms. distant. mr. mackey has laid down the rems. of an old fort in this prarie, which i cannot find s w. me. along the isd. l. s.--s ° w alg l. s. me. s ° w, , ms. to pt. s. s. opsd. an isd. & head of the last s ° w me. s. s. passed a verry bad place where the sand was moving constantly, i walked on shore obsd. fine high bottom land on s. s. camped late this evening. [clark, june , ] th, june satturday set out at oclock at about a mile / we came to the camp of our hunters, they had two bear & two deer proceeded on pass a island on the s. s. a heavy rain came on & lasted a short time, we came to on the s. s. in a prarie at the place where mr. mackey lay down a old french fort, i could see no traces of a settlement of any kind, in this plain i discovered a kind of grass resembling timothey which appeared well calculated for hay, this plain is verry extensive in the evening i walked on the s. s. to see if any timber was convt. to make oars, which we were much in want of, i found som indifferent timber and struck the river above the boat at a bad sand bar the worst i had seen which the boat must pass or drop back several miles & stem a swift current on the opsd side of an isd. the boat however assended the middle of the streem which was diffucult dangerious we came to above this place at dark and camped in a bad place, the misquitoes and ticks are noumerous & bad. [clark, june , ] june rope walk camp the current of the river at this place is a stick will float poles feet in the rapidest part in seconds, further out is , still further -- -- & are the trials we have made. [clark, june , ] june sunday cloudy wind, s. e. set out early s. ° w me. came too to make ores, and a cord for a toe rope all this day imployed in getting out ores, & makeing for the use of the boat out of a large cable rope which we have, g drewyer came up a bear & deer, also a fine horse which he found in the woods, supposed to have been left by some war party from the osages, the ticks are numerous and large and have been trousom all the way and the musquetors are beginning to be verry troublesome, my cold continues verry bad the french higherlins complain for the want of provisions, saying they are accustomed to eat & times a day, they are roughly rebuked for their presumption, the country about abounds in bear deer & elk and the s. s. the lands are well timbered and rich for ms. to a butifull prarie which risies into hills at or ms. back--on the l. s a prarie coms. on the bank which is high and contines back rich & well watered as far [clark, june , ] june th sunday (s. °w. me. s. side-) cloudy morning wind from the s. e. we set out early and proceeded on one mile & came too to make oars, & repair our cable & toe rope &c. &c. which was necessary for the boat & perogues, sent out sjt. pryor and some men to get ash timber for ores, and set some men to make a toe rope out of the cords of a cable which had been provided by capt lewis at pitts burg for the cable of the boat--george drewyer our hunter and one man came in with deer & a bear, also a young horse, they had found in the prarie, this horse has been in the prarie a long time and is fat, i suppose he has been left by some war party against the osage, this is a crossing place for the war partis against that nation from the saukees, aiaouez, & souix. the party is much aflicted with boils and several have the decissentary, which i contribute to the water the countrey about this place is butifull on the river rich & well timbered on the s. s. about two miles back a prarie coms. which is rich and interspursud with groves of timber, the county rises at or miles still further back and is roleing--on the l. s. the high lands & prarie corns. in the bank of the river and continus back, well watered and abounds in der elk & bear the ticks & musquetors are verry troublesom. [clark, june , ] june th monday some raind last night, sent out hunters to day across the r. they killed deer & colter a bear verry fat we continue to repare our ropes & make oars all day, heavy rain all the fore pt. of the day, the party drying meat & greesing themselves, several men with the disentary, and two thirds of them with ulsers or boils, some with or of those turners mesquetors verry bad we finish our cords & oars this evening men in spirits [clark, june , ] june th monday some rain last night, and some hard showers this morning which delay our work verry much, send out six hunters in the prarie on the l s. they kill deer & coltr a bear, which verry large & fat, the party to wok at the oars, make rope, & jurk their meat all day dry our wet sales &c. in the evening, the misquiter verry bad [clark, june , ] june th tuesday rain last night after fixing the new oars and makeing all necessary arrangements, we set out under a jentle breese from the s. e. and proceeded on passed two large islands on the s. s. leaving j. shields and one man to go by land with the horses some verry hard water, passed several islands & sand bars to day at the head of one we were obliged to cleare away driftwood to pass, passed a creek on the l. side called tabboe yds. wide passed a large creek at the head of an island called tiger river on the s. s. the island below this isd. is large and called the isle of panters, formed on the s. s. by a narrow channel, i observed on the shore goose & rasp berries in abundance in passing some hard water round a point of rocks on the l. s. we were obliged to take out the roape & draw up the boat for / a mile, we came too on the l. s. near a lake of the sircumfrance of several miles situated on the l. s. about two miles from the river this lake is said to abound in all kinds of fowls, great quanties of deer frequent this lake dureing summer season, and feed on the hows &c. &c. they find on the edgers the lands on the north side of the river is rich and sufficiently high to afford settlements, the lds. on the south side assends gradually from the river not so rich, but of a good quallity and appear well watered [clark, june , ] june th, wednesday set out after a heavy shower of rain and proceeded on the same course of last night passed a large butifull prarie on the s. s. opposit a large island, calld saukee prarie, a gentle breese from the s. w. some butiful high lands on the l. s. passed som verry swift water to day, i saw pelicans to day on a sand bar, my servant york nearly loseing an eye by a man throwing sand into it, we came too at the lower point of a small island, the party on shore we have not seen since we passed tiger r--the land appeard verry good on each side of the river to day and well timbered, we took some loner observations, which detained us untill oclock a butifull night but the air exceedingly damp, & the mosquiters verry troublesom [clark, june , ] st june thursday river raised inches last night after our bow man peter crousat a half mahar indian examined round this small isd. for the best water, we set out determined to assd. on the north side, and sometimes rowing poleing & drawing up with a strong rope we assended without wheeling or receving any damige more than breakeing one of my s. windows, and looseing some oars which were swong under the windows two men sent out to hunt this afternoon came in with a deer, at sun set the ellement had every appearance of wind, the hunters inform me that the high countrey on the s. s. is of a good quallity, and well timbd. the high lands on the l. side is equally good the bottom land on this river is alike, st low and covd. with cotton wood & willows subject to over flow the nd is higher groth cotton walnut ash mulberry linn & sycomore [clark, june , ] st june thursday the river rose inches last night after the bows man peter crousat viewed the water on each side of the island which presented a most unfavourable prospect of swift water over roleing sands which rored like an immence falls, we concluded to assend on the right side, and with much dificuilty, with the assistance of a long cord or tow rope, & the anchor we got the boat up with out any furthr dang. than bracking a cabbin window & loseing some oars which were swong under the windows, passed four isds to day two large & two small, behind the first large island two creeks mouth called ( ) eue-bert creek & river & isd. the upper of those creeks head against the mine river & is large, passed a verry remarkable bend in the river to the s. forming an accute angle, the high lands come to the river on the s. s. opposit the upper large island, this isd. is formed by a narrow chanel thro. the pt. of the remarkable bend just mentiond below this isd. on the l. s. is a couenter current of about a mile--passed between several small islands situated near the l. side and camped above on the same side, two men sent out to hunt this evening brought in a buck & a pore turkey. at sun set the atmespier presented every appearance of wind, blue & white streeks centering at the sun as she disappeared and the clouds situated to the s. w, guilded in the most butifull manner. the countrey and lands on each side of the river is various as usial and may be classed as follows. viz: the low or over flown points or bottom land, of the groth of cotton & willow, the nd or high bottom of rich furtile soils of the groth of cotton, walnut, som ash, hack berry, mulberry, lynn & sycamore. the third or high lands risees gradually from the nd bottom (cauht whin it coms to the river then from the river) about or foot roleing back supplied with water the small runs of (which losees themselves in the bottom land) and are covered with a variety of timber such as oake of different kinds blue ash, walnut &c. &c. as far as the praries, which i am informed lie back from the river at some places near & others a great distance [clark, june , ] nd june friday after a violent gust of wind accompanied with rain from the west, which commenced at day brake, and lasted about one hour, we set out under a gentle breeze from the n w. and proceeded on s. °w. / ms. to pt. on l. s. ord killed a goose, s w ms. to a pt. on s. s. psd. snags and swift water on the s. s.--s. ° w. / a me. on s pt. n w / me. to pt. l. s. passed a large isd. on the s. s.- (ferenthiers thermometr at oclock p.m. d which is d above summr heat) and one on the l. s. opposit against which there is a handsom prarie of high bottom & up land, capt lewis went out in this prarie & walked several miles, come to opposit the mouth of a large creek on the s. s. called river of the fire prarie at the mouth of this creek the party on shore shields & collins was camped waiting for our arrival & inform that they pass'd thro some fine lands, and well watered g d. killed a fine bear to day [clark, june , ] nd june friday river rose inchs last night. i was waken'd before day light this morning by the guard prepareing the boat to receve an apparent storm which threttened violence from the west at day light a violent wind accompanied with rain cam from the w. and lasted about one hour, it cleared away, and we set out and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the n. w. passed some verry swift water crouded with snags, pass two large island opposit each other, and immediately opposit a large & extensive prarie on the labd side, this prarie is butifull a high bottom for / a mile back and risees to the common leavel of the countrey about or feet and extends back out of view. capt. l walked on shore a few miles this after noon (at oclock p m. ferents thermometer stood at °: = to d above summer heat) we came to on the l. side opposit the mouth of a large creek called the river of the fire prarie, at the mouth of this creek the party on shore were waiting our arrival, they informed that the lands thro which they passed was fine & well watered [clark, june , ] rd june satturday some wind this morning from the n w. set out at oc proceeded on n. d. w ms. to an isd. close on the s. s. i went on shore & walked up thro a rich bottom for about six miles, killed a deer & much fatigued n. e. to a point in a bend l. s. / the river fell inches last night. [clark, june , ] rd june satturday some wind this morning from the n. w. we set out at oclock, and proceeded on to the head of a island on the s. s. the wind blew hard and down the river which prevented the pty moveing from this island the whole day, cap. lewis had the arms examined &c. at the lower end of this island i got out of the boat to walk on shore, & expected the party on shore would overtake me at the head of the island, they did not & i proceeded on round a round and extensive bend in the river, i killed a deer & made a fire expecting the boat would come up in the evening. the wind continueing to blow prevented their moveing, as the distance by land was too great for me to return by night i concluded to camp, peeled some bark to lay on, and geathered wood to make fires to keep off the musquitor & knats. heard the party on shore fire, at dark drewyer came to me with the horses, one fat bear & a deer, river fell inches last night [lewis and clark, june , ] sunday june th set out at / after six continuing the course on the lard. side n. e / of a mile to point lard. n. / of a mile to point lard. due west to a point stard miles good water (i joined the boat theis morning with a fat bear & two deer, last evining i struck the river about miles (by land) abov the boat, and finding it too late to get to the boat, and the wind blowing so hard down the river that she could not assend, i concluded to camp, altho i had nothing but my hunting dress, & the musquitors ticks & knats verry troublesom, i concid to hunt on a willow isd. situated close under the shore, in crossing from an island, i got mired, and was obliged to craul oat, a disegreeable situation & a diverting one of any one who could have seen me after i got out, all covered with mud, i went my camp & craped off the mud and washed my clothes, and fired off my gun which was answered by george drewyer who was in persute of me & came up at dark we feasted of meet & water the latter we made great use of being much fatigued & thirsty--the meet which hung up near the water a large snake made several attempts to get to it and was so detirmined that i killed him in his attempt, the snake appeared to make to that part of the meet which contained the milk of a doe, on this part of the river i observe great quantites of bear sign, they are after mulbiries which are in great quantities) n d w. / ms. to a pt. on l side, came to above the mouth of a creek on the l. s. abt. yds. wide called hay cabbin creek latd. of this place is ° ' " north--capt. lewis took sergt. floyd and walked on shore, george drewyer killed deer r fields killed a deer dureing the time we wer jurking the meet i brought in, west / ml. along the l. s. s ° w. ms. to a pt. on the s. s. pass creek on the s. s. just above some rocks some distance from shore of these creek is called sharriton-cartie, a prarie on the l. s. near the river. capt lewis killed a deer, & collins . emince number of deer on both sides of the river, we pass between two sand bars at head of which we had to raise the boat inch to get her over, camped at the lower point of a isd. on the l s. the party in high spirits. [clark, june , ] th, june sunday set out at half after six. i joined the boat this morng at oclock (i will only remark that dureing the time i lay on the band waiting for the boat, a large snake swam to the bank imediately under the deer which was hanging over the water, and no great distance from it, i threw chunks and drove this snake off several times. i found that he was so determined on getting to the meet i was compelld to kill him, the part of the deer which attracted this snake i think was the milk from the bag of the doe.) i observed great quts. of bear signs, where they had passed in all directions thro the bottoms in serch of mulberries, which were in great numbers in all the bottoms thro which our party passed.) passed the mouth of a creek yds. wide name hay cabbin creek from camps of straw built on it came to about / me. above this creek & jurked, the meet killed yesterday and this morning lattitude of this place ° ' " n. capt. lewis walked on shore & killed a deer, pass a bad part of the river, on the s. s. the rocks projected into the river some distance, a creek above called sharston carta, in the evening we passed thro betwen two sand bars at the head we had to raise the boat inches together over, camped near the lower point of an island on the l. side, party in high spirrits. the countrey on each side of the river is fine interspersed with praries, in which imence herds of deer is seen, on the banks of the river we observe numbers of deer watering and feeding on the young willow, several killed to day [clark, june , ] monday june th a heavy fog detaind us about an hour set out passed the isd on a course from the last point s ° w, ms to a point on the s. s. s ° w / me. s. s. a coal-bank on the opposit or l. s side, this bank appears to contain great quantity of excellente coal the wind from the n. w a small creek called coal or (chabonea) n ° w to the pt, l. s. / miles hard water & logs, bank falling in, passed a small creek l. s. called labeenie a prarie is situated on the s. s. a short distance from the river, which contains great quantities of wild apples of the size of the common apple, the french say is well flavered when ripe, which is the time the leaves begin to fall n °w / me. along the right side of a willow isd. situated on the l. side s. ° w / me. l. s. s ° w. / me. to pt. of smal isd. l. s. s ° w / me. l. s.--s. ° e me. pt on lbd s. (here i will only remark that the deer in the morning & evening are feeding in great numbers on the banks of the river, they feed on young willow, and amuse themselves running on the open beeches or points) we have hard water this afternoon round the heads of small islds. on the l. side below a small high prarie s. ° w. ms. pt. s. s. passd. a small isd. on which we camped the party on shore did not join us to day, or have we seen or her of them river falling fast about inches in hours, the hills on the l. s. this evening higher than usial about or feet. the lands appear of a simalier to those passed [clark, june , ] th, june monday a thick fog detained us untile oclock, passed a island, at miles passed a coal-mine, or bank of stone coal, on the south side, this bank appears to contain great quantity of fine coal, the river being high prevented our seeeing that contained in the cliffs of the best quallity, a small creek mouth's below this bank call'd after the bank chabonea creek the wind from the n. w. passed a small creek on the l. side at oclock, called bennet's creek the praries come within a short distance of the river on each side which contains in addition to plumbs raspberries & vast quantities of wild apples, great numbs. of deer are seen feeding on the young willows & earbage in the banks and on the sand bars in the river. our party on shores did not join us this evening we camped on an island situated on the s. side, opposit some hills higher than common, say or feet above the bottom. the river is still falling last night it fell inches [clark, june , ] june th tuesday we set out early, the river falling a little, the wind from the s. w. passed the mouth of a small river on the l. side above the upper point of a small island, called blue water river, this river heads in praries back with the mine river about yds. wide lattitude of a pt. ms. above this river is ° ' " north, the high lands which is on the northe side does not exceed feet high, at this place the river appears to be confd. in a verry narrow channel, and the current still more so by couenter current or whirl on one side & high bank on the other, passed a small isd. in the bend to the l. side we killed a large rattle snake, sunning himself in the bank passed a bad sand bar, where our tow rope broke twice, & with great exertions we rowed round it and came to & camped in the point above the kansas river lobserved a great number of parrot queets this evening, our party killed several deer to day [clark, june , ] june th, wednesday a fair warm morning, the river rose a little last night. we determin to delay at this place three or four days to make observations & recruit the party several men out hunting, unloaded one perogue, and turned her up to dry with a view of repairing her after completeing a strong redoubt or brest work frome one river to the other, of logs & bushes six feet high, the countrey about the mouth of this river is verry fine on each side as well as the north of the missouries the bottom, in the point is low, & overflown for yards. it rises a little above high water mark and continus up that hight of good quallity back to the hills ____ a high clift, on the upper side of the kansis / a mile up below the kanses the hills is about / miles from the point on the north side of the missouries the hill or high lands is several miles back, we compareed the instrmts took equal altitudes, and the meridian altituade of the suns l l to day lattitude ° ' " longitude ____ measured the width of the kansas river by an angle and made it yds / wide, it is wider above the mouth the missouries at this place is about yards wide, the course from the point down the midle. of the missourie is s. ° e, & turns to the north. up is n °w. up the right side of the kansas is s. ° e, & the river turns to the left, several deer killed to day. [clark, june , ] june thursday took equal altitudes &c. &c. &c. & varaitian of the compass repaired the perogue cleaned out the boat suned our powder wollen articles examined every thing or huntrs. out to day in different direction, in examineing our private store of provisions we found several articles spoiled from the wet or dampness they had received, a verry warm day, the wind from the south, the river missourie has raised yesterday last night & to day about foot. this evening it is on a stand, capt. lewis weighed the water of the two rivers the missouris ° the kansais ° to describe the most probable of the various accounts of this great river of the kansas, would be too lengthy & uncertain to insert here, it heads with the river del norid in the black mountain or ridge which divides the waters of the kansas del nord, & callarado & oppsoitly from those of the missoureis (and not well assertaind) this river recves its name from a nation which dwells at this time on its banks & villages one about leagues & the other leagues up, those indians are not verry noumerous at this time, reduced by war with their neighbours, &c. they formerly liveid on the south banks of the missouries leagues above this river in a open & butifull plain and were verry noumerous at the time the french first settled the illinois, i am told they are a fierce & warlike people, being badly supplied with fire arms, become easily conquered by the aiauway & saukees who are better furnished with those materials of war, this nation is now out in the plains hunting the buffalow our hunters killed several deer and saw buffalow, men impd dressing skins & makeing themselves comfortable, the high lands coms to the river kanses on the upper side at about a mile, full in view, and a butifull place for a fort, good landing place, the waters of the kansas is verry disigreeably tasted to me. [clark, june , ] th of june , set out from the kansas river / past oclock, proceeded on passed a small run on the l. s. at / mile a ( ) island on the s. s. at / me. hills above the upr. pt of isd. l. s. a large sand bar in the middle. passed a verry bad place of water, the sturn of the boat struck a moveing sand & turned within inches of a large sawyer, if the boat had struck the sawyer, her bow must have been knocked off & in course she must hav sunk in the deep water below came to & camped on the s. s. late in the eveninge. [clark, june , ] th june friday obsvd. the distance of (d & )),took equal & maridinal altd. and after makeing some arrangements, and inflicting a little punishment to two men we set out at / past oclock and proceeded on (i ) passed a large island on the s. side, opposit a large sand bar, the boat turned and was within six inches of strikeing the rapidity with which the boat turned was so great that if her bow had struck the snag, she must have either turned over or the bow nocked off s w wind [clark, june , ] camp mouth of the kanseis june th . ordered a court martial will set this day at oclock, to consist of five members, for the trial of john collins and hugh hall, confined on charges exhibited against them by sergeant floyd, agreeable to the articles of war. detail for the court sergt nat. pryor presd. mbs: john colter john newmon pat. gass j. b. thompson john potts to act as judge advocate. the court convened agreeable to order and proceeded to the trial of the prisoners viz john collins charged "with getting drunk on his post this morning out of whiskey put under his charge as a sentinal and for suffering hugh hall to draw whiskey out of the said barrel intended for the party" to this charge the prisoner plead not guilty. the court after mature deliveration on the evidence abduced &c. are of oppinion that the prisoner is guilty of the charge exibited against him, and do therefore sentence him to recive one hundred lashes on his bear back. hugh hall was brought with "takeing whiskey out of a keg this morning which whiskey was stored on the bank (and under the charge of the guard) contrary to all order, rule, or regulation" to this charge the prisoner "pleades guilty." the court find the prisoner guilty and sentence him to receive fifty lashes on his bear back. the commanding officers approve of the sentence of the court and orders that the punishment take place at half past three this evening, at which time the party will parrade for inspection- [clark, june , ] at the mouth of the river kansies june " " & th- this river is miles above the mouth of missouri it is in lattitude ° ' " north it is yds. wide at its mouth & wider above from the point up the missourie for about ms. n. ° w, down the middle of the missourie is s. ° e, up the upper bank of the kansais, is s. ° e the river turns to the east above a pt. of high land, well situated for a fort & in view of the missouris one mile up & on the upper side, the width of the missouris at this place is about yds. missourie water weighs . the kanseis weghs river miss raised in the time at the kanseis foot and begun to fall. the wood land on each side of the mouth of this river is extensive and of a good quallity as far as our hunters was back, but badly watered with springs, only two being seen by them some punishment of two men hall & collins for takeing whiskey out of the barrel last night agreeable to the sentences of a court mtl of the party who we have always found verry ready to punish such crimes many deer killed to day allarm post or order of battle arms to be situated & the duty &c. messes of men under a serjiant who is to detail for every day one man of his squad to cook &c. who shall have the management of the provisions dureing that day or issue, each days rations must be divided &c. &c order of encampment, tents, fires & duty [clark, june , ] th june, set out verry early this morng saw a verry large wolf on the sand bar this morning walking near a gange of turkeys ( ) at miles above the kansis passed the mouth of a small river call the (petite plate) or the little shole river, this river is about yds. wide and has several rapids & falls, well calculatd for mills, the land on this river is said to be roaling, killed deer bucks swinging the river the wind from the s. w. here we opened the bag of bread given us by which we found verry good, our bacon which was given us by we examined and found sound and good some of that purchased in the illinois spoiled, a relish of this old bacon this morning was verry agreeable, deer to be seen in every direction and their tracks ar as plenty as hogs about a farm, our hunts. killed deer to day the land below the last river is good, that above, between the two rivers which is near together is slaik'y and bad on the n. side, the other side is good land, landed on the l. s. below an isd called dimond island [clark, june , ] th june satturday set out verry early this morning, a verry large wolf came to the bank and looked at us this morning, passd the ( ) mouth of a small river ms. above the kanseis called by the french petite river platte (or shoal river) from the number of falls in it, this river is about yards wide at its mouth and runs parrilel with the missouries for ten or twelve miles, i am told that the lands on this small river is good, and on its several falls well calculated for mills, the wind from s. w. came to at oclock & rested three hours, the... being hot the men becom verry feeble, farnsts. thermometer at oclock stood at ° above , emence numbs. of deer on the banks, skipping in every derection, the party killed nine bucks on the river & bank to day, the countrey on the s. s. between the shoal river & missouris is indifferent subject to overflow, that below and on the l. s. is high & appers well timbered, camped on the l. s. opsd. the lower point of a isd. called diamond island, broke our mast [clark, july , ] july st , last night one of the sentinals chang'd either a man or beast, which run off, all prepared for action, set out early passed the dimond isd. pass a small creek on the l. s. as this creek is without name we call it biscuit creek brackfast on the upper point of a sand beech, the river still falling a little a verry warm day. i took some medison last night which has worked me very much party all in helth except boils- passed a sand bar in the river above the isd. covered for a me. with drift wood, came to capt lewis took medn. altitude & we delayed three hours, the day being excessively hot, turkeys are plenty on the shore, g. drewyer inform that he saw puecanns trees on s. s. yesterday great quantities of raspburies an grapes, ( ) pass a creek on the l. s. called remore (tree frog) creek, an isd above in the mid. and willow isds on the s. s. all of the same name; the two willow isds. has been made within years & the main chant. runs now on the l s. of the large island where there was no runing water at low water from this island the range of hills up the river to the n, w, pass a run on the l. s. a butifull extensive prarie, two islands just above called (isles des parques) or field islands, those islands are, one of our french hands tels me that the french intended to settle here once & brought their cows and put them on those islands, mr mackey says the first village of the kanseis was a little above this island & made use of as fields, no trace of anything of that kind remains to be seen on the isds. fine land on the l. side, hills near the river all day, camped on the lower pot. of st isd.- [clark, july , ] july st, sunday a small allarm last night all prepared for action, set out early this morning passed on the north side of dimond island, a small creek mouths opposit i call biscuit creek,--a large sand bar in the middle of the river / ms. above the isd. covered with drift wood. river fall a little. the wind from s. w. came to above this drift and delayed three hours to refresh the men who were verry much over powered with the heat, great quantity of grapes & raspberries, ( ) passed a small creek on the l. s. below one large and two small islands. this creek and isds. are called remore (or tree frog) a large pond on the s. s., the main current of water run'g on the l. s. of the island, i am told that three years ago the main current run on the s. s. of the island and no appearance of the two smaller islands, camped on the lower point of one of the two large & small isds. called isles des parques or field islds a high butifull prarie on the l. s. one of the french hands says "that the french kept their cattle & horses on those islands at the time they had in this quarter a fort & trading establishment." paecaun trees seen on the s. s. deer and turkeys in great quantities on the bank [clark, july , ] july the nd set out verry early this morning passd on the left of the isles des parques high butifull situation--on the l s. the land indifferent lands a creek coms in on the s. s. called parques, all at once the river became crowded with drift that it was dangerous to cross this i suppose was from the caveing in of the banks at the head of some island above, ( ) passed a creek on the l. s. called turquie or turkey creek passed a verry bad sand bar on the l. s. the oars & poals could with much dificuelty stem the current, passed a large island on the s. s. called by the inds. wau-car-ba war-con-da or the bear medison island, at oclock came to on the island and put in a mast, detained four hours, exceedingly hot, wind in forepart of the day from the s. e, george drewyer informs that the lands he pass through yesterday & to day on the s. s. was generally verry fine he saw two springs of fresh water near the island, deer sign has become so common it is hardly necessary to mention them, we camped after dark on the s. s. opposit the st old village of the kanzas which was situated in a valley between two points of high land, on the river back of their village commenced an extensive prarie a large island in front which appears to have made on that side and thrown the current of the river against the place the village formerly stood, and washes away the bank in that part. the french formerly had a fort at this place, to protect the trade of this nation, the situation appears to be a verry elligable one for a town, the valley rich & extensive, with a small brook meanding through it and one part of the bank affording yet a good landing for boats the high lands above the fere river on each side of the missouries appear to approach each other much nearer than below that plaice, being from to miles between them, to the kansas, above that place from to ms. apart and higher some places being or feet the river not so wide we made a mast of cotton wood, to day in the course of the evening & night it turned of a butifull red colour [clark, july , ] july nd, set out early and proceeed on the left of the islands, two of which are large a high bottom situated on the l. s. passed the mouth of a creek on the s. s. called turquie creike, at this place i observed that the river was crouded with drift wood, and dangerous to pass as this dead timber continued only about half an our, i concluded that some island of drift had given way ( ) passed a creek on the l. s. called turky creek, a bad sand bar on the l. s. we could with dificuelty stem the current with our oars & and all the poles we had, passed a large island on the s. s. called by the indians wau-car-ba war-cand-da or the bear medesin island, at oclock landed on the island & put up a mast which detained us four hours--a verry hot day winds from the s. e.--george drewyer inform's that the lands he passed through yesterday and to day on the s. s. was verry fine, few springs, we camped after dark on the s. s. above the island & opposit the st old village of the kanzes which was situated in a valley, between two points of high land, and imediatly on the river bank, back of the village and on a riseing ground at about one mile the french had a garrison for some time and made use of water out of a spring running into turkey creek. an extensive prarie, as the current of the river sets against the banke and washes it away the landing place for boats is indifferent--the high lands above the fire river, approaches nearer each than below, being from to miles distant and above kansas from to miles distant and the hills at some places are from to feet above the bottom [clark, july , ] july rd set out verry early this morning and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the south passed two islands one a small willow island on the l. s. ( ) the other a large island called cow . (isle vache), this island is large, opposit to the head on the s. s. is a ( ) large pond, a bad sand bar on the s. s. we attemptd without success, & was oblige to cross back, i saw a white horse on the l. s. in view of the upper point of the island, ( ) passed a large sand bar at the s. point, we halted to day about a mile above the island and found a horse, which had been lost by the indians, verry fat and jentle, sent him on to join the others which was ahead on the l s at this place, the french had a tradeing house, for to trade with the kanzes on a high bottom on the l. s. near the hills which is prarie proceeded on round a large sand bar on the l. s. & camped (opposit a large sand bar in the middle of the river). on the l. s. a butifull small stream passes back of the trading house, before mentioned [clark, july , ] july rd, tusday set out verry early this morning and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. passed two islands ( ) one a small willow island on the l. s. the other large called by the french isle de vache or cow island, opposit the head on the s. s. is a large pond containg beever, & fowl, a bad sandbar on the s. s. above the island, on the l. s. we halted at an old tradeing house, here we found a verry fat horse, which appears to have been lost a long time a butifull small run passes back of the tradeing house near the high land, we came to at a round bend on the l. s. and camped [clark, july , ] july th wednesday , set out early passed the mouth of a beyeue leading from a lake on the s. s. this lake is large and was once the bend of the river, it reaches parrelel for several miles, came to on the l. s. to dine & rest a short time, a snake bit jo. fields on the side of his foot which swelled much, apply barks to the wound, pass a creek on the l. s. about yards wide cuming out of an extensive prarie as this creek has no name, and this day is the th of july, we name this independance us. creek above this creek the wood land is about yards, back of those wood is an extensive prarie open and high, which may be seen six or seven below--saw great nos. of goslins to day nearly grown, the last mentioned prarie i call jo fields snake prarie, capt lewis walked on shore & saw a large moun & roads leading we camped in the plain one of the most butifull plains, i ever saw, open & butifully diversified with hills & vallies all presenting themselves to the river covered with grass and a few scattering trees a handsom creek meandering thro at this place the kansaw inds. formerly lived and had a verry large town passed a creek ( ) i observed spring braking out of the bank, a good situation for a fort on a hill at the upper part the plains of this countrey are covered with a leek green grass, well calculated for the sweetest and most norushing hay-interspersed with cops of trees, spreding ther lofty branchs over pools springs or brooks of fine water. groops of shrubs covered with the most delicious froot is to be seen in every direction, and nature appears to have exerted herself to butify the senery by the variety of flours delicately and highly flavered raised above the grass, which strikes & profumes the sensation, and amuses the mind throws it into conjecterng the cause of so magnificent a senerey in a country thus situated far removed from the sivilised world to be enjoyed by nothing but the buffalo elk deer & bear in which it abounds & savage indians the names of the french ingishees, or hirelens- in perogue battist de shone patrn joseph le bartee lasoness paul preemau chalo e. cann roie charlo cougee in the large boat *j. le bartee rivee bow men pieter crousatt half indian william la beice mallat sergts. & men for the boat george drewyer. hunter & horses corpl & privates in a perogue to be sent back from plate river mr. dueron inteptr for the sues capt. lewis my self & york in all men july th horses & a dog [clark, july , ] july th wednesday ussered in the day by a discharge of one shot from our bow piece, proceeded on, passed the mouth of a ( ) bayeau lading from a large lake on the s. s. which has the apperance of being once the bed of the river & reaches parrelel for several miles came to on the l. s. to refresh ourselves &. jos. fields got bit by a snake, which was quickly doctered with bark by cap lewis. ( ) passed a creek yds. wide on l. s. comeing out of an extensive prarie reching within yards of the river, as, this creek has no name, and this being the we dine (on corn) the th of july the day of the independance of the u. s. call it th of july creek, capt. lewis walked on shore above this creek and discovered a high moun from the top of which he had an extensive view, paths concentering at the moun saw great numbers of goslings to day which were nearly grown, the before mentioned lake is clear and contain great quantities of fish an gees & goslings, the great quantity of those fowl in this lake induce me to call it the gosling lake, a small creek & several springs run in to the lake on the east side from the hills the land on that side verry good--( ) we came to and camped in the lower edge of a plain where d old kanzas village formerly stood, above the mouth of a creek yds wide this creek we call creek independence as we approached this place the praree had a most butifull appearance hills & valies interspsd with coops of timber gave a pleasing deversity to the senery. the right fork of creek independence meandering thro the middle of the plain a point of high land near the river givs an allivated situation. at this place the kanzas indians formerley lived. this town appears to have covd. a large space, the nation must have been noumerous at the time they lived here, the cause of their moveing to the kanzas river, i have never heard, nor can i learn; war with their neghbors must have reduced this nation and compelled them to retire to a situation in the plains better calculated for their defence and one where they may make use of their horses with good effect, in persueing their enemey, we closed the by a discharge from our bow piece, an extra gill of whiskey. [clark, july , ] july the th set out verry early this morning, swam the horse across the river, proceeded on for two miles under the bank where the old kansas town formerly stood the cause of those people moveing from this place i cannot learn, but naterally conclude that war has reduced their nation & compelled them to retire further into the plains with a view of defending themselves & opposeing their enemey (more effectuall) on hors back (i neglected to mention yesterday that the lake on the s. s. was large say / me. wide & or long one creek & several brooks running into it from the hills, it contains great quantities of sun fish & gosling's from which we gave it the name,) passed some verry bad sand bars situated parrelel to each other, ( ) the boat turned three times once on the ____ of a drift wood. she recved no proceiviable damage, we came to for dinner at a beever house, cap lewis's dog seamon went in & drove them out. the high lands on the l. s. is open, a few trees scattering ( ) passed a small creek on the l. s. in the s bend to the left i call yellow oaker creek from a bank of that mineral just above. we camped on the l. s. under a high bank latd. ° ' " north on the banks of this river i observe great quants of grapes, berries & roses deer is not so plenty in this three days past as they were below that. elks are plenty about those praries. some buffalow sign. [clark, july , ] july th thursday set out verry early, proceeded on near the bank where the old village stood for two miles, (swam the hors found a few days ago) passed some bad sand bars, the origan of this old village is uncertain m. de bourgmont a french officer who comdd. a fort near the town of the missouris in about the year and in july of the same year he visited this village at that time the nation was noumerous & well desposed towards the french mr. du pratz must have been badly informed as to the cane opposd this place we have not seen one stalk of reed or cane on the missouries, he states that the "indians that accompanied m de bourgmont crossed to the canzes village on floats of cane" those people must have been verry noumerous at that time as mr. de b. was accompanied by warriers, young people & dogs of burthen out of this village the cause of those indians moveing over to the kanzis river i have never lernt--we passed some bad sand bars, situated parrelel to each other ( ) the boat turned twice on the quick sand & once on a raft of drift, no procievable damage prarie contine on the high land on the l. s. passd a small creek ( ) on l. s. in the first bend to the l s. i call yellow-oaker creek from a quantity of that mineral in a bank a little above the river continue to fall a little--i observe great quantities of summer & fall grapes, berries & wild roases on the banks--deer is not so plenty as usual, great deel of elk sign. (wind from s e) [clark, july , ] th july friday. we set out early this morning & proceeded on (the river falls slowly) wind s. w) passed a sand bar in st bend to the right ( ) passed a small island at the s. pt. a verry warm day (worthy of remark that the water of this river or some other cause, i think that the most probable throws out a greater preposn. of swet than i could suppose could pass thro the humane body those men that do not work at all will wet a shirt in a few minits & those who work, the swet will run off in streams) opposit the rd point passed a prarie on the s. s. called reeveys prarie (fro a man of that name being killed in it) opposit this prarie the river is confined in a verry narrow space crowded on s. s. by sands which were moveing and difficuelt to pass. the hunts. sent in deer jurked on the th point of to day is a small island & a sand bar miles out in the river, this is called the grand bend, or grande de tour, i walked on this sand bar found it a light sand intersperced with small pebbles of various kinds, also pit coal of an excellent quallity was lodged on the sand, we camped on the l. s. at a small creek a whiper will perched on the boat for a short time, i gave his name to the creek [clark, july , ] july th, friday we set out early this morning, wind from the s. w. passed a large sand bar in the st. bend to the right. ( ) passed a small island at the s. point opposit the rd point we passed a prarie on the s. s. called reeveys prarie at this place the river is confined in a verry narrow channel crouded by a sand bar from the l. point this sand bar from the l. point, this sand bar is verry bad, at the th point from the s. s. is a verry extensive bar, at the point of which is a small willow island this is called the grand detour or great bend i walked on this sand bar and found the sand was light, with collection of small pebble, & some pit coal i observe that the men swet more than is common from some cause, i think the missouries water is the principal cause our hunters sent in bucks today the river still fall a little [clark, july , ] th of july satturday set out early passed some verry swift water on the l. s. which compelled us to draw up by the cord. a verry warm morning, passed a butifull prarie on the right side which extends back, those praries has much the appearance from the river of farms, divided by narrow strips of woods those strips of timber grows along the runs which rise on the hill & pass to the river a cleft above, one man sick (frasure) struck with the sun, saw a large rat on the side of the bank, killed a wolf on the bank passed ( ) a verry narrow part of the river, all confined within yards, a yellow bank above, passed a small willow island on the s. point, (in low water those small willow islands are joined to the sand bars makeing out from the points) a pond on the s. s near the prarie we passed yesterday in which g d. saw several young swans we came to and camped on the l. s. and two men sent out last evening with the horses did not join us this evening agreeable to orders--a hard wind with some rain from the n, e at oclock which lasted half an hour, with thunder & lightning. river fall a little [clark, july , ] july the th satturday set out early passed some swift water, which obliged us to draw up by roapes, a sand bare at the point opposit a butifull prarie on the s. side calld. ( ) st. michul, those praries on the river has verry much the appearence of farms from the river divided by narrow strips of wood land, which wood land is situatd. on the runs leading to the river. passed a bluff of yellow clay above the prarie. saw a large rat on the bank. killed a wolf. at oclock pass a verry narrow part of the river water confd. in a bead not more than yards wide at this place the current runs against the l. side. no sand to confine the current on the s. s. passed a small sand island above the small islds. situated at the points, in low water form a part of the sand bars makeing out from those points incamped on the s. s. at oclock a violent ghust of wind from the n. e. with some rain, which lasted half an hour (g d. informs me that he saw in a pond on the s. s. which we passed yesterday; a number of young swans-,) one man verry sick, struck with the sun, capt. lewis bled him & gave niter which has revived him much [clark, july , ] th of july sunday set out early this morning, the sick man much better, serjt. oddeway was waiting at a creek on the s. s. below an island, passed ( ) two island on the s. s. and came to at the upper point, g drewyer went out r. fields & guterich, five men sick to day with a violent head ake &c. and several with boils, we appoint a cook to each mess to take charge of the provisions. in serjt. pryor's = collens in sjt. ordway's werner in sergt. floyd's thompson, the french men killed a young deer on the bank, ( ) passed up a narrow channel of about or yds wide about miles to the mouth of nadawa river which corns in to this channel from the n w. and is abt. yards wide at its mouth ____ feet deep and has a jentle current, perogues can navagate this river near its head, which is between the missourie & the grand river, passed up the gut / of a mile to the river at the head of the island & camped opposit the head of this island is another nearest the middle r this island nadawa is the largest i have seen, formed by a channel washing into the nadawa river.--" or acrs" [clark, july , ] july the th sunday set out early passed a small creek on the s. s. and two ( ) small islands on the s s. five men sick to day with a violent head ake &c. we made some arrangements as to provisions & messes, came to for dinner at the lower point of a very large island situated near the s. s. after a delay of two hours we passed a narrow channel of to yds wide five miles to the mouth of ( ) nkdawa river, this river coms in from the north and is navagable for perogues some distance. it is about yards wide a little above the mouth, at the mouth not so wide, the mud of the gut running out of the missourie is thrown and settles in the mouth half a mile higher up this channel or gut is the upper point of the said island, this island is called nadawa, & is the largest i have seen in the river, containing or acres of land seldom overflowed we camped at the head of this island on the s. s. opposit the head or our camp is a small island near the middle of the river, river still falling. our flank party did not join us this evening [lewis, july , ] detachment orders nadawa island july th .- in order to insure a prudent and regular use of all provisions issued to the crew of the batteaux in future, as also to provide for the equal distribution of the same among the individuals of the several messes, the commanding officers do appoint the following persons to recieve, cook, and take charges of the provisions which may from time to time be issued to their respective messes, (viz) john b. thompson to sergt. floyd's mess, william warner to sergt. ordway's mess, and john collins to sergt. pryor's mess.--these superintendants of provision, are held immediately respon sible to the commanding officers for a judicious consumption of the provi sion which they recieve; they are to cook the same for their several messes in due time, and in such manner as is most wholesome and best calculated to afford the greatest proportion of nutriment; in their mode of cooking they are to exercise their own judgment; they shall allso point out what part, and what proportion of the mess provisions are to be consumed at each stated meal (i. e.) morning, noon and night; nor is any man at any time to take or consume any part of the mess provisions without the privity, knowledge and consent of the superintendant. the superintendant is also held responsible for all the cooking eutensels of his mess. in considera tion of the duties imposed by this order on thompson, warner, and collins, they will in future be exempt from guard duty, tho they will still be held on the royster for that duty, and their regular tour-shall be per formed by some one of their rispective messes; they are exempted also from pitching the tents of the mess, collecting firewood, and forks poles &c. for cooking and drying such fresh meat as may be furnished them; those duties are to be also performed by the other members of the mess. m. lewis wm. clark [clark, july , ] july the th monday sent one man back to the mouth of the river to mark a tree, to let the party on shore see that the boat had passed the river, set out early passed ( ) the head of the island situated in the middle of the river a sand bar at the head, ( ) passed the mouth of a creek or bayou on the s. s. leading from a large pond of about three miles in length, at oclock it commenced raining, the wind changed from n e. to s. w. ( ) at miles passed the mouth of a small creek on the l. s. called monters creek, the river at this place is wide with a sand bar in the middle, passed a place on the l. s. about miles above the creek, where several french men camped two years to hunt--( ) passed a island on the s s. of the river in a bend, opsd. a high land on the l. s. wind shifted to the n. w. in the evining, opsd. this island, and on the l. s. loup or wolf river coms in, this river is about yards wide, but little water running at the mouth, this river heads with the waters of the kanzas, and has a perogue navigation some distance, it abounds with beaver, camped opposit the head of the island on the l. s. saw a fire on the s. s. supposedly the four flankers, to be theire, sent a perogue for them, the patroon & bowman of the perogue french, they returned & informed, that when they approached the fire, it was put out, which caused them to return, this report causd. us to look out supposeing a pty. of soux going to war, firierd the bow piec to allarm & put on their guard the men on shore everey thing in readiness for defence. [clark, july , ] july th monday one man sent back to the river we passed last night to blase a tree with a view to notify the party on shore of our passing set out and passed the head of the ( ) island which was situated opposit to our camp last night a sand bar at the head ( ) opsd. this island a creek or bayaue corns in from a large pond on the starboard side, as our flanking party saw great numbers of pike in this pond, i have laid it down with that name anex'd,v at oclock the wind shifted from the n, e to s w and it commenced raining. ( ) at six miles passed the mouth of creek on the l. s. called monter's creek, about two mile above is some cabins where our bowman & several frenchmen campd. two years ( ) passed an island on the s. s. in a bend of the river opposit some clifts on the l. s. the wind shifted to the n w opposit this island and on the l. side (loup) or wolf river coms in, this river is about yards wide and heads with the waters of the kansis, and is navagable for perogues "some destance up" camped at a point on the l. s. opposit the head of the island, our party was incamped on the opposit side, their not answering our signals caused us to suspect the persons camped opposit to us was a war party of soux, we fired the bow piece to alarm the party on shore, ailed prepared to oppose if attacted [clark, july , ] july th tuesday set out this morning with a view to land near the fire seen last night, & recornetre, but soon discovered that our men were at the fire, they were a sleep early last evening, and from the course of the wind which blew hard, their yells were not heard by party in the perogue, a mistake altogether-. proceeded on, passed prarie on the upper side of woolf river, at miles passed ( ) a small creek l. s. called r. pape this creek is about yds. wide-and called after a spanierd who killed himself at the mouth. ( ) dined on an island called de selamen and delayed hours, and proceeded on, opposit this isld. on the l. s. is a ( ) butifull bottom prarie whuch will contain about acres of land covered with wild rye & wild potatoes, gread numbers of goslings on the banks & in the ponds near the river, capt lewis killed two this evening, we came to & camped for the night. at a point on the s. s. opposit a yellow clay clift.--our men all getting well but much fatigued, the river is on a stand nether rise nor fall, the bottom on the s. s. is verry extensive & thick. the hills or high land is near the river on the l. s. and but thinly timbered, back of those hills is open plains. [clark, july , ] july th tuesday set out early this morning and crossd the river with a view to see who the party was that camped on the other side, we soon discovered them to be our men,--proceeded on passed a prarie on the l. s. at miles passed a creek l. s called ( ) pappie after a man who killed himself at its mouth, this creek is yds wide--( ) dined on an isld. called de salamin delayed hours on this island to recruit the men opposit on the l. s. is a butifull bottom plain of about acres ( ) covered with wild rye & potatoes, intermix't with the grass, we camped on the s. s. opposit a yellow clay clift, capt. lewis killed two young gees or goslings this evening--the men of the party getting better, but much fatigued--the river on a stand--the bottom is verry extensive on the s. s. and thickly intersperced with vines the high land approaches near the river on the l. s. and well timbered next to the river, back of those hills the plains commence. [clark, july , ] july th wednesday, set out early proceeded on passed a willow ( ) island in a bend to the s. s. sent out dreweyer & jo. fields to hunt, back of this island a creek corns in on the s. s. called by the indians little tarkio creek i went on shore above this island on the s. s. found the bottom subject for overflow wet and verry thickly interwoven with grape vines--proceeded on at about / a miles from the river about ms. and observed fresh sign of a horse, i prosueed the track, with an expectation of finding a camp of indians on the river, when i got to the river, i saw a horse on the beech, this horse as appears was left last winter by some hunting party, probable the othouez, i joined the boat on the sand island situated opposit the mouth of the ne ma har river, this river coms in on the l. s. is about yds wide and navagable for perogues some distance up the praries commnce above the mouth and continus on both sides of this r drewyer killed deer to day j. field one several hunters sent out up the nemahar r [clark, july , ] july th, wednesday set out early passed a willow island ( ) in a bend on the s. s. back of this island a creek corns in called by the indians tar-ki-o i went on shore above this creek and walked up parrelel with the river at ab ut half a mile distant, the bottom i found low & subject to overflow, still further out, the under groth & vines wer so thick that i could not get thro with ease after walking about three or miles i observed a fresh horse track where he had been feeding i turned my course to the river and prosud the track and found him on a sand beach this horse probably had been left by some party of otteaus hunters who wintered or hunted in this quarter last fall or wintr. i joined the party on a large sand island imediately opposit the mouth of ne ma haw river, at which place they had camped, this island is sand about half of it covered with small willows of two different kinds, one narrow & the other a broad leaf. several hunters sent out to day on both sides of the river, seven deer killed to day. drewyer killd six of them, made some luner observations this evening. [clark, july , ] july th thursday som hunters out on the s. s. those on the l. s. did not return last night, our object in delaying here is to tak some observations and rest the men who are much fatigued made sundery observations, after an early brackfast i took five men and went up the river ne ma har about three miles, to an open leavel part of an emence prarie, at the mouth of a small creek on the lower side, i went on shore, & passed thro the plain passed several noles to the top of a high artificial noal from the top of this noal i had an emence, extensive & pleaseing prospect, of the countrey around, i could see the meandering of the little river for at least miles winding thro a meadow of or acres of high bottom land covered with grass about / feet high, the high lands which rose irregularly, & were toped with mounds or antent graves which is to me a strong evidence of this countrey haveing been thickly settled-.this river is about yards wide with a gentle current and heads up near the parnee village on river blue a branch of kansas, a little timbered land near the mouth for mile above, only a fiew trees, and thickets of plumbs cheres &c are seen on its banks the creeks & little reveens makeing into the river have also some timber--i got grapes on the banks nearly ripe, observed great quantities, of grapes, plums crab apls and a wild cherry, growing like a comn. wild cherry only larger & grows on a small bush, on the side of a clift sand stone / me. up & on lower side i marked my name & day of the month near an indian mark or image of animals & a boat tried willard for sleeping on his post, our hunters killed some deer, saw elk & buffalow. [clark, july , ] july th, thursday concluded to delay here to day with a view of takeing equal altitudes & makeing observations as well as refreshing our men who are much fatigued--after an early brackfast i with five men in a perogue assended the river ne-ma-haw about miles to the mouth of a small creek on the lower side, here i got out of the perogue, after going to several small mounds in a leavel plain, i assended a hill on the lower side, on this hill several artificial mounds were raised, from the top of the highest of those mounds i had an extensive view of the serounding plains, which afforded one of the most pleasing prospects i ever beheld, under me a butifull river of clear water of about yards wide meandering thro a leavel and extensive meadow, as far as i could see, the prospect much enlivened by the fine trees & srubs which is bordering the bank of the river, and the creeks & runs falling into it,-. the bottom land is covered with grass of about / feet high, and appears as leavel as a smoth surfice, the bottom is also covered with grass and rich weeds & flours, interspersed with copses of the osage plumb. on the riseing lands, small groves of trees are seen, with a numbers of grapes and a wild cherry resembling the common wild cherry, only larger and grows on a small bush on the tops of those hills in every derection. i observed artifical mounds (or as i may more justly term graves) which to me is a strong indication of this country being once thickly settled. (the indians of the missouris still keep up the custom of burrying their dead on high ground) after a ramble of about two miles about i returned to the perogue and decended down the river, gathd. som grapes nearly ripe, on a sandstone bluff about / of a mile from its mouth on the lower side i observed some indian marks, went to the rock which jutted over the water and marked my name & the day of the month & year--this river heads near one of the villages of the pania on the river blue, a branch of the kansas river.--above this river about half a mile the prarie comes to the missouri after my return to camp on the island completed som observations, tred tried a man for sleeping on his post & inspected the arms amunition &c. of the party found all complete, took some luner obsevations. three deer killed to day. latd. ° ' " n. [lewis and clark, july , ] camp new island july th . a court matial consisting of the two commanding officers will convene this day at ock. p.m. for the trial of such prisoners as may be brought before them; one of the court will act as judge advocate. m. lewis wm. clark the commanding officers. capt. m. lewis & w. clark constituted themselves a court martial for the trial of such prisoners as are guilty of capatol crimes, and under the rules and articles of war punishable by death, alexander willard was brought foward charged with "lying down and sleeping on his post whilst a sentinal, on the night of the th. instant" (by john ordway sergeant of the guard) to this charge the prisoner pleads. guilty of lying down, and not guilty, of going to sleep. the court after duly considering the evidence aduced, are of oppinion that the prisoner alexdn. willard is guilty of every part of the charge exhibited against him. it being a breach of the rules and articles of war (as well as tending to the probable distruction of the party) do sentence him to receive one hundred lashes on his bear back, at four different times in equal propation.--and order that the punishment commence this evening at sunset, and continue to be inflicted, (by the guard) every evening untill completed wm clark m. lewis [clark, july , ] my notes of the th of july by a most unfortunate accident blew over board in a storm in the morning of the th obliges me to refur to the journals of serjeants, and my own recollection the accurrences courses distance &c. of that day--last night a violent storm from the n. n, e.- ( ) passed tar-ki-o river, at miles a chant. running into this river ms. abov forms st josephs isld. passed an elegt prarie in the st bend to the left. containg a grass resmlg timothy, with seed like flax, ( ) passed a island in a bend to the s. s. at ms. i walked on shore s. s. lands, low & overflows, killed two goslings nearly grown, sailed under a wind from the south all day, camped on a sand island on the l. pt. opposit a high & extensiv prarie, on the s. s. the hills about or me. off, this plain appears extensive, great appearance of a storm from the north w. this evening verry agreeable the wind still from the south- from the osagies nation with twenty odd of the natives or chiefs of the nation with him sailed dowen the mississippi bound to st louis & guns fired showers of rain showers of rain all that night [clark, july , ] july th friday set out at sun rise, and prosd. on under a gentle breeze, at two miles passed the mouth of a small river on the s. s. called by the indians tarki-o, a channel running out of the river three miles above (which is now filled up with sand) runs into this creek & and formed a island called st. josephs several sand bars parralel to each other above--in the first bend to the left is situated a butifull & extensive plain, cover'd with grass resembling timothy except the seed which resembles flax seed, this plain also abounds in grapes of defferent kinds some nearly ripe. i killed two goslings nearly grown, several others killed and cought on shore, also one old goose, with pin fethers, she could not fly--at about miles passd. a island situated in a bend on the s. s. above this island is a large sand bar covered with willows. the wind from the south, camped on a large sand bar makeing out from the l. p. opposit a high hanson prarie, the hills about or miles on s. s. this plain appeard extensive, the clouds appear to geather to the n. w. a most agreeable breeze from the south (i walked on shore on the s. s. the lands are low subject to overflow) last night at about oclock a violent storm of wind from the n. n. e. which lasted with great violence for about one hour, at which time a shower of rain succeeded. the men on shore did not join us this after noon--the river nearly on a stand--the high lands on the s. s. has only been seen at a distance above the nordaway river, those on the s. l. aproaching the river at every bend, on the side next to the river well timbered, the opsd. side open & the commencmt. of plains. [clark, july , ] july the th satturday some hard shours of rain accompaned with some wind detained us untill about oclock, we then set out and proceeded on about a mile and th atmispeir became suddenly darkened by a blak & dismal looking cloud, we wer in a situation, near the upper point of a sd. isd. & the opsd shore falling in in this situation a violent storm of wint from the n, e (passing over an open plain, struck the boat nearly starboard, quatering, & blowing down the current) the exerssions of all our men who were out in an instant, aded to a strong cable and anchor was scrcely sufficent to keep the boat from being thrown up on the sand island, and dashed to peices the waves dasthed over on the side next to the wind the lockers which was covered with tarpoling prevented them coming into the boat untill the boat was creaned on the side from the wind in this situation we continued about minits, the two perogues about a quater of a mile above, one of them in a similer situation with the boat, the other under the charge of george gibson in a much better position, with her ster faceing the wind, this storm suddenly seased, & minit the river was as smoth as glass, the wind shifted to the s. e and we set sail, and proceeded on passed ( ) a small island on the s. s. and dined--r. fields who has charge of the horses &c. on shore did not join us last night-. passed a old fort where mr. bennet of st louis winttered years & traded with the otteaus & parties on the s. s. me. abov the little island, i went out on the l. s. and observed two elk on a land in the river, in attempting to get near those elk obseved one near us i shot one. continued on shore & thro the bottom which was extensive, some small praries, and a peponce of high rich & well timbered bottom, in the glades i saw wild timothy, lams quarter cuckle burs & rich weed, on the edges plumbs of different kinds grapes, and goose berries, camped on the l. s. ruben fields and gulrich joined the party two men unwell, one a felin on his finger, river fall [clark, july , ] july th, satturday some hard showers of rain this morning prevented our setting out untill oclock, at half past seven, the atmispr. became sudenly darkened by a black and dismal looking cloud, at the time we were in a situation (not to be bettered) near the upper point of the sand island, on which we lay, and the opposit shore, the bank was falling in and lined with snags as far as we could see down,-. in this situation the storm which passd over an open plain from the n. e. struck the our boat on the starbd. quarter, and would have thrown her up on the sand island dashed to peces in an instant, had not the party leeped out on the leward side and kept her off with the assistance of the ancker & cable, untill the storm was over, the waves dashed over her windward side and she must have filled with water if the lockers which is covered with tarpoling & threw of the water & prevented any quantity getting into bilge of the boat in this situation we continued about minits. when the storm sudenly seased and the river become instancetaniously as smoth as glass. the two perogus dureing this storm was in a similar situation with the boat about half a mile above--the wind shifted to the s. e & we saled up passed a small ( ) isld. situated on the s. s. and dined & continud two hours, men examine their arms--about a mile above this island, passed a small tradeing fort on the s. s. where, mr. bennet of st. louis traded with the otteaus & panies two years. i went on shore to shoot some elk on a sand bar to the l. s. i fired at one but did not get him, went out into a large extensive bottom the greater part of which overflows, the part that dose not overflow, is rich and well timbered, some small open praries near the hills, the boat passed the lower part of a large island situated on the s. s. above the lower point of this island on the s. s. a ( ) large creek corns into the river called by the maha's indians neesh-nah-ba-to-na yds this is a considerable creek nearly as large as the mine river, and runs parrelel with the missouri, the greater part of its course. in those small praries or glades i saw wild timothey, lambs-quarter, cuckle burs; & rich weed. on the edges grows sumr. grapes, plum's, & gooseberries. i joined the boat which had came to and camped in a bend opposd. the large island before mentioned on the l. s. several men unwell with boils, felns, &c. the river falls a little. [clark, july , ] july th sunday . a heavy fog this morning which detained us untill oclock, put drewyer sgt. floyd on shore, at i took two men and went on shore, with a view to kill some elk, passed thro open plains, and barroney lands crossed three butifull small streams of water, saw great quantity of cherres plums, grapes & berries of difft. kinds, the lands generally of a good quallity, on the streams the wood escapes the fire, at about miles i struck the river at the mouth ne ma har creek about yds wide, near this creek on a high part of the prarie i had a extensive view of the river & countrey on both sides. on s. a contnuation of the plain as far as i could see, on the n. a bottom prarie of about ms. wide & or long, hills back of this plain. i swam across the creek and waited for the boat about three miles above, we camped opsd. an island. [clark, july , ] july th, sunday a heavy fog this morning prevented our setting out before oclock, at nine i took two men and walked on the l. s. i crossed three butifull streems of runnig water heading in the praries on those streem the lands verry fine covered with pea vine & rich weed the high praries are also good land covered with grass entirely void of timber except what grows on the water, i proceeded on thro those praries several miles to the mouth of a large creek on the l. s. called ( ) ne ma har this is a small river, about yds. above the mouth it is yards wide, at the mouth (as all other creeks & rivers falling into the missourie are) much narrower than a little distance up. after continueing at the mouth of this creek about an hour, i swam across and proceeded on about miles and halted to wate for the boat, which was some distance below--in all this days march thro woods & praries, i only saw three deer & fawns--i had at one part of the prarie a verry extensive view of all the countrey around up and down the river a considerable distance, on the larbd. sd. one continul plain, on the s. s. some timber on the bank of the river, for a short distance back of this timber is a bottom plain of four or five miles back to the hills and under the hills between them & the river this plain appeared to extend or miles, those hills have but little timber, and the plain appears to continu back of them--i saw great quantities of grapes, plums, or kinds wild cherries of kinds, hazelnuts, and goosberries. we camped in a point of woods on the larboard s. opsd. a large island. [lewis, july , ] sunday july th this evening i discovered that my chronometer had stoped, nor can i assign any cause for this accedent; she had been wound up the preceding noon as usual. this is the third instance in which this instrument has stopt in a similar manner since she nas been in my possession, tho the first only since our departure from the river dubois. in the two preceding cases when she was again set in motion, and her rate of going determined by a series of equal altitudes of the sun taken for that purpose, it was found to be the same precisely as that mentioned in the preliminary remarks to these observations, or s & tenths too slow in h-as her rate of going after stoping, and begin again set in motion has in two instances proved to be the same, i have concluded, that whatever this impediment may procede from, it is not caused by any material injury which her works have sustained, and that when she is in motion, her error on mean time above stated, may be depended on as accurate. in consequence of the chronometer's having thus accedentally stoped, i determined to come too at the first convenient place and make such observations as were necessary to ascertain her error, establish the latitude & longitude, and determine the variation of the nedle, in order to fix a second point of departure. [clark, july , ] july monday set out verry early and proceeded on the side of a prarie passd the head of the island opsd. which we camped last night, ( ) passed a small willow island off the l. point, hills make near the river ( ) passed a large island nearest the l. s. below the pt. a small willow isd. also one on the side. this large island is called fair sun the wind favourable from the south. boat run on a sawyer, ( ) pass a place on the l. s. where the hill abt. acres has sliped into the river lately just above passed under a clift of sand stone l. s. a number of burds nests in the holes & crevises of this rock which continus miles, ( ) passed a willow island in a deep bend to the s. s. river mile wide at this place, note deed snags across, passed the lower point of a island called isle chauvin situated on the l. point opposit an extensive prarie on the s. s., this prarie i call ball pated prarie from the range ball hills, at from to miles from the river as far as my sight will extend, we camped in a point of woods opsd. the isd. on s. s. in a bend. [clark, july , ] july th monday set out this morning verry early and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s passed the upper point of the island an extensive prarie on the l. s. passed a large ( ) island called fair sun isd. a small willow isld. at the lower point on the l. s. the boat passd on the l. s. of those islands several small sand islands in the channel, the boat run on the point of a snag, ( ) passed a place above the island l. s. where about acres of the hill has latterly sliped into the river above a clift of sand stone for about two miles, the resort of burds of different kinds to reare their young. ( ) passed a willow island in a deep bend to the s. s. opposit the river is about two miles wide, and not verry deep as the snag may be seen across, scattering, passed the lower point of an island called by french chauvin's situated off the l. point opposit an extensive prarie on the s. s. this prarie i call ball gated prarie, from a range of ball hills parrelel to the river & at from to miles distant from it, and extends as far up & down as i can see, we camped in a point of woods on the l. s. above the lower point of the island. river falling. [lewis, july , ] monday th we set out at an early hour; the morning was cloudy; could find no convenient situation for observation; proceeded untill a little before noon when we came too on the lard. shore opposite to the center of good island where i observed the meridian altitude of o's l. l. with octant by the back observation, wich gave me the latitude-- ° ' " n. i now set the chronometer as near noon as this observation would enable me, and proceeded untill evening, when we came too on the stard. shore opposite the lower point of the island of the bald prarie where we encamped. [clark, july , ] july th tuesday, we concluded to lay by today to fix the longitude, and get the cronometer right, (she run down day before yesterday), several men out hunting to day capt. lewis rode out to neesh-nahba-to na creek which passes thro. the prarie (on which there is some few trees) within ____ mile of the missoureis, wind from the s e. several of the party have tumers of different kinds some of which is verry troublesom and dificuilty to cure. i took a meridian altitude ( ° ') which made the lattitude of this place ° ' " / north.--(the ball hills bear n ° w for mes. the bend on l. s. passing the isd. on the right side is n. ° w. ms.) took equal altitudes tried a part of the comn pt. of the current in seconds the water run fathem " & " in places cap lewers returned, saw some hand som countrey, the creek near the high land is rapid and nearly as muddy as the river, & rising gutrich caught two verry fat cat fish g drewyer killed deer, & r fields one, a puff of wind brought swarms of misquitors, which disapeared in two hours, blown off by a continuation of the same brees. [clark, july , ] bald pated prarie july th, tuesday we concluded lay by at this place to day to fix the lattitude & longitude of this place to correct the cromometer run down sunday) several men out by day light hunting capt. lewis concid. to ride out to neesh-nah-ba-to-na creek which passes under the ball hills near this place and at one place a little above this camp is within yards of the missouris on this creek grows some few trees of oake walnut & mulberry. i took meridian altitude of sun l. l. ( ° ') which made the lattitude ° ' " / north--wind from the south e. several of the party much aflicted with turners of different kinds, som of which is verry troublesom and dificuelt to cure. capt. louis returned in the evening. he saw som hand some countrey & says that the aforesaid creek is rapid muddey and running--this creek which is at or from its mouth, within yds of the river is at least foot lower than the river--the high lands from our camp in this bald pated prarie bears n ° w. up the r. the common current taken with a log runs fathen in "some places much swifter in " and even seconds of time--five deer killed to day [clark, july , ] july th wednesday a fair morning the river falling fast, set out at sunrise under a gentle breeze from s. e by s. at miles passed the head of the island on l. s. called by the french chauve or bald pate ( ) opsd. the middle of this island the creek on l. s. is within yds. of the river. back of this island the lower point of ( ) another island in the bend to the l. s. passed large sand bar making out from each point with many channels passing through them, "current runs fathm. in seconds" but little timber on either side of the river, except the isds. & points which are low wet & covered with lofty trees, cotton wood mulberry elm &c. &c. passed the head of a long island in high water at this time no water passes thro the channel ( ) opposit the lower point of a island on the l. s. pass the island and opsd. the point ( ) above & on the l. s. the hills come to the river, this hill has sliped into the river for about / of a mile, and leaves a bluff of considerable hight back of it this hill is about foot high compsd. of sand stone inter mingled with iron ore of an inferior quallity on a bed of soft slate stone. we passed a verry bad sand bar ( ) a little above the hill and incmpd on the l. s. opposit a small island in the river, saw a dog this evening appeared to be nearly starved to death, he must have been left by some party of hunters we gave him some meet, he would not come near, g drewrer brought in deer this evening [clark, july , ] july th wednesday a fair morning the river falling fast set out this morning at sun rise under a gentle breeze from the s. e. by s. passing over the prarie, at about miles we passed the head of the island l. s. called by the french chaube or bald pate opposit the middle of ( ) this island the creek on the s. s. is nearest the river, in high water an island is formed in the bind above the last ( )- measured the current and found that in forty one seconds it run yo fathoms but little timber is to be seen except in the low points on islands & on creeks, the groth of timber is generally cotton mulberry elm sycomore &c &c. passed a island on the d point to the s. s. opposite the water ( ) whin high passes out in the plain oppsid this island on the l. s. the hills jut to the river ( ) this hill has sliped from the top which forms a bluff above & foot above the water, about / of a mile in length & about feet in depth has sliped into the river it is composed of sand stone intermixed with an indiffert. iron ore near the bottom or next to the water is a soft slate stone, som pebble is also intermixt, we passed a verry bad sand bar and incamped on the l. s. at the lower point of the oven islands & opposit the prarie calld. by the french four le tourtue saw a dog nearly starved on the bank, gave him som meet, he would not follow, our hunters killed deer to day [clark, july , ] july th after breakfast which was on a rosted ribs of a deer a little and a little coffee i walked on shore intending only to keep up with the boat, soon after i got on shore, saw some fresh elk sign, which i was induced to prosue those animals by their track to the hills after assending and passing thro a narrow strip of wood land, came suddenly into an open and bound less prarie, i say bound less because i could not see the extent of the plain in any derection, the timber appeared to be confined to the river creeks & small branches, this prarie was covered with grass about inches or feat high and contained little of any thing else, except as before mentioned on the river creeks &c, this prospect was so sudden & entertaining that i forgot the object of my prosute and turned my attention to the variety which presented themselves to my view after continueing on this rise for some minits, i deturmined to make my course to a line of woods to s. e. i found in this wood a butifull streem of running water, in prosuing it down several others joined it and at miles fell into the river between clifts, i went up & under one clift of dark rich clay for / me. above this a clay bank which had sliped in here i found sand stone containing iron ore, this ore appears to be inbeded under the clay just above the water [clark, july , ] july th thursday set out early pass between islands one in mid. & the other l. s. opsd. wher prarie aproaches the river s. s. this place is called the bakers oven or in french four le tour tere passd. some highlands / ms. above the isds. on the l. s. forming a clift to the river of yellow earth, on the top a prarie, passd. many a bad sand bar in this distance, & the river wide & shallow, above this clift small butiffull runs come from the plains & fall into the river, a deer lick on the first, above those two creeks, i found in my walk on shore some ore in a bank which had sliped in to the river / me. above the creeks, i took a cerequite around & found that those two runs mentioned contained a good proposion of wood surrounded by a plain, with grass about inchs. high, (capt lewis walked on shore after dinner) in the first bind to the right above those runs passed a small island opsd. is a sand bar i call this island butter island, as at this place we mad use of the last of our butter, as we approach this great river platt the sand bars are much more noumerous than they were, and the quick & roleing sands much more danjerous, where the praries aproach the river it is verry wide, the banks of those plains being much easier to undermine and fall than the wood land passed ( ) a willow island situated near the middle of the river, a sand bar on the s. s. and a deep bend to the l s. camped on the right side of the willow island-w. bratten hunting on the l. s swam to the island. hunters drewyer killed deer, saw great numbers of young gees. the river still falling a little sand bars thick always in view. [clark, july , ] july th, thursday set out early passed between two small islands, one in the middle of the river, the other close on the l s. opposit a prarie s. s. called ( ) by the french four le tourtre, the bakers oven islands, passed ( ) some high clift / miles above the islands on the l. s. of yellow earth passed several sand bars that were wide and at one place verry shallow (two small butifull runs falls into the river near each other at this clift, a deer lick yards up the lowest of those runs) those runs head at no great distance in the plains and pass thro of timber to the river. in my walk on shore i found some ore in the bank above those runs which i take to be iron ore ( ) at this place the side of the hill has sliped about half way into the river for / of a mile forming a clift from the top of the hill above. in the first bend to the right passed a small island a sand bar opposit,--worthey of remark as we approach this great river plate the sand bars much more numerous and the quick or moveing sands much worst than they were below at the places where praries approach the river it is verry wide those places being much easier to wash & under mine than the wood land's. ( ) passed a willow isd. situated near the middle of the river and a large sand makeing out from the s. s. a deep bend to the l s. we camped at the head of this island on the starboard side of it, hunters killed two deer. saw great numbers of young gees river falling a little. [clark, july , ] july th friday , a fog this morning and verry cool george drewyer sick proceed on over a sand bar, bratten swam the river to get his gun & clothes left last night psd a large willow isd. on the l. s. ( ) passed the mouth of l'eau que pleure the english of which is the water which cry's this creek is about yards wide falls into the river above a gift of brown clay l. s. opposit a willow island, at this creek i went on shore took r fields with me and went up this creek several miles & crossed thro the plains to the river above with the view of finding elk, we walked all day through those praries without seeing any, i killed an emence large yellow wolf-the countrey throu which we walked after leaveing the creek was good land covered with grass interspersed with groves & scattering timber near and about the heads of branches one of them without suckcess, camped above the bar on the l. s. a verry agreeable breeze all night serjt. pryor & jo. fields brought in two deer river still falling. a large spring / me. below camp [clark, july , ] july th, friday a cool morning passed a large willow island ( ) on the s. s. and the mouth of creek about yds. wide on the l. s. called by the french l'eue-que pleure, or the the water which cry's this creek falls into the river above a clift of brown clay opposit the willow island, i went out above the mouth of this creek and walked the greater part of the day thro plains interspesed with small groves of timber on the branches and some scattering trees about the heads of the runs, i killed a verry large yellow wolf, the soil of those praries appears rich but much parched with the frequent fires-" after i returned to the boat we proceeded around a large sand bar makeing out from the l. s. opsd. a fountain of water comeing out of a hill l. s. and affording water suffient to turn a mill the praries as far as i was out appeared to be well watered, with small streems of running water serjt. pryor & jo. fields brought in two deer this evening--a verry pleasent breeze from the n. w. all night--river falling a little, it is wothey of observation to mention that our party has been much healthier on the voyage than parties of the same number is in any other situation turners have been troublesom to them all from this evenings incampment a man may walk to the pane village on the s bank of the platt river in two days, and to the otteaus in one day all those indians are situated on the south bank of the plate river, as those indians are now out in the praries following & hunting the buffalow, i fear we will not see them. [lewis, july , ] july , by a boiling motion or ebolition of it's waters occasioned no doubt by the roling and irregular motion of the sand of which its bed is entirely composed. the particles of this sand being remarkably small and light it is easily boied up and is hurried by this impetuous torrent in large masses from place to place in with irristable forse, collecting and forming sandbars in the course of a few hours which as suddingly disapated to form others and give place perhaps to the deepest channel of the river. where it enters the missouri it's superior force changes and directs the courant of that river against it's northern bank where it is compressed within a channel less than one third of the width it had just before occupyed. it dose not furnish the missouri with it's colouring matter as has been asserted by some, but it throws into it immence quantities of sand and gives a celerity to it's courant of which it abates but little untill it's junction with the mississippy. the water of this river is turbid at all seasons of the year but is by no means as much so as that of the missourie. the sediment it deposits, consists of very fine particles of white sand while that of the missoury is composed principally of a dark rich loam-in much greater quantity st july from the experiments and observations we were enabled to make with rispect to the comparative velocities of the courants of the rivers mississippi missouri and plat it results that a vessel will float in the mississippi below the entrance of the missouri at the rate of four miles an hour. in the missouri from it's junction with the mississsippi to the entrance of the osage river from / to from thence to the mouth of the kanzas from / to . from thence to the platte / while the plat is at least .--the missouri above the junction of the river plat is equal to about / miles an hour as far as the mouth of the chyenne where its courant still abates and becomes equal to about three miles an hour from information it dose not increase it's volocity for [clark, july , ] july st satturday, set out verry early and a gentle breeze from the s. e proceeded on very well, passed a ( ) willow island l. s. opsd. a bad sand bar passed some high land covered with timber, in this hill is semented rock & limestone the water runs out and forms several little islands in ( ) high water on the s. s. a large sand bar on the s. s. above and opposit the wooded high land, at about oclock the wind seased and it commenced raining passed many sand bars opposit or in the mouth of the great river plate this river which is much more rapid than the missourie has thrown out imence quantities of sand forming large sand banks at its mouth and forced the missourie close under the s. s. the sands of this river comes roleing down with the current which is crowded with sand bars and not feet water at any place across its mouth, the rapidity of the current of this river which is greater than that of the missourie, its width at the mouth across the bars is about / of a mile, higher up i am told by one of the bowmen that he was winters on this river above and that it does not rise feet, but spreds over miles at some places, capt lewis & my self went up some distance & crossed found it shallow. this river does not rise over or feet proceeded on passed the mouth of papillion or butter fly creek miles on the l. s. a large sand bar opposit on that side camped above this baron l. s. a great number of wolves about us all night r. fields killed a deer hard wind n. w. cold [clark, july , ] july st, satturday set out early under a gentle breeze from the s. e. proceeded on verry well, passed ( ) a willow island on the l. s. opposit a bad sand bar, some high lands covered with timber l. s in this hill is limestone & seminted rock of shels &c. ( ) in high water the opposit side is cut thro by several small channels, forming small islands, a large sand bar opposit the hill at oclock the wind luled and it commnc'd raining, arrived at the lower mouth of the great river platt at oclock (about ms. above the hill of wood land, the same range of high land continus within / of a mile of the mouth below) this great river being much more rapid than the missourie forces its current against the opposit shore, the current of this river comes with great velocity roleing its sands into the missouri, filling up its bend & compelling it to incroach on the s shore--we found great dificuelty in passing around the sand at the mouth of this river capt lewis and my self with men in a perogue went up this great river plate about miles, found the current verry rapid roleing over sands, passing through different channels none of them more than five or six feet deep, about yards wide at the mouth--i am told by one of our party who wintered two winters on this river that "it is much wider above, and does not rise more than five or six feet" spreds verry and from its rapidity & roleing sands cannot be navagated with boats or perogues--the indians pass this river in skin boats which is flat and will not turn over. the otteaus a small nation reside on the south side leagues up, the panies on the same side leagus higher up--about leagus up this river on the s. side a small river comes into the platt called salt river, "the waters so brackish that it can't be drank at some seasons" above this river & on the north side a small river falls into the platt called elk river this river runs parralal withe the missouri--at miles passed a small river on the l. s. called papillion or butterfly c. yds. wide a large sand bar off the mouth, we proceeded on to get to a good place to camp and delay a fiew days, passed around this sand bar and came to for the night on the l. s. a verry hard wind from the n. w. i went on shore s. s. and proceeded up one mile thro high bottom land open a great number of wolves about us this evening [clark, july , ] july nd sunday set out verry early with a view of getting some timbered land & a good situation to take equil altitudes in time proceeded on nearly a north ° w ms. to a pt. s. s. opposit some high lands on l. s. above the upper point of a long willow island in the middle of the river deer killed to day we deturmined to stay here or days to take & make obsvts. & refresh our men also to send despatches back to govement--wind hard n. w. cold [clark, july , ] nd of july completlly arranged our camp, posted two sentinals so as to completely guard the camp, formd bowers for the min $cc. &. course from r plate n ° w. ms. [clark, july , ] july nd, sunday set out verry early with a view of getting to some situation above in time to take equal altitudes and take observations, as well as one calculated to make our party comfortabl in a situation where they could recive the benifit of a shade--passed a large sand bar opposit a small river on the l. s. at miles above plate called papillion or butterfly creek a sand bar & an willow island opposit a creek ms. above the plate on the s. s. called mosquitos creek prarie on both sides of the river. came too and formed a camp on the s. s. above a small willow island, and opposit the first hill which aproach the river on the l. s. and covered with timbers of oake walnut elm &c. &. this being a good situation and much nearer the otteaus town than the mouth of the platt, we concluded to delay at this place a fiew days and send for some of the chiefs of that nation to let them know of the change of government, the wishes of our government to cultivate friendship with them, the objects of our journy and to present them with a flag and some small presents some of our provisions in the french perogue being wet it became necessary to dry them a fiew days--wind hard from n w. five deer killed to day--the river rise a little [lewis, july , ] july nd . a summary discription of the apparatus employed in the following observations; containing also some remarks on the manner in which they have been employed, and the method observed in recording the observations made with them. st--a brass sextant of inches radius, graduated to which by the assistance of the nonius was devisible to "; and half of this sum by means of the micrometer could readily be distinguished, therefore- . " of an angle was perceptible with this instrument; she was also furnished with three eye-pieces, consisting of a hollow tube and two telescopes one of which last reversed the images of observed objects. finding on experiment that the reversing telescope when employed as the eye-piece gave me a more full and perfect image than either of the others, i have most generally imployed it in all the observations made with this instrument; when thus prepared i found from a series of observations that the quantity of her index error was ' "-; this sum is therefore considered as the standing error of the instrument unless otherwise expressly mentioned. the altitudes of all objects, observed as well with this instrument as with the octant were by means of a reflecting surface; and those stated to have been taken with the sextant are the degrees, minutes, &c shewn by the graduated limb of the instrument at the time of observation and are of course the double altitudes of the objects observed. ed--a common octant of inches radius, graduated to ', which by means of the nonius was devisbile to ', half of this sum, or " was perceptible by means of a micrometer. this instrument was prepared for both the fore and back observation; her error in the fore observation is °+, & and in the back observtion ° r ' . " + at the time of our departure from the river dubois untill the present moment, the sun's altitude at noon has been too great to be reached with my sextant, for this purpose i have therefore employed the octant by the back observation. the degrees ' & ", recorded for the sun's altitude by the back observation express only the angle given by the graduated limb of the instrument at the time of observation, and are the complyment of the double altitude of the sun's observed limb; if therefore the angle recorded be taken from ° the remainder will be the double altitude of the observed object, or that which would be given by the fore observation with a reflecting surface. rd--an artificial horizon on the construction recommended and practiced by mr. andrw. ellicott of lancaster, pensyla., in which water is used as the reflecting surface; believing this artificial horizon liable to less error than any other in my possession, i have uniformly used it when the object observed was sufficiently bright to reflect a distinct immage; but as much light is lost by reflection from water i found it inconvenient in most cases to take the altitude of the moon with this horizon, and that of a star impracticable with any degree of accuracy. th--an artificial horizon constructed in the manner recommended by mr. patterson of philadelphia; glass is here used as the reflecting surface. this horizon consists of a glass plane with a single reflecting surface, cemented to the flat side of the larger segment of a wooden ball; adjusted by means of a sperit-level and a triangular stand with a triangular mortice cut through it's center sufficiently large to admit of the wooden ball partially; the stand rests on three screws inserted near it's angles, which serve as feet for it to rest on while they assist also in the adjustment. this horizon i have employed in taking the altitude of the sun when his image he has been reather too dull for a perfect reflection from water; i have used it generally in taking the altitude of the moon, and in some cases of the stars also; it gives the moon's image very perfectly, and when carefully adjusted i consider it as liable to but little error. th--an artificial horizon formed of the index specula of a sextant cemented to a flat board; adjusted by means of a sperit level and the triangular stand before discribed. as this glass reflects from both surfaces it gives the images of all objects much more bright than either of the other horizons; i have therefore most generally employed it in observing the altitudes of stars th--a chronometer; her ballance-wheel and escapement were on the most improved construction. she rested on her back, in a small case prepared for her, suspended by an universal joint. she was carefully wound up every day at twelve oclock. her rate of going as asscertained by a series of observations made by myself for that purpose was found to be seconds and a tenths of a second too slow in twenty four howers on mean solar time. this is nearly the same result as that found by mr. andrew ellicott who was so obliging as to examine her rate of going for the space of fourteen days, in the summer . her rate of going as ascertained by that gentleman was . s too slow m. t. in h. and that she went from to s. slower the last h, than she did the first h. after being wound up. at ock. on the th day of may (being the day on which the detachment left the mouth of the river dubois) the chronometer was too fast m. t. m. s. & / .--this time-piece was regulated on meantime, and the time entered in the following observations is that shewn by her at the place of observation. the day is recconed on civil time, (i e) commencing at midnight. th--a circumferentor, circle inches diameter, on the common construction; by means of this instrument adjusted with the sperit level, i have taken the magnetic azimuth of the sun and pole star. it has also been employed in taking the traverse of the river:--from the courses thus obtained, together with the distances estimated from point to point, the chart of the missouri has been formed which now accompanys these observations. the several points of observation are marked with a cross of red ink, and numbered in such manner as to correspond with the celestial observations made at those points respectively. [clark, july , ] camp ms. above the river plate monday july the rd a fair morning--sent out a party of men to look to timber for ores two other parties to hunt at oclock sent, g. drewyer & peter crusett / indn. to the otteaus village about ms. west of our camp, to invite the chiefs & principal men of that nation to come & talk with us &. &., also the panic if they should meet with any of that nation (also on the s. side of the plate ms. higher up) (at this season of the year all the indians in this quater are in the plains hunting the buffalow from some signs seen by our hunter and the praries being on fire in the derection of the village induce a belief that the nation have returned to get green corn) raised a flag staff put out some provisions which got wet in the french perogue to sun & dry--i commenced coppying my map of the river to send to the presdt. of u s. by the return of a pty of soldiers, from illinois five deer killed--one man a bad riseing on his left breast. wind from the n. w. [clark, july , ] camp white catfish miles above the platt river monday the rd of july a fair morning set a party to look for timber for ores, two parties to hunt. at oclock sent off george drewyer & peter crousett with some tobacco to invite the otteaus if at their town and panies if they saw them to come and talk with us at our camp &c. &c. (at this season the indians on this river are in the praries hunting the buffalow but from some signs of hunters near this place & the plains being on fire near their towns induce a belief that they this nation have returned to get some green corn or rosting ears) raised a flag staff sund & dryed our provisions &c. i commence coppying a map of the river below to send to the p. ____ u s five deer killed to day one man with a turner on his breast, prepared our camp the men put their arms in order wind hard this afternoon from the n. w. equal altitudes taken at the white catfish camp, miles above the river platt- [clark, july , ] white catfish camp th of july tuesday. a fair morning the wind rose with the sun & blows hard from the s. thos southerley breezes are dry cool & refreshing. the northerley breezes which is more frequent is much cooler, and moist, i continue my drawing. cap lewis also ingaged prepareing som paper to send back, one of the men cought a white catfish, the eyes small, & tale resembling that of a dolfin. [clark, july , ] white catfish camp ms. above platt th, of july tuesday a fair day the wind blows hard from the south, the breezes which are verry frequent on this part of the missouri is cool and refreshing. several hunters out to day; but as the game of all kinds are scarce only two deer were brought in--i am much engaged drawing off a map, capt. lewis also much engaged in prepareing papers to send back by a pirogue--which we intended to send back from the river plate--observations at this place makes the lattitude ° ' " north this evening guthrege cought a white catfish, its eyes small & tale much like that of a dolfin [clark, july , ] white catfish camp th of july wednesday. several hunters sent out. at oclock the two men sent to the otteaz village returned and informed that no indians were at the town they saw some fresh sign near that place which they persued, but could not find them, they having taken precausions to conceal the rout which they went out from the villagethe inds. of the missouries being at war with one & the other or other indians, move in large bodies and sometimes the whole nation continue to camp together on their hunting pls. those men inform that they passed thro a open plain all the way to the town a feiw trees excepted on the watercourses--they cross the papillion or the butterfly creek within a feiw miles of camp and near the village a handsm. river of yards wide called the corne de chearf or the elkhorn, which mouths below the town in the plate n. side. wind from the s. e. deer & a turkey killed to day several grous seen in the prarie [clark, july , ] white catfish camp th of july wednesday a fair morning several hunters out today at oclock drewyer & peter returned from the otteaus village; and informs that no indians were at their towns, they saw some fresh signs of a small party but could not find them. in their rout to the towns (which is about miles west) they passed thro a open prarie crossed papillion or butterfly creek and a small butifull river which run into the platt a little below the town called corne de charf or elk horn river this river is about yards wide with clear water & a gravely channel.--wind from the s. e two deer killed to day turkey several grous seen to day. [clark, july , ] whit catfish camp th of july thursday. the wind blew verry hard all day from the south with clouds of sand which incomoded me verry much in my tent, and as i could not draw in the boat was obliged combat with the misqutr. under a shade in the woods-. i opened the breast of a man the discharge gave him ease &c. beaver caught near camp-only deer killed to day. the countrey back from camp on the s. s. is a bottom of about ms. wide one half the distn. timber, the other high bottom prarie, the opsd. side a high hill about foot rock foundatio. timbered back & below. a prarie [clark, july , ] catfish which is white camp th of july thursday the wind blustering and hard from the south all day which blowed the clouds of sand in such a manner that i could not complete my pan in the tent, the boat roled in such a manner that i could do nothing in that, i was compessed to go to the woods and combat with the musqutors, i opened the turner of a man on the left breast, which discharged half a point. five beever cought near this camp the flesh of which we made use of- this evening we found verry pleasent--only one deer killed to day. the countrey back from camp on the s. s. is a bottom of about five mile wide, one half the distance wood & the ball. plain high & dry. the opposed side a high hill about foot rock foundation, covd. with timber, back & below is a plain. [lewis, july , ] white catfish camp july th friday, charged the boat and perogue after a small shower of rain, completed our ores & poles, crossed over the two horses, with a view of their going on the s w. side of the missouri and set out at half past oclock proceeded on verry well under a gentle breeze. passed a high island of high wood land on the l. side just above camp, this island is formed by a pond supplied by a great number of springs from this hill, this pond has out lets, & when the river is high the water passes thro the pond, passed a sand island in the nd bend to the right. camped in a bend to the l. s. in some wood, i took r. fields & walked on shore & killed a deer, and did not get to the boat untile after night a butifull breeze from the n w. this evening which would have been verry agreeable, had the misquiters been tolerably pacifick, but thy were rageing all night, some about the sise of house flais [clark, july , ] white catfish camp ms above platt th of july friday, a small shower of rain this morning, at oclock commence loading the boat & perogue; had all the ores completely fixed; swam over the two remaining horses to the l. s. with the view of the hunters going on that side, after getting everry thing complete, we set sale under a gentle breeze from the south and proceeded on, passed a island (formd by a pond fed by springs) on the l. s. of high land covered with timber, in the nd bend to the right a large sand island in the river a high prarie on the s. s.-. as we were setting out to day one man killed a buck & another cut his knee verry bad camped in a bend to the l. side in a coops of trees, a verry agreeable breeze from the n w. this evening. i killed a deer in the prarie and found the misquitors so thick & troublesom that it was disagreeable and painfull to continue a moment still. i took one man r. fields and walked on shore with a view of examoning som mounds on the l. s. of the river--those mounds i found to be of deffirent hight shape & size, some composed of sand some earth & sand, the highest next to the river all of which covered about acres of land, in a circular form on the side from the river a low bottom & small pond. the otteaus formerly lived here i did not get to the boat untile after night. [clark, july , ] july th satturday set out this morning early, the wind blou from the n. w. by n. a dark smokey morning, some rain at me. passed a bluff on the s. s. it being the first high land approachig the river above the nodaway, a island and creek s. s. just abov this creek i call indian knob g. drewyer came with a deer &informs he heard fireing to the s. w. i walked on shore on the s. s. found some good prarie out from the s. pt. the high lands approach the river st bend to left the party on shore brought in a missouri indian who resides with the otteauz, this indian & others were hunting in the prarie their camp is about miles off. this indian informs that his nation is in the plains hunting the buffalow, the party with which he is encamped is about familey hunting the elk, we landed on s. s. below an island [clark, july , ] july the th, satturday set out this morning early, the wind from the n w. by n. a dark smokey morning some rain passed at me. a bluff on the s. s. the first high land above the nodaway aproaching the river on that side a island and creek yds. wide on the s. s. above this bluff, as this creek has no name call it indian knob creek our party on shore came to the river and informs that they heard fireing to the s w. below this high land on the s. s. the aiawuay indians formerly lived, the flank came in & informed they heard two guns to the s. w. the highland approaches in the st bend to the left, we camped on the s. s. below the point of an island, g drewyer brought in a missourie indian which he met with hunting in the prarie this indian is one of the fiew remaining of that nation, & lives with the otteauz, his camp about miles from the river, he informs that the great gangue of the nation were hunting the buffalow in the plains. hs party was small consisting only of about lodges, ____ miles furthr a nother camp where there was a french man, who lived in the nation, this indian appeard spritely, and appeared to make use of the same pronouncation of the osarge, calling a chief inca july th sundaywe sent one frenchman le liberty & the indian to the camp to envite the party to meet us at the next bend of high land on the l. s. a dark morning wind from the w. n. w. rained all last night set out at oclock &, proceeded on passed the island, opposit this island on the s. s. the creek called indian knob creek which mouths several miles on a direct line below, is within feet of the missouri & about feet higher cought three large cat fish to day verry fat one of them nearly white those cat are so plenty that they may be cought in any part of this river but fiew fish of any other kind. ( ) at the commencement of this course passed much fallen timber apparently the ravages of a dreadful haricane which had passed obliquely across the river from n. w. to s. e. about twelve months since. many trees were broken off near the ground the trunks of which were sound and four feet in diameter. willard lost his gun in bowyers r. r. fields dive & brought it up all the wood land on this part of the missouries appear to be confined to the points & islands. boyers river is provably yds. wide, willard near loseing his gun in this river, two men sick & sevral with boils, a cold day wind from the n w. som rain the fore part of the day. [clark, july , ] july th sunday sent a french man la liberty with the indian to otteaze camp to invite the indians to meet us on the river above--a dark rainey morning wind from the w. n. w.--rained all the last night--set out at oclock opposit the ( ) island, the bend to the right or s. s. is within feet of indian knob creek, the water of this creek is feet higher than that of the river. passed the isld. we stoped to dine under some high trees near the high land on the l. s. in a fiew minits cought three verry large catfish ( ) one nearly white, those fish are in great plenty on the sides of the river and verry fat, a quart of oile came out of the surpolous fat of one of these fish ( ) above this high land & on the s. s. passed much falling timber apparently the ravages of a dreadfull harican which had passed obliquely across the river from n. w. to s e about twelve months since, many trees were broken off near the ground the trunks of which were sound and four feet in diameter, ( ) about / of a me. above the island on the s. s. a creek corns in called boyers r. this creek is yards wide, one man in attempting to cross this creek on a log let his gun fall in, r. fields dived & brought it up proceeded on to a point on the s. s. and camped. [clark, july , ] july the th monday set out early & proceeded on west / mes. passd. one pt. to the l. s and one to the s. s. to a clear open prarie on the l. s. which is on a rise of about feet higher than the bottom which is also a prarie covered with high grass plumbs grape vine & hezel-both forming a bluff to the river, the lower prarie is above high water mark at the foot of the riseing ground & below the high bluff we came to in a grove of timber and formed a camp raised a flag pole, and deturmind to waite for the ottu indians--the white horse which we found below died last night, after posting out the guards &c. &. sent out men to hunt i am ingaged in ____ and drawing off my courses to accompany the map drawn at white catfish camp, capt. lewis and my self walked in the prarie on the top of the bluff and observed the most butifull prospects imagionable, this prarie is covered with grass about or inch high, (land rich) rises about / a mile back something higher and is a plain as fur as can be seen, under those high lands next the river is butifull bottom interspersed with groves of timber, the river may be seen for a great distance both above & below meandering thro the plains between two ranges of high land which appear to be from to ms. apart, each bend of the river forming a point which contains tall timber, principally willow cotton wood some mulberry elm sycamore & ash. the groves contain walnit coffeenut & oake in addition & hickory & lynn jo. fields killed brarow or as the ponie call it cho car tooch, this animale burrows in the ground & feeds on bugs and flesh principally the little dogs of the prarie, also something of vegetable kind his shape & size is like that of a beever, his head mouth &c. is like a dog with its ears cut off, his tale and hair like that of a ground hog something longer and lighter, his interals like a hogs, his skin thick & loose, white & hair short under its belly, of the species of the bear, and it has a white streake from its nose to its sholders, the toe nails of its fore feet which is large is inch and / qtr. long and those of his hind feet which is much smaller is / long. we have this animale skined and stuffed. short legs, raseing himself just above the ground when in motion jo & r. fields killed som deer at a distance and came in for a horse to bring them in, they have not returned this evening, a gred number of swans in a pond above l. s. to our camp. serjt. floyd verry unwell a bad cold &c. several men with boils, great qts. of catfish g. d. cought one small beever alive. som turkey & gees killed to day. arms & all things in order. a fair evining, and cool. [clark, july , ] july th monday set out this morning early proceeded on to a clear open prarie on the l. s. on a rise of about feet higher than the bottom which is also a prarie both forming bluffs to the river of high grass & plumb bush grapes &c. and situated above high water is a small grove of timber at the foot of the riseing ground between those two priraries, and below the bluffs of the high prarie we came too and formed a camp, intending to waite the return of the french man & indians--the white horse which we found near the kanzeis river, died last night posted out our guard and sent out men, captn. lewis & went up the bank and walked a short distance in the high prarie. this prairie is covered with grass of or inches in hight. soil of good quallity &, still further back at the distance of about a mile the countrey rises about or feet higher, and is one continual plain as fur as can be seen, from the bluff on the d rise imediately above our camp the most butifull prospect of the river up & down and the countrey opsd. prosented it self which i ever beheld; the river meandering the open and butifull plains, interspursed with groves of timber, and each point covered with tall timber, such as willow cotton sun mulberry, elm, sucamore, lynn & ash (the groves contain hickory, walnut, coffeenut & oake in addition) two ranges of high land parrelel to each other and from to miles distant between which the river & its bottoms are contained. (from to feet high) joseph fields killed and brought in an anamale called by the french brarow, and by the ponies cho car tooch this anamale burrows in the ground and feeds on flesh, (prarie dogs), bugs, & vigatables--"his shape & size is like that of a beaver, his head mouth &c. is like a dogs with short ears, his tail and hair like that of a ground hog, and longer, and lighter. his interals like the interals of a hog," his skin thick and loose, his belly is white and the hair short--a white streek from his nose to his sholders. the toe nails of his fore feet is one inch & / long, & feet large; the nails of his hind feet / of an inch long, the hind feet small and toes crooked, his legs are short and when he moves just suffcent to raise his body above the ground he is of the bear species. we hav his skin stuffed jo. & r. fields did not return this evening, several men with verry bad boils--cat fish is cought in any part of the river turkeys gees & a beaver killed & cought every thing in prime order men in high spirits. a fair still evening great no. misquitors this evening [lewis, july , ] july the th this day joseph fields killed a braro as it is called by the french engages. this is a singular anamal not common to any part of the united states. it's weight is sixteen pounds.--it is a carniverous anamal. on both sides of the upper jaw is fexed one long and sharp canine tooth.- it's eye are small black and piercing. [clark, july , ] july st tuesday a fair day hunters out this morning g. drewyer killed a verry fat buck one inch fat on the ribs merdn. altd latd. is ° ' " / -north. r & jo. fields returned at oclock the killed deer, and lost the horses, cought a small beever which is already taim, several men out hunting the horses without sukcess, the ottoes not yet arrived, i complete the copy of the courses &c. &c. musqueters verry troubleson [clark, july , ] july st, tuesday a fair day three hunters out, took meridian altitude made the lattd. ° ' " / n. r. & jo. fields returned to camp they killed deer.--the horses strayed off last night. drewyer killed a buck one inch of fat on the ribs, r. & jo. fields returned without any meet haveing been in persuit of the horses--the indians not yet arrived. cought a young beever alive which is already quit tame-. cought a buffalow fish--the evening verry cool, the musqutors are yet troublesom.- [clark, august , ] august the st a fair morning, sent out two men after the horses & one back to examine if the indians have been there, ____ beever cought last night, the air is cool and pleasing prepared the pipe of peace verry flashey. wind rose at oclock and blowed from the w. s. w. very pleasent all day several men geathering grapes &c. two men after the horses which strayed the night before last. those praries produce the blue current common in the u. s. the goose berry common in the u. s, two kind of honeysuckle, the bush which i have seen in kentucky, with a paile pink flower, also one which grow in clusters about or feet high bearing a short flour in clusters of the like colour. the leaves single. deer & an elk killed to day. this being my birth day i order'd a saddle of fat vennison, an elk fleece & a bevertail to be cooked and a desert of cheries, plumbs, raspberries currents and grapes of a supr. quallity. the indians not yet arrived. a cool fine eveninge musquetors verry troublesom, the praries contain cheres, apple, grapes, currents, rasp burry, gooseberris hastlenuts and a great variety of plants & flours not common to the u s. what a field for a botents and a natirless [clark, august , ] august the st a fair morning despatched two men after the horses lost yesterday, one man back to the place from which the messinger was sent for the ottoes to see if any indians was or had been there since our deptr. he return'd and informed that no person had been there sence we left it. the prarie which is situated below our camp is above the high water leavel and rich covered with grass from to feet high intersperced with copse of hazel, plumbs, currents (like those of the u.s.) rasberries & grapes of dift. kinds. also produceing a variety of plants and flowers not common in the united states, two kind of honey suckle one which grows to a kind of a srub. common about harrods burgh in kentucky the other are not so large or tall and bears a flower in clusters short and of a light pink colour, the leaves differ from any of the othe kind in as much as the lieves are distinkd & does not surround the stalk as all the other kind does one elk and three deer killed to day also two beever cought the wind rose at oclock from the w. s. w. and blew a steedy and agreeable breeze all day. the musqutors verry troublesom this evening in the bottoms. took equal altitudes to day and the azmuth with the commencement of the a.m. [clark, august , ] august nd wind from the se g. drewery returned with the horses & one doe elk the countrey thro which he passed is like what we see from the bluff above camp three men out hunting one beaver caught this morning. at sunset chiefs and their warries of the ottos, and missoures, with a french man by the name of far fonge, we shook hands and gave them some tobacco & provisions, they sent us water millions three verry large & fat bucks killed to day the wind continue hard from the s. e.- the qtr. of one buck weigh'd wt / inch fat on the ribs [clark, august , ] august nd thursday a verry pleasent breeze from the s. e. the two men drewyer & colter returned with the horses loaded with elk, those horses they found about miles in a southerly derection from camp. the countrey thro which they passed is similar to what we see from camp. one beaver & a foot of beaver caught in trap cought this morning at sunset mr. fairfong and a pt. of otteau & missourie nation came to camp, among those indians were chiefs, the principal chiefs capt. lewis & myself met those indians & informed them we were glad to see them, and would speak to them tomorrow, sent them som rosted meat pork flour & meal, in return they sent us water millions. every man on his guard & ready for any thing three fat bucks killed this evening the qtrs. of one weighed lbs. [lewis, august , ] august ed . this day one of our hunters brought me a white heron. this bird as an inhabitant of ponds and marasses, and feeds upon tadpoles, frogs, small fish &c--they are common to the mississipi and the lower part of the ohio river, (ie) as high as the falls of that river. this bird weighed two lbs.--it's plumage is perfectly white and very thin f i. from extremity of beak to the extremity of toe / from tipp to tip of wing on the back it's beak is yellow pointed, flated crosswise and inches in length from the upper region of the bill to the eye is one inch in length, covered with a smoth yellow skin the plumage of the head projecting towards the upper bill and coming to a point a an inch beyond the eyes on the center of the upper bill. the mouth opens to distance of the eyes--the eye is full and projecting reather, it is / of half an inch. four joints in the wing inches st joint from body in length ed do. / rd do. / th do. st joint number of feathers length of nd from to th it's legs are black--the neck and beak occupy / it's length. it has four toes on a foot--the outer toe on the right foot is from the joining of the leg to extremity of toe nale inch & / has four joints exclusive of the nail joint--the next is / inches has three joints exclusive of the nale joint. the next is / and has two joints, the heel toe has one joint only and is inches in length. the nails are long sharp and black--the eye is of a deep seagreen colour, with a circle of of pale yellow around the sight forming a border to the outer part of the eye of about half the width of the whole eye. the tale has feathers of six inches in length.--the wings when folded are the same length with the tale. has remarkable tufts of long feathers on each side joining the body at the upper joint of the wing. these cover the feathers of the st joint of the wings when they are over extended [clark, august , ] august rd friday prepare a small preasent for those indians and hold a councul delivered a speech & made chief... gave a fiew preasents and, a smoke a dram, some powder & ball--the man we sent not yet come up, those people express great satisfaction at the speech delivered they are no oreters, big, open counternances, ottoes large missor small at oclock set out under a gentle breeze from the s. e proceeded on n. ° e ms. passed a pt. on the s. s. and round a large sand bar on the l. s. and camped above, below a great number of snags quit across the river, the musquitors more numerous than i ever saw them, all in spirrits, we had some rough convasation g. dr. about boys. the osage & kansies are the same language the ottoes & mahars speek many words of the osarge language the ottos, aiaways, & missouries speake the same language the panies & recreries speak the same language also the loups & repub. the mahar, & poncarar the same language the cheaun, mandin & grovanter the same the probibility is that those defferant tribes have once formed great nats. viz: the missouries, osarge, kanzes, ottoes, mahars, & poncaras & aiauaies one nation. the panies, loups, republican, recrerees the nd the mandans cheeons, & grovanters the rd the tribes of the soux all retain the name th it is possible that the, mahar & poncarear may have been a distinct nation, as they only speek some words of the osage which have the same signification days to st ta fee s. of w. cross the heads of arkansies around the head of kanzies river after delivering a speech informing thos children of ours of the change which had taken place, the wishes of our government to cultivate friendship & good understanding, the method of have good advice & some directions, we made great chief to the who was not present, to whom we adresed the speech & sent some presents or meadels & flag, we made second chiefs one for the missouris & another for the ottos (those two tribes are nearly equal ' each) and principal men, to thos principal men to thos we gave a small comtn. to each man to whom we gave authority, a preasn of br. ch. gart. g. paint & a med. or contn a small corns. was delivered for the whole each chief & principal man delivered a speech acknowledging ther approbation to what they had heard and promised to prosue the good advice and caustion, they were happy w new fathers who gave good advice & to be depended on all concluded by asking a little powder & a drop of milk. i answered those speeches gave them balls one canister of powder & a dram--after cap lewis shot his air gun a few times which astonished the nativs, we set sail. recved from thos people water millions & the cheifs & principal men of the ottoes & missouris made by m l. & w c the rd august viz. indian names tribe english signifiation . we-ar-ruge-nor ottoe little thief . shingo-ton go otto big horse we tha a missourie hospatallity . wau-pe-ur miss. au-ho-ning ga m ba za con ja ottoe au-ho-ne-ga miss. from this place i am told by mr. faufong the interpeter that it will take a man days to go to st. a fee pass, the heads of arkansas, round the kansas head, across some mountains from the top of which the city may be seen the spaniards have envited those indians & the panies to trade with them & some french & a few indians are gorn from the panias to that city this summer- the situation of this place which we call council bluff which is handsom ellevated a spot well calculated for a tradeing establishment, the bank high & leavel on top well calculated for a fort to command the countrey and river the low bottom above high water & well situated under the command of the hill for houses to trade with the natives a butifull plain both abov and below at no other bend on either side does the high land touch the river for some distance up, as i am told. those bluffs afford good clay for brick, a great quantity on the points one opsd. one abov &one below.--the situation i am informed is, within days march of the ottoes, / of the panias, of the mahars, & / of the loups villages, also convenient to the roveing bands of soux, those people are now at war with each other, an establishment here would bring about peace and be the means of keeping of it. augt. d camped on the upper point of a large sand bar l. s. misquters verry bad. some place near conncill bluff will be the most proper place for a tradeing establishment, for maney of the nations, the distance is to the ottoes one days, ponies / days, to the mahar, days, to loups days & a half or men-and convenient for some bands of the sues, [clark, august , ] august rd, friday made up a small preasent for those people in perpotion to their consiqunce. also a package with a meadile to accompany a speech for the grand chief after brackfast we collected those indians under an orning of our main sail, in presence of our party paraded & delivered a long speech to them expressive of our journey the wirkes of our government, some advice to them and directions how they were to conduct themselves, the princapal chief for the nation being absente we sent him the speech flag meadel & some cloathes. after hering what they had to say delivered a medal of second grade to one for the ottos & and one for the missourie present and medals of a third grade to the inferior chief two for each tribe. those two parts of nations, ottos & missouries now residing together is about men are the ottoes composeing / d and missourie / part the names of the chiefs we acknowledged made this day are as follows viz indian name english signftn. st we ar ruge nor ottoe called little theif shon go ton go " " big horse we the a miss. " hospatality shon guss con ottoe " white horse wau pe uh m. ah ho ning ga m. baza cou ja ottoe ah ho ne ga m. those chiefs all delivered a speech acknowledgeing their approbation to the speech and promissing to prosue the advice & derictions given them that they wer happy to find that they had fathers which might be depended on &c. we gave them a cannister of powder and a bottle of whiskey and delivered a few presents to the whole after giveing a br. cth. some paint guartering & a meadele to those we made cheifs after capt lewis's shooting the air gun a feiw shots (which astonished those nativs) we set out and proceeded on five miles on a direct line passed a point on the s. s. & round a large sand bar on the l. s. & camped on the upper point. the misquitors excessively troublesom this evening great appearance of wind and rain to the n. w. we prepare to rec've it--the man liberty whome we sent for the ottoes has not come up he left the ottoes town one day before the indians. this man has eithered tired his horse or, lost himself in the plains some indians are to hunt for him, the situation of our last camp councill bluff or handssom prarie appears to be a verry proper place for a tradeing establishment & fortification the soil of the bluff well adapted for brick, great deel of timbers abov in the two points. many other advantages of a small nature. and i am told senteral to several nations viz. one days march from the ottoe town, one day & a half from the great pania village, days from the mahar towns, two / days from the loups village, & convenient to the countrey thro which bands of the soux hunt. perhaps no other situation is as well calculated for a tradeing establishment. the air is pure and helthy so far as we can judge.- [clark, august , ] august th at oclock the heavens darkened and a violent wind from the n w. suckceeded which lasted about an hour, with a little rain. set out this morning early thro a narrow part of the, the whole channel confined in some parts between the ( ) sand on one side & the bank on the other (which is washing in) within yards, this chanl. crouded with snags. at / m. passed an old tradeing house l. s. where one of our crew passed years p. c tradeing with the mahar; & ponies-above me. a ( ) creek coms in opsd. a large bad ( ) sand bar this ( ) creek is the outlett of ponds, which recved ther water from the smaller streams running from the hills on the l. s, great qts. of gees, passed in the next bend l. s. an out let to the pond, butifull bottom prarie on both sides of the river, pumey stone is found on the sides of the river of various sizes. wind a head. reed the man who went back to the camp of last night for his knife has not come up this evening-we camped at a pt. on the l. s. at a beaver house. buck killed to daye. [clark, august , ] august th satturdaye set out early--(at oclock last night we had a violent wind from the n w som little rain succeeded, the wind lasted with violence for one hour after the wind it was clear sereen and cool all night.) proceeded on passed thro betwen snags which was quit across the rivr the channel confined within yards one side a sand pt. s s. the other a bend, the banks washing away & trees falling in constantly for mile, abov this place is the remains of an old tradeing establishment l. s. where petr. crusett one of our hands stayed two years & traded with the mahars a short distance above is a creek ( ) the out let of three ponds comunicateing with each other, those ponds or rether lakes are fed by springs & small runs from the hills. ( ) a large sand island opposit this creek makeing out from the l. point, from the camp of last night to this creek, the river has latterly changed its bed incroaching on the l. side, in this sand bar i saw great nos. of wild gees--passed a small creek on the l. s about miles above the last both of those creek's are out lets from the small lake which reive their water from the small streems running from the high land--great many pamey stones on the shore of various sises the wind blew hard--reed a man who went back to camp for his knife has not joined us. we camped at a beaver house on the l. s.one buck killed to day- [clark, august , ] august th set out early wind from n e. great appearance of wind & rain, (i have remarked that i have not heard much thunder in this countrey) a verry large snake was killed to day called the bull snake, his colour some thing like a rattle snake something lighter--the bends of the river to day is washing away the banks, haveing nothing to oppose the turbelance of the river when confined by large hard sand points, forceing this current against the bends--the soil of the entire bottom between the high land, being the mud or ooze of the river of some former period mixed with sand & clay easely melts and slips, or washies into the river the mud mixes with the water & the sand collects on the points camped on the s. s.--i went on shore s. s. this evening saw some turkeys and in persueing them struk the river miles below the place by water i went out, i think the peninsuly is about yards across subjuct to overflow; & washes into numerous channels, great quantities of graps ripe & of three defferent kind some large & fine. i killed a turkey, and made camp in the night, musqutors verry troubleson--reed the man who went back for his knife has not yet joined us [clark, august , ] th of august sunday set out early great appearance of wind and rain (i have observed that thundor & lightning is not as common in this countrey as it is in the atlantic states) snakes are not plenty, one was killed to day large and resembling the rattle snake only something lighter-. i walked on shore this evening s. s. in pursueing some turkeys i struck the river twelve miles below within yards, the high water passes thro this peninsulia; and agreeable to the customary changes of the river i concld. that in two years the main current of the river will pass through. in every bend the banks are falling in from the current being thrown against those bends by the sand points which inlarges and the soil i believe from unquestionable appearns. of the entire bottom from one hill to the other being the mud or ooze of the river at some former period mixed with sand and clay easily melts and slips into the river, and the mud mixes with the water & the sand is washed down and lodges on the points--great quantites of grapes on the banks, i observe three different kinds at this time ripe, one of the no. is large & has the flaver of the purple grape. camped on the s. s. the musquitors verry troubleson. the man who went back after his knife has not yet come up, we have some reasons to believe he has deserted [lewis, august , ] august th killed a serpent on the bank of the river adjoining a large prarie. f inch length from nose to tail circumpherence in largest part-- / number of scuta on belly-- do. on tale-- no pison teeth therefore think him perfectly inocent--eyes, center black with a border of pale brown yellow colour of skin on head yellowish green with black specks on the extremity of the scuta which are pointed or triangular colour of back, transverse stripes of black and dark brown of an inch in width, succeeded by a yellowish brown of half that width the end of the tale hard and pointed like a cock's spur the sides are speckled with yellowish brown and black.--two roes of black spots on a lite yellow ground pass throughout his whole length on the upper points of the scuta of the belly and tale / inch apart this snake is vulgarly called the cow or bull snake from a bellowing nois which it is said sometimes to make resembling that anamal, tho as to this fact i am unable to attest it never having heard them make that or any other noise myself. i have frequently observed an acquatic bird in the cours of asscending this river but have never been able to procure one before today, this day i was so fortunate as to kill two of them, they are here more plenty than on the river below. they lay their eggs on the sand bars without shelter or nest, and produce their young from the th to the last of june, the young ones of which we caught several are covered with down of a yellowish white colour and on the back some small specks of a dark brown. they bear a great resemblance to the young quale of ten days oald, and apear like them to be able to runabout and peck their food as soon as they are hatched--this bird, lives on small fish, worms and bugs which it takes on the virge of the water it is seldom seen to light on trees an quite as seldom do they lite in the water and swim tho the foot would indicate that they did it's being webbed i believe them to be a native of this country and probly a constant resident. the weight of the male bird is one ounce and a half, its length from beak to toe / inches from tip to tip of wing across the back one foot seven inches and a half the beak is one / inch lonong, large where it joins the head elated on the sides and tapering to a sharp point, a little declining and curvated, a fine yellow, with a shade of black on the extremity of upper beak; the eye is prominent, black and on a angular scale of / inc; occupyse / in width. the upper part of the head is black from the beak as low as the middle of the eye and a little below the joining of the neck except however some white which joins the upper part of the beak which forks and passing over the sides of the forehead terminate above each eye--the under part of the bird, that is the throat and cheeks as high as the eye, the neck brest belly and under part of the wings and tail are of a fine white, the upper part of the neck, back, and wings are of a fine, quaker colour, or bright dove colour with reather more of a bluish tint-except however the three first or larger feathers in the wing which on upper side are of a deep black. the wing has four joints no. joint length of joint no. of feathers length of do. / a clump of feathers not strong but loosly connect with the flesh of the wing / / from / to / / / the tail has eleven feathers the outer of which are an inch longer than those in the center gradually tapering inwards which gives the tale a forked appearance like that of the swally the largest or outer feather is / that of the shortest / --the leg and thye are three inches long the leg occupying one half this length the thye is covered with feathers except about / of an inch above the knee the leg is of a bright yellow and nails long sharp and black the foot is webbed and has three toes forward; the heel or back toe is fixed to the leg above the palm of the foot, and is unconnected by a web to the other toes, it has no nail. the wings when foalded lap like those of the swallow and extend at least an inch and a half beyond the tale. this bird is very noysey when flying which is dose exttreemly swift the motion of the wing is much like that of kildee it has two notes one like the squaking of a small pig only on reather a high kee, and the other kit'-tee'- kit'-tee'--as near as letters can express the sound--the beak of the female is black and the black and quaker colour of the male in her is yellowish brown mixed with dove colour [clark, august , ] august th monday at oclock last night a violent storm of wind & rain from the n. w. one perogue (bapteest le joness patroon) lost her colours set out early & proceeded on passed a large island on the s. s. back of this island rivie de soldiert come in on the s. s.--the solder's river is about the sise of nodaway yd. wide at the mouth, passed two remarkable places, where the river had once passed--we have every reason to belive that one man has deserted moses b. reed he has been absent three days and one french man we sent to the indian camps has not joined us, we have reasons to beleve he lost himself in attempting to join us at the council bluff--we are deturmind to send back men to take reede dead or alive, also hunt la liberty and to meet us at the mahar nation as soon as the order is executed. [clark, august , ] th august, monday at oclock last nigh a violent storm of wind from the n w. some rain one pr. of colours lost in the storm from the bige perogue. set out early and proceeded on passed a large island on the s. s. back of this isd. soldiers river mouths, i am told by one of the men that this river is about the size of nadawa river yards wide at the mouth. reed has not yet come up. neither has la liberty the frenchman whome we sent to the indian camps a fiew miles below the council bluffs. [clark, august , ] august th tuesday last night about oclock a storm of wind from the n. w. which lasted / of an hour mosquitors more troublesom last night than i ever saw them, set out late this morning wind n. [clark, august , ] th august tuesday last night at oclock a storm from the n w. lasted / of an hour let out late this morning wind from the north--at oclock dispatched george drewyer, r. fields, wm. bratten & wm. labieche back after the deserter reid with order if he did not give up peaceibly to put him to death &c. to go to the ottoes village & enquire for la liberty and bring him to the mahars village, also with a speech on the occasion to the ottoes & missouries--and directing a few of their chiefs to come to the mahars, & we would make a peace between them & the mahar and souex, a string of wompom & a carrot of tobacco. proceeded on and camped on the s. s. i walked on shore with one man collies,-the bottoms covered with very collin killed an elk, i fired times at one & have reasons to think i kiled him but could not find him, the misqutors were so troublesom and misqutors thick in the plains that i could not keep them out of my eyes, with a bush. in my absens capt lewis killed a pelican on pelicans island, at which place maney hundreds had collected, they left fish which was. fresh and very good, we camped on the s. s. in a streght part of the river- [clark, august , ] august the th set out this morning at the usial time at about miles ( ) passed a part of the river so choked up with snags that we found a little dificult to get thro with safty, the wind as usial from the n w. one of the soldiers killed a pilican on the sand isd. passed the mouth of little ( ) river de cueoux on the s. s. this river is about yards wide & navagable for pirogus some distance & runs parrelel to the missourie it corns in from the river from the n e, it contains great quantitys offish common to the countrey. two miles above is ( ) an island the channel formerly run on the right with sand.--the current runs to the left. many hundreds of pelicans on this island--we call it pelican isld. cap lewis killed one this river soux called by the sueoux ed-neah wau-de-pon i'e stone r heads in three leagues of the river demoin, and passes thro a lake about legues in sircfs. which is also within leagus of the demoin, this lake at one place is confined by two rocks within a narrow space--this lake of different widths, with many small islands, from the lake to the mahars about distant days march to the dog plains leagues, one principal branch of the demoin is calld. cat river, the lake which this river litt souex heads in is called despree [clark, august , ] th august wednesday set out this morning at the usial time at two miles passed ( ) a bend to l. s. choaked up with snags our boat run on two in turning to pass through, we got through with safty the wind from n w. ( ) passed the mouth of a river on the s. side called by the soux indians ed-neah wau de pon (or stone river) the french call this river petite rivre de cuouex it is about yards wide and as (mr. durion says whos been on the heads of it and the country abt) is navagable for perogues som distance runs parrelel to the missourie some distance, then falls down from n e thro a roleing countrey open, the head of this river is miles from the r demon at which place the demoin is yd wide, this little cuouex passes thro a lake called despree which is within leagues of the deemoin the said lake is about leagues in circumfrance and is divided into by two rocks approaching verry near each other, this lake is of various width, containing many islands- from this lake to the maha days march, as is said to be near the dog plains one princpal branch of the demoin is called cat river the demoin is sholey capt. lewis took medn. altitude of the sun made it ° ' " lat ° ' " and i took one man and went on shore the man killed an elk i fired times at one & did not kill him, my ball being small i think was the reason, the misqutors so bad in the praries that with the assistance of a bush i could not keep them out of my eyes, the boat turned several tims to day on sand bars--in my absenc the boat passed a island miles above the litte scouex r on the upper point of the isld some hundreds of pelicans were collected, they left fish on the sand which was verry fine, capt lewis killed one & took his dimentions, i joined the boat and we camped on the s s. worthe of remark that snakes are not plenty in this part of the missourie [lewis, august , ] august th we had seen but a few aquatic fouls of any kind on the river since we commenced our journey up the missouri, a few geese accompanied by their young, the wood duck which is common to every part of this country & crains of several kinds which will be discribed in their respective places--this day after we had passed the river souix as called by mr. mackay (or as is more properly called the stone river,) i saw a great number of feathers floating down the river those feathers had a very extraordinary appearance as they appeared in such quantities as to cover pretty generally sixty or seventy yards of the breadth of the river. for three miles after i saw those feathers continuing to run in that manner, we did not percieve from whence they came, at length we were surprised by the appearance of a flock of pillican at rest on a large sand bar attatched to a small island the number of which would if estimated appear almost in credible; they apeared to cover several acres of ground, and were no doubt engaged in procuring their ordinary food; which is fish, on our approach they flew and left behind them several small fish of about eight inches in length, none of which i had seen before--the pellican rested again on a sand bar above the island which we called after them from the number we saw on it. we now approached them within about three hundred yards before they flew; i then fired at random among the flock with my rifle and brought one down; the discription of this bird is as follows. habits they are a bird of clime remain on the coast of floriday and the borders of the gulph of mexico & even the lower portion of the mississippi during the winter and in the spring (see for date my thermometrical observations at the river dubois.-) visit this country and that farther north for the purpose of raising their young--this duty seems now to have been accomplished from the appearance of a young pilacon which was killed by one of our men this morning, and they are now in large flocks on their return to their winter quarters. they lay usually two eggs only and chuise for a nest a couple of logs of drift wood near the water's edge and with out any other preperation but the thraught formed by the proximity of those two logs which form a trough they set and hatch their young which after nurture with fish their common food measure f i from beak to toe tip to tip of wing beak length do. width from to / neck length st joint of wing ed do. / rd do. --- th do. --- / length of leg including foot do. of thy discription of colour &c the beak is a whiteish yellow the under part connected to a bladder like pouch, this pounch is connected to both sides of the lower beak and extends down on the under side of the neck and terminates in the stomach--this pouch is uncovered with feathers, and is formed two skins the one on the inner and the other on the center side a small quantity of flesh and strings of which the anamal has at pleasure the power of moving or drawing in such manner as to contract it at pleasure. in the present subject i measured this pouch and found it's contents gallons of water the feet are webbed large and of a yellow colour, it has four toes the hinder toe is longer than in most aquatic fouls, the nails are black, not sharp and / an inch in length the plumage generally is white, the feathers are thin compared with the swan goose or most aquatick fouls and has but little or no down on the body. the upper part of the head is covered with black feathers short, as far as the back part of the head--the yellow skin unfeathered extends back from the upper beak and opening of the mouth and comes to a point just behind the eye the large feathers of the wings are of a deep black colour--the st & nd joint of from the body above the same is covered with a second layer of white feathers which extend quite half the length of those large feathers of the wing--the thye is covered with feathers within a quarter of an inch of the knee. inch st joint of wing has feathers no. length black ed do. no. length inch rd do. no. length inch th do. no. length inch it has a curious frothy substance which seems to devide its feathers from the flesh of the body and seems to be composes of globles of air and perfectly imbraces the part of the feather which extends through the skin.the wind pipe terminates in the center of the lower part of the upper and unfeathered part of the pouch and is secured by an elastic valve commanded at pleasure. the green insect known in the u states by the name of the sawyer or chittediddle, was first heard to cry on the th of july, we were then in latitude ° some minutes. the prarie hen or grouse, was seen in the praries between the missouri and the river platte [clark, august , ] th augt thursday the fog of this morning detained us untill / passed oclock at which time we left our moreing and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. e, i went on shore found the land the same as yesterday killed a turkey and camped on the l. s. great deel of beaver sign to day one beaver cought musquetors worse this evening than ever i have seen them. [clark, august , ] th august thursday the fog being thick detained us untile half pasd. oclock at which time we set out and proceeded on under gentle breeze from the s e i walked on shore, saw an elk, crossed a istmust of / of a mile to the river, & returned to the boat camped on the l. s. above a beaver den. musqutors verry troubleson. [clark, august , ] august th satturday about day this morning a hard wind from the n. w. followed by rain, we landed at the foot of the hill on which black bird the late king of the mahar who died years ago & of his nation with the small pox was buried ( ) and went up and fixed a white flag bound with blue white & read on the grave which was about foot base & circueller, on the top of a penical about foot above the water of the river, from the top of this hill may be seen the bends or meanderings of the river for or miles round & all the county around the base of this high land is a soft sand stone bluff of about or foot, the crooked, passed a creek called wau-con di peche c or bad god creek of bad spirits on the l. s above the bluff on this creek the mahars had the small pox years ago, lattitude ° ' " / taken on the point above the creek. the river is verry crooked, we are now within / of a mile of the river at a place we shall not get around to untill tomorrow noon--we er legues from the mahars by land and the great deel of beaver sign induce a belief that those people do not hunt much. i have observed a number of places where the river has changd its bead at different times [clark, august , ] th august satturday . about day light this morning a hard wind from the n w. with some rain proceeded on arround the right of the isld. a hard wind accompanied with rain from the s. e. after the rain was over capt. lewis myself & men assended the hill on the l. s. under which there was some fine springs to the top of a high point where the mahars king black bird was burried years ago. a mound of earth about diamuter at the base & feet high is raised over him turfed, and a pole feet high in the center on this pole we fixed a white flage bound with red blue & white; this hill about feet above the water forming a bluff between that & the water of various hight from to feet in hight yellow soft sand stone from the tops of this nole the river may be seen meandering for or miles, we decended & set out n. to w. / me. passing over a sand bar on the s. pt. along the willows. to the river opposit a small beyeau on the l. s. which is the conveyance of the high water from a bend which appears near in a northerly direction, haveing passed a creek in a deep bend to the l. s. called by the mahars wau can di peeche (great spirrit is bad) on this creek & hills near it about of the mahar died with the small pox- took medn. altitude & made the latd. ° ' " / n. also the moons distanc from the sun i have observed a number of places where the river has onced run and now filled or filling up & growing with willows & cottonwood [clark, august , ] th august sunday a south wind we set out early the river wider than usial, and shallow, at we halted in a bend to the left to take the meridian altitude, & dine, & sent one man across where we took dinner yesterday to step off the distance across isthmus, he made it yards, and the bend around is / miles above this bend about miles, a yellow & brown bluff comnuces and continus or miles on the l. s. this bluff has some sand stone, some rich black mole mixed with yellow clay, a fiew red ceeder on the tope, which is, from to foot high the hill still riseing back, i think may be estemated at foot on the top is timber, the wind for a few hours this evening was hard and from the s. e. in the evening about oclock cap l. & my self wen on shore to shoot a prarie wolf which was barking at us as we passed this prarie wolf barked like a large fest and is not much larger, the beaver is verry plenty, not with standing we are almost in sight of the mahar town--cought a verry large catfish this morniong, prepared the indian present which we intend given to the mahars. p. wiser apt. cook to serjt. floyds squad from to day [clark, august , ] th august sunday set out early under a gentle breeze from the south the river wider than usial and shallow ( ) at oclock we halted to take a meridian altd. of the sun & sent a man back or i may say across to the bind of the river where capt. lewis took the mdn. altitude yesterday, to step off the distance, he made it yards across, the distance arround the bend is / miles--about miles above the bend on the l. s. is the commencement of a bluff which is about miles extending on the river, of yellow and brown clay in some parts in it near the river a soft sand stone is inbeded on the top (which is from to feet above the water, & rises back) is covered with timber, a fiew red ceider is on this bluff, the wind comes round to the s. e. a prarie wolf come near the bank and barked at us this evening, we made an attempt but could not git him, this animale barkes like a large feste dog. beever is verry plenty on this part of the river. i prepare some presents for to give the indians of the mahars nation. wiser apt. cook & supentdt. of the provisions of sergt. floyds squad. we camped on a sand island in a bend to the s. s. musquitors verry troublesom untile the wind rose. at one or oclock [clark, august , ] th of august munday . set out this morning at day light the usial time and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. e. passed the island. from this fish camp the river is n ° west as far as can be seen, the sand bar only changeing the derection of the current the hills leave the river on the l. side [clark, august , ] august th monday set out this morning at light the usial time and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s e [clark, august , ] th of august at oclock the party sent yesterday to the towns returned, and informed that they could not find any indians, they had not returned from hunting the buffalow in the praries, wind shifted to the n w. our party sent after the deserter and to the otteau towns, have not came up as yet the situation of this village, now in ruins siround by enunbl. hosts of grave the ravages of the small pox ( years ago) they follow the buf. and tend no corn [clark, august , ] th august tuesday a fine morning wind from the s e the men sent to the mahar town last evening has not returned we conclude to send a spye to know the cause of their delay at about oclock the party returned and in-formed. us that they could not find the indians nor any fresh sign, those people have not returned from their buffalow hunt, those people haveing no houses no corn or any thing more than the graves of their ancesters to attach them to the old village, continue in pursuite of the buffalow longer than others who had greater attachments to their native villagethe ravages of the small pox (which swept off men & women & children in perpoposion) has reduced this nation not exceeding men and left them to the insults of their weaker neighbours which before was glad to be on friendly turms with them--i am told whin this fatal malady was among them they carried ther franzey to verry extroadinary length, not only of burning their village, but they put their wives & children to death with a view of their all going together to some better countrey--they burry their dead on the tops of high hills and rais mounds on the top of them,--the cause or way those people took the small pox is uncertain, the most probable from some other nation by means of a warparty observed time and distance of the sun & moon the moon east the th of august monday , three miles ne of the mahars old village at fish camp- [clark, august , ] august th wendesday i took ten men & went out to beaver dam across a creek about a mile s w from camp, and with a brush drag caught fish, of the following kind (i'e) pike, samon, bass, pirch, red horse, small cat, & a kind of perch called on the ohio silverfish i also caught the srimp which is common to the lower part of the mississippi, in this creek & in the beaver pond is emince beads of mustles verry large & fat--in my absence capt lewis send the souex interpr & a party to a smoke which appeared to rise at no great distance to the north with a view to find some band of that nation, they returned and informed that they had been made some time by some small party, and the hard wind of to day had set the prarie on fire from some high trees, which was left burning all well, party from ottoes not come up. camp three miles n. e of the mahar village [clark, august , ] august th wednesday i went with ten men to a creek damed by the beavers about half way to the village, with some small willow & bark we mad a drag and haulted up the creek, and cought fish of different kind i'e peke, bass, salmon, perch, red horse, small cat, and a kind of perch called silverfish, on the ohio.--i cought a srimp prosisely of shape size & flavour of those about n. orleans & the lower party of the mississippi in this creek which is only the pass or streight from beaver pond to another, is crouded with large mustles verry fat, ducks, pliver of different kinds are on those ponds as well as on the river in my absence capt. lewis sent mr. durioue the souix interpeter & three men to examine a fire which threw up an emence smoke from the praries on the n. e. side of the river and at no great distance from camp--the object of this party was to find some bands of seouex which the inptr. thought was near the smoke and get them to come in--in the evening this party returned and infoermed, that the fire arrose from some trees which had been left burning by a small party of seoux whom had passed several days--the wind setting from that point, blew the smoke from that pt. over our camp. our party all in health and sperrits the men sent to the ottoes & in pursute of the deserter reed has not yet returned or joined our party. [clark, august , ] aug. th a verry cool morning the winds as usial from the n w. capt lewis with men went out to the creek & pond & caught about fine fish with a bush drag of the following kind i.e. pike, salmon, rock, flat back, buffalow & readhorse, bass & cat, with many small & large silver fish,--i had a mast made & fixed to day the party sent to the ottoes not yet arrived. the wind shifted around to the s e. the night's are cool & a breeze rises after generally; sometimes before night which blows off the musquitors cools the atmospere. [clark, august , ] th august thursday fishing camp ms. n. e. of the mahars. a verry cool morning the wind as usial from the n w. capt lewis took men & went to the pond & crek between camp and the old village and cought upwards of boo fine fish, pike, salmon, rock,flat back, buffalow & red horse bass & catt. with many small silver fish i had a mast made &fixed to the boat to day, the party sent to the ottoes not yet joined us--the wind shifted arround to the s. e. everry evening a breeze rises which blows off the musquitors & cools the atmispeire. [clark, august , ] th august . a fine morning wind from the s. e. i will here annex the latds & distances of the different notable placies from the river dubois or mouth up. the longitudes are not yet calculated, we must be at this time about ° ' " west of greenwich--i collected a grass much resembling wheet with a grain like rye, much fuller of grain, one like rye & one like barley grass small, a grass like timothey except the seed which is on branches from the main stalk- late this evening one of the party sent after the deserters returned & joined us, he left the party miles back, they cought both deserters, one of them la liberty, got away from them, the great chief & nd chief of the ottoes accompaned the party with a view to bring about a peice between themselves & the mahar a great missfortune that the mahars have not returned from the hunt--sent & fiered the prarie near camp to bring in the mahars & souex if any are near. a cool evening, beever cought [clark, august , ] th august friday . a fine morning the wind from the s. e. i collected a grass much resembling wheat in its grouth the grain like rye, also some resembling rye & barly. a kind of timothey, the seed of which branches from the main stalk & is more like flax seed than that of a timothey at oclock this evening labieche one of the party sent to the ottoes joined, and informed that the party was behind with one of the deserters m b. reed and the principal chiefs of the nations--la liberty they cought but he decived them and got away--the object of those chiefs comeing forward is to make a peace with the mahars thro us-. as the mahars are not at home this great object cannot be accomplished at this time set the praries on fire to bring the mahars & soues if any were near, this being the usial signal. a cool evining two beaver cought to day. [clark, august , ] th august a fine morning, despatched jo. fields for the party from the ottoes, whom did not come up last night wind from the s. e. (panies returned from their hunt, the th of august) in the after part of the day the party arrived, we had a short talk after which we gave them provisions to eate & proceeded to the trial of reed, he confessed, & we sentenced him only to run the ganelet four times thro the detachment & party, and not to be considered in the future as one of the permonant party, after the punihment of about lashes, at night we had some talk with the chiefs about the cause of war between them and the mahars. posponed the further consultation untill tomorrow. had a dance which lasted untile oclock, the close of cap lewis birthday. a fine evening wind s. e sent to the towns, i e reiubin fields will. brattin g. drewyer & w labieche. [clark, august , ] th august satday a fine morning. wind from the s. e. in the after part of the day the party with the indians arrivd. we meet them under a shade near the boat and after a short talk we gave them provisions to eat & proceeded to the trail of reed, he confessed that he "deserted & stold a public rifle shot-pouch powder & bals" and requested we would be as favourable with him as we could consistantly with our oathes-which we were and only sentenced him to run the gantlet four times through the party & that each man with swichies should punish him and for him not to be considered in future as one of the party the three principal chiefs petitioned for pardin for this man after we explained the injurey such men could doe them by false representation, & explang. the customs of our countrey they were all satisfied with the propriety of the sentence & was witness to the punishment. after which we had some talk with the chiefs about the orrigan of the war between them & the mahars &c. &c.--it commenced in this way i'e' in two of the missouries tribe resideing with the ottoes went to the mahars to steel horses, they killed them both which was a cause of revenge on the part of the missouris & ottoes, they also brought war on themselves nearly in the same way with the panea loups and they are greatly in fear of a just revenge from the panies for takeing their corn from the pania towns in their absence hunting this summer. the evening was closed with an extra gill of whiskey & a dance untill oclock. [clark, august , ] th of august sunday a fine morning wind from the s. e i prepd. a present from the chiefs & warriers, the main chief brack fast with us naked; & beged for a sun glass.--at oclock we assembled the cheifs & warriers under an orning and delivered a speech, explanitary of the one sent to this nation from the council bluff, &c. &c.- children when we sent the men to your towns, we expected to see & speake with the mahas by the time you would arrive and to lay the foundation of a peace between you and them the speech of petieit villeu little thief, if you think right and can waite untill all our warriers come from the buffalows hunt, we can then tell you who is our men of consequnce--my fathers always lived with the father of the b together & we always live with the big hose-all the men here are the suns of chief and will be glad to get something from the hands of their fathers.--my father always directed me to be friendly with the white people, i have always done so and went often to the french, give my party pieces of paper & we will be glad--the names a meddel to car ka pa ha or crow's head a comsi or cfte. sar na no ne or iron eyes a ottoe approves & says he is brave nee swor un ja big ax a ottoe approves star gra hun ja big blue eyes a ottoe delivers up his comm ne ca sa wa-black cat a missouris approves the council & he wants paper for his men at home, he after wards came & petitioned for his paper war-sar sha co-brave man aproves the speach of the big horse i went to the hunt buffalow i heard your word and i returned, i and all my men with me will attend to your wordsyou want to make peace with all, i want to make peace also, the young men when they want to go to war where is the goods you give me to keep them at home, if you give me some whisky to give a drop to my men at home. i came here naked and must return home naked. if i have something to give the young men i can prevent their going to war. you want to make peace with all, it is good we want something to give my men at home. i am a pore man, and cant quiet without means, a spoon ful of your milk will quiet all. nd speech of the little thief i want mr. faufon & mr. la bieche to make a piece with the panies loups. i want william to go & make a piece with the loups, he can speake english & will doe will to go.--refused that william labiech shall accompany faufon those people were not well satisfied with the presents given them, they were much surprised at the air gun and several curiosities which were shown them none more than the magnet, those people became extreemly troublesom to us begging whisky & little articles. sergt. floyd was taken violently bad with the beliose cholick and is dangerously ill we attempt in vain to releive him, i am much concerned for his situation- we could get nothing to stay on his stomach a moment nature appear exosting fast in him every man is attentive to him york prlly [clark, august , ] th august sunday a find morning wind from the s. e. prepared a small present for the cheifs and warriers present. the main cheif brackfast with us, & beged for a sun glass, those people are all naked, covered only with breech clouts blankits or buffalow roabes, the flesh side painted of differant colours & figures. at oclock we assembled the chiefs & warriers in number under an orning, and we explained the speech sent to the nation from the council bluffs by mr. faufon. the chiefs and all the men or warriers made short speeches approveing the advice & council their great father had sent them, and concluded by giveing themselves some credit for their acts. we then brought out the presents and exchanged the big horses meadel & gave him one equal to the one sent to the little thief & gave all some small articls & carrots of tobacco, we gave one small meadel to one of the cheifs & a sertificate to the others of their good intentions. names the little theif grd. cheif i have mentioned before the big horse crows head (or) kar ka paha--missory black cat (or) ne ma sa wa--do iron eyes (or) sar na no no--ottoe big ax (or) nee swar un ja--do big blue eyes--star gea hun ja--do brave man (or) war sar sha co one of those indians after reciving his certificate delivd. it again to me the big blue eyes the chief petitioned for the ctft. again, we would not give the certft. but rebuked them verry roughly for haveing in object goods and not peace with their neighbours--this language they did not like at first, but at length all petitioned for us to give back the certificate to the big blu eyes he came forward and made a plausible excuse, i then gave the certificate the great cheif to bestow it to the most worthey, they gave it to him, we then gave them a,dram & broke up the council, the chiefs requested we would not leave them this evening. we deturmed to set out early in the morning we showed them many curiosities and the air gun which they were much asstonished at. those people beged much for wishey--serjeant floyd is taken verry bad all at one with a beliose chorlick we attempt to relieve him without success as yet, he gets wordse and we are muc allarmed at his situation, all attention to him. [clark, august , ] th august monday after gieving faufon some goods the indians a canister of whiskey, we set out under a jentle breeze from the s. e shields went with the horses--i am dull & heavy been up the greater part of last night with serjt. floyd, who is as bad as he can be to live the motion of his bowels having changed &c. &c. is the cause of his violent attack &c. &c. we came to make a warm bath for sergt. floyd hopeing it would brace him a little, before we could get him in to this bath he expired, with a great deel of composure, haveing said to me before his death that he was going away and wished me to write a letter--we buried him to the top of a high round hill over looking the river & countrey for a great distance situated just below a small river without a name to which we name & call floyds river, the bluffs sergts. floyds bluff-we buried him with all the honors of war, and fixed a ceeder post at his head with his name title & day of the month and year capt lewis read the funeral service over him after paying everry respect to the body of this desceased man (who had at all times given us proofs of his impatiality sincurity to ourselves and good will to serve his countrey) we returned to the boat & proceeded to the mouth of the little river yd. wide & camped a butifull evening [clark, august , ] th august monday sergeant floyd much weaker and no better. made mr. fauforn the interpter a fiew presents, and the indians a canister of whisky we set out under a gentle breeze from the s. e. and proceeded on verry well- serjeant floyd as bad as he can be no pulse & nothing will stay a moment on his stomach or bowels passed two islands on the s. s. and at first bluff on the s s. serj. floyd died with a great deel of composure, before his death he said to me, "i am going away. i want you to write me a letter"--we buried him on the top of the bluff / miles below a small river to which we gave his name, he was buried with the honors of war much lamented; a seeder post with the ( ) name sergt. c. floyd died here th of august was fixed at the head of his grave--this man at all times gave us proofs of his firmness and deturmined resolution to doe service to his countrey and honor to himself after paying all the honor to our decesed brother we camped in the mouth of floyds river about yards wide, a butifull evening.- [clark, august , ] st august tuesday we set out verry early this morning under a gentle breeze from the s. e course s. ° e mes to the upper pt. of a bluff on the s. s. passed willow creek and some rock below the mouth of the seouex river on the starboard side those clifts are about feet high, this river heads with the st. peters and is navagable leagues (by the act. of mr. durien) to a fall of near for, large & som small pitchs below the falls on the right a creek corns in on which the red pipe stone is percured, & in the praries about, a place of peace with all nations. [clark, august , ] st august tuesday we set out verry early this morning and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. e. passed willow creek small on the s. s. below a bluff of about feet high and one / mes. above floyds river at / miles higher & above the bluff passed the soues river s. s. this river is about the size of grand river and as mr. durrien our scones intptr. says "navagable to the falls or leagues and above these falls" still further, those falls are feet or there abouts & has two princapal pitches, and heads with the st. peters passing the head of the demoien, on the right below the falls a creek coms in which passes thro clifts of red rock which the indians make pipes of, and when the different nations meet at those queries all is piece, passed a place in a prarie on the l. s. where the mahars had a village formerly. the countrey above the platt r has a great similarity. campd. on the l. side. clouds appear to rise in the west & threten wind. i found a verry excellent froot resembling the read current, the scrub on which it grows resembles privey & about the common hight of a wild plumb- the two men sent with the horses has not joined us as yet [clark, august , ] nd of august wendesday set out early wind from the south. g shannon joined the boat last night. course this morning is s ° w. / on the s. point west / me. to the commencement of a bluff on the l. s. the high land near the river for some distance below. this bluff contain pyrites alum, copperass & a kind markesites also a clear soft substance which will mold and become pliant like wax) capt lewis was near being poisened by the smell in pounding this substance i belv to be arsenic or cabalt. i observe great quantity of cops. ans and almin pure & straters of white & brown earth of inch thick. a creek corns in above the bluffs on which there is great quantities of those minerals, this creek i call roloje a at those allom banks shields joined in with two deer camped on the s. s. a great deel of elk sign fresh capt. lewis took a dost of salts this evening to carry off the effects of (arsenec) or cobalt which he was trying to find out the real quallity ( ) passed a clift of rock much impregnated with alum, containing also a great quantity of cabalt ordered a vote of the men for a sergeant of the three highest numbers a choice to be made gass bratton & gibson--gass is worth remark, that my ink after standing in the pot or four days soaks up & becons thick [clark, august , ] nd august friday set out early wind from the south at three miles we landed at a bluff where the two men sent with the horses were waiting with two deer, by examonation of this ( ) bluff contained alum, copperas, cobalt, pyrites; a alum rock soft & sand stone. capt. lewis in proveing the quality of those minerals was near poisoning himself by the fumes & tast of the cabalt which had the appearance of soft isonglass--copperas & alum is verry pure, above this bluff a small creek coms in from the l. s. passing under the clifts for several miles, this creek i call roloje a name i learned last night in my sleep. ( ) eight) seven miles above is a clift of allom stone of a dark brown colr. containing also in crusted in the crevices & shelves of the rock great qts. of cabalt, semented shels & a red earth. from this the ( ) river bends to the east and is within or miles of the river soues at the place where that river coms from the high land into the low prarie & passes under the foot of those hills to its mouth. capt lewis took a dost of salts to work off the effects of the arsenic, we camped on the s. s. sailed the greater part of this day with a hard wind from the s. e. great deel of elk sign, and great appearance of wind from the n. w. ordered a vote for a serjeant to chuse one of three which may be the highest number the highest numbers are p. gass had votes, bratten & gibson [clark, august , ] rd august thursday set out this morning verry early, the two men r. fields & shannon did not come up last night, i went out and killed a fine buck, j. fields killed a buffaloes, elk swam by the boat whilst i was out and was not killed, many guns fired at it r. fields came up with the horses & brought two deer, collins killed a small doe, several prarie wolves seen course west mls. to the mouth of a small run between two bluffs of yellow clay north / miles to the upper pt. of some timber in the bend to s. s. near where r. fields killed the buffalow passed the pt. of high land on s. s at / of a mile, capt. lewis went out with men & brought the buffalow to the river at this bend, c. lewis killed a goose, wind blew hard of the flying sands which rasies like a cloud of smoke from the bars when the wind blows, the sand being fine and containing a breat perpotion of earth and when it lights it sticks to every thing it touches at this time the grass is white s ° miles to a point of willows on the s. s. haveing passed the sand island l. s camped on the l s above the island saw an elk standing on a sand bar. shields shot it thro the neck / [clark, august , ] rd august thursday set out this morning verry early the two men with the horses did not come up last night i walked on shore & killed a fat buck--j. fields sent out to hunt came to the boat and informed that he had killed a buffalow in the plain a head cap lewis took men and had the buffalow brought to the boat in the next bend to the s s. elk swam the river, and was fired at from the boat r. fields came up with the horses and brought two deer one deer killed from the boat. several prarie wolves seen to day saw elk standing on the sand bar the wind blew hard west and raised the sands off the bar in such clouds that we could scercely see this sand being fine and verry light stuck to every thing it touched, and in the plain for a half a mile the distance i was out every spire of grass was covered with the sand or dust we camped on the l. s. above a sand island one beaver cought [clark, august , ] th august friday . some rain last night & this morning, we set out at the usial time and proceeded on the same course of last night continued s. ° w. / mes. to the commencement of a blue clay bliff on ls. about or feet high west under rugged bluffs / ms. passing several small dreens, falling into the river those bluffs has been lately on fire and is yet verry hott, great appearance of coal, & imence quantities of cabalt in side of that part oft the bluff which sliped in, on the sides of the hill great quanities of a kind of current or froot resembling the current in appearance much richer and finer flavd. grows on a scrub resembling a damsen and is now fine and makes a delightful) tart above this bluff i took my servent and a french boy i have and walked on shore i killed a deer which york packed on his back in the evening i killed two buck elk and wounded two others which i could not pursue by the blood as my ball was so small to bleed them well, my boys each shot an elk--it was late and i crossed a point struck the river above and halted the boat and men went out brought in the meat all the after part of the day it rained we are all wet. capt lewis and my self concluded to visit a high hill situated in an emence plain three leagues n. ° w. from the mouth of white stone river, this hill appear to be of a conic form and by all the different nations in this quater is supposed to be a place of deavels ors that they are in human form with remarkable large heads and about inches high; that they are very watchfull and ar armed with sharp arrows with which they can kill at a great distance; they are said to kill all persons who are so hardy as to attemp to approach the hill; they state that tradition informs them that many indians have suffered by these little people and among others that three maha men fell a sacrefice to their murceyless fury not meany years since--so much do the mahas souix ottoes and other neibhbouring nations believe this fable that no consideration is sufficient to induce them to approach this hill. [clark, august , ] th august friday some rain last night, a continuation this morning; we set out at the usial time and proceeded on the course of last night to the ( ) commencement of a blue clay bluff of or feet high on the l. s. those bluffs appear to have been laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot for a man to bear his hand in the earth at any debth, gret appearance of coal. an emence quantity of cabalt or a cristolised substance which answers its discription is on the face of the bluff- great quantities of a kind of berry resembling a current except double the sise and grows on a bush like a privey, and the size of a damsen deliciously flavoured & makes delitefull tarts, this froot is now ripe, i took my servent and a french boy and walked on shore killed two buck elks and a faun, and intersepted the boat and had all the meat butchered and in by sun set at which time it began to rain and rained hard, cap lewis & my self walk out & got verry wet, a cloudey rainey night,--in my absence the boat passed a small ( ) river called by the indians white stone river. this river is about yards wide and runs thro a plain & prarie in its whole course in a northerley direction from the mouth of this creek in an imence plain a high hill is situated, and appears of a conic form and by the different nations of indians in this quarter is suppose to be the residence of deavels. that they are in human form with remarkable large heads and about inches high, that they are very watchfull, and are arm'd with sharp arrows with which they can kill at a great distance; they are said to kill all persons who are so hardy as to attempt to approach the hill; they state that tradition informs them that many indians have suffered by those little people and among others three mahar men fell a sacrefise to their murceyless fury not many years since--so much do the maha, souis, ottoes and other neighbouring nations believe this fable that no consideration is suffecient to induce them to apporach the hill [lewis, august , ] friday, august th this day the chronometer stoped again just after being wound up; i know not the cause, but fear it procedes from some defect which it is not in my power to remedy.- [clark, august , ] ( ) about the center of this sand island the river of white stone (as called by mr. evins kenvill r.) falls in on the stard. side it appear to be about or yards wide; at the mouth of this river indians had latterly cross supposed be be soues, the part of a band which are at war with the mahars, this soues nation are divided into bands som to men in a band at peace with eath other, ther interest & prejudices different, for instance one band the most envetterate enimy of the mahars, all the other bands in the greatest harmony with that nation and even go with thim to war, those soues, follow the buffalow, & kill them on foot, they pack their dogs, which carry ther bedn. [clark, august , ] augt. th satturday this morning capt lewis & my self g d. sjt. ouderway shields j. fields colter bratten cane labeeche corp wovington frasure & york set out to visit this mountain of evel spirits, we set out from the mouth of the white stone creek, at oclock, at miles cross the creek in an open plain, at ms. the dog gave out & we sent him back to the creek at oclock we rose the hill some time before we got to the hill we obsevd. great numbers of birds hovering about the top of this mound when i got on the top those birds flw off. i discovered that they wer cetechig a kind of flying ant which were in great numbers abought the top of this hill, those insects lit on our hats & necks, several of them bit me verry shart on the neck, near the top of this nole i observed three holes which i supposed to be prarie wolves or braroes, which are numerous in those plains. this hill is about foot high in an emince prarie or leavel plain from the top i could not observe any woods except in the missourie points and a few scattering trees on the three rivers in view. i e the soues river below, the river jacque above & the one we have crossed from the top of this mound we observed several large gangus of buffalow & elk feeding upwards of in number capt lewis being much fatigued and verry thursty obliged us to go to the neares water which we could see, which was the w stone creek at right angles from the course we came out, and we got water in three miles in the creek above whre the beaver had darned it up after a delay of about one hour & a half we set out for our boat, cross the creek three times wast deep, passing down an ellgent bottom of about a mile in width bordered by a ridge of about feet from the top of which it was leavel to the river, we proceeded on by a circular derection to the place we crossed this creek going out where we delayed for the men to rest themselves about minits in a small grove here we got great quantities of the best largest grapes i ever tasted, some blue currents still on the bushes, and two kind of plumbs, one the common wild plumb the other a large yellow plumb growing on a small bush, this blumb is about double the size of the common and deliscously flavoured--those plains are leavel without much water and no timber all the timber on the stone river would not thickly timber acres of land--we returned to the boat at sunset, my servent nearly exosted with heat thurst and fatigue, he being fat and un accustomed to walk as fast as i went was the cause--we set fire to the praries in two places to let the sons know we were on the river and as a signal for them to come to the river above, our party in the boat & one perogue undr. the comd of sergt. pryor answered us by firing a prarie near them. we proceeded on to the place we camped last night, and as it began to rain and verry dark, we concluded to stay all night, our boys prepared us a supper of jurked meet and two prarie larks (which are about the size of a pigeon and peculier to this country) and on a buffalow roabe we slept verry well in the morning we proceeded on and joined the boat at miles, they had camped & were jurking an elk & deer which r. fields & shannon had brough in. from the mound to the hill s. s. mo. of r. soues s ° e. to the opsd. hills s. ° e. and to the woods near river au jacque is west [clark, august , ] augt. th satturday wind s e the boat under serjt pryor after drying some goods which got wet in the french perogue & jurking the meet killed yesterday set out at oclock and proceeded on six miles and camped on the l. s. passed a bluff of blue earth at miles and a large sand island in a bend to the s. s. at miles, r fields brought in deer, g shannon an elk this eveng. rain at oclock murcky. abo , [clark, august , ] th august satturday a cloudy morning capt lewis & my self concluded to go and see the mound which was viewed with such turrow by all the different nation in this quarter, we selected shields j. fields, w bratten, sergt. ordway, j colter, can, and corp worbington & frasure, also g. drewyer and droped down to the mouth of white stone river where we left the perogue with two men and at yards we assended a riseing ground of about sixty feet, from the top of this high land the countrey is leavel & open as far as can be seen, except some few rises at a great distance, and the mound which the indians call mountain of little people or spirits this mound appears of a conic form & is n. ° w. from the mouth of the creek, we left the river at oclock, at miles we crossed the creek yards wide in an extensive valley and continued on at two miles further our dog was so heeted & fatigued we was obliged send him back to the creek, at oclock we arrived at the hill capt lewis much fatigued from heat the day it being verry hot & he being in a debilitated state from the precautions he was obliged to take to provent the affects of the cobalt, & mini. substance which had like to have poisoned him two days ago, his want of water, and several of the men complaining of great thirst, deturmined us to make for the first water which was the creek in a bend n. e. from the mound about miles--aftr a delay of about hour & a half to recrut our party we set out on our return down the creek thro the bottom of about mile in width, crossed the creek times to the place we first struck it, where we geathered some delisious froot such as grapes plumbs, & blue currents after a delay of an hour we set out on our back trail & arrived at the perogue at sun set we proceedd on to the place we campd. last night and stayed all night. this mound is situated on an elivated plain in a leavel and extensive prarie, bearing n. ° w. from the mouth of white stone creek nine miles, the base of the mound is a regular parallelagram the long side of which is about yards in length the shorter or yards--from the longer side of the base it rises from the north & south with a steep assent to the hight of or feet, leaveing a leavel plain on the top of feet in width & in length. the north & south part of this mound is joins by two regular rises, each in oval forms of half its hight forming three regular rises from the plain the assent of each elivated part is as suden as the principal mound at the narrower sides of its bass the reagular form of this hill would in some measure justify a belief that it owed its orrigin to the hand of man; but as the earth and loos pebbles and other substances of which it was composed, bare an exact resemblance to the steep ground which border on the creek in its neighbourhood we concluded it was most probably the production of nature-. the only remarkable charactoristic of this hill admiting it to be a naturial production is that it is insulated or seperated a considerable distance from any other, which is verry unusial in the naturul order or disposition of the hills. the surrounding plains is open void of timber and leavel to a great extent; hence the wind from whatever quarter it may blow, drives with unusial force over the naked plains and against this hill; the insects of various kinds are thus involuntaryly driven to the mound by the force of the wind, or fly to its leward side for shelter; the small birds whoes food they are, consequently resort in great numbers to this place in surch of them; perticularly the small brown martin of which we saw a vast number hovering on the leward side of the hill, when we approached it in the act of catching those insects; they were so gentle that they did not quit the place untill we had arrivd. within a fiew feet of them- one evidence which the inds give for believeing this place to be the residence of some unusial spirits is that they frequently discover a large assemblage of birds about this mound--is in my opinion a suffient proof to produce in the savage mind a confident belief of all the properties which they ascribe it. from the top of this mound we beheld a most butifull landscape; numerous herds of buffalow were seen feeding in various directions, the plain to north n. w & n e extends without interuption as far as can be seen from the mound to the mouth of stone river is s. ° e miles. to the woods near the mouth of river jacque is west to the high land near the mouth of souis river is s. e. to the high land opposit side or near the maha town is s. e. some high lands to be seen from the mound at a great distance to the n. e some nearer to the n w. no woods except on the missouris points if all the timber which is on the stone creek was on acres it would not be thickly timbered, the soil of those plains are delightfull great numbers of birds are seen in those plains, such as black bird, ren or prarie burd a kind of larke about the sise of a partridge with a short tail &c. &. th augt the boat under the comd. of sergt. pryor proceeded on in our absence (after jurking the elk i killed yesterday) six miles and camped on the larboard side r fields brought in five deer. george shannon killed an elk buck some rain this evening. we set the praries on fire as a signal for the soues to come to the river. [lewis, august , ] august the th on our return from the mound of sperits saw the first bats that we had observed since we began to ascend the missouri also saw on our return on the creek that passes this mound about m. distant s. a bird of heron kind as large as the cormorant short tale long leggs of a colour on the back and wings deep copper brown with a shade of red. we could not kill it therefore i can not describe it more particularly. [clark, august , ] th august sunday arrived at the boat at oclock a.m. set out at oclock after jurking the meet & cutting the elk skins for a toe roap and proceeded, leaveing g. drewyer & shannon to hunt the horses, the river verry full of sand bars and wide course s. ° w. mes. to a sand bar makeing out from the s. s. n. ° w. mes. to a pt. of willows s s passd. a island & large sand bars on both sides river wide and a clift of white earth on the l. s of ms. in length to a point of willows on the s. s opposit arch creek above the mouth of this creek a chief of the maha nataton displeased with the conduct of black bird the main chief came to this place and built a town which was called by his name petite arch (or little bow) this town was at the foot of a hill in a handsom plain fronting the river and contained about huts & men, the remains of this tribe since the death of petite arch has joined the remaining part of the nation this creek is small--we apt. pat gass sergeant vice floyd dicesed, geathered great quantites of grapes & three kinds of plumbs, one yellow round, & one ovel, & the common wild plumb. misquetors bad to night--i have apt. you [clark, august , ] th august sunday (joined the boat at oclock a m) after jurking the meat killed yesterday and prepareing the elk skins for a toe roape we set out leaveing drewyer & shannon to hunt the horses which was lost with directions to follow us keeping on the high lands. proceeded on passed a clift of white & blue or dark earths of miles in extent on the l. s. and camped on a sand bar opposed the old village called pitite arc a small creek falls into the river yds wide below the village on the same side l. s this village was built by a indian chief of the maha nation by the name of pitite arc (or little bow) displeasd. with the great chief of that nation (black bird) seperated with men and built a village at this place. after his death the two villages joined, apt. pat gass a sergt. vice floyd deceased great qts. of grape, plumbs of three kinds yellow and large of one of which is long and a rd kind round & red all well flavored. perticularly the yellow sort. [lewis, august , ] orders august th . the commanding officers have thought it proper to appoint patric gass, a sergeant in the corps of volunteers for north western discovery, he is therefore to be obeyed and respected accordingly. sergt. gass is directed to take charge of the late sergt. floyd's mess, and immediately to enter on the discharge of such other duties, as by their previous orders been prescribed for the government of the sergeants of this corps. the commanding officers have every reason to hope from the previous faithfull services of sergt. gass, that this expression of their approbation will be still further confirmed, by his vigilent attention in future to his duties as a sergeant. the commanding officers are still further confirmed in the high opinion they had previously formed of the capacity, deligence and integrety of sergt. gass, from the wish expresssed by a large majority of his comrades for his appointment as sergeant. meriwether lewis capt. st u.s. regt infty. wm clark cpt &. [clark, august , ] th august monday, this morning the morning star was observed to be very large, g drewyer came up and informed that he could neither find shannon or the horses, he had walked all night--we sent shields & j. fields back to look for shannon & the horses and to come up with us on the river above at the grand callemet or river kacure & we set out under a gentle breeze from the s. e. proceeded on passed a bluff at mes. several mile in extent of white clay marl or chalk, under this bank we discovered large stone resembling lime incrusted with a substanc like glass which i take to be cabolt, also ore, three mes above this bluff we set the prarie on fire, to let the soues know, we wished to see them at two oclock an indian swam to the perogue, we landed & two other came they were boys, they informed us that the souex were camped near, on the r jacke one maha boy informed us his nation was gorn to make a peace with the pania's we send sjt. pryor & a frenchman with the interptr. mr. durion to the camp to see & invite their great chiefs to come and counsel with us at the callemet bluffs ____ mile abov on l. s.--we proceed on / miles farther & camped s s. [clark, august , ] th august monday this morning the star calld. the morning star much larger than common g. drewyer came up and informed that he could neither find shannon nor horses, we sent shields & j fields, back to hunt shannon & the horses, with derections to keep on the hills to the grand calumet above on river ka cure. we set sail under a gentle breeze from the s. e. at miles passed a white clay marl or chalk bluff under this bluff is extensive i discovered large stone much like lime incrusted with a clear substance which i believe to be cabalt, also ore is imbeded in the dark earth, resembling slate much softer--above this bluff we had the prarie set on fire to let the souix see that we were on the river, & as a signal for them to come to it. at oclock passed the mouth of river jacque, or yeankton one indian at the mouth of this river swam to the perogue, we landed and two others came to us, those inds. informed that a large camp of soues, were on r. jacque near the mouth. we sent sergt. pryor & a frenchman with mr. durioin the souls interpeter to the camp with derections to invite the principal chiefs to councel with us at a bluff above called the calumet--two of those indians accompanied them and the third continued in the boat showing an inclination to continue, this boy is a mahar, and inform that his nation, were gorn to the parnias to make a peace with that nation. we proceeded on about one and a half miles and in camped on a bar makeing out from the s. s. the wind blew hard from the south. a cool & pleasent evening, the river has fallen verry slowly and is now low. [lewis, august , ] monday august th on the stard. shore, opposite to the lower point, or commencement of the white calk bluff- [clark, august , ] th august tuesday, the wind blew hard last night one indian stayed with us all night, set out under a stiff breeze from s and proceedd on passe a willow island at two miles several sand bars the river here is wide & shallow full of sand bars--the high land appear to be getting nearer to each other passed a bluff containing some white earth on the l. s. below this bluff for some mile the plain rises gradually to the hight of the bluff which is or foot, here the indian boy left us for his camp--capt lewis & my self much indisposed- i think from the homney we substitute in place of bread, (or plumbs) we proceeded on about miles higher and camped below the calumet bluff in a plain on the l. s. to waite the return of sergt pryor & mr. durioun, who we sent to the soues camp from the mouth of r. jacque, before we landed the french rund a snag thro their perogue, and like to have sunk, we had her on loaded, from an examonation found that this perogue was unfit for service, & deturmined to send her back by the party intended to send back and take their perogue, accordingly changed the loads, some of the loading was wet wind blows hard from the south. j shields & j. fields joined they did not overtake shannon with the horses who is a head of us. [clark, august , ] th august tuesday . set out under a stiff breeze from the south and proceeded on passd. a willow island at miles several sand bars, the river wide & shallow at miles passed a short white bluff of about or feet high, below this bluff the prarie rises gradually from the water back to the hight of the bluff which is on the larboard side here the indian who was in the boat returned to the sisouex camp on the r jacque, capt. lewis & my self much indisposed owing to some cause for which we cannot account one of the perogues run a snag thro her and was near sinking in the opinions of the crew--we came too below the calumet bluff and formed a camp in a butifull plain near the foot of the high land which rises with a gradual assent near this bluff i observe more timber in the valey & on the points than usial--the perogue which was injurd i had unloaded and the loading put into the other perogue which we intended to send back, the perogue & changed the crew after examoning her & finding that she was unfit for service deturmined to send her back by the party some load which was in the perogue much inju'd the wind blew hard this after noon from the south--j. shields & j. fields who was sent back to look for shannon & the horses joined us & informed that shannon had the horses a head and that they could not over take him this man not being a first rate hunter, we deturmined to send one man in pursute of him with some provisions.- [lewis, august , ] orders august th . the commanding officers direct that the two messes who form the crews of the perogues shall scelect each one man from their mess for the purpose of cooking and that these cooks as well as those previously appointed to the messes of the barge crew, shall in future be exempted from mounting guard, or any detail for that duty; they are therefore no longer to be held on the royaster. m. lewis capt. st us. regt. infty. win clark cpt. &. [clark, august , ] th august wednesday --rained last night and some this morning verry cloudy set some men to work to make a toe rope of elk skin, and my self to write, sent one man to pursue shannon a head with some provisions, i am much engaged writeing a speech at oclock sergt. pryor & mr. durion the soues interpeter with about soues arrived on the opposit side of the river we sent over for them, who came over mr. d. & his son who was tradeing with the indians came over mr. durion informed that three chiefs were of the party, we sent over serjt. pryor with young mr. durion, six kettles for the indians to cook the meat they killed on the way from their camp ( elk & deer) a bout a bucket of corn & twists of tobacco to smoke intending to speak to them tomorrow--g. drewyer killed a deer-. sergt. pryor informs that when he approached the indian camp they came to meet them supposeing cap lewis or my self to be of the party intending to take us in a roabe to their camp-he approached the camp which was handsum made of buffalow skins painted different colour, their camps formed of a conic form containing about or persons each and in number, on the river jacque of yds wide & deep containing but little wood, they had a fat dog cooked as a feest; for them, and a snug aptmt for them to lodge on their march they passed thro plains covd. with game &. &. &. [clark, august , ] th august wednesday some rain last night & this morning, sent on colter with provisions in pursute of shannon, had a toe roap made of elk skin, i am much engaged reriteing--at oclock p m. sergt. pryor & mr. dorion with chiefs and about men &c. arrived on the opposite side we sent over a perogue & mr. dorrion & his son who was tradeing with the indians came over with serjt pryer, and informed us that the chiefs were there we sent serjt. pryor & yound mr. dorion with som tobacco, corn & a few kitties for them to cook in, with directions to inform the chiefs that we would speek to them tomorrow. those indians brought with them for their own use elk & deer which the young men killed on the way from their camp miles distant. serjt. pryor informs me that when came near the indian camp they were met by men with a buffalow roabe to carry them, mr. dorion informed "they were not the owners of the boats & did not wish to be carried"- the sceouex camps are handson of a conic form covered with buffalow roabs painted different colours and all compact & hand somly arranged, covered all round an orpen part in the center for the fire, with buffalow roabs each lodg has a place for cooking detached, the lodges contain to persons--a fat dog was presented as a mark of their great respect for the party of which they partook hartily and thought it good & well flavored the river jacque is deep & is navagable for perogues a long distance up at the mouth it is shallow & narrow but above it is or yards wide passing thro rich praries with but little timber this river passes the souex river and heads with the st peters and a branch of red river which which falls into lake winepik to the north [clark, august , ] th august thursday a foggeie morning i am much engagd. after brackfast we sent mr. doroun in a perogue to the other side i'e l s. for the chiefs and warriers of the soues, he returned at oclock with the chiefs, at oclock i finished and we delivered a speech to the indians expressive of the wishes of our government and explaining of what would be good for themselves, after delivering the speech we made one grand chief d cheif and three third chiefs and deliverd. to each a few articles and a small present to the whole the grand chief a parole, some wampom & a flag in addition to his present, they with drew and we retired to dinner, mr. durions sun much displeased that he could not dine with cap lewis and my self--the number of soues present is about men--dressed in buffalow roabes a fiew fusees, bows and arrows, and verry much deckerated with porcupine quills, a society of which only four remains is present, this society has made a vow never to giv back let what will happen, out of only remains, those are stout likely men who stay by them selves, fond of mirth and assume a degree of superiority-, the air gun astonished them verry much after night a circle was forrm around fires and those indians danced untill late, the chiefs looked on with great dignity much pleased with what they had, we retired late and went to bead. wind hard from the south. [clark, august , ] th of august thursday a verry thick fog this morning after prepareing some presents for the chiefs which we intended make by giving meadals, and finishing a speech what we intend'd to give them, we sent mr. dorion in a perogue for the chiefs & warreirs to a council under an oak tree near wher we had a flag flying on a high flag staff at oclock we met and cap l. delivered the speach & thin made one great chiff by giving him a meadal & some cloathes one d. chief & three third chiefs in the same way, they recvd. those thing with the goods and tobacco with pleasure to the grand chief we gave a flag and the parole & wampom with a hat & chiefs coat, we smoked out of the pipe of peace, & the chiefs retired to a bourey made of bushes by their young men to divide their presents and smoke eate and council capt lewis & my self retired to dinner and consult about other measures--mr. daurion jr. much displeased that we did not invite him to dine with us (which he was sorry for after wards)--the souix is a stout bold looking people, (the young men hand som) & well made, the greater part of them make use of bows & arrows, some fiew fusees i observe among them, not with standing they live by the bow & arrow, they do not shoot so well as the northern indians the warriers are verry much deckerated with paint porcupin quils & feathers, large leagins & mockersons, all with buffalow roabs of different colours. the squars wore peticoats & and a white buffalow roabes with the black hair turned back over their necks & sholders i will here remark a society which i had never before this day heard was in any nation of indians--four of which is at this time present and all who remain of this band--those who become members of this society must be brave active young men who take a vow never to give back let the danger be what it may; in war parties they always go foward without screening themselves behind trees or any thing else to this vow they strictly adheer dureing their lives--an instanc which happened not long since, on a party in crossing the r missourie on the ice, a whole was in the ice imediately in their course which might easily have been avoided by going around, the foremost man went on and was lost the others wer draged around by the party--in a battle with the crow indians who inhabit the coul noir or black mountain out of of this society was killed, the remaining four was draged off by their party those men are likely fellows the sit together camp & dance together- this society is in imitation of the societies of the de curbo or crow indians from whome they imitate- [clark, august , ] st of august friday rose early a fair day--a curioes society among this nation worthey of remark, ie, formed of their active deturmined young men, with a vow never to give back, let the danger or deficuelty be what it may, in war parties they always go forward, without screening themselves behind trees or anything else, to this vow they strictly adheer dureing their lives, an instance of it, is last winter on a march in crossing the missourei a hole was in the ice immediately in their course which might easily be avoided by going around, the fore most man went on and was drowned, the others were caught by their party and draged aroundin a battle with the crow de curbo indians out of of this society was killed, the remaining four was draged off by their friends, and are now here--they assocate together camp together and are merry fellows, this custom the souex learned of the de carbours inhabiting the gout noie or black mountain all the chiefs delivered a speech agreeing to what we said &. &. & beged which i answered from my notes. we made or gav a certificate to two brave men the attendants of the great chief gave them some tobacco and prepared a commission for mr. darion to make a peace with all the nations in the neighbourhood, mahas, porncases, panic, loups, ottoes and missouries--& to take to the president some of the gt chiefs of each nations who would accompany him allso to do certain other things, and wrot instructions--gave him a flag and some cloaths--the chiefs sent all their young men home, and they stayed for mr. dorion--in the evening late we gave the comsn. & instruction to mr. durion & he recved them with pleasa, & promised to do all which was necessary. i took a vocabulary of the seouex language, and a fiew answers to some queries i put to mr. pitte dorion respecting the war no. situation trad &c. &. of that people which is divided into tribes possessing sepperate interest they are numerous between & men, divided into tribes who view their interests as defferent some bands at war with nations which other bands are at peace--this nation call themselves-dar co tar. the french call them souex their language is not perculiar to themselves as has been stated, a great many words is the same with the mahas, ponckais, osarge, kanzies &c. clearly proves to me those people had the same oregean--this nations inhabit the red river of hudson bay st. peters missippi, demoin r. jacque & on the missourie they are at war with nations, and at piece with only--they recved their trade from the british except a few on the missourie they furnish beaver martain loues orter, pekon bear and deer and have forty traders at least among them. the names of the different bands of this nation are- st che the ree or bois ruley (the present band) inhabit the souex jacque & demoin rivers nd ho in de bor to or poles. they live on the head of the suouex river rd me ma car jo (or make fence on the river.) the country near the big bend of the missouri. th son on to ton (people of the prarie) they rove north of the missourie in the praries above. th wau pa coo do (beeds) they live near the prarie de chaine on the missippi th te tar ton (or village of prarie) on the waters of the mississippi above prate de chain (dog prarie) th ne was tar ton (big water town) on the mississippi above the mouth of the st. peters river. th wau pa to (leaf nation). leagues up st. peters th cass car ba (white man) lgs. up st peters mi ac cu op si ba (cut bank) reside on the head of st. peters river son on--on st. peters in the praries th se si toons-- leagues up st peters. the names of the other tribes i could not get in st august speeches at oclock the chiefs and warriers met us in council all with their pipes with the stems presented towards us, after a silence of abt. ____ the great chief dressed himself in his fine cloathes and two warriers in the uniform and armer of their nation stood on his left with a war club & speer each, & dressed in feathurs. the shake hand st chief spoke my father. i am glad to here the word of my g. f. and all my warriers and men about me are also glad. my father.--now i see my two fathers the children, of my great father, & what you have said i believe and all my people do believ also my father--we are verry glad you would take pitty on them this day, we are pore and have no powder and ball. my father.--we are verry sorry our women are naked and all our children, no petiecoats or cloathes my father--you do not want me to stop the boats going up if we see, i wish a man out of your boat to bring about a peace, between all the indians, & he can do so. my father--listen to what i say i had an english medal when i went to see them, i went to the spanoriards they give me a meadel and some goods, i wish you would do the same for my people. my father.--i have your word i am glad of it & as soon as the ice is don running i will go down & take with me, some great men of the other bands of the soues my father--i will be glad to see my grand father but our women has got no cloathes and we have no powder & ball, take pity on us this day. my father--i want to listen and observe wath you say, we want our old friend (mr. durion) to stay with us and bring the indians with my self down this spring. my father--i opend my ears and all my yound men and we wish you to let mr. durion stay, and a perogue for to take us down in the spring. the speach of th white crain mar to ree d chief my fathr's listen to my word, i am a young man and do not intend to talk much, but will say a few words. my father--my father was a chief, and you have made me a chief i now think i am a chief agreeable to your word as i am a young man and inexperienced, cannot say much what the great chief has said is as much as i could say par nar ne ar par be struck by the pana d chief my father's i cant speek much i will speek a litle to you my fathers.--ther's the chiefs you have made high, we will obey them, as also my young men, the pipe i hold in my hand is the pipe of my father, i am pore as you see, take pity on me i believe what you have said my fathers--you think the great meadel you gave my great chief pleases me and the small one you gave me gives me the heart to go with him to see my great father. what the great chief has said is all i could say. i am young and cant speek. a warrier by name tar ro mo nee spoke my father--i am verry glad you have made this man our great chief, the british & spaniards have acknowledged him before but never cloathed him. you have cloathed him, he is going to see our great father, we do not wish to spear him but he must go and see his great father my fathr's, my great chief must go and see his gd father, give him some of your milk to speek to his young men, my father. our people are naked, we wish a trader to stop among us, i would be verry glad our two fathers would give us some powder and ball and some milk with the flag. speech of ar ca we char chi the half man d chief my fathr's i do not speak verry well, i am a pore man and my fathr's. i was once a chiefs boy now i am a man and a chief of some note my fat hr's--i am glad you have made my old chief a fine and a great man, i have been a great warrier but now i here your words, i will berry my hatchet and be at peace with all & go with my great chief to see my great father. my fath-s. when i was a young man i went to the spaniards to see ther fassion, i like you talk and will pursue you advice, since you have given me a meadal. i will tell you the talk of the spaniards my father's.--i am glad my grand father has sent you to the read people on this river, and that he has given us a flag large and handsom the shade of which we can sit under my fathr's.--we want one thing for our nation very much we have no trader, and often in want of goods my fathers--i am glad as well as all around me to here your word, and we open our ears, and i think our old frend mr. durion can open the ears of the other bands of soux. but i fear those nations above will not open their ears, and you cannot i fear open them my fathers. you tell us that you wish us to make peace with the ottoes & m. you have given medles i wish you to give kigz with them my fathers.--my horses are pore running the buffalow give us some powder and ball to hunt with, and leave old mr. durion with us to get us a trader my father.--the spaniards did not keep the medal of the token of our great chief when they gave him one you have dressed him and i like it i am pore & take pitey on me my fathers--i am glad you have put heart in our great chief he can now speak with confidence, i will support him in all your councilsafter all the chief presented the pipe to us the half man rose & spoke as follows viz. my father--what you have said is well, but you have not given any thing to the attendants of the great chiefs after which in the evening late we gave mr. dorion a bottle of whiskey and himself with the chiefs crossed the river and camped on the opposit bank soon after a violent wind from the n w. accompanied with rain [clark, august , ] st of august we gave a certificate to two men of war, attendants on the chief gave to all the chiefs a carrot of tobacco--had a talk with mr. dorion, who agreed to stay and collect the chiefs from as many bands of soux as he coud this fall & bring about a peace between the sciuex & their neighbours &. &c. &c. after dinner we gave mr. peter darion, a comission to act with a flag & some cloathes & provisions & instructions to bring about a peace with the scioux mahars, panies, ponceries, ottoes & missouries--and to employ any trader to take some of the cheifs of each or as many of those nations as he could perticularly the sceiouex--i took a vocabulary of the scioux language--and the answer to a fiew quaries such as refured to ther situation, trade, number war, &c. &c.--this nation is divided into tribes, possessing seperate interests- collectively they are noumerous say from to men, their interests are so unconnected that some bands are at war with nations which other bands are on the most friendly terms. this great nation who the french has given the nickname of sciouex, call them selves dar co tar their language is not peculiarly their own, they speak a great number of words, which is the same in every respect with the maha, poncaser, osarge & kanzies. which clearly proves that those nation at some period not more that a century or two past the same nation--those dar ca ter's or scioux inhabit or rove over the countrey on the red river of lake winipeck, st. peter's & the west of the missippie above prarie de chain heads of river demoin, and the missouri and its waters on the n. side for a great extent. they are only at peace with nations, & agreeable to their calculation at war with twenty odd.--their trade corns from the british, except this band and one on demoin who trade with the traders of st louis--the furnish beaver martain, loues pikon, bear and deer skins-and have about traders among them. the dar co tar or sceouex rove & follow the buffalow raise no corn or any thing else the woods & praries affording a suffcency, the eat meat, and substitute the ground potato which grow in the plains for bread the names of the different tribes or canoes of the sceoux or dar co tar nation st che cher ree yank ton (or bois rulay) now present inhabit the sciouex & demoin rivers and the jacques. nd hoin de borto (poles) they rove on the heads of souix & jacqus rivers- rd me ma car jo (make fence of the river) rove on the countrey near the big bend of the missouries th sou on, teton (people of the prarie) the rove in the plains n. of the riv missouries above this th wau pa coo tar (leaf beds) the live near the prare de chain near the missippi th te tar ton (or village of prarie) rove on the waters of the mississippi above prarie de chain th ne was tar ton (big water town) rove on the missippi above the st. peters river th wau pa tow (leaf nation) live leagues up st peters river th cas car ba (white man) live leagus up st peters river th mi ca cu op si ba (cut bank) rove on the head of st. peters th sou on (-) rove on st peters river in the prareis th sou si toons (-) live legus up the st peters river the names of the other bands neither of the souex's interpters could inform me. in the evening late we gave mr. dourion a bottle of whiskey, & he with the cheifs & his son crossed the river and camped on the opposit bank--soon after night a violent wind from the n w. with rain the rain continud the greater part of the night the river a riseing a little. [clark, august , ] august the st after the indians got their brackfast the chiefs met and arranged themselves in a row with elligent pipes of peace all pointing to our seets, we came foward and took our seets, the great cheif the shake han rose and spoke to some length aproving what we had said and promissing to pursue the advice. mar to ree d cheif (white crain) rose and made a short speech and refured to the great chief par nar ne ar par be rd cheif rose and made a short speech ar ca we char the (the half man) d chief rose & spoke at some length. much to the purpose. the othe cheif said but little one of the warreirs spoke after all was don & promissed to support the chiefs, the promisd to go and see their great father in the spring with mr. dorion, and to do all things we had advised them to do. and all concluded by telling the distresses of ther nation by not haveing traders, & wished us to take pity on them, the wanted powder ball & a little milk last night the indians danced untill late in their dances we gave them som knives tobaco & belts & tape & binding with which they wer satisfied [clark, september , ] september st satturday mr. durion left his kettle which we gave him, which we sent to him and set out under a gentle breeze from the south (raind half the last night,) proceded on--pass calumet bluff of a yellowish read & a brownish white hard clay, this bluff is about or foot high here the highlands aproach the river on each side with a jentle assent, opsd. the bluff a large island covered with timber is situated close to the l. s. we passed the island opposit which the high land approach the river on both side (river ros inchs last night) passed a large island covered with wood on the l. s. some rain, cloudy all day--the river wide & hils close on each side, came to before night to go & see a beaver house which is / miles to the l. s. of the riv cap lewis & my self with two men went to see this house which was represented as high & situated in a small pond. we could not find the pon. drewyer killed a buck elk, it is not necessary to mention fish as we catch them at any place on the river, camped at the lower point of bonhomme island- [clark, september , ] september st satturday mr. dourion left his kettle & sent back for it &c. we set out under a jentle breeze from the s. (it rained half the last night) proceeded on pass the bluffs compsd. of a yellowish red, & brownish white clay which is a hard as chalk this bluff is or feet high, here the high lands approach near the river on each side, that on the s. s. not so high as that on the l. s. opposit the bluffs is situated a large island covered with timber close under the l. s. above the isd the high land approach & form a clift to the river on the s. s. this clift is called white bear clift one of those animals haveing been killed in a whole in it [clark, september , ] st of september satturday some hard wind and rain, cloudy all day, the river wide & hills on each side near the river, passd. a large ( ) island which appeared to be composed of sand, covered with cotton wood close under the s. s. we landed at the lower point of a large island on the s. s. called bon homme or good man, here capt lewis & my self went out a short distance on the l. s. to see a beave house, which was said to be of great hite & situated in a pond we could not find the house and returned after night drewyer killed an elk, & a beaver. numbers of cat fish cought, those fish is so plenty that we catch them at any time and place in the river [clark, september , ] nd of sept. sunday --set out early & proceeded on passed the island & came too above below a yellow bluff on the s s. the wind being hard from the n w. verry cold some rain all day much thunder & lightning g drewyer r. fields howard & newmon killed four fat elk on the isld. we had them jurked &the skins stretched to cover the perogues water riseing, i observe bear grass & rhue in the sides of the hills at sunset the wind luled and cleared up cool--aired the meet all in high spirits--shannon & the man sent after him has not yet joind us sepr. description of a antient fortification ( ) from the river on the top of the antient fortification at this the foot high feet base first corse is from the river is s ° w yards. s ° w. yds. at this angle a kind of ravilene covering a saleport, bearing east widing n w yds. passed a gate way at yds. the bank lower & forming a right angle of yards--two wings or mounds running from a high nold to the west of the way one yards back of the other covering the gate (at this place the mound is feet inches higher than the plain forming a glassee outwards & feet base n. w. yards n. w. yards this part of the work is about feet high, leavel & about feet wide on the top) at the experation of this course a low irregular work in a direction to the river, out side of which is several ovel mounds of about feet high and at the iner part of the gouge a deep whole across the gauge n. w yds. to the commencment of a wall of about feet high n. ° w. yards to a deep pond yds in deamuter, and yards further to a saleport, where there is evident marks of its being covered, the same course contined yards to the river bottom. one half of the first part of the fortification is washed into the river, a second line, has run from the northrn extremity parrelel with the river (as it appears to have run at that time) n. w. this of different hith from to to feet--the high land is about me. from this fortress, and rise to small mountains say from to feet the high land on the opposit or north side of the missourie is feet forming a yellow clay bluff to the water and is leavel back as fur as can be seen. i am informed by the inteperter & french, that they have seen, numbers of those fortifications in different parts of this cty. pirtcularly on the platt kansies and the north of this place on the river jacque. two small fortifications is on the arc creek on the upper side st / of a mile up & the d / higher, nearly square each angle yards [clark, september , ] nd september sunday set out early and proceeded on passed the island and landed on the s. s above under a yellow clay bluff of feet high, the wind blew verry hard a head from the n. w. with some rain and verry cold, g. drewnyer r. fields newman & howard killed four fine elk we had the meat all jurked and the skins dried to cover the perogue, on the side of the bluff i observed bear grass & rhue, at sun set the wind luled and cleared up cold, the high land on the l. s. is verry high, & uneaven, that on the s. s from to foot & is leavel back but fiew small streems falling into the river. i went out and made a survey of the antient works which is situated in a level plain about miles from the hills which are high. a discription of the fortification ( ) commenceing on the river opsid the good mans island, first course from the river is s. d w. yards thence s. w. yards (at this angle a kind of angle or horn work) n. w. yards to a high part, passing the gateway covered by two half circler works one back of the other lower than the main work the gate forms a right angle projecting inward n. w. yards n w. yards this part of the work appears to have either double, or a covered way. from this some irregular works appear to have been on mounds between this and the river with a deep round whole in the center of a gorge formed by another angle ------ ( ) this part of the work is from to feet inches--the mounds of various hights--the base of the work is from to feet, steep inward and forming a kind of glassee out wards the same cours continued i e n. °w. yards to the commencement of a wall from to feet high this corse not on the wall but thro to the commencment of another detached n. ° w yards to the river & above where this bank strikes the river is the remains of a circular work in this course at yards a deep pond of yards diameter perfectly round is in the course of the bank which is about feet high, from this pond the bank it lowers gradually--a bank about the same hight runs near the river, and must have joined the main work at a part which is now washed into the river, this is also perfectly streight and widens from the main work, as the river above has washed in its banks for a great distance i cannot form an idear how those two long works joined--where they strike the river above, they are about yds apart, i am informed by our freench interpeters that a great number of those antint works are in different parts of this countrey, on the platt river, kansus, jacque, osarge mine river &c. small one is on island opposit the one i have discribed, and two of our party saw two of those antient frtresses on the pittiet arc creek on the upper side near the mouth, each angle of which were yards and about feet high- [clark, september , ] rd september monday . set out at sun rise, verry cold morning clear and but little wind from the n w. we proceeded on, the river wide, took an obsivation below plumb creek which mouths on the s s. this creek is small & corns in between white banks, great quantities of plumbs of a most delisious flavour, i have collected the seed of kinds which i intend to send to my brother, also som grapes of a superior quallity large & well flavoured, the river is riseing a little, several wild goats seen in the plains they are wild & fleet elk & buffalow is verry plenty, scercely any timber in countrey except a little on the river in the points. saw some signs of the men who are a head, colter has not over taken shannon camped on the l. s. at the edge of a plain- [clark, september , ] rd of september monday a verry cold morning wind from n. w. we set out at sun rise, & proceeded on to a bluff below the mouth of plumb yds. creek on the s. s. and took an obsevation of the suns altitude this creek is small it "abounds with blumbs of a delicious flavour" the river is wide and crouded with sand bars--it is riseing a little but little timber in this countrey all that is, is on the river in the points. we came too on the l. sin the edge of a plain an camped for the night--we saw some signs of the two men shannon & colter, shannon appeared to be a head of colter--the white banks appear to continu on both sides of the river. grapes plenty and finely flavered- [clark, september , ] th of september tuesday . a verry cold wind from south e. by s. we set out early proceeded on to the mouth of a small creek in the bend to the l. s. called white line at / miles furthr passed the mouth of a r au platte or white paint cr about yd. on same side called, i walked on the top of the hill forming a cliff covd. with red ceeder an extensive view from this hill, at miles from the creek the high land jut the river forming a bluff of bluish clay continu / miles came to at the mouth of qui courre (rapid) this river comes roleing its sands whuch (is corse) into the missouris from the s w by w. this river is yards across the water and not exeeding feet deep it does not rise high when it does it spreds over a large surface, and is not navagable it has a great many small islands & sand bars i went up this river miles to the spot the panis once had a large village on the upper side in a butifull extensive plain riseing gradially from the river i fel into a buffalow road joined the boat late at night at the pania island. [clark, september , ] th september tuesday a verry cold wind from the s. s. e, we set out early and proceeded on the mouth of a small creek in a bend to the l. s. called white lime, at / miles higher up passed a large creek on the l. s. called or white paint between those two creeks (the latter of which is abt. yds. wide) we passed under a bluff of red ceeder, at mes. / passed the mouth of the river que courre (rapid r) on the l. s. and came to a short distance above, this river is yards wide at the mouth & feet deep throwing out sands like the platt (only corser) forming bars in its mouth, i went up this river three miles to a butifull plain on the upper side where the panias once had a village this river widens above its mouth and is devided by sand and islands, the current verry rapid, not navagable for even canoos without great dificulty owing to its sands; the colour like that of the plat is light the heads of this river is not known, it corns into the missourie from the s. w. by west, and i am told that is genl. course some distance up is parrelel with the missourie [clark, september , ] th september wednesday, set out early the wind blew hard from the south as it has for some days past, we set up a jury mast & sailed, i saw a large gangue of turkeys, also grous seen passed a large island of about miles long in the middle of the river opposit the head of this island the poncarre river coms into the missourei on the l. s.--the s. s is a clift under which great numbers of springs run out of mineral water, saw several wild goats on the clift & deer with black tales,- sent shields & gibson to the poncas towns, which is situated on the ponca river on the lower side about two miles from its mouth in an open butifull plain, at this time this nation is out hunting the biffalow they raise no corn or beens, gibson killed a buffalow in the town, the two men which has been absent several days is ahead, we came to on the upper pt. of a large island at oclock to make a mast sent out some hunters on the island (which i call no preserve island, at this place we used the last of our preservs) they killed bucks, & two elk which welurked [clark, september , ] september th wednesday set out early the winds blew hard from the south, goats turkeys seen to day, passed a large island ( ) opsd. this island near the head the poncasar river coms into the missourie from the west this river is about yards wide. dispatched two men to the poncaries village situated in a handsom plain on the lower side of this creek about two miles from the missourie (the poncasars nation is small and at this time out in the praries hunting the buffalow), one of the men sent to the village killed a buffalow in the town, the other, a large buck near it, some sign of the two men who is a head. above the island on the s. s we passed under a bluff of blue earth, under which seveal mineral springs broke out of the water of which had a taste like salts, we came too on the upper point of a large island (which i call no preserves island) here we made a ceeder mast, our hunters brought in three bucks, and two elks this evening which we had jurked one of the hunter shields, informed that he saw several black tailed deer, near the poncaser village [lewis, september , ] sept th saw some wild goats or antelopes on the hill above the glauber salts springs they ran off we could not discover them sufficiently distinctly to discribe even their colour their track is as large as a deer reather broader & more blont at the point this day one of our hunters brought us a serpent beautifully variagated with small black spotts of a romboydal form on a light yellow white ground the black pedominates most on the back the whiteis yellow on the sides, and it is nearly white on the belly with a few party couloured scuta on which the black shews but imperfectly and the colouring matter seems to be underneath the scuta--it is not poisonous it hisses remarkably loud; it has scuta on the belly and on the tale, the eyes are of a dark black colour the tale terminates in a sharp point like the substance of a cock's spur--length ft. i. [clark, september , ] th septr thursday , a storm this morning from the n w. at day light which lasted a fiew minits, set out after the storm was over and proceeded on a hard wind ahead passed the island which is seperated from the l. side by a narrow channel. the morning is verry cold. camped on s. side before night no timbering in reach ahead, r. fields killed deer saw buffalow, & goats this evening, the river riseing a little [clark, september , ] septr. th thursday a storm this morning from the n. w. which lasted a fiew minits, we set out and proceeded on passed the head of the isd. which is seperated from the l. s by a narrow channel, a hard wind from the n. w. a verry cold day--we camped on the s. s. at the upper point of some timber, some time before night, no timber, no timber being in reach. i saw several goats on the hills on the s. s. also buffalow in great numbers [clark, september , ] th september friday . a verry cold morning set out at day light near the foot of this high nole we discovered a village of an annamale the french call the prarie dog which burrow in the grown & with the rattle snake and killed one & caught one dog alive caught in a whole frogs near the hole killed a dark rattle snake with a prairie dog in him the village of those little dogs is under the ground a conisiderable distance we dig under feet thro rich hard clay without getting to their lodges some of their wholes we put in barrels of water without driveing them out, we caught one by the water forceing him out. ther mouth resemble the rabit, head longer, legs short, & toe nails long ther tail like a ground squirel which they shake and make chattering noise ther eyes like a dog, their colour is gray and skin contains soft fur [clark, september , ] th septr. septr. th friday a verry cold morning set out at day light we landed after proceding / miles, near the foot of a round mounting which i saw yesterday resembling a dome. capt lewis & my self walked up, to the top which forms a cone and is about feet higher than the high lands around it, the bass is about foot in decending this cupola, discovered a village of small animals that burrow in the grown (those animals are called by the french pitite chien) killed one & cought one a live by poreing a great quantity of water in his hole we attempted to dig to the beds of one of thos animals, after diging feet, found by running a pole down that we were not half way to his lodges, we found frogs in the hole, and killed a dark rattle snake near with a ground rat in him, (those rats are numerous) the village of those animals covs. about acrs of ground on a gradual decent of a hill and contains great numbers of holes on the top of which those little animals set erect make a whistleing noise and whin allarmed slip into their hole--we por'd into one of the holes barrels of water without filling it, those animals are about the size of a small squrel shorter & thicker, the head much resembling a squirel in every respect, except the ears which is shorter, his tail like a ground squirel which thy shake & whistle when allarmd. the toe nails long, they have fine fur & the longer hair is gray, it is said that a kind of lizard also a snake reside with those animals. camped [lewis and clark, september , ] th of september satturday. set out early and proceeded on under a gentle breese from the s. e. at mes passed the place where trodow wintered one winter i went out to day on the s. s with a view to find some of the little dogs, and coats, traveled over a riged and mountanious countrey without water & riseing to or hundred feet, islands & sands interveneing prevt. my getting to the boat untill after night, in my absent capt. lewis killed a buffalow, i saw greid many buffalow & white wolves. (sailed all day) [clark, september , ] th of september satturday set out early and proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. e, at mes. passed the house of troodo where he wintered in . called the pania house, above is high hills on the s. s. on the s. s. much higher hills than usial appear to the north distant miles recently burnt- pass small islands at about miles on this course on the s. s. here capt. lewis killed a buffalow in the river, and this men one other came to on the lower point of an island in the midlle of the river called boat island and incamped, jurked the meet killed to day consisting of buffalow, one large buck elk one small, deer turkeys & a squirel, i joined the boat at this camp, the countrey on the s s. is pore & broken. [clark and whitehouse, september , ] th septembr sunday, set out at sunrise and proceeded on passed the island several gangus of buffalow on the sides of the hils on the l. s. halted on l. side took breakfast. capt. clark walked on shore, we proceeded on r. fields came to the boat had killed one buffalow. passed red ceeder on the edge of the hills on bouth sides of the river but most on the bluff on [clark, september , ] th september sunday set out at sunrise and proceeded on passed the head of the island on which we camped, passed three sand & willow islands, the sand bars so noumerous, it is not worth mentioning them, the river shoal or shallow wind s e came too and camped on a sand bar on the l. s. capt lewis went out to kill a buffalow. i walked on shore all this evening with a view to kill a goat or some prarie dogs in the evening after the boat landed, i derected my servent york with me to kill a buffalow near the boat from a numbr. then scattered in the plains, i saw at one view near the river at least buffalow, those animals have been in view all day feeding in the plains on the l. s. every copse of timber appear to have elk or deer. d. killed deer, i kiled a buffalow y. , r. fields one. [lewis, september , ] sept. th capt. clark found on the lard shore under a high bluff issuing from a blue earth a bittuminus matter resembling molasses in consistance, colour and taste- [clark, september , ] th september monday a cloudy morning set out early under a gentle breeze from the s e. passed two small islands one on the l. s. & the other on the s. s. both in the first course at / miles passed the lower pt. of ceder island situated in a bend to the l. s. this island is about miles long covered with red ceder, the river is verry shallow opsd. this island--below the island on the top of a ridge we found a back bone with the most of the entire laying connected for feet those bones are petrified, some teeth & ribs also connected. at mes. above ceder i passed a large island on the s. s. to this island several elk swam above this island on the midle is situated islands small one above the other, those islands are called mud islands and camped on the upper island of them buffalow elk &c. killed to day, river falling a large salt spring of remarkable salt water much frequented by buffalow, some smaller springs on the side of the hill above less salt, the water excesiv salt, and is / miles from the river on the s. w. or l. s. opposit ceder island- [clark, september , ] th september monday . a cloudy dark morning set out early, a gentle breeze from the s. e, passed two small islands on the l. s. and one on the s. s. all in the first course at / miles passed the lower point of an ( ) island covered with red ceeder situated in a bend on the l. s. this island is about moles in length ( ) below this on a hill on the l. s. we found the back bone of a fish, feet long tapering to the tale, &c. those joints were seperated and all petrefied, opposit this island / miles from the river on the l. s. is a large salt spring of remarkable salt water. one other high up the hill / me. not so salt. we proceeded on under a stiff breeze. three miles above ceder island passed a large island on the s. s, no water on that side ( ) several elk swam to this island passed a small island near the center of the river, of a mile in length, and camped on one aboav seperated from the other by a narrow chanel, those islands are called mud islands--the hunters killed fuffalow & one elk to day. the river is falling a little, great number of buffalow & elk on the hill sides feeding deer scerce we came too at the mouth of a creek on the l. s. at dark in a heavy shower of rain, it continued to rain the greater part of the night, with a hard wind from the n w cold [clark, september , ] septr. th tuesday set out early a cloudy morning the river verry wide from one hill to the other, with many sand bars passed the isd. on which we lay at a mile passed three isds. one on the l. s. ( / of a mile from it on the l. s. a village of little dogs. i killed four, this village is yards wide & yds. long on a jentle slope of a hill in a plain, those animals are noumerous) the other two islands are on the s. s. the river is verry shallow & wide, the boat got a ground several times--the man g shannon, who left us with the horses above the mahar village, and beleving us to be ahead pushed on as long as he could, joined us he shot away what fiew bullets he had with him, and in a plentiful) countrey like to have starvd. he was days without provision, subsisting on grapes at the same the buffalow, would come within yards of his camp, one of his horses gave out & he left him before his last belluts were consumed--i saw large spoted foxes today a black tailed deer, & killed a buck elk & deer, one othr elk deer & a porkipine killed to day at oclock it became cloudy and rained all the after noon, & night. [clark, september , ] sept. th tuesday a cloudy morning, set out verry early, the river wide & shallow the bottom narrow, & the river crouded with sand bars, passed the island on which we lay at one mile-, pased three islands one on the l. s. and on the s. s. opposit the island on the l. s. i saw a village of barking squriel yds. long, and yds. wide situated on a gentle slope of a hill, those anamals are noumerous, i killed with a view to have their skins stufed. here the man who left us with the horses days ago and has been a head ever since joined, us nearly starved to death, he had been days without any thing to eate but grapes & one rabit, which he killed by shooting a piece of hard stick in place of a ball-. this man supposeing the boat to be a head pushed on as long as he could, when he became weak and fiable deturmined to lay by and waite for a tradeing boat, which is expected keeping one horse for the last resorse,--thus a man had like to have starved to death in a land of plenty for the want of bulletes or something to kill his meat we camped on the l. s. above the mouth of a run a hard rain all the after noon, & most of the night, with hard wind from the n w. i walked on shore the fore part of this day over some broken country which continus about miles back & then is leavel & rich all plains, i saw several foxes & killed a elk & deer. & squirels the men with me killed an elk, deer & a pelican some rain all day to day & cold i walked on shore saw several foxes several villages of prarie dogs, and a number of grouse [clark, september , ] septr. th wednesday a dark cloudy day the wind hard from the n. w. we passed ( ) a island the middle of the river at the head of which we found great dificuelty in passing between the sand bars the water swift and shallow, it took / of the day to make one mile, we camped on the l. s. opsd. a village of barking prarie squriels i walked out in the morning and saw several villages of those little animals, also a great number of grous & foxes, and observed slate & coal mixed, some verry high hills on each side of the river. rains a little all day. [clark, september , ] th septr. thursday a dark drizzley day, g d cought beaver last night the winds from the n w. cold set out early and proceeded on verry well passed a number of sand bars, capt lewis killed a porcupin on a cotton treee fieeding on the leaves & bowers of the said tree, the water is verry shallow being crouded with sand bars camped on the s. side under a bluff. the bluffs on the s. s. not so much impregnated with mineral as on the l. s. muskeetors verry troublesom-. [lewis, september , ] september th killed a bluewinged teal and a porcupine; found it in a cottonwood tree near the river on the lard. shore--the leaves of the cottonwood were much distroyed--as were those of the cottonwood trees in it's neighbourhood. i therefore supposed that it fed on the folage of trees at this season, the flesh of this anamal is a pleasant and whoalsome food--the quills had not yet obtained their usual length--it has four long toes, before on each foot, and the same number behind with the addition of one short one on each hind foot on the inner side. the toes of the feet are armed with long black nails particularly the fore feet- they weigh from to lbs--they resemble the slowth very much in the form of their hands, or fore feet. their teeth and eyes are like the bever [clark, september , ] septr th friday course dists & rifur. set out early proceeded on passed several sand bars water wide & shallow n. ° w. / mes. to a pt. of high land on the l. s. passed a round island on the s s.--caught beaver last night, some drizzeley rain cloudy & disagreeable and som hard showers, i walked on shore with a view to find an old volcano said to be in this neghbourhood by mr. mckey i was some distance out could not see any signs of a volcanoe, i killed a goat, which is peculier to this countrey about the hite of a grown deer shorter, its horns coms out immediately abov its eyes broad short prong the other arched & soft the color is a light gray with black behind its ears, white round its neck, no beard, his sides & belly white, and around its taile which is small & white and down its hams, actively made his brains on the back of its head, his noisterals large, his eyes like a sheep only hoofs on each foot no antelrs (more like the antelope or gazella of africa than any other specis of goat). shields killed a hare weighing / lb. verry pore, the head narrow and its ears inches wide and long, from the fore to the end of the hind foot; is feet inch. hite foot / its tail long & thick white, clearly the mountain hare of europe, a rainy evening all wett the soil of those plains washes down into the flats, with the smallest rain & disolves & mixes with the water we see back from the river high hills in a leavel plain, evidently the remains of mountains, what mud washed into the river within those few days has made it verry mudy, passed two small creeks on the l. s. & camped below a rd on the l. s. rained all evening [clark, september , ] th septr. friday . set out early proceeded on passed several sand bars the river wide and shallow beaver caught last night, drizeley rain in the forepart of this day, cloudy and disagreeable, i walked on shore with a view to find an old vulcanio, said to be in this neighbourhood by mr. j. mckey of st. charles. i walked on shore the whole day without seeing any appearance of the villcanoe, in my walk i killed a buck goat of this countrey, about the hight. of the grown deer, its body shorter, the horns which is not very hard and forks / up one prong short the other round & sharp arched, and is imediately above its eyes the colour is a light gray with black behind its ears down its neck, and its jaw white round its neck, its sides and its rump round its tail which is short & white verry actively made, has only a pair of hoofs to each foot. his brains on the back of his head, his norstral large, his eyes like a sheep--he is more like the antilope or gazella of africa than any other species of goat. shields killed a hare like the mountain hare of europe, waighing / pounds (altho pore) his head narrow, its ears large i, e, inches long & inchs wide one half of each white, the other & out part a lead grey from the toe of the hind foot to toe of the for foot is feet inches, the hith is foot inche & / , his tail long thick & white. the rain continued the greater part of the day in my ramble i observed, that all those parts of the hills which was clear of grass easily disolved and washed into the river and bottoms, and those hils under which the river run, sliped into it and disolves and mixes with the water of the river, the bottoms of the river was covered with the water and mud frome the hills about three inches deep--those bottoms under the hils which is covered with grass also a great quantity of mud. passed small creeks on the l. s and camped below the third, (the place that shannon the man who went a head lived on grapes) some heavy showers of rain all wet, had the goat & rabit stufed rained all night [lewis, september , ] september th this day capt. clark killed a male wild goat so called--it's weight lbs. f i length from point of nose to point of tail hight to the top of the wethers - do. behind - girth of the brest girth of the neck close to the shoulders do. near the head eye deep sea green, large percing and reather prominent, & at or near the root of the horn within one / inches [lewis, september , ] sept. th . shields killed a hare of the prarie, weight six pounds and / f. i. length from point of hind to extremity fore feet hight when standing erect / length from nose to tale girth of body / length of tale length of the year -- / width of do. do. -- / from the extremity of the hip to the toe of the hind foot / the eye is large and prominent the sight is circular, deep sea green, and occupyes one third of the width of the eye the remaining two thirds is a ring of a bright yellowish silver colour. the years ar placed at the upper part of the head and very near to each other, the years are very flexable, the anamall moves them with great ease and quickness and can contrat and foald them on his back or delate them at pleasure--the front outer foald of the year is a redis brown, the inner foalds or those which ly together when the years are thrown back and wich occupy two thirds of the width of the year is of a clear white colour except one inch at the tip of the year which is black, the hinder foald is of a light grey--the head back sholders and outer part of the thighs are of a ledcoloured grey the sides as they approache the belly grow lighter becomeing gradually more white the belly and brest are white with a shad of lead colour--the furr is long and fine--the tale is white round and blounty pointed the furr on it is long and extreemly fine and soft when it runs it carry's it's tale strait behind the direction of the body--the body is much smaller and more length than the rabbit in proportion to it's height--the teeth are like those of the hair or rabbit as is it's upper lip split--it's food is grass or herbs--it resorts the open plains, is extreemly fleet and never burrows or takes shelter in the ground when pursued, i measured the leaps of one which i suprised in the plains on the th inst. and found them feet the ground was a little decending they apear to run with more ease and to bound with greater agility than any anamall i ever saw. this anamal is usually single seldom associating in any considerable numbers. [clark, september , ] september the th satturday set out early passed the mouth of a creek on the l s. where shannon lived on grapes waiting for mr. clintens boat supposeing we had went on, capt lewis and my self halted at the mouth of white river & wend up a short crossed &, this river is about yards, the water confined within yards, the current regularly swift, much resembling the missourie, sand bars makeing out from the points, some islands we sent up two men to go up this river one day and meet us to morrow we proceeded on passed a small island covered with ceder timber, & great number of rabits, no game except rabits, and camped on the s. s. opposit a large creek, on which there is more wood than usial on creeks in this quaterr this creek raised feet last rain i killed a buck elk & a deer. [clark, september , ] th september satturday set out early passed the mo of the creek, and the mouth of white river; ( ) capt lewis and my self went up this river a short distance and crossed, found that this differed verry much from the plat or que courre, threw out but little sand, about yard wide, the water confind within yards, the current regular & swift much resemblig the missourie, with sand bars from the points a sand island in the mouth, in the point is a butifull situation for a town gradual assents, and a much greater quantity of timber about the mouth of this river than usial, we concluded to send some distance up this river detached sjt. gass & r. fields. we proceeded on passed a small ( ) island covered with ceeder on i saw great numbers of rabits & grapes, this island is small & seperated from a large sand isd. at its upper point by a narrow channel, & is situated nearest the l. side. camped on the s. s. opposit the mouth of a large creek on which there is more timber than is usial on creeks of this size, this creek raised feet the last rains. i killed a buck elk & deer, this evening is verry cold, great many wolves of different sorts howling about us. the wind is hard from the n w this evening [lewis, september , ] sunday september th . this morning set out at an early hour, and come too at / after a.m. on the lard. shore / miles above the mouth of a small creek which we named corvus, in consequence of having kiled a beatiful bird of that genus near it we concluded to ly by at this place the ballance of this day and the next, in order to dry our baggage which was wet by the heavy showers of rain which had fallen within the last three days, and also to lighten the boat by transfering a part of her lading to the red perogue, which we now determined to take on with us to our winter residence wherever that might be; while some of the men were imployed in this necessary labour others were dressing of skins washing and mending their cloaths &c. capt. clark and myself kiled each a buck immediately on landing near our encampment; the deer were very gentle and in great numbers on this bottom which had more timber on it than any part of the river we had seen for many days past, consisting of cottonwood elm, some indifferent ash and a considerable quanty of a small species of white oak which is loaded with acorns of an excellent flavor very little of the bitter roughness of the nuts of most species of oak, the leaf of this oak is small pale green and deeply indented, it seldom rises higher than thirty feet is much branched, the bark is rough and thick and of a light colour; the cup which contains the acorn is fringed on it's edges and imbraces the nut about one half; the acorns were now falling, and we concluded that the number of deer which we saw here had been induced thither by the acorns of which they are remarkably fond. almost every species of wild game is fond of the acorn, the buffaloe elk, deer, bear, turkies, ducks, pigegians and even the wolves feed on them; we sent three hunters out who soon added eight deer and two buffaloe to our strock of provisions; the buffaloe were so pour that we took only the tongues skins and marrow bones; the skins were particularly acceptable as we were in want of a covering for the large perogue to secure the baggage; the clouds during this day and night prevented my making any observations. sergt. gass and reubin fields whom we had sent out yesterday to explore the white river returnd at four oclock this day and reported that they had foil meanders of that stream about miles r's general course west, the present or principal channel iro yards wide; the coulour of the water and rapidity and manner of runing resembled the missouri presisely; the country broken on the border of the river about a mile, when the level planes commence and extend as far as the eye can reach on either side; as usual no timber appeared except such as from the steep declivities of hills, or their moist situations, were sheltered from the effects of the fire. these extensive planes had been lately birnt and the grass had sprung up and was about three inches high. vast herds of buffaloe deer elk and antilopes were seen feeding in every direction as far as the eye of the observer could reach. [clark, september , ] september th sunday, we proceeded on / miles and camped on the l. side in a butifull plain surounded with timber in which we saw severall der, we delayed here for the purpose of drying the articles which were wet & the cloathes to load the perogue which we had intended to send back, finding the water too shoal deturmind to take on the perogue also to make some observations for longitude &c. the two men g. & r. f. joined us and informed "that the river as far as they were up had much the appearance of the river about the mouth, but little timber and that chiefly elm", the up land between this river & the white river is fine, great numbers of goat, deer of three kinds, buffalow, & wolves, & barking squrels, the fallow deer, cloudy, all day cleaning out the boat examining & drying the goods, & loading the perogue, i killed deer capt lewis one & a buffalow, one buffalow & five other deer killed. i observed pine burs & burch sticks in the drift wood up white river which coms in on the l. s. imedeately in the point is a butifull situation for a town gentle rises, & more timber about the mouth of this river than usial [clark, september , ] th of september sunday we set out verry early & proceed'd on / miles between sand bars and came too on the l. s. ( )--deturmined to dry our wet thig and liten the boat which we found could not proceed with the present load for this purpose we concluded to detain the perogue we had intended to send back & load her out of the boat & detain the soldiers untill spring & send them from our winter quarters. we put out those articles which was wet, clean'd the boat & perogus, examined all the locker bails &. &c. &. this camp is situated in a butifull plain serounded with timber to the extent of / of a mile in which there is great quantities of fine plumbs the two men detachd up the white river joined us here & informed that the river as far as they were up had much the appearance of the missourie som islands & sands little timber elm, (much signs of beaver, great many buffalow) & continud its width, they saw & well as my self pine burs & sticks of birch in the drift wood up this river, they saw also number of goats such as i killed, also wolves near the buffalow falling deer, & the barking squrels villages capt. lewis went to hunt & see the countrey near the kamp he killed a buffalow & a deer cloudy all day i partly load the empty perogue out of the boat. i killed deer & the party deer & a buffalow the we kill for the skins to cover the perogus, the meet too pore to eat. capt lewis went on an island above our camp, this island is abt. one mile long, with a great purpotion ceder timber near the middle of it i gave out a flannel shirt to each man, & powder to those who had expended thers [lewis, september , ] monday september th . having for many days past confined myself to the boat, i determined to devote this day to amuse myself on shore with my gun and view the interior of the country lying between the river and the corvus creek- accordingly before sunrise i set out with six of my best hunters, two of whom i dispatched to the lower side of corvus creek, two with orders to hunt the bottoms and woodland on the river, while i retained two others to acompany me in the intermediate country. one quarter of a mile in rear of our camp which was situated in a fine open grove of cotton wood passed a grove of plumb trees loaded with fruit and now ripe. observed but little difference between this fruit and that of a similar kind common to the atlantic states. the trees are smaller and more thickly set. this forrest of plumb trees garnish a plain about feet more lelivated than that on which we were encamped; this plain extends back about a mile to the foot of the hills one mile distant and to which it is gradually ascending this plane extends with the same bredth from the creek below to the distance of near three miles above parrallel with the river, and is intirely occupyed by the burrows of the barking squril hertefore discribed; this anamal appears here in infinite numbers, and the shortness and virdue of grass gave the plain the appearance throughout it's whole extent of beatifull bowlinggreen in fine order. it's aspect is s. e. a great number of wolves of the small kind, balks and some pole-cats were to be seen. i presume that those anamals feed on this squirril.--found the country in every direction for about three miles intersected with deep reveries and steep irregular hills of to feet high; at the tops of these hills the country breakes of as usual into a fine leavel plain extending as far as the eye can reach. from this plane i had an extensive view of the river below, and the irregular hills which border the opposite sides of the river and creek. the surrounding country had been birnt about a month before and young grass had now sprung up to hight of inches presenting the live green of the spring. to the west a high range of hills, strech across the country from n. to s and appeared distant about miles; they are not very extensive as i could plainly observe their rise and termination no rock appeared on them and the sides were covered with virdue similar to that of the plains this senery already rich pleasing and beatiful, was still farther hightened by immence herds of buffaloe deer elk and antelopes which we saw in every direction feeding on the hills and plains. i do not think i exagerate when i estimate the number of buffaloe which could be compreed at one view to amount to . my object was if possible to kill a female antelope having already procured a male; i pursued my rout on this plain to the west flanked by my two hunters untill eight in the morning when i made the signal for them to come to me which they did shortly after. we rested our selves about half an hour, and regailed ourselves on half a bisquit each and some jirk of elk which we had taken the precaution to put in our pouches in the morning before we set out, and drank of the water of a small pool which had collected on this plain from the rains which had fallen some days before. we had now after various windings in pursuit of several herds of antelopes which we had seen on our way made the distance of about eight miles from our camp. we found the antelope extreemly shye and watchfull insomuch that we had been unable to get a shot at them; when at rest they generally seelect the most elivated point in the neighbourhood, and as they are watchfull and extreemly quick of sight and their sense of smelling very accute it is almost impossible to approach them within gunshot; in short they will frequently discover and flee from you at the distance of three miles. i had this day an opportunity of witnessing the agility and superior fleetness of this anamal which was to me really astonishing. i had pursued and twice surprised a small herd of seven, in the first instance they did not discover me distinctly and therefore did not run at full speed, tho they took care before they rested to gain an elivated point where it was impossible to approach them under cover except in one direction and that happened to be in the direction from which the wind blew towards them; bad as the chance to approach them was, i made the best of my way towards them, frequently peeping over the ridge with which i took care to conceal myself from their view the male, of which there was but one, frequently incircled the summit of the hill on which the females stood in a group, as if to look out for the approach of danger. i got within about paces of them when they smelt me and fled; i gained the top of the eminece on which they stood, as soon as possible from whence i had an extensive view of the country the antilopes which had disappeared in a steep revesne now appeared at the distance of about three miles on the side of a ridge which passed obliquely across me and extended about four miles. so soon had these antelopes gained the distance at which they had again appeared to my view i doubted at ferst that they were the same that i had just surprised, but my doubts soon vanished when i beheld the rapidity of their flight along the ridge before me it appeared reather the rappid flight of birds than the motion of quadrupeds. i think i can safely venture the asscertion that the speed of this anamal is equal if not superior to that of the finest blooded courser.--this morning i saws [clark, september , ] th of septr. monday above white river dried all those articles which had got wet by the last rain, a fine day capt lewis went hunting with a vew to seethe countrey &its productions, he was out all day killed a buffalow & a remarkable bird of the spicies of corvus, long tail of a greenish purple, varigated a beck like a crow white round its neck comeing to a point on its back, its belley white feet like a hawk abt. the size of a large pigeon capt lewis returned at dark. i took the meridian & equal altitudes to day made the lattitude. colter killed a goat, & a curious kind of deer, a darker grey than common the hair longer & finer, the ears verry large & long a small resepitical under its eye its tail round and white to near the end which is black & like a cow in every other respect like a deer, except it runs like a goat. large. the hunters brought in fallow deer & common deer to day, great numbers of buffalow in the praries, also a light coloured woolf covered with hair & corse fur, also a small wolf with a large bushey tail--some goats of a different kind seen to day,--great many plumbs, rabits, porcupines & barking squrels, capt lewis killed a rattle snake in a village of the squirel's and saw a hair to day. wind from the s. w. we finished drying our provisions some of which was wet and spoiled, [clark, september , ] th of september monday dried all our wet articles this fine day, capt lewis went out with a view to see the countrey and its productions, he was out all day he killed a buffalow and a remarkable bird of the corvus species long tail the upper part of the feathers & also the wing is of a purplish variated green, the black, a part of the wing feather are white edjed with black, white belley, white from the root of the wings to center of the back is white, the head nake breast & other parts are black the becke like a crow. abt. the size of a large pigion. a butifull thing (see suplement in no. ) i took equal altitudes and a meridian altitude. capt. lewis returned at dark, colter killed a goat like the one i killed and a curious kind of deer of a dark gray colr. more so than common, hair long & fine, the ears large & long, a small reseptical under the eyes; like an elk, the taile about the length of common deer, round (like a cow) a tuft of black hair about the end, this speces of deer jumps like a goat or sheep fallow deer common & buffalow killed to day, capt. lewis saw a hare & killed a rattle snake in a village of b. squerels the wind from s. w. dryed our provisions, some of which was much damaged. [lewis, september , ] sept. th one of the hunters killed a bird of the corvus genus and order of the pica & about the size of a jack-daw with a remarkable long tale. beautifully variagated. it note is not disagreeable though loud it is twait twait twait, twait; twait, twait twait, twait. f i from tip to tip of wing do. beak to extremity of tale / of which the tale occupys from extremity of middle toe to hip / it's head, beak, and neck are large for a bird of it's size; the beak is black, and of a convex and cultrated figure, the chops nearly equal, and it's base large and beset with hairs--the eyes are black encircled with a narrow ring of yellowish black it's head, neck, brest & back within one inch of the tale are of a fine glossey black, as are also the short fathers of the under part of the wing, the thies and those about the root of the tale. the belly is of a beatifull white which passes above and arround the but of the wing, where the feathers being long reach to a small white spot on the rump one inch in width--the wings have nineteen feathers, of which the ten first have the longer side of their plumage white in the midde of the feather and occupying unequal lengths of the same from one to three inches, and forming when the wing is spead a kind of triangle the upper and lower part of these party coloured feathers on the under side of the wing being of dark colour but not jut or shining black. the under side of the remaining feathers of the wing are darker. the upper side of the wing, as well as the short side of the plumage of the party coloured feathers is of a dark blackis or bluish green sonetimes presenting as light orange yellow or bluish tint as it happens to be presented to different exposures of ligt--the plumage of the tale consits of feathers of equal lengths by pairs, those in the center are the longest, and the others on each side deminishing about an inch each pair--the underside of the feathers is a pale black, the upper side is a dark bluefish green which like the outer part of the wings is changable as it reflects different portions of light. towards the the extremely of these feathers they become of an orrange green, then shaded pass to a redish indigo blue, and again at the extremity assume the predominant colour of changeable green--the tints of these feathers are very similar and equally as beatiful and rich as the tints of blue and green of the peacock--it is a most beatifull bird.--the legs and toes are black and imbricated. it has four long toes, three in front and one in rear, each terminated with a black sharp tallon from / ths to / an inch in length.--these birds are seldom found in parties of more than three or four and most usually at this season single as the balks and other birds of prey usually are--it's usual food is flesh--this bird dose not spread it's tail when it flys and the motion of it's wings when flying is much like that of a jay-bird- the white turkey of the black hills from information of a french lad who wintered with the chien indians about the size of the common wild turkey the plumage perfectly white--this bird is booted as low as the toes- [clark, september , ] septr. i killed a prarie wolf to day about the sise of a gray fox with a bushey tail the head and ears like a fox wolf, and barks like a small dog--the annimale which we have taken for the fox is this wolf, we have seen no foxes. septr. tuesday set out early wind from the n w. modrt. our boat being much litened goes much better than usial [clark, september , ] september th tuesday wind from the n w. we set out early the boat much lightened, the wind a head proceed on verry slowly ( ) passed an i a island about the middle of the river at mile this island is about a mile long, and has a great perpotion of red cedir on it, a small creek comes in on the s. s. opposit the head of the island, proceeded on passed many sand bars and camped on the l. s. before night the wind being verry hard & a head all day. the hunters killed deer to day and a prarie wolf, had it all jurked & skins stretchd after camping i walked on shore saw goats, elk, buffalow, black tail deer, & the common deer, i killed a prarie wollf, about the size of a gray fox bushey tail head & ear like a wolf, some fur burrows in the ground and barks like a small dog. what has been taken heretofore for the fox was those wolves, and no foxes has been seen; the large wolves are verry numourous, they are of a light colr. large & has long hair with corrs fur. some goats of a different kind wer seen yesterday great many porcupin rabits & barking squirils in this quarter. plumbs & grapes. [lewis, september , ] sept. th this day saw the first brant on their return from the north- [clark, september , ] ( ) & ( ) passed a large island situated nearest the s. s. / a mile from the lower pt. of this island, the st of the rivers mouths which is about yards wide, running from the n e. one mile above the nd comes in this is small not more that yards wide a short distance above a d comes in scattering its waters thro a bottom. i walked on shore to see this great pass of the sioux and calumet ground, found it a handsom situation, and saw the remains of their campt on the d river, for many years passed--( ) passed a creek on the l. s. yds wide we ( ) passed a creek yds wide ( ) passed a creek yd. wide on the l. s. i call night c. as i did not get to it untill late at night, above the mouth of this creek we camped, the wind being favourable, for the boat i killed a fat buffalow cow, and a fat buck elk, york my servent killed a buck, the huntes killed deer, & the boat crew killed buffalow swiming the river, handsom countrey of plains, i saw many trovs of buffalow & a gangue of or elk and othr scattering elk &c. a find evening i hurt my hands & feet last night [clark, september , ] th of september wednesday set out early, a cool morning verry clear the wind from the s. e a bluff on the l. s.--here commences a butifull countrey on both sides of the missourie, ( ) passed a large island called prospect island op posit this isd. the rivers coms in, passing thro a butifull plain, here i walked on shore & killed a fat cow & sent her to the boat and proceeded on to the first of the rivers, this river is about yards wide contains a good deel of water, i walked up this river miles & cross, the bottom is high and rich some timber, i crossed & returned to the mouth, & proceeded up one mile to the d river which is small yards wide, and on it but little timber, on this creek the seaux has frequently camped, as appears by the signs--the lands betwen those two creeks in a purpindicular bluff of about feet with a butifull plain & gentle assent back--a short distance above the nd a rd creek comes into the river in places scattering its waters over the large timbered bottom, this creek is near the size of the middle creek containing a greater quantity of water, those rivers is the place that all nations who meet are at peace with each other, called the seaux pass of the rivers. the boat proceeded on passd. the island ( ) passed a creek yds wide on the l. side ( ) passed a creek on the l. s. yards wide which i call elm creek passing thro a high plain ( ) passed a creek on the l. s. yds. wide above which the boat came too, i joined them late at night, and call this creek night creek the winds favourable all day, i killed a fat buck elk late and could only get his skin and a small part of his flesh to camp. my servent killed a buck, the crew in the boat killed buffalow in the river--the hunters on shore killed deer with black tails one of which was a buck with two men prongs on each side forked equally, which i never before seen. i saw several large gangs of buffaloes large herds of elk & goats &c. ( ) pass a small island on the s. s. opposit to this island on the l. s. a creek of about yards wide coms in passing thro a plain in which great quantities of the prickley pear grows. i call this creek prickley pear creek, this isld. is called the lower island it is situated at the commencement of what is called & known by the grand de tortu or big bend of the missourie. [clark, september , ] september the th thursday detchd. men across the big bend (called the grand detour) with the horse, to stay and hunt & jurk provisions untill we get around ( ) passed a island on the s. s. the river crouded with sand bars, th of september thursday (continued) ( ) at the n w. extremity of this bend passed an small island on the l. s. opposit the upper point of this solitary island came too to _____ at the mouth of a small run on the s. s. & newmon & tomson picked up some salt mixed with the sand in the run, such as the ottoes indians collect on the sands of the corn de cerf r. & make use of, camped on a sand bar on the s. s. above the island--i went out to examine the portage which i found quit short yards only, the prarie below & sides of the hills containing great quantites of the prickly piar which nearly ruind my feet, i saw a hare, & i beleve he run into a hole, he run on a hill & disapeared, i saw on this hill several holes. i saw several goats elk ders &c. & buffalow in every detection feeding. r. fields killed a deer & goats one a female, which differs from the male as to size being something smaller, small straight horns without any black about the neck camped late [clark, september , ] th of september, thursday a fair morning wind from the s e detached men to the st. creek abov the big bend with the horse to hunt and wait our arrival proceeded on passed the lower island opposit which the sand bars are verry thick & the water shoal. i walked on shore with a view of examining this bend crossed at the narost part which is a high irregular hills of about or feet, this place the gorge of the bend is mile & a quarter (from river to river or) across, from this high land which is only in the gouge, the bend is a butifull plain thro which i walked, saw numbrs of buffalow & goats, i saw a hare & believe he run into a hole in the side of a hill, he run up this hill which is small & has several holes on the side & i could not see him after, i joined the boat in the evening--passed a small island on the l. s. in the n. w. extremity of the bind called solitary island, and camped late on a sand bar near the s. s.--r. fields killed deer & goats one of them a feemale--she differs from the mail as to size being smaller, with small horns, stright with a small prong without any black about the neck none of those goats has any beard, they are all keenly made, and is butifull [lewis, september , ] septr. th on the lard. shore at the commencement of the big bend observed a clift of black porus rock which resembled lava tho on a closer examination i believe it to be calcarious and an imperfect species of the french burr--preserved a specemine, it is a brownish white, or black or yellowish brown- [clark, september , ] st of september friday , last night or reather this morng at a half past one oclock the sand bar on which we camped began to give way, which allarmed the serjt on guard & the noise waked me, i got up and by the light of the moon observed that the sand was giving away both above & beloy and would swallow our perogues in a few minits, ordered all hands on board and pushed off we had not got to the opposit shore before pt. of our camp fel into the river. we proceeded on to the gorge of the bend & brackfast, the distance of this bend around is miles, and / miles thro, the high lands extinds to the gauge and is about feet the plain in the bend as also the two opposit sides abov and below is delightfull plains with graduel assents from the river in which there is at this time great number of buffalow elk & goats feedg the course from the gauge on the l. s. is s. w. / miles to the pt. of ceder timber on the l. s. pass sands. worthy of remark the cat fish not so plenty abov white river & much smaller than usial, great nunbers of brant & plover, also goat and black tail deer. [clark, september , ] st of september friday at half past one oclock this morning the sand bar on which we camped began to under mind and give way which allarmed the sergeant on guard, the motion of the boat awakened me; i get up & by the light of the moon observed that the land had given away both above and below our camp & was falling in fast. i ordered all hands on as quick as possible & pushed off, we had pushed off but a few minets before the bank under which the boat & perogus lay give way, which would certainly have sunk both perogues, by the time we made the opsd. shore our camp fell in, we made a d camp for the remainder of the night & at daylight proceeded on to the gouge of this great bend and brackfast, we sent a man to measure step off the distance across the gouge, he made it yds. the distance arround is mes. the hills extend thro the gouge and is about foot above the water--in the bend as also the opposite sides both abov and below the bend is a butifull inclined plain in which there is great numbers of buffalow, elk & goats in view feeding & scipping on those plains grouse, larks & the prarie bird is common in those plains. we proceeded on passed a ( ) willow island below the mouth of a small river called tylors r about yds. wide which corns in on the l. s. miles above the gorge of the bend, at the mouth of this river the two hunters a head left a deer & its skin also the skin of a white wolfwe observe an emence number of plover of different kind collecting and takeing their flight southerly, also brants which appear to move in the same direction. the cat fish is small and not so plenty as below ( ) the shore on each side is lined with hard rough gulley stones of different sides, which has roled from the hills & out of small brooks, ceder is comon here, this day is worm, the wind which is not hard blows from the s. e, we camped at the lower point of the mock island on the s. s. this now connected with the main land, it has the appearance of once being an island detached from the main land covered with tall cotton wood--we saw some camps and tracks of the seaux which appears to be old three or four weeks ago--one frenchman i fear has got an abscess on his they, he complains verry much we are makeing every exertion to releiv him the praries in this quarter contains great qts. of prickley pear. [clark, september , ] nd september satturday a thick fog this morning untill oclock which detained us, saw some old tracks of the indians on the s. s. proceeded on--one french man with a abscess on his thigh which pains him verry much for or days a butifull plain on both sides low high land under which there is a number of lage stone, we see great numbers of buffalow feeding [clark, september , ] a continuation of notes taken assending the missourie in -by w. clark satturday the nd of september - a thick fog this morning detained us untill oclock, the plains on both sides of the river is butifull and assends gradually from the river; noumerous herds of buffalow to be seen in every derections, ( ) took the altitude of the sun & found the lattitude to be ° ' " n- ( ) passed a small island on the l. s. and one on the s. s. imediately above, & about m. long, on the l. s. opposit this island a creek of about yds wide mouthes, called the creek of the sisters ( ) passed cedar island / m. long & m. wide situated a little above the last and nearest the s. s.near the upper part of this island on its s. side a tradeing fort is situated built of cedar-by a mr. louiselle of st louis, for the purpose of tradeing with the teton bands of soues (or "sieux") about this fort i saw numbers of indians temporary lodges, & horse stables, all of them round and to a point at top, i observed also numbers of cotton trees fallen for the purpose of feeding their horses on the bark of the limbs of those trees which is said to be excellent food for the horses--we came too on the s. s. below a small island called goat island, passed a no. of large round stones, som distance in the river as also in the sides of the hills,--i walked on the shore this evening and killed a verry large deer--our hunters killed deer & a beaver, they complain of the mineral quallities of the high land distroying their mockersons-. [clark, september , ] nd of september satturday a thick fog this morning detained us untill oclock passed a butifull inclined prarie on both sides in which we see great numbers of buffalow feeding--( ) took the meridean altitude of the suns upper leimb. ° ' " the sexsecnt the latd. produced from this obsivation is ° ' " / north ( ) passed a small island on the l. s. imediately above passed a island situated nearest the l. s. abt. miles long, behind this isd. on the l. s. a creek comes in about yards wide, this creek and islands are called the sisters a butifull plain on both sides of the river ( ) passed a island situated nearest the s. s. imedeately above the last called ceder island this island is about / miles long & nearly as wide covered with ceder, on the south side of this island mr. louiselle a trader from st. louis built a fort of ceder & a good house to trate with the seaux & wintered last winter; about this fort i observed a number of indian camps in a conicel form,--they fed their horses on cotton limbs as appears. here our hunters joined us havening killed deer & a beaver, they complain much of the mineral substances in the barren hills over which they passed distroying their mockersons. ( ) we proceeded on and camped late on the s. side below a small island in the bend s. s. called goat island. the large stones which lay on the sides of the banks in several places lay some distance in the river, under the water and is dangerous &. i walked out this evening and killed a fine deer, the musquiters is verry troublesom in the bottoms [clark, september , ] rd septr. sunday (days and nights equal) set out early under a gentle breeze from the s e n. °w / miles to the mo. of a creek on the s. s. passd. a pt. on the l. s. ( ) a small island opsd. in the bend to the s. s. this island is called goat island, ( ) this creek is yards wide. passed bad sand bars--s. °w / mes. a wood at a spring in the bend to the l. s. saw the prarie a fire behind us near the head of ceder island l. s. n. ° w. / to the lower pt of elk island pass willow islands & sand i saw this morning of those black & white birds of the corvus species. capt lewis went out to hund on the island a great number of buffalow in sight i must seal up all those scrips & draw from my journal at some other time win clark cpt. [clark, september , ] sunday the rd september set out under a gentle breeze from the s. e--( ) passed goat island situated in a bend to the s. s--above passed a small creek yards wide on the s. s.--we observed a great smoke to the sw. which is an indian signal of their haveing discovered us, i walked on shore and observed great numbers of buffalows. ( ) passed small willow islands with large sand bars makeing from their upper points ( ) passed elk island situated near the l. s. about / mes. long & / wide, covered with cotton wood, a red berry called by the french "grise de buff," grapes &c. the river is wide streight & contains a great numr of sand bars, ( ) passed a small creek on the s. s. yds wide i call reubens cr.--r. fields was the first who found it--came too & camped on the s. s. in a wood. soon after we landed three soues boys swam across to us, those boys informed us that a band of sieux called the tetons of lodges wer camped near the mouth of the next river, and lodges more a short distance above them, they had that day set the praries on fire to let those camps know of our approach--we gave those boys two twists of tobacco to carry to their chiefs & warriors to smoke, with derections to tell them that we wished to speak to them tomorrow, at the mouth of the next river--capt lewis walked on shore, r f. killed a she goat or "cabbra." [clark, september , ] rd of september sunday set out under a gentle breeze from the s. e, ( ) passed a small island situated in a bend to the l. s. called goat island, a short distance above the upper point a creek of yards wide corns in on the s. s. we observed a great smoke to the s w.--i walked on shore & observed buffalow in great herds at a distance ( ) passed two small willow islands with large sand bars makeing out from them, passed ( ) elk island about / miles long & / mile wide situated near the l. s. covered with cotton wood the read current called by the french gres de butiff & grapes &c. &c. the river is nearly streight for a great distance wide and shoal. ( ) passed a creek on the s. s. yards wide we call reubens creek, as r fields found it camped on the s. s. below the mouth of a creek on the l. s. three souex boys came to us swam the river and informd that the band of soauex called the teton of lodges were camped at the next creek above, & lodges more a short distance above, we gave those boys two carrots of tobacco to carry to their chiefs, with derections to tell them that we would speek to them tomorrow capt lewis walked on shore this evening, r. f killed a doe goat,- [clark, september , ] monday the th of september a fair morning set out early, wind from the east, passed the mouth of a creek on the l. s. called creek in high water. passed a large ( ) island on the l. s. about / miles long on which colter had camped & killed elk. the wind from the s. e.--we prepared some clothes a few medal for the chiefs of the teton band of sioux we expected to meet at the next river--much stone on the s. s. of the river, we saw one hare to day--our perogues called at the island for the elk, soon after we passed the island colter ran up the bank & reported that the sioux had taken his horse, we soon after saw five indians on the bank; who expressed a wish to come on board, we informed them we were friends, and wished to continue so, we were not abraid any indians--some of their young men had stolen a horse sent by their great father to their great chief, and we should not speak to them any more untill the horse was returned to us again--passed a island about / m. long on which we saw maney elk & buffalow, we came too off the mouth of a small river, the teton of the burnt woods is camped miles up this river, this river we call teton is yds wide and corns in on the s w side-i went on shore and smoked with a chief, called buffalow medison, who came to see us here. the chief said he knew nothing of the horse &c &. i informed them we would call the grand chiefs in council tomorrow, all continued on board all night [clark, september , ] th september monday set out early a fair day the wind from the e, pass the mouth of creek on the l. s. called on high water; passed (i ) a large island on the l. s. about miles & / long on which colter had camped & killed elk, the wind fair from the s. e. we prepared some clothes and a fiew meadels for the chiefs of the teton's hand of seaux which we expect to see to day at the next river, observe a great deel of stone on the sides of the hills on the s. s. we saw one hare to day, prepared all things for action in case of necessity, our perogus went to the island for the meet, soon after the man on shore run up the bank and reported that the indians had stolen the horse we soon after met inds. and ankered out some distance & spoke to them informed them we were friends, & wished to continue so but were not afraid of any indians, some of their young men had taken the horse sent by their great father for ther chief and we would not speek to them untill the horse was returned to us again. passed ( ) a island on the s. s. on which we saw several elk, about / miles long called good humered islds. came to about / miles above off the mouth of a small river about yards wide called by mr. evins the little mississou river, the tribes of the scouix called the teton, is camped about miles up on the n w side and we shall call the river after that nation, teton this river is yards wide at the mouth of water, and has a considerable current we anchored off the mouth the french perogue come up early in the morning, the other did not get up untill in the evening soon after we had came too. i went & smoked with the chief who came to see us here all well, we prepare to speek with the indians tomorrow at which time we are informed the indians will be here, the french man who had for some time been sick, began to blead which allarmed him-- / of our party camped on board the remainder with the guard on shore. [clark, september , ] th of september off teton river a fair morning the wind from the s. e. raised a flagg staff and formed an orning & shade on a sand bar in the mouth of teton r to council under, the greater portion of the party to continue on boardabout oclock the st & d chief arrived, we gave them to eat; they gave us some meat, (we discover our interpeter do not speak the language well) at oclock the councill commenced & after smokeing agreeable to the usial custom c. l. delivered a written speech to them, i some explinations &c. all party paraded, gave a medal to the grand chief in indian un-ton gar-sar bar, or black buffalow-- d torto-hongar, partezon (bad fellow) the d tar-ton-gar-wa-ker, buffalow medison--we invited those chiefs & a soldier on board our boat, and showed them many curiossites, which they were much surprised, we gave they / a wine glass of whiskey which they appeared to be exceedingly fond of they took up an empty bottle, smelted it, and made maney simple jestures and soon began to be troublesom the d chief effecting drunkness as a cloak for his vilenous intintious (as i found after wards,) realed or fell about the boat, i went in a perogue with those chief who left the boast with great reluctians, my object was to reconsile them and leave them on shore, as soon as i landed of their young ment seased the cable of the perogue, one soldiar huged the mast and the d chief was exceedingly insolent both in words and justures to me declareing i should no go off, saying he had not recived presents suffient from us- i attempted to passify but it had a contrary effect for his insults became so personal and his intentions evident to do me injurey, i drew my sword at this motion capt louis ordered all in the boat under arms, the fiew men that was with me haveing previously taken up their guns with a full deturmination to defend me if possible--the grand chief then took hold of the cable & sent all the young men off, the soldier got out of the perogue and the nd chief walked off to the party at about yards back, all of which had their bows strung & guns cocked- i then spoke in verry positive terms to them all, principaly addressing myself to the st chief, who let the roape go and walked to the indian, party about, i again offered my hand to the st chief who refused it--(all this time the indians were pointing their arrows blank-) i proceeded to the perogue and pushed off and had not proceeded far before the st & r chief & principal men walked into the water and requested to go on board, i took them in and we proceeded on abot a mile, and anchored near a small island, i call this island bad humered island [clark, september , ] th septr a fair morning the wind from the s. e. all well, raised a flag staff & made a orning or shade on a sand bar in the mouth of teton river for the purpose of speeking with the indians under, the boat crew on board at yards distance from the bar the indians which we met last night continued, about oclock the s & d chief came we gave them some of our provsions to eat, they gave us great quantites of meet some of which was spoiled we feel much at a loss for the want of an interpeter the one we have can speek but little. met in council at oclock and after smokeing, agreeable to the usial custom, cap lewis proceeded to deliver a speech which we oblige to curtail for want of a good interpeter all our party paraded. gave a medal to the grand chief calld. in indian un ton gar sar bar in french beefe nure black buffalow said to be a good man, chief torto hon gar- or the partisan-or partizan-bad the rd is the beffe de medison his name is tar ton gar wa ker . contesabe man war zing go . do second bear = ma to co que pan envited those cheifs on board to show them our boat and such curiossities as was strange to them, we gave them / a glass of whiskey which they appeared to be verry fond of, sucked the bottle after it was out & soon began to be troublesom, one the d cheif assumeing drunkness, as a cloake for his rascally intentions i went with those cheifs (which left the boat with great reluctiance) to shore with a view of reconseleing those men to us, as soon as i landed the perogue three of their young men seased the cable of the perogue, the chiefs soldr. huged the mast, and the d chief was verry insolent both in words & justures declareing i should not go on, stateing he had not recved presents suffient from us, his justures were of such a personal nature i felt my self compeled to draw my sword, at this motion capt. lewis ordered all under arms in the boat, those with me also showed a disposition to defend themselves and me, the grand chief then took hold of the roop & ordered the young warrers away, i felt my self warm & spoke in verry positive terms most of the warriers appeared to have ther bows strung and took out their arrows from they quves. as i was not permited to return, i sent all the men except inpt. to the boat, the perogu soon returned with about of our detumind men ready for any event this movement caused a no. of the indians to withdraw at a distance,--their treatment tome was verry rough & i think justified rough ness on my part, they all left my perogue and councild. with themselves the result i could not lern and nearly all went off after remaining in this situation some time i offered my hand to the & chief who refusd to recve it. i turned off & went with my men on board the perogue, i had not progd. more the paces before the st cheif rd & brave men waded in after me. i took them in & went on board we proceeded on about mile & anchored out off a willow island placed a guard on shore to protect the cooks & a guard in the boat, fastened the perogues to the boat, i call this island bad humered island as we were in a bad humer. [clark, september , ] th of septr set out early and proceeded on--the river lined with indians, came too & anchored by the particular request of the chiefs to let their womin & boys see the boat, and suffer them to show us some friendship--great members of men womin & children on the bank viewing us--those people are spritely small legs ille looking set men perticularly, they grease & black themselves when they dress, make use of hawks feathers about thier heads, cover with a roab each a polecat skin to hold their smokeables, fond of dress, badly armed. ther women appear verry well, fine teeth, high cheek dress in skin peticoats, & a roabe with the flesh side out and harey ends turned back over their sholdes, and look well--they doe all the laborious work, and i may say are perfect slaves to thier husbands who frequently have several wives- capt lewis & men went on shore with the chiefs, who appeared to wish to become friendly they requested us to remain one night & see them dance &c.--in the evening i walked on shore, and saw several mahar womin & boys in a lodge & was told they were prisones laterly taken in a battle in which they killed a number & took prisoners--i advised the chiefs to make peace with that nation and give up the prisoners, if they intended to follow the words of their great father they promised that they would do so--i was in several lodges neetly formed, those lodges are about to feet diametr stretched on poles like a sugar loaf, made of buffalow skins dressed about oclock i was approached by well dressed young men with a neet buffalow roab which they set down before me & requested me to get in they carried me to ther council tents forming / circle & set me down betwn chefs where about men were seated in a circle, in front of the chief feet square was cleared & the pipe of peace raised on forks & sticks, under which was swans down scattered, the flags of spane & the one we gave them yesterday was displayed a large fire was made on which a dog was cooked, & in the center about wt of buffalow meat which they gave us,--soon after, i took my seat the young men went to the boat & brought capt lewis in the same way & placed him by me soon after an old man rose & spoke approveing what we had done. requesting us to take pitty on them &c. answered--they form their camp in a circle the great chief then rose in great state and spoke to the same purpos and with solemnity took up the pipe of peace and pointed it to the heavens, the quartrs and the earth, he made some divistation, & presented the sten to us to smoke, after smokeing & a short harrang to his people we were requested to take the meat, and the flesh of the dog gavin us to eat--we smoked untill dark, at which time all was cleared away & a large fire made in the center, several men with tamborens highly decorated with der & cabra hoofs to make them rattle, assembled and began to sing & beat--the women came forward highly decerated with the scalps & trofies of war of their fathes husbands & relations, and danced the war dance, which they done with great chearfulness untill oclock, when we informed the chief we intended return on bord, (they offered us women, which we did not except) chiefs accompanied us to the boat and staid all night--those people have a description of men which they call soldiars, those men attend to the police of the band, correct all vices &. i saw one to day whip squars who appeared to have fallen out, when the soldier approached all appeared give way and flee at night they keep or men at different distances walking around their camp singing the acursenes of the night all in spirits this evening wind hard from the s e i saw squars & boys taken days ago in a battle with the mahars, in which they destroyed lodges, killed men & boys, & took prisones which they promised us should be delivered to mr. durion now with the yankton _____, we gave our mahar interpeter a few alls & &. to give those retched prisonis, i saw homney of ground potatos a spoon of the big horn animals which will hold quarts. [clark, september , ] th septr. bad hd isd. th of september wednesday set out early proceeded on and came to by the wish of the chiefs for to let their squars & boys see the boat and suffer them to treat us well great number of men women & children on the banks viewing us, these people shew great anxiety, they appear spritely, generally ill looking & not well made thier legs & arms small generally--they grese & black themselves with coal when they dress, make use of a hawks feather about their heads the men a robe & each a polecats skins, for to hold ther bais roly for smokeing fond of dress & show badly armed with fuseis &. the squaws are chearfull fine lookg womin not handson, high cheeks dressed in skins a peticoat and roab which foldes back over thir sholder, with long wool. doe all ther laborious work & i may say perfect slaves to the men, as all squars of nations much at war, or where the womin are more noumerous than the men--after comeing too capt. lewis & men went on shore with the chiefs, who appeared desposed to make up & be friendly, after captain lewis had been on shore about hours i became uneasy for fear of some deception & sent a serjeant to see him and know his treatment which he reported was friendly, & thy were prepareing for a dance this evening the made frequent selecitiation for us to remain one night only and let them show their good disposition towards us, we deturmined to remain, after the return of capt. lewis, i went on shore i saw several maha prisoners and spoke to the chiefs it was necessary to give those prisoners up & become good friends with the mahars if they wished to follow the advice of their great father i was in several lodges neetly formed as before mentioned as to the bauruly tribe--i was met by about well dressd. yound men who took me up in a roabe highly a decrated and set me down by the side of their chief on a dressed robe in a large council house this house formed a / cercle of skins well dressed and sown together under this shelter about men set forming a circle in front of the chiefs a plac of feet diameter was clear and the pipe of peace raised on sticks under which there was swans down scattered, on each side of the circle two pipes, the flags of spain & the flag we gave them in front of the grand chief a large fire was near in which provisions were cooking, in the center about wt. of excellent buffalo beif as a present for us soon after they set me down, the men went for capt lewis brough him in the same way and placed him also by the chief in a fiew minits an old man rose & spoke approveing what we had done & informing us of their situation requesting us to take pity on them &c which was answered the great chief then rose with great state to the same purpote as far as we could learn & then with great solemnity took up the pipe of peace whin the principal chiefs spoke with the pipe of peace he took in one hand some of the most delicate parts of the dog which was prepared for the feist & made a sacrifise to the flag--& after pointing it to the heavins the quarter of the globe & the earth,, lit it and prosist presented the stem to us to smoke, after a smoke had taken place, & a short harange to his people, we were requested to take the meal put before us the dog which they had been cooking, & pemitigon & ground potatoe in several platters. pemn is buffo meat dried or baked pounded & mixed with grease raw dog sioux think great dishused on festivals. eat little of dog pemn & pote good we smoked for an hour dark & all was cleared away a large fire made in the center, about misitions playing on tamberins. long sticks with deer & goats hoofs tied so as to make a gingling noise and many others of a similer kind, those men began to sing, & beet on the tamboren, the women came foward highly deckerated in theire way, with the scalps and trofies of war of ther father husbands brothers or near connection & proceeded to dance the war dance which they done with great chearfullness untill oclock when we informed the cheifs that they were fatigued &c. they then retired & we accompd. by chiefs returned to our boat, they stayed with us all night. those people have some brave men which they make use of as soldiers those men attend to the police of the village correct all errors i saw one of them to day whip squars who appeared to have fallen out, when he approachd all about appeared to flee with great turrow at night thy keep two or men at deffinit distances walking around camp singing the accurrunces of the night all the men on board paces from shore wind from the s. e. moderate one man verry sick on board with a dangerass abscess on his hip. all in spirits this eveninge in this tribe i saw squars and boys taken days ago in a battle with the mahars in this battle they destroyd lodges, killed men, & som boys & children, & took prisones womin & boys which they promis both capt. lewis and my self shall be delivered up to mr. durion at the tribe, those are a retched and dejected looking people the squars appear low & corse but this is an unfavourabl time to judge of them we gave our mahar inteptr. some fiew articles to give those squats in his name such as alls needle &. &c. i saw & eat pemitigon the dog, groud potatoe made into a kind of homney, which i thought but little inferior--i also saw a spoon made of a horn of an animile of the sheep kind the spoon will hold quarts. [clark, september , ] th of septr. --the bank as usial lined with sioux, gave the principal chiefs a blanket & a peck of corn each, capt lewis accompanied the chiefs to their lodges, they informed us that a great part of their nation had not arrived, & would arrive to night and requested us to delay one day longer, that they might see us i rote a letter to mr. durion, & prepared some commissions & a meadel & sent to captain lewis--at oclock capt lewis retuned with chiefs & a brave man named war-cha pa--after a delay of half an hour i went with them on shore, they left the boat with reluctiance (we suspect they are treacherous and are at all times guarded & on our guard) they again offered me a young woman and wish me to take her & not dispise them, i wavered the subject, at dark the dance began as usial and performed as last night. womin with ther husbands & relations cloths arms scalps on poles &c. &c. capt lewis joined me & we continued until about oclock and chief accompaned us to the boat i with cheifs was in a perogue going on board, by bad stearing the parogu struk the cable with such force as to brake it near the anchor (cap lewis) and or men on shore, i had all hands up and was compelled to land--the chief got allarmed & allarmed the indians the s chief & about men came down in great hast armd and for action, and found it was false, about of them camped on shore all night--this allarm cap lewis & well as my self viewed as the signal of their intentions, one half on guard, our misfortune of loseing our anchor obliged us to lay under a falling in bank much exposed to the accomplishment of the hostile intentions of those tetons (who we had every reason to believe from ther conduct intended to make an attempt to stop our progress & if possible rob us-) peter crusat who spoke mahar came in the night and informed me that the mahar prisoners told him that the tetons intended to stop us--we shew'd but little sign of a knowledge of there intentions. [clark, september , ] th of septr. thursday i rose early aftr a bad nights sleep found the chief all up, and the bank as usial lined with spectators we gave the great cheifs a blanket a peace, or rethr they took off agreeable to their custom the one they lay on and each one peck of corn after brackfast capt. lewis & the chiefs went on shore, as a verry large part of their nation was comeing in, the disposition of whome i did not know one of us being suffcent on shore, i wrote a letter to mr. p. durion & prepared a meadel & some comsns. & sent to cap lewis at oclock capt. lewis returned with chiefs & a brave man named war cha pa or on his guard. when the friends of those people die they run arrows through their flesh above and below their elbous as a testimony of their greaf after staying about half an hour, i went with them on shore, those men left the boat with reluctience, i went first to the d chiefs lodge, where a croud came around after speeking on various subjects i went to a princpal mans lodge from there to the grand chiefs lodge, after a fiew minits he invited me to a lodge within the circle in which i stayed with all their principal men untill the dance began, which was similer to the one of last night performed by their womn which poles on which scalps of their enemies were hung, some with the guns spears & war empliments their husbands in their hands capt. lewis came on shore and we continued untill we were sleepy & returned to our boat, the nd chief & one principal man accompanid us, those two indians accompanied me on board in the small perogue, capt. lewis with a guard still on shore, the man who steered not being much acustomed to steer, passed the bow of the boat & peroge came broad side against the cable & broke it which obliged me to order in a loud voice all hands all hands up & at their ores, my preempty order to the men and the bustle of their getting to their ores allarmd the cheifs, togethr with the appearance of the men on shore, as the boat turnd. the cheif hollowered & allarmed the camp or town informing them that the mahars was about attacting us. in about minits the bank was lined with men armed the st cheif at their head, about men appeared and after about / hour returned all but about men who continued on the bank all night, the cheifs contd. all night with us--this allarm i as well as captn. lewis considered as the signal of their intentions (which was to stop our proceeding on our journey and if possible rob us) we were on our guard all night, the misfortune of the loss of our anchor obliged us to lay under a falling bank much exposd. to the accomplishment of their hostile intentions p. c--our bowman who cd. speek mahar informed us in the night that the maha prisoners informed him we were to be stoped--we shew as little sighns of a knowledge of their intentions as possible all prepared on board for any thing which might hapen, we kept a strong guard all night in the boat no sleep [clark, september , ] th of septr friday i made maney attempts in defferent ways to find our anchor without sukcess, the sand had covered her up, we deturmined to proceed on to day--and after brackfast we with great dificuelty got the chiefs out of the boat, and when we were about setting out the class called the soldiars took possession of the cable- the st cheif was still on board and intended to go a short distance up with us, was informed that the men set on the cable, he went out and told capt lewis who was at the bow, they wanted tobacco the d chief demanded a flag & tobacco which we refused to give, stateing proper reasons to them for it, after much rangleing, we gave a carrot of tobacco to the st cheif and he to the men &lurked the cable from them & proceeded on under a breeze from the s e. we took in the rd cheif who was sitting on a sand bar miles above--he told us the rope was held by order of the d chief who was a double spoken man--soon after we saw a man rideing full speed up the bank, we brought him on board, & he proved to be the sun of the d cheif, by him we sent a talk to the nation, explanitory of our hoisting the red flag under the white, if they were for peace stay at home and doe as we had derected them and if they were for war or deturmined to attempt to stop us, we were ready to defend our selves (as i had before said)--we substituted large stones in place of an anchor, we came to at a small sand bar in the middle of the river and stayed all night-i am verry unwell i think for the want of sleep [clark, september , ] th of september friday made many attemps in different ways to find our anchor but could not, the sand had covered it, from the misfortune of last night our boat was laying at shore in a verry unfavourable situation, after finding that the anchor could not be found we deturmined to proceed on, with great difficuelty got the chiefs out of our boat, and when we was about setting out the class called the soldiers took possession of the cable the s chief which was still on board & intended to go a short distance up with us, i told him the men of his nation set on the cable, he went out & told capt lewis who was at the bow the men who set on the roap was soldiers and wanted tobacco capt. l. said would not agree to be forced into any thing, the d chief demanded a flag & tobacco which we refusd. to give stateing proper reasons to them for it after much difucelty-which had nearly reduced us to hostility i threw a carot of tobacco to s chief spoke so as to touch his pride took the port fire from the gunner the chief gives the tobaco to his soldiers & he jurked the rope from them and handed it to the bows man we then set out under a breeze from the s. e. about miles up we observed the rd chief on shore beckining to us we took him on board he informed us the roap was held by the order of the d chief who was a double spoken man, soon after we saw a man comeing full speed, thro the plains left his horse & proceeded across a sand bar near the shore we took him on board & observed that he was the son of the chief we had on board we sent by him a talk to the nation stateent the cause of our hoisting the red flag undr. the white, if they were for peace stay at home & do as we had derected them, if the were for war ore were deturmined to stop us we were ready to defend our selves, we halted one houre & / on the s. s. & made a substitute of stones for a ancher, refreshed our men and proceeded on about miles higher up & came too a verry small sand bar in the middle of the river & stayed all night, i am verry unwelle for want of sleep deturmined to sleep to night if possible, the men cooked & we rested well. [clark, september , ] capt. w. clarks notes continued as first taken- th of september satturday --set out early some bad sand bars, at oclock we observed the d chief with men and squars on shore, they wished to go up with us as far as the other part of their band, which would meet us on the river above not far distant we refused to let one more come on board stateing suffient reasons, observd they would walk on shore to the place we intended to camp, offered us women we objected and told them we should not speake to another teton except the one on board with us, who might go on shore when ever he pleased, those indians proceeded on untill later in the evening when the chief requested that the perogue might put him across the river which we agreed to--saw numbers of elk on the sand bars today, passed an old ricara village at the mouth of a creek without timber we stayed all night on the side of a sand bar / a mile from the shore. [clark, september , ] th of septr. satturday set out early some bad sand bars, proceeded on at oclock we observed the d chief & principal men one man & a squar on shore, they wished to go up with us as far as the other part of their band, which they said was on the river a head not far distant we refused stateing verry sufhcint reasons and was plain with them on the subject, they were not pleased observed that they would walk on shore to the place we intended to camp to night, we observed it was not our wish that they should for if they did we could not take them or any other tetons on board except the one we had now with us who might go on shore when ever he pleased- they proceeded on, the chief on board askd. for a twist of tobacco for those men we gave him / a twist, and sent one by them for that part of their band which we did not see, & continued on saw great numbers of elk at the mouth of a small creek called no timber (-as no timber appeared to be on it.) above the mouth of this creek the parties had a village years ago,--the d chief came on the sand bar & requested we would put him across the river, i sent a perogue & crossed him & one man to the s. s. and proceeded on & came too on a sand bar on about / mile from the main shore & put on it sentinals continud all night at anchor (we substitute large stones for anchors in place of the one we lost) all in high spirits &c [clark, september , ] th of september sunday had not proceeded far before we discovered an indian running after us, he requstd to go with us to the ricaras, we refused to take him, i discovered at a great distanc a great number of men women & children decending a hill towards the river above which the chief with us told us was the other band, some rain & hard wind at about oclock we anchored opposit the camps of this band and told them we took them by the hand, and sent to each chief a carrot of tobacco & some to the principal men and farther said that after staying with the band below days to see them we had been badly treated and should not land again, as we had not time to delay--refured then to mr. durion for a full account of us, and an explination of what had been said, they appeard ansioes for us to eat with them and observed they were friendly we apoligised & proceeded on under a double reafed sale--the chief on board threw out to those that ran up small pieces of tobacco & told them to go back and open thier ears, we saw great number of white guls--refresh the party with whiskey, in the evening we saw indians at a distance, the boat turned by accident & was nearly filling and rocked verry much, allarmed the indian chief on board who ran and hid himself, we landed & the indian express a wish to return, we gave him a blanket knife & some tobacco and advised him to keep his men away, we camped on a sand bar. verry cold & windy- [clark, september , ] th of septr. sunday . set out this morning early had not proceeded on far before we discovered an indn. running after us, he came up with us at oclock & requested to come on bord and go up to the recorees we refused to take any of that band on board if he chose to proceed on shore it was verry well soon after i discovered on the hills at a great distance great numbers of indians which appeared to be makeing to the river above us, we proceeded on under a double reafed sail, & some rain at oclock observed a large band of indians the same which i had before seen on the hills incamping on the bank the l. s. we came too on a sand bar brackfast & proceeded on & cast the ancher opposit their lodgs. at about yards distand, and informed the indians which we found to be a part of the band we had before seen, that took them by the hand and sent to each chief a carrot of tobacco, as we had been treated badly by some of the band below, after staying days for them, we could not delay any time, & refured them to mr. duron for a full account of us and to here our talk sent by him to the tetons, those were verry selecitious for us to land and eate with them, that they were friendly &c. &. we appoligised & proceeded on, sent the peroge to shore above with the tobacco & delivd. it to a soldr. of the chief with us several of them ran up the river, the chf. on board threw then out a small twist of tobacco & told them to go back & open ther ears. they recved the tobacco & returned to their lodges--we saw great numbers of white guls this day is cloudy & rainey--refresh the men with a glass of whisky after brackfast. we saw about miles above indians who came to the bank and looked at us a about / an hour & went over the hills to the s w. we proceeded on under a verry stiff breeze from the s., the stern of the boat got fast on a log and the boat turned & was verry near filling before we got her righted, the waves being verry high, the chief on board was so fritined at the motion of the boat which in its rocking caused several loose articles to fall on the deck from the lockers, he ran off and hid himself, we landed he got his gun and informed us he wished to return, that all things were cleare for us to go on we would not see any more tetons &c. we repeated to him what had been said before and advised him to keep his men away, gave him a blanket a knife & some tobacco, smokd a pipe & he set out. we also set sale and came to at a sand bar, & camped, a verrey cold evening, all on our guard [clark, october , ] st of october monday the wind blew hard from the s. e. all last night, set out early passed a large island in the middle of the river opposit this island the ricaras lived in villages on the s w. side, about miles above the upper point of the island the chyenne river coms in on the l. s. and is about yards wide dischargeing but little water for a r. of its size, the current jentle, and navagable, to the black mountains we haule the boat over a sand bar, river wide & shoal, pass'd a creek at mils we call sentinal creek, a small one above, but little timber about this river, the hills not so high as usial, the upper creek i call lookout creek, camped on a sand bar, opposit a tradeing house, where a mr. valles & men had some fiew goods to trade with the sioux, a boy came to us, this mr. vallie informed us he wintered last winter legus up the chyemne river under the black mountains, he sais the river is rapid and bad to navagate, it forks leagus up the n. fork enters the black mountain leagues above the forks the countrey like that on the missouri less timber more cedar, the coat nur or black m. is high and some parts retain snow all summer, covered with timber principally pine, great number of goats and a kind of anamal with verry large horns about the size of a small elk, white bear no bever on the chien great numbers in the mountains, the chyenne nation has about lodges hunt the buffalow, steel horses from the spanish settlements, which they doe in month--the chanal of this river is corse gravel, those mountains is inhabited also by the white booted turkeys worthy of remark that the grouse or prarie hen is booted, the toes of their feet so constructed as to walk on the snow, and the tail short with long stiff feathers in the middle. sand bars are so noumerous, that it is impossible to discribe them, & think it unnecessary to mention them. [clark, october , ] st of october monday the wind blew hard all last night from the s. e. verry cold set out early the wind still hard passed a large island in the middle of the river ( ) opsd. the lower point of this island the ricrerees formerly lived in a large town on the l. s. above the head of the island about miles we passed the ( ) river) l. s. this river comes in from the s w. and is about yards wide, the current appears gentle, throwing out but little sands, and appears to throw out but little water the heads of this river is indians live some distance up this river, the presise distance i cant learn, above the mouth of this river the sand bars are thick and the water shoal the river still verry wide and falling a little we are obliged to haul the boat over a sand bar, after makeing several attempts to pass. the wind so hard we came too & stayed hours after it slackened a little we proceeded on round a bend, the wind in the after part of the day a head--( ) passed a creek on the l. s. which we call the sentinal, this part of the river has but little timber, the hills not so high. the sand bars now noumerous, & river more than one mile wide including the sand bars. ( ) pass a small creek above the latter which we call lookout c-. continued on with the wind imediately a head, and came too on a large sand bar in the middle of the river, we saw a man opposit to our camp on the l. s. which we discovd. to be a frenchman, a little of the willows we observed a house, we call to them to come over, a boy came in a canoo & informed that french men were at the house with good to trade with the seauex which he expected down from the rickerries everry day, severl large parties of seauex set out from the rics for this place to trade with those men--this mr. jon vallie informs us that he wintered last winter leagues up the chien river under the black mountains, he informs that this river is verry rapid and dificiult even for canoos to assend and when riseing the swels is verry high, one hundred leagues up it forks one fork comes from the s. the other at leagues above the forks enters the black mountain. the countrey from the missourie to the black mountain is much like the countrey on the missourie, less timber & a greatr perpotion of ceder. the black mountains he says is verry high, and some parts of it has snow on it in the summer great quantities of pine grow on the mountains, a great noise is heard frequently on those mountains-, on the mountains great numbers of goat, and a kind of anamale with large circuler horns, this animale is nearly the size of an argalia small elk. white bear is also plenty--the chien inds. inhabit this river principally, and steel horses from the spanish settlements this excurtion they make in one month the bottoms & sides of r chien is corse gravel. this frenchman gives an account of a white booted turkey an inhabitant of the cout noie- [clark, october , ] st of october monday at the mouth of river chien or dog r we proceeded now from the mouth of this river miles and camped on a sand bar in the river opposit to a tradeing house verry windy & cold- miles above the chien r [clark, october , ] the red berry is called by the rees nar-nis- the ricares names of the nations who come to the ricares to trafick and bring horses & robes . * kun-na-nar-wesh gens de vash blue beeds . ° noo-tar-wau hill climbers . * au ner-hoo the people who pen buffalow to catch them . * to-che-wah-coo fox indians . * to-pah-cass white hair's . * cat-tar kah paducar . * kie-wah tideing indians . * too war sar skin pricks . shar ha (chien) the village on the other side . we hee shaw (chien) the villages on this side those nation all live on the praries from s w. by s. to west of the ricaries, all speek different languages and are numerous all follow the buffalow and winter in the mountains. the mandans call a red berry common to the upper part of the missouri as-say the engages call the same berry grease de buff--grows in great abundance a makes a delightfull tart [clark, october , ] nd of october tuesday , mr. vallie came on board, lat. ° ' n. we observed some indians on a hill on the s. s. one came to the river & fired off his gun and asked us to come he wish us to go to his camp near at hand we refused, passed a large island on the s. s., here we expected the tetons would attempt to stop us, and prepared for action, &c. opposit this island on the l. s. a small creek comes in, we call this caution island, camped on a sand bar / mile from the main shore the wind hard from the n w. cold, the current of the river less rapid, & retains less sediment than below. [clark, october , ] nd of octr. nd of october tuesday a violent wind all night from the s. e. slackened a little and we proceeded on. mr. jon vallee came on board and proceeded on miles with us, a verry cold morning some black clouds flying took a meridian altitude & made the lattitude ° ' " north this was taken at the upper part of the gouge of the lookout bend, the sentinal heard a shot over the hills to the l. s. dureing the time we were dineing on a large sand bar. the after part of this day is pleasent, at oclock opposit a wood on the l. s. we observed some indians on a hill on the s. s. one came down to the river opposit to us and fired off his gun, & beckind. to us to come too, we payed no attention to him he followed on some distance, we spoke a few words to him, he wished us to go a shore and to his camp which was over the hill and consisted of lodges, we excused our selves advised him to go and here our talk of mr. durion he enquired for traders we informed him one was in the next bend below & parted, he returned--& we proceeded on ( ) passed a large island, the s. s. here we expected the tetons would attempt to stop us and under that hear we prepared our selves for action which we expected every moment. opsd. this island on the l. s. a small creek comes in, this island we call isd. of caution we took in some wood on a favourable situation where we could defend our men on shore & ( ) camped on a sand bar / a mile from the main shore. the wind changed to the n. w. & rose verry high and cold which continud. the current of the missourie is less rapid & contains much less sediment of the same colour. [clark, october , ] nd of october tuesday proceeded on as mentioned in journal no. twelve miles camped above a large island on a sand bar, verry windy and cold the after part of this day, the mid day verry worm, the lattitude as taken to day is ° ' "--observe great caution this day expecting the seaux intentions some what hostile towards our progression, the river not so rapid as below the chien, its width nearly the same miles [clark, october , ] rd of october wednesday the n w. wind blew verry hard all night with some rain, we set out early, at examoned our stores & goods, several bags cut by the mice and corn scattered, some of our cloth also cut by them also papers &c. &c. at oclock an indian came to the bank s. s, with a turkey on his back other soon joined him some rain, saw brant & white guts flying southerly [clark, october , ] rd of october wednesday wind blew hard all night from the n w. some rain and verry cold. we set out at oclock & proceeded on [clark, october , ] rd of october wednesday the n. w. wind blew verry hard all night with some rain a cold morning, we set out at oclock and proceeded on at oclock landed on a bare l. s. examined the perogus & factle of the boat to see if the mice had done any damage, several bags cut by them corn scattered &. some of our clothes also spoiled by them, and papers &c. &. at oclock an indian came to the bank s. s. with a turkey on his back, four others soon joined him, we attempted several chanels and could not find water to assend, landed on a sand bar & concluded to stay all night, & send out and hunt a chanell, some rain this after noon--saw brant & white gulls flying southerly in large flocks- [clark, october , ] th of october thursday--the wind blew all night from the n w. some rain we were obliged to drop down miles to get a channel sufficient deep to pass several indians on the bank, call'd to us frequently to land, one gave yels & sciped a ball before us, we payed no attention to them, while at brackfast one swam across to us, beged for powder, we gave him a small piece of tobacco & put him over on a sand bar, passed a large island in the middle of the river good hope i. passed a small creek l. s. passed a creek l s camped on a sand bar at the upper point of an island on which is the remains of an old ricara village fortified called la hoo it was circular, this village appears to have been deserted about or years, houses yet remain, the island contains but little timber, the evening verry cold and wood scerce, make use of drift wood [clark, october , ] th of october thursday the wind blew all night from the nw. some rain, we were obliged to drop down miles to get the chanel suft. deep to pass up, several indians on the shore viewing of us called to us to land one of them gave yels & sciped a ball before us, we payed no attention to him, proceeded on and came too on the l. s. to brackft one of those indians swam across to us beged for powder, we gave him a piece of tobacco & set him over on a sand bar, and set out, the wind hard a head ( ) passed a island in the middle of the river about miles in length, we call goodhope island, ( ) at miles passed a ( ) creek on the l. s. about yards wide capt. lewis and men walked on shore & crossed over to an ( ) island situated on the s. s. of the current & near the center of the river this isld. is about / miles long & nearly / as wide, in the center of this island was an old village of the rickeries called la ho catt it was circular and walled containing lodges and it appears to have been deserted about five years, the island contains but little timber. we camped on the sand bar makeing from this island, the day verry cool. [clark, october , ] th of october friday frost this morning, set out early passed a small creek on the l. s. saw tetons on the s. s. they beged some tobacco, we proceed on passed a creek on the s. s. i saw a white brant in a gangue on the sand bar saw a large herd of cabra or antelopes swiming the river, we killed four of them passed a small island on the l. s. a large creek on the l. s. at the head of the island white brant creek, i walked on the island which is covered with wild rye, i killed a buck & a small wolf this evening, clear pleasant evening, camped on a mud bar s. s. refreshd the men with whiskey. [clark, october , ] th of october friday frost this morning, we set out early and proceeded on ( ) passed a small creek on the l. s. at oclock heard some yels proceeded on saw indians of the teton band, they called to us to come on shore, beged some tobacco, we answd. them as usial and proceeded on, passed ( ) a creek on the s. s. at mes. abov the mouth we saw one white brant in a gang of about , the others all as dark as usial, a discription of this kind of gees or brant shall be given here after saw a gang of goats swiming across the river out of which we killed four they were not fatt. in the evening passed a small ( ) island situated close to the l. side, at the head of this isd. a large creek coms in on the l. s. saw white or brants, we call this creek white brant creek--i walked on the isd. found it covered with wild rye, i shot a buck, saw a large gang of goat on the hills opposit, one buck killed, also a prarie wolf this evening, the high land not so high as below, river about the same width, the sand bars as noumerous, the earth black and many of the bluffs have the appearance of being on fire, we came too and camped on a mud bar makeing from the l. s. the evening is calm and pleasant, refreshed the men with a glass of whiskey- [clark, october , ] th of october satturday cold wind from the n. saw many large round stones near the middle of the river passed an old ricara village of lodges picketed in those lodges in nearly an octagon form, to feet diameter specious covered with earth and as close as they can stand, a number of skin canoes in the huts, we found squashes of different kinds growing in the village shields killed an elk close by- the magpy is common here, we camped off the mouth of otter creek on the s. s. this creek is yds. wide & heads near the r. jacque,--contains much water. [clark, october , ] th october satturday a cool morning wind from the north set out early passed a willow island ( ) situated near the s. shore at the upper point of som timber on the s. s. many large round stones near the middle of the river, those stones appear to have been washed from the hills ( ) passed a village of about neet lodges covered with earth and picketed around, those loges are spicious of an octagon form as close together as they can possibly be placed and appear to have been inhabited last spring, from the canoes of skins mats buckets & found in the lodges, we are of appinion they were the recrereis we found squashes of different kinds growing in the village, one of our men killed an elk close by this village, i saw wolves in persute of another which appeared to be wounded and nearly tired, we proceeded on found the river shole we made severl. attempts to find the main channel between the sand bars, and was obliged at length to drag the boat over to save a league which we must return to get into the deepest channel, we have been obgd to hunt a chanl. for some time past the river being devided in many places in a great number of chanels, saw gees, swan, brants, & ducks of different kinds on the sand bars to day, capt lewis walked on shore saw great numbers of prarie hens, i observe but fiew gulls or pleaver in this part of the river, the corvos or magpye is verry common in this quarter we camped on a large sand bar off the mouth of otter creek on the s. s. this creek is about yards wide at the mouth and contains a greater perpotion of water than common for creeks of its sise [clark, october , ] th of october sunday frost last night, passed a river yds. wide the ricaras call sur-war-kar-ne all the water of this river runs in a chanel of yards, the current appears jentle, i walked up this river a mile, saw the tracks of white bear, verry large, also a old ricara village partly burnt, fortified about lodges built in the same form of those passed yesterday, many canoes & baskets about the huts--about oclock we saw indians on the s. s. they asked for something to eat & told us they were tetons of the band we left below on ther way to the ricaras we gave them meat & wind hard from the south, passed a large open island covered with grass and wild rye, i walked on the isd & men they killed a braroe & a black tale doe with a black breast, the largest deer i ever saw, the great numbers of grous on it, we call it grous island, camped opposit the island near the s. side. [clark, october , ] th of october sunday a cloudy morning, some little rain frost last night, we set out early proceeded on miles to the mouth of a ( ) river on the l. s. and brackfast this river whin full is yards wide the water is at this time confined within yards, the current appears jentle, this river throws out but little sand at the mouth of this river we saw the tracks of white bear which was verry large, i walked up this river a mile- below the ( ) mouth of this river, is the remains of a rickorrie village or wintering camp fortified in a circular form of a bout lodges, built in the same form of those passed yesterday this camp appears to have been inhabited last winter, many of their willow & straw mats, baskets & buffalow skin canoes remain intire within the camp, the ricares call this river sur-war-kar-na or park from this river we proceeded on under a gentle breeze from the s. w. at oclock we saw indians, on the s. s. they asked for something to eate, & informed us they were part of the beiffs de medisons lodge on their way to the rickerreis, passed ( ) a willow island in a bind to the s. s. ( ) at miles passd. a willow island on the s. s.--wind hard from the south in the evening i walked on an ( ) island nearly the middle of the river called grous island, one of the men killed a shee brarrow, another man killed a black tail deer, the largest doe i ever saw (black under her breast) this island is nearly / ms. squar no timbr high and covered with grass wild rye and contains great numbers of grouse, we proceeded on a short distance above the island and camped on the s. s. a fine evening. [clark, october , ] th of october monday a cool morning wind from the n. w. passed the mouth of a small creek on the l. s. about / miles above the isd. passed the mouth of a river on the l. s. called by the ricaries we-tar-hoo. this river is yards wide, the water confined within yards, throws out mud with little sand, great quanties of red berries, resembling currents near the mouth of this river latd. ° ' n. this river heads in the s black mountain, miles higher up passed a small river on the l. s. called maropa yards wide chocked up with mud--our hunters discovered a ricara village on an island a fiew miles above we passed the s ricara village about the center of the island, in presence of great numbers of spectators and camped above the island on the l. s. at the foot of some high land. (mr. gravotine a french man joined us as an interpeter) the island on which is ricara village is situated, is about miles long seperated from the main l. side by a narrow deep channel, those indians cultivate on the island corn beens simmins, tobacco &c &c. after landing capt. lewis with mr. gravelin and men went to the village, i formd a camp on shore with the perogue crew & guard, with the boat at anchor, capt lewis returned late, a french man and a spaniard accompanied him [clark, october , ] th of october monday a cool morning set out early the wind from the n. w. proceeded on passed the mouth of a small creek on the l. s. about / miles above grouse island, ( ) passed a willow island which divides the current equilly. ( ) passed the mouth of a river called by the ricares we tar hoo on the l. s. this river is yards wide, the water of which at this time is confined within yards, dischargeing but a small quantity, throwing out mud with small propotion of sand, great quantities of the red berries, ressembling currents, are on the river in every bend-- ° ' " lattitude from the obsevation of to day at the mouth of this river is ° ' "-north--proceeded on passed a ( ) small river of yards wide called ( ) or beaver dam r this river is intirely chocked up with mud, with a streem of inch diamiter passing through, discharging no sand, at ( ) mile passed the lower pint of an island close on the l. s. of our men discovered the reckerrei village, about the center of the island on the l. side on the main shore. this island is about miles long, seperated from the l. s. by a channel of about yards wide verry deep, the isld. is covered with fields, where those people raise their corn tobacco beens &c. &c. great numbers of those people came on the island to see us pass, we passed above the head of the island & capt. lewis with interpeters & men went to the village i formed a camp of the french & the guard on shore, with one sentinal on board of the boat at anchor, a pleasent evening all things arranged both for peace or war, this village ( ) is situated about the center of a large island near the l. side & near the foot of some high bald uneaven hills, several french men came up with capt lewis in a perogue, one of which is a mr. gravellin a man well versed in the language of this nation and gave us some information relitive to the countrey naton &c [clark, october , ] orders october the th robert frazer being regularly inlisted and haveing become on of the corps of vollenteers for north western discovery, he is therefore to be viewed & respected accordingly; and will be anexed to sergeant gass's mess. win clark cpt &. meriwether lewis river marapa capt. st u.s. regt. infty [clark, october , ] th of october tuesday a windey night some rain, and the wind continued so high & cold we could not speck in council with the indians, we gave them some tobacco and informed them we would speek tomorrow, all the grand chiefs visited us to day also mr taboe, a trader from st. louis--many canoes of a single buffalow skin made in the form of a bowl carrying generally and sometimes & men, those canoes, ride the highest waves--the indians much asstonished at my black servent and call him the big medison, this nation never saw a black man before, the wind verry high, i saw at several times to day squars in single buffalow skin canoes loaded with meat cross the river, at the time the waves were as high as i ever saw them in the missouri [clark, october , ] th of october tuesday a windey rainey night, and cold, so much so we could not speek with the indians to day the three great chiefs and many others came to see us to day, we gave them some tobacco and informed them we would speek on tomorrow, the day continued cold & windey some rain sorry canoos of skins passed down from the villages a short distance above, and many came to view us all day, much asstonished at my black servent, who did not lose the oppertunity of his powers strength &c. &. this nation never saw a black man before. several hunters came in with loads of meat, i observed several canoos made of a single buffalow skin with & thre squars cross the river to day in waves as high as i ever saw them on this river, quite uncomposed i have a slite plurise this evening verry cold &c. &. st chiefs name ka kawissassa (lighting crow.) d do do pocasse (or hay) d do do piaa he to (or eagles feather) [clark, october , ] th of october at oclock the wind shifted from s. e to n w. mr. taboe visited us--we hear that some jealousy exists as to the chiefs to be made--at oclock the cheifs all assembled under an orning near the boat, and under the american flag. we delivered a similar speech to those delivered the ottoes & sioux, made three chiefs, one for each village and gave them clothes & flags-- s chief is name ka-ha-wiss assa lighting ravin d chief po-casse (hay) & the rd piaheto or eagles feather--after the council was over we shot the air gun, which astonished them, & they all left us, i observed sioux in the council one of them i had seen below, they came to interceed with the ricaras to stop us as we were told--the inds. much astonished at my black servent, who made him self more turrible in thier view than i wished him to doe as i am told telling them that before i cought him he was wild & lived upon people, young children was verry good eating showed them his strength &c. &c.--those indians are not fond of licquer of any kind- [clark, october , ] th of october wednesday . a fine forming wind from the s. e at about oclock the wind shifted, to the n. w. we prepare all things ready to speak to the indians, mr. tabo & mr. gravolin came to brackfast with us the chiefs &. came from the lower town, but none from the upper towns, which is the largest, we continue to delay & waite for them at oclock dispatchd gravelin to envite them to come down, we have every reason to believe that a jellousy exists between the villages for fear of our makeing the st cheif from the lower village, at one oclock the cheifs all assembled & after some little cerrimony the council commenced, we informd them what we had told the others before i e ottoes & seaux. made cheif for each village. gave them presents. after the council was over we shot the air guns which astonished them much, they then departed and we rested secure all night, those indians wer much astonished at my servent, they never saw a black man before, all flocked around him & examind. him from top to toe, he carried on the joke and made himself more turibal than we wished him to doe. (thos indians were not fond of spirits licquer. of any kind) [clark, october , ] th of october thursday wind s. e. at oclock met the s chief in council, he thanked us for what we had given him & his people promised to attend to our advise, and said the road was open for us and no one dare shut it &c. &. we took him and one chief on board and set out, on our way took in the d chief at the mo of a small creek, and came too off the d village which is miles above the island, we walked up with the & chiefs to their villages which is situated on each side of a small creek, they gave us something to eat in thier way, after conversations on various subjects & beareing the civilities of those people who are both pore & dirtey we informed the chiefs we would here what they had to say tomorrow and returned on board about oclock p m. those people gave us to eat corn & beans, a large well flavoured been which they rob the mice of in the plains and is verry nurishing-all tranquillity [clark, october , ] th october thursday a fine morning the wind from the s. e. at oclock we met the grand chief in council & and he made a short speech thanking us for what we had given him & his nation promisseing to attend to the council we had given him & informed us the road was open & no one dare shut it, & we might departe at pleasure, at oclock we set out for the upper villages miles distant, the grand chief & nephew on board, proceeded on at mile took in the d chief & came too off the first second village seperated from the rd by a creek after arrangeing all matters we walked up with the d chief to his village, and set talking on various subjects untile late we also visited the upper or rd village each of which gave us something to eate in their way, and a fiew bushels of corn beens &. &c. after being treated by everry civility by those people who are both pore & durtey we returned to our boat at about oclk. p m. informing them before we departed that we would speek to them tomorrow at there seperate villages. those people gave us to eate bread made of corn & beens, also corn & beans boild. a large been, which they rob the mice of the prarie which is rich & verry nurrishing also [clark, october , ] (ricares) october the th thursday we met in council to hear what the grand chief ka kaw issassa had to say in answer to the speech of yesterday the grand chief rose and spoke as follows i, e, my fathers-! my heart is glader than it ever was before to see my fathers.--a repetition. if you want the road open no one can provent it it will always be open for you. can you think any one dare put their hands on your rope of your boat. no! not one dar when you get to the mandans we wish you to speak good words with that nation for us. we wish to be at peace with them. it gives us pain that we do not know how to work the beaver, we will make buffalow roabs the best we can. when you return if i am living you will see me again the same man the indian in the prarie know me and listen to my words, when you come they will meet to see you. we shall look at the river with impatient for your return. finished [clark, october , ] th of october friday after brackfast we joined the chiefs & indians on the bank who wer waiting for us, and proseeded to the st village and lodge of the pocasse, this man spok at some lengths, to the same purpote of the s chief, & declareing his intentions of visiting his great father, some doubts as to his safty in passing the sioux, requested us to take a chief of their nation and make a good peace with the mandan for them, that they knew that they were the cause of the war by killing the mandan chiefs--this chief & people gave us about bushels of corn, some tobacco of their own make, and seed legins & a robe we proceeded to the rd chiefs village which is the largest, after the usial seremoney of eating smokg. &. he spoke to near the same amount of the last chief, & more pleasently, he gave us bushels of corn, some beens & simmins, after he had spoken, and i gave some sketches of the power & magnitude of our countrey, we returned to our boat, i have the rhumetism on my neck the chiefs accompanied us on board, we gave them some sugar salt and a sun glass each, and after eating a little they returned on shore leaveing one to accompany us to the mandans, and we set out viewed by men womin & children of each village proceeded on about / miles and camped on the s s. clear & cold--the ricaras are about men mr. taboe say able to bear arms, and the remains of ten different tribes of panias reduced by the small pox & wares with the sioux, they are tall stout men corsily featured, their womin small & industerous raise great quantites of corn beans &c also tobacco for the men to smoke, they collect all the wood and doe the drudgery common amongst savages--their language is so corrupted that many lodges of the same village with dificuelty under stand all that each other say--they are dirty, kind, pore, & extravegent; possessing natural pride, no begers, rcive what is given them with pleasure, thier houses are close together & towns inclosed with pickets, thier lodges are to feet in diamuter covered with earth on neet poles set end wise resting on forks supporting beems set in a square form near the center, and lower about feet high other forks all around supt. strong beems, from to of those, with a opening at top of about to feet square, on the poles which pass to the top, small willow & grass is put across to support the earth--the sioux exchange, some merchndze of small value which they get from mr. cameron of st. peters for corn &c and have great influence over this people treat them roughly and keep them in contineal dread--the ricaras are at war with the crow indians and mandans-&c. &--the ricaras, have a custom similar to the sioux in maney instances, they think they cannot show a sufficient acknowledgement without to their guest handsom squars and think they are despised if they are not recved the sioux followed us with women two days we put them off. the ricarries we put off dureing the time we were near their village-- were sent by a man to follow us, and overtook us this evening, we still procisted in a refusial-the dress of the ricara men is simpally a pr. of mockersons & legins, a flap, and a buffalow robe--their hair is long and lais loose their arms & ears are decerated with trinkets the womin dress mockersons & legins & skirt of the skin of the cabre or antelope, long fringed & roab to the fringes & with sleaves, verry white, and roabes--all were dressed to be without hare in the summer those people make large beeds of diferrent colours, out of glass or beeds of dift colours, verry ingeniously [clark, october , ] th october friday i rose early after brackfast we joined the indians who were waiting on the bank for us to come out and go and council, we accordingly joined them and went to the house of the nd chief lassil where there was many chief and warriers & about bushels of corn, a pr leagins a twist of their tobacco & seeds of kind of tobacco we set some time before the councill commenced this man spoke at some length declareing his dispotion to believe and prosue our councils, his intention of going to visit his great father acknowledged the satisfaction in receiveing the presents &c. rais'g a doubt as to the safty on passing the nations below particularly the souex. requested us to take a chief of their nation and make a good pact with mandins & nations above. after answering those parts of the d chiefs speech which required it, which appeared to give general satisfaction we went to the village of the rd chief and as usial some serimony took place before he could speek to us on the great subject. this chief spoke verry much in the stile on nearly the same subjects of the other chief who set by his side, more sincear & pleasently, he presented us with about bushels of corn some beens & quashes all of which we acksepted with much pleasure, after we had ansd. his speech & give them some account of the magnitude & power of our countrey which pleased and astonished them verry much we returned to our boat, the chiefs accompanied us on board, we gave them some sugar a little salt, and a sun glass, & set on shore & the third proceeded on with us to the mandens by name, at oclock we set out the inhabitints of the two villages viewing us from the banks, we proceeded on about / miles and camped on the s. s. at some woods passed, the evening clear & pleasent cooler the nation of the rickerries is about men able to bear arms a great perpotion of them have fusees they appear to be peacefull, their men tall and perpotiend, womin small and industerous, raise great quantities of corn beens simmins &c. also tobacco for the men to smoke they collect all the wood and do the drugery as common amongst savages. thise nation is made up of different tribes of the pania, who had formerly been seperate, but by commotion and war with their neighbours have come reduced and compelled to come together for protection, the curruption of the language of those different tribes has so reduced the language that the different villages do not understade all the words of the others.--those people are durtey, kind, pore, & extravigent pursessing national pride. not beggarley reive what is given with great pleasure, live in worm houses large and built in an oxigon form forming a cone at top which is left open for the smoke to pass, those houses are generally or foot diamiter. covd. with earth on poles willows & grass to prevent the earths passing thro, those people express an inclination to be at peace with all nations the seaux who trade the goods which they get of the british traders for their corn, and great influence over the rickeres, poisen their minds and keep them in perpetial dread. i saw some of the chien or dog indians, also a man of a nation under the court new-this nation is at war with the crow indians & have children prisoners. a curious cuistom with the souix as well as the reckeres is to give handsom squars to those whome they wish to show some acknowledgements to--the seauix we got clare of without taking their squars, they followed us with squars th two days. the rickores we put off dureing the time we were at the towns but handsom young squars were sent by a man to follow us, they came up this evening and peresisted in their civilities. dress of the men of this nation is simply a pr. mockerson, leagins, flap in front & a buffalow roabe, with ther arms & ears deckorated the women, wore mockersons leagins fringed and a shirt of goat skins, some with sleaves. this garment is longe & genlry. white & fringed, tied at the waste with a roabe, in summer without hair. [clark, october , ] nd chief ricaras my father, i am glad to see this is a fine day to here the good councils & talk good talk i am glad to see you & that your intentions are to open the road for all we see that our grand father has sent you to open the road we see it our grand father by sending you means to take pity on us our grand father has sent you with tobacco to make peace with all nations, we think the first nation who has recomended the road to be clear and open. you come here & have directed all nations which you have met to open & clear the road. you come to see the water & roads to clear them as clear as possible you just now come to see us, & we wish you to tell our grand ftar that we wish the road to be kept clear & open. i expect the chief in the next town will tell you the same to move on & open the road i think when you saw the nations below they wish you to open the road- (or something to that amount) when you passd. the souex they told you the same i expect. we see you here to day we are pore our women have no strouds & knives to cut their meat take pitty on us when you return. you come here & derect us to stay at home & not go to war, we shall do so, we hope you will when you get to the mandins you will tell them the same & cleer the road, no one dar to stop you, you go when you please, the you tell us to go down, we will go and see our grand father & here & receve his gifts, and think fully that our nation will be covered after our return, our people will look for us with the same impatience that our grand father looks for your return, to give him if i am going to see my grand father, many bad nations on the road, i am not afraid to die for the good of my people (all cried around him.) the chief by me will go to the mandans & hear what they will say. (we agree'd.) the verry moment we set out to go down we will send out my brother to bring all the nation in the open prarie to see me part on this great mission to see my great father. our people hunting shall be glad to here of your being here & they will all come to see, as you cannot stay they must wate for your return to see you, we are pore take pity on our wants the road is for you all to go on, who do you think will injure a white man when they come to exchange for our roabes & beaver after you set out many nations in the open plains may come to make war against us, we wish you to stop their guns & provent it if possible. finished d chief of ricares my fathers i will see the indians below & see if they have the hart as they tell you the nation below is the mahas & ottes & but one nation, (the souix) has not a good heart. i always look at the t chief & the d whin they go & will also follow ther example & go on also you see those men they are chiefs, when i go they will take care, they beleve your words. mabie we will not tell the trooth, as to the child perhaps they will not wish to go. my children the old women & men whin i return i can then give them, some a knife some powder & others ball &c. what is the matter if we was to go for nothing my great chief wish to go, i wish to go also. when i go to see my grand father i wish to return quicke for fear of my people being uneasy. my children are small & perhaps will be uneasy whin i may be safe i must go, i also wish to go, perhaps i may when i return make my people glad i will stay at home & not go to war even if my people are struck we will believ your word but i fear the indians above will not believe your word. i will think that / of the men who will return will stay in this village / below in the other villages what did the seaus tell you--(we informd them) [clark, october , ] th of october satturday newmon confined for mutinous expressions, proceeded on passed a camp of sioux on the s. s. those people did not speak to us. passed a creek on the s. s. miles above the ricaras i call stone idol creek, this creek heads in a small lake at no great distance, near which there is a stone to which the indians asscribe great virtue &. &c. at miles passed a creek yds wide on the l. s i call pocasse, we observed great quantites of grapes, a fine breez from s e camped on the l. s. some rain thus evening, we formed a court martial of of our party to try newmon, they senteenced him lashes and banishment from the party--the river narrow current jentle & wood plenty on the bottoms the up land is as usial open divircified plains, generally rich & leavel. [clark, october , ] th of october satturday one man j. newmon confined for mutinous expression set out early proceeded on, passd. a camp of seauex on the s. s. those people only viewed us & did not speak one word--the visiters of last evening all except one returned which is the brother of the chief we have on board passed ( ) a creek on the s. s. yds. at me. above the town heading in some ponds a short diste. to the n. e we call stone idol c. (well to observe here that the yankton or r jacque heads at about days march of this place easterly, the r de seauex one day further, the chien a branch of r. rouche still beyend, and the river st. peters days march from this place on the same direction informtn. of the rickores). passed large willow ( ) & sand islands above the mouth of the last creek--at miles above the village passed a ( ) creek about yards wide on the l. s. we call after d chief pocasse (or hay) nearly opposit this creek a fiew miles from the river on the s. s. stones resembling humane persons & one resembling a dog is situated in the open prarie, to those stone the rickores pay great reverance make offerings whenever they pass (infomtn. of the chief & intepeter) those people have a curious tredition of those stones, one was a man in love, one a girl whose parents would not let marry, the dog went to mourn with them all turned to stone gradually, commenceing at the feet. those people fed on grapes untill they turned, & the woman has a bunch of grapes yet in her hand on the river near the place those are said to be situated, we obsd. a greater quantity of fine grapes than i ever saw at one place. the river about the island on which the lower rickores village is situated is narrow and conts. a great propotion of timber than below, the bottoms on both sides is covered with timber the up lands naked the current jentle and sand bars confined to the points generally we proceeded on under a fine breeze from the s.e. and camped late at the upper part of some wood on the starboard side, cold & some rain this evening. we sent out hunters killed one deer. we tried the prisoner newmon last night by of his peers they did "centence him lashes & disbanded the party." [lewis and clark, october , ] orders th of october a court martial to consist of nine members will set to day at oclock for the trial of john newman now under confinement capt. clark will attend to the forms & rules of a president without giveing his opinion detail for the court martial sert. john ordaway sergeant pat. gass jo. shields h. hall jo. collins wm. werner wm. bratten jo. shannon silas goodrich meriwether lewis capt. st u s. regt. infty. win clark capt or e. n w d in conformity to the above order the court martial convened this day for the trial of john newman, charged with "having uttered repeated expressions of a highly criminal and mutinous nature; the same having a tendency not only to distroy every principle of military discipline, but also to alienate the affections of the individuals composing this detachment to their officers, and disaffect them to the service for which they have been so sacredly and solemnly engaged."--the prisonar plead not guilty to the charge exhibited against him. the court after having duly considered the evidence aduced, as well as the defense of the said prisonor, are unanimously of opinion that the prisonar john newman is guilty of every part of the charge exhibited against him, and do sentence him agreeably to the rules and articles of war, to receive seventy five lashes on his bear back, and to be henceforth discarded from the perminent party engaged for north western discovery; two thirds of the court concurring in the sum and nature of the punishment awarded. the commanding officers approve and confirm the sentence of the court, and direct the punishment take place tomorrow between the hours of one and two p.m.--the commanding officers further direct that john newman in future be attatched to the mess and crew of the red perogue as a labouring hand on board the same, and that he be deprived of his arms and accoutrements, and not be permited the honor of mounting guard untill further orders; the commanding officers further direct that in lue of the guard duty from which newman has been exempted by virtue of this order, that he shall be exposed to such drudgeries as they may think proper to direct from time to time with a view to the general relief of the detachment.- [clark, october , ] th of october sunday some rain last night we set out in the rain which continued all day passed a creek on the l. s. piaheto yds wide, halted on a sand bar and had the punishmt inflicted on newmon, which caused the indian chieif to cry untill the thing was explained to him camped opposit an antient fortification which is on the l. s, when i explained to the chief the cause of whipping n--he observed that examples were necessary & that he himself had made them by death, but his nation never whiped even from their bearth. [clark, october , ] th of october sunday . some rain last night all wet & cold, we set early the rain contind all day at ____ miles we passed a ( ) creek in the l. s. yards wide this creek we call after the rd chief piaheto (or eagles feather) at oclock we halted on a sand bar & after dinner executed the sentence of the court martial so far as giveing the corporal punishment, & proceeded on a fiew miles, the wind a head from n. e. camped in a cove of the bank on the s. s. imediately opposit our camp on the l. side i observe an antient fortification the walls of which appear to be or feet high, the evening wet and disagreeable, the river something wider more timber on the banks the punishment of this day allarmd. the indian chief verry much, he cried aloud (or effected to cry) i explained the cause of the punishment and the necessity he thought examples were also necessary, & he himself had made them by death, his nation never whiped even their children, from their burth. [clark, october , ] th of october rained all last night, passed a ricara hunting camp on the s.s. & halted at another on the l.s, several from the t camp visited us and gave meat as also those of the camp we halted at, we gave them fish hooks some beeds &c. as we proceeded on we saw a number of indians on both sides all day, saw l. s some curious nnobs high and much the resemblance of a hiped rough house, we halted at a camp of lodges of ricaras on the s. s., we visited thier lodges & were friendly recved by all--their women fond of our men--&c. [clark, october , ] th of october monday rained all last night, we set out early and proceeded on at miles passed an ind. camp on the s. s. we halted above and about of the indians came over in their canoos of skins, we eate with them, they give us meat, in return we gave fishhooks & some beeds, about a mile higher we came too on the l. s. at a camp of ricres of about lodges, we also eate & they gave some meat, we proceded on saw numbers of indians on both sides passing a creek, saw many curious hills, high and much the resemblance of a house with a hiped roof, at oclock it cleared away and the evening was pleasent, wind from the n. e.--at sunset we arrived at a camp of ricares of lodges on the s. s. we came too and camped near them capt lewis & my self went with the chief who accompanis us, to the huts of several of the men all of whome smoked & gave us something to eate also some meat to take away, those people were kind and appeared to be much plsd. at the attentioned paid them. those people are much pleased with my black servent--their womin verry fond of carressing our men. &. [clark, october , ] th of october tuesday some rain this morning squars verry anxious to accompany us we set out with our chief on board by name ar ke tar nar shar (or chief of the town) a little above our camp on the l. s. passed an old shyenne village, which appears to have been serounded with a wall of earth; this is the retreat & first stand of this nation after being reduced by the sioux and drove from their countrey on the heads of red river of l winipic where they cultivated the landspassed a creek i call so-harch or girl creek l. s. miles higher passed woman crreek or char-parts passed an island situated in a bend to the s. s. at the lower point of this island a creek comes in called kee-tooth sar-kar-nar--or the place of beaver above the island a small river on the same s. side called war-re-con nee elk shed their horns, this river is yards wide & heads near the river au jacque, carp island wind hard a head from the n w. saw great numbers of goats or antelope on shore, capt lewis one man & the ricara chief walked on shore, in the evening i discovered a number of indians on each side and goats in the river or swiming & on sand bars, when i came near saw the boys in the water swiming amongst the goats & killing them with sticks, and then hauling them to the shore those on shore kept them in the water, i saw killed in this way and on the shore, the hunter with cap lewis shot goats i came too and camped above the ricara camp on the l. s. several indians visited us duereing the night some with meat, sang and were merry all night. [clark, october , ] th october tuesday some rain this morning, young squars verry anxious to accompany us, we set out with our chief on board by name ar ke tar na shar or chief of the town, a little above our camp on the l. s. passed a circular work, where the, shar ha (or chien, or dog indians) formerly lived, a short distance abov passed a creek which we call chien creek, above is a willow island situated near (i ) the l. side a large sand bar above & on both sides ( ) passed a creek above the island on the l. s. call so-harch (or girls) creek, at miles higher up ( ) passed a creek on l. s. call char part (or womins) creek passed ( ) an island situated in a bend to the s. s. this isd. is about / miles long, covered with timber such as cotton wood, opsd. the lower point a creek coms in on the s. s. called by the indians kee tooth sar kar nar (or place of beavr) above the island a small river about yards wide corns in called war re con ne or (elk shed their horns). the island is called carp island by ivens. wind hard from the n. w. saw great numbers of goats on the shore s. s. proceeded on capt. lewis & the indian chief walked on shore, soon after i discovered great numbers of goats in the river, and indians on the shore on each side, as i approached or got nearer i discovered boys in the water killing the goats with sticks and halling them to shore, those on the banks shot them with arrows and as they approachd. the shore would turn them back of this gangue of goats i counted of which they had killed & on the shore, one of our hunters out with cap lewis killed three goats, we passed the camp on the s. s. and proceeded / mile and camped on the l. s. many indians came to the boat to see, some came across late at night, as they approach they hollowed and sung, after staying a short time went for some meat, and returned in a short time with fresh & dried buffalow, also goat, those indians strayed all night, they sung and was verry merry the greater part of the night [lewis, october , ] october th this day took a small bird alive of the order of the ____ or goat suckers. it appeared to be passing into the dormant state. on the morning of the th the murcury was at above . the bird could scarcely move.--i run my penknife into it's body under the wing and completely distroyed it's lungs and heart--yet it lived upwards of two hours this fanominon i could not account for unless it proceeded from the want of circulation of the blood.--the recarees call this bird to'-na it's note is at-tah-to'-nah'; at-tah'to'-nah'; to-nah, a nocturnal bird, sings only in the night as does the whipperwill.--it's weights oz grains troy [clark, october , ] th of october wind s. w. i walked on shore with the ricara chief and an inteprieter, they told me maney extroadenary stories, i killed dear & a elk, the chief killed a deer and our hunters killed deer, in my absenc the wind rose so high that the boat lay too all day; latd ° ' " n, i caught a small uncommon whiperwill we observe emence herds of goats, or antelopes flocking down from the n e side & swiming the river, the chief tels me those animals winter in the black mountain, and in the fall return to those mounts from every quarter, and in the spring disperse in the planes, those emence herds we see all of which is on the n e side of the river is on their way to the mountain, and in the spring they will be as noumeroes on their return (some ganges winter on the missouri)--camped on the l. s. note from the ricares to the river jacque near n. e. is about mes. to the chien a fork of r rogue passing the souix river near the chien this from information of mr. graveline who passed through this countrey [clark, october , ] th october wednesday . set out early a fine morning the wind from the n w. after brackfast i walked on shore with the indian chief & interpeters, saw buffalow elk and great numbers of goats in large gangues (i am told by mr. g. that those animals winter in the black mountains and this is about the season they cross from the east of the missouris to go to that mountain, they return in the spring and pass the missourie in great numbers). this chief tells me of a number of their treditions about turtles, snakes, &. and the power of a perticiler rock or cave on the next river which informs of everr thing none of those i think worth while mentioning--the wind so hard a head the boats could not move aftr oclock, capt louis took the altitude of the sun laid. ° ' " i killed deer and the hunters with me killed also the indian shot one but could not get it--i scaffeled up the deer & returned & met the boat after night on the l. s. about miles above the place we camped last night--one of the men saw a number of snakes, capt lewis saw a large beaver house s. s. i cought a whipprwill small & not common-. the leaves are falling fast-. the river wide and full of sand bars,-. great numbers of verry large stone on the sides of the hills & some rock of a brownish colour in the ld. bend below this-. great numbers of goats are flocking down to the s. side of the river on their way to the black mountains where they winter those animals return in the spring in the same way & scatter in different directions. [clark, october , ] th of october . at miles passed the mouth of la bullet or cannon ball river on the l. side about yards wide, and heads near the black mountains above the mouth of this river, in and at the foot of the bluff, and in the water is a number of round stones, resembling shells and cannon balls of different sises, and of excellent grit for grindstons--the bluff continus for about a mile, the water of this river is confined within yards--we met french men in a canoe, who informed us they wer trapping near the mandans and were robed of traps, & part of their skins and several other articles by indians he took to be mandans those men return with us, saw emence numbers of goats all day s. s. our hunters kill sevral passed a large creek called che wah or fish creek on the s. s. yds. wide, passed a small creek at m on the l. s. camped on the l. s. saw a no of buffalow, & in one gangue elk our hunters killed deer & elk this evening, the countrey is leavel and fine some high short hills, and ridges at a distance, bottoms fine and partially timbered with cotton wood principally some ash & elm. [clark, october , ] th of october thursday set out early proceeded on at mes. passed the mouth of ( ) la boulet (or cannon ball river) about yards wide on the l. s. this river heads in the court not or black mountains) (a fine day) above the mouth of this river great numbers of stone perfectly round with fine grit are in the bluff and on the shore, the river takes its name from those stones which resemble cannon balls.--the water of this river is confined within yards. we met french men in a perogue desending from hunting, & complained of the mandans robing them of traps ther fur & seeveral othr articles those men were in the imploy of our ricaree interpeter mr. gravelin they turned & followered us. saw great numbers of goats on the s. s. comeing to the river our hunters killed of them some run back and others crossed & prosceed on their journey to the court noir, at ( ) passed a small river called che wah or fish river on the s. s. this river is about yards wide and heads to the n. e, passed a small creek on the l. s. mile abov the last, and camped on a sand bar on the l. s. opposit to us we saw a gangue of buffalow bulls which we did not think worth while to kill- our hunters killd. goats deer elk & a pelican & informs that they saw in one gang elk, (i walked on shore, in the evining with a view to see some of those remarkable places mentioned by evens, none of which i could find,) the countrey in this quarter is generally leavel & fine some high short hills, and some ragid ranges of hills at a distans the ricara indians inform us that they find no black tail deer as high up as this place, those we find are of the fallow deer kind the ricareis are not fond of spiritous liquers, nor do they apper to be fond of receiveing any or thank full for it [clark, october , ] th of october friday . set out early under a gentle breeze from the s. e. more timber than common in the bottoms passed a large pond on the s. s. i walked out on the high land l. side and observed great numbers of buffalows, i counted in view at one time gangues of buffalow & of elk, besides deer & goats &c. all the streems falling from the hills or high lands so brackish that the water can't be drank without effecting the person making use of it as globesalts-, i saw in my walk several remarkable high conocal hills, one feet, one and others smaller-the indian chief say that the callemet bird live in the hollows of those hills, which holes are made by the water passing from the top & &. i also saw an old village fortified situated on the top of a high point, which the ricarra chief tels me were mandans, we camped on the l. s. i killed a deer & saw swans &c. our hunters killed elk and deer to day [clark, october , ] th october friday a fine morning wind from the s. e. we set out early under a gentle breeze and proceeded on verry well, more timber than common on the banks on this part of the river--passed a large pond on the s. s.--i walked out on the hills & observed great numbers of buffalow feedeing on both sides of the river i counted gangues of buffalow & of elk at one view, all the runs which come from the high hills which is generally about one or miles from the water is brackish and near the hills (the salts are) and the sides of the hills & edges of the streems, the mineral salts appear i saw som remarkable round hills forming a cone at top one about foot one & several others smaller, the indian chief say that the callemet bird live in the holes of those hills, the holes form by the water washing thro some parts in its passage down from the top--near one of those noles, on a point of a hill feet above the lower plane i observed the remains of an old village, which had been fortified, the indian chief with us tels me, a party of mandins lived there, here first saw ruins of mandan nation we proceeded on & camped on the l. s. opposit the upper of those conocal hills our hunters killed elk deer & a pelican, i saw swans in a pond & killed a fat deer in my walk, saw above wolves. this day is pleasent [clark, october , ] th of october wind from the s e, i walked out to view those remarkable places pointed out by evens, and continud all day saw an old village of the mandans below the chess chi ter r. appear to have been fortified above the village on the same l. s. is a coal bank where we campd. passed a small creek on the s. s. and an island on the l. s covered with willows small cotton the countrey thro which i passed this day is delightfull, timber in the bottoms, saw great nos. of buffalow elk goats & deer as we were in want of them i killed deer, our hunters deer and wounded a white bear, i saw several fresh tracks of that animal double the sise of the largest track i ever saw, great numbers of wolves, those animals follow the buffalow and devour, those that die or are killed, and those too fat or pore to keep up with the gangue [clark, october , ] th of october satterday set out early this morning and proceeded on the wind from the s. e after brackfast i walked out on the l. side to see those remarkable places pointed out by evins, i saw an old remains of a villige on the side of a hill which the chief with us too ne tels me that nation lived in a number villages on each side of the river and the troubleson seauex caused them to move about miles higher up where they remained a fiew years & moved to the place they now live, ( ) passed a small creek on the s. s. ( ) and one on the l. s. passed ( ) a island covered with willows laying in the middle of the river no current on the l. s. camped on the l. s. above a bluff containing coal ( ) of an inferior quallity, this bank is imedeately above the old village of the mandans- the countrey is fine, the high hills at a distanc with gradual assents, i kild deer the timber confined to the bottoms as usial which is much larger than below. great numbers of buffalow elk & deer, goats. our hunters killed deer & a goat to day and wounded a white bear i saw several fresh track of those animals which is times as large as a mans track-, the wind hard all day from the n. e. & east, great numbers of buffalow swiming the river i observe near all large gangues of buffalow wolves and when the buffalow move those anamals follow and feed on those that are killed by accident or those that are too pore or fat to keep up with the gangue. [lewis, october , ] th october peter crusat this day shot at a white bear he wounded him, but being alarmed at the formidable appearance of the bear he left his tomahalk and gun; but shortly after returned and found that the bear had taken the oposite rout.--soon after he shot a buffaloe cow broke her thy, the cow pursued him he concealed himself in a small raviene.- [clark, october , ] t of october sunday a verry cold night wind hard from the n. e. some rain in the night which feesed as it fell, at day began to snow and continued all the fore part of the day, at / of a mile passed the mouth of chess-che tar (or heart) river l. s. yards wide, this river heads near turtle mountain with knife river on this river is a smothe stone which the indians have great fath in & consult the stone on all great occasions which they say marks or simblems are left on the stone of what is to take place &c. an old mandan village above the mouth of this little river, i saw a single tree in the open plains which the mandans formerly paid great devotion to run cords thro their flesh & tie themselves to the tree to make them brave, passed an old village on a small run on the s s. one on the bank l. and camped, i killed a fat buffalow this evening--little gun all my hunting [clark, october , ] st october sunday a verry cold night wind hard from the n. e some rain in the night which frosed up it fell at day light it began to snow and continud all the fore part of the day passed just above our camp ( ) a small river on the l. s. called by the indians chiss-cho-tar this river is about yards wide containing a good deel of water some distance up this river is situated a stone which the indians have great fath in & say they see painted on the stone, "all the calemites & good fortune to hapin the nation & partes who visit it"--a tree (an oak) which stands alone near this place about miles off in the open prarie which has with stood the fire they pay great respect to, make holes and tie strings thro the skins of their necks and around this tree to make them brave (all this is the information of too ne is a whipper will) the chief of the ricares who accompanied us to the mandins, at miles ( ) passed the nd villages of the manden, which was in existance at the same time with the st this village is at the foot of a hill on the s. s. on a butifull &extensive plain--at this time covered with buffalow--a cloudy afternoon, i killed a fine buffalow, we camped on the l. s. verry cold ground covered with snow. one orter kim. [clark, october , ] nd of october last night at about oclock i was violently attacked with rhumetism in my neck, which was so violently i could not move, cap l. applied a hot stone raped in flannel which gave temperry ease, we passed a war party of tetons on their way as we supposed to the mandans of men on the l. s. we gave them nothing and refused to put them across the river, passed old villages at the mouth of a large creek l. s and a small island at the head of which is a bad place, an old village on the s. s. and the upper of the villages the mandans occupied about years ago this village was entirely cut off by the sioux & one of the others nearly, the small pox distroyed great numbers [clark, october , ] nd october monday last night at oclock i was violently and suddinly attacked with the rhumitism in the neck which was so violent i could not move capt. applied a hot stone raped in flannel, which gave me some temporry ease,-. we set out early, the morning cold at oclock we came too at a camp of teton seaux on the l. s. those people in number were naikd and had the appearanc of war, we have every reason to believ that they are going or have been to steel horses from the mandins, they tell two stories, we gave them nothing after takeing brackfast proceeded on--my neck is yet verry painfull at times spasms. camped on the l side, passed an island situated on the l. side at the head of which & mandans village s. s. we passd a bad place--the hunters killed a buffalow bull, they say out of about buffalow which they saw, they did not see one cow. great deel of beaver sign. several cought every night. [clark, october , ] rd of october some snow, passed lodges fortified the place the two french men were robed those are the hunting camps of the mandans, who has latterly left them. we camped on the l. s. [clark, october , ] rd of october tuesday a cloudy morning some snow set out early pass five lodges which was diserted, the fires yet burning we suppose those were the indians who robed the french trappers a fiew days ago those men are now with us going up with a view to get their property from the indians thro us. cold & cloudy camped on the l. s. of the river [clark, october , ] th of october cloudy some little snow (my rhumetism continue, not so bad as the last days,) a butufull countrey on both sides, bottoms covered with wood, we see no game to day, passed an old village of a band of me ne tarres called mah har ha where they lived year ago on the l. s. came too on an island caused by the river cutting through a narrow point years ago, on this island we wer visited by the grand chief of the mandans a d chief and some other, who wer camped on the island, those chief met our ricarra chief with great corduallity, & smoked together cap lewis visited the camps lodges, and proceeded on & camped near a d camp of mandans on the s. s. nearly opposit the old ricara & manden village which the ricarras abandaned in the year [clark, october , ] th october wednesday set out early a cloudy day some little snow in the morning i am something better of the rhumutim in my neck--a butifull countrey on both sides of the river. the bottoms covd. with wood, we have seen no game on the river to day a prof of the indians hunting in the neighbourhod ( ) passed a island on the s. s. made by the river cutting through a point, by which the river is shortened several miles--on this isld. we saw one of the grand chiefs of the mandins, with five lodges hunting, this cheif met the chief of the ricares who accompanied us with great cordiallity & sermony smoked the pipe & capt. lewis with the interpeter went with the chiefs to his lodges at mile distant, after his return we admited the grand chief & his brother for a few minits on our boat. proceeded on a short distance and camped on the s. s. below the old village of the mandins & ricares.--soon after our landg. mandins came from a camp above, the ricares chief went with them to their camp, th of october thursday . a gentle breeze from the s. e by e passed an ( ) old village on a high plain where the mandans onced lived & after they left the village & moved higher the ricaras took possession & live until when they abandoned it & flew from the just revenge of the mandans, a verry extensive bottom above the village above the center of which ( ) the mandans lived in the villages on the l. ., but little timber- several parties of indians on each side of the river going up. in view in every directions--we are informed that the sioux has latterly taken horses from the big bellies or minitaries and on their way homerwards they fell in with the assinniboins who killed them and took the horses & a frenchman menard who resided with the mandan for years past was killed a fiew days ago on his way from the britishment astablishments on the assineboin river, miles n. of this place to the mandans by the assinniboin indians--we were frequently called to by parties of indians & requested to land & talk, passed a verry bad place & camped on a point s s. opposit a high hill several indians visit us this evening the sun of the late great chief of the mandans who had of his fingers off and appeared to be pearced in maney places on inquiring the reason, was informed that it was a testimony to their grief for deceased freinds, they frequently cut off sevral fingers & pierced themselves in different parts, a mark of savage effection, wind hard from the s. w. verry cold r fields with a rhumitisum in his neck one man r. in his hips my self much better, those indians appear to have similar customs with the ricaras, their dress the same more mild in their language & justures &c. &c. [clark, october , ] th of october thursday a cold morning set out early under a gentle breeze from the s. e. by e proceeded on, passed ( ) the rd old village of the mandans which has been desd. for many years, this village was situated on an eminance of about foot above the water on the l. s. back for several miles is a butifull plain ( ) at a short distance above this old village on a continuation of the same eminance was situated the which have been avacuated only six years, above this village a large and extensive bottom for several miles in which the squars raised ther corn, but little timber near the villages, on the s. s. below is a point of excellent timber, and in the point several miles above is fine timber, several parties of mandins rode to the river on the s. s. to view us indeed they are continuelly in sight satisying their curiossities as to our apperance &c. we are told that the seaux has latterly fallen in with & stole the horses of the big belley, on their way home they fell in with the ossiniboin who killed them and took the horses--a frenchman has latterly been killed by the indians on the track to the tradeing establishment on the ossinebine r. in the north of this place (or british fort) this frenchman has lived many years with the mandins--we were frequently called on to land & talk to parties of the mandins on the shore, wind shifted to the s. w at about oclock and blew hard untill ock. clouded up river full of sand bars & we are at a great loss to find the channel of the river, frequently run on the sand bars which detain us much passed a verry bad riffle of rocks in the evining by takeing the l. s. of a sand bar and camped on a sand point on the s. s. opposit a high hill on the l. s. several indians come to see us this evening, amongst others the sun of the late great cheif of the mandins, this man has his two little fingers off-; on inqureing the cause, was told it was customary for this nation to show their greaf by some testimony of pain, and that it was not uncommon for them to take off smaller fingers of the hand and some times more with ther marks of savage effection the wind blew verry hard this evening from the s. w. verry cold r. fields with the rhumitim in his neck, p. crusat with the same complaint in his legs--the party other wise is well, as to my self i feel but slight simptoms of that disorder at this time, [clark, october , ] th of october wind from the s. e we set the ricara chief on shore with some mandans, many on each side veiwing of us, we took in chiefs (coal and big man) and halted a feiw minits at their camps, on the l. s. fortified in their way, here we saw a trader from the ossinniboin river called mccracken, this man arrived day ago with goods to trade for horses & roabs one other man with him--we camped on the l. side a short distanc below the r st rnandan village on the l. s. many men women & children flocked down to see us--capt lewis walked to the village with the chief and interpeters, my rheumitism increasing prevented me from going also, and we had deturmined that both would not leave the boat at the same time untill we knew the desposition of the nativs, some chieef visited me & i smoked with them--they appeared delighted with the steel mill which we were obliged to use, also with my black servent, capt lewis returned late [clark, october , ] th of october friday set out early wind from the s w proceeded on saw numbers of the mandins on shore, we set the ricare chief on shore, and we proceeded on to the camp of two of their grand chiefs where we delayed a fiew minits, with the chiefs and proceeded on takeing two of their chiefs on board & some of the heavy articles of his house hole, such as earthen pots & corn, proceeded on, at this camp saw a mccracken englishmon from the n. w company this mana came nine days ago to trade for horses & buffalo robes,--one other man came with him. the indians continued on the banks all day--but little wood on this part of the river, many sand bars and bad places, water much devided between them for the th. octr. we came too and camped on the l. s. about / a mile below the ist. manddin town on the l. s. soon after our arrival many men womin & children flocked down to see us, capt lewis walked to the village with the principal chiefs and our interpters, my rhumatic complaint increasing i could not go--if i was well only one would have left the boat & party untill we new the disposition of the inds. i smoked with the cheifs who came after. those people apd much pleased with the corn mill which we were obliged to use, & was fixed in the boat. [clark, october , ] th of october satturday we set out early and came too at the village on the l. s. where we delayed a few minits, i walked to a chiefs logg & smoked with them, but could not eat, which did displease them a little, here i met with a mr. jessomme, who lived in this nation years, i got him to interpet & he proceedd on with us we proceeded on to a centeral point opposit the knife river, & formed a camp on the s. s. above the d mandan village & opsd. the mah-har-ha village--and raised a flag staff--capt lewis & the intepeters walked down to the d village of mandans, & returned in about an hour, we sent carrotes of tobacco to the other villages & enviting them to come down and council with us tomorrow,--we endeaver to precure some knowledge of the principal chiefs of the different nations &.--well to give my ideas as to the impression thais man makes on me is a cunin artfull an insoncear--he tels me he was once empld. by my brother in the illinois & of his description i conceve as a spye upon the british of michillinicknac & st joseph,s we think he may be made use full to us & do employ him as an interpeter--no. of indians bring their wives &c. to the campes of our party on shore &c. [clark, october , ] th of october satturday we set out arly came too at this village on the l. s. this village is situated on an eminance of about feet above the water in a handson plain it containes houses in a kind of picket work. the houses are round and verry large containing several families, as also their horses which is tied on one side of the enterance, a discription of those houses will be given hereafter, i walked up & smoked a pipe with the cheifs of this village they were anxious that i would stay and eat with them, my indisposition provented my eating which displeased them, untill a full explination took place, i returned to the boat and sent carrots of tobacco for them to smoke, and proceeded on, passed the d village and camped opsd. the village of the weter soon or ah wah bar ways which is situated on an eminance in a plain on the l. s. this village is small and contains but fiew inhabitents. above this village & also above the knife river on the same side of the missouri the big bellies towns are situated a further discription will be given here after as also of the town of mandans on this side of the river i e s. side a fine worm day we met with a french man by the name of jassamme which we imploy as an interpeter this man has a wife & children in the village--great numbers on both sides flocked down to the bank to view us as wee passed. capt. lewis with the interpetr. walked down to the village below our camp after delaying one hour he returned and informed me the indians had returned to their village &c., &c., we sent three carrots of tobacco by three young men, to the three villages above inviting them to come down & council with us tomorrow. many indians came to view us some stayed all night in the camp of our party--we procured some information of mr. jessomme of the chiefs of the different nations [clark, october , ] th of october the wind so hard from the s. w. we could not meet the indians in councils, those who visited us we sent to the nearest village, consulted the black cat m chief about the chiefs of the different villages, who gave his oppinion to us. [clark, october , ] sunday th of october a windey day, fair and clear many of the grosvantres (or big bellies) and watersons came to see us and hear the council the wind being so violently hard from the s. w. provented our going into councel, (indeed the chiefs of the manodans from the lower village could not cross, we made up the presents and entertained several of the curious cheifs whome, wished to see the boat which was verry curious to them viewing it as great medison, as they also viewed my black servent the black cat grand chief of the mandans, capt lewis & my self with an interpeter walked up the river about / miles our views were to examine the situation & timbers for a fort, we found the situation good but the timber scerce, or at least small timbr such as would answer us-, we cunsulted the grand chief in respect to the other chiefs of the defferent villages he gave the names of --george drewyer cought beaver above our camp last night, we had several presents from the woman of corn boild homney, soft corn &c. &c. i prosent ajar to the chiefs wife who recved it with much pleasure our men verry chearfull this evening--we sent the cheifs of the gross vantres to smoke a pipe with the grand chef of the mandins in his village, & told them we would speek tomorrow. [clark, october , ] th of october a fine morning after brackfast we were visited by the old chief of the big bellies or me ne tar res, this man has given his power to his son who is now on a war party against the snake indians who inhabit the rockey mountains, the s w wind verry high--we met in council under an orning and our sales stretched round to keep out as much wind as possible & delivered a long speach similar to what had been said to the nations below, the old chief was restless before the speech was half ended, observed his camp was exposed & could wait no longer &c. at the conclusion of the speach we mentioned the ricaras & requested them to make a peace & smoke out of the sacred stem with their chief which i intreduced and gave him the pipe of peace to hand around, they all smoked with eagerness out of the pipe held by the ricara chief ar-ke-tar-na-shar we mentioned our hands that were to be discharged here, also the roberrey commited on th french men below, & requested them to answere us tomorrow, gave the chief small preasents and a fiew presents for each village shot the air gun which both surprised and astonished the nativs, and soon dispersed our ricara chief came told me he wished to return to his nation tomorrow i put him off & said we would send a talk by him after the chiefs had spoken to us--we gave a steel mill to the mandans which was verry pleasing to them the chief who recved medals to day are as follows viz-in council is mandan village ma-too-ton kai s chief sha-ha-ka big white nd ka-goh-ha-me little crows do village roop tar-hee s & grand chief poss-cop-sa-he black cat d chief car-gar-no-mok-she raven man chief mah har-ha village is chief ta-tuck-co pin re has, white buffalow skin unfolded little menetarre village is chief omp-se-ha-ra black mockerson. d chief oh-hark little fox. the grand village of manetarres, the one eye is the principal chief and he is out on a hunting party. we send by the grape all the articles for this grand chief and all the village what goods was intended for that village--the prarie got on fire and went with such violenc & speed as to catch a man & woman & burn them to death, several escapd. among other a small boy who was saved by getting under a green buffalow skin, this boy was half white, & the indians say all white flesh is medisan, they say the grass was not burnt where the boy sat &c. &. this fire passed us at oclock, and lookd truly tremendious. [clark, october , ] th october monday a fair fine morning after brackfast we were visited by the old cheaf of the big bellies or ____ this man was old and had transfered his power to his sun, who was then out at war against the snake indians who inhabit the rockey mountains--at oclock the s w. wind rose verry high, we collected the chiefs and commened a council ounder a orning and our sales stretched around to keep out as much wind as possible, we delivered a long speech the substance of which similer to what we had delivered to the nations below. the old chief of the grossanters was verry restless before the speech was half ended observed that he could not wait long that his camp was exposed to the hostile indians, &c. &. he was rebuked by one of the chiefs for his uneasiness at such a time as the present, we at the end of the speech mentioned the ricare who accompanied us to make a firm peace, they all smoked with him (i gave this cheaf a dollar of the american coin as a meadel with which he was much pleased) in councel we prosented him with a certificate of his sincrrity and good conduct &c. we also spoke about the fur which was taken from french men by a mandan, and informd of our intentions of sending back the french hands--after the council we gave the presents with much seremoney, and put the meadels on the cheifs we intended to make viz. one for each town to whome we gave coats hats & flags, one grand cheif to each nation to whome we gave meadels with the presidents likeness in councel we requested them to give us an answer tomorrow or as soon as possible to some points which required their deliberation- after the council was over we shot the air gun which appeared to assonish the nativs much, the greater part them retired soon after the ricare cheaf ar-ke-tar-na-shar came to me this evening and tells me that he wishes to return to his village & nation, i put him off saying tomorrow we would have an answer, to our talk to the satisfaction & send by him a string of wompom informing what had passed here. a iron or steel corn mill which we gave to the mandins, was verry thankfully recived--(rte the prarie was set on fire (or cought by accident) by a young man of the mandins, the fire went with such velocity that it burnt to death a man and woman, who could not get to any place of safty, one man a woman & child much burnt and several narrowly escaped the flame--a boy half white was saved un hurt in the midst of the flaim, those ignerent people say this boy was saved by the great spirit medisin because he was white--the cause of his being saved was a green buffalow skin was thrown over him by his mother who perhaps had more fore sight for the pertection of her son, and less for herself than those who escaped the flame, the fire did not burn under the skin leaving the grass round the boy this fire passed our camp last about oclock p.m. it went with great rapitidity and looked tremendious the following chiefs were made in councel to day mar-too-ton-ha or lower village of the mandans st cheif sha-ha-ka or big white do ka-goh-ha-mi or little raven roop-tar-hee or second village of the mandans st and grand cheif-pass-cop-sa-he or black cat nd cheif car-gar-no-mok-she raven man cheaf mah-har-ha rd village chief ta-tuck-co-pin-re-ha (white buffalow robe unfolded) me-ne-tar-re me-te har-tar st cheif-omp-se-ha-ra. black mockersons do. oh-harh or little fox we sent the presents intended for the grand chief of the mi-ne-tar-re or big belley, and the presents flag and wompoms by the old chief and those, and those intended for the cheif of the lower village by a young cheif the following cheifs were recommended in addition to those viz. st village oh-hee-nar big man--a chien sho-ta-har ro-ra d village taw nish-e-o--bel-lar sa ra ar-rat-ta na-mock-she--wolf man chief rd village min-nis-sur-ra-ree (neighing horse) lo-tong-gar-ti har--old woman at a distance th village mar-noh-tah the big steeler man-se-rus-se--tale of callumet bird th village ad hako ho pin nee little wolfs medisons ar-rat-toe-no mook-gu (man wolf chief) (at war) cal-tar co ta--(cherry grows on a bush) old chief and father to the above mentd. chief maw-pah'-pir-re-cos-sa too--this chief is near this hunting and a verry considerable man to the st chiefs we gave a medal with the imp. of the president of the u s. to the d chiefs a medal of weaveing & domestic animals. to the rd chiefs a medal with the impression of a man sowing wheat. th village ea pa no pa--two taled calumet bird young chief war he ras sa the red shield young chief of big belley-big town [clark, october , ] th of october tuesday many indian chief visit us today i went in th perogou to the island miles above to look out a proper place for to winter, it being near the tim the ice begins to run at this place, and the countrey after a few leagues high is said to be barron of timber, i found no place soutable, & we concluded to drop down to th next point below & build a fort to winter in the party danced which delited the indians. [clark, october , ] th october tuesday two chiefs came to have some talk one the princapal of the lower village the other the one who thought himself the principal mane, & requested to hear some of the speech that was delivered yesterday they were gratified, and we put the medal on the neck of the big white to whome we had sent clothes yesterday & a flag, those men did not return from hunting in time to join the counell, they were well pleased ( d of those is a chien) i took men in a small perogue and went up the river as far as the st island about miles to see if a situation could be got on it for our winter quarters, found the wood on the isd. as also on the pt. above so distant from the water that, i did not think that we could get a good wintering ground there, and as all the white men here informed us that wood was sceres, as well as game above, we deturmined to drop down a fiew miles near wood and game on my return found maney inds. at our camp, gave the party a dram, they danced as is verry comn. in the evening which pleased the savages much. wind s. e [clark, october , ] mandans ka gar no mogh ge the d chief of the d village of mandins came the t of octr. and spoke to us as follows. viz will you be so good as to go to the village the grand chief will speek & give some corn, if you will let some men take bags it will be well. i am going with, the chief of the ricares to smoke a pipe with that nation--i concluded to go down mockerson indians the principal chief of the wau to soon came and spoke a fiew words on various subjects not much to the purpose. we smoked and after my shooting the air gun he departed, those nations know nothing of reagular councils, and know not how to proceed in them, they are restless &c- [clark, october , ] st of october wednesday the main chief of the mandans sent cheifs for to envite us to come to his lodge, and here what he has to say i with interpetes walked down, and with great cerimony was seated on a robe by the side of the chief; he threw a robe highly decoraterd over my sholders, and after smokeing a pipe with the old men in the circle, the chief spoke he belived all we had told him, and that peace would be genl. which not only gave himself satisfaction but all his people; they now could hunt without fear & their women could work in the fields without looking every moment for the ememey, as to the ricaras addressing himself to the chief with me you know we do not wish war with your nation, you have brought it on your selves, that man pointing to the d chief and those young warriers will go with you & smoke in the pipes of peace with the ricaras--i will let you see my father addressing me that we wish to be at peace with all and do not make war upon any--he continud to speak in this stile (refer to notes) he delivered of the traps to me which was taken from the french men, gave me bushels of corn, i answered the speech which appeared to give general satisfactionand returned to the boat, in the evening the chief visited us dressed in his new suit, &delayed untill late the men dancd untill oclock which was common with them wrote to the n w copanys agent on the ossinniboin river by a mr. mccruckin. [clark, october , ] st of october wednesday a fine morning, the chief of the mandans sent a d chief to invite us to his lodge to recive some corn & here what he had to say i walked down and with great ceremoney was seeted on a roab by the side of the chief, he threw a handsom roabe over me and after smokeing the pipe with several old men arround, the chief spoke said he believed what we had told them, and that peace would be general, which not only gave him satisfaction but all his people, they now could hunt without fear, & ther womin could work in the fields without looking everry moment for the enemey, and put off their mockersons at night, as to the reares we will show you that we wish peace with all, and do not make war on any without cause, that chief pointing to the d and some brave men will accompy. the ricare chief now with you to his village & nation, to smoke with that people, when you came up the indians in the neighbouring villages, as well as those out hunting when they heard of you had great expectations of reciving presents they those hunting imediately on hearing returned to the village and all was disapointed, and some dessatisfied, as to himself he was not much so but his village was--he would go and see his great father &c. &c. he had put before me of the steel traps which was robed from the french a short tim ago. about bushels of corn which was brought and put before me by the womin of the village after the chief finished & smoked in great cerrimony, i answered the speech which satisfied them verry much and returned to the boat. met the princapal chief of the d village and the little crow both of which i invited into the cabin and smoked & talked with for about one hour. soon after those chiefs left us the grand chief of the mandans came dressed in the clothes we had given with his small suns, and requested to see the men dance which they verry readily gratified him in,--the wind blew hard all the after part of the day from the n e and continud all night to blow hard from that point, in the mornig it shifed n w. capt lewis wrote to the n w companys agent on the orsineboine river abt. north of this place [clark, october , ] black cat or pose-cop-sa-he st chief of the mandans & d village "i believe what you have told us in council, & that peace will be general, which not only givs me pleasure, but satisfaction to all the nation, they now can hunt without fear, and our womin can work in the fields without looking every moment for the enimey-" as to the ricares we will show you that we wish piace with all, and do not make war on any with out cause, that chief pointing to the d of the village and some young men will accompany the ricrea chief home to his nation to smoke with that people--when the indians of the different villages heard of your comeing up they all came in from hunting to see, they expected great presents. they were disapointed, and some dissatisfied- as to my self i am not much so, but my village are--he believed the roade was open; and he would go and see his great father--he delivered up traps which had been taken from the french, & gave me a roabe & about bushels of corn--& smoked &c i answered the speech it explained, many parts which he could not understand-of the speech of yesterday. [lewis, october , ] wednesday october st . the river being very low and the season so far advanced that it frequently shuts up with ice in this climate we determined to spend the winter in this neighbourhood, accordingly capt. clark with a party of men reconnoitred the countrey for some miles above our encampment; he returned in the evening without having succeed in finding an eligible situation for our purpose.- [clark, november , ] november visited by several chiefs of the lower village who requested we would call on them &c. spoke to the same purpote with the grand chief. we set out in the evening & i with the party droped down to the place we intended to winter & cap lewis called at the village miles above &. &. [clark, november , ] st of november thursday the wind hard from the n w. mr. mccrackin a trader set out at oclock to the fort on the ossiniboin by him send a letter, (incloseing a copy of the british ministers protection) to the principal agent of the company--at about oclock the cheifs of the lower village cam and after a short time informed us they wished they would us to call at their village & take some corn, that they would make peace with the ricares they never made war against them but after the rees killed their chiefs they killed them like the birds, and were tired and would send a chief and some brave men to the ricares to smoke with that people in the evening we set out and fell down to the lower village where capt. lewis got out and continud at the village untill after night i proceeded on & landed on the s. s. at the upper point of the st timber on the starboard side after landing & continuinge--all night droped down to a proper place to build capt lewis came down after night, and informed me he intended to return the next morning by the perticular request of the chiefs. we passed the villages on our decent in veiw of great numbers of the inhabitents [clark, november , ] the st of novr. mandins is village the main chief big white & others i e the big man or sha-ha-ca and ____ came early to talk, and spoke as follows, after smoking, viz. is it certain that the ricares intend to make good with us our wish is to be at peace with all, we will send a chief with the pania chief and some young men to smoke and make good peace-? are you going to stay abov or below this cold.--answer by c. l we are going down a few miles to look a place we can find no place abov proper. the panias know's we do not begin the war, they allway begin, we sent a chief and a pipe to the pania to smoke and they killed them-, we have killed enough of them we kill them like the birds, we do not wish to kill more, we will, make a good peace we were sorry when we heard of your going up but now you are going down, we are glad, if we eat you shall eat, if we starve you must starve also, our village is too far to bring the corn to you, but we hope you will call on us as you pass to the place you intend to stop c l answered the above- [lewis, november , ] thursday november st the wind blew so violently during the greater part of this day that we were unable to quit our encampment; in the evening it abated;--we droped down about seven miles and land on n. e. side of the river at a large point of woodland. [clark, november , ] nd novr. friday--capt lewis returned to the village & i fixed on a place for to build a fort and set to work cap lewis returned in the eveng with bushels of corn, the ricarre chief set out for his village accompanied by several mandans [clark, november , ] nd november friday this morning at day light i went down the river with men to look for a proper place to winter proceeded down the river three miles & found a place well supld. with wood, & returned, capt. lewis went to the village to here what they had to say & i fell down, and formed a camp near where a small camp of indian were huntig cut down the trees around our camp, in the evening capt. lewis returned with a present of bushels of corn, our recaree chief set out acccompanied by one chief and several brave men, he called for some small article which we had given but as i could not understand him he could not get. the wind from the s. e. a fine day--many indians to day [lewis, november , ] friday november nd " this morning early we fixed on the site for our fortification which we immediately set about. this place we have named fort mandan in honour of our neighbours. [clark, november , ] rd of november satturday wind hard from the west commence building our cabins, dispatched hunters in a perogue down the river to hunt, discharged the french hands, mr. jessomme his squar & child moved to camp, the little crow loaded his squar with meat for us also a roabe, we gave the squar an ax & &. cought bever near camp [clark, november , ] rd of november satterday a fine morning wind hard from the west we commence building our cabins, send down in perogue men to hunt engaged one man, set the french who intend to return to build a perogue, many indians pass to hunt, mr. jessomme with his squar & children. come down to live, as interpter, we recive a hors for our sirvice, in the evening the ka goh ha mi or little ravin came & brought us on his squar about wt. of dried buffalow meat a roabe, & pot of meal &. they delayed all night- we gave his squar an ax & a fiew small articles & himself a piece of tobacco, the men were indulged with a dram, this evening two beaver cought this morning--and one trap lost [clark, november , ] th of novr. a french man by name chabonah, who speaks the big belley language visit us, he wished to hire & informed us his squars were snake indians, we engau him to go on with us and take one of his wives to interpet the snake language the indians horses & dogs live in the same lodge with themselves [clark, november , ] th november sunday fort mandan a fine morning we continued to cut down trees and raise our houses, a mr. chaubonee, interpeter for the gross vintre nation came to see us, and informed that he came down with several indians from a hunting expedition up the river, to here what we had told the indians in councl this man wished to hire as an interpeter, the wind rose this evining from the east & clouded up--great numbers of indians pass hunting and some on the return- [clark, november , ] th november monday i rose verry early and commenced raising the range of huts the timber large and heavy all to carry on hand sticks, cotton wood & elm som ash small, our situation sandy, great numbers of indians pass to and from hunting a camp of mandans, a fiew miles below us cought within two days goat, by driveing them in a strong pen, derected by a bush fence widening from the pen &c. &. the greater part of this day cloudy, wind moderate from the n. w. i have the rhumitism verry bad, cap lewis writeing all day--we are told by our interpeter that ossiniboin indians, have arrived at the camps of the gross venters & lodges are comeing [clark, november , ] th of nov. mr. gravolin our ricara interpreter & of our french hands & boys set out in a canoe for the ricaras mr. ravellin is to accompany the ricaras chiefs to the city of washington in the spring, great numbers of geese pass to the south which is a certain approach of ice [clark, november , ] th november tuesday fort mandan last night late we wer awoke by the sergeant of the guard to see a nothern light, which was light, not red, and appeared to darken and some times nearly obscered, and open, many times appeared in light streeks, and at other times a great space light & containing floating collomns which appeared opposite each other & retreat leaveing the lighter space at no time of the same appearence this morning i rose a day light the clouds to the north appeared black at oclock the wind begun to blow hard from the n w. and cold, and continud all day mr. jo gravilin our ricare interpeter paul premor, lajuness & french boys, who came with us, set out in a small perogue, on their return to the ricaree nation & the illinois, mr. gravilin has instructions to take on the recarees in the spring &c.--continue to build the huts, out of cotton timber, &c. this being the only timber we have. [clark, november , ] th november wednesday a termperate day we continued to building our hut, cloudy and fogging all day [clark, november , ] th novr. thursday a cloudy morning jussome our interpreter went to the village, on his return he informed us that three english men had arrived from the hudsons bay company, and would be here tomorrow, we contd. to build our huts, many indians come to see us and bring their horses to grass near us [clark, november , ] th novr. friday a verry hard frost this morning we continue to build our cabens, under many disadvantages, day cloudy wind from the n w. several indians pass with flying news, we got a white weasel, (taile excepted which was black at the end) of an indian capt lewis walked to the hill abt. / of a mile--we are situated in a point of the missouri north side in a cotton wood timber, this timber is tall and heavy containing an imence quantity of water brickle & soft food for horses to winter (as is said by the indians) the mandans graze their horses in the day on grass, and at night give them a stick of cotton wood to eate, horses dogs & people all pass the night in the same lodge or round house, covd. with earth with a fire in the middle great number of wild gees pass to the south, flew verry high [clark, november , ] th november satturday rose early continued to build our fort numbers of indians came to see us a chief half partia & brought a side of a buffalow, in return we gave some fiew small things to himself & wife & son, he crossed the river in the buffalow skin canoo & and, the squar took the boat and proceeded on to the town miles the day raw and cold wind from the n w, the gees continue to pass in gangues as also brant to the south, some ducks also pass [clark, november , ] th november sunday fort mandan a cold day continued at work at the fort two men cut themselves with an ax, the large ducks pass to the south an indian gave me several roles of parched meal two squars of the rock mountain, purchased from the indians by a frenchmen came down the mandans out hunting the buffalow [clark, november , ] th november monday a verry cold night early this morning the big white princapal chief of the lower village of the mandans came down, he packd about w. of fine meet on his squar for us, we made some small presents to the squar, & child gave a small ax which she was much pleased-- men sick with the ____ several, wind changeable verry cold evening, freesing all day some ice on the edges of the river. swans passing to the south, the hunters we sent down the river to hunt has not returned the interpeter says that the mandan nation as they old men say came out of a small lake where they had gardins, maney years ago they lived in several villages on the missourie low down, the smallpox destroyed the greater part of the nation and reduced them to one large village and some small ones, all nations before this maladey was affrd. of them after they were reduced the sioux and other indians waged war, and killed a great maney, and they moved up the missourie, those indians still continued to wage war, and they moved still higher, untill they got in the countrey of the panias, whith this ntn. they lived in friendship maney years, inhabiting the same neighbourhood untill that people waged war, they moved up near the watersoons & winataree where they now live in peace with those nations, the mandans specke a language peculial to themselves they can rase about men, the winatarees about and the big bellies about or men. the mandans and seauex have the same word for water-the big bellies winitarees & ravin indians speake nearly the same language and the presumption is they were origionally the same nation the ravin indians have lodges & about men, & follow the buffalow, or hunt for their subsistance in the plains & on the court not & rock mountains, & are at war with the sioux snake indians the big bellies & watersoons are at war with the snake indians & seauex, and were at war with the ricares untill we made peace a fiew days passd.--the mandans are at war with all who make war on them, at present with the seauex only, and wish to be at peace with all nations, seldom the agressors- [clark, november , ] th the ice begin to run we move into our hut, visited by the grand chief of the mandans, and che chark lagru a chief of the assinniboins & men of that nation, i smoke with them and gave the chief a cord & a carrot of tobacco--this nation rove in the plains above this and trade with the british companes on the ossinniboin river, they are divided into several bands, the decendants of the sioux & speak nearly their langguage a bad disposed set & can raies about moo men in the bands near this place, they trade with the nations of this neighbourhood for horses corn & snow all day capt. l. at the village. [clark, november , ] th novr. tuesday the ice began to run in the river / past oclock p. m we rose early & onloaded the boat before brackfast except, the cabin, & stored away in a store house--at oclock a m the black cat the mandin chief and lagru che chark chief & men of note visited us at fort mandan, i gave him a twist of tobacco to smoke with his people & a gold cord with a view to know him again, the nation consists of about men, hunt in the plains & winter and trade on the ossiniboin river, they are decendants of the siaux and speake their language, they come to the nations to this quarter to trade or (make preasthts) for horses the method of this kind of trafick by addoption shall be explained hereafter &, snow'd all day, the ice ran thick and air cold. [clark, november , ] fort mandan th of november wednesday a cloudy morning, ice runing verry thick river rose / inch last night some snow falling, only two indians visit us to day owing to a dance at the village last night in concluding a serimoney of adoption, and interchange of property, between the ossiniboins, christinoes and the nations of this neighbourhood--we sent one man by land on hors back to know the reason of the delay of our hunters, this evening french men who were traping below came up-with beaver we are compelled to use our pork which we doe spearingly for fear of some falur in precureing a sufficiency from the woods. our interpeter informs that lodges one of bands of assinniboins & some crestinoes, are at the mandan village. the crrirstinoes are abt. men speak the chipaway-language, the live near fort de peare [clark, november , ] th of november thursday a cloudy morning, the ice run much thicker than yesterday at oclock g drewyer & the frenchman we dispatched yesterday came up from the hunters, who is incamped about miles below--after a about one hour we dispatched a man with orders to the hunters to proceed on without delay thro the floating ice, we sent by the man tin, to put on the parts of the perogue exposed to the ice & a toe roape--the wind changeable--all hands work at their huts untill oclock at night swans passing to the south--but fiew fowls water to be seen--not one indian came to our fort to day [clark, november , ] th november friday a verry white frost all the trees all covered with ice, cloudy, all the men move into the huts which is not finishd several indians come to camp to day, the ossiniboins is at the big bellie camp, some trouble like to take place between them from the loss of horses &c. as is said by an old indian who visited us with buffalow robes & corn to trade for a pistol which we did not let him have, men imployed untill late in dobing their huts, some horses sent down to stay in the woods near the fort, to prevent the ossniboins steeling them [clark, november , ] th november satturday a fine morning, last night was cold, the ice thicker than yesterday, several indians visit us, one chief stayed all day we are much engaged about our huts. [clark, november , ] th novr. sunday a cold morning some wind the black cat, chief of the mandans came to see us, he made great inquiries respecting our fashions. he also stated the situation of their nation, he mentioned that a council had been held the day before and it was thought advisable to put up with the resent insults of the ossiniboins & christonoes untill they were convinced that what had been told thim by us, mr. evins had deceived them & we might also, he promised to return & furnish them with guns & amunitiion, we advised them to remain at peace & that they might depend upon getting supplies through the channel of the missouri, but it requred time to put the trade in opperation. the assiniboins &c have the trade of those nations in their power and treat them badly as the soux does the ricarees and they cannot resent for fear of loseing their trade &. [clark, november , ] th of november our hunters return with deerr, elk & a buffalow ice ran which detained the huntes much cap lewis visit the me ne tar rees, the th and returned the th of nov. with chiefs &c. &c. and told me that clerks & men of the n w company & several of the hudsons bay company had arrived with goods to trade with the indians a mr. la roche & mc kinzey are the celerks (distant miles across) [clark, november , ] th novr. monday a cold day the ice continue to run our perogue of hunters arrive with deer, elk & a buffalow, all of this meat we had hung up in a smoke house, a timeley supply--several indians here all day--the wind bley hard from the n. w. by w. our men move into their huts, several little indian aneckdts. told me to day [clark, november , ] th november tuesday capt lewis & my self move into our huts, a verry hard wind from the w. all the after part of the day a temperate day several indians came down to eat fresh meat, three chiefs from the d mandan village stay all day, they are verry curious in examining our works. those chiefs informs us that the souix settled on the missourie above dog river, threten to attacked them this winter, and have treated ricares who carried the pipe of peace to them verry roughly. whiped & took their horses from them &c. &c. & is much displeased with ricares for makeing a peace with the mandans &. &. through us, &. we gave them a sattisfactory answer. &c. &c. [clark, november , ] st novr. wednesday a fine day dispatched a perogu and collected stone for our chimnys, some wind from the s. w. arrange our different articles--maney indians visit us to day, g d hurd his hand verry bad- all the party in high spirits--the river clear of ice, & riseing a little [clark, november , ] nd of november thursday a fine morning dispatched a perogue and men under the derection of sergeant pryor to the nd village for bushels of corn in ears which mr. jessomme, let us have did not get more than bushels--i was allarmed about oclock by the sentinal, who informed that an indian was about to kill his wife in the interpeters fire about yards below the works, i went down and spoke to the fellow about the rash act which he was like to commit and forbid any act of the kind near the fort- some missunderstanding took place between this man & his wife about days ago, and she came to this place, & continued with the squars of the interpeters, days ago she returned to the villg. in the evening of the same day she came to the interpeters fire appearently much beat, & stabed in places--we detected that no man of this party have any intercourse with this woman under the penelty of punishment--he the husband observed that one of our serjeants slept with his wife & if he wanted her he would give her to him, we derected the serjeant odway to give the man some articles, at which time i told the indian that i believed not one man of the party had touched his wife except the one he had given the use of her for a nite, in his own bed, no man of the party should touch his squar, or the wife of any indian, nor did i believe they touch a woman if they knew her to be the wife of another man, and advised him to take his squar home and live hapily together in future,--at this time the grand chief of the nation arrived, & lecturd him, and they both went off apparently dis the grand chief continued all day a warm day fair afternoon--many indian anickdotes one chief & his familey stay all night. [clark, november , ] rd, a fair warm day, wind from the s. e. send after stone several men with bad colds, one man sheilds with the rhumitism the river on a stand haveing rose inches in all [clark, november , ] th of november satturday a warm day several men with bad coalds we continue to cover our huts with hewed punchens, finishd. a cord to draw our boat out on the bank, this is made straps of elk skin,--the wind from the s. e. [clark, november , ] th of novr. sunday a fine day warm & pleasent capt. lewis interpeters & men set out to see the indians in the different towns & camps in this neighbour hood, we continu to cover & dob our huts, two chiefs came to see me to day one named wau-ke-res-sa-ra, a big belley and the first of that nation who has visited us since we have been here, i gave him a handkerchef paint & a saw band, and the other some fiew articles, and paid a perticular attention which pleased them verry much, the interpeters being all with capt. lewis i could not talk to them. we compleated our huts--several men with bad colds, river fall / inch [clark, november , ] th of novr. monday fort mandan a little before day light the wind shifted to the n. w. and blew hard and the air keen & cold all day, cloudy and much the appearance of snow; but little work done to day it being cold &c. [clark, november , ] th of november tuesday a cloudy morning after a verry cold night, the river crouded with floating ice wind from the n w. finished dobing capt. lewis returned from the villages with two chiefs mar-noh toh & man-nes-sur ree & a considerate man with the party who accompanied him, the menitares, (or big bellies) were allarmed at the tales told them by the mandans viz: that we intended to join the seaux to cut off them in the course of the winter, many circumstances combind to give force to those reports i e the movements of the interpeters & their families to the fort, the strength of our work &. &. all those reports was contridicted by capt louis with a conviction on the minds of the indians of the falsity of those reports--the indians in all the towns & camps treated capt lewis & the party with great respect except one of the principal cheifs mar par pa par ra pas a too or (horned weasel) who did not chuse to be seen by the capt. & left word that he was not at home &. seven traders arrived from the fort on the ossinaboin from the n w companey one of which lafrances took upon himself to speak unfavourably of our intentions &. the princpal mr. la rock, (& mr. mckensey) was informed of the conduct of their interpeter & the consiquinces if they did not put a stop to unfavourable & ill founded assursions &c. &. the two chiefs much pleased with their treatments & the cherefullness of the party, who danced to amuse them &c. &c. the river fall inches verry cold and began to snow at oclock p m and continued all night--some miss understanding with jussomm & his woman--at day the snow seased [clark, november , ] th novr. wednesday a cold morning wind from the n. w river full of floating ice, began to snow at oclock a m and continued all day at oclock the poss-cop-so-he or black cat grand chief of the mandans came to see us, after showing those chiefs many thing which was curiossities to them, and giveing a fiew presents of curioes handkerchiefs arm bans & paint with a twist of tobaco they departed at oclock much pleased, at parting we had some little talk on the subject of the british trader mr. le rock giveing meadils & flags, and told those chiefs to impress it on the minds of their nations that those simbells were not to be recved by any from them, without they wished incur the displieasure of their great american father--a verry disagreeable day--no work done to day river fall inch to day [clark, november , ] th november thursday a verry cold windey day wind from the n. w by w. some snow last night the detpt of the snow is various in the wood about inches, the river closed at the village above and fell last night two feet mr. la rock and one of his men came to visit us we informed him what we had herd of his intentions of makeing chiefs &c. and forbid him to give meadels or flags to the indians, he denied haveing any such intention, we agreeed that one of our interpeters should speak for him on conditions he did not say any thing more than what tended to trade alone--he gave fair promises &. [clark, november , ] h of nov. an indian chief came and informed us that five men of the mandans nation was on a hunting party to the s w, distance about eight leagues, they were surprised one man killed two wounded and nine horses taken, severale others men wer on hunting partes & were to have returned several days ago & had not yet returned, & that they expected to be attacked by an army of sioux i took men and went to the village deturmined to collect the warriers of the different villages and meet the sioux--the village not expecting such strong aid in so short a time was a little alarmed of the formable appearance of my party the principal chiefs met me at yards distance from the town, and envited me to his lodge. i told the nation the cause of comeing &. was to assist in chastiseing the enimies of my dutifull children--i requested great chief to repeat the cercunstance of the sioux attack as it realy happined which he did--i told them to send runners to the other villages & assemble the warriers & we would go and chastize the sioux for spilling the blood of my dutifull children--after a conversation of a few minits amongst themselves, a chief said that they now saw that what we had told them was the trooth and we were ready to protect them and kill those who did not listen to our councils (and after a long speech) he concluded said "the sious who spilt our blood is gorn home--the snow is deep and it is cold, our horses cannot travel thro the plains in pursute--if you will go and conduct us in the spring after the snow is gorn, we will assemble all the warriers & brave men in all the villages and go with you." i answered the speach at some length, explained to them their situation declareing our intentions of defending them at any time dureing the time we should stay in ther nieghbourhood, explained the situation of the ricaras & told them not to get angrey with them untill they were certain of their haveing violated the treaty &c. &. i crossed the river on the ice and returned to the fort [clark, november , ] th in the morning early a indian came to the river opposit & requsted to be brought over, that he had some thing to say from his nation we sent for him, and after he had smoked--he said he thought the river was frosted across here & expected to cross on the ice or mandans out hunting in a s. w, derection from this place about leagues, after they had made their hunt and on their return was attackted by a large party of seaux, one of the party a young chief was killed wounded & horses taken, the men who made their escape say the one half of the party who attacked them was panias- the two panias who came here a fiew days ago was imediately sent home, for fear of their being put to death by the party defeated two of the attacting party was known to be panies. the man who was killed mentioned that after he was wounded, that he had been at war & been wounded, "this day i shall die like a man before my enimies,! tell my father that i died bravely, and do not greive for me-" of the big bellies who were camped near thos is missing, and searching for him in their camps above--no one dare to go to the ground where the battle was for fear of the sioux being noumerous-. [clark, november , ] th of november friday this morning at oclock an indian calld from the other side and informed that he had something of consequence to communicate. we sent a perogue for him & he informed us as follows. viz: "five men of the mandan nation out hunting in a s. w. derection about eight leagues was suprised by a large party of sceoux & panies, one man was killed and two wounded with arrows & horses taken, of the we ter soon nation was missing, & they expected to be attacked by the souix &c. &." we thought it well to show a disposition to ade and assist them against their enimies, perticularly those who came in oppersition to our councils, and i deturmined to go to the town with some men, and if the sceoux were comeing to attact the nation to collect the worriers from each village and meet them, thos ideas were also those of capt lewis, i crossed the river in about an hour after the arrival of the indian express with men including the interpeters and flankd the town & came up on the back part the indians not expecting to receive such strong aide in so short a time was much supprised, and a littled allarmed at the formadable appearance of my party--the principal chiefs met me some distance from the town (say yards) and invited me in to town, i ord my pty into dft. lodges & i explained to the nation the cause of my comeing in this formadable manner to their town, was to asst and chastise the enimies of our dutifull children,--i requested the grand cheif to repeat the circumstancies as they hapined which he did as was mentioned by the express in the morning--i then informed them that if they would assemble their warrers and those of the different towns i would to meet the army of souix & chastise thim for takeing the blood of our dutifull children &c. after a conversation of a fiew minits anongst themselves, one chief the big man cien said they now saw that what we hade told them was the trooth, whin we expected the enimies of their nation was comeing to attact them, or had spilt their blood were ready to protect them, and kill those who would not listen to our good talk--his people had listened to what we had told them and cearlessly went out to hunt in small parties believing themselves to be safe from the other nations--and have been killed by the panies & seauex. "i knew said he that the panies were tiers, and told the old chief who came with you (to confirm a piece with us) that his people were hers and bad men and that we killed them like the buffalow, when we pleased, we had made peace several times and you nation have always commened the war, we do not want to kill you, and will not suffer you to kill us or steal our horses, we will make peace with you as our two fathers have derected, and they shall see that we will not be the ogressors, but we fear the ricares will not be at peace-long--my father those are the words i spoke to the ricare in your presents--you see they have not opened their ears to your good "councils but have spuilt our blood. two ricarees whome we sent home this day for fear of our peoples killing them in their greaf-informed us when they came here several days ago, that two towns of the ricares were makeing their mockersons, and that we had best take care of our horses & a number of sieuex were in their towns, and they believed not well disposed towards us--four of the wetersoons are now absent they were to have been back in days they have been out we fear they have fallen. my father the snow is deep and it is cold our horses cannot travel thro the the plains,--those people who have spilt our blood have gorn back? if you will go with us in the spring after the snow goes off we will raise the warriers of all the towns & nations around about us, and go with you." i told this nation that we should be always willing and ready to defend them from the insults of any nation who would dare to come to doe them injurey dureing the time we would remain in their neighbourhood, and requstd. that they would inform us of any party who may at any time be discovered by their patroles or scouts. i was sorry that the snow in the plains had fallen so deep sence the murder of the young chief by the scioux as prevented, their horses from traveling i wished to meet those scioux & all others who will not open their ears, but make war on our dutifull children, and let you see that the wariers of your great father will chastize the enimies of his dutifull children the mandans, wetersoons & winitarees, who have opend. their ears to his advice--you say that the panies or ricares were with the sciaux, some bad men may have been with the sciaux you know there is bad men in all nations, do not get mad with the racarees untill we know if those bad men are counternoncd. by their nation, and we are convsd. those people do not intend to follow our councils--you know that the sceaux have great influence over the ricarees and perhaps have led some of them astray--you know that the ricarees, are dependant on the sceaux for their guns, powder, & ball, and it was policy in them to keep on as good terms as possible with the siaux untill they had some other means of getting those articles &c. &. you know your selves that you are compelled to put up with little insults from the christinoes & ossinaboins (or stone inds.) because if you go to war with those people, they will provent the traders in the north from bringing you guns powder & ball and by that means distress you verry much, but whin you will have certain suppliers from your great american father of all those articls you will not suffer any nation to insult you &c. after about two hours conversation on various subjects all of which tended towards their situation &c. i informed them i should return to the fort, the chief said they all thanked me verry much for the fatherly protection which i showed towards them, that the village had been crying all the night and day for the death of the brave young man, who fell but now they would wipe away their tears, and rejoice in their fathers protection-and cry no more i then paraded & crossed the river on the ice and came down on the n. side the snow so deep, it was verry fatigueing arrved at the fort after night, gave a little taffee, a cold night the river rise to its former hite--the chief frequently thanked me for comeing to protect them--and the whole village appeared thankfull for that measure [clark, december , ] s decr. a young chief arrived chiens came to the village with a pipe & the ricares who came here a fiew days ago & sent off yesterday have returned and say that the sieaux & ricares are camped together [clark, december , ] st of december satturday wind from the n w. all hands ingaged in pitting pickets &. at oclock the half brother of the man who was killed came and informd. us that after my departure last night six chiens so called by the french shar ha indians had arrived with a pipe and said that the mandans apprehended danger from the shar has as they were at peace with the seaux; and wished to kill them and the ricarees (or parties) but the cheifs informed the nation "it was our wish that they should not be hurt, and forbid being killed &c." we gave a little tobacco &c. & this man departed well satisfied with our councils and advice to him in the evening a mr. g henderson in the imploy of the hudsons bay company sent to trade with the gros ventre-or big bellies so called by the french traders [clark, december , ] d of decr. visited by several mandan chiefs and chyannes inds. who came with a pipe to the mandans, sent a speech to ther nation a flag & some tobacco, also written a speech to the ricaras & sioux, informe them what they might depend on if they would not open their ears, & &. [clark, december , ] nd of december sunday the latter part of last night was verry warm and continued to thaw untill ____ oclock when the wind shifted to the north at oclock the chiefs of the lower village of the mandans with maney of theire young men and of the shar-ha's who had come to smoke with the pipe of peace with the mandans, we explained to them our intentions our views and advised them to be at peace, gave them a flag for theire nation, some tobacco with a speech to deliver to their nation on theire return, also sent by them a letter to mrs. tabbo & gravoline, at the ricares village, to interseid in proventing hostilities, and if they could not effect those measures to send & informe us of what was going on, stateing to the indians the part we intend to take if the rickores & seauex did not follow our derections and be at peace with the nations which we had addopted--we made some fiew small presents to those shar ha's and also some to the mandans & at oclock they all departed well pleased, haveing seen many curisossties, which we showed them-. river rise one inch [clark, december , ] rd december monday . a fine morning the after part of the day cold & windey the wind from the n w. the father of the mandan who was killed came and made us a present of some dried simnens & a little pemicon, we made him some small preasents for which he was much pleased [clark, december , ] th of december tuesday a cloudy raw day wind from the n. w. the black cat and two young chiefs visit us and as usial stay all day the river rise one inch finish the main bastion, our interpetr. we discover to be assumeing and discontent'd [clark, december , ] th december wednesday a cold raw morning wind from the s. e. some snow, two of the n w. companey came to see us, to let us know they intended to set out for the establishment on the osinniboin river in two days-& their party would consist of men, several indians also visited us one brought pumpkins or simmins as a preasent a little snow fell in the evening at which time the wind shifted round to n. e. [clark, december , ] fort mandan th of december thursday the wind blew violently hard from the n, n w. with some snow the air keen and cold. the thermometer at oclock a, m, stood at dgs. above o--at oclock a man & his squar came down with some meat for the inturpeter his dress was a par mockersons of buffalow skin pr. legins of goat skin & a buffalow robe, ring of brass on his fingers, this metel the mandans ar verry fond off--cold after noon river rise / inch to day [clark, december , ] at fort mandan th of december , we were informed by a chief that great numbers of buffalow were on the hills near us cap lewis with a party went out & killed three in view of our fort, the weather so excesive cold & wolves plenty, we only saved of them, i with a party turned on the th out and found the buffalow at ms. distant killed & a deer, i returned with cows leaving men with remaining meat--several men badly frost bit--the themormeter stood this morning at d. below breizing. capt lewis went out th & stayed all night out killed buffalowmaney of the buffalow killed were so meager that they not fit for use collected by the ade of some horses the best of the meat in fact all we could save from wolves & i went on a hunting party the & of decr.--much snow verry cold ° below freesinge. n w. & h bay clerks visit us the th also mr hainey, cold tem. ° below freesing i visit the mandans on the s of january capt lewis the nd [clark, december , ] th of december friday a verry cold day wind from the n w. the big white grand chief of the s village, came and informed us that a large drove of buffalow was near and his people was wating for us to join them in a chase capt. lewis took men & went out joined the indians, who were at the time he got up, killing the buffalows on horseback with arrows which they done with great dexterity, his party killed buffalow, five of which we got to the fort by the assistance of a horse in addition to what the men packed on their backs--one cow was killed on the ice after drawing her out of a vacancey in the ice in which she had fallen, and butchered her at the fort--those we did not get in was taken by the indians under a custon which is established amongst them i e. any person seeing a buffalow lying without an arrow sticking in him, or some purticular mark takes possesion, many times (as i am told) a hunter who kills maney buffalow in a chase only gets a part of one, all meat which is left out all night falls to the wolves which are in great numbers, always in the buffalows--the river closed opposit the fort last night / inches thick the thermometer stood this morning at d. below o- three men frost bit badly to day [clark, december , ] th december satturday a verry cold morning, the thermometer stood at d. below which is d. below the freesing point, wind from the n w i with men turned out indians joined us on horseback, shot with arrows rode along side of buffaloel and killed buffalow & one deer, one cow and calf was brought in, two cows which i killed at miles dst. i left men to skin & keep off the wolves, and brought in one cow & a calf, in the evening on my return to the fort saw great numbers of buffalow comeing into the bottoms on both sides of the river this day being cold several men returned a little frost bit; one of men with his feet badly frost bit my servents feet also frosted & his p-s a little, i feel a little fatigued haveing run after the buffalow all day in snow many places inches deep, generally or , two men hurt their hips verry much in slipping down--the indians kill great numbers of buffalow to day-- reflectings suns to day [clark, december , ] th december sunday the thermometer stood this morning at ° above , wind from the e. capt lewis took men & horses and went out send in the meet killed yesterday and kill more, the sun shown to day clear, both interpeters went to the villages to day at oclock two chiefs came loaded with meat one with a dog & slay also loaded with meat, capt. lewis sent in hors's loaded with meat, he continued at the hunting camp near which they killed buffalow. [clark, december , ] th monday decr. fort mandan a verry cold day the thermometer to day at & degrees below ., capt. lewis returned, to day at oclock leaveing men at the camp to prepare the meat for to pack horse loads came in, capt lewis had a cold disagreeable night last in the snow on a cold point with one small blankett the buffaloe crossed the river below in emence herds without brakeing in. only buffalow killed to day one of which was too pore to skin, the men which was frost bit is gitting better. the rise / inch wind north [clark, december , ] th december tuesday a verry cold morning wind from the north the thermomettr at ( oclock a m at °) sunrise at ° see list. below which is ° below the freesing point and getting colder, the sun shows and reflects two imigies, the ice floating in the atmespear being so thick that the appearance is like a fog despurceing sent out three horses for meat & with derections for all the hunters to return to the fort as soon as possible at oclock the horses returned loaded at night all the hunters returned, several a little frosted, the black cat chief of the mandans paid us a visit to day continue cold all day river at a stand [clark, december , ] th december wednesday a clear cold morning wind from the north the thormometer at sun rise stood at ° below , moderated untill oclock at which time it began to get colder. i line my gloves and have a cap made of the skin of the louservia (lynx) (or wild cat of the north) the fur near inches long a indian of the shoe nation came with the half of a cabra ko ka or antilope which he killed near the fort, great numbers of those animnals are near our fort but the weather is so cold that we do not think it prudent to turn out to hunt in such cold weather, or at least untill our consts. are prepared to under go this climate. i measure the river from bank to bank on the ice and make it yards [clark, december , ] th december thursday the last night was verry clear & the frost which fell covered the ice old snow & thos parts which was naked / of an inch, the thermotr. stands this morning at ° below , a fine day. find it imposible to make an observation with an artifical horsison joseph fields kill a cow and calf to day one mile from the fort river falls [clark, december , ] th december friday a fine morning. wind from the s. e. the murckerey stood at ' ' this morning i went with a party of men down the river miles to hunt buffalow, saw two bulls too pore to kill, the cows and large gangues haveing left the river, we only killed two deer & camped all night with some expectation of seeing the buffalow in the morning, a verry cold night, snowed. [clark, december , ] th of december satturday a cold clear morning, saw no buffalow, i concluded to return to the fort & hunt on each side of the river on our return which we did without success--the snow fell / inches deep last night. wind north- on my return to the fort found several chiefs there [clark, december , ] fort mandan th december, sunday a clear cold morning, the thermtr. at sun rise stood at ° below , a verry singaler appearance of the moon last night, as she appeared thro the frosty atmispear--mr. henny, from the establishment on river ossinnniboin, with a letter from, mr charles chaboillez one of the cos arrived in days, mr. c in his letters expressed a great anxiety to serve us in any thing in his power- a root discribed by mr. henry for the cure of a mad dog mr. le rock a clerk, of the n w company and mr. george bunch a clerk of the hudsons bay compy accompanied mr. henny from the village [clark, december , ] th december monday a verry cold morning the thrmt. stood a ° below . we found mr. henny a verry intelligent man from whome we obtained some scetches of the countrey between the mississippi & missouri, and some sketches from him, which he had obtained from the indins. to the west of this place also the names and charecktors of the sceoux &c about oclock p m. the thermometer fell to ° below the freesing pointe--the indian chiefs sent word that buffalow was in our neighbourhood, and if we would join them, in the morning they would go and kill them- [clark, december , ] th december tuesday the themometer the same as last night mr. haney & la rocke left us for the grossventre camp, sent out men to hunt for the buffalow they found the weather too cold & returned, several indians came, who had set out with a veiw to kill buffalow, the river rise a little i imploy my self makeing a small map of connection &. sent jessomme to the main chief of the mandans to know the cause of his detaining or takeing a horse of chabonoe our big belly interpeter, which we found was thro the rascallity of one lafrance a trader from the n w. company, who told this cheif that chabonah owd. him a horse to go and take him he done so agreeable to an indian custom--he gave up the horse [clark, december , ] th december wednesday the wind from s. w. the weather moderated a little, i engage my self in connecting the countrey from information. river rise a little [clark, december , ] th december thursday the wind from the n w a moderate day, the thermometr ° above , which givs an oppertunity of putting up our pickets next the river, nothing remarkable took place to day river fall a little [clark, december , ] st december friday a fine day worm and wind from the n w by w, the indian whome i stoped from commiting murder on his wife, thro jellousy of one of our interpeters, came & brought his two wives and showed great anxiety to make up with the man with whome his joulassey sprung--a womin brought a child with an abcess on the lower part of the back, and offered as much corn as she could carry for some medison, capt lewis administered &c. [clark, december , ] nd december satturday a number of squars womn & men dressed in squars clothes came with corn to sell to the men for little things, we precured two horns of the animale the french call the rock mountain sheep those horns are not of the largest kind--the mandans indians call this sheep ar-sar-ta it is about the size of a large deer, or small elk, its horns come out and wind around the head like the horn of a ram and the teckere not unlike it much larger and thicker perticelarly that part with which they but or outer part which is ____ inchs thick, the length of those horns, which we have is [clark, december , ] rd december sunday a fine day great numbers of indians of all discriptions came to the fort many of them bringing corn to trade, the little crow, loadd. his wife & sun with corn for us, cap. lewis gave him a few presents as also his wife, she made a kettle of boild simnins, beens, corn & choke cherris with the stones which was paletable this dish is considered, as a treat among those people, the chiefs of the mandans are fond of stayin & sleeping in the fort [clark, december , ] december monday several chiefs and members of men womin and children at the fort to day, some for trade, the most as lookers on, we gave a fellet of sheep skin (which we brought for spunging) to chiefs one to each of inches wide, which they lay great value (priseing those felets equal to a fine horse), a fine day we finished the pickingen around our works [clark, december , ] th december christmass tuesday i was awakened before day by a discharge of platoons from the party and the french, the men merrily disposed, i give them all a little taffia and permited cannon fired, at raising our flag, some men went out to hunt & the others to danceing and continued untill oclock p, m, when the frolick ended &c. [clark, december , ] th decr. wednesday a temperate day no indians to day or yesterday. a man from the n w company came down from the gross vintres to get one of our interpeters to assist them in trade this man informed that the party of gross ventres who persued the ossinboins that stold their horses, has all returned in their usial way by small parties, the last of the party bringing horses which they stole from a camp of asniboins which they found on mouse river- [clark, december , ] th december thursday a little fine snow weather something colder than yesterday several indians here to day, much surprised at the bellos & method of makeing sundery articles of iron wind hard from the n w. [clark, december , ] th of december friday blew verry hard last night, the frost fell like a shower of snow, nothing remarkable to day, the snow drifting from one bottom to another and from the leavel plains into the hollows &c [clark, december , ] th december satturday the frost fell last night nearly a / of an inch deep and continud to fall untill the sun was of some bite, the murcurey stood this morning at d below which is not considered cold, as the changes take place gradually without long intermitions a number of indians here [clark, december , ] th december sunday cold the termtr. at d below a number of indians here to day they are much supprised at the bellows one deer killed [clark, december , ] fort mandan st of december monday a fine day some wind last night which mixed the snow and sand in the bend of the river, which has the appearance of hillocks of sand on the ice, which is also covered with sand & snow, the feost which falls in the night continues on the earth & old snow &c. &c.--a number of indians here every day our blcksmitth mending their axes hoes &c. &c. for which the squars bring corn for payment [clark, january , ] fort mandan on the n e bank of the missouries miles up january the st tuesday the day was ushered in by the discharge of two cannon, we suffered men with their musick to visit the st village for the purpose of danceing, by as they said the perticular request of the chiefs of that village, about oclock i with an inturpeter & two men walked up to the village (my views were to alay some little miss understanding which had taken place thro jelloucy and mortificatiion as to our treatment towards them) i found them much pleased at the danceing of our men, i ordered my black servent to dance which amused the croud verry much, and some what astonished them, that so large a man should be active &c. &. i went into the lodges of all the men of note except two, whome i heard had made some expressions not favourable towards us, in compareing us with the trabers from the north--those cheifs observed what they sayed was in just & lafture.--just as i was about to return the d chief and the black man, also a chief returnd from a mission on which they had been sent to meet a large party of gross ventres who were on their way down from their camps miles above to revenge on the shoe tribe an injurey which they had received by a shoe man steeling a gross venters girl, those chiefs gave the pipe turned the party back, after delivering up the girl, which the shoe chief had taken and given to them for that purpose. i returned in the evening, at night the party except returned, with robes, an strings of corn which the indians had given them, the day was worm, themtr. ° abov , some fiew drops of rain about sunset, at dark it began to snow, and snowed the greater part of the night, (the temptr for snow is about o) the black cat with his family visited us to day and brought a little meet [clark, january , ] nd of january wednesdey a snowey morning a party of men go to dance at the nd village to dance, capt lewis & the interptr visit the d village, and return in the evening, some snow to day verry cold in the evining [clark, january , ] rd of january thursday soome snow to day; men go to hunt the buffalow, killed a hare & wolf several indians visit us to day & a gross ventre came after his wife, who had been much abused, & come here for protection. [clark, january , ] fort mandan th of january friday a worm snowey morning, the themtr. at ° abov , cloudy, sent out men to hunt down the river, several indians came today the little crow, who has proved friendly came we gave him a handkerchf & files, in the evening the weather became cold and windey, wind from the n w. i am verry unwell the after part of the daye [clark, january , ] th of january satturday a cold day some snow, several indians visit us with thier axes to get them mended, i imploy my self drawing a connection of the countrey from what information i have recved--a buffalow dance (or medison) for nights passed in the st village, a curious custom the old men arrange themselves in a circle & after smoke a pipe, which is handed them by a young man, dress up for the purpose, the young men who have their wives back of the circle go to one of the old men with a whining tone and request the old man to take his wife (who presents necked except a robe) and--the girl then takes the old man (who verry often can scercely walk) and leades him to a convenient place for the business, after which they return to the lodge, if the old man (or a white man) returns to the lodge without gratifying the man & his wife, he offers her again and again; it is often the case that after the d time without kissing the husband throws a nice robe over the old man & and begs him not to dispise him, & his wife (we sent a man to this medisan last night, they gave him girls) all this is to cause the buffalow to come near so that they may kill thim [clark, january , ] th of january sunday a cold day but fiew indians to day i am ingaged as yesterday [clark, january , ] th of january monday fort mandan a verry cold clear day, the themtr stood at d below wind n w., the river fell inch several indians returned from hunting, one of them the big white chef of the lower mandan village, dined with us, and gave me a scetch of the countrey as far as the high mountains, & on the south side of the river rejone, he says that the river rejone recves small rivers on the s. side, & that the countrey is verry hilley and the greater part covered with timber, great numbers of beaver &c.--the men returned from hunting, they kill'd deer & wolves, saw buffalow a long ways off, i continue to draw a connected plote from the information of traders, indians & my own observation & idea--from the best information, the great falls is about miles nearly west,- [clark, january , ] th of january tuesday a cold day but fiew indians at the fort to day wind from the n, w, one man at the village [clark, january , ] th of january wednesday a cold day themometer at ° below , great numbers of indians go to kill cows, the little crow brackft. with us, several indians call at the fort nearly frosed, one man reported that he had sent his son a small boy to the fort about oclock, & was much distressed at not finding him here, the after part of this day verry cold, and wind keen [clark, january , ] th of january this morning a boy of years of age came to the fort with his feet frozed, haveing stayed out all night without fire, with no other covering than a small robe goat skin leagens & a pr. buffalow skin mockersons--the murcery stood at ° below the freesing point--several others stayed out all night not in the least hurt, this boy lost his toes only- [clark, january , ] th of january thursday last night was excessively cold the murkery this morning stood at ° below which is ° below the freesing point, we had one man out last night, who returned about oclock this morning the indians of the lower villages turned out to hunt for a man & a boy who had not returnd from the hunt of yesterday, and borrowd a slay to bring them in expecting to find them frosed to death about oclock the boy about years of age came to the fort with his feet frosed and had layen out last night without fire with only a buffalow robe to cover him, the dress which he wore was a pr of cabra legins, which is verry thin and mockersons--we had his feet put in cold water and they are comeing too- soon after the arrival of the boy, a man came in who had also stayed out without fire, and verry thinly clothed, this man was not the least injured customs & the habits of those people has ancered to bare more cold than i thought it possible for man to indure send out men to hunt elk below about miles [clark, january , ] th january friday verry cold, send out men to join now below & hunt, pose-cop se ha or black cat came to see us and stay all night sho sa har ro ra or coal also stayd all night, the inturpeter oldst wife sick, some of our men go to see a war medison made at the village on the opposit side of the river, this is a [clark, january , ] fort manden th of january satturday a verry cold day three of our hunters j. & r fields withe elk on a slay sent one more hunter out. [clark, january , ] th of january sunday ( ) a cold clear day (great number of indians move down the river to hunt) those people kill a number of buffalow near their villages and save a great perpotion of the meat, their custom of makeing this article of life general leaves them more than half of their time without meat their corn & beans &c they keep for the summer, and as a reserve in case of an attack from the soues, which they are always in dread, and sildom go far to hunt except in large parties, about / the mandan nation passed this to day to hunt on the river below, they will stay out some days, mr. chabonee (our inturpeter) and one man that accompanied him to some loges of the minatarees near the turtle hill returned, both frosed in their faces. chaboneu informs that the clerk of the hudsons bay co. with the me ne tar res has been speaking some fiew expressns. unfavourable towards us, and that it is said the n w co. intends building a fort at the mene tar re's--he saw the grand chief of the big bellies who spoke slightly of the americans, saying if we would give our great flag to him he would come to see us. [clark, january , ] th of january monday this morning early a number of indians men womin children dogs &c & passed down on the ice to joine those that passed yesterday, we sent sergt pryor and five men with those indians to hunt one of our hunters sent out several days arived & informs that one man (whitehouse) is frost bit and can't walk home- [clark, january , ] fort mandan th january tuesday between & oclock this morning we had a total eclips of the moon, a part of the observations necessary for our purpose in this eclips we got which is at h m s total darkness of the moon @ end of total darkness of this moon @ end of the eclips- this morning not so cold as yesterday wind from the s. e. wind choped around to the n w. still temperate four considerate men of the minetarre came to see us we smoked in the pipe, maney mands. present also, we showed to those men who had been impressed with an unfavourable oppinion of us. [clark, january , ] th january wednesday about thirty mandans came to the fort to day, chiefs. those me ne to rees told them they were liars, had told them if they came to the fort the whites men would kill them, they had been with them all night, smoked in the pipe and have been treated well and the whites had danced for them, observing the mandans were bad and ought to hide themselves- one of the st war chiefs of the big belles nation came to see us to day with one man and his squar to wate on him we shot the air gun, and gave two shots with the cannon which pleased them verry much, the little crow d chf of the lower village came & brought us corn &. men of ours who had been hunting returned one frost'd this war chief gave us a chart in his way of the missourie, he informed us of his intentions of going to war in the spring against the snake indians we advised him to look back at the number of nations who had been distroyed by war, and reflect upon what he was about to do, observing if he wished the hapiness of his nation, he would be at peace with all, by that by being at peace and haveing plenty of goods amongst them & a free intercourse with those defenceless nations, they would get on easy terms a great number of horses, and that nation would increas, if he went to war against those defenceless people, he would displease his great father, and he would not receive that pertection & care from him as other nations who listened to his word--this chief who is a young man yr. old replied that if his going to war against the snake indians would be displeasing to us he would not go, he had horses enough. we observed that what we had said was the words of his great father, and what we had spoken to all the nations which we saw on our passage up, they all promis to open their ears and we do not know as yet if any of them has shut them (we are doubtfull of the souxs) if they do not attend to what we have told them their great father will open their ears--this cheif said that he would advise all his nation to stay at home untill we saw the snake indians & knew if they would be friendly, he himself would attend to what we had told him [clark, january , ] th january thursday a verry windey morning hard from the north thermometer at , several indians here to day [clark, january , ] th january friday a fine worm morning, mr. la rock & mckinzey came down to see us with them several of the grosse venrees. [clark, january , ] th january satturday . a find day messrs. larock & mckinzey returned home, sent three horses down to our hunting camp for the meet they had killed, jussoms squar, left him and went to the village [clark, january , ] th a cold fair day several indians at the fort to day a miss understanding took place between the two inturpeters on account of their squars, one of the squars of shabownes squars being sick, i ordered my servent to, give her some froot stewed and tee at dift tims which was the cause of the misundstd [clark, january , ] fort mandan st monday january a number of indians hereto day a fine day nothing remarkable one ban verry bad with the pox [clark, january , ] nd january tuesday a find warm day attempted to cut the boat & the perogues out of the ice, found water at about inches under the st ice, the next thickness about feet [clark, january , ] rd january wednesday a cold day snow fell inches deep, the occurrences of this day is as is common [clark, january , ] th january thursday a fine day, our inturpeters appear to understand each others better than a fiew days past sent out several hunters, they returned without killing any thing, cut coal wood [clark, january , ] th of january friday we are informed of the arrival of a band of asniboins at the villages with the grand cheif of those tribes call the (fee de petite veau) to trade, one of our interpeter & one man set out to the big belley camp opposit the island men employ'd in cutting the boat out of the ice, and collecting coal wood. [clark, january , ] th of january satturday a verry fine warm day several indians dine with us and are much pleased--one man taken violently bad with the plurisee, bleed & apply those remedeis common to that disorder. [lewis, january , ] saturday january th observed meridian altitude of sun's u. l. with sextant and artificl. horzn. of water ° latitude deduced from this observatn. n. [clark, january , ] th of january sunday a fine day, attempt to cut our boat and canoos out of the ice, a deficuelt task i fear as we find waters between the ice, i bleed the man with the plurisy to day & swet him, capt lewis took of the toes of one foot of the boy who got frost bit some time ago, shabonoe our interpeter returned, & informed that the assiniboins had returned to their camps, & brough horses of mr. laroches to stay here for fear of their being stolen by the assiniboins who are great rogues--cut off the boy toes [clark, january , ] th january monday attempt to cut through the ice &c get our boat and canoo out without suckcess, several indians here wishing to get war hatchets made this shape the man sick yesterday is getting well mr. jessome our interpeter was taken verry unwell this evening warm day [clark, january , ] th january tuesday gave jassome a dost of salts we send & collect stones and put them on a large log heap to heet them with a view of warming water in the boat and by that means, sepperate her from the ices, our attempt appears to be defeated by the stones all breaking & flying to peaces in the fire, a fine warm day, we are now burning a large coal pit, to mend the indians hatchets, & make them war axes, the only means by which we precure corn from them [clark, january , ] th january wednesday a fine morning, clouded up at oclock, mr. la rocke paid us a visit, & we gave him an answer respecting the request he made when last here of accompanying us on our journey &c. [clark, january , ] st january thursday, snowed last night, wind high from the n w. sawed off the boys toes sent men down the river to hunt with horses, our interpeter something better, george drewyer taken with the ploursey last evening bled & gave him some sage tea, this morning he is much better--cold disagreeable [clark, february , ] st of february friday a cold windey day our hunters returnd. haveing killed only one deer, a war chief of the me ne tar ras came with some corn requested to have a war hatchet made, & requested to be allowed to go to war against the souis & ricarres who had killed a mandan some time past--we refused, and gave reassons, which he verry readily assented to, and promised to open his ears to all we said this man is young and named (seeing snake mar-book, she-ah-o-ke-ah) this mans woman set out & he prosued her, in the evening [clark, february , ] nd of february satturday a find day one deer killed our interpeter still unwell, one of the wives of the big belley interptr taken sick--mr. larocke leave us to day (this man is a clerk to the n w company, & verry anxious to accompany us) [lewis, february , ] rd of february sunday . a fine day; the blacksmith again commences his opperations. we were visited by but few of the natives today. the situation of our boat and perogues is now allarming, they are firmly inclosed in the ice and almost covered with snow. the ice which incloses them lyes in several stratas of unequal thicknesses which are seperated by streams of water. this peculiarly unfortunate because so soon as we cut through the first strata of ice the water rushes up and rises as high as the upper surface of the ice and thus creates such a debth of water as renders it impracticable to cut away the lower strata which appears firmly attatched to, and confining the bottom of the vessels. the instruments we have hitherto used has been the ax only, with which, we have made several attempts that proved unsuccessful) from the cause above mentioned. we then determined to attempt freeing them from the ice by means of boiling water which we purposed heating in the vessels by means of hot stones, but this expedient proved also fruitless, as every species of stone which we could procure in the neighbourhood partook so much of the calcarious genus that they burst into small particles on being exposed to the heat of the fire. we now determined as the dernier resort to prepare a parse) of iron spikes and attatch them to the end of small poles of convenient length and endeavour by means of them to free the vessels from the ice. we have already prepared a large rope of elk-skin and a windless by means of which we have no doubt of being able to draw the boat on the bank provided we can free from the ice. [clark, february , ] rd of february our provisions of meat being nearly exorsted i concluded to decend the river on the ice & hunt, i set out with about men horses & slays descended nearly miles killed & loaded the horses back, & made pens which we filed with meat, & returned on the th we killed deer, bulls elk, maney so meager that they were unfit for use [lewis, february , ] th february, monday . this morning fair tho could the thermometer stood at ° below naught, wind from n. w. capt clark set out with a hunting party consisting of sixteen of our command and two frenchmen who together with two others, have established a small hut and resided this winter within the vicinity of fort mandane under our protection. visited by many of the natives today. our stock of meat which we had procured in the months of november & december is now nearly exhausted; a supply of this articles is at this moment peculiarly interesting as well for our immediate consumption, as that we may have time before the approach of the warm season to prepare the meat for our voyage in the spring of the year. capt. clark therefore deturmined to continue his rout down the river even as far as the river bullet unless he should find a plenty of game nearer--the men transported their baggage on a couple of small wooden slays drawn by themselves, and took with them pack horses which we had agreed should be returned with a load of meat to fort mandane as soon as they could procure it. no buffaloe have made their appearance in our neighbourhood for some weeks; and i am informed that our indian neighbours-suffer extreemly at this moment for the article of flesh. shields killed two deer this evening, both very lean--one a large buck, he had shed his horns. [lewis, february , ] th february tuesday . pleasent morning wind from n. w. fair; visited by many of the natives who brought a considerable quanty of corn in payment for the work which the blacksmith had done for them--they are pecuarly attatched to a battle ax formed in a very inconvenient manner in my opinion. it is fabricated of iron only, the blade is extreemly thin, from to nine inches in length and from / , to inches on it's edge, from whence the sides proceed nearly in a straight line to the eye where it's width is generally not more than an inch. the eye is round & about one inch in diameter. the handle seldom more than fourteen inches in length, the whole weighing about one pound--the great length of the blade of this ax, added to the small size of the handle renders a stroke uncertain and easily avoided, while the shortness of the handel must render a blow much less forceable if even well directed, and still more inconvenient as they uniformly use this instrument in action on horseback. the oalder fassion is still more inconvenient, it is somewhat in the form of the blade of an espantoon but is attatchd to a helve of the dementions before discribed the blade is sometimes by way of ornament purforated with two three or more small circular holes--the following is the general figure it is from to inces in length [lewis, february , ] th february wednesday . fair morning wind from n. w. had a sley prepared against the return of the horses which capt clark had promised to send back as soon as he should be able to procure a load of meat. visited by many of the natives among others the big white, the coal, big-man, hairy horn and the black man, i smoked with them, after which they retired, a deportment not common, for they usually pester us with their good company the ballance of the day after once being introduced to our apartment. shields killed three antelopes this evening. the blacksmiths take a considerable quantity of corn today in payment for their labour. the blacksmith's have proved a happy resoce to us in our present situation as i believe it would have been difficult to have devised any other method to have procured corn from the natives. the indians are extravegantly fond of sheet iron of which they form arrow-points and manufacter into instruments for scraping and dressing their buffaloe robes--i permited the blacksmith to dispose of a part of a sheet-iron callaboos which had been nearly birnt out on our passage up the river, and for each piece about four inches square he obtained from seven to eight gallons of corn from the natives who appeared extreemly pleased with the exchange- [lewis, february , ] th february thursday . this morning was fair thermometer at ° above naught much warmer than it has been for some days; wind s. e. continue to be visited by the natives. the sergt. of the guard reported that the indian women (wives to our interpreters) were in the habit of unbaring the fort gate at any time of night and admitting their indian visitors, i therefore directed a lock to be put to the gate and ordered that no indian but those attatched to the garrison should be permitted to remain all night within the fort or admitted during the period which the gate had been previously ordered to be kept shut which was from sunset untill sunrise. [lewis, february , ] th february friday . this morning was fair wind s. e. the weather still warm and pleasent- visited by the black-cat the principal chief of the roop-tar-he, or upper mandane vilage. this man possesses more integrety, firmness, inteligence and perspicuety of mind than any indian i have met with in this quarter, and i think with a little management he may be made a usefull agent in furthering the views of our government. the black cat presented me with a bow and apologized for not having completed the shield he had promised alledging that the weather had been too could to permit his making it, i gave him som small shot fishing-hooks and yards of ribbon his squaw also presented me with pair of mockersons for which in return i gave a small lookingglass and a couples of nedles. the chief dined with me and left me in the evening. he informed me that his people suffered very much for the article of meat, and that he had not himself tasted any for several days. [lewis, february , ] th february saturday . the morning fair and pleasent, wind from s. e.--visted by mr. mckinzey one the n. w. company's clerks. this evening a man by the name of howard whom i had given permission to go the mandane vilage returned after the gate was shut and rether than call to the guard to have it opened scaled the works an indian who was looking on shortly after followed his example. i convinced the indian of the impropryety of his conduct, and explained to him the riske he had run of being severely treated, the fellow appeared much allarmed, i gave him a small piece of tobacco and sent him away howard i had comitted to the care of the guard with a determineation to have him tryed by a courtmartial for this offence. this man is an old soldier which still hightens this offnce- [lewis, february , ] th february sunday . this morning was cloudy after a slight snow which fell in the course of the night the wind blue very hard from n. w. altho the thermometer stood at ° above naught the violence of the wind caused a degree of could that was much more unpleasent than that of yesterday when thermometer stood at ° only above the same point. mr. mckinzey left me this morning. charbono returned with one of the frenchmen and informed that he had left the three horses and two men with the meat which capt. clark had sent at some distance below on the river--he told me that the horses were heavy loaded and that not being shod it was impossible for horses to travel on the ice. i determined to send down some men with two small slays for the meat and accordingly i gave orders that they should set out early the next morning. two men were also sent to conduct the horses by way of the plain. [lewis, february , ] th february monday . the party that were ordered last evening set out early this morning. the weather was fair and could wind n. w. about five oclock this evening one of the wives of charbono was delivered of a fine boy. it is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent; mr. jessome informed me that he had freequently adminstered a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of a snake by me i gave it to him and he administered two rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. whether this medicine was truly the cause or not i shall not undertake to determine, but i was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she brought forth perhaps this remedy may be worthy of future experiments, but i must confess that i want faith as to it's efficacy.- [lewis, february , ] th february tuesday . the morning was fair tho could, thermometer at ° below naught wind s. e. ordered the blacksmith to shoe the horses and some others to prepare some gears in order to send them down with three slays to join the hunting party and transport the meat which they may have pocured to this place--the the men whom i had sent for the meat left by charbono did not return untill oclock this evening. drewyer arrived with the horses about the same time, the horses appeared much fatieged i directed some meal brands given them moisened with a little water but to my astonishment found that they would not eat it but prefered the bark of the cotton wood which forms the principall article of food usually given them by their indian masters in the winter season; for this purpose they cause the trees to be felled by their women and the horses feed on the boughs and bark of their tender branches. the indians in our neighbourhood are freequently pilfered of their horses by the recares, souixs and assinniboins and therefore make it an invariable rule to put their horses in their lodges at night. in this situation the only food of the horse consists of a few sticks of the cottonwood from the size of a man's finger to that of his arm. the indians are invariably severe riders, and frequently have occasion for many days together through the whole course of the day to employ their horses in pursuing the buffaloe or transporting meat to their vilages during which time they are seldom suffered to tast food; at night the horse returned to his stall where his food is what seems to me a scanty allowance of wood. under these circumstances it would seem that their horses could not long exist or at least could not retain their flesh and strength, but the contrary is the fact, this valuable anamall under all those disadvantages is seldom seen meager or unfit for service.--a little after dark this evening capt. clark arrived with the hunting party--since they set out they have killed forty deer, three buffaloe bulls, & sixteen elk, most of them were so meager that they were unfit for uce, particularly the buffaloes and male elk--the wolves also which are here extreemly numerous heped themselves to a considerable proportion of the hunt--if an anamal is killed and lyes only one night exposed to the wolves it is almost invariably devoured by them. [lewis, february , ] th february wednesday . the morning cloudy thermometer ° below naught wind from s. e. visited by the black-cat gave him a battle ax with which he appeared much gratifyed. [clark, february , ] i returned last night from a hunting party much fatigued, haveing walked miles on the ice and through of wood land points in which the snow was nearly knee deep the st day i left the fort proceeded on the ice to new mandan island, miles & camped killed nothing, & nothing to eat, the d day the morning verry cold & windey, i broke thro the ice and got my feet and legs wet, sent out hunters thro a point to kill a deer & cook it by the time the party should get up, those hunters killed a deer & buffalow bulls the buffalow too meagur to eate, we eate the deer & proceeded on to an old indian lodge, sent out the hunters & they brought in three lean deer, which we made use of for food,--walking on uneaven ice has blistered the bottom of my feat, and walking is painfull to me rd day cold morning the after party of the day worm, camped on a sand point near the mouth of a creek on the s w. side we call hunting creek, i turned out with the hunters, i killed deer the hunters killed an elk, buffalow bull & deer. all meager th day hunted the two bottoms near the camp killed elk, deer, brought to camp all the meat fit to eate & had the bones taken out. every man ingaged either in hunting or collecting & packing the meat to camp th day dispatched one of the party our interpeter & french men with the horses loaded with the best of the meat to the fort miles distant, the remaining meat i had packed on the slays & drawn down to the next point about miles below, at this place i had all the meat collected which was killed yesterday & had escaped the wolves, raven & magpie, (which are verry noumerous about this place) and put into a close pen made of logs to secure it from the wolves & birds & proceeded on to a large bottom nearly opposit the chisscheter (heart) river, in this bottom we found but little game, great no. of wolves, on the hills saw several parsels of buffalow.--camped. i killed a buck th day the buffalow seen last night provd to be bulls. lean & unfit for to make uce of as food, the distance from camp being nearly miles, and the packing of meat that distance attended with much difficuity deturmined me to return and hunt the points above, we set out on our return and halted at an old indian lodge miles below fort mandan killed elk & deer-. th day a cold day wind blew hard from the n. w. j fields got one of his ears frosed deturmined to lay by and hunt today killed an elk & deer,* this meat i had boned & put onto a close pen made of logs--*all that was fit for use th day air keen halted at the old camp we stayed in on the d night after we left the fort, expecting to meat the horses at this place, killed deer, several men being nearly out of mockersons & the horses not returning deturmind me to return to the fort on tomorrow th day. set out early, saw great numbers of grouse feeding on the young willows, on the sand bars one mans i sent in persute of a gangue of elk killed three near the old ricara village and joined at the fort, sent him back to secure the meat one man with him--the ice on the parts of the river which was verry rough, as i went down, was smothe on my return, this is owing to the rise and fall of the water, which takes place every day or two, and caused by partial thaws, and obstructions in the passage of the water thro the ice, which frequently attaches itself to the bottom.--the water when riseing forses its way thro the cracks & air holes above the old ice, & in one night becoms a smothe surface of ice to inchs thick,--the river falls & the ice sink in places with the water and attaches itself to the bottom, and when it again rises to its former hite, frequently leavs a valley of several feet to supply with water to bring it on a leavel surfice. the water of the missouri at this time is clear with little tinges. i saw several old villages near the chisscheta river on enquirey found they were mandan villages destroyed by the sous & small pox, they noumerous and lived in villages near that place. [clark, february , ] th sent men with the horses shod & slays down for the meat i had left, miles below those men were rushed on by sioux who robed them of of their horses--& they returned [clark, february , ] th of february thursday the snow fell inches deep last night, a fine morning, dispatched george drewyer & men with two slays drawn by horses for the meat left below- [clark, february , ] th capt. lewis with a party of men & indians went in pursute of the sioux, the indians returned the next day & informed me that the sioux had burnt all my meat & born home (they saw me but was afraid to attact me) capt lewis returned the st with l. of meat, haveing killed deer & elk, the sioux burnt one of my meet houses; they did not find the other [clark, february , ] th of february friday at oclock p m. last night the men that dispatched yesterday for the meat, returned and informed us that as they were on their march down at the distance of about miles below the fort about indians which they took to be souis rushed on them and cut their horses from the slays, two of which they carried off in great hast, the rd horse was given up to the party by the intersetion of an indian who assumd some authority on the accasion, probably more thro fear of himself or some of the indians being killed by our men who were not disposed to be robed of all they had tamely, they also forced of the mens knives & a tamahawk, the man obliged them to return the tamahawk the knives they ran off with g drewyer frasure, s gutterage, & newmon with a broken gun we dispatched two men to inform the mandans, and if any of them chose to pursue those robers, to come down in the morning, and join capt lewis who intended to set out with a party of men verry early, by oclock the chief of the ed village big white came down, and soon after one other chief and several men--the chief observed that all the young men of the villages were out hunting, and but verry fiew guns were left,capt. lewis set out at sunrise with men, to meet those soues &c. several indians accompanied him some with bows & arrows some withe spears & battle axes, a with fusees--the morning fine the thermometer stood at ° below , nought, visited by of the big bellies this evening,--one chief of the mandans returned from capt lewises party nearly blind--this complaint is as i am infomd. common at this season of the year and caused by the reflection of the sun on the ice & snow, it is cured by jentilley swetting the part affected by throweng snow on a hot stone verry cold part of the night--one man killed a verry large red fox to day [clark, february , ] th of february satturday a fine morning, visited by but fiew indians to day, at dusk two of the indians who wint down with capt. lewis returned, soon after two others and one man (howard) with his feet frosted, and informed that the inds. who commited the roberry of the horses was so far a head that they could not be overtaken, they left a number of pars of mockersons which, the mandans knew to be souix mockersons,--this war party camped verry near the last camp i made when on my hunting party, where they left some corn, as a deception, with a view to induc a belief that they were ricarras. capt lewis & party proceeded on down the meat i left at my last camp was taken. [clark, february , ] th of february sunday this morning worm & a little cloudy, the coal & his son visited me to day with about w. of drid buffalow meat, & some tallow mr. mckinsey one of the n w. compys. clerks visited me (one of the hoses the sous robed a fiew days past belonged to this man) the after part of the day fair, [clark, february , ] th of february monday a cloudy morning some snow, several indians here today mr. mckinsey leave me, the after part of the day fine i am much engaged makeing a discriptive list of the rivers from information our store of meat is out to day [clark, february , ] th of february tuesday a fine day visited by several of the mandans to day, our smiths are much engaged mending and makeing axes for the indians for which we get corn [clark, february , ] fort mandan th february wednesday a butifull day, visited by the little raven verry early this morning i am informed of the death of an old man whome i saw in the mandan village. this man, informed me that he "was winters old, he requested his grand children to dress him after death & set him on a stone on a hill with his face towards his old village or down the river, that he might go streight to his brother at their old village under ground"i observed several mandan verry old chiefly men [clark, february , ] st february thursday a delightfull day put out our clothes to sun--visited by the big white & big man they informed me that several men of their nation was gorn to consult their medison stone about day march to the south west to know what was to be the result of the insuing year--they have great confidence in this stone and say that it informs them of every thing which is to happen, & visit it every spring & sometimes in the summer "they haveing arrived at the stone give it smoke and proceed to the wood at some distance to sleep the next morning return to the stone, and find marks white & raised on the stone representing the piece or war which they are to meet with, and other changes, which they are to meet" this stone has a leavel surface of about feet in surcumfrance, thick and pores, and no doubt has some mineral qualtites effected by the sun. the big bellies have a stone to which they ascribe nearly the same virtues capt lewis returned with slays loaded with meat, after finding that he could not overtake the souis war party, (who had in their way distroyd all the meat at one deposit which i had made & burnt the lodges) deturmined to proceed on to the lower deposit, which he found had not been observed by soux he hunted two day killed deer & elk, several of them so meager, that they were unfit for use, the meet which he killed and that in the lower deposit amounting to about wt was brought up on two slays, one drawn by men had about wt on it [clark, february , ] fort mandan nd of february friday . a cloudy morning, at about oclock it began to rain and continud for a fiew minits, and turned to snow, and continud snowing for about one hour, and cleared away fair the two hunters left below arrived, they killed two elk, and hung them up out of the reach of the wolves--the coal a ricara who is a considerable chief of the mandans visited us to day, and maney others of the three nations in our neighbourhood. [clark, february , ] rd of february satturday all hands employed in cutting the perogus loose from the ice, which was nearly even with their top; we found great difficuelty in effecting this work owing to the different devisions of ice & water after cutting as much as we could with axes, we had all the iron we could get & some axes put on long poles and picked throught the ice, under the first water, which was not more the or inches deep--we disengaged one perogue, and nearly disingaged the nd in course of this day which has been warm & pleasent vised by a no of indians, jessomme & familey went to the shoes indians villag to day the father of the boy whose feet were frose near this place, and nearly cured by us took him home in a slay- [clark, february , ] th february sunday the day fine, we commenced very early to day the cutting loose the boat which was more difficuelt than the perogus with great exertions and with the assistance of great prises we lousened her and turned the second perogue upon the ice, ready to draw out, in lousening the boat from the ice some of the corking drew out which caused her to leake for a few minits untill we discovered the leake & stoped it--jessomme our interpeter & familey returned from the villages several indians visit us today [clark, february , ] th of february monday we fixed a windlass and drew up the two perogues on the upper bank and attempted the boat, but the roap which we bade made of elk skins proved too weak & broke several times night comeing on obliged us to leave her in a situation but little advanced- we were visited by the black mockerson chief of the little village of big bellies, the cheef of the shoe inds and a number of others those chiefs gave us some meat which they packed on their wives, and one requested a ax to be made for hies sun, mr. bunch, one of the under traders for the hudsons bay companey--one of the big bellies asked leave for himself & his two wives to stay all night, which was granted, also two boys stayed all night, one the sun of the black cat. the day has been exceedingly pleasent [clark, february , ] th of feby drew up the boat & perogus, after cutting them out of the ice with great dificuelty-& trouble [clark, february , ] th february tuesday a fine day commencd verry early in makeing preparations for drawing up the boat on the bank, at sunset by repeated exertions the whole day we accomplished this troublesom task, just as we were fixed for having the boat the ice gave away near us for about yds in length--a number of indians here to day to see the boat rise on the bank [clark, february , ] th of february wednesday a fine day, prepareing the tools to make perogues all day--a feiw indians visit us to day, one the largest indian i ever saw, & as large a man as ever i saw, i commence a map of the countrey on the missouries & its waters &c. &c.- [clark, february , ] th of february thursday mr. gravilin frenchmen and ricaras arrived from the ricaras with letters from mr. tahoe &c. informing us of the deturmination of the ricaras to follow our councils--and the threts & intintions of the sioux in killing us whenever they again met us--and that a party of several bands were formeing to attacke the mandans &c. &c. we informed the mandans & others of this information & also the wish the ricars had to live near them & fite the sioux &c. &c. &c. despatched men miles abov to build canoes for the voyage, being deturmend to send back the barge [clark, february , ] th of february thursday a fine morning, two men of the n w compy arrve with letters and sacka comah also a root and top of a plant presented by mr. haney, for the cure of mad dogs snakes &c, and to be found & used as follows vz: "this root is found on high lands and asent of hills, the way of useing it is to scarify the part when bitten to chu or pound an inch or more if the root is small, and applying it to the bitten part renewing it twice a day. the bitten person is not to chaw nor swallow any of the root for it might have contrary effect." sent out men to make four perogus those men returned in the evening and informed that they found trees they thought would answer. mr. gravelin two frenchmen & two inds. arrive from the ricara nation with letters from mr. anty tabeaux, informing us of the peaceable dispositions of that nation towards the mandans & me ne to res & their avowed intentions of pursueing our councils & advice, they express a wish to visit the mandans, & know if it will be agreeable to them to admit the ricaras to settle near them and join them against their common enimey the souis we mentioned this to the mandans, who observed they had always wished to be at peace and good neighbours with the ricaras, and it is also the sentiments of all the big bellies, & shoe nations mr. gravilin informs that the sisetoons and the upper bands of the tetons, with the yanktons of the north intend to come to war in a short time against the nations in this quarter, & will kill everry white man they see--mr. t. also informes that mr. cameron of st peters has put arms into the hands of the souls to revenge the death of of his men killed by the chipaways latterly--and that the band of tetons which we saw is desposed to doe as we have advised them--thro the influenc of their chief the black buffalow mr. gravilin further informs that the party which robed us of the horses laterly were all sieoux in number, they called at the ricaras on their return, the ricares being displeased at their conduct would not give them any thing to eate, that being the greatest insult they could peaceably offer them, and upbraded them. [clark, march , ] march st friday a fine day i am ingaged in copying a map, men building perogus, makeing ropes, burning coal, hanging up meat & makeing battle axes for corn [clark, march , ] nd of march satturday a fine day the river brake up in places all engaged about something mr. la rocque a clerk of the n w company visit us, he has latterly returned from the establishments on the assinniboin river with merchindize to tarade with indians--mr. l informs us the n, w. & x y companies have joined, & the head of the n w. co. is dead mr. mctavish of monteral,- visted by the coal & several indians [clark, march , ] rd of march sunday a fine day wind from the w, a large flock of ducks pass up the rivervisited by the black cat, chief of the mandans d cheif and a big belley, they stayed but a short time we informed those chiefs of the news recved from the ricaras, all hands employd [clark, march , ] fort mandan th march monday a cloudy morning wind from the n w the after part of the day clear, visited by the black cat & big white, who brought a small present of meat, an engage of the n w co. came for a horse, and requested in the name of the woman of the princapal of his department some silk of three colours, which we furnished-. the assinniboins who visited the mandans a fiew days ago returned and attempted to take horses of the minetarres & were fired on by them [clark, march , ] th march tuesday a fine day themometer at ° abo . several indians visit us to day one frenchman cross to join a indian the two pass through by land to the ricaras with a letter to mr. tabbow [clark, march , ] th of march wednesday a cloudy morning & smokey all day from the burning of the plains, which was set on fire by the minetarries for an early crop of grass as an endusement for the buffalow to feed on--the horses which was stolen some time ago by the assinniboins from the minetarries were returned yesterday--visited by oh-harh or the little fox d chief of the lower village of the me ne tar ries--one man shannon cut his foot with the ads in working at a perogue, george & graviline go to the village, the river rise a little to day- [clark, march , ] th of march thursday a little cloudy and windey n e. the coal visited us with a sick child, to whome i gave some of rushes pills--shabounar returned this evening from the gross vintres & informed that all the nation had returned from the hunting--he our menetarre interpeter had received a present from mr. chaboilleiz of the n. w. company of the following articles brace of cloath brace of scarlet a par corduroy overalls vests brace blu cloth brace red or scarlet with bars, balls & powder, bracs tobacco, knives. [clark, march , ] th of march friday a fair morning cold and windey, wind from the east, visited by the greesey head & a riarca to day, those men gave some account of the indians near the rockey mountains a young indian same nation & differnt village stole the doughter of the black man, he went to his village took his horse & returned & took away his doughter [clark, march , ] on the th of march we were visited by the grand chief of the minetarres, to whome we gave a medal & some cloths & a flag. sent a french man & a indian with a letter to mr. tabboe informing them the ricarras of the desire the mandans had to see them &. &. [clark, march , ] th of march satturday a cloudy cold and windey morning wind from the north--walked up to see the party that is makeing perogues, about miles above this, the wind hard and cold on my way up i met the main chief of the manitarres with four indians on thier way to see us, i requested him to proceed on to the fort where he would find capt. lewis i should be there my self in corse of a fiew hours, sent the interpeter back with him and proceeded on my self to the canoes found them nearly finished, the timber verry bad, after visiting all the perogues where i found a number of indans i wind to the upper mandan village & smoked a pipe the greatest mark of friendship and attention with the chief and returned on my return found the manitarree chief about setting out on his return to his village, having recieved of captain m. lewis a medel gorget armbans, a flag shirt, scarlet &c. &c. &c. for which he was much pleased those things were given in place of sundery articles sent to him which he sais he did not receive guns were fired for this great man [clark, march , ] th of march sunday . a cold winday day. we are visited by the black mockersons, chief of the d manetarre village and the chief of the shoeman village or mah ha ha v. those chiefs stayed all day and the latter all night and gave us many strang accounts of his nation &c this little tribe or band of menitaraies call themselves ah-nah-haway or people whose village is on the hill. nation formerleyed lived about miles below this but beeing oppressed by the asinniboins & sous were compelled to move miles the minitaries, where, the assinniboins killed the most of. them those remaining built a village verry near to the minitarries at the mouth of knife r where they now live and can raise about men, they are intermixed with the mandans & minatariers--the manclans formerly lived in large villages at and above the mouth of chischeter or heart river five villages on the west side & two on the east one of those villages on the east side of the missouri & the larges was intirely cut off by the sioux & the greater part of the others and the small pox reduced the others. [clark, march , ] fort mandan th of march monday a cloudy cold windey day, some snow in the latter part of the day, we deturmin to have two other perogues made for us to transport our provisions &c. we have every reason to believe that our menetarre interpeter, (whome we intended to take with his wife, as an interpeter through his wife to the snake indians of which nation she is) has been corupted by the ____ companeys &c. some explenation has taken place which clearly proves to us the fact, we give him to night to reflect and deturmin whether or not he intends to go with us under the regulations stated. [clark, march , ] th a fine day some snow last night our interpeter shabonah, detumins on not proceeding with us as an interpeter under the terms mentioned yesterday he will not agree to work let our situation be what it may not stand a guard, and if miffed with any man he wishes to return when he pleases, also have the disposial of as much provisions as he chuses to carrye. in admissable and we suffer him to be off the engagement which was only virbal wind n w [clark, march , ] th of march wednesday a fine day visited by mr. mckinsey one of the clerks of the n w companey, the river riseing a little--maney inds. here to day all anxiety for war axes the smiths have not an hour of idle time to spear wind s w [clark, march , ] th march thursday . a fine day set all hands to shelling corn &c. mr. mckinsey leave us to day maney indians as usial. wind west river still riseing [clark, march , ] th of march friday a fine day i put out all the goods & parch meal clothing &c to sun, a number of indians here to day they make maney remarks respecting our goods &c. set some men about hulling corn &c. [lewis, march , ] march th, . mr. gurrow a frenchman who has lived many years with the ricares & mandans shewed us the process used by those indians to make beads. the discovery of this art these nations are said to have derived from the snake indians who have been taken prisoners by the ricaras. the art is kept a secret by the indians among themselves and is yet known to but few of them. the prosess is as follows,--take glass of as many different colours as you think proper, then pound it as fine as possible puting each colour in a seperate vessel. wash the pounded glass in several waters throwing off the water at each washing. continue this opperation as long as the pounded glass stains or colours the water which is poured off and the residium is then prepared for uce. you then provide an earthen pot of convenient size say of three gallons which will stand the fire; a platter also of the same materials sufficiently small to be admitted in the mouth of the pot or jar. the pot has a nitch in it's edge through which to watch the beads when in blast. you then provide some well seasoned clay with a propertion of sand sufficient to prevent it's becoming very hard when exposed to the heat. this clay must be tempered with water untill it is about the consistency of common doe. of this clay you then prepare, a sufficient number of little sticks of the size you wish the hole through the bead, which you do by roling the clay on the palm of the hand with your finger. this done put those sticks of clay on the platter and espose them to a red heat for a few minutes when you take them off and suffer them to cool. the pot is also heated to cles it perfectly of any filth it may contain. small balls of clay are also mad of about an ounce weight which serve each as a pedestal for a bead. these while soft ar distributed over the face of the platter at such distance from each other as to prevent the beads from touching. some little wooden paddles are now provided from three to four inches in length sharpened or brought to a point at the extremity of the handle. with this paddle you place in the palm of the hand as much of the wet pounded glass as is necessary to make the bead of the size you wish it. it is then arranged with the paddle in an oblong form, laying one of those little stick of clay crosswise over it; the pounded glass by means of the paddle is then roped in cilindrical form arround the stick of clay and gently roled by motion of the hand backwards an forwards until you get it as regular and smooth as you conveniently can. if you wish to introduce any other colour you now purforate the surface of the bead with the pointed end of your little paddle and fill up the cavity with other pounded glass of the colour you wish forming the whole as regular as you can. a hole is now made in the center of the little pedestals of clay with the handle of your shovel sufficiently large to admit the end of the stick of clay arround which the bead is formed. the beads are then arranged perpindicularly on their pedestals and little distance above them supported by the little sticks of clay to which they are attatched in the manner before mentioned. thus arranged the platter is deposited on burning coals or hot embers and the pot reversed with the apparture in it's edge turned towards coverd the whole. dry wood pretty much doated _; is then plased arron the pot in sush manner as compleatly to cover it is then set on fire and the opperator must shortly after begin to watch his beads through the apparture of the pot lest they should be distroyed by being over heated. he suffers the beads to acquire a deep red heat from which when it passes in a small degree to a pailer or whitish red, or he discovers that the beads begin to become pointed at their upper extremities he removes the fire from about the pot and suffers the whole to cool gradually. the pot is then removed and the beads taken out. the clay which fills the hollow of the beads is picked out with an awl or nedle, the bead is then fit for uce. the indians are extreemly fond of the large beads formed by this process. they use them as pendants to their years, or hair and sometimes wear them about their necks. [clark, march , ] th of march satturday a cloudy day wind from the s. e one indian much displeased with whitehouse for strikeing his hand when eating with a spoon for behaveing badly. mr. garrow shew'd us the way the ricaras made their large beeds [clark, march , ] th of march sunday a windey day attempted to air our goods &. mr. chabonah sent a french man of our party that he was sorry for the foolissh part he had acted and if we pleased he would accompany us agreeabley to the terms we had perposed and doe every thing we wished him to doe &c. &c. he had requested me some thro our french inturpeter two days ago to excuse his simplicity and take him into the cirvise, after he had taken his things across the river we called him in and spoke to him on the subject, he agreed to our terms and we agreed that he might go on with us &c &c. but fiew indians here to day; the river riseing a little and severall places open. [clark, march , ] th of march a cold cloudy day wind from the n. i pack up all the merchindize into packs equally devided so as to have something of every thing in each canoe & perogue i am informed of a party of christanoes & assinniboins being killed by the sioux, in number near the estableishments on the assinniboin r. a fiew days ago (the effect of mr. cammeron, revenge on the chipaway for killing of his men) mr. tousent chabono, enlisted as an interpreter this evening, i am not well to day. [clark, march , ] th of march cold windey day cloudy some little snow last night visited to day by the big white & little crow, also a man & his wife with a sick child, i administer for the child i am told that two parties are gorn to war from the big bellies and one other party going to war shortly. [clark, march , ] i visited the mandans on the th & have the canoes taken to the river, ready to decend to the fort when the river clears, [clark, march , ] fort mandan th march wednesday . i with all the men which could be speared from the fort went to canoes, there i found a number of indians the men carried to the river about / miles thro the bottom, i visited the chief of the mandans in the course of the day and smoked a pipe with himself and several old men. cloudy wind hard from n. [clark, march , ] i return on the st and on my return i passed on the points of the high hills s. s. where i saw an emence quantity of pumice stone, and evident marks of the hills being on fire i collected some pumice stone, burnt stone & hard earth and put them into a furnace, the hard earth melted and glazed the other two a part of which i, e, the hard clay became a pumice-stone, i also collected a plant the root of which is a cure for the bite of a mad dog & snake which i shall send--mr. haney (i think it grows in the blue r barrens) the indians make large beeds of different colours- [clark, march , ] st march thursday a cloudy day some snow, the men carried the remaining the remained canoes to the river, all except left to take care & complete the canoes, returned to the fort with their baggage, on my return to day to the fort i came on the points of the high hills, saw an emence quantity of pumice stone on the sides & foot of the hills and emence beds of pumice stone near the tops of the hills with evident marks of the hill haveing once been on fire, i collected some the differnt i e stone pumice stone & a hard earth and put them into a furnace the hard earth melted and glazed the others two and the hard clay became a pumice stone glazed. i collected some plants &c. [clark, march , ] nd of march visited by the nd chief of the grand village of the minetarrees to whome we gave a medal & some clothes acknowledging him as a d chief, he delayed all night, & saw the men dance, which is common amusement with the men he returned the rd with mr. la rocque & mckinsey two of the n w. companys clerks--some few drops of rain this evening for the first time this winter visited by many indians to day [clark, march , ] march , rd of march friday a cloudy day visited by mrs. lack mckinsey & the d chief of the bigbellies, the white wolf and many other menataries, we gave a medal some clothes and wampoms to the chief and delivered a speach, which they all appeared well pleased with in the evening the men danced mr. jessomme displeased [clark, march , ] th of march satturday after brackfast mr. la rocke and mr. mckinsey and the chiefs & men of the minetarras leave us--soon after we were visited by a brother of the burnia who gave us a vocabulary of his language--the coal & many other mandans also visit us to day. a find day in the fore part in the evening a little rain & the first this winter [clark, march , ] th of march sunday a cloudy morning wind from the n e the after part of the day fair, several indians visit us today, prepareing to set out on our journey saw swans & wild gees flying n e this evening [clark, march , ] march , h the ice broke up in several places in the evenig broke away and was nearly takeing off our new canoes river rise a little [clark, march , ] th of march monday a find day wind s. w. but fiew inds visit us to day the ice haveing broken up in several places, the ice began to brake away this evening and was near distroying our canoes as they wer decnding to the fort, river rose only inches to day prepareing to depart [clark, march , ] th of march tuesday the river choked up with ice opposit to us and broke away in the evening raised only / inch all employed prepareing to set out [clark, march , ] th had all the canoes, the perogus corked pitchd & lined cover the cotton wood, which is win shaken (the mandans feed their horses on the cotton wood sticks in places of corn). [clark, march , ] th of march friday a windey blustering day wind s w ice running the river blocked up in view for the space of hours and gave way leaveing great quantity of ice on the shallow sand bars. had all the canoes corked pitched & tirred in and on the cracks and windshake which is universially in the cotton wood [clark, march , ] march , th the ice stoped running owing to some obstickle above all prepareing to set out but few indians visit us to day they are watching to catch the floating buffalow which brake through the ice in crossing, those people are fond of those animals tainted and catch great numbers every spring [clark, march , ] th of march satturday the ice has stoped running owing to som obstickle above, repare the boat & perogues, and prepareing to set out but few indians visit us to day they are now attending on the river bank to catch the floating buffalow [clark, march , ] th of march. the ice is passing in great quantites, river ran a little, the plains are on fire on both sides of the river it is common for the indians to set those plains on fire near their village for the advantage of early grass for the hors & as an inducement to the buffalow to visit them [clark, march , ] th of march sunday the obstickle broke away above & the ice came dow in great quantites the river rose inches the last hours i observed extrodanary dexterity of the indians in jumping from one cake of ice to another, for the purpose of catching the buffalow as they float down maney of the cakes of ice which they pass over are not two feet square. the plains are on fire in view of the fort on both sides of the river, it is said to be common for the indians to burn the plains near their villages every spring for the benifit of ther horse, and to induce the buffalow to come near to them. [clark, march , ] h of march monday cloudy several gangus of ducks and gees pass up not much ice floating. all the party in high spirits, but fiew nights pass without a dance they are helth. except the-vn.--which is common with the indians and have been communicated to many of our party at this place--those favores bieng easy acquired. all tranquille [clark, march , ] t of march monday cloudy day seven gangs of gees and ducks pass up the river--but a small portion of ice floating down to day--but fiew inds visit us to day all the party in high spirits they pass but fiew nights without amuseing themselves danceing possessing perfect harmony and good understanding towards each other generally healthy except venerials complains which is verry commion amongst the natives and the men catch it from them [clark, april , ] april st we have thunder lightning hail and rain to day the first rain of note sinc the of october last, i had the boat perogus & canos put in the water, and expect to set off the boat with despatches in her will go americans frenchmen, and perhaps several ricarra chief imediately after we shall assend in perogus & canoes, accompanied by french who intends to assend a short distance to trap the beavr which is in great abundance highr up our party will consist of one interpter & hunter, one french man as an interpreter with his two wives (this man speaks minetary to his wives who are l hiatars or snake indians of the nations through which we shall pass, and to act as interpretress thro him)-- americans & french my servant and an mandan indian and provisions for months [clark, april , ] fort mandan april the st tuesday the fore part of to day haile rain with thunder & lightning, the rain continued by intimitions all day, it is worthey of remark that this is the st rain which has fallen since we have been here or since the of october last, except a fiew drops at two or three defferent times had the boat perogus & canoes all put into the water. [clark, april , ] april the nd a cold rain day we are writeing and prepareing dispatches all day--i conclude to send my journal to the president of the united states in its original state for his own perusial, untill i call for it or some friend if i should not return, an this journal is from the th of may untill the rd of april . wrote untill verry late at night but little time to devote to my friends, the river is falling fast. [clark, april , ] april the nd friday a cloudy day rained all the last night we are preparing to set out all thing nearly ready. the d chief of the d mandan village took a miff at our not attending to him perticelarely after being here about ten day and moved back to his village the mandans killed twenty one elk yesterday miles below this, they were so meager that they scercely fit for use [clark, april , ] rd of april we shall pack up to day and set out tomorrow. [clark, april , ] april the rd thursday a white frost this morning, some ice on the edge of the water, a fine day pack up and prepare to load mrs. la roche & mckinsey clerk to the n w. compy. visit us. mr. mckinzey wishes to get pay for his horse lost in our service this winter and one of which was robed this winter by the tetons, we shall pay this man for his horse. we are all day ingaged packing up sundery articles to be sent to the president of the u. s. bow an quiver of arrows-with some ricara's tobacco seed no. a martin skin, containing the tail of a mule deer, a weasel and three squirels from the rockey mountains. no. . the bones & skeleton of a small burrowing wolf of the praries the skin being lost by accident. no. the skeliton of the white and grey hare. box no. , contains buffalow robes, and a ear of mandan corn. the large trunk contains a male & female brarow and female's skeliton. a carrote of ricaras tobacco a red fox skin containing a magpie. no. minitarras buffalow robe containing some articles of indian dress. no. a mandan robe containing two burrowing squirels, a white weasel and the skin of a loucirvea. also red fox skins. white hare skin &. horns of the mountain ram robe representing a battle between the sioux & ricaras, minetarras and mandans. in box no. . nos. & the skins of the male & female antelope with their skelitons. & the skin of a yellow bear which i obtained from the scions no. . box specimens of plants numbered from to . specimens of plants numbered frome to . earthen pot such as the mandans manufacture and use for culinary purposes. box no continued tin box, containing insects mice &c. a specimine of the fur of the antelope. a specimon of a plant, and a parcel of its roots highly prized by the natives as an efficatious remidy in cases of the bite of the rattle snake or mad dog. in a large trunk skins of a male and female braro, or burrowing dog of the prarie, with the skeliton of the female. skin of the red fox containing a magpie. cased skins of the white hare. minitarra buffalow robe containing some articles of indian dress mandan buffalow robe containing a dressed lousirva skin, and cased skins of the burrowing squirel of the praries. red fox skins horns of the mountain ram or big horn. buffalow robe painted by a mandan man representing a battle fought years since by the sioux & ricaras against the mandans, menitarras & ah wah bar ways (mandans &c. on horseback) cage no. . contains a liveing burrowing squirel of the praries cage no. . contains liveing magpies cage no. . containing a liveing hen of the prarie a large par of elks horns containing by the frontal bone- [clark, april , ] april the th wednesday a blustering windey day the clerks of the n w. co. leave us we are arrangeing all things to set out &c. [clark, april , ] april the th thursday we have our perogues & six canoes loaded with our stores & provisions, principally provisions. the wind verry high from the n w. a number of mandans visit us to day [clark, april , ] april the th friday saturday a fine day visited by a number of mandans, we are informed of the arrival of the whole of the ricarra nation on the other side of the river near their old village. we sent an interpreter to see with orders to return imediately and let us know if their chiefs ment to go down to see their great father. [lewis, april , ] fort mandan april th . having on this day at p.m. completed every arrangement necessary for our departure, we dismissed the barge and crew with orders to return without loss of time to s. louis, a small canoe with two french hunters accompanyed the barge; these men had assended the missouri with us the last year as engages. the barge crew consisted of six soldiers and two ____ frenchmen; two frenchmen and a ricara indian also take their passage in her as far as the ricara vilages, at which place we expect mr. tiebeau to embark with his peltry who in that case will make an addition of two, perhaps four men to the crew of the barge. we gave richard warfington, a discharged corpl., the charge of the barge and crew, and confided to his care likewise our dispatches to the government, letters to our private friends, and a number of articles to the president of the united states. one of the frenchmen by the name of gravline an honest discrete man and an excellent boat-man is imployed to conduct the barge as a pilot; we have therefore every hope that the barge and with her our dispatches will arrive safe at st. louis. mr. gravlin who speaks the ricara language extreemly well, has been imployed to conduct a few of the recara chiefs to the seat of government who have promised us to decend in the barge to st. liwis with that view.- at same moment that the barge departed from fort mandan, capt. clark embaked with our party and proceeded up the river. as i had used no exercise for several weeks, i determined to walk on shore as far as our encampment of this evening; accordingly i continued my walk on the n. side of the river about six miles, to the upper village of the mandans, and called on the black cat or pose cop'se ha, the great chief of the mandans; he was not at home; i rested myself a minutes, and finding that the party had not arrived i returned about miles and joined them at their encampment on the n. side of the river opposite the lower mandan village. our party now consisted of the following individuals. sergts. john ordway, nathaniel prior, & patric gass; privates, william bratton, john colter, reubin, and joseph fields, john shields, george gibson, george shannon, john potts, john collins, joseph whitehouse, richard windsor, alexander willard, hugh hall, silas goodrich, robert frazier, peter crouzatt, john baptiest la page, francis labiech, hue mcneal, william werner, thomas p. howard, peter wiser, and john b. thompson. interpreters, george drewyer and tauasant charbono also a black man by the name of york, servant to capt. clark, an indian woman wife to charbono with a young child, and a mandan man who had promised us to accompany us as far as the snake indians with a view to bring about a good understanding and friendly intercourse between that nation and his own, the minetares and ahwahharways. our vessels consisted of six small canoes, and two large perogues. this little fleet altho not quite so rispectable as those of columbus or capt. cook were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and i dare say with quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservation. we were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civillized man had never trodden; the good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these little vessells contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves. however as this the state of mind in which we are, generally gives the colouring to events, when the immagination is suffered to wander into futurity, the picture which now presented itself to me was a most pleasing one. entertaing as i do, the most confident hope of succeading in a voyage which had formed a darling project of mine for the last ten years, i could but esteem this moment of my departure as among the most happy of my life. the party are in excellent health and sperits, zealously attatched to the enterprise, and anxious to proceed; not a whisper of murmur or discontent to be heard among them, but all act in unison, and with the most perfect harmony. i took an early supper this evening and went to bed. capt. clark myself the two interpretters and the woman and child sleep in a tent of dressed skins. this tent is in the indian stile, formed of a number of dressed buffaloe skins sewed together with sinues. it is cut in such manner that when foalded double it forms the quarter of a circle, and is left open at one side where it may be attatched or loosened at pleasure by strings which are sewed to its sides to the purpose. to erect this tent, a parsel of ten or twelve poles are provided, fore or five of which are attatched together at one end, they are then elivated and their lower extremities are spread in a circular manner to a width proportionate to the demention of the lodge, in the same position orther poles are leant against those, and the leather is then thrown over them forming a conic figure. [clark, april , ] th of april satturday " a windey day, the interpreter we sent to the villages returned with chief of the ricara's & men of that nation this chief informed us that he was sent by his nation to know the despositions of the nations in this neighbourhood in respect to the recara's settleing near them, that he had not yet made those arrangements, he request that we would speek to the assinniboins, & crow inds. in their favour, that they wished to follow our directions and be at peace with all, he viewed all nations in this quarter well disposed except the sioux. the wish of those recaras appears to be a junction with the mandans & minetarras in a defensive war with the sioux who rob them of every spece of property in such a manner that they cannot live near them any longer. i told this chief we were glad to see him, and we viewed his nation as the dutifull children of a great father who would extend his protection to all those who would open their ears to his good advice, we had already spoken to the assinniboins, and should speeke to the crow indians if we should see them &c. as to the sioux their great father would not let them have any more good guns &c. would take care to prosu such measurs as would provent those sioux from murding and taking the property from his dutyfull red children &c.--we gave him a certificate of his good conduct & a small medal, a carrot of tobacco and a string of wompom--he requested that one of his men who was lame might decend in the boat to their nation and returned to the mandans well satisfied the name of this chief of war is kah-kah, we to-raven brave. this cheif delivered us a letter from mr. taboe. informing us of the wish of the grand chiefs of the ricarras to visit their great father and requesting the privolage of put'g on board the boat w of skins &c. & adding hands and himself to the party. this preposeal we shall agree to, as that addition will make the party in the boat strong and more able to defend themselves from the seoux &c. [clark, april , ] fort mandan april th " sunday, at oclock p m, the boat, in which was soldiers frenchmen & an indian, all under the command of a corporal who had the charge of dispatches, &c.-and a canoe with french men, set out down the river for st. louis. at the same time we sout out on our voyage up the river in perogues and canoes, and proceded on to the st villg. of mandans & camped on the s. s.--our party consisting of sergt. nathaniel pryor sgt. john ordway sgt. pat. gass, william bratten, john colter joseph & reubin fields, john shields george gibson george shannon, john potts, john collins, jos. whitehouse, richard windser, alexander willard, hugh hall, silas gutrich, robert frazure, peter crouzat, john baptiest la page, francis labich, hugh mcneal, william werner, thomas p. howard, peter wiser, j. b. thompson and my servent york, george drewyer who acts as a hunter & interpreter, shabonah and his indian squar to act as an interpreter & interpretress for the snake indians-one mandan & shabonahs infant. sah-kah-gar we a [lewis, april , ] april th set out early this morning, the wind blew hard against us from the n. w. we therefore traveled very slowly. i walked on shore, and visited the black cat, took leave of him after smoking a pipe as is their custom, and then proceeded on slowly by land about four miles where i wated the arrival of the party, at oclock they came up and informed me that one of the small canoes was behind in distress. capt clark returned foud she had filled with water and all her loading wet. we lost half a bag of hisquit, and about thirty pounds of powder by this accedent; the powder we regard as a serious loss, but we spread it to dry immediately and hope we shall still be enabled to restore the greater part of it. this was the only powder we had which was not perfectly secure from geting wet. we took dinner at this place, and then proceed on to oure encampment, which was on the s. side opposite to a high bluff. the mandan man came up after we had encamped and brought with him a woman who was extreemly solicitous to accompany one of the men of our party, this however we positively refused to permit. from the upper point on an island (being the point to which capt. clark took his last course when he assended the river in surch of a place for winter quarters st november last) to a point of wood land stard side, passing a high bluff on the lard. n ° w. / [clark, april , ] th of april monday set out verry early wind hard a head from the n. w. proceeded on passed all the villages the inhabitents of which flocked down in great numbers to view us, i took my leave of the great chief of the mandans who gave me a par of excellent mockersons, one canoe filed with water every thing in her got wet. / of a barrel of powder lost by this accedent. camped on the s. s. opsd. a high bluff an indian joined us, also an indian woman with a view to accompany us, the woman was sent back the man being acquainted with the countrey we allowed him to accompanie ns [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th set out as early as it was possible to see this morning and proceed about five miles where we halted and took beakfas--the indian man who had promised us to accompany us as far as the snake indians, now informed us of his intention to relinquish the journey, and accordingly returned to his village. we saw a great number of brant passing up the river, some of them were white, except the large feathers in the first and second joint of the wing which are black. there is no other difference between them and the common gray brant but that of their colour--their note and habits are the same, and they are freequently seen to associate together. i have not yet positively determined whether they are the same, or a different species.--capt clark walked on shore to-day and informed me on his return, that passing through the prarie he had seen an anamal that precisely resembled the burrowing squrril, accept in point of size, it being only about one third as large as the squirrel, and that it also burrows. i have observed in many parts of the plains and praries the work of an anamal of which i could never obtain a view. their work resembles that of the salamander common to the sand hills of the states of south carolina and georgia; and like that anamal also it never appears above the ground. the little hillocks which are thrown up by these anamals have much the appearance of ten or twelve pounds of loose earth poared out of a vessel on the surface of the plain. in the state they leave them you can discover no whole through which they throw out this earth; but by removing the loose earth gently you may discover that the soil has been broken in a circle manner for about an inch and a half in diameter, where it appears looser than the adjacent surface, and is certainly the place through which the earth has been thrown out, tho the operation is performed without leaving any visible aperture.--the bluffs of the river which we passed today were upwards of a hundred feet high, formed of a mixture of yellow clay and sand--many horizontal stratas of carbonated wood, having every appearance of pitcoal at a distance; were seen in the the face of these bluffs. these stratas are of unequal thicknesses from i to feet, and appear at different elivations above the water some of them as much as eighty feet. the hills of the river are very broken and many of them have the apearance of having been on fire at some former period. considerable quantities of pumice stone and lava appear in many parts of these hills where they are broken and washed down by the rain and melting snow. when we halted for dinner the squaw busied herself in serching for the wild artichokes which the mice collect and deposit in large hoards. this operation she performed by penetrating the earth with a sharp stick about some small collections of drift wood. her labour soon proved successful, and she procurrd a good quantity of these roots. the flavor of this root resembles that of the jerusalem artichoke, and the stalk of the weed which produces it is also similar, tho both the root and stalk are much smaller than the jarusalem artichoke. the root is white and of an ovate form, from one to three inches in length and usually about the size of a man's finger. one stalk produces from two to four, and somitimes six of these roots. at the distance of miles passed a large wintering or hunting camp of the minetares on the stard. side. these lodges about thirty in number are built of earth and timber in their usual stile. / miles higher we passed the entrance of miry creek, which discharges itself on the stard. side. this creek is but small, takes it's rise in some small lakes near the mouse river and passes in it's course to the missouri, through beatifull, level, and fertile plains, intirely destitute of timber.--three miles above the mouth of this creek we passed a hunting camp of minetares who had prepared a park and were wating the return of the antelope; which usually pass the missouri at this season of the year from the black hills on the south side, to the open plains on the north side of the river; in like manner the antelope repasses the missouri from n. to south in the latter end of autumn, and winter in the black hills, where there is considerable bodies of woodland. we proceed on / miles further and encamped on the n. side in a most beatifull high extensive open bottom [clark, april , ] th of april tuesday . set out this morning verry early under a gentle breeze from the s. e. at brackfast the indian deturmined to return to his nation. i saw a musquetor to day great numbers of brant flying up the river, the maple, & elm has buded & cotton and arrow wood beginning to bud. i saw in the prarie an animal resembling the prarie dog or barking squirel & burrow in the same way, this animal was about / as large as the barking squirel. but fiew resident birds or water fowls which i have seen as yet at miles passed an old hunting camp of menitarrees on the s. s. / miles higher passed the mouth of miry creek on the s. s. passed a hunting camp of minetarees on the s. s. waiting the return of the antilope, saw great numbers of gees feedin in the praries on the young grass, i saw flowers in the praries to day, juniper grows on the sides of the hills, & runs on the ground all the hills have more or less indefferent coal in stratias at different bites from the waters edge to feet. those stratias from inch to feet thick. we campd. on the s. s. above some rocks makeing out in the river in a butifull ellivated plain. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th . set out at an early hour this morning at the distance of three miles passed some minetares who had assembled themselves on the lard shore to take a view of our little fleet. capt clark walked on shore today, for several hours, when he returned he informed me that he had seen a gang of antelopes in the plains but was unable to get a shoot at them he also saw some geese and swan. the geese are now feeding in considerable numbers on the young grass which has sprung up in the bottom prariesthe musquetoes were very troublesome to us today. the country on both sides of the missouri from the tops of the river hills, is one continued level fertile plain as far as the eye can reach, in which there is not even a solitary tree or shrub to be seen except such as from their moist situations or the steep declivities of hills are sheltered from the ravages of the fire. at the distance of miles from our encampment of last night we arrived at the lower point of a bluff on the lard side; about / miles down this bluff from this point, the bluff is now on fire and throws out considerable quantities of smoke which has a strong sulphurious smell. the appearance of the coal in the blufs continues as yesterday. at p.m. we overtook three french hunters who had set out a few days before us with a view of traping beaver; they had taken since they left fort mandan. these people avail themselves of the protection which our numbers will enable us to give them against the assinniboins who sometimes hunt on the missouri and intend ascending with us as far as the mouth of the yellow stone river and continue there hunt up that river. this is the first essay of a beaver hunter of any discription on this river. the beaver these people have already taken is by far the best i have ever seen. the river bottoms we have passed to-day are wider and possess more timber than usualthe courant of the missouri is but moderate, at least not greater than that of the ohio in high tide; it's banks are falling in but little; the navigation is therefore comparitively with it's lower portion easy and safe.--we encamped this evening on a willow point, stard. side just above a remarkable bend in the river to the s. w. which we called the little bason.- [clark, april , ] th of april wednesday set out verry early. the morning cool and no wind proceeded on passed a camp of inds. on the l. s. this day proved to be verry worm, the misquetors troublesom. i saw several antilope on the s. s. also gees & swan, we over took french men trappers the countrey to day as usial except that the points of timber is larger than below, the coal continue to day, one man saw a hill on fire at no great distance from the river, we camped on the s. s. just above a remarkable bend in the river to the s w, which we call the little bacon. [lewis, april , ] thursday april th set out at an early hour; i proceeded with the party and capt clark with george drewyer walked on shore in order to procure some fresh meat if possible. we proceeded on abot five miles, and halted for breakfast, when capt clark and drewyer joined us; the latter had killed, and brought with him a deer which was at this moment excepable as we had had no fresh meat for several days. the country from fort mandan to this place is so constantly hunted by the minetaries that there is but little game we halted at two p.m. and made a comfortable dinner on a venison stake and beavers tales with the bisquit which got wet on the th inst. by the accidant of the canoe filling with water before mentioned. the powder which got wet by the same accedent, and which we had spread to dry on the baggage of the large perogue, was now examined and put up; it appears to be almost restored, and our loss is therefore not so great as we had at first apprehended.--the country much the same as yesterday. on the sides of the hills and even the banks of the rivers and sandbars, there is a white substance that appears in considerable quantities on the surface of the earth, which tastes like a mixture of common salt and glauber salts. many of the springs which flow from the base of the river hills are so strongly impregnated with this substance that the water is extreemly unpleasant to the taste and has a purgative effect.--saw some large white cranes pass up the river- these are the largest bird of that genus common to the country through which the missouri and mississippi pass. they are perfectly white except the large feathers of the two first joints of the wing which are black. we encamped this evening on the stard. shore just above the point of woodland which formed to extremity of the last course of this day. there is a high bluff opposite to us, under which we saw some indians, but the river is here so wide that we could not speake to them; suppose them to be a hunting party of minetares.--we killed two gees today. [clark, april , ] th of april thursday set out verry early i walked on shore, saw fresh bear tracks, one deer & beaver killed this morning in the after part of the day killed two gees; saw great numbers of gees brant & mallard some white cranes swan & guls, the plains begin to have a green appearance, the hills on either side are from to miles asunder and in maney places have been burnt, appearing at a distance of a redish brown choler, containing pumic stone & lava, some of which rolin down to the base of those hills--in maney of those hills forming bluffs to the river we procieve several stratums of bituminious substance which resembles coal; thong some of the pieces appear to be excellent coal it resists the fire for some time, and consumes without emiting much flaim. the plains are high and rich some of them are sandy containing small pebble, and on some of the hill sides large stones are to be seen--in the evening late we observed a party of me ne tar ras on the l. s. with horses and dogs loaded going down, those are a part of the menetarras who camped a little above this with the ossinniboins at the mouth of the little missouri all the latter part of the winter we camped on the s. s. below a falling in bank. the river raise a little. [lewis, april , ] friday april the th . set out at an early hour. our peroge and the canoes passed over to the lard side in order to avoid a bank which was rappidly falling in on the stard. the red perogue contrary to my expectation or wish passed under this bank by means of her toe line where i expected to have seen her carried under every instant. i did not discover that she was about to make this attempt untill it was too late for the men to reembark, and retreating is more dangerous than proceeding in such cases; they therefore continued their passage up this bank, and much to my satisfaction arrived safe above it. this cost me some moments of uneasiness, her cargo was of much importance to us in our present advanced situation--we proceeded on six miles and came too on the lower side of the entrance of the little missouri on the lard shore in a fine plain where we determined to spend the day for the purpose of celestial observation. we sent out hunters to procure some fresh meat. at this place made the following observations.- the night proved so cloudy that i could make no further observations. george drewyer shot a beaver this morning, which we found swiming in the river a small distance below the entrance of the little missouri. the beaver being seen in the day, is a proof that they have been but little hunted, as they always keep themselves closly concealed during the day where they are so.--found a great quantity of small onions in the plain where we encamped; had some of them collected and cooked, found them agreeable. the bulb grows single, is of an oval form, white, and about the size of a small bullet; the leaf resembles that of the shive, and the hunters returned this eying with one deer only. the country about the mouth of this river had been recently hunted by the minetares, and the little game which they had not killed and frightened away, was so extreemly shy that the hunters could not get in shoot of them. the little missouri disembogues on the s. side of the missouri miles from the confluence of the latter with the mississippi. it is yards wide at it's mouth, and sets in with a bould current but it's greatest debth is not more than / feet. it's navigation is extreemly difficult, owing to it's rapidity, shoals and sand bars. it may however be navigated with small canoes a considerable distance. this river passes through the northern extremity of the black hills where it is very narrow and rapid and it's banks high an perpendicular. it takes it's rise in a broken country west of the black hills with the waters of the yellow stone river, and a considerable distance s. w. of the point at which it passes the black hills. the country through which it passes is generally broken and the highlands possess but little timber. there is some timber in it's bottom lands, which consists of cottonwood red elm, with a small proportion of small ash and box alder. the under brush is willow, red wood, (sometimes called red or swamp willow-) the red burry, and choke cherry the country is extreamly broken about the mouth of this river, and as far up on both sides, as we could observe it from the tops of some elivated hills, which stand betwen these two rivers, about miles from their junction. the soil appears fertile and deep, it consists generally of a dark rich loam intermixed with a small proportion of fine sand. this river in it's course passed near the n. w. side of the turtle mountain, which is said to be no more than or leagues distant from it's entrance in a straight direction, a little to the s. of west.--this mountain and the knife river have therefore been laid down too far s. w. the colour of the water, the bed of the river, and it's appearance in every respect, resembles the missouri; i am therefore induced to believe that the texture of the soil of the country in which it takes it's rise, and that through which it passes, is similar to the country through which the missouri passes after leaving the woody country, or such as we are now in.--on the side of a hill not distant from our camp i found some of the dwarf cedar of which i preserved a specimen (see no. ). this plant spreads it's limbs alonge the surface of the earth, where they are sometimes covered, and always put forth a number of roots on the under side, while on the upper there are a great number of small shoots which with their leaves seldom rise higher than or eight inches. they grow so close as perfectly to conceal the eath. it is an evergreen; the leaf is much more delicate than the common cedar, and it's taste and smell the same. i have often thought that this plant would make very handsome edgings to the borders and walks of a garden; it is quite as handsom as box, and would be much more easily propegated.--the appearance of the glauber salts and carbonated wood still continue. [clark, april , ] th april friday a fine morning set out verry early, the murcery stood ° above . proceeded on to the mouth of the little missouri river and formed a camp in a butifull elivated plain on the lower side for the purpose of takeing some observations to fix the latitude & longitude of this river. this river falls in on the l. side and is yards wide and feet inches deep at the mouth, it takes its rise in the n w extremity of the black mountains, and through a broken countrey in its whole course washing the n w base of the turtle mountain which is situated about leagues s w of its mouth, one of our men baptiest who came down this river in a canoe informs me that it is not navagable, he was days descending. one of our men shot a beaver swimming below the mouth of this river. i walked out on the lower side of this river and found the countrey hilley the soil composed of black mole & a small perportion of sand containing great quantity of small peable some limestone, black flint, & sand stone i killed a hare changeing its colour some parts retaining its long white fur & other parts assumeing the short grey, i saw the magpie in pars, flocks of grouse, the old field lark & crows, & observed the leaf of the wild chery half grown, many flowers are to be seen in the plains, remains of minetarra & ossinneboin hunting camps are to be seen on each side of the two missouris the wind blew verry hard from the s. all the after part of the day, at oclock p m. it became violent & flowey accompanied with thunder and a little rain. we examined our canoes &c found several mice which had already commenced cutting our bags of corn & parched meal, the water of the little missouri is of the same texture colour & quallity of that of the big missouri the after part of the day so cloudy that we lost the evening observation. [lewis, april , ] saturday april th being disappointed in my observations of yesterday for longitude, i was unwilling to remain at the entrance of the river another day for that purpose, and therefore determined to set out early this morning; which we did accordingly; the wind was in our favour after a.m. and continued favourable untill three p.m. we therefore hoisted both the sails in the white perogue, consisting of a small squar sail, and spritsail, which carried her at a pretty good gate, untill about in the afternoon when a suddon squall of wind struck us and turned the perogue so much on the side as to allarm sharbono who was steering at the time, in this state of alarm he threw the perogue with her side to the wind, when the spritsail gibing was as near overseting the perogue as it was possible to have missed. the wind however abating for an instant i ordered drewyer to the helm and the sails to be taken in, which was instant executed and the perogue being steered before the wind was agin placed in a state of security. this accedent was very near costing us dearly. beleiving this vessell to be the most steady and safe, we had embarked on board of it our instruments, papers, medicine and the most valuable part of the merchandize which we had still in reserve as presents for the indians. we had also embarked on board ourselves, with three men who could not swim and the squaw with the young child, all of whom, had the perogue overset, would most probably have perished, as the waves were high, and the perogue upwards of yards from the nearest shore; however we fortunately escaped and pursued our journey under the square sail, which shortly after the accident i directed to be again hoisted. our party caught three beaver last evening; and the french hunters . as there was much appearance of beaver just above the entrance of the little missouri these hunters concluded to remain some days; we therefore left them without the expectation of seeing them again.--just above the entrance of the little missouri the great missouri is upwards of a mile in width, tho immediately at the entrance of the former it is not more than yards wide and so shallow that the canoes passed it with seting poles. at the distance of nine miles passed the mouth of a creek on the stard. side which we called onion creek from the quantity of wild onions which grow in the plains on it's borders. capt. clark who was on shore informed me that this creek was yards wide a mile & a half above it's entrance, discharges more water than creeks of it's size usually do in this open country, and that there was not a stick of timber of any discription to be seen on it's borders, or the level plain country through which it passes. at the distance of miles further we passed the mouth of a large creek; discharging itself in the center of a deep bend. of this creek and the neighbouring country, capt clark who was on shore gave me the following discription "this creek i took to be a small river from it's size, and the quantity of water which it discharged. i ascended it / miles, and found it the discharge of a pond or small lake, which had the appearance of having formerly been the bed of the missouri. several small streems discharge themselves into this lake. the country on both sides consists of beautifull level and elivated plains; asscending as they recede from the missouri; there were a great number of swan and gees in this lake and near it's borders i saw the remains of temperary indian lodges, which i presume were those of the assinniboins who are now in the neighbourhood of the british establishments on the assinniboin river-" this lake and it's discharge we call boos egg from the circumstance of capt clark shooting a goose while on her nest in the top of a lofty cotton wood tree, from which we afterwards took one egg. the wild gees frequently build their nests in this manner, at least we have already found several in trees, nor have we as yet seen any on the ground, or sand bars where i had supposed from previous information that they most commonly deposited their eggs.- saw some bufhaloe and elk at a distance today but killed none of them. we found a number of carcases of the buffaloe lying along shore, which had been drowned by falling through the ice in winter and lodged on shore by the high water when the river broke up about the first of this month. we saw also many tracks of the white bear of enormous size, along the river shore and about the carcases of the buffaloe, on which i presume they feed. we have not as yet seen one of these anamals, tho their tracks are so abundant and recent. the men as well as ourselves are anxious to meet with some of these bear. the indians give a very formidable account of the strengh and ferocity of this anamal, which they never dare to attack but in parties of six eight or ten persons; and are even then frequently defeated with the loss of one or more of their party. the savages attack this anamal with their bows and arrows and the indifferent guns with which the traders furnish them, with these they shoot with such uncertainty and at so short a distance, that they frequently mis their aim & fall a sacrefice to the bear. two minetaries were killed during the last winter in an attack on a white bear. this anamall is said more frequently to attack a man on meeting with him, than to flee from him. when the indians are about to go in quest of the white bear, previous to their departure, they paint themselves and perform all those superstitious rights commonly observed when they are about to make war uppon a neighbouring nation. oserved more bald eagles on this part of the missouri than we have previously seen saw the small hawk, frequently called the sparrow hawk, which is common to most parts of the u states. great quantities of gees are seen feeding in the praries. saw a large flock of white brant or gees with black wings pass up the river; there were a number of gray brant with them; from their flight i presume they proceed much further still to the n. w.--we have never been enabled yet to shoot one of these birds, and cannot therefore determine whether the gray brant found with the white are their brude of the last year or whether they are the same with the grey brant common to the mississippi and lower part of the missouri.--we killed antelopes today which we found swiming from the s. to the n. side of the river; they were very poor.--we encamped this evening on the stard. shore in a beautiful) plain, elivated about feet above the river. [clark, april , ] th of april satturday set out this morning at oclock, the missouri above the mouth of little missouri widens to nearly a mile containing a number of sand bars this width &c. of the river continues generally as high as the rochejhone river. cought beaver this morning, at miles passd. the mouth of a creek on the s. s. on the banks of which there is an imence quantity of wild onions or garlick, i was up this creek / a m. and could not see one stick of timber of any kind on its borders, this creek is yds wide / a mile up it and discharges more water than is common for creeks of its size. at about miles higher we pass a creek about yards wide in a deep bend to the n w. this creek i took to be a small river from its size & the quantity of water which it discharged, i ascended it / mes and found it the discharge of a pond or small lake which has appearance of haveing been once the bead of the river, some small streams discharge themselves into this lake. the countery on both side is butifull elevated plains assending in some parts to a great distance near the aforesaid lake (which we call goose egg l from a circumstance of my shooting a goose on her neast on some sticks in the top of a high cotton wood tree in which there was one egg) we saw buffalow at a distance, we also saw several herds of elk at a distance which were verry wild, i saw near the lake the remains of lodges, which has latterly been abandond i suppose them to have been ossinniboins and now near the british establishments on the ossinniboin river tradeing. we camped on the s. s. in a butifull plain. i observe more bald eagles on this part of the missouri than usial also a small hawk killed antelopes in the river to day emence numbers of geese to be seen pared &c. a gange of brant pass one half of the gange white with black wings or the large feathers of the s & d joint the remds. of the comn. color. a voice much like that of a goos & finer &c. [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . one of the hunters saw an otter last evening and shot at it, but missed it. a dog came to us this morning, which we supposed to have been lost by the indians who were recently encamped near the lake that we passed yesterday. the mineral appearances of salts, coal and sulpher, together with birnt hills & pumicestone still continue.--while we remained at the entrance of the little missouri, we saw several pieces of pumice stone floating down that stream, a considerable quanty of which had lodged against a point of drift wood a little above it's entrance. capt. clark walked on shore this morning, and on his return informed me that he had passed through the timbered bottoms on the n. side of the river, and had extended his walk several miles back on the hills; in the bottom lands he had met with several uninhabited indian lodges built with the boughs of the elm, and in the plains he met with the remains of two large encampments of a recent date, which from the appearance of some hoops of small kegs, seen near them we concluded that they must have been the camps of the assinniboins, as no other nation who visit this part of the missouri ever indulge themselves with spirituous liquor. of this article the assinniboins are pationately fond, and we are informed that it forms their principal inducement to furnish the british establishments on the assinniboin river with the dryed and pounded meat and grease which they do. they also supply those establishments with a small quantity of fur, consisting principally of the large and small wolves and the small fox skins. these they barter for small kegs of ruin which they generally transport to their camps at a distance from the establishments, where they revel with their friends and relations as long as they possess the means of intoxication, their women and children are equally indulged on those occations and are all seen drunk together. so far is a state of intoxication from being a cause of reproach among them, that with the men, it is a matter of exultation that their skill and industry as hunters has enabled them to get drunk frequently. in their customs, habits, and dispositions these people very much resemble the siouxs from whom they have descended. the principal inducement with the british fur companies, for continuing their establishments on the assinniboin river, is the buffaloe meat and grease they procure from the assinniboins, and christanoes, by means of which, they are enabled to supply provision to their engages on their return from rainy lake to the english river and the athabaskey country where they winter; without such resource those voyagers would frequently be straitened for provision, as the country through which they pass is but scantily supplyed with game, and the rappidity with which they are compelled to travel in order to reach their winter stations, would leave therm but little leasure to surch for food while on their voyage. the assinniboins have so recently left this neighbourhood, that the game is scarce and very shy. the river continues wide, and not more rapid than the ohio in an averge state of it's current. the bottoms are wide and low, the moister parts containing some timber; the upland is extreemly broken, chonsisting of high gaulded nobs as far as the eye can reach on ether side, and entirely destitute of timber. on these hills many aromatic herbs are seen; resembling in taste, smel and appearance, the sage, hysop, wormwood, southernwood and two other herbs which are strangers to me; the one resembling the camphor in taste and smell, rising to the hight of or feet; the other about the same size, has a long, narrow, smooth, soft leaf of an agreeable smel and flavor; of this last the atelope is very fond; they feed on it, and perfume the hair of their foreheads and necks with it by rubing against it. the dwarf cedar and juniper is also found in great abundance on the sides of these hills. where the land is level, it is uniformly fertile consisting of a dark loam intermixed with a proportion of fine sand. it is generally covered with a short grass resembling very much the blue grass.--the miniral appearances still continue; considerable quantities of bitumenous water, about the colour of strong lye trickles down the sides of the hills; this water partakes of the taste of glauber salts and slightly of allumn.--while the party halted to take dinner today capt clark killed a buffaloe bull; it was meagre, and we therefore took the marrow bones and a small proportion of the meat only. near the place we dined on the lard. side, there was a large village of burrowing squirrels. i have remarked that these anamals generally celect a south easterly exposure for their residence, tho they are sometimes found in the level plains.--passed an island, above which two small creeks fall in on lard side; the upper creek largest, which we called sharbono's creek after our interpreter who encamped several weeks on it with a hunting party of indians. this was the highest point to which any whiteman had ever ascended; except two frenchmen who having lost their way had straggled a few miles further, tho to what place precisely i could not learn.--i walked on shore above this creek and killed an elk, which was so poor that it was unfit for uce; i therefore left it, and joined the party at their encampment on the stard shore a little after dark. on my arrival capt clark informed me that he had seen two white bear pass over the hills shortly after i fired, and that they appeared to run nearly from the place where i shot. the lard. shore on which i walked was very broken, and the hills in many places had the appearance of having sliped down in masses of several acres of land in surface.--we saw many gees feeding on the tender grass in the praries and several of their nests in the trees; we have not in a single instance found the nest of this bird on or near the ground. we saw a number of magpies their nests and eggs. their nests are built in trees and composed of small sticks leaves and grass, open at top, and much in the stile of the large blackbird comm to the u states. the egg is of a bluish brown colour, freckled with redish brown spots. one of the party killed a large hooting owl. i observed no difference between this burd and those of the same family common to the u states, except that this appeared to be more booted and more thickly clad with feathers.- [clark, april , ] th of april sunday . a fine morning, a dog came to us this morning we suppose him to be left by the inds. who had their camps near the lake we passd. yesterday not long sence, i observed several single lodges built of stiks of cotten timber in different parts of the bottoms. in my walk of this day which was through the wooded bottoms and on the hills for several miles back from the river on the s. s. i saw the remains of two indian incampments with wide beeten tracks leading to them. those were no doubt the camps of the ossinnaboin indians (a strong evidence is hoops of small kegs were found in the incampments) no other nation on the river above the sioux make use of spiritious licquer, the ossinniboins is said to be pasionately fond of licquer, and is the principal inducement to their putting themselves to the trouble of catching the fiew wolves and foxes which they furnish, and recive their liquor always in small kegs. the ossinniboins make use of the same kind of lodges which the sioux and other indians on this river make use of--those lodges or tents are made of a number of dressed buffalow skins sowed together with sinues & deckerated with the tales, & porcupine quils, when open it forms a half circle with a part about inches wide projecting about or inches from the center of the streight side for the purpose of attaching it to a pole to it the hight they wish to raise the tent, when they errect this tent four poles of equal length are tied near one end, those poles are elevated and or other poles are anexed forming a circle at the ground and lodging in the forks of the four attached poles, the tents are then raised, by attach the projecting part to a pole and incumpassing the poles with the tent by bringing the two ends together and attached with a cord, or laied as high as is necessary, leaveing the lower part open for about feet for to pass in & out, and the top is generally left open to admit the smoke to pass--the borders of the river has been so much hunted by those indians who must have left it about or days past and i prosume are now in the neighbourhood of british establishments on the osinniboin; the game is scerce and verry wild. the river continues wide and the current jentle not more rapid than the current of the ohio in middle state--the bottoms are wide and low and the moist parts of them contain som wood such as cotton elm & small ash, willow rose bushes &c. &c. &. next to the hills great quantity of wild isoop, the hills are high broken in every direction, and the mineral appearance of salts continue to appear in a greater perportion, also sulpher, coal & bitumous water in a smaller quantity, i have observed but five burnt hills, about the little missouri, and i have not seen any pumey stone above that river i saw buffalow on the l. s. crossed and dureing the time of dinner killed a bull, which was pore, we made use of the best of it, i saw a village of burrowing dogs on the l. s. passed a island above which two small creeks falls in on the l. s. the upper of which is the largest and we call shabonas creek after our interpreter who incamped several weeks on this creek and is the highest point on the missouri to which a white man has been previous to this time. capt. lewis walked out above this creek and killed an elk which he found so meager that it was not fit for use, and joined the boat at dusk at our camp on the s. s. opposit a high hill several parts of which had sliped down. on the side of those hills we saw two white bear running from the report of capt. lewis shot, those animals assended those steep hills with supprising ease & verlocity. they were too far to discover their prosise colour & size--saw several gees nests on trees, also the nests & egs of the magpies, a large grey owl killed, booted & with ears &c. [lewis, april , ] monday april th . set out at an early hour this morning. i walked on shore, and capt. clark continued with the party it being an invariable rule with us not to be both absent from our vessels at the same time. i passed through the bottoms of the river on the stard. side. they were partially covered with timber & were extensive, level and beatifull. in my walk which was about miles i passed a small rivulet of clear water making down from the hills, which on tasting, i discovered to be in a small degree brackish. it possessed less of the glauber salt, or alumn, than those little streams from the hills usually do.--in a little pond of water fromed by this rivulet where it entered the bottom, i heard the frogs crying for the first time this season; their note was the same with that of the small frogs which are common to the lagoons and swamps of the u states.--i saw great quantities of gees feeding in the bottoms, of which i shot one. saw some deer and elk, but they were remarkably shy. i also met with great numbers of grouse or prarie hens as they are called by the english traders of the n. w. these birds appeared to be mating; the note of the male is kuck, kuck, kuck, coo, coo, coo. the first part of the note both male and female use when flying. the male also dubbs something like the pheasant, but by no means as loud. after breakfast capt. clark walked on the std. shore, and on his return in the evening gave me the following account of his ramble. "i ascended to the high country, about miles distant from the missouri. the country consists of beatifull, level and fertile plains, destitute of timber i saw many little dranes, which took their rise in the river hills, from whence as far as i could see they run to the n. e." these streams we suppose to be the waters of mous river a branch of the assinniboin which the indians informed us approaches the missouri very nearly, about this point. "i passed," continued he, "a creek about yards wide," which falls into the missouri; the bottoms of this creek are wide level and extreemly fertile, but almost entirely destitute of timber. the water of this creek as well as all those creeks and rivulets which we have passed since we left fort mandan was so strongly impregnated with salts and other miniral substances that i was incapable of drinking it. i saw the remains of several camps of the assinniboins; near one of which, in a small ravene, there was a park which they had formed of timber and brush, for the purpose of taking the cabrie or antelope. it was constructed in the following manner. a strong pound was first made of timbers, on one side of which there was a small apparture, sufficiently large to admit an antelope; from each side of this apparture, a curtain was extended to a considerable distance, widening as they receded from the pound.--we passed a rock this evening standing in the middle of the river, and the bed of the river was formed principally of gravel. we encamped this evening on a sand point on lard. side. a little above our encampment the river was confined to a channel of yards in width.- [clark, april , ] th of april monday set out at an early hour, captn lewis walked on shore and killed a goose, passed a island in a bend to the l. s. the wind hard from the s. e. after brackfast i walked on shore and assended to the high countrey on the s. s. and off from the missouri about three miles the countrey is butifull open fertile plain the dreans take theer rise near the clifts of the river and run from the river in a n e derection as far as i could see, this is the part of the river which mouse river the waters of lake winnipec approaches within a fiew miles of missouri, and i believe those dreans lead into that river. we passed a creek about yds. wide on the s. s. the bottoms of this creek is extensive & fertile, the water of this as also, all the streams which head a fiew miles in the hills discharge water which is black & unfit for use (and can safely say that i have not seen one drop of water fit for use above fort mandan except knife and the little missouris rivers and the missouri, the other streams being so much impregnated with mineral as to be verry disagreeble in its present state.) i saw the remains of several camps of ossinniboins, near one of those camps & at no great distance from the mouth of the aforesid creek, in a hollow, i saw a large strong pen made for the purpose of catching the antelope, with wings projecting from it widining from the pen saw several gangs of buffalow and some elk at a distance, a black bear seen from the perogues to day--passed a rock in the middle of the river, some smaller rocks from that to the l. shore, the dog that came to us yesterday morning continues to follow us, we camped on a sand point to the l. s. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th . set out very early this morning. capt. clark walked on shore this morning, and killed an antelope, rejoined us at / after eight a.m.- he informed me that he had seen many buffaloe elk and deer in his absence, and that he had met with a great number of old hornets nests in the woody bottoms through which he had passed.--the hills of the river still continue extreemly broken for a few miles back, when it becomes a fine level country of open fertile lands immediately on the river there are many fine leavel extensive and extreemly fertile high plains and meadows. i think the quantity of timbered land on the river is increasing. the mineral appearances still continue. i met with several stones today that had the appearance of wood first carbonated and then petrefyed by the water of the river, which i have discovered has that effect on many vegitable substances when exposed to it's influence for a length of time. l believe it to be the stratas of coal seen in those hills which causes the fire and birnt appearances frequently met with in this quarter. where those birnt appearances are to be seen in the face of the river bluffs, the coal is seldom seen, and when you meet with it in the neighbourhood of the stratas of birnt earth, the coal appears to be presisely at the same hight, and is nearly of the same thickness, togeter with the sand and a sulphurious substance which ususually accompanys it. there was a remarkable large beaver caught by one of the party last night. these anamals are now very abundant. i have met with several trees which have been felled by them inches in diameter. bark is their only food; and they appear to prefer that of the cotton wood and willow; as we have never met with any other species of timber on the missouri which had the appearance of being cut by them.--we passed three small creeks on the stard. side. they take their rise in the river hills at no great distance. we saw a great number of geese today, both in the plains and on the river--i have observed but few ducks, those we have met with are the mallard and blue winged teal [clark, april , ] th of april tuesday wind hard from the s. e i walked on shore and killed an antilope which was verry meagre, saw great numbers of elk & some buffalow & deer, a verry large beaver cought this morning. some verry handsom high planes & extensive bottoms, the mineral appearances of coal & salt together with some appearance of burnt hils continue. a number of old hornets nests seen in every bottom more perticularly in the one opposit to the place we camped this night--the wooded bottoms are more extensive to day than common. passed three small creeks on the s. s. to day which take their rise in the hills at no great distance, great numbers of gees in the river & in the plains feeding on the grass. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th . a delightfull morning, set out at an erly hour. the country though which we passed to (lay was much the same as that discribed of yesterday; there wase more appearance of birnt hills, furnishing large quanties of lava and pumice stone, of the latter some pieces were seen floating down the river. capt. clark walked on shore this morning on the stard. side, and did not join us untill half after six in the evening. he informed me that he had seen the remains of the assinniboin encampments in every point of woodland through which he had passed. we saw immence quantities of game in every direction around us as we passed up the river; consisting of herds of buffaloe, elk, and antelopes with some deer and woolves. tho we continue to see many tracks of the bear we have seen but very few of them, and those are at a great distance generally runing from us; i thefore presume that they are extreemly wary and shy; the indian account of them dose not corrispond with our experience so far. one black bear passed near the perogues on the th and was seen by myself and the party but he so quickly disappeared that we did not shoot at him.--at the place we halted to dine on the lard. side we met with a herd of buffaloe of which i killed the fatest as i concieved among them, however on examining it i found it so poar that i thought it unfit for uce and only took the tongue; the party killed another which was still more lean. just before we encamped this evening we saw some tracks of indians who had passed about hours; they left four rafts of timber on the stard. side, on which they had passed. we supposed them to have been a party of the assinniboins who had been to war against the rocky mountain indians, and then on their return. capt. clark saw a curlou today. there were three beaver taken this morning by the party. the men prefer the flesh of this anamal, to that of any other which we have, or are able to procure at this moment. i eat very heartily of the beaver myself, and think it excellent; particularly the tale, and liver. we had a fair wind today which enabled us to sail the greater part of the distance we have travled, encamped on the lard shore the extremity of the last course [clark, april , ] th of april wednesday a fine morning wind from the s e. genly to day handsom high extencive rich plains on each side, the mineral appearances continue with greater appearances of coal, much greater appearance of the hills haveing been burnt, more pumice stone & lava washed down to the bottoms and some pumice stone floating in the river, i walked on the s. s. saw great numbs. of buffalow feeding in the plains at a distance capt. lewis killed buffalow buls which was near the water at the time of dineing, they were so pore as to be unfit for use. i saw several small parties of antelopes large herds of elk, some white wolves, and in a pond (formed on the s. s. by the missouries changeing its bead) i saw swan gees & different kinds of ducks in great numbers also a beaver house. passed a small creek on the s. s. & several runs of water on each side, saw the remains of indian camps in every point of timbered land on the s. s. in the evining a thunder gust passed from the s w, without rain, about sunset saw some fresh indians track and four rafts on the shore s. s. those i prosume were ossinniboins who had been on a war party against the rockey mountain indians--saw a curlow, some verry large beaver taken this morning. those animals are made use of as food and preferred by the party to any other at this season [lewis, april , ] thursday april th . a fine morning, set out at an early hour. one beaver caught this morning by two traps, having a foot in each; the traps belonged to different individuals, between whom, a contest ensued, which would have terminated, most probably, in a serious rencounter had not our timely arrival at the place prevented it. after breakfast this morning, capt. clark walked on stad. shore, while the party were assending by means of their toe lines, i walked with them on the bank; found a species of pea bearing a yellow flower, and now in blume; it seldom rises more than inches high, the leaf & stalk resembles that of the common gardin pea, the root is pirenial. (see specimen of vegitables no. .) i also saw several parsels of buffaloe's hair hanging on the rose bushes, which had been bleached by exposure to the weather and became perfectly white. it every appearance of the wool of the sheep, tho much finer and more silkey and soft. i am confident that an excellent cloth may be made of the wool of the buffaloe. the buffaloe i killed yesterday had cast his long hare, and the poll which remained was very thick, fine, and about inches in length. i think this anamal would have furnished about five pounds of wool. we were detained today from one to five p.m. in consequence of the wind which blew so violently from n. that it was with difficulty we could keep the canoes from filling with water altho they were along shore; i had them secured by placing the perogues on the out side of them in such manner as to break the waves off them. at we proceed, and shortly after met with capt. clark, who had killed an elk and a deer and was wating our arrival. we took the meat on board and continued our march untill nearly dark when we came too on the stard side under a boald welltimbered bank which sheltered us from the wind which had abated but not yet ceased. here we encamped, it being the extremity of the last course of this day.- [clark, april , ] th of april thursday set out at an early hour one beaver & a musrat cought this morning, the beaver cought in two traps, which like to have brought about a missunderstanding between two of the party &c. after brackfast i assended a hill and observed that the river made a great bend to the south, i concluded to walk thro the point about miles and take shabono, with me, he had taken a dost of salts &c. his squar followed on with his child, when i struck the next bend of the river could see nothing of the party, left this man & his wife & child on the river bank and went out to hunt, killed a young buck elk, & a deer, the elk was tolerable meat, the deer verry pore, butcherd the meat and continued untill near sunset before capt lewis and the party came up, they were detained by the wind, which rose soon after i left the boat from the n w. & blew verry hard untill verry late in the evening. we camped on the s. s. in an excellent harbor, soon after we came too, two men went up the river to set their beaver traps they met with a bear and being without their arms thought prodent to return &c. the wild cheries are in bloom, great appearance of burnt hills pumice stone &c. the coal & salt appearance continued, the water in the small runs much better than below,--saw several old indian camps, the game, such as buffalow elk, antelopes & deer verry plenty [lewis, april , ] friday april th . the wind blew so hard this morning from n. w. that we dared not to venture our canoes on the river.--observed considerable quantities of dwarf juniper on the hillsides (see specimen no. ) it seldom rises higher then feet.--the wind detained us through the couse of this day, tho we were fortunate in having placed ourselves in a safe harbour. the party killed one elk and a beaver today. the beaver of this part of the missouri are larger, fatter, more abundant and better clad with fur than those of any other part of the country that i have yet seen; i have remarked also that their fur is much darker. [clark, april , ] th of april friday a blustering windey day the wind so hard from the n, w. that we were fearfull of ventering our canoes in the river, lay by all day on the s. side in a good harber, the praries appear to green, the cotton trees bigin to leave, saw some plumb bushes in full bloom, those were the plumb bushes which i have seen for some time. killed an elk an a beaver to day--the beaver of this river is much larger than usial, great deal of sign of the large bear, [lewis, april , ] saturday april th . the wind continued to blow tolerably hard this morning but by no means as violently as it (lid yesterday; we determined to set out and accordingly departed a little before seven. i walked on shore on the n. side of the river, and capt clark proceeded with the party. the river bottoms through which i passed about seven miles were fertil and well covered with cottonwood some box alder, ash and red elm. the under brush, willow, rose bushes honeysuccle, red willow, goosbury, currant and servicebury & in the open grounds along the foot of the river hills immence quantities of the hisop. in the course of my walk i killed two deer, wounded an elk and a deer; saw the remains of some indian hunting camps, near which stood a small scaffold of about feet high on which were deposited two doog slays with their harnis. underneath this scaffold a human body was lying, well rolled in several dressed buffaloe skins and near it a bag of the same materials containg sundry articles belonging to the disceased; consisting of a pare of mockersons, some red and blue earth, beaver's nails, instruments for dressing the buffalo skin, some dryed roots, several platts of the sweet grass, and a small quantity of mandan tobacco.--i presume that the body, as well as the bag containing these articles, had formerly been placed on the scaffold as is the custom of these people, but had fallen down by accedent. near the scaffold i saw the carcase of a large dog not yet decayed, which i supposed had been killed at the time the human body was left on the scaffold; this was no doubt the reward, which the poor doog had met with for performing the ____-friendly office to his mistres of transporting her corps to the place of deposit. it is customary with the assinniboins, mandans, minetares &c who scaffold their dead, to sacrefice the favorite horses and doggs of their disceased relations, with a view of their being servicable to them in the land of sperits. i have never heard of any instances of human sacrefices on those occasions among them. the wind blew so hard that i concluded it was impossible fror the perogues and canoes to proceed and therefore returned and joined them about three in the evening. capt. clark informed me that soon after seting out, a part of the bank of the river fell in near one of the canoes and had very nearly filled her with water. that the wind became so hard and the waves so high that it was with infinite risk he had been able to get as far as his present station. the white perrogue and several of the canoes had shiped water several times but happily our stores were but little injured; those which were wet we put out to dry and determined to remain untill the next morning. we sent out four hunters who soon added elk gees and deer to our stock of provisions. the party caught six beaver today which were large and in fine order. the buffaloe, elk and deer are poor at this season, and of tours are not very palitable, however our good health and apetites make up every necessary deficiency, and we eat very heartily of them.- encamped on stard side; under a high well timbered bank. [clark, april , ] th of april satturday wind a head from the n w. we set out at oclock proceeded on, soon after we set out a bank fell in near one of the canoes which like to have filled her with water, the wind became hard and waves so rought that we proceeded with our little canoes with much risque, our situation was such after setting out that we were obliged to pass round the st point or lay exposed to the blustering winds & waves, in passing round the point several canoes took in water as also our large perogue but without injuring our stores & much i proceeded on to the upper part of the st bend and came too at a butifull glade on the s. s., about mile below capt lewis who had walked thro the point, left his coat & a deer on the bank which we took on board,-. a short distance below our camp i saw some rafts on the s. s. near which, an indian woman was scaffeled in the indian form of deposing their dead, & fallen down she was or had been raised about feet inclosed in several robes tightly laced around her, with her dog slays, her bag of different coloured earths paint small bones of animals beaver nales and several other little trinkets, also a blue jay, her dog was killed and lay near her. capt. lewis joined me soon after i landed & informed me he has walked several miles higher, & in his walk killed deer & wounded an elk & a deer, our party shot in the river four beaver & cought two, which were verry fat and much admired by the men, after we landed they killed elk gees & deer we had some of our provisions & which got a little wet aired, the wind continued so hard that we were compelled to delay all day. saw several buffalow lodged in the drift wood which had been drouned in the winter in passing the river; saw the remains of which had lodged on the side of the bank & eate by the bears. this morning was verry cold, some snow about oclock from flying clouds, some frost this morning & the mud at the edge of the water was frosed [lewis, april , ] sunday april st . set out at an early hour this morning. capt clark walked on shore; the wind tho a head was not violent. the country through which we passed is very simelar in every rispect to that through which we have passed for several days.--we saw immence herds of buffaloe elk deer & antelopes. capt clark killed a buffaloe and deer in the course of his walk today; and the party with me killed deer, beaver, and buffaloe calves. the latter we found very delicious. i think it equal to any veal i ever tasted. the elk now begin to shed their horns. passed one large and two small creeks on the lard. side, tho neither of them discharge any water at present. the wind blew so hard this evening that we were obliged to halt several hours. we reached the place of incampment after dark, which was on the lard. side a little above white earth river which discharges itself on the stard. side. immediately at the mouth of this river it is not more than yards wide being choked up by the mud of the missouri; tho after leaving the bottom lands of this river, or even sooner, it becomes a boald stream of sixty yards wide and is deep and navigable. the course of this river as far as i could see from the top of cut bluff, was due north. it passes through a beatifull level and fertile vally about five miles in width. i think i saw about miles up this river, and did not discover one tree or bush of any discription on it's borders. the vally was covered with elk and buffaloe. saw a great number of gees today as usual, also some swan and ducks. [clark, april , ] st of april sunday set out early the wind gentle & from the n. w. the river being verry crooked, i concluded to walk through the point, the countrey on either side is verry similar to that we have passed, saw an emence number of elk & buffalow, also deer antelopes geese ducks & a fiew swan, the buffalow is about calveing i killed a buffalow & deer in my walk to day, the party killed deer beaver & buffalow calves, which was verry good veele. i saw old camps of indians on the l. side, we passed large & small creeks on the l. side neither of them discharge any water into the river, in the evening the wind became verry hard a head, we made camp at a late hour which was on the l. side a little above the mouth of white earth river which falls in on the stad side and is yds. wide, several mes. up [lewis, april , ] monday april cd . set out at an early hour this morning; proceeded pretty well untill breakfat, when the wind became so hard a head that we proceeded with difficulty even with the assistance of our toe lines. the party halted and cpt. clark and myself walked to the white earth river which approaches the missouri very near at this place, being about miles above it's entrance. we found that it contained more water than streams of it's size generally do at this season. the water is much clearer than that of the missouri. the banks of the river are steep and not more than ten or twelve feet high; the bed seems to be composed of mud altogether. the salts which have been before mentioned as common on the missouri, appears in great quantities along the banks of this river, which are in many places so thickly covered with it that they appear perfectly white. perhaps it has been from this white appearance of it's banks that the river has derived it's name. this river is said to be navigable nearly to it's source, which is at no great distance from the saskashawan, and i think from it's size the direction which it seems to take, and the latitude of it's mouth, that there is very good ground to believe that it extends as far north as latitude °.--this stream passes through an open country generally.--the broken hills of the missouri about this place exhibit large irregular and broken masses of rocks and stones; some of which tho feet above the level of the water seem at some former period to have felt it's influence, fo they appear smoth as if woarn by the agetation of the water. this collection consists of white & grey gannite, a brittle black rock, flint, limestone, freestone, some small specimens of an excellent pebble and occasionally broken stratas of a stone which appears to be petrefyed wood, it is of a black colour, and makes excellent whetstones. coal or carbonated wood pumice stone lava and other mineral apearances still continue. the coal appears to be of better quality; i exposed a specimen of it to the fire and found that it birnt tolerably well, it afforded but little flame or smoke, but produced a hot and lasting fire.--i asscended to the top of the cutt bluff this morning, from whence i had a most delightfull view of the country, the whole of which except the vally formed by the missouri is void of timber or underbrush, exposing to the first glance of the spectator immence herds of buffaloe, elk, deer, & antelopes feeding in one common and boundless pasture. we saw a number of bever feeding on the bark of the trees alonge the verge of the river, several of which we shot, found them large and fat. walking on shore this evening i met with a buffaloe calf which attatched itself to me and continued to follow close at my heels untill i embarked and left it. it appeared allarmed at my dog which was probably the cause of it's so readily attatching itself to me. capt clark informed me that he saw a large drove of buffaloe pursued by wolves today, that they at length caught a calf which was unable to keep up with the herd. the cows only defend their young so long as they are able to keep up with the herd, and seldom return any distance in surch of them.- [clark, april , ] nd of april monday a verry cold morning some frost, we set out at an early hour and proceeded on verry well untill brackfast at which time the wind began to blow verry hard ahead, and continued hard all day we proceeded on with much dificuelty with the assistance of the toe ropes. capt. lewis & my self walked to the ____ river which is near the missouri four miles above its mouth, this river is yards wide and contains a greater perportion of water at this time than is common for rivers of its size it appears navagable as fur as any of the party was, and i am told to near its source in morrasses in the open plains, it passes (as far as we can see which is or leagus) thro a butifull extinsive vallie, rich & fertile and at this time covered with buffalow, elk & antelopes, which may be seen also in any other direction in this quarter--this river must take its rise at no great distance easte of the saskashawan, and no doubt as far n. as latd. ° some of the high plains or the broken revien of the river contains great quantity of pebble stones of various sizes, the stratum of coal is much richer than below, the appearances of mineral & burnt hills still continue the river riseing a little, saw an emence number of beaver feeding on the waters edge & swiming killed several, capt. lewis assended a hill from the top of which he had a most inchanting prospect of the countrey around & the meanderings of the two rivers, which is remarkable crooked--a buffalow calf which was on the shore alone followed cap lewis some distance,--i observed a large drove of buffalow prosued by wolves the wolves cought one of their calves in my view, those animals defend their young as long as they can keep up with the drove [lewis, april , ] tuesday april rd set out at an early hour this morning. about nine a.m. the wind arose, and shortly after became so violent that we were unabled to proceed, in short it was with much difficulty and some risk that i was enabled to get the canoes and perogues into a place of tolerable safety, there being no timber on either side of the river at this place. some of the canoes shiped water, and wet several parsels of their lading, which i directed to be opened and aired we remained untill five in the evening when the wind abating in some measure, we reloaded, and proceeded. shortly after we were joined by capt. clark who had walked on shore this morning, and passing through the bottom lands had fallen on the river some miles above, and concluding that the wind had detained us, came down the river in surch of us. he had killed three blacktaled, or mule deer, and a buffaloe calf, in the course of his ramble. these hard winds, being so frequently repeated, become a serious source of detention to us.--incamped on the stard. side.- [clark, april , ] rd of april a cold morning at about oclock the wind as usial rose from the n w and continued to blow verry hard untill late in the evening i walked on shore after brackfast in my walk on the s side passed through extensive bottoms of timber intersperced with glades & low open plains, i killed mule or black tail deer, which was in tolerable order, saw several others, i also killed a buffalow calf which was verry fine, i struck the river above the perogus which had come too in a bend to the l. s. to shelter from the wind which had become violently hard, i joined capt lewis in the evening & after the winds falling which was late in the evening we proceeded on & encamped on the s. s. the winds of this countrey which blow with some violence almost every day, has become a serious obstruction in our progression onward, as we cant move when the wind is high without great risque, and if there was no risque the winds is generally a head and often too violent to proceed [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th the wind blew so hard during the whole of this day, that we were unable to move. notwithstanding that we were sheltered by high timber from the effects of the wind, such was it's violence that it caused the waves to rise in such manner as to wet many articles in the small canoes before they could be unloaded. we sent out some hunters who killed deer & elk, and caught some young wolves of the small kind.--soar eyes is a common complaint among the party. i believe it origenates from the immence quantities of sand which is driven by the wind from the sandbars of the river in such clouds that you are unable to discover the opposite bank of the river in many instances. the particles of this sand are so fine and light that they are easily supported by the air, and are carried by the wind for many miles, and at a distance exhibiting every appearance of a collumn of thick smoke. so penitrating is this sand that we cannot keep any article free from it; in short we are compelled to eat, drink, and breath it very freely. my pocket watch, is out of order, she will run only a few minutes without stoping. i can discover no radical defect in her works, and must therefore attribute it to the sand, with which, she seems plentifully charged, notwithstanding her cases are double and tight. [clark, april , ] th of april wednesday the wind rose last night and continued blowing from the n. & n w. and sometimes with great violence, untill oclock p. m, several articles wet in the perogues by their takeing water &c. as the wind was a head we could not move today sent out hunters, they killed deer elk & cought some young wolves of the small kind, the party complain much of the sand in their eyes, the sand is verry fine and rises in clouds from the points and bars of the river, i may say that dureing those winds we eat drink & breeth a prepotion of sand. [lewis, april , ] thursday april th . the wind was more moderate this morning, tho still hard; we set out at an early hour. the water friezed on the oars this morning as the men rowed. about oclock a.m. the wind began to blow so violently that we were obliged to lye too. my dog had been absent during the last night, and i was fearfull we had lost him altogether, however, much to my satisfaction he joined us at oclock this morning. the wind had been so unfavorable to our progress for several days past, and seeing but little prospect of a favourable chang; knowing that the river was crooked, from the report of the hunters who were out yesterday, and beleiving that we were at no very great distance from the yellow stone river; i determined, in order as mush as possible to avoid detention, to proceed by land with a few men to the entrance of that river and make the necessary observations to determine it's position, which i hoped to effect by the time that capt. clark could arrive with the party; accordingly i set out at t ock. on the lard. side, accompanyed by four men. we proceeded about four miles, when falling in with some bufaloe i killed a yearling calf, which was in good order; we soon cooked and made a hearty meal of a part of it, and renewed our march our rout lay along the foot of the river hills. when we had proceeded about four miles, i ascended the hills from whence i had a most pleasing view of the country, perticularly of the wide and fertile values formed by the missouri and the yellowstone rivers, which occasionally unmasked by the wood on their borders disclose their meanderings for many miles in their passage through these delightfull tracts of country. i could not discover the junction of the rivers immediately, they being concealed by the woods, however, sensible that it could not be distant i determined to encamp on the bank of the yellow stone river which made it's appearance about miles south of me. the whol face of the country was covered with herds of buffaloe, elk & antelopes; deer are also abundant, but keep themselves more concealed in the woodland. the buffaloe elk and antelope are so gentle that we pass near them while feeding, without apearing to excite any alarm among them, and when we attract their attention, they frequently approach us more nearly to discover what we are, and in some instances pursue us a considerable distance apparenly with that view.--in our way to the place i had determined to encamp, we met with two large herds of buffaloe, of which we killed three cows and a calf. two of the former, wer but lean, we therefore took their tongues and a part of their marrow-bones only. i then proceeded to the place of our encampment with two of the men, taking with us the calf and marrowbones, while the other two remained, with orders to dress the cow that was in tolerable order, and hang the meat out of the reach of the wolves, a precaution indispensible to it's safe keeping, even for a night. we encamped on the bank of the yellowstone river, miles south of it's confluence with the missouri. on rejoining capt. clark, the th in the evening, he informed me, that at p.m. after i left him the wind abated in some measure and he proceeded a few miles further and encamped. [clark, april , ] th of april thursday the wind was moderate & ahead this morning, we set out at an early hour the morning cold, some flying clouds to be seen, the wind from the n. ice collected on the ores this morning, the wind increased and became so violent about oclock we were obliged to lay by our canoes haveing taken in some water, the dog which was lost yesterday, joined us this morning. finding that the winds retarded our progression for maney days past, and no apparance of an alteration, and the river being crooked that we could never have miles fair wind, capt. lewis concluded to go by land as far as the rochejhone or yellow stone river, which we expect is at no great distance by land and make some selestial observations to find the situation of its mouth, and by that measure not detain the perogues at that place any time for the purpose of makeing those necessary observations he took men & proceeded on up the missouri on the l. side, at oclock the wind luled and we proceeded on and incamped. [lewis, april , ] friday april th . this morning i dispatched joseph fields up the yellowstone river with orders to examine it as far as he could conveniently and return the same evening; two others were directed to bring in the meat we had killed last evening, while i proceeded down the river with one man in order to take a view of the confluence of this great river with the missouri, which we found to be two miles distant on a direct line n. w. from our encampment. the bottom land on the lower side of the yellowstone river near it's mouth for about one mile in width appears to be subject to inundation; while that on the opposite side of the missouri and the point formed by the junction of these rivers is of the common elivation, say from twelve to feet above the level of the water, and of course not liable to be overflown except in extreem high water, which dose not appear to be very frequent there is more timber in the neighbourhood of the junction of these rivers, and on the missouri as far below as the white earth river, than there is on any part of the missouri above the entrance of the chyenne river to this place. the timber consists principally of cottonwood, with some small elm, ash and boxalder. the under growth on the sandbars and verge of the river is the small leafed willow; the low bottoms, rose bushes which rise to three or four feet high, the redburry, servicebury, and the redwood; the high bottoms are of two discriptions either timbered or open; the first lies next to the river and it's under brush is the same with that of the low timbered bottoms with the addition of the broad leafed willow, goosbury, choke cherry, purple currant; and honeysuckle bushis; the open bottoms border on the hills, and are covered in many parts by the wild hyssop which rises to the hight of two feet. i observe that the antelope, buffaloe elk and deer feed on this herb; the willow of the sandbars also furnish a favorite winter food to these anamals as well as the growse, the porcupine, hare, and rabbit. about olock i heard the discharge of several guns at the junction of the rivers, which announced to me the arrival of the paty with capt clark; i afterwards learnt that they had fired on some buffaloe which they met with at that place, and of which they killed a cow and several calves; the latter are now fine veal. i dispatched one of the men to capt clark requesting him to send up a canoe to take down the meat we had killed and our baggage to his encampmt, which was accordingly complyed with. after i had completed my observations in the evening i walked down and joined the party at their encampment on the point of land fromed by the junction of the rivers; found them all in good health, and much pleased at having arrived at this long wished for spot, and in order to add in some measure to the general pleasure which seemed to pervade our little community, we ordered a dram to be issued to each person; this soon produced the fiddle, and they spent the evening with much hilarity, singing & dancing, and seemed as perfectly to forget their past toils, as they appeared regardless of those to come. in the evening, the man i had sent up the river this morning returned, and reported that he had ascended it about eight miles on a streight line; that he found it crooked, meandering from side to side of the valley formed by it; which is from four to five miles wide. the corrent of the river gentle, and it's bed much interrupted and broken by sandbars; at the distance of five miles he passed a large island well covered with timber, and three miles higher a large creek falls in on the s. e. sides above a high bluff in which there are several stratas of coal. the country bordering on this river as far as he could percieve, like that of the missouri, consisted of open plains. he saw several of the bighorned anamals in the couse of his walk; but they were so shy that he could not get a shoot at them; he found a large horn of one of these anamals which he brought with him. the bed of the yellowstone river is entirely composed of sand and mud, not a stone of any kind to be seen in it near it's entrance. capt clark measured these rivers just above their confluence; found the bed of the missouri yards wide, the water occupying . it's channel deep. the yellowstone river including it's sandbar, yds. of which, the water occupyed yards; the depest part feet; it was falling at this time & appeard to be nearly at it's summer tide.--the indians inform that the yellowstone river is navigable for perogues and canoes nearly to it's source in the rocky mountains, and that in it's course near these mountains it passes within less than half a day's march of a navigable part of the missouri. it's extreem sources are adjacent to those of the missouri, river platte, and i think probably with some of the south branch of the columbia river. the first part of its course lies through a mountanous rocky country tho well timbered and in many parts fertile; the middle, and much the most extensive portion of the river lies through a delightfull rich and fertile country, well covered with timber, intersperced with plains and meadows, and well watered; it is some what broken in many parts. the lower portion consists of fertile open plains and meadows almost entirely, tho it possesses a considerable proportion of timber on it's borders. the current of the upper portion is extreemly rappid, that of the middle and lower portions much more gentle than the missouri. the water of this river is turbid, tho dose not possess as much sediment as that of the missouri. this river in it's course recieves the waters of many large tributary strains principally from the s. e. of which the most considerable are the tongue and bighorn rivers the former is much the largest, and heads with the river platte and bighorn river, as dose the latter with the tongue river and the river platte.--a suficient quantity of limestone may be readily procured for building near the junction of the missouri and yellowstone rivers. i could observe no regular stratas of it, tho it lies on the sides of the river hills in large irregular masses, in considerable quantities; it is of a light colour, and appears to be of an excellent quality.- [clark, april , ] th of april friday last night was verry cold. the thermometer stood at abov this morning. i set out at an early hour, as it was cold i walked on the bank, & in my walk shot a beaver & deer, one of the deer in tolerable order, the low bottom of the river is generaly covered with wood willows & rose bushes, red berry, wild cherry & red or arrow wood intersperced with glades the timber is cottonwood principally, elm small ash also furnish a portion of the timber, the clay of the bluffs appear much whiter than below, and contain several stratums of coal, on the hill sides i observe pebbles of different size & colour--the river has been riseing for several days, & raised inches last night, at oclock arrived at the forks of the roche johne & missouri and formed a camp on the point soon after george drewyer came from capt lewis & informed me that he was a little way up the roche johne and would join me this evining, i sent a canoe up to capt lewis and proceeded measure the width of the rivers, and find the debth. the missouri is yards wide above the point of yellow stone and the water covers yards; the yellowstone river is yards wide includeing its sand bar, the water covers yards and the deepest part is feet water, it is at this time falling, the missouri rising the indians inform that the yellow stone river is navagable for perogues to near its source in the rocky mountains, it has many tributary streams, principally on the s. e. side, and heads at no great distance from the missouri, the largest rivers which fall into it is tongue river which heads with the waters of river platt, and big horn river which also heads with platt & tongue r the current of this river is said to be rapid near its mouth it is verry jentle, and its water is of a whitish colour much clearer of sediment than the missouri. the countrey on this river is said to be broken in its whole course & contains a great deel of wood, the countrey about its mouth is verry fine, the bottoms on either side is wooded with cotton wood, ash, elm &c. near the banks of the river back is higher bottoms and covered with red berry, goose berry & rose bushes &. interspersed with small open glades, and near the high land is generally open rich bottoms--at our arrival at the forks i observed a drove of buffalow cows & calves on a sand bar in the point, i directed the men to kill the fattest cow, and or calves, which they did and let the others pass, the cows are pore, calves fine veele. capt lewis joined me in the evening after takeing equal altitudes a little way up the yellowstone river the countrey in every direction is plains except the moist bottoms of the river, which are covered with some indifferent timber such as cotton wood elm & small ash, with different kind of stubs & bushes in the forks about mile from the point at which place the rivers are near each other a butifull low leavel plain commences, and extends up the missourie & back, this plain is narrow at its commencement and widens as the missouri bends north, and is bordered by an extencive wood land for many miles up the yellow stone river, this low plain is not subject to over flow, appear to be a few inches above high water mark and affords a butifull commanding situation for a fort near the commencement of the prarie, about ____ miles from the point & ____ yards from the missouri a small lake is situated, from this lake the plain rises gradually to a high butifull countrey, the low plain continues for some distance up both rivers on the yellow stone it is wide & butifull opsd. the point on the s. side is some high timbered land, about / miles below on the same side a little distance from the water is an elivated plain--several of the party was up the yellow stone r several miles, & informed that it meandered throught a butifull countrey joseph fields discovered a large creek falling into the yellowstone river on the s e side miles up near which he saw a big horn animal, he found in the prarie the horn of one of those animals which was large and appeared to have laid several years i saw maney buffalow dead on the banks of the river in different places some of them eaten by the white bears & wolves all except the skin & bones, others entire, those animals either drounded in attempting to cross on the ice dureing the winter or swiming across to bluff banks where they could not get out & too weak to return we saw several in this situation. emence numbers of antelopes in the forks of the river, buffalow & elk & deer is also plenty beaver is in every bend. i observe that the magpie goose duck & eagle all have their nests in the same neighbourhood, and it is not uncommon for the magpie to build in a few rods of the eagle, the nests of this bird is built verry strong with sticks covered verry thickly with one or more places through which they enter or escape, the goose i make no doubt falls a pray to those vicious eagles [lewis, april , ] saturday april th . previous to our seting out this morning i made the following observations. this morning i walked through the point formed by the junction of the rivers; the woodland extends about a mile, when the rivers approach each other within less than half a mile; here a beatifull level low plain commences and extends up both rivers for many miles, widening as the rivers recede from each other, and extending back half a mile to a plain about feet higher than itself; the low plain appears to be a few inches higher than high water mark and of course will not be liable to be overflown; tho where it joins the high plain a part of the missouri when at it's greatest hight, passes through a channel of or yards wide and falls into the yellowstone river. on the missouri about / miles from the entrance of the yellowstone river, and between this high and low plain, a small lake is situated about yards wide extending along the edge of the high plain parallel with the missouri about one mile. on the point of the high plain at the lower extremity of this lake i think would be the most eligible site for an establishment. between this low plain and the yellowstone river their is an extensive body of timbered land extending up the river for many miles. this site recommended is about yards distant from the missouri and about double that distance from the river yellowstone; from it the high plain, rising very gradually, extends back about three miles to the hills, and continues with the same width between these hills and the timbered land on the yellowstone river, up that stream, for seven or eight miles; and is one of the hadsomest plains i ever beheld. on the missouri side the hills sircumscribe it's width, & at the distance of three miles up that river from this site, it is not more than yards wide. capt clark thinks that the lower extremity of the low plane would be most eligible for this establishment; it is true that it is much nearer both rivers, and might answer very well, but i think it reather too low to venture a permanent establishment, particularly if built of brick or other durable materials, at any considerable expence; for so capricious, and versatile are these rivers, that it is difficult to say how long it will be, untill they direct the force of their currents against this narrow part of the low plain, which when they do, must shortly yeald to their influence; in such case a few years only would be necessary, for the annihilation of the plain, and with it the fortification.--i continued my walk on shore; at a.m. the wind became very hard from n. w. insomuch that the perogues and canoes were unable either to proceede or pass the river to me; i was under the necessity therefore of shooting a goose and cooking it for my dinner. the wind abated about . p.m. and the party proceeded tho i could not conveniently join them untill night. altho game is very abundant and gentle, we only kill as much as is necessary for food. i believe that two good hunters could conveniently supply a regiment with provisions. for several days past we have observed a great number of buffaloe lying dead on the shore, some of them entire and others partly devoured by the wolves and bear. those anamals either drownded during the winter in attempting to pass the river on the ice during the winter or by swiming acrss at present to bluff banks which they are unable to ascend, and feeling themselves too weak to return remain and perish for the want of food; in this situation we met with several little parties of them.--beaver are very abundant, the party kill several of them every day. the eagles, magpies, and gees have their nests in trees adjacent to each other; the magpye particularly appears fond of building near the eagle, as we scarcely see an eagle's nest unaccompanyed with two or three magpies nests within a short distance.--the bald eagle are more abundant here than i ever observed them in any part of the country. [clark, april , ] th of april satturday after take the azmuth of the sun & brackfasting we set out wind moderate & a head, at oclock the wind rose and continued to blow verry hard a head from the n. w. untill oclock p m, which blew the sand off the points in such clouds as almost covered us on the opposit bank, at i set out from my unpleasent situation and proceeded on, capt. lewis walked on shore in the point to examine & view the countrey and could not get to the boats untill night, saw great numbers of goats or antilopes, elk, swan gees & ducks, no buffalow to day i saw several beaver and much sign, i shot one in the head which imediately sunk, altho the game of different kinds are in abundance we kill nothing but what we can make [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . set out this morning at an early hour; the wind was favourable and we employed our sails to advantage. capt clark walked on shore this morning, and i proceeded with the party. the country through which we passed today is open as usual and very broken on both sides near the river hills, the bottoms are level fertile and partially covered with timber. the hills and bluffs exhibit their usual mineral appearances, some birnt hills but no appearance of pumicestone; coal is in great abundance and the salts still increase in quantity; the banks of the river and sandbars are incrusted with it in many places and appear perfectly white as if covered with snow or frost.--the woods are now green, tho the plains and meadows appear to abate of the verdure those below exhibited some days past. we past three small runs today. two falling in on the stard. and one on the lard. side, they are but small afford but little water and head a few miles back in the hills. we saw great quantities of game today; consisting of the common and mule deer, elk, buffaloe, and antelopes; also four brown bear, one of which was fired on and wounded by one of the party but we did not get it; the beaver have cut great quantities of timber; saw a tree nearly feet in diameter that had been felled by them. capt. clark in the course of his walk killed a deer and a goose; & saw three black bear; he thinks the bottoms are not so wide as they have been for some days past. [clark, april , ] th of april sunday a fine day river falling, wind favourable from the s. e. and moderate, i walked on shore to view the countrey, from the top of the high hills, i beheld a broken & open countrey on both sides, near the river some verry handsom low plains, i killd. a deer & a goose, saw three black bear great numbers of elk antelopes & gangues of buffalow, the hills & bluffs shew the straturs of coal, and burnt appearances in maney places, in and about them i could find no appearance of pumice stone, the wood land have a green appearance, the plains do not look so green as below, the bottoms are not so wide this afternoon as below saw four bear this evening, one of the men shot at one of them. the antilopes are nearly red, on that part which is subject to change i e the sides & / of the back from the head, the other part as white as snow, small runs fall in on the s. side and one this evening on the lard side those runs head at a fiew miles in the hills and discharge but little water, the bluffs in this part as also below shew different straturs of coal or carbonated wood, and coloured earth, such as dark brown, yellow a lightish brown, & a dark red &c. [lewis, april , ] monday april th . set out this morning at the usual hour; the wind was moderate; i walked on shore with one man. about a.m. we fell in with two brown or yellow bear; both of which we wounded; one of them made his escape, the other after my firing on him pursued me seventy or eighty yards, but fortunately had been so badly wounded that he was unable to pursue so closely as to prevent my charging my gun; we again repeated our fir and killed him. it was a male not fully grown, we estimated his weight at lbs. not having the means of ascertaining it precisely. the legs of this bear are somewhat longer than those of the black, as are it's tallons and tusks incomparably larger and longer. the testicles, which in the black bear are placed pretty well back between the thyes and contained in one pouch like those of the dog and most quadrupeds, are in the yellow or brown bear placed much further forward, and are suspended in seperate pouches from two to four inches asunder; it's colour is yellowish brown, the eyes small, black, and piercing; the front of the fore legs near the feet is usually black; the fur is finer thicker and deeper than that of the black bear. these are all the particulars in which this anamal appeared to me to differ from the black bear; it is a much more furious and formidable anamal, and will frequently pursue the hunter when wounded. it is asstonishing to see the wounds they will bear before they can be put to death. the indians may well fear this anamal equiped as they generally are with their bows and arrows or indifferent fuzees, but in the hands of skillfull riflemen they are by no means as formidable or dangerous as they have been represented. game is still very abundant we can scarcely cast our eyes in any direction without percieving deer elk buffaloe or antelopes. the quantity of wolves appear to increase in the same proportion; they generally hunt in parties of six eight or ten; they kill a great number of the antelopes at this season; the antelopes are yet meagre and the females are big with young; the wolves take them most generally in attempting to swim the river; in this manner my dog caught one drowned it and brought it on shore; they are but clumsey swimers, tho on land when in good order, they are extreemly fleet and dureable. we have frequently seen the wolves in pursuit of the antelope in the plains; they appear to decoy a single one from a flock, and then pursue it, alturnately relieving each other untill they take it. on joining capt clark he informed me that he had seen a female and faun of the bighorned anamal; that they ran for some distance with great aparent ease along the side of the river bluff where it was almost perpendicular; two of the party fired on them while in motion without effect. we took the flesh of the bear on board and proceeded. capt. clark walked on shore this evening, killed a deer, and saw several of the bighorned anamals. there is more appearance of coal today than we have yet seen, the stratas are feet thick in some instances; the earth has been birnt in many places, and always appears in stratas on the same level with the stratas of coal. we came too this evening in the mouth of a little river, which falls in on the stard. side. this stream is about yards wide from bank to bank; the water occupyes about yards. the banks are of earth only, abrupt, tho not high--the bed, is of mud principally. capt clark, who was up this streeam about three miles, informed me that it continued about the same width, that it's current was gentle and it appeared navigable for perogus it meanders through an extensive, fertile, and beautifull vally as far as could bee seen about n. °w. there was but one solitary tree to be seen on the banks of this river after it left the bottom of the missouri. the water of this river is clear, with a brownish yelow tint. here the highlands receede from the missouri, leaving the vally formed by the river from seven to eight miles wide, and reather lower then usual.- this stream my friend capt. c. named marthas river [clark, april , ] th of april monday set out this morning at the usial hour. the wind is moderate & from the n e had not proceeded far eer we saw a female & her faun of the bighorn animal on the top of a bluff lying, the noise we made allarmed them and they came down on the side of the bluff which had but little slope being nearly purpindicular, i directed two men to kill those anamals, one went on the top and the other man near the water they had two shots at the doe while in motion without effect, those animals run & skiped about with great ease on this declivity & appeared to prefur it to the leavel bottom or plain. capt lewis & one man walkd on shore and he killed a yellow bear & the man with him wounded one other, after getting the flesh of the bear on bord which was not far from the place we brackfast, we proceeded on saw gangus of buffalow and great numbers of antelopes in every direction also saw elk and several wolves, i walked on shore in the evening & killed a deer which was so meager as to be unfit for use the hills contain more coal, and has a greater appearance of being burnt that below, the burnt parts appear on a parrilel with the stratiums of coal, we came too in the mouth of a little river on the s. s. which is about or yards from bank to bank, i was up this stream miles it continues its width and glides with a gentle current, its water is about yards wide at this time, and appears to be navagable for canoes &c. it meanders through a butifull & extencive vallie as far as can be seen about n ° w. i saw only a single tree in this fertile vallie the water of the river is clear of a yellowish colour, we call this river martheys river in honor to the selebrated m. f here the high land widen from five to eight miles and much lower than below, saw several of the big horn animals this evening. the wolves distroy great numbers of the antilopes by decoying those animals singularly out in the plains and prosueing them alternetly, those antelopes are curious and will approach any thing which appears in motion near them &c. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th . set out at sunrise. the wind blew hard all last night, and continued to blow pretty hard all day, but not so much, as to compell us to ly by. the country as usual is bare of timber; the river bottoms are level and fertile and extensive, but possess but little timber and that of an indifferent quality even of it's kind; principally low cottonwood, either too small for building, or for plank or broken and dead at top and unsound in the center of the trunk. saw great quantities of game as usual. capt. clark walked on shore the greater part of the day, past some old indian lodges built of drift wood; they appear to be of antient date and not recently inhabited. i walked on shore this evening and killed a buck elk, in tolerable order; it appeared to me to be the largest i had seen, and was therefore induced to measure it; found it five feet three inches from the point of the hoof, to the top of the sholders; the leg and hoof being placed as nearly as possible in the same position they would have been had the anamal been standing. [clark, april , ] th of april tuesday the wind blew hard from the n e all last night, we set out at sunrise the wind blew hard the greater part of the day and part of the time favourable, we did not lie by to day on account of the wind i walked on shore to day our interpreter & his squar followed, in my walk the squar found & brought me a bush something like the current, which she said bore a delicious froot and that great quantites grew on the rocky mountains, this srub was in bloom has a yellow flower with a deep cup, the froot when ripe is yellow and hangs in bunches like cheries, some of those berries yet remained on the bushes. the bottoms above the mouth of the last river is extensive level & fertile and covered with indifferent timber in the points, the up land appear to rise gradually, i saw great numbers of antelopes, also scattering buffalow, elk, deer, wolves, gees, ducks & grows--i killed gees which we dined on to day capt lewis walked on shore and killed an elk this evening, and we came too & camped on the s. s the countrey on both sides have a butifull appearance. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may st . set out this morning at an early, the wind being favourable we used our sales which carried us on at a good pace untill about ock. when the wind became so high that the small canoes were unable to proceed one of them which seperated from us just befor the wind became so violent, is now lying on the opposite side of the river, being unable to rejoin us in consequence of the waves, which during those gusts run several feet high. we came too on the lard. shore in a handsome bottom well stocked with cottonwood timber; here the wind compelled us to spend the ballance of the day. we sent out some hunters who killed a buffaloe, an elk, a goat and two beaver. game is now abundant. the country appears much more pleasant and fertile than that we have passed for several days; the hills are lower, the bottoms wider, and better stocked with timber, which consists principally of cottonwood, not however of large size; the under-growth willow on the verge of the river and sandbars, rose bushes, red willow and the broad leafed willow in the bottom lands; the high country on either side of the river is one vast plain, intirely destitute of timber, but is apparently fertile, consisting of a dark rich mellow looking lome. john shields sick today with the rheumatism. shannon killed a bird of the plover kind. weight one pound. it measured from the tip of the toe, to the extremity of the beak, foot inches; from tip to tip of wings when extended f. i.; beak / inches; tale / inches; leg and toe ins.--the eye black, piercing, prominent and moderately large. the legs are hat thin, slightly imbricated and of a pale sky blue colour, being covered with feathers as far as the mustle extends down it, which is about half it's length. it has four toes on each foot, three of which, are connected by a web, the fourth is small and placed at the heel about the / of an inch up the leg. the nails are black and short, that of the middle toe is extreemly singular, consisting of two nails the one laping on or overlaying the other, the upper one somewhat the longest and sharpest. the tale contains eleven feathers of equal length, & of a bluish white colour. the boddy and underside of the wings, except the large feathers of the st & cd joints of the same, are white; as are also the feathers of the upper part of the th joint of the wing and part of those of the rd adjacent thereto, the large feathers of the st or pinion and the cd joint are black; a part of the larger feathers of the rd joint on the upper side and all the small feathers which cover the upper part of the wings are black, as are also the tuft of long feathers on each side of the body above the joining of the wing, leaving however a stripe of white betwen them on the back. the head and neck are shaped much like the grey plover, and are of a light brickdust brown; the beak is black and flat, largest where it joins the head, and from thence becoming thiner and tapering to a very sharp point, the upper chap being / of an inch the longest turns down at the point and forms a little hook. the nostrils, which commence near the head are long, narrow, connected, and parallel with the beak; the beak is much curved, the curvature being upwards in stead of downwards as is common with most birds; the substance of the beak precisely resembles whalebone at a little distance, and is quite as flexable as that substance their note resembles that of the grey plover, tho is reather louder and more varied, their habits appear also to be the same, with this difference; that it sometimes rests on the water and swims which i do not recollect having seen the plover do. this bird which i shall henceforth stile the missouri plover, generally feeds about the shallow bars of the river; to collect it's food which consists of ____, it immerces it's beak in the water and throws it's head and beak from side to side at every step it takes. [clark, may , ] may the st wednesday we set out at sun rise under a stiff breeze from the east, the morning cool & cloudy. one man j. shields sick with rhumetism--one of the men (shannon) shot a gull or pleaver, which is about the size of an indian hen, with a sharp pointed bill turning up & inches long, the head and neck of a light brown, the breast, the underfeathers of the nd and d joint of the wings, the short feathers on the upper part of the rd joint of the wings, down the back the rump & tail white. the large feathers of the st joints of the wing the upper feathers of the d joints of the wings, on the body on the joints of the wing and the bill is black.--the legs long and of a skie blue. the feet webed &c. this fowl may be properly stiled the missouri pleaver--the wind became verry hard and we put too on the l. side, as the wind continued with some degree of violence and the waves too high for the canoes we were obliged to stay all day [lewis, may , ] may st . shannon killed a bird of the plover kind the weight one pound.--eye black percing and prominent measure f. inchs from the tip of the toe to the extremity of the beak from tip to tip of wing when extended length of beak / length of tale / length of leg and toe the legs are flat, of pale skye blue colour and but slightly imbricated. the second joint, as low as the mustle extends is covered with feathers which is about half it's length. it has three toes on a foot connected by a web. there is also a small toe on each foot placed about the eighth of an inch up the leg behind. the nails are black and short and those of the middle toes ar singular-there being two nails on each the one above the other the upper one the longest and sharpest.- the tale contains eleven feathers of the same length of a bluish white colour. the body and under side of the wings except the large feathers of the & cd joints of the wings are white, as are also the feathers of the upper part of the th joint of the wing. and some of those of the rd adjoining.--the large feathers of the pinion or first (joint) & the second joint are black; a part of the larger feathers of the third joint on the upper side and all the smaller feathers which cover the upper part of these joints ar black; as are also the tuft of long feathers on each side of the body above the joining of the wing, leaving however a stripe of white between them on the back. the head and neck are shaped much like the grey plover, and is a light brickdust brown. the beak is black and flat, largest where it joins the head and from thence tapering every way gradually to a very sharp point the upper beak being / of an inch the longest turning down at the point. the nostrils are parrallal with the beak and are long narrow and connected. the beak is curvated and invirted; the curvature being upwards in stead of downwards as those of most birds are--the substance of the beak is as flexable as whalebone and at a little distance precisely resembles that substance. their note is like that of the common whistling or grey plover tho reather louder, and more varied, and their habits are the same with that bird so far as i have been enabled to learn, with this difference however that this bird sometimes lights in the water and swims.--it generally feads about the shallow bars of the river; to collect it's food, it immerces it's beak in the water, and thows it's head and beak from side to side at every step it takes. [lewis, may , ] thursday may ed the wind continued violent all night nor did it abate much of it's violence this morning, when at daylight it was attended with snow which continued to fall untill about a.m. being about one inch deep, it formed a singular contrast with the vegitation which was considerably advanced. some flowers had put forth in the plains, and the leaves of the cottonwood were as large as a dollar. sent out some hunters who killed deer elk and several buffaloe; on our way this evening we also shot three beaver along the shore; these anamals in consequence of not being hunted are extreemly gentle, where they are hunted they never leave their lodges in the day, the flesh of the beaver is esteemed a delecacy among us; i think the tale a most delicious morsal, when boiled it resembles in flavor the fresh tongues and sounds of the codfish, and is usually sufficiently large to afford a plentifull meal for two men. joseph fields one of the hunters who was out today found several yards of scarlet cloth which had been suspended on the bough of a tree near an old indian hunting camp, where it had been left as a sacrefice to the deity by the indians, probably of the assinniboin nation, it being a custom with them as well as all the nations inhabiting the waters of the missouri so far as they are known to us, to offer or sacrefice in this manner to the deity watever they may be possessed off which they think most acceptable to him, and very honestly making their own feelings the test of those of the deity offer him the article which they most prize themselves. this being the most usual method of weshiping the great sperit as they term the deity, is practiced on interesting occasions, or to produce the happy eventuation of the important occurrances incident to human nature, such as relief from hungar or mallady, protection from their enemies or the delivering them into their hands, and with such as cultivate, to prevent the river's overflowing and distroying their crops &c. screfices of a similar kind are also made to the deceased by their friends and relatives. the are was very piercing this evening the water friezed on the oars as they rowed. the wind dying at p.m. we set out. every thing which is incomprehensible to the indians they call big medicine, and is the opperation of the presnts and power of the great sperit. this morning one of the men shot the indian dog that had followed us for several days, he would steal their cooked provision. [clark, may , ] may nd thursday the wind blew verry hard all the last night, this morning about sunrise began to snow, (the thermomtr. at abov o) and continued untill about oclock, at which time it seased, the wind continued hard untill about p.m. the snow which fell to day was about in deep, a verry extroadernaley climate, to behold the trees green & flowers spred on the plain, & snow an inch deep. we set out about oclock and proceeded on about five / miles and encamped on the std side, the evening verry cold, ice freesing to the ores, i shot a large beaver & drewyer three in walking on the bank, the flesh of those animals the party is fond of eating &c. [lewis, may , ] friday may rd . the morning being very could we did not set out as early as usual; ice formed on a kettle of water / of an inch thick. the snow has melted generally in the bottoms, but the hills still remain covered. on the lard side at the distance of miles we passed a curious collection of bushes which had been tyed up in the form of a faciene and standing on end in the open bottom it appeared to be about feet high and ten or twelve feet in diameter, this we supposed to have been placed there by the indians, as a sacrefice for some purpose. the wind continued to blow hard from the west but not so strong as to compel us to ly by. capt. clark walked on shore and killed an elk which he caused to be butched by the time i arrived with the party, here we halted and dined being about ock. our usual time of halting for that purpose. after dinner capt. clark pursued his walk, while i continued with the party, it being a rule which we had established, never to be absent at the same time from the party. the plains or high lands are much less elivated than they were, not being more than from to feet above the river bottom, which is also wider than usual being from to ms. in width; traces of the ancient beds of the river are visible in many places through the whole extent of this valley. since the hills have become lower the appearance of the stratas of coal burnt hills and pumice stone have in a great measure ceased; i saw none today. we saw vast quantities of buffaloe, elk, deer principally of the long tale kind, antelope or goats, beaver, geese, ducks, brant and some swan. near the entrance of the river mentioned in the th course of this day, we saw an unusual number of porcupines from which we determined to call the river after that anamal, and accordingly denominated it porcupine river. this stream discharges itself into the missouri on the stard. side miles above the mouth of the latter, it is a beatifull bold runing stream, yards wide at it's entrance; the water is transparent, it being the first of this discription that i have yet seen discharge itself into the missouri; before it enters a large sand bar through which it discharges itself into the missouri it's banks and bottom are formed of a stiff blue and black clay; it appears to be navigable for canoes and perogues at this time and i have no doubt but it might be navigated with boats of a considerable size in high water. it's banks appear to be from to ten feet high and seldom overflow; from the quantity of water furnished by this river, the appearance of the country, the direction it pursues, and the situation of it's entrance, i have but little doubt but it takes it's source not far from the main body of the suskashawan river, and that it is probably navigable miles; perhaps not very distant from that river. should this be the case, it would afford a very favorable communication to the athebaskay country, from whence the british n. w. company derive so large a portion of their valuable furs.--capt. clark who ascended this river several miles and passed it above where it entered the hills informed me on his return that he found the general width of the bed of the river about one hundred yards, where he passed the river the bed was yards wide, the water was knee deep and yard in width; the river which he could observe from the rising grounds for about miles, bore a little to the east of north. there was a considerable portion of timber in the bottom lands of this river. capt clark also met with limestone on the surface of the earth in the course of his walk. he also saw a range of low mountains at a distance to the w of n , their direction being n. w. the country in the neighborhood of this river, and as far as the eye can reach, is level, fertile, open and beatifull beyond discription. / of a mile above the entrance of this river a large creek falls in which we called mile creek. i sent rubin fields to examine it, he reported it to be a bold runing stream, it's bed yards wide. we proceeded about miles abov this creek and encamped on the stard. shore. i walked out a little distance and met with porcupines which were feeding on the young willow which grow in great abundance on all the sandbars; this anamal is exceedingly clumsy and not very watchfull i approached so near one of them before it percieved me that i touched it with my espontoon.--found the nest of a wild goose among some driftwood in the river from which we took three eggs. this is the only nest we have met with on driftwood, the usual position is the top of a broken tree, sometimes in the forks of a large tree but almost invariably, from to feet or upwards high.- [clark, may , ] may rd friday we set out reather later this morning than usial owing to weather being verry cold, a frost last night and the thermt. stood this morning at above which is degrees blow freeseing--the ice that was on the kittle left near the fire last night was / of an inch thick. the snow is all or nearly all off the low bottoms, the hills are entireley covered. three of our party found in the back of a bottom pieces of scarlet one brace in each, which had been left as a sacrifice near one of their swet houses, on the l. s. we passed to day a curious collection of bushes tied up in the shape of fascene about feet diamuter, which must have been left also by the natives as an offering to their medison which they convinced protected or gave them relief near the place, the wind continued to blow hard from the west, altho not sufficently so to detain us, i walked on shore and killed an elk & had him bucchured by the time the perogus came up which was the usial time of dineing. the high lands are low and from to miles apart and there is evident marks of the bead of the river having been changed frequently but little appearance of the coal & burnt hills to day- great numbers of buffalow, elk, deer, antilope, beaver, porcupins, & water fowls seen to day, such as, geese, ducks of dift. kinds, & a fiew swan--i continued my walk on shore after dinner, and arrived at the mouth of a river on the st. side, which appeared to be large, and i concluded to go up this river a few miles to examine it accordingly i set out north mile thro wood or timbered bottom, miles through a butifull leavel plain, and mile over a high plain about feet higher than the bottom & came to the little river, which i found to be a butifull clear stream of about yds. from bank to bank, (i waded this river at the narrowest part and made it steps from bank to bank and at this place which was a kind of fording place the water was near knee deep, and steps wide, the bottom of a hard stiff black clay,) i observed a great perportion of timber in the bottoms of this river as far as i could see which was to the east of n. or miles, it appears to be navigable at this time for canoes, and from appearances must be navagable a long distance for perogus & boats in high water. this river we call porcupine from the great number of those anamals found about it's mouth.--a short distance above about / mile and on the lard side a large creek falls in, which r. fields went to examine & reports that it is a bold running stream, yds wide as this creek is miles up the missouri we call it the mile creek, we proceeded on miles & camped on the s. s. here i joined capt lewis who had in my absens walkd. on the upper side of porcupine river for some distance--this river from its size & quantity of water must head at no great distance from the saskashawan on this river i saw emence herds elk & buffalow & many deer & porcupine. i also saw the top of a mountain which did not appear verry high to the west of n. & bore n w. i saw on the high land limestone & pebble--the countrey about the mouth of this river and as far as the eye can reach is butifull open countrey. the greater part of the snow is melted. [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . we were detained this morning untill about ock. in order to repare the rudder irons of the red perogue which were broken last evening in landing; we then set out, the wind hard against us. i walked on shore this morning, the weather was more plesant, the snow has disappeared; the frost seems to have effected the vegetation much less than could have been expected the leaves of the cottonwood the grass the box alder willow and the yellow flowering pea seem to be scarcely touched; the rosebushes and honeysuckle seem to have sustaned the most considerable injury. the country on both sides of the missouri continues to be open level fertile and beautifull as far as the eye can reach which from some of the eminences is not short of miles. the river bottoms are very extensive and contain a much greater proportion of timber than usual; the fore part of this day the river was bordered with timber on both sides, a circumstance which is extreemly rare and the first which has occurred of any thing like the same extent since we left the mandans, in the after part of the day we passed an extensive beautifull plain on the stard. side which gradually ascended from the river. i saw immence quantities of buffaloe in every direction, also some elk deer and goats; having an abundance of meat on hand i passed them without firing on them; they are extreemly gentle the bull buffaloe particularly will scarcely give way to you. i passed several in the open plain within fifty paces, they viewed me for a moment as something novel and then very unconcernedly continued to feed. capt. clark walked on shore this evening and did not rejoin us untill after dark, he struck the river several miles above our camp and came down to us. we saw many beaver some which the party shot, we also killed two deer today. much sign of the brown bear. passed several old indian hunting camps in the course of the day one of them contained two large lodges which were fortifyed with old driftwood and fallen timber; this fortification consisted of a circular fence of timber lade horizontally laping on and over laying each other to the hight of feet. these pounds are sometimes built from to feet in diameter and covered over with the trunks and limbs of old timber. the usual construction of the lodges we have lately passed is as follows. three or more strong sticks the thickness of a man's leg or arm and about feet long are attatched together at one end by a with of small willows, these are then set on end and spread at the base, forming a circle of ten twelve or feet in diameter; sticks of driftwood and fallen timber of convenient size are now placed with one end on the ground and the other resting against those which are secured together at top by the with and which support and give the form to the whole, thus the sticks are laid on untill they make it as thick as they design, usually about three ranges, each piece breaking or filling up the interstice of the two beneath it, the whole forming a connic figure about feet high with a small apperture in one side which answers as a door. leaves bark and straw are sometimes thrown over the work to make it more complete, but at best it affords a very imperfect shelter particularly without straw which is the state in which we have most usually found them. at noon the sun was so much obscured that i could not obtain his maridian altitude which i much wished in order to fix the latitude of the entrance of porcupine river. joseph fields was very sick today with the disentary had a high fever i gave him a doze of glauber salts, which operated very well, in the evening his fever abated and i gave him drops of laudnum.- [clark, may , ] may th satturday the rudder irons of our large perogue broke off last night, the replaceing of which detained us this morning untill oclock at which time we set out the wind a head from the west, the countrey on each side of the missouri is a rich high and butifull the bottoms are extencive with a great deal of timber on them all the fore part of this day the wood land bordered the river on both sides, in the after part a butifull assending plain on the std side we camped on the std. side a little above we passed a small creek on the l. side near which i saw where an indian lodge had been fortified many year past. saw great numbers of anamals of different kinds on the banks, i saw the black martin to day-in the evening i walkd. on shore on the std side & struck the river several miles above our camp & did not get to camp untill some time after night--we have one man sick, the river has been falling for several days passed; it now begins to rise a little; the rate of rise & fall is from one to inches in hours. [lewis, may , ] sunday may th a fine morning i walked on shore untill a m when we halted for breakfast and in the course of my walk killed a deer which i carried about a mile and a half to the river, it was in good order. soon after seting out the rudder irons of the white perogue were broken by her runing fowl on a sawyer, she was however refitted in a few minutes with some tugs of raw hide and nales. as usual saw a great quantity of game today; buffaloe elk and goats or antelopes feeding in every direction; we kill whatever we wish, the buffaloe furnish us with fine veal and fat beef, we also have venison and beaver tales when we wish them; the flesh of the elk and goat are less esteemed, and certainly are inferior. we have not been able to take any fish for some time past. the country is as yesterday beatifull in the extreme. saw the carcases of many buffaloe lying dead along the shore partially devoured by the wolves and bear. saw a great number of white brant also the common brown brant, geese of the common kind and a small species of geese which differ considerably from the common canadian goose; their neck head and beak are considerably thicker shorter and larger than the other in proportion to it's size, they are also more than a third smaller, and their note more like that of the brant or a young goose which has not perfectly acquired his notes, in all other rispects they are the same in colour habits and the number of feathers in the tale, they frequently also ascociate with the large geese when in flocks, but never saw them pared off with the large or common goose. the white brant ascociate in very large flocks, they do not appear to be mated or pared off as if they intended to raise their young in this quarter, i therefore doubt whether they reside here during the summer for that purpose. this bird is about the size of the common brown brant or two thirds of the common goose, it is not so long by six inches from point to point of the wings when extended as the other; the beak head and neck are also larger and stronger; their beak legs and feet are of a redish or fleshcoloured white. the eye is of moderate size, the puple of a deep sea green incircled with a ring of yellowish brown. it has sixteen feathers of equal length in the tale; their note differs but little from the common brant, their flesh much the same, and in my opinion preferable to the goose, the flesh is dark. they are entirely of a beatifull pure white except the large feathers of the st and second joints of the wings which are jut black. form and habits are the same with the other brant; they sometimes ascociate and form one common flock. capt clark found a den of young wolves in the course of his walk today and also saw a great number of those anamals; they are very abundant in this quarter, and are of two species the small woolf or burrowing dog of the praries are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually ascociate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take a deer or goat they are rarely ever found alone but hunt in bands; they frequently watch and seize their prey near their burrows; in these burrows they raise their young and to them they also resort when pursued; when a person approaches them they frequently bark, their note being precisely that of the small dog. they are of an intermediate size between that of the fox and dog, very active fleet and delicately formed; the ears large erect and pointed the head long and pointed more like that of the fox; tale long; the hair and fur also resembles the fox tho is much coarser and inferior. they are of a pale redish brown colour. the eye of a deep sea green colour small and piercing. their tallons are reather longer than those of the ordinary wolf or that common to the atlantic states, none of which are to be found in this quarter, nor i believe above the river plat.--the large woolf found here is not as large as those of the atlantic states. they are lower and thicker made shorter leged. their colour which is not effected by the seasons, is a grey or blackish brown and every intermediate shade from that to a creen coloured white; these wolves resort the woodlands and are also found in the plains, but never take refuge in the ground or burrow so far as i have been able to inform myself. we scarcely see a gang of buffaloe without observing a parsel of those faithfull shepherds on their skirts in readiness to take care of the mamed & wounded. the large wolf never barks, but howls as those of the atlantic states do. capt. clark and drewyer killed the largest brown bear this evening which we have yet seen. it was a most tremendious looking anamal, and extreemly hard to kill notwithstanding he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts he swam more than half the distance acoss the river to a sandbar & it was at least twenty minutes before he died; he did not attempt to attact, but fled and made the most tremendous roaring from the moment he was shot. we had no means of weighing this monster; capt. clark thought he would weigh lbs. for my own part i think the estimate too small by lbs. he measured feet / inches from the nose to the extremety of the hind feet, f. to / inch arround the breast, f. i. arround the middle of the arm, & f. i. arround the neck; his tallons which were five in number on each foot were / inches in length. he was in good order, we therefore divided him among the party and made them boil the oil and put it in a cask for future uce; the oil is as hard as hogs lard when cool, much more so than that of the black bear. this bear differs from the common black bear in several respects; it's tallons are much longer and more blont, it's tale shorter, it's hair which is of a redish or bey brown, is longer thicker and finer than that of the black bear; his liver lungs and heart are much larger even in proportion with his size; the heart particularly was as large as that of a large ox. his maw was also ten times the size of black bear, and was filled with flesh and fish. his testicles were pendant from the belly and placed four inches assunder in seperate bags or pouches.--this animal also feeds on roots and almost every species of wild fruit. the party killed two elk and a buffaloe today, and my dog caught a goat, which he overtook by superior fleetness, the goat it must be understood was with young and extreemly poor. a great number of these goats are devowered by the wolves and bear at this season when they are poor and passing the river from s. w. to n. e. they are very inactive and easily taken in the water, a man can out swim them with great ease; the indians take them in great numbers in the river at this season and in autumn when they repass to the s. w. [clark, may , ] th of may sunday we set out verry early and had not proceeded far before the rudder irons of one of the perogus broke which detained us a short time capt lewis walked on shore this morning and killed a deer, after brackfast i walked on shore saw great numbers of buffalow & elk saw also a den of young wolves, and a number of (frown wolves in every direction, the white & grey brant is in this part of the missouri i shot at the white brant but at so great a distance i did not kill, the countrey on both sides is as yesterday, handsom & fertile--the river rising & current strong & in the evening we saw a brown or grisley beare on a sand beech, i went out with one man geo. drewyer & killed the bear, which was verry large and a turrible looking animal, which we found verry hard to kill we shot ten balls into him before we killed him, & of those balls through his lights this animal is the largest of the carnivorous kind i ever saw we had nothing that could way him, i think his weight may be stated at pounds, he measured feet / in. from his nose to the extremity of the toe, feet / in. arround the breast, feet ins. around the middle of the arm, feet ins. arround the neck his tallents was inches & / long, he was good order, and appeared verry different from the common black bear in as much as his tallents were blunt, his tail short, his liver & lights much larger, his maw ten times as large and contained meat or flesh & fish only--we had him skined and divided, the oile tried up & put in kegs for use. we camped on the stard side, our men killed three elk and a buffalow to day, and our dog cought an antilope a fair race, this animal appeared verry pore & with young. [lewis, may , ] monday may th . the morning being fair and pleasant and wind favourable we set sale at an early hour, and proceeded on very well the greater part of the day; the country still continues level fertile and beautifull, the bottoms wide and well timbered comparitively speaking with other parts of the river; no appearance of birnt hills pumice stone or coal, the salts of tartar or vegitable salts continues to appear on the river banks, sand bars and in many parts of the plains most generally in the little revines at the base of the low hills. passed three streames today which discharged themselves on the lard. side; the first of these we call little dry creek it contained some water in standing pools but discharged none, the ed yards wide no water, we called it big dry creek, the rd is bed of a conspicuous river yards wide which we called little dry river; the banks of these streams are low and bottoms wide with but little timber, their beds are almost entirely formed of a fine brown sand intermixed with a small proportion of little pebbles, which were either transparent, white, green, red, yellow or brown. these streams appeared to continue their width without diminution as far as we could perceive them, which with rispect to the river was many miles, they had recenly discharged their waters. from the appearance of these streams, and the country through which they passed, we concluded that they had their souces in level low dry plains, which probably is the character of the country for a great distance west of this, or to the vicinity of the black hills, that the country being low on the same level nearly and in the same parallel of latitude, that the rains in the spring of the year suddonly melts the snow at the same time and causes for a few days a vast quantity of water which finds it's way to the missouri through those channels; by reference to the diary of the weather &c it will be percieved that there is scarcely any rain during the summer autumn and winter in this open country distant from the mountains. fields still continues unwell. saw a brown bear swim the river above us, he disappeared before we can get in reach of him; i find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this anamal, the formidable appearance of the male bear killed on the th added to the difficulty with which they die when even shot through the vital parts, has staggered the resolution several of them, others however seem keen for action with the bear; i expect these gentlemen will give us some amusement shotly as they soon begin now to coppolate. saw a great quantity of game of every species common here. capt clark walked on shore and killed two elk, they were not in very good order, we therefore took a part of the meat only; it is now only amusement for capt. c. and myself to kill as much meat as the party can consum; i hope it may continue thus through our whole rout, but this i do not much expect. two beaver were taken in traps this morning and one since shot by one of the party. saw numbers of these anamals peeping at us as we passed out of their wholes which they form of a cilindric shape, by burrowing in the face of the abbrupt banks of the river. [clark, may , ] may th monday a fine morning wind from the n. e. we set out early and proceeded on verry well under sail the greater part of the day, passed two creeks & a river to day on the lard. side, neither of them discharged any water into the missouri, they were wide and continued their width for some distance, the little water of those creeks & the little river must wash the low country, i believe those streams to be the conveyance of the water of the heavy rains & melting snows in the countrey back &c. &c. i walked on shore and killed two elk neither of which was fat, we saved the best of the meat, one beaver shot to day. the countrey on both sides butifull no appearances of either coal or pumice stone & burnt hills, the salts of tarter or white aprs. of salts are yet to be seen. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . a fine morning, set out at an early hour; the drift wood begins to come down in consequence of the river's rising; the water is somewhat clearer than usual, a circumstance i did not expect on it's rise. at a.m. the wind became so hard that we were compelled to ly by for several hours, one of the small canoes by the bad management of the steersman filled with water and had very nearly sunk; we unloaded her and dryed the baggage; at one we proceed on the wind having in some measure abated. the country we passed today on the north side of the river is one of the most beautifull plains we have yet seen, it rises gradually from the river bottom to the hight of or feet, then becoming level as a bowling green. extends back as far as the eye can reach; on the s. side the river hills are more broken and much higher tho some little destance back the country becomes level and fertile. no appearance of birnt hills coal or pumicestone, that of salts still continue. vegitation appears to have advanced very little since the th ulto.--we continue to see a great number of bald eagles, i presume they must feed on the carcases of dead anamals, for i see no fishing hawks to supply them with their favorite food. the water of the river is so terbid that no bird wich feeds exclusively on fish can subsist on it; from it's mouth to this place i have neither seen the blue crested fisher nor a fishing hawk. this day we killed buffaloe elk & beaver; two of the buffaloe killed by capt clark near our encampment of this evening wer in good order dressed them and saved the meat, the elk i killed this morning, thought it fat, but on examineation found it so lean that we took the tongue marrowbones and skin only. [clark, may , ] may th tuesday, a fine morning river rose / inches last night, the drift wood beginning to run the water something clearer than usial, the wind became verry hard, and at oclock one canoe by bad stearing filled with water, which detained us about hours, had a meridian altitude, the laid. from which is ° ' " / the countrey on the north side of the missouri is one of the handsomest plains we have yet seen on the river the plain rises from the river bottom gradually. the hills on the south side is high & uneavin. no appearance of coal or burnt hills, that of salts still appear; vegitation appears to be slow, i walked on the bank to day and shot beaver, in the evening killed two buffalow in tolerable order which we saved and camped on the lard side. beaver, buffalow & an elk killed to day [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th . set out at an early hour under a gentle brieze from the east. a black cloud which suddonly sprung up at s. e. soon over shaddowed the horizon; at a.m. it gave us a slight sprinke of rain, the wind became much stronger but not so much so as to detain us. we nooned it just above the entrance of a large river which disimbogues on the lard. side; i took the advantage of this leasure moment and examined the river about miles; i found it generally yards wide, and in some places . it is deep, gentle in it's courant and affords a large boddy of water; it's banks which are formed of a dark rich loam and blue clay are abbrupt and about feet high. it's bed is principally mud. i have no doubt but it is navigable for boats perogues and canoes, for the latter probably a great distance. the bottoms of this stream ar wide, level, fertile and possess a considerable proportion of timber, principally cottonwood. from the quantity of water furnised by this river it must water a large extent of country; perhaps this river also might furnish a practicable and advantageous communication with the saskashiwan river; it is sufficiently large to justify a belief that it might reach to that river if it's direction be such. the water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonful) of milk. from the colour of it's water we called it milk river. (we think it possible that this may be the river called by the minitares the river which scoalds at all others or ____) capt clark who walked this morning on the lard. shore ascended a very high point opposite to the mouth of this river; he informed me that he had a perfect view of this river and the country through which it passed for a great distance (probably or miles,) that the country was level and beautifull on both sides of the river, with large herds of buffaloe distributed throughout that the river from it's mouth boar n. w. for or miles when it forked, the one taking a direction nearly north, and the other to the west of n. west. from the appearance of the vallies and the timber on each of these streams capt. c. supposed that they were about the same size. great appearance of beaver on this river, and i have no doubt but what they continue abundant, there being plenty of cottonwood and willow, the timber on which they subsist. the country on the lard. side of the river is generally high broken hills, with much broken, grey black and brown grannite scattered on the surface of the earth in a confused manner. the wild licquorice is found on the sides of these hills, in great abundance. at a little distance from the river there is no timber to be seen on either side; the bottom lands are not more than one fifth covered with timber; the timber as below is confined to the borders of the river. in future it will be understood that there is no timber of any discription on the upland unless particularly mentioned; and also that one fifth of the bottom lands being covered with timber is considered a large proportion. the white apple is found in great abundance in this neighbourhood; it is confined to the highlands principally. the whiteapple, so called by the french engages, is a plant which rises to the hight of or inchs. rarely exceeding a foot; it puts forth from one to four and sometimes more stalks from the same root, but is most generally found with one only, which is branched but not defusely, is cylindric and villose; the leafstalks, cylindric, villose and very long compared with the hight of the plant, tho gradually diminish in length as they ascend, and are irregular in point of position; the leaf, digitate, from three to five in number, oval inch long, absolutely entire and cottony; the whole plant of a pale green, except the under disk of the leaf which is of a white colour from the cottony substance with which it is covered. the radix a tuberous bulb; generally ova formed, sometimes longer and more rarely partially divided or brancing; always attended with one or more radicles at it's lower extremity which sink from to inches deep. the bulb covered with a rough black, tough, thin rind which easily seperates from the bulb which is a fine white substance, somewhat porus, spungy and moist, and reather tough before it is dressed; the center of the bulb is penitrated with a small tough string or ligament, which passing from the bottom of the stem terminates in the extremity of the radicle, which last is also covered by a prolongation of the rind which invellopes the bulb. the bulb is usually found at the debth of inches and frequently much deeper. this root forms a considerable article of food with the indians of the missouri, who for this purpose prepare them in several ways. they are esteemed good at all seasons of the year, but are best from the middle of july to the latter end of autumn when they are sought and gathered by the provident part of the natives for their winter store. when collected they are striped of their rhind and strung on small throngs or chords and exposed to the sun or placed in the smoke of their fires to dry; when well dryed they will keep for several years, provided they are not permitted to become moist or damp; in this situation they usually pound them between two stones placed on a piece of parchment, untill they reduce it to a fine powder thus prepared they thicken their soope with it; sometimes they also boil these dryed roots with their meat without breaking them; when green they are generally boiled with their meat, sometimes mashing them or otherwise as they think proper. they also prepare an agreeable dish with them by boiling and mashing them and adding the marrow grease of the buffaloe and some buries, until the whole be of the consistency of a haisty pudding. they also eat this root roasted and frequently make hearty meals of it raw without sustaining any inconvenience or injury therefrom. the white or brown bear feed very much on this root, which their tallons assist them to procure very readily. the white apple appears to me to be a tastless insippid food of itself tho i have no doubt but it is a very healthy and moderately nutricious food. i have no doubt but our epicures would admire this root very much, it would serve them in their ragouts and gravies in stead of the truffles morella. we saw a great number buffaloe, elk, common and black taled deer, goats beaver and wolves. capt c. killed a beaver and a wolf, the party killed beaver and a deer. we can send out at any time and obtain whatever species of meat the country affords in as large quantity as we wish. we saw where an indian had recently grained, or taken the hair off of a goatskin; we do not wish to see those gentlemen just now as we presume they would most probably be the assinniboins and might be troublesome to us. capt c. could not be certain but thought he saw the smoke and some indian lodges at a considrable distance up milk river. [clark, may , ] may the th wednesday a verry black cloud to the s w. we set out under a gentle breeze from the n. e. about oclock began to rain, but not sufficient to wet, we passed the mouth of a large river on the starboard side yards wide and appears to be navagable. the countrey thro which it passes as far as could be seen from the top of a verry high hill on which i was, a butifull leavil plain this river forks about n w from its mouth or miles one fork runs from the north & the other to the west of n w. the water of this river will justify a belief that it has its sourse at a considerable distance, and waters a great extent of countrey--we are willing to believe that this is the river the minitarres call the river which scolds at all others the countrey on the lard. side is high & broken with much stone scattered on the hills, in walking on shore with the interpreter & his wife, the squar geathered on the sides of the hills wild lickerish, & the white apple as called by the angegies and gave me to eat, the indians of the missouri make great use of the white apple dressed in different ways--saw great numbers of buffalow, elk, antelope & deer, also black tale deer beaver & wolves, i killed a beaver which i found on the bank, & a wolf. the party killed beaver deer i saw where an indian had taken the hair off a goat skin a fiew days past--camped early on the lard. side. the river we passed today we call milk river from the peculiar whiteness of it's water, which precisely resembles tea with a considerable mixture of milk. [lewis, may , ] thursday may th . set out at an early hour; the wind being favourable we used our sails and proceeded very well; the country in appearance is much as yester, with this difference that the land appears more fertile particularly of the lard. hills which are not so stoney and less broken; the timber has also in some measure declined in quantity. today we passed the bed of the most extraordinary river that i ever beheld. it is as wide as the missouri is at this place or / a mile wide and not containing a single drop of runing water; some small standing pools being all the water that could be per-ceived. it falls in on the lard. side. i walked up this river about three miles and ascended an eminence from which i could perceive it many miles; it's course about south for or miles, when it viered around to the e of s. e. as far as i could see. the valley of this river is wide and possesses but a scanty proportion of timber; the hills which border it are not very high nor is the country very broken; it is what may properly be designated a wavy or roling country intersperced with some handsom level plains. the bank are low and abbrupt, seldom more than or eight feet above the level of the bed, yet show but little appearance of being overflown; they are of black or yellow clay or a rich sandy loam. the bed is entirely composed of a light brown sand the particles of which as well as that of the missoury are remarkably fine. this river i presume must extend back as far as the black hills and probably is the channel through which a great extent of plain country discharge their superfluous waters in the spring season. it had the appearance of having recently discharged it's waters; and from the watermark, it did not appear that it had been more than feet deep at it's greatest hight. this stream (if such it can properly be termed) we called big dry river. about a mile below this river on the same side a large creek falls in also dry at present. the mineral salts and quarts appear in large quantities in this neighbourhood. the sand of the missouri from it's mouth to this place has always possessed a mixture of granulated talk or i now think most probably that it is this quarts. capt c. killed bucks and buffaloe, i also killed one buffaloe which proved to be the best meat, it was in tolerable order; we saved the best of the meat, and from the cow i killed we saved the necessary materials for making what our wrighthand cook charbono calls the boudin blanc, and immediately set him about preparing them for supper; this white pudding we all esteem one of the greatest delacies of the forrest, it may not be amiss therefore to give it a place. about feet of the lower extremity of the large gut of the buffaloe is the first mosel that the cook makes love to, this he holds fast at one end with the right hand, while with the forefinger and thumb of the left he gently compresses it, and discharges what he says is not good to eat, but of which in the squel we get a moderate portion; the mustle lying underneath the shoulder blade next to the back, and fillets are next saught, these are needed up very fine with a good portion of kidney suit; to this composition is then added a just proportion of pepper and salt and a small quantity of flour; thus far advanced, our skilfull opporater c-o seizes his recepticle, which has never once touched the water, for that would intirely distroy the regular order of the whole procedure; you will not forget that the side you now see is that covered with a good coat of fat provided the anamal be in good order; the operator sceizes the recepticle i say, and tying it fast at one end turns it inwards and begins now with repeated evolutions of the hand and arm, and a brisk motion of the finger and thumb to put in what he says is bon pour manger; thus by stuffing and compressing he soon distends the recepticle to the utmost limmits of it's power of expansion, and in the course of it's longtudinal progress it drives from the other end of the recepticle a much larger portion of the ____ than was prevously discharged by the finger and thumb of the left hand in a former part of the operation; thus when the sides of the recepticle are skilfully exchanged the outer for the iner, and all is compleatly filled with something good to eat, it is tyed at the other end, but not any cut off, for that would make the pattern too scant; it is then baptised in the missouri with two dips and a flirt, and bobbed into the kettle; from whence after it be well boiled it is taken and fryed with bears oil untill it becomes brown, when it is ready to esswage the pangs of a keen appetite or such as travelers in the wilderness are seldom at a loss for. we saw a great quantity of game today particularly of elk and buffaloe, the latter are now so gentle that the men frequently throw sticks and stones at them in order to drive them out of the way. we also saw this evening emence quantities of timber cut by the beaver which appeared to have been done the preceeding year, in place particularly they had cut all the timber down for three acres in front and on nearly one back from the river and had removed a considerable proportion of it, the timber grew very thick and some of it was as large as a man's body. the river for several days has been as wide as it is generally near it's mouth, tho it is much shallower or i should begin to dispair of ever reaching it's source; it has been crouded today with many sandbars; the water also appears to become clearer, it has changed it's complexin very considerably. i begin to feel extreemly anxious to get in view of the rocky mountains. i killed four plover this evening of a different species from any i have yet seen; it resembles the grey or whistling plover more than any other of this family of birds; it is about the size of the yellow legged or large grey plover common to the lower part of this river as well as most parts of the atlantic states where they are sometimes called the jack curloo; the eye is moderately large, are black with a narrow ring of dark yellowish brown; the head, neck, upper part of the body and coverts of the wings are of a dove coloured brown, which when the bird is at rest is the predominant colour; the brest and belley are of a brownish white; the tail is composed of feathers of ins. being of equal length, of these the two in the center are black, with traverse bars of yellowish brown; the others are a brownish white. the large feathers of the wings are white tiped with blacked. the beak is black, / inches in length, slightly tapering, streight of a cilindric form and blontly or roundly pointed; the chaps are of equal length, and nostrils narrow. longitudional and connected; the feet and legs are smoth and of a greenish brown; has three long toes and a short one on each foot, the long toes are unconnected with a web, and the short one is placed very high up the leg behind, insomuch that it dose not touch the ground when the bird stands erect. the notes of this bird are louder and more various than any other of this family that i have seen. [clark, may , ] may th thursday a fine day wind from the east we proceeded on verry well the countrey much the appearance which it had yesterday the bottom & high land rich black earth, timber not so abondant as below, we passed the mouth of a river (or the appearance of a river) on the lard. side the bend of which as far as we went up it or could see from a high hill is as large as that of the missouri at this place which is near half a mile this river did not contain one drop of running water, about a mile below this river a large creeke joins the river l. s. which is also dry- those dry streams which are also verry wide, i think is the conveyance of the melted snow, & heavy rains which is probable fall in from the high mountanious countrey which is said to be between this river & the yellow stone river--i walked on shore the fore part of this day, & observed great quantities of the shining stone which we view as quarts, i killed bucks & a buffalow, capt lewis also killed one which verry good meat, i saw emunerable herds of buffalow, & goats to day in every derection--the missouri keeps its width which is nearly as wide as near its mouth, great number of sand bars, the water not so muddy & sand finer & in smaller perpotion. capt. lewis killed pleaver different from any i have ever before seen, larger & have white breast & the underfeathers of the wings are white &c. [lewis, may , ] may th . i killed four plover this evening of a different kind from any i have yet seen. it resembles the grey or whistling plover more than any other of this family of birds, tho it is much larger. it is about the size of the yellow leged plover common to the u states, and called the jack curlooe by some. the legs are of a greenish brown; the toes, three and one high at the heel unconnected with a webb, the breast and belly of a brownish white; the head neck upper part of the body and coverts of the wings are of a dove colured brown which when the bird is at rest is the predomanent colour. the tale has feathers of the same length of which the two in the center are black with transverse bars of yellowish bron, the others are a brownish white. the large feathers of the wings are white tiped with black. the eyes are black with a small ring of dark yellowish brown--the beak is black, / inches long, cilindrical, streight, and roundly or blountly pointed. the notes of this bird are louder and more various than of any other species which i have seen.- [lewis, may , ] friday may th . set out at sunrise and proceeded but a short distance ere the wind became so violent that we were obliged to come too, which we did on the lard. side in a suddon or short bend of the river where we were in a great measure sheltered from the effects of the wind. the wind continued violent all day, the clouds were thick and black, had a slight sprinkle of rain several times in the course of the day. we sent out several hunters to scower the country, to this we were induced not so much from the want of provision as to discover the indians whome we had reasons to believe were in the neighbourhood, from the circumstance of one of their dogs comeing to us this morning shortly after we landed; we still beleive ourselves in the country usually hunted by the assinniboins, and as they are a vicious illy disposed nation we think it best to be on our guard, accordingly we inspected the arms and accoutrements the party and found them all in good order. the hunters returned this evening having seen no tents or indians nor any fresh sign of them; they killed two mule deer, one common fallow or longtailed deer, buffaloe and beaver, and saw several deer of the mule kind of immence size, and also three of the bighorned anamals. from the appearance of the mule deer and the bighorned anamals we beleive ourselves fast approaching a hilly or mountainous country; we have rarely found the mule deer in any except a rough country; they prefer the open grounds and are seldom found in the woodlands near the river; when they are met with in the woodlands or river bottoms and are pursued, they invariably run to the hills or open country as the elk do. the contrary happens with the common deer ther are several esscential differences between the mule and common deer as well in form as in habits. they are fully a third larger in general, and the male is particularly large; i think there is somewhat greater disparity of size between the male and female of this speceis than there is between the male and female fallow deer; i am convinced i have seen a buck of this species twice the volume of a buck of any other species. the ears are peculiarly large; i measured those of a large buck which i found to be eleven inches long and / in width at the widest part; they are not so delicately formed, their hair in winter is thicker longer and of a much darker grey, in summer the hair is still coarser longer and of a paleer red, more like that of the elk; in winter they also have a considerable quantity of a very fine wool intermixed with the hair and lying next to the skin as the antelope has. the long hair which grows on the outer sides of the st joint of the hinder legs, and which in the common deer do not usually occupy more than inches in them occupys from to eight; their horns also differ, these in the common deer consist of two main beams from which one or more points project the beam graduly deminishing as the points procede from it, with the mule deer the horns consist of two beams which at the distance of or inches from the head divide themselves each into two equal branches which again either divide into two other equal branches or terminate in a smaller, and two equal ones; having either or points on a beam; the horn is not so rough about the base as the common deer and are invariably of a much darker colour. the most striking difference of all, is the white rump and tale. from the root of the tail as a center there is a circular spot perfectly white, of abot inches radius, which occupys a part of the rump and extremitys of the buttocks and joins the white of the belley underneath; the tail which is usually from to inches long, for the first or inches from it's upper extremity is covered with short white hairs, much shorter indeed than the hairs of the body; from hence for about one inch further the hair is still white but gradually becomes longer, the tail then terminates in a tissue of black hair of about inches long. from this black hair of the tail they have obtained among the french engages the appelation of the black taled deer, but this i conceive by no means characteristic of the anamal as much the larger portion of the tail is white. the year and the tail of this anamal when compared with those of the common (leer, so well comported with those of the mule when compared with the horse, that we have by way of distinction adapted the appellation of the mule deer which i think much more appropriate. on the inner corner of each eye there is a drane or large recepicle which seems to answer as a drane to the eye which gives it the appearance of weeping, this in the common deer of the atlantic states is scarcely perceptable but becomes more conspicuous in the fallow deer, and still more so in the elk; this recepticle in the elk is larger than in any of the pecora order with which i am acquainted. boils and imposthumes have been very common with the party bratton is now unable to work with one on his hand; soar eyes continue also to be common to all of us in a greater or less degree. for the imposthume i use emmolient poltices, and for soar eyes a solution of white vitriol and the sugar of lead in the proportion of grs. of the former and one of the latter to each ounce of water. [clark, may , ] may the th friday river fell / of an inch last night, wind from the n. w, we proceeded on but a short distance e'r'e the wind became so violent we could not proceed came to on the lard. side in a short bend, the wind continued all day several times in the course of the day we had some fiew drops of rain from verry black clouds, no thunder or lightning latterly, soon after we landed a dog came to us from the opposit side, which induced a belief that we had not passd. the assinniboin indians, parties wer sent on the hills in different derections to examine but saw no tents or fresh sign. examined the arms &c. of the party found all in good order. three mule deer, two buffalow & beaver killed, of the mountain ram seen. [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . set out this morning at an early hour, the courant strong; and river very crooked; the banks are falling in very fast; i sometimes wonder that some of our canoes or perogues are not swallowed up by means of these immence masses of earth which are eternally precipitating themselves into the river; we have had many hair breadth escapes from them but providence seems so to have ordered it that we have as yet sustained no loss in consequence of them. the wind blue very hard the forepart of last night but abated toward morning; it again arose in the after part of this day and retarded our progress very much. the high lands are broken, the hills higher and approach nearer the river, tho the soil of both hills and bottoms appear equally as furtile as below; it consists of a black looking tome with a moderate portion of sand; the hills and bluffs to the debth of or thirty feet, seemed to be composed entirely of this loam; when thrown in the water it desolves as readily as loaf sugar and effervesses like marle. great appearance of quarts and mineral salts, the latter appears both on the hills and bottoms, in the bottoms of the gullies which make down from the hills it lies incrusting the earth to the debth of or inches, and may with a fether be swept up and collected in large quantities, i preserved several specimines of this salts. the quarts appears most commonly in the faces of the bluffs. no coal, burnt hills, or pumice stone. saw today some high hills on the stard. whose summits were covered with pine. capt clark went on shore and visited them; he brought with him on his return som of the boughs of this pine it is of the pitch kind but i think the leaves somewhat longer than ours in virginia. capt c. also in his walk killed mule deer a beaver and two buffaloe; these last he killed about miles above where we encamped this evening in the expectation that we would reach that place, but we were unable to do so from the adverse winds and other occurrences, and he came down and joined us about dark. there is a dwarf cedar growing among the pine on the hills; it rises to the hight thre sometimes feet, but most generally spreads itself like a vine along the surface of the earth, which it covers very closely, puting out roots from the underside of the limbs; the leaf is finer and more delicate than the common red ceader, it's fruit and smell are the same with the red ceader. the tops of these hills which produce the pine and cedar is of a different soil from that just described; it is a light coloured poor sterile sandy soil, the base usually a yellow or white clay; it produces scarcely any grass, some scattering tuffts of sedge constitutes the greater part of it's grass. about p.m. my attention was struck by one of the party runing at a distance towards us and making signs and hollowing as if in distress, i ordered the perogues to put too, and waited untill he arrived; i now found that it was bratton the man with the soar hand whom i had permitted to walk on shore, he arrived so much out of breath that it was several minutes before he could tell what had happened; at length he informed me that in the woody bottom on the lard. side about / below us he had shot a brown bear which immediately turned on him and pursued him a considerable distance but he had wounded it so badly that it could not overtake him; i immediately turned out with seven of the party in quest of this monster, we at length found his trale and persued him about a mile by the blood through very thick brush of rosbushes and the large leafed willow; we finally found him concealed in some very thick brush and shot him through the skull with two balls; we proceeded dress him as soon as possible, we found him in good order; it was a monstrous beast, not quite so large as that we killed a few days past but in all other rispects much the same the hair is remarkably long fine and rich tho he appears parshally to have discharged his winter coat; we now found that bratton had shot him through the center of the lungs, notwithstanding which he had pursued him near half a mile and had returned more than double that distance and with his tallons had prepared himself a bed in the earth of about feet deep and five long and was perfectly alive when we found him which could not have been less than hours after he received the wound; these bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all; i must confess that i do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two indians than one bear; there is no other chance to conquer them by a single shot but by shooting them through the brains, and this becomes difficult in consequence of two large muscles which cover the sides of the forehead and the sharp projection of the center of the frontal bone, which is also of a pretty good thickness. the flece and skin were as much as two men could possibly carry. by the time we returned the sun had set and i determined to remain here all night, and directed the cooks to render the bear's oil and put it in the kegs which was done. there was about eight gallons of it. the wild hysop grows here and in all the country through which we have passed for many days past; tho from big dry river to this place it has been more abundant than below, and a smaller variety of it grows on the hills, the leaves of which differ considerably being more deeply indented near it's extremity. the buffaloe deer and elk feed on this herb in the winter season as they do also on the small willow of the sandbars. there is another growth that begins now to make it's appearance in the bottom lands and is becoming extreemly troublesome; it is a shrub which rises to the hight of from two to four feet, much branched, the bark of the trunk somewhat rough hard and of light grey colour; the wood is firm and stif, the branches beset with a great number of long, shap, strong, wooddy looking thorns; the leaf is about / or an inch long, and one / of an inch wide, it is obtuse, absolutely entire, veinless fleshy and gibbose; has no perceptable taste or smell, and no anamal appears to eat it. by way of designating when i mention it hereafter i shall call it the fleshey leafed thorn [clark, may , ] may the th satturday . wind hard fore part of last night the latter part verry cold a white frost this morning, the river riseing a little and verry crooked the high land is rugged and approaches nearer than below, the hills and bluff exhibit more mineral quats & salts than below, the gullies in maney places are white, and their bottoms one, two & inches deep of this mineral, no appearance of either burnt pumice stone or coal, the countrey hilley on both sides of a rich black earth, which disolves this kind of countrey continues of the same quallity for maney miles on either side, we observed some hills which appeared to be timbered, i walked to this timber and found it to pitch pine & dwarf cedar, we observe in every derection buffalow, elk, antelopes & mule deer inumerable and so jintle that we could approach near them with great ease, i killed mule deer for the benifit of their skins for the party, and about the place i expected the party would get to camp i killed fat bulls for theire use, in my absence they had killed a fine fat yellow bear below which detained them and they did not reach the place i expected, but had camped on the lard. side about miles below on my return to the party i killed a fat beaver the wind blew verry hard from the s. w. all the after part of this day which retarded our progress verry much. river rose in [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . set out at an early hour, the weather clear and calm; i walked on shore this morning for the benifit of exersize which i much wanted, and also to examine the country and it's productions, in these excurtions i most generally went alone armed with my rifle and espontoon; thus equiped i feel myself more than an equal match for a brown bear provided i get him in open woods or near the water, but feel myself a little diffident with respect to an attack in the open plains, i have therefore come to a resolution to act on the defencive only, should i meet these gentlemen in the open country. i ascended the hills and had a view of a rough and broken country on both sides of the river; on the north side the summits of the hills exhibit some scattering pine and cedar, on the south side the pine has not yet commenced tho there is some cedar on the face of the hills and in the little ravines. the choke cherry also grows here in the hollows and at the heads of the gullies; the choke cherry has been in blume since the ninth inst. this growth has freequently made it's appearance on the missouri from the neighbourhood of the baldpated prarie, to this place in the form of it's leaf colour and appearance of it's bark, and general figure of it's growth it resembles much the morillar cherry, tho much smaller not generally rising to a greater hight than from to feet and ascociating in thick clusters or clumps in their favorit situations which is usually the heads of small ravines or along the sides of small brooks which flow from the hills. the flowers which are small and white are supported by a common footstalk as those of the common wild cherry are, the corolla consists of five oval petals, five stamen and one pistillum, and of course of the class and order pentandria monogynia. it bears a fruit which much resembles the wild cherry in form and colour tho larger and better flavoured; it's fruit ripens about the begining of july and continues on the trees untill the latter end of september--the indians of the missouri make great uce of this cherry which they prepare for food in various ways, sometimes eating when first plucked from the trees or in that state pounding them mashing the seed boiling them with roots or meat, or with the prarie beans and white-apple; again for their winter store they geather them and lay them on skins to dry in the sun, and frequently pound them and make them up in small roles or cakes and dry them in the sun; when thus dryed they fold them in skins or put them in bags of parchment and keep them through the winter either eating them in this state or boiling them as before mentioned. the bear and many birds also feed on these burries. the wild hysop sage, fleshey leaf thorn, and some other herbs also grow in the plains and hills, particularly the arromatic herb on which the antelope and large hare feed. the soil has now changed it's texture considerably; the base of the hills and river bottoms continue the same and are composed of a rich black loam while the summits of the hills and about half their hight downwards are of a light brown colour, poor sterile and intermixed with a coarse white sand. about oclock the wind veered about to the n. w. and blew so hard that we were obliged to ly by the ballance of the day. we saw great quantities of game as usual. the bottom lands still becomeing narrower. about sunset it began to rain, and continued to fall a few drops at a time untill midnight; the wind blew violently all night. [clark, may , ] may th sunday . set out at an early hour, the morning clear and calm, capt. lewis walked on shore this morning about oclock the wind becam strong from the e. about half past one oclock the wind shifted round to the n. w. and blew verry hard all the latter part of the day, which obliged us to lay by--the countrey is hilley & rugged and the earth of a lightish brown and but indifferent, some small cedar is scattered on the sides of the hils & in the hollars, some pine ridges is also to be seen on the north side, we observe great quantites of game as usual. i killed a beaver in the water, saw several sitting on the bank near the waters edge about sunset it began to rain, and rained very moderately only a fiew drops at a time for about half the night, wind continued violent all night [lewis, may , ] monday may th . the wind continued to blow so violently this morning that we did not think it prudent to set out. sent out some hunters. at p.m. the wind abated, and altho the hunters had not all returned we set out; the courant reather stronger than usual and the water continues to become reather clearer, from both which i anticipate a change of country shortly. the country much the same as yesterday; but little timber in the bottoms and a scant proportion of pine an cedar crown the stard. hills. capt c. who was on shore the greater part of the day killed a mule and a common deer, the party killed several deer and some elk principally for the benefit of their skins which are necessary to them for cloathing, the elk skins i now begin to reserve for making the leather boat at the falls. the hunters joined us this evening; gibson had wounded a very large brown bear but it was too late in the evening to pursue him. [clark, may , ] th of may monday the wind continued to blow hard untill one oclock p m. to day at which time it fell a little and we set out and proceeded on verry well about miles and camped on the lard side. the countrey much the same appearance as yesterday but little timber in the bottoms; some pine in places on the stard. hills. i killed two deer this evening one a mule deer & the other a common deer, the party killed several this morning all for the use of their skins which are now good, one man gibson wounded a verry large brown bear, too late this evening to prosue him- we passed two creeks in a bend to the lard side neither them had any water, are somewhat wider; passed some high black bluffs. saw immence herds of buffaloe today also elk deer wolves and antelopes. passed three large creeks one on the stard. and two others on the lard. side, neither of which had any runing water. capt clark walked on shore and killed a very fine buffaloe cow. i felt an inclination to eat some veal and walked on shore and killed a very fine buffaloe calf and a large woolf, much the whitest i had seen, it was quite as white as the wool of the common sheep. one of the party wounded a brown bear very badly, but being alone did not think proper to pursue him. in the evening the men in two of the rear canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds about paces from the river, and six of them went out to attack him, all good hunters; they took the advantage of a small eminence which concealed them and got within paces of him unperceived, two of them reserved their fires as had been previously conscerted, the four others fired nearly at the same time and put each his bullet through him, two of the balls passed through the bulk of both lobes of his lungs, in an instant this monster ran at them with open mouth, the two who had reserved their fires discharged their pieces at him as he came towards them, boath of them struck him, one only slightly and the other fortunately broke his shoulder, this however only retarded his motion for a moment only, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight, the bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken them before they reached the river; two of the party betook themselves to a canoe and the others seperated an concealed themselves among the willows, reloaded their pieces, each discharged his piece at him as they had an opportunity they struck him several times again but the guns served only to direct the bear to them, in this manner he pursued two of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and pouches and throw themselves into the river altho the bank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this anamal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man he had compelled take refuge in the water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him through the head and finally killed him; they then took him on shore and butched him when they found eight balls had passed through him in different directions; the bear being old the flesh was indifferent, they therefore only took the skin and fleece, the latter made us several gallons of oil; it was after the sun had set before these men come up with us, where we had been halted by an occurrence, which i have now to recappitulate, and which altho happily passed without ruinous injury, i cannot recollect but with the utmost trepidation and horror; this is the upseting and narrow escape of the white perogue it happened unfortunately for us this evening that charbono was at the helm of this perogue, in stead of drewyer, who had previously steered her; charbono cannot swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world; perhaps it was equally unluckey that capt. c. and myself were both on shore at that moment, a circumstance which rarely happened; and tho we were on the shore opposite to the perogue, were too far distant to be heard or to do more than remain spectators of her fate; in this perogue ____ were embarked, our papers, instruments, books medicine, a great part of our merchandize and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprize in which we are now launched to the distance of miles. surfice it to say, that the perogue was under sail when a sudon squawl of wind struck her obliquely, and turned her considerably, the steersman allarmed, in stead of puting her before the wind, lufted her up into it, the wind was so violent that it drew the brace of the squarsail out of the hand of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the perogue and would have turned her completely topsaturva, had it not have been from the resistance mad by the oarning against the water; in this situation capt. c and myself both fired our guns to attract the attention if possible of the crew and ordered the halyards to be cut and the sail hawled in, but they did not hear us; such was their confusion and consternation at this moment, that they suffered the perogue to lye on her side for half a minute before they took the sail in, the perogue then wrighted but had filled within an inch of the gunwals; charbono still crying to his god for mercy, had not yet recollected the rudder, nor could the repeated orders of the bowsman, cruzat, bring him to his recollection untill he threatend to shoot him instantly if he did not take hold of the rudder and do his duty, the waves by this time were runing very high, but the fortitude resolution and good conduct of cruzat saved her; he ordered of the men to throw out the water with some kettles that fortunately were convenient, while himself and two others rowed her ashore, where she arrived scarcely above the water; we now took every article out of her and lay them to drane as well as we could for the evening, baled out the canoe and secured her; there were two other men beside charbono on board who could not swim, and who of course must also have perished had the perogue gone to the bottom. while the perogue lay on her side, finding i could not be heard, i for a moment forgot my own situation, and involluntarily droped my gun, threw aside my shot pouch and was in the act of unbuttoning my coat, before i recollected the folly of the attempt i was about to make, which was to throw myself into the river and indevour to swim to the perogue; the perogue was three hundred yards distant the waves so high that a perogue could scarcely live in any situation, the water excessively could, and the stream rappid; had i undertaken this project therefore, there was a hundred to one but what i should have paid the forfit of my life for the madness of my project, but this had the perogue been lost, i should have valued but little.--after having all matters arranged for the evening as well as the nature of circumstances would permit, we thought it a proper occasion to console ourselves and cheer the sperits of our men and accordingly took a drink of grog and gave each man a gill of sperits. [clark, may , ] th of may tuesday a verry clear cold morning a white frost & some fog on the river the thermomtr stood at above , wind from the s. w. we proceeded on verry well untill about oclock a squawl of wind struck our sale broad side and turned the perogue nearly over, and in this situation the perogue remained untill the sale was cut down in which time she nearly filed with water--the articles which floated out was nearly all caught by the squar who was in the rear. this accident had like to have cost us deerly; for in this perogue were embarked our papers, instruments, books, medicine, a great proportion of our merchandize, and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprize in which, we are now launched to the distance of , miles. it happened unfortunately that capt. lewis and myself were both on shore at the time of this occurrence, a circumstance which seldom took place; and tho we were on the shore opposit to the perogue were too far distant to be heard or do more than remain spectators of her fate; we discharged our guns with the hope of attracting the attention of the crew and ordered the sail to be taken in but such was their consternation and confusion at the instant that they did not hear us. when however they at length took in the sail and the perogue wrighted; the bowsman cruzatte by repeated threats so far brought charbono the sternman to his recollection that he did his duty while two hands bailed the perogue and cruzatte and two others rowed her on shore were she arrived scarcely above the water. we owe the preservation of the perogue to the resolution and fortitude of cruzatte the countrey like that of yesterday, passed a small island and the enterence of large creeks, one on the stard. & the other on the lard side, neither of them had any running water at this time--six good hunters of the party fired at a brown or yellow bear several times before they killed him, & indeed he had like to have defeated the whole party, he pursued them seperately as they fired on him, and was near catching several of them one he pursued into the river, this bear was large & fat would way about wt; i killed a buffalow, & capt. lewis a calf & a wolf this evening. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th as soon as a slight shower of rain passed over this morning, we spread the articles to dry which had got wet yesterday in the white perogue; tho the day proved so cloudy and damp that they received but little benifit from the sun or air; we were enabled to put them in such a state as to prevent their sustaining further injury. our hunters killed several deer, and saw three bear one of which they wounded. [clark, may , ] may th wednesday our medisons, instruments, merchandize, clothes, provisions &c. &c. which was nearly all wet we had put out to air and dry. the day being cloudy & rainey those articles dried but little to day--our hunters killed several deer &c. and saw three bear one of which they wounded &c. we see buffalow on the banks dead, others floating down dead, and others mired every day, those buffalow either drown in swiming the river or brake thro the ice [lewis, may , ] thursday may th the morning was fair and the day proved favorable to our operations; by oclock in the evening our instruments, medicine, merchandize provision &c, were perfectly dryed, repacked and put on board the perogue. the loss we sustained was not so great as we had at first apprehended; our medicine sustained the greatest injury, several articles of which were intirely spoiled, and many others considerably injured; the ballance of our losses consisted of some gardin seeds, a small quantity of gunpowder, and a few culinary articles which fell overboard and sunk, the indian woman to whom i ascribe equal fortitude and resolution, with any person onboard at the time of the accedent, caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard all matters being now arranged for our departure we lost no time in seting out; proceeced on tolerably well about seven miles and encamped on the stard. side. in the early part of the day two of our men fired on a panther, a little below our encampment, and wounded it; they informed us that it was very large, had just killed a deer partly devoured it, and in the act of concealing the ballance as they discovered him. we caught two antelopes at our encampment in attempting to swim the river; these anamals are but lean as yet, and of course not very pleasant food. i walked on shore this evening and killed a buffaloe cow and calf, we found the calf most excellent veal. the country on either side of the river is broken and hills much higher than usual, the bottoms now become narrow and the timber more scant; some scattering pine and cedar on the steep declivities of the hills.- this morning a white bear toar labuiche's coat which he had left in the plains. [clark, may , ] may th thursday a fair morning our articles all out to dry at oclock we had every thing that was saved dry and on bord, our loss is some medison, powder, seeds, & several articles which sunk, and maney spoiled had a medn. altitude which gave for latd. _° _' _" n.--two of our men fired at a pant hr a little below our camp, this animale they say was large, had caught a deer & eate it half & buried the ballance. a fiew antilope swam the river near our camp two of them were cought by the party in the river. at half past oclock we set out and proceeded on verry well ____ miles and incamped on the std. side the countrey as before hilley & broken verry small proprotion of timber in the points, some little pine & ceader in the hills buffalow & deer is yet plenty on the river in the small timbered bottoms capt lewis walked out on the std. side and killed a cow & calf the calf was verry fine their bases. it is somewhat singular that the lower part of these hills appear to be formed of a dark rich loam while the upper region about feet is formed of a whiteish brown sand, so hard in many parts as to resemble stone; but little rock or stone of any kind to be seen in these hills. the river is much narrower than usual, the bed from to yards only and possessing a much larger proportion of gravel than usual. a few scattering cottonwood trees are the only timber near the river; the sandbars, and with them the willow points have almost entirely disappeared. greater appearance than usual of the saline incrustations of the banks and river hills. we passed two creeks the one on stard. side, and the other just below our camp on the lard. side; each of these creeks afford a small quantity of runing water, of a brackish tast. the great number of large beds of streams perfectly dry which we daily pass indicate a country but badly watered, which i fear is the case with the country through which we have been passing for the last fifteen or twenty days. capt clark walked on shore this evening and killed an elk; buffaloe are not so abundant as they were some days past. the party with me killed a female brown bear, she was but meagre, and appeared to have suckled young very recently. capt. clark narrowly escaped being bitten by a rattlesnake in the course of his walk, the party killed one this evening at our encampment, which he informed me was similar to that he had seen; this snake is smaller than those common to the middle atlantic states, being about feet inches long; it is of a yellowish brown colour on the back and sides, variagated with one row of oval spots of a dark brown colour lying transversely over the back from the neck to the tail, and two other rows of small circular spots of the same colour which garnis the sides along the edge of the scuta. it's bely contains scuta on the belly and on the tale. capt clark informed me that he saw some coal which had been brought down by the water of the last creek we passed; this creek also throws out considerable quantities of driftwood, though there is no timber on it which can be perceived from the missouri; we called this stream rattlesnake creek. capt clark saw an indian fortifyed camp this evening, which appeared to have been recently occupyed, from which we concluded it was probable that it had been formed by a war party of the menetares who left their vilage in march last with a view to attack the blackfoot indians in consequence of their having killed some of their principal warriors the previous autumn. we were roused late at night by the sergt. of the guard, and warned of the danger we were in from a large tree that had taken fire and which leant immediately over our lodge. we had the loge removed, and a few minutes after a large proportion of the top of the tree fell on the place the lodge had stood; had we been a few minutes later we should have been crushed to attoms. the wind blew so hard, that notwithstanding the lodge was fifty paces distant from the fire it sustained considerable injury from the burning coals which were thrown on it; the party were much harrassed also by this fire which communicated to a collection of fallen timber, and could not be extinguished. [clark, may , ] may th friday a fine morning wind from the n w. mercury at ° a . river falling a little. we set out at an early hour and proceeded on verry well by the assistance of the toe rope principally, the countrey verry rugged & hills high and the river washing the base on each side, great appearance of the salt substance. a fiew cotton trees is the only timber which is scattered in the bottoms & the hills contain a fiew pine & cedar, which is scattered. river much narrower than below from to yards wide, the bottoms muddey & hills rich earth except near their topes--we passed large creeks to day one on the starbd side and the other just below our camp on the lard. side each of those creeks has a little running water near their mouthes which has a brackish taste, i was nearly treading on a small fierce rattle snake different from any i had ever seen &c. one man the party killed another of the same kind. i walked on shore after dinner & killed an elk--the party in my absence killed a female brown or yellow bear which was meagre the appearances of the hills & countrey is as before mentioned except a greater appearance of the white appearance of salts or tarter and some coal which has been thrown out by the floods in the last creek- buffalow & deer is not plenty to day, elk is yet to be seen in abundance we camped in the upper part of a small timbered bottom on the lard. side in which i saw a fortified indian camp, which i suppose is one of the camps of a mi ne tar re war party of about men, that set out from their village in march last to war against the blackfoot indians. we were roused late at night and warned of the danger of fire from a tree which had cought and leaned over our lodge, we had the lodge moved soon after the dry limbs & top of the tree fell in the place the lodge stood, the wind blew hard and the dry wood cought & fire flew in every direction, burnt our lodge verry much from the coals which fell on it altho at some distance in the plain, the whole party was much disturbed by this fire which could not be extinguished &c [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . the wind blew hard this morning from the west. we were enabled to employ our toe line the greater part of the day and therefore proceeded on tolerably well. there are now but few sandbars, the river is narrow and current gentle. the timber consists of a few cottonwood trees along the verge of the river; the willow has in a great measure disappeared. in the latter part of the day the hills widened, the bottoms became larger, and contained more timber. we passed a creek on the stard. side about three oclock, which afforded no water; came too and encamped on the lard. side opposite to the lower point of a small island, two miles short of the extremity of the last course of this day. capt clark in the course of his walk this evening killed four deer, two of which were the black tailed or mule deer; the skins are now good, they have not yet produced their young.--we saw a number of buffaloe, elk, deer and antelopes.--the saline substance frequently mentioned continues to appear as usual.- [clark, may , ] may th satturday a windey morning wind from the west we proceeded on verry well with the assistance of the toe coard, river narrow but flew sand bars, & current jentle, but a few cotton trees contained in the bottoms willow is not common on the bears as usial some little on the sides of the river is yet to be seen, the after part of the day was cloudy & at about oclock it began to rain and continued moderately for about / hours, not sufficient to wet a man thro his clothes; this is the first rain since we set out this spring the hills widen and the bottoms contain more timber than for several days past, we passed a wisers creek on the std. side about oclock and camped on the lard side opposit the lower point of a handsom little island near the middle of the river. i walked on shore and killed four deer, common & mule deer, one of which had fauns, others had each, those deer are fat, & their skins tolerable good, which are now in demand with us for clothes such as legins & mockersons, i saw great numbers of buffalows & elk; some of the party shoot & catch beaver every day & night [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . the last night was disagreeably could; we were unable to set out untill oclock a.m. in consequence of a heavy fogg, which obscured the river in such a manner that we could not see our way; this is the first we have experienced in any thing like so great a degree; there was also a fall of due last evening, which is the second we have experienced since we have entered this extensive open country. at eight we set out and proceeded as yesterday by means of the cord principally, the hills are high and the country similar to that of yesterday. capt clark walked on shore with two of the hunters and killed a brown bear; notwithstanding that it was shot through the heart it ran at it's usual pace near a quarter of a mile before it fell. one of the party wounded a beaver, and my dog as usual swam in to catch it; the beaver bit him through the hind leg and cut the artery; it was with great difficulty that i could stop the blood; i fear it will yet prove fatal to him. on capt. clark's return he informed me that he had from the top of one of the adjacent hights discovered the entrance of a large stream which discharged itself into the missouri on the lard. side distant or seven miles; from the same place he also saw a range of mountains, bearing w. distant or miles; they appeared to proceed in a s. s. w. direction; the n. n. e. extremity of these mountains appeared abrupt. this afternoon the river was croked, rappid and containing more sawyers than we have seen in the same space since we left the entrance of the river platte. capt. c. in the course of his walk killed three deer and a beaver, i also walked on shore this evening a few miles and killed an elk, a buck, and a beaver. the party killed and caught other beaver & deer. the men complain much of sore eyes and imposthumes. [clark, may , ] may th sunday a verry cold night, the murckery stood at at oclock this morning, a heavy dew which is the d i have seen this spring. the fog (which was the first) was so thick this morning that we could not set out untill the sun was about hours up, at which time a small breeze sprung up from the e. which cleared off the fog & we proceeded on by means of the cord the hills are high & rugged the countrey as yesterday--i walked on shore with two men we killed a white or grey bear; not withstanding that it was shot through the heart it ran at it's usial pace near a quarter of a mile before it fell. capt lewis's dog was badly bitten by a wounded beaver and was near bleading to death-. after killing the bear i continued my walk alone, & killed deer & a beaver; finding that the perogues were below i assended the highest hill i could see, from the top of which i saw the mouth of m. shell r & the meanderings of the missouri for a long distance. i also saw a high mountain in a westerley direction, bearing s. s w. about or miles distant, in the evening the river was verry crooked and much more rapid & containing more sawyers than any which we have passed above the river platte capt lewis walked on shore this after noon & killed an elk, buck & a beaver, i kiled three deer at dinner, the hunters killed three other deer to day several beaver also killed. we camped on the stard side in a bottom of small cotton wood [lewis, may , ] monday may th set out at an early hour as usual, the banks being favourable and water strong we employed the toe rope principally; river narrow and croked; country much as that of yesterday; immence number of the prickley pears in the plains and on the hills. at the distance of / miles passed the entrance of a large creek, affording but little water; this stream we named blowing fly creek, from the immence quantities of those insects found in this neighbourhood, they infest our meat while roasting or boiling, and we are obliged to brush them off our provision as we eat. at a.m. we arrived at the entrance of a handsome bold river which discharges itself into the missouri on the lard. side; this stream we take to be that called by the minnetares the ____ or muscleshell river; if it be the same, of which i entertain but little doubt, it takes it's rise, by their information in the st chain of the rocky mountains at no great distance from the yellow stone river, from whence in it's course to this place it passes through a high and broken country pretty well timbered, particularly on it's borders, and intersperced with handsome fertile plains and medows. but from the circumstance of the same indians informing us that we should find a well timbered country in the neighbourhood of it's mouth, i am induced to beleive that the timbered country of which they speak is similar to that we have passed for a day or two, or that in our view above, which consists of nothing more than a few scattering small scrubby pine and dwarf cedar on the summits of some of the highest hills nine tenths of the country being wholy destitute of timber of any kind, covered with a short grass, arromatic herbs and the prickley pear; the river bottom however, so far as we have explored it or m. are well stocked with cottonwood timber of tollerable size, & lands of excellent quality. we halted at thentrance of the river on the point formed by it's junction with the missouri determining to spend the day, make the necessary observations and send out some hunters to explore the country. the muscle shell river falls into the missouri miles above it's mouth, and is yards in width, it affords much more water than streams of it's width generally do below, it's courant is by no means rappid, and from appearances it might be navigated with canoes a considerable distance; it's bed is coarse sand and gravel principally with an occasion mixture of black mud; it's banks abbrupt and about feet high yet never appear to overflow; the waters of this river is of a greenish yellow cast, much more transparent than the missouri, which last is also much more transparent than below but still retains it's whiteish hue and a proportion of it's sedement. the missouri opposite to this point is deep, gentle in it's courant, and yards in width. the hunters returned this evening and informed us that the country continued much the same in appearance as that we saw where we were or broken, and that about five miles abe the mouth of shell river a handsome river of about fifty yards in width discharged itself into the shell river on the stard. or upper side; this stream we called sah-ca-gar me-ah or bird woman's river, after our interpreter the snake woman. shields also found a bould spring or fountain issuing from the foot of the lard. hills about miles up the missouri; a fountain in this plain country is a great novelty; i have not seen a bould fountain of pure water except one since i left the mandans; there a number of small ones but all without exception are impregnated with the salts which abound in this country, and with which i believe the missoury itself considerably impregnated but to us in the habit of useing it not perceptible; the exception i make is a very fine fountain under the bluffs on the lard. side of the missouri and at a distance from the river about five miles below the entrance of the yellowstone river. the sands of the missouri are not so abundant as they have been for some time past, being confined to the points only; the bed of the river principally mud and still too deep to use the seting pole. capt. clark walked out today and killed two deer and an elk, the hunters killed deer and elk and a buffaloe. i saw two large owls with remarkable long feathers on the sides of the head which resembled ears; i take them to be the large hooting owl tho they are somewhat larger and their colours brighter than those common to the j states.- [clark, may , ] may th monday a fine morning wind from the n e. river falling a little we set out at oclock and proceeded on verry well as usial by the assistance of the cord passed some verry swift water, river narrow and crooked, at oclock arrived at the mouth of shell river on the lard side and formed a camp for the present. haveing passed a large creek about miles below on the ld side which we call blowing fly creek from the emence quantites of those insects which geather on our meat in such numbers that we are oblige to brush them off what we eate. muscle shell river falls in on lard side miles up contains a greater perportion of water than rivers of its size below, i measured it and find it to be yards wide, the water of a greenish yellow colour, and appers to be navagable for small craft, the minetarras inform us that this river heads in the st of the rockey mountains & passes through a broken countrey. its head at no great distance from the yellow stone river the countrey about this river as described yesterday we took the meredian altitude ° ' " back observation and found the latd. to be ° ' " the missouri at the mouth of shell river is yards wide with a smoth current the missouri water is not so muddey as below, but retains nearly its usial cholour, and the sands principally confined to the points i killed two deer & an elk, the hunters killed an elk & several deer mearly for their skins to make leagins,--sent men out in every derection, the countrey generally verry broken some leavel plains up the shell river the bottoms of the shell river is well timbered as also a small river which falls into that river on the upper side miles above its mouth. the hills on the lard. contain scattering pine & cedar. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may st a delightfull morning set out at an early hour and proceeded on very well, imployed the chord principally; the shores are abbrupt and bould and composed of a black and yellow clay; see no extensive collection of pure sand, the bars are composed black mud and a small poportion of fine sand; the courant still pretty strong. the missouri in it's course downward makes a suddon and extensive bend to receive the muscle shell river, the point of country thus formed tho high is still much lower than that surrounding it, thus forming a valley of wavey country which extends itself for a great distance in a northerly direction; the soil is fertile, produces a fine turf of low grass and some herbs, also immence quantities of the prickley pear, without a stick of timber of any discription. the country on the south side is high broken and crowned with some scrubby pines and dwarf cedar; the leaf of this pine is much longer than the common pitch or red pine of virginia, the cone is also longer and slimer, and the imbrications wider and thicker, and the whole frequently covered with rosin. mineral appearances as usual. the growse or praire hen are now less abundant on the river than they were below; perhaps they betake themselves to the open plains at a distance from the river at this season.- the wind which was moderate all the fore part of the day continued to encrease in the evening, and about dark veered about to n. w. and blew a storm all night, in short we found ourselves so invelloped with clouds of dust and sand that we could neither cook, eat, nor sleep; and were finally compelled to remove our lodge about eight oclock at night to the foot of an adjacent hill where we were covered in some measure from the wind by the hills. several loose articles blown over board and lost. our first station was on a bar on stard. opposite the lower point of a small island, which we now called windy island. the bends of the river are short and suddon, the points covered with some cottonwood, larger willow, or broadleafed willow with an abundance of the wild rose and some small honeysuckle bushes constitute the undergrowth, the redwood is also found in small quantities. capt. c walked on shore today and killed elk; the party killed several deer and a buffaloe cow.- [clark, may , ] may st tuesday . a butifull morning, wind from the west, river falling a little, we set out at an early hour and proceed on in the usial way by the assistance of the coard principally, but little use of the oares & less with the poles as the bottoms are muddey, we se no great bodies of pure sand the bars & points are rich mud mixed with fine sand. i walked on shore stard. side the river makes a great bend to the south to receve shell river, the boint for many miles out in a northerley direction is a rich uneaven valley contain some short grass, and prickley pears without timber the countrey on the south side of the missouri is high, soil and mineral appearance as usial, more scattering pine & cedar on the hills, the wind which blew moderatly all the forepart of the day increassd and about dark shifted to the n w. and stormed all night, several loose articles were blown over board, our lodge & camp which was on a sand bar on the std. side & opposite to the lower point of an island we were obliged to move under the hills, the dust & sand blew in clouds. the bends of the river are short and points covered with cotton wood under groth wild rose bushes i killed elk to day several deer killd. & a buffalow cow. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may cd . the wind blew so violently this morning that we did not think it prudent to set out untill it had in some measure abated; this did not happen untill a.m. when we proceeded principally by the toe lines the bottoms somewhat wider than usual, the lands fertile or apparently so tho the short grass and the scantey proportion of it on the hills would indicate no great fertility. passed windy island on lard. at m. / miles above passed a large island in a bend on stard. side, and three miles further on the same side passed the entrance of grows creek yds wide, affords but little water. this creek we named from seeing a number of the pointed tail praire hen near it's mouth, these are the fist we have seen in such numbers for some days. i walked on shore this morning the country is not so broken as yesterday tho still high and roling or wavy; the hills on lard. side possess more pine than usual; some also on the stard. hills. salts and other mineral appearances as usual. the river continues about the same width or from to yds. wide, fewer sandbars and the courant more gentle and regular; game not so abundant as below the muscle shell river. i killed a deer in the course of my walk today. capt. c. also walked out this evening and took a view of the country from a conspicuous point and found it the same as has been discribed. we have caught but few fish since we left the mandans, they do not bite freely, what we took were the white cat of to lbs. i presume that fish are scarce in this part of the river. we encamped earlyer this evening than usual in order render the oil of a bear which we killed. i do not believe that the black bear common to the lower part of this river and the atlantic states, exists in this quarter; we have neither seen one of them nor their tracks which would be easily distinguished by it's shortness of tallons when compared with the brown grizly or white bear. i believe that it is the same species or family of bears which assumes all those colours at different ages and seasons of the year. [clark, may , ] may nd wednesday the wind continued to blow so violently hard we did not think it prudent to set out untill it luled a little, about oclock we set out the morning cold, passed a small island in the bend to the lard side, & proceeded on at miles higher passed a island in a bend to the stard side, and a creek a short distance above on the stard side yds. w capt lewis walked out before dinner & killed a deer, i walked out after dinner and assended & but a few miles to view the countrey, which i found roleing & of a verry rich stickey soil produceing but little vegitation of any kind except the prickley-piar, but little grass & that verry low. a great deal of scattering pine on the lard side & some fur on the stard. sd. the mineral productions as described in the proceeding days, game not so abundant as below, the river continue about the same width, fewer sand bars & current more regular, river falls about an inch a day we camped on the stard. side, earlier than we intend on account of saveing the oil of a bear which the party killed late this afternoon. maney of the creeks which appear to have no water near ther mouths have streams of running water higher up which rise & waste in the sand or gravel. the water of those creeks are so much impregnated with the salt substance that it cannot be drank with pleasure. [lewis, may , ] thursday may rd . set out early this morning, the frost was severe last night, the ice appeared along the edge of the water, water also freized on the oars. at the distance of one mile passed the entrance of a creek yds. wide on stard. side, this we call teapot creek, it affords no water at it's mouth but has runing water at some small distance above, this i beleive to be the case with many of those creekes which we have passed since we entered this hilley country, the water is absorbed by the earth near the river and of course appear dry; they afford but little water at any rate, and that is so strongly impregnated with these salts that it is unfit for uce; all the wild anamals appear fond of this water; i have tryed it by way of experiment & find it moderately pergative, but painfull to the intestens in it's opperation. this creek runs directly towards some low mountains which lye n. w. of it and appear to be about mes. distant, perhaps it heads in them. this range of mountains appear to be about miles long runing from e to w. having their eastern extremity about mes. distant in a northwardly direction from pot island.--also passed two small creeks on lard. and two others on stard. all inconsiderable and dry at their entrances. just above the entrance of teapot creek on the stard. there is a large assemblage of the burrows of the burrowing squirrel they generally seelect a south or a south easterly exposure for their residence, and never visit the brooks or river for water; i am astonished how this anamal exists as it dose without water, particularly in a country like this where there is scarcely any rain during yi of the year and more rarely any due; yet we have sometimes found their villages at the distance of five or six miles from any water, and they are never found out of the limits of the ground which their burrows occupy; in the autumn when the hard frosts commence they close their burrows and do not venture out again untill spring, indeed some of them appear to be yet in winter quarters. passed islands the two first covered with tall cottonwood timber and the last with willows only. river more rappid, & the country much the same as yesterday. some spruce pine of small size appears among the pitch pine, and reather more rock than usual on the face of the hills. the musquetoes troublesome this evening, a circumstance i did not expect from the temperature of the morning. the gees begin to lose the feathers of their wings and are unable to fly. capt clark walked on shore and killed deer and an elk. we killed a large fat brown bear which took the water after being wounded and was carried under some driftwood where he sunk and we were unable to get him. saw but few buffaloe today, but a great number of elk, deer, some antelopes and bear. the wild rose which is now in blume are very abundant, they appear to differ but little from those common to the atlantic states, the leaves of the bushes and the bush itself appear to be of somewhat smaller size. [clark, may , ] may rd thursday a severe frost last night, the thrmotr. stood at the freesing point this morning i e a . wind s w. the water freeses on the oars. ice on the edge of the river we set out at an early hour and passed the mouth a creek at mile on the stard. side which heads in a mountain n w of its mouth or _____ miles, the countrey on each side is as passed yesterday passed small creeks on the stard & on the lard. side to day. a mountain which appears to be or miles long bearing e. & w is about miles distant from this river on the stard side notherley of pot island i walked on shore and killed deer & an elk, & a beaver in the evening we killed a large fat bear, which we unfortunately lost in the river, after being shot took the water & was carried under a drift passed in course of this day three islands, two of them covered with tall timber & a rd with willows the after part of this day was worm & the misquitors troublesome. saw but five buffalow a number of elk & deer & bear & antilopes to day. the river beginning to rise, and current more rapid than yesterday, in maney places i saw spruces on the hills sides stard. this evening. [lewis, may , ] friday may th . the water standing in the vessels freized during the night / of an inch thick, ice also appears along the verge of the river. the folage of some of the cottonwood trees have been entirely distroyed by the frost and are again puting forth other buds. the high country in which we are at present and have been passing for some days i take to be a continuation of what the indians as well as the french engages call the black hills. this tract of country so called consists of a collection of high broken and irregular hills and short chain of mountains sometimes miles in width and again becomeing much narrower, but always much higher than the country on either side; they commence about the head of the kanzas river and to the west of that river near the arkansas, from whence they take their course a little to the w. of n. w. approaching the rockey mountains obliquely, passing the river platte above the forks and intercepting the yellowstone river near the big bend and passing the missouri at this place and probably continuing to swell the country as far north as the saskashawan river tho they are lower here than they are discribed to the sth. and may therefore probably terminate before they reach the suskashawan. the black hills in their course nothwardly appear to approach more nearly to the rocky mountains. we set out at an early hour this morning and proceed on principally by the chord untill about a.m. when a fine breeze sprung up from the s. e. and enabled us though the ballance of the day to employ our sails to advantage; we proceed at a pretty good pace notwithstanding the courant of the river was very strong. we passed two large and four small islands; also several streams on either side; the first of these is a large creek or small river which disinboged on the stard. side about / miles above our encampment of last evening, it is yards wide and contains some water. the bed is gravley and intermixed with some stone, it takes its rise in the mountains which are situated in a northwardly direction from its entrance, distant about miles. the air is so pure in this open country that mountains and other elivated objects appear much nearer than they really are; these mountains do not appear to be further than m. we sent a man up this creek to explore the country he returned late in the evening and informed that he had proceeded ten miles directly towards these mountains and that he did not think himself by any mean half way these mountains are rockey and covered with some scattering pine. this stream we call north mountain creek. the next stream in order is a creek which falls in on lard. / miles higher; this is yds. wide no water; a large village of the burrowing or barking squirrels on the stard. side opposite it's entrance, hence the name little dog ck. that being the name by which the french engages call this anamal. at three miles and at ms. from hence still ascending small creek fall in on the stard. side, no water. / miles higher a small river falls in on lard. side this we called south mountain creek as from it's direction it appeared to take it's rise in a range of mountains lying in a s. westerly direction from it's entrance distant or m.; this creek is yards wide and discharges a handsome stream of water. it's bed is rockey with gravel and sand, the banks high and country broken it's bottom narrow and no timber. the country high and broken, a considerable portion of black rock and brown sandy rock appear in the faces of the hills; the tops of the hills covered with scattering pine spruce and dwarf cedar; the soil poor and sterile, sandy near the tops of the hills, the whole producing but little grass; the narrow bottoms of the missouri producing little else but hysop or southern wood and the pulpy leafed thorn. capt. clark walked on shore this evening and killed a buffaloe cow, we left canoes and six men to dress the cow and bring on the meat, they did not overtake us this evening. game is becoming more scarce, particularly beaver, of which we have seen but few for several days the beaver appears to keep pace with the timber as it declines in quantity they also become more scarce. [clark, may , ] may th friday a cold night the water in the small vestles frosed / of an inch thick, and the thermometer stood this morning at the freesing point. we set out at an early hour and proceeded on, at oclock we had a breeze from the s e which continued all day. this breeze afforded us good sailing, the river rising fast current verry rapid. passed several small islands, two large & two small creeks, the st of those creeks or small rivers / m. above our camp is yards wide and contains water and appears to take its rise in the north mountns. which is situated in a northerley detection about miles distant. / m. higher a creek falls in on the lard. side, opposit a large village of barking squirels. miles still higher a small creek falls in on the stard. miles higher up a small river falls in on the lard side which is yards wide and has running water. this stream appears to take its rise in the south mountains which is situated in a southerly direction or miles distant. i walked on the high countrey on the stard. side found it broken & dry some pine, spruce & dwarf cedar on the hill sides, i sent one man mile out he reports a similarity of countrey back i killed a fat buffalow a short distance below the place we dined canoes & men we left to get the meat did not join us this evening. we camped on the lard point. the cotton wood in this point is beginning to put out a second bud, the first being killed by the frost [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . the two canoes which we left behind yesterday to bring on the meat did not arrive this morning untill a m. at which time we set out; the wind being against us we did not proceed with so much ease or expedition as yesterday, we imployed the toe line principally which the banks favored the uce off; the courant strong particularly arround the points against which the courant happened to set, and at the entrances of the little gullies from the hills, those rivulets having brought down considerable quantities of stone and deposited it at their entrances forming partial barriers to the water of the river to the distance of or feet from the shore, arround these the water run with great violence, and compelled us in some instances to double our force in order to get a perorogue or canoe by them. as we ascended the river today i saw several gangs of the bighorned anamals on the face of the steep bluffs and clifts on the stard. side and sent drewyer to kill one which he accomplished; capt. clark and bratton who were on shore each killed one of these anamals this evening. the head and horns of the male which drewyer killed weighed lbs. it was somewhat larger than the male of the common deer, the boddy reather thicker deeper and not so long in proportion to it's hight as the common deer; the head and horns are remakably large compared with the other part of the anamal; the whole form is much more delicate than that of the common goat, and there is a greater disparity in the size of the male and female than between those of either the deer or goat. the eye is large and prominant, the puple of a deep sea green and small, the iris of a silvery colour much like the common sheep; the bone above the eye is remarkably prominant; the head nostrils and division of the upper lip are precisely in form like the sheep. there legs resemble the sheep more than any other animal with which i am acquainted tho they are more delicately formed, like the sheep they stand forward in the knee and the lower joint of the foreleg is smallest where it joins the knee, the hoof is black & large in proportion, is divided, very open and roundly pointed at the toe, like the sheep; is much hollowed and sharp on the under edge like the scotch goat, has two small hoofs behind each foot below the ankle as the goat sheep and deer have. the belley, inside of the legs, and the extremity of the rump and butocks for about two inches arround the but of the tale, are white, as is also the tale excet just at it's extremity on the upper side which is of a dark brown. the tail is about three inches in length covered with short hair, or at least not longer than that of the boddy; the outher parts of the anamal are of a duskey brown or reather a leadcoloured light brown; the anamal is now sheding it's winter coat which is thick not quite as long as that of the deer and appears to be intermixed with a considerable quantity of a fine fur which lyes next to the skin & conceald by the coarcer hear; the shape of the hair itself is celindric as that of the antelope is but is smaller shorter, and not compressed or flattened as that of the deer's winter coat is, i believe this anamal only sheds it's hair once a year. it has eight fore teeth in the under jaw and no canine teeth. the horns are lagest at their base, and occupy the crown of the head almost entirely. they are compressed, bent backwards and lunated; the surface swelling into wavy rings which incircleing the horn continue to succeed each other from the base to the extremity and becoming less elivated and more distant as they recede from the head. the horn for about two thirds of it's length is filled with a porus bone which is united with the frontal bone. i obtained the bones of the upper part of the head of this animal at the big bone lick. the horns of the female are small, but are also compress bent backwards and incircled with a succession of wavy rings. the horn is of a light brown colour; when dressed it is almost white extreemly transparent and very elastic. this horn is used by the natives in constructing their bows; i have no doubt but it would eligant and ucefull hair combs, and might probably answer as many valuable purposes to civilized man, as it dose to the savages, who form their watercups spoons and platters of it. the females have already brought forth their young indeed from the size of the young i suppose that they produce them early in march. they have from one to two at a birth. they feed on grass but principally on the arromatic herbs which grow on the clifts and inaccessable hights which they usually frequent. the places they gerally celect to lodg is the cranies or cevices of the rocks in the faces of inacessable precepices, where the wolf nor bear can reach them and where indeed man himself would in many instancies find a similar deficiency; yet these anamals bound from rock to rock and stand apparently in the most careless manner on the sides of precipices of many hundred feet. they are very shye and are quick of both sent and sight. at the distance of two / miles above our encampment of last evening we passed a creek yard wide affording no runing water, we also passed islands in the course of the day. the country on either hand is high broken and rockey; the rock is either soft brown sand stone covered with a thin strata of limestone, or a hard black rugged grannite, both usually in horizontal stratas and the sandy rock overlaying the other.--salts and quarts still appear, some coal and pumice stone also appear; the river bottoms are narrow and afford scarcely any timber. the bars of the river are composed principally of gravel, but little pine on the hills. we saw a pole-cats this evening it is the first we have seen for many days. buffalow are now scarce and i begin to fear our harvest of white puddings are at an end. [clark, may , ] may th satturday " the two canoes left for meat yesterday did not joint us untill oclock this morning at which time we set out, the morning cool & pleasent wind a head all day from the s. w. we pass a creek on the lard. side about yards wide, which does not run, we also passd islands, i walked on shore and killed a female ibex or big horn animal in my absence drewyer & bratten killed two others, this animale is a species peculiar to this upper part of the missouri, the head and horns of the male which drewyer killed to day weighed lbs it was somewhat larger than the mail of the common deer;) the body reather thicker deeper and not so long in proportion to its hight as the common deer; the head and horns of the male are remarkably large compared with the other parts of the animal; the whole form is much more delicate than that of the common goat, and there is a greater disparity in the size of the mail and female than between those of either the deer or goat. the eye is large and prominant, the puple of a deep sea green and small, the iris of a silvery colour much like the common sheep; the bone above the eye is remarkably prominant; the head nostrils and division of the upper lip are precisely in form like the sheep. their legs resemble the sheep more than any other animal with which i am acquainted tho they are more delicately formed, like the sheep they stand foward in the knee and the lower joint of the fore leg is smallest where it joins the knee, the hoof is black and large in perpotion, is divided, very open and roundly pointed at the toe; like the sheep; is much hollowed and sharp on the under edge like the scotch goat, has two small hoofs behind each foot below the ankle as the goat sheep and deer have. the belley, iner side of the legs, and the extremity of the rump and buttocks for about two inches / around the but of the tail, are white, as is also the tail except just at its extremity on the upper side which is of a dark brown. the tail is about inches in length covered with short hair, or at least not longer than that of the boddy; the outer part of the animal are of a duskey brown or reather a lead coloured light brown; the animal is now sheding its winter coat which is thick not quite as long as that of the deer and appears to be inter mixt with a considerable quantity of fine fur which lies next to the skin and concealed by the coarcer hair; the shape of the hair itself is cylindric as that of the antilope is, but is smaller, shorter and not compressed or flattened as that of the deers winter coat is. i believe this animal only sheds it's hair once a year. it has eight fore teeth in the underjaw and no canine teeth. the horns are large at their base, and occupy the crown of the head almost entirely, they are compressed, bent backwards and lunated; the surface swelling into wavey rings which incircleing the horn continue to succeed each other from the base to the extremity and becomeing less elivated and more distant as they receed from the head. the horn for about two thirds of its length is filled with a porus bone which is united with the frontal bone (capt. lewis obtained the bones of the upper part of the head of this animal at the big bone lick in the state of kentucky which i saw and find to be the same in every respect with those of the missouri and the rockey mountains) the horns of the female are small, but are also compressed and bent backwards and incircled with a succession of wavy rings. the horn is of a light brown colour; when dressed it is almost white extreamly transparent and very elastic. this horn is used by the nativs in constructing their bows; i have no doubt of it's elegance and usefullness in hair combs, and might probably answer as maney valuable purpoces to civilized man, as it does to the native indians, who form their water cups, spoons and platters of it. the females have already brought forth their young indeed from the size of the young, i suppose that they produce them early in march. they have from one to two at a birth. they feed on grass, but principally on the arramatic herbs which grow on the clifts and inaccessable hights which they frequent most commonly, and the places they generally collect to lodge is the cranies or cevices of the rocks in the face of inaccessable precepices, where the wolf nor bear can reach them, and where indeed man himself would in maney instances find a similar deficiency; yet those animals bound from rock to rock and stand apparently in the most careless manner on the side of precipices of maney hundred feet. they are very shy and quick of both sent and sight. the flesh of this animal is dark and i think inferior to the flesh of the common deer, and superior to the antilope of the missouri and the columbian plains-. in my walk of this day i saw mountts. on either side of the river at no great distance, those mountains appeared to be detached, and not ranges as laid down by the minetarrees, i also think i saw a range of high mounts. at a great distance to the s s w. but am not certain as the horozon was not clear enough to view it with certainty. the country on either side is high broken and rockey a dark brown hard rugid stone intermixed with a soft white sand stone. the hills contain coal or cabonated wood as below and some scattering pumistone. the sides of the river is bordered with coars gravel, which in maney places have washed either together or down small brooks and forms bars at some distance in the water, around which the current passes with great valocity. the bottoms between hills and river are narrow and contain scercely any timber. the appearence of salts, and bitumun still continue. we saw a polecat to day being the first which we have seen for some time past. the air of this quarter is pure and helthy. the water of the missouri well tasted not quite so muddy as it is below, not withstanding the last rains has raised the river a little it is less muddy than it was before the rain. [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . set out at an early hour and proceeded principally by the toe line, using the oars mearly to pass the river in order to take advantage of the shores. scarcely any bottoms to the river; the hills high and juting in on both sides, to the river in many places. the stone tumbleing from these clifts and brought down by the rivulets as mentioned yesterday became more troublesome today. the black rock has given place to a very soft sandstone which appears to be washed away fast by the river, above this and towards the summits of the hills a hard freestone of a brownish yellow colour shews itself in several stratas of unequal thicknesses frequently overlain or incrusted by a very thin strata of limestone which appears to be formed of concreted shells. capt. clark walked on shore this morning and ascended to the summit of the river hills he informed me on his return that he had seen mountains on both sides of the river runing nearly parrallel with it and at no great distance; also an irregular range of mountains on lard. about mes. distant, the extremities of which boar w and n. w. from his station. he also saw in the course of his walk, some elk, several herds of the big horn, and the large hare; the latter is common to every part of this open country. scarcely any timber to be seen except the few scattering pine and spruce which crown the high hills, or in some instances grow along their sides. in the after part of the day i also walked out and ascended the river hills which i found sufficiently fortiegueing. on arriving to the summit one of the highest points in the neighbourhood i thought myself well repaid for any labour; as from this point i beheld the rocky mountains for the first time, i could only discover a few of the most elivated points above the horizon, the most remarkable of which by my pocket compass i found bore n. ° w. being a little to the n. of the n. w. extremity of the range of broken mountains seen this morning by capt. c. these points of the rocky mountains were covered with snow and the sun shone on it in such manner as to give me the most plain and satisfactory view. while i viewed these mountains i felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless missouri; but when i reflected on the difficulties which this snowey barrier would most probably throw in my way to the pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterballanced the joy i had felt in the first moments in which i gazed on them; but as i have always held it a crime to anticipate evils i will believe it a good comfortable road untill i am compelled to beleive differently. saw a few elk & bighorns at a distance on my return to the river i passed a creek about yds. wide near it's entrance it had a handsome little stream of runing water; in this creek i saw several softshelled turtles which were the first that have been seen this season; this i believe proceeded reather from the season than from their non existence in the portion of the river from the mandans hither. on the stard. shore i killed a fat buffaloe which was very acceptable to us at this moment; the party came up to me late in the evening and encamped for the night on the lard. side. it was after dark before we finished butchering the buffaloe, and on my return to camp i trod within five inches of a rattle snake but being in motion i passed before he could probably put himself in a striking attitude and fortunately escaped his bite, i struck about at random with my espontoon being directed in some measure by his nois untill i killed him. our hunters had killed two of the bighorned anamals since i had left them. we also passed another creek a few miles below turtle creek on the stard. yds in width which also had runing water bed rockey.- late this evening we passed a very bad rappid which reached quite across the river, the party had considerable difficulty in ascending it altho they doubled their crews and used both the rope and the pole. while they were passing this rappid a female elk and it's fawn swam down throught the waves which ran very high, hence the name of elk rappids which they instantly gave this place, these are the most considerable rappids which we have yet seen on the missouri and in short the only place where there has appeared to be a suddon decent. opposite to these rappids there is a high bluff and a little above on lard. a small cottonwood bottom in which we found sufficient timber for our fires and encampment. here i rejoined the party after dark. the appearances of coal in the face of the bluffs, also of birnt hills, pumice stone salt and quarts continue as yesterday. this is truly a desert barren country and i feel myself still more convinced of it's being a continuation of the black hills. we have continued every day to pass more or less old stick lodges of the indians in the timbered points, there are two even in this little bottom where we lye.- [clark, may , ] may th sunday we set out early and proceeded as yesterday wind from the s. w. the river enclosed with very high hills on either side. i took one man and walked out this morning, and ascended the high countrey to view the mountains which i thought i saw yesterday, from the first sumit of the hill i could plainly see the mountains on either side which i saw yesterday and at no great distance from me, those on the stard side is an errigular range, the two extremities of which bore west and n. west from me. those mountains on the lard. side appeared to be several detached knobs or mountains riseing from a leven open countrey, at different distances from me, from south west to south east, on one the most s. westerly of those mountains there appeared to be snow. i crossed a deep holler and assended a part of the plain elevated much higher than where i first viewed the above mountains; from this point i beheld the rocky mountains for the first time with certainty, i could only discover a fiew of the most elivated points above the horizon. the most remarkable of which by my pocket compas i found bore s. w. those points of the rocky mountain were covered with snow and the sun shown on it in such a manner as to give me a most plain and satisfactory view. whilst i viewed those mountains i felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless missouri; but when i reflected on the difficulties which this snowey barrier would most probably throw in my way to the pacific ocean, and the sufferings and hardships of my self and party in them, it in some measure counter ballanced the joy i had felt in the first moments in which i gazed on them; but as i have always held it little short of criminality to anticipate evils i will allow it to be a good comfortable road untill i am compelled to believe otherwise the high country in which we are at present and have been passing for some days i take to be a continuation of what the indians as well as the french engages call the black hills. this tract of country so called consists of a collection of high broken and irregular hills and short chains of mountains, sometimes miles in width and again becoming much narrower, but always much higher than the country on either side; they commence about the head of the kanzas river and to the west of that river near the arkansaw river, from whence they take their cource a little to the west of n. w. approaching the rocky mountains obliquely passing the river platt near the forks, and intersepting the river rochejhone near the big bend of that river, and passing the missouri at this place-, and probably continueing to swell the country as far north as the saskashawan river. tho they are lower here than they are discribed to the south and may therefore termonate before they reach the saskashawan. the black hills in their course northerly appear to approach more nearly the rocky mountains. i saw a great number of white brant, also the common brown brant, geese of the common size & kind and a small species of geese, which differs considerably from the common or canadian goose; their necks, head and backs are considerably thicker, shorter and larger than the other in propotion to its size they are also more than a third smaller, and their note more like that of the brant or young goose which has not perfectly acquired his note, in all other respect they are the same in colour habits and the number of feathers in the tail, they frequently also ascocate with the large geese when in flocks, but never saw them pared off with the larger or common goose. the white brant ascocates in very large flocks, they do not appear to be mated or pared off as if they intended to raise their young in this quarter, i therefore doubt whether they reside here dureing the summer for that purpose. this bird is larger than the common brown brant or / of the common goose. it is not so long by six inches from point to point of the wings when extended as the other; the back head and neck are also larger and stronger; their beak, legs and feet are of a redish flesh coloured white. the eye of a moderate size, the puple of a deep sea green encircled with a ring of yellowish brown. it has feathers of equal length in the tail their note differs but little from the common brant. they are of a pure white except the large feathers of the st and d joint of the wings which are jut black. the country which borders the river is high broken and rocky, generally imbeded with a soft sand stone higher up the hill the stone is of a brownish yellow hard and gritty those stones wash down from the hills into the river and cause the shore to be rocky &c. which we find troublesom to assend there is scerce any bottom between the hills & river and but a fiew trees to be seen on either side except scattering pine on the sides of the emence hills; we passed creeks on the stard side both of them had running water in one of those creek capt lewis tells me he saw soft shell turtle capt lewis in his walk killed a fat buffalow which we were in want of our hunters killed mountain rams or bighorns in the evening late we passed a rapid which extended quite across the river we assended it by the assistance of a cord & poles on the lard. side the cliffs jut over, the opposit side is a small leavel bottom, we camped a little above in a small grove of cotton trees on the lard. side in the rapid we saw a dow elk & her faun, which gave rise to the name of elk & faun riffle we had a few drops of rain at dark.--the salts coal & burnt hills & pumicston still continue, game scerce this countrey may with propriety i think be termed the deserts of america, as i do not conceive any part can ever be settled, as it is deficent in water, timber & too steep to be tilled. we pass old indian lodges in the woody points everry day & at our camp &c [lewis, may , ] may , . one of the party killed a bighorned, the head and horns of which weighed lbs. a hare was also killed which weighed / lbs. the hare are now of a plale lead brown colour- [lewis, may , ] monday may th . the wind blew so hard this morning that we did not sent out untill a.m. we employed the chord most of the day; the river becomes more rappid and is intercepted by shoals and a greater number of rocky points at the mouths of the little gulies than we experienced yesterday. the bluffs are very high steep rugged, containing considerable quantities of stone and border the river closely on both sides; once perhaps in the course of several miles there will be a few acres of tolerably level land in which two or thre impoverished cottonwood trees will be seen. great quantities of stone also lye in the river and garnish it's borders, which appears to have tumbled from the bluffs where the rains had washed away the sand and clay in which they were imbeded. the bluffs are composed of irregular tho horizontal stratas of yellow and brown or black clay, brown and yellowish white sand, of soft yellowish white sand stone and a hard dark brown free stone, also of large round kidneyformed and irregular seperate masses of a hard black iron stone, which is imbeded in the clay and sand. some little pine spruce and dwarf cedar on the hills. some coal or carbonated wood still makes it's appearance in these bluffs, pumicestone and birnt hills it's concommutants also are seen. the salts and quarts are seen but not in such abundance. the country more broken and barren than yesterday if possible. about midday it was very warm to this the high bluffs and narrow channel of the river no doubt contributed greatly. we passed a small untimbered island this morning on the lard. side of the river just above our encampment of last evening. saw a few small herds of the bighorned anamals and two elk only, of the last we killed one, the river is generally about yds. wide, very rappid and has a perceptable fall or declination through it's whole course. this evening we encamped, for the benefit of wood, near two dead toped cottonwood trees on the lard. side; the dead limbs which had fallen from these trees furnished us with a scanty supply only, and more was not to be obtained in the neighbourhood.- [clark, may , ] may th monday . the wind blew hard from the s w. which detained us untill about oclock, at which time we set out and proceeded on, passed a small nacked island on the lard side imediately above the timber in which we camped the river is verry shoaley and the bad places are verry numerous, i e at the mouth of every drean the rocks which is a hard dark gritey stone is thrown out some distance in the river which cause a considerable riffle on that side, the hills approach the river verry close on either side, river narrow & no timber except some scattering pine on the hills & hill sides, the salts, coal, burn hills & pumice stone &c. continue, the hills are generally bluffs of various coloured earth most commonly black with different quallities stone intermixed some stratums of soft sand stone, some hard, some a dark brown & yellow hard grit, those stones are loosened by the earths washing from them into the river and ultimately role down into the river, which appears to be crowded with them. this day is verry worm--we only saw a fiew small herds of the big horn animals on the hills, and two elk one of which we killed, we camped at dead top trees on the lard side. the river is genly about yards wide and current very swift to day and has a verry perceptiable fall in all its course--it rises a little. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . this morning we set forward at an early hour; the weather dark and cloudy, the are smokey, had a few drops of rain; we employed the chord generally to which we also gave the assistance of the pole at the riffles and rocky points; these are as numerous and many of them much worse than those we passed yesterday; arround those points the water drives with great force, and we are obliged in many instaces to steer our vessels through the appertures formed by the points of large sharp rocks which reach a few inches above the surface of the water, here sould our chord give way the bough is instantly drivin outwards by the stream and the vessel thrown with her side on the rocks where she must inevitably overset or perhaps be dashed to peices; our ropes are but slender, all of them except one being made of elk's skin and much woarn, frequently wet and exposed to the heat of the weather are weak and rotten; they have given way several times in the course of the day but happily at such places that the vessel had room to wheel free of the rocks and therefore escaped injury; with every precaution we can take it is with much labour and infinite risk that we are enabled to get around these points. found a new indian lodge pole today which had been brought down by the stream, it was woarn at one end as if draged by dogs or horses; a football also, and several other articles were found, which have been recently brought down by the courant; these are strong evedences of indians being on the river above us, and probably at no great distance; the football is such as i have seen among the minetaries and therefore think it most probable that they are a band of the minetaries of fort de prarie. the river country &c continued much as yesterday untill late in the evening when we arrived at the entrance of a large creek discharges itself on the stard. side, is yd. wide and contains runing water; here the hills recede from the river on both sides, the bottoms extensive particularly on the stard. side where the hills are comparitively low and open into three large vallies which extend for a considerable distance in a northwardly direction; here also the river spreads to more than times it's former width and is filled with a number of small and handsome islands covered with cottonwood some timber also in the bottoms, the land again fertile. these appearances were quite reviving after the drairy country through which we had been passing. capt. c. walked on shore in the early part of the day and killed a big horned anamal; he saw a great number of them as well as ourselves in the broken country. at a.m. a few drops of rain again fell and were attended with distant thunder which is the first we have heated since we left the mandans.--this evening we encamped on stard. opposite to the entrance of a small creek. i beleive the bighorn have their young at a very early season, say early in march for they appear now to be half grown. one of the party saw a very large bear today but being some distance from the river and no timber to conceal him he did not think proper to fire on him. [clark, may , ] may th tuesday a cloudy morning some fiew drops of rain and verry smokey wind from the s. w. we set out at an early hour, the shoaley places are verry numerous and some bad to get around we have to make use of the cord & poles, and our tow. ropes are all except one of elkskin, & stretch and sometimes brake which indanger the perogues or canoe, as it imedeately turns and if any rock should chance to be below, the rapidity of the current would turn her over, she should chance to strike the rock we observe great caution at those places. i walked on shore found the countrey ruged and as described yesterday, i saw great numbers of the big horned animals, one of which i killed their fauns are nearly half grown--one of the party saw a verry large bear, picked up on the shore a pole which had been made use of by the nativs for lodge poles, & haul'd by dogs it is new and is a certain sign of the indians being on the river above a foot ball and several other articles are also found to substantiate this oppinion-. at oclock we had a few drops of rain and some thunder whic is the first thunder we have had sinc we set out from fort mandan; at miles the the hills begin to widen & the river spreds & is crouded with islands the bottoms contain some scattering cotton wood the islands also contain timber--passed a creek of running water on the stard side about yards wide and camped imedeately opposit to a small creek on the lard. side we call bull creek from the circumstance of a buffalow bull swiming from the opposit side and comeing out of the river imedeately across one of the perogues without sinking or injureing any thing in the perogue, and passing with great violence thro our camp in the night makeing angles without hurting a man, altho they lay in every direction, and it was very dark the creek below yards wide i call thompsons creek after a valuable member of our party--this creek contains a greater preportion of running water than common. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th . last night we were all allarmed by a large buffaloe bull, which swam over from the opposite shore and coming along side of the white perogue, climbed over it to land, he then alarmed ran up the bank in full speed directly towards the fires, and was within inches of the heads of some of the men who lay sleeping before the centinel could allarm him or make him change his course, still more alarmed, he now took his direction immediately towards our lodge, passing between fires and within a few inches of the heads of one range of the men as they yet lay sleeping, when he came near the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course a second time, which he did by turning a little to the right, and was quickly out of sight, leaving us by this time all in an uproar with our guns in or hands, enquiring of each other the case of the alarm, which after a few moments was explained by the centinel; we were happy to find no one hirt. the next morning we found that the buffaloe in passing the perogue had trodden on a rifle, which belonged to capt. clark's black man, who had negligently left her in the perogue, the rifle was much bent, he had also broken the spindle, pivit, and shattered the stock of one of the bluntderbushes on board, with this damage i felt well content, happey indeed, that we had sustaned no further injury. it appears that the white perogue, which contains our most valuable stores, is attended by some evil gennii. this morning we set out at an early hour and proceded as usual by the chord. at the distance of / miles passed a handsome river which discharged itself on the lard. side, i walked on shore and acended this river about a mile and a half in order to examine it. i found this river about yds. wide from bank to bank, the water occupying about yard. the bed was formed of gravel and mud with some sand; it appeared to contain much more water as the muscle-shell river, was more rappid but equally navigable; there were no large stone or rocks in it's bed to obstruct the navigation; the banks were low yet appeared seldom to overflow; the water of this river is clear than any we have met with great abundance of the argalia or bighorned animals in the high country through which this river passes cap. c who assended this r. much higher than i did has thought proper to call it judieths river. the bottoms of this stream as far as i could see were wider and contained more timber than the missouri; here i saw some box alder intermixed with the cottonwood willow rose bushes and honeysuckle with some red willow constitute the undergrowth. on the missouri just above the entrance of the big horn river i counted the remains of the fires of indian lodges which appeared to be of very recent date perhaps or days. capt. clark also saw a large encampent just above the entrance of this river on the stard. side of reather older date, probably they were the same indians. the indian woman with us exmined the mockersons which we found at these encampments and informed us that they were not of her nation the snake indians, but she beleived they were some of the indians who inhabit the country on this side of rocky mountains and north of the missoury and i think it most probable that they were the minetaries of fort de prarie. at the distance of six / ms. from our encampment of last night we passed a very bad rappid to which we gave the name of the ash rappid from a few trees of that wood growing near them; this is the first ash i have seen for a great distance. at this place the hills again approach the river closely on both sides, and the same seen which we had on the th and th in the morning again presents itself, and the rocky points and riffles reather more numerous and worse; there was but little timber; salts coal &c still appear. today we passed on the stard. side the remains of a vast many mangled carcases of buffalow which had been driven over a precipice of feet by the indians and perished; the water appeared to have washed away a part of this immence pile of slaughter and still their remained the fragments of at least a hundred carcases they created a most horrid stench. in this manner the indians of the missouri distroy vast herds of buffaloe at a stroke; for this purpose one of the most active and fleet young men is scelected and disguised in a robe of buffaloe skin, having also the skin of the buffaloe's head with the years and horns fastened on his head in form of a cap, thus caparisoned he places himself at a convenient distance between a herd of buffaloe and a precipice proper for the purpose, which happens in many places on this river for miles together; the other indians now surround the herd on the back and flanks and at a signal agreed on all shew themselves at the same time moving forward towards the buffaloe; the disguised indian or decoy has taken care to place himself sufficiently nigh the buffaloe to be noticed by them when they take to flight and runing before them they follow him in full speede to the precepice, the cattle behind driving those in front over and seeing them go do not look or hesitate about following untill the whole are precipitated down the precepice forming one common mass of dead an mangled carcases; the decoy in the mean time has taken care to secure himself in some cranney or crivice of the clift which he had previously prepared for that purpose. the part of the decoy i am informed is extreamly dangerous, if they are not very fleet runers the buffaloe tread them under foot and crush them to death, and sometimes drive them over the precepice also, where they perish in common with the buffaloe.--we saw a great many wolves in the neighbourhood of these mangled carcases they were fat and extreemly gentle, capt. c. who was on shore killed one of them with his espontoon. just above this place we came too for dinner opposite the entrance of a bold runing river yds. wide which falls in on lard. side. this stream we called slaughter river. it's bottoms are but narrow and contain scarcely any timber. our situation was a narrow bottom on the stard. possessing some cottonwood. soon after we landed it began to blow & rain, and as there was no appearance of even wood enough to make our fires for some distance above we determined to remain here untill the next morning, and accordingly fixed our camp and gave each man a small dram. notwithstanding the allowance of sperits we issued did not exceed / pn. man several of them were considerably effected by it; such is the effects of abstaining for some time from the uce of sperituous liquors; they were all very merry.--the hunters killed an elk this evening, and capt. c. killed two beaver. [clark, may , ] may th wednesday in the last night we were alarmed by a buffalow which swam from the opposit shore landed opposit the perogue in which capt lewis & my self were in he crossed the perogue, and went with great force up to the fire where several men were sleeping and was inches of their heads, when one man sitting up allarmed him and he turned his course along the range of men as they lay, passing between fires and within a fiew inches of some of the mens heads as they lay imediately in a direction to our lodge about which several men were lying. our dog flew out & he changed his course & passed without doeing more damage than bend a rifle & brakeing hir stock and injureying one of the blunder busts in the perogue as he passed through--we set out this morning at the usial hour & proceeded on at / miles passed the mouth of a river ____ yards wide, discharging a great quantity of water, and containing more wood in its bottoms than the missouri--this river capt lewis walked up for a short distance & he saw an old encampment of indians (i also saw large encampment on the stard side at the mouth of a small creek of about lodges which appeared to be or weeks past, the indian woman examined the mockersons &c. and told us they were the indians which resided below the rocky mountains & to the north of this river,that her nation make their mockersons differently) at / miles passed a considerable rapid at which place the hills approach near the river on both sides, leaveing a narrow bottom on the stard. side, (ash rapid) and continue close all day but little timber, i walked on the bank in the evening and saw the remains of a number of buffalow, which had been drove down a clift of rocks i think from appearances that upwards of of those animals must have perished here, great numbers of wolves were about this place & verry jentle i killed one of them with my spear. the hills above ash rapid contains more rock and coal, and the more rapid points. we came too for dinner opposit the enterence of a small river which falls in on the lard side and is about ____ yards wide, has a bold running stream, soon after we came too it began to rain & blow hard, and as we were in a good harbor & small point of woods on the stard side, and no timber for some distance above, induced us to conclude to stay all night. we gave the men a dram, altho verry small it was sufficent to effect several men. one of our hunters killed an elk this evening--i killed beaver on the side of the bank a table spoon full of water exposed to the air in a saucer would avaperate in hours when the mercury did not stand higher than the temperate point in the heat of the day. [lewis, may , ] thursday may th . the rain which commenced last evening continued with little intermission untill this morning when we set out; the high wind which accompanied the rain rendered it impracticable to procede earlyer. more rain has now fallen than we have experienced since the th of september last. many circumstances indicate our near approach to a country whos climate differs considerably from that in which we have been for many months. the air of the open country is asstonishingly dry as well as pure. i found by several experiments that a table spoon full of water exposed to the air in a saucer would avaporate in hours when the murcury did not stand higher than the temperate point at the greatest heat of the day; my inkstand so frequently becoming dry put me on this experiment. i also observed the well seasoned case of my sextant shrunk considerably and the joints opened. the water of the river still continues to become clearer and notwithstanding the rain which has fallen it is still much clearer than it was a few days past. this day we proceded with more labour and difficulty than we have yet experienced; in addition to the imbarrasments of the rappid courant, riffles, & rockey point which were as bad if not worse than yesterday, the banks and sides of the bluff were more steep than usual and were now rendered so slippery by the late rain that the men could scarcely walk. the chord is our only dependance for the courant is too rappid to be resisted with the oar and the river too deep in most places for the pole. the earth and stone also falling from these immence high bluffs render it dangerous to pass under them. the wind was also hard and against us. our chords broke several times today but happily without injury to the vessels. we had slight showers of rain through the course of the day, the air was could and rendered more disagreeable by the rain. one of the party ascended the river hills and reported on his return that there was snow intermixed with the rain which fell on the hights; he also informed us that the country was level a little back from the river on both sides. there is now no timber on the hills, an only a few scattering cottonwood, ash, box alder and willows to be seen along the river. in the course of the day we passed several old encampment of indians, from the apparent dates of which we conceived that they were the several encampments of a band of about lodges who were progressing slowly up the river; the most recent appeared to have been evacuated about weeks since. these we supposed to be the minetares or black foot indians who inhabit the country watered by the suskashawan and who resort to the establishment of fort de prarie, no part of the missouri from the minetaries to this place furnishes a perminent residence for any nation yet there is no part of it but what exhibits appearances of being occasionally visited by some nation on hunting excurtions. the minnetares of the missoury we know extend their excurtions on the s. side as high as the yellowstone river; the assinniboins still higher on the n. side most probably as high as about porcupine river and from thence upwards most probably as far as the mountains by the minetares of fort de prarie and the black foot indians who inhabit the s. fork of the suskashawan. i say the missouri to the rocky mountains for i am convinced that it penetrates those mountains for a considerable distance.--two buffaloe killed this evening a little above our encampment. [clark, may , ] may th thursday the rain conmmenced yesterday evining, and continued moderately through the course of the night, more rain has now fallin than we have experienced since the th of september last, the rain continued this morning, and the wind too high for us to proceed, untill about oclock at which time we set out, and proceeded on with great labour, we were obliged to make use of the tow rope & the banks were so muddey & slipery that the men could scercely walk not with standing we proceeded on as well as we could wind hard from the n w. in attempting to assend a rapid our toe cord broke & we turned without injurey, those rapids or shoaley points are noumerous and dificuelt, one being at the mouth of every drean some little rain at times all day one man assended the high countrey and it was raining & snowing on those hills, the day has proved to be raw and cold. back from the river is tollerably leavel, no timber of any kind on the hills, and only a fiew scattering cotton willow & ash near the river, much hard rock; & rich earth, the small portion of rain which has fallen causes the rich earth as deep as is wet to slip into the river or bottoms &c. we discover in several places old encampments of large bands of indians, a fiew weeks past and appear to be makeing up the river--those indians we believe to be the blackfoot inds. or menetares who inhabit the heads of the saskashowin & north of this place and trade a little in the fort de prarie establishments. we camped in a grove of cotton trees on the stard side, river rise / in. [lewis, may , ] friday may st . this morning we proceeded at an early hour with the two perogues leaving the canoes and crews to bring on the meat of the two buffaloe that were killed last evening and which had not been brought in as it was late and a little off the river. soon after we got under way it began to rain and continued untill meridian when it ceased but still remained cloudy through the ballance of the day. the obstructions of rocky points and riffles still continue as yesterday; at those places the men are compelled to be in the water even to their armpits, and the water is yet very could, and so frequent are those point that they are one fourth of their time in the water, added to this the banks and bluffs along which they are obliged to pass are so slippery and the mud so tenacious that they are unable to wear their mockersons, and in that situation draging the heavy burthen of a canoe and walking ocasionally for several hundred yards over the sharp fragments of rocks which tumble from the clifts and garnish the borders of the river; in short their labour is incredibly painfull and great, yet those faithfull fellows bear it without a murmur. the toe rope of the white perogue, the only one indeed of hemp, and that on which we most depended, gave way today at a bad point, the perogue swung and but slightly touched a rock, yet was very near overseting; i fear her evil gennii will play so many pranks with her that she will go to the bottomm some of those days.--capt. c. walked on shore this morning but found it so excessively bad that he shortly returned. at ock. we came too for refreshment and gave the men a dram which they received with much cheerfullness, and well deserved. the hills and river clifts which we passed today exhibit a most romantic appearance. the bluffs of the river rise to the hight of from to feet and in most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression of water; two or thre thin horizontal stratas of white free-stone, on which the rains or water make no impression, lie imbeded in these clifts of soft stone near the upper part of them; the earth on the top of these clifts is a dark rich loam, which forming a graduly ascending plain extends back from / a mile to a mile where the hills commence and rise abruptly to a hight of about feet more. the water in the course of time in decending from those hills and plains on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which with the help of a little immagination and an oblique view at a distance, are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone buildings, having their parapets well stocked with statuary; collumns of various sculpture both grooved and plain, are also seen supporting long galleries in front of those buildings; in other places on a much nearer approach and with the help of less immagination we see the remains or ruins of eligant buildings; some collumns standing and almost entire with their pedestals and capitals; others retaining their pedestals but deprived by time or accident of their capitals, some lying prostrate an broken othes in the form of vast pyramids of connic structure bearing a sereis of other pyramids on their tops becoming less as they ascend and finally terminating in a sharp point. nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes are seen at different hights as we pass. a number of the small martin which build their nests with clay in a globular form attatched to the wall within those nitches, and which were seen hovering about the tops of the collumns did not the less remind us of some of those large stone buildings in the u states. the thin stratas of hard freestone intermixed with the soft sandstone seems to have aided the water in forming this curious scenery. as we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment would never have and end; for here it is too that nature presents to the view of the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that i should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry had i not recollected that she had first began her work. these walls rise to the hight in many places of feet, are perpendicular, with two regular faces and are from one to feet thick, each wall retains the same thickness at top which it possesses at bottom. the stone of which these walls are formed is black, dence and dureable, and appears to be composed of a large portion of earth intermixed or cemented with a small quantity of sand and a considerable portion of talk or quarts. these stones are almost invariably regular parallelepipeds, of unequal sizes in the walls, but equal in their horizontal ranges, at least as to debth. these are laid regularly in ranges on each other like bricks, each breaking or covering the interstice of the two on which it rests. thus the purpendicular interstices are broken, and the horizontal ones extend entire throughout the whole extent of the walls. these stones seem to bear some proportion to the thickness of the walls in which they are employed, being larger in the thicker walls; the greatest length of the parallelepiped appears to form the thickness of the thiner walls, while two or more are employed to form that of the thicker walls. these walls pass the river in several places, rising from the water's edge much above the sandstone bluffs, which they seem to penetrate; thence continuing their course on a streight line on either side of the river through the gradually ascending plains, over which they tower to the hight of from ten to seventy feet until) they reach the hills, which they finally enter and conceal themselves. these walls sometimes run parallel to each other, with several ranges near each other, and at other times interscecting each other at right angles, having the appearance of the walls of ancient houses or gardens. i walked on shore this evening and examined these walls minutely and preserved a specimine of the stone. i found the face of many of the river hills formed of clifts of very excellent free stone of a light yellowish brown colour; on these clifts i met with a species of pine which i had never seen, it differs from the pitchpine in the particular of it's leaf and cone, the first being vastly shorter, and the latter considerably longer and more pointed. i saw near those bluffs the most beautiful) fox that i ever beheld, the colours appeared to me to be a fine orrange yellow, white and black, i endevoured to kill this anamal but it discovered me at a considerable distance, and finding that i could get no nearer, i fired on him as he ran, and missed him; he concealed himself under the rocks of the clift; it appeared to me to be about the size of the common red fox of the atlantic states, or reather smaller than the large fox common to this country; convinced i am that it is a distinct species. the appearance of coal continues but in small quantities, but little appearance of birnt hills or pumice stones the mineral salts have in some measure abated and no quarts. we saw a great number of the bighorn some mule deer and a few buffaloe and elk, no antelopes or common deer. drewyer who was with me and myself killed two bighorned anamals; the sides of the clifts where these anamals resort much to lodg, have the peculiar smell of the sheepfolds. the party killed in addition to our hunt buffaloe and an elk. the river today has been from to yds. wide but little timber today on the river. [clark, may , ] may st friday . a cloudy morning we dispatched all the canoes to collect the meat of buffalow killed last night a head and a little off the river, and proceeded on with the perogues at an early hour. i attempted to walk on shore soon found it verry laborious as the mud stuck to my mockersons & was verry slippery. i return'd on board. it continued to rain moderately untill about oclock when it ceased, & continued cloudy. the stone on the edge of the river continue to form verry considerable rapids, which are troublesom & dificuelt to pass, our toe rope which we are obliged to make use of altogether broke & we were in some danger of turning over in the perogue in which i was, we landed at and refreshed the men with a dram, our men are obliged to under go great labour and fatigue in assending this part of the missouri, as they are compelled from the rapidity of the current in many places to walk in the water & on slippery hill sides or the sides of rocks, on gravel & thro a stiff mud bear footed, as they cannot keep on mockersons from the stiffness of the mud & decline of the slipy. hills sides--the hills and river clifts of this day exhibit a most romantick appearance on each side of the river is a white soft sand stone bluff which rises to about half the hight of the hills, on the top of this clift is a black earth on points, in maney places this sand stone appears like antient ruins some like elegant buildings at a distance, some like towers &c. &c. in maney places of this days march we observe on either side of the river extraodanary walls of a black semented stone which appear to be regularly placed one stone on the other, some of those walls run to the hite of feet, they are from about foot to feet thick and are perpendicular, those walls commence at the waters edge & in some places meet at right angles--those walls appear to continue their course into the sand clifts, the stones which form those walls are of different sizes all squar edged, great numbers has fallen off from the walls near the river which cause the walls to be of uneaquil hite, in the evening the countrey becomes lower and the bottoms wider, no timber on the uplands, except a few cedar & pine on the clifts a few scattering cotton trees on the points in the river bottoms, the apparance of coal continus capt lewis walked on shore & observed a species of pine we had never before seen, with a shorter leaf than common & the bur different, he also collected some of the stone off one of the walls which appears to be a sement of isin glass black earth we camped on the stard side in a small timbered bottom above the mouth of a creek on the stard side our hunters killed, animals with big horns, buffalow & an elk, we saw great numbers of those big horned animals on the clifts, but fiew buffalow or elk, no antelope, a fiew mule deer, saw a fox to day. the river rises a little it is from to yds. wide [clark, may , ] may st friday cloudy morning, we proceeded on at an early hour with the two perogues leaving the canoes and crews to bring on the meat of two buffalow that were killed last evening and which had not been brought in as it was late and a little off the river. soon after we got under way it began to rain and continued untill oclock when it seased but still remained cloudy through the ballance of the day. the obstructions of rocky points and riffles still continue as yesterday; at those places the men are compelled to be in the water even to their armpits, and the water is yet very cold, and so frequent are those points that they are one fourth of their time in the water. added to this the bank and bluff along which they are obliged to pass are so slippery and the mud so tenatious that they are unable to bare their mockersons, and in that situation dragging the heavy burthen of a canoe and walking occasionally for several hundred yards over the sharp fragments of rocks which tumble from the clifts; and in short their labour is incredibly painfull and great, yet those faithfull fellows bear it without a murmer. the toe rope of the white perogue, the only one indeed of hemp, and that on which we most depended, gave way to day at a bad point, the perogue swong and but slightly touched a rock, yet was very near oversetting; i fear her evil ginnie will play so many pranks with her that she will go to the bottom some of those days. i attempted to walk on shore this morning but found it so excessivily bad that i soon returned on board. at oclock we came too for refreshment and gave the men a dram which they received with much chearfulness, and well deserved all wet and disagreeable. capt. lewis walked on shore, he informed one that he saw "the most butifull fox in the world" the colour appeared to him to be of a fine orrange yellow, white and black, he fired at this fox running and missed him, he appeared to be about the size of the common red fox of the united states, or rather smaller. the hills and river clifts which we pass to day exhibit a most romantic appearance. the bluffs of the river rise to the hight of from to feet and in most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression of water; two or three thin horizontal stratas of white free stone, on which the rains or water make no impression, lie imbeded in those clifts of soft stone near the upper part of them; the earth on the top of these clifts is a dark rich loam, which forming a gradual ascending plain extend back from / a mile to a mile where the hills commence and rise abruptly to the hight of about feet more. the water in the course of time acecending from those hills and plains on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures; which with the help of a little imagination and an oblique view at a distance are made to represent elegant ranges of lofty freestone buildings, haveing their parapets well stocked with statuary; colloms of various sculptures both grooved and plain, are also seen supporting long galleries in part of those buildings; in other places on a much nearer approach and with the with the help of less immagination we see the remains of ruins of eligant buildings; some collumns standing and almost entire with their pedestals and capitals, others retaining their pedestals but deprived by time or accedint of their capitals, some lying prostrate and broken, others in the form of vast pyramids of connic structure bearing a serious of other pyramids on their tops becomeing less as they ascend and finally termonateing in a sharp point. nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes are seen at different hights as we pass. a number of the small martin which build their nests with clay of a globular form attached to the wall within those nitches, and which were seen hovering about the top of the collumns did not the less remind us of some of those large stone buildings in the united states. the thin stratas of hard free stone intermixed with the soft sand stone seems to have aided the water in forming this curious scenery. as we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary enchantment would never have an end; for here it is too that nature presents to the view of the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that i should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry had i not recollected that she had first began her work. these walls rise to the hight in many places of feet, are perpindicular, with two regular faces, and are from one to feet thick, each wall retains the same thickness to the top which it possesses at bottom. the stone of which these walls are formed is black, dense and dureable, and appears to be composed of a large portion of earth intermixed or cemented with a small quantity of sand and a considerable portion of quarts. these stones are almost invariably regular parallelepipeds, of unequal sizes in the wall, but equal in their horizontal ranges, at least as to debth. these are laid regularly in ranges on each other like bricks, each breaking or covering this interstice of the two on which it rests, thus the pirpendicular interstices are broken, and the horizontal ones extend entire throughout the whole extent of the walls. these stones seam to bear some proportion to the thickness of the walls in which they are employd, being larger in the thicker walls; the greatest length of the parallelepiped appear to form the thickness of the thiner walls, while two or more are employed to form that of the thicker walls. those walls pass the river in several places rising from the waters edge much above the sand stone bluffs, which they seam to penetrate; thence continueing their course on a streight line on either side of the river thorough the gradually ascending plains over which they tower to the hight of from ten to feet untill they reach the hills which they finally enter and conceal themselves. these walls sometimes run parallel to each other, with several ranges near each other, and at other times intersecting each other at right angles, haveing the appearance of the walls of ancient houses or gardins. both capt lewis and my self walked on shore this evening and examined those walls minutely and preserved a specimine of the stone.--i found many clifts of very excellent free stone of a light yellowish brown colour. capt. lewis observed a species of pine which i had never seen, it differs from the pitch pine in the particular of its leaf and cone, the first being partly shorter, and the latter considerably longer and more pointed. the appearance of coal continues but in smaller quantities, but little appearance of burnt hills or pumicestone. the mineral salt in some measure have abated and no quarts. we saw a great number of the big horn, some mule deer, and a few buffalow and elk, no antelopes or common deer-. capt. lewis killed a big horn animal. the party killed buffalow one elk and a big horn or ibex to day-. the river has been from to yards wide but little timber on the river to day. river less muddy than it was below. [lewis, june , ] saturday june st the moring was cloudy and a few drops of rain. set out at an early hour and proceeded as usual by the help of our chords. the river clifts and bluffs not so high as yesterday and the country becomes more level. a mountain or a part of the n. mountain appears to approach the river within or ms. bearing n. from our encampment of the last evening. capt c. who walked on shore today informed me that the river hills were much lower than usual and that from the tops of those hills he had a delightfull view of rich level and extensive plains on both sides of the river; in those plains, which in many places reach the river clifts, he observed large banks of pure sand which appeared to have been driven by the s w. winds from the river bluffs and there deposited. the plains are more fertile at some distance from the river than near the bluffs where the surface of the earth is very generally covered with small smothe pebbles which have the appearance of having been woarn by the agitation of the waters in which they were no doubt once immerced. a range of high mountains appear to the s. w. at a considerable distance covered with snow, they appear to run westerly. no timber appears on the highlands; but much more than yesterday on the river and islands. rockey points and shoals less freequent than yesterday but some of them quite as bad when they did occur. the river from to yards wide, courant more gentle and still becoming clearer. game is by no means as abundant as below; we killed one male bighorn and a mule deer today; saw buffalow at a distance in the plains particularly near a small lake on lard. side about ms. distant. some few drops of rain again fell this evening. we passed six islands and encamped on the th; they are all small but contain some timber. the wind has been against us all day.--i saw the choke cherry the yellow and red courant bushes; the wild rose appears now to be in full bloom as are also the prickley pear which are numerous in these plains.--we also saw some indian lodges of sticks today which did not appear to have been long evacuated.--some coal appear in the bluffs. [clark, june , ] june st satterday a cloudy morning we set out at an early hour and proseeded on as usial with the toe rope the countrey appears to be lower and the clifts not so high or common, a mountain or a part of the north mountain about or miles n. of this place, i walked on shore to day found the plains much lower than we have seen them and on the top we behold an extencive plain on both sides, in this plain i observed maney noles of fine sand which appeared to have blown from the river bluffs and collected at these points those plains are fertile near the river a great no. of small stone, i observed at some distance to the s. w. a high mountain which appears to bear westerly the cole appear as usial, more cotton trees scattered on the shores & islands than yesterday--no timber on the high land, the river from to yards wide & current more jentle than yesterday but fiew bad rapid points to day--the wild animals not so plenty as below we only killed a ram & mule deer to day, we saw buffalow at a distance in the plains, particularly near a lake on the lard. side about miles distant from the river--we passed six islands and encamped on the th all those islands are small but contain some timber on them the river riseing a little wind to day from the s. w. som fiew drops of rain in the morning and also in the evening, flying clouds all day saw several indian camps made of sticks & bark set up on end and do not appear to belong evacuated--the roses are in full bloome, i observe yellow berries, red berry bushes great numbers of wild or choke cheries, prickley pares are in blossom & in great numbers [lewis, june , ] sunday june ed the wind blew violently last night and was attended by a slight shower of rain; the morning was fair and we set out at an early hour. imployed the chord as usual the greater part of the day. the courant was strong tho regular, and the banks afforded us good toeing. the wind was hard and against us yet we proceded with infinitely more ease than the two precedeing days. the river bluffs still continue to get lower and the plains leveler and more extensive; the timber on the river increases in quantity; the country in all other rispects much as discribed yesterday. i think we are now completely above the black hills we had a small shower of rain today but it lasted only a few minutes and was very moderate. game becomeing more abundant this morning and i thought it best now to loose no time or suffer an opportunity to escape in providing the necessary quantity of elk's skins to cover my leather boat which i now expect i shall be obliged to use shortly. accordingly i walked on shore most of the day with some of the hunters for that purpose and killed elk buffale mule deer and a bear. these anamals were all in good order we therefore took as much of the meat as our canoes and perogues could conveniently carry. the bear was very near catching drewyer; it also pursued charbono who fired his gun in the air as he ran but fortunately eluded the vigilence of the bear by secreting himself very securely in the bushes untill drewyer finally killed it by a shot in the head; the shot indeed that will conquer the farocity of those tremendious anamals.--in the course of the day we passed islands all of them small and most of them containing some timber. we came too on the lard. side in a handsome bottom of small cottonwood timber opposite to the entrance of a very considerable river; but it being too late to examine these rivers minutely to night we determined to remain here untill the morning, and as the evening was favourable to make some obsevations.- [clark, june , ] june nd sunday we had a hard wind and a little rain last night, this morning fair we set out at an early hour, wind from the s w. some little rain to day wind hard a head, the countrey much like that of yesterday as discribed capt lewis walked on shore, himself & the hunters killed elk & a bear and mule deer, and buffalow which was all in good order a beaver also killed to day, passed islands to day the current swift but regular, we camped on the lard side at the forks of the river the currents & sizes of them we could not examine this evening a fair night we took some luner observations of moon & stears [lewis, june , ] monday june rd this morning early we passed over and formed a camp on the point formed by the junction of the two large rivers. here in the course of the day i continued my observations as are above stated. an interesting question was now to be determined; which of these rivers was the missouri, or that river which the minnetares call amahte arz zha or missouri, and which they had discribed to us as approaching very near to the columbia river. to mistake the stream at this period of the season, two months of the traveling season having now elapsed, and to ascend such stream to the rocky mountain or perhaps much further before we could inform ourselves whether it did approach the columbia or not, and then be obliged to return and take the other stream would not only loose us the whole of this season but would probably so dishearten the party that it might defeat the expedition altogether. convinced we were that the utmost circumspection and caution was necessary in deciding on the stream to be taken. to this end an investigation of both streams was the first thing to be done; to learn their widths, debths, comparitive rappidity of their courants and thence the comparitive bodies of water furnished by each; accordingly we dispatched two light canoes with three men in each up those streams; we also sent out several small parties by land with instructions to penetrate the country as far as they conveniently can permiting themselves time to return this evening and indeavour if possible to discover the distant bearing of those rivers by ascending the rising grounds. between the time of my a.m. and meridian capt. c & myself stroled out to the top of the hights in the fork of these rivers from whence we had an extensive and most inchanting view; the country in every derection around us was one vast plain in which innumerable herds of buffalow were seen attended by their shepperds the wolves; the solatary antelope which now had their young were distributed over it's face; some herds of elk were also seen; the verdure perfectly cloathed the ground, the weather was pleasent and fair; to the south we saw a range of lofty mountains which we supposed to be a continuation of the s. mountains, streching themselves from s. e. to n. w. terminating abbrubtly about s. west from us; these were partially covered with snow; behind these mountains and at a great distance, a second and more lofty range of mountains appeared to strech across the country in the same direction with the others, reaching from west, to the n of n. w., where their snowey tops lost themselves beneath the horizon. this last range was perfectly covered with snow. the direction of the rivers could be seen but little way, soon loosing the break of their channels, to our view, in the common plain. on our return to camp we boar a little to the left and discovered a handsome little river falling into the n. fork on lard. side about / ms. above our camp. this little river has as much timber in it's bottoms as either of the larger streams. there are a great number of prickley pears in these plains; the choke cherry grows here in abundance both in the river bottoms and in the steep ravenes along the river bluffs. saw the yellow and red courants, not yet ripe; also the goosberry which begins to ripen; the wild rose which grows here in great abundance in the bottoms of all these rivers is now in full bloom, and adds not a little to the beaty of the cenery. we took the width of the two rivers, found the left hand or s. fork yards and the n. fork . the noth fork is deeper than the other but it's courant not so swift; it's waters run in the same boiling and roling manner which has uniformly characterized the missouri throughout it's whole course so far; it's waters are of a whitish brown colour very thick and terbid, also characteristic of the missouri; while the south fork is perfectly transparent runds very rappid but with a smoth unruffled surface it's bottom composed of round and flat smooth stones like most rivers issuing from a mountainous country. the bed of the n. fork composed of some gravel but principally mud; in short the air & character of this river is so precisely that of the missouri below that the party with very few exceptions have already pronounced the n. fork to be the missouri; myself and capt. c. not quite so precipitate have not yet decided but if we were to give our opinions i believe we should be in the minority, certain it is that the north fork gives the colouring matter and character which is retained from hence to the gulph of mexico. i am confident that this river rises in and passes a great distance through an open plain country i expect that it has some of it's souces on the eastern side of the rocky mountain south of the saskashawan, but that it dose not penetrate the first range of these mountains and that much the greater part of it's sources are in a northwardly direction towards the lower and middle parts of the saskashawan in the open plains. convinced i am that if it penetrated the rocky mountains to any great distance it's waters would be clearer unless it should run an immence distance indeed after leaving those mountains through these level plains in order to acquire it's turbid hue. what astonishes us a little is that the indians who appeared to be so well acquainted with the geography of this country should not have mentioned this river on wright hand if it be not the missouri; the river that scolds at all others, as they call it if there is in reallity such an one, ought agreeably to their account, to have fallen in a considerable distance below, and on the other hand if this righthand or n. fork be the missouri i am equally astonished at their not mentioning the s. fork which they must have passed in order to get to those large falls which they mention on the missouri. thus have our cogitating faculties been busily employed all day. those who have remained at camp today have been busily engaged in dressing skins for cloathing, notwithstanding that many of them have their feet so mangled and bruised with the stones and rough ground over which they passed barefoot, that they can scarcely walk or stand; at least it is with great pain they do either. for some days past they were unable to wear their mockersons; they have fallen off considerably, but notwithstanding the difficulties past, or those which seem now to mennace us, they still remain perfectly cheerfull. in the evening the parties whom we had sent out returned agreeably to instructions. the parties who had been sent up the rivers in canoes informed that they ascended some distance and had then left their canoes and walked up the rivers a considerable distance further barely leaving themselves time to return; the north fork was not so rappid as the other and afforded the easiest navigation of course; six feet appeared to be the shallowest water of the s. branch and feet that of the n. their accounts were by no means satisfactory nor did the information we acquired bring us nigher to the decision of our question or determine us which stream to take. sergt. pryor had ascended the n. fork and had taken the following courses and distances-viz- joseph and reubin fields reported that they had been up the south fork about mes. on a streight course somewhat n of w. and that there the little river which discharges itself into the north fork just above us, was within yards of the s. fork; that they came down this little river and found it a boald runing stream of about yds. wide containg much timber in it's bottom, consisting of the narrow and wide leafed cottonwood with some birch and box alder undrgrowth willows rosebushes currents &c. they saw a great number of elk on this river and some beaver. those accounts being by no means satisfactory as to the fundamental point; capt. c. and myself concluded to set out early the next morning with a small party each, and ascend these rivers untill we could perfectly satisfy ourselves of the one, which it would be most expedient for us to take on our main journey to the pacific. accordingly it was agreed that i should ascend the right hand fork and he the left. i gave orders to sergt. pryor drewyer, shields, windsor, cruzatte and la page to hold themselves in readiness to accompany me in the morning. capt. clark also selected reubin &joseph fields, sergt. gass, shannon and his black man york, to accompany him. we agreed to go up those rivers one day and a halfs march or further if it should appear necessary to satisfy us more fully of the point in question. the hunters killed buffaloe, elk and deer today. the evening proved cloudy. we took a drink of grog this evening and gave the men a dram, and made all matters ready for an early departure in the morning. i had now my sack and blanket happerst in readiness to swing on my back, which is the first time in my life that i had ever prepared a burthen of this kind, and i am fully convinced that it will not be the last. i take my octant with me also, this i confide la page. [clark, june , ] june rd monday we formed a camp on the point in the junction of the two rivers, and dispatched a canoe & three men up each river to examine and find if possible which is the most probable branch, the left fork which is the largest we are doubtfull of, the indians do not mention any river falling in on the right in this part of the missouri, the scolding river, if there is such a one should have fallen in below agreeable to their accts. we also dispatched men in different dircts. by land, to a mountain covered with snow to the south & other up each river--capt lewis and my self walked out & assended the hill in the point observed a leavel open countrey to the foot of the mountains which lye south of this, also a river which falls into the right hand fork about / miles above its mouth on the lard. side this little river discharges a great deal of water & contains as much cotton timber in its bottoms as either of the others we saw buffalow & antelopes &c. wild cheries, red & yellow hurries, goose berries &c. abound in the river bottoms, prickley pares on the high plains, we had a meridian altitude and the lattd. produced was ° ' " n. the after part of the day proved cloudy, we measured each river and found the one to right hand yards wide of water & the left hand fork yards wide & rapid--the right hand fork falling the other at a stand and clear, the right fork and the river which fall into it is coloured & a little muddey. several men complain of their feet being sore in walking in the sand & their being cut by the stones they to be sure have a bad time of it obliged to walk on shore & haul the rope and / of their time bear footed, in the evening late the canoes returned and the men informed us that they had assended some miles by water & left their canoes & walked on land the greater part of the day, their accounts by no means satisfactory, serjt. pryor assended the right hand fork and took the following courses, &c joseph & rubin fields went up the left fork miles on a direct line at which place, the small river which falls into the right hand fork approaches within yards of the south fork, they came down the small river which is a bold stream covered with elk & some beaver, its bottoms covered with wood, as the information given by those parties respecting the rivers did not satisfy us as to the main & principal branch capt. lewis & my self deturmined to go up each of those rivers one day & a half with a view to satisfy ourselves which of the two was the principal stream and best calculated for us to assend--the hunters killed buffalow, elk & several deer to day we refreshed our party with a dram &c cloudy evining.- [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th this morning early capt. c. departed, and at the same time i passed the wright hand fork opposite to our camp below a small island; from hence i steered n. w. / to a commanding eminence; here i took the following bearings of the mountains which were in view. the north mountains appear to change their direction from that of being parallel with the missouri turning to the north and terminating abruptly; their termineation bearing n. ° e distant by estimate mes. the south mountains appear to turn to the s. also terminating abrubtly, their extremity bearing s. w. distant mes. the barn mountain, a lofty mountain so called from it's resemblance to the roof of a large barn, is a seperate mountain and appears reather to the wright of and retreating from the extremity of the s. mts.; this boar s. w. distant ms. the north fork which i am now ascending lies to my left and appears to make a considerable bend to the n. w. on it's western border a range of hills about mes. long appear to lye parallel with the river and from hence bear n. ° w. to the n. of this range of hills an elivated point of the river bluff on it's lard. side boar n. ° w. distant mes. to this last object i now directed my course through a high level dry open plain. the whole country in fact appears to be one continued plain to the foot of the mountains or as far as the eye can reach; the soil appears dark rich and fertile yet the grass is by no means as high nor dose it look so luxurient as i should have expected, it is short just sufficient to conceal the ground. great abundance of prickly pears which are extreemly troublesome; as the thorns very readily perce the foot through the mockerson; they are so numerous that it requires one half of the traveler's attention to avoid them in these plains i observed great numbers of the brown curloos, a small species of curloo or plover of a brown colour about the size of the common snipe and not unlike it in form with a long celindric curved and pointed beak; it's wings are proportionately long and the tail short; in the act of liteing this bird lets itself down by an extention of it's wings without motion holding their points very much together above it's back, in this rispect differing ascentially from any bird i ever observed. a number of sparrows also of three distinct species i observed. also a small bird which in action resembles the lark, it is about the size of a large sparrow of a dark brown colour with some white fathers in the tail; this bird or that which i take to be the male rises into the air about feet and supporting itself in the air with a brisk motion of the wings sings very sweetly, has several shrill soft notes reather of the plaintive order which it frequently repeats and varies, after remaining stationary about a minute in his aireal station he descends obliquely occasionly pausing and accomnying his decension with a note something like twit twit twit; on the ground he is silent. thirty or forty of these birds will be stationed in the air at a time in view, these larks as i shall call them add much to the gayety and cheerfullness of the scene. all those birds are now seting and laying their eggs in the plains; their little nests are to be seen in great abundance as we pass. there are meriads of small grasshoppers in these plains which no doubt furnish the principal aliment of this numerous progeny of the feathered creation. after walking about eight miles i grew thisty and there being no water in the plains i changed my direction and boar obliquely in towards the river, on my arrival at which about mes. below the point of observation, we discovered two deer at feed at some distance near the river; i here halted the party and sent drewyer to kill one of them for breakfast; this excellent hunter soon exceded his orders by killing of them both; they proved to be two mule bucks in fine order; we soon kindled a fire cooked and made a hearty meal. it was not yet twelve when we arrived at the river and i was anxious to take the meridian altd. of the sun but the clouds prevent ed my obtaining the observation. after refreshing ourselves we proceded up the river to the extremity of the first course, from whence the river boar on it's general course n. ° w. m. to a bluff point on stard. here drewyer killed four other deer of the common kind; we skined them and hung up a part of the meat and the skins as we did also of the first, and took as much of the meat as we thought would answer for our suppers and proceeded n. w. m. to the entrance of a large creek on lard. side the part of the river we have passed is from to yds. wide, is deep, has falling banks, the courant strong, the water terbid and in short has every appearance of the missouri below except as to size. it's bottoms narrow but well timbered. salts coal and other mineral appearances as usual; the bluffs principally of dark brown, yellow and some white clay; some freestone also appears in places. the river now boar n. ° e. mes. to a bluff on lard. at the commencement of this course we ascended the hills which are about feet high, and passed through the plains about m. but finding the dry ravines so steep and numerous we determined to return to the river and travel through it's bottoms and along the foot and sides of the bluffs, accordingly we again reached the river about miles from the commencement of the last course and encamped a small distant above on the stard. side in a bend among the willow bushes which defended us from the wind which blew hard from the n. w. it rained this evening and wet us to the skin; the air was extremely could. just before we encamped drewyer fired at a large brown bar across the river and wounded him badly but it was too late to pursue him. killed a braro and a beaver, also at the place of our encampment, a very fine mule deer. we saw a great number of buffaloe, elk, wolves and foxes today. the river bottoms form one emence garden of roses, now in full bloe. [clark, june , ] june th tuesday capt. lewis & my self each with a small party of men set out earlythose who accompanied capt lewis were g. drewyer serjt. pryor, j shields, p. crusat j. b. de page, r. winser, went up the n. side of the n. fork. those who accompanied me were serjt. gass jos. & ruben fields g. shannon & my black man york, and we set out to examine the south fork, our first course was s. ° w. miles to the s. fork at a spring, at which place the little river which falls into the n. fork is yards distant only seperated from the south fork by a narrow ridge. our course from thence s. ° w. miles to the river at an island where we dined below a small river falls in on the s e side which heads in a mountain to the s. e about miles. north of this place about miles the little river brakes thro a high ridge into the open leavel plain thro which we have passd. from the point, this plain is covered with low grass & prickley pear, emence number of prarie dogs or barking squirel are thro this plain--after eating we proceeded on n. ° w. struck the river at miles , & miles at which place we encamped in an old indian lodge made of stiks and bark at the river near our camp we saw two white bear, one of them was nearly catching joseph fields who could not fire, as his gun was wet the bear was so near that it struck his foot, and we were not in a situation to give him assistance, a clift of rocks seperated us the bear got allarmed at our shot & yells & took the river.--some rain all the afternoon saw several gangues of buffalow at a distance in the open plains on each side, saw mule deer antilopes & wolves--the river is rapid & closely himed on one or the other side with high bluffs, crouded with islands & graveley bars containing but a small quantity of timber on its bottoms & none on the high land. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . this morning was cloudy and so could that i was obleged to have recourse to a blanket coat in order to keep myself comfortable altho walking. the rain continued during the greater part of last night. the wind hard from n. w. we set out at sunrise and proceded up the river eight miles on the course last taken yesterday evening, at the extremity of which a large creek falls in on the stard. yards. wide at it's entrance, some timber but no water, notwithstanding the rain; it's course upwards is n. e. it is astonishing what a quantity of water it takes to saturate the soil of this country, the earth of the plains are now opened in large crivices in many places and yet looks like a rich loam from the entrance of this creek (which i called lark c.) the river boar n. . w. m. at the entrance of this creek the bluffs were very steep and approached the river so near on the stard. side that we ascended the hills and passed through the plains; at the extremity of this course we returned to the river which then boar north rues. from the same point, i discovered a lofty single mountain which appeard to be at a great distance, perhaps or more miles it boar n. w. from it's conic figure i called it tower mountain. we now passed through the river bottoms to the extremity of the last course thence with the river s ° w / m. s w. m n w / at the extremity of which i again ascended the bluffs and took a course to a point of the lard. bluffs of the river which boar west m. the river making a deep bend to the south that is of at least five miles from the center of the chord line to the center of the bend. on this course we passed through the plains found the plains as yesterday extreemly leavel and beautifull, great quanties of buffaloe, some wolves foxes and antelopes seen. near the river the plain is cut by deep ravines in this plain and from one to nine miles from the river or any water, we saw the largest collection of the burrowing or barking squirrels that we had ever yet seen; we passed through a skirt of the territory of this community for about miles. i saw a flock of the mountain cock, or a large species of heath hen with a long pointed tail which the indians informed us were common to the rockey mountains, i sent shields to kill one of them but he was obliged to fire a long distance at them and missed his aim. as we had not killed or eat anything today we each killed a burrowing squrrel as we passed them in order to make shure of our suppers. we again intersepted the river at the expiration of the last course or the lard. bluffs, from whence it now boar n ° w. mes. from this point saw some other lofty mountains to the n. w. of tower mtn. which boar n. °w. or mes. distant at the expiration of this course we killed five elk and a blacktailed or mule deer and encamped on stard. side of the river in a handsome well timbered bottom where there were several old stick lodges. in the forepart of the day there was but little timber in the river bottoms but the quantity is now greater than usual. the river is about yds. wide with a strong steady courant and from to feet water. i had the burrowing squirrels roasted by way of experiment and found the flesh well flavored and tender; some of them were very fat. [clark, june , ] june th wednesday some little rain & snow last night the mountains to our s e. covered with snow this morning air verry cold & raining a little, we saw buffalow opposit, they made attempts to cross, the water being so swift they could not, about the time we were setting out three white bear approached our camp we killed the three & eate part of one & set out & proceeded on n. ° w miles.--k the river at maney places in this distance to a ridge on the n. side t m the top of which i could plainly see a mountain to the south & w. covered with snow at a long distance, the mountains opposit to us to the s. e. is also covered with snow this morning.--a high ridge from those mountains approach the river on the s e side forming some clifts of hard dark stone.--from the ridge at which place i struck the river last, i could ____ discover that the river run west of south a long distance, and has a strong rapid current, as this river continued its width debth & rapidity and the course west of south, going up further would be useless, i deturmined to return, i accordingly set out, thro the plain on a course n. ° e on my return & struck the little river at miles passing thro a leavel plain, at the little river we killed buck elk & dined on their marrow, proceeded on a few miles & camped, haveing killed deer which was verry fat, some few drops of rain to day, the evening fair wind hard from the n. e. i saw great numbers of elk & white tale deer, some beaver, antelope mule deer & wolves & one bear on this little river marked my name in a tree n. side near the ridge where the little river brakes thro [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . i now became well convinced that this branch of the missouri had it's direction too much to the north for our rout to the pacific, and therefore determined to return the next day after taking an observation of the sun's meridian altitude in order to fix the latitude of the place. the forepart of the last evening was fair but in the latter part of the night clouded up and contnued so with short intervals of sunshine untill a little before noon when the whole horizon was overcast, and i of course disappointed in making the observation which i much wished. i had sent sergt. pryor and windsor early this morning with orders to procede up the river to some commanding eminence and take it's bearing as far as possible. in the mean time the four others and myself were busily engaged in making two rafts on which we purposed descending the river; we had just completed this work when sergt. pryor and windsor returned, it being about noon; they reported that they had proceded from hence s w. m. to the summit of a commanding eminence from whence the river on their left was about / miles distant; that a point of it's lard. bluff, which was visible boar s w. distant about ms.; that the river on their left bent gradually arround to this point, and from thence seemed to run northwardly. we now took dinner and embarcked with our plunder and five elk's skins on the rafts but were soon convinced that this mode of navigation was hazerdous particularly with those rafts they being too small and slender. we wet a part of our baggage and were near loosing one of our guns; i therefore determined to abandon the rafts and return as we had come, by land. i regreted much being obliged to leave my elk's skins, which i wanted to assist in forming my leather boat; those we had prepared at fort mandan being injured in such manner that they would not answer. we again swung our packs and took our way through the open plains for about mes. when we struck the river; the wind blew a storm from n. e. accompanyed by frequent showers of rain; we were wet and very could. continued our rout down the river only a few miles before the abruptness of the clifts and their near approach to the river compelled us take the plains and once more face the storm; here we boar reather too much to the north and it was late in the evening before we reached the river, in our way we killed two buffaloe and took with us as much of the flesh as served us that night, and a part of the next day. we encamped a little below the entrance of the large dry creek called lark c. having traveled abut mes. since noon. it continues to rain and we have no shelter, an uncomfortable nights rest is the natural consequence. [clark, june , ] june th thursday a cloudy cold raw day wind hard from the n. e. we set out early & traveled down the little river which was imedeately in our course on this river we killed deer for their skins the bottoms of this little river is in everry respect except in extent like the large bottoms of the missouri below the forks containing a great perpotion of a kind of cotton wood with a leaf resembling a wild cherry-. i also observed wild tanzey on this little river in great quantities, we halted at oclock and eate a part of a fat buck, after dinner we assended the plain at which time it began to rain and continued all day, at oclock we arrived at our camp on the point, where i expected to meet capt lewis- he did not return this evening.--my self and party much fatigued haveing walked constantly as hard as we could march over a dry hard plain, dcending & assending the steep river hills & gullies, in my absence the party had killed an elk & buffalow, i sent out for the meat a part of which was brought in--nothing remarkable had transpired at camp in my absence [lewis, june , ] friday june th . it continued to rain almost without intermission last night and as i expected we had a most disagreable and wrestless night. our camp possessing no allurements, we left our watery beads at an early hour and continued our rout down the river. it still continues to rain the wind hard from n. e. and could. the grownd remarkably slipry, insomuch that we were unable to walk on the sides of the bluffs where we had passed as we ascended the river. notwithstanding the rain that has now fallen the earth of these bluffs is not wet to a greater debth than inches; in it's present state it is precisely like walking over frozan grownd which is thawed to small debth and slips equally as bad. this clay not only appears to require more water to saturate it as i before observed than any earth i ever observed but when saturated it appears on the other hand to yeald it's moisture with equal difficulty. in passing along the face of one of these bluffs today i sliped at a narrow pass of about yards in length and but for a quick and fortunate recovery by means of my espontoon i should been precipitated into the river down a craggy pricipice of about ninety feet. i had scarcely reached a place on which i could stand with tolerable safety even with the assistance of my espontoon before i heard a voice behind me cry out god god capt. what shall i do on turning about i found it was windsor who had sliped and fallen abut the center of this narrow pass and was lying prostrate on his belley, with his wright hand arm and leg over the precipice while he was holding on with the left arm and foot as well as he could which appeared to be with much difficulty. i discovered his danger and the trepedation which he was in gave me still further concern for i expected every instant to see him loose his strength and slip off; altho much allarmed at his situation i disguised my feelings and spoke very calmly to him and assured him that he was in no kind of danger, to take the knife out of his belt behind him with his wright hand and dig a hole with it in the face of the bank to receive his wright foot which he did and then raised himself to his knees; i then directed him to take off his mockersons and to come forward on his hands and knees holding the knife in one hand and the gun in the other this he happily effected and escaped. those who were some little distance bhind returned by my orders and waded the river at the foot of the bluff where the water was breast deep. it was useless we knew to attempt the plains on this part of the river in consequence of the numerous steep ravines which intersected and which were quite as had as the river bluffs. we therefore continued our rout down the river sometimes in the mud and water of the bottom lands, at others in the river to our breasts and when the water became so deep that we could not wade we cut footsteps in the face of the steep bluffs with our knives and proceded. we continued our disagreeable march through the rain mud and water untill late in the evening having traveled only about miles, and encamped in an old indian stick lodge which afforded us a dry and comfortable shelter. during the day we had killed six deer some of them in very good order altho none of them had yet entirely discarded their winter coats. we had reserved and brought with us a good supply of the best peices; we roasted and eat a hearty supper of our venison not having taisted a mosel before during the day; i now laid myself down on some willow boughs to a comfortable nights rest, and felt indeed as if i was fully repaid for the toil and pain of the day, so much will a good shelter, a dry bed, and comfortable supper revive the sperits of the waryed, wet and hungry traveler. [clark, june , ] june th friday rained moderately all the last night and continus this morning, the wind from the s. w, off the mountains, the themometer stood at ° above , i allow several men to hunt a short time to day, the rain continue moderately all day the bottom verry muddey buffalow an elk & deer killed to day--capt. lewis not returned yet. river falling [lewis, june , ] saturday june th it continued to rain moderately all last night this morning was cloudy untill about ten oclock when it cleared off and became a fine day. we breakfasted and set out about sunrise and continued our rout down the river bottoms through the mud and water as yesterday, tho the road was somewhat better than yesterday and we were not so often compelled to wade in the river. we passed some dangerous and difficult bluffs. the river bottoms affording all the timber which is to be seen in the country they are filled with innumerable litle birds that resort thither either for shelter or to build their nests. when sun began to shine today these birds appeared to be very gay and sung most inchantingly; i observed among them the brown thrush, robbin, turtle dove, linnit goaldfinch, the large and small blackbird, wren and several other birds of less note. some of the inhabitants of the praries also take reffuge in these woods at night or from a storm. the whole of my party to a man except myself were fully peswaided that this river was the missouri, but being fully of opinion that it was neither the main stream or that which it would be advisable for us to take, i determined to give it a name and in honour of miss maria w-d. called it maria's river. it is true that the hue of the waters of this turbulent and troubled stream but illy comport with the pure celestial virtues and amiable qualifications of that lovely fair one; but on the other hand it is a noble river; one destined to become in my opinion an object of contention between the two great powers of america and great britin with rispect to the adjustment of the north westwardly boundary of the former; and that it will become one of the most interesting brances of the missouri in a commercial point of view, i have but little doubt, as it abounds with anamals of the fur kind, and most probably furnishes a safe and direct communication to that productive country of valuable furs exclusively enjoyed at present by the subjects of his britanic majesty; in adition to which it passes through a rich fertile and one of the most beatifully picteresque countries that i ever beheld, through the wide expance of which, innumerable herds of living anamals are seen, it's borders garnished with one continued garden of roses, while it's lofty and open forrests, are the habitation of miriads of the feathered tribes who salute the ear of the passing traveler with their wild and simple, yet sweet and cheerfull melody.--i arrived at camp about oclock in the evening much fatiegued, where i found capt. clark and the ballance of the party waiting our return with some anxiety for our safety having been absent near two days longer than we had engaged to return. on our way to camp we had killed deer and two antelopes; the skins of which as well as those we killed while on the rout we brought with us. maria's river may be stated generally from sixty to a hundred yards wide, with a strong and steady current and possessing feet water in the most sholly parts. as the incidents which occurred capt. c. during his rout will be more fully and satisfactoryley expressed by himself i here insert a copy of his journal during the days we wer seperated.- i now gave myself this evening to rest from my labours, took a drink of grog and gave the men who had accompanyed me each a dram. capt. clark ploted the courses of the two rivers as far as we had ascended them. i now began more than ever to suspect the varacity of mr. fidler or the correctness of his instruments. for i see that arrasmith in his late map of n. america has laid down a remarkable mountain in the chain of the rocky mountains called the tooth nearly as far south as latitude °, and this is said to be from the discoveries of mr. fidler? we are now within a hundred miles of the rocky mountains, and i find from my observation of the rd inst that the latitude of this place is ° ' . ". the river must therefore turn much to the south, between this and the rocky mountain to have permitted mr. fidler to have passed along the eastern border of these mountains as far s. as nearly ° without even seeing it. but from hence as far as capt. c. had ascended the s. fork or missouri being the distance of miles it's course is s. °w. and it still appeared to bear considerably to the w. of south as far as he could see it. i think therefore that we shall find that the missouri enters the rocky mountains to the north of °--we did take the liberty of placing his discoveries or at least the southern extremity of them about a degree further n. in the sketh which we sent on to the government this spring mearly from the indian information of the bearing from fort mandan of the entrance of the missouri into the rocky mountains, and i reather suspect that actual observation will take him at least one other degree further north. the general course of maria's river from hence to the extremity of the last course taken by sergt. pryor is n ° w. mes. [clark, june , ] june th saturday rained moderately all the last night & some this morning untill oclock, i am some what uneasy for capt. lewis & party as days has now passed the time he was to have returned, i had all the arms put in order and permited severall men to hunt, aired and dried our stores &c. the rivers at this point has fallen inches sinc our arrival, at oclock cleared away and became fair--the wind all the morning from the s. w. & hard--the water of the south fork is of a redish brown colour this morning the other river of a whitish colour as usual-the mountains to the south covered with snow. wind shifted to the n e in the evening, about oclock capt. lewis arrived with the party much fatigued, and inform'd me that he had assended the river about miles by land and that the river had a bold current of about or yards wide the bottoms of gravel & mud, and may be estimated at feet water in sholest parts some rain in the evening. the left hand fork rose a little. [lewis, june , ] sunday june th . we determined to deposite at this place the large red perogue all the heavy baggage which we could possibly do without and some provision, salt, tools powder and lead &c with a view to lighten our vessels and at the same time to strengthen their crews by means of the seven hands who have been heretofore employd. in navigating the red perogue; accordingly we set some hands to diging a hole or cellar for the reception of our stores. these holes in the ground or deposits are called by the engages cashes; on enquiry i found that cruzatte was well acquainted this business and therefore left the management of it intirely to him. today we examined our maps, and compared the information derived as well from them as from the indians and fully settled in our minds the propryety of addopting the south fork for the missouri, as that which it would be most expedient for us to take. the information of mr. fidler incorrect as it is strongly argued the necessity of taking the south fork, for if he has been along the eastern side of the rocky mountains as far as even latd. °, which i think fully as far south as he ever was in that direction, and saw only small rivulets making down from those mountains the presumption is very strong that those little streams do not penetrate the rocky mountains to such distance as would afford rational grownds for a conjecture that they had their sources near any navigable branch of the columbia, and if he has seen those rivulets as far south as ° they are most probably the waters of some nothern branch of the missouri or south fork probably the river called by the indians medicine river; we therefore cannot hope by going northwardly of this place being already in latititude ° " to find a stream between this place and the saskashawan which dose penetrate the rocky mountains, and which agreeably to the information of the indians with rispect to the missouri, dose possess a navigable curent some distance in those mountains. the indian information also argued strongly in favour of the south fork. they informed us that the water of the missouri was nearly transparent at the great falls, this is the case with the water of the south fork; that the falls lay a little to the south of sunset from them; this is also brobable as we are only a few minutes north of fort mandan and the south fork bears considerably south from hence to the mountains; that the falls are below the rocky mountains and near the nothern termineation of one range of those mountains. a range of mountains which apear behind the s. mountains and which appear to terminate s. w. from this place and on this side of the unbroken chain of the rocky mountains gives us hope that this part of their information is also correct, and there is sufficient distance between this and the mountains for many and i fear for us much too many falls. another impression on my mind is that if the indians had passed any stream as large as the south fork on their way to the missouri that they would not have omitted mentioning it; and the south fork from it's size and complexion of it's waters must enter the ry. mountains and in my opinion penetrates them to a great distance, or els whence such an immence body of water as it discharges; it cannot procede from the dry plains to the n. w. of the yellow stone river on the east side of the rocky mountains for those numerous large dry channels which we witnessed on that side as we ascended the missouri forbid such a conjecture; and that it should take it's sourses to the n. w. under those mountains the travels of mr. fidler fobid us to beleive. those ideas as they occurred to me i indevoured to impress on the minds of the party all of whom except capt. c. being still firm in the beleif that the n. fork was the missouri and that which we ought to take; they said very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us any wher we thought proper to direct but that they still thought that the other was the river and that they were affraid that the south fork would soon termineate in the mountains and leave us at a great distance from the columbia. cruzatte who had been an old missouri navigator and who from his integrity knowledge and skill as a waterman had acquired the confidence of every individual of the party declared it as his opinion that the n. fork was the true genuine missouri and could be no other. finding them so determined in this beleif, and wishing that if we were in an error to be able to detect it and rectify it as soon as possible it was agreed between capt. c. and myself that one of us should set out with a small party by land up the south fork and continue our rout up it untill we found the falls or reached the snowy mountains by which means we should be enabled to determine this question prety accurately. this expedition i prefered undertaking as capt. c best waterman &c. and determined to set out the day after tomorrow; i wished to make some further observations at this place, and as we had determined to leave our blacksmith's bellows and tools here it was necessary to repare some of our arms, and particularly my airgun the main spring of which was broken, before we left this place. these and some other preperations will necessarily detain us two perhaps three days. i felt myself very unwell this morning and took a portion of salts from which i feel much releif this evening. the cash being completed i walked to it and examined it's construction. it is in a high plain about yards distant from a steep bluff of the south branch on it's nothern side; the situation a dry one which is always necessary. a place being fixed on for a cash, a circle abut inches in diameter is first discribed, the terf or sod of this circle is carefully removed, being taken out as entire as possible in order that it may be replaced in the same situation when the chash is filled and secured. this circular hole is then sunk perpendicularly to the debth of one foot, if the ground be not firm somewhat deeper. they then begin to work it out wider as they proceed downwards untill they get it about six or seven feet deep giving it nearly the shape of the kettle or lower part of a large still. it's bottom is also somewhat sunk in the center. the dementions of the cash is in proportion to the quantity of articles intended to be deposited. as the earth is dug it is handed up in a vessel and carefully laid on a skin or cloth and then carryed to some place where it can be thrown in such manner as to conseal it usually into some runing stream wher it is washed away and leaves no traces which might lead to the discovery of the cash. before the goods are deposited they must be well dryed; a parsel of small dry sticks are then collected and with them a floor is maid of three or four inches thick which is then covered with some dry hay or a raw hide well dryed; on this the articles are deposited, taking care to keep them from touching the walls by putting other dry sticks between as you stoe away the merchandize, when nearly full the goods are covered with a skin and earth thrown in and well ramed untill with the addition of the turf furst removed the whole is on a level with the serface of the ground. in this manner dryed skins or merchandize will keep perfectly sound for several years. the traders of the missouri, particularly those engaged in the trade with the siouxs are obliged to have frequent recourse to this method in order to avoyd being robed. most of the men are busily engaged dressing skins for cloathing. in the evening cruzatte gave us some music on the violin and the men passed the evening in dancing singing &c and were extreemly cheerfull.- [clark, june , ] june th sunday a fair morning the wind hard from the s. w. the river during the night fell inch, we conclude to burry a few of our heavy articles, some powder & lead provisions & a fiw tools, in case of accident and leave one perogue at this place, and as soon as those things are accomplished to assend the south fork, which appears to be more in our course than the n. fork the genl. course of the south fork for miles is s. ° w.--that of the n. fork is n. ° w. for miles, and as we are north of fort mandan it is probable the most southerley fork is the best for us.--capt. lewis a little unwell to day & take salts &c. send out men to make a cache or hole to burry the stores, air out cloathes &c. &c. finish'd the cache or seller &c. the men all engaged dressing skins for their clothes, in the evening the party amused themselves danceing and singing songes in the most social manner. had a meridian altitude which gave ° ' " took some luner observations which gave for longitude ____ variation / ° east [lewis, june , ] monday june th . the day being fair and fine we dryed all our baggage and merchandize. shields renewed the main spring of my air gun we have been much indebted to the ingenuity of this man on many occasions; without having served any regular apprenticeship to any trade, he makes his own tools principally and works extreemly well in either wood or metal, and in this way has been extreenely servicable to us, as well as being a good hunter and an excellent waterman. in order to guard against accedents we thout it well to conceal some ammunicion here and accordingly buryed a tin cannester of lbs. of powder and an adequate quantity of lead near our tent; a cannester of lbs. lead and an ax in a thicket up the s. fork three hundred yards distant from the point. we concluded that we still could spare more amunition for this deposit capt. clark was therefore to make a further deposit in the morning, in addition to one keg of lbs. and an adequate proportion of lead which had been laid by to be buryed in the large cash. we now scelected the articles to be deposited in this cash which consisted of best falling axes, one auger, a set of plains, some files, blacksmiths bellowses and hammers stake tongs &c. keg of flour, kegs of parched meal, kegs of pork, keg of salt, some chissels, a cooper's howel, some tin cups, musquets, brown bear skins, beaver skins, horns of the bighorned anamal, a part of the men's robes clothing and all their superfluous baggage of every discription, and beaver traps.--we drew up the red perogue into the middle of a small island at the entrance of maria's river, and secured and made her fast to the trees to prevent the high floods from carrying her off put my brand on several trees standing near her, and covered her with brush to shelter her from the effects of the sun. at p.m. we had a hard wind from the s. w. which continued about an hour attended with thunder and rain. as soon as the shower had passed over we drew out our canoes, corked, repared and loaded them. i still feel myself somewhat unwell with the disentary, but determined to set out in the morning up the south fork or missouri leaving capt. clark to compleat the deposit and follow me by water with the party; accordingly gave orders to drewyer, joseph fields, gibson and goodrich to hold themselves in readiness to accompany me in the morning. sah-cah-gah, we a, our indian woman is very sick this evening; capt. c. blead her. the night was cloudy with some rain. i saw a small bird today which i do not recollect ever having seen before. it is about the size of the blue thrush or catbird, and it's contour not unlike that bird. the beak is convex, moderately curved, black, smoth, and large in proportion to its size. the legs were black, it had four toes of the same colour on eah foot, and the nails appeared long and somewhat in form like the tallons of the haulk, the eye black and proportionably large. a bluish brown colour occupyed the head, neck, and back, the belly was white; the tail was reather long in proportion and appeared to be composed of feathers of equal length of which a part of those in the center were white the others black. the wings were long and were also varigated with white and black. on each side of the head from the beak back to the neck a small black stripe extended imbrasing the eye. it appeared to be very busy in catching insects which i presume is it's usual food; i found the nest of this little bird, the female which differed but little in size or plumage from the male was seting on four eggs of a pale blue colour with small black freckles or dots.--the bee martin or kingbird is common to this country tho there are no bees in this country, nor have we met with a honey bee since we passed the entrance of the osage river. [clark, june , ] june th monday a fine day dry all our articles arrange our baggage burry some powder & lead in the point, some lead a canister of powder & an ax in a thicket in the point at some distance, buried on this day and in the large cache or whole we buried on the up land near the s. fork mile up s. s. we drew up our large perogue into the middle of a small island in the north fork and covered her with bushes after makeing her fast to the trees, branded several trees to prevent the indians injureing her, at oclock we had hard wind from the s. w. thunder and rain for about an hour after which we repaired & corked the canoes & loadded them--sah cah gah, we a our indian woman verry sick i blead her, we deturmined to assend the south fork, and one of us, capt. lewis or my self to go by land as far as the snow mountains s. ° w. and examine the river & countrey course & to be certain of our assending the proper river, capt lewis inclines to go by land on this expedition, according selects men george drewyer, gibson, jo. fields & s. gutrich to accompany him & deturmine to set out in the morning--the after noon or night cloudy some rain, river riseing a little. [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th this morning i felt much better, but somewhat weakened by my disorder. at a.m. i swung my pack, and set forward with my little party. proceeded to the point where rose river a branch maria's river approaches the missouri so nearly. from this hight we discovered a herd of elk on the missouri just above us to which we desended and soon killed four of them. we butchered them and hung up the meat and skins in view of the river in order that the party might get them. i determined to take dinner here, but before the meal was prepared i was taken with such violent pain in the intestens that i was unable to partake of the feast of marrowbones. my pain still increased and towards evening was attended with a high fever; finding myself unable to march, i determined to prepare a camp of some willow boughs and remain all night. having brought no medecine with me i resolved to try an experiment with some simples; and the choke cherry which grew abundanly in the bottom first struck my attention; i directed a parsel of the small twigs to be geathered striped of their leaves, cut into pieces of about inches in length and boiled in water untill a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter tact was produced; at sunset i took a point of this decoction and abut an hour after repeated the dze by in the evening i was entirely releived from pain and in fact every symptom of the disorder forsook me; my fever abated, a gentle perspiration was produced and i had a comfortable and refreshing nights rest. goodrich who is remarkably fond of fishing caught several douzen fish of two different species--one about inches long of white colour round and in form and fins resembles the white chub common to the potomac; this fish has a smaller head than the chubb and the mouth is beset both above and below with a rim of fine sharp teeth; the eye moderately large, the puple dark and the iris which is narrow is of a yellowish brown colour, they bite at meat or grasshoppers. this is a soft fish, not very good, tho the flesh is of a fine white colour. the other species is precisely the form and about the size of the well known fish called the hickory shad or old wife, with the exception of the teeth, a rim of which garnish the outer edge of both the upper and lower jaw; the tonge and pallet are also beset with long sharp teeth bending inwards, the eye of this fish is very large, and the iris of a silvery colour and wide. of the st species we had caught some few before our arrival at the entrance of maria's river, but of the last we had seen none untill we reached that place and took them in missouri above it's junction with that river. the latter kind are much the best, and do not inhabit muddy water; the white cat continue as high as the entrance of maria's r, but those we have caught above mandans never excede lbs. i beleive that there are but few in this part of the missouri. saw an abundance of game today even in our short march of miles. [clark, june , ] june th tuesday a fair morning wind from the s w. hard we burry keg in the cash & canisters of powder in seperate places all with lead; & in the cash axes, auger, plains, keg flour, kegs pork, kegs parchd meal keg salt, files chisel, musquits, some tin cups, bowel, bear skins, beaver skins, horns, & parts of the mens robes & clothes.--beaver traps and blacksmith's tools. capt. lewis set out at oclock we delayed to repare some guns out of order & complete our deposit, which took us the day the evening fair and fine wind from the n. w. after night it became cold & the wind blew hard, the indian woman verry sick, i blead her which appeared to be of great service to her both rivers riseing fast [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . this morning i felt myself quite revived, took another portion of my decoction and set out at sunrise. i now boar out from the river in order to avoid the steep ravines of the river which usually make out in the plain to the distance of one or two miles; after gaining the leavel plain my couse was a litte to the west of s. w.--having traveled about miles by in the morning, the sun became warm, and i boar a little to the south in order to gain the river as well to obtain water to allay my thirst as to kill something for breakfast; for the plain through which we had been passing possesses no water and is so level that we cannot approach the buffaloe within shot before they discover us and take to flight. we arrived at the river about a.m. having traveled about m. at this place there is a handsom open bottom with some cottonwood timber, here we met with two large bear, and killed them boath at the first fire, a circumstance which i beleive has never happend with the party in killing the brown bear before. we dressed the bear, breakfasted on a part of one of them and hung the meat and skins on the trees out of the reach of the wolves. i left a note on a stick near the river for capt. clark, informing him of my progress &c.--after refreshing ourselves abut hours we again ascended the bluffs and gained the high plain; saw a great number of burrowing squirrels in the plains today. also wolves antelopes mule deer and immence herds of buffaloe. we passed a ridge of land considerably higher than the adjacent plain on either side, from this hight we had a most beatifull and picturesk view of the rocky mountains which wer perfectly covered with snow and reaching from s. e. to the n. of n. w.--they appear to be formed of several ranges each succeeding range rising higher than the preceding one untill the most distant appear to loose their snowey tops in the clouds; this was an august spectacle and still rendered more formidable by the recollection that we had them to pass. we traveled about twelve miles when we agin struck the missoury at a handsome little bottom of cottonwood timber and altho the sun had not yet set i felt myself somewhat weary being weakened i presume by late disorder; and therfore determined to remain here during the ballance of the day and night, having marched about miles today. on our way in the evening we had killed a buffaloe, an antelope and three mule deer, and taken a sufficient quantity of the best of the flesh of these anamals for three meals, which we had brought with us. this evening i ate very heartily and after pening the transactions of the day amused myself catching those white fish mentioned yesterday; they are here in great abundance i caught upwards of a douzen in a few minutes; they bit most freely at the melt of a deer which goodrich had brought with him for the purpose of fishing. the narrow leafed cottonwood grows here in common with the other species of the same tree with a broad leaf or that which has constituted the major part of the timber of the missouri from it's junction with the mississippi to this place. the narrow leafed cottonwood differs only from the other in the shape of it's leaf and greater thickness of it's bark. the leaf is a long oval acutely pointed, about / or inches long and from / to an inch in width; it is thick, sometimes slightly grooved or channeled; margin slightly serrate; the upper disk of a common green while the under disk is of a whiteish green; the leaf is smoth. the beaver appear to be extremely fond of this tree and even seem to scelect it from among the other species of cottonwood, probably from it's affording a deeper and softer bark than the other species.--saw some sign of the otter as well as beaver near our camp, also a great number of tracks of the brown bear; these fellows leave a formidable impression in the mud or sand i measured one this evening which was eleven inches long exclusive of the tallons and seven and / in width. [clark, june , ] june th wednesday last night was clear and cold, this morning fair we set out at oclock & proceeded on verry well wind from the s. w. the interpreters wife verry sick so much so that i move her into the back part of our covered part of the perogue which is cool, her own situation being a verry hot one in the bottom of the perogue exposed to the sun--saw emence no. of swallows in the st bluff on the lard. side, water verry swift, the bluff are blackish clay & coal for about feet. the earth above that for or feet is a brownish yellow, a number of bars of corse gravil and stones of different shape & size &c. saw a number of rattle snakes to day one of the men cought one by the head in catch'g hold of a bush on which his head lay reclined three canoes were in great danger today one diped water, another was near turning over &c. at oclock p m a fiew drops of rain i walked thro a point and killed a buck elk & deer, and we camped on the stard side, the interpreters woman verry sick worse than she has been. i give her medison one man have a fellon riseing on his hand one other with the tooth ake has taken cold in the jaw &c. [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . this morning we set out about sunrise after taking breakfast off our venison and fish. we again ascended the hills of the river and gained the level country. the country through which we passed for the first six miles tho more roling than that we had passed yesterday might still with propryety he deemed a level country; our course as yesterday was generally s w. the river from the place we left it appeared to make a considerable bend to the south. from the extremity of this roling country i overlooked a most beatifull and level plain of great extent or at least or sixty miles; in this there were infinitely more buffaloe than i had ever before witnessed at a view. nearly in the direction i had been travling or s. w. two curious mountains presented themselves of square figures, the sides rising perpendicularly to the hight of feet and appeared to be formed of yellow clay; their tops appeared to be level plains; these inaccessible hights appeared like the ramparts of immence fortifications; i have no doubt but with very little assistance from art they might be rendered impregnable. fearing that the river boar to the south and that i might pass the falls if they existed between this an the snowey mountains i altered my course nealy to the south leaving those insulated hills to my wright and proceeded through the plain; i sent feels on my right and drewyer and gibson on my left with orders to kill some meat and join me at the river where i should halt for dinner. i had proceded on this course about two miles with goodrich at some distance behind me whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further i saw the spray arrise above the plain like a collumn of smoke which would frequently dispear again in an instant caused i presume by the wind which blew pretty hard from the s. w. i did not however loose my direction to this point which soon began to make a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the missouri. here i arrived about oclock having traveled by estimate about miles. i hurryed down the hill which was about feet high and difficult of access, to gaze on this sublimely grand specticle. i took my position on the top of some rocks about feet high opposite the center of the falls. this chain of rocks appear once to have formed a part of those over which the waters tumbled, but in the course of time has been seperated from it to the distance of yards lying prarrallel to it and forming a butment against which the water after falling over the precipice beats with great fury; this barrier extends on the right to the perpendicular clift which forms that board of the river but to the distance of yards next to the clift it is but a few feet above the level of the water, and here the water in very high tides appears to pass in a channel of yds. next to the higher part of the ledg of rocks; on the left it extends within or ninty yards of the lard. clift which is also perpendicular; between this abrupt extremity of the ledge of rocks and the perpendicular bluff the whole body of water passes with incredible swiftness. immediately at the cascade the river is about yds. wide; about ninty or a hundred yards of this next the lard. bluff is a smoth even sheet of water falling over a precipice of at least eighty feet, the remaining part of about yards on my right formes the grandest sight i ever beheld, the hight of the fall is the same of the other but the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in it's passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the hight of fifteen or twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them. in short the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present a sheet of the whitest beaten froath for yards in length and about feet perpendicular. the water after decending strikes against the butment before mentioned or that on which i stand and seems to reverberate and being met by the more impetuous courant they role and swell into half formed billows of great hight which rise and again disappear in an instant. this butment of rock defends a handsom little bottom of about three acres which is deversified and agreeably shaded with some cottonwood trees; in the lower extremity of the bottom there is a very thick grove of the same kind of trees which are small, in this wood there are several indian lodges formed of sticks. a few small cedar grow near the ledge of rocks where i rest. below the point of these rocks at a small distance the river is divided by a large rock which rises several feet above the water, and extends downwards with the stream for about yards. about a mile before the water arrives at the pitch it decends very rappidly, and is confined on the lard. side by a perpendicular clift of about feet, on stard. side it is also perpendicular for about three hundred yards above the pitch where it is then broken by the discharge of a small ravine, down which the buffaloe have a large beaten road to the water, for it is but in very few places that these anamals can obtain water near this place owing to the steep and inaccessible banks. i see several skelletons of the buffaloe lying in the edge of the water near the stard. bluff which i presume have been swept down by the current and precipitated over this tremendious fall. about yards below me there is another butment of solid rock with a perpendicular face and abot feet high which projects from the stard. side at right angles to the distance of yds. and terminates the lower part nearly of the bottom before mentioned; there being a passage arround the end of this butment between it and the river of about yardes; here the river again assumes it's usual width soon spreading to near yards but still continues it's rappidity. from the reflection of the sun on the spray or mist which arrises from these falls there is a beatifull rainbow produced which adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery. after wrighting this imperfect discription i again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the scene that i determined to draw my pen across it and begin agin, but then reflected that i could not perhaps succeed better than pening the first impressions of the mind; i wished for the pencil of salvator rosa or the pen of thompson, that i might be enabled to give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnifficent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless and vain. i most sincerely regreted that i had not brought a crimee obscura with me by the assistance of which even i could have hoped to have done better but alas this was also out of my reach; i therefore with the assistance of my pen only indeavoured to traces some of the stronger features of this seen by the assistance of which and my recollection aided by some able pencil i hope still to give to the world some faint idea of an object which at this moment fills me with such pleasure and astonishment, and which of it's kind i will venture to ascert is second to but one in the known world. i retired to the shade of a tree where i determined to fix my camp for the present and dispatch a man in the morning to inform capt. c. and the party of my success in finding the falls and settle in their minds all further doubts as to the missouri. the hunters now arrived loaded with excellent buffaloe meat and informed me that they had killed three very fat cows about / of a mile hence. i directed them after they had refreshed themselves to go back and butcher them and bring another load of meat each to our camp determining to employ those who remained with me in drying meat for the party against their arrival. in about hours or at oclock p.m. they set out on this duty, and i walked down the river about three miles to discover if possible some place to which the canoes might arrive or at which they might be drawn on shore in order to be taken by land above the falls; but returned without effecting either of these objects; the river was one continued sene of rappids and cascades which i readily perceived could not be encountered with our canoes, and the clifts still retained their perpendicular structure and were from to feet high; in short the river appears here to have woarn a channel in the process of time through a solid rock. on my return i found the party at camp; they had butchered the buffaloe and brought in some more meat as i had directed. goodrich had caught half a douzen very fine trout and a number of both species of the white fish. these trout are from sixteen to twenty three inches in length, precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout in form and the position of their fins, but the specks on these are of a deep black instead of the red or goald colour of those common to the u. states. these are furnished long sharp teeth on the pallet and tongue and have generally a small dash of red on each side behind the front ventral fins; the flesh is of a pale yellowish red, or when in good order, of a rose red. i am induced to believe that the brown, the white and the grizly bear of this country are the same species only differing in colour from age or more probably from the same natural cause that many other anamals of the same family differ in colour. one of those which we killed yesterday was of a creemcoloured white while the other in company with it was of the common bey or rdish brown, which seems to be the most usual colour of them. the white one appeared from it's tallons and teath to be the youngest; it was smaller than the other, and although a monstrous beast we supposed that it had not yet attained it's growth and that it was a little upwards of two years old. the young cubs which we have killed have always been of a brownish white, but none of them as white as that we killed yesterday. one other that we killed sometime since which i mentioned sunk under some driftwood and was lost, had a white stripe or list of about eleven inches wide entirely arround his body just behind the shoalders, and was much darker than these bear usually are. the grizly bear we have never yet seen. i have seen their tallons in possession of the indians and from their form i am perswaded if there is any difference between this species and the brown or white bear it is very inconsiderable. there is no such anamal as a black bear in this open country or of that species generally denominated the black bear my fare is really sumptuous this evening; buffaloe's humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout parched meal pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is not considered the least of the luxuries. [clark, june , ] june th thursday a fair morning, some dew this morning the indian woman verry sick i gave her a doste of salts. we set out early, at a mile & / passed a small rapid stream on the lard side which heads in a mountain to the s. e or miles, which at this time covered with snow, we call this stream snow river, as it is the conveyance of the melted snow from that mountain at present. numbers of gees & goslings, the gees cannot fly at this season--goose berries are ripe and in great abundance, the yellow current is also common, not yet ripe killed a buffalow & campd on the lard side near an old indian fortified campy one man sick & with swellings, the indian woman verry sick. killed a goat & fraser buffalow the river verry rapid maney sholes great nos of large stones passed some bluffs or low cliffts of slate to day [lewis, june , ] friday june th . this morning at sunrise i dispatched joseph fields with a letter to capt. clark and ordered him to keep sufficiently near the river to observe it's situation in order that he might be enabled to give capt. clark an idea of the point at which it would be best to halt to make our portage. i set one man about preparing a saffold and collecting wood to dry the meat sent the others to bring in the ballance of the buffaloe meat, or at least the part which the wolves had left us, for those fellows are ever at hand and ready to partake with us the moment we kill a buffaloe; and there is no means of puting the meat out of their reach in those plains; the two men shortly after returned with the meat and informed me that the wolves had devoured the greater part of the meat. about ten oclock this morning while the men were engaged with the meat i took my gun and espontoon and thought i would walk a few miles and see where the rappids termineated above, and return to dinner. accordingly i set out and proceeded up the river about s. w. after passing one continued rappid and three small cascades of abut for or five feet each at the distance of about five miles i arrived at a fall of about feet; the river is hereabout yds. wide. this pitch which i called the crooked falls occupys about three fourths of the width of the river, commencing on the south side, extends obliquly upwards about yds. then forming an accute angle extends downwards nearly to the commencement of four small islands lying near the n. shore; among these islands and between them and the lower extremity of the perpendicular pitch being a distance of yards or upwards, the water glides down the side of a sloping rock with a volocity almost equal to that of it's perpendicular decent. just above this rappid the river makes a suddon bend to the right or northwardly. i should have returned from hence but hearing a tremendious roaring above me i continued my rout across the point of a hill a few hundred yards further and was again presented by one of the most beatifull objects in nature, a cascade of about fifty feet perpendicular streching at rightangles across the river from side to side to the distance of at least a quarter of a mile. here the river pitches over a shelving rock, with an edge as regular and as streight as if formed by art, without a nich or brake in it; the water decends in one even and uninterupted sheet to the bottom wher dashing against the rocky bottom rises into foaming billows of great hight and rappidly glides away, hising flashing and sparkling as it departs the sprey rises from one extremity to the other to f. i now thought that if a skillfull painter had been asked to make a beautifull cascade that he would most probably have pesented the precise immage of this one; nor could i for some time determine on which of those two great cataracts to bestoe the palm, on this or that which i had discovered yesterday; at length i determined between these two great rivals for glory that this was pleasingly beautifull, while the other was sublimely grand. i had scarcely infixed my eyes from this pleasing object before i discovered another fall above at the distance of half a mile; thus invited i did not once think of returning but hurried thither to amuse myself with this newly discovered object. i found this to be a cascade of about feet possessing a perpendicular pitch of about feet. this was tolerably regular streching across the river from bank to bank where it was about a quarter of a mile wide; in any other neighbourhood but this, such a cascade would probably be extoled for it's beaty and magnifficence, but here i passed it by with but little attention, determining as i had proceded so far to continue my rout to the head of the rappids if it should even detain me all night. at every rappid cateract and cascade i discovered that the bluffs grew lower or that the bed of the river rose nearer to a level with the plains. still pursuing the river with it's course about s. w. passing a continued sene of rappids and small cascades, at the distance of / miles i arrived at another cataract of feet. this is not immediately perpendicular, a rock about / of it's decent seems to protrude to a small distance and receives the water in it's passage downwards and gives a curve to the water tho it falls mostly with a regular and smoth sheet. the river is near six hundred yards wide at this place, a beatifull level plain on the s. side only a few feet above the level of the pitch; on the n. side where i am the country is more broken and immediately behind me near the river a high hill. below this fall at a little distance a beatifull little island well timbered is situated about the middle of the river. in this island on a cottonwood tree an eagle has placed her nest; a more inaccessable spot i beleive she could not have found; for neither man nor beast dare pass those gulphs which seperate her little domain from the shores. the water is also broken in such manner as it decends over this pitch that the mist or sprey rises to a considerable hight. this fall is certainly much the greatest i ever behald except those two which i have mentioned below. it is incomparably a geater cataract and a more noble interesting object than the celibrated falls of potomac or soolkiln &c. just above this is another cascade of about feet, above which the water as far as i could see began to abate of it's valosity, and i therefore determined to ascend the hill behind me which promised a fine prospect of the adjacent country, nor was i disappointed on my arrival at it's summit. from hence i overlooked a most beatifull and extensive plain reaching from the river to the base of the snowclad mountains to the s. and s. west; i also observed the missoury streching it's meandering course to the south through this plain to a great distance filled to it's even and grassey brim; another large river flowed in on it's western side about four miles above me and extended itself though a level and fertile valley of miles in width a great distance to the n. w. rendered more conspicuous by the timber which garnished it's borders. in these plains and more particularly in the valley just below me immence herds of buffaloe are feeding. the missouri just above this hill makes a bend to the south where it lies a smoth even and unruffled sheet of water of nearly a mile in width bearing on it's watry bosome vast flocks of geese which feed at pleasure in the delightfull pasture on either border. the young geese are now completely feathered except the wings which both in the young and old are yet deficient. after feasting my eyes on this ravishing prospect and resting myself a few minutes i determined to procede as far as the river which i saw discharge itself on the west side of the missouri convinced that it was the river which the indians call medicine river and which they informed us fell into the missouri just above the falls i decended the hills and directed my course to the bend of the missouri near which there was a herd of at least a thousand buffaloe; here i thought it would be well to kill a buffaloe and leave him untill my return from the river and if i then found that i had not time to get back to camp this evening to remain all night here there being a few sticks of drift wood lying along shore which would answer for my fire, and a few sattering cottonwood trees a few hundred yards below which would afford me at least a semblance of a shelter. under this impression i scelected a fat buffaloe and shot him very well, through the lungs; while i was gazeing attentively on the poor anamal discharging blood in streams from his mouth and nostrils, expecting him to fall every instant, and having entirely forgotton to reload my rifle, a large white, or reather brown bear, had perceived and crept on me within steps before i discovered him; in the first moment i drew up my gun to shoot, but at the same instant recolected that she was not loaded and that he was too near for me to hope to perform this opperation before he reached me, as he was then briskly advancing on me; it was an open level plain, not a bush within miles nor a tree within less than three hundred yards of me; the river bank was sloping and not more than three feet above the level of the water; in short there was no place by means of which i could conceal myself from this monster untill i could charge my rifle; in this situation i thought of retreating in a brisk walk as fast as he was advancing untill i could reach a tree about yards below me, but i had no sooner terned myself about but he pitched at me, open mouthed and full speed, i ran about yards and found he gained on me fast, i then run into the water the idea struk me to get into the water to such debth that i could stand and he would be obliged to swim, and that i could in that situation defend myself with my espontoon; accordingly i ran haistily into the water about waist deep, and faced about and presented the point of my espontoon, at this instant he arrived at the edge of the water within about feet of me; the moment i put myself in this attitude of defence he sudonly wheeled about as if frightened, declined the combat on such unequal grounds, and retreated with quite as great precipitation as he had just before pursued me. as soon as i saw him run off in that manner i returned to the shore and charged my gun, which i had still retained in my hand throughout this curious adventure. i saw him run through the level open plain about three miles, till he disappeared in the woods on medecine river; during the whole of this distance he ran at full speed, sometimes appearing to look behind him as if he expected pursuit. i now began to reflect on this novil occurrence and indeavoured to account for this sudden retreat of the bear. i at first thought that perhaps he had not smelt me before he arrived at the waters edge so near me, but i then reflected that he had pursued me for about or yards before i took the water and on examination saw the grownd toarn with his tallons immediately on the impression of my steps; and the cause of his allarm still remains with me misterious and unaccountable.--so it was and i feelt myself not a little gratifyed that he had declined the combat. my gun reloaded i felt confidence once more in my strength; and determined not to be thwarted in my design of visiting medicine river, but determined never again to suffer my peice to be longer empty than the time she necessarily required to charge her. i passed through the plain nearly in the direction which the bear had run to medecine river, found it a handsome stream, about yds. wide with a gentle current, apparently deep, it's waters clear, and banks which were formed principally of darkbrown and blue clay were about the hight of those of the missouri or from to feet; yet they had not the appearance of ever being overflown, a circumstance, which i did not expect so immediately in the neighbourhood of the mountains, from whence i should have supposed, that sudden and immence torrants would issue at certain seasons of the year; but the reverse is absolutely the case. i am therefore compelled to beleive that the snowey mountains yeald their warters slowly, being partially effected every day by the influence of the sun only, and never suddonly melted down by haisty showers of rain. having examined medecine river i now determined to return, having by my estimate about miles to walk. i looked at my watch and found it was half after six p.m.--in returning through the level bottom of medecine river and about yards distant from the missouri, my direction led me directly to an anamal that i at first supposed was a wolf; but on nearer approach or about sixty paces distant i discovered that it was not, it's colour was a brownish yellow; it was standing near it's burrow, and when i approached it thus nearly, it couched itself down like a cat looking immediately at me as if it designed to spring on me. i took aim at it and fired, it instantly disappeared in it's burrow; i loaded my gun and exmined the place which was dusty and saw the track from which i am still further convinced that it was of the tiger kind. whether i struck it or not i could not determine, but i am almost confident that i did; my gun is true and i had a steady rest by means of my espontoon, which i have found very serviceable to me in this way in the open plains. it now seemed to me that all the beasts of the neighbourhood had made a league to distroy me, or that some fortune was disposed to amuse herself at my expence, for i had not proceded more than three hundred yards from the burrow of this tyger cat, before three bull buffaloe, which wer feeding with a large herd about half a mile from me on my left, seperated from the herd and ran full speed towards me, i thought at least to give them some amusement and altered my direction to meet them; when they arrived within a hundred yards they mad a halt, took a good view of me and retreated with precipitation. i then continued my rout homewards passed the buffaloe which i had killed, but did not think it prudent to remain all night at this place which really from the succession of curious adventures wore the impression on my mind of inchantment; at sometimes for a moment i thought it might be a dream, but the prickley pears which pierced my feet very severely once in a while, particularly after it grew dark, convinced me that i was really awake, and that it was necessary to make the best of my way to camp. it was sometime after dark before i returned to the party; i found them extremely uneasy for my safety; they had formed a thousand conjectures, all of which equally forboding my death, which they had so far settled among them, that they had already agreed on the rout which each should take in the morning to surch for me. i felt myself much fortiegued, but eat a hearty supper and took a good night's rest.--the weather being warm i had left my leather over shirt and had woarn only a yellow flannin one. [clark, june , ] june th friday a fine morning, the indian woman complaining all night & excessively bad this morning--her case is somewhat dangerous--two men with the tooth ake with turners, & one man with a tumor & slight fever passed the camp capt. lewis made the st night at which place he had left part of two bear their skins &c three men with turners went on shore and staycd out all night one of them killed buffalow, a part of which we made use of for brackfast, the current excesevely rapid more so as we assend we find great difficuelty in getting the perogue & canoes up in safety, canoes take in water frequently, at oclock this evening jo. fields returned from capt. lewis with a letter for me, capt lewis dates his letter from the great falls of the missouri, which fields informs me is about miles in advance & about miles above the place i left the river the time i was up last week capt. l. informs that those falls; in part answer the discription given of them by the indians, much higher the eagles nest which they describe is there, from those signs he is convinced of this being the river the indians call the missouri, he intends examineing the river above untill my arrival at a point from which we can make a portage, which he is apprehensive will be at least miles & both above & below there is several small pitches, & swift troubled water we made only miles to day and camped on the lard side, much hard slate in the clifts & but a small quantity of timber. [lewis, june , ] saturday june th . this morning the men again were sent to bring in some more meat which drewyer had killed yesterday, and continued the opperation of drying it. i amused myself in fishing, and sleeping away the fortiegues of yesterday. i caught a number of very fine trout which i made goodrich dry; goodrich also caught about two douzen and several small cat of a yellow colour which would weigh about lbs. the tails was seperated with a deep angular nitch like that of the white cat of the missouri from which indeed they differed only in colour. when i awoke from my sleep today i found a large rattlesnake coiled on the leaning trunk of a tree under the shade of which i had been lying at the distance of about ten feet from him. i killed the snake and found that he had scuta on the abdomen and i' half formed scuta on the tale; it was of the same kinde which i had frequently seen before; they do not differ in their colours from the rattle snake common to the middle attlantic states, but considerably in the form and figures of those colours. this evening after dark joseph fields returned and informed me that capt clark had arrived with the party at the foot of a rappid about miles below which he did not think proper to ascend and would wait my arrival there. i had discovered from my journey yesterday that a portage on this side of the river will be attended by much difficulty in consequence of several deep ravines which intersect the plains nearly at right angles with the river to a considerable distance, while the south side appears to be a delighfull smoth unbroken plain; the bearings of the river also make it pobable that the portage will be shorter on that side than on this.--i directed fields to return early in the morning to capt. c. and request him to send up a party of men for the dryed meat which we had made. i finde a very heavy due on the grass about my camp every morning which no doubt procedes from the mist of the falls, as it takes place no where in the plains nor on the river except here. [clark, june , ] june the th satturday a fair morning and worm, we set out at the usial time and proceeded on with great dificuelty as the river is more rapid we can hear the falls this morning verry distinctly--our indian woman sick &low spirited i gave her the bark & apply it exteranaly to her region which revived her much. the curt. excessively rapid and dificuelt to assend great numbers of dangerous places, and the fatigue which we have to encounter is incretiatable the men in the water from morning untill night hauling the cord & boats walking on sharp rocks and round sliperery stones which alternately cut their feet & throw them down, not with standing all this dificuelty they go with great chearfulness, aded to those dificuelties the rattle snakes inumerable & require great caution to prevent being bitten.--we passed a small river on the lard side about yards wide verry rapid which heads in the mountains to the s. e. i sent up this river miles, it has some timber in its bottoms and a fall of feet at one place, above this river the bluffs are of red earth mixed with stratums of black stone, below this little river, we pass a white clay which mixes with water like flour in every respect, the indian woman much wors this evening, she will not take any medison, her husband petetions to return &c., river more rapid late in the evening we arrived at a rapid which appeared so bad that i did not think it prudent to attempt passing of it this evening as it was now late, we saw great numbers of gees ducks, crows blackbirds &c geese & ducks with their young. after landing i detached joseph fields to capt. lewis to let him know where i was &c river rises a little this evening we could not get a sufficency of wood for our use [lewis, june , ] sunday june th j. fields set out early on his return to the lower camp, at noon the men arrived and shortly after i set out with them to rejoin the party. we took with us the dryed meat consisting of about lbs. and several douzen of dryed trout. about p.m. i reached the camp found the indian woman extreemly ill and much reduced by her indisposition. this gave me some concern as well for the poor object herself, then with a young child in her arms, as from the consideration of her being our only dependence for a friendly negociation with the snake indians on whom we depend for horses to assist us in our portage from the missouri to the columbia river. i now informed capt. c. of my discoveries with rispect to the most proper side for our portage, and of it's great length, which i could not estimate at less than miles. capt. c. had already sent two men this morning to examine the country on the s. side of the river; he now passed over with the party to that side and fixed a camp about a mile blow the entrance of a creek where there was a sufficient quantity of wood for fuel, an article which can be obtained but in few places in this neighbourhood. after discharging the loads four of the canoes were sent back to me, which by means of strong ropes we hawled above the rappid and passed over to the south side from whence the water not being rappid we can readily convey them into the creek by means of which we hope to get them on the high plain with more ease. one of the small canoes was left below this rappid in order to pass and repass the river for the purpose of hunting as well as to procure the water of the sulpher spring, the virtues of which i now resolved to try on the indian woman. this spring is situated about yards from the missouri on the n. e. side nearly opposite to the entrance of a large creek; it discharges itself into the missouri over a precepice of rock about feet, forming a pretty little ____ the water is as transparent as possible strongly impregnated with sulpher, and i suspect iron also, as the colour of the hills and bluffs in the neighbourhood indicate the existence of that metal. the water to all appearance is precisely similar to that of bowyer's sulpher spring in virginia. capt. clark determined to set out in the morning to examine and survey the portage, and discover the best rout. as the distance was too great to think of transporting the canoes and baggage on the men's shoulders, we scelected six men, and ordered them to look out some timber this evening, and early in the morning to set about making a parsel of truck wheels in order to convey our canoes and baggage over the portage. we determined to leave the white perogue at this place, and substitute the iron boat, and also to make a further deposit of a part of our stores. in the evening the men who had been sent out to examine the country and made a very unfavourable report. they informed us that the creek just above us and two deep ravenes still higher up cut the plain between the river and mountain in such a manner, that in their opinions a portage for the canoes on this side was impracticable. good or bad we must make the portage. notwithstanding this report i am still convinced from the view i had of the country the day before yesterday that a good portage may be had on this side at least much better than on the other, and much nearer also. i found that two dozes of barks and opium which i had given her since my arrival had produced an alteration in her pulse for the better; they were now much fuller and more regular. i caused her to drink the mineral water altogether. wen i first came down i found that her pulse were scarcely perceptible, very quick frequently irregular and attended with strong nervous symptoms, that of the twitching of the fingers and leaders of the arm; now the pulse had become regular much fuller and a gentle perspiration had taken place; the nervous symptoms have also in a great measure abated, and she feels herself much freeer from pain. she complains principally of the lower region of the abdomen, i therefore continued the cataplasms of barks and laudnumn which had been previously used by my friend capt clark. i beleive her disorder originated principally from an obstruction of the mensis in consequence of taking could.--i determined to remain at this camp in order to make some celestial observations, restore the sick woman, and have all matters in a state of readiness to commence the portage immediately on the return of capt. clark, who now furnished me with the dayly occurrences which had taken place with himself and party since our seperation which i here enter in his own words. [clark, june , ] june th of sunday some rain last night a cloudy morning wind hard from the s. w. we set out passed the rapid by double manning the perogue & canoes and halted at / of a mile to examine the rapids above, which i found to be an continued cascade for as far as could be seen which was about miles, i walked up on the lard side as high as a large creek, which falls in on the lard. side one mile above & opposit a large sulpher spring which falls over the rocks on the std. side the wind rored from the s. w. hard & some rain, at about oclock capt lewis joined me from the falls miles distant, & infd. that the lard side was the best portage i despatched men this morning on the lard. side to examine the portage.--the indian woman verry bad, & will take no medisin what ever, untill her husband finding her out of her senses, easyly provailed on her to take medison, if she dies it will be the fault of her husband as i am now convinced-. we crossed the river after part of the day and formed a camp from which we intended to make the first portage, capt. lewis stayed on the std side to direct the canoes over the first riffle of them passed this evening the others unloaded & part of the perogue loading taken out--i deturmined to examine & survey the portage find a leavel rout if possible--the men despatched to examine the portage gave an unfavourable account of the countrey, reporting that the creek & deep reveens cut the prarie in such a manner between the river and mountain as to render a portage in their oppinion for the canoes impossible--we selected men to make wheels & to draw the canoes on as the distance was probably too far for to be caried on the mens sholders [lewis, june , ] monday june th . capt. clark set out early this morning with five men to examine the country and survey the river and portage as had been concerted last evening. i set six men at work to pepare four sets of truck wheels with couplings, toungs and bodies, that they might either be used without the bodies for transporting our canoes, or with them in transporting our baggage i found that the elk skins i had prepared for my boat were insufficient to compleat her, some of them having become dammaged by the weather and being frequently wet; to make up this deficiency i sent out two hunters this morning to hunt elk; the ballance of the party i employed first in unloading the white perogue, which we intend leaving at this place, and bring the whole of our baggage together and arranging it in proper order near our camp. this duty being compleated i employed them in taking five of the small canoes up the creek which we now call portage creek about / miles; here i had them taken out and lyed in the sun to dry. from this place ther is a gradual ascent to the top of the high plain to which we can now take them with ease; the bluffs of this creek below and those of the river above it's entrance are so steep that it would be almost impracticable to have gotten them on the plain. we found much difficulty in geting the canoes up this creek to the distance we were compelled to take them, in consequence of the rappids and rocks which obstruct the channel of the creek. one of the canoes overset and was very near injuring men essencially. just above the canoes the creek has a perpendicular fall of feet and the cliffts again become very steep and high. we were fortunate enough to find one cottonwood tree just below the entrance of portage creek that was large enough to make our carrage wheels about inches in diameter; fortunate i say because i do not beleive that we could find another of the same size perfectly sound within miles of us. the cottonwood which we are obliged to employ in the other parts of the work is extreemly illy calculated for it being soft and brittle. we have made two axeltrees of the mast of the white peroge, which i hope will answer tolerably well tho it is reather small. the indian woman much better today, i have still continued the same course of medecine; she is free from pain clear of fever, her pulse regular, and eats as heartily as i am willing to permit her of broiled buffaloe well seasoned with pepper and salt and rich soope of the same meat; i think therefore that there is every rational hope of her recovery. saw a vast number of buffaloe feeding in every direction arround us in the plains, others coming down in large herds to water at the river; the fragments of many carcases of these poor anamals daily pass down the river, thus mangled i pesume in decending those immence cataracts above us. as the buffaloe generally go in large herds to water and the passages to the river about the falls are narrow and steep the hinder part of the herd press those in front out of their debth and the water instatly takes them over the cataracts where they are instantly crushed to death without the possibility of escaping. in this manner i have seen ten or a douzen disappear in a few minutes. their mangled carcases ly along the shores below the falls in considerable quantities and afford fine amusement for the bear wolves and birds of prey; this may be one reason and i think not a bad one either that the bear are so tenatious of their right of soil in this neighbourhood. [clark, june , ] june th monday a fine morning wind as usial capt. lewis with the party unloaded the perogue & he determined to keep the party employed in getting the loading to the creek about mile over a low hill in my absence on the portage. i set out with men at oclock, and proceeded on up the creek some distance to examine that & if possable assend that suffcently high, that a streight cours to the mouth of medison river would head the reveins, the creek i found confined rapid and shallow generalley monday th of june passed through an open roleing prarie, so as to head the two reveins after heading two we stand our course so as to strike the river below the great pitch on our course to the river crossed a deep rivein near its mouth with steep clifts this rivein had running water which was very fine, the river at this place is narrow & confined in perpindicular clifts of feet from the tops of those clifts the countrey rises with a steep assent for about feet more we proceeded up the river passing a sucession of rapids & cascades to the falls, which we had herd for several miles makeing a dedly sound, i beheld those cateracts with astonishment the whole of the water of this great river confined in a channel of yards and pitching over a rock of feet / of an, from the foot of the falls arrises a continued mist which is extended for yds. down & to near the top of the clifts on l sd. the river below is confined a narrow chanl. of yards haveing a small bottom of timber on the stard side which is definded by a rock, rangeing cross wise the river a little below the shoot, a short distance below this cataract a large rock divides the stream, i in assendending the clifts to take the hith of the fall was near slipping into the water, at which place i must have been sucked under in an instant, and with deficuelty and great risque i assended again, and decended the clift lower down (but few places can be descended to the river) and took the hight with as much accuricy as possible with a spirit leavels &c. dined at a fine spring yards below the pitch near which place cotton willow trees grew. on one of them i marked my name the date, and hight of the falls,--we then proceeded up on the river passing a continued cascade & rapid to a fall of feet at small islands, this fall is diaguanally across the river from the lard side, forming an angle of / of the width from the lard. from which side it pitches for / of that distance. on the stard side is a rapid decline--below this shoot a deep revein falls in which we camped for the night which was cold (the mountains in every derection has snow on them) the plain to our left is leavel we saw one bear & inumerable numbers of buffalow, i saw herds of those animals watering immediately above a considerable rapid, they decended by a narrow pass to the bottom small, the rier forced those forwd into the water some of which was taken down in an instant, and seen no more others made shore with difficuelty, i beheld or of those swimming at the same time those animals in this way are lost and accounts for the number of buffalow carcases below the rapids [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th . this morning i employed all hands in drawing the perogue on shore in a thick bunch of willow bushes some little distance below our camp; fastened her securely, drove out the plugs of the gage holes of her bottom and covered her with bushes and driftwood to shelter her from the sun. i now scelected a place for a cash and set tree men at work to complete it, and employed all others except those about the waggons, in overhawling airing and repacking our indian goods ammunition, provision and stores of every discription which required inspection. examined the frame of my iron boat and found all the parts complete except one screw, which the ingenuity of sheilds can readily replace, a resource which we have very frequent occasion for. about o'clk. the hunters returned; they had killed deer but no elk. i begin to fear that we shall have some difficulty in procuring skins for the boat. i wold prefer those of the elk because i beleive them more durable and strong than those of the buffaloe, and that they will not shrink so much in drying. we saw a herd of buffaloe come down to water at the sulpher spring this evening, i dispatched some hunters to kill some of them, and a man also for a cask of mineral water. the hunters soon killed two of them in fine order and returned with a good quantity of the flesh, having left the remainder in a situation that it will not spoil provided the wolves do not visit it. the waggons are completed this evening, and appear as if they would answer the purpose very well if the axetrees prove sufficiently strong. the wind blew violently this evening, as they frequently do in this open country where there is not a tree to brake or oppose their force. the indian woman is recovering fast she set up the greater part of the day and walked out for the fist time since she arrived here; she eats hartily and is free from fever or pain. i continue same course of medecine and regimen except that i added one doze of drops of the oil of vitriol today about noon. there is a species of goosberry which grows very common about here in open situations among the rocks on the sides of the clifts. they are now ripe of a pale red colour, about the size of a common goosberry. and like it is an ovate pericarp of soft pulp invelloping a number of smal whitish coloured seeds; the pulp is a yelloish slimy muselaginous substance of a sweetish and pinelike tast, not agreeable to me. the surface of the berry is covered with a glutinous adhesive matter, and the frut altho ripe retains it's withered corollar. this shrub seldom rises more than two feet high and is much branched, the leaves resemble those of the common goosberry only not so large; it has no thorns. the berry is supported by seperate peduncles or footstalks of half an inch in length. immence quantities of small grasshoppers of a brown colour in the plains, they no doubt contribute much to keep the grass as low as we find it which is not generally more than three inches, the grass is a narrow leaf, soft, and affords a fine pasture for the buffaloe.- [clark, june , ] june th tuesday we set out early and arrived at the second great cataract at about yds above the last of feet pitch--this is one of the grandest views in nature and by far exceeds any thing i ever saw, the missouri falling over a shelveing rock for feet inches with a cascade &c of feet inches above the shoot for a / mile i decended the clift below this cateract with ease measured the hight of the purpendicular fall of feet inches at which place the river is yards wide as also the hight of the cascade &c. a continuel mist quite across this fall* after which we proceeded on up the river a little more than a mile to the largest fountain or spring i ever saw, and doubt if it is not the largest in america known, this water boils up from under th rocks near the edge of the river and falls imediately into the river feet and keeps its colour for / a mile which is emencely clear and of a bluish cast, proceeded on up the river passed a succession of rapids to the next great fall of ft. i. river yards wide this fall is not intirely perpdincular a short bench gives a curve to the water as it falls a butifull small island at the foot of this fall near the center of the channel covered with trees, the missouri at this fall is yards wide, a considerable mist rises at this fall ocasionally, from this pitch to the head of the rapids is one mile & has a fall of feet, this is also a handsome scenery a fall in an open leavel plain, after takeing the hight & measureing the river proceeded on, saw a gange of buffalow swiming the river above the falls, several of which was drawn in to the rapids and with dificuelty mad shore half drowned, we killed one of those cows & took as much meat as we wished. emence herds of those animals in every direction, passed groves in the point just above the rapids & dined in one opposit the mouth of medison river, which fails in on the stard. side and is yards wide at its mouth the missouri above is yards wide, as the river missouri appears to bear s easterley i assended about miles high to a creek which appeared to head in south mountains passed a island of ____ and a little timber in an easterly bend at mile, passed some timber in a point at mile at or near the lower point of a large island on which we shot at a large white bear. passed a small island in the middle and one close on the lard shore at miles behind the head of which we camped. those islands are all opposit, soon after we camped two ganges of buffalow crossed one above & the other below we killed of them & a calf and saved as much of the best of the meat as we could this evening, one man a willard going for a load of meat at yards distance on an island was attact by a white bear and verry near being caught, prosued within yards of camp where i was with one man i collected others of the party and prosued the bear (who had prosued my track from a buffalow i had killed on the island at about yards distance and chance to meet willard) for fear of his attacking one man colter at the lower point of the island, before we had got down the bear had allarmed the man and prosued him into the water, at our approach he retreated, and we relieved the man in the water, i saw the bear but the bushes was so thick that i could not shoot him and it was nearly dark, the wind from the s w & cool killed a beaver & an elk for their skins this evening [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . this morning i sent over several men for the meat which was killed yesterday, a few hours after they returned with it, the wolves had not discovered it. i also dispatched george drewyer reubin fields and george shannon on the north side of the missouri with orders to proceed to the entrance of medecine river and indeavour to kill some elk in that neigh-bourhood. as there is more timber on that river than the missouri i expect that the elk are more plenty. the cash completed today. the wind blew violently the greater part of the day. the indian woman was much better this morning she walked out and gathered a considerable quantity of the white apples of which she eat so heartily in their raw state, together with a considerable quantity of dryed fish without my knowledge that she complained very much and her fever again returned. i rebuked sharbono severely for suffering her to indulge herself with such food he being privy to it and having been previously told what she must only eat. i now gave her broken dozes of diluted nitre untill it produced perspiration and at p.m. drops of laudnum which gave her a tolerable nights rest. i amused myself in fishing several hours today and caught a number of both species of the white fish, but no trout nor cat. i employed the men in making up our baggage in proper packages for transportation; and waxed the stoppers of my powder canesters anew. had the frame of my iron boat clensed of rust and well greased. in the evening the men mended their mockersons and preparedthemselves for the portage. after dark my dog barked very much and seemed extreemly uneasy which was unusual with him; i ordered the sergt. of the guard to reconniter with two men, thinking it possible that some indians might be about to pay us a visit, or perhaps a white bear; he returned soon after & reported that he believed the dog had been baying a buffaloe bull which had attempted to swim the river just above our camp but had been beten down by the stream landed a little below our camp on the same side & run off. [clark, june , ] june th wednesday we went on the island to hunt the white bear this morning but could not find him, after plotting my courses &c. i deturmined to dry the meat we killed and leave here, and proceed up the river as far as it bent to the s. e. and examine a small creek above our camp, i set out and found the creek only contained back water for mile up, ascend near the missouri miles to the bend, from which place it turnd. westerly, from this bend i with men went forward towards the camp of the party to examine the best ground for the portage, the little creek has verry extencive bottoms which spread out into a varriety of leavl rich bottoms quite to the mountains to the east, between those bottoms is hills low and stoney on this declivity where it is steep. i returned to camp late and deturmined that the best nearest and most eassy rout would be from the lower part of the rd or white bear island, the wind all this day blew violently hard from the s w. off the snowey mountains, cool, in my last rout i lost a part of my notes which could not be found as the wind must have blown them to a great distance. summer duck setting great numbers of buffalow all about our camp [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . this morning we had but little to do; waiting the return of capt. clark; i am apprehensive from his stay that the portage is longer than we had calculated on. i sent out hunters this morning on the opposite side of the river to kill buffaloe; the country being more broken on that side and cut with ravenes they can get within shoot of the buffaloe with more ease and certainty than on this side of the river. my object is if possible while we have now but little to do, to lay in a large stock of dryed meat at this end of the portage to subsist the party while engaged in the transportation of our baggage &c, to the end, that they may not be taken from this duty when once commenced in order to surch for the necessary subsistence. the indian woman is qute free from pain and fever this morning and appears to be in a fair way for recovery, she has been walking about and fishing. in the evening of the hunters returned and informed me that they had killed eleven buffaloe eight of which were in very fine order, i sent off all hands immediately to bring in the meat they soon returned with about half of the best meat leaving three men to remain all night in order to secure the ballance. the bufhaloe are in inimence numbers, they have been constantly coming down in large herds to water opposite to us for some hours sometimes two or three herds wartering at the same instant and scarcely disappear before others supply their places. they appear to make great use of the mineral water, whether this be owing to it's being more convenient to them than the river or that they actually prefer it i am at a loss to determine for they do not use it invaryably, but sometimes pass at no great distance from it and water at the river. brackish water or that of a dark colour impregnated with mineral salts such as i have frequenly mentioned on the missouri is found in small quantities in some of the steep ravenes on the n. side of the river opposite to us and the falls. capt. clark and party returned late this evening when he gave me the following relation of his rout and the occurrences which had taken place with them since their departure. capt. clark now furnished me with the field notes of the survey which he had made of the missouri and it's cataracts cascades &c. from the entrance of portage creek to the south eastwardly bend of the missouri above the white bear islands, which are as follow. [clark, june , ] june th thursday a cloudy morning, a hard wind all night and this morning, i direct stakes to be cut to stick up in the prarie to show the way for the party to transport the baggage &c. &c. we set out early on the portage, soon after we set out it began to rain and continued a short time we proceeded on thro a tolerable leavel plain, and found the hollow of a deep rivein to obstruct our rout as it could not be passed with canos & baggage for some distance above the place we struck it i examined it for some time and finding it late deturmined to strike the river & take its course & distance to camp which i accordingly did the wind hard from the s. w. a fair after noon, the river on both sides cut with raveins some of which is passes thro steep clifts into the river, the countrey above the falls & up the medison river is leavel, with low banks, a chain of mountains to the west some part of which particuler those to the n w. & s w are covered with snow and appear verry high--i saw a rattle snake in an open plain miles from any creek or wood. when i arrived at camp found all well with great quantites of meet, the canoes capt. lewis had carried up the creek mile to a good place to assend the band & taken up. not haveing seen the snake indians or knowing in fact whither to calculate on their friendship or hostillity, we have conceived our party sufficiently small, and therefore have concluded not to dispatch a canoe with a part of our men to st. louis as we have intended early in the spring. we fear also that such a measure might also discourage those who would in such case remain, and migh possibly hazard the fate of the expedition. we have never hinted to any one of the party that we had such a scheem in contemplation, and all appear perfectly to have made up their minds, to succeed in the expedition or perish in the attempt. we all believe that we are about to enter on the most perilous and dificuelt part of our voyage, yet i see no one repineing; all appear ready to meet those dificuelties which await us with resolution and becomeing fortitude. we had a heavy dew this morning. the clouds near those mountains rise suddonly and discharge their contents partially on the neighbouring plains; the same cloud discharge hail alone in one part, hail and rain in another and rain only in a third all within the space of a fiew miles; and on the mountains to the south & s. e. of us sometimes snow. at present there is no snow on those mountains; that which covered them a fiew days ago has all disappeared. the mountains to the n. w. and west of us are still entirely covered are white and glitter with the reflection of the sun. i do not believe that the clouds that pervale at this season of the year reach the summits of those lofty mountains; and if they do the probability is that they deposit snow only for there has been no proceptable diminution of the snow which they contain since we first saw them. i have thought it probable that these mountains might have derived their appellation of shineing mountains, from their glittering appearance when the sun shines in certain directions on the snow which cover them. dureing the time of my being on the plains and above the falls i as also all my party repeatedly heard a nois which proceeded from a direction a little to the n. of west, as loud and resembling precisely the discharge of a piece of ordinance of pounds at the distance of or six miles. i was informed of it several times by the men j. fields particularly before i paid any attention to it, thinking it was thunder most probably which they had mistaken. at length walking in the plains yesterday near the most extreem s. e. bend of the river above the falls i heard this nois very distinctly, it was perfectly calm clear and not a cloud to be seen, i halted and listened attentively about two hour dureing which time i heard two other discharges, and took the direction of the sound with my pocket compass which was as nearly west from me as i could estimate from the sound. i have no doubt but if i had leasure i could find from whence it issued. i have thought it probable that it might be caused by running water in some of the caverns of those emence mountains, on the principal of the blowing caverns; but in such case the sounds would be periodical and regular, which is not the case with this, being sometimes heard once only and at other times several discharges in quick succession. it is heard also at different times of the day and night. i am at a great loss to account for this phenomenon. i well recollect hereing the minitarees say that those rocky mountains make a great noise, but they could not tell me the cause, neither could they inform me of any remarkable substance or situation in these mountains which would autherise a conjecture of a probable cause of this noise-. it is probable that the large river just above those great falls which heads in the detection of the noise has taken it's name medicine river from this unaccountable rumbling sound, which like all unacountable thing with the indians of the missouri is called medicine. the ricaras inform us of the black mountains making a simalar noise &c. &c. and maney other wonderfull tales of those rocky mountains and those great falls. [lewis, june , ] friday june st . this morning i employed the greater part of the men in transporting a part of the bagage over portage creek to the top of the high plain about three miles in advance on the portage. i also had one canoe carryed on truck wheles to the same place and put the baggage in it, in order to make an early start in the morning, as the rout of our portage is not yet entirely settled, and it would be inconvenient to remain in the open plain all night at a distance from water, which would probably be the case if we did not set out early as the latter part of the rout is destitute of water for about miles--having determined to go to the upper part of the portage tomorrow; in order to prepare my boat and receive and take care of the stores as they were transported, i caused the iron frame of the boat and the necessary tools my private baggage and instruments to be taken as a part of this load, also the baggage of joseph fields, sergt. gass and john sheilds, whom i had scelected to assist me in constructing the leather boat. three men were employed today in shaving the elk skins which had ben collected for the boat. the ballance of the party were employed in cuting the meat we had killed yesterday into thin retches and drying it, and in bring in the ballance of what had been left over the river with three men last evening. i readily preceive several difficulties in preparing the leather boat which are the want of convenient and proper timber; bark, skins, and above all that of pitch to pay her seams, a deficiency that i really know not how to surmount unless it be by means of tallow and pounded charcoal which mixture has answered a very good purpose on our wooden canoes heretofore. i have seen for the first time on the missouri at these falls, a species of fishing ducks with white wings, brown and white body and the head and part of the neck adjoining of a brick red, and the beak narrow; which i take to be the same common to james river, the potomac and susquehanna. immence numbers of buffaloe comeing to water at the river as usual. the men who remained over the river last night killed several mule deer, and willard who was with me killed a young elk. the wind blew violently all day. the growth of the neighbourhood what little there is consists of the broad and narrow leafed cottonwood, box alder, the large or sweet willow, the narrow and broad leafed willow. the sweet willow has not been common to the missouri below this or the entrance of maria's river; here attains to the same size and in appearance much the same as in the atlantic states. the undergrowth consists of rosebushes, goosberry and current bushes, honeysuckle small, and the red wood, the inner bark of which the engages are fond of smoking mixed with tobacco. [clark, june , ] june st friday a fine morning wind from the s w. off the mountains and hard, capt lewis with the men except a few take a part of the baggage & a canoe up the hill mile in advance, several men employed in shaveing & graneing elk hides for the iron boat as it is called-- men were sent up the medison river yesterday to kill elk for the skins for the boat, i fear that we shall be put to some dificuelty in precureing elk skins sufficent-, cloudy afternoon, we dry meat for the men to eat on their return from the upper part of the portage capt lewis determine to proceed to the upper part of the portage tomorrow & with men proced to fix the iron boat with skins &c. &c. [lewis, june , ] saturday june cd . this morning early capt clark and myself with all the party except sergt. ordway sharbono, goodrich, york and the indian woman, set out to pass the portage with the canoe and baggage to the whitebear islands, where we intend that this portage shall end. capt. clarke piloted us through the plains. about noon we reached a little stream about miles on the portage where we halted and dined; we were obliged here to renew both axeltrees and the tongues and howns of one set of wheels which took us no more than hours. these parts of our carriage had been made of cottonwood and one axetree of an old mast, all of which proved deficient and had broken down several times before we reached this place we have now renewed them with the sweet willow and hope that they will answer better. after dark we had reached within half a mile of our intended camp when the tongues gave way and we were obliged to leave the canoe, each man took as much of the baggage as he could carry on his back and proceeded to the river where we formed our encampment much fortiegued. the prickly pears were extreemly troublesome to us sticking our feet through our mockersons. saw a great number of buffaloe in the plains, also immence quantities of little birds and the large brown curloo; the latter is now seting; it lays it's eggs, which are of a pale blue with black specks, on the ground without any preperation of a nest. there is a kind of larke here that much resembles the bird called the oldfield lark with a yellow brest and a black spot on the croop; tho this differs from ours in the form of the tail which is pointed being formed of feathers of unequal length; the beak is somewhat longer and more curved and the note differs considerably; however in size, action, and colours there is no perceptable difference; or at least none that strikes my eye. after reaching our camp we kindled our fires and examined the meat which capt. clark had left, but found only a small proportion of it, the wolves had taken the greater part. we eat our suppers and soon retired to rest. [clark, june , ] june nd satturday a fine morning, capt lewis my self and all the party except a sergeant ordway guterich and the interpreter and his wife sar car gah we a (who are left at camp to take care of the baggage left) across the portage with one canoe on truck wheels and loaded with a part of our baggage i piloted thro the plains to the camp i made at which place i intended the portage to end which is miles above the medesin river we had great dificuelty in getting on as the axeltree broke several times, and the cuppling tongus of the wheels which was of cotton & willow, the only wood except boxelder & ____ that grow in this quarter, we got within half a mile of our intended camp much fatigued at dark, our tongus broke & we took a load to the river on the mens back, where we found a number of wolves which had distroyed a great part of our meat which i had left at that place when i was up day before yesterday we soon went to sleep & slept sound wind from the ____ we deturmine to employ every man cooks & all on the portage after to day canoe and baggage brought up, after which we breakfasted and nearly consumed the meat which he had left here. he now set out on his return with the party. i employed the three men with me in the forenoon clearing away the brush and forming our camp, and puting the frame of the boat together. this being done i sent shields and gass to look out for the necessary timber, and with j. fields decended the river in the canoe to the mouth of medicine river in surch of the hunters whom i had dispatched thither on the th inst. and from whom we had not heard a sentence. i entered the mouth of medicine river and ascended it about half a mile when we landed and walked up the stard. side. frequently hooping as we went on in order to find the hunters; at length after ascending the river about five miles we found shannon who had passed the medecine river & fixed his camp on the lard. side, where he had killed seven deer and several buffaloe and dryed about lbs. of buffaloe meat; but had killed no elk. shannon could give me no further account of r. fields and drewyer than that he had left them about noon on the th at the great falls and had come on the mouth of medicine river to hunt elk as he had been directed, and never had seen them since. the evening being now far spent i thought it better to pass the medicine river and remain all night at shannon's camp; i passed the river on a raft which we soon constructed for the purpose. the river is here about yds. wide, is deep and but a moderate current. the banks low as those of the missouri above the falls yet never appear to overflow. as it will give a better view of the transactions of the party, i shall on each day give the occurrences of both camps during our seperation as i afterwards learnt those of the lower camp from capt. clark. on his return today he cut of several angles of the rout by which we came yesterday, shortened the portage considerably, measured it and set up stakes throughout as guides to marke the rout. he returned this evening to the lower camp in sufficient time to take up two of the canoes from portage creek to the top of the plain about a mile in advance. this evening the men repaired their mockersons, and put on double souls to protect their feet from the prickley pears. during the late rains the buffaloe have troden up the praire very much, which having now become dry the sharp points of earth as hard as frozen ground stand up in such abundance that there is no avoiding them. this is particulary severe on the feet of the men who have not only their own wight to bear in treading on those hacklelike points but have also the addition of the burthen which they draw and which in fact is as much as they can possibly move with. they are obliged to halt and rest frequently for a few minutes, at every halt these poor fellows tumble down and are so much fortiegued that many of them are asleep in an instant; in short their fatiegues are incredible; some are limping from the soreness of their feet, others faint and unable to stand for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue, yet no one complains, all go with cheerfullness. in evening reubin fields returned to the lower camp and informed capt. clark of the absence of shannon, with rispect to whome they were extreemly uneasy. fields and drewyer had killed several buffaloe at the bend of the missouri above the falls and had dryed a considerable quantity of meat; they had also killed several deer but no elk. [clark, june , ] june rd sunday a cloudy morning wind from the s. e, after getting the canoe to camp & the articles left in the plains we eate brackfast of the remaining meat found in camp & i with the party the truck wheels & poles to stick up in the prarie as a guide, set out on our return, we proceeded on, & measured the way which i streightened considerably from that i went on yesterday, and arrived at our lower camp in suffcent time to take up canoes on the top of the hill from the creek, found all safe at camp the men mended their mockersons with double soles to save their feet from the prickley pear, (which abounds in the praries,) and the hard ground which in some & maney places so hard as to hurt the feet verry much, the emence number of buffalow after the last rain has trod the flat places in such a manner as to leave it uneaven, and that has tried and is wors than frozen ground, added to those obstructions, the men has to haul with all their strength wate & art, maney times every man all catching the grass & knobes & stones with their hands to give them more force in drawing on the canoes & loads, and notwithstanding the coolness of the air in high presperation and every halt, those not employed in reparing the couse; are asleep in a moment, maney limping from the soreness of their feet some become fant for a fiew moments, but no man complains all go chearfully on--to state the fatigues of this party would take up more of the journal than other notes which i find scercely time to set down. i had the best rout staked out and measured which is miles / to the river & / a mile up i.e / miles portage--from the lower rapid to the st creek is poles, to a deep run of water, called willow run is miles thence to the river miles above medison riv at island called white bear islands is miles all prarie without wood or water except at the creek & run which afford a plenty of fine water and a little wood the plain is tolerably leavel except at the river a small assent & passing a low hill from the creek a rough & steep assent for about / of a mile and several gullies & a gradual hill for / miles the heads of several gullies which have short assents & the willow run of a steep hill on this run grows purple & red currents. the red is now ripe the purple full grown, an emence number of prarie birds now setting of two kinds one larger than a sparrow dark yellow the center feathers of its tail yellow & the out sides black some streeks about its neck, the other about the same size white tail [lewis, june , ] monday june th . supposing that drewyer and r. fields might possibly be still higher up medicine river, i dispatched j. fields up the river with orders to proceede about four miles and then return whether he found them or not and join shannon at this camp. i set out early and walked down the south west side of the river and sent shannon down the opposite side to bring the canoe over to me and put me across the missouri; having landed on the lard. side of the missouri i sent shannon back with the canoe to ascend the medicine river as far as his camp to meet j. fields and bring the dryed meat at that place to the camp at the white bear islands which accomplished and arrived with fields this evening. the party also arrived this evening with two canoes from the lower camp. they were wet and fatiegued, gave them a dram. r. fields came with them and gave me an account of his & drewyer's hunt, and informed me that drewyer was still at their camp with the meat they had dryed. the iron frame of my boat is feet long / f. in the beam and inches in the hole. this morning early capt. clark had the remaining canoe drawn out of the water; and divided the remainder of our baggage into three parcels, one of which he sent today by the party with two canoes. the indian woman is now perfectly recovered. capt. c. came a few miles this morning to see the party under way and returned. on my arrival at the upper camp this morning, i found that sergt. gass and shields had made but slow progress in collecting timber for the boat; they complained of great difficulty in geting streight or even tolerably streight sticks of / feet long. we were obliged to make use of the willow and box alder, the cottonwood being too soft and brittle. i kept one of them collecting timber while the other shaved and fitted them. i have found some pine logs among the drift wood near this place, from which, i hope to obtain as much pitch as will answer to pay the seams of the boat. i directed fraizer to remain in order to sew the hides together, and form the covering for the boat. [clark, june , ] june th monday a cloudy morning i rose early had, the remaining canoe hauled out of the water to dry and divided the baggage into parcels, one of which the party took on their backs & one waggon with truk wheels to the canoes miles in advance (those canoes or of our canoes were carried up the creek / of a mile taken out on the bank and left to dry from which place they are taken up a point and intersects this rout from the mouth of the creek at miles from the foot of the rapids) after getting up their loads they divided men & load & proceeded on with canoes on truck wheels as before, i accompaned them miles and returned, my feet being verry sore from the walk over ruts stones & hills & thro the leavel plain for days proceeding carrying my pack and gun. some few drops of rain in the fore part of the day, at oclock a black cloud arose to the n west, the wind shifted from the s to that point and in a short time the earth was entirely covered with hail, some rain succeeded, which continud for about an hour very moderately on this side of the river, without the earths being wet / an inch, the riveins on the opposit or n w side discharged emence torrents of water into the river, & showed evidently that the rain was much heavyer on that side, some rain at different times in the night which was worm--thunder without lightning accompanied the hail cloud [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th . this morning early i sent the party back to the lower camp; dispatched frazier down with the canoe for drewyer and the meat he had collected, and joseph fields up the missouri to hunt elk. at eight ocik. sent gass and sheilds over to the large island for bark and timber. about noon fields returned and informed me that he had seen two white bear near the river a few miles above and in attempting to get a shoot them had stumbled uppon a third which immediately made at him being only a few steps distant; that in runing in order to escape from the bear he had leaped down a steep bank of the river on a stony bar where he fell cut his hand bruised his knees and bent his gun. that fortunately for him the bank hid him from the bear when he fell and that by that means he had escaped. this man has been truly unfortunate with these bear, this is the second time that he has narrowly escaped from them. about p. m shields and gass returned with but a small quantity of both bark and timber and informed me that it was all they could find on the island; they had killed two elk the skins of which and a part of the flesh they brought with them. in the evening drewyer and frazier arrivd with about lbs. of excellent dryed meat and about lbs of tallow. the river is about yds. wide opposite to us above these islands, and has a very gentle current the bottoms are hadsome level and extensive on both sides; the bank on this side is not more than feet above the level of the water; it is a pretty little grove in which our camp is situated. there is a species of wild rye which is now heading it rises to the hight of or inches, the beard is remarkably fine and soft it is a very handsome grass the culm is jointed and is in every rispect the wild rye in minuture. great quantities of mint also are here it resemble the pepper mint very much in taste and appearance. the young blackbirds which are almost innumerable in these islands just begin to fly. see a number of water tarripens. i have made an unsuccessfull attempt to catch fish, and do not think there are any in this part of the river. the party that returned this evening to the lower camp reached it in time to take one canoe on the plain and prepare their baggage for an early start in the morning after which such as were able to shake a foot amused themselves in dancing on the green to the music of the violin which cruzatte plays extreemly well. capt. c. somewhat unwell today. he made charbono kook for the party against their return. it is worthy of remark that the winds are sometimes so strong in these plains that the men informed me that they hoisted a sail in the canoe and it had driven her along on the truck wheels. this is really sailing on dry land. [clark, june , ] june th tuesday a fair worm morning, clouded & a few drops of rain at oclock a.m. fair i feel my self a little unwell with a looseness &c. &c. put out the stores to dry & set chabonah &c to cook for the party against their return-he being the only man left on this side with me i had a little coffee for brackfast which was to me a riarity as i had not tasted any since last winter. the wind from the n. w. & worm. this countrey has a romantick appearance river inclosed between high and steep hills cut to pieces by revines but little timber and that confined to the rivers & creek, the missourie has but a fiew scattering trees on its borders, and only one solitary cotton tree in sight of my camp the wood which we burn is drift wood which is broken to pieces in passing the falls, not one large tree longer than about or feet to be found drifted below the falls the plains are inferior in point of soil to those below, more stone on the sides of the hill, grass but a few inches high and but few flowers in the plains, great quantites of choke cheries, goose burres, red & yellow berries, & red & purple currents on the edges of water courses in bottoms & damp places, about my camp the cliffs or bluffs are a hard red or redish brown earth containing iron. we catch great quantities of trout, and a kind of mustel, flat backs & a soft fish resembling a shad and a few cat. at oclock the party returned, fatigued as usial, and proceeded to mend their mockersons &c. and g shannon & r, fds. to of the men who ware sent up the medison river to hunt elk, they killed no elk, several buffalow & deer, and reports that the river is yds wide and about feet deep some timber on its borders--a powerfull rain fell on the party on their rout yesterday wet some fiew articles, and caused the rout to be so bad wet & deep thay could with dificuelty proceed, capt. lewis & the men with him much employd with the iron boat in fitting it for the water, dispatched one man to george drewyers camp below medison river for meat &c. a fair after noon--great numbers of buffalow water opposit to my camp everry day--it may be here worthy of remark that the sales were hoised in the canoes as the men were drawing them and the wind was great relief to them being sufficeritly strong to move the canoes on the trucks, this is saleing on dry land in every sence of the word, serjeant n pryor sick, the party amused themselves with danceing untill oclock all chearfullness and good humer, they all tied up their loads to make an early start in the morning. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . the musquetoes are extreemly troublesome to us. this morning early i dispatched j. fields and drewyer in one of the canoes up the river to hunt elk. set frazier at work to sew the skins together for the covering of the boat. sheilds and gas i sent over the river to lurch a small timbered bottom on that side opposite to the islands for timber and bark; and to myself i assign the duty of cook as well for those present as for the party which i expect again to arrive this evening from the lower camp. i collected my wood and water, boiled a large quantity of excellent dryed buffaloe meat and made each man a large suet dumpling by way of a treat. about p.m. shields and gass returned with a better supply of timber than they had yet collected tho not by any means enough. they brought some bark principally of the cottonwood which i found was too brittle and soft for the purpose; for this article i find my only dependence is the sweet willow which has a tough & strong bark. shields and gass had killed seven buffaloe in their absence the skins of which and a part of the best of the meat they brought with them. if i cannot procure a sufficient quantity of elk's skins i shall substitute those of the buffaloe. late in the evening the party arrived with two more canoes and another portion of the baggage. whitehouse one of them much heated and fortiegued on his arrivall dank a very hearty draught of water and was taken almost instanly extreemly ill. his pulse were very full and i therefore bled him plentifully from which he felt great relief. i had no other instrument with which to perform this opperation but my pen knife, however it answered very well. the wind being from s. e today and favourable the men made considerable progress by means of their sails. at the lower camp. the party set out very early from this place, and took with them two canoes and a second alotment of baggage consisting of parched meal, pork, powder lead axes, tools, bisquit, portable soupe, some merchandize and cloathing. capt. c. gave sergt. pryor a doze of salts this morning and employed sharbono in rendering the buffaloe tallow which had been collected there, he obtained a sufficient quantity to fill three empty kegs. capt. c. also scelected the articles to be deposited in the cash consisting of my desk which i had left for that purpose and in which i had left some books, my specimens of plants minerals &c. collected from fort mandan to that place. also kegs of pork, / a keg of flour blunderbushes, / a keg of fixed ammunition and some other small articles belonging to the party which could be dispenced with. deposited the swivel and carriage under the rocks a little above the camp near the river. great numbers of buffaloe still continue to water daily opposite the camp. the antelopes still continue scattered and seperate in the plains. the females with their young only of which they generally have two, and the males alone. capt. clarke measured the rout from the camp at the whitebear islands to the lower camp which is as follows.- [clark, june , ] june th wednesday some rain last night this morning verry cloudy the party set out this morning verry early with their loads to the canoe consisting of parched meal pork powder lead axes, tools bisquit, p. soup & some merchendize & clothes &c. &c. i gave serjt. pryor a dolt of salts, & set chabonah to trying up the buffalow tallow & put into the empty kegs &c. i assort our articles for to be left at this place buried, ____ kegs of pork, / a keg of flour, blunderbuts, ____ caterrages a few small lumbersom articles capt lewiss desk and some books & small articles in it the wind from the n. w. verry worm flying clouds in the evening the wind shifted round to the east & blew hard, which is a fair wind for the two canoes to sail on the plains across the portage, i had three kegs of buffalow grease tried up. great numbers of buffalow opposite to our camp watering to day. [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . the party returned early this morning for the remaining canoe and baggage; whitehouse was not quite well this morning i therefore detained him and about a.m. set him at work with frazier sewing the skins together for the boat; shields and gass continued the operation of shaving and fiting the horizontall bars of wood in the sections of the boat; the timber is so crooked and indifferent that they make but little progress, for myself i continued to act the part of cook in order to keep all hands employed. some elk came near our camp and we killed of them at p.m. a cloud arrose to the s. w. and shortly after came on attended with violent thunder lightning and hail &c. (see notes on diary of the weather for june). soon after this storm was over drewyer and j. fields returned. they were about miles above us during the storm, the hail was of no uncommon size where they were. they had killed elk and three bear during their absence; one of the bear was the largest by far that we have yet seen; the skin appear to me to be as large as a common ox. while hunting they saw a thick brushey bottom on the bank of the river where from the tracks along shore they suspected that there were bare concealed; they therefore landed without making any nois and climbed a leaning tree and placed themselves on it's branches about feet above the ground, when thus securely fixed they gave a hoop and this large bear instantly rushed forward to the place from whence he had heard the human voice issue, when he arrived at the tree he made a short paus and drewyer shot him in the head. it is worthy of remark that these bear never climb. the fore feet of this bear measured nine inches across and the hind feet eleven and-- / in length & exclusive of the tallons and seven inches in width. a bear came within thirty yards of our camp last night and eat up about thirty weight of buffaloe suit which was hanging on a pole. my dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bear and keeps barking all night. soon after the storm this evening the water on this side of the river became of a deep crimson colour which i pesume proceeded from some stream above and on this side. there is a kind of soft red stone in the bluffs and bottoms. of the gullies in this neighbourhood which forms this colouring matter.--at the lower camp. capt. clark completed a draught of the river with the couses and distances from the entrance of the missouri to ft. mandan, which we intend depositing here in order to guard against accedents. sergt. pryor is somewhat better this morning. at p.m. the party returned from the upper camp; capt. c. gave them a drink of grog; they prepared for the labour of the next day. soon after the party returned it began to rain accompanyed by some hail and continued a short time; a second shower fell late in the evening accompanyed by a high wind from n. w.--the mangled carcases of several buffaloe pass down the river today which had no doubt perished in the falls. [clark, june , ] june th thursday a fair warm morning wind from the s, e, and moderate. serjt. pryor something better this morning, i proceed to finish a rough draugh of the river & distances to leave at this place, the wormest day we have had this year, at oclock the party returned from the head of the portage soon after it began to hail and rain hard and continued for a fiew minits & ceased for an hour and began to rain again with a heavy wind from the n w. i refresh the men with a drink of grog the river beginning to rise a little the water is coloured a redish brown, the small streams, discharges in great torrents, and partake of the choler of the earth over which it passes-a great part of which is light & of a redish brown. several buffalow pass drowned & in passing over the falls cloudy all night, cold [lewis, june , ] friday june th . set drewyer to shaving the elk skins, fields to make the cross stays for the boat, frazier and whitehouse continue their operation with the skins, shields and gass finish the horizontal bars of the sections; after which i sent them in surch of willow bark, a sufficient supply of which they now obtained to bind the boat. expecting the party this evening i prepared a supper for them but they did not arrive. not having quite elk skins enough i employed three buffaloe hides to cover one section. not being able to shave these skins i had them singed pretty closely with a blazeing torch; i think they will answer tolerable well. the white bear have become so troublesome to us that i do not think it prudent to send one man alone on an errand of any kind, particularly where he has to pass through the brush. we have seen two of them on the large island opposite to us today but are so much engaged that we could not spare the time to hunt them but will make a frolick of it when the party return and drive them from these islands. they come close arround our camp every night but have never yet ventured to attack us and our dog gives us timely notice of their visits, he keeps constantly padroling all night. i have made the men sleep with their arms by them as usual for fear of accedents. the river is now about nine inches higher than it was on my arrival. lower camp. early this morning capt. c. dispatched the remaining canoe with some baggage to the top of the plain above portage creek three miles in advance; some others he employed in carrying the articles to the cash and depositing them and others to mend the carriages which wer somewhat out of repair. this being accomplished he loaded the two carriages with the remaining baggage and set out with all the party and proceeded on with much difficulty to the canoe in the plain. portage creek had arisen considerably and the water was of crimson colour and illy tasted. on his arrival at the canoe he found there was more baggage than he could possibly take at one load on the two sets of trucks and therefore left some barrels of pork & flour and a few heavy boxes of amunition which could not well be injured, and proceeded with the canoe & one set of trucks loaded with baggage to willow run where he encamped for the night, and killed two buffaloe to subsist the party. soon after his arrival at willow run he experienced a hard shower of rain which was succeeded by a violent wind from the s. w. off the snowy mountains, accompanyed with rain; the party being cold and wet, he administered the consolation of a dram to each. [clark, june , ] june th friday a fair morning wind from the south i dispatch the remaining canoe with baggage in her to the top of the hill three miles, imploy some hands in carrying those things we intend to deposit to the carsh or hole, some to repareing one of the trucks &c. &c. the water is riseing and of a redish brown cholour after covering the carshe & loading the two carrges with the remaining part of our baggage we all set out passed the creek which had rose a little and the water nearly red, and bad tasted, we assended the hill to the place the canoe lay with great labour, at the canoe at which place we left some boxes & kegs of pork & flour for another load, and proceeded on with the canoe & what baggage we could draw on the wheels to willow run miles where we camped, this run mearly some water remaining in holes &c. soon after we halted we had a shower, and at dark we expereinced a most dredfull wind from off the snow mountains to the s. w. accompd. with rain which continued at intervales all night men wet. i refreshed them with a dram. killed buffalow. great nos. about [lewis, june , ] saturday june th . this morning we experienced a heavy shower of rain for about an hour after which it became fair. not having seen the large fountain of which capt. clark spoke i determined to visit it today as i could better spare this day from my attention to the boat than probably any other when the work would be further advanced; accordingly after seting the hands at their several employments i took drewyer and seet out for the fountain and passed through a level beautiful plain for about six miles when i reached the brake of the river hills here we were overtaken by a violent gust of wind and rain from the s. w. attended with thunder and litning. i expected a hail storm probably from this cloud and therefore took refuge in a little gully wher there were some broad stones with which i purposed protecting my head if we should have a repetition of the seene of the th but fortunately we had but little hail and that not large; i sat very composedly for about an hour without sheter and took a copious drenching of rain; after the shower was over i continued my rout to the fountain which i found much as capt. c; had discribed & think it may well be retained on the list of prodegies of this neighbourhood towards which, nature seems to have dealt with a liberal hand, for i have scarcely experienced a day since my first arrival in this quarter without experiencing some novel occurrence among the party or witnessing the appearance of some uncommon object. i think this fountain the largest i ever beheld, and the hadsome cascade which it affords over some steep and irregular rocks in it's passage to the river adds not a little to it's beauty. it is about yds. from the river, situated in a pretty little level plain, and has a suddon decent of about feet in one part of it's course. the water of this fountain is extreemly tranparent and cold; nor is it impregnated with lime or any other extranious matter which i can discover, but is very pure and pleasent. it's waters marke their passage as capt. clark observes for a considerable distance down the missouri notwithstanding it's rapidity and force. the water of the fountain boil up with such force near it's center that it's surface in that part seems even higher than the surrounding earth which is a firm handsom terf of fine green grass. after amusing myself about minutes in examining the fountain i found myself so chilled with my wet cloaths that i determined to return and accordingly set out; on our way to camp we found a buffaloe dead which we had shot as we came out and took a parsel of the meat to camp it was in very good order; the hump and tongue of a fat buffaloe i esteem great delicasies. on my arrival at camp i was astonished not to find the party yet arrived, but then concluded that probably the state of the praries had detained them, as in the wet state in which they are at present the mud sticks to the wheels is such manner that they are obliged to halt frequently and clense them. transaction and occurrencies which took place with capt. clark and party today. shortly after the rain which fell early this morning he found it imposseble from the state of the plains for the party to reach the upper extremity of the portage with their present load, and therefore sent back almost all of the party to bring the baggage which had been left behind yesterday. he determined himself to pass by the way of the river to camp in order to supply the deficiency of some notes and remarks which he had made as he first ascended the river but which he had unfortunately lost. accordingly he left one man at willow run to guard the baggage and took with him his black man york, sharbono and his indian woman also accompanyed capt. c. on his arrival at the falls he perceived a very black cloud rising in the west which threatened immediate rain; he looked about for a shelter but could find none without being in great danger of being blown into the river should the wind prove as violent as it sometimes is on those occasions in these plains; at length about a / of a mile above the falls he discovered a deep rivene where there were some shelving rocks under which he took shelter near the river with sharbono and the indian woman; laying their guns compass &c. under a shelving rock on the upper side of the rivene where they were perfectly secure from the rain. the first shower was moderate accompanyed by a violent rain the effects of which they did but little feel; soon after a most violent torrent of rain decended accompanyed with hail; the rain appeared to decend in a body and instantly collected in the rivene and came down in a roling torrent with irrisistable force driving rocks mud and everything before it which opposed it's passage, capt. c. fortunately discovered it a moment before it reached them and seizing his gun and shot pouch with his left hand with the right he assisted himself up the steep bluff shoving occasionaly the indian woman before him who had her child in her arms; sharbono had the woman by the hand indeavouring to pull her up the hill but was so much frightened that he remained frequently motionless and but for capt. c. both himself and his woman and child must have perished. so suddon was the rise of the water that before capt c could reach his gun and begin to ascend the bank it was up to his waist and wet his watch; and he could scarcely ascend faster than it arrose till it had obtained the debth of feet with a current tremendious to behold. one moment longer & it would have swept them into the river just above the great cataract of feet where they must have inevitably perished. sarbono lost his gun shot pouch, horn, tomahawk, and my wiping rod; capt. clark his umbrella and compas or circumferenter. they fortunately arrived on the plain safe, where they found the black man, york, in surch of them; york had seperated from them a little while before the storm, in pursuit of some buffaloe and had not seen them enter the rivene; when this gust came on he returned in surch of them & not being able to find them for some time was much allarmed. the bier in which the woman carrys her child and all it's cloaths wer swept away as they lay at her feet she having time only to grasp her child; the infant was therefore very cold and the woman also who had just recovered from a severe indisposition was also wet and cold, capt c. therefore relinquished his intended rout and returned to the camp at willow run in order also to obtain dry cloathes for himself and directed them to follow him. on capt. clark's arrival at camp he found that the party dispatched for the baggage had returned in great confusion and consternation leaving their loads in the plains; the men who were all nearly naked and no covering on the head were sorely mawled with the hail which was so large and driven with such force by the wind that it nocked many of them (town and one particulary as many as three times most of them were bleeding freely and complained of being much bruised. willow run raised about feet with this rain and the plains were so wet they could do nothing more this evening. capt. c. gave the party a dram to console them in some measure for their general defeat. [clark, june , ] junne th saltarday a little rain verry early this morning after clear, finding that the prarie was so wet as to render it impossible to pass on to the end of the portage, deturmined to send hack to the top of the hill at the creek for the remaining part of the baggage left at that place yesterday, leaveing one man to take care of the baggage at this place. i deturmined any self to proceed on to the falls and take the river, according we all set out., i took my servent & one man chabono our interpreter & his squar accompanied, soon after i arrived at the falls, i perceived a cloud which appeared black and threaten imediate rain, i looked out for a shelter but could see no place without being in great danger of being blown into the river if the wind should prove as turbelant as it is at some times about / of a mile above the falls i obsd a deep rivein in which was shelveing rocks under which we took shelter near the river and placed our guns the compass &c. &c. under a shelveing rock on the upper side of the creek, in a place which was verry secure from rain, the first shower was moderate accompanied with a violent wind, the effects of which we did not feel, soon after a torrent of rain and hail fell more violent than ever i saw before, the rain fell like one voley of water falling from the heavens and gave us time only to get out of the way of a torrent of water which was poreing down the hill in the rivin with emence force tareing every thing before it takeing with it large rocks & mud, i took my gun & shot pouch in my left hand, and with the right scrambled up the hill pushing the interpreters wife (who had her child in her arms) before me, the interpreter himself makeing attempts to pull up his wife by the hand much scared and nearly without motion--we at length retched the top of the hill safe where i found my servent in serch of us greatly agitated, for our wellfar-. before i got out of the bottom of the revein which was a flat dry rock when i entered it, the water was up to my waste & wet my watch, i scrcely got out before it raised feet deep with a torrent which turrouble to behold, and by the time i reached the top of the hill, at least feet water, i directed the party to return to the camp at the run as fast as possible to get to our lode where clothes could be got to cover the child whose clothes were all lost, and the woman who was but just recovering from a severe indispostion, and was wet and cold, i was fearfull of a relaps i caused her as also the others of the party to take a little spirits, which my servent had in a canteen, which revived verry much. on arrival at the camp on the willow run-met the party who had returned in great confusion to the run leaveing their loads in the plain, the hail & wind being so large and violent in the plains, and them naked, they were much brused, and some nearly killed one knocked down three times, and others without hats or any thing on their heads bloodey & complained verry much; i refreshed them with a little grog--soon after the run began to rise and rose feet in a few minits-. i lost at the river in the torrent the large compas, an eligant fusee, tomahawk humbrallo, shot pouh, & horn wih powder & ball, mockersons, & the woman lost her childs bear & clothes bedding &c.--the compass is a serious loss; as we have no other large one. the plains are so wet that we can do nothing this evining particilarly as two deep reveins are between ourselves & load ==================== [lewis, june , ] sunday june th . we had a heavy dew this morning which is a remarkable event. fraizer and whitehouse still continue their opperation of sewing the skins together. i set shields and gass to shaving bark and fields continued to make the cross brases. drewyer and myself rendered a considerable quantity of tallow and cooked. i begin to be extremely impatient to be off as the season is now waisting a pace nearly three months have now elapsed since we left fort mandan and not yet reached the rocky mountains i am therefore fully preswaded that we shall not reach fort mandan again this season if we even return from the ocean to the snake indians. wherever we find timber there is also beaver; drewyer killed two today. there are a number of large bat or goatsucker here i killed one of them and found that there was no difference between them and those common to the u states; i have not seen the leather winged bat for some time nor is there any of the small goatsuckers in this quarter of the country. we have not the whip-poor-will either. this last is by many persons in the u states confounded with the large goat-sucker or night-hawk as it is called in the eastern states, and are taken for the same bird. it is true that there is a great resemblance but they are distinct species of the goatsucker. here the one exists without the other. the large goat sucker lays it's eggs in these open plains without the preperation of a nest we have found their eggs in several instances they lay only two before they set nor do i beleive that they raise more than one brood in a season; they have now just hatched their young.--this evening the bark was shaved and the leather covering for the sections were also completed and i had them put into the water, in order to toughen the bark, and prepare the leather for sewing on the sections in the morning. it has taken elk skins and buffaloe skins to complete her. the crossbars are also finished this evening; we have therefore only the way strips now to obtain in order to complete the wood work, and this i fear will be a difficult task. the party have not returned from the lower camp i am therefore fearfull that some uncommon accedent has happened. occurrences with capt. clark and party this morning capt. clark dispatched two men to kill some buffaloe, two others to the falls to surch for the articles lost yesterday, one he retained to cook and sent the others for the baggage left in the plains yesterday. the hunters soon returned loaded with meat those sent for the baggage brought it up in a few hours, he then set four men at work to make axeltrees and repare the carrages; the others he employed in conveying the baggage over the run on their sholders it having now fallent to about feet water. the men complained much today of the bruises and wounds which they had received yesterday from the hail. the two men sent to the falls returned with the compas which they found covered in the mud and sand near the mouth of the rivene the other articles were irrecoverably lost. they found that part of rivene in; which capt. c. had been seting yesterday, filled with huge rocks. at a.m. capt. clark dispatched the party with a load of the baggage as far as the miles stake, with orders to deposit it there and return with the carriages which they did accordingly. they experienced a heavy gust of wind this evening from the s. w. after which it was a fair afternoon. more buffaloe than usual were seen about their camp; capt. c assured me that he beleives he saw at least ten thousand at one view. [clark, june , ] june th sunday . a fair morning, i dispatch the party except for the remaining baggage scattered in the plains, two to hunt for meat, two to the falls, and one to cook at oclock the hunters came in loaded with fat meat, & those were dispatched for the baggage returned with it. i set men to make new axeltrees & repare the carrages, others to take the load across the run which had fallen & is about feet water, men complain of being swore this day dull and lolling about, the two men dispatched in serch of the articls lost yesterday returned and brought the compass which they found in the mud & stones near the mouth of the revein, no other articles found, the place i sheltered under filled up with hugh rocks, i set the party out at oclock to take a load to the mile stake & return this evening, and i intend to take on the ballance to the river tomorrow if the prarie will permit. at oclock a storm of wind from the s. w. after which we had a clear evening. great numbers of buffalow in every direction, i think , may be seen in a view. [lewis, july , ] monday july st . this morning i set frazier and whitehouse to sewing the leather on the sides of the sections of the boat; shields and j. fields to collect and split light wood and prepare a pit to make tar. gas i set at work to make the way strips out of some willow limbs which tho indifferent were the best which could be obtained. drewyer and myself completed the opperation of rendering the tallow; we obtained about lbs. by evening the skins were all attatched to their sections and i returned them again to the water. all matters were now in readiness to commence the opperation of puting the parts of the boat together in the morning. the way strips are not yet ready but will be done in time as i have obtained the necessary timber. the difficulty in obtaining the necessary materials has retarded my operations in forming this boat extreemly tedious and troublesome; and as it was a novel peice of machinism to all who were employed my constant attention was necessary to every part of the work; this together with the duties of cheif cook has kept me pretty well employed. at p.m. capt. clark arrived with the party all very much fortiegued. he brought with him all the baggage except what he had deposited yesterday at the six mile stake, for which the party were too much fortiegued to return this evening. we gave them a dram and suffered them to rest from their labours this evening. i directed bratton to assist in making the tar tomorrow, and scelected several others to assist in puting the boat together. the day has been warm and the musquetoes troublesome of course the bear were about our camp all last night, we have therefore determined to beat up their quarters tomorrow, and kill them or drive them from their haunts about this place. [clark, july , ] white bear islands above the falls of the missouri july st monday i arrived at this place to day at oclock p.m. with the party from the lower part of the portage much fatigued &c. [clark, july , ] july st monday . we set out early this morning with the remaining load, and proceeded on verry well to capt lewis's camp where we arrived at oclock, the day worm and party much fatigued, found capt. lewis and party all buisey employd in fitting up the iron boat, the wind hard from the s, w,--one man verry unwell, his legs & theis broke out and swelled the hail which fell at capt. lewis camp ins was inches in circumfrance & waied ounces, fortunately for us it was not so large in the plains, if it had we should most certainly fallen victims to its rage as the men were mostly naked, and but few with hats or any covering on their heads, the hunters killed white bear one large, the fore feet of which measured inchs across, the hind feet inchs / long & inch's wide a bear nearly catching joseph fields chased him into the water, bear about the camp every night & seen on an isld. in the day [lewis, july , ] tuesday july cd a shower of rain fell very early this morning after which we dispatched the men for the remaining baggage at the mile stake. shields and bratton seting their tarkiln, sergts. pryor and gass at work on the waystrips and myself and all other hands engaged in puting the boat together which we accomplished in about hours and i then set four men at work sewing the leather over the cross bars of iron on the inner side of the boat, which form the ends of the sections. about p.m. the party returned with the baggage, all well pleased that they had completed the laborious task of the portage. the musquetoes uncommonly troublesome the wind hard from the s. w. all day i think it possible that these almost perpetual s. w. winds proceede from the agency of the snowey mountains and the wide level and untimbered plains which streach themselves along their bases for an immence distance (i e) that the air comeing in contact with the snow is suddonly chilled and condenced, thus becoming heaver than the air beneath in the plains, it glides down the sides of these mountains & decends to the plains, where by the constant action of the sun on the face of an untimbered country there is a partial vacuum formed for it's reception. i have observed that the winds from this quarter are always the coldest and most violent which we experience, yet i am far from giving full credit to my own hypothesis on this subject; if hoever i find on the opposite side of these mountains that the winds take a contrary direction i shall then have more faith. after i had completed my observation of equal altitudes today capt. clark myself and men passed over to the large island to hunt bear. the brush in that part of it where the bear frequent is an almost impenetrable thicket of the broad leafed willow; this brush we entered in small parties of or four together and surched in every part. we found one only which made at drewyer and he shot him in the brest at the distance of about feet, the ball fortunately passed through his heart, the stroke knocked the bear down and gave drewyer time to get out of his sight; the bear changed his course we pursued him about a hundred yards by the blood and found him dead; we surched the thicket in every part but found no other, and therefore returned. this was a young male and would weigh about lbs. the water of the missouri here is in most places about feet deep. after our return, in moving some of the baggage we caught a large rata it was somewhat larger than the common european rat, of lighter colour; the body and outer part of the legs and head of a light lead colour, the belly and inner side of the legs white as were also the feet and years. the toes were longer and the ears much larger than the common rat; the ears uncovered with hair. the eyes were black and prominent the whiskers very long and full. the tail was reather longer than the body and covered with fine fur or poil of the same length and colour of the back. the fur was very silkey close and short. i have frequently seen the nests of these rats in clifts of rocks and hollow trees but never before saw one of them. they feed very much on the fruit and seed of the prickly pear; or at least i have seen large quantities of the hulls of that fruit lying about their holes and in their nests. [clark, july , ] july nd tuesday some rain at day light this morning. dispatched the party for the remaining baggage left at the mile stake, they returned in the evening and we crossed to a large island nearly opposit to us to kill bear which has been seen frequently in the island, we killed one bear & returned at sun set. the roreing of the falls for maney miles above us [clark, july , ] july nd tuesday some rain at day light this morn'g after which a fair morning, dispatched the men for the kegs &c. left at the six mile stake, others to get timber for the boat &c. musquetors verry troublesom to day, day worm, after the return of the men with the articles left at the mile stake capt. lewis my self & men crossed to an island on which we saw a bear the evening before, & several had been seen by the party at this place, we killed one of the bear and returned. the river at this place is ____ yards wide and about feet water cought a rat in our stores, which had done some mischief, this rat was about the sise of a comn. large rat, larger ears, long whiskers & toes, with a tail long & hairey like a ground squirel, verry fine fur and lighter than the common rat. wind to day as usial from the s. w. and hard all the after part of the day, those winds are also cool and generally verry hard. [lewis, july , ] wednesday july rd . this morning early we employed all hands; some were making tar or attempting to make it, others were attatching the skins on the boat, other cuting and fiting the bark for lining puting in the woodworke &c some hunters were sent out to kill buffaloe in order to make pemecon to take with us and also for their skins which we now want to cover our baggage in the boat and canoes when we depart from hence. the indians have informed us that we should shortly leave the buffaloe country after passing the falls; this i much regret for i know when we leave the buffaloe that we shal sometimes be under the necessity of fasting occasionally. and at all events the white puddings will be irretreivably lost and sharbono out of imployment. our tar-kiln which ought to have began to run this morning has yealded no tar as yet and i am much affraid will not yeald any, if so i fear the whole opperation of my boat will be useless. i fear i have committed another blunder also in sewing the skins with a nedle which has sharp edges these have cut the skin and as it drys i discover that the throng dose not fill the holes as i expected tho i made them sew with a large throng for that purpose. at ock a.m. we had a slight shower which scarcely wet the grass. one buffaloe only and antelopes killed today six beaver and otter have been killed within the last three days. the current of the river looks so gentle and inviting that the men all seem anxious to be moving upward as well as ourselves. we have got the boat prety well forward today and think we shall be able to complete her tomorrow except paying her, to do which will require some little time to make her first perfectly dry. she has assumed her shape and looks extreemly well. she will be very light, more so than any vessel of her size that i ever saw. [clark, july , ] july rd wednesday all of party employd in sowing the skins to the boat, burning tare, preparing timber, hunting buffalow for their meat & skins, drying & repacking the stores, goods &c. &c. at oclock began to rain. in the evening the hunters killed two antilopes & a buffalow. [clark, july , ] july rd wednesday a fine morning wind from the s. w all the party employd, some about the boat, attaching the skins & sowing them to the sections, others prepareing timber, some, burning tar of the drift pine, some airring and repacking the stores & goods, & others hunting for meet to make pemitigon & for the use of their skins to cover the canoes & boat,-. a small shower at oclock which did scercely wet the grass-. one buffalow and two antilopes killed this evening. six beaver & orters has been killed at this camp within a fiew days we discover no fish above the falls as yet--the only timber in this part of the countrey is willow, a fiew cotton trees which is neither large nor tall, boxalders and red wood. (boil roche arrow wood) the water tolerably clear and soft in the river, current jentle and bottoms riseing from the water; no appearance of the river riseing more than a few feet above the falls, as high up as we have yet explored. but few trees on the std side the grass is high and fine near the river. the winds has blown for several days from the s. w. i think it possible that those almost perpetial s w. winds, proceed from the agency of the snowey mountains and the wide leavel and untimbered plains which streach themselves along their borders for an emence distance, that the air comeing in contact with the snow is suddenly chilled and condensed, thus becomeing heavyer than the air beneath in the plains it glides down the sides of those mountains and decends to the plains, where by the constant action of the sun on the face of the untimbered country there is a partial vacuom formed for it's reception i have observed that the winds from this quarter is always the coaldest and most violent which we experience, yet i am far from giveing full credit to this hypothesis on this subject; if i find however on the opposit side of these mountains that the winds take a contrary direction i shall then have full faith. (the winds take a contrary direction in the morning or from the mountains on the west side) [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . yesterday we permitted sergt. gass mcneal and several others who had not yet seen the falls to visit them. no appearance of tar yet and i am now confident that we shall not be able to obtain any; a serious misfortune. i employed a number of hands on the boat today and by p.m. in the evening completed her except the most difficult part of the work that of making her seams secure. i had her turned up and some small fires kindled underneath to dry her. capt. c. completed a draught of the river from fort mandan to this place which we intend depositing at this place in order to guard against accedents. not having seen the snake indians or knowing in fact whether to calculate on their friendship or hostility or friendship we have conceived our party sufficiently small and therefore have concluded not to dispatch a canoe with a part of our men to st. louis as we had intended early in the spring. we fear also that such a measure might possibly discourage those who would in such case remain, and might possibly hazzard the fate of the expedition. we have never once hinted to any one of the party that we had such a scheme in contemplation, and all appear perfectly to have made up their minds to suceed in the expedition or purish in the attempt. we all beleive that we are now about to enter on the most perilous and difficult part of our voyage, yet i see no one repining; all appear ready to met those difficulties which wait us with resolution and becoming fortitude. we had a heavy dew this morning. the clouds near these mountains rise suddonly and discharge their contents partially on the neighbouring plains; the same cloud will discharge hail alone in one part hail and rain in another and rain only in a third all within the space of a few miles; and on the mountains to the s. e. of us sometimes snow. at present there is no snow on those mountains; that which covered them when we first saw them and which has fallen on them several times since has all disappeared. the mountains to the n. w. & w. of us are still entirely covered are white and glitter with the reflection of the sun. i do not beleive that the clouds which prevail at this season of the year reach the summits of those lofty mountains; and if they do the probability is that they deposit snow only for there has been no perceptible deminution of the snow which they contain since we first saw them. i have thought it probable that these mountains might have derived their appellation of shining mountains, from their glittering appearance when the sun shines in certain directions on the snow which covers them. since our arrival at the falls we have repeatedly witnessed a nois which proceeds from a direction a little to the n. of west as loud and resembling precisely the discharge of a piece of ordinance of pounds at the distance of three miles. i was informed of it by the men several times before i paid any attention to it, thinking it was thunder most probably which they had mistaken at length walking in the plains the other day i heard this noise very distictly, it was perfectly calm clear and not a cloud to be seen, i halted and listened attentively about an hour during which time i heard two other discharges and tok the direction of the sound with my pocket compass. i have no doubt but if i had leasure i could find from whence it issued. i have thout it probable that it might be caused by runing water in some of the caverns of those immence mountains, on the principal of the blowing caverns; but in such case the sounds would be periodical & regular, which is not the case with this, being sometimes heard once only and at other times, six or seven discharges in quick succession. it is heard also at different seasons of the day and night. i am at a loss to account for this phenomenon. our work being at an end this evening, we gave the men a drink of sperits, it being the last of our stock, and some of them appeared a little sensible of it's effects the fiddle was plyed and they danced very merrily untill in the evening when a heavy shower of rain put an end to that part of the amusement tho they continued their mirth with songs and festive jokes and were extreemly merry untill late at night. we had a very comfortable dinner, of bacon, beans, suit dumplings & buffaloe beaf &c. in short we had no just cause to covet the sumptuous feasts of our countrymen on this day.--one elk and a beaver were all that was killed by the hunters today; the buffaloe seem to have withdrawn themselves from this neighbourhood; tho the men inform us that they are still abundant about the falls. [clark, july , ] ,july the th thursday a fine morning, a heavy dew last night, all hands employed in completeing the leather boat, gave the party a dram which made several verry lively, a black cloud came up from the s. w, and rained a fiew drops i employ my self drawing a copy of the river to be left at this place for fear of some accident in advance, i have left buried below the falls a map of the countrey below fort mandan with sundery private papers the party amused themselves danceing untill late when a shower of rain broke up the amusement, all lively and chearfull, one elk and a beaver kill'd to day. our tar kill like to turn out nothing from the following cause. the climate about the falls of missouri appears to be singular cloudy every day (since our arrival near them) which rise from defferent directions and discharge themselves partially in the plains & mountains, in some places rain others rain & hail, hail alone, and on the mountains in some parts snow. a rumbling like cannon at a great distance is heard to the west if us; the cause we can't account [lewis, july , ] friday july th . this morning i had the boat removed to an open situation, scaffold her off the ground, turned her keel to the sun and kindled fires under her to dry her more expeditiously. i then set a couple of men to pounding of charcoal to form a composition with some beeswax which we have and buffaloe tallow now my only hope and resource for paying my boat; i sincerely hope it may answer yet i fear it will not. the boat in every other rispect completely answers my most sanguine expectation; she is not yet dry and eight men can carry her with the greatest ease; she is strong and will carry at least , lbs. with her suit of hands; her form is as complete as i could wish it. the stitches begin to gape very much since she has began to dry; i am now convinced this would not have been the case had the skins been sewed with a sharp point only and the leather not cut by the edges of a sharp nedle. about a m. a large herd of buffaloe came near our camp and capt. clark with a party of the hunters indeavoured to get a shoot at them but the wind proved unfavourable and they ran off; the hunters pursued and killed three of them; we had most of the meat brought in and set a party to drying it. their skins were all brought in and streached to dry for the purpose of covering the baggage. wolves and three antelopes also killed today. we permitted three other men to visit the falls today; these were the last of the party who had not as yet indulged themselves with this grand and interesting seen. the buffaloe again appear in great numbers about our camp and seem to be moving down the river. it is somewhat remarkable that altho you may see ten or a douzen herds of buffaloe distinctly scattered and many miles distant yet if they are undisturbed by pursuit, they will all be traveling in one direction. the men who were permitted to visit the falls today returned in the evening and reported that the buffaloe were very numerous in that quarter; and as the country is more broken near the river in that quarter we conclude to dispatch a couple of canoes tomorrow with some hunters to kill as many as will answer our purposes. the plains in this part of the country are not so fertile as below the entrance of the cockkle or missel shell river and from thence down the missouri there is also much more stone on the sides of the hills and on the broken lands than below.- [clark, july , ] july th friday a fine morning and but little wind, worm and sultrey at oclock--i saw a large gangue of buffalow and prosued them with several men the wind was unfavourable and we could not get near them, the party scattered & killed buffalow and brought in their skins and some meat, killed wolves & antilopes for their skins, capt. lewis much engaged in completeing the leather boat. three men went to see the falls, saw great numbers of buffalow on both sides of the river. great numbers of young black birds [lewis, july , ] saturday july th in the couse of last night had several showers of hail and rain attended with thunder and lightning. about day a heavy storm came on from the s w attended with hail rain and a continued roar of thunder and some lightning. the hail was as large as musket balls and covered the ground perfectly. we hand some of it collected which kept very well through the day and served to cool our water. these showers and gusts keep my boat wet in dispite of my exertions. she is not yet ready for the grease and coal. after the hail and rain was over this morning we dispatched hunters and two canoes to the head of the rappids as we had determined last evening. the red and yellow courants are now ripe and abundant, they are reather ascid as yet. there is a remarkable small fox which ascociate in large communities and burrow in the praries something like the small wolf but we have not as yet been able to obtain one of them; they are extreemly watchfull and take reffuge in their burrows which are very deep; we have seen them no where except near these falls. [clark, july , ] july th satturday a heavy wind from the s w and some rain about mid night last, at day light this morning a verry black cloud from the s w, with a contined rore of thunder & some lightening and rained and hailed tremendiously for about / an hour, the hail was the size of a musket ball and covered the ground. this hail & rain was accompand. by a hard wind which lasted for a fiew minits. cloudy all the forepart of the day, after part clear. dispatched men in canoes to the falls, to kill buffalow, for their skins & meat others employd about the boat, i cought some small fish this evening. [lewis, july , ] sunday july th . the weather warm and cloudy therefore unfavourable for many operations; i keep small fires under the boat; the blowing flies are innumerable about it; the moisture retained by the bark prevents it from drying as fast as it otherwise would. we dispatched two other hunters to kill elk or buffaloe for their skins to cover our baggage. we have no tents; the men are therefore obliged to have recourse to the sails for shelter from the weather and we have not more skins than are sufficient to cover our baggage when stoed away in bulk on land. many of the men are engaged in dressing leather to cloath themselves. their leather cloathes soon become rotton as they are much exposed to the water and frequently wet. capt. clarks black man york is very unwell today and he gave him a doze of tartar emettic which operated very well and he was much better in the evening. this is a discription of medecine that i nevr have recourse to in my practice except in cases of the intermittent fever. this evening the hunters returned with the canoes and brought thre buffaloe skins only and two antelope deer and three wolf skins; they reported that the buffaloe had gone further down the river. the two hunters whom we sent out from hence returned also without having killed anything except one elk. i set one of the party at work to make me some sacks of the wolf skins, to transport my instruments when occasion requirs their being carried any distance by land.--we had a light shower of rain about p.m. attended with some thunder and lightning. one beaver caught this morning. the musquetoes are excessively troublesome to us. i have prepared my composition which i should have put on this evening but the rain prevented me. [clark, july , ] july th sunday a warm day wind from the s. w cloudy as usial, the four men hunters did not return last night. dispatched men to kill elk for the use of their skin for the boat. my man york sick, i give him a dosh of tarter. some rain in the after part of the day in the evining the hunters returned with three buffalow skins two goat skins, four deer skins, two deer, & wolve skins, to be used in covering the boat canoes & to make mockersons, one elk also killed to day [lewis, july , ] monday july th . capt. clark determined to make a second effort to replace the notes which he had made with rispect to the river and falls accordingly he set out after an early breakfast and took with him the greater part of the men with a view also to kill buffaloe should there be any in that quarter. after geting some distance in the plains he divided the party and sent them in different directions and himself and two others struck the missouri at the entrance of medicine river and continued down it to the great cataract, from whence he returned through the plains to camp where he arrived late in the evening. the hunters also returned having killed buffaloe antelopes and a deer. he informed me that the immence herds of buffaloe which we had seen for some time past in this neighbourhood have almost entirely disappeared and he beleives are gone down the river. the day being warm and fair about ock. the boat was sufficiently dry to receive a coat of the composition which i accordingly applyed. this adds very much to her appearance whether it will be effectual or not. it gives her hull the appearance of being formed of one solid piece. after the first coat had cooled i gave her a second which i think has made it sufficiently thick. the mountains which ly before us from the south, to the n. w. still continue covered with snow. one hunter also passed the river to hunt this morning in the evening he returned having killed a buck and a male antelope. the party who were down with capt. clark also killed a small fox which they brought with them. it was a female appeared to give suck, otherwise it is so much like the comm small fox of this country commonly called the kit fox that i should have taken it for a young one of that species; however on closer examination it did apear to differ somewhat; it's colour was of a lighter brown, it's years proportionably larger, and the tale not so large or the hair not so long which formed it. they are very delicately formed, exceedingly fleet, and not as large as the common domestic cat. their tallons appear longer than any species of fox i ever saw and seem therefore prepared more amply by nature for the purpose of burrowing. there is sufficient difference for discrimination between it and the kit fox, and to satisfy me perfectly that it is a distinct species. the men also brought me a living ground squirrel which is something larger than those of the u states or those of that kind which are also common here. this is a much hadsomer anamal. like the other it's principal colour is a redish brown but is marked longitudinally with a much greater number of black or dark bron stripes; the spaces between which is marked by ranges of pure white circular spots, about the size of a brister blue shot. these colours imbrace the head neck back and sides; the tail is flat, or the long hair projecting horizontally from two sides of it only gives it that appearance. the belly and breast are of much lighter brown or nearly white. this is an inhabitant of the open plain altogether, wher it burrows and resides; nor is it like the other found among clifts of rocks or in the woodlands. their burrows sometimes like those of the mole run horizontally near the surface of the ground for a considerable distance, but those in which they reside or take refuge strike much deeper in the earth.--slight rain this afternoon. musquetoes troublesome as usual. [clark, july , ] july th monday a worm morning flying clouds i deturmin take the width of the river at the falls & the medison river and to take the greater part of the men which can be speared to kill buffalow for their skins as well as meat, devided the party & sent them in different directions to hunt & proceeded my self to the mouth of medison river measured it and found it to be yards wide, in the narrowest part of the missouri imediately above medison river the missouri is yards wide, below and a little above the falls yards wide with the direction of the upper great fall yards wide, at the great spring yards wide, at the handsom falls of ft. i. the river is yards wide, at the lower great falls the river is confined within yards, below the falls the water occupies yards only--after takeing the wedth of the river at those sundery placies i returned thro the plains in a direct line to camp. some rain this evening after a verry hot day.--the mountains which are in view to the south & n w. are covered with snow. those nearer us and forma / circle around us is not covered with snow at this time. the hunters killed buffalow, two antelopes, & a deer to day--the emence herds of buffalow which was near us a fiew days ago, has proceeded on down the river, we can see but a fiew bulls in the plains [lewis, july , ] tuesday july th . the morning was fair and pleant. the islands seem crouded with blackbirds; the young brude is now completely feathered and flying in common with the others. we corked the canoes and put them in the water and also launched the boat, she lay like a perfect cork on the water. five men would carry her with the greatest ease. i now directed seats to be fixed in her and oars to be fitted. the men loaded the canoes in readiness to depart. just at this moment a violent wind commenced and blew so hard that we were obliged to unload the canoes again; a part of the baggage in several of them got wet before it could be taken out. the wind continued violent untill late in the evening, by which time we discovered that a greater part of the composition had seperated from the skins and left the seams of the boat exposed to the water and she leaked in such manner that she would not answer. i need not add that this circumstance mortifyed me not a little; and to prevent her leaking without pich was impossible with us, and to obtain this article was equally impossible, therefore the evil was irraparable i now found that the section formed of the buffaloe hides on which some hair had been left, answered much the best purpose; this leaked but little and the parts which were well covered with hair about / th of an inch in length retained the composition perfectly and remained sound and dry. from these circumstances i am preswaided, that had i formed her with buffaloe skins singed not quite as close as i had done those i employed, that she would have answered even with this composition. but to make any further experiments in our present situation seemed to me madness; the buffaloe had principally dserted us, and the season was now advancing fast. i therefore relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat and ordered her to be sunk in the water, that the skins might become soft in order the better to take her in peices tomorrow and deposite the iron fraim at this place as it could probably be of no further service to us. had i only singed my elk skins in stead of shaving them i beleive the composition would have remained and the boat have answered; at least untill we could have reached the pine country which must be in advance of us from the pine which is brought down by the water and which is probably at no great distance where we might have supplyed ourselves with the necessary pich or gum. but it was now too late to introduce a remidy and i bid a dieu to my boat, and her expected services.--the next difficulty which presented itself was how we should convey the stores and baggage which we had purposed carrying in the boat. both capt. clark and myself recollected having heard the hunters mention that the bottoms of the river some few miles above us were much better timbered than below and that some of the trees were large. the idea therefore suggested itself of building two other canoes sufficiently large to carry the surplus baggage. on enquiry of the hunters it seemed to be the general opinion that trees sufficiently a large for this purpose might be obtained in a bottom on the opposite side about miles distant by land and reather more than double that distance by water; accordingly capt. clark determined to set out early in the morning with ten of the best workmen and proceede by land to that place while the others would in the mean time be employed by myself in taking the boat in peices and depositing her, together with the articles which we had previously determined to deposit at this place, and also in trasporting all the baggage up the river to that point in the six small canoes. this plan being settled between us orders were accordingly given to the party, and the ten men who were to accompany capt. clark had ground and prepared their axes and adds this evening in order to prepare for an early departure in the morning. we have on this as well as on many former occasions found a small grindstone which i brought with me from harper's ferry extreemly convenient to us. if we find trees at the place mentioned sufficiently large for our purposes it will be extreemly fortunate; for we have not seen one for many miles below the entrance of musselshell river to this place, which would have answered.- [clark, july , ] july th tuesday a clear worm morning wind from the s w. lanced the leather boat, and found that it leaked a little; corked lanced & loaded the canoes, hurried our truk wheels, & made a carsh for a skin & a fiew papers i intend to leave here on trial found the leather boat would not answer without the addition of tar which we had none of, haveing substituted cole & tallow in its place to stop the seams &c. which would not answer as it seperated from the skins when exposed to the water and left the skins naked & seams exposed to the water this falire of our favourate boat was a great disapointment to us, we haveing more baggage than our canoes would carry. concluded to build canoes for to carry them; no timber near our camp. i deturmined to proceed on up the river to a bottom in which our hunters reported was large trees &c. [lewis, july , ] wednesday july th . capt. clark set out with his party early this morning and passed over to the opposite side. after which i dispatched sergt. ordway with canoes and men to take up a load of baggage as far as capt. clark's camp and return for the remainder of our plunder. with six others i now set to work on my boat, which had been previously drawn out of the water before the men departed, and in two hours had her fraim in readiness to be deposited. had a cash dug and deposited the fraim of the boat, some papers and a few other trivial articles of but little importance. the wind blew very hard the greater part of the day. i also had the truck wheels buried in the pit which had been made to hold the tar. having nothing further to do i amused myself in fishing and caught a few small fish; they were of the species of white chub mentioned below the falls, tho they are small and few in number. i had thought on my first arrival here that there were no fish in this part of the river. capt. clark proceeded up the river miles by land (distance by water / ) and found trees of cottonwood and cut them down; one proved to be hollow and split in falling at the upper part and was somewhat windshaken at bottom; the other proved to be much windshaken. he surched the bottom for better but could not find any he therefore determined to make canoes of those which he had fallen; and to contract their length in such manner as to clear the craks and the worst of the windsken parts making up the deficiency by allowing them to be as wide as the trees would permit. they were much at a loss for wood to make axhandles. the chokecherry is the best we can procure for this purpose and of that wood they made and broke thir handles in the course of this part of a day. had the eyes of our axes been round they would have answered this country much better. the musquetoes were very troublesome to them as well as ourselves today. sergt. ordway proceeded up the river about miles when the wind became so violent that he was obliged to ly by untill late in the evening when he again set out with the canoes and arrived within miles of capt. clark's camp where he halted for the night. about five miles above whitebear camp there are two islands in the river covered with cottonwood box alder and some sweet willow also the undergrowth like that of the islands at this place.- [clark, july , ] july th wednesday a fair windey day wind hard the most of the day from the s. w.rained modderately all last night (by showers) we dispatched serjt. ordway with canoes loaded & men by water to assend as high as i should have found timber for canoes & formed a camp;-. i set out with sergt. pryor four choppers two involids & one man to hunt, crossed to the std. side and proceeded on up the river miles by land (distance by water / ms.) and found two trees which i thought would make canoes, had them fallen, one of them proved to be hollow & split at one end & verry much win shaken at the other, the other much win shaken, we serched the bottoms for better trees and made a trial of several which proved to be more indifferent. i deturmined to make canoes out of the two first trees we had fallen, to contract thir length so as to clear the hollow & winshakes, & ad to the width as much as the tree would allow. the musquitors emencely noumerous & troublesom, killed two deer & a goat. the canoes did not arrive as i expected, owing to the hard wind which blew a head in maney places. we ar much at a loss for wood to make ax hilthes, hath been made & broken in this piece of a day by the four choppers, no other wood but cotton box elder choke cherry and red arrow wood. we substitute the cherry in place of hickory for ax hilthes ram rods, &c. &c. [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . we had now nothing to do but wait for the canoes; as they had not returned i sent out some of the small party with me to hunt; in the evening they returned with a good quantity of the flesh of a fat buffaloe which they had killed. the canoes not arrived this evening. i saw several very large grey eagles today they are a half as large again as the common bald eagle of this country. i do not think the bald eagle here qute so large as those of the u states; the grey eagle is infinitely larger and is no doubt a distinct species. this evening a little before the sun set i heared two other discharges of this unaccounable artillery of the rocky mountains proceeding from the same quarter that i had before heard it. i now recollected the minnetares making mention of the nois which they had frequently heard in the rocky mountains like thunder; and which they said the mountains made; but i paid no attention to the information supposing it either false or the fantom of a supersticious immagination. i have also been informed by the engages that the panis and ricaras give the same account of the black mountains which lye west of them. this phenomenon the philosophy of the engages readily accounts for; they state it to be the bursting of the rich mines of silver which these mountains contain. this morning capt. clark dispatched bratton to meet the canoes which were detained by the wind to get a couple of axes. he obtained the axes and returned in about two hours. this man has been unable to work for several days in consequence of a whitlow on one of his fingers; a complaint which has been very common among the men. one of the canoes arrived at capt. clarks camp about a.m. this he had unloaded and set a few miles up the river for a buffaloe which had been killed, the party sent killed another in thir rout and brought in the flesh and skins of both they were in good order; his hunters had also killed two deer and an antelope yesterday. the three other canoes did not arrive untill late in the evening in consequence of the wind and the fear of weting their loads which consisted of articles much more liable to be injured by moisture than those which composed the load of that which arrived in the morning. capt. c. had the canoes unloaded and ordered them to float down in the course of the night to my camp, but the wind proved so high after night that they were obliged to put too about miles above and remain untill morning. capt. c. kept the party with him busily engaged at the canoes. his hunters killed and brought in three very fat deer this evening. [clark, july , ] july th thursday a fair windey morning wind s. w. i dispatch w bratten (who cannot work he haveing a turner rising on his finger) to meat the canoes & bring from them two axes, which is necessary for the work at the perogues or canoes, and is indespenceable he returned in about two hours & informed that one canoe was within three miles, about oclock the canoe which bratten left arrived haveing killed a buffalow on the river above our camp, at which place the bend of the river below & that above is about mile apart, i dispatched serjt. pryor with men in the canoe to get the meat they killed another buffalow near the one killed and brought the meat of both down. at sunset the remaining canoes arrived unloaded & returned imeadeately with orders to flote down to camp at the portage to night for the purpose of takeing up the remaining baggage. musquitors verry troublesom, and in addition to their torments we have a small knat, which is as disagreeable, our hunter killed deer to day one of them verry fat. all the men with me engaged about the canoes hunting &c. &. [lewis, july , ] friday july th . the canoes not having arrived and the wind still high i dispatched sergt. gass with three men to join capt. clark and assist in completing the canoes retaining only a few who in addition to those in the canoes that i expect every moment, will be sufficient to man the six canoes and take up all the baggage we have here at one load. i feel excessively anxious to be moving on. the canoes were detained by the wind untill p.m. when they set out and arrived at this place so late that i thought it best to detain them untill morning. bratton came down today for a cople of axes which i sent by him; he returned immediately. sergt. gass and party joined capt. clark at a.m. capt. c. kept all the men with him busily engaged some in drying meat, others in hunting, and as many as could be employed about the canoes. segt. pryor got his sholder dislocated yesterday, it was replaced immediately and is likely to do him but little injury; it is painfull to him today. the hunters with capt. c. killed three deer and two otter today. the otter are now plenty since the water has become sufficiently clear for them to take fish. the blue crested fisher, or as they are sometimes called the kingfisher, is an inhabitant of this part of the country; this bird is very rare on the missouri; i have not seen more than three or four of those birds during my voyage from the entrance of the missouri to the mouth of maria's river and those few were reather the inhabitants of streams of clerer water which discharged themselves into the missouri than of that river, as they were seen about the entrances of such streams. musquetoes extreemly troublesome to me today nor is a large black knat less troublesome, which dose not sting, but attacks the eye in swarms and compells us to brush them off or have our eyes filled with them. i made the men dry the ballance of the freshe meet which we had abot the camp amounting to about lbs. [clark, july , ] july th friday a fair windey morning wind from the s. w. all hands at work at day light some at the canoes, & others drying meat for our voyage- dispatched w. brattin to the lower camp for two axes which are necessary to carry on our work at this place &. serjt. pryors sholder was put out of place yesterday carrying meat and is painfull to day. wind hard all day dispatched hunters, they returnd in the evening with three deer & orters. four men arrived from the lower camp by land to assist at this place in building the canoes &c. musquitors & knats verry troublesom all day. a fiew wild pigions about our camp. [lewis, july , ] saturday july th . this morning being calm and clear i had the remainder of our baggage embarked in the six small canoes and maned them with two men each. i now bid a cheerfull adue to my camp and passed over to the opposite shore. baptiest la page one of the men whom i had reserved to man the canoes being sick i sent charbono in his stead by water and the sick man and indian woman accompanyed me by land. from the head of the white bear islands i passed in a s. w. direction and struck the missouri at miles and continued up it to capt. clark's camp where i arrived about a.m. and found them busily engaged with their canoes meat &c. in my way i passed a very extraordinary indian lodge, or at least the fraim of one; it was formed of sixteen large cottonwood poles each about fifty feet long and at their larger end which rested on the ground as thick as a man's body; these were arranged in a circular manner at bottom and equally distributed except the omission of one on the east side which i suppose was the entrance to the lodge; the upper part of the poles are united in a common point above and secured with large wyths of willow brush. in the center of this fabric there was the remains of a large fire; and about the place the marks of about leather lodges. i know not what was the intention or design of such a lodge but certain i am that it was not designed for a dwelling of anyone family. it was feet in circumpherence at the base. it was most probably designed for some great feast, or a council house on some great national concern. i never saw a similar one nor do the nations lower down the missouri construct such. the canoes and party with sergt. ordway poceeded up the river about miles when the wind became so violent that two of the canoes shiped a considerable quanty of water and they were compelled to put too take out the baggage to dry and clense the canoes of the water. about p.m. the wind abated and they came on about miles further and encamped. i saw a number of turtledoves and some pigeons today. of the latter i shot one; they are the same common to the united states, or the wild pigeon as they are called. nothing remarkable in the appearance of the country; the timber entirely confined to the river and the country back on either side as far as the eye can reach entirely destitute of trees or brush. the timber is larger and more abundant in the bottom in which we now are than i have seen it on the missouri for many hundred miles. the current of the river is still extreemly gentle. the hunters killed three buffaloe today which were in good order. the flesh was brought in dryed the skins wer also streached for covering our baggage. we eat an emensity of meat; it requires deer, an elk and a deer, or one buffaloe, to supply us plentifully hours. meat now forms our food prinsipally as we reserve our flour parched meal and corn as much as possible for the rocky mountains which we are shortly to enter, and where from the indhan account game is not very abundant. i preserved specemines of several small plants to day which i have never before seen. the musquetoes and knats are more troublesome here if possible than they were at the white bear islands. i sent a man to the canoes for my musquetoe bier which i had neglected to bring with me, as it is impossible to sleep a moment without being defended against the attacks of these most tormenting of all insects; the man returned with it a little after dark. [clark, july , ] july th saturday . a fair calm morning, verry cool before day--we were visited by a buffalow bull who came within a fiew steps of one of the canoes the men were at work. capt. lewis one man &c. arrived over land at oclock, the wind rose and blew hard from the s. e. the greater part of the day both canoes finished all to corking & fixing ores &c. &c. the hunters killed buffalow the most of all the meat i had dried for to make pemitigon. the musquetors & knats verry troublesom all day & night [lewis, july , ] sunday july th . this morning was calm fair and warm; the musquetoes of course troublesome. all hands that could work were employed about the canoes. which we completed and launched this evening. the one was feet and the other feet in length and about feet wide. we have now the seats and oars to make and fit &c. i walked out today and ascended the bluffs which are high rockey and steep; i continued my rout about / when i gained a conspicuous eminence about mes. distant from the river a little below the entrance of fort mountain creek. from this place i had a commanding view of the country and took the bearings of the following places. (viz) to the point at which the missouri first enters the rocky mountains s. ° w. to the termineation of the st chain of rocky mountains; northwardly, being that through which the missouri first passes n. ° w to the extremity or tirmineation of cd chain of the rocky mountains n. w. to the most distant point of a third and continued chain of the same mts n. °w. the direction of the cd do. from s e. to n. � w. to fort mountain s. ° w. the country in most parts very level and in others swelling with gentle rises and decents, or in other wirds what i have heretofore designated a wavy country destitute of timber except along the water-courses. on my return to camp found sergt. ordway had arrived with all the canoes about noon and had unloaded them every preperation except the entire completion of the oars poles &c is made for our departure tomorrow. the grass and weeds in this bottom are about feet high; which is a much greater hight than we have seen them elsewhere this season. here i found the sand rush and nittles in small quantities. the grass in the plains is not more than inches high. grasshoppers innumerable in the plains and the small birds before noticed together with the brown curlooe still continue nomerous in every part of the plains. had a slight shower at p.m. this evening. [clark, july , ] july th sunday a fine morning calm and worm musquetors & knats verry troublesom. the canoes arrive at oclock & unloade to dry &c. finished & lanced the canoes, some rain this afternoon. all prepareing to set out on tomorrow. [lewis, july , ] monday july th . we arrose very early this morning, assigned the canoes their loads and had it put on board. we now found our vessels eight in number all heavily laden, notwithstanding our several deposits; tho it is true we have now a considerable stock of dryed meat and grease. we find it extreemly difficult to keep the baggage of many of our men within reasonable bounds; they will be adding bulky articles of but little use or value to them. at a.m. we once more saw ourselves fairly under way much to my joy and i beleive that of every individual who compose the party. i walked on shore and killed elk near one of which the party halted and dined. we took the skins marrow bones and a part of the flesh of these elk. in order to lighten the burthen of the canoes i continued my walk all the evening and took our only invalledes potts an lapage with me. we passed the river near where we dined and just above the entrance of a beautifull river yards wide which falls in on the lard. side which in honour of mr. robert smith the secretary of the navy we called smith's river. this stream meanders through a most lovely valley to the s. e. for about miles when it enters the rocky mountains and is concealed from our view. many herds of buffaloe were feeding in this valley. we again crossed the river to the stard. side and passed through a plain and struck the river at a northwardly bend where there was timber here we waited untill the canoes arrived by which time it was so late that we concluded to encamp for the night. here drewyer wouded a deer which ran into the river my dog pursued caught it drowned it and brought it to shore at our camp. we have now passed fort mountain on our right it appears to be about ten miles distant. this mountain has a singular appearance it is situated in a level plain, it's sides stand nearly at right angles with each other and are each about a mile in extent. these are formed of a yellow clay only without the mixture of rock or stone of any size and rise perpendicularly to the hight of feet. the top appears to be a level plain and from the eminence on which i was yesterday i could see that it was covered with a similar cost of grass with the plain on which it stands. the surface appears also to possess a tolerable fertile mole of feet thick. and is to all appearance inaccessible. from it's figure we gave it the name of fort mountain. those mounds before mentioned near the falls have much the same appearance but are none of them as large as this one. the prickly pear is now in full blume and forms one of the beauties as well as the greatest pests of the plains. the sunflower is also in blume and is abundant. this plant is common to every part of the missouri from it's entrance to this place. the lambsquarter, wild coucumber, sand rush and narrow dock are also common here. drewyer killed another deer and an otter today. we find it inconvenient to take all the short meanders of the river which has now become cooked and much narrower than below, we therefore take it's general course and lay down the small bends by the eye on our daily traverse or chart. the river is from too to yds. wide. more timber on the river than below the falls for a great distance. on the banks of the river there are many large banks of sand much elivated above the plains on which they ly and appear as if they had been collected in the course of time from the river by the almost incessant s. w. winds; they always appear on the sides of the river opposite to those winds. the couses and distances from the white bear islands to the camp at which we made the canoes as taken by sergt. ordway.- [clark, july , ] july th monday rained all the last night i was wet all night this morning wind hard from the s. w. we set out at oclock and proceeded on verry well passed a river on the lard side about yards wide which we call after the secy of the navey smiths river the river verry crooked bottoms extensive rich and passes thro a butifull vally between mts. conts. high grass, our canoes being so small several of the men capt. lewis & my self compelled to walked on shore & cross the bends to keep up with the canoes--a round mountain on our right abt. miles appears inaxcessable we call fort mountain. the prickley pear in bloom but fiew other flowers. sun flowr are common, also lambs quarter & nettles. capt lew killed elk & the hunters killed deer & a ortter, we camped on the stard side at which place i saw many beaver, the timber on the edge of the river more common than below the falls--as i am compelled to walk on shore find it verry dificuelt to take the courses of the river, as it is verry crooked more so than below [lewis, july , ] tuesday july th . we had a heavy dew last night sen one man back this morning for an ax that he had carelessly left last evening some miles below, and set out at an early hour. early this morning we passed about little booths formed of willow bushes to shelter them from the sun; they appeared to have been deserted about days; we supposed that they were snake indians. they appeared to have a number of horses with them-. this appearance gives me much hope of meeting with these people shortly. drewyer killed a buffaloe this morning near the river and we halted and breakfasted on it. here for the first time i ate of the small guts of the buffaloe cooked over a blazing fire in the indian stile without any preperation of washing or other clensing and found them very good.- after breakfast i determined to leave capt. c. and party, and go on to the point where the river enters the rocky mountains and make the necessary observations against their arrival; accordingly i set out with the two invalleds potts and lapage and drewyer; i passed through a very handsome level plain on the stard. side of the river, the country equally level and beautiful) on the opposite side; at the distance of mes. passed a small stream on which i observed a considerable quantity of aspin. a little before i halted on the river at a stard. bend and well timbered bottom about / miles below the mountains and made the following observation. after this observation we pursued our rout through a high roling plain to a rappid immediately at the foot of the mountain where the missouri first enters them. the current of the missouri below these rappids is strong for several miles, tho just above there is scarcely any current, the river very narrow and deep abot yds. wide only and seems to be closely hemned in by the mountains on both sides, the bottoms only a few yards in width. an indian road enters the mountain at the same place with the river on the stard side and continues along it's border under the steep clifts these mountains appear to be only about feet above the river and are formed almost entirely of a hard black grannite. with a few dwarf pine and cedar scattered on them. at this place there is a large rock of feet high wich stands immediately in the gap which the missouri makes on it's passage from the mountains; it is insulated from the neighbouring mountains by a handsome little plain which surrounds it base on sides and the missouri washes it's base on the other, leaving it on the lard. as it decends. this rock i called the tower. it may be ascended with some difficulty nearly to it's summit, and from it there is a most pleasing view of the country we are now about to leave. from it i saw this evening immence herds of buffaloe in the plains below. near this place we killed a fat elk on which we both dined and suped. the musquetoes are extreemly troublesome this evening and i had left my bier, of course suffered considerably, and promised in my wrath that i never will be guily of a similar peice of negligence while on this voyage. [clark, july , ] july th tuesday a fair morning after a verry cold night, heavy dew, dispatched one man back for an ax left a fiew miles below, and set out early killed a buffalow on which we brackfast capt lewis & men went on to the mountain to take a meridian altitude, passed about small camps, which appeared to be abandoned about or days, suppose they were snake indians, a fiew miles above i saw the poles standing in thir position of a verry large lodge of feet diamater, & the appearance of a number of leather lodges about, this sign was old & appeared to have been last fall great number of buffalow the river is not so wide as below from to yards wide & deep crouded with islands & crooked some scattering timber on its edge such as cotton wood cotton willow, willow and box elder, the srubs are arrow wod, red wood, choke cherry, red berries, goose beries, sarvis burey, red & yellow currents a spcie of shomake &c. i camped on the head of a small island near the stard. shore at the rockey mountains this range of mountains appears to run n w & s e and is about feet higher than the water in the river faced with a hard black rock the current of the river from the medison river to the mountain is gentle bottoms low and extensive, and its general course is s. ° w. about miles on a direct line [lewis, july , ] wednesday july th . the sunflower is in bloom and abundant in the river bottoms. the indians of the missouri particularly those who do not cultivate maze make great uce of the seed of this plant for bread, or use it in thickening their scope. they most commonly first parch the seed and then pound them between two smooth stones until) they reduce it to a fine meal. to this they sometimes mearly add a portion of water and drink it in that state, or add a sufficient quantity of marrow grease to reduce it to the consistency of common dough and eate it in that manner. the last composition i think much best and have eat it in that state heartily and think it a pallateable dish. there is but little of the broad leafed cottonwood above the falls, much the greater portion being of the narrow leafed kind. there are a great abundance of red yellow perple & black currants, and service berries now ripe and in great perfection. i find these fruits very pleasent particularly the yellow currant which i think vastly preferable to those of our gardens. the shrub which produces this fruit rises to the hight of or feet; the stem simple branching and erect. they grow closly ascociated in cops either in the oppen or timbered lands near the watercouses. the leaf is petiolate of a pale green and resembles in it's form that of the red currant common to our gardens. the perianth of the fructification is one leaved, five cleft, abreviated and tubular, the corolla is monopetallous funnel-shaped; very long, superior, withering and of a fine orrange colour. five stamens and one pistillum; of the first, the fillaments are capillare, inserted into the corolla, equal, and converging; the anther ovate, biffid and incumbent. with rispect to the second the germ is roundish, smoth, inferior pedicelled and small; the style, long, and thicker than the stamens, simple, cylindrical, smooth, and erect, withering and remains with the corolla untill the fruit is ripe. stigma simple obtuse and withering.--the fruit is a berry about the size and much the shape of the red currant of our gardins, like them growing in clusters supported by a compound footstalk, but the peduncles which support the several berries are longer in this species and the berries are more scattered. it is quite as transparent as the red current of our gardens, not so ascid, & more agreeably flavored. the other species differ not at all in appearance from the yellow except in the colour and flavor of their berries. i am not confident as to the colour of the corolla, but all those which i observed while in blume as we came up the missouri were yellow but they might possibly have been all of the yellow kind and that the perple red and black currants here may have corollas of different tints from that of the yellow currant.--the survice berry differs somewhat from that of the u states the bushes are small sometimes not more than feet high and scarcely ever exceed and are proportionably small in their stems, growing very thickly ascosiated in clumps. the fruit is the same form but for the most part larger more lucious and of so deep a perple that on first sight you would think them black.--there are two species of goosbirris here allso but neither of them yet ripe. the choke cherries also abundant and not yet ripe. there is box alder, red willow and a species of sumac here also. there is a large pine tree situated on a small island at the head of these rappids above our camp; it being the first we have seen for a long distance near the river i called the island pine island. this range of the rocky mountains runs from s e to n. w.--at a.m. this morning capt. clark arrived with the party. we took breakfast here, after which i had the box which contained my instruments taken by land arround tower rock to the river above the rappid; the canoes ascended with some difficulty but without loss or injury, with their loads. after making those observations we proceed, and as the canoes were still heavy loaded all persons not employed in navigating the canoes walled on shore. the river clifts were so steep and frequently projecting into the river with their perpendicular points in such manner that we could not pass them by land, we wer therefore compelled to pass and repass the river very frequently in the couse of the evening. the bottoms are narrow the river also narrow deep and but little current. river from to yds. wide. but little timber on the river aspin constitutes a part of that little. see more pine than usual on the mountains tho still but thinly scattered. we saw some mountain rams or bighorned anamals this evening, and no other game whatever and indeed there is but little appearance of any. in some places both banks of the river are formed for a short distance of nearly perpendicular rocks of a dark black grannite of great hight; the river has the appearance of having cut it's passage in the course of time through this solid rock. we ascended about miles this evening from the entrance of the mountain and encamped on the stard. side where we found as much wood as made our fires. musquetoes still troublesome knats not as much so.--capt. c. now informed me that after i left him yesterday, he saw the poles of a large lodge in praire on the stard. side of the river which was feet in diameter and appeared to have been built last fall; there were the remains of about leather lodges near the place of the same apparent date. this large lodge was of the same construction of that mentioned above the white bear islands. the party came on very well and encamped on the lower point of an island near the stard. shore on that evening. this morning they had set out early and proceeded without obstruction untill they reached the rappid where i was encamped. [clark, july , ] july th wednesday set out early this morning and crossed the rapid at the island cald pine rapid with some dificuelty, at this rapid i came up with capt lewis & party took a medn. altitude & we took some luner observations &c. and proceeded on, the emence high precipies oblige all the party to pass & repass the river from one point to another the river confined in maney places in a verry narrow chanel from to yards wide bottoms narrow without timber and maney places the mountain approach on both sides, we observe great deel of scattering pine on the mountains, some aspin, spruce & fur trees took a meridian altd. which gave for lattitude ° ' " / n we proceeded on verry well about miles & camped on the stard side the river crooked bottoms narrow, clifts high and steep, i assended a spur of the mountain which i found to be highe & dificuelt of axcess, containig pitch pine & covered with grass scercely any game to be seen the yellow current now ripe also the fussey red choke cheries getting ripe purple current are also ripe. saw several ibex or mountain rams to day [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . set out early this morning. previous to our departure saw a large herd of the bighorned anamals on the immencely high and nearly perpendicular clift opposite to us; on the fase of this clift they walked about and hounded from rock to rock with apparent unconcern where it appared to me that no quadruped could have stood, and from which had they made one false step they must have been precipitated at least a feet. this anamal appears to frequent such precepices and clifts where in fact they are perfectly secure from the pursuit of the wolf, bear, or even man himself.--at the distance of / miles we passed the entrance of a considerable river on the stard. side; about yds. wide being nearly as wide as the missouri at that place. it's current is rapid and water extreamly transparent; the bed is formed of small smooth stones of flat rounded or other figures. it's bottoms are narrow but possess as much timber as the missouri. the country is mountainous and broken through which it passes. it appears as if it might be navigated but to what extent must be conjectural. this handsome bold and clear stream we named in honour of the secretary of war calling it dearborn's river.- as we were anxious now to meet with the sosonees or snake indians as soon as possible in order to obtain information relative to the geography of the country and also if necessary, some horses we thought it better for one of us either capt. c. or myself to take a small party & proceed on up the river, some distance before the canoes, in order to discover them, should they be on the river before the daily discharge of our guns, which was necessary in procuring subsistence for the party, should allarm and cause them to retreat to the mountains and conceal themselves, supposing us to be their enemies who visit them usually by the way of this river. accordingly capt. clark set out this morning after breakfast with joseph fields, pots and his servant york. we proceeded on tolerably well; the current stonger than yesterday we employ the cord and oars principally tho sometimes the setting pole. in the evening we passed a large creek about yds. wide which disembogues on the stard. side; it discharges a bold current of water it's banks low and bed frormed of stones altogether; this stream we called ordway's creek after sergt. john ordway. i have observed for several days a species of flax growing in the river bottoms the leaf stem and pericarp of which resembles the common flax cultivated in the u states. the stem rises to the hight of about / or feet high; as many as or ten of which proceede from the same root. the root appears to be perennial. the bark of the stem is thick strong and appears as if it would make excellent hax. the seed are not yet ripe but i hope to have an opportunity of collecting some of them after they are so if it should on experiment prove to yeald good flax and at the same time admit of being cut without injuring the perennial root it will be a most valuable plant, and i think there is the greatest probability that it will do so, for notwithstanding the seed have not yet arrived at maturity it is puting up suckers or young shoots from the same root and would seem therefore that those which are fully grown and which are in the proper stage of vegitation to produce the best fax are not longer essencial to the preservation or support of the root. the river somewhat wider than yesterday and the mountains more distant from the river and not so high; the bottoms are but narrow and little or no timber near the river. some pine on the mountains which seems principally confined to their uper region. we killed one elk this morning and found part of the flesh and the skin of a deer this evening which had been kited and left by capt. clark. we saw several herds of the bighorn but they were all out of our reach on inacessable clifts.- we encamped on the lard. side in a small grove of narrow leafed cottonwood there is not any of the broad leafed cottonwood on the river since it has entered the mountains. capt clark ascended the river on the stard. side. in the early part of the day after he left me the hills were so steep that he gained but little off us; in the evening he passed over a mountain by which means he cut off many miles of the river's circuitous rout; the indian road which he pursued over this mountain is wide and appears as if it had been cut down or dug in many places; he passed two streams of water, the branches of ordway's creek, on which he saw a number of beaver dams succeeding each other in close order and extending as far up those streams as he could discover them in their couse towards the mountains. he also saw many bighorn anamals on the clifts of the mountains. not far beyond the mountain which he passed in the evening he encamped on a small stream of runing water. having travelled about m. the water of those rivulets which make down from these mountains is extreemly cold pure and fine. the soil near the river is of a good quality and produces a luxuriant growth of grass and weeds; among the last the sunflower holds a distinguished place. the aspin is small but grows very commonly on the river and small streams which make down from the mouts. i also observed another species of flax today which is not so large as the first, sildome obtaining a greater hight than inches or a foot the stem and leaf resemble the other species but the stem is rarely branched, bearing a single monopetallous bellshaped blue flower which is suspended with it's limb downwards, [clark, july , ] july th tursday a fine morning passed a considerable river which falls in on the stard side and nearly as wide as the missouri we call dearbournes river after the sety. of war. we thought it prudent for a partey to go a head for fear our fireing should allarm the indians and cause them to leave the river and take to the mountains for safty from their enemes who visit them thro this rout. i deturmined to go a head with a small partey a few days and find the snake indians if possible after brackfast i took j. fields potts & my servent proceeded on. the country so hilley that we gained but little of the canoes untill in the evening i passed over a mountain on an indian rode by which rout i cut off several miles of the meanderings of the river, the roade which passes this mountain is wide and appears to have been dug in maney places, we camped on a small run of clear cold water, musquitors verry troublesom the forepart of the evening i saw great maney ibex. we crossed two streams of running water on those streams i saw several beaver dams. ordway creek the countrey is mountanious & rockey except the valey &c. which is covered with earth of a good quallity without timber, the timber which is principally pitch pine is confined to the mountains, the small runs & creeks which have water running in them contain cotton-willow, willow, & aspin. trees all small i saw maney fine springs & streams of running water which sink & rise alternately in the valies the water of those streams are fine, those streams which run off into the river are darned up by the beaver from near ther mouthes up as high as i could see up them [lewis, july , ] friday july th the musquetoes are very troublesome to us as usual. this morning we set out early and proceeded on very well tho the water appears to encrease in volocity as we advance. the current has been strong all day and obstructed with some rapids, tho these are but little broken by rocks and are perfectly safe. the river deep and from to yds. wide. i walked along shore today and killed an antelope. whever we get a view of the lofty summits of the mountains the snow presents itself, altho we are almost suffocated in this confined vally with heat. the pine cedar and balsum fir grow on the mountains in irregular assemleages or spots mostly high up on their sides and summits. this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these clifts rise from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of feet. every object here wears a dark and gloomy aspect. the towering and projecting rocks in many places seem ready to tumble on us. the river appears to have forced it's way through this immence body of solid rock for the distance of / miles and where it makes it's exit below has thown on either side vast collumns of rocks mountains high. the river appears to have woarn a passage just the width of it's channel or yds. it is deep from side to side nor is ther in the st miles of this distance a spot except one of a few yards in extent on which a man could rest the soal of his foot. several fine springs burst out at the waters edge from the interstices of the rocks. it happens fortunately that altho the current is strong it is not so much so but what it may be overcome with the oars for there is hear no possibility of using either the cord or setting pole. it was late in the evening before i entered this place and was obliged to continue my rout untill sometime after dark before i found a place sufficiently large to encamp my small party; at length such an one occurred on the lard. side where we found plenty of lightwood and pichpine. this rock is a black grannite below and appears to be of a much lighter colour above and from the fragments i take it to be flint of a yelloish brown and light creemcolourd yellow.--from the singular appearance of this place i called it the gates of the rocky mountains. the mountains higher today than yesterday, saw some bighorns and a few antelopes also beaver and otter; the latter are now very plenty one of the men killed one of them today with a setting pole. musquetoes less troublesome than usual. we had a thundershower today about p.m. which continued about an hour and was attended with som hail. we have seen no buffaloe since we entered the mounts. this morning early capt. clark pursued his rout, saw early in the day the remains of several indians camps formed of willow brush which appeared to have been inhabited some time this spring. saw where the natives had pealed the bark off the pine trees about this same season. this the indian woman with us informs that they do to obtain the sap and soft part of the wood and bark for food. at a.m. capt. c. feell in with a gang of elk of which he killed . and not being able to obtain as much wood as would make a fire substituded the dung of the buffaloe and cooked a part of their meat on which they breakfasted and again pursueed their rout, which lay along an old indian road. this evening they passed a hansome valley watered by a large creek which extends itself with it's valley into the mountain to a considerable distance. the latter part of the evening their rout lay over a hilly and mountanous country covered with the sharp fragments of flint which cut and bruised their feet excessively; nor wer the prickly pear of the leveler part of the rout much less painfull; they have now become so abundant in the open uplands that it is impossible to avoid them and their thorns are so keen and stif that they pearce a double thickness of dressed deers skin with ease. capt. c. informed me that he extracted of these bryers from his feet this evening after he encamped by the light of the fire. i have guarded or reather fortifyed my feet against them by soaling my mockersons with the hide of the buffaloe in parchment. he encamped on the river much fortiegud having passed two mountains in the course of the day and travelled about miles.- [clark, july , ] july th fryday a find morning i proceeded on in an indian path river verry crooked passed over two mountains saw several indian camps which they have left this spring. saw trees peeled & found poles &c. at oc i saw a gange of elk as we had no provision concluded to kill some killd two and dined being oblige to substitute dry buffalow dung in place of wood, this evening passed over a cream coloured flint which roled down from the clifts into the bottoms, the clifts contain flint a dark grey stone & a redish brown intermixed and no one clift is solid rock, all the rocks of everry description is in small pices appears to have been broken by some convulsion--passed a butifull creek on the std. side this eveng which meanders thro a butifull vallie of great extent, i call after sgt pryor the countrey on the lard side a high mountain saw several small rapids to day the river keep its width and appear to be deep, my feet is verry much brused & cut walking over the flint, & constantly stuck full prickley pear thorns, i puled out by the light of the fire to night we camped on the river same (lard) side musqutors verry troublesom. [lewis, july , ] saturday h . set out early this morning as usual, currant strong, we therefore employ the toe rope when ever the banks permit the use of it; the water is reather deep for the seting pole in most places. at a.m. the hills retreated from the river and the valley became wider than we have seen it since we entered the mountains. some scattering timber on the river and in the valley. consisting of the narrowleafed cottonwood aspin & pine. vas numbers of the several species of currants goosberries and service berries; of each of these i preserved some seeds. i found a black currant which i thought preferable in flavor to the yellow. this currant is really a charming fruit and i am confident would be prefered at our markets to any currant now cultivated in the u states. we killed an elk this morning which was very acceptable to us. through the valley which we entered early in the morning a large creek flows from the mountains and discharges itself into the river behind an island on stard. side about yds. wide this we called potts's creek after john potts one of our party. about a.m. we saw the smoke arrose as if the country had been set on fire up the valley of this creek about ms. distant we were at a loss to determine whether it had been set on fire by the natives as a signall among themselves on discovering us, as is their custom or whether it had been set on fire by capt. c. and party accedentally. the first however proved to be the fact, they had unperceived by us discovered capt. clark's party or mine, and had set the plain on fire to allarm the more distant natives and fled themselves further into the interior of the mountains. this evening we found the skin of an elk and part of the flesh of the anamal which capt. c. had left near the river at the upper side of the valley where he assended the mountain with a note informing me of his transactions and that he should pass the mounts which lay just above us and wate our arrival at some convenient place on the river. the other elk which capt. c. had killed we could not find. about in the evening we had passed through a range of low mountains and the country bacame more open again, tho still broken and untimbered and the bottoms not very extensive. we encamped on the lard. side near a spring on a high bank the prickly pears are so abundant that we could scarcely find room to lye. just above our camp the river is again closed in by the mouts. on both sides. i saw a black woodpecker today about the size of the lark woodpecker as black as a crow. i indevoured to get a shoot at it but could not. it is a distinct species of woodpecker; it has a long tail and flys a good deel like the jay bird. this morning capt. clark set out early and proceeded on through a valley leaving the river about six miles to his left; he fell in with an old indian road which he pursued untill it struck the river about miles from his camp of the last evening just above the entrance of a large creek which we call white paint creek. the party were so much fortiegued with their march and their feet cut with the flint and perced with the prickly pears untill they had become so painfull that he proceeded but little further before he determined to encamp on the river and wait my arrival.--capt. c. saw a smoke today up the valley of pryor's creek which was no doubt caused by the natives likewise. he left signals or signs on his rout in order to inform the indians should they pursue his trale that we were not their enemies, but white men and their friends.--cloth &c [clark, july , ] july th satturday a fine morning we proceded on thro a valley leaveing the river about miles to our left and fell into an indian roade which took us to the river above the mo. of a creek miles the misquetors verry troublesom my man york nearly tired out, the bottoms of my feet blistered. i observe a smoke rise to our right up the valley of the last creek about miles distant, the cause of this smoke i can't account for certainly tho think it probable that the indians have heard the shooting of the partey below and set the praries or valey on fire to allarm their camps; supposeing our party to be a war party comeing against them, i left signs to shew the indians if they should come on our trail that we were not their enemeys. camped on the river, the feet of the men with me so stuck with prickley pear & cut with the stones that they were scerseley able to march at a slow gate this after noon [lewis, july , ] sunday july st . set out early this morning and passed a bad rappid where the river enters the mountain about m. from our camp of last evening the clifts high and covered with fragments of broken rocks. the current strong; we employed the toe rope principally, and also the pole as the river is not now so deep but reather wider and much more rapid our progress was therefore slow and laborious. we saw three swans this morning, which like the geese have not yet recovered the feathers of the wing and could not fly we killed two of them the third escaped by diving and passed down with the current; they had no young ones with them therefore presume they do not breed in this country these are the first we have seen on the river for a great distance. we daily see great numbers of gees with their young which are perfectly feathered except the wings which are deficient in both young and old. my dog caught several today, as he frequently dose. the young ones are very fine, but the old gees are poor and unfit for uce. saw several of the large brown or sandhill crain today with their young. the young crain is as large as a turkey and cannot fly they are of a bright red bey colour or that of the common deer at this season. this bird feeds on grass prinsipally and is found in the river bottoms. the grass near the river is lofty and green that of the hill sides and high open grounds is perfectly dry and appears to be scorched by the heat of the sun. the country was rough mountainous & much as that of yesterday untill towards evening when the river entered a beautifull and extensive plain country of about or miles wide which extended upwards further that the eye could reach this valley is bounded by two nearly parallel ranges of high mountains which have their summits partially covered with snow. below the snowey region pine succeeds and reaches down their sides in some parts to the plain but much the greater portion of their surfaces is uncovered with timber and expose either a barren sterile soil covered with dry parched grass or black and rugged rocks. the river immediately on entering this valley assumes a different aspect and character, it spreads to a mile and upwards in width crouded with islands, some of them large, is shallow enough for the use of the seting pole in almost every part and still more rappid than before; it's bottom is smooth stones and some large rocks as it has been since we have entered the mountains. the grass in these extensive bottoms is green and fine, about inches or feet high. the land is a black rich loam and appears very fertile. we encamped in this beatiful valley on the lard. side the party complain of being much fatiegued with this days travel. we killed one deer today.--this morning we passed a bold creek yds. wide which falls in on stard. side. it has a handsome and an extensive valley. this we called pryor's creek after sergt. (john) pryor one of our party. i also saw two fesants today of a dark brown colour much larger than the phesant of the u states. this morning capt. clark having determined to hunt and wait my arrival somewhere about his preset station was fearfull that some indians might still be on the river above him sufficiently near to hear the report of his guns and therefore proceeded up, the river about three miles and not finding any indians nor discovering any fresh appearance of them returned about four miles below and fixed his camp near the river; after refreshing themselves with a few hours rest they set out in different directions to hunt. capt c. killed a buck and fields a buck and doe. he caught a young curlooe which was nearly feathered. the musquetoes were equally as troublesome to them as to ourselves this evening; tho some hours after dark the air becomes so cold that these insects disappear. the men are all fortunately supplyed with musquetoe biers otherwise it would be impossible for them to exist under the fatiegues which they daily encounter without their natural rest which they could not obtain for those tormenting insects if divested of their biers. timber still extreemly scant on the river but there is more in this valley than we have seen since we entered the mountains; the creeks which fall into the river are better supplyed with this article than the river itself.- we saw a number of trout today since the river has become more shallow; also caught a fish of a white colour on the belly and sides and of a bluish cast on the back which had been accedentally wounded by a setting pole. it had a long pointed mouth which opened somewhat like the shad. [clark, july , ] july st sunday a fine morning our feet so brused and cut that i deturmined to delay for the canoes, & if possible kill some meat by the time they arrived, all the creeks which fall into the missouri on the std. side since entering the mountains have extencive valies of open plain. the river bottoms contain nothing larger than a srub untill above the last creek the creeks & runs have timber on them generally, the hills or mountains are in some places thickly covered with pine & cedar &c. &c. i proceeded on about miles this morning finding no fresh indian sign returned down the river four miles and camped, turned out to hunt for some meat, which if we are suckessfull will be a seasonable supply for the partey assending. emence quantities of sarvice buries, yellow, red, purple & black currents ripe and superior to any i ever tasted particularly the yellow & purple kind. choke cheries are plenty; some goose buries--the wild rose continue the willow more abundant no cotton wood of the common kind small birds are plenty, some deer, elk, goats, and ibex; no buffalow in the mountains. those mountains are high and a great perportion of them rocky vallies fertile i observe on the highest pinicals of some of the mountains to the west snow lying in spots some still further north are covered with snow and cant be seen from this point the winds in those mountains are not settled generally with the river, to day the wind blow hard from the west at the camp. the missouri continus its width the current strong and crouded with little islands and cose graveley bars; but little fine sand the chanel generally a corse gravel or soft mud. musquetors & knats verry troublesom. i killed a buck, and j. fields killed a buck and doe this evening. cought a young curlough. [lewis, july , ] monday july cd . we set out early as usual. the river being divided into such a number of channels by both large and small island that i found it impossible to lay it down correctly following one channel only in a canoe and therefore walked on shore took the general courses of the river and from the rising grounds took a view of the islands and it's different channels which i laid don in conformity thereto on my chart. there being but little timber to obstruct my view i could see it's various meanders very satisfactorily. i passed though a large island which i found a beautifull level and fertile plain about feet above the surface of the water and never overflown. on this island i met with great quantities of a smal onion about the size of a musquit ball and some even larger; they were white crisp and well flavored i geathered about half a bushel of them before the canoes arrived. i halted the party for breakfast and the men also geathered considerable quantities of those onions. it's seed had just arrived to maturity and i gathered a good quantity of it. this appears to be a valuable plant inasmuch as it produces a large quantity to the squar foot and bears with ease the rigor of this climate, and withall i think it as pleasantly flavored as any species of that root i ever tasted. i called this beatifull and fertile island after this plant onion island. here i passed over to the stard. shore where the country was higher and ascended the river to the entrance of a large creek which discharges itself into the missouri on the stard. side. it is composed of three pretty considerable creeks which unite in a beautifull and extensive vally a few miles before it discharges itself into the river. while wateing for the canoes to arrive i killed an otter which sunk to the bottom on being shot, a circumstance unusual with that anamal. the water was about feet deep yet so clear that i could see it at the bottom; i swam in and obtained it by diving. i halted the party here for dinner; the canoes had taken different channels through these islands and it was sometime before they all came up. i placed my thermometer in a good shade as was my custom about p.m. and after dinner set out without it and had proceeded near a mile before i recollected it i sent sergt. ordway back for it, he found it and brought it on. the murcury stood at a. this is the warmest day except one which we have experienced this summer. the indian woman recognizes the country and assures us that this is the river on which her relations live, and that the three forks are at no great distance. this peice of information has cheered the sperits of the party who now begin to console themselves with the anticipation of shortly seeing the head of the missouri yet unknown to the civilized world. the large creek which we passed on stard. yds. we call white earth creek from the circumstance of the natives procuring a white paint on this crek.--saw many gees, crams, and small birds common to the plains, also a few phesants and a species of small curlooe or plover of a brown colour which i first met with near the entrance of smith's river but they are so shy and watchfull there is no possibility of geting a shoot at them it is a different kind from any heretofore discribed and is about the size of the yellow leged plover or jack curlooe. both species of the willow that of the broad leaf and narrow leaf still continue, the sweet willow is very scarce. the rose bush, small honesuckle, the pulpy leafed thorn, southernwood, sage box alder narrow leafed cottonwood, red wod, a species of sumac are all found in abundance as well as the red and black goosberries, service berries, choke cherries and the currants of four distinct colours of black, yellow, red and perple. the cherries are not yet ripe. the bear appear to feed much on the currants. late this evening we arrived at capt. carks camp on the stard. side of the river; we took them on board with the meat they had collected and proceeded a short distance and encamped on an island capt. clark's party had killed a deer and an elk today and ourselves one deer and an antelope only. altho capt c. was much fatiegued his feet yet blistered and soar he insisted on pursuing his rout in the morning nor weould he consent willingly to my releiving him at that time by taking a tour of the same kind. finding him anxious i readily consented to remain with the canoes; he ordered frazier and jo. & reubin filds to hold themselves in readiness to accompany him in the morning. sharbono was anxious to accompany him and was accordingly permitted. the musquetoes and knats more than usually troublesome to us this evening.- [clark, july , ] july d monday a fine morning wind from the s. e. the last night verry cold, my blanket being small i lay on the grass & covered with it. i opened the bruses & blisters of my feet which caused them to be painfull dispatched all the men to hunt in the bottom for deer, deturmined my self to lay by & nurs my feet. haveing nothing to eat but venison and currents, i find my self much weaker than when i left the canoes and more inclined to rest & repose to day. these men were not suckcessfull in hunting killed only one deer capt lewis & the party arvd. at oclock & we all proceeded on a short distance and camped on an island the musquitors verry troublesom this evening g drewyer not knowing the place we camped continued on up the river. i deturmined to proceed on in pursute of the snake indians on tomorrow and directed jo rubin fields frasure to get ready to accompany me. shabono, our interpreter requested to go, which was granted &c. in my absence the hunters had killed some deer & a elk, one fusee found &c. &c. [lewis, july , ] tuesday july rd . set out early as usual; capt. clark left us with his little party of men and continued his rout on the stard. side of the river. about ock. a m. we came up with drewyer who had seperated from us yesterday evening and lay out all night not being able to find where we had encamped. he had killed deer which we took on board and continued our rout. the river is still divided by a great number of islands, it channels sometimes seperating to the distance of miles; the current very rapid with a number of riffles; the bed gravel and smooth stones; the banks low and of rich loam in the bottoms; some low bluffs of yellow and red clay with a hard red slate stone intermixed. the bottoms are wide and but scantily timbered; the underbrush very thick consisting of the narrow & broad leafed willow rose and currant bushes principally. high plains succeeds the river bottoms and extend back on either side to the base of the mountains which are from to miles assunder, high, rocky, some small pine and cedar on them and ly parallel with the river. passed a large creek on lard. side yds. wide which after meandering through a beautifull and extensive bottom for several miles nearly parallel with the river discharges itself opposite to a large cluster of islands which from their number i called the islands and the creek whitehous's creek, after josph. whitehouse one of the party. saw a great abundance of the common thistles; also a number of the wild onions of which we collected a further supply. there is a species of garlic also which grows on the high lands with a flat leaf now green and in bloe but is strong tough and disagreeable. found some seed of the wild flax ripe which i preserved; this plant grows in great abundance in these bottoms. i halted rearther early for dinner today than usual in order to dry some articles which had gotten wet in several of the canoes. i ordered the canoes to hoist their small flags in order that should the indians see us they might discover that we were not indians, nor their enemies. we made great uce of our seting poles and cords the uce of both which the river and banks favored. most of our small sockets were lost, and the stones were so smooth that the points of their poles sliped in such manner that it increased the labour of navigating the canoes very considerably, i recollected a parsel of giggs which i had brought on, and made the men each atatch one of these to the lower ends of their poles with strong wire, which answered the desired purpose. we saw antelopes crain gees ducks beaver and otter. we took up four deer which capt. clark & party had killed and left near the river. he pursued his rout untill late in the evening and encamped on the bank of the river ms. above our encampment of the last evening; he followed an old indian road which lyes along the river on the stard side capt. saw a number of antelopes, and one herd of elk. also much sign of the indians but all of ancient date. i saw the bull rush and cattail flag today. i saw a black snake today about two feet long the belly of which was as black as any other part or as jet itself. it had scuta on the belley on the tail. [clark, july , ] july rd tuesday a fair morning wind from the south. i set out by land at miles overtook g drewyer who had killed a deer. we killed in the same bottom deer & a antelope & left them on the river bank for the canoes proceeded on an indian roade through a wider vallie which the missouri passes about miles & camped on the bank of the river, high mountains on either side of the vallie containing scattering pine & cedar some small cotton willow willow &c. on the islands & bank of the river i saw no fresh sign of indians to day great number of antelopes some deer & a large gangue of elk [lewis, july , ] wednesday july th . set out at sunrise; the current very strong; passed a remarkable bluff of a crimson coloured earth on stard. intermixed with stratas of black and brick red slate. the valley through which the river passed today is much as that of yesterday nor is there any difference in the appearance of the mountains, they still continue high and seem to rise in some places like an amphatheater one rang above another as they receede from the river untill the most distant and lofty have their tops clad with snow. the adjacent mountains commonly rise so high as to conceal the more distant and lofty mountains from our view. i fear every day that we shall meet with some considerable falls or obstruction in the river notwithstanding the information of the indian woman to the contrary who assures us that the river continues much as we see it. i can scarcely form an idea of a river runing to great extent through such a rough mountainous country without having it's stream intercepted by some difficult and gangerous rappids or falls. we daily pass a great number of small rappids or riffles which decend one to or feet in yards but they are rarely incommoded with fixed or standing rocks and altho strong rappid water are nevertheless quite practicable & by no means dangerous. we saw many beaver and some otter today; the former dam up the small channels of the river between the islands and compell the river in these parts to make other channels; which as soon as it has effected that which was stoped by the beaver becomes dry and is filled up with mud sand gravel and drift wood. the beaver is then compelled to seek another spot for his habitation wher he again erects his dam. thus the river in many places among the clusters of islands is constantly changing the direction of such sluices as the beaver are capable of stoping or of yds. in width. this anamal in that way i beleive to be very instrumental in adding to the number of islands with which we find the river crouded. we killed one deer today and found a goat or antelope which had been left by capt. clark. we saw a large bear but could not get a shoot at him. we also saw a great number of crams & antelopes, some gees and a few red-headed ducks the small bird of the plains and curloos still abundant. we observed a great number of snakes about the water of a brown uniform colour, some black, and others speckled on the abdomen and striped with black and brownish yellow on the back and sides. the first of these is the largest being about feet long, the second is of that kind mentioned yesterday, and the last is much like the garter snake of our country and about it's size. none of these species are poisonous i examined their teeth and fund them innosent. they all appear to be fond of the water, to which they fly for shelter immediately on being pursued.--we saw much sign of elk but met with none of them. from the appearance of bones and excrement of old date the buffaloe sometimes straggle into this valley; but there is no fresh sighn of them and i begin think that our harrvest of white puddings is at an end, at least untill our return to the buffaloe country. our trio of pests still invade and obstruct us on all occasions, these are the musquetoes eye knats and prickley pears, equal to any three curses that ever poor egypt laiboured under, except the mahometant yoke. the men complain of being much fortiegued, their labour is excessively great. i occasionly encourage them by assisting in the labour of navigating the canoes, and have learned to push a tolerable good pole in their fraize. this morning capt. clark set out early and pursued the indian road whih took him up a creek some miles abot a.m. he discovered a horse about six miles distant on his left, he changed his rout towards the horse, on approaching him he found the horse in fine order but so wild he could not get within less than several hundred paces of him. he still saw much indian sign but none of recent date. from this horse he directed his course obliquely to the river where on his arrival he killed a deer and dined. in this wide valley where he met with the horse he passed five handsome streams, one of which only had timber another some willows and much stoped by the beaver. after dinner he continued his rout along the river upwards and encamped having traveled about mes. [clark, july , ] july th wednesday a fine day wind from the n w. i proceeded on up a creek on the direction of the indian road at oclock discovered a horse miles to my left towards the river as i approached the horse found him fat and verry wild we could not get near him, we changed our direction to the river for water haveing previously crossed handsom streams in one vallie one only had any timber on it one other willows only & a number of beaver dams. when i struck the river turned down to kill a deer which we dined on & proceeded on up the river a fiew miles an campd. on the river. the river much like it was yesterday. the mountains on either side appear like the hills had fallen half down & turned side upwards the bottoms narrow and no timber a fiew bushes only. [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . set out at an early hour and proceeded on tolerably well the water still strong and some riffles as yesterday. the country continues much the same as the two preceeding days. in the forenoon we saw a large brown bear on an island but he retreated immediately to the main shore and ran off before we could get in reach of him. they appear to be more shy here than on the missouri below the mountains. we saw some antelopes of which we killed one. these anamals appear now to have collected again is small herds several females with their young and one or two males compose the herd usually. some males are yet soletary or two perhaps together scattered over the plains which they seen invariably to prefer to the woodlands. if they happen accedentaly in the woodlands and are allarmed they run immediately to the plains, seeming to plaise a just confidence in their superior fleetness and bottom. we killed a couple of young gees which are very abundant and fine; but as they are but small game to subsist a party on of our strength i have forbid the men shooting at them as it waists a considerable quantity of amunition and delays our progress. we passed capt. clark's encampment of the rd inst. the face of the country & anamal and vegatable productions were the same as yesterday, untill late in the evening, when the valley appeared to termineate and the river was again hemned in on both sides with high caiggy and rocky clifts. soon after entering these hills or low mountains we passed a number of fine bold springs which burst out underneath the lard. clifts near the edge of the water; they wer very cold and freestone water. we passed a large crk. today in the plain country, yds. wide, which discharges itself on the stard. side; it is composed of five streams which unite in the plain at no great distance from the river and have their souces in the mts. this stream we called gass's creek. after sergt. patric gass one of our party.--two rapids near the large spring we passed this evening were the worst we have seen since that we passed on entering the rocky mountain; they were obstructed with sharp pointed rocks, ranges of which extended quite across the river. the clifts are formed of a lighter coloured stone than those below i obseve some limestone also in the bed of the river which seem to have been brought down by the current as they are generally small and woarn smooth.--this morning capt. clark set out early and at the distance of a few miles arrived at the three forks of the missouri, here he found the plains recently birnt on the stard. side, and the track of a horse which appeared to have passed only about four or five days. after taking breakfast of some meat which they had brought with them, examined the rivers, and written me a note informing me of his intended rout, he continued on up the north fork, which though not larger than the middle fork, boar more to the west, and of course more in the direction we were anxious to pursue. he ascended this stream about miles on stard. side, and encamped, much fatiegued, his feet blistered and wounded with the prickley pear thorns. charbono gave out, one of his ankles failed him and he was unable to proceede any further.--i observed that the rocks which form the clifts on this part of the river appear as if they had been undermined by the river and by their weight had seperated from the parent hill and tumbled on their sides, the stratas of rock of which they are composed lying with their edges up; others not seperated seem obliquely depressed on the side next the river as if they had sunk down to fill the cavity which had been formed by the washing and wearing of the river. i have observed a red as well as a yellow species of goosberry which grows on the rocky clifts in open places of a swetish pine like flavor, first observed in the neighbourhood of the falls; at least the yellow species was first observed there. the red differs from it in no particular except it's colour and size being somewhat larger; it is a very indifferent fruit, but as they form a variety of the native fruits of this country i preserved some of their seeds. musquetoes and knats troublesome as usual. [clark, july , ] july th thursday a fine morning we proceeded on a fiew miles to the three forks of the missouri those three forks are nearly of a size, the north fork appears to have the most water and must be considered as the one best calculated for us to assend middle fork is quit as large about yds. wide. the south fork is about yds wide & falls in about yards below the midle fork. those forks appear to be verry rapid & contain some timber in their bottoms which is verry extincive,--on the north side the indians have latterly set the praries on fire, the cause i can't account for. i saw one horse track going up the river about four or days past. after brackfast (which we made on the ribs of a buck killed yesterday), i wrote a note informing capt lewis the rout i intended to take, and proeeded on up the main north fork thro a vallie, the day verry hot about or miles up the north fork a small rapid river falls in on the lard side which affords a great deel of water and appears to head in the snow mountains to the s w. this little river falls into the missouri by three mouthes, haveing seperated after it arrives in the river bottoms, and contains as also all the water courses in this quarter emence number of beaver & orter maney thousand enhabit the river & creeks near the forks (pholosiphie's river)--we campd on the same side we assended starboard miles on a direct line up the n. fork. shabono our intrepreter nearly tired one of his ankles falling him--the bottoms are extencive and tolerable land covered with tall grass & prickley pears the hills & mountains are high steep & rockey. the river verry much divided by islands some elk bear & deer and some small timber on the islands. great quantities of currents, red, black, yellow, purple, also mountain currents which grow on the sides of clifts; inferior in taste to the others haveing sweet pineish flaver and are red & yellow, choke cheries, boin roche, and the red buries also abound--musquitors verry trouble som untill the mountain breeze sprung up which was a little after night. [lewis, july , ] friday july th . set out early this morning as usual current strong with frequent riffles; employ the cord and seting poles. the oars scarcely ever being used except to pass the river in order to take advantage of the shore and cur-rent. at the distance of / m. passed the entrance of a large creek yds. wide which discharges itself on lard. near the center of a lard. bend it is a bold runing stream this we called howard's creek after thomas p. howard one of our party. at the distance of one mile further we passed the entrance of a small run which falls in just above a rocky clift on lard. here the hills or reather mountains again recede from the river and the valley again widens to the extent of several miles with wide and fertile bottom lands. covered with grass and in many places a fine terf of greenswoard. the high lands are thin meagre soil covered with dry low sedge and a species of grass also dry the seeds of which are armed with a long twisted hard beard at the upper extremity while the lower point is a sharp subulate firm point beset at it's base with little stiff bristles standing with their points in a contrary direction to the subulate point to which they answer as a barb and serve also to pres it forward when onece entered a small distance. these barbed seed penetrate our mockersons and leather legings and give us great pain untill they are removed. my poor dog suffers with them excessively, he is constantly hinting and scratching himself as if in a rack of pain. the prickly pear also grow here as abundantly as usual. there is another species of the prickly pear of a globular form, composed of an assemblage of little conic leaves springing from a common root to which their small points are attached as a common center and the base of the cone forms the apex of the leaf which is garnished with a circular range of sharp thorns quite as stif and more keen than the more common species with the flat leaf, like the cockeneal plant. on entering this open valley i saw the snowclad tops of distant mountains before us. the timber and mountains much as heretofore. saw a number of beaver today and some otter, killed one of the former, also deer; found a deer's skin which had been left by capt. c. with a note informing me of his having met with a horse but had seen no fresh appearance of the indians. the river in the valley is from to yds. wide and crouded with islands, in some places it is / of a mile wide including islands. were it passed the hills it was from to yds. the banks are still low but never overflow. one of the men brought me an indian bow which he found, it was made of cedar and about f. inh. in length. it had nothing remarkable in it's form being much such as is used by the mandans minetares &c. this morning capt. clark left sharbono and joseph fields at the camp of last evening and proceeded up the river about miles to the top of a mountain from whence he had an extensive view of the valley of the river upwards and of a large creek which flowed into it on std. side. not meeting with any fresh appearance of indians he determined to return and examine the middle fork of the missouri and meet me by the time he expected me to arrive at the forks. he returned down the mountain by the way of an old indian road which led through a deep hollow of the mountain facing the south the day being warm and the road unshaded by timber he suffered excessively with heat and the want of water, at length he arrived at a very cold spring, at which he took the precaution of weting his feet head and hands before drank but notwithstanding this precaution he soon felt the effects of the water. he felt himself very unwell shortly after but continued his march rejoined sharbono and fields where the party eat of a fawn which jo. fields had killed in their absence capt. c. was so unwell that he had no inclination to eat. after a short respite he resumed his march pass the north fork at a large island; here charbono was very near being swept away by the current and cannot swim, capt. c however risqued him and saved his life. capt. c. continued his march to a small river which falls into the north fork some miles above the junction of the forks it being the distance of about four miles from his camp of last evening here finding himself still more unwell he determined to encamp. they killed two brown or grisley bear this evening on the island where they passed the n. fork of the missouri. this stream is much divided by islands and it's current rapid and much as that of the missouri where we are and is navigable.- [clark, july , ] july th friday i deturmined to leave shabono & one man who had sore feet to rest & proceed on with the other two to the top of a mountain miles distant west and from thence view the river & vallies a head, we with great dificuelty & much fatigue reached the top at oclock from the top of this mountain i could see the course of the north fork about miles meandering through a vallie but could discover no indians or sign which was fresh. i could also see some distance up the small river below, and also the middle fork after satisfying my self returned to the two men by an old indian parth, on this parth & in the mountain we came to a spring of excessive cold water, which we drank reather freely of as we were almost famished; not with standing the precautions of wetting my face, hands, & feet, i soon felt the effects of the water. we contind. thro a deep vallie without a tree to shade us scorching with heat to the men who had killed a pore deer, i was fatigued my feet with several blisters & stuck with prickley pears. i eate but verry little deturmined to cross to the middle fork and examine that. we crossed the missouri which was divided by a verry large island, the first part was knee deep, the other waste deep & verry rapid--i felt my self verry unwell & took up camp on the little river miles above its mouth & near the place it falls into the bottom a fiew drops of rain this evening we killed bear which was imediately in our way. both pore emence number of beaver and orter in this little river which forks in the bottom [lewis, july , ] saturday july th . we set out at an early hour and proceeded on but slowly the current still so rapid that the men are in a continual state of their utmost exertion to get on, and they begin to weaken fast from this continual state of violent exertion. at the distance of / miles the river was again closely hemned in by high clifts of a solid limestone rock which appear to have tumbled or sunk in the same manner of those discribed yesterday. the limestone appears to be of an excellent quality of deep blue colour when fractured and of a light led colour where exposed to the weather. it appears to be of a very fine grain the fracture like that of marble. we saw a great number of the bighorn on those clifts. at the distance of / ms. further we arrived at a.m. at the junction of the s. e. fork of the missouri and the country opens suddonly to extensive and beatifull plains and meadows which appear to be surrounded in every direction with distant and lofty mountains; supposing this to be the three forks of the missouri i halted the party on the lard. shore for breakfast and walked up the s. e. fork about / a mile and ascended the point of a high limestone clift from whence i commanded a most perfect view of the neighbouring country. from this point i could see the s. e. fork about miles. it is rapid and about yards wide. throughout the distance i saw it, it passes through a smoth extensive green meadow of fine grass in it's course meandering in several streams the largest of which passes near the lard. hills, of which, the one i stand on is the extremity in this direction. a high wide and extensive plain succeeds the meadow and extends back several miles from the river on the stard. sade and with the range of mountains up the lard. side of the middle fork. a large spring arrises in this meadow about / of a mile from the s. e. fork into which it discharges itself on the stard. side about paces above me. from e to s. between the s. e. and middle forks a distant range of lofty mountains rose their snow-clad tops above the irregular and broken mountains which lie adjacent to this beautifull spot. the extreme point to which i could see the s. e. fork boar s. ° e. distant ms. as before observed. between the middle and s. e. forks near their junctions with the s. w. fork there is a handsom site for a fortification it consists of a limestone rock of an oblong form; it's sides perpendicular and about ft high except at the extremity towards the middle fork where it ascends gradually and like the top is covered with a fine terf of greenswoard. the top is level and contains about acres. the rock rises from the level plain as if it had been designed for some such purpose. the extream point to which i can see the bottom and meandering of the middle fork bears s. e distant about miles. here it turns to the right around a point of a high plain and disappears to my view. it's bottoms are several miles in width and like that of the s. e. fork form one smoth and beautifull green meadow. it is also divided into several streams. betwen this and the s. w. fork there is an extensive plain which appears to extend up both those rivers many miles and back to the mountains. the extreme point to which i can see the s. w. fork bears s. w. distant about miles. this stream passes through a similar country with the other two and is more divided and serpentine in it's course than either of the others; it also possesses abundanly more timber in it's bottoms. the timber here consists of the narrowleafed cottonwood almost entirely. but little box alder or sweet willow the underbrush thick and as heretofore discribed in the quarter of the missouri. a range of high mountains at a considerable distance appear to reach from south to west and are partially covered with snow the country to the right of the s. w. fork like that to the left of the s. e. fork is high broken and mountainous as is that also down the missouri behind us, through which, these three rivers after assembling their united force at this point seem to have forced a passage these bottom lands tho not more than or feet above the water seem never to overflow. after making a draught of the connection and meanders of these streams i decended the hill and returned to the party, took breakfast and ascended the s. w. fork / miles and encamped at a lard. bend in a handsome level smooth plain just below a bayou, having passed the entrance of the middle fork at / a mile. here i encamped to wait the return of capt. clark and to give the men a little rest which seemed absolutely necessary to them. at the junction of the s. w. and middle forks i found a note which had been left by capt. clark informing me of his intended rout, and that he would rejoin me at this place provided he did not fall in with any fresh sighn of indians, in which case he intended to pursue untill he over took them calculating on my taking the s. w. fork, which i most certainly prefer as it's direction is much more promising than any other. beleiving this to be an essential point in the geography of this western part of the continent i determined to remain at all events untill i obtained the necessary data for fixing it's latitude longitude &c. after fixing my camp i had the canoes all unloaded and the baggage stoed away and securely covered on shore, and then permitted several men to hunt. i walked down to the middle fork and examined and compared it with the s. w. fork but could not satisfy myself which was the largest stream of the two, in fact they appeared as if they had been cast in the same mould there being no difference in character or size, therefore to call either of these streams the missouri would be giving it a preference wich it's size dose not warrant as it is not larger then the other. they are each yds. wide. in these meadows i saw a number of the duckanmallad with their young which are now nearly grown. currants of every species as well as goosberries are found here in great abundance and perfection. a large black goosberry which grows to the hight of five or six feet is also found here. this is the growth of the bottom lands and is found also near the little rivulets which make down from the hills and mountains it puts up many stems from the same root, some of which are partialy branched and all reclining. the berry is attatched seperately by a long peduncle to the stem from which they hang pendant underneath. the berry is of an ovate form smooth as large as the common garden goosberry when arrived at maturity and is as black as jet, tho the pulp is of a cimson colour. this fruit is extreemly asced. the leaf resembles the common goosberry in form but is reather larger and somewhat proportioned to the superior size of it's stem when compared with the common goosberry. the stem is covered with very sharp thorns or bryers. below the tree forks as we passed this morning i observed many collections of the mud nests of the small martin attatched to the smooth face of the limestone rocks sheltered by projections of the same rock above. our hunters returned this evening with deer otter and a musk rat. they informed me that they had seen great numbers of antelopes, and much sign of beaver otter deer elk, &c. at p.m. capt clark arrived very sick with a high fever on him and much fatiegued and exhausted. he informed me that he was very sick all last night had a high fever and frequent chills & constant aking pains in all his mustles. this morning notwithstanding his indisposition he pursued his intended rout to the middle fork about miles and finding no recent sign of indians rested about an hour and came down the middle fork to this place. capt. c. thought himself somewhat bilious and had not had a passage for several days; i prevailed on him to take a doze of rushes pills, which i have always found sovereign in such cases and to bath his feet in warm water and rest himself. capt. c's indisposition was a further inducement for my remaining here a couple of days; i therefore informed the men of my intention, and they put their deer skins in the water in order to prepare them for dressing tomorrow. we begin to feel considerable anxiety with rispect to the snake indians. if we do not find them or some other nation who have horses i fear the successfull issue of our voyage will be very doubtfull or at all events much more difficult in it's accomplishment. we are now several hundred miles within the bosom of this wild and mountanous country, where game may rationally be expected shortly to become scarce and subsistence precarious without any information with rispect to the country not knowing how far these mountains continue, or wher to direct our course to pass them to advantage or intersept a navigable branch of the columbia, or even were we on such an one the probability is that we should not find any timber within these mountains large enough for canoes if we judge from the portion of them through which we have passed. however i still hope for the best, and intend taking a tramp myself in a few days to find these yellow gentlemen if possible. my two principal consolations are that from our present position it is impossible that the s. w. fork can head with the waters of any other river but the columbia, and that if any indians can subsist in the form of a nation in these mountains with the means they have of acquiring food we can also subsist. capt. c. informed me that there is a part of this bottom on the west side of the middle fork near the plain, which appears to overflow occasionally and is stony. [clark, july , ] july th saturday i was verry unwell all last night with a high fever & akeing in all my bones. my fever &c. continus, deturmind to prosue my intended rout to the middle fork, accordingly set out in great pain across a prarie miles to the middle this fork is nearly as large as the north fork & appears to be more rapid, we examined and found no fresh sign of indians, and after resting about an hour, proceeded down to the junction thro a wide bottom which appears to be overflown every year, & maney parts stoney this river has several islands and number of beaver & orter, but little timber. we could see no fresh sign of indians just above the point i found capt lewis encamped haveing arrived about oclock. several deer killed this evening. i continue to be verry unwell fever verry high; take of rushes pills & bathe my feet & legs in hot water [lewis, july , ] sunday july th . my friend capt. clark was very sick all last night but feels himself somwhat better this morning since his medicine has opperated. i dispatched two men early this morning up the s. e. fork to examine the river; and permitted sundry others to hunt in the neighbourhood of this place. both capt. c. and myself corrisponded in opinon with rispect to the impropriety of calling either of these streams the missouri and accordingly agreed to name them after the president of the united states and the secretaries of the treasury and state having previously named one river in honour of the secretaries of war and navy. in pursuance of this resolution we called the s. w. fork, that which we meant to ascend, jefferson's river in honor of thomas jefferson. the middle fork we called madison's river in honor of james madison, and the s. e. fork we called gallitin's river in honor of albert gallitin. the two first are yards wide and the last is yards. all of them run with great valocity and thow out large bodies of water. gallitin's river is reather more rapid than either of the others, is not quite as deep but from all appearances may be navigated to a considerable distance. capt. c. who came down madison's river yesterday and has also seen jefferson's some distance thinks madison's reather the most rapid, but it is not as much so by any means as gallitin's. the beds of all these streams are formed of smooth pebble and gravel, and their waters perfectly transparent; in short they are three noble streams. there is timber enough here to support an establishment, provided it be erected with brick or stone either of which would be much cheaper than wood as all the materials for such a work are immediately at the spot. there are several small sand-bars along the shores at no great distance of very pure sand and the earth appears as if it would make good brick. i had all our baggage spread out to dry this morning; and the day proving warm, i had a small bower or booth erected for the comfort of capt. c. our leather lodge when exposed to the sun is excessively hot. i observe large quantities of the sand rush in these bottoms which grow in many places as high as a man's breast and stand as thick as the stalks of wheat usually do. this affords one of the best winter pastures on earth for horses or cows, and of course will be much in favour of an establishment should it ever be thought necessary to fix one at this place. the grass is also luxouriant and would afford a fine swarth of hay at this time in parsels of many acres together. all those who are not hunting altho much fatiegued are busily engaged in dressing their skins, making mockersons leggings &c to make themselves comfortable. the musquetoes are more than usually troublesome, the knats are not as much so. in the evening about o'ck the wind blew hard from south west and after some little time brought on a cloud attended with thunder and lightning from which we had a fine refreshing shower which cooled the air considerably; the showers continued with short intervals untill after dark. in the evening the hunters all returned they had killed deer and elk. some of the deer wer in excellent order. those whome i had sent up gallitin's river reported that after it passed the point to which i had seen it yesterday that it turned more to the east to a considerable distance or as far as they could discover the opening of the mountains formed by it's valley which was many miles. the bottoms were tolerably wide but not as much so as at or near it's mouth. it's current is rappid and the stream much divided with islands but is sufficiently deep for canoe navigation. our present camp is precisely on the spot that the snake indians were encamped at the time the minnetares of the knife r. first came in sight of them five years since. from hence they retreated about three miles up jeffersons river and concealed themselves in the woods, the minnetares pursued, attacked them, killed men women a number of boys, and mad prisoners of all the females and four boys, sah-cah-gar-we-ah or indian woman was one of the female prisoners taken at that time; tho i cannot discover that she shews any immotion of sorrow in recollecting this event, or of joy in being again restored to her native country; if she has enough to eat and a few trinkets to wear i beleive she would be perfectly content anywhere. [clark, july , ] july th sunday i was verry unwell all night, something better this morning, a very worm day untill oclock when the wind rose & blew hard from the s w. and was cloudy, the thermometr. stood at ° above in the evening a heavy thunder shower from the s w. which continud at intervales untill after dark, several deer killed to day men all employed dressing skins for clothes & mockersons, two men went up the east fork & reports that it is nearly the size of the n. fork, verry rapid & has maney islands. our present camp is the prosise spot the snake indians were camped at the time the minetarries came in sight, attacked & killed men women & a number of boys, & made prisoners of all. the females & boys. [lewis, july , ] monday july th . this morning some of the hunters turned out and returned in a few hours with four fat bucks, the venison is now very fine we have killed no mule deer since we lay here, they are all of the longtailed red deer which appear quite as large as those of the united states. the hunters brought in a living young sandhill crane it has nearly obtained it's growth but cannot fly; they had pursued it and caught it in the meadows. it's colour is precisely that of the red deer. we see a number of the old or full grown crams of this species feeding in these meadows. this young animal is very ferce and strikes a severe blow with his beak; after amusing myself with it i had it set at liberty and it moved off apparently much pleased with being releived from his captivity. the men have been busily engaged all day in dising skins and making them into various garments all are leather dressers and taylors. we see a great abundance of fish in the stream some of which we take to be trout but they will not bite at any bate we can offer them. the king fisher is common on the river since we have left the falls of the missouri. we have not seen the summer duck since we left that place, nor do i beleive that it is an inhabitant of the rocky mountains. the duckanmallard were first seen with their young on the th inst. and i forgot to note it; they are now abundant with their young but do not breed in the missouri below the mountains. the grasshopers and crickets are abundant in the plains as are also the small birds frequently mentioned. there is also in these plains a large ant with a redish brown body and legs, and a black head and abdomen; they construct little perimids of small gravel in a conic shape, about or inches high without a mixture of sticks and with but little earth. capt. clark is much better today, is perfectly clear of fever but still very languid and complains of a general soarness in all his limbs. i prevailed on him to take the barks which he has done and eate tolerably freely of our good venison. [clark, july , ] july monday a fair morning wind from the north i feel my self something better to day, made some celestial observations took two merdn. altitudes which gave for latd. ° ' " n men all dressing skins &c. [lewis, july , ] tuesday july th . capt. clark being much better this morning and having completed my observations we reloaded our canoes and set out, ascending jeffersons river. sharbono, his woman two invalleds and myself walked through the bottom on the lard. side of the river about / miles when we again struck it at the place the woman informed us that she was taken prisoner. here we halted untill capt. clark arrived which was not untill after one p.m. the water being strong and the river extreemly crooked. we dined and again proceeded on; as the river now passed through the woods the invalleds got on board together with sharbono and the indian woman; i passed the river and continued my walk on the stard. side. saw a vast number of beaver in many large dams which they had maid in various bayoes of the river which are distributed to the distance of three or four miles on this side of the river over an extensive bottom of timbered and meadow lands intermixed. in order to avoid these bayoes and beaver dams which i found difficult to pass i directed my course to the high plain to the right which i gained after some time with much difficulty and waiding many beaver dams to my waist in mud and water. i would willingly have joined the canoes but the brush were so thick, the river crooked and bottoms intercepted in such manner by the beaver dams, that i found it uceless to attempt to find them, and therefore proceeded on up the river in order to intersept it where it came near the plain and woult be more collected into one channel. at length about sunset i arrived at the river only about six miles from my calculation on a direct line from the place i had left the canoes but i thought they were still below me. i found the river was divided where i reached it by an island and was therefore fearfull that they might pass without my seeing them, and went down to the lower point of the large island; here i discovered a small island, close under the shore on which i was; i passed the narrow channel to the small island and examined the gravly bar along the edge of the river for the tracks of the men, knowing from the appearance of the river at this place that if they had passed they would have used the cord on the side where i was. i saw no tracks and was then fully convinced that they were below me. i fired my gun and hallooed but counld hear nothing of them. by this time it was getting nearly dark and a duck lit on the shore in about steps of me and i killed it; having now secured my supper i looked our for a suitable place to amuse myself in combating the musquetoes for the ballance of the evening. i found a parsel of drift wood at the head of the little island on which i was and immediately set it on fire and collected some willow brush to lye on. i cooked my duck which i found very good and after eating it layed down and should have had a comfortable nights lodge but for the musquetoes which infested me all night. late at night i was awakened by the nois of some animal runing over the stoney bar on which i lay but did not see it; from the weight with which it ran i supposed it to be either an elk or a brown bear. the latter are very abundant in this neighbourhood. the night was cool but i felt very little inconvenience from it as i had a large fire all night. capt. clark had proceeded on after i seperated from him and encamped on a islad. only about miles below me but did not hear the report of my gun nor of my hooping.-i saw some deer and antelopes. [clark, july , ] july th monday we set out oclock and proceeded on / miles up the n. fork the river verry rapid & sholey the channel entirely corse gravel many islands and a number of chanels in different directions thro the bottom &c. passed the place the squar interpretress was taken, one man with his sholder strained, with turners, we camped on the std. side the evening cool. capt lewis who walkd on shore did not join me this evening [lewis, july , ] wednesday july st . this morning i waited at my camp very impatiently for the arrival of capt. clark and party; i observed by my watch that it was a.m. and they had not come in sight. i now became very uneasy and determined to wait until and if they did not arrive by that time to proceed on up the river taking it as a fact that they had passed my camp some miles last evening. just as i set out to pursue my plan i discovered charbono walking up shore some distance below me and waited untill arrived i now learnt that the canoes were behind, they arrived shortly after. their detention had been caused by the rapidity of the water and the circuitous rout of the river. they halted and breakfasted after which we all set out again and i continued my walk on the stard. shore the river now becomes more collected the islands tho numerous ar generally small. the river continues rapid and is from to yd. wide has a considerable quantity of timber in it's bottoms. towards evening the bottoms became much narrower and the timber much more scant. high hills set in close on the lard. and the plain high waivy or reather broken on the stard. and approach the river closely for a shot distance vally above / m wd. about one mile above capt. clark's encampment of the last evening the principall entrance of a considerable river discharges itself into jefferson's river. this stream is a little upwards of yd. wide discharges a large quantity of very clear water it's bed like that of jefferson's river is pebble and gravel. it takes it's rise in the snowclad mountains between jefferson's and madison's rivers to the s. w. and discharges itself into the former by seven mouths it has some timber in it's bottoms and vas numbers of beaver and otter. this stream we call river philosophy. the rock of the clifts this evening is a hard black grannite like that of the clifts of most parts of the river below the limestone clifts at the forks of the missouri this evening just before we encamped drewyer discovered a brown bear enter a small cops of bushes on the lard. side; we surrounded the place an surched the brush but he had escaped in some manner unperceived but how we could not discover. nothing killed today and our fresh meat is out. when we have a plenty of fresh meat i find it impossible to make the men take any care of it, or use it with the least frugallity. tho i expect that necessity will shortly teach them this art. the mountiains on both sides of the river at no great distance are very lofty. we have a lame crew just now, two with turners or bad boils on various parts of them, one with a bad stone bruise, one with his arm accedently dislocated but fortunately well replaced, and a fifth has streigned his back by sliping and falling backwards on the gunwall of the canoe. the latter is sergt. gass. it gives him great pain to work in the canoe in his present situation, but he thinks he can walk with convenience, i therefore scelected him as one of the party to accompany me tomorrow, being determined to go in quest of the snake indians. i also directed drewyer and charbono to hold themselves in readiness. charbono thinks that his ankle is sufficiently recovered to stand the march but i entertain my doubts of the fact; he is very anxious to accompany me and i therefore indulge him. there is some pine on the hills on both sides of the river opposite to our encampment which is on the lard. side upon a small island just above a run. the bull rush & cat-tail flag grow in great abundance in the moist parts of the bottoms the dryer situations are covered with fine grass, tanzy, thistles, onions and flax. the bottom land fertile and of a black rich loam. the uplands poor sterile and of a light yellow clay with a mixture of small smooth pebble and gravel, poducing prickley pears, sedge and the bearded grass in great abundance; this grass is now so dry that it would birn like tinder.--we saw one bighorn today a few antelopes and deer.- [clark, july , ] july st tuesday a fair morning capt lewis out all night, we arrived at his camp to brackfast, he was without a blanket, & he killed a duck whiche suped on &c. the river as yesterday sholey & rapid, passed the lower mouth of a small river on the lard. in the morning & the upper mouth a ____ miles above, this little river is the one i camped on the th & heads in the snow mountains to the s w. proceeded on verry well and camped on a small island a little above the place i camped the th instant at the mouth of a run on the lard side, the bottoms from the mouth of the river extend to / miles & enter a short & high hill which is about mile thro and, the river then passes thro a d value of about / miles wide, some islands. below this knobe the river is crouded with islands, we are out of fresh meet, & nothing killed to day the mountains on either side is high & rough we have two men with toumers and unable to work. capt lewis deturmin to proceed on with three men in serch of the snake indians, tomorrow [lewis, august , ] august st at half after a.m. we halted for breakfast and as had been previously agreed on between capt. clark and myself i set out with men in quest of the snake indians. the men i took were the two interpreters drewyer and sharbono and sergt. gass who by an accedental fall had so disabled himself that it was with much pain he could work in the canoes tho he could march with convenience. the rout we took lay over a rough high range of mountains on the north side of the river. the rive entered these mountains a few miles above where we left it. capt clark recommended this rout to me from a belief that the river as soon as it past the mountains boar to the n. of w. he having a few days before ascended these mountains to a position from which he discovered a large valley passing betwen the mountains and which boar to the n. west. this however poved to be the inlet of a large creek which discharged itself into the river just above this range of mountans, the river bearing to the s. w. we were therefore thrown several miles out of our rout. as soon as we discovered our mistake we directed our course to the river which we at length gained about p.m. much exhausted by the heat of the day the roughnes of the road and the want of water. the mountains are extreemly bare of timber and our rout lay through the steep valleys exposed to the heat of the sun without shade and scarcely a breath of air; and to add to my fatiegue in this walk of about miles i had taken a doze of glauber salts in the morning in consequence of a slight desentary with which i had been afflicted for several days; being weakened by the disorder and the opperation of the medecine i found myself almost exhausted before we reached the river. i felt my sperits much revived on our near approach to the river at the sight of a herd of elk of which drewyer and myself killed two. we then hurried to the river and allayed our thirst. i ordered two of the men to skin the elk and bring the meat to the river while myself and the other prepared a fire and cooked some of the meat for our dinner. we made a comfortable meal of the elk and left the ballance of the meat on the bank of the river the party with capt. clark. this supply was no doubt very acceptable to them as they had had no fresh meat for near two days except one beaver game being very scarce and shy. we had seen a few deer and some goats but had not been fortunate enough to kill any of them. after dinner we resumed our march and encamped about m. above on the stard side of the river. [lewis, august , ] thursday august st . this morning we set out early and proceeded on tolerably well untill oct. by which time we had arrived within a few miles of a mountain through which the river passes. we halted on the stard. side and took breakfast. after which or at / after a.m. as had been previously concerted betwen capt. clark and myself i set out with three men in surch of the snake indians or sosonees. our rout lay over a high range of mountains on the north side of the river. capt c. recommended this rout to me no doubt from a beleif that the river as soon as it passed this chain of mountains boar to the n. of w. he having on the th ult. ascended these mountains to a position from whence he discoved a large valley passing between the mountains which boar to the n. w. and presumed that the river passed in that direction; this however proved to be the passage of a large creek which discharged itself into the river just above this range of mountains, the river bearing to the s. w. we were therefore thrown several miles out of our rout. as soon as we discovered our error we directed our course to the river which we at length gained about p.m. much exhausted by the heat of the day, the roughness of the road and the want of water. the mountains are extreemly bare of timber, and our rout lay through the steep and narrow hollows of the mountains exposed to the intese heat of the midday sun without shade or scarcely a breath of air to add to my fatiegue in this walk of about miles, i had taken a doze of glauber salts in the morning in consequence of a slight disentary with which i had been afflicted for several days. being weakened by the disorder and the operation of the medicine i found myself almost exhausted before we reached the river. i felt my sperits much revived on our near approach to the river at the sight of a herd of elk, of which drewyer and myself soon killed a couple. we then hurryed to the river and allayed our thirst. i ordered two of the men to skin the elk and bring the meat to the river, while myself and the other prepared a fire and cooked some of the meat for our dinner. we made a comfortable meal on the elk, and left the ballance of the meat and skins on the bank of the river for capt. clark and party. this supply will no doubt be acceptable to them, as they had had no fresh meat when i left them for almost days except one beaver; game being very scarce and shy above the forks. we had seen a few deer and antelopes but had not been fortunate enough to kill any of them. as i passed these mountains i saw a flock of the black or dark brown phesants; the young phesant is almost grown we killed one of them. this bird is fully a third larger than the common phesant of the atlantic states. it's form is much the same. it is booted nearly to the toes and the male has not the tufts of long black feathers on the sides of the neck which are so conspicuous in those of the atlantic. their colour is a uniform dark brown with a small mixture of yellow or yelloish brown specks on some of the feathers particularly those of the tail, tho the extremities of these are perfectly black for about one inch. the eye is nearly black, the iris has a small dash of yellowish brown. the feathers of the tail are reather longer than that of our phesant or pattridge as they are called in the eastern states; are the same in number or eighteen and all nearly of the same length, those in the intermediate part being somewhat longest. the flesh of this bird is white and agreeably flavored. i also saw near the top of the mountain among some scattering pine a blue bird about the size of the common robbin. it's action and form is somewhat that of the jay bird and never rests long in any one position but constantly flying or hoping from sprey to sprey. i shot at one of them but missed it. their note is loud and frequently repeated both flying and when at rest and is char ah', char'ah, char ah', as nearly as letters can express it. after dinner we resumed our march and my pack felt much lighter than it had done about hours before. we traveled about six miles further and encamped on the stard. bank of the river, making a distance of miles for this day. the musquetoes were troublesome but i had taken the precaution of bringing my bier. shortly after i left capt. clark this morning he proceed on and passed through the mountains; they formed tremendious clifts of ragged and nearly perpendicular rocks; the lower.part of this rock is of the black grannite before mentioned and the upper part a light coloured freestone. these clifts continue for miles and approach the river very closely on either side. he found the current verry strong. capt. c. killed a big horn on these clifts which himself and party dined on. after passing this range of mountains he entered this beautifull valley in which we also were it is from to miles wide. the river is crooked and crouded with islands, it's bottoms wide fertile and covered with fine grass from inches to feet high and possesses but a scant proportion of timber, which consists almost entirely of a few narrow leafed cottonwood trees distributed along the verge of the river. in the evening capt. c. found the elk i had left him and ascended a short distance above to the entrance of a large creek which falls in on stard. and encamped opposite to it on the lard. side. he sent out the two fieldses to hunt this evening and they killed deer, which with the elk again gave them a plentifull store of fresh provisions. this large creek we called field's creek after reubin fields one our party. on the river about the mountains wich capt. c. passed today he saw some large cedar trees and some juniper also just at the upper side of the mountain there is a bad rappid here the toe line of our canoe broke in the shoot of the rapids and swung on the rocks and had very nearly overset. a small distance above this rapid a large bold creek falls in on lard. side which we called frazier's creek after robt. frazier. they saw a large brown bear feeding on currants but could not get a shoot at him. [clark, august , ] august st wednesday a fine day capt. lewis left me at oclock just below the place i entered a verrey high mountain which jutted its tremedious clifts on either side for miles, the rocks ragide some verry dark & other part verry light rock the light rocks is sand stone. the water swift & very sholey. i killed a ibix on which the whole party dined, after passing through the mountain we entered a wide extesive vallie of from to miles wide verry leavell a creek falls in at the commencement of this vallie on the lard side, the river widens & spreds into small chanels. we encamped on the lard side opposit a large creek i sent out jo. & r fields to hunt this evening they killed deer, i saw a large bear eateing currents this evining the river so rapid that the greatest exertion is required by all to get the boats on wind s w murckery at sun rise ° ab. [lewis, august , ] august nd . we resumed our march this morning at sunrise the weather was fair and wind from n. w. finding that the river still boar to the south i determined to pass it if possible to shorten our rout this we effected about five miles above our camp of last evening by wading it. found the current very rappid about yards wide and waist deep this is the first time that i ever dared to make the attempt to wade the river, tho there are many places between this and the three forks where i presume it migh be attempted with equal success. the valley though which our rout of this day lay and through which the river winds it's meandering course is a beatifull level plain with but little timber and that on the verge of the river. the land is tolerably fertile, consisting of a black or dark yellow loam, and covered with grass from inches to feet high. the plain ascends gradually on either side of the river to the bases of two ranges of mountains which ly parrallel to the river and which terminate the width of the vally. the tops of these mountains were yet partially covered with snow while we in the valley. were suffocated nearly with the intense heat of the midday sun. the nights are so could that two blankets are not more than sufficient covering. we found a great courants, two kinds of which were red, others yellow deep purple and black, also black goosburies and service buries now ripe and in full perfection, we feasted suptuously on our wild fruit particularly the yellow courant and the deep purple servicebury which i found to be excellent the courrant grows very much like the red currant common to the gardens in the atlantic states tho the leaf is somewhat different and the growth taller. the service burry grows on a smaller bush and differs from ours only in colour and the superior excellence of it's flavor and size, it is of a deep purple. this day we saw an abundance of deer and goats or antelopes and a great number of the tracks of elk; of the former we killed two. we continued our rout along this valley which is from six to eight miles wide untill sun set when we encamped for the night on the river bank having traveled about miles. i feel myself perfectly recovered of my indisposition and do not doubt being able to pursue my march with equal comfort in the morning. [lewis, august , ] friday august cd . we resumed our march this morning at sunrise; the day was fair and wind from n. w. finding that the river still boar to the south i determined to pass it if possible in order to shorten our rout; this we effected by wading the river about miles above our encampment of the last evening. we found the current very rapid waist deep and about yd. wide bottom smooth pebble with a small mixture of coarse gravel. this is the first time that i ever dared to wade the river, tho there are many places between this and the forks where i presume it might be attempted with equal success. the vally allong which we passed today, and through which the river winds it's meandering course is from to miles wide and consists of a beatifull level plain with but little timber and that confined to the verge of the river; the land is tolerably fertile, and is either black or a dark yellow loam, covered with grass from inches to feet high. the plain ascends gradually on either side of the river to the bases of two ranges of high mountains, which lye parallel to the river and prescribe the limits of the plains. the tops of these mountains are yet covered partially with snow, while we in the valley are nearly suffocated with the intense heat of the midday sun; the nights are so cold that two blankets are not more than sufficient covering. soon after passing the river this morning sergt. gass lost my tommahawk in the thick brush and we were unable to find it, i regret the loss of this usefull implement, however accedents will happen in the best families, and i consoled myself with the recollection that it was not the only one we had with us. the bones of the buffaloe and their excrement of an old date are to be met with in every part of this valley but we have long since lost all hope of meeting with that animal in these mountains. we met with great quantities of currants today, two species of which were red, others yellow, deep perple and black; also black goosberries and serviceberries now ripe and in great perfection. we feasted sumptuously on our wild fruits, particularly the yellow currant and the deep perple serviceberries, which i found to be excellent. the serviceberry grows on a small bush and differs from ours only in colour size and superior excellence of it's flavour. it is somewhat larger than ours. on our way we saw an abundance of deer antelopes, of the former we killed . we also saw many tracks of the elk and bear. no recent appearance of indians. the indians in this part of the country appear to construct their lodges with the willow boughs and brush; they are small of a conic figure and have a small aperture on one side through which they enter. we continued our rout up this valley on the lard. side of the river untill sunset, at which time we encamped on the lard. bank of the river having traveled miles. we had brought with us a good stock of venison of which we eat a hearty supper. i feel myself perfectly recovered of my indisposition, and do not doubt being able to pursue my rout tomorrow with the same comfort i have done today.--we saw some very large beaver dams today in the bottoms of the river several of which wer five feet high and overflowed several acres of land; these dams are formed of willow brush mud and gravel and are so closely interwoven that they resist the water perfectly. the base of this work is thick and rises nearly perpendicularly on the lower side while the upper side or that within the dam is gently sloped. the brush appear to be laid in no regular order yet acquires a strength by the irregularity with which they are placed by the beaver that it would puzzle the engenuity of man to give them. capt. clark continued his rout early this morning. the rapidity of the current was such that his progress was slow, in short it required the utmost exertion of the men to get on, nor could they resist this current by any other means than that of the cord and pole. in the course of the day they passed some villages of burrowing squirrels, saw a number of beaver dams and the inhabitants of them, many young ducks both of the duckanmallard and the redheaded fishing duck, gees, several rattle snakes, black woodpeckers, and a large gang of elk; they found the river much crouded with island both large and small and passed a small creek on stard. side which we called birth creek. capt. clark discovers a tumor rising on the inner side of his ankle this evening which was painfull to him. they incamped in a level bottom on the lard. side.- [clark, august , ] august nd friday a fine day set out early the river has much the same kind of banks chanel current &c. as it had in the last vallie, i walked out this morning on shore & saw several rattle snakes in the plain, the wind from the s w we proceeded on with great dificuelty from the rapidity of the current & rapids, abt. miles and encamped on the lard side, saw a large gangue of elk at sunset to the s w. passed a small creek on the stard side and maney large and small islands. saw a number of young ducks as we have also seen everry day, some geese i saw black woodpeckers--i have either got my foot bitten by some poisonous insect or a turner is riseing on the inner bone of my ankle which is painfull [lewis, august , ] august the rd . set out this morning at sunrise and continued our rout through the valley on the lard. side of the river. at eleven a.m. drewyer killed a doe and we halted and took breakfast. the mountains continue high on either side of the valley, and are but skantily supplyed with timber; small pine appears to be the prevalent growth. there is no timber in the valley except a small quantity of the narrow leafed cottonwood on the verge of the river. the underwood consists of the narrowleafed or small willow, honeysuckle rosebushes, courant, goosbury and service bury bushes allso a small quantity of a species of dwarf burch the leaf of which, oval, deep green, finely indented and very small. we encamped this evening after sunset having traveled by estimate miles. from the width and appearance of the valley at this place i concieved that the river forked not far above me and therefore resolved the next morning to examine the adjacent country more minutely. [lewis, august , ] saturday august rd . set out early this morning, or before sunrise; still continued our march through the level valley on the lard. side of the river. the valley much as yesterday only reather wider; i think it miles wide, tho the plains near the mountains rise higher and are more broken with some scattering pine near the mountain. in the leaveler parts of the plain and river bottoms which are very extensive there is no timber except a scant proportion of cottonwood neat the river. the under wood consists of the narrow leafed or small willow, the small honeysuckle, rosebushes, currant, serviceberry, and goosbery bushes; also a small species of berth in but small quantities the leaf which is oval finely, indented, small and of a deep green colour. the stem is simple ascending and branching, and seldom rises higher than or feet. the mountains continue high on either side of the valley, and are but scantily supplyed with timber; small pine apears to be the prevalent growth; it is of the pith kind, with a short leaf. at a.m. drewyer killed a doe and we halted about hours and breakfasted, and then continued our rout untill night without halting, when we arrived at the river in a level bottom which appeared to spread to greater extent than usual. from the appearance of the timber i supposed that the river forked above us and resolved to examine this part of the river minutely tomorrow. this evening we passed through a high plain for about miles covered with prickley pears and bearded grass, tho we found this even better walking than the wide bottoms of the river, which we passed in the evening; these altho apparently level, from some cause which i know not, were formed into meriads of deep holes as if rooted up by hogs these the grass covered so thick that it was impossible to walk without the risk of falling down at every step. some parts of these bottoms also possess excellent terf or peat, i beleive of many feet deep. the mineral salts also frequently mentioned on the missouri we saw this evening in these uneven bottoms. we saw many deer, antelopes ducks, gees, some beaver and great appearance of their work. also a small bird and the curlooe as usual. we encamped on the river bank on lard. side having traveled by estimate miles. the fish of this part of the river are trout and a species of scale fish of a white colour and a remarkable small long mouth which one of our men inform us are the same with the species called in the eastern states bottlenose. the snowey region of the mountains and for some distance below has no timber or herbage of any kind; the timber is confined to the lower and middle regions. capt. clark set out this morning as usual. he walked on shore a small distance this morning and killed a deer. in the course of his walk he saw a track which he supposed to be that of an indian from the circumstance of the large toes turning inward. he pursued the track and found that the person had ascended a point of a hill from which his camp of the last evening was visible; this circumstance also confirmed the beleif of it's being an indian who had thus discovered them and ran off. they found the river as usual much crouded with islands, the currant more rapid & much more shallow than usual. in many places they were obliged to double man the canoes and drag them over the stone and gravel. this morning they passed a small creek on stard. at the entrance of which reubin fields killed a large panther. we called the creek after that animal panther creek. they also passed a handsome little stream on lard. which is form of several large springs which rise in the bottoms and along the base of the mountains with some little rivulets from the melting snows. the beaver have formed many large dams on this stream. they saw some deer antelopes and the common birds of the country. in the evening they passed a very bad rappid where the bed of the river is formed entrely of solid rock and encamped on an island just above. the panther which fields killed measured seven and / feet from the nose to the extremity of the tail. it is precisely the same animal common to the western part of our country. the men wer compelled to be a great proportion of their time in the water today; they have had a severe days labour and are much fortiegued. [clark, august , ] august rd saturday a fine morning wind from the n e i walked on shore & killed a deer in my walk i saw a fresh track which i took to be an indian from the shape of the foot as the toes turned in, i think it probable that this indian spied our fires and came to a situation to view us from the top of a small knob on the lard side. the river more rapid and sholey than yesterday one r. f. man killed a large panthor on the shore we are oblige to haul over the canoes sholey in maney places where the islands are noumerous and bottom sholey, in the evening the river more rapid and sholey we encamped on an island avove a part of the river which passed thro a rockey bed enclosed on both sides with thick willow current & red buries &c &c passed a bold stream which heads in the mountains to our right and the drean of the minting snow in the montn. on that side ar in view--at oclock passed a bold stream which falls from a mountn in three channels to our left, the greater portion of the snow on this mountain is melted, but little remaining near us some deer elk & antelopes & bear in the bottoms. but fiew trees and they small the mountains on our left contain pine those on our right but verry partially supplied and what pine & cedar it has is on the lower region, no wood being near the snow. great numbers of beaver otter &c. some fish trout & and bottle nose. birds as usial. geese young ducks & curlows [lewis, august , ] august th . set out very early this morning and steered s. e. by e. about miles when we passed a bould runing creek about yards wide the water could and remarkably clear, we then changed our course to s. e. passing obliquely across a valley which boar nearly e leaving the valley which we had pursued for the precedeing days. at the distance of miles we passed a handsome little river which passes through this valley; it is about yards wide affords a considerable quantity of water and i believe it may be navigated some miles. i then changed my rout to s. w. passed a high plain which lyes between the vallies and returned to the s. valley, in passing which i fell in with a river about yards wide which i waideg and then continued my rout down to it's junction with the river just mentioned, and from thence to the entrance of the creek which falls in about miles below; still continuing my rout down this stream about three miles further and about m. below our encampment of the last evening this river forms a junction with a river yards wide which comes from the n. w. and falling into the s. valley runs parrallel with the middle fork about miles. this is a bould rappid & clear stream it's bed so broken and obstructed by gravel bars and islands that it appeared to me impossible to navigate it with safety. the middle fork is gentle and possesses about / ds as much water as this rappid stream, it's cours so far as i can observe it is about s. w. and it appears to be navigable; its water is much warmer than that of the rappid fork and somewhat turbid, from which i concluded that it had it's source at a greater distance in the mountains and passed through an opener country than the other. under this impression i wrote a note to capt. clark recommending his taking the middle fork provided he should arrive at this place before my return which i expect will be the day after tomorrow. the note i left on a pole at the forks of the river and having refreshed ourselves and eat heartily of some venison we killed this morning i continued my rout up the stard side of the n. w. fork, determining to pursue it untill oc. the next day and then pass over to the middle fork and return to their junction or untill i met capt. clark. we encamped this evening near the point where the river leaves the valley and enters the mountains, having traveled about miles.- [lewis, august , ] sunday august th . set out very early this morning and steered s. e. by e. m. when we pased a bold runing creek yds. wide, the water of which was clear and very cold. it appears to be formed by four dranes from the snowey mountains to our left. after passing this creek we changed our direction to s. e. passing obliquely across a valley which boar e leaving the valley we had pursued for the two peceeding days. at the distance of ms. we passed a handsome little river which meanders through this valley; it is about yds wide, affords a considerable quantity of water and appears as if it might be navigated some miles. the currant is not rapid nor the water very clear; the banks are low and the bed formed of stone and gravel. i now changed my rout to s. w. passed a high plain which lies betwen the valleies and returned to the south valley, in passing which i fell in with a river about yds. wide gravley bottom gentle currant waist deep and water of a whitish blue tinge. this stream we waded and continued our rout down it to the entrance of the river just mentioned about / of a mile. still continuing down we passed the entrance of the creek about miles lower down; and at the distance of three miles further arrived at it's junction with a river yds. wide which comes from the s. w. and falling into the south valley runs parallel with the middle fork about miles before it forms a junction. i now found that our encampment of the last evening was about / miles above the entrance of this large river on stard. this is a bold rappid and clear stream, it's bed so much broken and obstructed by gravley bars and it's waters so much subdivided by islands that it appears to me utterly impossible to navigate it with safety. the middle fork is gentle and possesses about / rds as much water as this stream. it's course so far as i can observe it is about s. w., and from the opening of the valley i beleive it still bears more to the west above it may be safely navigated. it's water is much warmer then the rapid fork and it's water more turbid; from which i conjecture that it has it's sources at a greater distance in the mountains and passes through an opener country than the other. under this impression i wrote a note to capt clark, recommending his taking the middle fork povided he should arrive at this place before my return, which i expect will be the day after tomorrow. this note i left on a pole at the forks of the river, and having refreshed ourselves and eat heartily of some venison which we killed this morning we continued our rout up the rapid fork on the stard side, resolving to pursue this stream untill noon tomorrow and then pass over to the middle fork and come down it to their junction or untill i meet capt clark. i have seen no recent indian sign in the course of my rout as yet. charbono complains much of his leg, and is the cause of considerable detention to us. we encamped on the river bank near the place at which it leaves the valley and enters the mountain having traveled about miles. we saw some antelopes deer grains, gees, and ducks of the two species common to this country. the summer duck has ceased to appear, nor do i beleive it is an inhabitant of this part of the country. the timber &c is as heretofore tho there is more in this valley on the rapid fork than we have seen in the same extent on the river since we entered this valley. the indians appear on some parts of the river to have distroyed a great proportion of the little timber which there is by seting fire to the bottoms. this morning capt. clark set out at sunrise, and sent two hunters ahead to kill some meat. at a.m. he arrived at my camp of the ed inst. where he breakfasted; here he found a note which i had left for him at that place informing him of the occurences of my rout &c. the river continued to be crouded with islands, rapid and shoaly. these shoals or riffles succeeded each other every or four hundred yards; at those places they are obliged to drag the canoes over the stone there not being water enough to float them, and betwen the riffles the current is so strong that they are compelled to have cecourse to the cord; and being unable to walk on the shore for the brush wade in the river along the shore and hawl them by the cord; this has increased the pain and labour extreemly; their feet soon get tender and soar by wading and walking over the stones. these are also so slipry that they frequently get severe falls. being constantly wet soon makes them feble also. their hunters killed deer today and some gees and ducks wer killed by those who navigated the canoes. they saw deer antelopes grains beaver otter &c. capt. clark's ancle became so painfull to him that he was unable to walk.--this evening they encamped on the stard. side in a bottom of cottonwood timber all much fatiegued. [clark, august , ] august th sunday a fine morning cool proceeded on verry early and brackfast at the camp capt lewis left yesterday morning, at this camp he left a note informing that he discovered no fresh sign of indians &c. the river continued to be crouded with islands sholey rapid & clear, i could not walk on shore to day as my ankle was sore from a turner on that part. the method we are compelled to take to get on is fatigueing & laborious in the extreen, haul the canoes over the rapids, which suckceed each other every two or three hundred yards and between the water rapid oblige to towe & walke on stones the whole day except when we have poleing men wet all day sore feet &c. &c murcury at sun rise a. , [lewis, august , ] monday august th as charbono complained of being unable to march far today i ordered him and sergt. gass to pass the rappid river near our camp and proceed at their leasure through the level bottom to a point of high timber about seven miles distant on the middle fork which was in view; i gave them my pack that of drewyer and the meat which we had, directing them to remain at that place untill we joined them. i took drewyer with me and continued my rout up the stard. side of the river about miles and then waded it; found it so rapid and shallow that it was impossible to navigate it. continued up it on the lard. side about / miles further when the mountains put in close on both sides and arrose to great hight, partially covered with snow. from hence the course of the river was to the east of north. i took the advantage of a high projecting spur of the mountain which with some difficulty we ascended to it's summit in about half an hour. from this eminance i had a pleasing view of the valley through which i had passed many miles below and the continuation of the middle fork through the valley equally wide above me to the distance of about miles when that also appeared to enter the mountains and disappeared to my view; however the mountains which termineate the valley in this direction appeared much lower than those up either of the other forks. on the rapid fork they appeared still to rise the one range towering above another as far as i could perceive them. the middle fork as i suspected dose bear considerably to the west of south and the gap formed by it in the mountains after the valley terminates is in the same direction. under these circumstances i did not hesitate in beleiving the middle fork the most proper for us to ascend. about south from me, the middle fork approached within about miles. i resolved to pass across the plains to it and return to gass and charbono, accordingly we set out and decended the mountain among some steep and difficult precipices of rocks. here drewyer missed his step and had a very dangerous fall, he sprained one of his fingers and hirt his leg very much. in fifteen or minutes he was able to proceed and we continued our rout to the river where we had desighned to interscept it. i quenched my thirst and rested a few minutes examined the river and found it still very navi-gable. an old indian road very large and plain leads up this fork, but i could see no tracks except those of horses which appeared to have passed early in the spring. as the river mad a great bend to the south east we again ascended the high plain and steered our course as streight as we could to the point where i had directed gass and sharbono to remain. we passed the plain regained the bottom and struck the river about miles above them; by this time it was perfectly dark & we hooped but could hear no tidings of them. we had struck the river at the point of timber to which i had directed them, but having mistaken a point of woods lower down, had halted short of the place. we continued our rout after dark down the bottom through thick brush of the pulppy leafed thorn and prickly pears for about hours when we arrived at their camp. they had a small quantity of meat left which drewyer and myself eat it being the first we had taisted today. we had traveled about miles. i soon laid down and slept very soundly untill morning. i saw no deer today nor any game except a few antelopes which were very shy. the soil of the plains is a light yellow clay very meager and intermixed with a large proportion of gravel, producing nothing except the twisted or bearded grass, sedge and prickly pears. the dryer parts of the bottoms are also much more indifferent in point of soil to those below and are covered with the southernwood pulpy leafed thorn and prickley pears with but little grass. the moist parts are fertile and covered with fine grass and sand rushes. this morning capt. clark set out at sunrise and dispatched joseph & reubin fields to hunt. they killed two deer on one of which the party breakfasted. the river today they found streighter and more rapid even than yesterday, and the labour and difficulty of the navigation was proportionably increased, they therefore proceeded but slowly and with great pain as the men had become very languid from working in the water and many of their feet swolen and so painfull that they could scarcely walk. at p.m. they arrived at the confluence of the two rivers where i had left the note. this note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note; the possibility of such an occurrence never one occurred to me when i placed it on the green pole. this accedent deprived capt. clark of any information with ripect to the country and supposing that the rapid fork was most in the direction which it was proper we should pursue, or west, he took that stream and asscended it with much difficulty about a mile and encamped on an island that had been lately overflown and was yet damp; they were therefore compelled to make beds of brush to keep themselves out of the mud. in ascending this stream for about a quarter of a mile it scattered in such a maner that they were obliged to cut a passage through the willow brush which leant over the little channels and united their tops. capt. clarks ankle is extreemly painfull to him this evening; the tumor has not yet mature, he has a slight fever.--the men were so much fortiegued today that they wished much that navigation was at an end that they might go by land.- [clark, august , ] august th monday a cold clear morning the wind from the s. e. the river streight & much more rapid than yesterday, i sent out jo. & r. fields to kill some meat they killed deer & we brackfast on one of them and proceeded on with great dificuelety from the rapidity of the current, and numerable rapids we had to encounter, at oclock p m murcury ab. , passed the mouth of principal fork which falls in on the lard. side, this fork is about the size of the stard. one less water reather not so rapid, its course as far as can be seen is s. e & appear to pass through between two mountains, the n w. fork being the one most in our course i. e. s w. as far as i can see, deturmind me to take this fork as the principal and the one most proper the s e fork is of a greenish colour & contains but little timber. the s w fok contains more timber than is below for some distance, we assended this fork about one mile and encamped on an island which had been laterly overflown & was wet we raised our bead on bushes, we passed a part of the river above the forks which was divided and scattered thro the willows in such a manner as to render it dificuelt to pass through for a / of a mile, we wer oblige to cut our way thro the willows--men much fatigued from their excessive labours in hauling the canoes over the rapids &c. verry weak being in the water all day. my foot verry painfull assended the n w fork miles on a course s. ° w. to a bluff on the stard. side passed several bayous & islands [lewis, august , ] tuesday august th . we set out this morning very early on our return to the forks. having nothing to eat i set drewyer to the woodlands to my left in order to kill a deer, sent sergt. gass to the right with orders to keep sufficiently near to discover capt. c. and the party should they be on their way up that stream, and with sharbono i directed my course to the main forks through the bottom directing the others to meet us there. about five miles above the forks i head the hooping of the party to my left and changed my rout towards them; on my arrival found that they had taken the rapid fork and learnt from capt. clark that he had not found the note which i had left for him at that place and the reasons which had induced him to ascend this stream. it was easeist & more in our direction, and apd. to contain as much water he had hoever previously to my comeing up with him, met drewyer who informed him of the state of the two rivers and was on his return. one of their canoes had just overset and all the baggage wet, the medecine box among other articles and several articles lost a shot pouch and horn with all the implements for one rifle lost and never recovered. i walked down to the point where i waited their return. on their arrival found that two other canoes had filled with water and wet their cargoes completely. whitehouse had been thrown out of one of the canoes as she swing in a rapid current and the canoe had rubed him and pressed him to the bottom as she passed over him and had the water been inches shallower must inevitably have crushed him to death. our parched meal, corn, indian preasents, and a great part of our most valuable stores were wet and much damaged on this ocasion. to examine, dry and arrange our stores was the first object; we therefore passed over to the lard. side opposite to the entrance of the rapid fork where there was a large gravly bar that answered our purposes; wood was also convenient and plenty. here we fixed our camp, and unloaded all our canoes and opened and exposed to dry such articles as had been wet. a part of the load of each canoe consisted of the leaden canestirs of powder which were not in least injured, tho some of them had remained upwards of an hour under water. about lbs. of powder which we had in a tight keg or at least one which we thought sufficiently so got wet and intirely spoiled. this would have been the case with the other had it not have been for the expedient which i had fallen on of securing the powder by means of the lead having the latter formed into canesters which were filled with the necessary proportion of poder to discharge the lead when used, and those canesters well secured with corks and wax. in this country the air is so pure and dry that any vessel however well seasoned the timber may be will give way or shrink unless it is kept full of some liquid. we found that three deer skins which we had left at a considerable hight on a tree were taken off which we supposed had been done by a panther. we sent out some men to hunt this evening, they killed deer and four elk which gave us a plentifull supply of meat once more. shannon had been dispatched up the rapid fork this morning to hunt, by capt clark before he met with drewyer or learnt his mistake in the rivers. when he returned he sent drewyer in surch of him, but he rejoined us this evening and reported that he had been several miles up the river and could find nothing of him. we had the trumpet sounded and fired several guns but he did not join us this evening. i am fearful he is lost again. this is the same man who was seperated from us days as we came up the missouri and subsisted days of that time on grapes only. whitehouse is in much pain this evening with the injury one of his legs sustained from the canoe today at the time it upset and swing over him. capt clarks ankle is also very painfull to him.--we should have given the party a days rest some where near this place had not this accedent happened, as i had determined to take some observations to fix the latitude and longitude of these forks. our merchandize medecine &c are not sufficiently dry this evening we covered them securely for the evening. capt clark had ascended the river about miles from this place on a course of s ° w. before he met with drewyer. we beleive that the n. w. or rapid fork is the dane of the melting snows of the mountains, and that it is not as long as the middle fork and dose not at all seasons of the year supply any thing like as much water as the other and that about this season it rises to it's greatest hight. this last appears from the apparent bed of the river which is now overflown and the water in many plases spreads through old channels which have their bottoms covered with grass that has grown this season and is such as appears on the parts of the bottom not innundated. we therefore determined that the middle fork was that which ought of right to bear the name we had given to the lower portion or river jefferson and called the bold rapid an clear stream wisdom, and the more mild and placid one which flows in from the s. e. philanthrophy, in commemoration of two of those cardinal virtues, which have so eminently marked that deservedly selibrated character through life. [clark, august , ] august th tuesday a clear morning cool wind from the s w we proceeded on with much dificuelty and fatigue over rapids & stones; river about or yards wide much divided by islands and narrow bayoos to a low bluff on the stard side & brackfast, dureing the time of brackfast drewyer came to me from capt. lewis and informed me that they had explored both forks for or miles & that the one we were assending was impractiabl much further up & turned imediately to the north, the middle fork he reported was jintle and after a short distanc turned to the s. w. and that all the indian roades leades up the middle fork. this report deturmind me to take the middle fork, accordingly droped down to the forks where i met with capt lewis & party, capt lewis had left a letter on a pole in the forks informing me what he had discovered & the course of the rivers &c. this lettr was cut down by the beaver as it was on a green pole & carried off. three skins which was left on a tree was taken off by the panthers or wolvers. in decending to the point one canoe struck & turned on a rapid & sunk, and wet every thing which was in her, this misfortune obliged us to halt at the forks and dry those articles, one other canoe nearly turning over, filled half full of water & wet our medison & some goods corn &c. several hunters out to day & killed a young elk, antilope, & deer, one man shannon did not return to night--this evening cool my anckle much wors than it has been--this evening a violent wind from the n. w accompanied with rain which lasted half an hour wind n. w [lewis, august , ] wednesday august th . the morning being fair we spread our stores to dry at an early hour. dispatched reubin fields in surch of shannon. our stores were now so much exhausted that we found we could proceed with one canoe less. we therefore drew out one of them into a thicket of brush and secured her in such manner that the water could not take her off should the river rise to the hight where she is. the creek which falls in above us we called turf creek from the cercustance of it's bottoms being composed of excellent turf. my air gun was out of order and her sights had been removed by some accedent i put her in order and regulated her. she shot again as well as she ever did. the clouds last night prevented my taking any lunar observations this day i took equal altitudes of the with sextant. at one oclock all our baggage was dry we therefore packed it up reloaded the canoes and the party proceeded with capt. clark up jefferson's river. i remained with sergt. gass to complete the observation of equal altitudes and joined them in the evening at their camp on the lard. side just above the entrance of turf creek. we had a shower of rain wich continued about minutes attended with thunder and lightning. this shower wet me perfectly before i reached the camp. the clouds continued during the night in such manner that i was unable to obtain any lunar observations. this evening drewyer brought in a deer which he had killed. we have not heard any thing from shannon yet, we expect that he has pursued wisdom river upwards for som distance probably killed some heavy animal and is waiting our arrival. the large biteing fly or hare fly as they sometimes called are very troublesome to us. i observe two kinds of them a large black species and a small brown species with a green head. the musquetoes are not as troublesome as they were below, but are still in considerable quantities. the eye knats have disappeared. the green or blowing flies are still in swarms. r the courses from the entrance of wisdom river to the forks of jefferson's river are taken directly to the objects mentioned and the distance set down is that by land on a direct line between the points; the estimated distances by water is also added in the body of the remarks on each course. [clark, august , ] august th wednesday a fine morning put out our stores &c. to dry & took equal altitudes with the sextant,--as our store were a little exorsted and one canoe became unnecessary deturmind to leave one. we hauled her up in the bushes on the lower side of the main fork & fastened her so that the water could not flote her off. the countrey in this quarter is as follows i, e a vallie of or miles wide inclosed between two high mountains, the bottom rich some small timber on the islands & bushes on the edges of the river some bogs & verry good turf in different places in the vallie, some scattering pine & ceder on the mountains in places, other parts nacked except grass and stone the lattitude of the mouth of wisdom river is ° ' . " north, we proceeded up the main middle or s. e. fork, passed a camped on the lard. side above the mouth of a bold running stream yards wide, which we call turf creek from the number of bogs & quanty of turf in its waters. this creek runs thro a open plain for several miles, takeing its rise in a high mountain to the n e. the river jefferson above wisdom is gentle crooked and about yards wide, containing but little timber, some few cotton willow willow & birch, and the srubs common to the countrey and before mentioned at oclock a thunder storm from the n. w. accompanied with rain which lasted about minits.--despatched r fields to hunt shannon, who was out huntg. on wisdom river at the time i returned down that stream, and has made on up the river expecting us to follow him up that river one deer killed this evening. all those streams contain emence number of beaver orter muskrats &c. [lewis, august , ] thursday august th . we had a heavy dew this morning. as one canoe had been left we had now more hads to spear for the chase; game being scarce it requires more hunters to supply us. we therefore dispatched four this morning. we set out at sunrise and continued our rout up the river which we find much more gentle and deep than below the entrance of wisdom river it is from to yards wide very crooked many short bends constituteing large and general bends; insomuch that altho we travel briskly and a considerable distance yet it takes us only a few miles on our general course or rout. there is but very little timber on this fork principally the under brush frequently mentioned. i observe a considerable quantity of the buffaloe clover in the bottoms. the sunflower, flax, green swoard, thistle and several species of the rye grass some of which rise to the hight of or feet. there is a grass also with a soft smooth leaf that bears it's seeds very much like the timothy but it dose not grow very luxouriant or appear as if it would answer so well as the common timothy for meadows. i preserved some of it's seeds which are now ripe, thinking perhaps it might answer better if cultivated, at all events is at least worth the experi-ment. it rises about feet high. on a direct line about miles above our encampment of this morning we passed the entrance of philanthrophy river which discharges itself by channels a small distance assunder. this river from it's size and s. eastwardly course no doubt heads with madisons river in the snowey mountains visible in that direction. at noon reubin fields arrived and reported that he had been up wisdom river some miles above where it entered the mountain and could find nothing of shannon, he had killed a deer and an antelope. great quantity of beaver otter and musk-rats in these rivers. two of the hunters we sent out this morning returned at noon had killed each a deer and an antelope. we use the seting poles today almost altogether. we encamped on the lard sides where there was but little timber were obliged to use willow brush for fuel; the rosebushes and bryers were very thick. the hunters brought in another deer this evening. to tumor on capt. clarks ankle has discharged a considerable quantity of matter but is still much swolen and inflamed and gives him considerable pain. saw a number of gees ducks and some crains today. the former begin to fly. the evening again proved cloudy much to my mortification and prevented my making any lunar observations. the indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived remblance of it's figure to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of it's source; which from it's present size cannot be very distant. as it is now all important with us to meet with those people as soon as possible, i determined to proceed tomorrow with a small party to the source of the principal stream of this river and pass the mountains to the columbia; and down that river untill i found the indians; in short it is my resolusion to find them or some others, who have horses if it should cause me a trip of one month. for without horses we shall be obliged to leave a great part of our stores, of which, it appears to me that we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length of the voyage before us. [clark, august , ] august th thursday we proceeded on early wind from the s w. the thermometer at a at sunrise at miles by water & / on a derect line from the forks we passed a river on the lard side yards wide and navagable for some distance takeing its rise in the mountains easterly & with the waters of madisons river, passes thro an extensive vallie open & furtill &c. this river we call philanthophy--above this river (which has but little timber) jeffersons r is crooked with short bends a fiew islands and maney gravelly sholes, no large timber, small willow birch & srubs &c. encamped on the lard side, r fields joined us this eveng. & informes that he could not find shannon my foot yet verry swore [lewis, august , ] friday august th . the morning was fair and fine; we set out at an early hour and proceeded on very well. some parts of the river more rapid than yesterday. i walked on shore across the land to a point which i presumed they would reach by a.m. our usual time of halting. by this means i acquired leasure to accomplish some wrightings which i conceived from the nature of my instructions necessary lest any accedent should befall me on the long and reather hazardous rout i was now about to take. the party did not arrive and i returned about a mile and met them, here they halted and we breakefasted; i had killed two fine gees on my return. while we halted here shannon arrived, and informed us that having missed the party the day on which he set out he had returned the next morning to the place from whence he had set out or furst left them and not finding that he had supposed that they wer above him; that he then set out and marched one day up wisdom river, by which time he was convinced that they were not above him as the river could not be navigated; he then returned to the forks and had pursued us up this river. he brought the skins of three deer which he had killed which he said were in good order. he had lived very plentifully this trip but looked a good deel worried with his march. he informed us that wisdom river still kept it's course obliquely down the jefferson's river as far as he was up it. immediately after breakfast i slung my pack and set out accompanyed by drewyer shields and mcneal who had been previously directed to hold themselves in readiness for this service. i directed my course across the bottom to the stard. plain led left the beaver's head about miles to my left and interscepted the river about miles from the point at which i had left it; i then waded it and continued my rout to the point where i could observe that it entered the mountain, but not being able to reach that place, changed my direction to the river which i struck some miles below the mountain and encamped for the evening having traveled m. we passed a handsom little stream formed by some large spring which rise in this wide bottom on the lard. side of the river. we killed two antelopes on our way and brought with us as much meat as was necessary for our suppers and breakfast the next morning. we found this bottom fertile and covered with taller grass than usual. the river very crooked much divided by islands, shallow rocky in many plases and very rapid; insomuch that i have my doubts whether the canoes could get on or not, or if they do it must be with great labour.--capt. clark proceeded after i left him as usual, found the current of the river increasing in rapidity towards evening. his hunters killed antelopes only. in the evening it clouded up and we experienced a slight rain attended with some thunder and lightning. the musquetoes very troublesome this evening. there are some soft bogs in these vallies covered with turf. the earth of which this mud is composed is white or bluish white and appears to be argillacious. [clark, august , ] august th friday a fine morning wind from the n. e we proceeded on verry well rapid places more noumerous than below, shannon the man whome we lost on wisdom river joined us, haveing returned to the forks & prosued us up after prosueing wisdom river one day capt lewis and men set out after brackft. to examine the river above, find a portage if possible, also the snake indians. i should have taken this trip had i have been able to march, from the rageing fury of a turner on my anckle musle, in the evening clouded up and a fiew drops of rain encamped on the lard side near a low bluff, the river to day as yesterday. the three hunters could kill only two antelopes to day, game of every kind scerce [lewis, august , ] saturday august th . we set out very early this morning and continued our rout through the wide bottom on the lard. side of the river after passing a large creek at about miles we fel in with a plain indian road which led towards the point that the river entered the mountain we therefore pursued the road i sent drewyer to the wright to kill a deer which we saw feeding and halted on the river under an immencely high perpendicular clift of rocks where it entered the mountain here we kindled a fire and waited for drewyer. he arrived in about an hour and a half or at noon with three deer skins and the flesh of one of the best of them, we cooked and eat a haisty meal and departed, returning a shot distance to the indian road which led us the best way over the mountains, which are not very high but ar ruggid and approach the river closely on both sides just below these mountains i saw several bald eagles and two large white headed fishinghawks boath these birds were the same common to our country. from the number of rattle snakes about the clifts at which we halted we called them the rattle snake clifts. this serpent is the same before discribed with oval spots of yellowish brown. the river below the mountains is rapid rocky, very crooked, much divided by islands and withal shallow. after it enters the mountains it's bends are not so circuetous and it's general course more direct, but it is equally shallow les divided more rocky and rapid. we continued our rout along the indian road which led us sometimes over the hills and again in the narrow bottoms of the river till at the distance of fifteen ms. from the rattle snake clifts we arrived in a hadsome open and leavel vally where the river divided itself nearly into two equal branches; here i halted and examined those streams and readily discovered from their size that it would be vain to attempt the navigation of either any further. here also the road forked one leading up the vally of each of these streams. i therefore sent drewer on one and shields on the other to examine these roads for a short distance and to return and compare their information with respect to the size and apparent plainness of the roads as i was now determined to pursue that which appeared to have been the most traveled this spring. in the mean time i wrote a note to capt. clark informing him of the occurrences which had taken place, recommending it to him to halt at this place untill my return and informing him of the rout i had taken which from the information of the men on their return seemed to be in favour of the s w or left hand fork which is reather the smallest. accordingly i put up my note on a dry willow pole at the forks, and set out up the s. e. fork, after proceeding about / miles i discovered that the road became so blind that it could not be that which we had followed to the forks of jefferson's river, neither could i find the tracks of the horses which had passed early in the spring along the other; i therefore determined to return and examine the other myself, which i did, and found that the same horses had passed up the west fork which was reather largest, and more in the direction that i wished to pursue; i therefore did not hesitate about changing my rout but determined to take the western road. i now wrote a second note to capt c. informing him of this change and sent drewyer to put it with the other at the forks and waited untill he returned. there is scarcely any timber on the river above the r. snake clifts, nor is there anything larger than willow brush in sight of these forks. immediately in the level plain between the forks and about / a mile distance from them stands a high rocky mountain, the base of which is surrounded by the level plain; it has a singular appearance. the mountains do not appear very high in any direction tho the tops of some of them are partially covered with snow. this convinces me that we have ascended to a great hight since we have entered the rocky mountains, yet the ascent has been so gradual along the vallies that it was scarcely perceptable by land. i do not beleive that the world can furnish an example of a river runing to the extent which the missouri and jefferson's rivers do through such a mountainous country and at the same time so navigable as they are. if the columbia furnishes us such another example, a communication across the continent by water will be practicable and safe. but this i can scarcely hope from a knowledge of its having in it comparitively short course to the ocean the same number of feet to decend which the missouri and mississippi have from this point to the gulph of mexico. the valley of the west fork through which we passed for four miles boar a little to n of west and was about mile wide hemned in on either side by rough mountain and steep clifts of rock at / miles this stream enters a beatifull and extensive plain about ten miles long and from to six in width. this plain is surrounded on all sides by a country of roling or high wavy plains through which several little rivulets extend their wide vallies quite to the mountains which surround the whole in an apparent circular manner; forming one of the handsomest coves i ever saw, of about or miles in diameter. just after entering this cove the river bends to the n. w. and runs close under the stard. hills. here we killed a deer and encamped on the stard.,side and made our fire of dry willow brush, the only fuel which the country produces. there are not more than three or four cottonwood trees in this extensive cove and they are but small. the uplands are covered with prickly pears and twisted or bearded grass and are but poor; some parts of the bottom lands are covered with grass and tolerably fertile; but much the greater proportion is covered with prickly pears sedge twisted grass the pulpy leafed thorn southernwood wild sage &c and like the uplands is very inferior in point of soil. we traveled by estimate ms. today, that is to the rattle snake clift, to the forks of jefferson's river and to our camp in the cove. at the apparent extremity of the bottom above us two perpendicular clifts of considerable hight stand on either side of the river and appers at this distance like a gate, it is about m. due west. capt clark set out at sunrise this morning and pursued his rout; found the river not rapid but shallow also very crooked. they were obliged to drag the canoes over many riffles in the course of the day. they passed the point which the natives call the beaver's head. it is a steep rocky clift of feet high near the stard. side of the river, opposite to it at the distance of yards is a low clift of about feet which is the extremity of a spur of the mountains about miles distant on lard. at p.m. they experienced a heavy shower of rain attended with hail thunder and lightning which continued about an hour. the men defended themselves from the hail by means of the willow bushes but all the party got perfectly wet. after the shower was over they pursued their march and encamped on the stard side only one deer killed by their hunters today. tho they took up another by the way which had been killed three days before by jos. fields and hung up near the river. [clark, august , ] august th satturday some rain this morning at sun rise and cloudy we proceeded on passed a remarkable clift point on the stard. side about feet high, this clift the indians call the beavers head, opposit at yards is a low clift of feet which is a spur from the mountain on the lard. about miles, the river verry crooked, at oclock a hard rain from the s w accompanied with hail continued half an hour, all wet, the men sheltered themselves from the hail with bushes we encamped on the stard side near a bluff, only one deer killed to day, the one killed jo fields days past & hung up we made use of river narrow, & sholey but not rapid. [lewis, august , ] sunday august th . we set out very early this morning; but the track which we had pursued last evening soon disappeared. i therefore resolved to proceed to the narrow pass on the creek about miles west in hopes that i should again find the indian road at the place, accordingly i passed the river which was about yards wide and bared in several places entirely across by beaver dams and proceeded through the level plain directly to the pass. i now sent drewyer to keep near the creek to my right and shields to my left, with orders to surch for the road which if they found they were to notify me by placing a hat in the muzzle of their gun. i kept mcneal with me; after having marched in this order for about five miles i discovered an indian on horse back about two miles distant coming down the plain toward us. with my glass i discovered from his dress that he was of a different nation from any that we had yet seen, and was satisfyed of his being a sosone; his arms were a bow and quiver of arrows, and was mounted on an eligant horse without a saddle, and a small string which was attatched to the underjaw of the horse which answered as a bridle. i was overjoyed at the sight of this stranger and had no doubt of obtaining a friendly introduction to his nation provided i could get near enough to him to convince him of our being whitemen. i therefore proceeded towards him at my usual pace. when i had arrived within about a mile he mad a halt which i did also and unloosing my blanket from my pack, i mad him the signal of friendship known to the indians of the rocky mountains and those of the missouri, which is by holding the mantle or robe in your hands at two corners and then throwing up in the air higher than the head bringing it to the earth as if in the act of spreading it, thus repeating three times. this signal of the robe has arrisen from a custom among all those nations of spreading a robe or skin for ther gests to set on when they are visited. this signal had not the desired effect, he still kept his position and seemed to view drewyer an shields who were now comiming in sight on either hand with an air of suspicion, i wold willingly have made them halt but they were too far distant to hear me and i feared to make any signal to them least it should increase the suspicion in the mind of the indian of our having some unfriendly design upon him. i therefore haistened to take out of my sack some beads a looking glas and a few trinkets which i had brought with me for this purpose and leaving my gun and pouch with mcneal advanced unarmed towards him. he remained in the same stedfast poisture untill i arrived in about paces of him when he turn his hose about and began to move off slowly from me; i now called to him in as loud a voice as i could command repeating the word tab-ba-bone, which in their language signifyes white man. but loking over his sholder he still kept his eye on drewyer and sheilds who wer still advancing neither of them haveing segacity enough to recollect the impropriety of advancing when they saw me thus in parley with the indian. i now made a signal to these men to halt, drewyer obeyed but shields who afterwards told me that he did not obseve the signal still kept on the indian halted again and turned his horse about as if to wait for me, and i beleive he would have remained untill i came up whith him had it not been for shields who still pressed forward. whe i arrived within about paces i again repepeated the word tab-ba-bone and held up the trinkits in my hands and striped up my shirt sieve to give him an opportunity of seeing the colour of my skin and advanced leasure towards him but he did not remain untill i got nearer than about paces when he suddonly turned his hose about, gave him the whip leaped the creek and disapeared in the willow brush in an instant and with him vanished all my hopes of obtaining horses for the preasent. i now felt quite as much mortification and disappointment as i had pleasure and expectation at the first sight of this indian. i fet soarly chargrined at the conduct of the men particularly sheilds to whom i principally attributed this failure in obtaining an introduction to the natives. i now called the men to me and could not forbare abraiding them a little for their want of attention and imprudence on this occasion. they had neglected to bring my spye-glass which in haist i had droped in the plain with the blanket where i made the signal before mentioned. i sent drewyer and shields back to surche it, they soon found it and rejoined me. we now set out on the track of the horse hoping by that means to be lead to an indian camp, the trail of inhabitants of which should they abscond we should probably be enabled to pursue to the body of the nation to which they would most probably fly for safety. this rout led us across a large island framed by nearly an equal division of the creek in this bottom; after passing to the open ground on the n. side of the creek we observed that the track made out toward the high hills about m. distant in that direction. i thought it probable that their camp might probably be among those hills & that they would reconnoiter us from the tops of them, and that if we advanced haistily towards them that they would become allarmed and probably run off; i therefore halted in an elivated situation near the creek had a fire kindled of willow brush cooked and took breakfast. during this leasure i prepared a small assortment of trinkits consisting of some mockkerson awls a few strans of several kinds of beads some paint a looking glass &c which i attatched to the end of a pole and planted it near our fire in order that should the indians return in surch of us they might from this token discover that we were friendly and white persons. before we had finised our meal a heavy shower of rain came on with some hail wich continued abot minutes and wet us to the skin, after this shower we pursued the track of the horse but as the rain had raised the grass which he had trodden down it was with difficulty that we could follow it. we pursued it however about miles it turning up the valley to the left under the foot of the hills. we pas several places where the indians appeared to have been diging roots today and saw the fresh tracks of or ten horses but they had been wandering about in such a confused manner that we not only lost the track of the hose which we had been pursuing but could make nothing of them. in the head of this valley we passed a large bog covered with tall grass and moss in which were a great number of springs of cold pure water, we now turned a little to the left along the foot of the high hills and arrived at a small branch on which we encamped for the night, having traveled in different directions about miles and about from the camp of last evening on a direct line. after meeting with the indian today i fixed a small flag of the u's. to a pole which i made mcneal carry. and planted in the ground where we halted or encamped. this morning capt clark dispatched several hunters a head; the morning being rainy and wet did not set out untill after an early breakfast. he passed a large island which he called the mile island from the circumstance of it's being that distance from the entrance of the missouri by water. a considerable proportion of the bottom on lard. side is a bog covered with tall grass and many parts would afford fine turf; the bottom is about ms. wide and the plains which succeed it on either side extend about the same distance to the base of the mountains. they passed a number of small islands and bayous on both sides which cut and intersect the bottoms in various directions. found the river shallow and rapid, insomuch that the men wer compelled to be in the water a considerable proportion of the day in drageing the canoes over the shoals and riffles. they saw a number of geese ducks beaver & otter, also some deer and antelopes. the men killed a beaver with a seting pole and tommahawked several otter. the hunters killed deer and an antelope. capt. c. observed some bunches of privy near the river. there are but few trees in this botom and those small narrow leafed cottonwood. the principal growth is willow with the narrow leaf and currant bushes. they encamped this evening on the upper point of a large island near the stard. shore.- [clark, august , ] august th sunday . a shower of rain this morning at sun rise, cloudy all the morning wind from the s w passed a large island which i call the mile island as it is situated that distance from the mouth of the missouri by water, a number of small bayoes running in different directions thro the bottom, which is about miles wide, then rises to an ellivated plain on each side which extends as far. passed several small islands and a number of bayoes on each side and encamped on the upper point of a large island, our hunters killed three deer, one antilope, and tomahawked several orter to day killed one beaver with a setting pole. i observed some bunches of privey on the banks [lewis, august , ] monday august th this morning i sent drewyer out as soon as it was light, to try and discover what rout the indians had taken. he followed the track of the horse we had pursued yesterday to the mountain wher it had ascended, and returned to me in about an hour and a half. i now determined to pursue the base of the mountains which form this cove to the s. w. in the expectation of finding some indian road which lead over the mountains, accordingly i sent drewyer to my right and shields to my left with orders to look out for a road or the fresh tracks of horses either of which we should first meet with i had determined to pursue. at the distance of about miles we passed small rivulets near each other on which we saw som resent bowers or small conic lodges formed with willow brush. near them the indians had geathered a number of roots from the manner in which they had toarn up the ground; but i could not discover the root which they seemed to be in surch of. i saw several large hawks that were nearly black near this place we fell in with a large and plain indian road which came into the cove from the n. e. and led along the foot of the mountains to the s. w. oliquely approaching the main stream which we had left yesterday. this road we now pursued to the s. w. at miles it passed a stout stream which is a principal fork of the man stream and falls into it just above the narrow pass between the two clifts before mentioned and which we now saw below us. here we halted and breakfasted on the last of our venison, having yet a small peice of pork in reseve. after eating we continued our rout through the low bottom of the main stream along the foot of the mountains on our right the valley for mes. further in a s. w. direction was from to miles wide the main stream now after discarding two stream on the left in this valley turns abruptly to the west through a narrow bottom betwen the mountains. the road was still plain, i therefore did not dispair of shortly finding a passage over the mountains and of taisting the waters of the great columbia this evening. we saw an animal which we took to be of the fox kind as large or reather larger than the small wolf of the plains. it's colours were a curious mixture of black, redis-brown and yellow. drewyer shot at him about yards and knocked him dow bet he recovered and got out of our reach. it is certainly a different animal from any that we have yet seen. we also saw several of the heath cock with a long pointed tail and an uniform dark brown colour but could not kill one of them. they are much larger than the common dunghill fowls, and in their habits and manner of flying resemble the growse or prarie hen. at the distance of miles further the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights. thus far i had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind has been unalterably fixed for many years, judge then of the pleasure i felt in allying my thirst with this pure and ice cold water which issues from the base of a low mountain or hill of a gentle ascent for / a mile. the mountains are high on either hand leave this gap at the head of this rivulet through which the road passes. here i halted a few minutes and rested myself. two miles below mcneal had exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless missouri. after refreshing ourselves we proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which i discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to the west of us with their tops partially covered with snow. i now decended the mountain about / of a mile which i found much steeper than on the opposite side, to a handsome bold running creek of cold clear water. here i first tasted the water of the great columbia river. after a short halt of a few minutes we continued our march along the indian road which lead us over steep hills and deep hollows to a spring on the side of a mountain where we found a sufficient quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, here we encamped for the night having traveled about miles. as we had killed nothing during the day we now boiled and eat the remainder of our pork, having yet a little flour and parched meal. at the creek on this side of the mountain i observed a species of deep perple currant lower in its growth, the stem more branched and leaf doubly as large as that of the missouri. the leaf is covered on it's under disk with a hairy pubersence. the fruit is of the ordinary size and shape of the currant and is supported in the usual manner, but is ascid & very inferior in point of flavor. this morning capt. clark set out early. found the river shoally, rapid shallow, and extreemly difficult. the men in the water almost all day. they are geting weak soar and much fortiegued; they complained of the fortiegue to which the navigation subjected them and wished to go by land capt. c. engouraged them and passifyed them. one of the canoes was very near overseting in a rapid today. they proceeded but slowly. at noon they had a thunderstorm which continued about half an hour. their hunters killed deer and a fawn. they encamped in a smoth plain near a few cottonwood trees on the lard. side.- [clark, august , ] august th monday we set out early (wind n e) proceeded on passed several large islands and three small ones, the river much more sholey than below which obliges us to haul the canoes over those sholes which suckceed each other at short intervales emencely laborious men much fatigued and weakened by being continualy in the water drawing the canoes over the sholes encamped on the lard side men complain verry much of the emence labour they are obliged to undergo & wish much to leave the river. i passify them. the weather cool, and nothing to eate but venison, the hunters killed three deer to day [lewis, august , ] tuesday august th . we set out very early on the indian road which still led us through an open broken country in a westerly direction. a deep valley appeared to our left at the base of a high range of mountains which extended from s. e. to n. w. having their sides better clad with pine timber than we had been accustomed to see the mountains and their tops were also partially covered with snow. at the distance of five miles the road after leading us down a long decending valley for ms. brought us to a large creek about yds. wide; this we passed and on rising the hill beyond it had a view of a handsome little valley to our left of about a mile in width through which from the appearance of the timber i conjectured that a river passed. i saw near the creek some bushes of the white maple, the shumate of the small species with the winged rib, and a species of honeysuckle much in it's growth and leaf like the small honeysuckle of the missouri only reather larger and bears a globular berry as large as a garden pea and as white as wax. this berry is formed of a thin smooth pellicle which envellopes a soft white musilagenous substance in which there are several small brown seed irregularly scattered or intermixed without any sell or perceptable membranous covering.--we had proceeded about four miles through a wavy plain parallel to the valley or river bottom when at the distance of about a mile we saw two women, a man and some dogs on an eminence immediately before us. they appeared to vew us with attention and two of them after a few minutes set down as if to wait our arrival we continued our usual pace towards them. when we had arrived within half a mile of them i directed the party to halt and leaving my pack and rifle i took the flag which i unfurled and avanced singly towards them the women soon disappeared behind the hill, the man continued untill i arrived within a hundred yards of him and then likewise absconded. tho i frequently repeated the word tab-ba-bone sufficiently loud for him to have heard it. i now haistened to the top of the hill where they had stood but could see nothing of them. the dogs were less shye than their masters they came about me pretty close i therefore thought of tying a handkerchief about one of their necks with some beads and other trinkets and then let them loose to surch their fugitive owners thinking by this means to convince them of our pacific disposition towards them but the dogs would not suffer me to take hold of them; they also soon disappeared. i now made a signal fror the men to come on, they joined me and we pursued the back tarck of these indians which lead us along the same road which we had been traveling. the road was dusty and appeared to have been much traveled lately both by men and horses. these praries are very poor the soil is of a light yellow clay, intermixed with small smooth gravel, and produces little else but prickly pears, and bearded grass about inches high. the prickley pear are of three species that with a broad leaf common to the missouri; that of a globular form also common to the upper part of the missouri and more especially after it enters the rocky mountains, also a rd peculiar to this country. it consists of small circular thick leaves with a much greater number of thorns. these thorns are stronger and appear to be barbed. the leaves grow from the margins of each other as in the broad leafed pear of the missouri, but are so slightly attatched that when the thorn touches your mockerson it adhears and brings with it the leaf covered in every direction with many others. this is much the most troublesome plant of the three. we had not continued our rout more than a mile when we were so fortunate as to meet with three female savages. the short and steep ravines which we passed concealed us from each other untill we arrived within paces. a young woman immediately took to flight, an elderly woman and a girl of about years old remained. i instantly laid by my gun and advanced towards them. they appeared much allarmed but saw that we were to near for them to escape by flight they therefore seated themselves on the ground, holding down their heads as if reconciled to die which the expected no doubt would be their fate; i took the elderly woman by the hand and raised her up repeated the word tab-babone and strip up my shirt sieve to sew her my skin; to prove to her the truth of the ascertion that i was a white man for my face and hads which have been constantly exposed to the sun were quite as dark as their own. they appeared instantly reconciled, and the men coming up i gave these women some beads a few mockerson awls some pewter looking-glasses and a little paint. i directed drewyer to request the old woman to recall the young woman who had run off to some distance by this time fearing she might allarm the camp before we approached and might so exasperate the natives that they would perhaps attack us without enquiring who we were. the old woman did as she was requested and the fugitive soon returned almost out of breath. i bestoed an equvolent portion of trinket on her with the others. i now painted their tawny cheeks with some vermillion which with this nation is emblematic of peace. after they had become composed i informed them by signs that i wished them to conduct us to their camp that we wer anxious to become acquainted with the chiefs and warriors of their nation. they readily obeyed and we set out, still pursuing the road down the river. we had marched about miles when we met a party of about warriors mounted on excellent horses who came in nearly full speed, when they arrived i advanced towards them with the flag leaving my gun with the party about paces behid me. the chief and two others who were a little in advance of the main body spoke to the women, and they informed them who we were and exultingly shewed the presents which had been given them these men then advanced and embraced me very affectionately in their way which is by puting their left arm over you wright sholder clasping your back, while they apply their left cheek to yours and frequently vociforate the word ah-hi'-e, &h-hi'-e that is, i am much pleased, i am much rejoiced. bothe parties now advanced and we wer all carresed and besmeared with their grease and paint till i was heartily tired of the national hug. i now had the pipe lit and gave them smoke; they seated themselves in a circle around us and pulled of their mockersons before they would receive or smoke the pipe. this is a custom among them as i afterwards learned indicative of a sacred obligation of sincerity in their profession of friendship given by the act of receiving and smoking the pipe of a stranger. or which is as much as to say that they wish they may always go bearfoot if they are not sincere; a pretty heavy penalty if they are to march through the plains of their country. after smoking a few pipes with them i distributed some trifles among them, with which they seemed much pleased particularly with the blue beads and vermillion. i now informed the chief that the object of our visit was a friendly one, that after we should reach his camp i would undertake to explain to him fully those objects, who we wer, from whence we had come and wither we were going; that in the mean time i did not care how soon we were in motion, as the sun was very warm and no water at hand. they now put on their mockersons, and the principal chief ca-me-ah-wait made a short speach to the warriors. i gave him the flag which i informed him was an emblem of peace among whitemen and now that it had been received by him it was to be respected as the bond of union between us. i desired him to march on, which did and we followed him; the dragoons moved on in squadron in our rear. after we had marched about a mile in this order he halted them ang gave a second harang; after which six or eight of the young men road forward to their encampment and no further regularity was observed in the order of march. i afterwards understood that the indians we had first seen this morning had returned and allarmed the camp; these men had come out armed cap a pe for action expecting to meet with their enemies the minnetares of fort de prarie whome they call rah'-kees. they were armed with bows arrow and shield except three whom i observed with small pieces such as the n. w. company furnish the natives with which they had obtained from the rocky mountain indians on the yellow stone river with whom they are at peace. on our arrival at their encampmen on the river in a handsome level and fertile bottom at the distance of ms. from where we had first met them they introduced us to a londge made of willow brush and an old leather lodge which had been prepared for our reception by the young men which the chief had dispatched for that purpose. here we were seated on green boughs and the skins of antelopes. one of the warriors then pulled up the grass in the center of the lodge forming a smal circle of about feet in diameter the chief next produced his pipe and native tobacco and began a long cerimony of the pipe when we were requested to take of our mockersons, the chief having previously taken off his as well as all the warriors present. this we complyed with; the chief then lit his pipe at the fire kindled in this little magic circle, and standing on the oposite side of the circle uttered a speach of several minutes in length at the conclusion of which he pointed the stem to the four cardinal points of the heavens first begining at the east and ending with the north. he now presented the pipe to me as if desirous that i should smoke, but when i reached my hand to receive it, he drew it back and repeated the same cremony three times, after which he pointed the stern first to the heavens then to the center of the magic circle smoked himself with three whifs and held the pipe untill i took as many as i thought proper; he then held it to each of the white persons and then gave it to be consumed by his warriors. this pipe was made of a dense simitransparent green stone very highly polished about / inches long and of an oval figure, the bowl being in the same direction with the stem. a small piece of birned clay is placed in the bottom of the bowl to seperate the tobacco from the end of the stem and is of an irregularly rounded figure not fitting the tube purfectly close in order that the smoke may pass. this is the form of the pipe. their tobacco is of the same kind of that used by the minnetares mandans and ricares of the missouri. the shoshonees do not cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the rocky mountain indians and some of the bands of their own nation who live further south. i now explained to them the objects of our journey &c. all the women and children of the camp were shortly collected about the lodge to indulge themselves with looking at us, we being the first white persons they had ever seen. after the cerimony of the pipe was over i distributed the remainder of the small articles i had brought with me among the women and children. by this time it was late in the evening and we had not taisted any food since the evening before. the chief informed us that they had nothing but berries to eat and gave us some cakes of serviceberries and choke cherries which had been dryed in the sun; of these i made a hearty meal, and then walked to the river, which i found about yards wide very rapid clear and about feet deep. the banks low and abrupt as those of the upper part of the missouri, and the bed formed of loose stones and gravel. cameahwait informed me that this stream discharged itself into another doubly as large at the distance of half a days march which came from the s. w. but he added on further enquiry that there was but little more timber below the junction of those rivers than i saw here, and that the river was confined between inacessable mountains, was very rapid and rocky insomuch that it was impossible for us to pass either by land or water down this river to the great lake where the white men lived as he had been informed. this was unwelcome information but i still hoped that this account had been exagerated with a view to detain us among them. as to timber i could discover not any that would answer the purpose of constructing canoes or in short more than was bearly necessary for fuel consisting of the narrow leafed cottonwood and willow, also the red willow choke cherry service berry and a few currant bushes such as were common on the missouri. these people had been attacked by the minetares of fort de prarie this spring and about of them killed and taken prisoners. on this occasion they lost a great part of their horses and all their lodges except that which they had erected for our accomodation; they were now living in lodges of a conic figure made of willow brush. i still observe a great number of horses feeding in every direction around their camp and therefore entertain but little doubt but we shall be enable to furnish ourselves with an adiquate number to transport our stores even if we are compelled to travel by land over these mountains. on my return to my lodge an indian called me in to his bower and gave me a small morsel of the flesh of an antelope boiled, and a peice of a fresh salmon roasted; both which i eat with a very good relish. this was the first salmon i had seen and perfectly convinced me that we were on the waters of the pacific ocean. the course of this river is a little to the north of west as far as i can discover it; and is bounded on each side by a range of high mountains. tho those on the e. side are lowest and more distant from the river. this evening the indians entertained us with their dancing nearly all night. at o'ck. i grew sleepy and retired to rest leaving the men to amuse themselves with the indians. i observe no essential difference between the music and manner of dancing among this nation and those of the missouri. i was several times awoke in the course of the night by their yells but was too much fortiegued to be deprived of a tolerable sound night's repose. this morning capt clark set out early having previously dispatched some hunters ahead. it was cool and cloudy all the forepart of the day. at a.m. they had a slight rain. they passed a number of shoals over which they were obliged to drag the canoes; the men in the water / ths of the day, they passed a bold runing stream yds. wide on the lard. side just below a high point of limestone rocks. this stream we call mcneal's creek after hugh mcneal one of our party. this creek heads in the mountains to the east and forms a handsome valley for some miles between the mountains. from the top of this limestone clift above the creek the beaver's head boar n ° e. ms. the course of wisdom river or that which the opening of it's valley makes through the mountains is n. w. to the gap through which jefferson's river enters the mountains above is s ° w m. they killed one deer only today. saw a number of otter some beaver antelopes ducks gees and grains. they caught a number of fine trout as they have every day since i left them. they encamped on lrd. in a smooth level prarie near a few cottonwood trees, but were obliged to make use of the dry willow brush for fuel. [clark, august , ] august th tuesday a verry cool morning the thermometer stood at a all the fore part of the day. cloudy at oclock a mist of rain we proceeded on passed inumerable sholes obliged to haul the boat / of the day over the shole water. passed the mouth of a bold running stream yards wide on the lard side below a high point of limestone rocks on the stard side this creek heads in the mountains to the easte and forms a vallie between two mountains. call this stream mcneal creek from the top of this rock the point of the beaver head hill bears n. ° e ms. the course of the wisdom river is--n. w the gap at the place the river passes thro a mountain in advance is--s. ° w. ms. proceeded on and encamped on the lard side no wood except dry willows and them small, one deer killed to day. the river obliges the men to undergo great fatigue and labour in hauling the canoes over the sholes in the cold water naked. [lewis, august , ] wednesday august th in order to give capt. clark time to reach the forks of jefferson's river i concluded to spend this day at the shoshone camp and obtain what information i could with rispect to the country. as we had nothing but a little flour and parched meal to eat except the berries with which the indians furnished us i directed drewyer and shields to hunt a few hours and try to kill something, the indians furnished them with horses and most of their young men also turned out to hunt. the game which they principally hunt is the antelope which they pursue on horseback and shoot with their arrows. this animal is so extreemly fleet and dureable that a single horse has no possible chance to overtake them or run them down. the indians are therefore obliged to have recorce to strategem when they discover a herd of the antelope they seperate and scatter themselves to the distance of five or six miles in different directions arround them generally scelecting some commanding eminence for a stand; some one or two now pursue the herd at full speed over the hills values gullies and the sides of precipices that are tremendious to view. thus after runing them from five to six or seven miles the fresh horses that were in waiting head them and drive them back persuing them as far or perhaps further quite to the other extreem of the hunters who now in turn pursue on their fresh horses thus worrying the poor animal down and finally killing them with their arrows. forty or fifty hunters will be engaged for half a day in this manner and perhaps not kill more than two or three antelopes. they have but few elk or black tailed deer, and the common red deer they cannot take as they secrete themselves in the brush when pursued, and they have only the bow and arrow wich is a very slender dependence for killing any game except such as they can run down with their horses. i was very much entertained with a view of this indian chase; it was after a herd of about antelope and about hunters. it lasted about hours and considerable part of the chase in view from my tent. about a.m. the hunters returned had not killed a single antelope, and their horses foaming with sweat. my hunters returned soon after and had been equally unsuccessfull. i now directed mcneal to make me a little paist with the flour and added some berries to it which i found very pallateable. the means i had of communicating with these people was by way of drewyer who understood perfectly the common language of jesticulation or signs which seems to be universally understood by all the nations we have yet seen. it is true that this language is imperfect and liable to error but is much less so than would be expected. the strong parts of the ideas are seldom mistaken. i now prevailed on the chief to instruct me with rispect to the geography of his country. this he undertook very cheerfully, by delienating the rivers on the ground. but i soon found that his information fell far short of my expectation or wishes. he drew the river on which we now are to which he placed two branches just above us, which he shewed me from the openings of the mountains were in view; he next made it discharge itself into a large river which flowed from the s. w. about ten miles below us, then continued this joint stream in the same direction of this valley or n. w. for one days march and then enclined it to the west for more days march, here he placed a number of beeps of sand on each side which he informed me represented the vast mountains of rock eternally covered with snow through which the river passed. that the perpendicular and even juting rocks so closely hemned in the river that there was no possibilyte of passing along the shore; that the bed of the river was obstructed by sharp pointed rocks and the rapidity of the stream such that the whole surface of the river was beat into perfect foam as far as the eye could reach. that the mountains were also inaccessible to man or horse. he said that this being the state of the country in that direction that himself nor none of his nation had ever been further down the river than these mountains. i then enquired the state of the country on either side of the river but he could not inform me. he said there was an old man of his nation a days march below who could probably give me some information of the country to the n. w. and refered me to an old man then present for that to the s. w.--the chief further informed me that he had understood from the persed nosed indians who inhabit this river below the rocky mountains that it ran a great way toward the seting sun and finally lost itself in a great lake of water which was illy taisted, and where the white men lived. i next commenced my enquiries of the old man to whom i had been refered for information relative the country s w. of us. this he depicted with horrors and obstructions scarcely inferior to that just mentioned. he informed me that the band of this nation to which he belonged resided at the distance of days march from hence not far from the white people with whom they traded for horses mules cloth metal beads and the shells which they woar as orniment being those of a species of perl oister. that the course to his relations was a little to the west of south. that in order to get to his relations the first seven days we should be obliged to climb over steep and rocky mountains where we could find no game to kill nor anything but roots such as a ferce and warlike nation lived on whom he called the broken mockersons or mockersons with holes, and said inhabited those mountains and lived like the bear of other countries among the rocks and fed on roots or the flesh of such horses as they could take or steel from those who passed through their country. that in passing this country the feet of our horses would be so much wounded with the stones many of them would give out. the next part of the rout was about days through a dry and parched sandy desert in which no food at this season for either man or horse, and in which we must suffer if not perish for the want of water. that the sun had now dryed up the little pools of water which exist through this desert plain in the spring season and had also scorched all the grass. that no animal inhabited this plain on which we could hope to subsist. that about the center of this plain a large river passed from s. e. to n. w. which was navigable but afforded neither salmon nor timber. that beyond this plain thee or four days march his relations lived in a country tolerable fertile and partially covered with timber on another large river which ran in the same direction of the former. that this last discharged itself into a large river on which many numerous nations lived with whom his relations were at war but whether this last discharged itself into the great lake or not he did not know. that from his relations it was yet a great distance to the great or stinking lake as they call the ocean. that the way which such of his nation as had been to the stinking lake traveled was up the river on which they lived and over to that on which the white people lived which last they knew discharged itself into the ocean, and that this was the way which he would advise me to travel if i was determined to proceed to the ocean but would advise me to put off the journey untill the next spring when he would conduct me. i thanked him for his information and advise and gave him a knife with which he appeared to be much gratifyed. from this narative i was convinced that the streams of which he had spoken as runing through the plains and that on which his relations lived were southern branches of the columbia, heading with the rivers apostles and collorado, and that the rout he had pointed out was to the vermillion sea or gulph of callifornia. i therefore told him that this rout was more to the south than i wished to travel, and requested to know if there was no rout on the left of this river on which we now are, by means of which, i could intercept it below the mountains through which it passes; but he could not inform me of any except that of the barren plain which he said joined the mountain on that side and through which it was impossible for us to pass at this season even if we were fortunate enough to escape from the broken mockerson indians. i now asked cameahwait by what rout the pierced nosed indians, who he informed me inhabited this river below the mountains, came over to the missouri; this he informed me was to the north, but added that the road was a very bad one as he had been informed by them and that they had suffered excessively with hunger on the rout being obliged to subsist for many days on berries alone as there was no game in that part of the mountains which were broken rockey and so thickly covered with timber that they could scarcely pass. however knowing that indians had passed, and did pass, at this season on that side of this river to the same below the mountains, my rout was instantly settled in my own mind, povided the account of this river should prove true on an investigation of it, which i was determined should be made before we would undertake the rout by land in any direction. i felt perfectly satisfyed, that if the indians could pass these mountains with their women and children, that we could also pass them; and that if the nations on this river below the mountains were as numerous as they were stated to be that they must have some means of subsistence which it would be equally in our power to procure in the same country. they informed me that there was no buffaloe on the west side of these mountains; that the game consisted of a few elk deer and antelopes, and that the natives subsisted on fish and roots principally. in this manner i spent the day smoking with them and acquiring what information i could with respect to their country. they informed me that they could pass to the spaniards by the way of the yellowstone river in days. i can discover that these people are by no means friendly to the spaniard their complaint is, that the spaniards will not let them have fire arms and amunition, that they put them off by telling them that if they suffer them to have guns they will kill each other, thus leaving them defenceless and an easy prey to their bloodthirsty neighbours to the east of them, who being in possession of fire arms hunt them up and murder them without rispect to sex or age and plunder them of their horses on all occasions. they told me that to avoid their enemies who were eternally harrassing them that they were obliged to remain in the interior of these mountains at least two thirds of the year where the suffered as we then saw great heardships for the want of food sometimes living for weeks without meat and only a little fish roots and berries. but this added cameahwait, with his ferce eyes and lank jaws grown meager for the want of food, would not be the case if we had guns, we could then live in the country of buffaloe and eat as our enimies do and not be compelled to hide ourselves in these mountains and live on roots and berries as the bear do. we do not fear our enimies when placed on an equal footing with them. i told them that the minnetares mandans & recares of the missouri had promised us to desist from making war on them & that we would indevour to find the means of making the minnetares of fort d prarie or as they call them pahkees desist from waging war against them also. that after our finally returning to our homes towards the rising sun whitemen would come to them with an abundance of guns and every other article necessary to their defence and comfort, and that they would be enabled to supply themselves with these articles on reasonable terms in exchange for the skins of the beaver otter and ermin so abundant in their country. they expressed great pleasure at this information and said they had been long anxious to see the whitemen that traded guns; and that we might rest assured of their friendship and that they would do whatever we wished them. i now told cameahwait that i wished him to speak to his people and engage them to go with me tomorrow to the forks of jeffersons river where our baggage was by this time arrived with another chief and a large party of whitemen who would wait my return at that place. that i wish them to take with them about spare horses to transport our baggage to this place where we would then remain sometime among them and trade with them for horses, and finally concert our future plans for geting on to the ocean and of the traid which would be extended to them after our return to our homes. he complyed with my request and made a lengthey harrangue to his village. he returned in about an hour and a half and informed me that they would be ready to accompany me in the morning. i promised to reward them for their trouble. drewyer who had had a good view of their horses estimated them at . most of them are fine horses. indeed many of them would make a figure on the south side of james river or the land of fine horses.--i saw several with spanish brands on them, and some mules which they informed me that they had also obtained from the spaniards. i also saw a bridle bit of spanish manufactary, and sundry other articles which i have no doubt were obtained from the same source. notwithstanding the extreem poverty of those poor people they are very merry they danced again this evening untill midnight. each warrior keep one ore more horses tyed by a cord to a stake near his lodge both day and night and are always prepared for action at a moments warning. they fight on horseback altogether. lobserve that the large flies are extreemly troublesome to the horses as well as ourselves. the morning being cold and the men stif and soar from the exertions of yesterday capt. clark did not set out this morning untill a.m. the river was so crooked and rapid that they made but little way at one mile he passed a bold runing stream on stard. which heads in a mountain to the north, on which there is snow. this we called track creek. it is yard wide and feet deep at ms. passed a stout stream which heads in some springs under the foot of the mountains on lard. the river near the mountain they found one continued rapid, with was extreemly laborious and difficult to ascend. this evening charbono struck his indian woman for which capt. c. gave him a severe repremand. joseph and reubin fields killed deer and an antelope, capt. c. killed a buck. several of the men have lamed themselves by various accedents in working the canoes through this difficult part of the river, and capt. c. was obliged personally to assist them in this labour. they encamped this evening on lard. side near the rattlesnake clift [clark, august , ] august th wednesday . a cold morning wind from the s. w. the thermometer stood at ° a , at sunrise the morning being cold and men stiff. i deturmind to delay & take brackfast at the place we encamped. we set out at oclock and proceeded on river verry crooked and rapid as below some fiew trees on the borders near the mountain, passed a bold running stream at mile on the stard. side which heads in a mountain to the north on which there is snow passed a bold running stream on the lard. side which heads in a spring undr. a mountain, the river near the mountain is one continued rapid, which requres great labour to push & haul the canoes up. we encamped on the lard side near the place the river passes thro the mountain. i checked our interpreter for strikeing his woman at their dinner. the hunters jo. & r. fields killed deer & a antilope, i killed a fat buck in the evening, several men have hurt themselves pushing up the canoes. i am oblige to a pole occasionally. [lewis, august , ] thursday august th . this morning i arrose very early and as hungary as a wolf. i had eat nothing yesterday except one scant meal of the flour and berries except the dryed cakes of berries which did not appear to satisfy my appetite as they appeared to do those of my indian friends. i found on enquiry of mcneal that we had only about two pounds of flour remaining. this i directed him to divide into two equal parts and to cook the one half this morning in a kind of pudding with the hurries as he had done yesterday and reserve the ballance for the evening. on this new fashoned pudding four of us breakfasted, giving a pretty good allowance also to the chief who declared it the best thing he had taisted for a long time. he took a little of the hour in his hand, taisted and examined very scrutinously and asked me if we made it of roots. i explained to him the manner in which it grew. i hurried the departure of the indians. the chief addressed them several times before they would move they seemed very reluctant to accompany me. i at length asked the reason and he told me that some foolish persons among them had suggested the idea that we were in league with the pahkees and had come on in order to decoy them into an ambuscade where their enimies were waiting to receive them. but that for his part he did not believe it. i readily perceived that our situation was not entirely free from danger as the transision from suspicion to the confermation of the fact would not be very difficult in the minds of these ignorant people who have been accustomed from their infancy to view every stranger as an enimy. i told cameahwait that i was sorry to find that they had put so little confidence in us, that i knew they were not acquainted with whitemen and therefore could forgive them. that among whitemen it was considered disgracefull to lye or entrap an enimy by falsehood. i told him if they continued to think thus meanly of us that they might rely on it that no whitemen would ever come to trade with them or bring them arms and amunition and that if the bulk of his nation still entertained this opinion i still hoped that there were some among them that were not affraid to die, that were men and would go with me and convince themselves of the truth of what i had asscerted. that there was a party of whitemen waiting my return either at the forks of jefferson's river or a little below coining on to that place in canoes loaded with provisions and merchandize. he told me for his own part he was determined to go, that he was not affraid to die. i soon found that i had touched him on the right string; to doubt the bravery of a savage is at once to put him on his metal. he now mounted his horse and haranged his village a third time; the perport of which as he afterwards told me was to inform them that he would go with us and convince himself of the truth or falsity of what we had told him if he was sertain he should be killed, that he hoped there were some of them who heard him were not affraid to die with him and if there was to let him see them mount their horses and prepare to set out. shortly after this harange he was joined by six or eight only and with these i smoked a pipe and directed the men to put on their packs being determined to set out with them while i had them in the humour at half after we set out, several of the old women were crying and imploring the great sperit to protect their warriors as if they were going to inevitable distruction. we had not proceeded far before our party was augmented by ten or twelve more, and before we reached the creek which we had passed in the morning of the th it appeared to me that we had all the men of the village and a number of women with us. this may serve in some measure to ilustrate the capricious disposition of those people who never act but from the impulse of the moment. they were now very cheerfull and gay, and two hours ago they looked as sirly as so many imps of satturn. when we arrived at the spring on the side of the mountain where we had encamped on the th the chief insited on halting to let the horses graize with which i complyed and gave the indians smoke. they are excessively fond of the pipe; but have it not much in their power to indulge themselves with even their native tobacco as they do not cultivate it themselves.--after remaining about an hour we again set out, and by engaging to make compensation to four of them for their trouble obtained the previlege of riding with an indian myself and a similar situation for each of my party. i soon found it more tiresome riding without tirrups than walking and of course chose the latter making the indian carry my pack. about sunset we reached the upper part of the level valley of the cove which now called shoshone cove. the grass being birned on the north side of the river we passed over to the south and encamped near some willow brush about miles above the narrow pass between the hills noticed as i came up this cove the river was here about six yards wide, and frequently darned up by the beaver. i had sent drewyer forward this evening before we halted to kill some meat but he was unsuccessfull and did not rejoin us untill after dark i now cooked and among six of us eat the remaining pound of flour stired in a little boiling water.--capt. clark delayed again this morning untill after breakfast, when he set out and passed between low and rugged mountains which had a few pine trees distributed over them the clifts are formed of limestone and a hard black rock intermixed. no trees on the river, the bottoms narrow river crooked shallow shoally and rapid. the water is as coald as that of the best springs in our country. the men as usual suffered excessively with fatiegue and the coldness of the water to which they were exposed for hours together. at the distance of miles by water they passed the entrance of a bold creek on stard. side yds. wide and f. i. deep which we called willard's creek after alexander willard one of our party. at miles by water from their encampment of las evening passed a bold branch which tumbled down a steep precipice of rocks from the mountains on the lard. capt clark was very near being bitten twice today by rattlesnakes, the indian woman also narrowly escaped. they caught a number of fine trout. capt. clark killed a buck which was the only game killed today. the venison has an uncommon bitter taist which is unpleasent. i presume it proceeds from some article of their food, perhaps the willow on the leaves of which they feed very much. they encamped this evening on the lard. side near a few cottonwood trees about which there were the remains of several old indian brush lodges. [clark, august , ] august th thursday a cool windey morning wind from the s w we proceeded on thro a ruged low mountain water rapid as usial passed a bold running stream which falls from the mountain on the lard. side at miles, also a bold running stream yards wide on the stard side feet in. deep at miles, willards creek the bottoms narrow, the clifs of a dark brown stone some limestone intermixed--an indian road passes on the lard side latterly used. took a meridian altitude at the comsnt. of the mountain with octent ° ' ". the latd. ° ' / " proceeded on with great labour & fatigue to the mouth of a small run on the lard. side passed several spring runs, the men complain much of their fatigue and being repetiedly in the water which weakens them much perticularly as they are obliged to live on pore deer meet which has a singular bitter taste. i have no accounts of capt lewis sence he set out in walking on shore i saw several rattle snakes and narrowly escaped at two different times, as also the squar when walking with her husband on shore--i killed a buck nothing else killed to day--this mountn. i call rattle snake mountain. not one tree on either side to day [lewis, august , ] friday august th . i sent drewyer and shields before this morning in order to kill some meat as neither the indians nor ourselves had any thing to eat. i informed the ceif of my view in this measure, and requested that he would keep his young men with us lest by their hooping and noise they should allarm the game and we should get nothing to eat, but so strongly were there suspicions exited by this measure that two parties of discovery immediately set out one on ech side of the valley to watch the hunters as i beleive to see whether they had not been sent to give information of their approach to an enemy that they still preswaided themselves were lying in wait for them. i saw that any further effort to prevent their going would only add strength to their suspicions and therefore said no more. after the hunters had been gone about an hour we set out. we had just passed through the narrows when we saw one of the spies comeing up the level plain under whip, the chief pawsed a little and seemed somewhat concerned. i felt a good deel so myself and began to suspect that by some unfortunate accedent that perhaps some of there enimies had straggled hither at this unlucky moment; but we were all agreeably disappointed on the arrival of the young man to learn that he had come to inform us that one of the whitemen had killed a deer. in an instant they all gave their horses the whip and i was taken nearly a mile before i could learn what were the tidings; as i was without tirrups and an indian behind me the jostling was disagreeable i therefore reigned up my horse and forbid the indian to whip him who had given him the lash at every jum for a mile fearing he should loose a part of the feast. the fellow was so uneasy that he left me the horse dismounted and ran on foot at full speed, i am confident a mile. when they arrived where the deer was which was in view of me they dismounted and ran in tumbling over each other like a parcel of famished dogs each seizing and tearing away a part of the intestens which had been previously thrown out by drewyer who killed it; the seen was such when i arrived that had i not have had a pretty keen appetite myself i am confident i should not have taisted any part of the venison shortly. each one had a peice of some discription and all eating most ravenously. some were eating the kidnies the melt and liver and the blood runing from the corners of their mouths, others were in a similar situation with the paunch and guts but the exuding substance in this case from their lips was of a different discription. one of the last who attacted my attention particularly had been fortunate in his allotment or reather active in the division, he had provided himself with about nine feet of the small guts one end of which he was chewing on while with his hands he was squezzing the contents out at the other. i really did not untill now think that human nature ever presented itself in a shape so nearly allyed to the brute creation. i viewed these poor starved divils with pity and compassion i directed mcneal to skin the deer and reserved a quarter, the ballance i gave the chief to be divided among his people; they devoured the whole of it nearly without cooking. i now boar obliquely to the left in order to interscept the creek where there was some brush to make a fire, and arrived at this stream where drewyer had killed a second deer; here nearly the same seene was encored. a fire being kindled we cooked and eat and gave the ballance of the two deer to the indians who eat the whole of them even to the soft parts of the hoofs. drewyer joined us at breakfast with a third deer. of this i reserved a quarter and gave the ballance to the indians. they all appeared now to have filled themselves and were in a good humour. this morning early soon after the hunters set out a considerable part of our escort became allarmed and returned men and three women only continued with us. after eating and suffering the horses to graize about hours we renued our march and towads evening arrived at the lower part of the cove shields killed an antelope on the way a part of which we took and gave the remainder to the indians. being now informed of the place at which i expected to meat capt c. and the party they insisted on making a halt, which was complyed with. we now dismounted and the chief with much cerimony put tippets about our necks such as they temselves woar i redily perceived that this was to disguise us and owed it's origine to the same cause already mentioned. to give them further confidence i put my cocked hat with feather on the chief and my over shirt being of the indian form my hair deshivled and skin well browned with the sun i wanted no further addition to make me a complete indian in appearance the men followed my example and we were son completely metamorphosed. i again repeated to them the possibility of the party not having arrived at the place which i expected they were, but assured them they could not be far below, lest by not finding them at the forks their suspicions might arrise to such hight as to induce them to return precipitately. we now set out and rode briskly within sight of the forks making one of the indians carry the flag that our own party should know who we were. when we arrived in sight at the distance of about miles i discovered to my mortification that the party had not arrived, and the indians slackened their pace. i now scarcely new what to do and feared every moment when they would halt altogether, i now determined to restore their confidence cost what it might and therefore gave the chief my gun and told him that if his enimies were in those bushes before him that he could defend himself with that gun, that for my own part i was not affraid to die and if i deceived him he might make what uce of the gun he thought proper or in other words that he might shoot me. the men also gave their guns to other indians which seemed to inspire them with more confidence; they sent their spies before them at some distance and when i drew near the place i thought of the notes which i had left and directed drewyer to go with an indian man and bring them to me which he did. the indian seeing him take the notes from the stake on which they had been plased i now had recource to a stratagem in which i thought myself justifyed by the occasion, but which i must confess set a little awkward. it had it's desired effect. after reading the notes which were the same i had left i told the chief that when i had left my brother chief with the party below where the river entered the mountain that we both agreed not to bring the canoes higher up than the next forks of the river above us wherever this might happen, that there he was to wait my return, should he arrive first, and that in the event of his not being able to travel as fast as usual from the difficulty of the water, that he was to send up to the first forks above him and leave a note informing me where he was, that this note was left here today and that he informed me that he was just below the mountains and was coming on slowly up, and added that i should wait here for him, but if they did not beleive me that i should send a man at any rate to the chief and they might also send one of their young men with him, that myself and two others would remain with them at this place. this plan was readily adopted and one of the young men offered his services; i promised him a knife and some beads as a reward for his confidence in us. most of them seemed satisfyed but there were several that complained of the chief's exposing them to danger unnecessarily and said that we told different stories, in short a few were much dissatisfyed. i wrote a note to capt. clark by the light of some willow brush and directed drewyer to set out early being confident that there was not a moment to spare. the chief and five or six others slept about my fire and the others hid themselves in various parts of the willow brush to avoid the enimy whom they were fearfull would attack them in the course of the night. i now entertained various conjectures myself with rispect to the cause of capt. clarks detention and was even fearful l that he had found the river so difficult that he had halted below the rattlesnake bluffs. i knew that if these people left me that they would immediately disperse and secrete themselves in the mountains where it would be impossible to find them or at least in vain to pursue them and that they would spread the allarm to all other bands within our reach & of course we should be disappointed in obtaining horses, which would vastly retard and increase the labour of our voyage and i feared might so discourage the men as to defeat the expedition altogether. my mind was in reallity quite as gloomy all this evening as the most affrighted indian but i affected cheerfullness to keep the indians so who were about me. we finally laid down and the chief placed himself by the side of my musquetoe bier. i slept but little as might be well expected, my mind dwelling on the state of the expedition which i have ever held in equal estimation with my own existence, and the fait of which appeared at this moment to depend in a great measure upon the caprice of a few savages who are ever as fickle as the wind. i had mentioned to the chief several times that we had with us a woman of his nation who had been taken prisoner by the minnetares, and that by means of her i hoped to explain myself more fully than i could do by signs. some of the party had also told the indians that we had a man with us who was black and had short curling hair, this had excited their curiossity very much. and they seemed quite as anxious to see this monster as they wer the merchandize which we had to barter for their horses. at a m. capt. c. set out after breakfast. he changed the hands in some of the canoes; they proceeded with more ease than yesterday, yet they found the river still rapid and shallow insomuch that they were obliged to drag the large canoes the greater part of the day. the water excessively cold. in the evening they passed several bad rapids. considerable quantities of the buffaloe clover grows along the narrow bottoms through which they passed. there was no timber except a few scatiring small pine on the hills. willow service berry and currant bushes were the growth of the river bottoms. they geatherd considerable quantities of service berries, and caught some trout. one deer was killed by the hunters who slept out last night. and did not join the party untill a.m. capt. clark sent the hunters this evening up to the forks of the river which he discovered from an eminence; they mus have left this place but a little time before we arrived. this evening they encamped on the lard. side only a few miles below us. and were obliged like ourselves to make use of small willow brush for fuel. the men were much fatigued and exhausted this evening. [clark, august , ] august th friday as this morning was cold and the men fatigued stiff and chilled deturmined me to detain & take brackfast before i set out. i changed the hands and set out at oclock proceeded on something better than yesterday for the fore part of the day passed several rapids in the latter part of the day near the hills river passed between hills i saw a great number of service berries now ripe. the yellow current are also common i observe the long leaf clover in great plenty in the vallie below this vallie--some fiew tres on the river no timber on the hills or mountn. except a fiew small pine & cedar. the thmtr. stood at ° a. at sunrise wind s w. the hunters joined me at oclock, i dispatched men to prosue an indian roade over the hills for a fiew miles, at the narrows i assended a mountain from the top of which i could see that the river forked near me the left hand appeared the largest & bore s. e. the right passed from the west thro an extensive vallie, i could see but three small trees in any direction from the top of this mountain. passed an isld. and encamped ion the lard. side the only wood was small willows [lewis, august , ] saturday august th . this morning i arrose very early and dispatched drewyer and the indian down the river. sent shields to hunt. i made mcneal cook the remainder of our meat which afforded a slight breakfast for ourselves and the cheif. drewyer had been gone about hours when an indian who had straggled some little distance down the river returned and reported that the whitemen were coming, that he had seen them just below. they all appeared transported with joy, & the chef repeated his fraturnal hug. i felt quite as much gratifyed at this information as the indians appeared to be. shortly after capt. clark arrived with the interpreter charbono, and the indian woman, who proved to be a sister of the chif cameahwait. the meeting of those people was really affecting, particularly between sah cah-gar-we-ah and an indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her, and who had afterwards escaped from the minnetares and rejoined her nation. at noon the canoes arrived, and we had the satisfaction once more to find ourselves all together, with a flattering prospect of being able to obtain as many horses shortly as would enable us to prosicute our voyage by land should that by water be deemed unadvisable. we now formed our camp just below the junction of the forks on the lard. side in a level smooth bottom covered with a fine terf of greenswoard. here we unloaded our canoes and arranged our baggage on shore; formed a canopy of one of our large sails and planted some willow brush in the ground to form a shade for the indians to set under while we spoke to them, which we thought it best to do this evening. acordingly about p.m. we called them together and through the medium of labuish, charbono and sah-cah-gar-weah, we communicated to them fully the objects which had brought us into this distant part of the country, in which we took care to make them a conspicuous object of our own good wishes and the care of our government. we made them sensible of their dependance on the will of our government for every species of merchandize as well for their defence & comfort; and apprized them of the strength of our government and it's friendly dispositions towards them. we also gave them as a reason why we wished to petrate the country as far as the ocean to the west of them was to examine and find out a more direct way to bring merchandize to them. that as no trade could be carryed on with them before our return to our homes that it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render us such aids as they had it in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home. that such were their horses to transport our baggage without which we could not subsist, and that a pilot to conduct us through the mountains was also necessary if we could not decend the river by water. but that we did not ask either their horses or their services without giving a satisfactory compensation in return. that at present we wished them to collect as many horses as were necessary to transport our baggage to their village on the columbia where we would then trade with them at our leasure for such horses as they could spare us.--they appeared well pleased with what had been said. the chief thanked us for friendship towards himself and nation & declared his wish to serve us in every rispect; that he was sorry to find that it must yet be some time before they could be furnished with firearms but said they could live as they had done heretofore untill we brought them as we had promised. he said they had not horses enough with them at present to remove our baggage to their village over the mountain, but that he would return tomorrow and encourage his people to come over with their horses and that he would bring his own and assist us. this was complying with all we wished at present. we next enquired who were chiefs among them. cameahwait pointed out two others whom he said were chiefs we gave him a medal of the small size with the likeness of mr. jefferson the president of the u states in releif on one side and clasp hands with a pipe and tomahawk on the other, to the other chiefs we gave each a small medal which were struck in the presidency of george washing esqr. we also gave small medals of the last discription to two young men whom the st chief informed us wer good young men and much rispected among them. we gave the st chief an uniform coat shirt a pair of scarlet legings a carrot of tobacco and some small articles to each of the others we gave a shirt leging handkerchief a knife some tobacco and a few small articles we also distributed a good quantity paint mockerson awls knives beads lookingglasses &c among the other indians and gave them a plentifull meal of lyed corn which was the first they had ever eaten in their lives. they were much pleased with it. every article about us appeared to excite astonishment in ther minds; the appearance of the men, their arms, the canoes, our manner of working them, the back man york and the segacity of my dog were equally objects of admiration. i also shot my air-gun which was so perfectly incomprehensible that they immediately denominated it the great medicine. the idea which the indians mean to convey by this appellation is something that eminates from or acts immediately by the influence or power of the great sperit; or that in which the power of god is manifest by it's incomprehensible power of action. our hunters killed deer and an antelope this evening of which we also gave the indians a good proportion. the cerimony of our council and smoking the pipe was in conformity of the custom of this nation perfomed bearfoot. on those occasions points of etiquet are quite as much attended to by the indians as among scivilized nations. to keep indians in a good humour you must not fatiegue them with too much business at one time. therefore after the council we gave them to eat and amused them a while by shewing them such articles as we thought would be entertaining to them, and then renewed our enquiries with rispect to the country. the information we derived was only a repetition of that they had given me before and in which they appeared to be so candid that i could not avoid yealing confidence to what they had said. capt. clark and myself now concerted measures for our future operations, and it was mutually agreed that he should set out tomorrow morning with eleven men furnished with axes and other necessary tools for making canoes, their arms accoutrements and as much of their baggage as they could carry. also to take the indians carbono and the indian woman with him; that on his arrival at the shoshone camp he was to leave charbono and the indian woman to haisten the return of the indians with their horses to this place, and to proceede himself with the eleven men down the columbia in order to examine the river and if he found it navigable and could obtain timber to set about making canoes immediately. in the mean time i was to bring on the party and baggage to the shoshone camp, calculating that by the time i should reach that place that he would have sufficiently informed himself with rispect to the state of the river &c. as to determine us whether to prosicute our journey from thence by land or water. in the former case we should want all the horses which we could perchase, the latter only to hire the indians to transport our baggage to the place at which we made the canoes. in order to inform me as early as possible of the state of the river he was to send back one of the men with the necessary information as soon as he should satisfy himself on this subject. this plan being settled we gave orders accordingly and the men prepared for an early march. the nights are very cold and the sun excessively hot in the day. we have no fuel here but a few dry willow brush. and from the appearance of country i am confident we shall not find game here to subsist us many days. these are additional reasons why i conceive it necessary to get under way as soon as possible.--this morning capt. clark had delayed untill a.m. before he set out just about which time drewyer arrived with the indian; he left the canoes to come on after him, and immediately set out and joined me as has been before mentioned.the sperits of the men were now much elated at the prospect of geting horses. [clark, august , ] august th satturday a fair cold morning wind s. w. the thermometer at a. at sunrise, we set out at oclock and proceeded on to the forks i had not proceeded on one mile before i saw at a distance several indians on horsback comeing towards me, the intertrepeter & squar who were before me at some distance danced for the joyful sight, and she made signs to me that they were her nation, as i aproached nearer them descovered one of capt lewis party with them dressed in their dress; the met me with great signs of joy, as the canoes were proceeding on nearly opposit me i turned those people & joined capt lewis who had camped with of those snake indians at the forks miles in advance. those indians sung all the way to their camp where the others had provd. a cind of shade of willows stuck up in a circle the three chiefs with capt. lewis met me with great cordialliaty embraced and took a seat on a white robe, the main chief imedeately tied to my hair six small pieces of shells resembling perl which is highly valued by those people and is prcured from the nations resideing near the sea coast. we then smoked in their fassion without shoes and without much cerimoney and form. capt lewis informed me he found those people on the columbia river about miles from the forks at that place there was a large camp of them, he had purswaded those with him to come and see that what he said was the truth, they had been under great apprehension all the way, for fear of their being deceived. the great chief of this nation proved to be the brother of the woman with us and is a man of influence sence & easey & reserved manners, appears to possess a great deel of cincerity. the canoes arrived & unloaded--every thing appeared to asstonish those people. the appearance of the men, their arms, the canoes, the clothing my black servent. & the segassity of capt lewis's dog. we spoke a fiew words to them in the evening respecting our rout intentions our want of horses &c. & gave them a fiew presents & medals--we made a number of inquires of those people about the columbia river the countrey game &c. the account they gave us was verry unfavourable, that the river abounded in emence falls, one perticularly much higher than the falls of the missouri & at the place the mountains closed so close that it was impracticable to pass, & that the ridge continued on each side of perpendicular clifts inpenetratable, and that no deer elk or any game was to be found in that countrey, aded to that they informed us that there was no timber on the river sufficiently large to make small canoes, this information (if true is alarming) i deturmined to go in advance and examine the countrey, see if those dificueltes presented themselves in the gloomey picture in which they painted them, and if the river was practiable and i could find timber to build canoes, those ideas & plan appeard to be agreeable to capt lewis's ideas on this point, and i selected men, directed them to pack up their baggage complete themselves with amunition, take each an ax and such tools as will be soutable to build canoes, and be ready to set out at oclock tomorrow morning. those people greatly pleased our hunters killed three deer & an antilope which was eaten in a short time the indians being so harrassed & compelled to move about in those rugid mountains that they are half starved liveing at this time on berries & roots which they geather in the plains. those people are not begerley but generous, only one has asked me for anything and he for powder. this nation call themselves cho-shop-ne the chief is name too-et-te-con'l black gun is his war name ka-me-ah-wah--or come & smoke. this chief gave me the following name and pipe ka-me-ah-wah. [lewis, august , ] sunday august th . this morning while capt clark was busily engaged in preparing for his rout, i exposed some articles to barter with the indians for horses as i wished a few at this moment to releive the men who were going with capt clark from the labour of carrying their baggage and also one to keep here in order to pack the meat to camp which the hunters might kill. i soon obtained three very good horses for which i gave an uniform coat, a pair of legings, a few handkerchiefs, three knives and some other small articles the whole of which did not cost more than about $ in the u states. the indians seemed quite as well pleased with their bargin as i was. the men also purchased one for an old checked shirt a pair of old legings and a knife. two of those i purchased capt. c. took on with him. at a.m. capt. clark departed with his detatchment and all the indians except men and women who remained with us. two of the inferior chiefs were a little displeased at not having received a present equivolent to that given the first chief. to releive this difficulty capt. clark bestoed a couple of his old coats on them and i promised that if they wer active in assisting me over the mountains with horses that i would give them an additional present; this seemed perfectly to satisfy them and they all set out in a good humour. capt. clark encamped this evening near the narrow pass between the hills on jefferson's river in the shoshone cove. his hunters killed one deer which the party with the aid of the indians readily consumed in the course of the evening.--after there departure this morning i had all the stores and baggage of every discription opened and aired. and began the operation of forming the packages in proper parsels for the purpose of transporting them on horseback. the rain in the evening compelled me to desist from my operations. i had the raw hides put in the water in order to cut them in throngs proper for lashing the packages and forming the necessary geer for pack horses, a business which i fortunately had not to learn on this occasion. drewyer killed one deer this evening. a beaver was also caught by one of the party. i had the net arranged and set this evening to catch some trout which we could see in great abundance at the bottom of the river. this day i completed my thirty first year, and conceived that i had in all human probability now existed about half the period which i am to remain in this sublunary world. i reflected that i had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. i viewed with regret the many hours i have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, i dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as i have heretofore lived for myself. [clark, august , ] august th sunday purchased of the indians three horses for which we gave a chiefs coat some handkerchiefs a shirt legins & a fiew arrow points &c. i gave two of my coats to two of the under chiefs who appeared not well satisfied that the first chief was dressed so much finer than themselves. at oclock i set out accompanied by the indians except the interpreter and wife, the fore part of the day worm, at oclock it became hasey with a mist of rain wind hard from the s. w. and cold which increased untill night the rain seased in about two hours. we proceeded on thro a wide leavel vallie without wood except willows & srubs for miles and encamped at a place the high lands approach within yards in points the river here only yards wide several small streams branching out on each side below. all the indians proceeded on except the chiefs & two young men. my hunters killed two deer which we eate. the course from the forks is west miles n. ° w. miles. the laid. of the forks agreeable to observations is ° ' " north- [lewis, august , ] monday august th . this morning i arrose at dylight. and sent out three hunters. some of the men who were much in want of legings and mockersons i suffered to dress some skins. the others i employed in repacking the baggage, making pack saddles &c. we took up the net this morning but caugt no fish. one beaver was caught in a trap. the frost which perfectly whitened the grass this morning had a singular appearance to me at this season. this evening i made a few of the men construct a sein of willow brush which we hawled and caught a large number of fine trout and a kind of mullet about inhes long which i had not seen before. the scales are small, the nose is long and obtusely pointed and exceedes the under jaw. the mouth is not large but opens with foalds at the sides, the colour of it's back and sides is of a bluish brown and belley white; it has the faggot bones, from which i have supposed it to be of the mullet kind. the tongue and pallate are smooth and it has no teeth. it is by no means as good as the trout. the trout are the same which i first met with at the falls of the missouri, they are larger than the speckled trout of our mountains and equally as well flavored.- the hunters returned this evening with two deer. from what has been said of the shoshones it will be readily perceived that they live in a wretched stait of poverty. yet notwithstanding their extreem poverty they are not only cheerfull but even gay, fond of gaudy dress and amusements; like most other indians they are great egotists and frequently boast of heroic acts which they never performed. they are also fond of games of wrisk. they are frank, communicative, fair in dealing, generous with the little they possess, extreemly honest, and by no means beggarly. each individual is his own sovereign master, and acts from the dictates of his own mind; the authority of the cheif being nothing more than mere admonition supported by the influence which the propiety of his own examplery conduct may have acquired him in the minds of the individuals who compose the band. the title of cheif is not hereditary, nor can i learn that there is any cerimony of instalment, or other epoh in the life of a cheif from which his title as such can be dated. in fact every man is a chief, but all have not an equal influence on the minds of the other members of the community, and he who happens to enjoy the greatest share of confidence is the principal chief. the shoshonees may be estimated at about warriors, and about three times that number of woomen and children. they have more children among them than i expected to have seen among a people who procure subsistence with such difficulty. there are but few very old persons, nor did they appear to treat those with much tenderness or rispect. the man is the sole propryetor of his wives and daughters, and can barter or dispose of either as he thinks proper. a plurality of wives is common among them, but these are not generally sisters as with the minnetares & mandans but are purchased of different fathers. the father frequently disposes of his infant daughters in marriage to men who are grown or to men who have sons for whom they think proper to provide wives. the compensation given in such cases usually consists of horses or mules which the father receives at the time of contract and converts to his own uce. the girl remains with her parents untill she is conceived to have obtained the age of puberty which with them is considered to be about the age of or years. the female at this age is surrendered to her sovereign lord and husband agreeably to contract, and with her is frequently restored by the father quite as much as he received in the first instance in payment for his daughter; but this is discretionary with the father. sah-car-gar-we-ah had been thus disposed of before she was taken by the minnetares, or had arrived to the years of puberty. the husband was yet living and with this band. he was more than double her age and had two other wives. he claimed her as his wife but said that as she had had a child by another man, who was charbono, that he did not want her. they seldom correct their children particularly the boys who soon become masters of their own acts. they give as a reason that it cows and breaks the sperit of the boy to whip him, and that he never recovers his independence of mind after he is grown. they treat their women but with little rispect, and compel them to perform every species of drudgery. they collect the wild fruits and roots, attend to the horses or assist in that duty cook dreess the skins and make all their apparal, collect wood and make their fires, arrange and form their lodges, and when they travel pack the horses and take charge of all the baggage; in short the man dose little else except attend his horses hunt and fish. the man considers himself degraded if he is compelled to walk any distance, and if he is so unfortunately poor as only to possess two horses he rides the best himself and leavs the woman or women if he has more than one, to transport their baggage and children on the other, and to walk if the horse is unable to carry the additional weight of their persons--the chastity of their women is not held in high estimation, and the husband will for a trifle barter the companion of his bead for a night or longer if he conceives the reward adiquate; tho they are not so importunate that we should caress their women as the siouxs were and some of their women appear to be held more sacred than in any nation we have seen i have requested the men to give them no cause of jealousy by having connection with their women without their knowledge, which with them strange as it may seem is considered as disgracefull to the husband as clandestine connections of a similar kind are among civilized nations. to prevent this mutual exchange of good officies altogether i know it impossible to effect, particularly on the part of our young men whom some months abstinence have made very polite to those tawney damsels. no evil has yet resulted and i hope will not from these connections.--notwithstanding the late loss of horses which this people sustained by the minnetares the stock of the band may be very safely estimated at seven hundred of which they are perhaps about coalts and half that number of mules.these people are deminutive in stature, thick ankles, crooked legs, thick flat feet and in short but illy formed, at least much more so in general than any nation of indians i ever saw. their complexion is much that of the siouxs or darker than the minnetares mandands or shawnees. generally both men and women wear their hair in a loos lank flow over the sholders and face; tho i observed some few men who confined their hair in two equal cues hanging over each ear and drawnn in front of the body. the cue is formed with throngs of dressed lather or otterskin aternately crossing each other. at present most of them have cut short in the neck in consequence of the loss of their relations by the minnetares. cameahwait has his cut close all over his head. this constitutes their cerimony of morning for their deceased relations. the dress of the men consists of a robe long legings, shirt, tippet and mockersons, that of the women is also a robe, chemise, and mockersons; sometimes they make use of short legings. the ornements of both men and women are very similar, and consist of several species of sea shells, blue and white beads, bras and iron arm bands, plaited cords of the sweet grass, and collars of leather ornamented with the quills of the porcupine dyed of various colours among which i observed the red, yellow, blue, and black. the ear is purforated in the lower part to receive various ornaments but the nose is not, nor is the ear lasserated or disvigored for this purpose as among many nations. the men never mark their skins by birning, cuting, nor puncturing and introducing a colouring matter as many nations do. there women sometimes puncture a small circle on their forehead nose or cheeks and thus introduce a black matter usually soot and grease which leaves an indelible stane. tho this even is by no means common. their arms offensive and defensive consist in the bow and arrows sheild, some lances, and a weapon called by the cippeways who formerly used it, the pog-gal'-mag-gon'. in fishing they employ wairs, gigs, and fishing hooks. the salmon is the principal object of their pursuit. they snair wolves and foxes. i was anxious to learn whether these people had the venerial, and made the enquiry through the intrepreter and his wife; the information was that they sometimes had it but i could not learn their remedy; they most usually die with it's effects. this seems a strong proof that these disorders bothe gonaroehah and louis venerae are native disorders of america. tho these people have suffered much by the small pox which is known to be imported and perhaps those other disorders might have been contracted from other indian tribes who by a round of communication might have obtained from the europeans since it was introduced into that quarter of the globe. but so much detatched on the other had from all communication with the whites that i think it most probable that those disorders are original with them. from the middle of may to the firt of september these people reside on the waters of the columbia where they consider themselves in perfect security from their enimies as they have not as yet ever found their way to this retreat; during this season the salmon furnish the principal part of their subsistence and as this firsh either perishes or returns about the st of september they are compelled at this season in surch of subsistence to resort to the missouri, in the vallies of which, there is more game even within the mountains. here they move slowly down the river in order to collect and join other bands either of their own nation or the flatheads, and having become sufficiently strong as they conceive venture on the eastern side of the rockey mountains into the plains, where the buffaloe abound. but they never leave the interior of the mountains while they can obtain a scanty subsistence, and always return as soon as they have acquired a good stock of dryed meat in the plains; when this stock is consumed they venture again into the plains; thus alternately obtaining their food at the risk of their lives and retiring to the mountains, while they consume it.--these people are now on the eve of their departure for the missouri, and inform us that they expect to be joined at or about the three forks by several bands of their own nation, and a band of the flatheads. as i am now two busily engaged to enter at once into a minute discription of the several articles which compose their dress, impliments of war hunting fishing &c i shall pursue them at my leasure in the order they have here occurred to my mind, and have been mentioned. this morning capt. clark continued his rout with his party, the indians accompanying him as yesterday; he was obliged to feed them. nothing remarkable happened during the day. he was met by an indian with two mules on this side of the dividing ridge at the foot of the mountain, the indian had the politeness to offer capt. c. one of his mules to ride as he was on foot, which he accepted and gave the fellow a waistcoat as a reward for his politeness. in the evening he reached the creek on this side of the indian camp and halted for the night. his hunters killed nothing today. the indians value their mules very highly. a good mule can not be obtained for less than three and sometimes four horses, and the most indifferent are rated at two horses. their mules generally are the finest i ever saw without any comparison.--today i observed time and distance of sun's and moon's nearest limbs with sextant sun east. [clark, august , ] august th monday a verry cold morning frost to be seen we set out at oclock and proceeded on thro a wide leavel vallie the chief shew me the place that a number of his nation was killed about years past this vallie continues miles & then becoms narrow, the beaver has darned up the river in maney places we proceeded on up the main branch with a gradial assent to the head and passed over a low mountain and decended a steep decent to a butifull stream, passed over a second hill of a verry steep assent & thro a hilley countrey for miles an encamped on a small stream the indians with us we wer oblige to feed--one man met one with a mule & spanish saddle to ride, i gave him a wistoat a mule is considered a of great value among those people we proceeded on over a verry mountanious countrey across the head of hollows & springs [lewis, august , ] tuesday august th . this morning i sent out the two hunters and employed the ballance of the party pretty much as yesterday. i walked down the river about-- / of a mile and scelected a place near the river bank unperceived by the indians for a cash, which i set three men to make, and directed the centinel to discharge his gun if he pereceived any of the indians going down in that direction which was to be the signal for the men at work on the cash to desist and seperate, least these people should discover our deposit and rob us of the baggage we intend leaving here. by evening the cash was completed unperceived by the indians, and all our packages made up. the pack-saddles and harries is not yet complete. in this operation we find ourselves at a loss for nails and boards; for the first we substitute throngs of raw hide which answer verry well, and for the last to cut off the blades of our oars and use the plank of some boxes which have heretofore held other articles and put those articles into sacks of raw hide which i have had made for the purpose. by this means i have obtained as many boards as will make saddles which i suppose will be sufficient for our present exegencies. the indians with us behave themselves extreemly well; the women have been busily engaged all day making and mending the mockersons of our party. in the evening the hunters returned unsuccessfull. drewyer went in search of his trap which a beaver had taken off last night; he found the beaver dead with the trap to his foot about miles below the place he had set it. this beaver constituted the whole of the game taken today. the fur of this animal is as good as i ever saw any, and beleive that they are never out of season on the upper part of the missouri and it's branches within the mountains. goodrich caught several douzen fine trout. today. i made up a small assortment of medicines, together with the specemines of plants, minerals, seeds &c. which, i have collected betwen this place and the falls of the missouri which i shall deposit here. the robe woarn by the shoshonees is the same in both sexes and is loosly thrown about their sholders, and the sides at pleasure either hanging loose or drawn together with the hands, sometimes if the weather is cold they confine it with a girdel arround the waist; they are generally about the size of a / point blanket for grown persons and reach as low as the middle of the leg. this robe forms a garment in the day and constitutes their only covering at night. with these people the robe is formed most commonly of the skins of antelope, bighorn, or deer, dressed with the hair on, tho they prefer the buffaloe when they can procure them. i have also observed some robes among them of beaver, moonax, and small wolves. the summer robes of both sexes are also frequently made of the elk's skin dressed without the hair. the shirt of the men is really a commodious and decent garment. it roomy and reaches nearly half way the thye, there is no collar, the apperture being sufficiently large to admit the head and is left square at top, or most frequently, both before and behind terminate in the tails of the animals of which they are made and which foald outwards being frequently left entire or somtimes cut into a fring on the edges and ornimented with the quills of the porcupine. the sides of the shirt are sewed deeply fringed, and ornamented in a similar manner from the bottom upwards, within six or eight inches of the sieve from whence it is left open as well as the sieve on it's under side to the elbow nearly. from the elbow the sieve fits the arm tight as low as the wrist and is not ornimented with a fringe as the sides and under parts of the sieve are above the elbow. the sholder straps are wide and on them is generally displayed the taste of the manufacterer in a variety of figures wrought with the quills of the porcupine of several colours; beads when they have them are also displayed on this part. the tail of the shirt is left in the form which the fore legs and neck give it with the addition of a slight fringe. the hair is usually left on the tail, & near the hoofs of the animal; part of the hoof is also retained to the skin and is split into a fring by way of orniment. these shirts are generally made of deer's antelope's, bighorn's, or elk's skins dressed without the hair. the elk skin is less used for this purpose than either of the others. their only thread used on this or any other occasion is the sinews taken from the back and loins of the deer elk buffaloe &c. their legings are most usually formed of the skins of the antelope dressed without the hair. in the men they are very long and full each leging being formed of a skin nearly entire. the legs, tail and neck are also left on these, and the tail woarn upwards; and the neck deeply fringed and ornimented with porcupine qulls drags or trails on the ground behind the heel. the skin is sewn in such manner as to fit the leg and thye closely; the upper part being left open a sufficient distance to permit the legs of the skin to be dran underneath a girdle both before and behind, and the wide part of the skin to cover the buttock and lap before in such manner that the breechcloth is unnecessary. they are much more decent in concealing those parts than any nation on the missouri the sides of the legings are also deeply fringed and ornimented. sometimes this part is ornimented with little fassicles of the hair of an enimy whom they have slain in battle. the tippet of the snake indians is the most eligant peice of indian dress i ever saw, the neck or collar of this is formed of a strip of dressed otter skin with the fur. it is about four or five inches wide and is cut out of the back of the skin the nose and eyes forming one extremity and the tail the other. begining a little behind the ear of the animal at one edge of this collar and proceeding towards the tail, they attatch from one to two hundred and fifty little roles of ermin skin formed in the following manner. the skin is first dressed with the fur on it and a narrow strip is cut out of the back of the skin reaching from the nose and imbracing the tail. this is sewed arround a small cord of the silk-grass twisted for the purpose and regularly tapering in such manner as to give it ajust proportion to the tail which is to form the lower extremity of the stran. thus arranged they are confined at the upper point in little bundles of two-three, or more as the disign may be to make them more full; these are then attatched to the collars as before mentioned, and to conceal the connection of this part which would otherwise have a course appearance they attatch a broad fringe of the ermin skin to the collar overlaying that part. little bundles of fine fringe of the same materials is fastened to the extremity of the tails in order to shew their black extremities to greater advantage. the center of the otterskin collar is also ornamented with the shells of the perl oister. the collar is confined arond the neck and the little roles of ermin skin about the size of a large quill covers the solders and body nearly to the waist and has the appearance of a short cloak and is really handsome. these they esteem very highly, and give or dispose of only on important occasions. the ermin whic is known to the traiders of the n. w. by the name of the white weasel is the genuine ermine, and might no doubt be turned to great advantage by those people if they would encourage the indians to take them. they are no doubt extreemly plenty and readily taken, from the number of these tippets which i have seen among these people and the great number of skins employed in the construction of each timppet. scarcely any of them have employed less than one hundred of these skins in their formation.--this morning capt. clark set out at in the morning and soon after arrived near their camp they having removed about miles higher up the river than the camp at which they were when i first visited them. the chief requested a halt, which was complyed with, and a number of the indians came out from the village and joined them after smoking a few pipes with them they all proceeded to the village where capt c. was conducted to a large lodge prepared in the center of the encampment for himself and party. here they gave him one salmon and some cakes of dryed berries. he now repeated to them what had been said to them in council at this place which was repeated to the village by the cheif. when he had concluded this address he requested a guide to accompany him down the river and an elderly man was pointed out by the cheif who consented to undertake this task. this was the old man of whom cameahwait had spoken as a person well acquainted with the country to the north of this river. capt. c. encouraged the indians to come over with their horses and assist me over with the baggage. he distrubuted some presents among the indians. about half the men of the village turned out to hunt the antelope but were unsuccessfull. at p.m. capt. clark departed, accompanyed by his guide and party except one man whom he left with orders to purchase a horse if possible and overtake him as soon as he could. he left charbono and the indian woman to return to my camp with the indians. he passed the river about four miles below the indians, and encamped on a small branch, eight miles distant. on his way he met a rispectable looking indian who returned and continued with him all night; this indian gave them three salmon. capt. c. killed a cock of the plains or mountain cock. it was of a dark brown colour with a long and pointed tail larger than the dunghill fowl and had a fleshey protuberant substance about the base of the upper chap, something like that of the turkey tho without the snout. [clark, august , ] august th tuesday set out at half past oclock and proceeded on (met maney parties of indians) thro a hilley countrey to the camp of the indians on a branch of the columbia river, before we entered this camp a serimonious hault was requested by the chief and i smoked with all that came around for several pipes, we then proceeded on to the camp & i was introduced into the only lodge they had which was pitched in the center for my party all the other lodges made of bushes, after a fiew indian seremonies i informed the indians the object of our journey our good intentions towards them my consern for their distressed situation, what we had done for them in makeing a piece with the minitarras mandans rickara &c. for them-. and requested them all to take over their horses & assist capt leiwis across &c. also informing them the oject of my journey down the river and requested a guide to accompany me, all of which was repeited by the chief to the whole village. those pore people could only raise a sammon & a little dried choke cherris for us half the men of the tribe with the chief turned out to hunt the antilopes, at oclock after giveing a fiew small articles as presents i set out accompanied by an old man as a guide (i endevered to procure as much information from thos people as possible without much suckcess they being but little acquainted or effecting to be so-) i lef one man to purchase a horse and overtake me and proceeded on thro a wide rich bottom on a beaten roade miles crossed the river and encamped on a small run, this evening passed a number of old lodges, and met a number of men women children & horses, met a man who appeared of some consideration who turned back with us, he halted a woman & gave us small sammon, this man continued with me all night and partook of what i had which was a little pork verry salt. those indians are verry attentive to strangers &c. i left our interpreter & his woman to accompany the indians to capt lewis tomorrow the day they informed me they would set out i killed a pheasent at the indian camp larger than a dungal fowl with feshey protuberances about the head like a turkey. frost last night [lewis, august , ] wednesday august st . this morning was very cold. the ice / of an inch thick on the water which stood in the vessels exposed to the air. some wet deerskins that had been spread the grass last evening are stiffly frozen. the ink feizes in my pen. the bottoms are perfectly covered with frost insomuch that they appear to be covered with snow. this morning early i dispatched two hunters to kill some meat if possible before the indians arrive; drewyer i sent with the horse into the cove for that purpose. the party pursued their several occupations as yesterday. by evening i had all the baggage, saddles, and harness completely ready for a march. after dark, i made the men take the baggage to the cash and deposit it. i beleve we have been unperceived by the indians in this movement. notwithstanding the coldness of the last night the day has proved excessively warm. neither of the hunters returned this evening and i was obliged to issue pork and corn. the mockersons of both sexes are usually the same and are made of deer elk or buffaloe skin dressed without the hair. sometimes in the winter they make them of buffaloe skin dressed with the hair on and turn the hair inwards as the mandans minetares and most of the nations do who inhabit the buffaloe country. the mockerson is formed with one seem on the outer edge of the foot is cut open at the instep to admit the foot and sewed up behind. in this rispect they are the same with the mandans. they sometimes ornament their mockersons with various figures wrought with the quills of the porcupine. some of the dressey young men orniment the tops of their mockersons with the skins of polecats and trale the tail of that animal on the ground at their heels as they walk.the robe of the woman is generally smaller than that of the man but is woarn in the same manner over the sholders. the chemise is roomy and comes down below the middle of the leg the upper part of this garment is formed much like the shirt of the men except the sholder strap which is never used with the chemise. in women who give suck, they are left open at the sides nearly as low as the waist, in others, close as high as the sleeve. the sleeve underneath as low as the elbow is open, that part being left very full. the sides tail and upper part of the sleeves are deeply fringed and sometimes ornimented in a similar manner with the shirts of the men with the addition of little patches of red cloth about the tail edged around with beads. the breast is usually ornament with various figures of party colours rought with the quills of the porcupine. it is on this part of the garment that they appear to exert their greatest ingenuity. a girdle of dressed leather confines the chemise around the waist. when either the man or woman wish to disengage their arm from the sleeve they draw it out by means of the opening underneath the arm an throw the sleeve behind the body. the legings of the women reach as high as the knee and are confined with a garter below. the mockerson covers and confins it's lower extremity. they are neither fringed nor ornamented. these legings are made of the skins of the antelope and the chemise usually of those of the large deer bighorn and the smallest elk.--they seldom wear the beads they possess about their necks at least i have never seen a grown person of either sex wear them on this part; some their children are seen with them in this way. the men and women were them suspen from the ear in little bunches or intermixed with triangular peices of the shells of the perl oister. the men also were them attached in a similar manner to the hare of the fore part of the crown of the head; to which they sometimes make the addition of the wings and tails of birds. the nose in neither sex is pierced nor do they wear any ornament in it. they have a variety of small sea shells of which they form collars woarn indiscriminately by both sexes. these as well as the shell of the perl oister they value very highly and inform us that they obtain them from their friends and relations who live beyond the barren plain towards the ocean in a s. westerly direction. these friends of theirs they say inhabit a good country abounding with elk, deer, bear, and antelope, and possess a much greater number of horses and mules than they do themselves; or using their own figure that their horses and mules are as numerous as the grass of the plains. the warriors or such as esteem themselves brave men wear collars made of the claws of the brown bear which are also esteemed of great value and are preserved with great care. these claws are ornamented with beads about the thick end near which they are peirced through their sides and strung on a throng of dressed leather and tyed about the neck commonly with the upper edge of the tallon next the breast or neck but sometimes are reversed. it is esteemed by them an act of equal celebrity the killing one of these bear or an enimy, and with the means they have of killing this animal it must really be a serious undertaking. the sweet sented grass which grows very abundant on this river is either twisted or plaited and woarn around the neck in ether sex, but most commonly by the men. they have a collar also woarn by either sex. it generally round and about the size of a man's finger; formed of leather or silk-grass twisted or firmly rolled and covered with the quills of the porcupine of different colours. the tusks of the elk are pierced strung on a throng and woarn as an orniment for the neck, and is most generally woarn by the women and children. the men frequently wear the skin of a fox or a broad strip of that of the otter around the forehead and head in form of a bando. they are also fond of the feathers of the tail of the beautifull eagle or callumet birds with which they ornament their own hair and the tails and mains of their horses. the dress of these people is quite as desent and convenient as that of any nation of indians i ever saw. this morning early capt. c. resumed his march; at the distance of five miles he arrived at some brush lodges of the shoshones inhabited by about seven families here he halted and was very friendly received by these people, who gave himself and party as much boiled salmon as they could eat; they also gave him several dryed salmon and a considerable quantity of dryed chokecherries. after smoking with them he visited their fish wear which was abut yds. distant. he found the wear extended across four channels of the river which was here divided by three small islands. three of these channels were narrow, and were stoped by means of trees fallen across, supported by which stakes of willow were driven down sufficiently near each other to prevent the salmon from passing. about the center of each a cilindric basket of eighteen or feet in length terminating in a conic shape at it's lower extremity, formed of willows, was opposed to a small apperture in the wear with it's mouth up stream to receive the fish. the main channel of the water was conducted to this basket, which was so narrow at it's lower extremity that the fish when once in could not turn itself about, and were taken out by untying the small ends of the longitudinal willows, which frormed the hull of the basket. the wear in the main channel was somewhat differently contrived. there were two distinct wears formed of poles and willow sticks, quite across the river, at no great distance from each other. each of these, were furnished with two baskets; the one wear to take them ascending and the other in decending. in constructing these wears, poles were first tyed together in parcels of three near the smaller extremity; these were set on end, and spread in a triangular form at the base, in such manner, that two of the three poles ranged in the direction of the intended work, and the third down the stream. two ranges of horizontal poles were next lashed with willow bark and wythes to the ranging poles, and on these willow sticks were placed perpendicularly, reaching from the bottom of the river to about or four feet above it's surface; and placed so near each other, as not to permit the passage of the fish, and even so thick in some parts, as with the help of gravel and stone to give a direction to the water which they wished.--the baskets were the same in form of the others. this is the form of the work, and disposition of the baskets. after examining the wears capt. c. returned to the lodges, and shortly continued his rout and passed the river to the lard. side a little distance below the wears. he sent collins with an indian down the lard. side of the river to the forks me. in surch of cruzatte who was left at the upper camp yesterday to purchase a horse and had followed on today and passed them by another road while they were at the lodges and had gone on to the forks. while capt. clark was at these lodges an indian brought him a tomehawk which he said he found in the grass near the lodge where i had staid at the upper camp when i was first with his nation the tommahawk was drewyer's he missed it in the morning before we had set out and surched for it but it was not to be found i beleive the young fellow stole it, but if he did it is the only article they have pilfered and this was now returned. capt. c. after traveling about miles through the valley with the course of the river nearly n. w. encamped on the stard. side in a small bottom under a high clift of rocks. on his way one of the party killed a very large salmon in a creek which they passed at the distance of ms. he was joined this evening by cruzatte and collins who brought with them five fresh salmon which had been given them by the indians at the forks. the forks of this river is famous as a gig fishery and is much resorted by the natives.--they killed one deer today. the guide apeared to be a very friendly intelligent old man, capt. c. is much pleased with him. [clark, august , ] august st wednesday frost last night proceeded on with the indians i met about miles to there camp, i entered a lodge and after smokeing with all who came about me i went to see the place those people take the fish, a wear across the creek in which there is stuk baskets set in different derections so as to take the fish either decending or assending on my return to the camp which was yards only the different lodges (which is only bushes) brought in to the lodge i was introduced into, sammon boiled, and dried choke chers. sufficent for all my party.--one man brought me a tomahawk which we expected they had stolen from a man of capt lewis's party, this man informed me he found the tomk in the grass near the place the man slept. crossed the river and went over a point of high land & struck it again near a bluff on the right side the man i left to get a horse at the upper camp missed me & went to the forks which is about five miles below the last camp. i sent one man by the forks with derections to join me to night with the one now at that place, those two men joined me at my camp on the right side below the st clift with sammon which the indians gave them at the forks, the place they gig fish at this season. their method of takeing fish with a gig or bone is with a long pole, about a foot from one end is a strong string attached to the pole, this string is a little more than a foot long and is tied to the middle of a bone from to inches long, one end sharp the other with a whole to fasten on the end of the pole with a beard to the large end, the fasten this bone on one end & with the other, feel for the fish & turn and strike them so hard that the bone passes through and catches on the opposit side, slips off the end of the pole and holds the center of the bone those indians are mild in their disposition appear sincere in their friendship, punctial, and decided. kind with what they have, to spare. they are excessive pore, nothing but horses there enemies which are noumerous on account of there horses & defenceless situation, have deprived them of tents and all the small conveniances of life. they have only a few indifferent knives, no ax, make use of elk's horn sharpened to spit ther wood, no clothes except a short legins & robes of different animals, beaver, bear, buffalow, wolf panthor, ibex, sheep deer, but most commonly the antilope skins which they ware loosely about them--their ornements are orter skin dcurated with see shells & the skins & tales of the white weasel, sea shels of different size hung to their ears hair and breast of their shirts, beeds of shells platted grass, and small strings of otter skin dressed, they are fond of our trinkets, and give us those ornements as the most valueable of their possession. the women are held sacred and appear to have an equal shere in all conversation, which is not the case in any othe nation i have seen. their boeys & girls are also admited to speak except in councils, the women doe all the drugery except fishing and takeing care of the horses, which the men apr. to take upon themselves.--the men ware the hair loose flowing over ther sholders & face the women cut short, orniments of the back bones of fish strung plated grass grains of corn strung feathers and orniments of birds claws of the bear encurcling their necks the most sacred of all the orniments of this nation is the sea shells of various sizes and shapes and colours, of the bassterd perl kind, which they inform us they get from the indians to the south on the other side of a large fork of this river in passing to which they have to pass thro sandy & barron open plains without water to which place they can travel in or days--the men who passed by the forks informed me that the s w. fork was double the size of the one i came down, and i observed that it was a handsom river at my camp i shall injustice to capt lewis who was the first white man ever on this fork of the columbia call this louis's river. one deer killed this morning, and a sammon in the last creek / feet long the westerley fork of the columbia river is double the size of the easterley fork & below those forks the river is about the size jeffersons river near its mouth or yards wide, it is verry rapid & sholey water clear but little timber. this clift is of a redish brown colour the rocks which fall from it is a dark brown flint tinged with that colour. some gullies of white sand stone and sand fine & as white as snow. the mountains on each side are high, and those on the east ruged & contain a fiew scattering pine, those on the west contain pine on ther tops & high up the hollows--the bottoms of this is wide & rich from some distance above the place i struck the east fork they are also wide on the east passed a large creek which fall in on the right side miles below the forks a road passes up this creek & to the missouri. [lewis, august , ] thursday august ed this morning early i sent a couple of men to complete the covering of the cash which could not be done well last night in the dark, they soon accomplished their work and returned. late last night drewyer returned with a fawn he had killed and a considerable quantity of indian plunder. the anecdote with rispect to the latter is perhaps worthy of relation. he informed me that while hunting in the cove yesterday about ock. he came suddonly upon an indian camp, at which there were a young man an old man a boy and three women, that they seemed but little supprised at seeing him and he rode up to them and dismounted turning horse out to graize. these people had just finished their repast on some roots, he entered into conversation with them by signs, and after about minutes one of the women spoke to the others of the party and they all went immediately and collected their horses brought them to camp and saddled them at this moment he thought he would also set out and continue his hunt, and accorgingly walked to catch his horse at some little distance and neglected to take up his gun which, he left at camp. the indians perceiving him at the distance of fifty paces immediately mounted their horses, the young man took the gun and the whole of them left their baggage and laid whip to their horses directing their course to the pass of the mountains. finding himself deprived of his gun he immediately mounted his horse and pursued; after runing them about miles the horses of two of the women nearly gave out and the young fellow with the gun from their frequent crys slackened his pace and being on a very fleet horse road around the women at a little distance at length drewer overtook the women and by signs convinced them that he did not wish to hirt them they then halted and the young fellow approached still nearer, he asked him for his gun but the only part of the answer which he could understand was pah kee which he knew to be the name by which they called their enimies. watching his opportunity when the fellow was off his guard he suddonly rode along side of him seized his gun and wrest her out of his hands. the fellow finding drewyer too strong for him and discovering that he must yeald the gun had pesents of mind to open the pan and cast the priming before he let the gun escape from his hands; now finding himself devested of the gun he turned his horse about and laid whip leaving the women to follow him as well as they could. drewyer now returned to the place they had left their baggage and brought it with him to my camp. it consisted of several dressed and undressed skins; a couple of bags wove with the fingers of the bark of the silk-grass containing each about a bushel of dryed service berries some checherry cakes and about a bushel of roots of three different kinds dryed and prepared for uce which were foalded in as many parchment hides of buffaloe. some flint and the instrument of bone for manufactureing the flint into arrow points. some of this flint was as transparent as the common black glass and much of the same colour easily broken, and flaked off much like glass leaving a very sharp edge. one speceis of the roots were fusiform abot six inches long and about the size of a man's finger at the larger end tapering to a small point. the radicles larger than in most fusiform roots. the rind was white and thin. the body or consistence of the root was white mealy and easily reduced by pounding to a substance resembleing flour which thickens with boiling water something like flour and is agreeably flavored. this rout is frequently eaten by the indians either green or in it's dryed state without the preparation of boiling. another speceis was much mutilated but appeared to be fibrous; the parts were brittle, hard of the size of a small quill, cilindric and as white as snow throughout, except some small parts of the hard black rind which they had not seperated in the preperation. this the indians with me informed were always boiled for use. i made the exprement, found that they became perfectly soft by boiling, but had a very bitter taste, which was naucious to my pallate, and i transfered them to the indians who had eat them heartily. a third speceis were about the size of a nutmeg, and of an irregularly rounded form, something like the smallest of the jerusalem artichoke, which they also resemble in every other appearance. they had become very hard by being dryed these i also boiled agreeably to the instruction of the indians and found them very agreeable. they resemble the jerusalem artichoke very much in their flavor and i thought them preferable, however there is some allowance to be made for the length of time i have now been without vegitable food to which i was always much attatched. these are certainly the best root i have yet seen in uce among the indians. i asked the indians to shew me the plant of which these roots formed a part but they informed me that neither of them grew near this place. i had set most of the men at work today to dress the deerskin belonging to those who had gone on command with capt. clark. at a.m. charbono the indian woman, cameahwait and about men with a number of women and children arrived. they encamped near us. after they had turned out their horses and arranged their camp i called the cheifs and warriors together and addressed them a second time; gave them some further presents, particularly the second and third cheifs who it appeared had agreeably to their promise exerted themselves in my favour. having no fresh meat and these poor devils half starved i had previously prepared a good meal for them all of boiled corn and beans which i gave them as soon as the council was over and i had distributed the presents. this was thankfully received by them. the chief wished that his nation could live in a country where they could provide such food. i told him that it would not be many years before the whitemen would put it in the power of his nation to live in the country below the mountains where they might cultivate corn beans and squashes. he appeared much pleased with the information. i gave him a few dryed squashes which we had brought from the mandans he had them boiled and declared them to be the best thing he had ever tasted except sugar, a small lump of which it seems his sister sah-cah-gar wea had given him. late in the evening i made the men form a bush drag, and with it in about hours they caught very good fish, most of them large trout. among them i now for the first time saw ten or a douzen of a whte speceis of trout. they are of a silvery colour except on the back and head, where they are of a bluish cast. the scales are much larger than the speckled trout, but in their form position of their fins teeth mouth &c they are precisely like them they are not generally quite as large but equally well flavored. i distributed much the greater portion of the fish among the indians. i purchased five good horses of them very reasonably, or at least for about the value of six dollars a peice in merchandize. the indians are very orderly and do not croud about our camp nor attempt to disterb any article they see lying about. they borrow knives kettles &c from the men and always carefully return them. capt. clark says, "we set out early and passed a small creek at one mile, also the points of four mountains which were high steep and rocky. the mountains are so steep that it is almost incredible to mention that horses had passed them. our road in many places lay over the sharp fragments of rocks which had fallen from the mountains and lay in confused heaps for miles together; yet notwithstanding our horsed traveled barefoot over them as fast as we could and did not detain us. passed two bold runing streams, and arrived at the entrance of a small river" where some indian families resided. they had some scaffoalds of fish and burries exposed to dry. they were not acquainted with the circumstance of any whitemen being in their country and were therefore much allarmed on our approach several of the women and children fled in the woods for shelter. the guide was behind and the wood thick in which their lodges were situated we came on them before they had the least notice of us. those who remained offered us every thing they had, which was but little; they offered us collars of elks tusks which their children woar salmon beries &c. we eat some of their fish and buries but returned them the other articles they had offered with a present of some small articles which seemed to add much to their pacification. the guide who had by this time arrived explained to them who we were and our object in visiting them; but still there were some of the women and children inconsoleable, they continued to cry during our stay, which was about an hour. a road passes up this river which my guide informed me led over the mountains to the missouri. from this place i continued my rout along the steep side of a mountain for about miles and arrived at the river near a small island on the lower point of which we encamped in the evening we attempted to gig fish but were unsuccessfull only obtaining one small salmon. in the course of the day we had passed several women and children geathering burries who were very liberal in bestoing us a part of their collections. the river is very rapid and shoaly; many rocks lie in various derections scattered throughout it's bed. there are some few small pine scattered through the bottoms, of which i only saw one which appeared as if it would answer for a canoe and that was but small. the tops of the mountains on the lard. side are covered with pine and some also scattered on the sides of all the mountains. i saw today a speceis of woodpecker, which fed on the seeds of the pine. it's beak and tail were white, it's wings were black, and every other part of a dark brown. it was about the size of a robin- [clark, august , ] august d thursday we set out early passed a small creek on the right at mile and the points of four mountains verry steap high & rockey, the assent of three was so steap that it is incrediable to describe the rocks in maney places loose & sliped from those mountains and is a bed of rugid loose white and dark brown loose rock for miles. the indian horses pass over those clifts hills sids & rocks as fast as a man, the three horses with me do not detain me any on account of those dificuelties, passed two bold rung. streams on the right and a small river at the mouth of which several families of indians were encamped and had several scaffolds of fish & buries drying we allarmed them verry much as they knew nothing of a white man being in their countrey, and at the time we approached their lodges which was in a thick place of bushes-my guiedes were behind.--they offered every thing they possessed (which was verry littl) to us, some run off and hid in the bushes the first offer of theirs were elks tuskes from around their childrens necks, sammon &c. my guide attempted passifyed those people and they set before me berres, & fish to eate, i gave a fiew small articles to those fritened people which added verry much to their pasification but not entirely as some of the women & childn. cried dureing my stay of an hour at this place, i proceeded on the side of a verry steep & rockey mountain for miles and encamped on the lower pt. of an island. we attempted to gig fish without suckcess. caught but one small one.the last creek or small river is on the right side and "a road passes up it & over to the missouri" in this day passed several womin and children gathering and drying buries of which they were very kind and gave us a part. the river rapid and sholey maney stones scattered through it in different directions. i saw to day bird of the wood pecker kind which fed on pine burs its bill and tale white the wings black every other part of a light brown, and about the size of a robin. some fiew pine scattered in the bottoms & sides of the mountains (the top of the motn. to the left covered & inaxcessable) i saw one which would make a small canoe. [lewis, august , ] friday august rd . this morning i arrose very early and despatched two hunters on horseback with orders to extend their hunt to a greater distance up the s. e. fork than they had done heretofore, in order if possible to obtain some meet for ourselves as well as the indians who appeared to depend on us for food and our store of provision is growing too low to indulge them with much more corn or flour. i wished to have set out this morning but the cheef requested that i would wait untill another party of his nation arrived which he expected today, to this i consented from necessity, and therefore sent out the hunters as i have mentioned. i also laid up the canoes this morning in a pond near the forks; sunk them in the water and weighted them down with stone, after taking out the plugs of the gage holes in their bottoms; hoping by this means to guard against both the effects of high water, and that of the fire which is frequently kindled in these plains by the natives. the indians have promised to do them no intentional injury and beleive they are too lazy at any rate to give themselves the trouble to raise them from their present situation in order to cut or birn them. i reminded the chief of the low state of our stores of provision and advised him to send his young men to hunt, which he immediately recommended to them and most of them turned out. i wished to have purchased some more horses of them but they objected against disposing of any more of them untill we reach their camp beyond the mountains. the indians pursued a mule buck near our camp i saw this chase for about miles it was really entertaining, there were about twelve of them in pursuit of it on horseback, they finally rode it down and killed it. the all came in about p.m. having killed mule deer and three goats. this mule buck was the largest deer of any kind i had ever seen. it was nearly as large as a doe elk. i observed that there was but little division or distribution of the meat they had taken among themselves. some familes had a large stock and others none. this is not customary among the nations of indians with whom i have hitherto been acquainted i asked cameahwait the reason why the hunters did not divide the meat among themselves; he said that meat was so scarce with them that the men who killed it reserved it for themselves and their own families. my hunters arrived about in the evening with two mule deer and three common deer. i distributed three of the deer among those families who appeared to have nothing to eat. at three p.m. the expected party of indians arrived, about men women and children. i now learnt that most of them were thus far on their way down the valley towards the buffaloe country, and observed that there was a good deel of anxiety on the part of some of those who had promised to assist me over the mountains to accompany this party, i felt some uneasiness on this subject but as they still said they would return with me as they had promised i said nothing to them but resolved to set out in the morning as early as possible. i dispatched two hunters this evening into the cove to hunt and leave the meat they might kill on the rout we shall pass tomorrow. the metal which we found in possession of these people consited of a few indifferent knives, a few brass kettles some arm bands of iron and brass, a few buttons, woarn as ornaments in their hair, a spear or two of a foot in length and some iron and brass arrow points which they informed me they obtained in exchange for horses from the crow or rocky mountain indians on the yellowstone river. the bridlebits and stirrips they obtained from the spaniards, tho these were but few. many of them made use of flint for knives, and with this instrument, skined the animals they killed, dressed their fish and made their arrows; in short they used it for every purpose to which the knife is applyed. this flint is of no regular form, and if they can only obtain a part of it, an inch or two in length that will cut they are satisfyed, they renew the edge by fleaking off the flint by means of the point of an elk's or deer's horn. with the point of a deer or elk's horn they also form their arrow points of the flint, with a quickness and neatness that is really astonishing. we found no axes nor hatchets among them; what wood they cut was done either with stone or elk's horn. the latter they use always to rive or split their wood. their culinary eutensils exclusive of the brass kettle before mentioned consist of pots in the form of ajar made either of earth, or of a white soft stone which becomes black and very hard by birning, and is found in the hills near the three forks of the missouri betwen madison's and gallitin's rivers they have also spoons made of the buffaloe's horn and those of the bighorn. their bows are made of ceader or pine and have nothing remarkable about them. the back of the bow is covered with sinues and glue and is about / feet long. much the shape of those used by the siouxs mandans minnetares &c. their arrows are more slender generally than those used by the nations just mentioned but much the same in construction. their sheild is formed of buffaloe hide, perfectly arrow proof, and is a circle of feet i. or f. i. in diameter. this is frequently painted with varios figures and ornamented around the edges with feather and a fringe of dressed leather. they sometimes make bows of the elk's horn and those also of the bighorn. those of the elk's horn are made of a single peice and covered on the back with glue and sinues like those made of wood, and are frequently ornamented with a stran wrought porcupine quills and sinues raped around them for some distance at both extremities. the bows of the bighorn are formed of small peices laid flat and cemented with gleue, and rolled with sinews, after which, they are also covered on the back with sinews and glew, and highly ornamented as they are much prized. forming the sheild is a cerimony of great importance among them, this implement would in their minds be devested of much of its protecting power were it not inspired with those virtues by their old men and jugglers. their method of preparing it is thus, an entire skin of a bull buffaloe two years old is first provided; a feast is next prepared and all the warriors old men and jugglers invited to partake. a hole is sunk in the ground about the same in diameter with the intended sheild and about inches deep. a parcel of stones are now made red hot and thrown into the hole water is next thrown in and the hot stones cause it to emit a very strong hot steem, over this they spread the green skin which must not have been suffered to dry after taken off the beast. the flesh side is laid next to the groround and as many of the workmen as can reach it take hold on it's edges and extend it in every direction. as the skin becomes heated, the hair seperates and is taken of with the fingers, and the skin continues to contract untill the whoe is drawn within the compas designed for the shield, it is then taken off and laid on a parchment hide where they pound it with their heels when barefoot. this operation of pounding continues for several days or as long as the feast lasts when it is delivered to the propryeter and declared by the jugglers and old men to be a sufficient defence against the arrows of their enimies or even bullets if feast has been a satisfactory one. many of them beleive implisitly that a ball cannot penitrate their sheilds, in consequence of certain supernaural powers with which they have been inspired by their jugglers.--the poggamoggon is an instrument with a handle of wood covered with dressed leather about the size of a whip handle and inches long; a round stone of pounds weight is also covered with leather and strongly united to the leather of the handle by a throng of inches long; a loop of leather united to the handle passes arond the wrist. a very heavy blow may be given with this instrument. they have also a kind of armor which they form with many foalds of dressed atelope's skin, unite with glue and sand. with this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses. these are sufficient against the effects of the arrow.--the quiver which contains their arrows and implements for making fire is formed of various skins. that of the otter seems to be prefered. they are but narrow, of a length sufficent to protect the arrow from the weather, and are woarn on the back by means of a strap which passes over the left sholder and under the wright arm.their impliments for making fire is nothing more than a blunt arrow and a peice of well seasoned soft spongey wood such as the willow or cottonwood. the point of this arrow they apply to this dry stick so near one edge of it that the particles of wood which are seperated from it by the friction of the arrow falls down by it's side in a little pile. the arrow is held between the palms of the hand with the fingers extended, and being pressed as much as possible against the peice is briskly rolled between the palms of the hands backwards and forwards by pressing the arrow downwards the hands of course in rolling arrow also decend; they bring them back with a quick motion and repeat the operation till the dust by the friction takes fire; the peice and arrow are then removed and some dry grass or boated wood is added. it astonished me to see in what little time these people would kindle fire in this way. in less than a minute they will produce fire. capt. clark set out this morning very early and poroceeded but slowly in consequence of the difficulty of his road which lay along the steep side of a mountain over large irregular and broken masses of rocks which had tumbled from the upper part of the mountain. it was with much wrisk and pain that the horses could get on. at the distance of four miles he arrived at the river and the rocks were here so steep and juted into the river such manner that there was no other alternative but passing through the river, this he attempted with success tho water was so deep for a short distance as to swim the horses and was very rapid; he continued his rout one mile along the edge of the river under this steep clift to a little bottom, below which the whole current of the river beat against the stard. shore on which he was, and which was formed of a solid rock perfectly inaccessible to horses. here also the little track which he had been pursuing, terminated. he therefore determined to leave the horses and the majority of the party here and with his guide and three men to continue his rout down the river still further, in order more fully to satisfy himself as to it's practicability. accordingly he directed the men to hunt and fish at this place untill his return. they had not killed anything today but one goose, and the ballance of the little provision they had brought with them, as well as the five salmon they had procured yesterday were consumed last evening; there was of tours no inducement for his halting any time, at this place; after a few minutes he continued his rout clambering over immence rocks and along the sides of lofty precepices on the border of the river to the distance of miles, at which place a large creek discharged itself on the norh side yds. wide and deep. a short distance above the entrance of this creek there is a narrow bottom which is the first that he had found on the river from that in which he left the horses and party. a plain indian road led up this creek which the guide informed him led to a large river that ran to the north, and was frequented by another nation who occasionally visited this river for the purpose of taking fish. at this place he saw some late appearance of indians having been encamped and the tracks of a number of horses. capt. c. halted here about hours, caught some small fish, on which, with the addition of some berries, they dined. the river from the place at which he left the party to his present station was one continued rapid, in which there were five shoals neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes nor even run with empty ones. at those several places therefore it would be necessary to unload and transport the baggage for a considerable distance over steep and almost inacassable rocks where there was no possibility of employing horses for the releif of the men; the canoes would next have to be let down by cords and even with this precaution capt. c. conceived there would be much wriske of both canoes and men. at one of those shoals the lofty perpendicular rocks which from the bases of the mountains approach the river so nearly on each side, as to prevent the possibility of a portage, or passage for the canoes without expending much labour in removing rocks and cuting away the earth in some places. to surmount these difficulties, precautions must be observed which in their execution must necessarily consume much time and provision, neither of which we can command. the season is now far advanced to remain in these mountains as the indians inform us we shall shortly have snow; the salmon have so far declined that they are themselves haistening from the country and not an animal of any discription is to be seen in this difficult part of the river larger than a pheasant or a squirrel and they not abundant; add to this that our stock of provision is now so low that it would not support us more than ten days. the bends of the river are short and the currant beats from side to side against the rocks with great violence. the river is about yds. wide and so deep that it cannot be foarded but in a few places, and the rocks approach the river so near in most places that there is no possibility of passing between them and the water; a passage therefore with horses along the river is also impracticable. the sides of these mountains present generally one barren surface of confused and broken masses of stone. above these are white or brown and towards the base of a grey colour and so hard that when struck with a steel, yeald fire like flint. those he had just past were scarcely releived by the appearance of a tree; but those below the entrance of the creek were better covered with timber, and there were also some tall pine near the river. the sides of the mountains are very steep, and the torrents of water which roll down their sides at certain seasons appear to carry with them vast quantities of the loose stone into the river. after dinner capt. c. continued his rout down the river and at / a mile pased another creek not so large as that just mentioned, or about yards wide. here his guide informed him that by ascending this creek some distance they would have a better road and would cut off a considerable bend which the river made to the south; accordingly he pursued a well beaten indian track which led up this creek about six miles, then leaving the creek on the wright he passed over a ridge, and at the distance of a mile arrived at the river where it passes through a well timbered bottom of about eighty acres of land; they passed this bottom and asscended a steep and elivated point of a mountain, from whence the guide shewed him the brake of the river through the mountains for about miles further. this view was terminated by one of the most lofty mountains, capt. c. informed me, he had ever seen which was perfectly covered with snow. the river directed it's course immediately to this stupendous mountain at the bace of which the gude informe him those difficulties of which himself and nation had spoken, commenced. that after the river reached this mountain it continued it's rout to the north for many miles between high and perpendicular rocks, roling foaming and beating against innumerable rocks which crouded it's channel; that then it penetrated the mountain through a narrow gap leaving a perpendicular rock on either side as high as the top of the mountain which he beheld. that the river here making a bend they could not see through the mountain, and as it was impossible to decend the river or clamber over that vast mountain covered with eternal snow, neither himself nor any of his nation had ever been lower in this direction, than in view of the place at which the river entered this mountain; that if capt. c. wished him to do so, he would conduct him to that place, where he thought they could probably arrive by the next evening. capt. c. being now perfictly satisfyed as to the impractability of this rout either by land or water, informed the old man, that he was convinced of the varacity of his assertions and would now return to the village from whence they had set out where he expected to meet myself and party. they now returned to the upper part of the last creek he had passed, and encamped. it was an hour after dark before he reached this place. a small river falls into this fork of the columbia just above the high mountain through which it passes on the south side. [clark, august , ] august rd friday we set out early proceed on with great dificuelty as the rocks were so sharp large and unsettled and the hill sides steep that the horses could with the greatest risque and dificulty get on, no provisions as the sammons given us yesterday by the indians were eaten last night, one goose killed this morning; at miles we came to a place the horses could not pass without going into the river, we passed one mile to a verry bad riffle the water confined in a narrow channel & beeting against the left shore, as we have no parth further and the mounts. jut so close as to prevent the possibiley of horses proceeding down, i deturmined to delay the party here and with my guide and three men proceed on down to examine if the river continued bad or was practiable. i set out with three men directing those left to hunt and fish until my return. i proceeded on somtims in a small wolf parth & at other times climeing over the rocks for miles to a large creek on the right side above the mouth of this creek for a short distance is a narrow bottom & the first, below the place i left my partey, a road passes down this creek which i understoode passed to the water of a river which run to th north & was the ground of another nation, some fresh sign about this creek of horse and camps. i delayd hours to fish, cought some small fish on which we dined. the river from the place i left my party to this creek is almost one continued rapid, five verry considerable rapids the passage of either with canoes is entirely impossable, as the water is confined betwen hugh rocks & the current beeting from one against another for some distance below &c. &c. at one of those rapids the mountains close so clost as to prevent a possibility of a portage with great labour in cutting down the side of the hill removeing large rocks &c. &c. all the others may be passed by takeing every thing over slipery rocks, and the smaller ones passed by letting down the canoes empty with cords, as running them would certainly be productive of the loss of some canoes, those dificuelties and necessary precautions would delay us an emince time in which provisions would be necessary. (we have but little and nothing to be precured in this quarter except choke cheres & red haws not an animal of any kind to be seen and only the track of a bear) below this creek the lofty pine is thick in the bottom hill sides on the mountains & up the runs. the river has much the resemblance of that above bends shorter and no passing, after a few miles between the river & the mountains & the current so strong that is dangerous crossing the river, and to proceed down it would rendr it necessarey to cross almost at every bend this river is about yards wide and can be forded but in a few places. below my guide and maney other indians tell me that the mountains close and is a perpendicular clift on each side, and continues for a great distance and that the water runs with great violence from one rock to the other on each side foaming & roreing thro rocks in every direction, so as to render the passage of any thing impossible. those rapids which i had seen he said was small & trifleing in comparrison to the rocks & rapids below, at no great distance & the hills or mountains were not like those i had seen but like the side of a tree streight up--those mountains which i had passed were steep contain a white, a brown, & low down a grey hard stone which would make fire, those stone were of different sises all sharp and are continuly slipping down, and in maney places one bed of those stones inclined from the river bottom to the top of the mountains, the torrents of water which come down aftr a rain carries with it emence numbers of those stone into the river about / a mile below the last mentioned creek another creek falls in, my guide informed me that our rout was up this creek by which rout we would save a considerable bend of the river to the south. we proceeded on a well beeten indian parth up this creak about miles and passed over a ridge mile to the river in a small vally through which we passed and assended a spur of the mountain from which place my guide shew me the river for about miles lower & pointed out the dificulty we returned to the last creek & camped about one hour after dark. there my guide shewed me a road from the n which came into the one i was in which he said went to a large river which run to the north on which was a nation he called tushapass, he made a map of it [lewis, august , ] saturday august th . as the indians who were on their way down the missouri had a number of spare hoses with them i thought it probable that i could obtain some of them and therefore desired the cheif to speak to them and inform me whether they would trade. they gave no positive answer but requested to see the goods which i was willing to give in exchange. i now produced some battle axes which i had made at fort mandan with which they were much pleased. knives also seemed in great demand among them. i soon purchased three horses and a mule. for each horse i gave an ax a knife handkercheif and a little paint; & for the mule the addition of a knife a shirt handkercheif and a pair of legings; at this price which was quite double that given for the horses, the fellow who sold him made a merit of having bestoed me one of his mules. i consider this mule a great acquisition. these indians soon told me that they had no more horses for sale and i directed the party to prepare to set out. i had now nine horses and a mule, and two which i had hired made twelve these i had loaded and the indian women took the ballance of the baggage. i had given the interpreter some articles with which to purchase a horse for the woman which he had obtained. at twelve oclock we set out and passed the river below the forks, directing our rout towards the cove along the track formerly mentioned. most of the horses were heavily laden, and it appears to me that it will require at least horses to convey our baggage along such roads as i expect we shall be obliged to pass in the mountains. i had now the inexpressible satisfaction to find myself once more under way with all my baggage and party. an indian had the politeness to offer me one of his horses to ride which i accepted with cheerfullness as it enabled me to attend better to the march of the party. i had reached the lower part of the cove when an indian rode up and informed me that one of my men was very sick and unable to come on. i directed the party to halt at a small run which falls into the creek on lard. at the lower part of the cove and rode back about miles where i found wiser very ill with a fit of the cholic. i sent sergt. ordway who had remained with him for some water and gave him a doze of the essence of peppermint and laudinum which in the course of half an hour so far recovered him that he was enabled to ride my horse and i proceeded on foot and rejoined the party. the sun was yet an hour high but the indians who had for some time impatiently waited my return at length unloaded and turned out their horses and my party had followed there ex-ample. as it was so late and the indians had prepared their camp for the night i thought it best to acquiess and determined also to remain. we had traveled only about six miles. after we encamped we had a slight shower of rain. goodrich who is our principal fisherman caught several fine trout. drewyer came to us late in the evening and had not killed anything. i gave the indians who were absolutely engaged in transporting the baggage, a little corn as they had nothing to eat. i told cameahwait that my stock of provision was too small to indulge all his people with provision and recommended it to him to advise such as were not assisting us with our baggage to go on to their camp to morrow and wait our arrival; which he did accordingly. cameahwait literally translated is one who never walks. he told me that his nation had also given him another name by which he was signalized as a warrior which was too-et'-te-con'-e or black gun. these people have many names in the course of their lives, particularly if they become distinguished characters. for it seems that every important event by which they happen to distinguish themselves intitles them to claim another name which is generally scelected by themselves and confirmed by the nation. those distinguishing acts are the killing and scalping an enemy, the killing a white bear, leading a party to war who happen to be successfull either in destroying their enemies or robing them of their horses, or individually stealing the horses of an enemy. these are considered acts of equal heroism among them, and that of killing an enemy without scalping him is considered of no importance; in fact the whole honour seems to be founded in the act of scalping, for if a man happens to slay a dozen of his enemies in action and others get the scalps or first lay their hand on the dead person the honor is lost to him who killed them and devolves on those who scalp or first touch them. among the shoshones, as well as all the indians of america, bravery is esteemed the primary virtue; nor can any one become eminent among them who has not at some period of his life given proofs of his possessing this virtue. with them there can be no preferment without some warelike achievement, and so completely interwoven is this principle with the earliest elements of thought that it will in my opinion prove a serious obstruction to the restoration of a general peace among the nations of the missouri. while at fort mandan i was one day addressing some cheifs of the minetares wo visited us and pointing out to them the advantages of a state of peace with their neighbours over that of war in which they were engaged. the chiefs who had already geathered their havest of larals, and having forceably felt in many instances some of those inconveniences attending a state of war which i pointed out, readily agreed with me in opinon. a young fellow under the full impression of the idea i have just suggested asked me if they were in a state of peace with all their neighhours what the nation would do for cheifs?, and added that the cheifs were now oald and must shortly die and that the nation could not exist without cheifs. taking as granted that there could be no other mode devised for making cheifs but that which custom had established through the medium of warlike acievements. the few guns which the shoshones have are reserved for war almost exclusively and the bow and arrows are used in hunting. i have seen a few skins among these people which have almost every appearance of the common sheep. they inform me that they finde this animals on the high mountains to the west and s. w. of them. it is about the size of the common sheep, the wool is reather shorter and more intermixed with long hairs particularly on the upper part of the neck. these skins have been so much woarn that i could not form a just idea of the animal or it's colour. the indians however inform me that it is white and that it's horns are lunated comprest twisted and bent backward as those of the common sheep. the texture of the skin appears to be that of the sheep. i am now perfectly convinced that the sheep as well as the bighorn exist in these mountains. the usual caparison of the shoshone horse is a halter and saddle. the st consists either of a round plated or twisted cord of six or seven strands of buffaloe's hair, or a throng of raw hide made pliant by pounding and rubing. these cords of bufaloe's hair are about the size of a man's finger and remarkably strong. this is the kind of halter which is prefered by them. the halter of whatever it may be composed is always of great length and is never taken from the neck of the horse which they commonly use at any time. it is first attatched at one end about the neck of the horse with a knot that will not slip, it is then brought down to his under jaw and being passed through the mouth imbaces the under jaw and tonge in a simple noose formed by crossing the rope inderneath the jaw of the horse. this when mounted he draws up on the near side of the horse's neck and holds in the left hand, suffering it to trail at a great distance behind him sometimes the halter is attatched so far from the end that while the shorter end serves him to govern his horse, the other trails on the grond as before mentioned. they put their horses to their full speed with those cords trailing on the ground. when they turn out the horse to graze the noose is mearly loosed from his mouth. the saddle is made of wood and covered with raw hide which holds the parts very firmly together. it is made like the pack saddles in uce among the french and spaniards. it consists of two flat thin boards which fit the sides of the horses back, and are held frirm by two peices which are united to them behind and before on the outer side and which rise to a considerable hight terminating sometimes in flat horizontal points extending outwards, and alwas in an accute angle or short bend underneath the upper part of these peices. a peice of buffaloe's skin with the hair on, is usually put underneath the saddle; and very seldom any covering on the saddle. stirrups when used are made of wood and covered with leather. these are generally used by the elderly men and women; the young men scarcely ever use anything more than a small pad of dressed leather stuffed with hair, which is confined with a leather thong passing arond the body of the horse in the manner of a girth. they frequently paint their favorite horses, and cut their ears in various shapes. they also decorate their mains and tails, which they never draw or trim, with the feathers of birds, and sometimes suspend at the breast of the horse the finest ornaments they possess. the spanish bridle is prefered by them when they can obtain them, but they never dispence with the cord about the neck of the horse, which serves them to take him with more ease when he is runing at large. they are excellent horsemen and extreemly expert in casting the cord about the neck of a horse. the horses that have been habituated to be taken with the cord in this way, however wild they may appear at first, surrender the moment they feel the cord about their necks.--there are no horses in this quarter which can with propriety be termed wild. there are some few which have been left by the indians at large for so great a length of time that they have become shye, but they all shew marks of having been in possession of man. such is that one which capt. clark saw just below the three forks of the missouri, and one other which i saw on the missouri below the entrance of the mussle shell river.--capt. clark set out very early this morning on his return, he traveled down the creek to it's entrance by the same indian track he had ascended it; at the river he marked his name on a pine tree, then ascended to the bottom above the second creek, and brekfasted on burries, which occupyed them about one hour. he now retraced his former track and joined the party where he had left them at p.m. on his way capt. c. fell from a rock and injured one of his legs very much. the party during his absence had killed a few pheasants and caught a few small fish on which together with haws and serviceburies they had subsisted. they had also killed one cock of the mountains capt. clark now wrote me a discription of the river and country, and stated our prospects by this rout as they have been heretofore mentioned and dispatched colter on horseback with orders to loose no time reaching me. he set out late with the party continued his rout about two miles and encamped. capt clark had seen some trees which would make small canoes but all of them some distance below the indian caps which he passed at the entrance of fish creek. [clark, august , ] august th satturday set out verry early this morning on my return passed down the creek at the mouth marked my name on a pine tree, proceed on to the bottom above the creek & brackfast on buries & delayed hour, then proceed on up the river by the same rout we decended to the place i left my party where we arrived at oclock, (i sliped & bruised my leg verry much on a rock) the party had killed several phesents and cought a fiew small fish on which they had subsisted in my absence. also a heath hen, near the size of a small turkey. i wrote a letter to capt lewis informing him of the prospects before us and information recved of my guide which i thought favourable &c. & stating two plans one of which for us to pursue &c. and despatched one man & horse and directed the party to get ready to march back, every man appeared disheartened from the prospects of the river, and nothing to eate, i set out late and camped miles above, nothing to eate but choke cherries & red haws which act in different ways so as to make us sick, dew verry heavy, my beding wet in passing around a rock the horses were obliged to go deep into the water. the plan i stated to capt lewis if he agrees with me we shall adopt is to procure as many horses (one for each man) if possible and to hire my present guide who i sent on to him to interegate thro the intprtr. and proceed on by land to some navagable part of the columbia river, or to the ocean, depending on what provisions we can procure by the gun aded to the small stock we have on hand depending on our horses as the last resort. a second plan to divide the party one part to attempt this deficuet river with what provisions we had, and the remaindr to pass by land on hose back depending on our gun &c for provisions &c. and come together occasionally on the river. the s of which i would be most pleased with &c. i saw several trees which would make small canoes and by putting together would make a siseable one, all below the last indian camp several miles [lewis, august , ] sunday august th . this morning loaded our horses and set out a little after sunrise; a few only of the indians unengaged in assisting us went on as i had yesterday proposed to the cheif. the others flanked us on each side and started some antelope which they pursued for several hours but killed none of them. we proceeded within ms. of the narrow pass or seven miles from our camp of last evening and halted for dinner. our hunters joined us at noon with three deer the greater part of which i gave the indians. sometime after we had halted, charbono mentioned to me with apparent unconcern that he expected to meet all the indians from the camp on the columbia tomorrow on their way to the missouri. allarmed at this information i asked why he expected to meet them. he then informed me that the st cheif had dispatched some of his young men this morning to this camp requesting the indians to meet them tomorrow and that himself and those with him would go on with them down the missouri, and consequently leave me and my baggage on the mountain or thereabouts. i was out of patience with the folly of charbono who had not sufficient sagacity to see the consequencies which would inevitably flow from such a movement of the indians, and altho he had been in possession of this information since early in the morning when it had been communicated to him by his indian woman yet he never mentioned it untill the after noon. i could not forbear speaking to him with some degree of asperity on this occasion. i saw that there was no time to be lost in having those orders countermanded, or that we should not in all probability obtain any more horses or even get my baggage to the waters of the columbia. i therefore called the three cheifs together and having smoked a pipe with them, i asked them if they were men of their words, and whether i could depent on the promises they had made me; they readily answered in the affermative; i then asked them if they had not promised to assist me with my baggage to their camp on the other side of the mountains, or to the place at which capt. clark might build the canoes, should i wish it. they acknowledged that they had. i then asked them why they had requested their people on the other side of the mountain to meet them tomorrow on the mountain where there would be no possibility of our remaining together for the purpose of trading for their horses as they had also promised. that if they had not promised to have given me their assistance in transporting my baggage to the waters on the other side of the mountain that i should not have attempted to pass the mountains but would have returned down the river and that in that case they would never have seen anymore white men in their country. that if they wished the white men to be their friends and to assist them against their enemies by furnishing them with arms and keeping their enemies from attacking them that they must never promis us anything which they did not mean to perform. that when i had first seen them they had doubted what i told them about the arrival of the party of whitemen in canoes, that they had been convinced that what i told them on that occasion was true, why then would they doubt what i said on any other point. i told them that they had witnessed my liberality in dividing the meat which my hunters killed with them; and that i should continue to give such of them as assisted me a part of whatever we had ourselves to eat. and finally concluded by telling them if they intended to keep the promisses they had made me to dispatch one of their young men immediately with orders to their people to remain where they were untill our arrival. the two inferior cheifs said that they wished to assist me and be as good as their word, and that they had not sent for their people, that it was the first chief who had done so, and they did not approve of the measure. cameahwait remained silent for some time, at length he told me that he knew he had done wrong but that he had been induced to that measure from seeing all his people hungary, but as he had promised to give me his assistance he would not in future be worse than his word. i then desired him to send immediately and countermand his orders; acordingly a young man was sent for this purpose and i gave him a handkerchief to engage him in my interest. this matter being arranged to my satisfaction i called all the women and men together who had been assisting me in the transportation of the baggage and gave them a billet for each horse which they had imployed in that service and informed them when we arrived at the plaice where we should finally halt on the river i would take the billet back and give them merchandize for it. every one appeared now satisfyed and when i ordered the horses loaded for our departure the indians were more than usually allert. we continued our march untill late in the evening and encamped at the upper part of the cove where the creek enters the mountains; here our hunters joined us with another deer which they had killed, this i gave to the women and children, and for my own part remained supperless. i observed considerable quantities of wild onions in the bottom lands of this cove. i also saw several large hares and many of the cock of the plains. capt. clark set out early this morning and continued his rout to the indian camp at the entrance of fish creek; here he halted about an hour; the indians gave himself and party some boiled salmon and hurries. these people appeared extreemly hospitable tho poor and dirty in the extreem. he still pursued the track up the river by which he had decended and in the evening arrived at the bluff on the river where he had encamped on the st inst. it was late in the evening before he reached this place. they formed their camp, and capt. c. sent them in different directions to hunt and fish. some little time after they halted a party of indians passed by on their way down the river, consisting of a man a woman and several boys; from these people the guide obtained salmon which together with some small fish they caught and a beaver which shannon killed furnished them with a plentifull supper. the pine grows pretty abundantly high up on the sides of the mountains on the opposite side of the river. one of the hunters saw a large herd of elk on the opposite side of the river in the edge of the timbered land.--winsor was taken very sick today and detained capt c. very much on his march. three hunters whom he had sent on before him this morning joined him in the evening having killed nothing; they saw only one deer. the course and the distances, of capt. clark's rout down this branch of the columbia below this bluff, commencing opposite to an island, are as follow. this morning while passing through the shoshone cove frazier fired his musquet at some ducks in a little pond at the distance of about yards from me; the ball rebounded from the water and pased within a very few feet of me. near the upper part of this cove the shoshonees suffered a very severe defeat by the minnetares about six years since. this part of the cove on the n. e. side of the creek has lately been birned by the indians as a signal on some occasion. [clark, august , ] august th sunday set out verry early and halted one hour at the indian camp, they were kind gave us all a little boiled sarnmon & dried buries to eate, abt. half as much as i could eate, those people are kind with what they have but excessive pore & durtey.--we proceeded on over the mountains we had before passed to the bluff we encamped at on the s instant where we arrived late and turned out to hunt & fish, cought several small fish, a party of squars & one man with several boys going down to guathe berries below, my guide got two sammon from this party (which made about half a supper for the party), after dark shannon came in with a beaver which the party suped on sumptiously--one man verry sick to day which detained us verry much i had three hunters out all day, they saw one deer, killed nothing. one of the party saw elk on a mountain to our right assending, amongst the pine timber which is thick on that side [lewis, august , ] monday august th . this morning was excessively cold; there was ice on the vessels of water which stood exposed to the air nearly a quarter of an inch thick. we collected our horses and set out at sunrise. we soon arrived at the extreem source of the missouri; here i halted a few minutes, the men drank of the water and consoled themselves with the idea of having at length arrived at this long wished for point. from hence we proceeded to a fine spring on the side of the mountain where i had lain the evening before i first arrived at the shoshone camp. here i halted to dine and graize our horses, there being fine green grass on that part of the hillside which was moistened by the water of the spring while the grass on the other parts was perfectly dry and parched with the sun. i directed a pint of corn to be given each indian who was engaged in transporting our baggage and about the same quantity to each of the men which they parched pounded and made into supe. one of the women who had been assisting in the transportation of the baggage halted at a little run about a mile behind us, and sent on the two pack horses which she had been conducting by one of her female friends. i enquired of cameahwait the cause of her detention, and was informed by him in an unconcerned manner that she had halted to bring fourth a child and would soon overtake us; in about an hour the woman arrived with her newborn babe and passed us on her way to the camp apparently as well as she ever was. it appears to me that the facility and ease with which the women of the aborigines of north america bring fourth their children is reather a gift of nature than depending as some have supposed on the habitude of carrying heavy burthens on their backs while in a state of pregnancy. if a pure and dry air, an elivated and cold country is unfavourable to childbirth, we might expect every difficult incident to that operation of nature in this part of the continent; again as the snake indians possess an abundance of horses, their women are seldom compelled like those in other parts of the continent to carry burthens on their backs, yet they have their children with equal convenience, and it is a rare occurrence for any of them to experience difficulty in childbirth. i have been several times informed by those who were conversent with the fact, that the indian women who are pregnant by whitemen experience more difficulty in childbirth than when pregnant by an indian. if this be true it would go far in suport of the opinion i have advanced. the tops of the high and irregular mountains which present themselves to our view on the opposite side of this branch of the columbia are yet perfectly covered with snow; the air which proceeds from those mountains has an agreeable coolness and renders these parched and south hillsides much more supportable at this time of the day it being now about noon. i observe the indian women collecting the root of a speceis of fennel which grows in the moist grounds and feeding their poor starved children; it is really distressing to witness the situation of those poor wretches. the radix of this plant is of the knob kind, of a long ovate form terminating in a single radicle, the whole bing about or four inches in length and the thickest part about the size of a man's little finger. it is white firm and crisp in it's present state, when dryed and pounded it makes a fine white meal; the flavor of this root is not unlike that of annisseed but not so pungent; the stem rises to the hight of or four feet is jointed smooth and cilindric; from r to of those knobed roots are attatched to the base of this stem. the leaf is sheathing sessile, & pultipartite, the divisions long and narrow; the whole is of a deep green. it is now in blame; the flowers are numerous, small, petals white, and are of the umbellaferous kind. several small peduncles put forth from the main stock one at each joint above the sheathing leaf. it has no root leaves. the root of the present year declines when the seeds have been matured and the succeeding spring other roots of a similar kind put fourth from the little knot which unites the roots and stem and grow and decline with the stem as before mentioned. the sunflower is very abundant near the watercourses the seeds of this plant are now rip and the natives collect them in considerable quantities and reduce them to meal by pounding and rubing them between smooth stones. this meal is a favorite food their manner of using it has been beforementiond. after dinner we continued our rout towards the village. on our near approach we were met by a number of young men on horseback. cameahwait requested that we would discharge our guns when we arrived in sight of the village, accordingly when i arrived on an eminence above the village in the plain i drew up the party at open order in a single rank and gave them a runing fire discharging two rounds. they appeared much gratifyed with this exhibition. we then proceeded to the village or encampment of brush lodges in number. we were conducted to a large lodge which had been prepared for me in the center of their encampmerit which was situated in a beautifull level smooth and extensive bottom near the river about miles above the place i had first found them encamped. here we arrived at in the evening arranged our baggage near my tent and placed those of the men on either side of the baggage facing outwards. i found colter here who had just arrived with a letter from capt. clark in which capt. c. had given me an account of his peregrination and the description of the river and country as before detailed from this view of the subject i found it a folly to think of attemping to decend this river in canoes and therefore to commence the purchase of horses in the morning from the indians in order to carry into execution the design we had formed of passing the rocky mountains. i now informed cameahwait of my intended expedition overland to the great river which lay in the plains beyond the mountains and told him that i wished to purchase horses of himself and his people to convey our baggage. he observed that the minnetares had stolen a great number of their horses this spring but hoped his people would spear me the number i wished. i also asked a guide, he observed that he had no doubt but the old man who was with capt. c. would accompany us if we wished him and that he was better informed of the country than any of them. matters being thus far arranged i directed the fiddle to be played and the party danced very merily much to the amusement and gratification of the natives, though i must confess that the state of my own mind at this moment did not well accord with the prevailing mirth as i somewhat feared that the caprice of the indians might suddenly induce them to withhold their horses from us without which my hopes of prosicuting my voyage to advantage was lost; however i determined to keep the indians in a good humour if possible, and to loose no time in obtaining the necessary number of horses. i directed the hunters to turn out early in the morning and indeavor to obtain some meat. i had nothing but a little parched corn to eat this evening. this morning capt. c. and party [clark, august , ] august th monday a fine morning despatched three men a head to hunt, our horses missing sent out my guide and four men to hunt them, which detained me untill oclock a.m. at which time i set out and proceeded on by the way of the forks to the indian camps at the first were not one mouthfull to eate untill night as our hunters could kill nothing and i could see & catch no fish except a few small ones. the indians gave us sammon boiled which i gave to the men, one of my men shot a sammon in the river about sunset those fish gave us a supper. all the camp flocked about me untill i went to sleep--and i beleve if they had a sufficency to eate themselves and any to spare they would be liberal of it i derected the men to mend their mockessons to night and turn out in the morning early to hunt deer fish birds &c. &c. saw great numbers of the large black grass hopper. some bars which were verry wild, but few birds. a number of ground lizards; some fiew pigions [clark, august , ] august th tuesday some frost this morning every man except one, out hunting, a young man came from the upper village & informed me that capt lewis would join me abt. oclock to day. one man killed a small sammon, and the indians gave me another which afforded us a sleight brackfast. those pore people are here depending on what fish they can catch, without anything else to depend on; and appere contented, my party hourly complaining of their retched situation and doubts of starveing in a countrey where no game of any kind except a fiew fish can be found, an indian brough in to the camp sammon, two of which i purchased which afforded us a supper. [clark, august , ] august th wednesday a frost this morning. the inds. cought out of their traps several sammon and gave us two, i purchased two others which we made last us to day. several a camp of about indians came from the west fork and passed up to day, nothing killed by my party with every exertion in all places where game probably might be found. i dispatched one man to the upper camps to enquire if cap. lewis was comeing &c. he returned after night with a letter from capt. lewis informing me of his situation at the upper village, and had precured horses for our rout through by land on the plan which i had preposed in which he agreed with me in; and requsted me to ride up and get the horses the indian informed him they had reserved for me &c. i purchased some fish roe of those pore but kind people with whome i am encamped for which i gave three small fish hooks, the use of which they readily proseved, one indian out all day & killed only one sammon with his gig; my hunters killed nothing, i had three pack saddles made to day for our horses which i expected capt lewis would purchase &c. those sammon which i live on at present are pleasent eateing, not with standing they weaken me verry fast and my flesh i find is declineing [clark, august , ] august th thursday a cold morning some frost. the wind from the south, i left our baggage in possession of men and proceeded on up to join capt lewis at the upper village of snake indians where i arrived at oclock found him much engaged in counceling and attempting to purchase a fiew more horses. i spoke to the indians on various subjects endeavoring to impress on theire minds the advantaje it would be to them for to sell us horses and expedite the our journey the nearest and best way possibly that we might return as soon as possible and winter with them at some place where there was plenty of buffalow,--our wish is to get a horse for each man to carry our baggage and for some of the men to ride occasionally, the horses are handsom and much acustomed to be changed as to their parsture; we cannot calculate on their carrying large loads & feed on the grass which we may calculate on finding in the mountain thro which we may expect to pass on our rout made some selestial observations, the lard. of this part the columbia river is ____ north. longtd. ____ w i purchased a horse for which i gave my pistol balls powder & a knife. our hunters killed deer near their camp to day. yesterday & the day before, this meet was a great treat to me as i had eate none for days past [clark, august , ] august th friday a fine morning, finding that we could purchase no more horse than we had for our goods &c. (and those not a sufficint number for each of our party to have one which is our wish) i gave my fuzee to one of the men & sold his musket for a horse which completed us to total horses, we purchased pack cords made saddles & set out on our rout down the river by land guided by my old guide one other who joined him, the old gude's sons followed him before we set out our hunters killed three deer proceded on miles and encamped on the river south side--at the time we set out from the indian camps the greater part of the band set out over to the waters of the missouri. we had great attention paid to the horses, as they were nearly all sore backs and several pore, & young those horses are indifferent, maney sore backs and others not acustomed to pack, and as we cannot put large loads on them are compelled to purchase as maney as we can to take our small propotion of baggage of the parties. (& eate if necessary) proceeded on miles to day [clark, august , ] august st satturday a fine morning set out before sun rise, as we passed the lodges at which place i had encamped for thre nights and left men, those men joined us and we proceeded on in the same rout i decended the st instant, halted hours on sammon creek to let our horses graze the wind hard from the s. w. i met an indian on horse back who fled with great speed to some lodges below & informed them that the enemis were coming down, armd with guns &c. the inhabitents of the lodges indisceved him, we proceeded on the road on which i had decended as far as the st run below & left the road & proceeded up the run in a tolerable road miles & encamped in some old lodjes at the place the road leaves the creek and assends the high countrey six indians followed us four of them the sons of our guide; our hunters killed one deer a goose & prarie fowl. this day warm and sultrey, praries or open valies on fire in several places--the countrey is set on fire for the purpose of collecting the different bands, and a band of the flatheads to go to the missouri where they intend passing the winter near the buffalow proceeded on miles to day, miles of which up a run [clark, september , ] september st sunday a fine morning set out early and proceeded on over high ruged hills passing the heads of the small runs which fall into the river on our left to a large creek which falls into the river miles to our left and encamped in the bottom, some rain to day at and in the evening which obliges us to continu all night despatched men to the mouth of the creek to purchase fish of the indians at that place, they returned with some dried, we giged sammon & killed one deer to day. the countrey which we passed to day is well watered & broken pore stoney hilly country except the bottoms of the creek which is narrow, all the indians leave us except our guide, one man shot two bear this evining unfortunately we could git neither of them [clark, september , ] september nd monday a cloudy mornin, raind some last night we set out early and proceeded on up the creek, crossed a large fork from the right and one from the left; and at miles left the roade on which we were pursuing and which leads over to the missouri; and proceeded up a west fork without a roade proceded on thro thickets in which we were obliged to cut a road, over rockey hill sides where our horses were in pitial danger of slipping to ther certain distruction & up & down steep hills, where several horses fell, some turned over, and others sliped down steep hill sides, one horse crippeled & gave out. with the greatest dificuelty risque &c. we made five miles & encamped on the left side of the creek in a small stoney bottom after night some time before the rear came up, one load left, about miles back, the horse on which it was carried crippled. some rain at night [clark, september , ] september rd tuesday a cloudy morning, horses verry stiff sent men back with the horse on which capt lewis rode for the load left back last night which detained us until) oclock at which time we set out. the country is timbered with pine generally the bottoms have a variety of srubs & the fur trees in great abundance. hills high & rockey on each side, in the after part of the day the high mountains closed the creek on each side and obliged us to take on the steep sides of those mountains, so steep that the horses could screcly keep from slipping down, several sliped & injured themselves verry much, with great dificuelty we made ____ miles & encamped on a branh of the creek we assended after crossing several steep points & one mountain, but little to eate i killed pheasents & the huntes with a little corn afforded us a kind of supper, at dusk it began to snow at oclock some rain. the mountains to the east covered with snow. we met with a great misfortune, in haveing our last thmometer broken by accident, this day we passed over emence hils and some of the worst roade that ever horses passed our horses frequently fell snow about inches deep when it began to rain which termonated in a sleet our genl. courses nearly north from the r [clark, september , ] september th wednesday a verry cold morning every thing wet and frosed, we detained untill oclock to thaw the covering for the baggage &c. &c. groun covered with snow, we assended a mountain & took a divideing ridge which we kept for several miles & fell on the head of a creek which appeared to run the course we wished to go, i was in front, & saw several of the argalia or ibex decended the mountain by verry steep decent takeing the advantage of the points and best places to the creek, where our hunter killed a deer which we made use of and prosued our course down the creek to the forks about miles where we met a part of the flat head nation of lodges about men total and at least horses, those people recved us friendly, threw white robes over our sholders & smoked in the pipes of peace, we encamped with them & found them friendly but nothing but berries to eate a part of which they gave us, those indians are well dressed with skin shirts & robes, they stout & light complected more so than common for indians, the chiefs harangued untill late at night, smoked our pipe and appeared satisfied. i was the first white man who ever wer on the waters of this river. [clark, september , ] september th thursday a cloudy morning we assembled the chiefs & warriers and spoke to them (with much dificuely as what we said had to pass through several languajes before it got in to theirs, which is a gugling kind of languaje spoken much thro the fhrought) we informed them who we were, where we came from, where bound and for what purpose &c. &c. and requsted to purchase & exchange a fiew horses with them, in the course of the day i purchased horses & exchanged for which we gave a fiew articles of merchendize. those people possess ellegant horses.--we made chiefs whome we gave meadels & a few small articles with tobacco; the women brought us a few berries & roots to eate and the principal chief a dressed brarow, otter & two goat & antilope skins those people wore their hair the men cewed with otter skin on each side falling over the sholrs forward, the women loose promisquisly over ther sholdrs & face long shirts which coms to the anckles & tied with a belt about their waste with a roabe over, the have but fiew ornaments and what they do were are similar to the snake indians, they call themselves eoote-lash-schute and consist of lodges in all and divided into several bands on the heads of columbia river & missouri, some low down the columbia river [clark, september , ] september th friday some little rain, purchased two fine horses & took a vocabiliary of the language litened our loads & packed up, rained contd. untill oclock we set out at oclock at the same time all the indians set out on ther way to meet the snake indians at the forks of the missouri. crossed a small river from the right we call ____ soon after setting out, also a small creek from the north all three forks comeing together below our camp at which place the mountains close on each side of the river, we proceeded on n w. crossed a mountain and struck the river several miles down, at which place the indians had encamped two days before, we proceeded on down the river which is yds. wide shallow & stoney. crossing it several times & encamped in a small bottom on the right side. rained this evening nothing to eate but berries, our flour out, and but little corn, the hunters killed pheasents only--all our horses purchased of the oote lash shutes we secured well for fear of their leaveing of us, and watched them all night for fear of their leaving us or the indians prosuing & steeling them. [clark, september , ] september th satturday a cloudy & rainie day the greater part of the day dark & drisley we proceedd on down the river thro a vallie passed several small runs on the right & creeks on the left the vallie from to miles wide the snow top mountains to our left, open hilley countrey on the right. saw horses left by the indians those horses were as wild a elk. one of our hunters came up this morning without his horse, in the course of the night the horse broke loose & cleared out--we did not make camp untill dark, for the want of a good place, one of our hunters did not join us this evening. he haveing killed an elk packed his horses & could not overtake us [clark, september , ] september th sunday a cloudy morning set out early and proceeded on through an open vallie for miles passed creeks on the right some runs on the left, the bottoms as also the hills stoney bad land. some pine on the creeks and mountains, an partial on the hills to the right hand side. two of our hunters came up with us at oclock with an elk, & buck--the wind from the n. w. & cold. the foot of the snow mountains approach the river on the left side. some snow on the mountain to the right also proceeded on down the vallie which is pore stoney land and encamped on the right side of the river a hard rain all the evening we are all cold and wet. on this part of the river on the head of clarks river i observe great quantities of a peculiar sort of prickly peare grow in clusters ovel & about the size of a pigions egge with strong thorns which is so birded as to draw the pear from the cluster after penetrateing our feet. drewyer killed a deer. i killed a prarie fowl we found mears and a colt the mears were lame, we ventered to let our late purchase of horses loose to night [lewis, september , ] monday september th . set out at a m. this morning and proceeded down the flathead river leaving it on our left, the country in the valley of this river is generally a prarie and from five to miles wide the growth is almost altogether pine principally of the longleafed kind, with some spruce and a kind of furr resembleing the scotch furr. near the wartercourses we find a small proportion of the narrow leafed cottonwood some redwood honeysuckle and rosebushes form the scant proportion of underbrush to be seen. at we halted on a small branch which falls in to the river on the e. side, where we breakfasted on a scant proportion of meat which we had reserved from the hunt of yesterday added to three geese which one of our hunters killed this morning. two of our hunters have arrived, one of them brought with him a redheaded woodpecker of the large kind common to the u states. this is the first of the kind i have seen since i left the illinois. just as we were seting out drewyer arrived with two deer. we continued our rout down the valley about miles and crossed the river; it is hear a handsome stream about yards wide and affords a considerable quantity of very clear water, the banks are low and it's bed entirely gravel. the stream appears navigable, but from the circumstance of their being no sammon in it i believe that there must be a considerable fall in it below. our guide could not inform us where this river discharged itself into the columbia river, he informed us that it continues it's course along the mountains to the n. as far as he knew it and that not very distant from where we then were it formed a junction with a stream nearly as large as itself which took it's rise in the mountains near the missouri to the east of us and passed through an extensive valley generally open prarie which forms an excellent pass to the missouri. the point of the missouri where this indian pass intersects it, is about miles above the gates of the rocky mountain, or the place where the valley of the missouri first widens into an extensive plain after entering the rockey mountains. the guide informed us that a man might pass to the missouri from hence by that rout in four days. we continued our rout down the w. side of the river about miles further and encamped on a large creek which falls in on the west as our guide informes that we should leave the river at this place and the weather appearing settled and fair i determined to halt the next day rest our horses and take some scelestial observations. we called this creek travellers rest. it is about yards wide a fine bould clear runing stream the land through which we passed is but indifferent a could white gravley soil. we estimate our journey of this day at m. [clark, september , ] september th monday a fair morning set out early and proceeded on thro a plain as yesterday down the valley crossed a large scattering creek on which cotton trees grew at / miles, a small one at miles, both from the right, the main river at miles & encamped on a large creek from the left which we call travelers rest creek. killed deer & ducks & prarie fowls. day fair wind n. w. see suplement [lewis, september , ] tuesday september th . the morning being fair i sent out all the hunters, and directed two of them to procede down the river as far as it's junction with the eastern fork which heads near the missouri, and return this evening. this fork of the river we determined to name the valley plain river. i think it most probable that this river continues it's course along the rocky mts. northwardly as far or perhaps beyond the scources of medecine river and then turning to the west falls into the tacootchetessee. the minetares informed us that there was a large river west of, and at no great distance from the sources of medecine river, which passed along the rocky mountains from s. to n.this evening one of our hunters returned accompanyed by three men of the flathead nation whom he had met in his excurtion up travellers rest creek. on first meeting him the indians were allarmed and prepared for battle with their bows and arrows, but he soon relieved their fears by laying down his gun and advancing towards them. the indians were mounted on very fine horses of which the flatheads have a great abundance; that is, each man in the nation possesses from to a hundred head. our guide could not speake the language of these people but soon engaged them in conversation by signs or jesticulation, the common language of all the aborigines of north america, it is one understood by all of them and appears to be sufficiently copious to convey with a degree of certainty the outlines of what they wish to communicate. in this manner we learnt from these people that two men which they supposed to be of the snake nation had stolen horses from them and that they were in pursuit of the theaves. they told us they were in great hast, we gave them some boiled venison, of which the eat sparingly. the sun was now set, two of them departed after receiving a few small articles which we gave them, and the third remained, having agreed to continue with us as a guide, and to introduce us to his relations whom he informed us were numerous and resided in the plain below the mountains on the columbia river, from whence he said the water was good and capable of being navigated to the sea; that some of his relation were at the sea last fall and saw an old whiteman who resided there by himself and who had given them some handkerchiefs such as he saw in our possession.--he said it would require five sleeps wich is six days travel, to reach his relations. the flatheads are a very light coloured people of large stature and comely form. [clark, september , ] september th tuesday a fair morning concluded to delay to day and make some observations, as at this place the rout which we are to prosue will pass up the travelers rest creek, the day proved fair and we took equal altitudes & some inner observations. the latd. ° ' " as the guide report that no game is to be found on our rout for a long ways, ads an addition to the cause of our delay to precure some meat, despatched all our hunters in different directions, to hunt the deer which is the only large game to be found they killed deer a beaver & grouse which was divided, one of the hunters colter, met with tushapaw indians who were in pursuit of snake indians that bade taken from ther camps on the head of kooskooske river horses, those indians came with colter to our camp & informed by signs of their misfortune & the rout to ther villages &c. &c. one of them concluded to return with us. we gave them a ring fish hook & tied a pece of ribin in the hare of each which appeared to please them verry much, cap lewis gave them a steel & a little powder to make fire, after eating of them proceeded on in pursute of their horses. men all much engaged preparing mockersons &c. &c. the countrey about this place is already described in that above. [clark, september , ] september th wednesday a fair morning wind from the n w we set out at oclock and proceeded on up the travelers rest creek, accompanied by the flat head or tushapaws indians about miles below this creek a large fork comes in from the right and heads up against the waters of the missouri below the three forks, this river has extensive vallies of open leavel land, "and passes in its whole course thro a valie" they call it our guide tels us a fine large roade passes up this river to the missouri--the loss of of our horses detained us util. oclock. p.m. our flathead indian being restless thought proper to leave us and proceed on alone, sent out the hunters to hunt in advance as usial. (we have selected of the best hunters to go in advance to hunt for the party. this arrangement has been made long sinc) we proceeded on up the creek on the right side thro a narrow valie and good road for miles and encamped at some old indian lodges, nothing killed this evening hills on the right high & ruged, the mountains on the left high & covered with snow. the day verry worm [clark, september , ] september th thursday a white frost set out at oclock & proceeded on up the creek, passed a fork on the right on which i saw near an old indian encampment a swet house covered wthh earth, at miles assended a high hill & proceeded through a hilley and thickly timbered countrey for miles & on the right of the creek, passing several branches from the right of fine clear water and struck at a fork at which place the road forks, one passing up each fork. the timber is short & long leaf pine spruce pine & fur. the road through this hilley countrey is verry bad passing over hills & thro steep hollows, over falling timber &c. &c. continued on & passed some most intolerable road on the sides of the steep stoney mountains, which might be avoided by keeping up the creek which is thickly covered with under groth & falling timber crossed a mountain miles with out water & encamped on a hill side on the creek after decending a long steep mountain, some of our party did not git up untill oclock p m. i mad camp at on this roade & particularly on this creek the indians have pealed a number of pine for the under bark which they eate at certain seasons of the year, i am told in the spring they make use of this bark our hunters killed only one pheasent this after noon. party and horses much fatigued. [clark, september , ] september th wednesday a cloudy morning capt lewis and one of our guides lost their horses, capt lewis & men detained to hunt the horses, i proceeded on with the partey up the creek at miles passed several springs which i observed the deer elk &c. had made roads to, and below one of the indians had made a whole to bathe, i tasted this water and found it hot & not bad tasted the last ____ in further examonation i found this water nearly boiling hot at the places it spouted from the rocks (which a hard corse grit, and of great size the rocks on the side of the mountain of the same texture) i put my finger in the water, at first could not bare it in a second-as several roads led from these springs in different derections, my guide took a wrong road and took us out of our rout miles through intolerable rout, after falling into the right road i proceeded on thro tolerabl rout for abt. or miles and halted to let our horses graze as well as waite for capt lewis who has not yet come up, the pine countrey falling timber &c. &c. continue. this creek is verry much darned up with the beaver, but we can see none, dispatched two men back to hunt capt lewis horse, after he came up, and we proceeded over a mountain to the head of the creek which we left to our left and at miles from the place i nooned it, we fell on a small creek from the left which passed through open glades some of which / a mile wide, we proceeded down this creek about miles to where the mountains closed on either side crossing the creek several times & encamped. one deer & some pheasants killed this morning, i shot pheasents of the common kind except the taile was black. the road over the last mountain was thick steep & stoney as usial, after passing the head of travelers rest creek, the road was verry fine leavel open & firm some mountains in view to the s e & s w. covered with snow. [clark, september , ] september th thursday a cloudy day in the valies it rained and hailed, on the top of the mountains some snow fell we set out early and crossed a high mountn on the right of the creek for miles to the forks of the glade creek the right hand fork which falls in is about the size of the other, we crossed to the left side at the foks, and crossd a verry high steep mountain for miles to a large fork from the left which appears to head in the snow toped mountains southerley and s. e. we crossd. glade creek above its mouth, at a place the tushepaws or flat head indians have made wears across to catch sammon and have but latterly left the place i could see no fish, and the grass entirely eaten out by the horses, we proceeded on miles & encamped opposit a small island at the mouth of a branch on the right side of the river which is at this place yards wide, swift and stoney, here we wer compelled to kill a colt for our men & selves to eat for the want of meat & we named the south fork colt killed creek, and this river we call flathead river- the mountains which we passed today much worst than yesterday the last excessively bad & thickly strowed with falling timber & pine spruc fur hackmatak & tamerack, steep & stoney our men and horses much fatigued, the rain ____ [clark, september , ] wednesday septr. th we set out early. the morning cloudy and proceeded on down the right side of river over steep points rockey & buschey as usial for miles to an old indian fishing place, here the road leaves the river to the left and assends a mountain winding in every direction to get up the steep assents & to pass the emence quantity of falling timber which had falling from dift. causes i e. fire & wind and has deprived the greater part of the southerley sides of this mountain of its gren timber, miles up the mountain i found a spring and halted for the rear to come up and to let our horses rest & feed, about hours the rear of the party came up much fatigued & horses more so, several horses sliped and roled down steep hills which hurt them verry much the one which carried my desk & small trunk turned over & roled down a mountain for yards & lodged against a tree, broke the desk the horse escaped and appeared but little hurt some others verry much hurt, from this point i observed a range of high mountains covered with snow from s e. to s w with their top bald or void of timber. after two hours delay we proceeded on up the mountain steep & ruged as usial, more timber near the top, when we arrived at the top as we conceved we could find no water and concluded to camp and make use of the snow we found on the top to cook the remnt. of our colt & make our supe, evening verry cold and cloudy. two of our horses gave out, pore and too much hurt to proceed on and left in the rear--nothing killed to day except phests. from this mountain i could observe high ruged mountains in every direction as far as i could see. with the greatest exertion we could only make miles up this mountain and encamped on the top of the mountain near a bank of old snow about feet deep lying on the northern side of the mountain and in small banks on the top & leavel parts of the mountain, we melted the snow to drink, and cook our horse flesh to eat. [clark, september , ] saturday septr. th began to snow about hours before day and continud all day the snow in the morning inches deep on the old snow, and by night we found it from to inches deep i walked in front to keep the road and found great dificuelty in keeping it as in maney places the snow had entirely filled up the track, and obliged me to hunt several minits for the track at oclock we halted on the top of the mountain to worm & dry our selves a little as well as to let our horses rest and graze a little on some long grass which i observed, (on) the south steep hills side & falling timber continue to day, and a thickly timbered countrey of different kinds of pine, which are so covered with snow, that in passing thro them we are continually covered with snow, i have been wet and as cold in every part as i ever was in my life, indeed i was at one time fearfull my feet would freeze in the thin mockersons which i wore, after a short delay in the middle of the day, i took one man and proceeded on as fast as i could about miles to a small branch passing to the right, halted and built fires for the party agains their arrival which was at dusk verry cold and much fatigued we encamped at this branch in a thickly timbered bottom which was scercely large enough for us to lie leavil, men all wet cold and hungary. killed a second colt which we all suped hartily on and thought it fine meat. i saw black tail deer to day before we set out which came up the mountain and what is singular snaped tims at a large buck. it is singular as my gun has a steel frisen and never snaped times before in examining her found the flint loose to describe the road of this day would be a repitition of yesterday excpt the snow which made it much wors to proseed as we had in maney places to derect our selves by the appearence of the rubbings of the packs against the trees which have limbs quiet low and bending downwards [clark, september , ] sunday th septr. cloudy morning our horses much scattered which detained us untill one oclock p.m. at which time we set out the falling snow & snow from the trees which kept us wet all the after noon passed over several high ruged knobs and several dreans & springs passing to the right, & passing on the ridge devideing the waters of two small rivers. road excessively bad snow on the knobs, no snow in the vallies killed a fiew pheasents which was not sufficient for our supper which compelled us to kill something. a coalt being the most useless part of our stock he fell a prey to our appetites. the after part of the day fare, we made only miles to day two horses fell & hurt themselves very much. we encamped on the top of a high knob of the mountain at a run passing to the left. we proceed on as yesterday, & with dificulty found the road [lewis, september , ] wednesday september th . cap clark set out this morning to go a head with six hunters. there being no game in these mountains we concluded it would be better for one of us to take the hunters and hurry on to the leavel country a head and there hunt and provide some provision while the other remained with and brought on the party the latter of these was my part; accordingly i directed the horses to be gotten up early being determined to force my march as much as the abilities of our horses would permit. the negligence of one of the party willard who had a spare horse not attending to him and bringing him up last evening was the cause of our detention this morning untill / after a m when we set out. i sent willard back to serch for his horse, and proceeded on with the party at four in the evening he overtook us without the horse, we marched miles this day and encamped on the side of a steep mountain; we suffered for water this day passing one rivulet only; we wer fortunate in finding water in a steep raviene about / maile from our camp. this morning we finished the remainder of our last coult. we dined & suped on a skant proportion of portable soupe, a few canesters of which, a little bears oil and about lbs. of candles form our stock of provision, the only recources being our guns & packhorses. the first is but a poor dependance in our present situation where there is nothing upon earth exept ourselves and a few small pheasants, small grey squirrels, and a blue bird of the vulter kind about the size of a turtle dove or jay bird. our rout lay along the ridge of a high mountain course s. w. in. used the snow for cooking. [clark, september , ] monday th septr. a fair morning cold i proceded on in advance with six hunters to try and find deer or something to kill we passed over a countrey similar to the one of yesterday more falling timber passed several runs & springs passing to the right from the top of a high part of the mountain at miles i had a view of an emence plain and leavel countrey to the s w. & west at a great distance a high mountain in advance beyond the plain, saw but little sign of deer and nothing else, much falling timber, made miles and encamped on a bold running creek passing to the left which i call hungery creek as at that place we had nothing to eate. i halted only one hour to day to let our horses feed on grass and rest [lewis, september , ] thursday september th . set out this morning a little after sun rise and continued our rout about the same course of yesterday or s. w. for miles when the ridge terminated and we to our inexpressable joy discovered a large tract of prairie country lying to the s. w. and widening as it appeared to extend to the w. through that plain the indian informed us that the columbia river, in which we were in surch run. this plain appeared to be about miles distant, but our guide assured us that we should reach it's borders tomorrow the appearance of this country, our only hope for subsistance greately revived the sperits of the party already reduced and much weakened for the want of food. the country is thickly covered with a very heavy growth of pine of which i have ennumerated distinct species. after leaving the ridge we asscended and decended several steep mountains in the distance of miles further when we struck a creek about yards wide our course being s. w. we continued our rout miles along the side of this creek upwards passing of it's branches which flowed in from the n. st at the place we struck the creek and the other miles further. the road was excessively dangerous along this creek being a narrow rockey path generally on the side of steep precipice, from which in many places if ether man or horse were precipitated they would inevitably be dashed in pieces. fraziers horse fell from this road in the evening, and roled with his load near a hundred yards into the creek. we all expected that the horse was killed but to our astonishment when the load was taken off him he arose to his feet & appeared to be but little injured, in minutes he proceeded with his load. this was the most wonderfull escape i ever witnessed, the hill down which he roled was almost perpendicular and broken by large irregular and broken rocks. the course of this creek upwards due w. we encamped on the stard. side of it in a little raviene, having traveled miles over a very bad road. we took a small quantity of portable soup, and retired to rest much fatiegued. several of the men are unwell of the disentary. brakings out, or irruptions of the skin, have also been common with us for some time. [clark, september , ] tuesday th septr. set out early proceeded on up the creek passing through a small glade at miles at which place we found a horse. i derected him killed and hung up for the party after takeing a brackfast off for our selves which we thought fine after brackfast proceed on up the creek two miles & left it to our right passed over a mountain, and the heads of branch of hungary creek, two high mountains, ridges and through much falling timber (which caused our road of to day to be double the derect distance on the course) struck a large creek passing to our left which i kept down for miles and left it to our left & passed over a mountain bad falling timber to a small creek passing to our left and encamped. i killed pheasents, but fiew birds blue jay, small white headed hawk, some crows & ravins & large hawks. road bad. [lewis, september , ] friday september th . this morning my attention was called to a species of bird which i had never seen before. it was reather larger than a robbin, tho much it's form and action. the colours were a blueish brown on the back the wings and tale black, as wass a stripe above the croop / of an inch wide in front of the neck, and two others of the same colour passed from it's eyes back along the sides of the head. the top of the head, neck brest and belley and butts of the wing were of a fine yellowish brick reed. it was feeding on the buries of a species of shoemake or ash which grows common in country & which i first observed on d of this month. i have also observed two birds of a blue colour both of which i believe to be of the haulk or vulter kind. the one of a blue shining colour with a very high tuft of feathers on the head a long tale, it feeds on flesh the beak and feet black. it's note is cha-ah, cha-ah. it is about the size of a pigeon; and in shape and action resembles the jay bird.- another bird of very similar genus, the note resembling the mewing of the cat, with a white head and a light blue colour is also common, as are a black species of woodpecker about the size of the lark woodpecker three species of pheasants, a large black species, with some white feathers irregularly scattered on the brest neck and belley a smaller kind of a dark uniform colour with a red stripe above the eye, and a brown and yellow species that a good deel resembles the phesant common to the atlantic states. we were detained this morning untill ten oclock in consequence of not being enabled to collect our horses. we had proceeded about miles when we found the greater part of a horse which capt clark had met with and killed for us. he informed me by note that he should proceed as fast as possible to the leavel country which lay to the s. w. of us, which we discovered from the hights of the mountains on the th there he intended to hunt untill our arrival. at one oclock we halted and made a hearty meal on our horse beef much to the comfort of our hungry stomachs. here i larnt that one of the packhorses with his load was missing and immediately dispatched baptiest lapage who had charge of him, to surch for him. he returned at ; oc. without the horse. the load of the horse was of considerable value consisting of merchandize and all my stock of winter cloathing. i therefore dispatched two of my best woodsmen in surch of him, and proceeded with the party. our rout lay through a thick forrest of large pine the general course being s. w. and distance about miles. our road was much obstructed by fallen timber particularly in the evening we encamped on a ridge where ther was but little grass for our horses, and at a distance from water. however we obtained as much as served our culinary purposes and suped on our beef. the soil as you leave the hights of the mountains becomes gradually more fertile. the land through which we passed this evening is of an excellent quality tho very broken, it is a dark grey soil. a grey free stone appearing in large masses above the earth in many places. saw the hucklebury, honeysuckle, and alder common to the atlantic states, also a kind of honeysuckle which bears a white bury and rises about feet high not common but to the western side of the rockey mountains. a growth which resembles the choke cherry bears a black bury with a single stone of a sweetish taste, it rises to the hight of or feet and grows in thick clumps. the arborvita is also common and grows to an immence size, being from to feet in diameter. [clark, september , ] wednesday th september i set out early and proceeded on through a countrey as ruged as usial passed over a low mountain into the forks of a large creek which i kept down miles and assended a steep mountain leaveing the creek to our left hand passed the head of several dreans on a divideing ridge, and at miles decended the mountain to a leavel pine countrey proceeded on through a butifull countrey for three miles to a small plain in which i found maney indian lodges, at the distance of mile from the lodges i met boys, when they saw me ran and hid themselves searched found gave them small pieces of ribin & sent them forward to the village a man came out to meet me with;great caution & conducted us to a large spacious lodge which he told me (by signs) was the lodge of his great chief who had set out days previous with all the warriers of the nation to war on a south west derection & would return in or days. the fiew men that were left in the village aged, great numbers of women geathered around me with much apparent signs of fear, and apr. pleased they gave us a small piece of buffalow meat, some dried salmon beries & roots in different states, some round and much like an onion which they call quamash the bread or cake is called passhe-co sweet, of this they make bread & supe they also gave us the bread made of this root all of which we eate hartily, i gave them a fiew small articles as preasents, and proceeded on with a chief to his village miles in the same plain, where we were treated kindly in their way and continued with them all night those two villages consist of about double lodges, but fiew men a number of women & children; they call themselves cho pun-nish or pierced noses; " their dialect appears verry different from the tushapaws altho origneally the same people" they are darker than the tushapaws their dress similar, with more beads white & blue principally, brass & copper in different forms, shells and ware their haire in the same way. they are large portley men small women & handsom fetued emence quantity of the quawmash or pas-shi-co root gathered & in piles about the plains, those roots grow much an onion in marshey places the seed are in triangular shell on the stalk. they sweat them in the following manner i. e. dig a large hole feet deep cover the bottom with split wood on the top of which they lay small stones of about or inches thick, a second layer of splited wood & set the whole on fire which heats the stones, after the fire is extinguished they lay grass & mud mixed on the stones, on that dry grass which supports the pash-shi-co root a thin coat of the same grass is laid on the top, a small fire is kept when necessary in the center of the kite &c. i find myself verry unwell all the evening from eateing the fish & roots too freely. sent out the hunters they killed nothing saw some signs of deer. [lewis, september , ] saturday september st . we were detained this morning untill ock. in consequence of not being able to collect our horses. we then set out and proceeded along the ridge on which we had encamped, leaving which at / we passed a large creek runing to the left just above it's junction with another which run parrallel with and on the left of our road before we struck the creek; through the level wide and heavy timbered bottom of this creek we proceeded about / miles when bearing to the right we passed a broken country heavily timbered great quantities of which had fallen and so obstructed our road that it was almost impracticable to proceed in many places. though these hills we proceeded about ms. when we passed a small creek on which capt clark encamped on the th passing this creek we continued our rout ms thro a similar country when we struck a large creek at the forks, passed the northen branch and continued down it on the west side mile and encamped in a small open bottom where there was tolerable food for our horses. i directed the horses to be hubbled to prevent delay in the morning being determined to make a forced march tomorrow in order to reach if possible the open country. we killed a few pheasants, and i killd a prarie woolf which together with the ballance of our horse beef and some crawfish which we obtained in the creek enabled us to make one more hearty meal, not knowing where the next was to be found. the arborvita increases in quantity and size. i saw several sticks today large enough to form eligant perogues of at least feet in length.--i find myself growing weak for the want of food and most of the men complain of a similar deficiency and have fallen off very much. the general course of this day s w m. [clark, september , ] septr. st saturday a fine morning sent out all the hunters early in different directions to kill something and delayed with the indians to prevent suspicion & to acquire as much information as possible. one of them drew me a chart of the river & nations below informed of one falls below which the white men lived from whome they got white beeds cloth &c. &c. the day proved warm, chifs of bands visited me to day--the hunters all returned without any thing, i collected a horse load of roots & sammon & sent r fields with one indian to meet capt lewis at oclock set out with the other men to the river, passed thro a fine pine country decended a steep ruged hill verry long to a small river which comes from our left and i suppose it to be ____ river passed down the river miles on a steep hill side at r r oclock p.m. arrived at a camp of squars a boy & children those people were glad to see us & gave us drid sammon one had formerly been taken by the minitarries of the north & seen white men, our guide called the chief who was fishing on the other side of the river, whome i found a cherfull man of about i gave him a medal. [clark, september , ] thursday st septr. a fine morning sent out all the hunters in different directions to hunt deer, i myself delayd with the chief to prevent suspission and to collect by signs as much information as possible about the river and countrey in advance. the cheif drew me a kind of chart of the river, and informed me that a greater cheif than himself was fishing at the river half a days march from his village called the twisted hare, and that the river forked a little below his camp and at a long distance below & below large forks one from the left & the other from the right the river passed thro'gh the mountains at which place was a great fall of the water passing through the rocks, at those falls white people lived from whome they preceured the white beeds & brass &c. which the womin wore; a chief of another band visit me to day and smoked a pipe, i gave my handkerchief & a silver cord with a little tobacco to those chiefs, the hunters all return without any thing, i purchased as much provisions as i could with what fiew things i chaned to have in my pockets, such a salmon bread roots & berries, & sent one man r. fields with an indian to meet capt. lewis, and at oclock p m. set out to the river, met a man at dark on his way from the river to the village, whome i hired and gave the neck handkerchief of one of the men, to polit me to the camp of the twisted hare we did not arrive at the camp of the twisted hare but oppost, untill half past oclock p m. found at this camp five squars & children. my guide called to the chief who was encamped with others on a small island in the river, he soon joind me, i found him a chearfull man with apparant siencerity, i gave him a medal &c. and smoked untill oclock a.m. and went to sleep. the countrey from the mountains to the river hills is a leavel rich butifull pine countrey badly watered, thinly timbered & covered with grass--the weather verry worm after decending into the low countrey,- the river hills are verry high & steep, small bottoms to this little river which is flat head & is yards wide and sholey this river is the one we killed the first coalt on near a fishing were i am verry sick to day and puke which relive me. [lewis, september , ] sunday september cd . notwithstanding my positive directions to hubble the horses last evening one of the men neglected to comply. he plead ignorance of the order. this neglect however detained us untill / after eleven ock at which time we renewed our march, our course being about west. we had proceeded about two and a half miles when we met reubin fields one of oure hunters, whom capt. clark had dispatched to meet us with some dryed fish and roots that he had procured from a band of indians, whose lodges were about eight miles in advance. i ordered the party to halt for the purpose of taking some refreshment. i divided the fish roots and buries, and was happy to find a sufficiency to satisfy compleatly all our appetites. fields also killed a crow after refreshing ourselves we proceeded to the village due west / miles where we arrived at ock. in the afternoon our rout was through lands heavily timbered, the larger wood entirely pine. the country except the last miles was broken and decending the pleasure i now felt in having tryumphed over the rocky mountains and decending once more to a level and fertile country where there was every rational hope of finding a comfortable subsistence for myself and party can be more readily conceived than expressed, nor was the flattering prospect of the final success of the expedition less pleasing. on our approach to the village which consisted of eighteen lodges most of the women fled to the neighbouring woods on horseback with their children, a circumstance i did not expect as capt. clark had previously been with them and informed them of our pacific intentions towards them and also the time at which we should most probably arrive. the men seemed but little concerned, and several of them came to meet us at a short distance from their lodges unarmed. [clark, september , ] september nd sunday a fine morning, i proceed on down the little river to about / a mile & found the chif in a canoe comeing to meet me i got into his canoe & crossed over to his camp on a small island at a rapid sent out the hunters leaving one to take care of the baggage, & after eating a part of a samn. i set out on my return to meet capt. lewis with the chief & his son at miles met shields with deer, i took a small peice & changed for his horse which was fresh & proced on this horse threw me times which hurt me some. at dark met capt lewis encamped at the first village men much fatigued & reduced, the supply which i sent by r flds. was timely, they all eate hartily of roots & fish, horses lost days journey back [clark, september , ] friday nd septr. a verry worm day the hunters shild killed deer this morning. i left them on the island and set out with the chief & his son on a young horse for the village at which place i expected to meet capt lewis this young horse in fright threw himself & me times on the side of a steep hill & hurt my hip much, cought a coalt which we found on the roade & i rode it for several miles untill we saw the chiefs horses, he cought one & we arrived at his village at sunset, & himself and myslf walked up to the d village where i found capt lewis & the party encamped, much fatigued, & hungery, much rejoiced to find something to eate of which they appeared to partake plentifully. i cautioned them of the consequences of eateing too much &c. the planes appeared covered with spectators viewing the white men and the articles which we had, our party weacke and much reduced in flesh as well as strength, the horse i left hung up they receved at a time they were in great want, and the supply i sent by r. fields proved timely and gave great encouragement to the party with captn. lewis. he lost horses one of which belonged to our guide. those indians stole out of r. f. shot pouch his knife wipers compas & steel, which we could not precure from them, we attempted to have some talk with those people but could not for the want of an interpreter thro which we could speake, we were compelled to converse altogether by signs--i got the twisted hare to draw the river from his camp down which he did with great cherfullness on a white elk skin, from the s fork which is a few seven miles below, to the large fork on which the so so ne or snake indians fish, is south sleeps; to a large river which falls in on the n w. side and into which the clarks river empties itself is sleeps from the mouth of that river to the falls is sleeps at the falls he places establishments of white people &c. and informs that great numbers of indians reside on all those foks as well as the main river; one other indian gave me a like account of the countrey, some few drops of rain this evening. i precured maps of the country & river with the situation of indians, to come from several men of note seperately which varied verey little. [clark, september , ] septr. rd sunday traded with the indians, made chiefs and gave them meadels & tobacco & handkerchif & knives, and a flag & left a flag & hand kerches for the great chief when he returns from war, in the evening proceeded to the d vilg miles, a hard wind and rain at dark, traded for some root bread & skins to make shirts. hot day [clark, september , ] saturday rd septr . we assembled the principal men as well as the chiefs and by signs informed them where we came from where bound our wish to inculcate peace and good understanding between all the red people &c. which appeared to satisfy them much, we then gave other medals to other chefs of bands, a flag to the twisted hare, left a flag & handkerchief to the grand chief gave, a shirt to the twisted hare & a knife & handkerchif with a small pece of tobacco to each. finding that those people gave no provisions to day we deturmined to purchase with our small articles of merchindize, accord we purchased all we could, such as roots dried, in bread, & in ther raw state, berris of red haws & fish and in the evening set out and proceeded on to the d village miles dist. where we also purchased a few articles all amounting to as much as our weak horses could carry to the river capt. lewis & men verry sick this evening, my hip verry painfull, the men trade a few old tin canisters for dressed elk skin to make themselves shirts, at dark a hard wind from the s w accompaned with rain which lasted half an hour. the twisted hare envited capt lewis & myself to his lodge which was nothin more than pine bushes & bark, and gave us some broiled dried salmon to eate, great numbers about us all night at this village the women were busily employed in gathering and drying the pas-she co root of which they had great quantites dug in piles [clark, september , ] septr. th monday set out early for the river and proceeded on the same road i had prevsly gorn to the island at which place i had found the chief & formed a camp several or men sick, capt lewis sick all complain of a lax & heaviness at the stomack, i gave rushes pills to several hot day maney indians & thier gangues of horses follow us hot day hunter had deer [clark, september , ] sunday th septr. a fine morning collected our horses despatched j. colter back to hunt the horses lost in the mountains & bring up some shot left behind, and at oclock we all set out for the river and proceeded on by the same rout i had previously traveled, and at sunset we arrived at the island on which i found the twisted hare and formed a camp on a large island a littl below, capt lewis scercely able to ride on a jentle horse which was furnishd by the chief, several men so unwell that they were compelled to lie on the side of the road for some time others obliged to be put on horses. i gave rushes pills to the sick this evening. several indians follow us. [clark, september , ] septr. th i with th chief & young men went down to hunt timber for canoes--proceeded on down to the forks miles n ° w miles s. °w miles, halted young men cought sammon, the forks nearly the same size, crossed the south fork & found timber large pine in a bottom proceeded up the south side parts of party sick capt lewis verry sick hot day [clark, september , ] monday th of september a verry hot day most of the party complaining and of our hunters left here on the nd verry sick they had killed only two bucks in my absence. i set out early with the chief and young men to hunt some trees calculated to build canoes, as we had previously deturmined to proceed on by water, i was furnished with a horse and we proceeded on down the river crossed a creek at mile from the right verry rockey which i call rock dam creek & passed down on the n side of the river to a fork from the north which is about the same size and affords about the same quantity of water with the other forks we halted about an hour, one of the young men took his guilt and killed fine salmon two of them were roasted and we eate, two canoes came up loaded with the furnitur & provisions of families, those canoes are long stedy and without much rake i crossed the south fork and proceeded up on the south side, the most of the way thro a narrow pine bottom in which i saw fine timber for canoes one of the indian canoes with men with poles set out from the forks at the same time i did and arrived at our camp on the island within minits of the same time i did, not withstanding rapids which they had to draw the canoe thro in the distance, when i arrived at camp found capt lewis verry sick, several men also verry sick, i gave some salts & tarter emetic, we deturmined to go to where the best timbr was and there form a camp [clark, september , ] septr. th set out early and proceeded down the river to the bottom on the s side opposit the forks & formed a camp had ax handled ground &c. our axes all too small, indians caught sammon & sold us, chiefs & thir families came & camped near us, several men bad, capt lewis sick i gave pukes salts &c. to several, i am a little unwell. hot day [clark, september , ] tuesday th septr. set out early and proceeded on down the river to a bottom opposit the forks of the river on the south side and formed a camp. soon after our arrival a raft came down the n. fork on which was two men, they came too, i had the axes distributed and handled and men apotned. ready to commence building canoes on tomorrow, our axes are small & badly calculated to build canoes of the large pine, capt lewis still very unwell, several men taken sick on the way down, i administered salts pils galip, tarter emetic &c. i feel unwell this evening, two chiefs & their families follow us and encamp near us, they have great numbers of horses. this day proved verry hot, we purchase fresh salmon of the indians [clark, september , ] septr. th thursday set all the men able to work abt. building canoes, colter returned and found one horse & the canister of shot left in the mountains he also killed a deer / of which he brought hot day--men sick [clark, september , ] th septr. wednesday all the men able to work comened building canoes, several taken sick at work, our hunters returned sick without meet. j. colter returned he found only one of the lost horses, on his way killed a deer, half of which he gave the indians the other proved nourishing to the sick the day verry hot, we purchase fresh salmon of them several indians come up the river from a camp some distance below capt lewis very sick nearly all the men sick. our shoshonee indian guide employed himself makeing flint points for his arrows [clark, september , ] septr. th friday several men sick all at work which is able, nothing killed to day. drewyer sick maney indians visit us worm day [clark, september , ] thursday th septr. our men nearly all complaining of ther bowels, a heaviness at the stomach & lax, some of those taken first getting better, a number of indians about us gazeing &c. &c. this day proved verry worm and sultery, nothing killed men complaining of their diat of fish & roots. all that is able working at the canoes, several indians leave us to day, the raft continue on down the river, one old man informed us that he had been to the white peoples fort at the falls & got white beeds &c his story was not beleved as he could explain nothing. [clark, september , ] septr. th satterday drewyer killed deer collins der men conte sickly at work all able to work. [clark, september , ] sunday th septr. a cool morning wind from the s. w. men sick as usial, all the men that are able to at work, at the canoes drewyer killed deer colter killed deer, the after part of this day worm cap lewis very sick, and most of the men complaning very much of ther bowels & stomach [clark, september , ] sunday th septr. forks a fine morning our men recruting a little cool, all at work doing something except which are verry sick, great run of small duck passing down the river this morning. [clark, september , ] septr. th saturday (monday) a fine fair morning a the men recruiting a little, all at work which are able. great number of small ducks pass down the river this morning. maney indians passing up and down the river. [clark, october , ] october st tuesday a cool morning wind from the n. e. i examine & dry all our article cloths &. nothing to eate except drid fish verry bad diet capt lewis getting much better than for several days past several indians visit us from the different villages below and on the main fork s. nothing killed [clark, october , ] october st tuesday a cool morning wind from the east had examined and dried all our clothes and other articles and laid out a small assortment of such articles as those indians were fond of to trade with them for some provisions (they are remarkably fond of beeds) nothin to eate except a little dried fish which they men complain of as working of them as as much as a dost of salts. capt lewis getting much better. several indians visit us from the different tribes below some from the main south fork our hunters killed nothing to day worm evening [clark, october , ] oct. nd wednesday dispatch men & an indian up to the villages we first came too to purchase roots fish &c. nothing to eate but roots. gave a small pice of tobacco to the indians, broachs & rings with my handkerchif divided between of them. i walked on the hills to hunt to day, saw only one deer, could kill nothing day excesively hot in the river bottom wind north, burning out the holler of our canoes, men something better nothing except a small prarie wolf killed to day, our provisions all out except what fiew fish we purchase of the indians with us; we kill a horse for the men at work to eate &c. &c. [clark, october , ] october nd wednesday despatched men frasure & s. guterich back to the village with indian & horses to purchase dried fish, roots &c. we have nothing to eate but roots, which give the men violent pains in their bowels after eating much of them. to the indians who visited us yesterday i gave divided my handkerchief between of them, with a small piece of tobacco & a pece of riebin & to the principal men each a ring & brooch. i walked out with my gun on the hills which is verry steep & high could kill nothing. day hot wind n. hunters killed nothing excep a small prarie wolf. provisions all out, which compells us to kill one of our horses to eate and make suep for the sick men. [clark, october , ] october rd thursday canoe camp a fair cool morning wind from the east all our men getting well and at work at the canoes &c. [clark, october , ] october rd thursday a fine morning cool wind east all our men getting better in helth, and at work at the canoes &. the indians who visited us from below set out on their return early. several others came from different directions [clark, october , ] october th friday this morning is a little cool wind from the east. displeased an indian by refuseing to let him have a pice of tobacco. thre inds. from the s. fork visit us frasur and guterich return from the village with fish roots &c. which they purchased [clark, october , ] october th friday a cool wind from off the eastern mountains i displeased an indian by refuseing him a pice of tobacco which he tooke the liberty to take out of our sack three indians visit us from the grat river south of us. the two men frasure and guterich return late from the vllage with fish roots &c. which they purchased as our horse is eaten we have nothing to eate except dried fish & roots which disagree with us verry much. the after part of this day verry warm. capt lewis still sick but able to walk about a little. [clark, october , ] october th saturday a cool morning wind from the east, collected all our horses, & branded them in no. and delivered them to the men who were to take charge of them, each of which i gave a knife & one a wampom shell gorget, the lattd. of this place the mean of observations is ° ' . " north. nothing to eate but dried roots & dried fish, capt lewis & my self eate a supper of roots boiled, which filled us so full of wind, that we were scercely able to breathe all night felt the effects of it. lanced canoes to day one proved a little leakey the other a verry good one [clark, october , ] october th saty wind easterley and cool, had all our horses in number collected and branded cut off their fore top and delivered them to the brothers and one son of one of the chiefs who intends to accompany us down the river to each of those men i gave a knife & some small articles &c. they promised to be attentive to our horses untill we should return. lattitude of this place from the mean of two observations is ° ' . " north nothing to eate except dried fish & roots. capt lewis & myself eate a supper of roots boiled, which swelled us in such a manner that we were scercely able to breath for several hours--finished and lanced of our canoes this evening which proved to be verry good our hunters with every diligence could kill nothing. the hills high and ruged and woods too dry to hunt the deer which is the only game in our neighbourhood. several squars came with fish and roots which we purchased of them for beeds, which they were fond of--capt lewis not so well to day as yesterday [clark, october , ] october th sunday a col easterley wind which spring up in the latter part of the night and continues untill about or oclock a.m. had all our saddles collected a whole dug and in the night buried them, also a canister of powder and a bag of balls at the place the canoe which shields made was cut from the body of the tree--the saddles were buried on the side of a bend about / a mile below--all the canoes finished this evening ready to be put into the water. i am taken verry unwell with a paine in the bowels & stomach, which is certainly the effects of my diet-which last all night-. the winds blow cold from a little before day untill the suns gets to some hight from the mountans east as they did from the mountans at the time we lay at the falls of missouri from the west the river below this forks is called kos kos keel it is clear rapid with shoals or swift places the open countrey commences a fiew miles below this on each side of the river, on the lard side below the st creek. with a few trees scattered near the river. passd maney bad rapids, one canoe that in which i went in front sprung a leak in passing the rd rapid set out at oclock p m & proceeded on [clark, october , ] october th monday i continu verry unwell but obliged to attend every thing all the canoes put into the water and loaded, fixed our canoes as well as possible and set out as we were about to set out we missd. both of the chiefs who promised to accompany us; i also missed my pipe tomahawk which could not be found. the after part of the day cloudy proceded on passed rapids which wer danjerous the canoe in which i was struck a rock and sprung a leak in the rd rapid, we proceeded on miles and encamped on a stard point oppost a run. passed a creek small on the lard. side at miles, a short distanc from the river at feet inches n. of a dead toped pine treee had burid lead canisters of powder had the canoes unloaded examined and mended a small leake which we discovered in a thin place in her side passed several camps of indians to day our course and distance shall be given after i get to the forks. &c.which the indians say is the last of the bad water untill we get to the great falls day below, where the white people live &c. the lodges are of sticks set in a form of roof of a house & covered with mats and straw [clark, october , ] th octr. tuesday a cloudy morning changed canoes and buried lead canisters of powder foot in. north of a dead toped pine opposit our camp & opposit the mouth of a run after repareing leaks in the canoes sprung coming over the rapids yesterday set out at oclock [clark, october , ] october th tuesday a cloudy morning loaded our canoes which was unloaded last night and set out at oclock passed rapids four islands and a creek on the stard side at miles just below which one canoe in which serjt. gass was stearing and was nearle turning over, she sprung a leak or split open on one side and bottom filled with water & sunk on the rapid, the men, several of which could not swim hung on to the canoe, i had one of the other canoes unloaded & with the assistance of our small canoe and one indian canoe took out every thing & toed the empty canoe on shore, one man tompson a little hurt, every thing wet perticularly the greater part of our small stock of merchindize, had every thing opened, and two sentinals put over them to keep off the indians, who are enclined to theave haveing stole several small articles those people appeared disposed to give us every assistance in their power dureing our distress--we passed several encampments of indians on the islands and those near the rapids in which places they took the salmon, at one of those camps we found our two chiefs who had promised to accompany us, we took them on board after the serimony of smokeing [clark, october , ] octo. th all day drying our roots good & articles which got wet in the canoe last night. our snake indian guides left us without our knowledge, the indians troublesom stole my spoon which they returned. men merry at night & singular acts of a ind. woman [clark, october , ] october th wednesday the morning cool as usial the greater part of the day proved to be cloudy, which was unfavourable for drying our things &c. which got wet yesterday. in examoning our canoe found that by putting knees & strong peces pined to her sides and bottom &c. she could be made fit for service in by the time the goods dried, set men to work at her, serjt. pryor & gass, jo fields & gibson, others to collect rosin, at oclock she was finished stronger than ever the wet articles not sufficiently dried to pack up obliged us to delay another night dureing the time one man was tradeing for fish for our voyage, at dark we were informed that our old guide & his son had left us and had been seen running up the river several miles above, we could not account for the cause of his leaveing us at this time, without receiving his pay for the services he had rendered us, or letting us know anything of his intention. we requested the chief to send a horseman after our old guide to come back and recive his pay &c. which he advised us not to do as his nation would take his things from him before he passed their camps the indians and our party were very mery this after noon a woman faind madness &c. &c. singular acts of this woman in giveing in small potions all she had & if they were not received she would scarrify her self in a horid manner &c. capt lewis recovring fast. a verry worm day, indians continue all day on the banks to view us as low as the forks. two indians come up in a canoe, who means to accompany us to the great rapids, could get no observations, worm night the water of the south fork is of a bluish green colour [clark, october , ] october th wednesday thursday a fine morning loaded and set out at oclock at / miles passed a run on the stard. side haveing passed islands and two bad rapids at miles lower passed a creek on the lard. with wide cotton willow bottoms haveing passed an island and a rapid an indian camp of three lodgs below the creek at / miles lower we arrived at the heade of a verry bad riffle at which place we landed near lodges of indians on the lard side to view the riffle, haveing passed two islands & six rapids several of them verry bad-after view'g this riffle two canoes were taken over verry well; the third stuck on a rock which took us an hour to get her off which was effected without her receving a greater injurey than a small split in her side which was repared in a short time, we purchased fish & dogs of those people, dined and proceeded on- here we met with an indian from the falls at which place he sais he saw white people, and expressd an inclination to accompany us, we passd. a fiew miles above this riffle lodges and an indian batheing in a hot bath made by hot stones thrown into a pon of water. at this riffle which we call ragid rapid took meridian altitude of the suns upper limb with sextt. ° ' " latd. produced ____ north at five miles lower and sixty miles below the forks arived at a large southerly fork which is the one we were on with the snake or so-so-nee nation (haveing passed rapids) this south fork or lewis's river which has two forks which fall into it on the south the ist small the upper large and about days march up imediately parrelal to the first villages we came to and is called by those indians par-nash-te on this fork a little above its mouth resides a chief who as the indian say has more horses than he can count and further sayeth that louises river is navagable about miles up with maney rapids at which places the indians have fishing camps and lodjes built of an oblong form with flat ruffs. below the st river on the south side there is ten established fishing places on the st fork which fall in on the south side is one fishing place, between that and the par nash to river, five fishing places, above two, and one on that river all of the cho-pun-nish or pierced nose nation many other indians reside high up those rivers the countrey about the forks is an open plain on either side i can observe at a distance on the lower stard. side a high ridge of thinly timbered countrey the water of the south fork-is a greenish blue, the north as clear as cristial imediately in the point is an indian cabin & in the south fork a small island, we came to on the stard. side below with a view to make some luner observations the night proved cloudy and we were disapointed the indians came down all the couses of this river on each side on horses to view us as we were desending,--the man whome we saw at the ruged rapid and expressed an inclination to accompany us to the great rapids, came up with his son in a small canoe and procisted in his intentions- worthey of remark that not one stick of timber on the river near the forks and but a fiew trees for a great distance up the river we decended i think lewis's river is about yards wide, the koos koos ke river about yards wide and the river below the forks about yards wide. a miss understanding took place between shabono one of our interpreters, and jo. & r fields which appears to have originated in just--our diet extremely bad haveing nothing but roots and dried fish to eate, all the party have greatly the advantage of me, in as much as they all relish the flesh of the dogs, several of which we purchased of the nativs for to add to our store of fish and roots &c. &c.- the cho-pun-nish or pierced nose indians are stout likeley men, handsom women, and verry dressey in their way, the dress of the men are a white buffalow robe or elk skin dressed with beeds which are generally white, sea shells-i e the mother of pirl hung to ther hair & on a pice of otter skin about their necks hair cewed in two parsels hanging forward over their sholders, feathers, and different coloured paints which they find in their countrey generally white, green & light blue. some fiew were a shirt of dressed skins and long legins, & mockersons painted, which appears to be their winters dress, with a plat of twisted grass about their necks. the women dress in a shirt of ibex, or goat skins which reach quite down to their anckles with a girdle, their heads are not ornemented, their shirts are ornemented with quilled brass, small peces of brass cut into different forms, beeds, shells & curios bones &c. the men expose those parts which are generally kept from view by other nations but the women are more perticular than any other nation which i have passed in screting the parts their amusements appear but fiew as their situation requires the utmost exertion to prcure food they are generally employed in that pursute, all the summer & fall fishing for the salmon, the winter hunting the deer on snow shoes in the plains and takeing care of ther emence numbers of horses, & in the spring cross the mountains to the missouri to get buffalow robes and meet &c. at which time they frequent meet with their enemies & lose their horses & maney of ther people ther disorders are but fiew and those fiew of a scofelous nature. they make great use of swetting. the hot and cold baethes, they are verry selfish and stingey of what they have to eate or ware, and they expect in return something for everything give as presents or the survices which they doe let it be however small, and fail to make those returns on their part. [clark, october , ] october th a cloudy morning wind from the east we set out early and proceeded on passed a rapid at two miles, at miles we came too at some indian lodges and took brackfast, we purchased all the fish we could and seven dogs of those people for stores of provisions down the river. at this place i saw a curious swet house under ground, with a small whole at top to pass in or throw in the hot stones, which those in threw on as much water as to create the temporature of heat they wished--at mile passed a rapid at miles halted at an indian lodge, to purchase provisions of which we precred some of the pash-he-quar roots five dogs and a few fish dried, after takeing some dinner of dog &c we proceeded on. came to and encamped at indian lodges at a great place of fishing here we met an indian of a nation near the mouth of this river. we purchased three dogs and a fiew fish of those indians, we passed today nine rapids all of then great fishing places, at different places on the river saw indian houses and slabs & spilt timber raised from the ground being the different parts of the houses of the natives when they reside on this river for the purpose of fishing at this time they are out in the plain on each side of the river hunting the antilope as we are informed by our chiefs, near each of those houses we observe grave yards picketed, or pieces of wood stuck in permiscuesly over the grave or body which is covered with earth, the country on either side is an open plain leavel & fertile after assending a steep assent of about feet not a tree of any kind to be seen on the river the after part of the day the wind from the s. w. and hard. the day worm. [clark, october , ] october th saturday a fair cool morning wind from e after purchasing all the drid fish those people would spear from their hole in which they wer buried we set out at oclock and proceeded on [clark, october , ] october th saturday a fair cool morning wind from the east. after purchaseing every speces of the provisions those indians could spare we set out and proceeded on at three miles passed four islands swift water and a bad rapid opposit to those islands on the lard. side. at / miles passed the mouth of a large creek on the lard side opposit a small island here the countrey assends with a gentle assent to the high plains, and the river is yards wide about mile below the creek on the same side took meridian altitude which gave ° ' " latitude produced ____ north in the afternoon the wind shifted to the s. w. and blew hard we passed to day ____ rapids several of them very bad and came to at the head of one (at miles) on the stard. side to view it before we attemptd. to dsend through it. the indians had told us was verry bad--we found long and dangerous about miles in length, and maney turns necessary to stear clare of the rocks, which appeared to be in every direction. the indians went through & our small canoe followed them, as it was late we deturmined to camp above untill the morning. we passed several stoney islands today country as yesterday open plains, no timber of any kind a fiew hack berry bushes & willows excepted, and but few drift trees to be found so that fire wood is verry scerce--the hills or assents from the water is faced with a dark ruged stone. the wind blew hard this evening.- [clark, october , ] october th sunday rained a little before day, and all the morning, a hard wind from the s west untill oclock, the rained seased & wind luled, and capt lewis with two canoes set out & passed down the rapid the others soon followed and we passed over this bad rapid safe. we should make more portages if the season was not so far advanced and time precious with us the wife of shabono our interpetr we find reconsiles all the indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace [clark, october , ] october th sunday a windey dark raney morning the rain commenced before day and continued moderately until) near oclock--we took all our canoes through this rapid without any injurey. a little below passed through another bad rapid at ____ miles passed the mo. of a large creek little river in a stard. bend, imediately below a long bad rapid; in which the water is confined in a chanel of about yards between rugid rocks for the distance of a mile and a half and a rapid rockey chanel for miles above. this must be a verry bad place in high water, here is great fishing place, the timbers of several houses piled up, and a number of wholes of fish, and the bottom appears to have been made use of as a place of deposit for their fish for ages past, here two indians from the upper foks over took us and continued on down on horse back, two others were at this mouth of the creek--we passed a rapid about mile lower. at dusk came to on the std. side & encamped. the two inds. on horse back stayed with us. the countery thro which we passed to day is simlar to that of yesterday open plain no timber passed several houses evacuated at established fishing places, wind hard from the s. w. in the evening and not very cold [clark, october , ] october th monday a verry cool morning wind from the west set out at oclock proceeded on at this rapid the canoe a stern steared by drewyer struck a rock turned the men got out on a rock the stern of the canoe took in water and she sunk the men on the rock hel her, a number of articles floated all that could be cought were taken by of the othr canoes, great many articles lost among other things of the mens beding shot pouches tomahaws &c. &c. and every article wet of which we have great cause to lament as all our loose powder two canisters, all our roots prepared in the indian way, and one half of our goods, fortunately the lead canisters which was in the canoe was tied down, otherwise they must have been lost as the canoe turned over we got off the men from the rock toed our canoe on shore after takeing out all the stores &c. we could & put them out to dry on the island on which we found some wood which was covered with stones, this is the parts of an indian house, which we used for fire wood, by the wish of our two chiefs--those chees, one of them was in the canoe, swam in & saved some property, the inds. have buried fish on this isld. which we are cautious not to touch. our small canoe & three indians in another was out of sight at the time our missfortune hapined, and did not join us. wind hard s w. [clark, october , ] october th monday a verry cold morning wind from the west and cool untill about oclock when it shifted to the s. w. at / miles passed a remarkable rock verry large and resembling the hull of a ship situated on a lard point at some distance from the assending countrey passed rapids at and miles. at miles we came too at the head of a rapid which the indians told me was verry bad, we viewed the rapid found it bad in decending three stern canoes stuk fast for some time on the head of the rapid and one struk a rock in the worst part, fortunately all landed safe below the rapid which was nearly miles in length. here we dined, and for the first time for three weeks past i had a good dinner of blue wing teel, after dinner we set out and had not proceded on two miles before our stern canoe in passing thro a short rapid opposit the head of an island, run on a smoth rock and turned broad side, the men got out on the rock all except one of our indian chiefs who swam on shore, the canoe filed and sunk a number of articles floated out, such as the mens bedding clothes & skins, the lodge &c. &c. the greater part of which were cought by of the canoes, whilst a rd was unloading & steming the swift current to the relief of the men on the rock who could with much dificuelty hold the canoe. however in about an hour we got the men an canoe to shore with the loss of some bedding tomahaws shot pouches skins clothes &c &c. all wet we had every articles exposed to the sun to dry on the island, our loss in provisions is verry considerable all our roots was in the canoe that sunk, and cannot be dried sufficint to save, our loose powder was also in the canoe and is all wett this i think, we shall saved.--in this island we found some split timber the parts of a house which the indians had verry securely covered with stone, we also observed a place where the indians had buried there fish, we have made it a point at all times not to take any thing belonging to the indians even their wood. but at this time we are compelled to violate that rule and take a part of the split timber we find here bured for fire wood, as no other is to be found in any direction. our small canoe which was a head returned at night with ores which they found floating below. the wind this after noon from the s. w. as usial and hard way of the forks to the indian camps at the first were not one mouthfull to eate untill night as our hunters could kill nothing and i could see & catch no fish except a few small ones. the indians gave us sammon boiled which i gave to the men, one of my men shot a sammon in the river about sunset those fish gave us a supper. all the camp flocked about me untill i went to sleep--and i beleve if they had a sufficency to eate themselves and any to spare they would be liberal of it i detected the men to mend their mockessons to night and turn out in the morning early to hunt deer fish birds &c. &c. saw great numbers of the large black grass hopper. some bars which were verry wild, but few birds. a number of ground lizards; some fiew pigions plainly see a rainge of mountains which bore s. e. & n. w. the nearest point south about miles, and becoms high toward the n. w. the plaines on each side is wavering. labiesh killed gees & ducks of the large kind. at two oclock we loaded & set out, our powder & provisions of roots not sufficently dry. we shall put them out at the forks or mouth of this river which is at no great distance, and at which place we shall delay to make some selestial observations &c. passed eleven island and seven rapids to day. several of the rapids verry bad and dificuelt to pass. the islands of different sizes and all of round stone and sand, no timber of any kind in sight of the river, a fiew small willows excepted; in the evening the countrey becomes lower not exceding or feet above the water and back is a wavering plain on each side, passed thro narrows for miles where the clifts of rocks juted to the river on each side compressing the water of the river through a narrow chanel; below which it widens into a kind of bason nearly round without any proceptiable current, at the lower part of this bason is a bad dificuelt and dangerous rapid to pass, at the upper part of this rapid we over took the three indians who had polited us thro the rapids from the forks. those people with our chiefs had proceeded on to this place where they thought proper to delay for us to warn us of the difficulties of this rapid. we landed at a parcel of split timber, the timber of a house of indians out hunting the antilope in the plains; and raised on scaffolds to save them from the spring floods. here we were obliged for the first time to take the property of the indians without the consent or approbation of the owner. the night was cold & we made use of a part of those boards and split logs for fire wood. killed two teel this evening. examined the rapids which we found more dificuelt to pass than we expected from the indians information. a suckcession of sholes, appears to reach from bank to bank for miles which was also intersepted with large rocks sticking up in every direction, and the chanel through which we must pass crooked and narrow. we only made miles today, owing to the detention in passing rapids &c. [clark, october , ] oar. th wednesday a cool morning set out early passed the rapid with all the canoes except sgt. pryors which run on a rock near the lower part of the rapid and stuck fast, by the assistance of the other canoes she was unloaded and got off the rock without any further injorey than, the wetting the greater part of her loading--loaded and proceeded on i walked around this rapid we halted a short time above the point and smoked with the indians, & examined the point and best place for our camp, we camped on the columbia river a little above the point i saw about men comeing down from their villages & were turned back by the chief, after we built our fires of what wood we could collect, & get from the indians, the chief brought down all his men singing and dancing as they came, formed a ring and danced for some time around us we gave them a smoke, and they returned the village a little above, the chief & several delay untill i went to bead. bought dogs & they gave us several fresh salmon & som horse dried [clark, october , ] october th wednesday a cool morning deturmined to run the rapids, put our indian guide in front our small canoe next and the other four following each other, the canoes all passed over safe except the rear canoe which run fast on a rock at the lower part of the rapids, with the early assistance of the other canoes & the indians, who was extreamly ellert every thing was taken out and the canoe got off without any enjorie further than the articles which it was loaded all wet. at miles passed a bad rapid at which place we unloaded and made a portage of / of a mile, haveing passd. smaller rapids, three islands and the parts of a house above, i saw indians & horses on the south side below. five indians came up the river in great haste, we smoked with them and gave them a piece of tobacco to smoke with their people and sent them back, they set out in a run & continued to go as fast as they could run as far as we could see them. after getting safely over the rapid and haveing taken diner set out and proceeded on seven miles to the junction of this river and the columbia which joins from the n. w. passd. a rapid two islands and a graveley bare, and imediately in the mouth a rapid above an island. in every direction from the junction of those rivers the countrey is one continued plain low and rises from the water gradually, except a range of high countrey which runs from s. w & n e and is on the opposit side about miles distant from the collumbia and keeping its detection s w untill it joins a s w. range of mountains. we halted above the point on the river kimooenim to smoke with the indians who had collected there in great numbers to view us, here we met our chiefs who left us two days ago and proceeded on to this place to inform those bands of our approach and friendly intentions towards all nations &c. we also met the men who had passed us several days ago on hors back, one of them we observed was a man of great influence with those indians, harranged them; after smokeing with the indians who had collected to view us we formed a camp at the point near which place i saw a fiew pieces of drift wood after we had our camp fixed and fires made, a chief came from their camp which was about / of a mile up the columbia river at the head of about men singing and beeting on their drums stick and keeping time to the musik, they formed a half circle around us and sung for some time, we gave them all smoke, and spoke to their chiefs as well as we could by signs informing them of our friendly disposition to all nations, and our joy in seeing those of our children around us, gave the principal chief a large medal shirt and handkf. a nd chief a meadel of small size, and to the cheif who came down from the upper villages a small medal & handkerchief. the chiefs then returned with the men to their camp; soon after we purchased for our provisions seven dogs, some fiew of those people made us presents of fish and several returned and delayed with us untill bedtime--the old chiefs who accompanied us from the head of the river precured us some full such as the stalks of weed or plant and willow bushes--one man made me a present of a about lb. of verry fat dried horse meat. great quantities of a kind of prickley pares, much worst than any i have before seen of a tapering form and attach themselves by bunches. [clark, october , ] october th thursday forks of columbia this morning after the luner observations, the old chief came down, and several men with dogs to sell & womin with fish &c. the dogs we purchased the fish not good. i took men and set out in a small canoe with a view to go as high up the columbia river as the st forks which the indians made signs was but a short distance, i set out at oclock firs course was n. ° w miles to the lower point of a island on the lard. side, passed an island in the middle of the river at miles, at the head of which is a rapid not bad at this rapid lodges of mats on the lard emenc quantites of dried fish, then west miles to the lower point of an island on the stard. side, lodges of indians large and built of mats- passed verry large mat lodges at mile on the stard side large scaffols of fish drying at every lodge, and piles of salmon lying. the squars engaged prepareing them for the scaffol--a squar gave me a dried salmon from those lodes on the island an indian showed me the mouth of the river which falls in below a high hill on the lard. n. ° w. miles from the island. the river bending lard.--this river is remarkably clear and crouded with salmon in maney places, i observe in assending great numbers of salmon dead on the shores, floating on the water and in the bottoms which can be seen at the debth of feet. the cause of the emence numbers of dead salmon i can't account for so it is i must have seen or dead and maney living the indians, i believe make use of the fish which is not long dead as, i struck one nearly dead and left him floating, some indians in a canoe behind took the fish on board his canoe the bottoms on the south side as high as the tarcouche tesse is from to miles wide, back of the bottoms rises to hilly countrey, the plain is low on the north & easte for a great distance no wood to be seen in any direction. the tarcouche tesse bears south of west, the columbia n w above range of hills on the west parrelel a range of mountains to the east which appears to run nearly north & south distance not more than miles--i returned to the point at dusk followed by three canoes of indians in number--i killed a fowl of the pheasent kind as large as a turkey. the length from his beeck to the end of its tail feet -- / inches, from the extremity of its wings across feet inches. the tail feathers inches long, feeds on grass hoppers, and the seed of wild isoop those indians are orderly, badly dressed in the same fashions of those above except the women who wore short shirts and a flap over them fishing houses of mats robes of deer, goat & beaver. [clark, october , ] october th thursday a fair morning made the above observations during which time the principal chief came down with several of his principal men and smoked with us. several men and woman offered dogs and fish to sell, we purchased all the dogs we could, the fish being out of season and dieing in great numbers in the river, we did not think proper to use them, send out hunters to shute the prarie cock a large fowl which i have only seen on this river; several of which i have killed, they are the size of a small turkey, of the pheasant kind, one i killed on the water edge to day measured from the beek to the end of the toe feet & / inches; from the extremities of its wings feet inches; the tale feathers is inches long; they feed on grasshoppers and the seed of the wild plant which is also peculiar to this river and the upper parts of the missoury somewhat resembling the whins-. capt. lewis took a vocabelary of the language of those people who call themselves so hulk, and also one of the language of a nation resideing on a westerly fork of the columbia which mouthes a fiew miles above this place who call themselves chim na pum some fiew of this nation reside with the so kulks nation, their language differ but little from either the sokulks or the cho-pun-nish (or pierced nose) nation which inhabit the koskoskia river and lewis's r below. i took two men in a small canoe and assended the columbia river miles to an island near the stard. shore on which two large mat lodges of indians were drying salmon, (as they informed me by signs for the purpose of food and fuel, & i do not think at all improbable that those people make use of dried fish as fuel,) the number of dead salmon on the shores & floating in the river is incrediable to say and at this season they have only to collect the fish split them open and dry them on their scaffolds on which they have great numbers, how far they have to raft their timber they make their scaffolds of i could not lern; but there is no timber of any sort except small willow bushes in sight in any directionfrom this island the natives showed me the enterance of a large westerly fork which they call tapetett at about miles distant, the evening being late i deturmined to return to the forks, at which place i reached at dark. from the point up the columbia river is n. ° w. miles to the lower point of an island near the lard. side passed a island in the middle of the river at miles at the head of which is a rapid, not dangerous on the lard side opposit to this rapid is a fishing place mat lodges, and great quants. of salmon on scaffolds drying. saw great numhers of dead salmon on the shores and floating in the water, great numbers of indians on the banks viewing me and canoes accompanied me from the point--the waters of this river is clear, and a salmon may be seen at the deabth of or feet. west miles to the lower point of a large island near the stard. side at lodges, passed three large lodges on the stard side near which great number of salmon was drying on scaffolds one of those mat lodges i entered found it crouded with men women and children and near the enterance of those houses i saw maney squars engaged splitting and drying salmon. i was furnished with a mat to sit on, and one man set about prepareing me something to eate, first he brought in a piece of a drift log of pine and with a wedge of the elks horn, and a malet of stone curioesly carved he split the log into small pieces and lay'd it open on the fire on which he put round stones, a woman handed him a basket of water and a large salmon about half dried, when the stones were hot he put them into the basket of water with the fish which was soon suflicently boiled for use. it was then taken out put on a platter of rushes neetly made, and set before me they boiled a salmon for each of the men with me, dureing those preperations, i smoked with those about me who chose to smoke which was but fiew, this being a custom those people are but little accustomed to and only smok thro form. after eateing the boiled fish which was delicious, i set out & halted or came too on the island at the two lodges. several fish was given to me, in return for which i gave small pieces of ribbond from those lodges the natives showed me the mouth of tap teel river about miles above on the west side this western fork appears to beare nearly west, the main columbia river n w.--a range of high land to the s w and parralal to the river and at the distance of miles on the lard. side, the countrey low on the stard. side, and all coverd. with a weed or plant about & three feet high and resembles the whins. i can proceive a range of mountains to the east which appears to bare n. & south distant about or miles. no wood to be seen in any derection--on my return i was followd. by canoes in which there was indians i shot a large prairie cock several grouse, ducks and fish. on my return found great numbr. of the nativs with capt lewis, men all employd in dressing ther skins mending their clothes and putting ther arms in the best order the latter being always a matter of attention with us. the dress of those natives differ but little from those on the koskoskia and lewis's rivers, except the women who dress verry different in as much as those above ware long leather shirts which highly ornimented with heeds shells &c. &c. and those on the main columbia river only ware a truss or pece of leather tied around them at their hips and drawn tite between ther legs and fastened before so as barly to hide those parts which are so sacredly hid & scured by our women. those women are more inclined to copulency than any we have yet seen, with low stature broad faces, heads flatened and the foward compressed so as to form a streight line from the nose to the crown of the head, their eyes are of a duskey black, their hair of a corse black without orniments of any kind braded as above, the orniments of each sects are similar, such as large blue & white beeds, either pendant from their ears or encircling their necks, or wrists & arms. they also ware bracelets of brass, copper & horn, and trinkets of shells, fish bones and curious feathers. their garments consists of a short shirt of leather and a roabe of the skins of deer or the antilope but fiew of them ware shirts all have short robes. those people appears to live in a state of comparitive happiness; they take a greater share labor of the woman, than is common among savage tribes, and as i am informd. content with one wife (as also those on the ki moo e nim river) those people respect the aged with veneration, i observed an old woman in one of the lodges which i entered she was entirely blind as i was informed by signs, had lived more than winters, she occupied the best position in the house, and when she spoke great attention was paid to what she said-. those people as also those of the flat heads which we had passed on the koskoske and lewis's rivers are subject to sore eyes, and maney are blind of one and some of both eyes. this misfortune must be owing to the reflections of the sun &c. on the waters in which they are continually fishing during the spring summer & fall, & the snows dureing the, winter seasons, in this open countrey where the eye has no rest. i have observed amongst those, as well in all other tribes which i have passed on these waters who live on fish maney of different sectes who have lost their teeth about middle age, some have their teeth worn to the gums, perticelar those of the upper jaws, and the tribes generally have bad teeth the cause of it i cannot account sand attachd. to the roots &c the method they have of useing the dri'd salmon, which is mearly worming it and eating the rine & scales with the flesh of the fish, no doubt contributes to it the houses or lodges of the tribes of the main columbia river is of large mats made of rushes, those houses are from to feet in length generally of an oblong squar form, suported by poles on forks in the iner side, six feet high, the top is covered also with mats leaveing a seperation in the whole length of about or inches wide, left for the purpose of admitting light and for the smok of the fire to pass which is made in the middle of the house.--the roughfs are nearly flat, which proves to me that rains are not common in this open countrey those people appeare of a mild disposition and friendly disposedthey have in their huts independant of their nets gigs & fishing tackling each bows & large quivers of arrows on which they use flint spikes. theire ammusements are similar to those of the missouri. they are not beggerley and receive what is given them with much joy. i saw but flew horses they appeared make but little use of those animals principally useing canoes for their uses of procureing food &c. [clark, october , ] october th friday a cold morning faire & wind from s e several heath hens or large pheasents lit near us & the men killed six of them. took one altitude of the suns upper limb ° ' " at h m s a.m. several indian canoes come down & joind those with us, made a second chief by giveing a meadel & wampom i also gave a string of wampom to the old chief who came down with us and informed the indians of our views and intentions in a council measured the width of the columbia river, from the point across to a point of view is s ° w from the point up the columa to a point of view is n. ° w. poles, thence across to the st point of view is s / e measured the width of ki moo e nim river, from the point across to an object on the opposit side is n. / e from the point up the river is n. e. poles thence accross to the point of view is n. ° east distance across the columbia / yds water distance across the ki-moo-e nim yds water names of this nation above the mouth of the ki-moo-e-nim is so-kulk perced noses the names of the nation on the kimoenim river is chopun-nish piercd noses at the prarie the name of a nation at the second forks of the tape tele river, or nocktock fork chim-na-pum, some of which reside with the so kulkc above this-at and a few miles distance,-- men in a canoe come up from below stayed a fiew minits and returned. took a meridian altitude ° ' " the suns upper limb. the lattitudes produced is ° ' / " north, capt lewis took a vocabillary of the so kulk or pierced noses language and chim-nd-pum language whic is in some words different but orriginally the same people the great chief cuts-sa.h nim gave me a sketch of the rivers & tribes above on the great river & its waters on which he put great numbers of villages of his nation & friends, as noted on the sketch the fish being very bad those which was offerd to us we had every reason to believe was taken up on the shore dead, we thought proper not to purchase any, we purchased forty dogs for which we gave articles of little value, such as beeds, bell, & thimbles, of which they appeard verry fond, at oclock we set out down the great columbia accompand by our two old chiefs, one young man wished to accompany us, but we had no room for more, & he could be of no service to us the great chief continued with us untill our departure. we encamped a little below & opsd. the lower point of the island on the lard. side no wood to be found we were obliged to make use small drid willows to cook--our old chief informed us that the great chief of all the nations about lived at the lodges above and wished us to land &c. he said he would go up and call him over they went up and did not return untill late at night, about came down & built a fire above and stayed all night. the chief brought a basket of mashed berries. [clark, october , ] october th friday this morning cool and fare wind from the s. e. six of the large prarie cock killed this morning. several canoes of indians came down and joined those with us, we had a council with those in which we informed of our friendly intentions towards them and all other of our red children; of our wish to make a piece between all of our red children in this quarter &c. &c. this was conveyed by signs thro our chiefs who accompanied us, and was understood, we made a d chief and gave strings of wompom to them all in remembrance of what we said--four men in a canoe came up from a large encampment on an island in the river about miles below, they delayed but a fiew minits and returned, without speaking a word to us. the great chief and one of the chim-na pum nation drew me a sketch of the columbia above and the tribes of his nation, living on the bank, and its waters, and the tape tett river which falls in miles above on the westerly side see sketch below for the number of villages and nations &c. &c. we thought it necessary to lay in a store of provisions for our voyage, and the fish being out of season, we purchased forty dogs for which we gave articles of little value, such as bells, thimbles, knitting pins, brass wire & a few beeds all of which they appeared well satisfied and pleased. every thing being arranged we took in our two chiefs, and set out on the great columbia river, haveing left our guide and the two young men two of them enclined not to proceed on any further, and the rd could be of no service to us as he did not know the river below took our leave of the chiefs and all those about us and proceeded on down the great columbia river passed a large island at miles about miles in length, a island on the stard. side the upper point of which is opposit the center of the last mentioned island and reaches / miles below the st. island and opposit to this near the middle of the river nine lodges are situated on the upper point at a rapid which is between the lower point of the st island and upper point of this; great numbers of indians appeared to be on this island, and emence quantites of fish scaffold we landed a few minits to view a rapid which commenced at the lower point, passd this rapid which was verry bad between small islands two still smaller near the lard. side, at this rapid on the stard. side is lodges of indians drying fish, at / miles lower and / below the point passed an island close under the stard. side on which was lodges of indians drying fish on scaffolds as above at miles from the point the river passesinto the range of high countrey at which place the rocks project into the river from the high clifts which is on the lard. side about / of the way across and those of the stard side about the same distance, the countrey rises here about feet above the water and is bordered with black rugid rocks, at the commencement of this high countrey on lard side a small riverlet falls in which appears to passed under the high county in its whole cose saw a mountain bearing s. w. conocal form covered with snow. passed islands, at the upper point of the rd is a rapid, on this island is two lodges of indians, drying fish, on the fourth island close under the stard. side is nine large lodges of indians drying fish on scaffolds as above at this place we were called to land, as it was near night and no appearance of wood, we proceeded on about miles lower to some willows, at which place we observed a drift log formed a camp on the lard side under a high hill nearly opposit to five lodges of indians; soon after we landed, our old chiefs informed us that the large camp above "was the camp of the st chief of all the tribes in this quarter, and that he had called to us to land and stay all night with him, that he had plenty of wood for us &" this would have been agreeable to us if it had have been understood perticelarly as we were compelled to use drid willows for fuel for the purpose of cooking, we requested the old chiefs to walk up on the side we had landed and call to the chief to come down and stay with us all night which they did; late at night the chief came down accompanied by men, and formed a camp a short distance above, the chief brought with him a large basket of mashed berries which he left at our lodge as a present. i saw on the main land opposit those lodges a number of horses feeding, we made miles to day. [clark, october , ] october th saturday, the great chief d chief and a chief of a band below came and smoked with us we gave a meadel a string of wampom & handkerchef to the great chief by name yel-leppit the d chief we gave a string of wampom, his name is ____ the d who lives below a string of wampom his name i did not learn. the chief requested us to stay untill we excused our selves and set out at oclock p. crusat played on the violin which pleasd and astonished those reches who are badly clad, / with robes not half large enough to cover them, they are homeley high cheeks, and but fiew orniments. i suped on the crane which i killed to day. [clark, october , ] october th saturday the great chief yel-lep-pit two other chiefs, and a chief of band below presented themselves to us verry early this morning. we smoked with them, enformed them as we had all others above as well as we could by signs of our friendly intentions towards our red children perticular those who opened their ears to our councils. we gave a medal, a handkercheif & a string of wompom to yelleppit and a string of wompom to each of the others. yelleppit is a bold handsom indian, with a dignified countenance about years of age, about feet inches high and well perpotiond. he requested us to delay untill the middle of the day, that his people might come down and see us, we excused our selves and promised to stay with him one or days on our return which appeared to satisfy him; great numbers of indians came down in canoes to view us before we set out which was not untill oclock a m. we proceeded on passed a island, close under the lard side about six miles in length opposit to the lower point of which two isds. are situated on one of which five lodges vacent & saffolds drying fish at the upper point of this island swift water. a short distance below passed two islands; one near the middle of the river on which is seven lodges of indians drying fish, at our approach they hid themselves in their lodges and not one was to be seen untill we passed, they then came out in greater numbers than is common in lodges of their size, it is probable that, the inhabitants of the lodges above had in a fright left their lodges and decended to this place to defend them selves if attackted there being a bad rapid opposit the island thro which we had to pass prevented our landing on this island and passifying those people, about four miles below this fritened island we arrived at the head of a verry bad rapid, we came too on the lard side to view the rapid before we would venter to run it, as the chanel appeared to be close under the oppd. shore, and it would be necessary to liten our canoe, i deturmined to walk down on the lard side, with the chiefs the interpreter & his woman, and derected the small canoe to prcede down on the lard side to the foot of the rapid which was about miles in length i sent on the indian chiefs &c. down and i assended a high clift about feet above the water from the top of which is a leavel plain extending up the river and off for a great extent, at this place the countrey becoms low on each side of the river, and affords a prospect of the river and countrey below for great extent both to the right and left; from this place i descovered a high mountain of emence hight covered with snow, this must be one of the mountains laid down by vancouver, as seen from the mouth of the columbia river, from the course which it bears which is west i take it to be mt. st. helens, destant miles a range of mountains in the derection crossing, a conacal mountain s. w. toped with snow this rapid i observed as i passed opposit to it to be verry bad interseped with high rock and small rockey islands, here i observed banks of muscle shells banked up in the river in several places, i delayed at the foot of the rapid about hours for the canoes which i could see met with much dificuelty in passing down the rapid on the oposit side maney places the men were obliged to get into the water and haul the canoes over sholes--while setting on a rock wateing for capt lewis i shot a crain which was flying over of the common kind. i observed a great number of lodges on the opposit side at some distance below and several indians on the opposit bank passing up to where capt. lewis was with the canoes, others i saw on a knob nearly opposit to me at which place they delayed but a short time before they returned to their lodges as fast as they could run, i was fearfull that those people might not be informed of us, i deturmined to take the little canoe which was with me and proceed with the three men in it to the lodges, on my aproach not one person was to be seen except three men off in the plains, and they sheared off as i aproached near the shore, i landed in front of five lodges which was at no great distance from each other, saw no person the enteranc or dores of the lodges wer shut with the same materials of which they were built a mat, i approached one with a pipe in my hand entered a lodge which was the nearest to me found persons men, women and a few children setting permiscuesly in the lodg, in the greatest agutation, some crying and ringing there hands, others hanging their heads. i gave my hand to them all and made signs of my friendly dispotion and offered the men my pipe to smok and distributed a fiew small articles which i had in my pockets,-this measure passified those distressed people verry much, i then sent one man into each lodge and entered a second myself the inhabitants of which i found more fritened than those of the first lodge i destributed sundrey small articles amongst them, and smoked with the men, i then entered the third h & fifth lodge which i found somewhat passified, the three men, drewer jo. & r. fields, haveing useed everey means in their power to convince them of our friendly disposition to them, i then set my self on a rock and made signs to the men to come and smoke with me not one come out untill the canoes arrived with the chiefs, one of whom spoke aloud, and as was their custom to all we had passed the indians came out & set by me and smoked they said we came from the clouds &c &c and were not men &c. &c. this time capt. lewis came down with the canoes rear in which the indian, as soon as they saw the squar wife of the interperters they pointed to her and informed those who continued yet in the same position i first found them, they imediately all came out and appeared to assume new life, the sight of this indian woman, wife to one of our interprs. confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of indians in this quarter--capt lewis joined us and we smoked with those people in the greatest friendship, dureing which time one of our old chiefs informed them who we were from whence we came and where we were going giveing them a friendly account of us, those people do not speak prosisely the same language of those above but understand them, i saw several horses and persons on hors back in the plains maney of the men womin and children came up from the lodges below; all of them appeared pleased to see us, we traded some fiew articles for fish and berries, dined, and proceeded on passed a small rapid and lodges below the five, and encamped below an island close under the lard side, nearly opposit to lodges on an island near the middle of the river, and the main stard shor soon after we landed which was at a fiew willow trees about indians came from the different lodges, and a number of them brought wood which they gave us, we smoked with all of them, and two of our party peter crusat & gibson played on the violin which delighted them greatly, we gave to the principal man a string of wompon treated them kindly for which they appeared greatfull, this tribe can raise about men their dress are similar to those at the fork except their robes are smaller and do not reach lower than the waste and / of them have scercely any robes at all, the women have only a small pece of a robe which covers their sholders neck and reaching down behind to their wastes, with a tite piece of leather about the waste, the brests are large and hang down verry low illy shaped, high cheeks flattened heads, & have but fiew orniments, they are all employed in fishing and drying fish of which they have great quantites on their scaffolds, their habits customs &c. i could not lern. i killed a duck that with the crain afforded us a good supper. the indians continued all night at our fires this day we made miles. [clark, october , ] october th sunday a very cold morning wind s. w. about indians came over this morning to see us, after a smoke, a brackfast on dogs flesh we set out. about men killed large speckle guts duck in malade small ducks the flavour of which much resembles the canvis back no timber of any kind on the river, we saw in the last lodges acorns of the white oake which the inds. inform they precure above the falls the men are badly dressed, some have scarlet & blue cloth robes. one has a salors jacket, the women have a short indiferent shirt, a short robe of deer or goat skins, & a small skin which they fastend. tite around their bodies & fastend. between the legs to hide the [clark, october , ] october th sunday a cool morning wind s. w. we concluded to delay untill after brackfast which we were obliged to make on the flesh of dog. after brackfast we gave all the indian men smoke, and we set out leaveing about of the nativs at our encampment; passd. three indian lodges on the lard side a little below our camp which lodges i did not discover last evening, passed a rapid at seven miles one at a short distance below we passed a verry bad rapid, a chane of rocks makeing from the stard. side and nearly chokeing the river up entirely with hugh black rocks, an island below close under the stard. side on which was four lodges of indians drying-fish,--here i saw a great number of pelicons on the wing, and black comerants. at one oclock we landed on the lower point of an island at some indian lodges, a large island on the stard side nearly opposit and a small one a little below on the lard side on those three island i counted seventeen indian lodges, those people are in every respect like those above, prepareing fish for theire winter consumption here we purchased a fiew indifferent dried fish & a fiew berries on which we dined-(on the upper part of this island we discovered an indian vault) our curiosity induced us to examine the methot those nativs practicd in diposeing the dead, the vaut was made by broad poads and pieces of canoes leaning on a ridge pole which was suported by forks set in the ground six feet in hight in an easterly and westerly direction and about feet in length, and feet wide, in it i observed great numbers of humane bones of every description perticularly in a pile near the center of the vault, on the east end scul bomes forming a circle on mats-; in the westerley part of the vault appeared to be appropriated for those of more resent death, as many of the bodies of the deceased raped up in leather robes lay on board covered with mats, &c we observed, independant of the canoes which served as a covering, fishing nets of various kinds, baskets of different sizes, wooden boles, robes skins, trenchers, and various kind of trinkets, in and suspended on the ends of the pieces forming the vault; we also saw the skeletons of several horses at the vault & great number of bones about it, which convinced me that those animals were sacrefised as well as the above articles to the deceased.) after diner we proceeded on to a bad rapid at the lower point of a small island on which four lodges of indians were situated drying fish; here the high countrey commences again on the stard. side leaveing a vallie of miles in width, from the mustle shel rapid. examined and passed this rapid close to the island at miles lower passed a large island near the middle of the river a brook on the stard. side and islds. all in view of each other below, a riverlit falls in on the lard. side behind a small island a small rapid below. the star side is high rugid hills, the lard. side a low plain and not a tree to be seen in any direction except a fiew small willow bushes which are scattered partially on the sides of the bank the river to day is about / of a mile in width; this evening the countrey on the lard. side rises to the hight of that on the starboard side, and is wavering--we made miles to day; the current much more uniform than yesterday or the day before. killed speckle guls severl. ducks of a delicious flavour. [clark, october , ] october st monday a verry cold morning we set out early wind from the s w. we could not cook brakfast before we embarked as usial for the want of wood or something to burn.- [clark, october , ] october st monday a verry cool morning wind from the s. w. we set out verry early and proceeded on, last night we could not collect more dry willows the only fuel, than was barely suffient to cook supper, and not a sufficency to cook brackfast this morning, passd. a small island at / miles a large one miles in the middle of the river, some rapid water at the head and eight lodges of nativs opposit its lower point on the stard. side, we came too at those lodges, bought some wood and brackfast. those people recived us with great kindness, and examined us with much attention, their employments custom dress and appearance similar to those above; speak the same language, here we saw two scarlet and a blue cloth blanket, also a salors jacket the dress of the men of this tribe only a short robe of deer or goat skins, and that of the womn is a short piece of dressed skin which fall from the neck so as to cover the front of the body as low as the waste, a short robe, which is of one deer or antilope skin, and a hap, around their waste and drawn tite between their legs as before described, their orniments are but fiew, and worn as those above. we got from those people a fiew pounded rotes fish and acorns of the white oake, those acorns they make use of as food, and inform us they precure them of the nativs who live near the falls below which place they all discribe by the term timm at miles lower passed a rapid, large rocks stringing into the river of large size opposit to this rapid on the stard. shore is situated two lodges of the nativs drying fish here we halted a fiew minits to examine the rapid before we entered it which was our constant custom, and at all that was verry dangerous put out all who could not swim to walk around, after passing this rapid we proceeded on passed anoothe rapid at miles lower down, above this rapid on five lodges of indians fishing &c. above this rapid maney large rocks on each side at some distance from shore, one mile passed an island close to the stard. side, below which is two lodge of nativs, a little below is a bad rapid which is bad crouded with hugh rocks scattered in every direction which renders the pasage verry difficuelt a little above this rapid on the lard. side emence piles of rocks appears as if sliped from the clifts under which they lay, passed great number of rocks in every direction scattered in the river lodges a little below on the stard. side, and one lodge on an island near the stard. shore opposit to which is a verry bad rapid, thro which we found much dificuelty in passing, the river is crouded with rocks in every direction, after passing this dificult rapid to the mouth of a small river on the larboard side yards wide descharges but little water at this time, and appears to take its sourse in the open plains to the s. e. from this place i proceved some fiew small pines on the tops of the high hills and bushes in the hollars. imediately above & below this little river comences a rapid which is crouded with large rocks in every direction, the pasage both crooked and dificuelt, we halted at a lodge to examine those noumerous islands of rock which apd. to extend maney miles below,-. great numbs. of indians came in canoes to view us at this place, after passing this rapid which we accomplished without loss; winding through between the hugh rocks for about miles-. (from this rapid the conocil mountain is s. w. which the indians inform me is not far to the left of the great falls; this i call the timm or falls mountain it is high and the top is covered with snow) imediately below the last rapids there is four lodges of indians on the stard. side, proceeded on about two miles lower and landed and encamped near five lodges of nativs, drying fish those are the relations of those at the great falls, they are pore and have but little wood which they bring up the river from the falls as they say, we purchased a little wood to cook our dog meat and fish; those people did not recive us at first with the same cordiality of those above, they appeare to be the same nation speak the same language with a little curruption of maney words dress and fish in the same way, all of whome have pierced noses and the men when dressed ware a long taper'd piece of shell or beed put through the nose-this part of the river is furnished with fine springs which either rise high up the sides of the hills or on the bottom near the river and run into the river. the hills are high and rugid a fiew scattering trees to be seen on them either small pine or scrubey white oke. the probable reason of the indians residing on the stard. side of this as well as the waters of lewis's river is their fear of the snake indians who reside, as they nativs say on a great river to the south, and are at war with those tribes, one of the old chiefs who accompanies us pointed out a place on the lard. side where they had a great battle, not maney years ago, in which maney were killed on both sides-, one of our party j. collins presented us with some verry good beer made of the pashi-co-quar-mash bread, which bread is the remains of what was laid in as stores of provisions, at the first flat heads or cho-punnish nation at the head of the kosskoske river which by being frequently wet molded & sowered &c. we made miles to day. [clark, october , ] october nd tuesday a fine morning calm. we set out at oclock and on the course s. ° w. miles passed lodges & inds. and rapids as mentioned in the cours of yesterday, from the expiration of took our baggage & formed a camp below the rapids in a cove on the stard side the distance yards haveing passed at the upper end of the portage lodges of indians, below the rapids & above the camp large loges of indians, great numbers of baskets of pounded fish on the rocks islands & near their lodges thos are neetly pounded & put in verry new baskets of about or pounds wight. hire indians to take our heavy articles across the portage purchased a dog for supper great numbers of indians view us, we with much dificuelty purchd. as much wood as cooked our dogs this evening, our men all in helth--the indians have their grave yards on an island in the rapids. the great chief of those indians is out hunting. no indians reside on the lard side for fear of the snake indians with whome they are at war and who reside on the large fork on the lard. a little above [clark, october , ] october d tuesday a fine morning calm and fare we set out at oclock passed a verry bad rapid at the head of an island close under the stard. side, above this rapid on the stard side is six lodges of nativs drying fish, at mls. passed a bad rapid at the head of a large island of high, uneaven rocks, jutting over the water, a small island in a stard. bend opposit the upper point, on which i counted parcels of dryed and pounded fish; on the main stard shore opposit to this island five lodges of indians are situated several indians in canoes killing fish with gigs, &c. opposit the center of this island of rocks which is about miles long we discovered the enterence of a large river on the lard. side which appeared to come from the s. e.--we landed at some distance above the mouth of this river and capt. lewis and my self set out to view this river above its mouth, as our rout was intersepted by a deep narrow chanel which runs out of this river into the columbia a little below the place we landed, leaveing a high dry rich island of about yards wide and yards long here we seperated, i proceeded on to the river and struck it at the foot of a verry considerable rapid, here i beheld an emence body of water compressd in a narrow chanel of about yds in width, fomeing over rocks maney of which presented their tops above the water, when at this place capt. lewis joined me haveing delayed on the way to examine a root of which the nativs had been digging great quantities in the bottoms of this river. at about two miles above this river appears to be confined between two high hils below which it divided by numbers of large rocks, and small islands covered with a low groth of timber, and has a rapid as far as the narrows three small islands in the mouth of this river, this river haveing no indian name that we could find out, except "the river on which the snake indians live," we think it best to leave the nameing of it untill our return. we proceeded on pass the mouth of this river at which place it appears to discharge / as much water as runs down the columbia. at two miles below this river passed eight lodges on the lower point of the rock island aforesaid at those lodges we saw large logs of wood which must have been rafted down the to war-ne hi ooks river, below this island on the main stard shore is lodges of nativs; here we landed a fiew minits to smoke, the lower point of one island opposit which heads in the mouth of towarnehiooks river which i did not observe untill after passing these lodges about / a mile lower passed more lodges on the same side and miles below the upper mouth of towarnehiooks river the comencement of the pitch of the great falls, opposit on the stard. side is lodges of the nativs we landed and walked down accompanied by an old man to view the falls, and the best rout for to make a portage which we soon discovered was much nearest on the stard. side, and the distance yards one third of the way on a rock, about yards over a loose sand collected in a hollar blown by the winds from the bottoms below which was disagreeable to pass, as it was steep and loose. at the lower part of those rapids we arrived at large lodges of nativs drying and prepareing fish for market, they gave us philburts, and berries to eate, we returned droped down to the head of the rapids and took every article except the canoes across the portag where i had formed a camp on ellegable situation for the protection of our stores from thieft, which we were more fearfull of, than their arrows. we despatched two men to examine the river on the opposit side, and reported that the canoes could be taken down a narrow chanel on the opposit side after a short portage at the head of the falls, at which place the indians take over their canoes. indians assisted us over the portage with our heavy articles on their horses, the waters is divided into several narrow chanels which pass through a hard black rock forming islands of rocks at this stage of the water, on those islands of rocks as well as at and about their lodges i observe great numbers of stacks of pounded salmon neetly preserved in the following manner, i e after suffiently dried it is pounded between two stones fine, and put into a speces of basket neetly made of grass and rushes of better than two feet long and one foot diamiter, which basket is lined with the skin of salmon stretched and dried for the purpose, in theis it is pressed down as hard as is possible, when full they secure the open part with the fish skins across which they fasten tho the loops of the basket that part very securely, and then on a dry situation they set those baskets the corded part up, their common custom is to set as close as they can stand and on the top of them, and secure them with mats which is raped around them and made fast with cords and covered also with mats, those baskets of from to w. each form a stack. thus preserved those fish may be kept sound and sweet several years, as those people inform me, great quantities as they inform us are sold to the whites people who visit the mouth of this river as well as to the nativs below. on one of those island i saw several tooms but did not visit them the principal chiefs of the bands resideing about this place is out hunting in the mountains to the s. w.--no indians reside on the s. w.side of this river for fear (as we were informed) of the snake indians, who are at war with the tribes on this river---they represent the snake indians as being verry noumerous, and resideing in a great number of villages on towarnehiooks river which falls in miles above on the lard. side and is reaches a great ways and is large a little abov its mouth at which part it is not intersepted with rapids, they inform that one considerable rapid & maney small ones in that river, and that the snake live on salmon, and they go to war to their first villages in days, the couse they pointed is s. e. or to the s of s. e. we are visited by great numbers of indians to day to view us, we purchased a dog for supper, some fish and with dificuelty precured as much wood as cooked supper, which we also purchased we made miles to day [clark, october , ] october rd (saturday) wednesday took the canoes over the portage on the lard. side with much dificuelty, description on another paper one canoe got loose & cought by the indians which we were obliged to pay. our old chiefs over herd the indians from below say they would try to kill us & informed us of it, we have all the arm examined and put in order, all th inds leave us early, great numbers of flees on the lard side--shot a sea oter which i did not get, great numbers about those rapids we purchased dogs, small & fat for our party to eate, the indians not verry fond of selling their good fish, compells us to make use of dogs for food exchanged our small canoe for a large & a very new one built for riding the waves obsd merdn. altd. ° ' " latd. prodsd. ° ' / " north [clark, october , ] october d wednesday a fine morning, i with the greater part of the men crossed in the canoes to opposit side above the falls and hauled them across the portage of yards which is on the lard. side and certainly the best side to pass the canoes i then decended through a narrow chanel of about yards wide forming a kind of half circle in it course of a mile to a pitch of feet in which the chanel is divided by large rocks at this place we were obliged to let the canoes down by strong ropes of elk skin which we had for the purpose, one canoe in passing this place got loose by the cords breaking, and was cought by the indians below. i accomplished this necessary business and landed safe with all the canoes at our camp below the falls by oclock p.m. nearly covered with flees which were so thick amongst the straw and fish skins at the upper part of the portage at which place the nativs had been camped not long since; that every man of the party was obliged to strip naked dureing the time of takeing over the canoes, that they might have an oppertunity of brushing the flees of their legs and bodies--great numbers of sea otters in the river below the falls, i shot one in the narrow chanel to day which i could not get. great numbers of indians visit us both from above and below---one of the old chiefs who had accompanied us from the head of the river, informed us that he herd the indians say that the nation below intended to kill us, we examined all the arms &c. complete the amunition to rounds. the nativs leave us earlyer this evening than usial, which gives a shadow of confirmation to the information of our old chief, as we are at all times & places on our guard, are under no greater apprehention than is common. we purchased small fat dogs for the party to eate the nativs not being fond of selling their good fish, compells us to make use of dog meat for food, the flesh of which the most of the party have become fond of from the habits of useing it for some time past. the altitude of this day ° ' " gave for latd. ° ' / n. i observed on the beach near the indian lodges two canoes butifull of different shape & size to what we had seen above wide in the midde and tapering to each end, on the bow curious figures were cut in the wood &c. capt. lewis went up to the lodges to see those canoes and exchanged our smallest canoe for one of them by giveing a hatchet & few trinkets to the owner who informed that he purchased it of a white man below for a horse, these canoes are neeter made than any i have ever seen and calculated to ride the waves, and carry emence burthens, they are dug thin and are suported by cross pieces of about inch diamuter tied with strong bark thro holes in the sides. our two old chiefs appeared verry uneasy this evening. [clark, october , ] october th thursday a fine morning the indians approached us with caution. our old chiefs deturmin to return home, saying they were at war with indians below and they would kill them we pursuaded them to stay nights longer with us, with a view to make a peace with those indians below as well as to have them with us dureing our delay with this tribe. capt lewis went to view the falls i set out with the party at oclock a m at / miles passed a rock which makes from the stard side lodges above below and confined the river in a narrow channel of about yards this continued for about / of a mile & widened to about yards, in those narrows the water was agitated in a most shocking manner boils swell & whorl pools, we passed with great risque it being impossible to make a portage of the canoes, about miles lower passed a verry bad place between rocks one large & in the middle of the river here our canoes took in some water, i put all the men who could not swim on shore; & sent a fiew articles such as guns & papers, and landed at a village of houses on the stard side in a deep bason where the river ap-prd. to be blocked up with emence rocks i walked down and examined the pass found it narrow, and one verry bad place a little in the narrows i pursued this chanel which is from to yards wide and swels and boils with a most tremendeous manner; prosued this channel ms & returned found capt lewis & a chief from below with maney of his men on a visit to us, one of our party pete crusat played on the violin which pleased the savage, the men danced, great numbers of sea orter pole cats about those fishories. the houses of those indians are feet square and sunk feet under ground & covered with bark with a small door round at top rose about inches above ground, to keep out the snow i saw parcels of fish stacked, and great quantites in the houses [clark, october , ] october th thursday the morning fare after a beautifull night, the nativs approached us this morning with great caution. our two old chiefs expressed a desire to return to their band from this place, saying "that they could be of no further service to us, as their nation extended no further down the river than those falls, and as the nation below had expressed hostile intentions against us, would certainly kill them; perticularly as they had been at war with each other;" we requested them to stay with us two nights longer, and we would see the nation below and make a peace between them, they replied they "were anxious to return and see our horses" we insisted on their staying with us two nights longer to which they agreed; our views were to detain those chiefs with us untill we should pass the next falls, which we were told was verry bad, and at no great distance below, that they might inform us of any designs of the nativs, and if possible to bring about a peace between them and the tribes below. the first pitch of this falls is feet perpendicular, then passing thro a narrow chanel for mile to a rapid of about feet fall below which the water has no perceptable fall but verry rapid see sketch no. . it may be proper here to remark that from some obstruction below, the cause of which we have not yet learned, the water in high fluds (which are in the spring) rise below these falls nearly to a leavel with the water above the falls; the marks of which can be plainly trac'd around the falls. at that stage of the water the salmon must pass up which abounds in such great numbers above--below those falls are salmon trout and great numbers of the heads of a species of trout smaller than the salmon. those fish they catch out of the salmon season, and are at this time in the act of burrying those which they had drid for winter food. the mode of buring those fish is in holes of various sizes, lined with straw on which they lay fish skins in which they inclose the fish which is laid verry close, and then covered with earth of about or inches thick. capt lewis and three men crossed the river and on the opposit side to view the falls which he had not yet taken a full view of--at oclock a.m. i set out with the party and proceeded on down a rapid stream of about yards wide at / miles the river widened into a large bason to the stard. side on which there is five lodges of indians. here a tremendious black rock presented itself high and steep appearing to choke up the river nor could i see where the water passed further than the current was drawn with great velocity to the lard side of this rock at which place i heard a great roreing. i landed at the lodges and the natives went with me to the top of this rock which makes from the stard. side; from the top of which i could see the dificuelties we had to pass for several miles below; at this place the water of this great river is compressed into a chanel between two rocks not exceeding forty five yards wide and continues for a / of a mile when it again widens to yards and continues this width for about miles when it is again intersepted by rocks. this obstruction in the river accounts for the water in high floods riseing to such a hite at the last falls. the whole of the current of this great river must at all stages pass thro this narrow chanel of yards wide. as the portage of our canoes over this high rock would be impossible with our strength, and the only danger in passing thro those narrows was the whorls and swills arriseing from the compression of the water, and which i thought (as also our principal watermen peter crusat) by good stearing we could pass down safe, accordingly i detur mined to pass through this place notwithstanding the horrid appearance of this agitated gut swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction (which from the top of the rock did not appear as bad as when i was in it;) however we passed safe to the astonishment of all the inds. of the last lodges who viewed us from the top of the rock. passed one lodge below this rock and halted on the stard. side to view a verry bad place, the current divided by islands of rocks the lower of them large and in the middle of the river, this place being verry bad i sent by land all the men who could not swim and such articles as was most valuable to us such as papers guns & amunition, and proceeded down with the canoes two at a time to a village of wood housies in a deep bend to the stard. side below which a rugid black rock about feet biter than the common high fluds of the river with several dry chapels which appeared to choke the river up quite across; this i took to be the d falls or the place the nativs above call timm, the nativs of this village reived me verry kindly, one of whome envited me into his house, which i found to be large and comodious, and the first wooden houses in which indians have lived since we left those in the vicinty of the illinois, they are scattered permiscuisly on a elivated situation near a mound of about feet above the common leavel, which mound has some remains of houses and has every appearance of being artificial--those houses are about the same shape size and form feet wide and feet long with one dore raised inches above ground, they are / inches high & wide, forming in a half circle above those houses were sunk into the earth six feet, the roofs of them was supported by a ridge pole resting on three strong pieces of split timber thro one of which the dore was cut that and the walls the top of which was just above ground suported a certain number of spars which are covered with the bark of the white ceadar, or arber vitea; and the whole attached and secured by the fibers of the cedar. the eaves at or near the earth, the gable ends and side walls are secured with split boards which is seported on iner side with strong pieces of timber under the eves &c. to keep those pieces errect & the earth from without pressing in the boards, suported by strong posts at the corners to which those poles were attached to give aditional strength, small openings were left above the ground, for the purpose, as i conjectured, of deschargeing their arrows at a besiegeing enimey; light is admited thro an opening at top which also serves for the smoke to pass through. one half of those houses is apropriated for the storeing away dried & pounded fish which is the principal food the other part next the dore is the part occupied by the nativs who have beds raised on either side, with a fire place in the center of this space each house appeared to be occupied by about three families; that part which is apropriated for fish was crouded with that article, and a fiew baskets of burries--i dispatched a sufficent number of the good swimers back for the canoes above the last rapid and with men walked down three miles to examine the river over a bed of rocks, which the water at verry high fluds passes over, on those rocks i saw several large scaffols on which the indians dry fish; as this is out of season the poles on which they dry those fish are tied up verry securely in large bundles and put upon the scaffolds, i counted stacks of dried pounded fish in different places on those rocks which must have contained io,ooo w. of neet fish, the evening being late i could not examine the river to my satisfaction, the chanel is narrow and compressed for about miles, when it widens into a deep bason to the stard. side, & again contracts into a narrow chanel divided by a rock i returned through a rockey open countrey infested with pole-cats to the village where i met with capt. lewis the two old chiefs who accompanied us & the party & canoes who had all arrived safe; the canoes haveing taken in some water at the last rapids. here we formed a camp near the village, the principal chief from the nation below with several of his men visited us, and afforded a favourable oppertunity of bringing about a piece and good understanding between this chief and his people and the two chiefs who accompanied us which we have the satisfaction to say we have accomplished, as we have every reason to believe and that those two bands or nations are and will be on the most friendly terms with each other. gave this great chief a medal and some other articles, of which he was much pleased, peter crusat played on the violin and the men danced which delighted the nativs, who shew every civility towards us. we smoked with those people untill late at night, when every one retired to rest. [clark, october , ] october th friday a cold morning, we deturmined to attempt the chanel after brackfast i took down all the party below the bad places with a load & one canoe passed well, a d passed well i had men on the shore with ropes to throw in in case any acidence happened at the whirl &c--the inds on the rocks veiwing us the rd canoe nearly filled with water we got her safe to shore. the last canoe came over well which to me was truly gratifying set out and had not passed mils before canoes run against a rock in the river with great force no damg. met with a d chief of the nation from hunting, we smoked with him and his party and gave a medal of the small size & set out passed great numbers of rocks, good water and came to at a high point of rocks below the mouth of a creek which falls in on the lard side and head up towards the high snow mountain to the s w. this creek is yards wide and has some beaver signs at its mouth river about / a mile wide and crouded with sea otters, & drum was seen this evening we took possession of a high point of rocks to defend our selves in case the threts of those indians below should be put in execution against us. sent out some hunters to look if any signs of game, one man killed a small deer & several others seen i killed a goose, and suped hartily on venison & goose. camped on the rock guard under the hill. [clark, october , ] october th friday a cool morning capt lewis and my self walked down to see the place the indians pointed out as the worst place in passing through the gut, which we found difficuelt of passing without great danger, but as the portage was impractiable with our large canoes, we concluded to make a portage of our most valuable articles and run the canoes thro accordingly on our return divided the party some to take over the canoes, and others to take our stores across a portage of a mile to a place on the chanel below this bad whorl & suck, with some others i had fixed on the chanel with roapes to throw out to any who should unfortunately meet with difficuelty in passing through; great number of indians viewing us from the high rocks under which we had to pass, the firt canoes passed thro very well, the th nearly filled with water, the last passed through by takeing in a little water, thus safely below what i conceved to be the worst part of this chanel, felt my self extreamly gratified and pleased. we loaded the canoes & set out, and had not proceeded, more than two mile before the unfortunate canoe which filled crossing the bad place above, run against a rock and was in great danger of being lost, this chanel is through a hard rough black rock, from - yards wide. swelling and boiling in a most tremendious maner several places on which the indians inform me they take the salmon as fast as they wish; we passed through a deep bason to the stard side of mile below which the river narrows and divided by a rock the curent we found quit jentle, here we met with our two old chiefs who had been to a village below to smoke a friendly pipe, and at this place they met the cheif & party from the village above on his return from hunting all of whome were then crossing over their horses, we landed to smoke a pipe with this chief whome we found to be a bold pleasing looking man of about years of age dressd. in a war jacket a cap legins & mockersons. he gave us some meat of which he had but little and informed us he in his rout met with a war party of snake indians from the great river of the s. e. which falls in a few miles above and had a fight. we gave this chief a medal, &c. a parting smoke with our two faithful friends the chiefs who accompanied us from the head of the river, (who had purchased a horse each with robes and intended to return on horse back) we proceeded on down the water fine, rocks in every derection for a fiew miles when the river widens and becoms a butifull jentle stream of about half a mile wide, great numbers of the sea orter about those narrows and both below and above. we came too, under a high point of rocks on the lard. side below a creek of yards wide and much water, as it was necessary to make some selestial observations we formed our camp on the top of a high point of rocks, which forms a kind of fortification in the point between the river & creek, with a boat guard, this situation we concieve well calculated for defence, and conveniant to hunt under the foots of the mountain to the west & s. w. where timber of different kinds grows, and appears to be handsom coverts for the deer, in oke woods, sent out hunters to examine for game g. d. killed a small deer & other saw much sign, i killed a goose in the creek which was verry fat--one of the guard saw a drum fish to day as he conceved our situation well calculated to defend our selves from any designs of the natives, should they be enclined to attack us. this little creek heads in the range of mountains which run s s w & n w for a long distance on which is scattering pine white oake &c. the pinical of the round toped mountain which we saw a short distance below the forks of this river is s. ° w. of us and abt miles, it is at this time toped with snow we called this the falls mountain or timm mountain. the face of the countrey, on both side of the river above and about the falls, is steep ruged and rockey open and contain but a small preportion of erbage, no timber a fiew bushes excepted, the nativs at the upper falls raft their timber down towarnehooks river & those at the narrows take theirs up the river to the lower part of the narrows from this creek, and carry it over land miles to their houses &c. at the mouth of this creek saw some beaver sign, and a small wolf in a snare set in the willows the snars of which i saw several made for to catch wolves, are made as follows vz: a long pole which will spring is made fast with bark to a willow, on the top of this pole a string [clark, october , ] october th saturday a fine morning sent out six men to hunt deer & collect rozin to pitch our canoes, had all our articles put out to dry--canoes drawed out and repaired, the injories recved in drawing them over the rocks, every article wet in the canoe which nearly sunk yesterday- in the evening chief and men came over in a single canoe, those chf's proved to be the great chiefs of the tribes above, one gave me a dressed elk skin, and gave us som deer meet, and cakes of white bread made of white roots, we gave to each chief a meadel of the small size a red silk handkerchief & a knife to the st a arm ban & a pin of paint & a comb to his son a piece of riben tied to a tin gorget and hams of venison they deturmined to stay with us all night, we had a fire made for them & one man played on the violin which pleased them much my servent danced--our hunters killed five deer, verry large gray squirrels, a goose & pheasent, one man giged a salmon trout which we had fried in a little bears oil which a chief gave us yesterday and i think the finest fish i ever tasted, saw great numbers of white crams flying in different directions verry high. the river has rose nearly inches to day and has every appearance of a tide, from what cause i can't say--our hunters saw elk & bear signs to day in the white oake woods the country to the lard is broken country thinly timbered with pine and white oake, a mountain which i must call timm or falls mountain rises verry high and bears to s w the course it has bore sinc we first saw it. our men danced to night. dried all our wet articles and repaired our canoes the flees my self and the men got on them in passing thro the plains the indians had lately lived in lodges on the lard. side at the falls, are very troublesom and with every exertion the men can't get rid of them, perticilarly as they have no clothes to change those which they wore those indians are at ware with the snake indians on the river which falls in a few miles above this and have lately had a battle with them, their loss i cannot lern. [clark, october , ] october th saturday a fine morning sent six men out to hunt deer, and collect rozin to pitch the canoes which has become verry leakey, by frequently hauling them over rocks &c as well striking rocks frequently in passing down. all our articles we have exposed to the sun to dry; and the canoes drawn out and turned up--maney of our stores entirely spoiled by being repeetedly wet; a number of indians came to the oposit side of the river in the fore part of the day and shew that they were anxious to cross to us, we did not think proper to cross them in our canoes and did not send for them. in the evening two chiefs and men came over in a small canoe, those two chiefs proved to be the two principal chiefs of the tribes above at the falls, and above, who was out hunting at the time we passed their bands; one of those chiefs made capt lewis and my self each a small present of deer meat, and small cakes of white bread made of roots. we gave to each chief a meadel of the small size a red silk handkerchief, arm band, knife & a piece of paint, and acknowledged them as chiefs; as we thought it necessary at this time to treat those people verry friendly & ingratiate our selves with them, to insure us a kind & friendly reception on our return, we gave small presents to several, and half a deer to them to eate. we had also a fire made for those people to sit around in the middle of our camp, and peter crusat played on the violin, which pleased those nativs exceedingly. the two chiefs and several men deturmined to delay all night (yorked danced for the inds) with us all the others returned, leaving the horses for those who staied on the opposit side. our hunters returned in the evening killed five deer, four verry large grey squirels and a grouse. one of the guard at the river guiged a salmon trout, which we had fried in a little bears oil which the chief we passed below the narrows gave us; this i thought one of the most delicious fish i have ever tasted great numbers of white crain flying in different directions verry high--the river rose inches today from what cause i cannot say certainly, as the tides cannot effect the river here as there is a falls below, i conjecture that the rise is owing to the winds which has set up the river for hours past. our hunters inform that the countrey back is broken, stoney and thinly timbered with pine and white oake. they saw elk & bear sign in the mountains. dried all our wet articles and repared our canoes to day, and the party amused themselves at night danceing. the flees which the party got on them at the upper & great falls, are very troublesom and dificuelt to get rid of, perticularly as the men have not a change of clothes to put on, they strip off their clothes and kill the flees, dureing which time they remain neckid. the nations in the vicinity of this place is at war with the snake indians who they say are noumerous and live on the river we passed above the falls on the same side on which we have encamped, and the nearest town is about four days march they pointed nearly s. e. and informed that they had a battle with those inds. laterly, their loss i could not assertain [clark, october , ] october th sunday a verry windy night and morning wind from the west and hard, send out hunters and they killed deer pheasent and a squirel the chiefs and party continue with us, we treat them well give them to eate & smoke, they were joined by seven others, from below who stayed about hours and returned down the river in a pet, soon after the chiefs deturmined to go home we had them put across the river the wind verry high, we took a vocabelary of the languages of the nations, the one liveing at the falls call themselves e-nee-shur the other resideing at the levels or narrows in a village on the std. side call themselves e-chee-lute not withstanding those people live only miles apart, but fiew words of each others language--the language of those above having great similarity with those tribes of flat heads we have passed--all have the clucking tone anexed which is predomint. above, all flatten the heads of their female children near the falls, and maney above follow the same custom the language of the che-luc-it-to-quar a fiew miles below is different from both in a small degree. the wind increased in the evening and blew verry hard from the same point w. day fair and cold--the creek at which we are encamped is called by the natives-que-nett some words with shabono about his duty--the pinical of falls mountain bears s ° w. about miles [clark, october , ] october th sunday wind hard from the west all the last night and this morning. some words with shabono our interpreter about his duty. sent out several hunters who brought in four deer, one grouse & a squirel. the two chiefs & party was joined by seven others from below in two canoes, we gave them to eate & smoke several of those from below returned down the river in a bad humer, haveing got into this pet by being prevented doeing as they wished with our articles which was then exposed to dry--we took a vocabelary of the languages of those two chiefs which are verry different notwithstanding they are situated within six miles of each other, those at the great falls call themselves e-nee-shur and are understood on the river above. those at the great narrows call themselves eche-lute and is understood below, maney words of those people are the same, and common to all the flat head bands which we have passed on the river, all have the clucking tone anexed which is prodomonate above. all the bands flatten the heads of the female children, and maney of the male children also. those two chief leave us this evening and returned to their bands, the wind verry high & from the west, day proved fair and cool. the nativs call this creek near which we are encamped-que-nett. [clark, october , ] october th monday a windey morning loaded our canoes and set out at oclock a m canoes came down from the village above & from that below in one of those canoes a indian wore his hair cued, and had on a round hat. wind from west those indians have a musket a sword, and several brass tea kitties which they appear to be verry fond of we purchased of those people five small dogs, and some dried beries & white bread of roots, the wind rose and we were obliged to lie by about mile below on the lard. side north mile to a rock island on the stard. side. we had not landed long eer an indian canoe came from below with indians in it, those indians make verry nice canoes of pine. thin with aporns & carve on the head imitation of animals & other heads; the indians above sacrafise the property of the deceased to wit horses canoes, bowls basquets of which they make great use to hold water boil their meet &c. &c. great many indians came down from the uppr village & sat with us, smoked, rained all the evenig & blew hard from the west encamped on the lard side opsd. an rock in a verry bad place [clark, october , ] october th monday a cool windey morning we loaded our canoes and set out at oclock, a.m. as we were about to set out canoes from above and from below came to view us in one of those canoes i observed an indian with round hat jacket & wore his hair cued we proceeded on river inclosed on each side in high clifts of about feet of loose dark coloured rocks at four miles we landed at a village of houses on the stard. side under some rugid rocks, those people call themselves chil-luckit-tequaw, live in houses similar to those described, speake somewhat different language with maney words the same & understand those in their neighbourhood cap lewis took a vocabilary of this language i entered one of the houses in which i saw a british musket, a cutlass and several brass tea kittles of which they appeared verry fond saw them boiling fish in baskets with stones, i also saw figures of animals & men cut & painted on boards in one side of the house which they appeared to prize, but for what purpose i will not venter to say,-. here we purchased five small dogs, some dried buries, & white bread made of roots, the wind rose and we were obliged to lie by all day at mile below on the lard. side. we had not been long on shore before a canoe came up with a man woman & children, who had a fiew roots to sell, soon after maney others joined them from above, the wind which is the cause of our delay, does not retard the motions of those people at all, as their canoes are calculated to ride the highest waves, they are built of white cedar or pine verry light wide in the middle and tapers at each end, with aperns, and heads of animals carved on the bow, which is generally raised. those people make great use of canoes, both for transpotation and fishing, they also use of bowls & baskets made of grass & splits to hold water and boil their fish & meat. maney of the nativs of the last village came down set and smoke with us, wind blew hard accompanied with rain all the evening, our situation not a verry good one for an encampment, but such as it is we are obliged to put up with, the harbor is a safe one, we encamped on the sand wet and disagreeable one deer killed this evening, and another wounded near our camp. [clark, october , ] october th tuesday a cloudy morning wind still from th west not hard, we set out at day light proceeded on about miles and came too at a lodge of a chief which we made at the upper village at th falls about his house there is six others this chief gave us to eate sackacommis burries hasel nuts fish pounded, and a kind of bread made of roots--we gave to the women pices of ribon, which they appeared pleased with--those houses are large feet sqr and contain abt. men, say inhabitents- those people are friendly gave us to eate fish beries, nuts bread of roots & drid beries and we call this the friendly village we purchased dogs of them & sacks of pounded fish, and some fiew dried berries and proceeded on at miles further we landed to smoke a pipe with the people of a village of houses we found those people also friendly their village is situated imediately below the mouth of a river of yards water which falls in on the stard. side and heads in the mountains to the n. & n, e, the indians inform us that this river is long and full of falls no salmon pass up it. they also inform that nations lives on this river by hunting and on buries &c. the countrey begin to be thinly timbered with pine & low white oake verry rocky and hilley--we purchased at this vilg dogs--at the end of this course is rocks, in the river and a rock point from the lard. the middle rock is large and has a number of graves on it we call it the sepulchar island. the last river we call caterack river from the number of falls which the indians inform is on it the indians are afraid to hunt or be on th lard side of this columbia river for fear of the snake ind. who reside on a fork of this river which falls in above the falls a good situation for winter quarters if game can be had is just below sepulchar rock on the lard side, high & pine and oake timber the rocks ruged above, good hunting countrey back, as it appears from the river indian village opsd. of lodgs river / mile wide at rocks the robes of those indians are, of wolf deer elk, wild cats, some fox, & deer i saw one of the mountain sheep, th wool thick and long corse hair on the back, resembling bristles--those animals live among the rocks in those mountains below, orter is much valued by those people they cew their hair on each side with it and ware it about the necks with the tail in front came too at miles on this course at houses of flatheads and encamped on the stard. side, a pond lies back of those people in which we saw great numbers of the small swan. we purchased of those people dogs they gave us high bush cramburies, bread of roots and roots, they were pleased with musick of th violin. [clark, october , ] october th tuesday a cloudy morning wind from the west but not hard, we set out at day light, and proceeded on about five miles came too on the stard. side at a village of houses built in the same form and materials of those above, here we found the chief we had seen at the long narrows named ____ we entered his lodge and he gave us to eate pounded fish, bread made of roots, filberts nuts, & the berries of sackecomme. we gave to each woman of the lodge a brace of ribon of which they were much pleased. each of those houses may be calculated to contain men and soles, they are hospitable and good humered speak the same language of the inhabitants of the last village, we call this the friendly village. i observed in the lodge of the chief sundery articles which must have been precured from the white people, such a scarlet & blue cloth sword jacket & hat. i also observed two wide split boards with images on them cut and painted in emitation of a man; i pointed to this image and asked a man to what use he put them to, he said something the only word i understood was "good," and then steped to the image and took out his bow & quiver to show me, and some other of his war emplemints, from behind it. the chief then directed his wife to hand him his medison bag which he opened and showed us fingers which he said was the fingers of his enemies which he had taken in war, and pointed to s. e. from which direction i concluded they were snake indians; this is the first instance i ever knew of the indians takeing any other trofea of their exploits off the dead bodies of their enimies except the scalp.--the chief painted those fingers with several other articles which was in his bag red and securely put them back, haveing first mad a short harrang which i suppose was bragging of what he had done in war. we purchased dogs and sacks of fish, & some fiew ascid berries, after brackfast we proceeded on, the mountains are high on each side, containing scattering pine white oake & under groth, hill sides steep and rockey; at miles lower we observed a small river falling in with great rapidity on the stard. side below which is a village of houses, here we landed to smoke a pipe with the nativs and examine the mouth of the river, which i found to be yards wide rapid and deep, the inhabitants of the village are friendly and chearfull; those people inform us also those at the last village that this little river is long and full of falls, no salmon pass up it, it runs from n. n. e. that ten nations live on this river and its waters, on buries, and what game they can kill with their bow & arrows we purchased dogs and set out--(this village is the of the same nation of the one we last passed) and proceeded on the countrey on each side begin to be thicker timbered with pine and low white oake; verry rockey and broken. passed three large rocks in the river the middle rock is large long and has several squar vaults on it. we call this rockey island the sepulchar--the last river we passed we shall call the cataract river from the number of falls which the indians say is on it- passed lodges of indians a short distance below the sepulchar island on the stard. side river wide, at mile passed houses on the stard. side, six miles lower passed houses above the mouth of a small river yards wide on the lard. side a thick timbered bottom above & back of those houses; those are the first houses which we have seen on the south side of the columbia river, (and the axess to those dificuelt) for fear of the approach of their common enemies the snake indians, passed houses on the std. side scattered on the bank--from the mouth of this little river which we shall call labeasche river, the falls mountain is south and the top is covered with snow. one mile below pass the mouth of a large rapid stream on the stard. side, opposit to a large sand bar, in this creek the indians above take their fish, here we saw several canoes, which induced us to call this canoe creek it is yards wide, about miles lower and below the sand bar is a butifull cascade falling over a rock of about feet, a short distance lower passed indian houses on the lard. side in a timbered bottom, a fiew miles further we came too at houses on stard. side, back of which is a pond in which i saw great numbers of small swan, capt. lewis and i went into the houses of those people who appeared somewhat surprised at first their houses are built on the same construction of those above, speak the same language and dress in the same way, robes of the skins of wolves deer, elk, wild cat, or loucirvia & fox, also saw a mountain sheap skin the wool of which is long, thick, & corse with long corse hare on the top of the neck and back something resembling bristles of a goat, the skin was of white hare, those animals these people inform me by signs live in the mountains among the rocks, their horns are small and streight, orter skins are highly prised among those people as well as those on the river above, they cue their hare which is divided on each sholder, and also ware small strips about their necks with the tale hanging down in front.--those people gave us, high bush cram berries, bread made of roots, and roots; we purchased three dogs for the party to eate; we smoked with the men, all muche pleased with the violin-. here the mountains are high on each side, those to the lard. side has some snow on them at this time, more timber than above and of greater variety. [clark, october , ] october th wednesday a cloudy morning. some little rain all night, after eating a slight brackfast of venison we set out. the rocks project into the river in maney places and have the appearance of haveing fallen from the highe hills those projected rocks is common & small bays below & nitches in the rocks passed cascades or small streams falling from the mountains on lard. this part of the river resembles a pond partly dreaned leaving many stumps bare both in & out of the water, current about mil pr. hour the bottom above the river is about / of a mile wide and rich, some deer & bear sign--rained moderately all day we are wet and cold. saw several specis of wood which i never saw before, some resembling beech & others poplar.--day dark and disagreeable i with men proceeded down the river miles on an old indian parth to view the rapids, which i found impassable for our canoes without a portage, the roade bad at mile i saw a town of houses laterly abandoned on an elevated situation opsd. a d shute, returned at dark. capt. lewis and men went to the town found them kind they gave beries & nuts, but he cd. get nothin from them in the way of information, the greater part of those people out collecting roots below, rained all the evining those people have one gun & maney articles which they have purchased of the white people their food is principally fish [clark, october , ] october th wednesday a cool morning, a moderate rain all the last night, after eating a partial brackfast of venison we set out passed several places where the rocks projected into the river & have the appearance of haveing seperated from the mountains and fallen promiscuisly into the river, small nitches are formed in the banks below those projecting rocks which is comon in this part of the river, saw cascades caused by small streams falling from the mountains on the lard. side, a remarkable circumstance in this part of the river is, the stumps of pine trees are in maney places are at some distance in the river, and gives every appearance of the rivers being darned up below from some cause which i am not at this time acquainted with, the current of the river is also verry jentle not exceeding / mile pr. hour and about / of a mile in width. some rain, we landed above the mouth of a small river on the stard. side and dined j. shields killed a buck & labiech ducks, here the river widens to about one mile large sand bar in the middle, a great rock both in and out of the water, large stones, or rocks are also permiscuisly scattered about in the river, this day we saw some fiew of the large buzzard capt. lewis shot at one, those buzzards are much larger than any other of ther spece or the largest eagle white under part of their wings &c. the bottoms above the mouth of this little river is rich covered with grass & firn & is about / of a mile wide rich and rises gradually, below the river (which is yards wide above its mouth) the countery rises with steep assent. we call this little river new timbered river from a speces of ash which grows on its banks of a verry large and different from any we had before seen, and a timber resembling the beech in bark but different in its leaf which is smaller and the tree smaller. passed maney large rocks in the river and a large creek on the stard. side in the mouth of which is an island, passed on the right of islands near the stard. side, and landed on an island close under the stard. side at the head of the great shute, and a little below a village of large houses on a deep bend on the stard. side, and opposit small islands imediately in the head of the shute, which islands are covered with pine, maney large rocks also, in the head of the shute. ponds back of the houses, and countrey low for a short distance. the day proved cloudy dark and disagreeable with some rain all day which kept us wet. the countary a high mountain on each side thickly covered with timber, such as spruc, pine, cedar, oake cotton &c. &c. i took two men and walked down three miles to examine the shute and river below proceeded along an old indian path, passd. an old village at mile on an ellevated situation of this village contained verry large houses built in a different form from any i had seen, and laterly abandoned, and the most of the boads put into a pond of water near the village, as i conceived to drown the flees, which was emencely noumerous about the houses-. i found by examonation that we must make a portage of the greater perpotion of our stores / miles, and the canoes we could haul over the rocks, i returned at dark capt lewis and men had just returned from the village, cap l. informed me that he found the nativs kind, they gave him berries, nuts & fish to eate; but he could get nothing from them in the way of information. the greater part of the inhabitants of this village being absent down the river some distance colecting roots capt. l. saw one gun and several articles which must have been precured from the white people. a wet disagreeable evening, the only wood we could get to burn on this little island on which we have encamped is the newly discovered ash, which makes a tolerable fire. we made fifteen miles to daye. [clark, october , ] october st thursday a cloudey raney morning i proceed down the river to view it more at leasure, i took jos. fields & peter crusat and proceeded on down, send crusat back at ms. to examine the rapid near the shore & i proceeded on down about miles to a very high rock in a bottom on the stard. opsd. islands covered with timber on which i saw inds. at a distance; found the river rocky for miles, after which the current became uniform--at mile i passed an old deserted village on a pond on a high situation of houses--at / miles one house the only remt. of an antient village / a mile lower i saw vaults for the dead which was nearly square feet closely covered with broad boads curiously engraved, the bones in some of those vaults wer feet thick, in others the dead was yet layed side of each other nearly east & west, raped up & bound securley in robes, great numbers of trinkets brass kittle, sea shells, iron, pan hare &c. &c. was hung about the vaults and great many wooden gods, or images of men cut in wood, set up round the vaults, some of those so old and worn by time that they were nearly worn out of shape, and some of those vaults so old that they were roted entirely to the ground--notwithstanding they wood is of pine & _____ or seder as also the wooden gods i can not learn certainly if those people worship those woden emiges, they have them in conspicuous parts of their houses at miles i passed large houses on the stard side a little above the last rapid and opposit a large island which is situated near the lard. side--the enhabitents of those houses had left them closely shut up, they appeared to contn. a great deel of property and provisions such as those people use, i did not disturb any thing about those houses, but proceed on down below the rapid which i found to be the last, a large village has at some period been on the stard. side below this rapid the bottom is high stoney and about miles wide covered with grass, here c is the head of a large island in high water, at this time no water passes on the stard. side i walked thro this island which i found to be verry rich, open & covered with strawberry vines, and has greatly the appearance of having at some period been cultivated, the natives has dug roots in some parts of this isld. which is about miles long & wide, a small island covered with timber opposit the lower point no water runs on the stard. side. of it. below and in the middle of the river is a large island covered with tall trees opposit the strawberry island on its stard. side a creek falls in which has no running water at present, it has the appearanc of throwing out emense torents--i saw indians in a canoe below--jo. killed a sand hill crane & we returned by the same rout to camp at the grand shute where i found several indians, i smoked. two canoes loaded with fish for the trade below came down & unloaded the after noon fare those indians cut off the hands of those they kill & proserve the fingers. [clark, october , ] october st thursday a cloudy rainey disagreeable morning i proceeded down the river to view with more attention we had to pass on the river below, the two men with me jo. fields & peter crusat proceeded down to examine the rapids the great shute which commenced at the island on which we encamped continud with great rapidity and force thro a narrow chanel much compressd. and interspersed with large rocks for / a mile, at a mile lower is a verry considerable rapid at which place the waves are remarkably high, and proceeded on in a old indian parth / miles by land thro a thick wood & hill side, to the river where the indians make a portage, from this place i dispatched peter crusat (our principal waterman) back to follow the river and examine the practibility of the canoes passing, as the rapids appeared to continue down below as far as i could see, i with jo. fields proceeded on, at / a mile below the end of the portage passed a house where there had been an old town for ages past as this house was old decayed and a plat of flees i did not enter it, about / a mile below this house in a verry thick part of the woods is vaults which appeared closely covered and highly deckerated with orniments. those vaults are all nearly the same sise and form feet square, feet high, sloped a little so as to convey off the rain made of pine or cedar boards closely connected & scurely covered with wide boards, with a dore left in the east side which is partially stoped with wide boards curiously engraved. in several of those vaults the dead bodies wre raped up verry securely in skins tied around with cords of grass & bark, laid on a mat, all east & west and some of those vaults had as maney as bodies laying on the side of each other. the other vaults containing bones only, some contained bones for the debth of feet. on the tops and on poles attached to those vaults hung brass kitties & frying pans pearced thro their bottoms, baskets, bowls of wood, sea shels, skins, bits of cloth, hair, bags of trinkets & small peices of bone &c and independant of the curious ingraveing and paintings on the boards which formed the vaults i observed several wooden images, cut in the figure of men and set up on the sides of the vaults all round. some of those so old and worn by time, that they were nearly out of shape, i also observed the remains of vaults rotted entirely into the ground and covered with moss. this must bee the burrying place for maney ages for the inhabitants of those rapids, the vaults are of the most lasting timber pine & cedar--i cannot say certainly that those nativs worship those wooden idols as i have every reason to believe they do not; as they are set up in the most conspicious parts of their houses, and treated more like orniments than objects of aderation. at miles lower & below our camp i passed a village of large houses abandend by the nativs, with their bores bared up, i looked into those houses and observed as much property as is usial in the houses of those people which induced me to conclude that they wre at no great distance, either hunting or colecting roots, to add to their winter subsistance. from a short distance below the vaults the mountain which is but low on the stard. side leave the river, and a leavel stoney open bottom suckceeds on the said std. side for a great distance down, the mountains high and rugid on the lard side this open bottom is about miles a short distance below this village is a bad stoney rapid and appears to be the last in view i observed at this lower rapid the remains of a large and antient village which i could plainly trace by the sinks in which they had formed their houses, as also those in which they had buried their fish--from this rapid to the lower end of the portage the river is crouded with rocks of various sizes between which the water passes with great velociety createing in maney places large waves, an island which is situated near the lard. side occupies about half the distance the lower point of which is at this rapid. immediately below this rapid the high water passes through a narrow chanel through the stard. bottom forming an island of miles long & one wide, i walked through this island which i found to be verry rich land, and had every appearance of haveing been at some distant period cultivated. at this time it is covered with grass intersperced with strawberry vines. i observed several places on this island where the nativs had dug for roots and from its lower point i observed indians in a canoe below the upper point of an island near the middle of the river covered with tall timber, which indued me to believe that a village was at no great distanc below, i could not see any rapids below in the extent of my view which was for a long distance down the river, which from the last rapids widened and had everry appearance of being effected by the tide,--i deturmind to return to camp miles distant, a remarkable high detached rock stands in a bottom on the stard side near the lower point of this island on the stard. side about feet high and paces around, we call the beaten rock. a brook falls into the narrow chanel which forms the strawberry island, which at this time has no running water, but has every appearance of dischargeing emence torrents &c. &c. jo. fields shot a sand hill crane. i returned by the same rout on an indian parth passing up on the n w. side of the river to our camp at the great shute. found several indians from the village, i smoked with them; soon after my return two canoes loaded with fish & bear grass for the trade below, came down,from the village at the mouth of the catterack river, they unloaded and turned their canoes up side down on the beech, & camped under a shelveing rock below our camp one of the men shot a goose above this great shute, which was floating into the shute when an indian observed it, plunged into the water & swam to the goose and brought in on shore, at the head of the suck, as this indian richly earned the goose i suffered him to keep it which he about half picked and spited it up with the guts in it to roste. this great shute or falls is about / a mile with the water of this great river compressed within the space of paces in which there is great numbers of both large and small rocks, water passing with great velocity forming & boiling in a most horriable manner, with a fall of about feet, below it widens to about paces and current gentle for a short distance. a short distance above is three small rockey islands, and at the head of those falls, three small rockey islands are situated crosswise the river, several rocks above in the river & large rocks in the head of the shute; those obstructions together with the high stones which are continually brakeing loose from the mountain on the stard side and roleing down into the shute aded to those which brake loose from those islands above and lodge in the shute, must be the cause of the rivers darning up to such a distance above, where it shows such evidant marks of the common current of the river being much lower than at the present day [clark, november , ] november st friday a verry cold morning wind from n. e and hard set all hands packing the loading over th portage which is below the grand shutes and is yards of bad way over rocks & on slipery hill sides the indians who came down in canoes last night packed their fish over a portage of / miles to avoid a d shute. four of them took their canoes over the st portage and run the d shute, great numbers of sea otters, they are so cautious that i with deficuelty got a shute at one to day, which i must have killed but could not get him as he sunk we got all our canoes and baggage below the great shute of the canoes being leakey from injures recved in hauling them over the rocks, obliged us to delay to have them repaired a bad rapid just below us three indian canoes loaded with pounded fish for the &c. trade down the river arrived at the upper end of the portage this evening. i can't lern whether those indians trade with white people or inds. below for the beeds & copper, which they are so fond of--they are nearly necked, prefuring beeds to anything--those beeds they trafick with indians still higher up this river for skins robes &c. &c. the indians on those waters do not appear to be sickly, sore eyes are common and maney have lost their eyes, some one and, maney both, they have bad teeth, and the greater perpotion of them have worn their teeth down, maney into the gums, they are rather small high cheeks, women small and homely, maney of them had sweled legs, large about the knees,-owing to the position in which they set on their hams, they are nearly necked only a piece of leather tied about their breech and a small robe which generally comes to a little below their wastes and scercely sufficely large to cover arround them when confined--they are all fond of clothes but more so of beeds perticularly blue & white beeds. they are durty in the extreme both in their coockery and in their houses. those at the last village raise the beads about five feet from the earth-under which they store their provisions--their houses is about feet to feet square, the bore of which is about inc. high and inches wide in this form cut in a wide pine board they have maney imeges cut in wood, generally, in the figure of a man--those people are high with what they have to sell, and say the white people below give them great prices for what they sell to them. their nose are all pierced, and the wear a white shell maney of which are inch long pushed thro the nose--all the women have flat heads pressed to almost a point at top the press the female childrens heads between bords when young-untill they form the skul as they wish it which is generally verry flat. this amongst those people is considered as a great mark of butyand is practised in all the tribes we have passed on this river more or less. men take more of the drugery off the women than is common with indians [clark, november , ] november st friday a verry cool morning wind hard from the n. e. the indians who arrived last evining took their canoes on ther sholders and carried them below the great shute, we set about takeing our small canoe and all the baggage by land yards of bad slippery and rockey way the indians we discoverd took ther loading the whole length of the portage / miles, to avoid a second shute which appears verry bad to pass, and thro which they passed with their empty canoes. great numbers of sea otters, they are so cautious that i with dificuelty got a shot at one to day, which i must have killed, but could not get him as he sunk we got all our baggage over the portage of yards, after which we got the large canoes over by slipping them over the rocks on poles placed across from one rock to another, and at some places along partial streams of the river. in passing those canoes over the rocks &c. three of them recived injuries which obliged us to delay to have them repared. several indian canoes arrived at the head of the portage, some of the men accompanied by those from the village came down to smoke with us, they appear to speak the same language with a little different axcent i visited the indian village found that the construction of the houses similar to those abov described, with this difference only that they are larger say from to feet by feet, raised about feet above the earth, and nearly as much below the dores in the same form and size cut in the wide post which supports one end of the ridge pole and which is carved and painted with different figures & hieroglyphics those people gave me to eate nuts berries & a little dried fish, and sold me a hat of ther own taste without a brim, and baskets in which they hold their water--their beads are raised about / feet, under which they store away their dried fish, between the part on which they lie and the back wall they store away their roots burries nuts and valuable articles on mats, which are spread also around the fire place which is sunk about one foot lower than the bottom fore of the house, this fire place is about feet long and six feet wide secured with a fraim those houses are calculated for , & families, each familey haveing a nice painted ladder to assend up to their beads. i saw in those houses several wooden images all cut in imitation of men, but differently fasioned and placed in the most conspicious parts of the houses, probably as an orniment i cannot lern certainly as to the traffick those inds. carry on below, if white people or the indians who trade with the whites who are either settled or visit the mouth of this river. i believe mostly with the latter as their knowledge of the white people appears to be verry imperfect, and the articles which they appear to trade mostly i e pounded fish, beargrass, and roots; cannot be an object of comerce with furin merchants--however they git in return for those articles blue and white beeds copper tea kitties, brass arm bands, some scarlet and blue robes and a fiew articles of old clothes, they prefer beeds to any thing and will part with the last mouthfull or articles of clothing they have for a fiew of those beeds, those beeds the trafick with indians still higher up this river for roabs, skins, cha-pel-el bread, beargrass &c. who in their turn trafick with those under the rockey mountains for beargrass, pashico roots & robes &c. the nativs of the waters of the columbia appear helthy, some have turners on different parts of their bodies, and sore and weak eyes are common, maney have lost their sight entirely great numbers with one eye out and frequently the other verry weak; this misfortune i must again asscribe to the water &c. they have bad teeth, which is not common with indians, maney have worn their teeth down and some quite into their gums, this i cannot satisfactorily account for it, do ascribe it in some measure to their method of eateing, their food, roots pertiularly, which they make use of as they are taken out of the earth frequently nearly covered with sand, i have not seen any of their long roots offered for sale clear of sand. they are rether below the common size high cheeks womin small and homely, and have swelled legs and thighs, and their knees remarkably large which i ascribe to the method in which they sit on their hams-go nearly necked wareing only a piece of leather tied about their breast which falls down nearly as low as the waste, a small roabe about feet square, and a piece of leather tied about their breach, they have all flat heads in this quarter they are tirty in the extream, both in their person and cooking, ware their hare loose hanging in every direction. they asc high prices for what they sell and say that the white people below give great prices for every thing &c. the noses are all pierced and when they are dressed they have a long tapered piece of white shell or wampum put through the nose, those shells are about inches in length. i observed in maney of the villeages which i have passed, the heads of the female children in the press for the purpose of compressing their heads in their infancy into a certain form, between two boards [clark, november , ] novr. d saturday meridian altitude ° ' " made a portage of about / miles with half of the baggage, and run the rapid with the canoes without much damage, one struck a rock & split a little, and others took in some water squars came over the portage loaded with dried fish & beargrass, soon after men came down in a canoe after takeing brackfast, & after taking a meridian altitude we set out passed bad rapids one at & the other at mile below the isd on lard. and upper end of strawberry island on the stard. side from the creek end of last course we labiech killed geese & a brant, collins one jos. fields & r those gees are much smaller than common, and have white under their rumps & around the tale, the tide rises here a fiew inches, i cannot assertain the prosise hite it rises at the last rapid or at this placeof camp. the indians we left at the portage passed us this evening one other canoe come up [clark, november , ] november nd saturday examined the rapid below us more pertcelarly the danger appearing too great to hazzard our canoes loaded, dispatched all the men who could not swim with loads to the end of the portage below, i also walked to the end of the portage with the carriers where i delayed untill everry articles was brought over and canoes arrived safe. here we brackfast and took a meridn. altitude ° ' " about the time we were setting out squars came over loaded with dried fish, and bear grass neetly bundled up, soon after indian men came down over the rapid in a large canoe. passed a rapid at miles & at miles opposit the lower point of a high island on the lard side, and a little below houses on the stard. bank, a small creek on the lard side opposit straw berry island, which heads below the last rapid, opposit the lower point of this island passed three islands covered with tall timber opposit the beatin rock those islands are nearest the starboard side, imediately below on the stard. side passed a village of nine houses, which is situated between small creeks, and are of the same construction of those above; here the river widens to near a mile, and the bottoms are more extensive and thickly timbered, as also the high mountains on each side, with pine, spruce pine, cotton wood, a species of ash, and alder. at miles passed a rock near the middle of the river, about feet high and feet diamuter, proceed on down a smoth gentle stream of about miles wide, in which the tide has its effect as high as the beaten rock or the last rapids at strawberry island,--saw great numbers of waterfowl of different kinds, such as swan, geese, white & grey brants, ducks of various kinds, guls, & pleaver. labeach killed brantjoseph fields & collins one. we encamped under a high projecting rock on the lard. side, here the mountains leave the river on each side, which from the great shute to this place is high and rugid; thickly covered with timber principalley of the pine species. the bottoms below appear extensive and thickly covered with wood. river here about / miles wide. seven indians in a canoe on their way down to trade with the nativs below, encamp with us, those we left at the portage passed us this evening and proceeded on down the ebb tide rose here about inches, the flood tide must rise here much higher--we made miles to day from the great shute- [clark, november , ] november rd sunday the fog so thick this morning we did not think it prudent to set out untill oclock we set out and proceeded on verry well, accompanied by our indian friends--this morning labich killed geese flying collins killed a duck--the water rose inches last night the effects of tide. the countrey has a handsom appearance in advance no mountains extensive bottoms--the water shallow for a great distance from shore-. the fog continued thick untill oclock, we coasted, and halted at the mouth of a large river on the lard side, this river throws out emence quanty of sand and is verry shallow, th narrowest part yards wide bold current, much resembling the river plat, several islands about mile up and has a sand bar of miles in extent imedeately in its mouth, discharging it waters by mouths, and crowding its corse sands so as to throw the columbian waters on its nothern banks, & confdg it to / ms. in width passed a small prarie on the stard. side above, a large creek opposit qk sand river on the stard. side, extensive bottoms and low hilley countrey on each side (good wintering place) a high peaked mountain suppose to be mt. hood is on the lard side s. e. miles distant from the mouth of quick sand river.- [clark, november , ] november rd sunday the fog so thick this morning that we could not see a man steps off, this fog detained us untill oclock at which time we set out, accompanied by our indian friends who are from a village near the great falls, previous to our setting out collins killed a large buck, and labiech killed geese flying. i walked on the sand beech lard. side, opposit the canoes as they passed allong. the under groth rushes, vines &c. in the bottoms too thick to pass through, at miles i arrived at the enterance of a river which appeared to scatter over a sand bar, the bottom of which i could see quite across and did not appear to be inches deep in any part; i attempted to wade this stream and to my astonishment found the bottom a quick sand, and impassable--i called to the canoes to put to shore, i got into the canoe and landed below the mouth, & capt lewis and my self walked up this river about / miles to examine this river which we found to be a verry considerable stream dischargeing its waters through chanels which forms an island of about miles in length on the river and / miles wide, composed of corse sand which is thrown out of this quick sand river compressing the waters of the columbia and throwing the whole current of its waters against its northern banks, within a chanel of / a mile wide, several small islands mile up this river, this stream has much the appearance of the river plait; roleing its quick sands into the bottoms with great velocity after which it is divided into chanels by a large sand bar before mentioned, the narrowest part of this river is yards-on the opposit side of the columbia a falls in above this creek on the same side is a small prarie. extensive low country on each side thickly timbered. the quick sand river appears to pass through the low countrey at the foot of those high range of mountains in a southerly direction,--the large creeks which fall into the columbia on the stard. side rise in the same range of mountains to the n. n. e. and pass through some ridgey land--a mountain which we suppose to be mt. hood is s. e about miles distant from the mouth of quick sand river this mtn. is covered with snow and in the range of mountains which we have passed through and is of a conical form but rugid--after takeing dinner at the mouth of this river we proceeded on passed the head of a island near the lard side back of which on the same side and near the head a large creek falls in, and nearly opposit & miles below the upper mouth of quick sand river is the lower mouth, this island is / miles long, has rocks at the upper point, some timber on the borders of this island in the middle open and ponney. some rugid rocks in the middle of the stream opposit this island. proceeded in to center of a large island in the middle of the river which we call dimond isld. from its appearance, here we met indn men in canoes from below, they informed us they saw vestles below &c. &c. we landed on the north side of this dimond island and encamped, capt. l walked out with his gun on the island, sent out hunters & fowlers--below quick sand river the countrey is low rich and thickly timbered on each side of the river, the islands open & some ponds river wide and emence numbers of fowls flying in every direction such as swan, geese, brants, cranes, stalks, white guls, comerants & plevers &c. also great numbers of sea otter in the river--a canoe arrived from the village below the last rapid with a man his wife and children, and a woman whome had been taken prisoner from the snake inds. on clarks river i sent the interpreters wife who is a so so ne or snake indian of the missouri, to speake to this squar, they could not understand each other sufficiently to converse. this familey and the inds. we met from below continued with us capt lewis borrowed a small canoe of those indians & men took her across to a small lake in the isld. cap l. and men set out after night in this canoe in serch of the swans, brants ducks &c. &c. which appeared in great numbers in the lake, he killed a swan and several ducks which made our number of fowls this evening swan, brant and ducks, on which we made a sumptious supper. we gave the indian-who lent the canoe a brant, and some meat to the others. one of those indians, the man from the village near the lower rapids has a gun with a brass barrel & cock of which he prises highly--note the mountain we saw from near the forks proves to be mount hood [clark, november , ] novr. th monday a cloudy cool morning, wind west, we set out at / past oclock having dispatched men in the small canoe to hunt (those people men & women heads are flat) we landed at a village men of flatheads of houses canoes built of straw, we were treated verry kindly by them, they gave us round root near the size of a hens egg roasted which they call wap-to to eate i walked out on the stard. side found the country fine, an open prarie for mile back of which the wood land comence riseing back, the timber on the edge of the prarie is white oke, back is spruce pine & other species of pine mixed some under groth of a wild crab & a specis of wood i'm not acquainted, a specis of maple & cotton wood grow near this river, some low bushes indians continue to be with us, several canoes continue with us, the indians at the last village have more cloth and uriopian trinkets than above i saw some guns, a sword, maney powder flasks, salers jackets, overalls, hats & shirts, copper and brass trinkets with few beeds only. dureing the time i was at dinner the indians stold my tomahawk which i made use of to smoke i serched but could not find it, a pond on the stard side, off from the river. raspberries and ____ are also in the bottoms--met a large and small canoe with men from below the men were dressed with a variety of articles of european manufactory the large canoe had emeges on the bow & stern handsomly carved in wood & painted with the figur of a bear in front & man in a stern. saw white geese with black wings--saw a small crab-apple with all the taste & flavor of the common--those indians were all armed with pistols or bows and arrows ready sprung war axes &c. mount hellen bears n. ° e about miles, this is the mountain we saw near the foks of this river. it is emensely high and covered with snow, riseing in a kind of cone perhaps the highest pinecal from the common leavel in america passed a village of hs. on the stard side at mils, one at mls. one deer ducks & brant killed [clark, november , ] november th monday a cloudy cool morning wind from the west we set out at / past oclock, one man shannon set out early to walk on the island to kill something, he joined us at the lower point with a buck. this island is miles long and near miles wide thinly timbered (tide rose last night inches perpndicular at camp) near the lower point of this dimond island is the head of a large island seperated from a small one by a narrow chanel, and both situated nearest the lard side, those islands as also the bottoms are thickly covered with pine &c. river wide, country low on both sides; on the main lard shore a short distance below the last island we landed at a village of houses; of those houses were thached with straw, and covered with bark, the other house is built of boards in the form of those above, except that it is above ground and about feet in length and covered with broad split boards this village contains about men of the skil-loot nation i counted canoes on the bank in front of this village maney of them verry large and raised in bow. we recognised the man who over took us last night, he invited us to a lodge in which he had some part and gave us a roundish roots about the size of a small irish potato which they roasted in the embers until they became soft, this root they call wap-pa-to which the bulb of the chinese cultivate in great quantities called the sa-git ti folia or common arrow head-. it has an agreeable taste and answers verry well in place of bread. we purchased about bushels of this root and divided it to our party, at miles below this village passed the upper point of a large island nearest the lard side, a small prarie in which there is a pond opposit on the stard. here i landed and walked on shore, about miles a fine open prarie for about mile, back of which the countrey rises gradually and wood land comencies such as white oake, pine of different kinds, wild crabs with the taste and flavour of the common crab and several species of undergroth of which i am not acquainted, a few cottonwood trees & the ash of this countrey grow scattered on the river bank, saw some elk and deer sign and joined capt. lewis at a place he had landed with the party for diner. soon after several canoes of indians from the village above came down dressed for the purpose as i supposed of paying us a friendly visit, they had scarlet & blue blankets salors jackets, overalls, shirts and hats independant of their usial dress; the most of them had either war axes spears or bows sprung with quivers of arrows, muskets or pistols, and tin flasks to hold their powder; those fellows we found assumeing and disagreeable, however we smoked with them and treated them with every attention & friendship. dureing the time we were at dinner those fellows stold my pipe tomahawk which they were smoking with, i imediately serched every man and the canoes, but could find nothing of my tomahawk, while serching for the tomahawk one of those scoundals stole a cappoe of one of our interpreters, which was found stufed under the root of a treer, near the place they sat, we became much displeased with those fellows, which they discovered and moved off on their return home to their village, except canoes which had passed on down--we proceeded on met a large & a small canoe from below, with men the large canoe was ornimented with images carved in wood the figures of a bear in front & a man in stern, painted & fixed verry netely on the of the canoe, rising to near the hight of a man two indians verry finely dressed & with hats on was in this canoe passed the lower point of the island which is nine miles in length haveing passed islands on the stard side of this large island, three small islands at its lower point. the indians make signs that a village is situated back of those islands on the lard. side and i believe that a chanel is still on the lrd, side as a canoe passed in between the small islands, and made signs that way, probably to traffick with some of the nativs liveing on another chanel, at miles lower, and leagues below quick sand river passed a village of four large houses on the lard. side, near which we had a full view of mt. helien which is perhaps the highest pinical in america from their base it bears n. ° e about miles--this is the mountain i saw from the muscle shell rapid on the th of october last covered with snow, it rises something in the form of a sugar lofe--about a mile lower passed a single house on the lard. side, and one on the stard. side, passed a village on each side and camped near a house on the stard. side we proceeded on untill one hour after dark with a view to get clear of the nativs who was constantly about us, and troublesom, finding that we could not get shut of those people for one night, we landed and encamped on the stard. side soon after canoes came to us loaded with indians, we purchased a fiew roots of them. this evening we saw vines much resembling the raspberry which is verry thick in the bottoms. a range of high hills at about miles on the lard side which runs s. e. & n w. covered with tall timber the bottoms below in this range of hills and the river is rich and leavel, saw white geese with a part of their wings black. the river here is / miles wide, and current jentle. opposit to our camp on a small sandy island the brant & geese make such a noise that it will be impossible for me to sleap. we made miles to day killed a deer and several brant and ducks. i saw a brarow tamed at the st village to day the indians which we have passd to day of the scil-loot nation in their language from those near & about the long narrows of the che-luc-it-te-quar or e-chee-lute, their dress differ but little, except they have more of the articles precured from the white traders, they all have flatened heads both men and women, live principally on fish and wap pa toe roots, they also kill some fiew elk and deer, dureing the short time i remained in their village they brought in three deer which they had killed with their bow & arrows. they are thievishly inclined as we have experienced. [clark, november , ] novr. th tuesday a cloudy morning som rain the after part of last night & this morning. i could not sleep for the noise kept by the swans, geese, white & black brant, ducks &c. on a opposit base, & sand hill crane, they were emensely numerous and their noise horrid. we set out at sun rise & our hunters killed brant of which were white with black wings ducks, and a swan which were divided, we came too and encamped on the lard. side under a high ridgey land, the high land come to the river on each side. the river about / mile wide. those high lands rise gradually from the river & bottoms--we are all wet cold and disagreeable, rain continues & encreases. i killed a pheasent which is very fat--my feet and legs cold. i saw snakes to day on a island, but little appearance of frost at this place. [clark, november , ] november th tuesday rained all the after part of last night, rain continues this morning, i slept but verry little last night for the noise kept dureing the whole of the night by the swans, geese, white & grey brant ducks &c. on a small sand island close under the lard. side; they were emensely noumerous, and their noise horid--we set out early here the river is not more than / of a mile in width, passed a small prarie on the stard. side passed houses about / a mile from each other on the lard. side a canoe came from the upper house, with men in it mearly to view us, passed an isld. covered with tall trees & green briers seperated from the stard. shore by a narrow chanel at miles i observed on the chanel which passes on the stard side of this island a short distance above its lower point is situated a large village, the front of which occupies nearly / of a mile fronting the chanel, and closely connected, i counted houses in front here the river widens to about / miles. seven canoes of indians came out from this large village to view and trade with us, they appeared orderly and well disposed, they accompanied us a fiew miles and returned back. about / miles below this village on the lard side behind a rockey sharp point, we passed a chanel / of a mile wide, which i take to be the one the indian canoe entered yesterday from the lower point of immage canoe island a some low clifts of rocks below this chanel, a large island close under the stard side opposit, and small islands, below, here we met canoes from below,--below those islands a range of high hills form the stard. bank of the river, the shore bold and rockey, covered with a thick groth of pine an extensive low island, seperated from the lard side by a narrow chanel, on this island we stoped to dine i walked out found it open & covered with grass interspersed with small ponds, in which was great numbr. of foul, the remains of an old village on the lower part of this island, i saw several deer our hunters killed on this island a swan, white grey brant & ducks all of them were divided, below the lower point of this island a range of high hills) which runs s. e. forms the lard. bank of the river the shores bold and rockey & hills covered with pine, the high hills leave the river on the stard. side a high bottom between the hill & river. we met canoes of indians from below, in which there is indians, one of those canoes is large, and ornimented with images on the bow & stern. that in the bow the likeness of a bear, and in stern the picture of a man--we landed on the lard. side & camped a little below the mouth of a creek on the stard. side a little below the mouth of which is an old village which is now abandaned-; here the river is about one and a half miles wide, and deep, the high hills which run in a n w. & s e. derection form both banks of the river the shore boald and rockey, the hills rise gradually & are covered with a thick groth of pine &c. the valley which is from above the mouth of quick sand river to this place may be computed at miles wide on a derect line, & extends a great distanc to the right & left rich thickly covered with tall timber, with a fiew small praries bordering on the river and on the islands; some fiew standing ponds & several small streams of running water on either side of the river; this is certainly a fertill and a handsom valley, at this time crouded with indians. the day proved cloudy with rain the greater part of it, we are all wet cold and disagreeable--i saw but little appearance of frost in this valley which we call wap-pa-loo columbia from that root or plants growing spontaneously in this valley only in my walk of to day i saw striped snakes i killed a grouse which was verry fat, and larger than common. this is the first night which we have been entirely clear of indians since our arrival on the waters of the columbia river. we made miles to day by estimation- [clark, november , ] november th wednesday a cold wet morning. rain contd. untill ____ oclock we set out early & proceeded on the corse of last night &c. [clark, november , ] november th wednesday a cool wet raney morning we set out early at miles pass lodges of indians in a small bottom on the lard side i believe those indians to be travelers. opposit is the head of a long narrow island close under the starboard side, back of this island two creeks fall in about miles apart, and appear to head in the high hilley countrey to the n. e. opposit this long island is others one small and about the middle of the river. the other larger and nearly opposit its lower point, and opposit a high clift of black rocks on the lard. side at miles: here the indians of the lodges we passed to day came in their canoes with sundery articles to sell, we purchased of them wap-pa-too roots, salmon trout, and i purchased beaver skins for which i gave small fish hooks. here the hills leave the river on the lard. side, a butifull open and extensive bottom in which there is an old village, one also on the stard. side a little above both of which are abandened by all their inhabitents except two small dogs nearly starved, and an unreasonable portion of flees--the hills and mountains are covered with sever kinds of pine-arber vitea or white cedar, red loril, alder and several species of under groth, the bottoms have common rushes, nettles, & grass the slashey parts have bull rushes & flags--some willow on the waters edge, passed an island miles long and one mile wide, close under the stard. side below the long narrow island below which the stard hills are verry from the river bank and continues high and rugid on that side all day, we over took two canoes of indians going down to trade one of the indians spoke a fiew words of english and said that the principal man who traded with them was mr. haley, and that he had a woman in his canoe who mr. haley was fond of &c. he showed us a bow of iron and several other things which he said mr. haley gave him. we came too to dine on the long narrow island found the woods so thick with under groth that the hunters could not get any distance into the isld. the red wood, and green bryors interwoven, and mixed with pine, alder, a specis of beech, ash &c. we killed nothing to day the indians leave us in the evening, river about one mile wide hills high and steep on the std. no place for several miles suffcently large and leavil for our camp we at length landed at a place which by moveing the stones we made a place sufficently large for the party to lie leavil on the smaller stones clear of the tide cloudy with rain all day we are all wet and disagreeable, had large fires made on the stone and dried our bedding and kill the flees, which collected in our blankets at every old village we encamped near i had like to have forgotten a verry remarkable knob riseing from the edge of the water to about feet high, and about paces around at its base and situated on the long narrow island above and nearly opposit to the lodges we passed to day, it is some distance from the high land & in a low part of the island [clark, november , ] november th thursday a cloudy fogey morning, a little rain. set out at oclock proceeded on the womens peticoat is about inches long made of arber vita or the white cedar bark wove to a string and hanging down in tossles and tied so as to cover from their hips as low as the peticoat will reach and only covers them when standing, as in any other position the tosels seperate. those people sold us otter skins for fish hooks of which they wer fond we delayed / hour & set out the tide being up in & the river so cut with islands we got an indian to pilot us into the main chanel one of our canoes seperated from us this morning in the fog--great numbers of water fowls of every descriptn. common to this river [clark, november , ] november th thursday a cloudy foggey morning some rain. we set out early proceeded under the stard shore under a high rugid hills with steep assent the shore boalt and rockey, the fog so thick we could not see across the river, two canos of indians met and returned with us to their village which is situated on the stard side behind a cluster of marshey islands, on a narrow chanl. of the river through which we passed to the village of houses, they gave us to eate some fish, and sold us, fish, wap pa to roots three dogs and otter skins for which we gave fish hooks principally of which they were verry fond. those people call themselves war-ci-a-cum and speake a language different from the nativs above with whome they trade for the wapato roots of which they make great use of as food. their houses differently built, raised entirely above ground eaves about feet from the ground supported and covered in the same way of those above, dotes about the same size but in the side of the house in one corner, one fire place and that near the opposit end; around which they have their beads raised about feet from the fore which is of earth, under their beads they store away baskets of dried fish berries & wappato, over the fire they hang the flesh as they take them and which they do not make immediate use. their canoes are of the same form of those above. the dress of the men differ verry little from those above, the womin altogether different, their robes are smaller only covering their sholders & falling down to near the hip--and sometimes when it is cold a piec of fur curiously plated and connected so as to meet around the body from the arms to the hips the garment which occupies the waist and thence as low as the knee before and mid leg behind, cannot properly be called a petticoat, in the common acception of the word; it is a tissue formed of white cedar bark bruised or broken into small straps, which are interwoven in their center by means of several cords of the same materials which serves as well for a girdle as to hold in place the straps of bark which forms the tissue, and which strans, confined in the middle, hang with their ends pendulous from the waiste, the whole being of suffcent thickness when the female stands erect to conceal those parts useally covered from familiar view, but when she stoops or places herself in any other attitudes this battery of venus is not altogether impervious to the penetrating eye of the amorite. this tissue is sometims formed of little strings of the silk grass twisted and knoted at their ends &c. those indians are low and ill shaped all flat heads after delaying at this village one hour and a half we set out piloted by an indian dressed in a salors dress, to the main chanel of the river, the tide being in we should have found much dificuelty in passing into the main chanel from behind those islands, without a pilot, a large marshey island near the middle of the river near which several canoes came allong side with skins, roots fish &c. to sell, and had a temporey residence on this island, here we see great numbers of water fowls about those marshey islands; here the high mountanious countrey approaches the river on the lard side, a high mountn. to the s w. about miles, the high mountans. countrey continue on the stard side, about miles below the last village and miles of this day we landed at a village of the same nation. this village is at the foot of the high hills on the stard side back of small islands it contains indifferent houses built in the same form of those above, here we purchased a dog some fish, wappato roots and i purchased beaver skins for the purpose of makeing me a roab, as the robe i have is rotten and good for nothing. opposit to this village the high mountaneous countrey leave the river on the lard side below which the river widens into a kind of bay & is crouded with low islands subject to be covered by the tides--we proceeded on about miles below the village under a high mountaneous countrey on the stard. side. shore boald and rockey and encamped under a high hill on the stard. side opposit to a rock situated half a mile from the shore, about feet high and feet diamieter, we with dificuelty found a place clear of the tide and sufficiently large to lie on and the only place we could get was on round stones on which we lay our mats rain continud. moderately all day & two indians accompanied us from the last village, they we detected in stealing a knife and returned, our small canoe which got seperated in the fog this morning joined us this evening from a large island situated nearest the lard side below the high hills on that side, the river being too wide to see either the form shape or size of the islands on the lard side. great joy in camp we are in view of the ocian, this great pacific octean which we been so long anxious to see. and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey shores (as i suppose) may be heard distictly we made miles to day as computed [clark, november , ] novr. th friday a cloudy morning some rain and wind we changed our clothes and set out at oclock proceeded on close under the stard. side r. fields killed a goose & canvis back ducks in this bay after dinner we took the advantage of the returning tide & proceeded on to the d point, at which place we found the swells too high to proceed we landed and drew our canoes up so as to let the tide leave them. the three indians after selling us fish for which we gave seven small fishing hooks, and a piece of red cloth. some fine rain at intervales all this day. the swells continued high all the evening & we are compelled to form an encampment on a point scercely room sufficent for us all to lie clear of the tide water. hills high & with a steep assent, river wide & at this place too salt to be used for drink. we are all wet and disagreeable, as we have been continually for severl. days past, we are at a loss & cannot find out if any settlement is near the mouth of this river. the swells were so high and the canoes roled in such a manner as to cause several to be verry sick. reuben fields, wiser mcneal & the squar wer of the number [clark, november , ] november th friday a cloudy morning some rain, we did not set out untill oclock, haveing changed our clothing--proceeded on close under the stard. side, the hills high with steep assent, shore boald and rockey several low islands in a deep bend or bay to the lard side, river about or miles wide. three indians in a canoe overtook us, with salmon to sell, passed old villages on the stard. side and at miles entered a nitch of about miles wide and miles deep with several creeks makeing into the stard hills, this nitch we found verry shallow water and call it the shallow nitch we came too at the remains of an old village at the bottom of this nitch and dined, here we saw great numbers of fowl, sent out men and they killed a goose and two canves back ducks here we found great numbers of hees which we treated with the greatest caution and distance; after diner the indians left us and we took the advantage of a returning tide and proceeded on to the second point on the std. here we found the swells or waves so high that we thought it imprudent to proceed; we landed unloaded and drew up our canoes. some rain all day at intervales; we are all wet and disagreeable, as we have been for several days past, and our present situation a verry disagreeable one in as much; as we have not leavel land sufficient for an encampment and for our baggage to lie cleare of the tide, the high hills jutting in so close and steep that we cannot retreat back, and the water of the river too salt to be used, added to this the waves are increasing to such a hight that we cannot move from this place, in this situation we are compelled to form our camp between the hite of the ebb and flood tides, and rase our baggage on logs--we are not certain as yet if the whites people who trade with those people or from whome they precure ther goods are stationary at the mouth, or visit this quarter at stated times for the purpose of trafick &c. i believe the latter to be the most probable conjucture--the seas roled and tossed the canoes in such a manner this evening that several of our party were sea sick. [clark, november , ] novr. th saturday the tide of last night obliged us to unload all the canoes one of which sunk before she was unloaded by the high waves or swells which accompanied the returning tide, the others we unloaded, and others was filled with water soon after by the swells or high sees which broke against the shore imediately where we lay, rained hard all the fore part of the day, the tide which rose untill oclock p m to day brought with it such emence swells or waves, added to a hard wind from the south which loosened the drift trees which is verry thick on the shores, and tossed them about in such a manner, as to endanger our canoes very much, with every exertion and the strictest attention by the party was scercely suffient to defend our canoes from being crushed to pieces between those emensely large trees maney of them feet long and feet through. the tide of this day rose about ____ feet & inches higher than yesterday this is owing to the wind which sets in from the ocian, we are compelled to move our camp from the water, as also the loading every man as wet all the last night and this day as the rain could make them which contind. all day. at oclock the wind shifted about to the s. w imediately from the ocian and blew a storm for about hours, raised the tide verry high all wet & cold labiech killed ducks very fat & r. fields saw elk sign. not withstanding the disagreeable time of the party for several days past they are all chearfull and full of anxiety to see further into the ocian. the water is too salt to drink, we use rain water. the salt water has acted on some of the party already as a pergitive. rain continus. [clark, november , ] november th saturday the tide of last night did not rise sufficintly high to come into our camp, but the canoes which was exposed to the mercy of the waves &c. which accompanied the returning tide, they all filled, and with great attention we saved them untill the tide left them dry--wind hard from the south and rained hard all the fore part of the day, at oclock p m the flood tide came in accompanied with emence waves and heavy winds, floated the trees and drift which was on the point on which we camped and tosed them about in such a manner as to endanger the canoes verry much, with every exertion and the strictest attention by every individual of the party was scercely sufficient to save our canoes from being crushed by those monsterous trees maney of them nearly feet long and from to feet through. our camp entirely under water dureing the hight of the tide, every man as wet as water could make them all the last night and to day all day as the rain continued all day, at oclock p m the wind shifted about to the s. w. and blew with great violence imediately from the ocian for about two hours, notwithstanding the disagreeable situation of our party all wet and cold (and one which they have experienced for several days past) they are chearfull and anxious to see further into the ocian, the water of the river being too salt to use we are obliged to make use of rain water--some of the party not accustomed to salt water has made too free a use of it on them it acts as a pergitive. at this dismal point we must spend another night as the wind & waves are too high to proceed. [clark, november , ] november th sunday rained verry hard the greater part of the last night & continus this morning, the wind has layed and the swells are fallen. we loaded our canoes and proceeded on, passed a deep bay on the stard. side i call ____ the wind rose from the n w. and the swells became so high, we were compelled to return about miles to a place where we could unld. our canoes, which was in a small bay on driftwood, on which we had also to make our fires to dry our selves as well as we could the shore being either a clift of purpendicular rocks or steep assents to the hight of or feet, we continued on this drift wood untill about oclock when the evening appearing favourable we loaded & set out in hopes to turn the point below and get into a better harber, but finding the waves & swells continue to rage with great fury below, we got a safe place for our stores & a much beter one for the canoes to lie and formed a campment on drift logs in the same little bay under a high hill at the enterence of a small drean which we found verry convt. on account of its water, as that of the river is brackish--the logs on which we lie is all on flote every high tide--the rain continud all day--we are all wet, also our beding and many other articles. we are all employed untill late drying our bedding. nothing to eate but pounded fish [clark, november , ] november th sunday rained verry hard the greater part of last night and continues this morning. the wind has luled and the waves are not high; we loaded our canoes and proceeded on passed several small and deep nitch on the stard. side, we proceeded on about miles saw great numbers of sea guls, the wind rose from the n. w. and the waves became so high that we were compelled to return about miles to a place we could unload our canoes, which we did in a small nitch at the mouth of a small run on a pile of drift logs where we continued untill low water, when the river appeared calm we loaded and set out; but was obliged to return finding the waves too high for our canoes to ride, we again unloaded the canoes, and stoed the loading on a rock above the tide water, and formed a camp on the drift logs which appeared to be the only situation we could find to lie, the hills being either a perpendicular clift, or steep assent, riseing to about feet--our canoes we secured as well as we could--we are all wet the rain haveing continued all day, our beding and maney other articles, employ our selves drying our blankets- nothing to eate but dried fish pounded which we brought from the falls. we made miles today [clark, november , ] november th monday a hard rain all the last night we again get wet the rain continue at intervals all day. wind verry high from s w and blew a storm all day sent out jo. fields & collins to hunt. at oclock at a time the wind was verry high and waves tremendeous five indians came down in a canoe loaded with fish of salmon spes. called red charr, we purchased of those indians of these fish, for which we gave, fishing hooks & some trifling things, we had seen those indians at a village behind some marshey islands a few days ago. they are on their way to trade those fish with white people which they make signs live below round a point, those people are badly clad, one is dressd. in an old salors jacket & trouses, the others elk skin robes. we are truly unfortunate to be compelled to lie days nearly in the same place at a time that our day are precious to us, the wind shifted to ____ the indians left us and crossed the river which is about miles wide through the highest sees i ever saw a small vestle ride, their canoe is small, maney times they were out of sight before the were miles off certain it is they are the best canoe navigators i ever saw the tide was hours later to day than yesterday and rose much higher, the trees we camped on was all on flote for about hours from untill oclock p m, the great quantities of rain which has fallen losenes the stones on the side of the hill & the small ones fall on us, our situation is truly a disagreeable one our canoes in one place at the mercy of the waves our baggage in another and our selves & party scattered on drift trees of emense sizes, & are on what dry land they can find in the crevices of the rocks & hill sides [clark, november , ] november th monday a hard rain all the last night, dureing the last tide the logs on which we lay was all on float sent out jo fields to hunt, he soon returned and informed us that the hills was so high & steep, & thick with undergroth and fallen timber that he could not get out any distance; about oclock indians came down in a canoe, the wind verry high from the s. w. with most tremendious waves brakeing with great violence against the shores, rain falling in torrents, we are all wet as usial and our situation is truly a disagreeable one; the great quantites of rain which has loosened the stones on the hill sides, and the small stones fall down upon us, our canoes at one place at the mercy of the waves, our baggage in another and our selves and party scattered on floating logs and such dry spots as can be found on the hill sides, and crivices of the rocks. we purchased of the indians red chary which we found to be an excellent fish we have seen those indians above and are of a nation who reside above and on the opposit side who call themselves call-har-ma they are badly clad & illy made, small and speak a language much resembling the last nation, one of those men had on a salors jacket and pantiloons and made signs that he got those clothes from the white people who lived below the point &c. those people left us and crossed the river (which is about miles wide at this place) through the highest waves i ever saw a small vestles ride. those indians are certainly the best canoe navigaters i ever saw. rained all (lay [clark, november , ] november th tuesday a tremendious thunder storm abt. oclock this morning accompanied by wind from the s w. and hail, this storm of hard clap's thunder lighting and hail untill about oclock at intervals it then became light for a short time when the heavens became darkined by a black cloud from the s, w, & a hard rain suckceeded which lasted untill oclock with a hard wind which raised the seas tremendiously high braking with great force and fury against the rocks & trees on which we lie, as our situation became seriously dangerous, we took the advantage of a low tide & moved our camp around a point a short distance to a small wet bottom at the mouth of a small creek, which we had not observed when we first came to this cove, from its being very thick and obscured by drift trees & thick bushes, send out men to hunt they found the woods so thick with pine & timber and under broth that they could not get through, saw some elk tracks, i walked up this creek & killed salmon trout, the men killd. of the salmon species, the pine of fur specs, or spruc pine grow here to an emense size & hight maney of them & feet through and upwards of feet high. it would be distressing to a feeling person to see our situation at this time all wet and cold with our bedding &c. also wet, in a cove scercely large nough to contain us, our baggage in a small holler about / a mile from us, and canoes at the mercy of the waves & drift wood, we have scured them as well as it is possible by sinking and wateing them down with stones to prevent the emence waves dashing them to pices against the rocks--one got loose last night & was left on a rock by the tide some distance below without recving much damage. fortunately for us our men are helthy. it was clear at for a short time. i observed the mountains on the opposit side was covered with snowour party has been wet for days and is truly disagreeable, their robes & leather clothes are rotten from being continually wet, and they are not in a situation to get others, and we are not in a situation to restore them--i observe great numbers of sea guls, flying in every derection--three men gibson bratten & willard attempted to decend in a canoe built in the indian fashion and abt. the size of the one the indians visited us in yesterday, they could not proceed, as the waves tossed them about at will, they returned after proceeding about mile--we got our selves tolerable comfortable by drying our selves & bedding cought salmon this evining in a small branch above about mile [clark, november , ] november th tuesday a tremendious wind from the s. w. about oclock this morning with lightineng and hard claps of thunder, and hail which continued untill oclock a.m. when it became light for a short time, then the heavens became sudenly darkened by a black cloud from the s. w. and rained with great violence untill oclock, the waves tremendious brakeing with great fury against the rocks and trees on which we were encamped. our situation is dangerous. we took the advantage of a low tide and moved our camp around a point to a small wet bottom at the mouth of a brook, which we had not observed when we came to this cove; from it being verry thick and obscured by drift trees and thick bushes it would be distressing to see our situation, all wet and colde our bedding also wet, (and the robes of the party which compose half the bedding is rotten and we are not in a situation to supply their places) in a wet bottom scercely large enough to contain us, our baggage half a mile from us and canoes at the mercy of the waves, altho secured as well as possible, sunk with emence parcels of stone to wate them down to prevent their dashing to pieces against the rocks; one got loose last night and was left on a rock a short distance below, without rciving more daminage than a split in her bottom--fortunately for us our men are healthy. men gibson bratten & willard attempted to go aroud the point below in our indian canoe, much such a canoe as the indians visited us in yesterday, they proceeded to the point from which they were oblige to return, the waves tossing them about at will i walked up the branch and giged salmon trout. the party killed salmon to day in a branch about miles above. rain continued [clark, november , ] november th wednesday some intervales of fair weather last night, rain and wind continue this morning, as we are in a cove & the mountains verry high & pine spruce verry high & thick cannot deturmine the procise course of the winds. i walked to the top of the first part of the mountain with much fatigue as the distance was about miles thro intolerable thickets of small pine, arrow wood a groth much resembling arrow wood with briers, growing to & feet high interlocking with each other & furn, aded to this difficulty the hill was so steep that i was obliged to drawing my self up in many places by the bowers, the countrey continues thick and hilley as far back a i could see. some elk sign, rained all day moderately. i am wet &c. &c. the hail which fell night past is yet to be seen on the mountain on which i was to day. i saw a small red berry which grows on a stem of about or inches from the ground, in bunches and in great quantity on the mountains, the taste insiped. i saw a number of verry large spruce pine one of which i measured feet around and verry tall. my principal objects in assdg. this mountain was to view the river below, the weather being so cloudey & thick that i could not see any distance down, discovered the wind high from the n. w. and waves high at a short distance below our encampment, (squar displeased with me for not sin &c &c. wap-lo a excellent root which is rosted and tastes like a potato i cut my hand despatched men in a indian canoe (which is calculated to ride high swells) down to examine if they can find the bay at the mouth & good barbers below for us to proceed in safty. the fides at every hud come in with great swells & breake against the rocks & drift trees with great fury--the rain continue all the evening nothing to eate but pounded fish which we have as a reserve see store, and what pore fish we can kill up the branch on which we are encamped our canoe and the three men did not return this evening--if we were to have cold weather to accompany the rain which we have had for this or days passed we must eneviatilbly suffer verry much as clothes are scerce with us. [clark, november , ] november th wednesday some intervales of fair weather last night, rain continue this morning. i walked up the brook & assended the first spur of the mountain with much fatigue, the distance about miles, through an intolerable thickets of small pine, a groth much resembling arrow wood on the stem of which there is thorns; this groth about or feet high inter lockd into each other and scattered over the high fern & fallen timber, added to this the hills were so steep that i was compelled to draw my self up by the assistance of those bushes--the timber on those hills are of the pine species large and tall maney of them more than feet high & from to feet through at the stump those hills & as far back as i could see, i saw some elk sign, on the spur of the mountain tho not fresh. i killed a salmon trout on my return. the hail which fell nights past is yet to be seen on the mountains; i saw in my ramble to day a red berry resembling solomons seal berry which the nativs call sol-me and use it to eate. my principal object in assending this mountain was to view the countrey below, the rain continuing and weather proved so cloudy that i could not see any distance on my return we dispatched men colter, willard and shannon in the indian canoe to get around the point if possible and examine the river, and the bay below for a god barber for our canoes to lie in safty &c. the tide at every floot tide came with great swells brakeing against the rocks & drift trees with great fury the rain continue all day. nothing to eate but pounded fish which we keep as a reserve and use in situations of this kind. [clark, november , ] novr. th thursday rained last night without intermission and this morning the wind blew hard from the ____ we could not move, one canoe was broken last night against the rocks, by the waves dashing her against them in high tide about oclock indians come up in a canoe thro emence waves & swells, they landed and informed us they saw the men we sent down yesterday, at some distance below soon after those people came colter one of the men returned and informed us that he had proceeded with his canoe as far as they could, for the waves and could find no white people, or bay, he saw a good canoe barber & camps of indians at no great distance below and that those with us had taken his gig & knife &c. which he forcably took from them & they left us, after our treating them well. the rain continue all day all wet as usial, killed only fish to day for the whole party, at oclock capt. lewis drewyer jo. & r. fields & frasure set out down on the shore to examine if any white men were below within our reach, they took a empty canoe & men to set them around the point on a gravelley beech which colter informed was at no great distance below. the canoe returned at dusk half full of water, from the waves which dashed over in passing the point capt lewis is object is also to find a small bay as laid down by vancouver just out of the mouth of the columbia river. rained as usial all the evening, all wet and disagreeable situated [clark, november , ] november th thursday rained all the last night without intermition, and this morning. wind blows verry hard but our situation is such that we cannot tell from what point it comes--one of our canoes is much broken by the waves dashing it against the rocks-- indians came up in a canoe, thro the waves, which is verry high and role with great fury--they made signs to us that they saw the men we sent down yesterday. only of those indians landed, the other which was women played off in the waves, which induced me to suspect that they had taken something from our men below, at this time one of the men colter returnd by land and informed us that those indians had taken his gigg & basket, i called to the squars to land and give back the gigg, which they would not doe untill a man run with a gun, as if he intended to shute them when they landed, and colter got his gig & basket i then ordered those fellows off, and they verry readily cleared out they are of the war-ci-a-cum n. colter informed us that "it was but a short distance from where we lay around the point to a butifull sand beech, which continud for a long ways, that he had found a good harber in the mouth of a creek near indian lodgesthat he had proceeded in the canoe as far as he could for the waves, the other two men willard & shannon had proceeded on down" capt lewis concluded to proceed on by land & find if possible the white people the indians say is below and examine if a bay is situated near the mouth of this river as laid down by vancouver in which we expect, if there is white traders to find them &c. at oclock he set out with men drewyer jos. & reu. fields & r. frasure, in one of our large canoes and men to set them around the point on the sand beech. this canoe returned nearly filled with water at dark which it receved by the waves dashing into it on its return, haveing landed capt. lewis & his party safe on the sand beech. the rain continues all day all wet. the rain &c. which has continued without a longer intermition than hours at a time for ten days past has distroyd. the robes and rotted nearly one half of the fiew clothes the party has, perticularley the leather clothes,--fortunately for us we have no very cold weather as yet and if we have cold weather before we can kill & dress skins for clothing the bulk of the party will suffer verry much. [clark, november , ] november th friday rained all the last night at intervales of sometimes of hours, this morning it became calm & fair, i prepared to set out at which time the wind sprung up from the s. e. and blew down the river & in a fiew minits raised such swells and waves brakeing on the rocks at the point as to render it unsafe to proceed. i went to the point in an empty canoe and found it would be dangerous to proceed even in an empty canoe the sun shown untill oclock p.m.which gave an oppertunity for us to dry some of our bedding, & examine our baggage, the greater part of which i found wet some of our pounded fish spoiled i had all the arms put in order & amunition examined. the rainey weather continued without a longer intermition than hours at a time from the th in the morng. untill the th is eleven days rain, and the most disagreeable time i have experienced confined on a tempiest coast wet, where i can neither get out to hunt, return to a better situation, or proceed on: in this situation have we been for six days past.--fortunately the wind lay about oclock we loaded i in great haste and set out passed the blustering point below which is a sand beech, with a small marshey bottom for miles on the stard. side, on which is a large village of houses deserted by the inds. & in full possession of the flees, a small creek fall in at this village, which waters the country for a few miles back; shannon & indians met me here, shannon informed me he met capt. lewis some distance below & he took willard with him & sent him to meet me, the inds with him wer rogues, they had the night before stold both his and willards guns from under their heads, capt. lewis & party arrived at the camp of those indians at so timely a period that the inds. were allarmed & delivered up the guns &c. the tide meeting of me and the emence swells from the main ocean (imedeately in front of us) raised to such a hite that i concluded to form a camp on the highest spot i could find in the marshey bottom, and proceed no further by water as the coaste becomes verry dangerous for crafts of the size of our canoes-and as the ocian is imedeately in front and gives us an extensive view of it from cape disapointment to point addams, my situation is in the upper part of haley bay s. ° w. ____ miles course five to cape disapt. and s. ° w. course ____ miles from point addams the river here at its mouth from point addams to the enterance of haley bay above is ____ miles or thereabouts, a large isd. the lower point of which is immediately in the mouth above indians in a canoe came down with papto roots to sell, for which they asked, blankets or robes, both of which we could not spare i informed those indians all of which understood some english that if they stole our guns &c the men would certainly shute them, i treated them with great distance, & the sentinal which was over our baggage allarmed them verry much, they all promised not to take any thing, and if any thing was taken by the squars & bad boys to return them &c. the waves became very high evening fare & pleasent, our men all comfortable in the camps they have made of the boards they found at the town above [clark, november , ] november th friday rained all the last night, this morning it became calm and fair, i preposed setting out, and ordered the canoes repared and loaded; before we could load our canoes the wind sudenly sprung up from the s. e and blew with such violence, that we could not proceed in safty with the loading. i proceeded to the point in an empty canoe, and found that the waves dashed against the rocks with such violence that i thought it unsave to set out with the loaded canoes--the sun shown untill oclock p m which afford us time to dry our bedding and examine the baggage which i found nearly all wet, some of our pounded fish spoiled in the wet; i examined the amunition and caused all the arms to be put in order. about oclock the wind luled, and the river became calm, i had the canoes loaded in great haste and set out, from this dismal nitich where we have been confined for days passed, without the possibility of proceeding on, returning to a better situation, or get out to hunt, scerce of provisions, and torents of rain poreing on us all the time- proceeded on passed the blustering point below which i found a butifull sand beech thro which runs a small below the mouth of this stream is a village of houses uninhabited by anything except flees, here i met g. shannon and indians. shannon informed me that he met capn. lewis at an indian hut about miles below who had sent him back to meet me, he also told me the indians were thievish, as the night before they had stolen both his and willards rifles from under their heads, that they set out on their return and had not proceeded far up the beech before they met capt lewis, whose arival was at a timely moment and alarmed the indians so that they instantly produced the guns--i told those indians who accompanied shannon that they should not come near us, and if any one of their nation stold anything from us, i would have him shot, which they understoot verry well. as the tide was comeing in and the seas became verry high imediately from the ocian (imediately faceing us) i landed and formed a camp on the highest spot i could find between the hight of the tides, and the slashers in a small bottom this i could plainly see would be the extent of our journey by water, as the waves were too high at any stage for our canoes to proceed any further down. in full view of the ocian from point adams to cape disapointment, i could not see any island in the mouth of this river as laid down by vancouver. the bay which he laies down in the mouth is imediately below me. this bay we call haleys bay from a favourate trader with the indians which they say comes into this bay and trades with them course to point adams is s. °w. about miles to cape disapointment is s. °w. about miles indians of the war-ki a cum nation came down with pap-pa-too to sell &c. the indians who accompanied shannon from the village below speake a different language from those above, and reside to the north of this place the call themselves chin nooks, i told those people that they had attempted to steal guns &c. that if any one of their nation stole any thing that the sentinl. whome they saw near our baggage with his gun would most certainly shute them, they all promised not to tuch a thing, and if any of their womin or bad boys took any thing to return it imediately and chastise them for it. i treated those people with great distance. our men all comfortable in their camps which they have made of boards from the old village above. we made miles to day. [clark, november , ] november th satturday a fine morning cool the latter part of the night, i had all our articles of every discription examined, and found much wet, had all put out & dried, the indians theves left me. i took a meridean altd. with sextt. ° the shakeing emige below--i sent out several hunters some to kill fowl others to hunt deer or elk. the sea is fomeing and looks truly dismal to day, from the wind which blew to day from the s. w. an indian canoe passed down to day, loaded with roots &c. three indians came up from below i gave them smoke but allowed then no kind of priveleges what ever, they camped with the which came down yesterday, near us, the evening provd. cloudy & i could make no lunar observations. one man sick with a violent cold, caught by lying in his wet clothes, several nights course from stormey point to cape disapointment is ____ miles, passd a small creek and an old village at miles on the stard side a small creek at mile we encamped just above a point in a deep bay to the stard. side into which falls small rivers std. grat many indians liveing on the bay & those two rivers, the the countrey on the stard. side high broken & thickly timbered, that on the lard. at some distance from point adms high and mountains on a pinecal of a which is snow at this time--near the point is low bottom land our hunters and fowlers killd deer crane & ducks, my servt. york killed geese & white, black and speckle brants, the white brant, with part of their wings black is much the largest, the black brant is verry small, a little larger than a large duck--the deer pore but large [clark, november , ] november th saturday cool the latter part of the last night this morning clear and butifull; i had all our articles of every discription examined and put out to dry. the chin nooks left us i took a meridenal altitude with the sextn. ° ' which gave for lattitude ° ' / " north. i sent out several hunters and fowlers in pursute elk, deer, or fowls of any kind. wind hard from the s w the waves high & look dismal indeed breaking with great fury on our beech an indian canoe pass down to day loaded with wap-pa-toe roots; several indians came up to day from below, i gave them smoke but allowed them no kind of privilage whatever in the camp, they with the which came down yesterday encamped a short distance from us. the evening proved cloudy and i could not take any luner observations--one man sick with a violent cold, caught by laying in his wet leather clothes for maney nights past. the countrey on the stard side above haley bay is high broken and thickley timbered on the lard side from point adams the contrey appears low for or miles back to the mountains, a pinical of which now is covered with snow or hail, as the opposit is too far distant to be distinguished well, i shall not attempt to describe any thing on that side at present. our hunters and fowlers killed deer crain & ducks, and my man york killed geese and brant, of them white with a part of their wings black and much larger than the grey brant which is a sise larger than a duck. [clark, november , ] november th sunday a fair cool windey morning wind from the east. every tide which rises feet inches at this place, comes in with high swells which brake on the sand shore with great fury. i sent out men to kill deer & fowls this morning at half past oclock capt. lewis and his party returned haveing around passd. point disapointment and some distance on the main ocian to the n w. several indians followed him & soon after a canoe with wapto roots, & lickorish boiled, which they gave as presents, in return for which we gave more than the worth to satisfy,them a bad practice to receive a present of indians, as they are never satisfied in return. our hunters killed deer & th fowler ducks & q brant i surveyed a little on the corse & made some observns. the chief of the nation below us came up to see us the name of the nation is chin-nook and is noumerous live principally on fish roots a fiew elk and fowls. they are well armed with good fusees. i directed all the men who wished to see more of the ocean to get ready to set out with me on tomorrow day light. the following men expressed a wish to accompany me i'e seri. nat pryor serjt. j. ordway, jo. fields r. fields, jo. shannon, jo colter, william bratten, peter wiser, shabono & my servant york. all others being well contented with what part of the ocean & its curiosities which could be seen from the vicinity of our camp. [clark, november , ] november th sunday a fair cool morning wind from the east. the tide rises at this place feet inches and comes in with great waves brakeing on the sand beech on which we lay with great fury six hunters out this morning in serch of deer & fowl. at half past oclock capt lewis returned haveing travesed haleys bay to cape disapointment and the sea coast to the north for some distance. several chinnook indians followed (,apt l--and a canoe came up with roots mats &c. to sell. those chinnooks made us a present of a rute boiled much resembling the common liquorice in taste and size; in return for this root we gave more than double the value to satisfy their craveing dispostn. it is a bad practice to receive a present from those indians as they are never satisfied for what they reive in return if ten time the value of the articles they gave. this chin nook nation is about souls inhabid the countrey on the small rivrs which run into the bay below us and on the ponds to the n w of us, live principally on fish and roots, they are well armed with fusees and sometimes kill elk deer and fowl. our hunters killed to day deer, brant and ducks, and inform me they saw some elk sign. i directed all the men who wished to see more of the main ocian to prepare themselves to set out with me early on tomorrow morning. the principal chief of the chinnooks & his familey came up to see us this evening- [clark, november , ] novr. th monday a little cloudy this morning i set out at day light with men & my sevent, shabono, sergt. pryer odderway jos. & r. fields shannon colter, wiser, lebiech & york proceeded on down the shore from the st point at a run & island near the shore here the traders ancher & trade? we passed at each point a soft clifts of yellow, brown & dark soft stones here capt lewis myself & severl. of the men marked our names day of the month & by land &c. &c. from this s. w. miles to the iner pt. of cape disapointmt passed a point & small nitches (reuben fields killed a vulter) we found a curious fiat fish shaped like a turtle, with fins on each side, and a tale notched like a fish, the internals on one sid and tale & fins flat wise this fish flownder has a white on one side & lies flat to the ground--passed from last hitch across to the ocean / a mile low land the cape is a high partly bald hill, founded on rock, i assencled a high seperate bald hill covered with long corse grass & seperated from the hight of country by a slashey bottom miles s. w of the cape--thence to a d grassey pt is n. ° w. miles, those hills are founded on rocks & the waves brake with great fury against them, the coast is sholey for several miles of this cape & for some distance off to the n w a sand bar in the mouth. sholey some distance out from the mouth the coast from the cape n w is open for a short distance back then it becomes thick piney countrey intersperced with ponds point addams is s ° w about miles the course on that side bears s w. i cannot assertain the prosise course of the deep water in the mouth of the river, the channel is but narrow. i proceeded on up above the d point and encamped on the shore above the high tide, evening clear, for a short time. supd. on brant and pounded fish men all chearfull, express a desire to winter near the falls this winter. [clark, november , ] november h monday a little cloudy this morning i set out with to men and my man york to the ocian by land. i. e. seijt. ordway & pryor, jos. & ru. fields, go. shannon, w. brattin,_j. colter, p. wiser, w. labieche & p. shabono one of our interpreters & york. i set out at day light and proceeded on a sandy beech from cape disapointment to a high point of a mountn. which we shall call clarke's point of view beares s. ° w. about miles, point adams is verry low and is situated within the direction between those two high points of land, the water appears verry shole from off the mouth of the river for a great distance, and i cannot assertain the direction of the deepest chanel, the indians point nearest the opposit side. the waves appear to brake with tremendious force in every direction quite across a large sand bar lies within the mouth nearest to point adams which is nearly covered at high tide. i suped on brant this evening with a little pounded fish. some rain in the after part of the night. men appear much satisfied with their trip beholding with estonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks & this emence ocian [clark, november , ] november th tuesday began to rain a little before day and continued raining untill oclock i proceeded on thro emencely bad thickets & hills crossing points to a rd on which we built a fire and cooked a deer which jos. field killd. from this point i can see into a deep bend in the coast to the n. e. for miles. after brackfast i proceeded on n. e. miles to comcement a large sand bar at a low part ponds a little off from the coast here the high rockey hills end and a low marshey countrey suckceed. i proceeded up the course n. ° w. miles & marked my name & the day of the month on a pine tree, the waters which wash this sand beach is tinged with a deep brown colour for some distance out. the course contd. is n. ° w. low coast and sand beech, saw a dead sturgen feet long on the sand, & the back bone of a whale, as i conceived raind i then returned to the cape & dined, some curious deer on this course darker large boded shorte legs pronged horns & the top of the tale black under part white as usial passed a nitch in the rocks below into which falls a stream, after dinner i set out on my return s. e. passed over a low ridge & thro a piney countrey vs miles to the bay, thence up the bay to the mouth of the chen-nook river crossed in the canoe we had left there & encamped on the upper side the hills in the point of this bay are not high, & imedeately below this river the present yellow bluffs above the river and up for about miles the land is low slashey and contains much drift wood, the countrey up this creek is low with copse of high land or as i may say elevated. the buzzard which ruben fields killed diameter of one feather is-- / & line from the tip of one to the tip of the other wing is feet inches, from the point of the bill to the tale is feet / ins. middle toe / inches, toe nale inches wing feather feet / in. tale feathers / in. head is / inch long including the beek [clark, november , ] november th tuesday a cloudy rainey day proceeded up the coast which runs from my camp / miles west of the iner extry of the cape n. ° w. miles through a rugged hilley countrey thickly off the sea coast to the comencment of an extencive sand beech which runs n. ° w. to point lewis about miles distance. i proceeded up this coast miles and marked my name on a low pine. and returned miles back (the countrey opsd. this sand coast is low and slashey,) crossed the point miles to the bay and encamped on chinnook river--see another book for perticulars [clark, november , ] tuesday november the th i arose early this morning from under a wet blanket caused by a shower of rain which fell in the latter part of the last night and sent two men on a head with directions to proceed on near the sea coast and kill something for brackfast and that i should follow my self in about half an hour. after drying our blankets a little i set out with a view to proceed near the coast the direction of which induced me to conclude that at the distance of or miles, the bay was at no great distance across. i overtook the hunters at about miles, they had killed a small deer on which we brackfast it comened raining and continud moderately untill oclock a m. after takeing a sumptious brackfast of venison which was rosted on stiks exposed to the fire, i proceeded on through ruged country of high hills and steep hollers on a course from the cape n ° w. miles on a direct line to the commencement of a sandy coast which extended n. ° w. from the top of the hill above the sand shore to a point of high land distant near miles. this point i have taken the liberty of calling after my particular friend lewis--at the commencement of this sand beech the high lands leave the sea coast in a direction to chinnook river, and does not touch the sea coast again below point lewis leaveing a low pondey countrey, maney places open with small ponds in which there is great numbr. of fowl i am informed that the chinnook nation inhabit this low countrey and live in large wood houses on a river which passes through this bottom parrilal to the sea coast and falls into the bay i proceeded on the sandy coast miles, and marked my name on a small pine, the day of the month & year, &c. and returned to the foot of the hill, from which place i intended to strike across to the bay, i saw a sturgeon which had been thrown on shore and left by the tide feet in length, and several joints of the back bone of a whale which must have foundered on this part of the coast. after dineing on the remains of our small deer i proceeded through over a land s e with some ponds to the bay distance about miles, thence up to the mouth of chinnook river miles, crossed this little river in the canoe we left at its mouth and encamped on the upper side in an open sandy bottom--the hills next to the bay cape disapointment to a short distance up the chinnook river is not verry high thickly coverd. with different species of pine &c. maney of which are large, i observed in maney places pine of or feet through growing on the bodies of large trees which had fallen down, and covered with moss and yet part sound. the deer of this coast differ materially from our common deer in a much as they are much darker deeper bodied shorter ledged horns equally branched from the beem the top of the tail black from the rute to the end eyes larger and do not lope but jump-. [clark, november , ] novr. wednesday some rain last night despatchd. men to hunt jo. fields & cotter to hunt elk & labich to kill some brant for our brackfast the morning cleared up fare and we proceeded on by the same rout we went out, at the river we found no indians. made a raft & ruben fields crossed and took over a small canoe which lay at the indian cabin--this creek is at this time of high tide yards wide & the marshes for some distance up the creek covered with water. not an indian to be seen near the creek. i proceeded on to camp & on my way was over taken by indians one gave us sturgeon & wapto roots to eate i met several parties on way all of them appeared to know me & was distant, found all well at camp, maney indians about one of which had on a robe made of sea orter skins. capt lewis offered him many things for his skins with others a blanket, a coat all of which he refused we at length purchased it for a belt of blue beeds which the squar had- the tide being out we walked home on the beech [clark, november , ] wednesday november the th some rain last night dispatched labiech to kill some fowl for our brackfast he returned in about hours with large ducks on which we brackfast i proceeded on to the enterance of a creek near a cabin no person being at this cabin and canoes laying on the opposit shore from us, i deturmined to have a raft made and send a man over for a canoe, a small raft was soon made, and reuben fields crossed and brought over a canoe--this creek which is the outlet of a number of ponds, is at this time (high tide) yds wide--i proceeded on up the beech and was overtaken by three indians one of them gave me some dried sturgeon and a fiew wappato roots, i employd those indians to take up one of our canoes which had been left by the first party that came down, for which service i gave them each a fishing hook of a large size--on my way up i met several parties of chinnooks which i had not before seen they were on their return from our camp. all those people appeard to know my deturmonation of keeping every individual of their nation at a proper distance, as they were guarded and resurved in my presence &c. found maney of the chin nooks with capt. lewis of whome there was cheifs com com mo ly & chil-lar-la-wil to whome we gave medals and to one a flag. one of the indians had on a roab made of sea otter skins the fur of them were more butifull than any fur i had ever seen both capt. lewis & my self endeavored to purchase the roab with different articles at length we precured it for a belt of blue beeds which the squar-wife of our interpreter shabono wore around her waste. in my absence the hunters had killed several deer and fowl of different kinds [clark, november , ] november st thursday a cloudy morning most of the indians left us, the nation on the opposit side is small & called clap-soil, their great chief name stil-la-sha the nation liveing to the north is called chieltz. the chief is name malaugh not large nation and wore his beards as informed by the inds. in my absence the hunters kild. deer, brants & a crane. great numbers of the dark brant passing southerley, the white yet stationary, no gees & swan to be seen. the wind blew hard from the s. e. which with the addition of the flood tide raised emence swells & waves which almost entered our encampment morng. dark & disagreeable, a supriseing climent. we have not had one cold day since we passed below the last falls or great shute & some time before the climent is temperate, and the only change we have experienced is from fair weather to rainey windey weather--i made a chief & gave a medel this man is name tow-wall and appears to have some influence with the nation and tells me he lives at the great shute-we gave the squar a coate of blue cloth for the belt of blue beeds we gave for the sea otter skins purchased of an indian. at oclock it began to rain, and continued moderately all day, some wind from the s. e., waves too high for us to proceed on our homeward bound journey. lattitude of this place is ° ' / " north several indians and squars came this evening i beleave for the purpose of gratifying the passions of our men, those people appear to view sensuality as a necessary evile, and do not appear to abhore this as crime in the unmarried females. the young women sport openly with our men, and appear to receive the approbation of their friends & relations for so doing maney of the women are handsom. they are all low both men and women, i saw the name of j. bowmon marked or picked on a young squars left arm. the women of this nation pick their legs in different figures as an orpiment. they were their hair loose, some trinkets in their ears, none in the nose as those above, their dress is as follows, i,e the men, were a roabe of either the skins of ____ a small fured animal, & which is most common, or the skins of the sea orter, loon, swan, beaver, deer, elk, or blankets either red, blu, or white, which roabes cover the sholders arms & body, all other parts are nakd. the women were a short peticoat of the iner bark of the white ceder or arber vita, which hang down loose in strings nearly as low as the knee, with a short robe which fall half way down the thigh. no other part is covered. the orniments are beeds, blue principally, large brass wire around their rists som rings, and maney men have salors clothes, many have good fusees & ball & powder--the women ware a string of something curious tied tight above the anckle, all have large swelled legs & thighs the men small legs & thighs and generally badly made--they live on elk deer fowls, but principally fish and roots of kinds, lickorish, wapto &c. the women have more privalages than is common amongst indians--pocks & venerial is common amongst them i saw one man & one woman who appeared to be all in scabs, & several men with the venereal, their other disorders and the remides for them i could not lern we divided some ribin between the men of our party to bestow on their favourite lasses, this plan to save the knives & more valueable articles. those people gave me sturgion salmon & wapto roots, & we bought roots, some mats &c. &c. for which we were obliged to give emence prices--we also purchased a kind of cranberry which the indians say the geather in the low lands, off of small either vines or bushes just abov the ground--we also purchased hats made of grass &c. of those indians, some very handsom mats made of flags-some fiew curious baskets made of a strong weed & willow or ____ splits-, also a sweet soft black root, about th sise & shape of a carrot, this root they value verry highly- the wapto root is scerce, and highly valued by those people, this root they roste in hot ashes like a potato and the outer skin peals off, tho this is a trouble they seldom perform. [clark, november , ] thursday november st a cloudy morning most of the chinnooks leave our camp and return home, great numbers of the dark brant passing to the south, the white brant have not yet commenced their flight. the wind blew hard from the s. e. which with the addition of the flood tide raised verry high waves which broke with great violence against the shore throwing water into our camp--the fore part of this day cloudy at oclock it began to rain and continud all day moderately, several indians visit us to day of differant nations or bands some of the chiltz nation who reside on the sea coast near point lewis, several of the clotsops who reside on the opposit side of the columbia imediately opposit to us, and a chief from the grand rapid to whome we gave a medal. an old woman & wife to a cheif of the chinnooks came and made a camp near ours she brought with her young squars i believe for the purpose of gratifying the passions of the men of our party and receving for those indulgiences such small as she (the old woman) thought proper to accept of, those people appear to view sensuality as a necessary evel, and do not appear to abhor it as a crime in the unmarried state--the young females are fond of the attention of our men and appear to meet the sincere approbation of their friends and connections, for thus obtaining their favours; the womin of the chinnook nation have handsom faces low and badly made with large legs & thighs which are generally swelled from a stopage of the circulation in the feet (which are small) by maney strands of beeds or curious strings which are drawn tight around the leg above the anckle, their legs are also picked with different figures, i saw on the left arm of a squar the following letters,. bowmon, all those are considered by the natives of this quarter as handsom deckerations, and a woman without those deckorations is considered as among the lower class they ware their hair lose hanging over their back and sholders maney have blue beeds threaded & hung from different parts of their ears and about ther neck and around their wrists, their dress other wise is prosisely like that of the nation of wa ci a cum as already discribed. a short roab, and tissue or kind of peticoat of the bark of cedar which fall down in strings as low as the knee behind and not so low before maney of the men have blankets of red blue or spotted cloth or the common three & / point blankets, and salors old clothes which they appear to prise highly, they also have robes of sea otter, beaver, elk, deer, fox and cat common to this countrey, which i have never seen in the u states. they also precure a roabe from the nativs above, which is made of the skins of a small animal about the size of a cat, which is light and dureable and highly prized by those people--the greater numbers of the men of the chinnooks have guns and powder and ball--the men are low homely and badly made, small crooked legs large feet, and all of both sects have flattened heads--the food of this nation is principally fish & roots the fish they precure from the river by the means of nets and gigs, and the salmon which run up the small branches together with what they collect drifted up on the shores of the sea coast near to where they live the roots which they use are several different kinds, the wappato which they precure from the nativs above, a black root which they call shaw-na tah que & the wild licquorish is the most common, they also kill a fiew elk deer & fowl--maney of the chinnooks appear to have venerious and pustelus disorders. one woman whome i saw at the beech appeared all over in scabs and ulsers &c. we gave to the men each a pece of ribin we purchased cramberies mats verry netely made of flags and rushes, some roots, salmon and i purchased a hat made of splits & strong grass, which is made in the fashion which was common in the u states two years ago also small baskets to hold water made of split and straw, for those articles we gave high prices-. [clark, november , ] novr. nd friday some little rain all the last night with wind, before day the wind increased to a storm from the s. s. e. and blew with violence throwing the water of the river with emence waves out of its banks almost over whelming us in water, o! how horriable is the day--this storm continued all day with equal violence accompanied with rain, several indians about us, nothing killed the waves & brakers flew over our camp, one canoe split by the tossing of those waves--we are all confined to our camp and wet. purchased some wapto roots for which was given, brass armbans & rings of which the squars were fond. we find the indians easy ruled and kept in order by a stricter indifference towards them [clark, november , ] friday november nd a moderate rain all the last night with wind, a little before day light the wind which was from the s s. e. blew with such violence that we wer almost overwhelmned with water blown from the river, this storm did not sease at day but blew with nearly equal violence throughout the whole day accompaned with rain. o! how horriable is the day waves brakeing with great violence against the shore throwing the water into our camp &c. all wet and confind to our shelters, several indian men and women crouding about the mens shelters to day, we purchased a fiew wappato roots for which we gave armbans, & rings to the old squar, those roots are equal to the irish potato, and is a tolerable substitute for bread the threat which i made to the men of this nation whome i first saw, and an indifference towards them, is i am fulley convinced the cause of their conducting themselves with great propriety towards ourselves & party. [clark, november , ] november rd saturday the cloudy and calm, a moderate rain the greater part of the last night, sent out men to hunt this morning and they killed bucks, rained at intervales all day. i marked my name the day of the month & year on a beech trees & (by land) capt lewis branded his and the men all marked their nams on trees about the camp. one indian came up from their village on some lakes near haleys bay. in the evening indians of the clatt sopp nation, opposit came over, they brought with them sea orter skins, for which the asked such high prices we were uneabled to purchase, without reduceing our small stock of merchindize on which we have to depend in part for a subsistance on our return home, kiled brant & ducks to day [clark, november , ] saturday november rd . a calm cloudy morning, a moderate rain the greater part of the last night, capt lewis branded a tree with his name date &c. i marked my name the day & year on a alder tree, the party all cut the first letters of their names on different trees in the bottom. our hunters killed bucks, brant & ducks to day. in the evening seven indians of the clot sop nation came over in a canoe, they brought with them sea otter skins for which they asked blue beads &c. and such high pricies that we were unable to purchase them without reducing our small stock of merchendize, on which we depended for subcistance on our return up this river--mearly to try the indian who had one of those skins, i offered him my watch, handkerchief a bunch of red beads and a dollar of the american coin, all of which he refused and demanded "ti-a, co-mo-shack" which is chief beads and the most common blue beads, but fiew of which we have at this time this nation is the remains of a large nation destroyed by the small pox or some other which those people were not acquainted with, they speak the same language of the chinnooks and resemble them in every respect except that of stealing, which we have not cought them at as yet. [clark, november , ] november th sunday several of the chenn nook n. came, one of them brought an sea orter skin for which we gave some blue beeds--this day proved to be fair and we dried our wet articles bedding &c. the hunters killed only brant no deer or any thing else the old chief of chinn-nook nation and several men & women came to our camp this evening & smoked the pipe serjt j. ordway cross & examine s serjt. n. pryor do do s sgt. p. gass do do s jo. shields proceed to sandy r go. shannon examn. cross falls t. p. howard do do falls p. wiser do do s. r j. collins do do s. r jo fields do do up al. willard do do up r willard do do up j. potts do do falls r. frasure do do up wm. bratten do do up r. fields do do falls j. b. thompson do do up j. colter do do up h. hall do do s. r. labeech do do s r peter crusatte do do s r j. b. depage do do up shabono --- - s. guterich do do falls w. werner do do up go. gibson do do up jos. whitehouse do do up geo drewyer examn other side falls mcneal do do up york " " lookout falls sandy river lookout up janey in favour of a place where there is plenty of potas. cp l proceed on to morrow & examine the other side if good hunting to winter there, as salt is an objt. if not to proceed on to sandy it is probable that a vestle will come in this winter, & that by proceeding on at any distance would not inhance our journey in passing the rockey mountains, &c. w c. in favour of proceding on without delay to the opposit shore & there examine, and find out both the disposition of the indians, & probibilaty of precureing subsistance, and also enquire if the tradeing vestles will arrive before the time we should depart in the spring, and if the traders, comonly arive in a seasonable time, and we can subsist without a depends. on our stores of goods, to continue as the climent would be more favourable on the sea coast for our naked men than higher up the countrey where the climate must be more severe--the advantage of the arival of a vestle from whome we can precure goods will be more than an over ballance, for the bad liveing we shall have in liveing on pore deer & elk we may get in this neighbourhood. if we cannot subsist on the above terms to proceed on, and make station camps, to neighbourhood of the frendly village near the long narrows & delay untill we can proceed up the river. salt water i view as an evil in as much as it is not helthy--i am also of opinion that one two or three weeks exemination on the opposide if the propects are any wise favourable, would not be too long variation of the compass is ° east [clark, november , ] sunday november th . a fair morning sent out hunters, and we proceeded to make the following observations a chief and several men of the chin nook nation came to smoke with us this evening one of the men brought a small sea otter skin for which we gave some blue beads--this day proved fair which gave us an oppertunity of drying our wet articles, bedding &c. &c. nothing killed to day except one brant. the variation of the compass is ° east. being now determined to go into winter quarters as soon as possible, as a convenient situation to precure the wild animals of the forest which must be our dependance for subsisting this winter, we have every reason to believe that the nativs have not provisions suffient for our consumption, and if they had, their price's are so high that it would take ten times as much to purchase their roots & dried fish as we have in our possesion, encluding our small remains of merchindz and clothes &c. this certinly enduces every individual of the party to make diligient enquiries of the nativs the part of the countrey in which the wild animals are most plenty. they generaly agree that the most elk is on the opposit shore, and that the greatest numbers of deer is up the river at some distance above the elk being an animal much larger than deer, easier to kiled better meat (in the winter when pore) and skins better for the clothes of our party; added to-, a convenient situation to the sea coast where we could make salt, and a probibility of vessels comeing into the mouth of columbia ("which the indians inform us would return to trade with them in months") from whome we might precure a fresh supply of indian trinkets to purchase provisions on our return home; together with the solicitations of every individual, except one of our party induced us conclude to cross the river and examine the opposit side, and if a sufficent quantity of elk could probebly be precured to fix on a situation as convenient to the elk & sea coast as we could find--added to the above advantagies in being near the sea coast one most strikeing one occurs to me i e, the climate which must be from every appearance much milder than that above the st range of mountains, the indians are slightly clothed and give an account of but little snow, and the weather which we have experiened since we arrived in the neighbourhood of the sea coast has been verry warm, and maney of the fiew days past disagreeably so. if this should be the case it will most certainly be the best situation of our naked party dressed as they are altogether in leather. [clark, november , ] november th munday a fine day several indians come up from below, we loaded and set out up the river, and proceeded on to the shallow bay, landed to dine, the swells too high to cross the river, agreeabley to our wish which is to examine if game can be precured sufficent for us to winter on that side, after dinner which was on drid pounded fish we proceeded on up on the north side to near the place of our encampment of the th instant and encamped after night the evening cloudy wind of to day generally from the e s. e, saw from near of last campment mount ranier bearing ____ [clark, november , ] monday th november the wind being high rendered it impossible for us to cross the river from our camp, we deturmind to proceed on up where it was narrow, we set out early accompanied by chit sops for a fiew miles, they left us and crossed the river through emence high waves; we dined in the shallow bay on dried pounded fish, after which we proceeded on near the north side of the columbia, and encamp a little after night near our encampment of the th instant near a rock at some distance in the river. evening cloudy the winds of to day is generally e. s. e which was a verry favourable point for us as the highlands kept it from us mt. st. hilians can be seen from the mouth of this river. [clark, november , ] november th tuesday cloudy and some rain this morning at daylight wind blew from the e n. e, we set out and proceeded on up on the north side of this great river to a rock in the river from thence we crossed to the lower point of an ____ island passed between islands to the main shore, and proceeded down the south side, passed inlets & halted below the d at a indian village of large houses--those indians live on an emenence behind a island or a channel of the river not more than yds wide, they live on fish & elk and wapto roots, of which we bought a few at a high price they call them selves cat-tar-bets description we proceeded on about miles and encamped in a deep bend to the south, we had not been encamped long ere indians came in a canoe to trade the wapto roots--we had rain all the day all wet and disagreeable a bad place to camp all around this great bend is high land thickly timbered brushey & almost impossible to penetrate we saw on an island below the village a place of deposit for the dead in canoes great numbers of swan geese brant ducks & gulls in this great bend which is crouded with low islands covered with weeds grass &c. and overflowed every flood tide the people of the last village is-____ they ask emence prices for what they have to sel blue beeds is their great trade they are fond of clothes or blankits of blue red or brown we are now decending to see if a favourable place should offer on the so side to winter &c. from a high point opsd. a high isd down the south side is s. ° w mis to a point of low land opsd. upr. pt of isd. passed lowr. pt. st isd. marshey. at the upr. pt. of low isd. opsd. each other at miles [clark, november , ] tuesday th november cloudy and some rain this morning from oclock. wind from the e. n. e, we set out out early and crossed a short distance above the rock out in the river, & between some low marshey islands to the south side of the columbia at a low bottom about miles below point samuel and proceeded near the south side leaveing the seal islands to our right and a marshey bottom to the left miles to the calt-har-mar village of large wood houses on a handsom elivated situation near the foot of a spur of the high land behind a large low island seperated from the southerly shore by a chanel of about yards wide, this nation appear to differ verry little either in language, customs dress or appearance from the chin nooks & war-ci a cum live principally on fish and pappato they have also other roots, and some elk meat. we purchased some green fish, & wap pa to for which we gave imoderate pricie's. after dining on the fresh fish which we purchased, we proceeded on through a deep bend to the south and encamped under a high hill, where we found much difficuelty in precureing wood to burn, as it was raining hard, as it had been the greater part of the day. soon after we encamped indians of the last town came in a canoe with wappato roots to sell to us some of which we purchased with fish hooksfrom the village quite around this bend to the west the land is high and thickly timbered with pine balsom &c. a short distance below the calt har mer village on the island which is opposit i observed several canoes scaffold in which contained their dead, as i did not examine this mode of deposing the dead, must refer it to a discription hereafter. [clark, november , ] november th wednesday some rain all the last night & this morning at day light canoes and men came down with roots meat, skins &c. to sill, they asked such high prices we were unable to purchase any thing, and as we were about setting out, discovered that one of those indians had stole an ax, we serched and found it under the roabe of one man whome we shamed verry much we proceeded on, around point william th swells became high and rained so hard we concluded to halt and dry our selves, soon after our landing the wind rose from the east and blew hard accompanied with rain, this rain obliged us to unload & draw up our canoes, one of which was split to feet before we got her out of the river, this place the peninsoley is about yards and miles around this point of land. water salt below not salt above. [clark, november , ] wednesday th november rained all the last night and this morning it continues moderatelyat day light canoes and indians came from the village with roots mats, skins &c. to sell, they asked such high prices that we were unable to purchase any thing of them, as we were about to set out missed one of our axes which was found under an indians roab i shamed this fellow verry much and told them they should not proceed with us- we proceded on between maney small islands passing a small river of ____ yds wide which the indians call ____ and around a verry remarkable point which projects about / miles directly towards the shallow bay the isthmus which joins it to the main land is not exceding yards and about miles around. we call this point william below this point the waves became so high we were compelled to land unload and traw up the canoes, here we formed a camp on the neck of land which joins point william to the main at an old indian hut. the rain continued hard all day we are all wet and disagreeable. one canoe split before we got her out of the water feet--the water at our camp salt that above the isthmus fresh and fine [clark, november , ] november th thursday wind shifted about to the s. w. and blew hard accompanied with hard rain all last night, we are all wet bedding and stores, haveing nothing to keep our selves or stores dry, our lodge nearly worn out, and the pieces of sales & tents so full of holes & rotten that they will not keep any thing dry, we sent out the most of the men to drive the point for deer, they scattered through the point; some stood on the pensolu, we could find no deer, several hunters attempted to penetrate the thick woods to the main south side without suckcess, the swan & gees wild and cannot be approached, and wind to high to go either back or forward, and we have nothing to eate but a little pounded fish which we purchasd. at the great falls, this is our present situation,! truly disagreeable. aded to this the robes of our selves and men are all rotten from being continually wet, and we cannot precure others, or blankets in their places. about oclock the wind shifted about to the n. w and blew with great violence for the remainder of the day at maney times it blew for or minits with such violence that i expected every moment to see trees taken up by the roots, some were blown down. those squals were suckceeded by rain,! o how tremendious is the day. this dredfull wind and rain continued with intervales of fair weather, the greater part of the evening and night. [clark, november , ] thursday th november wind shifted about to the s. w. and blew hard accompanied with hard rain. rained all the last night we are all wet our bedding and stores are also wet, we haveing nothing which is sufficient to keep ourselves bedding or stores dry several men in the point hunting deer without suckcess, the swan and brant which are abundant cannot be approached sufficently near to be killed, and the wind and waves too high to proceed on to the place we expect to find elk, & we have nothing to eate except pounded fish which we brought from the great falls, this is our present situation; truly disagreeable. about oclock the wind shifted around to the n w. and blew with such violence that i expected every moment to see trees taken up by the roots, maney were blown down. this wind and rain continued with short intervales all the latter part of the night. o! how disagreeable is our situation dureing this dreadfull weather. [lewis, november , ] november th . the wind being so high the party were unable to proceed with the perogues. i determined therefore to proceed down the river on it's e. side in surch of an eligible place for our winters residence and accordingly set out early this morning in the small canoe accompanyed by men. drewyer r. fields, shannon, colter & labiesh. proceeded along the coast. send out the hunters they killed deer brant a goos and seven ducks, it rained upon us by showers all day. left three of these deer and took with us one encamped at an old indian hunting lodge which afforded us a tolerable shelter from the rain, which continued by intervales throughout the night. [clark, november , ] november th friday blew hard and rained the greater part of the last night and this morning, capt lewis and men set out in our small indian canoe (which is made in the indian fashion calculated ride the waves) down the south side of the river to the place the indians informed us by signs that numbers of elk were to be found near the river--the swells and waves being too high for us to proceed down in our large canoes, in safty i sent out two hunters to hunt deer, & one to hunt fowl, all the others employed in drying their leather and prepareing it for use, as but fiew of them have many other clothes to boste of at this time, we are smoked verry much in this camp the shore on the side next the sea is covered with butifull pebble of various colours--our diat at this time and for severall days past is the dried pounded fish we purchased at the falls boiled in a little salt water [clark, november , ] friday th of november the wind and rain continued all the last night, this morning much more moderate. the waves still high and rain continues. capt lewis and hunters set out in our indian canoe (which is calculated to ride wave) dow to the place we expected to find elk from the inds. information, they pointed to a small bay which is yet below us--i sent out men to hunt deer which i expected might be on the open hill sides below, another to hunt fowl in the deep bend above the point, all the others engaged drying their leather before the fire, and prepareing it for usethey haveing but fiew other species of clothing to ware at this time the winds are from such points that we cannot form our camp so as to provent the smoke which is emencely disagreeable, and painfull to the eyes--the shore below the point at our camp is formed of butifull pebble of various colours. i observe but fiew birds of the small kind, great numbers of wild fowls of various kinds, the large buzzard with white wings, grey and bald eagle's, large red tailed hawks, ravens & crows in abundance, the blue magpie, a small brown bird which frequents logs & about the roots of trees--snakes, lizards, small bugs, worms, spiders, flyes & insects of different kinds are to be seen in abundance at this time. [lewis, november , ] november th . cloudy morning set out before sun rise and continued our rout up the bey sent out three men to examin the country to the s. & w. they returned after about hours and informed me that the wood was so thick and obstructed by marrasses & lakes that they were unable to proceed to the ocean which could not be at any considerable distance fom the apparent sound of the waves breaking on the coast. we now returned and asscended the inlet which we had last passd no fresh appearance of elk or deer in our rout so far. asscend the inlet as we intended about m. found it became much smaller and that it did not keep it's direction to the high land which boar s. w. but inclined west. therefore returned to the large arm of the bay which we passed this morning. here we expect to meet with the clat-sop indians, who have tantilized us with there being much game in their neighbourhood. this information in fact was the cause of my present resurch, for where there is most game is for us the most eliguble winter station.--continued our rout up the large arm of the bay about miles and encamped on the stard. side on the highland. the water was quite sweet. therefore concluded that it must be supplyed from a large crick. at our camp it is yds. wide, tho it gets narrower above. it rained but little on us today tho it was cloudy generally.--wind from n. e.--saw a great abundance of fowls, brant, large geese, white brant sandhill cranes, common blue crains, cormarants, haulks, ravens, crows, gulls and a great variety of ducks, the canvas back, duckinmallard, black and white diver, brown duck--&c &c [clark, november , ] november th saturday some rain and hail with intervales of fair weather for and hours dureing the night and untill oclock this morning at which time it cleared up fair and the sun shown, i send men in a canoe in the deep bend above the peninsulear to hunt fowles, & men in the thick woods to hunt elk had all our wet articles dried & the men all employed dressing their skins, i observe but few birds in this countrey of the small kindsgreat numbers of wild fowl, the large buzzard with white under their wings grey & bald eagle large red tailed hawk, ravins, crows, & a small brown bird which is found about logs &c. but fiew small hawks or other smaller birds to be seen at this time snakes, lizzards, snales bugs worms spiders, flies & insects of different kinds are to be seen in plenty at this time. the squar, gave me a piece of bread to day made of some flower she had cearfully kept for her child, and had unfortunately got wet the hunters killed only hawks, saw elk but could not git a shot at them, the fowlers, killed black ducks, with white sharp bills, a brown spot in their foward, some white under the tail, which short, and a fiew of the tips of the wing feathers white, their toes are long seperated and flaped, no craw, keep in emence large flocks in the shallow waters & feed on grass &c.- several men complaining of being unwell to day--a broock comes in to the bend above the st point above, and a river falls in the next nitch above this river is small,--i observe rose bushes pine, a kind of ash a species of beech and a species of maple, in addition to the pine lorrel and under groth common to the woods in this lower countrey the hills are not high & slope to the river [clark, november , ] saturday th of november some rain and hail with intervales of fair weather for the space of one or two hours at a time dureing the night untill oclock this morning, at which time it cleared away and the sun shewn for ____ hours, several men out hunting i send men in the bend above to hunt fowl &c. in a canoe, employ all the others in drying our wet articles by the fire several men complain of a looseness and gripeing which i contribute to the diet, pounded fish mixed with salt water, i derect that in future that the party mix the pounded fish with fresh water--the squar gave me a piece of bread made of flour which she had reserved for her child and carefully kept untill this time, which has unfortunately got wet, and a little sour--this bread i eate with great satisfaction, it being the only mouthfull i had tasted for several months past. my hunters killed three hawks, which we found fat and delicious, they saw elk but could not get a shot at them. the fowlers killed black ducks with sharp white beeks keep in large flocks & feed on grass, they have no craw and their toes are seperate, common in the u. states the chinnooks cath ldh mah & others in this neighbourhood bury their dead in their canoes. for this purpose pieces of split timber are set erect on end, and sunk a fiew feet in the ground, each brace having their flat sides opposit to each other and sufficiently far assunder to admit the width of the canoe in which the dead are to be deposited; through each of those perpindicular posts, at the hight of feet a mortice is cut, through which two bars of wood are incerted; on those cross bars a small canoe is placed, in which the body is laid after beaing carefully roled in a robe of some dressed skins; a paddle is also deposited with them; a larger canoe is now reversed, overlaying and imbracing the small one, and resting with its gunnals on the cross bars; one or more large mats of flags or rushes are then rold. around the canoe and the whole securely lashed with a long cord usially made of the bark of the arbar vita or white cedar. on the cross bars which support the canoes is frequently hung or laid various articles of clothing culinary utensils &c. we cannot understand them sufficiently to make any enquiries relitive to their religious opinions, from their depositing various articles with their dead, beleve in a state of future ixistance. i walked on the point and observed rose bushes different species of pine, a spcies of ash, alder, a species of wild crab loral and several species of under broth common to this lower part of the columbia river- the hills on this coast rise high and are thickly covered with lofty pine maney of which are & feet through and more than feet high. hills have a steep assent. [lewis, december , ] december st cloudy morning wind from the s. e. sent out the men to hunt and examin the country, they soon returned all except drewyer and informed me that the wood was so thick it was almost impenetrable and that there was but little appearance of game; they had seen the track of one deer only and a few small grey squirrels. these suirrels are about the size of the red squirrel of the lakes and eastern atlantic states, their bellies are of a redish yellow, or tanners ooze colour the tale flat and as long as the body eyes black and moderately large back and sides of a greyish brown the brier with a brown bark and three laves which put forth at the extremety of the twigs like the leaves of the blackbury brier, tho is a kind of shrub and rises sometimes to the hight of feet the green brier yet in leaf; the ash with a remarkable large leaf; the large black alder. the large elder with skey blue buries. the broad leave shrub which grows something like the quill wood but has no joints, the leaf broad and deeply indented the bark peals hangs on the stem and is of a yelowish brown colour. the seven bark is also found here as is the common low cramburry-there is a wild crab apple which the natives eat this growth differs but little in appearance from that of the wild crab of the atlantic states. but the fruit consists of little oval hurries which grow in clusters at the extremities of the twigs like the black haws. the fruit is of a brown colour, oval form and about double as large as the black haw; the rind is smoth and tough somewhat hard; the seed is like that of the wild crab and nearly as large; the pulp is soft of a pale yellow coulour; and when the fruit has been touched by the frost is not unpleasant, being an agreeable assed. the tree which bears a red burry in clusters of a round form and size of a red haw. the leaf like that of the small magnolia, and brark smoth and of a brickdust red coulour it appears to be of the evergreen kind.--half after one oclock drewyer not yet arrived. heard him shoot times just above us and am in hopes he has fallen in with a gang of elk. [clark, december , ] december st sunday cloudy windey morning wind from the east, sent out hunters in the woods, i intended to take men in a canoe and hunt the marshey islands above, found the wind too high & returned to partake of the dried fish, the day some what cooler than usial, but scercely perceveable. began to rain at sun set and continued half the night. my hunters returned without any thing saw gang of elk a disagreeable situation, men all employed in mending their leather clothes, socks &c. and dressing some leather. the sea which is imedeately in front roars like a repeeted roling thunder and have rored in that way ever since our arrival in its borders which is now days since we arrived in sight of the great western ocian, i cant say pasific as since i have seen it, it has been the reverse. elegant canoes [clark, december , ] sunday december st a cloudy windey morning wind from the east, dispatched two hunters, i deturmined to take a canoe & a fiew men and hunt the marshey islands above point william, the wind rose so high that i could not proceed, and returned to partake the dried fish, which is our standing friend, began to rain hard at sun set and continud. my hunters returned without any thing haveing seen parcels of elk men all employed to day in mending their leather clothes, shoes &c. and dressing leather. the emence seas and waves which breake on the rocks & coasts to the s w. & n w roars like an emence fall at a distance, and this roaring has continued ever since our arrival in the neighbourhood of the sea coast which has been days since we arrived in sight of the great western; (for i cannot say pacific) ocian as i have not seen one pacific day since my arrival in its vicinity, and its waters are forming and petially perpetually breake with emenc waves on the sands and rockey coasts, tempestous and horiable. i have no account of capt. lewis since he left me. [clark, december , ] december nd monday cloudy and some little rain this morning i despatched men to hunt and and my servent in a canoe to a creek above to try & catch some fish- i am verry unwell the drid fish which is my only diet does not agree with me and several of the men complain of a lax, and weakness--i expect capt. lewis will return to day with the hunters and let us know if elk or deer can be found sufficent for us to winter on, if he does not come i shall move from this place, to one of better prospects for game &c. joseph fields came home with the marrow bones of an elk which he had killed miles distant, i sent out men in a canoe for the meat, the evening being late they did not return this night, which proved fair moon shineing night--this is the first elk we have killed on this side the rockey mounts a great deal of elk sign in the neighbourhood [clark, december , ] monday nd december cloudy with some rain this morning i send out three men to hunt & & my man york in a canoe up the ke-ke-mar-que creek in serch of fish and fowl--i feel verry unwell, and have entirely lost my appetite for the dried pounded fish which is in fact the cause of my disorder at present--the men are generally complaining of a lax and gripeing--in the evening joseph field came in with the marrow bones of a elk which he killed at miles distant, this welcome news to us. i dispatched six men in a empty canoe with jo. mediately for the elk which he said was about miles from the water this is the first elk which has been killd. on this side of the rockey mountains--jo fields givs me an account of a great deel of elk sign & says he saw gangs of those animals in his rout, but it rained so hard that he could not shoot them--the party up the creek returned without any thing and informs me they could not see any fish in the creek to kill and the fowls were too wild to be killed, this must [clark, december , ] december rd tuesday a fair windey morning wind from the east, the men sent after an elk yesterday returnd. with an elk which revived the sperits of my men verry much, i am unwell and cannot eate, the flesh o! how disagreeable my situation, a plenty of meat and incaple of eateing any--an indian canoe came down with indians in it from the upper village, i gave a fish hook for a fiew wap-e-to roots, which i eate in a little elk supe, the indians proceeded on down. wind confines to blow, and serjt. pryor & gibson who went to hunt yesterday has not returnd. as yet i marked my name & the day of the month and year on a large pine tree on this peninsella & by land capt william clark december rd . by land. u states in & "--the squar broke the two shank bones of the elk after the marrow was taken out, boiled them & extracted a pint of greese or tallow from them--serjt. pryor & gibson returned after night and informed me they had been lost the greater part of the time they were out, and had killed elk which they left lying haveing taken out their interals. some rain this afternoon [clark, december , ] tuesday d december a fair windey morning wind from the east the men returned with the elk which revived the spirits of my party verry much i am still unwell and can't eate even the flesh of the elk. an indian canoe of indians came too, those inds. are on their way down to the chit sops with wap pa to to barter with that nation, i purchasd. a fiew of those roots for which i gave small fish hooks, those roots i eate with a little elks soupe which i found gave me great relief i found the roots both nurishing and as a check to my disorder. the indians proceeded on down through emence high waves maney times their canoe was entirely out of sight before they were / a mile distance. serjt. pryor & gibson who went hunting yesterday has not returned untill after night, they informed me that they had killed elk at a great distance which they left lying, haveing taken out their interals that they had been lost and in their ramble saw a great deel of elk sign. after eateing the marrow out of two shank bones of an elk, the squar choped the bones fine boiled them and extracted a pint of grease, which is superior to the tallow of the animal. some rain this evening i marked my name on a large pine tree imediately on the isthmus william clark december rd . by land from the u. states in & . [clark, december , ] december th wednesday some little rain all the last night and this morning after day the rain increased and continued i despatched serjt. pryer & men to the elk which he had killed yesterday, with directions to save the meet and take loads to the river below in the next great bend--a spring tide which rose feet higher than common flud tides, and high water at oclock to day--wind from the s. e in the after noon hard wind from south--rained all day, moderately the swells too high for me to proceed down, as i intended, i feel my self something better and have an appetite to eate something [clark, december , ] wednesday th december some rain all the last night, this morning it increased with the wind from the s. e. i set out sergiant pryor and men to the elk he had killed with directions to carry the meat to a bay which he informed me was below and as he believed at no great distance from the elk, and i should proceed on to that bay as soon as the wind would lay a little and the tide went out in the evening--the smoke is exceedingly disagreeable and painfull to my eyes, my appetite has returned and i feel much better of my late complaint--a spring tide to day rose feet higher than common flood tides and high water at oclock--hard wind from the south this evening, rained moderately all day and the waves too high for me to proceed in safty to the bay as i intended, in some part of which i expected would be convenient for us to make winter quarters, the reports of seven huntes agreeing that elke were in great abundance about the bay below. no account of capt. lewis. i fear some accident has taken place in his craft or party [clark, december , ] december th thursday som hard showers of rain last night, this morn cloudy and drisley rain, in the bay above the showers appear harder. high water to day at oclock this tide is ins. higher than that of yesterday all our stores again wet by the hard showers of last night capt lewis's long delay below has been the cause of no little uneasiness on my part for him, a conjectures has crouded into my mind respecting his probable situation & safty---rained hard. capt lewis returned haveing found a good situation and elk suffient to winter on, his party killed elk & deer in their absence in serch of a situation and game rain continued all the after pt. of the day accompanied with hard wind from the s w. which provents our moveing from this camp. [clark, december , ] thursday th of december some hard showers of rain last night, this morning cloudy and drisley at some little distant above the isthmus the rain is much harder. high water to day at this tide is inches higher than that of yesterday. all our stores and bedding are again wet by the hard rain of last night. capt. lewis's long delay below, has been the sorce of no little uneasness on my part of his probable situation and safty, the repeeted rains and hard winds which blows from the s, w. renders it impossible for me to move with loaded canoes along an unknown coast we are all wet & disagreeable; the party much better of indispositions-. capt. lewis returned with men in the canoe and informs me that he thinks that a sufficient number of elk may be prcured convenient to a situation on a small river which falls into a small bay a short distance below, that his party had killed elk & deer in his rout, two men of his party left behind to secure the elk this was verry satisfactory information to all the party. we accordingly deturmined to proceed on to the situation which capt. lewis had viewed as soon as the wind and weather should permit and comence building huts &c. [clark, december , ] december th friday wind blew hard all the last night, and a moderate rain, the waves verry high, this morning the wind which is still from the s w increased and rained continued all day, at dusk wind shifted to the north and it cleared up and became fare, high water to day at oclock & inches higher than yesterday. we were obliged to move our camp out of the water on high grown all wet. [clark, december , ] friday th of december the wind blew hard all the last night with a moderate rain, the waves verry high, the wind increased & from the s. w. and the rain continued all day, about dark the wind shifted to the north cleared away and became fair weather. the high tide of today is inches higher than yesterday, and obliged us to move our camp which was in a low situation, on higher ground smoke exceedingly disagreeable. [clark, december , ] december th saturday some rain from to last night this morning fair, we set out at oclock down to the place capt lewis pitched on for winter quarters, when he was down proceeded on against the tide at the point no. we met our men sent down after meet to point adams is west to pt. disapointment n w they informed me that they found the elk after being lost in the woods for one day and part of another, the most of the meat was spoiled, they distance was so great and uncertain and the way bad, they brought only the skins, york was left behind by some accident which detained us some time eer he came up after passing round the pt. no. in verry high swells, we stopd & dined in the commencement of a bay, after which proceeded on around the bay to s e. & assended a creek miles to a high pt. & camped haveing passed arm makeing up to our left into the countrey mt. st. helens is the mountain we mistook for mt. reeaneer receved small brooks on the east, extencive marshes at this place of encampment we propose to build & pass the winter, the situation is in the center of as we conceve a hunting countrey--this day is fair except about oclock at which time some rain and a hard wind imedeately after we passed the point from the n. e which continued for a about hours and cleared up. no meat [clark, december , ] saturday th of december some rain from to last night, this morning fair, have every thing put on board the canoes and set out to the place capt lewis had viewed and thought well situated for winter quarters--we proceeded on against the tide to a point about ____ miles here we met sergt pryor and his party returning to the camp we had left without any meat, the waves verry verry high, as much as our canoes could bear rendered it impossible to land for the party, we proceeded on around the point into the bay and landed to take brackfast on deer which had been killed & hung up, one of which we found the other had been taken off by some wild animal probably panthors or the wildcat of this countrey here all the party of serjt pryors joined us except my man york, who had stoped to rite his load and missed his way, sergt pryor informed us that he had found the elk, which was much further from the bay than he expected, that they missed the way for one day and a half, & when he found the elk they were mostly spoiled, and they only brought the skins of of the elk after brackfast i delayed about half an hour before york came up, and then proceeded around this bay which i have taken the liberty of calling meriwethers bay the cristian name of capt. lewis who no doubt was the st white man who ever surveyed this bay, we assended a river which falls in on the south side of this bay miles to the first point of high land on the west side, the place capt. lewis had viewed and formed in a thick groth of pine about yards from the river, this situation is on a rise about feet higher than the high tides leavel and thickly covered with lofty pine. this is certainly the most eligable situation for our purposes of any in its neighbourhood. meriwethers bay is about miles across deep & receves rivers the kil how-d-nah-kle and the ne tul and several small creeks--we had a hard wind from the n. e. and some rain about oclock to day which lasted hours and cleared away. from the point above meriwethers bay to point adams is west to point disapointment is n. ° w [clark, december , ] december th sunday a cloudy morning, i took men and set out to the sea to find the nearest place & make a way, to prevent our men getting lost and find a place to make salt, steered s ° w at miles passed the head of a brook running to the right, the lands good roleing much falling timber, lofty pine of the spruce kind, & some fur, passed over a high hill & to a creek which we kept down / miles and left it to our right, saw fish in this creek & elk & bear tracks on it, passed over a ridge to a low marshey bottom which we crossed thro water & thick brush for / a mile to the comencement of a prarie which wavers, covered with grass & sackay commis, at / crossed a marsh yds wide, boggey and arrived at a creek which runs to the right. saw a gange of elk on the opposit side below, rafted the creek, with much dificulty & followed the elk thro, emence bogs, & over small knobs in the bogs about miles to the south & killed an elk, and formed a camp, covered our selves with the elk skins. the left of us bogs & a lake or pond those bogs shake, much cramberry growing amongst the moss. some rain this evening we made a harty supper of the elk & hung up the balsa [clark, december , ] sunday december th fort clatsop we haveing fixed on this situation as the one best calculated for our winter quarters i deturmin'd to go as direct a course as i could to the sea coast which we could here roar and appeared to be at no great distance from us, my principal object is to look out a place to make salt, blaze the road or rout that they men out hunting might find the direction to the fort if they should get lost in cloudy weather-and see the probibillity of game in that direction, for the support of the men, we shall send to make salt, i took with me five men and set out on a course s w proceeded on a dividing ridge through lofty piney land much falling timber. passed the heads of brooks one of them had wide bottoms which was over flown & we waded to our knees crossed slashes and arrived at a creek in a open ridgey prarie covered with sackacomma this creek we were obliged to raft, which is about yards over and runs in a direction to point adams, we discovered a large gange of elk in the open lands, and we prosued them through verry bad slashes and small ponds about miles, killed one and camped on a spot scercely large enough to lie clear of the water. it is almost incredeable to assurt the bogs which those animals can pass through, i prosue'd this gang of elk through bogs which the wate of a man would shake for / an acre, and maney places i sunk into the mud and water up to my hips without finding any bottom on the trale of those elk. those bogs are covered with a kind of moss among which i observe an ebundance of cramberries. in those slashes small knobs are promisquisly scattered about which are steep and thickly covered with pine common to the countrey & lorel. we made a camp of the elk skin to keep off the rain which continued to fall, the small knob on which we camped did not afford a sufficiency of dry wood for our fire, we collected what dry wood we could and what sticks we could cut down with the tomahawks, which made us a tolerable fire. [clark, december , ] december th monday rained all the last night we are all wet, send men in pursute of the elk & with the other i set out with a view to find the ocian in our first direction, which can be at no great distance, i crossed slashes by wadeing to my knees & was prevented proceeding by the th which was a pond of yds. we. i went around, and was stoped by a th which apd. to be a rung stream to the right. i then returned to the raft and recrossd. & proceeded down the stream i first struck about miles & met indians, who informed me they lived on the see cost at a short distance, i de-termd. to accompany them to their vilg. & we set out, crossed the stream, and of the indians took the canoe over the wavering open rich plains for / a mile and we crossed the same stream which run to the left, we then left the canoe and proceeded to the same stream which runs to the right and empties its self into the see here i found their vilg. lodges on the west bank of this little river which is here yards wide, crossed in a canoe & was invited to a lodge by a young chief was treated great politeness, we had new mats to set on, and himself and wife produced for us to eate, fish, lickorish, & black roots, on neet small mats, and cramberries & sackacomey berris, in bowls made of horn, supe made of a kind of bread made of berries common to this countrey which they gave me in a neet wooden trencher, with a cockle shell to eate it with it began to rain and with a tremendious storm from the s. w. which lasted untill oclock p m--when i was disposd to go to sleep neet mats was produced & i lay on them but the flees were so troublesom that i slept but little those people has plays which they are fond of one is with a been which they pass from one hand into the other, and the oponent guess on this game the resquist nubr of the white beeds which is the principal property--they other game is with round pieces of wood much the shape of the ____ backgammon which they role thro between pins. [clark, december , ] monday th december rained all the last night we are all wet, i directed hunters drewyer & shannon to go in pursute of the elk, with the other men i determined to proceed on to the ocian, & set out on a westerley direction crossed slashes and arived at a creek which i could not cross as it was deep and no wood to make a raft, i proceeded down this creek a short distance and found that i was in a fork of the creek, i then returned to raft on which we had crossed the day. crossed and kept down about one mile and met indians loaded with fresh salmon which they had giged in the creek i crossed yesterday in the hills, those indians made signs that they had a town on the seacoast at no great distance, and envited me to go to their town which envitation i axcepted and accompand. them, they had a canoe hid in the creek which i had just before rafted which i had not observed, we crossed in this little canoe just large enough to carry men an their loads after crossing of the indians took the canoe on theire sholders and carried it across to the other creek about / of a mile, we crossed the d creek and proceeded on to the mouth of the creek which makes a great bend above the mouth of this creek or to the s. is houses and about families of the clat sop nation, we cross to those houses, which were built on the s. exposur of the hill, sunk into the ground about feet the walls roof & gable ends are of split pine boards, the dotes small with a ladder to decend to the iner part of the house, the fires are in the middle of the house their beads ar all around raised about / feet from the bottom flore all covered with mats and under those beads was stored their bags baskets and useless mats, those people treated me with extrodeanary friendship, one man attached himself to me as soon as i entered the hut, spred down new mats for me to set on, gave me fish berries rutes &c. on small neet platteers of rushes to eate which was repeated, all the men of the other houses came and smoked with me those people appeared much neeter in their diat than indians are comonly, and frequently wash theer faces and hands--in the eveng an old woman presented a bowl made of a light coloured horn a kind of surup made of dried berries which is common to this countrey which the natives call shele wele this surup i though was pleasent, they gave me cockle shells to eate a kind of seuip made of bread of the shele well berries mixed with roots in which they presented in neet trenchers made of wood. a flock of brant lit in the creek which was yds wide i took up my small rifle and shot one which astonished those people verry much, they plunged into the creek and brought the brant on shorein the evening it began to rain and continud accompanied with a violent wind from the s. w. untill oclock p.m. those people have a singular game which they are verry fond of and is performed with something about the size of a large been which they pass from, one hand into the other with great dexterity dureing which time they sing, and ocasionally, hold out their hands for those who chuse to risque their property to guess which hand the been is in-; the individual who has the been is a banker & opposed to all in the room. on this game they risque their beeds & other parts of their most valuable effects--this amusement has occupied about hours of this evening, several of the lodge in which i am in have lost all the beeds which they had about them--they have one other game which a man attempted to show me, i do not properly understand it, they make use of maney peces about the shape and size of backgammon pices which they role through between two pins stuck up at certain distancies &.--when i was disposed to go to sleep the man who had been most attentive named cus-ka-lah producd new mats and spred them near the fire, and derected his wife to go to his bead which was the signal for all to retire which they did emediately. i had not been long on my mats before i was attacked most violently by the flees and they kept up a close siege dureing the night [clark, december , ] december th tusday a cloudey rainy morning those people was some what astonished, at three shot i made with my little riffle to day, a gangu of brant set in the little river, i killd. of them as they set, and on my return saw a duck which i took the head off of, the men plunged into the water like spaniards dogs after those fowls, after eateing a brackfast which was similar to my suppar, i attempted to purchase some fiew roots which i offered red beeds for, they would give scercely any thing for beeds of that colour, i then offered small fish hooks which they were fond of and gave me some roots for them, i then set out on my return by the same road i had went out accompd. by my young chief by name cus-ca-lar who crossed me over the creek, and returned i proceeded on to my camp thro a heavy cold rain, saw no game--at the sea cost near those indins i found various kinds of shells, a kind of bay opsd. those people with a high pt. about miles below, out from which at some dists i saw large rocks, as the day was cloudy i could not see distinctly--found capt lewis with all hands felling trees, to build with, rained nearly all day, in my absence they men had bt. in the elk which was killed some days past men complaining of being unwell from various causes [clark, december , ] tuesday th december a cloudy rainey morning verry early i rose and walked on the shore of the sea coast and picked up several curious shells. i saw indians walking up and down the beech which i did not at first understand the cause of, one man came to where i was and told me that he was in serch of fish which is frequently thrown up on shore and left by the tide, and told me the "sturgion was verry good" and that the water when it retired left fish which they eate this was conclusive evedance to me that this small band depended in some measure for their winters subsistance on the fish which is thrown on shore and left by the tide- after amuseing my self for about an hour on the edge of the rageing seas i returned to the houses, one of the indians pointed to a flock of brant sitting in the creek at short distance below and requested me to shute one, i walked down with my small rifle and killed two at about yds distance, on my return to the houses two small ducks set at about steps from me the indians pointed at the ducks they were near together, i shot at the ducks and accidently shot the head of one off, this duck and brant was carried to the house and every man came around examined the duck looked at the gun the size of the ball which was to the pound and said in their own language clouch musket, wake, com ma-tax musket which is, a good musket do not under stand this kind of musket &c. i entered the same house i slept in, they imediately set before me their best roots, fish and surup-, i attempted to purchase a small sea otter skin for read beeds which i had in my pockets, they would not trade for those beeds not priseing any other colour than blue or white, i purchased a little of the berry bread and a fiew of their roots for which i gave small fish hooks, which they appeared fond of--i then set out on my return by the same rout i had come out accompanied by cus-ka lah and his brother as far as the d creek, for the purpose of setting me across, from which place they returned, and i proceeded on through a heavy rain to the camp at our intended fort, saw a bears track & the tracks of elk in the thick woods--found capt lewis with all the men out cutting down trees for our huts &c. in my absence the men brought in the six elk which was killed several days ago-. men complaining of violent coalds. three indians in a canoe came up from the clat sop village yesterday and returned to day. the sea coast is about miles distant nearly west about miles of the distance through a thick wood with reveens hills and swamps the land, rich black moald miles in a open wavering sandy prarie, ridge runing parrelal to the river, covered with green grass. [clark, december , ] december th wednesday rained all last night moderately, we are all employed putting up the huts, rained at intervales all day moderately employed in putting up cabins for our winter quarters, one man with turners, one with a strained knee, one sick with disentary & serjt. pryor unwell from haveing his sholder out of place [clark, december , ] wednesday th december rained all the last night moderately we are all employed putting up huts or cabins for our winters quarters. sergeant pryor unwell from a dislocation of his sholder, gibson with the disentary, jo. fields with biles on his legs, & werner with a strained knee. the rained continued moderately all day. [clark, december , ] december th thursday some moderate showers last night and this morning all hands who are well employed in building cabins, despatched men to get board timber, the flees so bad last night that, i made but a broken nights rest we can't get them out of our robes & skins, which we are obliged to make use of for bedding some rain to day at intervales--all at work, in the evening canoe of indians came from the villages of clotsop below, & brought wapitoo roots a black root they call si-ni-tor and a small sea orter skin all of which we purchased for a fiew fishing hooks & some snake indian tobacco. those indians appeare well disposed, i made a chief of one & gave him a small medel, his name is conyear we treated those people well--they are tite deelers, value blu & white beeds verry highly, and sell their roots also highly as they purchase them from the indians abov for a high price [clark, december , ] thursday th december all hands that are well employ'd in cutting logs and raising our winter cabins, detached two men to split boards--some rain at intervales all last night and to day--the flees were so troublesom last night that i made but a broken nights rest, we find great dificuelty in getting those trouble insects out of our robes and blankets--in the evening two canoes of chit sops visit us they brought with them wap pa to, a black sweet root they call sha-na toe qua, and a small sea otter skin, all of which we purchased for a fiew fishing hooks and a small sack of indian tobacco which was given by the snake inds. those indians appear well disposed we gave a medal to the principal chief named con-ny-au or com mo-wol and treated those with him with as much attention as we could--i can readily discover that they are close deelers, & stickle for a verry little, never close a bargin except they think they have the advantage value blue beeds highly, white they also prise but no other colour do they value in the least--the wap pa to they sell high, this root the purchase at a high price from the nativs above. [clark, december , ] december th friday the indians left us to day after brackfast, haveing sold us of the robes of a small animal for which i intend makeing a capot, and sold capt lewis loucirvia skins for the same purpose. drewyer & shannon returned from hunting havg. killed elk and butchered all except which they could not get as night provented ther finding them & they spoild. indians in a canoe came and offered us for sale sinutor roots, fish & sea otter skins for sale none of which we could purchase. some rain last night and this day at several times, light showers. we continue building our houses of the streightest & _____ logs, sent out men to split timber to covet the cabins, and i am glad to find the timber splits butifully, and of any width [clark, december , ] friday th december the clatsops leave us to day after a brackfast on elk which they appeared to be very fond of before they left us they sold me two robes of the skins of a small animal about the size of a cat, and to captain lewis cat or loucirva skins for the purpose of makeing a coat. drewyer & shannon returned from hunting, haveing killed elk & left them boochered in the woods near the right fork of the river about miles above this place--in the evining indians came in a canoe, and offered to us for sale roots & sea otter skins, neither of which we could purchase this evening. some showers of rain last night, and to day several verry hard showers--we continue to put up the streight butifull balsom pine on our houses-and we are much pleased to find that the timber splits most butifully and to the width of feet or more. [clark, december , ] december th saturday a cloudy day & rained moderately all day we finish the log works of our building, the indians leave us to day after selling a small sea otter skin and a roabe, send men to stay at the elk which is out in the woods &c. [clark, december , ] saturday th december the day cloudy and rained moderately all day we finish the log work of our building, the indians leave us to day after selling a small sea otter skin and a roab, dispatch men to the elk out in the woods with derections to delay untill the party goes up tomorrow. all employd in finishing a house to put meat into. all our last supply of elk has spoiled in the repeeted rains which has been fallen ever since our arrival at this place, and for a long time before, scerce one man in camp can host of being one day dry since we landed at this point, the sick getting better, my man york sick with cholick & gripeing [clark, december , ] december th sunday i set out with men in canoes for the elk proced up the st right hand fork miles & pack the meat from the woods to the cano from mile to miles distance all hands pack not one man exempted from this labour i also pack my self some of this meat, and cook for those out in packing some rain in the evening cloudy all day, the last load of meat all the party got out of the road or direction and did not get to the canoe untill after night, did not join to night [clark, december , ] sunday the th december . i set out early with men and canoes for the elk, proceed up the river three miles and thence up a large creek from the right about miles the hite of the tide water drew up the canoes and all hands went out in three different parties and brought in to the canoe each man a quarter of elk, i sent them out for a second load and had some of the first cooked against their return, after eateing a harty diner dispatched the party for a third and last load, about half the men missed their way and did not get to the canoes untill after dark, and serjt. ordway colter, colins whitehouse & mcneal staid out all night without fire and in the rain--cloudy all day some rain in the evening. [clark, december , ] december th monday rained all the last night we covered our selves as well as we could with elk skins, & set up the greater part of the night, all wet i lay in the water verry cold, the men who stayed out all night joined me this morning cold & wet, ordway colter collens, jo whitehouse j mcneal, i had the two canoes loaded with the elk which was brought to the canoes, despatched men to meet me below with elk, the rain contines, with tremendious gusts of wind, which is tremds. i proceeded on and took in the elk which was brought to the creek, & send back men to carrey to the canoe & take down to camp elk which was left in the woods, and i proceeded on to camp thro the same chanel i had assd. the winds violent trees falling in every derection, whorl winds, with gusts of rain hail & thunder, this kind of weather lasted all day, certainly one of the worst days that ever was! i found indeans with capt lewis in camp they had brought fish to sell, we had a house covered with punchen & our meat hung up. several men complaining of hurting themselves carry meet, &c. [clark, december , ] monday th december i as also the party with me experiencd a most dreadfull night rain and wet without any couvering, indeed we set up the greater part of the night, when we lay down the water soon came under us and obliged us to rise. the five men who stayed out all night joind me this morning wet and cold, haveing stayed out without fire or shelter and the rain poreing down upon them all night their appearance was truly distressingthey had left all their loads near the place they spent the night--i dispatched men for elk which was reather below on the opposit side of the creak, with directions to meet me at the d bend in the creek below, had all the meat which had been brought in yesterday put into canoes and proceeded down to the d bend where i met the men with the elk, dispatchd men with one of those who staid out last night for the meet left in the woods & the remainder an elk at some distance and proceeded on my self with canoes to the fort. wind violent from the s e trees falling, rain and hail, we with some risque proceeded on thro the high waves in the river, a tempestious disagreeable day. i found indians at our camp, they brought fish to sell which were pore & not fit for use, had the meet house coverd and the meat all hung up, several men complain of haveing hurt themselves heavy loads of meat. [clark, december , ] december th tuesday rained some last night and this morning, all hands at work about the huts chinking them, the men left to bring in the elk left in the woods come with the rd they could not find, as it was that left by the party that got lost night before last the after part of the day fair & cool, fore part of the day rain hailed & blew hard, the mountain which lies s. e of this is covered with snow to day we fleece all the meat and hang it up over a small smoke the trees are hard to split for punchens to cover our houses &c. [clark, december , ] tuesday th of december some rain last night and a continuation of it this morning. all the men at work about the houses, some chinking, dobbing cutting out dores &c. &c. the men left to bring in the elk arrived and informed that they could not find the meat that the party who stayed out all night had left--the forepart of this day rained hailed and blew hard, the after part is fair and cool--a mountain which is s. ____° e. about miles distant has got snow on its top which is ruged and uneavin cause a small fire & smoke to be made under the meat which is hung up in small peaces. the trees which our men have fallen latterly split verry badly into boards. the most of our stores are wet. our leather lodge has become so rotten that the smallest thing tares it into holes and it is now scrcely sufficent to keep off the rain off a spot sufficiently large for our bead. [clark, december , ] december th wednesday rained and snowed alturnitely all the last night and the gusts of snow and hail continue untill oclock, cold and a dreadfull day wind hard and unsettled, we continue at work at our huts, the men being but thinly dressed, and no shoes causes us to doe but little--at the snow & hail seased & the after part of the day was cloudy with some rain. [clark, december , ] wednesday th december rained and snowed alternetly all the last night, and spurts of snow and hail continued untill oclock, which has chilled the air which is cool and disagreeable, the wind hard & unsettled--the men being thinly dressed and mockersons without socks is the reason that but little can be done at the houses to day--at the hail & snow seased, and rain suckceeded for the latter part of the day [lewis, december , ] fort clatsop, december th . this day one of the men shot a bird of the corvus genus, which was feeding on some fragments of meat near the camp. this bird is about the size of the kingbird or bee martin, and not unlike that bird in form. the beak is / of an inch long, wide at the base, of a convex, and cultrated figure, beset with some small black hairs near it's base. the chaps are of nearly equal lengths tho the upper exceeds the under one a little, and has a small nich in the upper chap near the extremity perceptable only by close examineation. the colour of the beak is black. the eye is large and prominent, the puple black, and iris of a dark yellowish brown. the legs and feet are black and imbricated. has four toes on each foot armed with long sharp tallons; the hinder toe is nearly as long as the middle toe in front and longer than the two remaining toes. the tale is composed of twelve fathers the longest of which are five inches, being six in number placed in the center. the remaining six are placed on either side and graduly deminish to four inches which is the shortest and outer feathers. the tail is half the length of the bird, the whole length from the extremity of the beak to the extremity of the tale being inches. the head from it's joining the nect forward as far as the eyes nearly to the base of the beak and on each side as low as the center of the eye is black. arround the base of the beak the throat jaws, neck, brest and belley are of a pale bluish white. the wings back and tale are of a bluish black with a small shade of brown. this bird is common to this piny country are also found in the rockey mountains on the waters of the columbia river or woody side of those mountains, appear to frequent the highest sumits of those mountains as far as they are covered with timber. their note is que, quit-it, que-hoo; and tah, tah, &--there is another bird of reather larger size which i saw on the woddy parts of the rockey mountains and on the waters of the missouri, this bird i could never kill tho i made several attempts, the predominate colour is a dark blue the tale is long and they are not crested; i believe them to be of the corvus genus also. their note is char, char, char-ar, char; the large blue crested corvus of the columbia river is also [lewis, december , ] discription of the blue crested corvus bird common to the woody and western side of the rockey mountains, and all the woody country from thence to the pacific ocean it's beak is black convex, cultrated, wide at its base where it is beset with hairs, and is inches from the opening of the chaps to their extremity, and from the joining of the head to the extremity of the upper chap / inches, the upper exceeds the under chap a little; the nostrils are small round unconnected and placed near the base of the beak where they lye concealed by the hairs or hairy feathers which cover the base of the upper chap. the eye reather large and full but not prominent and of a deep bluefish black, there being no difference in the colour of the puple and the iris. the crest is very full the feathers from to / inches long and occupye the whole crown of the head. the head neck, the whole of the body including the coverts of the wings, the upper disk of the tail and wings are of a fine gossey bright indigo blue colour the under disk of the tail and wings are of a dark brown nearly black. the leg and first joint of the tye are / in. long, the legs and feet are black and the front covered with scales the hinder part smothe, the toes are also imbrecated, four in number long and armed with long sharp black tallons. the upper disk of the first four or five feathers of the wing next to the boddy, are marked with small transverse stripes of black as are also the upper side of the two center feathers of the tail; the tail is five inches long & is composed of twelve feathers of equal length. the tail & / as long as the boddy. the whole length from the point of the beak to extremity of the tail foot inch; from the tip of one to the tip of the other wing foot / inches. the conta. the size & the whole contour of this bird resembles very much the blue jay or jaybird as they are called in the u states. like them also they seldom rest in one place long but are in constant motion hoping from spra to spray. what has been said is more immediately applicable to the male, the colours of the female are somewhat different in her the head crest neck half the back downwards and the converts of the wings are of a dark brown, but sometimes there is a little touch of the indigo on the short feathers on the head at the base of the upper chap. this bird feeds on flesh when they can procure it, also on bugs flies and buries. i do not know whether they distroy little birds but their tallons indicate their capacity to do so if nature, has directed it. their note is loud and frequently repeated cha'--a cha'--a' &c.--also twat twat twat, very quick [clark, december , ] december th thursday some rain with intervales of fair weather last night, the morning clear and wind from s w. i despatched sjt. pryer with men in canoes across the bay for the boads of an indian house which is abandoned, the other part of the men continue to doe a little at the huts, the after part of the day cloudy with hail & rain, sgt. pryer and party returned with canoe loads of boards, two indians came & stayed but a short time [clark, december , ] thursday th december some rain with intervales of fair weather last night, this morning clear & the wind from the s, w. we dispatched sjt. pryor with men in canoes across meriwethers bay for the boards of an old indian house which is vacant, the residue of the men at work at their huts--the after part of the day cloudy with hail and rain, serjt. pryor & party returned in the evening with a load of old boards which was found to be verry indifferent indians cam and stayed a short time to day [clark, december , ] december th friday some rain and hail last night and this morning it rained hard untill oclock, men all employd carrying punchens and covering cabins of which we had covered, & set some to dobing--the after part of the day cloudy and some showers of rain. indians came with lickorish sackacomie berries & mats to sell, for which they asked such high prices that we did not purchase any of them,--those people ask double & tribble the value of everry thing they have to sell, and never take less than the full value of any thing, they prise only blue & white heeds, files fish hooks and tobacco--tobacco and blue beeds principally [clark, december , ] friday th of december some rain and hail last night and the rained continued untill oclock a,m, men all employd in carrying punchens or boards & covering the houses, of which were covered to day, the after part of the day cloudy with several showers of rain-- indians arrive in a canoe. they brought with them mats, roots & sackacome berries to sell for which they asked such high prices that we did not purchase any of them. those people ask generally double and tribble the value of what they have to sell, and never take less than the real value of the article in such things as is calculated to do them service. such as blue & white heeds, with which they trade with the nativs above; files which they make use of to sharpen their tools, fish hooks of different sises and tobacco- tobacco and blue beeds they do prefur to every thing. [clark, december , ] december st saturday rain as usial last night and all day to day moderately. we continued at the cabins dobbing & shinking of them, fall several trees which would not split into punchins--the indians were detected in stealing a spoon & a bone, and left us, our sackey commy out send men to gather some at the ocian, saw elk sign [clark, december , ] saturday st december rained as useal all the last night, and contd. moderately all day to day without any intermition, men employd at the houses. one of the indians was detected stealing a horn spoon, and leave the camp. dispatched two men to the open lands near the ocian for sackacome, which we make use of to mix with our tobacco to smoke which has an agreeable flavour. [clark, december , ] december nd sunday rained all the last night & to day without much intermition we finish dobbig huts which is all we have covered, the punchin floor & bunks finished drewyer go out to trap--sjt. j. ordway, gibson & my servent sick several with biles on them & bruses of different kinds, much of our meat spoiled. [clark, december , ] sunday nd december rained continued all the last night and to day without much intermition, men employd doeing what they can at the houses. drewyer set out up the creek to set his traps for beaver, sergt. ordway, gibson & my servent sick, several men complain of biles and bruses of differant kinds. we discover that part of our last supply of meat is spoiling from the womph of the weather not withstanding a constant smoke kept under it day and night. [clark, december , ] december rd monday rained without intermition all last night, and this day much thunder in the morning and evening with rain and some hail to day, we are all employd about our huts have ours covered and dobed & we move into it, canoes of indians came up to day. i purchased mats verry neetly made, bags made with flags verry neetly made, those the clotsops carry ther fish in. also a panthor skin and some lickorish roots, for which i gave a worn out file, fish hooks & some pounded fish which to us was spoiled, but those people were fond of--in the evining those people left us i also gave a string of wompom to a chief, and sent a small pice of simimon to a sick indian in the town who had attached himself to me [clark, december , ] monday rd december rained without intermition all the last night and to day with thunder and hail the fore and after part of this day capt lewis and my self move into our hut to day unfinished--two canoes with indians of the clat sop nation came up to day. i purchased mats and bags all neetly made of flags and rushes, those bags are nearly square of different size's open on one side, i also purchased a panthor skin / feet long including the tail, all of which i gave small fish hooks, a small worn out file & some pounded fish which we could not use as it was so long wet that it was soft and molded, the indians of this neighbourhood prize the pound'd fish verry highly, i have not observed this method of secureing fish on any other part of the columbian waters then that about the great falls. i gave a d chief a string of wampom, and sent a little pounded fish to cus-ca-lah who was sick in the village & could not come to see us. [clark, december , ] december th tuesday- some hard rain at different times last night, and moderately this morning without intermition all hands employed in carrying punchens & finishing covering the huts, and the greater part of the men move into them a hard rain in the evening. cuscalar the young clot sop chief came with a young brother and young squar, they gave or laid before capt lewis and my self a mat and each a large parsel of roots, some time after he demanded files for his present we returned the present as we had no files to speare which displeased them a little they then offered a woman to each which we also declined axcpting which also displeased them. jo fields finish for capt lewis and my self each a wide slab hued to write on, i gave a handkerchief &c [clark, december , ] tuesday th december hard rain at different times last night and all this day without intermition. men all employd in finishing their huts and moveing into them. cuscalah the indian who had treated me so politely when i was at the clatsops village, come up in a canoe with his young brother & squars he laid before capt lewis and my self each a mat and a parcel of roots some time in the evening two files was demanded for the presents of mats and roots, as we had no files to part with, we each returned the present which we had received, which displeased cuscalah a little. he then offered a woman to each of us which we also declined axcepting of, which displeased the whole party verry much--the female part appeared to be highly disgusted at our refuseing to axcept of their favours &c. our store of meat entirely spoiled, we are obliged to make use of it as we have nothing else except a little pounded fish, the remains of what we purchased near the great falls of the columbia, and which we have ever found to be a convenient resort, and a portable method of curing fish [clark, december , ] december th christmas wednesday some rain at different times last night and showers of hail with intervales of fair starr light, this morning at day we were saluted by all our party under our winders, a shout and a song--after brackfast we divided our tobacco which amounted to carrots, one half we gave to the party who used tobacco those who did not we gave a handkerchief as a present, the day proved showery all day, the inds. left us this eveningall our party moved into their huts. we dried some of our wet goods. i rcved a present of a fleeshe hoserey vest draws & socks of capt lewis, pr. mockerson of whitehouse, a small indian basket of guterich, & doz weasels tales of the squar of shabono, & some black roots of the indians g. d. saw a snake passing across the parth our diner to day consisted of pore elk boiled, spilt fish & some roots, a bad christmass diner worm day [clark, december , ] christmas wednesday th december at day light this morning we were awoke by the discharge of the fire arm of all our party & a selute, shoute and a song which the whole party joined in under our windows, after which they retired to their rooms were chearfull all the morning--after brackfast we divided our tobacco which amounted to carrots one half of which we gave to the men of the party who used tobacco, and to those who doe not use it we make a present of a handkerchief, the indians leave us in the evening all the party snugly fixed in their huts--i recved a presnt of capt l. of a fleece hosrie shirt draws and socks-, a pr. mockersons of whitehouse a small indian basket of gutherich, two dozen white weazils tails of the indian woman, & some black root of the indians before their departure--drewyer informs me that he saw a snake pass across the parth to day. the day proved showerey wet and disagreeable. we would have spent this day the nativity of christ in feasting, had we any thing either to raise our sperits or even gratify our appetites, our diner concisted of pore elk, so much spoiled that we eate it thro mear necessity, some spoiled pounded fish and a fiew roots. [clark, december , ] december th thursday rained and blew hard last night some hard thunder, the rain continued as usial all day and wind blew hard from the s. e, joseph fields finish a table & seats for us. we dry our wet articles and have the blankets fleed, the flees are so troublesom that i have slept but little for nights past and we have regularly to kill them out of our blankets every day for several past--maney of the men have ther powder wet by the horns being repeetdly wet, hut smoke verry bad. [clark, december , ] thursday th december rained and blew with great violence s e all the last night, some hard claps of thunder, the rain as usial continued all day--we dry our wet articles before the fire, and have our blankets fleed, great numbers were caught out of the blankets, those trouble insects are so abundant that we have to have them killd. out of our blankets every day or get no sleep at night--the powder in maney of the mens horns are wet from their being so long exposed to the rain &c. [clark, december , ] december th friday . rained last night as usial and the greater part of this day, the men complete chimneys & bunks to day, in the evening a chief and men come of the clotsop nation, chief co-ma wool we sent out r. fields & collins to hunt and order drewyer, shannon & labiach to set out early to morrow to hunt,--jo fields, bratten, & gibson to make salt at point addams,- willard & wiser, to assist them in carrying the kitties &c to the ocian, and all the others to finish the pickets and gates. worm weather i saw a musquetor which i showed capt. lewis--those indians gave is, a black root they call shan-na-tah que a kind of licquerish which they rost in embers and call cul ho-mo, a black berry the size of a cherry & dried which they call shel-well,--all of which they prise highly and make use of as food to live on, for which capt lewis gave the chief a cap of sheep skin and i his son, ear bobs, piece of riben, a pice of brass, and small fishing hooks, of which they were much pleased those roots & berres, are greatfull to our stomcks as we have nothing to eate but pore elk meet, nearly spoiled; & this accident of spoiled meet, is owing to wormth & the repeeted rains, which cause the meet to tante before we can get it from the woods musquetors troublesorn [clark, december , ] friday th december rained last night as usial and the greater part of this day. in the evening co-mo wool the chief and men of the clat sop nation they presented us a root which resembles the licquirish in size and taste, which they roste like a potato which they call cul ho-mo, also a black root which is cured in a kill like the pash-a-co above; this root has a sweet taste and the natives are verry fond of it--they call this root shaw-na-tah-que. also a dried berry about the size of a chery which they call shele well all those roots those indians value highly and give them verry spearingly. in return for the above roots capt lewis gave the chief a small piece of sheap skin to ware on his head, i gave his son a par of ear bobs and a pece of ribon, and a small piece of brass for which they were much pleased. those roots and berries are timely and extreamly greatfull to our stomachs, as we have nothing to eate but spoiled elk meat, i showed capt l. musquetors to day, or an insect so much the size shape and appearance of a musquetor that we could observe no kind of differance. [clark, december , ] december th saturday rained as usial, a great part of the last night, and this morning rained and the wind blew hard from the s. e. sent out the hunters and salt makers, & employd the baleanc of the men carrying the pickets &c. &c. hunters sent out yesterday returned, haveing killed one deer near the sea cost, my boy york verry unwell from violent colds & strains carrying in meet and lifting logs on the huts to build them, this day is worm, and rained all day moderately without intermition. [clark, december , ] saturday the th december rained as usial the greater part of the last night and a continuation this morning accompanied with wind from the s east derected drewyer, shannon, labeash, reuben field, and collins to hunt; jos. fields, bratten, gibson to proceed to the ocean at some convenient place form a camp and commence makeing salt with of the largest kittles, and willard and wiser to assist them in carrying the kittles to the sea coastall the other men to be employed about putting up pickets & makeing the gates of the fort. my man y. verry unwell from a violent coald and strain by carrying meet from the woods and lifting the heavy logs on the works &c. rained all day without intermition. the weather verry worm. [clark, december , ] december th sunday rained last night as usial, this morning cloudy without rain a hard wind from the s. e. the inds. left us this morning and returned to their village, after begging for maney things which they did not secure as we could not spare them i gave the chief canio a razor, sent out men across the river to hunt, all others employd putting up pickets pete crusat sick with a violent cold my servent better--we are told by the indians that a whale has foundered on the coast to the n. w and their nations is collecting fat of him, the wind is too high for us to see it, capt lewis is been in readiness days to go and collect some of the whale oyle the wind has proved too high as yet for him to set out in safty in the evening a young chief men and womin of the war-ci-a-cum tribe came in a large canoe with wapto roots, dressed elk skins &c. to sell, the chief made me a present of about a half a bushel of those roots--we gave him a medal of a small size and a piece of red ribin to tie around the top of his hat which was made with a double cone, the diameter of the upper about inches the lower a about foot we purchased about / bushels of those roots for which we gave some few red beeds, small pices of brass wire and old check--those roots proved greatfull to us as we are now liveing on spoiled elk which is extreamly disagreeable to the smel. as well as the taste, i can plainly discover that a considerable exchange of property is continually carried on between the tribes and villages of those people they all dress litely ware nothing below the waste, a pice of fur abt. around the body, and a short robe which composes the total of their dress, except a few split hats, and heeds around ther necks wrists and anckles, and a few in their ears. they are small and not handsom generally speaking women perticularly. the chin nook womin are lude and carry on sport publickly the clotsop and others appear deffidend, and reserved the flees are so noumerous in this countrey and difficult to get cleare of that the indians have difft. houses & villages to which they remove frequently to get rid of them, and not withstanding all their precautions, they never step into our hut without leaveing sworms of those troublesom insects. indeed i scercely get to sleep half the night clear of the torments of those flees, with the precaution of haveing my blankets serched and the flees killed every day--the s of those insects we saw on the collumbia river was at the s great falls--i have the satisfaction to say that we had but little rain in the course of this day, not as much as would wet a person. but hard wind and cloudy all day. [clark, december , ] sunday th december rained all the last night a usial, this morning cloudy without rain, a hard wind from the s. e i gave the cheif a razor, and himself and party left us after begging us for maney articles none of which they recvied as we could not spare the articles they were most in want of. peter crusat sick with a violent cold, my man y. better. all hands employed about the pickets & gates of the fort. we were informed day before yesterday that a whale had foundered on the coast to the s. w. near the kil a mox n. and that the greater part of the clat sops were gorn for the oile & blubber, the wind proves too high for us to proceed by water to see this monster, capt lewis has been in readiness since we first heard of the whale to go and see it and collect some of its oil, the wind has proved too high as yet for him to proceed--this evining a young chief men and womin of the war ci a cum nation arrived, and offered for sale dressed elk skins and wap pa to, the chief made us a preasent of about / a bushel of those roots. and we purchased about / bushels of those roots for which we gave some fiew red beeds small peaces of brass wire & old check those roots proved a greatfull addition to our spoiled elk, which has become verry disagreeable both to the taste & smell we gave this chief a medal of a small size and a piece of red riben to tie around the top of his hat which was of a singular construction those people will not sell all their wap pa to to us they inform us that they are on their way to trade with the chit sops. the nations above carry on a verry considerable interchange of property with those in this neighbourhood. they pass altogether by water, they have no roads or pathes through the countrey which we have observed, except across portages from one creek to another, all go litely dressed ware nothing below the waste in the coaldest of weather, a piece of fur around their bodies and a short roabe composes the sum total of their dress, except a few hats, and heeds about their necks arms and legs small badly made and homely generally. the flees are so noumerous and hard to get rid of; that the indians have different houses which they resort to occasionally, not withstanding all their precautions they never step into our house without leaveing sworms of those tormenting insects; and they torment us in such a manner as to deprive us of half the nights sleep frequently--the first of those insects which we saw on the columbian waters was at the canoe portage at the great falls. hard winds & cloudy all day but verry little rain to day. [clark, december , ] december th monday hard wind and some rain last night, this morning fair and the sun shown for a short time indians came from the upper villages they offered us roots which we did not chuse to axcept of, as their expectations for those presents of a fiew roots is or times their real worth, those indians with those of yesterday continued all day. drewyer & party of hunters returned and informed they had killed elk, a party of men was imediately sent for the meet, they returned at dusk, with the elk, of which we had a sumptious supper of elk tongues & marrow bones which was truly gratifying. the fort was completed this evening and at sun set we let the indians know that, our custom will be to shut the gates at sun set, at which time, they must all go out of the fort those people who are verry foward and disegreeable, left the huts with reluctiance--this day proved the best we have had since at this place, only showers of rain to day, cloudy nearly all day, in the evening the wind luled and the fore part of the night fair and clear. i saw flies & different kinds of insects in motion to day snakes are yet to be seen, and snales without cover is common and large, fowls of every kind common to this quarter abound in the creek & bay near us [clark, december , ] monday th december hard wind and some rain last night. this morning the sun shown for a short time--four indians came down from the war cia cum village, they offered us roots which we did not think proper to accept of as in return they expect or times as much as the roots as we could purchase the roots for, and are never satisfied with what they receive, those indians & these that came yesterday stayed all day. drewyer returned and informed that he had killed elk at no great distance off, a party of men was imediately dispatched for the meat, and returned at dusk with the elk--we had a sumptious supper of elks tongues & marrow bones which was truly gratifying--our fortification is completed this evening-and at sun set we let the nativs know that our custom will be in future, to shut the gates at sun set at which time all indians must go out of the fort and not return into it untill next morning after sunrise at which time the gates will be opened, those of the war ci a cum nation who are very foward left the houses with reluctianc this day proved to be the fairest and best which we have had since our arrival at this place, only three showers dureing this whole day, wind the fore part of the day. [clark, december , ] december st tuesday a cloudy night & some rain, this day proved cloudy and some showers of rain to day all the indians continued at their camp near us, others canoes came one from the war-ci-a-cum village, with three indians, and the other from higher up the river of the skil-lute nation with three men and a squar; those people brought with them some wapto roots, mats made of flags, & rushes, dried fish and some fiew shene-tock-we (or black) roots & dressed elk skins, all of which they asked enormous prices for, particularly the dressed elk skins; i purchased of those people some wapto roots, two mats and a small pouch of tobacco of their own manufactory--for which i gave large fish hooks, which they were verry fond, those indians are much more reserved and better behaved to day than yesterday--the sight of our sentinal who walks on his post, has made this reform in those people who but yesterday was verry impertenant and disagreeable to all--this evening they all cleared out before the time to shut the gates, without being derected to doe so--i derected sinks to be dug and a sentinal box which was accomplished one of those indeans brought a musquet to be repared, which only wanted a screw flattened, for which he gave me a peck of wapto roots, i gave him a flint and a pice of sheep skin of which he was pleased [clark, december , ] tuesday st december last night was cloudy and some rain, this day prove cloudy and showerry all day, all the indians continue at their camp near us, two other canoes arrived, one from the war ci a cum village with indians and the other of men & a squar from higher up the river and are of the skil-lute nation, those people brought with them some wappato roots, mats made of flags and rushes dried fish, and a fiew shaw-na tah-que and dressed elk skins, all of which they asked enormous prices for, perticularly the dressed elk skins, i purchased of those people some wap pa to two mats and about pipes of their tobacco in a neet little bag made of rushes--this tobacco was much like what we had seen before with the so so ne or snake indians, for those articles i gave a large fishing hook and several other small articles, the fishinghooks they were verry fond of. those skit lutes are much better behaved than the war ci a cum indeed we found a great alteration in the conduct of them all this morning, the sight of our sentinal on his post at the gate, together with our deturmined proseedure of putting all out at sun set has made this reform in those war ci a corns who is foward impertinant an thieveish. the nativs all leave us the fort this evening before sun set without being told or desired to do so--we had sinks dug & a sentinal box made- a skit lute brought a gun which he requested me to have repared, it only wanted a screw flattened so as to catch, i put a flint into his gun & he presented me in return a peck of wappato for payment, i gave him piece of a sheap skin and a small piece of blue cloth to cover his lock for which he was much pleased and gave me in return some roots &c. i saw flies and different kinds of insects in motion to day--snakes are yet to be seen and snales without covers is common and verry large water fowls of various kinds are in great numbers in the rivers and creeks and the sides of meriwethers bay near us but excessively wild- the fore part of this night fair and clear with the party of clat sops who visited us last was a man of much lighter coloured than the nativs are generaly, he was freckled with long duskey red hair, about years of age, and must certainly be half white at least, this man appeared to understand more of the english language than the others of his party, but did not speak a word of english, he possessed all the habits of the indians [lewis, january , ] fort clatsop . january st tuesday. this morning i was awoke at an early hour by the discharge of a volley of small arms, which were fired by our party in front of our quarters to usher in the new year; this was the only mark of rispect which we had it in our power to pay this celebrated day. our repast of this day tho better than that of christmass, consisted principally in the anticipation of the st day of january , when in the bosom of our friends we hope to participate in the mirth and hilarity of the day, and when with the zest given by the recollection of the present, we shall completely, both mentally and corporally, enjoy the repast which the hand of civilization has prepared for us. at present we were content with eating our boiled elk and wappetoe, and solacing our thirst with our only beverage pure water. two of our hunters who set out this morning reterned in the evening having killed two bucks elk; they presented capt. clark and myself each a marrow-bone and tonge, on which we suped. visited today by a few of the clotsops who brought some roots and burries for the purpose of trading with us. we were uneasy with rispect to two of our men, willard and wiser, who were dispatched on the th ulto. with the saltmakers, and were directed to return immediately; their not having returned induces us to believe it probable that they have missed their way.--our fourtification being now completed we issued an order for the more exact and uniform dicipline and government of the garrison. (see orderly book st january ).- [clark, january , ] january st wednesday this morning proved cloudy with moderate rain, after a pleasent worm night during which there fell but little rain--this morning at day we wer saluted from the party without, wishing us a "hapy new year" a shout and discharge of their arms--no indians to be seen this morning- they left the place of their encampment dureing the last night the work of our houses and fort being now complete, we ishued an order in which we pointed out the rules & regulations for the government of the party in respect to the indians as also for the safty and protection of our selves &c. two clotsops came with a mat and some fiew roots of cut wha mo, for which they asked a file they did not trade but continued all night sent out hunters this morning who returned, haveing killed elk about miles distant, some fiew showers of rain in the course of this day. cloudy all the day. [clark, january , ] fort clatsop wednesday the st of january this morning i was awoke at an early hour by the discharge of a volley of small arms, which were fired by our party in front of our quarters to usher in the new year, this was the only mark of respect which we had it in our power to pay this selibrated day. our repast of this day tho better than that of christmas consisted principally in the anticipation of the st day of january , when in the bosom of our friends we hope to participate in the mirth and hilarity of the day, and when with the relish given by the recollection of the present, we shall completely, both mentally and corparally, the repast which the hand of civilization has produced for us. at present we were content with eating our boiled elk and wappato, and solacing our thirst with our only beverage pure water. two of our hunters who set out this morning returned in the evening haveing killed two buck elks; they presented capt. lewis and my self each a marrow bone and tongue on which we suped--we are visited to day by a fiew of the clatsops by water they brought some roots and berries for the purpose of tradeing with us. our fortification being now complete we issue an order for the more exact and uniform dicipline and government of the garrison. (see orderly book jany d ) [lewis, january , ] fort clatsop, january st the fort being now completed, the commanding officers think proper to direct that the guard shall as usual consist of one sergeant and three privates, and that the same be regularly relieved each morning at sun rise. the post of the new guard shall be in the room of the sergeants rispectivly commanding the same. the centinel shall be posted, both day and night, on the parade in front of the commanding offercers quarters; tho should he at any time think proper to remove himself to any other part of the fort, in order the better to inform himself of the desighns or approach of any party of savages, he is not only at liberty, but is hereby required to do so. it shall be the duty of the centinel also to announce the arrival of all parties of indians to the sergeant of the guard, who shall immediately report the same to the commanding officers. the commanding officers require and charge the garrison to treat the natives in a friendly manner; nor will they be permitted at any time, to abuse, assault or strike them; unless such abuse assault or stroke be first given by the natives. nevertheless it shall be right for any individual, in a peaceable manner, to refuse admittance to, or put out of his room, any native who may become troublesome to him; and should such native refuse to go when requested, or attempt to enter their rooms after being forbidden to do so; it shall be the duty of the sergeant of the guard on information of the same, to put such native out of the fort and see that he is not again admitted during that day unless specially permitted; and the sergeant of the guard may for this purpose imploy such coercive measures (not extending to the taking of life) as shall at his discretion be deemed necessary to effect the same. when any native shall be detected in theft, the sergt. of the guard shall immediately inform the commanding offercers of the same, to the end that such measures may be pursued with rispect to the culprit as they shall think most expedient. at sunset on each day, the sergt. attended by the interpreter charbono and two of his guard, will collect and put out of the fort, all indians except such as may specially be permitted to remain by the commanding offercers, nor shall they be again admitted untill the main gate be opened the ensuing morning. at sunset, or immediately after the indians have been dismissed, both gates shall be shut, and secured, and the main gate locked and continue so untill sunrise the next morning; the water-gate may be used freely by the garrison for the purpose of passing and repassing at all times, tho from sunset, untill sunrise, it shall be the duty of the centinel, to open the gate for, and shut it after all persons passing and repassing, suffering the same never to remain unfixed long than is absolutely necessary. it shall be the duty of the sergt. of the guard to keep the kee of the meat house, and to cause the guard to keep regular fires therein when the same may be necessary; and also once at least in hours to visit the canoes and see that they are safely secured; and shall further on each morning after he is relieved, make his report verbally to the commandg officers. each of the old guard will every morning after being relieved furnish two loads of wood for the commanding offercers fire. no man is to be particularly exempt from the duty of bringing meat from the woods, nor none except the cooks and interpreters from that of mounting guard. each mess being furnished with an ax, they are directed to deposit in the room of the commanding offercers all other public tools of which they are possessed; nor shall the same at any time hereafter be taken from the said deposit without the knoledge and permission of the commanding officers; and any individual so borrowing the tools are strictly required to bring the same back the moment he has ceased to use them, and no case shall they be permited to keep them out all night. any individual selling or disposing of any tool or iron or steel instrument, arms, accoutrements or ammunicion, shall be deemed guilty of a breach of this order, and shall be tryed and punished accordingly.the tools loaned to john shields are excepted from the restrictions of this order. meriwether lewis capt. st u.s. regt. wm. clark capt. &c [lewis, january , ] thursday, january nd sent out a party of men and brought in the two elk which were killed yesterday. willard and wiser have not yet returned nor have a party of hunters returned who set out on the th ulto. the indians who visited yesterday left us at p m today after having disposed of their roots and berries for a few fishinghooks and some other small articles. we are infested with swarms of flees already in our new habitations; the presumption is therefore strong that we shall not devest ourselves of this intolerably troublesome vermin during our residence here. the large, and small or whistling swan, sand hill crane, large and small gees, brown and white brant, cormorant, duckan mallard, canvisback duck, and several other species of ducks, still remain with us; tho i do not think that they are as plenty as on our first arrival in the neighbourhood. drewyer visited his traps and took an otter. the fur of both the beaver and otter in this country are extreemly good; those annamals are tolerably plenty near the sea coast, and on the small creeks and rivers as high as the grand rappids, but are by no means as much so as on the upper part of the missouri. [clark, january , ] january nd thursday . a cloudy rainey morning after a wet night. dispatched men for the two elk killed yesterday which they brought in at oclock. the day proved cloudy and wet, the indians left us at oclock p. m, drewyer visited his traps which had one otter in one of them. the flees are verry troublesom, our huts have alreadey sworms of those disagreeable insects in them, and i fear we shall not get rid of them dureing our delay at this place. [clark, january , ] thursday nd of january . sent out a party of men and brought in the two elk which was killed yesterday. willard & wiser have not yet returned nor have a party of hunters who set out on the th ulto the indians who visited us yesterday left us at p. m to day after haveing disposed of their roots and berries for a fiew fishing hooks and some other small articles. we are infestd. with sworms of flees already in our new habatations; the presumption is therefore strong that we shall not devest our selves of this intolerably troublesom vermin dureing our residence here. the large, & small or whistling swan, sand hill crane, large & small gees, brown and white brant, comorant, duckanmallard, canvis back duck, and several other species of ducks still remain with us; tho i doe not think they are as plenty as on our first arrival in the neighbourhood. drewyer visit his traps at took out an otter. the fur of both the beaver and otter as also the rackoon in this countrey are extreemly good; those animals are tolerably plenty near the sea coast, on the small creeks and rivers as high as the grand rapids. [lewis, january , ] friday january d . at a.m. we were visited by our near neighbours, chief or tia, como-wool; alias conia and six clatsops. they brought for sale some roots buries and three dogs also a small quantity of fresh blubber. this blubber they informed us they had obtained from their neighbours the callamucksz who inhabit the coast to the s. e. near whose vilage a whale had recently perished. this blubber the indians eat and esteeme it excellent food. our party from necessaty having been obliged to subsist some lenth of time on dogs have now become extreemly fond of their flesh; it is worthy of remark that while we lived principally on the flesh of this anamal we were much more healthy strong and more fleshey than we had been since we left the buffaloe country. for my own part i have become so perfectly reconciled to the dog that i think it an agreeable food and would prefer it vastly to lean venison or elk. a small crow, the blue crested corvus and the smaller corvus with a white brest, the little brown ren, a large brown sparrow, the bald eagle and the beatifull buzzard of the columbia still continue with us.--sent sergt. gass and george shannon to the saltmakers who are somewhere on the coast to the s. w. of us, to enquire after willard and wiser who have not yet returned. reubin fields collins and pots the hunters who set out on the th ulto. returned this evening after dark. they reported that they had been about miles up the river at the head of the bay just below us and had hunted the country from thence down on the east side of the river, even to a considerable distance from it and had proved unsuccessful) having killed one deer and a few fowls, barely as much as subsisted them. this reminded us of the necessity of taking time by the forelock, and keep out several parties while we have yet a little meat beforehand.i gave the chief comowooll a pare of sattin breechies with which he appeared much pleased. [clark, january , ] january rd friday the sun rose fair this morning for the first time for six weeks past, the clouds soon obscure it from our view, and a shower of rain suckceededlast night we had sharp lightening a hard thunder suckceeded with heavy showers of hail, and rain, which continud with intervales of fair moon shine dureing the night. sent out sergt. gass & men to the salt makers with a vew to know what is the cause of the delay of of our party willard & wiser who we are uneasy about, as they were to have been back days ago. [clark, january , ] friday the rd january at a. m. we were visited by our near neighbour chief (or tia) co mo wool alias conia and six clat sops. they brought for sale some roots berries and dogs also a small quantity of fresh blubber. this blubber they informed us they had obtained from their neighbours the cal la mox who inhabit the coast to the s. e near one of their villages a whale had recently perished. this blubber the indians eat and esteem it excellent food. our party from necescity have been obliged to subsist some length of time on dogs have now become extreamly fond of their flesh; it is worthey of remark that while we lived principally on the flesh of this animal we wer much more helthy strong and more fleshey then we have been sence we left the buffalow country. as for my own part i have not become reconsiled to the taste of this animal as yet. a small crow, the blue crested corvus and the smaller corvus with a white breast, the little brown ren, and a large brown sparrow, the bald eagle, and the butifull buzzard of the columbia still continue with us, send sarjt. gass and g. shannon to the salt makers who are on the sea coast to the s, w. of us, to enquire after willard & wiser who have not yet returned. r. field, potts & collins the hunters who set out on the th ulto. returned this evening after dark. they reported that they had been about miles up the river which falls into meriwethers bay to the east of us, and had hunted the country a considerable distance to east, and had proved unsucksesfull haveing killed one deer and a fiew fowls, bearly as much as subsisted them. this reminded us of the necessity of takeing time by the forelock, and keep out several parties while we have yet a little meat beforehand. capt lewis gave the cheif cania a par of sattin breechies with which he appeared much pleased. [lewis, january , ] saturday january th . comowooll and the clatsops who visited us yesterday left us in the evening. these people the chinnooks and others residing in this neighbourhood and speaking the same language have been very friendly to us; they appear to be a mild inoffensive people but will pilfer if they have an opportuny to do so where they conceive themselves not liable to detection. they are great higlers in trade and if they conceive you anxious to purchase will be a whole day bargaining for a handfull of roots; this i should have thought proceeded from their want of knowledge of the comparitive value of articles of merchandize and the fear of being cheated, did i not find that they invariably refuse the price first offered them and afterwards very frequently accept a smaller quantity of the same article; in order to satisfy myself on this subject i once offered a chinnook my watch two knives and a considerable quantity of beads for a small inferior sea otter's skin which i did not much want, he immediately conceived it of great value, and refused to barter except i would double the quantity of beads; the next day with a great deal of importunity on his part i received the skin in exchange for a few strans of the same beads he had refused the day before. i therefore believe this trait in their character proceeds from an avaricious all grasping disposition. in this rispect they differ from all indians i ever became acquainted with, for their dispositions invariably lead them to give whatever they are possessed off no matter how usefull or valuable, for a bauble which pleases their fancy, without consulting it's usefullness or value. nothing interesting occurred today, or more so, than our wappetoe being all exhausted. [clark, january , ] saturday th january comowool and the clatsops who visited us yesterday left us in the morning. those people the chinnook and others resideing in this neighbourhood and speaking the same language have been very friendly to us; they appear to be a mild inoffensive people but will pilfer if they have an oppertunity to do so when they conceive themselves not liable to detection. they are great higlers in trade and if they conceive you anxious to purchase will be a whole day bargaining for a hand full of roots; this i should have thought proceeded from their want of knowledge of the comparitive value of articles of merchindize and the fear of being cheated, did i not find that they invariably refuse the price first offered them and afterwards very frequently accept a smaller quantity of the same article; in order to satisfy myself on this point, i once offered a clatsop man my watch a knife, a dollar of the coin of u state and hand full of beeds, for a small sea otter skin, which i did not much want, he immediately conceived it of great value, and refused to sell unless i would give as maney more beads; the next day with a great deel of importunity on his part we receved the skin in exchange for a fiew strans of the same beeds he had refused the day before. i therefore beleive this treat in their charector proceeds from an avericious all grasping dis-position. in this respect they differ from all indians i ever became acquainted with, for their dispositions invariably lead them to give what ever they are possessed off no matter how usefull or valueable, for a bauble which pleases their fancy, without consulting its usefullness or value. nothing occured to day, or more so, than our wappato being all exhausted. [lewis, january , ] sunday january th . at p.m. willard and wiser returned, they had not been lost as we apprehended. they informed us that it was not untill the fifth day after leaving the fort that they could find a convenient place for making salt; that they had at length established themselves on the coast about miles s. w. from this, near the lodge of some killamuck families; that the indians were very friendly and had given them a considerable quantity of the blubber of a whale which perished on the coast some distance s. e. of them; part of this blubber they brought with them, it was white & not unlike the fat of poark, tho the texture was more spongey and somewhat coarser. i had a part of it cooked and found it very pallitable and tender, it resembled the beaver or the dog in flavour. it may appear somewhat extraordinary tho it is a fact that the flesh of the beaver and dog possess a very great affinity in point of flavour. these lads also informed us that j. fields, bratton and gibson (the salt makers) had with their assistance erected a comfortable camp killed an elk and several deer and secured a good stock of meat; they commenced the making of salt and found that they could obtain from quarts to a gallon a day; they brought with them a specemine of the salt of about a gallon, we found it excellent, fine, strong, & white; this was a great treat to myself and most of the party, having not had any since the th ultmo.; i say most of the party, for my friend capt. clark declares it to be a mear matter of indifference with him whether he uses it or not; for myself i must confess i felt a considerable inconvenience from the want of it; the want of bread i consider as trivial provided, i get fat meat, for as to the species of meat i am not very particular, the flesh of the dog the horse and the wolf, having from habit become equally formiliar with any other, and i have learned to think that if the chord be sufficiently strong, which binds the soul and boddy together, it dose not so much matter about the materials which compose it. colter also returned this evening unsuccessfull from the chase, having been absent since the st inst.--capt. clark determined this evening to set out early tomorrow with two canoes and men in quest of the whale, or at all events to purchase from the indians a parcel of the blubber, for this purpose he prepared a small assortment of merchandize to take with him. [clark, january , ] sunday th of january at p.m.willard and wiser returned, they had not been lost as we expected. they informd us that it was not untill the th day after leaveing the fort, that they could find a convenient place for makeing salt; that they had at length established themselves on the sea coast about miles s. w. from this, near the houses of some clat sop & kil a mox families; that the indians were very friendly and had given them a considerable quantity of the blubber of the whale which perished on the coast some distance s. e. of them, it was white and not unlike the fat of pork, tho the texture was more spungey and somewhat coarser. we had part of it cooked and found it very pallitable and tender, it resembles the beaver in flavour. those men also informed us that the salt makers with their assistance had erected a comfortable camp, had killed an elk and several deer and secured a good stock of meat; they commenced the makeing of salt and found that they could make from quarts to a gallon a day; they brought with them a specimen of the salt, of about a gallon, we found it excellent white & fine, but not so strong as the rock salt or that made in kentucky or the western parts of the u, states--this salt was a great treat to most of the party, haveing not had any since the th ulto. as to my self i care but little whether i have any with my meat or not; provided the meat fat, haveing from habit become entirely cearless about my diat, and i have learned to think that if the cord be sufficiently strong which binds the soul and boddy together, it does not so much matter about the materials which compose it. colter returned this evening unsecksessfull from the chase, haveing been absent since the st inst. i determine to set out early tomorrow with two canoes & men in quest of the whale, or at all events to purchase from the indians a parcel of the blubber, for this purpose i made up a small assortment of merchindize, and directed the men to hold themselves in readiness &c. [lewis, january , ] monday january th . capt clark set out after an early breakfast with the party in two canoes as had been concerted the last evening; charbono and his indian woman were also of the party; the indian woman was very impotunate to be permited to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either (she had never yet been to the ocean). the clatsops, chinnooks, killamucks &c. are very loquacious and inquisitive; they possess good memories and have repeated to us the names capasities of the vessels &c of many traders and others who have visited the mouth of this river; they are generally low in stature, proportionably small, reather lighter complected and much more illy formed than the indians of the missouri and those of our frontier; they are generally cheerfull but never gay. with us their conversation generally turns upon the subjects of trade, smoking, eating or their women; about the latter they speak without reserve in their presents, of their every part, and of the most formiliar connection. they do not hold the virtue of their women in high estimation, and will even prostitute their wives and daughters for a fishinghook or a stran of beads. in common with other savage nations they make their women perform every species of domestic drudgery. but in almost every species of this drudgery the men also participate. their women are also compelled to geather roots, and assist them in taking fish, which articles form much the greatest part of their subsistance; notwithstanding the survile manner in which they treat their women they pay much more rispect to their judgment and oppinions in many rispects than most indian nations; their women are permitted to speak freely before them, and sometimes appear to command with a tone of authority; they generally consult them in their traffic and act in conformity to their opinions. i think it may be established as a general maxim that those nations treat their old people and women with most differrence and rispect where they subsist principally on such articles that these can participate with the men in obtaining them; and that, that part of the community are treated with.least attention, when the act of procuring subsistence devolves intirely on the men in the vigor of life. it appears to me that nature has been much more deficient in her filial tie than in any other of the strong affections of the human heart, and therefore think, our old men equally with our women indebted to civilization for their ease and comfort. among the siouxs, assinniboins and others on the missouri who subsist by hunting it is a custom when a person of either sex becomes so old and infurm that they are unable to travel on foot from camp to camp as they rome in surch of subsistance, for the children or near relations of such person to leave them without compunction or remose; on those occasions they usually place within their reach a small peace of meat and a platter of water, telling the poor old superannuated wretch for his consolation, that he or she had lived long enough, that it was time they should dye and go to their relations who can afford to take care of them much better than they could. i am informed that this custom prevails even among the minetares arwerharmays and recares when attended by their old people on their hunting excurtions; but in justice to these people i must observe that it appeared to me at their vilages, that they provided tolerably well for their aged persons, and several of their feasts appear to have principally for their object a contribution for their aged and infirm persons. this day i overhalled our merchandize and dryed it by the fire, found it all damp; we have not been able to keep anything dry for many days together since we arrived in this neighbourhood, the humidity of the air has been so excessively great. our merchandize is reduced to a mear handfull, and our comfort during our return the next year much depends on it, it is therefore almost unnecessary to add that we much regret the reduced state of this fund. [clark, january , ] & all day t of january all last night rained without intermition, & the morning. i sat out with men in canoes to around thro the bay and up a creek to an old landing at which place the indians have a roade across thro shashes west i landed made the canoes fast and set out up the cree on a road passed thro stashes to a pond, then up & around th bend along a bad thick way, took an indian path which took us to a creek which runs into the sand bay at which place we found a canoe which took over men at a time crossed and on the top of a rise saw elk prosued & killed one and encamped at the forks of a creek the west eate th elk all up. a fine butifull moon shining night unto _____, swan geese, brand &c. [clark, january , ] monday th of january the last evening shabono and his indian woman was very impatient to be permitted to go with me, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it verry hard that she could not be permitted to see either (she had never yet been to the ocian). after an early brackfast i set out with two canoes down the ne tel r into meriwether bay with a view to proced on to the clatsop town, and hire a guide to conduct me through the creeks which i had every reason to beleeve comunicated both with the bay and a small river near to which our men were making salt. soon after i arrived in the bay the wind sprung up from the n. w and blew so hard and raised the waves so high that we were obliged to put into a small creek short of the village. finding i could not proceed on to the village in safty, i deturmined to assend this creek as high as the canoes would go; which from its directions must be near the open lands in which i had been on the th ulto., and leave the canoes and proceed on by land. at the distance of about miles up this creek i observed some high open land, at which place a road set out and had every appearance of a portage, here i landed drew up the canoes and set out by land, proceeded on through deep slashes to a pond about a mile in length and yards wide, kept up this pond leaving it to the right, and passing the head to a creek which we could not cross, this creek is the one which i rafted on the th & ultimo. and at no great distance from where i crossed in cus ca lars canoe on the th ulto. to which place i expected a find a canoe, we proceeded on and found a small canoe at the place i expected, calculated to carry men, we crossed and from the top of a ridge in the prarie we saw a large gange of elk feeding about miles below on our direction. i divided the party so as to be certain of an elk, several shot were fired only one elk fell, i had this elk butchered and carried to a creak in advance at which place i intended to encamp, two other elk were badly shot, but as it was nearly dark we could not pursue them, we proceeded on to the forks of the creek which we had just crossed turning around to the s w. and meeting one of equal size from the south, the two makeing a little river yards wide which falls into the ocian near the clat sop houses which i visited on the th ulto. in the forks of this creek we found some drift pine which had been left on the shore by the tide of which we made fires. the evening a butifull clear moon shiney night, and the st fair night which we have had for months [lewis, january , ] monday january th . last evening drewyer visited his traps and caught a beaver and an otter; the beaver was large and fat we have therefore fared sumptuously today; this we consider a great prize for another reason, it being a full grown beaver was well supplyed with the materials for making bate with which to catch others. this bate when properly prepared will intice the beaver to visit it as far as he can smell it, and this i think may be safely stated at a mile, their sense of smelling being very accute. to prepare beaver bate, the castor or bark stone is taken as the base, this is gently pressed out of the bladderlike bag which contains it, into a phiol of ounces with a wide mouth; if you have them you will put from four to six stone in a phiol of that capacity, to this you will add half a nutmeg, a douzen or grains of cloves and thirty grains of cinimon finely pulverized, stir them well together and then add as much ardent sperits to the composition as will reduce it the consistency mustard prepared for the table; when thus prepared it resembles mustard precisely to all appearance. when you cannot procure a phiol a bottle made of horn or a tight earthen vessel will answer, in all cases it must be excluded from the air or it will soon loose it's virtue; it is fit for uce immediately it is prepared but becomes much stronger and better in about four or five days and will keep for months provided it be perfectly secluded from the air. when cloves are not to be had use double the quantity of allspice, and when no spice can be obtained use the bark of the root of sausafras; when sperits cannot be had use oil stone of the beaver adding mearly a sufficient quantity to moisten the other materials, or reduce it to a stif past. it appears to me that the principal uce of the spices is only to give a variety to the scent of the bark stone and if so the mace vineller and other sweetsmelling spices might be employed with equal advantage. the male beaver has six stones, two which contain a substance much like finely pulvarized bark of a pale yellow colour and not unlike tanner's ooz in smell, these are called the bark stones or castors; two others, which like the bark stone resemble small bladders, contain a pure oil of a strong rank disagreeable smell, and not unlike train oil, these are called the oil stones; and others of generation. the barkstones are about two inches in length, the others somewhat smaller all are of a long oval form; and lye in a bunch together between the skin and the root of the tail, beneath or behind the fundament with which they are closely connected and seem to communicate. the pride of the female lyes on the inner side much like those of the hog. they have no further parts of generation that i can perceive and therefore beleive that like the birds they copulate with the extremity of the gut. the female have from two to four young ones at a birth and bring fourth once a year only, which usually happens about the latter end of may and begining of june. at this stage she is said to drive the male from the lodge, who would otherwise destroy the young.--dryed our lodge and had it put away under shelter; this is the first day during which we have had no rain since we arrived at this place. nothing extraordinary happened today. [clark, january , ] jany th tuesday set out at day light, porceded up the creek about mile and crossed on a tree trunk the salt makers have fallen across, then proceeded on to the ocean / mile & proceded up miles to the mouth of colimex river about or yds wide verry rapid & cuts its banks, here we found an old village of houses, one only inhabited by one familey, i gave the man a fish hook to put the party across, on the bank found a skeet fish which had been lef by the tide proceded on miles on the bank opposit a kind of bay the river cross to the sea cost to inds indians lodges at which place i found our salt makers near the foot of a mountain which form the shore. brackfast and hirired an indian to pilot me to the ca le mix nation where the whale is for which i gave a file, we proceded on the stone under a high hill on our right bluff. soft stone sees verry high, several parts of this hill recently sliped in, about / of a mile abov the houses saw a canoe in which the dead was buried at / miles assended a steep mountain, as steep at it is possible places for feet we hauled our selves up by the assistence of the bushes if one had given way we must have fallen a great distant the steepest worst & highest mountain i ever assended i think it at least feet highr than the sea imidiately under on the riht. we met indians loaded with blubber proceded on thro an unusual bad way falling timber bendig under logs &c. and encamped on a creek which runs to my left find day and night, the timber spruc white cedar & &. [clark, january , ] tuesday th of january some frost this morning. it may appear somewhat incrediable, but so it is that the elk which was killed last evening was eaten except about pounds, which i directed to be taken along with the skin, i proceded up the south fork of the creek about miles and crossed on a pine tree which had been fallen by the saltmakers on their first going out, on this tree we crossed the deepest of the water and waded on the opposit side for yards, from thence to the ocian / of a mile through a continuation of open ridgey prarie, here the coast is sandy, we proceeded on the sandy beech nearly south for miles to the mouth of butifull river with bold and rapid current of yards wide and feet deep in the shallowest place, a short distance up this river on the n e side is the remains of an old village of clatsops. i entered a house where i found a man womn & children, they appeared retchedly pore & dirty, i hired the man to set us across the river which i call after the nation clat sop river for which i gave fishing hooks--at this place the creek over which i crossed on a tree passes within yards of the clat sop river over which the nativs have a portage which affords them an easy communication with the villages near point adams, and at the mouth of the creek, on which we lay last night. in walking on the sand after crossing the river i saw a singular species of fish which i had never before seen one of the men call this fish a skaite, it is properly a thornback. i proceeded on about miles to near the base of high mountain where i found our salt makers, and with them sergt. gass, geo. shannon was out in the woods assisting jo field and gibson to kill some meat, the salt makers had made a neet close camp, convenient to wood salt water and the fresh water of the clat sop river which at this place was within paces of the ocian they wer also situated near houses of clatsops & killamox, who they informed me had been verry kind and attentive to them. i hired a young indian to pilot me to the whale for which service i gave him a file in hand and promised several other small articles on my return, left sergt. gass and one man of my party werner to make salt & permited bratten to accompany me, we proceeded on the round slipery stones under a high hill which projected into the ocian about miles further than the direction of the coast. after walking for / miles on the stones my guide made a sudin halt, pointed to the top of the mountain and uttered the word pe shack which means bad, and made signs that we could not proceed any further on the rocks, but must pass over that mountain, i hesitated a moment & view this emence mountain the top of which was obscured in the clouds, and the assent appeard. to be almost perpindecular; as the small indian parth allong which they had brought emence loads but a fiew hours before, led up this mountain and appeared to assend in a sideling direction, i thought more than probable that the assent might be torerably easy and therefore proceeded on, i soon found that the ____ become much worst as i assended, and at one place we were obliged to support and draw our selves up by the bushes & roots for near feet, and after about hours labour and fatigue we reached the top of this high mountain, from the top of which i looked down with estonishment to behold the hight which we had assended, which appeared to be or hundred feet up a mountain which appeared to be almost perpindicular, here we met indians men and women loaded with the oil & blubber of the whale. in the face of this tremendeous precipic imediately below us, there is a strater of white earth (which my guide informed me) the neighbouring indians use to paint themselves, and which appears to me to resemble the earth of which the french porcelain is made; i am confident that this earth contains argill, but whether it also contains silex or magnesia, or either of those earths in a proper perpotion i am unable to deturmine. we left the top of the precipice and proceeded on a bad road and encamped on a small run passin g to the left. all much fatiagued [lewis, january , ] tuesday january th . our meat is begining to become scarse; sent drewyer and collins to hunt this morning. the guard duty being hard on the men who now remain in the fort i have for their relief since the departure of capt. clark made the cooks mount guard. sergt. gass and shannon have not yet returned, nor can i immajen what is the cause of their detention. in consequence of the clouds this evening i lost my p.m. observation for equal altitudes, and from the same cause have not been able to take a single observation since we have been at this place. nothing extraordinary happened today. the clatsops chinnooks and others inhabiting the coast and country in this neighbourhood, are excessively fond of smoking tobacco. in the act of smoking they appear to swallow it as they dran it from the pipe, and for many draughts together you will not perceive the smoke which they take from the pipe; in the same manner also they inhale it in their lungs untill they become surcharged with this vapour when they puff it out to a great distance through their nostils and mouth; i have no doubt the smoke of the tobacco in this manner becomes much more intoxicating and that they do possess themselves of all it's virtues in their fullest extent; they freequently give us sounding proofs of it's creating a dismorallity of order in the abdomen, nor are those light matters thought indelicate in either sex, but all take the liberty of obeying the dictates of nature without reserve. these people do not appear to know the uce of sperituous liquors, they never having once asked us for it; i presume therefore that the traders who visit them have never indulged them with the uce of it; from what ever cause this may proceede, it is a very fortunate occurrence, as well for the natives themselves, as for the quiet and safety of thos whites who visit them. [clark, january , ] jany wedned set out at day a fine morning wind hard from s. e at / miles arived at a open where i had a view of the seas coast for a long distance rocks in every direction. struck a branch and come down to the sea at which place an old village between creeks of the colemix nation which inhabits this coast, grave yard deposed of in canoes in which the bodies are laid in boxes in the canoe, paddles &c thos poople must use thos canoes in the higher seas of which then ever i saw on a cost ruding countrey crossed points rocks great distanc in the sea, hill sides sliping from emins ravins which appears to _____ proceeded on to the mouth of a creek about yards wide at which place i saw lodges of indian of the ca la mix nation, boiling whale in a trough of about gallons with hot stones, and the oyle they put into a canoe i proceded on a short distance to the whales which was nothing more than the sceleton, of feet long, we took out a few bones and returned to the cabins at the mouth of the creek, and attempted to trade with thos people who i found close and capricious, would not trade the smallest piece except they thought they got an advantage of the bargain, their disposition is averitious, & independant in trade, they offered to trade for elk of which we had not i purchased some oile and about w of blubber after rendered, finding they would not trade i deturmined to return home with what we have the houses of these people appear temporary a ridge pole on forks supported a certain number of split boards of the red cedar & pine, set on the end the gable ends of the same materials and calculated for families first, the dress and appearenc of the nativs as also the language is procisely that of the clopsots & chinnooks, those people save their oile in bladder guts &c. their food is principally fish that is thrown on the shores by the seas & left by the tide, this cost is rockey, the mountains high & rugged, they inform me that their nation lives in villages to the s e of this place at the mouths of creek in which they catch samn. in the season, i got of those people a few roots some sturgeon whale-____ &. they call a whale e cu-la a creek shu man, they have some fiew sea ortter for which they ask such prices i could not purchase any of them th party much fatigued in crossing mountain & high points steep & slipery, also stony beach slippery and tiresom the high tide obliged me to delay untill late before the tide put out, i shot a raven & a gul with my small riffle which suppised these people a little they are fond of blue & white large beed only, files & fish hooks which are large- after diner we set out crossed the creek in a small canoe the tide out and encamped on the opposit side, i was asked for ferrage and paid a pin, one hut on the side in which i camped & village a short distance above which i did not see last night, all the men came over & smoked with me, about bed time i herd a hollowing on the opposit side of the river which allarnied all the indian men about me, they run across the creek, i suspected perhaps some of my party was over after the squars, by exemening found that mcneal was not in camp, my guide who staid with me told me some body throat was cut. i emediately sent serjt pryor & men across for mcneal, they soon returned haveing met the person i was anxious to find out the cause of the allarm, mcneal said that a man envited him to go across and get some fish, locked arms of which he contd to hold he took him into a lodge and the woman gave him a small piec the man then invited him to another, the woman of the lodge puled his blanket, & sent out a squar to hollow across, to inform of something which aid. mcneal i sent over sergt. pryor to know the cause of the allarm which he was informed that a plot was laid to kill mcneal for his blanket & clothes by this indian who was from another villg at some distance, and that she had attempted to stop mcneal & findeing she could not that she then allarmed the men, several of the mans band was with me who imedeately cleared out, men came over & slept at my feet. i kept a guard & sentinel all night a fair night wind blew from s. e. during the evening i acquired all the information possiable respecting the coast to the s. e. got the name of many nations & the nos. of their houses, a map of the coast in their way. i am very pore & weak for want of sufficient food and fear much that i shall require more assistance to get back than i had to get to this place. a deturmined purcistance will as it has done carry me through [clark, january , ] wednesday th january the last night proved fair and cold wind hard from the s. e. we set out early and proceeded to the top of the mountain next to the which is much the highest part and that part faceing the sea is open, from this point i beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in my frount a boundless ocean; to the n. and n. e. the coast as as far as my sight could be extended, the seas rageing with emence wave and brakeing with great force from the rocks of cape disapointment as far as i could see to the n. w. the clatsops chinnooks and other villagers on each side of the columbia river and in the praries below me, the meanderings of handsom streams heading in small lakes at the foot the high country; the columbia river for a some distance up, with its bays and small rivers and on the other side i have a view of the coast for an emence distance to the s. e. by s. the nitches and points of high land which forms this corse for a long ways aded to the inoumerable rocks of emence sise out at a great distance from the shore and against which the seas brak with great force gives this coast a most romantic appearance. from this point of view my guide pointed to a village at the mouth of a small river near which place he said the whale was, he also pointed to other places where the princpal villages of the kil la mox were situated, i could plainly see the houses of of those villeges & the smoke of a rd which was two far of for me to disern with my naked eye--after taking the courses and computed the distances in my own mind, i proceeded on down a steep decent to a single house the remains of an old kil a mox town in a nitch imediately on the sea coast, at which place great no. of eregular rocks are out and the waves comes in with great force. near this old town i observed large canoes of the neetest kind on the ground some of which appeared nearly decayed others quit sound, i examoned those canoes and found they were the repository of the dead--this custom of secureing the dead differs a little from the chinnooks. the kil a mox secure the dead bodies in an oblong box of plank, which is placed in an open canoe resting on the ground, in which is put a paddle and sundery other articles the property of the disceased. the coast in the neighbourhood of this old village is slipping from the sides of the high hills, in emence masses; fifty or a hundred acres at a time give way and a great proportion of an instant precipitated into the ocean. those hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow clay; their slipping off or spliting assunder at this time is no doubt caused by the incessant rains which has fallen within the last two months. the mountans covered with a verry heavy croth of pine & furr, also the white cedar or arbor vita and a small proportion of the black alder, this alder grows to the hight of sixty or seventy feet and from to feet in diamiter. some species of pine on the top of the point of view rise to the emmence hight of feet and from to feet in diameter, and are perfectly sound and solid. wind hard from the s. e and see looked ____ in the after part of the day breaking with great force against the scattering rocks at some distance from shore, and the ruged rockey points under which we wer obleged to pass and if we had unfortunately made one false stet we should eneviateably have fallen into the sea and dashed against the rocks in an instant, fortunately we passed over of those dismal points and arived on a butifull sand shore on which we continued for miles, crossed a creek yards near cabins, and proceeded to the place the whale had perished, found only the skelleton of this monster on the sand between of the villages of the kil a mox nation; the whale was already pillaged of every valuable part by the kil a mox inds. in the vecinity of whose village's it lay on the strand where the waves and tide had driven up & left it. this skeleton measured feet. i returned to the village of cabins on the creek which i shall call e co-la or whale creek, found the nativs busily engaged boiling the blubber, which they performed in a large squar wooden trought by means of hot stones; the oil when extracted was secured in bladders and the guts of the whale; the blubber from which the oil was only partially extracted by this process, was laid by in their cabins in large flickes for use; those flickes they usially expose to the fire on a wooden spit untill it is prutty well wormed through and then eate it either alone or with roots of the rush, shaw na tdk we or diped in the oil. the kil a mox although they possessed large quantities of this blubber and oil were so prenurious that they disposed of it with great reluctiance and in small quantities only; insomuch that my utmost exertion aided by the party with the small stock of merchindize i had taken with me were not able to precure more blubber than about wt. and a fiew gallons of oil; small as this stock is i prise it highly; and thank providence for directing the whale to us; and think him much more kind to us than he was to jonah, having sent this monster to be swallowed by us in sted of swallowing of us as jonah's did. i recrossed e co la creek and encamped on the bank at which place we observed an ebundance of fine wood the indian men followed me for the purpose of smokeing. i enquired of those people as well as i could by signs the situation, mode of liveing & strength of their nation they informed me that the bulk of their nation lived in large villages still further along the sea coast to the s, s, w. at the enterence of creek which fell into a bay, and that other houses were scattered about on the coast, bay and on a small river which fell into the bay in which they cought salmon, and from this creek (which i call kil a mox river) they crossed over to the wappato i. on the shock-ah-lil com (which is the indian name for the columbia river) and purchased wappato &c. that the nation was once verry large and that they had a great maney houses, in salmon season they cought great numbers of that fish in the small creeks, when the salmon was scerce they found sturgion and a variety of other fish thrown up by the waves and left by the tide which was verry fine, elk was plenty in the mountains, but they could not kill maney of them with their arrows. the kil d mox in their habits customs manners dress & language differ but little from the clatsops, chinnooks and others in this neighbourhood are of the same form of those of the clatsops with a dore at each end & two fire places i, e the house is double as long as wide and divided into equal parts with a post in the middle supporting the ridge pole, and in the middle of each of those divisions they make their fires, dotes small & houses sunk feet [lewis, january , ] friday january th . our men are now very much engaged in dressing elk and deer skins for mockersons and cloathing. the deer are extreemly scarce in this neighbourhood, some are to be found near the praries and open grounds along the coast. this evening we heard seven guns in quick succession after each other, they appeared to be on the creek to the south of us and several miles distant; i expect that the hunters drewyer and collins have fallen in with a gang of elk. some marrow bones and a little fresh meat would be exceptable; i have been living for two days past on poor dryed elk, or jurk as the hunters term it. the clatsops chinnooks &c. bury their dead in their canoes. for this purpose four pieces of split timber are set erect on end, and sunk a few feet in the grown, each brace having their flat sides opposite to each other and sufficiently far assunder to admit the width of the canoes in which the dead are to be deposited; through each of these perpendicular posts, at the hight of six feet a mortice is cut, through which two bars of wood are incerted; on these cross bars a small canoe is placed in which the body is laid after being carefully roled in a robe of some dressed skins; a paddle is also deposited with them; a larger canoe is now reversed, overlaying and imbracing the small one, and resting with it's gunwals on the cross bars; one or more large mats of rushes or flags are then roled around the canoes and the whole securely lashed with a long cord, usually made of the bark of the arbor vita or white cedar. on the cross bars which support the canoes is frequently hung or laid various articles of cloathing culinary eutensels &c. i cannot understand them sufficiently to make any enquiries relitive to their religeous opinions, but presume from their depositing various articles with their dead, that they believe in a state of future existence. the persons who usually visit the entrance of this river for the purpose of traffic or hunting i believe are either english or americans; the indians inform us that they speak the same language with ourselves, and give us proofs of their varacity by repeating many words of english, as musquit, powder, shot, nife, file, damned rascal, sun of a bitch &c. whether these traders are from nootka sound, from some other late establishment on this coast, or immediately from the u states or great brittain, i am at a loss to determine, nor can the indians inform us. the indians whom i have asked in what direction the traders go when they depart from hence, or arrive here, always point to the s. w. from which it is presumeable that nootka cannot be their destination; and as from indian information a majority of these traders annually visit them about the beginning of april and remain with them six or seven months, they cannot come immediately from great britain or the u states, the distance being too great for them to go and return in the ballance of the year. from this circumstance i am sometimes induced to believe that there is some other establishment on the coast of america south west of this place of which little is but yet known to the world, or it may be perhaps on some island in the pacific ocean between the continents of asia and america to the south west of us. this traffic on the part of the whites consists in vending, guns, (principally old british or american musquits) powder, balls and shot, copper and brass kettles, brass teakettles and coffee pots, blankets from two to three point, scarlet and blue cloth (coarse), plates and strips of sheet copper and brass, large brass wire, knives, beads and tobacco with fishinghooks buttons and some other small articles; also a considerable quantity of sailor's cloaths, as hats coats, trowsers and shirts. for these they receive in return from the natives, dressed and undressed elkskins, skins of the sea otter, common otter, beaver, common fox, spuck, and tiger cat; also dryed and pounded sammon in baskets, and a kind of buisquit, which the natives make of roots called by them shappelell. the natives are extravegantly fond of the most common cheap blue and white beads, of moderate size, or such that from to will weigh one penneyweight. the blue is usually pefered to the white; these beads constitute the principal circulating medium with all the indian tribes on this river; for these beads they will dispose any article they possess.--the beads are strung on strans of a fathom in length and in that manner sold by the bredth or yard.- [clark, january , ] january th thursday a fine morning wind n e set out at day lighte every man some meat of the whale and a little oile proceded on the track we came out to a house at a branch where we halted / an hour to rest this house is at at place an old village has formerly been, on the coast at the comencment ____ foot wide feet long sunk in the ground feet dotes & fire places dotes ins. high & / wide handsom steps to decend down a post in the middle coverede with boards split thin an feet wide, old grave in canoes of feet inches wide & feet long neetly made high at bow proceded on to the top of the hill passing bad points rockey &. from the point clarks point of view cape disapt. bears s. ° e passing a great point at miles one at miles rocks out to the st large point from the creek points, between the st large point and d a point of many large rocks, day clouded up, i can see a point bearing n ° east along way just in sight. from clarks view point to cape disapointment is n ° w. to point adams &the open slope point is north and a sharp point, met a party of chinnooks going to get whale blubber to eate & oile each of which they eate together, we also over took several parties of the clot sops loaded with imence laods of the blubber and oile maney of those loads i with difficuelty raised, estonishing what custom will do. at oclock we arrived at the camp of our salt makers verry much fatigued, more so than i ever was before, the indians all proceeded on, i concluded to stay all night, as the party was much fatigued, and send out men which i had left here to hunt ducks up the little river, jo. fields had killed an elk and brought in a quarter on which we dined he also had killed & brought in a deer. the indians with the oile & bluber tole me they had to purchase of the ca-le nixx and would come to the fort & sell to us in days time, this i incouraged, as i expect to purchase at the fort as cheep as at the village at which i was, day proved fine. rained the greater part of the night i went into an indian lodge they were pore durty and the house full of flees. he offered me roots which they geather on the sea cost a kind of rush, of which they offered me to eate, [clark, january , ] thursday th of january a fine morning wind from the n. e. last night about oclock while smokeing with the nativ's i was alarmed by a loud srile voice from the cabins on the opposite side, the indians all run immediately across to the village, my guide who continued with me made signs that some one's throat was cut, by enquiry i found that one man mcneal was absent, i imediately sent off sergt. n. pryor & men in quest of mcneal who they met comeing across the creak in great hast, and informed me that the people were alarmed on the opposit side at something but what he could not tell, a man had verry friendly envited him to go and eate in his lodge, that the indian had locked armes with him and went to a lodge in which a woman gave him some blubber, that the man envited him to another lodge to get something better, and the woman held him by the blanket which he had around him another ran out and hollow'd and his pretended friend disapeared--i emediately ordered every man to hold themselves in a state of rediness and sent sergt. pryor & men to know the cause of the alarm which was found to be a premeditated plan of the pretended friend of mcneal to assanate for his blanket and what fiew articles he had about him, which was found out by a chin nook woman who allarmed the men of the village who were with me in time to prevent the horred act. this man was of another band at some distance and ran off as soon as he was discovered. we have now to look back and shudder at the dreadfull road on which we have to return of miles s e of point adams & miles from fort clatsop. i had the blubber & oil divided among the party and set out about sunrise and returned by the same rout we had went out, met several parties of men & womin of the chinnook and clatsops nations, on their way to trade with the kil a mox for blubber and oil; on the steep decent of the mountain i overtook five men and six womin with emence loads of the oil and blubber of the whale, those indians had passed by some rout by which we missed them as we went out yesterday; one of the women in the act of getting down a steep part of the mountain her load by some means had sliped off her back, and she was holding the load by a strap which was fastened to the mat bag in which it was in, in one hand and holding a bush by the other, as i was in front of my party, i endeavored to relieve this woman by takeing her load untill she could get to a better place a little below, & to my estonishment found the load as much as i could lift and must exceed wt. the husband of this woman who was below soon came to her releif, those people proceeded on with us to the salt works, at which place we arrived late in the evening, found them without meat, and of the party j. field gibson & shannon out hunting. as i was excessively fatigued and my party appeared verry much so, i deturmined to stay untill the morning and rest our selves a little. the clatsops proceeded on with their lodes--the clatsops, chin nooks kil a mox &c. are verry loquacious and inquisitive; they possess good memories and have repeeted to us the names capasities of the vessels &c of maney traders and others who have visited the mouth of this river; they are generally low in statue, proportionably small, reather lighter complected and much more illy formed than the indians of the missouri and those of our fronteers; they are generally chearfull but never gay. with us their conversation generally turns upon the subject of trade, smokeing, eating or their womin; about the latter, they speak without reserve in their presence, of their every part, and of the most farmiliar connection. they do not hold the virtue of their womin in high estimation, and will even prostitute their wives and daughters for a fishing hook or a stran of beeds. in common with other savage nations they make their womin perform every species of domestic drugery; but in almost every species of this drugery the men also participate. their woman are compelled to gather roots, and assist them in takeing fish; which articles form much the greater part of their subsistance; notwithstanding the survile manner in which they treat their womin they pay much more respect to their judgement and oppinion in maney respects than most indian nations; their womin are permited to speak freely before them, and sometimes appear to command with a tone of authority; they generally consult them in their traffic and act conformably to their opinions. i think it may be established as a general maxim that those nations treat their old people and women with most defference and respect where they subsist principally on such articles that these can participate with the men in obtaining them; and that, that part of the community are treated with least attention, when the act of precureing subsistance devolves intirely on the men in the vigor of life. it appears to me that nature has been much more deficient in her filial ties than in any others of the strong effections of the humane heart, and therefore think our old men equally with our woman indebted to sivilization for their ease and comfort. i am told among the sioux's, assinniboins and others on the missouri who subsist by hunting it is a custom when a person of either sex becoms so old and infirm that they are unable to travel on foot, from camp to camp as they rove in serch of subsistance, for the children or near relations of such person to leave them without compunction or remorse; on those occasions they usially place within their reach a small piece of meat and a platter of water, telling the poor old superannuated retch for their consolation, that he or she had lived long enough, and that it was time they should die and go to their relations who can afford to take care of them, much better than they could. i am informed that the me ne tar es ar war har mays and ricares when attended by their old people on their hunting expedition prosued the same custom; but injustice to those people i must observe that it appeared to me at their villages, that they provided tolerably well for their aged persons, and several of their feasts appear to have principally for their object a contribution for their aged and infirm persons. in one of the mandan villages i saw an old man to whome i gave a knife and enquired his age, he said he had seen more than winters, and that he should soon go down the river to their old village--he requested i would give him something to prevent the pain in his back his grand son a young man rebuked the old man and said it was not worth while, that it was time for the old man to die. the old man occupied one side of the fire and was furnished with plenty of covouring and food, and every attention appeared to be paid him &c. jo. field in my absence had killed an elk and a deer, brought in the deer and half of the elk on a part of which we suped, some rain a little after dark. i visited a house near the salt boilers found it inhabited by families, they were pore dirty and their house sworming with flees.- [lewis, january , ] saturday january th . about a.m. i was visited by tia shah-har-war-cap and eleven of his nation in one large canoe; these are the cuth'-lah-mah nation who reside first above us on the south side of the columbia river; this is the first time that i have seen the chief, he was hunting when we past his vilage on our way to this place. i gave him a medal of the smallest size; he presented me with some indian tobacco and a basquit of wappetoe, in return for which i gave him some thread for making a skiming net and a small piece of tobacco. these people speak the same language with the chinnooks and catsops whom they also resemble in their dress customs manners &c. they brought some dryed salmon, wappetoe, dogs, and mats made of rushes and flags, to barter; their dogs and a part of their wappetoe they disposed off, an remained all night near the fort. this morning drewyer and collins returned having killed two elk only, and one of those had died in their view over a small lake which they had not the means of passing it being late in the evening and has of course spoiled, as it laid with the entrals in it all night; as the tide was going out we could not send for the elk today, therefore ordered a party to go for it early in the morning and george and collins to continue their hunt; meat has now become scarce with us. capt clark returned at to p.m. this evening with the majority of the party who accompanyed him; having left some men to assist the saltmakers to bring in the meat of two elk which they had killed, and sent others through by land to hunt. capt. clark found the whale on the coast about miles s. e. of point adams, and about miles from fort clatsop by the rout he took; the whale was already pillaged of every valuable part by the killamucks, in the vicinity of one of whose villages it lay on the strand where the waves and tide had driven up and left it. this skelleton measured one hundred and five feet. capt. c. found the natives busily engaged in boiling the blubber, which they performed in a large wooden trought by means of hot stones; the oil when extracted was secured in bladders and the guts of the whale; the blubber, from which the oil was only partially extracted by this process, was laid by in their lodges in large fliches for uce; this they usually expose to the fire on a wooden spit untill it is pretty well warmed through and then eat it either alone or with the roots of the rush, squawmash, fern wappetoe &c. the natives although they possessed large quantities of this blubber and oil were so penurious that they disposed of it with great reluctance and in small quantities only; insomuch that the utmost exertions of capt. c. and the whole party aided by the little stock of merchandize he had taken with him and some small articles which the men had, were not able to procure more blubber than about lb. and a few gallons of the oil; this they have brought with them, and small as the store is, we prize it highly, and thank providence for directing the whale to us, and think him much more kind to us than he was jonah, having sent this monster to be swallowed by us in stead of swallowing of us as jona's did. capt. c. found the road along the coast extreemly difficult of axcess, lying over some high rough and stoney hills, one of which he discribes as being much higher than the others, having it's base washed by the ocean over which it rares it's towering summit perpendicularly to the hight of feet; from this summit capt. c. informed me that there was a delightfull and most extensive view of the ocean, the coast and adjacent country; this mout. i have taken the liberty of naming clark's mountain and point of view; it is situated about m. s. e. of point adams and projects about / miles into the ocean; killamucks river falls in a little to the n. w. of this mountain; in the face of this tremendious precepice there is a stra of white earth (see specimen no. ____) which the neighbouring indians use to paint themselves, and which appears to me to resemble the earth of which the french porcelain is made; i am confident this earth contains argill, but wether it also contains silex or magnesia, or either of those earths in a proper proportion i am unable to determine.--shannon and gass were found with the salt makers and ordered to return mcneal was near being assassinated by a killamuck indian, but fortunately escaped in consequence of a chinnook woman giving information to capt. c., the party and indians with them before the villain had prepaired himself to execute his purposes. the party returned excessively fortiegued and tired of their jaunt. killamucks river is yards wide, rappid and feet deep in the shallowest part. the killamucks in their habits customs manners dress and language differ but little from the clatsops & chinnooks. they place their dead in canoes resting on the ground uncovered, having previously secured the dead bodies in an oblong box of plank. the coast in the neighbourhood of clarks mountain is sliping off & falling into the ocean in immence masses; fifty or a hundred acres at a time give way and a great proportion in an instant precipitated into the ocean. these hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow clay; there sliping off or spliting assunder at this time is no doubt caused by the incessant rains which have fallen within the last two months. the country in general as about fort clatsop is covered with a very heavy growth of several species of pine & furr, also the arbor vita or white cedar and a small proportion of the black alder which last sometimes grows to the hight of sixty or seventy feet, and from two to four feet in diameter. some species of the pine rise to the immence hight of feet and are from to feet in diameter, and are perfectly sound and solid. [clark, january , ] jany friday i left sergt. gass here and set out at sun rise, crossed the little river which i waded yards wide & feet deep swift, at which place i saw several indians one of which had butifull sea orter skins on as a roabe, here the creek which i crossed at a tree and on which i camped the th inst. came within yds of the river & they inds. make a portage here, continued on a place miles crossed this creek in a small canoe. here i expected to find shannon and gibson with meet to furnish the salt makers, but did not, divided the party sent men to my right to try and kill elk, soon after met gibson & shannon with meat, they had killed elk miles to my right, i divided the meat between the party, and the load of men whome i send with gibson & shannon to help carrey the elk to the salt makers, and i my self and the party returned by the same rout we went out to the canoes rd. frasure behaved very badly, and mutonous--he also lost his large knife. i sent him back to look for his knife, with directions to return with the party of serjt gass, i proceded on, here is a portage of / of a mile from this creck to a branch which falls into the bay, we proceeded on a much bette road than we went out across a deep slash and found our canoes safe, and set out at sunset, and arived at the foart, wet and cold at oclock p.m. found a cheif & number of indians both encamped on the shore, and at the fort of the cath la-hur tribe which lives at no great distance above this back of an island close under the south side of the columbia river those people speake the same language of the clotsops dress nearly alike the men of both cut their hair in the neck. use blankets of the manifactory of the nativs near the falls of the sheep wool-fond of brass arm bands and check, they bring wap-pa-to root (which is sagittifolia or the common arrow head which is cultivated by the chinees) to sell. [clark, january , ] friday the th of january i derected serjt. gass to continue with the salt makers untill shannon return from hunting, and then himself and shannon to return to the fort, i set out at sunrise with the party waded the clat sop river which i found to be steps across and feet deep, on the opposite side a kil a mox indian came to and offered to sell some roots of which i did not want, he had a robe made of large sea otter skins which i offered to purchase, but he would not part with them, we returned by nearly the same rout which i had come out, at four miles, i met gibson & shannon each with a load of meat, they informed me that they had killed elk about miles off, i directed men to go with the hunters and help them pack the meat to the place they were makeing salt, and return to the fort with serjt. gass, the balance of the party took the load of the men, after crossing the d creek frasure informed me that he had lost his big knife, here we dined, i put frasurs load on my guide who is yet with me, and sent him back in serch of his knife with directions to join the other men who were out packing meat & return to the fort all together. i arrived at the canoes about sunset, the tides was comeing in i thought it a favourable time to go on to the fort at which place we arrived at oclock p m, found several inidians of the cath'-lah-mah nation the great chief shahhar-wah cop who reside not far above us on the south side of the columbia river, this is the first time i have seen the chief, he was hunting when we passed his village on our way to this place, we gave him a medal of the smallest size, he presented me with a basquet of wappato, in return for which i gave him a fish hook of a large size and some wire, those people speak the same language with the chinnooks and clatsops, whome they all resemble in dress, custom, manners &c. they brought some dried salmon, wappato, dogs, and mats made of rushes & flags to barter; their dogs and part of their wappato they disposed of, and remained in their camp near the fort all night. in my absence the hunters from the fort killed only two elk which is yet out in the woods. capt. lewis examined our small stock of merchendize found some of it wet and dried it by the fire. our merchindize is reduced to a mear handfull, and our comfort, dureing our return next year, much depends on it, it is therefore almost unnecessary to add that it is much reduced the nativs in this neighbourhood are excessively fond of smokeing tobacco. in the act of smokeing they appear to swallow it as they draw it from the pipe, and for maney draughts together you will not perceive the smoke they take from the pipe, in the same manner they inhale it in their longs untill they become surcharged with the vapour when they puff it out to a great distance through their norstils and mouth; i have no doubt that tobacco smoked in this manner becomes much more intoxicating, and that they do possess themselves of all its virtues to the fullest extent; they frequently give us sounding proofs of its createing a dismorallity of order in the abdomen, nor are those light matters thought indelicate in either sex, but all take the liberty of obeying the dicktates of nature without reserve. those people do not appear to know the use of speritious licquors, they never haveing once asked us for it; i prosume therefore that the traders who visit them have never indulged them with the use of it; of whatever cause this may proceed, it is a verry fortunate occurrence, as well for the nativs themselves, as for the quiet and safty of those whites who visit them. george drewyer visited this traps in my absence and caught a beaver & a otter; the beaver was large and fat, and capt. l. has feested sumptiously on it yesterday; this we consider as a great prize, it being a full grown beaver was well supplyed with the materials for makeing bate with which to catch others. this bate when properly prepared will entice the beaver to visit it as far as he can smell it, and this i think may be safely stated at / a mile, their sence of smelling being verry accute. to prepare beaver bate, the caster or bark stone is taken as the base, this is generally pressed out of the bladder like bag which contains it, into a phiol of ounces with a wide mouth; if you have them you will put from to stone in a phial of that capacity, to this you will add half a nutmeg, a dozen or grains of cloves and grains of sinimon finely pulverised, stur them well together, and then add as much ardent sperits to the composition as will reduce it to the consistancey of mustard prepared for the table, when thus prepared it resembles mustard precisely to all appearance. when you cannot precure a phial a bottle made of horn or a light earthern vessel will answer, in all cases it must be excluded from the air or it will soon lose its virtue; it is fit for use imediately it is prepared but becoms much stronger and better in or days and will keep for months provided it be purfectly secluded from the air. when cloves are not to be had use double the quantity of allspice, and when no spices can be obtained use the bark of the root of the sausafras; when sperits cannot be had use oil stone of the beaver adding mearly a sufficent quantity to moisten the other materials, or reduce it to a stiff paste. it appears to me that the principal use of the spices is only to give a variety to the scent of the bark stone and if so the mace vineller, and other sweet smelling spices might be employd with equal advantage. the male beaver has six stones, two which contanes a substance much like finely pulverised bark of a pale yellow colour and not unlike tanner's ooz in smell, these are called the bark stones or castors; two others, which like the bark stone resemble small blatters, contain a pure oil of a strong rank disagreable smell, and not unlike train oil, these are called the oil stones, and two others of generation. the bark stones are about inches in length, the others somewhat smaller, all are of a long oval form, and lye in a bunch together between the skin and the root of the tail beneath or behind the fundiment with which they are closely connected and seam to communicate, the pride of the female lye on the inner side much like those of the hog they have no further parts of generation that i can proceive, and therefore believe that like the birds they coperate with the extremity of the gut. the female have from to young ones at a birth and bring forth once a year only which usially happins about the latter end of may and beginning of june. at this stage she is said to drive the mail from the lodge, who would otherwise distroy the young [lewis, january , ] sunday january th . sent a party early this morning for the elk which was killed on the th. they returned with it in the evening; drewyer and collins also returned without having killed anything. this morning the sergt. of the guard reported the absence of our indian canoe, on enquiry we found that those who came in it last evening had been negligent in securing her and the tide in the course of the night had taken her off; we sent a party down to the bay in surch of her, they returned unsuccessfull, the party also who went up the river and creek in quest of the meat were ordered to lookout for her but were equally unsuccessfull; we ordered a party to resume their resurches for her early tomorrow; this will be a very considerable loss to us if we do not recover her; she is so light that four men can carry her on their sholders a mile or more without resting; and will carry three men and from to hundred lbs. the cuthlahmahs left us this evening on their way to the catsops, to whom they purpose bartering their wappetoe for the blubber and oil of the whale, which the latter purchased for beads &c. from the killamucks; in this manner there is a trade continually carryed on by the natives of the river each trading some article or other with their neighbours above and below them; and thus articles which are vended by the whites at the entrance of this river, find their way to the most distant nations enhabiting it's waters. [clark, january , ] saturday th of january sent a party early this morning for the elk which was killed on the th they returned with it in the evining; this morning the serjt. of the guard reported that our indian canoe had gone a drift, on enquiry we found that those who came in it last evening had been negligent in secureing her, and the tide in corse of the night had taken her off; we sent a party down to the bay in serch of her, they returned unsecksessfull, the party who went up the river and creek after meat were derected to look out for her but were equally unsecksessfull; this will be a verry considerable loss to us if we do not recover her, she is so light that men can carry her on their sholders a mile or more without resting, and will carry four men and from to hundred pounds. the cath ia mahs left us this evening on their way to the clatsops, to whome they perpose bartering their wappato for the blubber & oil of the whale, which the latter purchased for beeds &c. from the kil a mox; in this manner there is a trade continually carried on by the nativs of the river each tradeing some articles or other with their neighbours above and below them, and those articles which are vended by the whites at their enterance of this river, find their way to the most distant nations inhabiting its waters. [lewis, january , ] monday january th . the men who were sent in surch of the canoe returned without being able to find her, we therefore give her over as lost. this morning sent out drewyer and one man to hunt, they returned in the evening, drewyer having killed seven elk; i scarcely know how we should subsist were it not for the exertions of this excellet hunter. at p.m. the ballance of the party who had been left by capt. c. arrived; about the same time the two hunters also arrived who had been dispatched by capt c. for the purpose of hunting on the th inst.; they had killed nothing. we have heretofore usually divided the meat when first killed among the four messes into which we have divided our party leaving to each the care of preserving and the discretion of using it, but we find that they make such prodigal use of it when they hapen to have a tolerable stock on hand that we have determined to adapt a different system with our present stock of seven elk; this is to jerk it & issue it to them in small quantities. [clark, january , ] sunday the th january this morning sent out drewyer and one man to hunt, they returned in the evening drewyer haveing killed elk; i scercely know how we should subsist, i beleive but badly if it was not for the exertions of this excellent hunter; maney others also exert themselves, but not being accquainted with the best method of finding and killing the elk and no other wild animals is to be found in this quarter, they are unsucksessfull in their exertions. at p. m serjt. gass and the men i left to assist the salt makers in carrying in their meat arrived also the hunters which i directed to hunt in the point, they killed nothing-. we have heretofore devided the meat when first killed among the four messes, into which we have divided our party, leaveing to each the care of preserving and distribution of useing it; but we find that they make such prodigal use of it when they happen to have a tolerable stock on hand, that we are determined to adapt a different system with our present stock of seven elk; this is to jurk it and issue it to them in small quantities [lewis, january , ] tuesday january th . this morning i took all the men who could be spared from the fort and set out in quest of the flesh of the seven elk that were killed yesterday, we found it in good order being untouched by the wolves, of which indeed there are but few in this country; at p.m. we returned having gotten all the meat to the fort. this evening we exhausted the last of our candles, but fortunately had taken the precaution to bring with us moulds and wick, by means of which and some elk's tallow in our possession we do not yet consider ourselves destitute of this necessary article; the elk we have killed have a very small portion of tallow. the traders usually arrive in this quarter, as has been before observed, in the month of april, and remain untill october; when here they lay at anchor in a bay within cape disappointment on the n. side of the river; here they are visited by the natives in their canoes who run along side and barter their comodities with them, their being no houses or fortification on shore for that purpose. the nations who repare thither are fist, those of the sea coast s. e. of the entrance of the river, who reside in the order in which their names are mentioned, begining at the entrance of the river (viz) the clatsop, killamuck, ne-cost, nat-ti, nat-chies, tarl-che, e-slitch, you-cone and so-see. secondly those inhabiting the n. w. coast begining at the entrance of the river and mentioned in the same order; the chinnook and chiltch the latter very numerous; and thirdly the cath-lah-mah, and skil-lutes, the latter numerous and inhabiting the river from a few miles above the marshey islands, where the cuth-lahmahs cease, to the grand rappids. these last may be esteemed the principal carryers or intermediate traders betwen the whites and the indians of the sea coast, and the e-ne-shurs, the e-chee-lutes, and the chil-luckkit-te quaws, who inhabit the river above, to the grand falls inclusive, and who prepare most of the pounded fish which is brought to market. the bay in which this trade is carryed on is spacious and commodious, and perfectly secure from all except the s. and s. e. winds, these however are the most prevalent and strong winds in the winter season. fresh water and wood are very convenient and excellent timber for refiting and reparing vessels. [clark, january , ] monday th january capt. lewis took all the men which could be speared from the fort and set out in quest of the flesh of the seven elk which were killed yesterday they found the meat all secure untouched by the wolves, of which indeed there are but fiew in this countrey; at p.m. the party returned with the d and last load of meat to the fort. this evening we finished all last of our candles, we brought with us, but fortunately had taken the precaution to bring with us moulds and wick, by means of which and some elk tallow in our possession we do not think our selves distitute of this necessary article, the elk which have been killed have a verry small portion of tallow. the traders usially arrive in this quarter, in the month of april, and remain until october; when here they lay at anchor in a bay within cape disapointment on the n. side of the river; here they are visited by the nativs in their canoes who run along side and barter their comodities with them, their being no houses or fortification on shore for that purpose. the nations who repare thither ar first those of the sea coast s. e & n w of the enterance of the river, who reside in the order in which their names are mentioned to the s e. the clat sops, kil-a-mox, and those to the n w. the chin nooks, and chiltch; and secondly the cath-lah-mah, war-ki-a-cum, and skil-lutes, the latter noumerous and inhabiting those last may be considered or intermedeate traders between the whites and nations on the sea coast, and the e-ne-churs, the e-chee-lutes, and the chil-luck-kitte-quaws, who inhabit the river up to the great falls inclusive, and who prepare most of the pounded fish which is brought to market. the bay in which the trade is carried on is spacious and commodious, and perfectly secure from all except the s. & s e winds and those blow but seldom the most prevalent & strong winds are from the s w & n w in the winter season. fish water and wood are very convenient and excellent timber for refitting and repareing vessels.-. [lewis, january , ] wednesday january th . this morning the sergt. of the guard reported the absence of one of the large perogues, it had broken the chord by which it was attatched and the tide had taken it off; we sent a party immediately in surch of her, they returned in about hours having fortunately found her. we now directed three of the perogues to be drawn up out of reach of the tide and the fourth to be mored in the small branch just above the landing and confined with a strong rope of elk-skin. had we lost this perogue also we should have been obliged to make three small ones, which with the few tools we have now left would be a serious undertaking. a fatiegue of men employed in jerking the elk beaf. from the best estimate we were enabled to make as we dscended the columbia we conceived that the natives inhabiting that noble stream, for some miles above the great falls to the grand rappids inclusive annually prepare about , lbs. of pounded sammon for market. but whether this fish is an article of commerce with the whites or is exclusively sold to and consumed by the natives of the sea coast, we are at a loss to determine. the first of those positions i am disposed to credit most, but, still i must confess that i cannot imagine what the white merchant's object can be in purchasing this fish, or where they dispose of it. and on the other hand the indians in this neighbourhood as well as the skillutes have an abundance of dryed sammon which they take in the creeks and inlets, and i have never seen any of this pounded fish in their lodges, which i pesume would have been the case if they purchased this pounded fish for their own consumption. the indians who prepared this dryed and pounded fish, informed us that it was to trade with the whites, and shewed us many articles of european manufacture which they obtained for it. it is true they obtain those articles principally for their fish but they trade with the skillutes for them and not immediately with the whites; the intermediate merchants and carryers, the skillutes, may possibly consume a part of this fish themselves and dispose of the ballance of it the natives of the sea coast, and from them obtain such articles as they again trade with the whites. [clark, january , ] tuesday th january this morning the serjt. of the guard reported the absence of one of our canoes it had broken the cord by which it was attached and the tide had taken her off; we sent a party imediately in serch of her, they returned in about hours haveing fortunately found her. we now derect that of the canoes be drawed up out of reach of the tide and the th to be tied with a long strong cord of elk skins, ready for use. had we lost this large canoe we should have been obliged to make other small ones, which with the fiew tools we have now left would be a serious undertakeing. a fatiege of six men employd in jurking the elk beef. from the best estermate we were enabled to make as we decended the columbia we conceived that the nativs inhabiting that noble stream (from the enterance of lewis's river to the neighbourhood of the falls the nativs consume all the fish they catch either for food or fuel) from tow ar ne hi ooks river or a fiew mils above the great falls to the grand rapids inclusive anually prepare about , lbs of pounded fish (chiefly salmon) for market, but whether this fish is an article of commerce with their neighbours or is exclusively sold to, and consumed by the nativs of the sea coast, we are at a loss to determine the latter of those positions i am dispose to credit most, as i cannot imagine what the white merchents objet could be in purchaseing fish, or where they could dispose of it. on the other hand the indians in this neighbourhood as well as the skillutes and those above have an abundance of dryed salmon which they take in the creeks and inlets. they are excessively fond of the pounded fish haveing frequently asked us for some of it-. the indians who prepared this pounded fish made signs that they traded it with people below them for beeds and trinkets &c and showed us maney articles of european manufacture which they obtained for it; the skillutes and indians about the great rapids are the intermediate merchants and carryers, and no doubt consume a part of this fish themselves and dispose of the ballance of it to the nativs of the sea coast, and from this obtain such articles as they again trade with the whites. the persons who usially visit the enterence of this river for the purpose of traffic or hunting, i believe is either english or americans; the indians inform us that they speak the same language with our selves, and gave us proofs of their varacity by repeating maney words of english, sun of a pitch &c. whether those traders are from nootka sound, from some other late establishment on this coast, or imediately from the u states or great brittain, i am at a loss to determine, nor can the indians inform us. the indians whome i have asked in what direction the traders go when they depart from hence, allways point to the s. w. from which it is prosumeable that nootka cannot be their distination, and from indian information a majority of those traders annually visit them about the beginning of april and remain some time and either remain or revisit them in the fall of which i cannot properly understand, from this circumstance they cannot come directly from the u states or great brittain, the distance being to great for them to go and return in the ballance of a year. i am sometimes induced to believe that there is some other establishment on the coast of america south of this place of which little is but yet known to the world, or it may be perhaps on some island in the pacific ocian between the continant of america & asia to the s. w. of us. this traffic on the part of the whites consist in vending, guns, principally old british or american musquets, powder, balls and shote, brass tea kettles, blankets from two to three points, scarlet and blue cloth (coarse), plates and strips of sheet copper and brass, large brass wire knives beeds &tobacco with fishing hooks, buttons and some other small articles; also a considerable quantity of salors clothes, as hats, coats, trouses and shirts. for those they receive in return from the nativs dressed and undressed elk skins, skins of the sea otter, common otter, beaver, common fox, speck, and tiger cat, also some salmon dried or pounded and a kind of buisket, which the nativs make of roots called by them shappelell. the nativs are extravigantly fond of the most common cheap blue and white beeds, of moderate size, or such that from to will way one pennyweight, the blue is usially prefured to the white; those beeds constitute the principal circulating medium with all the indian tribes on this river; for those beeds they will dispose of any article they possess-. the beeds are strung on straps of a fathom in length & in that manner sold by the breth or yard-. [lewis, january , ] thursday january th . had a large coat completed out of the skins of the tiger cat and those also of a small animal about the size of a squirrel not known to me; these skins i procured from the indians who had previously dressed them and formed them into robes; it took seven of these robes to complete the coat. we had determined to send out two hunting parties today but it rained so incessantly that we posponed it. no occurrence worthy of relation took place today. the implyments used by the chinnooks clatsops cuthlahmahs &c in hunting are the gun the bow & arrow, deadfalls, pitts, snares, and spears or gigs; their guns are usually of an inferior quality being oald refuse american & brittish musquits which have been repared for this trade. there are some very good peices among them, but they are invariably in bad order; they apear not to have been long enouh accustomed to fire arms to understand the management of them. they have no rifles. their guns and amunition they reserve for the elk, deer and bear, of the two last however there are but few in their neighbourhood. they keep their powder in small japaned tin flasks which they obtain with their amunition from the traders; when they happen to have no ball or shot, they substitute gravel or peices of potmettal, and are insensible of the damage done thereby to their guns. the bow and arrow is the most common instrument among them, every man being furnished with them whether he has a gun or not; this instrument is imployed indiscriminately in hunting every species of anamal on which they subsist. their bows are extreamly neat and very elastic, they are about two and a half feet in length, and two inches in width in the center, thence tapering graduly to the extremities where they are half an inch wide they are very flat and thin, formed of the heart of the arbor vita or white cedar, the back of the bow being thickly covered with sinews of the elk laid on with a gleue which they make from the sturgeon; the string is made of sinues of the elk also. the arrow is formed of two parts usually tho sometime entire; those formed of two parts are unequally divided that part on which the feathers are placed occupyes four fifths of it's length and is formed of light white pine reather larger than a swan's quill, in the lower extremity of this is a circular mortice secured by sinues roled arround it; this mortice receives the one end of the nd part which is of a smaller size than the first and about five inches long, in the end of this the barb is fixed and confined with sinue, this barb is either stone, iron or copper, if metal in this form forming at it's point a greater angle than those of any other indians i have observed. the shorter part of the arrow is of hearder wood as are also the whole of the arrow when it is of one piece only. as these people live in a country abounding in ponds lakes &c and frequently hunt in their canoes and shoot at fowl and other anamals where the arrow missing its object would be lost in the water they are constructed in the manner just discribed in order to make them float should they fall in the water, and consequently can again he recovered by the hunter; the quiver is usually the skin of a young bear or that of a wolf invariably open at the side in stead of the end as the quivers of other indians generally are; this construction appears to answer better for the canoe than if they were open at the end only. maney of the elk we have killed since we have been here, have been wounded with these arrows, the short piece with the barb remaining in the animal and grown up in the flesh.--the deadfalls and snares are employed in taking the wolf the raccoon and fox of which there are a few only. the spear or gig is used to take the sea otter, the common otter, spuck, and beaver. their gig consists of two points or barbs and are the same in their construction as those discribed before as being common among the indians on the upper part of this river. their pits are employed in taking the elk, and of course are large and deep, some of them a cube of or feet. these are usually placed by the side of a large fallen tree which as well as the pit lye across the toads frequented by the elk. these pitts are disguised with the slender boughs of trees and moss; the unwary elk in passing the tree precipitates himself into the pitt which is sufficiently deep to prevent his escape, and is thus taken. [clark, january , ] friday th of january capt. lewis had a large coat finished made of the skins of the tiger cat, and those of the small animal about the size of small cat not known to me; those skins were precured from the indians who had previously dressed them and formed them into robes; it took seven of those robes to complete the coat. no occurrence worthey of remark took place. rained hard all day. the imployments used by the chinnooks clatsops, cath lah mahs kil a mox &c. in hunting are the gun the bow & arrow, dead falls, pitts, snares, and spears or gigs; their guns are usially of an inferior quallity being old refuse american or brittish muskets which have been repared for this trade there are some verry good pieces among them, but they are invariably in bad order they appear not to be long enough acquainted with fire arms to understand the management of them. they have no rifles. their guns and amunition they reserve for the elk, deer, and bear, of the two last however there are but fiew in their neighbourhoods. they keep their powder in small japaned tin flasks which they obtain with their amunition from the traders; when they happen to have no ball or shot they substitute gravel and are insenceable of the dammage done thereby to their guns. the bow and arrow is the most common instrement among them, every man being furnished with them whether he has a gun or not, this instrement is imployed indiscreminately in hunting every species of animal on which they subsist, their bows are extreemly meet neat and very elastic, they are about two feet six inches long and two inches wide in the center, thence tapering gradually to the extremities, where they ar / of an inch wide, they are very flat and thin, formed of the heart of the arbor vita or white cedar, the back of the bow being thickly covered with sinues of the elk laid on with a gleue which they make from the sturgeon; the string is made of the sinues of the elk also, the arrow is formed of two parts usually tho sometimes entire; those formed of parts are uneaquilly devided, the part on which the feathers are placed occupie / of it's length and is formed of light white pine rather larger than a swans quill, in the lower extremity of this is a circular mortice secured by sinues raped around it; this mortice recives the one end of the d part which is of smaller size than the first and about five inches long, in the end of this the barb is fixed and confined with sinues, the berb is either iron copper or stone--in this form forming at its point a greater angle than those of any other indians i have observed. the shorter part of the arrow is of harder wood, as are also the whole of the arrow where it is of one piece only. as these people live in a countrey abounding in ponds lakes &c. and frequently hunt in their canoes and shoot at fowls and other animals where the arrow missing its object would be lost in the water they are constructed in the manner just discribed in order to make them flote should they fall in the water, and consequently can again be recovered by the hunter; the quiver is useally the skin of a young bear or that of a wolf invariably open at the side in sted of the end, as the quiver of other indians generally are, this construction appears to answer better for the canoe, than if they were open at the end only. maney of the elk which our hunters have killd. sence we have been here have been wounded with those arrows, the short piece with the barbe remaining in the animal and grown up in the flesh.--the deadfalls & snares are employd in takeing the wolf, the racoon and fox of which there are a fiew. the spear or gig is used to take the sea otter, spuck, & beaver. the gig consists of two points or birbs and are the same in their construction as those which are common among the indians on the upper part of this river and before discribed. their pitts are employed in takeing the elk, and of course are large and deep, some of them a cube of or feet, those ar commonly placed by the side of a large fallen tree which as well as the pitt lie across the roads frequented by the elk, these pitts are disguised with the slender bows of trees & moss; the unwarry elk in passing the tree precipates himself into the pitt which is sufficiently deep to prevent his escape.- [lewis, january , ] friday january th . this evening we finished curing the meat. no occurrence worthy of relation took place today. we have plenty of elk beef for the present and a little salt, our houses dry and comfortable, and having made up our minds to remain until the st of april, every one appears content with his situation and his fare. it is true that we could even travel now on our return as far as the timbered country reaches, or to the falls of the river; but further it would be madness for us to attempt to proceede untill april, as the indians inform us that the snows lye knee deep in the plains of columbia during the winter, and in these plains we could scarcely get as much fuel of any kind as would cook our provision as we descended the river; and even were we happyly over these plains and again in the woody country at the foot of the rocky mountains we could not possibly pass that immence barrier of mountains on which the snows ly in winter to the debth in many places of feet; in short the indians inform us that they are impracticable untill about the st of june, at which time even there is an abundance of snow but a scanty subsistence may be obtained for the horses.--we should not therefore forward ourselves on our homeward journey by reaching the rocky mountains early than the st of june, which we can easily effect by seting out from hence on the st of april. the clatsops chinnooks &c. in fishing employ the common streight net, the scooping or diping net with a long handle, the gig, and the hook and line. the common net is of different lengths and debths usually employed in taking the sammon, carr and trout in the inlets among the marshey grounds and the mouths of deep creeks. the skiming or scooping net to take small fish in the spring and summer season; the gig and hook are employed indiscriminately at all seasons in taking such fish as they can procure by their means. their nets and fishing lines are made of the silk-grass or white cedar bark; and their hooks are generally of european manufactary, tho before the whites visited them they made hooks of bone and other substances formed in the following manner a c, and c. b. are two small pieces of bone about the size of a strong twine, these are flattened and leveled off of their extremities near c. where they are firmly attatched together with sinues and covered with rosin. c a. is reduced to a sharp point at a where it is also bent in a little; c b. is attatched to the line, for about half it's length at the upper extremity b. the whole forming two sides of an accute angled triangle. [clark, january , ] saturday th january this evening we finished cureing the meat. no occurrence worthey of relation took place to day. we have a plenty of elk beef for the present and a little salt, our houses dry and comfortable, haveing made up our minds to stay untill the st of april every one appears contented with his situation, and his fair. it is true we could travel even now on our return as far as the timbered country reaches, or to the falls of the river, but further it would be madness for us to attempt to proceed untill april, as the indians inform us that the snows lyes knee deep in the columbian plains dureing the winter, and in those planes we could not git as much wood as would cook our provisions untill the drift wood comes down in the spring and lodges on the shore &c. and even were we happily over those plains and in the woodey countrey at the foot of the rockey mountains, we could not possibly pass that emence bearier of mountains on which the snow lyes in winter to the debth in maney placs of feet; in short the indians tell us they impassable untill about the s of june, at which time even then is an abundance of snow but a scanty subsistance may be had for the horses--we should not foward our homeward journey any by reaching the rocky mountains earlier than the st of june which we can effect by setting out from hence by the st of april the clatsops, chinnooks &c. in fishing employ the common streight net, the scooping or dipping net with a long handle, the gig, and the hook and line. the common nets are of different lengths and debths usually employd in takeing the salmon, carr and trout in the inlets among the marshey grounds and the mouths of deep creeks,--the skiming or scooping nets to take smaller fish in the spring and summer season; the gig and hook are employed indiscreminately at all seasons in takeing such fish as they can precure by these means. their nets and fishing lines are made of the silk grass or white cedar bark; and their hooks are generally of european manufactory, tho before the whites visited them they made their hooks of bone and other substances formed in the following manner a c and b c are two small pieces of bone about the size of a strong twine, these are flattened & beaveled off to their extremites at c, where they are firmley attached together and covered with rozin c a is reduced to a sharp point at a where it is also bent in a little; c b is attached to the line, at the upper extremity b. the whole forming two sides of an accute angled triangle. the line has a loop at d which it is anexed to a longer line and taken off at pleasure. those hooks are yet common among the nativs on the upper parts of the columbia river for to catch fish in deep places. [lewis, january , ] saturday january th this morning we were visited by comowool and of the clatsops our nearest neighbours, who left us again in the evening. they brought with them some roots and buries for sale, of which however they disposed of but very few as they asked for them such prices as our stock in trade would not license us in giving. the chief comowool gave us some roots and buries for which we gave him in return a mockerson awl and some thread; the latter he wished for the purpose of making a skiming net. one of the party was dressed in three very eligant sea otter skins which we much wanted; for these we offered him many articles but he would not dispose of them for any other consideration but blue beads, of these we had only six fathoms left, which being less than his price for each skin he would not exchange nor would a knife or an equivalent in beads of any other colour answer his purposes, these coarse blue beads are their favorite merchandiz, and are called by them tia commashuck or chiefs beads. the best wampum is not so much esteemed by them as the most inferior beads. sent coalter out to hunt this morning, he shortly after returned with a deer, venison is a rarity with us we have had none for some weeks. drewyer also set out on a hunting excertion and took one man with him. he intends both to hunt the elk and trap the beaver. the culinary articles of the indians in our neighbourhood consist of wooden bowls or throughs, baskets, wooden spoons and woden scures or spits. their wooden bowls and troughs are of different forms and sizes, and most generally dug out of a solid piece; they are ither round or simi globular, in the form of a canoe, cubic, and cubic at top terminating in a globe at bottom; these are extreemly well executed and many of them neatly carved the larger vessels with hand-holes to them; in these vessels they boil their fish or flesh by means of hot stones which they immerce in the water with the article to be boiled. they also render the oil of fish or other anamals in the same manner. their baskets are formed of cedar bark and beargrass so closely interwoven with the fingers that they are watertight without the aid of gum or rosin; some of these are highly ornamented with strans of beargrass which they dye of several colours and interweave in a great variety of figures; this serves them the double perpose of holding their water or wearing on their heads; and are of different capacites from that of the smallest cup to five or six gallons; they are generally of a conic form or reather the segment of a cone of which the smaller end forms the base or bottom of the basket. these they make very expediciously and dispose off for a mear trifle. it is for the construction of these baskets that the beargrass becomes an article of traffic among the natives this grass grows only on their high mountains near the snowey region; the blade is about / of an inch wide and feet long smoth pliant and strong; the young blades which are white from not being exposed to the sun or air, are those most commonly employed, particularly in their neatest work. their spoons are not remarkable nor abundant, they are generally large and the bole brawd. their meat is roasted with a sharp scure, one end of which is incerted in the meat with the other is set erect in the ground. the spit for roasting fish has it's upper extremity split, and between it's limbs the center of the fish is inscerted with it's head downwards and the tale and extremities of the scure secured with a string, the sides of the fish, which was in the first instance split on the back, are expanded by means of small splinters of wood which extend crosswise the fish. a small mat of rushes or flags is the usual plate or dish on which their fish, flesh, roots or burries are served. they make a number of bags and baskets not watertight of cedar bark, silk-grass, rushes, flags and common coarse sedge. in these they secure their dryed fish, rooots, buries, &c. [clark, january , ] sunday th january this morning we were visited by comowool and of the clatsops our nearest neighbours, who left us again in the evening. they brought with them some roots and beries for sale, of which however they disposed of very fiew as they asked for them such prices as our stock in trade would not licence us in giveing. the chief comowool gave us some roots and berries, for which we gave him in return a mockerson awl and some thread; the latter he wished for the purpose of makeing a skiming net. one of the party was dressed in three verry elegant sea otter skins which we much wanted; for these we offered him maney articles but he would not dispose of them for aney other consideration but blue beeds, of those we had only six fathoms left, which being less than his price for each skin he would not exchange nor would a knife or any other equivolent in beeds of aney other colour answer his purpose; these coarse blue beeds are their favourite merchandize and are called by them tia com ma shuck or chief beeds, the best wampom is not as much esteemed by them as the most indifferent beeds. sent colter out to hunt he shortly after returned with a deer, venison is a rarity with us we have had none for some weeks. drewyer set out on a hunting expedition one man went with him. he intends to hunt the elk and trap the beaver. the culianary articles of the indians in our neighbourhood consists of wooden bowls or troughs, baskets, shell and wooden spoons and wooden scures or spits, their wooden bowles and troughs are of different forms and sizes, and most generally dug out of solid piecies; they are either round, square or in the form of a canoe; those are extreemly well executed and maney of them neetly covered, the larger vessels with handholes to them; in these vessels they boil their fish or flesh by means of hot stones which they immerce in the water with the articles to be boiled. they also render the oil of the fish, or other animals in the same manner. their baskets are formed of cedar bark and bargrass so closely interwoven withe hands or fingers that they are watertight without the aid of gum or rozin; some of those are highly ornimented with the straps of bargrass which they dye of several colours and interweave in a great variety of figures; this serves a double purpose of holding the water or wareing on their heads; and are of different capacities, from that of a smallest cup to five or six gallons, they are generally of a conic form or reather the segment of a cone of which the smaller end forms the base or bottom of the basket. these they make verry expediciously and dispose of for a mear trifle. it is for the construction of those baskets that bargrass becoms an article of traffic among the nativs of the columbia. this grass grows only on their mountains near the snowey region; the blade is about / of an inch wide and feet long smothe plient & strong; the young blades which are white from not being exposed to the sun or air, are those which are most commonly employ'd, particularly in their neatest work. their wooden spoons are not remarkable nor abundant, they are large & the bowls broad. their meat is roasted with a sharp scure, one end of which is incerted in the meat while the other is set erect in the ground. the spit for roasting fish has its upper extremity split, and between its limbs the center of the fish is incerted with its head downwards, and the tale and the extremities of the scure secured with a string, the side of the fish, which was in the first instance split in the back, are expanded by means of small splinters of wood which extend crosswise the fish. a small mat of rushes or flags is the usual plate, or dish on which their fish, flesh, roots & berries are served. they make a number of bags and baskets not water tight of cedar bark silk grass, rushes, flags, and common gorse sedge-. in those they secure their dried fish, roots berries &.- [lewis, january , ] sunday january th . two of the clatsops who were here yesterday returned today for a dog they had left; they remained with us a few hours and departed. no further occurrence worthy of relation took place. the men are still much engaged in dressing skins in order to cloath themselves and prepare for our homeward journey. the clatsops chinnooks &c construct their houses of timber altogether. they are from to feet wide and from to feet in length, and acommodate one or more families sometimes three or four families reside in the same room. thes houses are also divided by a partition of boards, but this happens only in the largest houses as the rooms are always large compared with the number of inhabitants. these houses are constructed in the following manner; two or more posts of split timber agreeably to the number of divisions or partitions are furst provided, these are sunk in the ground at one end and rise perpendicularly to the hight of or feet, the tops of them are hollowed in such manner as to receive the ends of a round beam of timber which reaches from one to the other, most commonly the whole length of the building, and forming the upper part of the roof; two other sets of posts and poles are now placed at proper distances on either side of the first, formed in a similar manner and parrallel to it; these last rise to the intended hight of the eves, which is usually about feet. smaller sticks of timber are now provided and are placed by pares in the form of rafters, resting on, and reaching from the lower to the upper horizontal beam, to both of which they are attatched at either end with the cedar bark; two or three ranges of small poles are now placed horizontally on these rafters on each side of the roof and are secured likewise with strings of the cedar bark. the ends sides and partitions are then formed with one range of wide boards of abut two inches thick, which are sunk in the ground a small distance at their lower ends and stand erect with their upper ends taping on the outside of the eve poles and end rafters to which they are secured by an outer pole lying parallel with the eve poles and rafters being secured to them by chords of cedar bark which pass through wholes made in the boards at certain distances for that purpose; the rough roof is then covered with a double range of thin boards, and an aperture of by feet left in the center of the roof to permit the smoke to pass. these houses are sometimes sunk to the debth of or feet in which cace the eve of the house comes nearly to the surface of the earth. in the center of each room a space of six by eight feet square is sunk about twelve inches lower than the floor having it's sides secured with four sticks of squar timber, in this space they make their fire, their fuel being generally pine bark. mats are spread arround the fire on all sides, on these they set in the day and frequently sleep at night. on the inner side of the hose on two sides and sometimes on three, there is a range of upright peices about feet removed from the wall; these are also sunk in the ground at their lower ends, and secured at top to the rafters, from these other peices ar extended horizontally to the wall and are secured in the usual method by bark to the upright peices which support the eve poles. on these short horizontal pieces of which there are sometimes two ranges one above the other, boards are laid, which either form ther beads, or shelves on which to put their goods and chattles of almost every discription. their uncured fish is hung on sticks in the smoke of their fires as is also the flesh of the elk when they happen to be fortunate enough to procure it which is but seldom. [clark, january , ] monday th january two of the clatsops that were here yesterday returned to day for a dog they had left; they remained with us a fiew hours and departed. no further accounts worthey of relation took place. the men are much engaged dressing skins in order to cloath themselves and prepare for the homeward journey. the clatsops chinnooks &c. construct their houses of timber altogether. they are from to feet wide, and from to feet in length, and accomodate one or more families sometimes three or four families reside in the same room. this house is also devided by petitions of boards, but this happens only in the largest houses, as the rooms are always large compared with the number of inhabitents. those houses are constructed in the following manner; two or more posts of split timber agreeably to the number of devisions or partitions are first provided, these are sunk in the ground at one end and raised pirpindicular to the hight of or feet, the top of them are hollowed so as to recive the end of a round beem of timber which reaches from one to the other or the entire length of the house; and forming the ridge pole; two other sets of posts and poles are then placed at proper distancies on either side of the first, formed in a similar manner and parrelal to it; those last rise to the intended hight of the eves, which is usially about feet,--smaller sticks of timber is then previded and are placed by pears in the form of rafters, resting on, and reaching from the lower to the upper horizontial beam, to both of which they are atached at either end with the cedar bark; two or ranges of small poles are then placed horizontially on these rafters on each side of the roof & are secured likewise with cedar bark. the ends, sides, and partitions are then formed, with one range of wide boards of about inches thick, which are sunk in the ground a small distance at their lower ends & stands erect with their upper ends lapping on the out side of the eve poles and end rafters to which they are secured by a outer pole lyeing parrelal with the eve pole and rafters being secured to them by cords of cedar bark which pass through wholes made in the bods at certain distances for that purpose; the rough roof is then covered with a double range of thin boards, and an aperture of by feet left in the center of the roof to admit the smoke to pass. these houses are commonly sunk to the debth of or feet in which case the eve of the house comes nearly to the surface of the earth. in the center of each room a space of from by feet is sunk about inches lower than the hoar haveing its sides secured by four thick boards or squar pieces of timber, in this space they make their fire, their fuel being generally dry pine split small which they perform with a peice of an elks horn sharpened at one end drove into the wood with a stone. mats are spred around the fire on all sides, on these they sit in the day and frequently sleep at night. on the inner side of the house on two sides and sometimes on three, there is a range of upright pieces about feet removed from the wall; these are also sunk in the ground at their lower end, and secured at top to the rafters, from those, other pieces are extended horozontially to the wall and are secured in the usial manner with bark to the upright pieces which support the eve pole. on these short horizontial peics of which there are sometimes two ranges one above the other, boards are laid, which either form their beads, or shelves on which to put their goods and chattles, of almost every discription. their uncured fish is hung on sticks in the smoke of their fires as is also the flesh of the elk when they happen to be fortunate enough to precure it which is but seldom [lewis, january , ] monday january th . this morning sent out two parties of hunters, consisting of collins and willard whom we sent down the bay towards point adams, and labuish and shannon whom we sent up fort river; the fist by land and the latter by water. we were visited today by two clatsop men and a woman who brought for sale some sea otter skins of which we purchased one, giving in exchange the remainder of our blue beads consisting of fathoms and about the same quantity of small white beads and a knife. we also purchased a small quantity of train oil for a pair of brass armbands and a hat for some fishinghooks. these hats are of their own manufactory and are composed of cedar bark and bear grass interwoven with the fingers and ornimented with various colours and figures, they are nearly waterproof, light, and i am convinced are much more durable than either chip or straw. these hats form a small article of traffic with the clatsops and chinnooks who dispose of them to the whites. the form of the hat is that which was in vogue in the ued states and great britain in the years & with a high crown reather larger at the top than where it joins the brim; the brim narrow or about or / inches. several families of these people usually reside together in the same room; they appear to be the father & mother and their sons with their son's wives and children; their provision seems to be in common and the greatest harmoney appears to exist among them. the old man is not always rispected as the head of the family, that duty most commonly devolves on one of the young men. they have seldom more than one wife, yet the plurality of wives is not denyed them by their customs. these families when ascociated form nations or bands of nations each acknoledging the authority of it's own chieftain who dose not appear to be heriditary, nor his power to extend further than a mear repremand for any improper act of an individual; the creation of a chief depends upon the upright deportment of the individual & his ability and disposition to render service to the community; and his authority or the deference paid him is in exact equilibrio with the popularity or voluntary esteem he has acquired among the individuals of his band or nation. their laws like those of all uncivilized indians consist of a set of customs which have grown out of their local situations. not being able to speak their language we have not been able to inform ourselves of the existence of any peculiar customs among them. [clark, january , ] tuesday th of january this morning sent out two parties of hunters, one party towards point adams and the other party up ne tel river by water. we were visited to day by two clatsop men and a woman who brought for sale some sea otter skins of which we purchased one gave in exchange the remainder of our blue heeds consisting of fathoms, and the same quantity of small white beids and a knife. we also purchased a small quantity of train oil for a par of brass arm bands, and a hat for som fishinghooks. these hats are of their own manufactory and are composed of cedar bark and bear grass interwoven with the fingers and ornimented with various colours and figures, they are nearly water proof, light, and i am convinced are much more dureable than either chip or straw,--these hats form a article of traffic with clatsops an chinnooks who dispose of them to the whites, the form of the hats is that which was in voge in the u states and great britain in & with a high crown rather larger at the top than where it joins the brim, the brim narrow about or / inches. several families of those people usially reside together in the same room; they appear to be the father mother with their sons and their sons wives and children; their provisions appears to be in common and the greatest harmoney appears to exist among them. the old man is not always respected as the head of the family that duty generally devolves on one of the young men. they have sildom more than� one wife, yet plurality of wives are not denyed them by their customs. those families when associated form bands of nations each acknowledgeing the authority of its own chieftains, who does not appear to be herititary, or has power to extend further than a mear repremand for any improper deportment of the indevidual; the creation of a chief depends upon the upright conduct of the individual his abiltity and disposition to render service to the comunity, and his authority and the defference paid him is in extent equilibrio with the popolarity or volintary esteem he has acquired among the individuals of his band, or nation. their laws like all uncivilized indians consist of a set of customs which has grown out of their local situations. not being able to speak their language we have not been able to inform ourselves of the existance of any peculiar customs among them. [lewis, january , ] tuesday january th . visited this morning by three clatsops who remained with us all day; the object of their visit is mearly to smoke the pipe. on the morning of the eighteenth we issued lbs. of jirked elk pr. man, this evening the sergt. repoted that it was all exhausted; the six lbs. have therefore lasted two days and a half only. at this rate our seven elk will last us only days longer, yet no one seems much concerned about the state of the stores; so much for habit. we have latterly so frequently had our stock of provisions reduced to a minimum and sometimes taken a small touch of fasting that three days full allowance excites no concern. in those cases our skill as hunters afford us some consolation, for if there is any game of any discription in our neighbourhood we can track it up and kill it. most of the party have become very expert with the rifle. the indians who visited us today understood us sufficiently to inform us that the whites did not barter for the pounded fish; that it was purchased and consumed by the clatsops, chinnooks, cathlahmah's and skillutes. the native roots which furnish a considerable proportion of the subsistence of the indians in our neighbourhood are those of a species of thistle, fern and rush; the liquorice, and a small celindric root the top of which i have not yet seen, this last resembles the sweet pittatoe very much in it's flavor and consistency. [clark, january , ] wednesday th january visited this morning by three clapsots who remained with us all day; the object of their visit is mearly to smoke the pipe. on the morning of the inst. we issued wt. of jurked meat pr. man, this evening the serjt. reports that is all exhosted; the w. have therefore lasted days and a half only. at this rate our seven elk will only last us days longer, yet no one appears much concerned about the state of the stores; so much for habet. we have latterly so frequently had our stock of provisions reduced to a minimum and sometimes taken a small tuck of fasting that days full allowance exites no concern. in those cases our skill as hunters affords us some consolation, for if there is any game of any discription in our neighbourhood we can track it up and kill it. most of the party have become very expert with the rifle. the indians who visit us to day understood us sufficiently to inform us that the white who visit them did not barter for the pounded fish; that it was purchased and consumed by the clatsops, chin nooks, cath lah mahs and skil lutes, and kil a moxs. the native roots which furnish a considerable proportion of the subsistance of the indians in our neighbourhoodd are those of a species of thistle, fern, and rush; the licquorice, and a small celindric root the top of which i have not yet seen, this last resembles the sweet potato verry much in its flavour and consistency. [lewis, january , ] wednesday january st . two of the hunters shannon & labuish returned having killed three elk. ordered a party to go in quest of the meat early tomorrow morning and the hunters to return and continue the chase. the indians left us about o'clk. the root of the thistle, called by the natives shan-ne-tahque is a perpendicular fusiform and possesses from two to four radicles; is from to inces in length and about the size a mans thumb; the rhind somewhat rough and of a brown colour; the consistence when first taken from the earth is white and nearly as crisp as a carrot; when prepared for uce by the same process before discribed of the white bulb or pashshequo quawmash, it becomes black, and is more shugary than any fuit or root that i have met with in uce among the natives; the sweet is precisely that of the sugar in flavor; this root is sometimes eaten also when first taken from the ground without any preperation; but in this way is vastly in-ferior. it delights most in a deep rich dry lome which has a good mixture of sand. the stem of this plant is simple ascending celindric and hisped. the root leaves yet possess their virdure and are about half grown of a plale green. the cauline leaf as well as the stem of the last season are now dead, but in rispect to it's form &c. it is simple, crenate, & oblong, reather more obtuse at it's apex than at the base or insertion; it's margin armed with prickles while it's disks are hairy, it's insertion decurrent and position declining. the flower is also dry and mutilad. the pericarp seems much like that of the common thistle. it rises to the hight of from to feet.- [clark, january , ] thursday st of january two of the hunters shannon & labieche returned haveing killed three elk, ordered a party to go in quest of the meat early tomorrow morning and the hunters to return and continue the chase-. the indians left us about oclock. the root of the thistle called by the nativs chan-ne-tak-que is pirpendicular and possesses from two to radicles; is from to inches in length and is commonly about the size of a mans thum the rhine somewhat rough and of a brown colour; the consistence when first taken from the earth is white and nearly as crisp as a carrot, when prepared for use by the same process before discribed of the white bulb or gash she quo, qua-mosh, it becomes black and is more sugary than any root i have met with among the nativs; the sweet is prosisely that of the sugar in flavor, this root is sometimes eaten when first taken from the ground without any preperation, in this way it is well tasted but soon weathers and becoms hard and insipped. it delights most in a deep rich moist lome which has a good mixture of sand--the stems of this plant is simple ascending celindric and hisped. the root leaves, posses their virdue and are about half grown of a deep green. the cauline leaf as well as the stem of the last season are now dead, but in respect to it's form &c. it is simple crenated and oblong, rather more obtuce at it's apex than the base or insertion, it's margin armed with prickles while it's disks are hairy, its insertion decurrent and position declineing. the flower is also dry and mutilated the pericarp seems much like that of the common thistle it rises to the hight of from to feet. [lewis, january , ] thursday january nd . the party sent for the meat this morning returned with it in the evening; it was in very inferior order, in short the animals were poor. reubin fields also remained with the other hunters shannon & labuish our late supply of salt is out. we have not yet heared a sentence from the other two parties of hunter's who are below us towards point adams and the praries. there are three species of fern in this neighbourhood the root one of which the natves eat; this grows very abundant in the open uplands and praries where the latter are not sandy and consist of deep loose rich black lome. the root is horizontal sometimes a little deverging or obliquely descending, frequently dividing itself as it procedes into two equal branches and shooting up a number of stems; it lies about inces beneath the surface of the earth. the root is celindric, with few or no radicles and from the size of a goose quill to that of a man's finger; the center of the root is divided into two equal parts by a strong flat & white ligament like a piece of thin tape on either side of this there is a white substance which when the root is roasted in the embers is much like wheat dough and not very unlike it in flavour, though it has also a pungency which becomes more visible after you have chewed it some little time; this pungency was disagreeable to me, but the natives eat it very voraciously and i have no doubt but it is a very nutricious food. the bark of the root is black, somewhat rough, thin and brittle, it easily seperates in flakes from the part which is eaten as dose also the internal liggament. this root perennil. in rich lands this plant rises to the hight of from to five feet. the stem is smooth celindric, slightly groved on one side erect about half it's hight on the first branches thence reclining backwards from the grooved side; it puts forth it's branches which are in reallyty long footstalks by pares from one side only and near the edges of the groove, these larger footstalks are also grooved cilindric and gradually tapering towards the extremity, puting forth alternate footstalks on either side of the grove near it's edge; these lesser footstalks the same in form as the first put forth from forty to fifty alternate pinate leaves which are sessile, horizontal, multipartite for half their length from the point of insertion and terminating in a long shaped apex, and are also revolute with the upper disk smoth and the lower slightly cottanny. these alternate leaves after proceeding half the length of the footstalk cease to be partite and assume the tongue like form altogether. this plant produces no flower or fruit whatever, is of a fine green colour in summer and a beautiful) plant. the top is annual and is of course dead at present.- [clark, january , ] friday nd january the party sent for the meat this morning returned with it in the evening; it was in verry inferior order, in short the animals were pore. rieuben field shannon and labiech remained in the woods to hunt. our late supply of salt is out. we have not heard a word of the other hunters who are below us towards point adams and the praries. some rain this day at intervales there are three species of fern in this neighbourhood the root one of which the nativs eate; that of which the nativs eate produce no flowers whatever or fruit of a fine green colour and the top is annual, and in course dead at present. i observe no difference between the licorice of this countrey and that common to maney parts of the united states where it is sometimes cultivated in our gardins-. this plant delights in a deep lose sandy soil; here it grows verry abundant and large; the nativs roste it in the embers and pound it slightly with a small stick in order to make it seperate more readily from the strong liggaments which forms the center of the root; this they discard and chew and swallow the ballance of the root; this last is filled with a number of thin membrencies like network, too tough to be masticated and which i find it necessary also to discard. this root when roasted possesses an agreeable flavour not unlike the sweet potato. the root of the thistle (described yesterday) after undergoing the process of sweting or bakeing in a kiln is sometimes eaten with the train oil also, at other times pounded fine and mixed with cold water, untill reduced to the consistancy of gruel; in this way i think it verry agreeable. but the most valuable of all their roots is foreign to this neighbourhood i mean the wappetoe. the wappetoe, or bulb of the sagitifolia or common arrow head, which grows in great abundance in the marshey grounds of that butifull and fertile vally on the columbia commenceing just above the quick sand river and extending downwards for about miles. this bulb forms a principal article of trafic between the inhabitents of the vally and those of their neighbourhood or sea coast. [lewis, january , ] friday january rd . this morning dispatched howard and warner to the camp of the saltmakes for a supply of salt. the men of the garison are still busily employed in dressing elk's skins for cloathing, they find great difficulty for the want of branes; we have not soap to supply the deficiency, nor can we procure ashes to make the lye; none of the pines which we use for fuel affords any ashes; extrawdinary as it may seem, the greene wood is consoomed without leaving the residium of a particle of ashes. the root of the rush used by the natives is a sollid bulb about one inch in length and usually as thick as a man's thumb, of an ovate form depressed on two or more sides, covered with a thin smothe black rind. the pulp is white brittle and easily masticated either raw or roasted the latter is the way in which it is most usually prepared for uce. this root is reather insipid in point of flavour, it grows in greatest abundance along the sea coast in the sandy grounds and is most used by the killamucks and those inhabiting the coast. each root sends up one stock only which is annual, the root being perenniel. the bulb is attatched to the bottom of the caulis or stem by a firm small and strong radicle of about one inch long; this radicle is mearly the prolongation of the caulis and decends perpendicilarly; a little above the junction of this radicle with the caulis, the latter is surrounded in a whorl with a set of small radicles from to inches long which are obliquely descending. the caulis is celindric erect hollow and jointed, and is about the size or reather larger than the largest quill. it rises to the hight of or feet, not branching nor dose it either bear flower or seed that i can discover tho i am far from denying that it dose so sometimes, but i have not been able to discover it. the stem is rough like the sand rush and is much like it when green or in it's succulent state. at each joint it puts out from twenty to thirty long lineal stellate or radiate & horizontal leaves which surround the stem. above each joint about half an inch the stem is sheathed like the sand rush. [clark, january , ] saturday rd of january this morning dispatched howard & werner to the camp of the salt makers for a supply of salt. the men of the garrison are still busily employed in dressing elk skins for cloathing, they fine great dificuelty for the want of branes; we have not soap to supply the deficiency, nor can we precure ashes to make the lye; none of the pine which we use for fuel afford any ashes; extrawdinary as it may seem, the green wood is cosumed without leaveing the risideum of a particle of ashes.- the root of the rush used by the nativs is a solid bulb about one inch in length and usially as thick as a mans thumb, of an ovel form depressed on two or more sides, covered with a thin black rine. the pulp is white brittle and easily masticated either raw or rosted, the latter is the way it is most commonly prepared for use. this root is reather insippid in point of flavour, it grows in the greatest abundance along the sea coast in the wet sandy grounds and is most used by the kil a mox and those inhabiting the sea coast. each root sends up its stalk which is annual, the root being perennial. the bulb is atached to the bottom of the stem by a firm small and strong radicle which is mearly the prolongation of the stem which is hollow and jointed and is rather larger than the largest quill. it rises to the hight of or feet, not branching no does it either bear flower or seed that i could discover tho i am far from denying that it does so sometimes, and perhaps every year, but i have not been able to discover it, the stem is rough like the sand rush, and it's much like it when green, at each joint it puts out from to radiate & horizontal leaves which surrounds the stem. above each joint about half an inch the stem is shethed like the sand rush. the instruments used by the nativs in digging their roots is a strong stick of three feet and a half long sharpened at the lower end and its upper inserted into a part of an elks or buck's horn which serves as a handle; standing transvirsely in the stick--or it is in this form as thus a is the lower part which is a little hooked b is the upper part or handle of horn. [lewis, january , ] saturday january th . drewyer and baptiest la paage returned this morning in a large canoe with comowooll and six clatsops. they brought two deer and the flesh of three elk & one elk's skin, having given the flesh of one other elk which they killed and three elk's skins to the indians as the price of their assistance in transporting the ballance of the meat to the fort; these elk and deer were killed near point adams and the indians carryed them on their backs about six miles, before the waves were sufficiently low to permit their being taken on board their canoes. the indians remained with us all day. the indians witnissed drewyer's shooting some of those elk, which has given them a very exalted opinion of us as marksmen and the superior excellence of our rifles compared with their guns; this may probably be of service to us, as it will deter them from any acts of hostility if they have ever meditated any such. my air-gun also astonishes them very much, they cannot comprehend it's shooting so often and without powder; and think that it is great medicine which comprehends every thing that is to them incomprehensible. i observe no difference between the liquorice of this country and that common to many parts of the united states where it is also sometimes cultivated in our gardens. this plant delights in a deep loose sandy soil; here it grows very abundant and large; the natives roast it in the embers and pound it slightly with a small stick in order to make it seperate more readily from the strong liggament which forms the center of the root; this the natives discard and chew and swallow the ballance of the root; this last is filled with a number of thin membrenacious lamela like net work, too tough to be masticated and which i find it necessary also to discard. this root when roasted possesses an agreeable flavour not unlike the sweet pittaitoe. beside the small celindric root mentioned on the th inst., they have also another about the same form size and appearance which they use much with the train oil, this root is usually boiled; to me it possesses a disagreeable bitterness. the top of this plant i have never yet seen. the root of the thistle after undergoing the prossess of sweating or baking in a kiln is sometimes eaten with the train oil also, and at other times pounded fine and mixed with could water untill reduced to the consistency of sagamity or indian mush; in this way i think it very agreeable. but the most valuable of all their roots is foreign to this neighbourhood i mean the wappetoe, or the bulb of the sagitifolia or common arrow head, which grows in great abundance in the marshey grounds of that beatifull and firtile valley on the columbia commencing just above the entrance of quicksand river, and extending downwards for about miles. this bulb forms a principal article of traffic between the inhabitants of the valley and those of this neighbourhood or sea coast. the instrument used by the natives in diging their roots is a strong stick of / feet long sharpened at the lower end and it's upper inscerted into a part of an elks or buck's horn which serves as a handle, standing transversely with the stick or it is in this form a the lower point, b the upper part or handle. [clark, january , ] sunday th of january drewyer and bapteist lapage returned this morning in a large canoe with commowol and six clatsops. they brought two deer and three elk and one elk skin, haveing given the flesh of one other elk they killed and three elk skins to the indians as the price of their assistance in transporting the ballance of the meat to the fort; these deer and elk were killed near pt. adams and those indians carried them on their backs near miles, before the waves were sufficiently low to permit their being taken on board their canoes. the indians remain'd with us all day. the clapsots witnessed drewyers shooting some of those elk, which has given them a very exolted opinion of us as marksmen and the superior excellency of our rifles compared with their guns; this may probably be of service to us, as it will deter them from any acts of hostility if they have ever meditated any such. our air gun also astonishes them very much, they cannot comprehend its shooting so often and without powder, and think that it is great medison which comprehends every thing that is to them incomprehensible. the nativs of this neighbourhood ware no further covering than a light roabe, their feet legs & every other part exposed to the frost snow & ice &c. [lewis, january , ] sunday january th . commowooll and the clatsops departed early this morning. at meridian colter returned and repoted that his comrade hunter willard had continued his hunt from point adams towards the salt makers; and that they had killed only those two deer which the indians brought yesterday. in the evening collins one of the saltmakers returned and reported that they had mad about one bushel of salt & that himself and two others had hunted from the salt camp for five days without killing any thing and they had been obliged to subsist on some whale which they procured from the natives. the native fruits and buries in uce among the indians of this neighbourhood are a deep purple burry about the size of a small cherry called by them shal-lun, a small pale red bury called sol'-me; the vineing or low crambury, a light brown bury reather larger and much the shape of the black haw; and a scarlet bury about the size of a small cherry the plant called by the canadin engages of the n. w. sac a commis produces this bury; this plant is so called from the circumstance of the clerks of those trading companies carrying the leaves of this plant in a small bag for the purpose of smokeing of which they are excessively fond. the indians call this bury ____ i have lately learned that the natives whome i have heretofore named as distinct nations, living on the sea coast s. e. of the killamucks, are only bands of that numerous nation, which continues to extend itself much further on that coast than i have enumerated them, but of the particular appellations of those distant bands i have not yet been enabled to inform myself; their language also is somewhat different from the clatsops chinnooks and cathlahmahs; but i have not yet obtaind a vocabulary which i shall do the first oportunity which offers. [clark, january , ] monday th of january commowol and the clatsops departed early this morning. colter returned and reported that his comrade hunter willard had continued his hunt from point adams towards the saltmakers; and that they had killed only those two deer which the indians brought yesterday; in the evening collins one of the saltmakers returned and reported that they had made about one bushel of salt and that himself and two others had hunted from the salt camp for five days without killing any thing and they had been obliged to subsist on some whale which they purchased from the nativs-. the native fruits and berries in use among the indians of this neighbourhood are a deep purple about the size of a small cherry called by them shal lun, a small pale red berry called sol me; the vineing or low brown berry, a light brown berry rather larger and much the shape of a black haw; and a scarlet berry about the size of a small chirry the plant called by the canadian engages of the n. w. sac a commis produces this berry; this plant is so called from the circumstances of the clerks of these tradeing companies carrying the leaves of this plant in a small bag for the purpose of smokeing of which they are excessively fond the indians call this berry ____ [lewis, january , ] monday january th . werner and howard who were sent for salt on the rd have not yet returned, we are apprehensive that they have missed their way; neither of them are very good woodsmen, and this thick heavy timbered pine country added to the constant cloudy weather makes it difficult for even a good woodsman to steer for any considerable distance the course he wishes. we ordered collins to return early in the morning and rejoin the salt makers, and gave him some small articles of merchandize to purchase provisions from the indians, in the event of their still being unfortunate in the chase. the shallun or deep purple berry is in form much like the huckkleberry and terminates bluntly with a kind of cap or cover at the end like that fruit; they are attatched seperately to the sides of the boughs of the shrub by a very short stem hanging underneath the same and are frequently placed very near each other on the same bough; it is a full bearer. the berry is easily geathered as it seperates from the bough readily, while the leaf is strongly affixed. the shrub which produces this fruit rises to the hight of or feet sometimes grows on the high lands but moste generally in the swampy or marshey grounds; it is an evergreen. the stem or trunk is from three to inches in circumference irregularly and much branched, seldom more than one steem proceding from the same root, tho they are frequently associated very thickly. the bark is somewhat rough and of a redish brown colour. the wood is very firm and hard. the leaves are alternate declining and attatched by a short fotstalk to the two horizontal sides of the boughs; the form is a long oval, reather more accute towards its apex than at the point of insertion; it's margin slightly serrate, it's sides colapsing or partially foalding upwards or channelled; it is also thick firm smothe and glossey, the upper surface of a fine deep green, while the under disk is of a pale or whiteish green. this shrub retains it's virdure very perfectly during the winter and is a beautifull shrub.--the natives either eat these berrys when ripe immediately from the bushes or dryed in the sun or by means of their sweating kilns; very frequently they pound them and bake then in large loaves of or fifteen pounds; this bread keeps very well during one season and retains the moist jeucies of the fruit much better than by any other method of preservation. this bread is broken and stired in could water until it be sufficiently thick and then eaten; in this way the natives most generally use it. [clark, january , ] tuesday th of january we order collins to return early in the morning and join the salt makers, and gave him some small articles of merchendize to purchase some provisions from the indians in the event of their still being unfortunate in the chase. the or deep purple berry is in form much like the huckleberry and termonate bluntly with a kind of cap or cover at the end like that fruit; they are attached seperately to the sides of the boughes of the shrub by a very short stem ganging under neath the same, and are frequently placed verry near each other on the same bough it is a full bearer; the berry is easily gathered as it seperates from the bough, readily, while the leaf is strongly affixed. the shrub which produces this fruit rises to the hight of or feet sometimes grows on high lands but most frequently in swampy or marshey grounds; it is an ever green. the stem or trunk is from to inches in circumferance irrigularly and much branched, seldom more than one stem proceeding from the same root, tho they are frequently associated very thickly. the bark is somewhat rough and of a redish brown colour. the wood is very firm and hard. the leaves are alternate declining and attachd by a short fotstalk to the two horozontal sides of the bough's; the form is a long oval, reather more accute towards its apex that at the point of insertion; it's sides partially folding upwards; or channeled, it is also thick smothe and glossy, the upper surfice of a fine deep green, while the under disk is of a pale or whiteish green. this shrub retains its verdure verry perfectly dureing the winter and is a butifull shrub-. the nativs either eate those berries ripe imediately from the bushes, or dried in the sun or by means of the swetting kiln; verry frequently they pound them and bake them in large loaves or pounds weight; this bread keeps verry well dureing one season and retains the moist jouicies of the frute much better than any other method of preperation. the bread is broken and stured in coald water untill it be sufficiently thick and then eaten, in this way the nativ's most generally use it-.-. [lewis, january , ] tuesday january th . this morning collins set out for the salt works. in the evening shannon returned and reported that himself and party had killed ten elk. he left labuche and r. fields with the elk. two of those elk he informed us were at the distance of nine miles from this place near the top of a mountain, that the rout by which they mus be brought was at least four miles by land through a country almost inaccessible from the fallen timber, brush and sink-holes, which were now disgused by the snow; we therefore concluded to relinquish those two elk for the present, and ordered every man who could be speared from the fort to go early in the morning in surch of the other eight. goodrich has recovered from the louis veneri which he contracted from an amorous contact with a chinnook damsel. i cured him as i did gibson last winter by the uce of murcury. i cannot learn that the indians have any simples which are sovereign specifics in the cure of this disease; and indeed i doubt very much wheter any of them have any means of effecting a perfect cure. when once this disorder is contracted by them it continues with them during life; but always ends in decipitude, death, or premature old age; tho from the uce of certain simples together with their diet, they support this disorder with but little inconvenience for many years, and even enjoy a tolerable share of health; particularly so among the chippeways who i believe to be better skilled in the uce of those simples than any nation of savages in north america. the chippeways use a decoction of the root of the lobelia, and that of a species of sumac common to the atlantic states and to this country near and on the western side of the rocky mountains. this is the smallest species of the sumac, readily distinguished by it's winged rib, or common footstalk, which supports it's oppositely pinnate leaves. these decoctions are drank freely and without limitation. the same decoctions are used in cases of the gonnaerea and are effecatious and sovereign. notwithstanding that this disorder dose exist among the indians on the columbia yet it is witnessed in but few individuals, at least the males who are always sufficiently exposed to the observations or inspection of the phisician. in my whole rout down this river i did not see more than two or three with the gonnaerea and about double that number with the pox. the beary which the natives call solme is the production of a plant about the size and much the shape of that common to the atlantic states which produces the berry commonly called solloman's seal berry. this berry also is attatched to the top of the stem in the same manner; and is of a globelar form, consisting of a thin soft pellecle which encloses a soft pulp inveloping from three to four seeds, white, firm, smothe, and in the form of a third or quarter of a globe, and large in proportion to the fruit or about the size of the seed of the common small grape. this berry when grown and unripe is not speckled as that of the solomon's seal berry is; this last has only one globular smoth white firm seed in each berry.the solme grows in the woodlands among the moss and is an annual plant to all appearance. [clark, january , ] wednesday th january this morning collins set out to the saltmakers shannon returned and reported that himself and party had killed elk. he lef labiech & r field with the elk, two of those elk he informed us was at the distance of miles from this place near the top of a mountain, that the rout by which they must be brought was at least miles by land thro a countrey almost inexcessable, from the fallen timber brush, and sink holes, which were now disguised by the snow; we therefore concluded to relinquish those two elks for the present, and ordered every man that could be speared from the fort to go early in the morning in serch of the other eight, which is at no great distance from the netul river, on which we are. goudrich has recoverd from the louis veneri which he contracted from a amorous contact with a chinnook damsel. he was cured as gibson was with murcury by ____ i cannot lern that the indians have any simples sovereign specifics in the cure of this disease; indeed i doubt verry much whether any of them have any means of effecting a perfect cure. when once this disorder is contracted by them it continues with them dureing life; but always ends in decepitude, death; or premature old age; tho from the use of certain simples together with their diet, they support this disorder with but little inconveniance for maney years, and even enjoy a tolerable share of health; particularly so among the chippeways who i beleive to be better skilled in the use of those simples than any nation of indians in north america. the chippaways use a decoction of the root of the labelia, and that of a species of sumac common to the atlantic states and to this countrey near and on the western side of the rocky mountains. this is the smallest specis of sumake, readily distinguished by it's winged rib, or common footstalk, which supports it's oppositly pinnate leaves. these decoctions are drank freely and without limatation. the same decoctions are used also in cases of the gonnarea and are effecatious and sovereign. notwithstanding that this disorder does exist among the indians on the columbia yet it is witnessed in but fiew individuals high up the river, or at least the males who are always sufficiently exposed to the observation or inspection of the phisician. in my whole rout down this river i did not see more than two or three with gonnarea and about double that number with the pox. the berry which the nativs call sol me is the production of a plant about the size and much the shape of that common to the atlantic states which produces the berry commonly called sollomons seal berry this berry is also attached to the top of the stem in the same manner; and is of a globular form consisting of a thin soft pellicle rine which encloses a soft pellicle pulp inveloping from to seed, white firm, smothe, and in the form of a third or a quarter of a globe, and large in perportion to the fruit, or about the size of the seed of the common small grape. the berry when grown and unripe is not specked as the solomon's seal berry is; this last haveing only one globaler smothe, ferm, white seed in each berry-. the sol me grows in the wood lands amonge the moss and on the high ridges. and is an annual plant to all appearance [lewis, january , ] wednesday january th . drewyer and baptiest la page set out this morning on a hunting excurtion. about noon howard and werner returned with a supply of salt; the badness of the weather and the difficulty of the road had caused their delay. they inform us that the salt makers are still much straitened for provision, having killed two deer only in the last six days; and that there are no elk in their neighbourhood. the party that were sent this morning up netul river for the elk returned in the even ing with three of them only; the elk had been killed just before the snow fell which had covered them and so altered the apparent face of the country that the hunters could not find the elk which they had killed. the river on which fort clatsop stands we now call ne-tul, this being the name by which the clatsops call it. the cranbury of this neighbourhood is precisely the same common to the u states, and is the production of marshey or boggy grounds. the light brown berry, is the fruit of a tree about the size shape and appearance in every rispect with that in the u. states called the wild crab apple; the leaf is also precisely the same as is also the bark in texture and colour. the berrys grow in clumps at the end of the small branches; each berry supported by a seperate stem, and as many as from to or in a clump. the berry is ovate with one of it's extremities attatched to the peduncle, where it is in a small degre concave like the insertion of the stem of the crab apple. i know not whether this fruit can properly be denominated a berry, it is a pulpy pericarp, the outer coat of which is in a thin smoth, tho firm tough pillecle; the pericarp containing a membranous capsule with from three to four cells, each containing a seperate single seed in form and colour like that of the wild crab. the wood of this tree is excessively hard when seasoned. the natives make great uce of it to form their wedges with which they split their boards of pine for the purpose of building houses. these wedges they also employ in spliting their fire-wood and in hollowing out their canoes. i have seen the natives drive the wedges of this wood into solid dry pine which it cleft without fracturing or injuring the wedg in the smallest degree. we have also found this wood usefull to us for ax handles as well as glutts or wedges. the native also have wedges made of the beams of the elk's horns which appear to answer extremely well. this fruit is exceedingly assid, and resembles the flavor of the wild crab. [clark, january , ] thursday th january drewyer and baptiest lapage set out this morning on a hunting excurtion. about noon howard & werner returned with a supply of salt; the badness of the weather and the dificuelty of the road had detained them. they informed us that the salt makers are still much stratened for provisions haveing killed two deer only in the last six days; and that there are no elk in their neighbourhood. the party that was sent up the netul river for the elk returned this evening with three of them only; the elk had been killed just before the snow fell which had covered them and so altered the apparant face of the countrey that the hunters could not find them. the river on which fort clat sop stands we now call netul, this being the name by which the clatsops call it. the cranberry of this neighbourhood is precisely the same common to the united states, and is the production of boggy or mashey grounds.-. the light-brown berry, is the fruit of a tree, about the size shape and appearance in every respect with that in the united states called the wild crab apple; the leaf is also presisely the same as is also the bark in textue and colour. the berry grows in clumps at the ends of the smaller branches; each berry supported by a stem, and as maney as from to or in a clump. the berry is oval with one of its extremitis attatched to the peduncle, where it is in a small degree concave like the insersion of the stem of the crab apple. i know not whether this fruit can properly be denomonated a berry, it is a pulpy pericarp, the outer coat of which is a thin smothe, capsule with from three to four cells, each containing a seperate single seed in form and colour like that of the wild crab apple the wood of this tree is excessively hard when seasoned. the nativs make great use of it to form their wedges of which they split their boards of pine for the purpose of building houses. those wedges they employ in common with those formed of the elks horn, in splitting their fire wood and in hollowing out their canoes. i have seen the nativs drive the wedges of this wood into a solid dry pine which it cleft without fractureing injuring the wedge in the smallest degree. we have also found this wood useful) to us for ax handles, as well as glutt or wedges. the bark of this tree is chewed by our party in place of tobacco. the fruit is exceedingly ascid and resembles the flavor of the wild crab. [lewis, january , ] thursday january th . nothing worthy of notice occurred today. our fare is the flesh of lean elk boiled with pure water, and a little salt. the whale blubber which we have used very sparingly is now exhausted. on this food i do not feel strong, but enjoy the most perfect health;--a keen appetite supplys in a great degree the want of more luxurious sauses or dishes, and still render my ordinary meals not uninteresting to me, for i find myself sometimes enquiring of the cook whether dinner or breakfast is ready.- the sac a commis is the growth of high dry situations, and invariably in a piney country or on it's borders. it is generally found in the open piney woodland as on the western side of the rocky mountain but in this neighbourhood we find it only in the praries or on their borders in the more open wood lands; a very rich soil is not absolutely necessary, as a meager one frequently produces it abundantly. the natives on this side of the rockey mountains who can procure this berry invariably use it; to me it is a very tasteless and insippid fruit. this shrub is an evergreen, the leaves retain their virdure most perfectly through the winter even in the most rigid climate as on lake winnipic. the root of this shrub puts forth a great number of stems which seperate near the surface of the ground; each stem from the size of a small quill to that of a man's finger; these are much branched the branches forming an accute angle with the stem, and all more poperly pocumbent than creeping, for altho it sometimes puts forth radicles from the stem and branches which strike obliquely into the ground, these radicles are by no means general, equable in their distances from each other nor do they appear to be calculated to furnish nutriment to the plant but reather to hold the stem or branch in it's place. the bark is formed of several thin layers of a smoth thin brittle substance of a dark or redish brown colour easily seperated from the woody stem in flakes. the leaves with rispect to their position are scatered yet closely arranged near the extremities of the twigs particularly. the leaf is about / of an inch in length and about half that in width, is oval but obtusely pointed, absolutely entire, thick, smoth, firm, a deep green and slightly grooved. the leaf is supported by a small footstalk of proportionable length. the berry is attatched in an irregular and scattered manner to the small boughs among the leaves, tho frequently closely arranged, but always supported by seperate short and small peduncles, the insertion of which poduces a slight concavity in the bury while it's opposite side is slightly convex; the form of the berry is a spheroid; the shorter diameter being in a line with the peduncle.--this berry is a pericarp the outer coat of which is a thin firm tough pellicle, the inner part consists of a dry mealy powder of a yellowish white colour invelloping from four to six proportionably large hard light brown seeds each in the form of a section of a spheroid which figure they form when united, and are destitute of any membranous covering.--the colour of this fruit is a fine scarlet. the natives usually eat them without any preperation. the fruit ripens in september and remains on the bushes all winter. the frost appears to take no effect on it. these berries are sometimes geathered and hung in their lodges in bags where they dry without further trouble, for in their most succulent state they appear to be almost as dry as flour. [clark, january , ] friday th january nothing worthey of notice occured to day. our fare is the flesh of lean elk boiled with pure water and a little salt. the whale blubber which we have used very spearingly is now exhosted. on this food i do not feel strong, but enjoy tolerable health-. a keen appetite supplies in a great degree the want of more luxurious sauses or dishes, and still renders my ordanary meals not uninteresting to me, for i find myself sometimes enquireing of the cook whether dinner supper or brackfast is readyindeed my appetite is but seldom gratified, not even after i have eaten what i conceve a sufficency.- maney of the nativs of the columbia were hats & most commonly of a conic figure without a brim confined on the head by means of a string which passes under the chin and is attached to the two opposit sides of a secondary rim within the hat--the hat at top termonates in a pointed knob of a conic form, or in this shape. these hats are made of the bark of cedar and beargrass wrought with the fingers so closely that it casts the rain most effectually in the shape which they give them for their own use or that just discribed, on these hats they work various figures of different colours, but most commonly only black and white are employed. these figures are faint representations of the whales, the canoes, and the harpooners strikeing them. sometimes square dimonds triangle &c. the form of a knife which seems to be prefured by those people is a double edged and double pointed dagger the handle being near the middle, the blades of uneaquel length, the longest from to incs. and the shorter one from to inches. those knives they carry with them habitually and most usially in the hand, sometimes exposed, when in company with strangers under their robes with this knife they cut & clense their fish make their arrows &c. this is the form of the knife a is a small loop of a strong twine throng through which they sometimes they incert the thumb in order to prevent it being wrested from their hand.-. [lewis, january , ] friday january th . nothing transpired today worthy of notice. we are agreeably disappointed in our fuel which is altogether green pine. we had supposed that it burn but illy, but we have found that by spliting it that it burns very well. the dress of the clatsops and others in this neighbourhood differs but little from that discribed of the skillutes; they never wear leggins or mockersons which the mildness of this climate i presume has rendered in a great measure unnecessary; and their being obliged to be frequently in the water also renders those articles of dress inconvenient. they wear a hat of a conic figure without a brim confined on the head by means of a string which passes under the chin and is attatched to the two opsite sides of a secondary rim within the hat. the hat at top terminates in a pointed knob of a connic form also, or in this shape. these hats are made of the bark of cedar and beargrass wrought with the fingers so closely that it casts the rain most effectually in the shape which they give them for their own uce or that just discribed. on these hats they work various figures of different colours, but most commonly only black and white are employed. these figures are faint representations of whales the canoes and the harpoonneers striking them. sometimes squares dimonds triangles &c. the form of knife which seems to be prefered by these people is a double edged and double pointed daggar; the handle being in the middle, and the blades of unequal lengths, the longest usually from to ten inches and the shorter one from four to five. these knives they carry with them habitually and most usually in the hand, sometimes exposed but most usually particularly when in company with strangers, under their robes with this knife they cut and clense their fish make their arrows &c. this is somewhat the form of the knife--a is a small loop of a strong twine through which they sometimes insert the thumb in order to prevent it's being wrested from their hand. [clark, january , ] fort clatsop on the pacific ocian on the south side of the columbia river thursday th january nothing transpired to day worthey of notice. we are agreeably disapointed in our fuel which is altogether green pine. we had supposed that it burned badly, but we have found by spliting it burns very well. the dress of the clatsops and others of the nativs in the neighbourhood differ but little from that described of the skilutes and wau ki a cums; they never ware ligins or mockersons which the mildness of the climate i presume has rendered in a great measure unnecessary; and their being obliged to be frequently in the water also renders those articles of dress inconveniant. the sac-a commis is the groth of high dry situations, and invariably in a piney country, or on its borders; it is generally found in the open piney woodlands as on the western side of the rocky mountains but in this neighbourhood we find it in the praries or on the borders in the more open woodland's; a very rich soil is not absolutely necessary, as a meager one frequently produces it abundantly. the nativs on the west side of the rocky mountains who can precure this berry invariably use it; to me it is a very tasteless and insipid frute. this shrub is an evergreen, the leaves retain their virdue most perfectly throughout the winter even in the most rigid climate as on lake winnipic. the root of this shrub puts foth a great number of stems, which seperate near the surface of the ground; each stem from the size of a small quill, to that of a mans finger. these are much branched forming an accute angle with the stem, and all more properly procumbent than crossing, for altho it sometimes puts foth radicles from the stems and branches which strike obliquely into the ground, those radicles are by no means general, equable in their distances from each other nor do they appear to be calculated to furnish nutriment to the plant but rather to hold the stem or branch in its place. the bark is formed of several thin layers of a smothe thin brittle substance of a redish brown colour easily seperated from the woody stem in flakes. the leaves with respect to their possition are scatter'd yet closely arranged near the extremities of the twigs particularly. the leaves are about / of an inch in length and about half that in width, is oval but obtusely pointed, absolutely entire, thick, smoth, firm, a deep green and slightly grooved. the leaf is supported by a small footstalk of preportionable length. the berry is attached in an irregular and scattered manner to the small boughs among the leaves, tho frequently closely arranged, but always supported by a seperate short and small peduncles, the incersion of which produces a small concavity in the berry while its opposit side is slightly convex; the form of the berry is a spheroid, the shorter diameter being in a line with the peduncle or stem-. this berry is a pericarp the outer coat of which is a thin firm tough pellicle, the inner part consists of dry mealy powder of a yellowish white colour invelloping from four to six propotionably large hard light brown seeds each in the form of section of a spheroid which figure they form when united, and are distitute of any membranous covering.--the colour of this fruit is a fine scarlet. the nativs usually eat them without any preparation. the fruit ripens in september and remains on the bushes all winter. the frost appears to take no effects on it. these berries are sometimes gathered and hung in their houses in bags where they dry without further trouble, for in their succulent state they appear to be almost as dry as flour. [lewis, january , ] saturday january st . sent a party of eight men up the river this morning to renew their surch for the elk and also to hunt; they proceded but a few miles before they found the river so obstructed with ice that they were obliged to return. joseph fields arrived this evening, informed us that he had been hunting in company with gibson and willard for the last five days in order to obtain some meat for himself and the other salt makers, and that he had been unsuccessfull untill yesday evening when he had fortunately killed two elk, about six miles distant from this place and about from the salt works; he left gibson and willard to dry the meat of these elk and had come for the assistance of some men to carry the meat to the salt camp; for this purpose we ordered four men to accompany him early in the morning. discovered that mcneal had the pox, gave him medecine. charbono found a bird dead lying near the fort this morning and brought it to me i immediately recognized it to be of the same kind of that which i had seen in the rocky mountains on the morning of the th of september last. this bird is about the size as near as may be of the robbin. it's contour also is precisely the same with that bird. it measures one foot / inches from tip to tip of the wings when extended. / inches from the extremity of the beak to that of the tail. the tail is / inches in length, and composed of eleven feathers of the same length. the beak is smoth, black, convex and cultrated; one and / inches from the point to the opening of the chaps and / only uncovered with feathers; the upper chap exceeds the other a little in length. a few small black hairs garnish the sides of the base of the upper chap. the eye is of a uniform deep sea green or black, moderately large. it's legs feet and tallons are white; the legs are an inch and a / in length and smoth; four toes on each foot, of which that in front is the same length with the leg including the length of the tallon, which is lines; the three remaining toes are / of an inch, each armed with proportionably long tallons. the toes are slightly imbricated. the tallons are curved and sharply pointed. the crown of the head from the beak back to the neck, the back of the neck imbracing reather more than half the circumpherence of the neck, the back and tale, are of bluish dark brown; the two outer feathers of the tale have a little dash of white near their tips not percemtible when the tail is foalded. a fine black forms the ground of the wings; two stripes of the same colour pass on either side of the head from the base of the beak along the side of the head to it's junction with the neck, and imbraces the eye to it's upper edge; a third stripe of the same colour / of an inch in width passes from the sides of the neck just above the butts of the wings across the croop in the form of a gorget. the throat or under part of the neck brest and belly is of a fine yellowish brick red. a narrow stripe of this colour also commences just above the center of each eye, and extends backwards to the neck as far as the black stripe reaches before discribed, to which, it appears to answer as a border. the feathers which form the st and second ranges of the coverts of the two joints of the wing next the body, are beautifully tiped with this brick red; as is also each large feather of the wing on the short side of it's plumage for / an inch in length commening at the extremity of the feathers which form the first or main covert of the wing. this is a beatifull little bird. i have never heard it's note it appears to be silent. it feeds on berries, and i beleive is a rare bird even in this country, or at least this is the second time only that i have seen it.--between the legs of this bird the feathers are white, and those which form the tuft underneath the tail are a mixture of white and a brick red. [clark, january , ] friday january st sent a party of eight men with the hunters to renew their serch for the elk, and also to hunt; they proceeded but a fiew miles before they found the river so obstructed with ice that they were obliged to return. jo. field arrives this evening, informs us that he had been hunting in company with gibson and willard for the last four days in order to obtain some meat for himself and the other salt-makers, and that he had been unsucksessfull untill yesterday evening when he had fortunately killed two elk, about six miles distant from this place and about from the salt works; he left gibson and willard to dry the meat of those elk, and had come for assistance to carry the meat to the salt camp; for this purpose we ordered four men to accompany him early in the morning. discovered that mcneal had the pox, gave him medicine. chabono found a bird dead lying near the fort this morning and brought it in, i reconized it to be the same kind of that which i had seen in the rocky mountains at severl different times. this berd is about the size as near as may be of the robin. it's contour is also presisely the same with that bird. it measured one foot / inches from tip to tip of the wings when extended. / inches from the extremity of the beak to that of the tail. the tail is / inches in length, and composed of feathers of the same length. the beak is smoth, black, convex and cultrated; / inchs from the point to the opening of the chaps and / only uncovered with feathers, the upper chap exceeds the other a little in length. a fiew small black hairs garnish the side of the upper chap. the eye is of a uniform deep sea green or black, moderately large. it's legs feet and tallants are white; the legs are of / in length and smoth; four toes on each foot, of which that in front is the same length of the leg including the tallants, which is lines; the remaining toes are / of an inch, each armed with proportianably large tallons. the toes are slightly imbricated. the tallons are curved and sharply pointed. the crown of the head from the beak back to the neck imbracing rather more than half the circumphrence of the neck, the back and tail is of a bluish dark brown; the two outer feathers of the tail have a little dash of white near the tips, not proceivable when the tail is foalded. a fine black forms the ground of the wings; two stripes of the same colour passes on either side of the head from the base of the back along the side of the head to it's junction with the neck, and embraces the eye to its upper edge; a third stripe of the same colour / of an inch in width passes from the side of the neck just above the buts of the wings across the troop in the form of a gorget. the throat or under part of the neck brest and belly is of a fine yellowish brick red. a narrow stripe of this colour also commences just above the center of each eye, and extends backwards to the neck as far as the black spots reaches before discribed, to which it appears to answer as a border. the feathers which form the st and second range of the coverts of the two joints of the wings next the body are butifully aped with this brick red; as is also each large feather of the wing on the short side of its plumage for / an inch in length comencing at the extremity of the feather which form the first or main covert of the wing. this is a butifull little bird. i have never herd its notes it appears to be silent. it feeds on berries, and i believe is a rare bird even in this country-. between the legs of this bird the feathers are white, and those which form the tuft underneath the tail are a mixture of white and brick red. [lewis, february , ] saturday february st . this morning a party of four men set out with joseph fields; sergt. gass with a party of five men again set out up the netul river in surch of the elk which had been killed some days since, and which could not be found in consequence of the snow. the canoes of the natives inhabiting the lower portion of the columbia river make their canoes remarkably neat light and well addapted for riding high waves. i have seen the natives near the coast riding waves in these canoes with safety and apparently without concern where i should have thought it impossible for any vessel of the same size to lived a minute. they are built of whitecedar or arborvita generally, but sometimes of the firr. they are cut out of a solid stick of timber, the gunwals at the upper edge foald over outwards and are about / of an inch thick and or five broad, and stand horrizontally forming a kind of rim to the canoe to prevent the water beating into it. they are all furnished with more or less crossbars in proportion to the size of the canoe. these bars are round sticks about half the size of a man's arm, which are incerted through holes (just) made in either side of the canoe just below the rim of the gunwall and are further secured with strings of waytape; these crossbars serve to lift and manage the canoe on land. when the natives land they invariably take their canoes on shore, unless they are heavily laden, and then even, if they remain all night, they discharge their loads and take the canoes on shore. some of the large canoes are upwards of feet long and will carry from to thousand lbs. or from to thirty persons and some of them particularly on the sea coast are waxed painted and ornimented with curious images at bough and stern; those images sometimes rise to the hight of five feet; the pedestals on which these immages are fixed are sometimes cut out of the solid stick with the canoe, and the imagary is formed of seperate small peices of timber firmly united with tenants and motices without the assistance of a single spike of any kind. when the natives are engaged in navigating their canoes one sets in the stern and steers with a paddle the others set by pears and paddle over the gunwall next them, they all kneel in the bottom of the canoe and set on their feet. their paddles are of a uniform shape of which this is an imitation these paddles are made very thin and the middle of the blade is thick and hollowed out siddonly and made thin at the sides while the center forms a kind of rib. the blade occupys about one third of the length of the paddle which is usually from / to feet. i have observed four forms of canoe only in uce among the nations below the grand chatarac of this river they are as follow. this is the smallest size about feet long and calculated for one or two persons, and are most common among the cathlahmahs and wack ki a cums among the marshey islands. a the bow; b, the stern; these are from twenty to thirty five feet and from two / to feet in the beam and about feet in the hole; this canoe is common to all the nations below the grand rappids. it is here made deeper and shorter in proportion than they really are.--the bowsprit from c, to d is brought to a sharp edge tapering gradually from the sides. this is the most common forms of the canoe in uce among the indians from; the chil-luck-kit-te-quaw inclusive to the ocean and is usually about or feet long, and will carry from ten to twelve persons. men are competent to carry them a considerable distance say a mile without resting. a is the end which they use as the bow, but which on first sight i took to be the stern c. d. is a comb cut of the sollid stick with the canoe and projects from the center of the end of the canoe being about inch thirck it's sides parallel and edge at c d. sharp. it is from to inches in length and extends from the underpart of the bowsprit at a to the bottom of the canoe at d.--the stern b. is mearly rounding and graduly ascending. represents the rim of the gunwalls about inches wide, reather ascending as they recede from the canoe. are the round holes through which the cross bars are inserted. this form of canoe we did not meet with untill we reached tidewater or below the grand rappids. from thence down it is common to all the nations but more particularly the killamucks and others of the coast. these are the largest canoes. b. is the bow and comb. c. the stern and comb. their immages are representations of a great variety of grotesque figures, any of which might be safely worshiped without committing a breach of the commandments. they have but few axes among them, and the only too usually imployed in felling the trees or forming the canoe, carving &c is a chissel formed of an old file about an inch or an inch and a half broad. this chissel has sometimes a large block of wood for a handle; they grasp the chissel just below the block with the right hand holding the edge down while with the left they take hold of the top of the block and strike backhanded against the wood with the edge of the chissel. a person would suppose that the forming of a large canoe with an instrument like this was the work of several years; but these people make them in a few weeks. they prize their canoes very highly; we have been anxious to obtain some of them, for our journey up the river but have not been able to obtain one as yet from the natives in this neighbourhood.- today we opened and examined all our ammunition, which had been secured in leaden canesters. we found twenty seven of the best rifle powder, of common rifle, three of glaized and one of the musqut powder in good order, perfectly as dry as when first put in the canesters, altho the whole of it from various accedents has been for hours under the water. these cannesters contain four lbs. of powder each and of lead. had it not have been for that happy expedient which i devised of securing the powder by means of the lead, we should not have had a single charge of powder at this time. three of the canesters which had been accedentally bruized and cracked, one which was carelessly stoped, and a fifth that had been penetrated with a nail, were a little dammaged; these we gave to the men to make dry; however exclusive of those five we have an abundant stock to last us back; and we always take care to put a proportion of it in each canoe, to the end that should one canoe or more be lost we should still not be entirely bereft of ammunition, which is now our only hope for subsistence and defence in a rout of miles through a country exclusively inhabited by savages. [clark, february , ] saturday february st this morning a party of four men set out with jo. field; and sergt. gass with a party of five men again set out up the netul river in serch of the elk which had been killed some days since, and which could not be found in consequence of the snow. the canoes of the nativs inhabitting the lower part of the columbia river from the long narrows down make their canoes remarkably neat light and well addapted for rideing high waves. i have seen the nativs near the coast rideing waves in these canoes in safty and appearantly without concern when i should it impossible for any vessel of the same size to have lived or kept above water a minute. they are built of arborvitia or white cedar generally, but sometimes of fir. they are cut out of a solid stick of timber, the gunnals at the upper edge fold over outwards and are about / of an inch thick and or broad, and stand out nearly horizontially forming a kind of rim to the canoe to prevent the water beating into it. they are all furnished with more or less cross bars agreeably to thier sizes of the canoe, those bars are round sticks about inch and / diameter which are atached to the iner side of the canoes a little below the rim on either side with throngs of cedar bark which is incerted through holes and made fast to the ends of the stick, which is made smaller than the other part of the stick to prevent the cord slipping off these cross bears serve to strengthen the canoe, and by which they lift and manage her on land. when the nativs land they invariably take their canoes on shore unless they are heavily ladined, and then even, if they remain all night, they discharge their loads and take the canoe on shore. some of the large canoes are upwards of feet long and will carry from to thousand lbs. or from to persons, and some of them particularly on the sea coast are waxed painted and ornimented with curious images on bow and stern; those images sometimes rise to the hight of five feet; the pedestile on which these images are fixed, are sometimes cut out of the solid stick with the canoe, and the image is formed of seperate pieces of timber firmly united with tenants and mortices without the appearance of a single spike or nail of any kind. when the nativs are engaged in navigateing their canoes, one sets in the stern and stears with a paddle the others set by pars and paddle over their gunnals next them, they all kneel in the bottom of the canoe and set on their feet. their paddles are of an uniform shape which this is an imitation those paddles are made verry thin and the middle of the blade is thick and hollowed out suddenly, and made thin on the sides, the center forming a kind of ridge. the handle occupies about / of the length of the paddle which is usually to / feet in length. i have observed five forms of canoes only in use among the nativs below the grand cataract of this river. they areas follows. this is the smallest size about feet long, and calculated for one two men mearly to cross creeks, take over short portages to navagate the ponds and still water, and is mostly in use amongst the clatsops and chinnooks. this is the next smallest and from to feet long and calculated for two or persons and are most common among the wau-ki-a-cums and cath-lah-mahs among the marshey islands, near their villages. a the bow; b the stern; those are from to feet in length and from / to / feet in the beam and about feet deep; this canoe is common to all the nations below the grand rapids it here made deeper and shorter in pertotion than the canoe realy is, the bow sprit from c. to d. is brought to a sharp edge tapering gradually from the sides. this is the most common form of the canoes in use among the indians from the chil-luck-kit-te quaw inclusive to the ocian and is commonly from about to feet long, and will carry from to persons. men are competent to carry them a considerable distance say a mile without resting. a is the end the nativs use as the bow, but which on first sight i took to be the stern c. d. is a comb cut of the solid wood with the canoe, and projects from the center of the end of the canoe being about inch thick, it's sides parallel and edge at c, d, sharp it is from to inches in debth and extends from the under part of the bow sprit at a to the bottom at, d,. the stern b is nearly rounding and gradually assending. , , , represents the rim of the gunnals about inches wide, reather ascending as they recede from the canoe. , , , , , are the holes through which the string pass to fasten the round pieces which pass crosswise the canoe to strengthen & lift her. this form of a canoe we did not meet with untill we reached tide water or below the great rapids. from thence down it is common to all the nations but more particularly the kil a mox and others of the coast. these are the largest canoes, i measured one at the kilamox villag s s w of us which was ____ feet long ____ feet wide and ____ feet deep, and they are most commonly about that size. b is the how, and comb. c, the stern and comb. their images are representations of a great variety of grotesque figures, any of which might be safely worshiped without commiting a breach of the commandments. they have but fiew axes among them, and the only tool usially employd in forming the canoe, carveing &c is a chissel formed of an old file about an inch or / inchs broad, this chissel has sometimes a large block of wood for a handle; they grasp the chissel just below the block with the right hand holding the top of the block, and strikes backwards against the wood with the edge of the chissel. a person would suppose that forming a large canoe with an enstriment like this was the work of several years; but those people make them in a fiew weeks. they prize their canoes very highly; we have been anxious to obtain some of them, for our journy up the river but have not been able to obtain one as yet from the nativs in this neighbourhood. to day we opened and examined all our ammunition, which has been secured in leaden canistirs. we found twenty sevin of the best rifle powder, of common rifle, of glaize and one of musquet powder in good order, perfectly as dry as when first put in the canisters, altho the whole of it from various accidince have been for hours under the water. these cannisters contain pounds of powder each and of lead. had it not been for that happy expedient which capt lewis devised of securing the powder by means of the lead, we should have found great dificuelty in keeping dry powder untill this time-; those cannisters which had been accidently brused and cracked, one which was carelessly stoped, and a fifth which had been penetrated with a nail; were wet and damaged; those we gave to the men to dry; however exclusive of those we have an abundant stock to last us back; and we always take care to put a purpotion of it in each canoe, to the end that should one canoe or more be lost we should still not be entirely bereft of ammunition, which is now our only hope for subsistance and defences in the rout of , miles through a country exclusively inhabited by indians-many bands of which are savage in every sense of the word-. [lewis, february , ] sunday february cd . not any occurrence today worthy of notice; but all are pleased, that one month of the time which binds us to fort clatsop and which seperates us from our friends has now elapsed. one of the games of amusement and wrisk of the indians of this neighbourhood like that of the sosones consists in hiding in the hand some small article about the size of a bean; this they throw from one hand to the other with great dexterity accompanying their opperations with a particular song which seems to have been addapted to the game; when the individul who holds the peice has amused himself sufficiently by exchanging it from one hand to the other, he hold out his hands for his compettitors to guess which hand contains the peice; if they hit on the hand which contains the peice they win the wager otherwise loose. the individual who holds the peice is a kind of banker and plays for the time being against all the others in the room; when he has lost all the property which he has to venture, or thinks proper at any time, he transfers the peice to some other who then also becoms banker. the sosone and minnetares &c have a game of a singular kind but those divide themselves in two parties and play for a common wager to which each individual contributes to form the stock of his party. one of them holdes the peice and some one of the opposite party gesses which hand contains if he hits on the hand which contains it the peice is transferred to the opposite party and the victor counts one, if he misses the party still retain the peice and score one but the individual tranfers the peice to some other of his own party; the game is set to any number they think proper, and like the natives of this quarter they always accompany their opperations with a particular song. the natives here have also another game which consists in bowling some small round peices about the size of bacgammon men, between two small upright sticks placed a few inches asunder, but the principals of the game i have not learn not understanding their language sufficiently to obtain an explanation. their boys amuse themselves with their bows and arrows as those do of every indian nation with which i am acquainted. these people are excessively fond of their games of risk and bet freely every species of property of which they are possessed. they have a smal dog which they make usefull only in hunting the elk. [clark, february , ] sunday february nd not any accurrence to day worthy of notice; but all are pleased, that one month of the time which binds us to fort clatsop, and which seperates us from our friends, has now alapsed. the games of amusements of the natives of this neighbourhood are several, one of which is verry similar to one which the sosone's & minatare's are verry fond of and frequently play. they devide themselves into two parties and play for a common wager to which each individual contributes to form the stock of his party, one of them holdes the piece which is usually about the size of a bean, and some one of the oposit party gesses which hand contains, if he hits on the hand which contains it, the piece is transfired to the opposit party and the victor counts one, if he misses the party still retains the piece and scores one, but the individual transfirs the piece to some one of his own party; the game is set to any number they think proper. they always accompany their opperations with a particular song. the amusements of the boys of all nations which i am acquainted with are generally the bows and arrows. all nations of indians with which i am acquainted are excessive fond of their games of risk, and bet away species of property of which they are possessed. the nativs of this neighbourhood have a small dog which they make usefull only in hunting the elk. [lewis, february , ] monday february rd . about three o'clock drewyer and la page, returned; drewyer had killed seven elk in the point below us, several miles distant but can be approached with in / of a mile with canoes by means of a small creek which discharges itself into the bay on this side of the clatsop village direct sergt. pryor to go in quest of the meat, the wind was so high that they were unable to set out untill a little before sunset, when they departed; at p.m. they return excessively could and informed us that they could not make land on this side of the bay nor get into the creek in consequence of the tide being out and much lower than usual. we are apprehensive that the clatsops who know where the meat is will rob us of a part if not the whole of it. at half after p.m. sergt gass returned with his party, they brought with them the flesh of four other elk which the hunters had found, being a part of the ten which were killed up the netul river the other day. he left r. fields, shannon and labuish to continue the hunt and made an appointment to return to them on friday. late in the evening the four men who had been sent to assist the saltmakers in transporting meat which they had killed to their camp, also returned, and brought with them all the salt which had been made, consisting of about one busshel only. with the means we have of boiling the salt water we find it a very tedious opperation, that of making salt, notwithstanding we keep the kettles boiling day and night. we calculate on three bushels lasting us from hence to our deposits of that article on the missouri. [clark, february , ] monday february rd about oclock drewyer & lapage returned, drewyer had killed seven elk in the point below us, several miles distant, but can be approached within / of a mile with canoes by means of a small creak which discharges itself into the bay, on this sid of the clatsop village. directed serjt. pryor to go in quest of the meat, the winds was so high that they were unable to set out until) a little before sunset, when they departed; at p.m. they returned excessively cold and informed us that they could not make land on this side of the bay or get into the creek in consequence of the tides being out and much lower than usial. we are apprehensive that the clatsops knowing where the meat is, will rob us of a part if not the whole of it. at half after p. m sergt. gass returned with his party they brought with them the flesh of other elk which the hunters had found, being part of the which were killed up the netul river the other day. he left ro. field, shannon & labiesh to continue the hunt, and made an appointment to return to them on friday. late in the evening the four men who had been sent to assist the saltmakers in transporting meat which they had killed to their camp also returned, and brought with them all the salt which had been made, consisting of about one sushel only. with the means we have of boiling the salt water we find it a very tegious opperation that of makeing salt, notwithstanding the kitties are kept boiling day and night. we calculate on three bushels lasting us from hiere to our deposit of that article on the missouri. [lewis, february , ] tuesday february th . sergt. pryor with a party of five men set out again in quest of the elk which drewyer had killed. drewyer and la page also returned to continue the chase in the same quarter. the elk are in much better order in the point near the praries than they are in the woody country arround us or up the netul. in the praries they feed on grass and rushes, considerable quantities of which are yet green and succulet. in the woody country their food is huckle berry bushes, fern, and an evergreen shrub which resembles the lore) in some measure; the last constitutes the greater part of their food and grows abundantly through all the timbered country, particularly the hillsides and more broken parts of it. there are sveral species of fir in this neighbourhood which i shall discribe as well as my slender botanicall skit will enable me and for the convenience of comparison with each other shal number them. (no .) a species which grows to immence size; very commonly feet in the girth six feet above the surface of the earth, and in several instances we have found them as much as feet in the girth or feet diameter perfectly solid and entire. they frequently rise to the hight of feet, and one hundred and twenty or of that hight without a limb. this timber is white and soft throughout and rives better than any other species which we have tryed. the bark skales off in irregula rounded flakes and is of a redish brown colour particularly of the younger growth. the stem of this tree is simple branching, ascending, not very defuse, and proliferous. the leaf of this tree is acerose, / th of an inch in width, and / of an inch in length; is firm, stif and accuminate; they are triangular, a little declining, thickly scattered on all sides of the bough, but rispect the three uppersides only and are also sessile growing from little triangular pedestals of soft spungy elastic bark. at the junction of the boughs, the bud-scales continue to incircle their rispective twigs for several yeas; at least three years is common and i have counted as many as the growth of four years beyond these scales. this tree affords but little rosin. it's cone i have not yet had an opportunity to discover altho i have sought it frequently; the trees of this kind which we have felled have had no cones on them. [clark, february , ] tuesday february th serjt. pryor with a party of men set out again in quest of the elk which drewyer had killed. drewyer also returned to continue the chase in the same quarter. the elk are in much better order in the point near the praries than they are in the woodey country around us or up the netul. in the praries they feed on grass and rushes, which are yet green. in the woddey countrey their food is huckleberry bushes, fern, and the shal-lon an evergreen shrub, which resembles the lorel in some measure; the last constitutes the greater part of their food and grows abundant through all the timbered country, particularly the hill sides and more broken parts of it. there are several species of fir in this neighbourhood which i shall discribe as well as my botanicale skill will enable me, and for the convenience of comparrison with each other shall number them. (no. i,) a species which grows to an emence size; verry commonly feet in surcumferonce at feet above the surface of the earth, and in several instances we have found them as much as feet in the girth, or feet diameter perfectly solid & entire. they frequently rise to the hight of feet, and or of that hight without a limb. this timber is white and soft throughout and rives better than any other species we have tried the bark shales off in arregular rounded flakes and is of a redish brown colour, particularly of the younger growth, the stem of this tree is simple branching, assending, not very defuse, and proliferous, the leaf of this tree is accerose / a line in width, and / of an inch in length; is firm stiff and accuminate; they are triangular, little declineing, thickly scattered on all sides of the bough, but respect the three upper sides only growing from little triangular pedistals of soft spungy elastic bark. at the junction of these bough's, the bud-scales continue to incircle the respective twigs for several years; at least years is common and i have counted as maney as the groth of years beyond these scales. this tree affords but little rozin. it's cone i have not yet had an oppertunity to discover altho i have sought it frequently; the trees of this kind which we have fell'd have had no cones on them. [lewis, february , ] wednesday february th . late this evening one of the hunters fired his gun over the swamp of the netul opposite to the fort and hooped. i sent sergt. gass and a party of men over; the tide being in, they took advantage of a little creek which makes up in that direction nearly to the highlands, and in their way fortunately recovered our indian canoe, so long lost and much lamented. the hunter proved to be reubin fields, who reported that he had killed six elk on the east side of the netul a little above us; and that yesterday he had heard shannon and labuishe fire six or seven shots after he had seperated from them and supposed that they had also killed several other elk. filds brought with him a phesant which differed but little from those common to the atlantic states; it's brown is reather brighter and more of a redish tint. it has eighteen feathers in the tale of about six inches in length. this bird is also booted as low as the toes. the two tufts of long black feathers on each side of the neck most conspicuous in the male of those of the atlantic states is also observable in every particular with this.--fir no. is next in dignity in point of size. it is much the most common species, it may be sad to constitute at least one half of the timber in this neighbourhood. it appears to be of the spruse kind. it rises to the hight of to feet very commonly and is from to feet in diameter, very streight round and regularly tapering. the bark is thin of a dark colour, and much divided with small longitudinal intersticies; that of the boughs and young trees is somewhat smoth but not so much so as the balsom fir nor that of the white pine of our country. the wood is white throughout and reather soft but very tough, and difficult to rive. the trunk of this tree is a simple branching diffused stem and not proliferous as the pines & firs usially are but like most other trees it puts forth buds from the sides of the small boughs as well as their extremities. the stem usually terminates in a very slender pointed top like the cedar. the leaves are petiolate, the footstalk small short and oppressed; acerose reather more than half a line in width and very unequal in length, the greatest length being little more than half an inch, while others intermixed on every part of the bough are not more than a / in length. flat with a small longitudinal channel in the upper disk which is of a deep green and glossey, while the uder disk is of a whiteish green only; two ranked, obtusely pointed, soft and flexable. this tree affords but little rosin. the cone is remarkably small not larger than the end of a man's thumb soft, flexable and of an ovate form, produced at the ends of the small twigs. [clark, february , ] wednesday february th late this evening one of the hunters fired off his gun over the marsh of the netul opposit to the fort & hhoped. we sent sergt. gass and a party of men over; the tide being in they took advantage of a little creek which makes up in that direction nearly to the high lands, and in their way fortunately recovered our indian canoe so long lost and much lamented. the hunter provd. to be reubin field, who reported that he had killed six elk on the east side of the netul a little above us; and that he had parted with shannon and labiesh yesterday after he had herd them fire six or seven shot after he had seperated from them, and supposed that they had also killed several other elk. fields brought with him a pheasant which differs but little from those common to the united states--fur no. is next in dignity in point of size. it is much the most common species, it may be said to constitute one half of the timber of this neigh-bourhood. it appears to be of the spruce kind. it rises to the higth of or feet very commonly and is from to feet in diameter, very streight round and regularly tapering. the bark is thin of a dark colour, and much divided with small longitudinal interstices; that of the boughs and young trees are somewhat smoth but not so much so as the balsom fir, nor that of the white pine of our countrey. the wood is white throughout and rather soft but rather tough and dificuelt to rive. the trunk of this tree is simple branching, deffused stem and not proliferous as the pine and fir usially are, but like most other trees it puts foth buds from the sides of the small boughes as well as from their extremities. the stem usially termonate in a very slender pointed top like the cedar. the leaves are petiolate, the footstalk small short and oppressed; acerose reather more than / a line in wedth and very uneaqual in length, the greatest length being a little more than half an inch, while others intermixed on every part of the bough are not more than a / of an inch in length. flat with a small longitudinal channel in the upper disk which is of a deep green and glossy, while the under disk is of a whitish green only; two ranked, obtusely pointed, soft and flexable. this tree affords but little rosin. the cone is remarkably small, not larger than the end of a mans thumb soft, flexable and of an oval form, produced at the end of a small twig. [lewis, february , ] thursday february th . sent sergts. gass and ordway this morning with r. fields and a party of men to bring in the elk which field had killed. late in the evening sergt. pryor returned with the flesh of about elk and skins the indians having purloined the ballance of seven elk which drewyer killed the other day. i find that there are vilages of indians living on the n. side of the columbia near the marshy islands who call themselves wackki-a-cum. these i have hertofore considered as cath-lah-mahs. they speak the same language and are the same in every other rispect. no. a species of fir which one of my men informs me is precisely the same with that called the balsam fir of canada. it grows here to considerable size, being from / to feet in diameter and rises to the hight of eighty or an hundred feet. it's stem is simple branching, ascending and proliferous. it's leaves are sessile, acerose, one / of an inch in / th of an inch in width, thickly scattered on all sides of the twigs as far as the growth of four preceeding years and rispect the three undersides only the uper side being neglected and the under side but thinly furnished; gibbous, a little declining, obtusely pointed, soft flexible, and the upper disk longitudinally marked with a slight channel; this disk is of a glossy deep green, the under one green tho paler and not glossy. this tree affords considerable quantities of a fine clear arromatic balsam in appearance and taste like the canadian balsam. smal pustules filled with this balsam rise with a blister like appearance on the body of the tree and it's branches; the bark which covers these pustules is soft thin smoth and easily punctured. the bark of the tree generally is thin of a dark brown colour and reather smooth tho not as much so as the white pine of our county. the wood is white and soft.--(no. ) is a species of fir which in point of size is much that of no. . the stem simple branching ascending and proliferous; the bark of a redish dark brown and thicker than that of no. . it is divided with small longitudinal interstices, but these are not so much ramifyed as in species no. . the leaves with rispect to their position in regard to each other is the same with the balsam fir, as is the leaf in every other rispect except that it not more than / ds the width and little more than half the length of the other, nor is it's upper disk of so deep a green nor so glossey. it affords no balsam and but little rosin. the wood also white soft and reather porus tho tough.--no . is a species of fir which arrives to the size of nos. and , the stem simple branching, diffuse and proliferous. the bark thin, dark brown, much divided with small longitudinal interstices and sometimes scaleing off in thin rolling flakes. it affords but little rosin and the wood is redish white / ds of the diameter in the center, the ballance white, somewhat porus and tough. the twigs are much longer and more slender than in either of the other species. the leaves are acerose, / th of an inch in width, and an inch in length, sessile, inserted on all sides of the bough, streight, their extremities pointing obliquely toward the extremities of the bough and more thickly placed than in either of the other species; gibbous and flexeable but more stif than any except no. and more blontly pointed than either of the other species; the upper disk has a small longitudinal channel and is of a deep green tho not so glossy as the balsam fir, the under disk is of a pale green.--no. the white pine; or what is usually so called in virginia. i see no difference between this and that of the mountains in virginia; unless it be the uncommon length of cone of this found here, which are sometimes or inches in length and about inches in circumpherence. i do not recollect those of virginia perfectly but it strikes me that they are not so long. this species is not common i have only seen it but in one instance since i have been in this neighbourhood which was on the border of haley's bay on the n. side of the columbia near the ocean. [clark, february , ] thursday february th sent serjt. gass and party this morning with ru field to bring in the elk which field had killed. late in the evening serjt. pryor returned with the fish of about elk and four skins the indians haveing taken the ballance of seven elk which drewyer killed the other day. i find that those people will all steal. no. a species of fir, which one of my men inform me is presisely the same with that called the balsam fir of canada. it grows here to considerable size, being from / to feet in diameeter and rises to the hight of or feet. it's stem is simple branching assending and proliferous-. it's leaves are cessile, acerose, / of an inch in length and / of an inch in width, thickly scattered on all sides of the twigs as far as the groth of four proceeding years, and respects the three undersides only, the upper side being neglected and the under side but thinly furnished; gibbous a little declineing, obtusely pointed, soft flexable, and the upper disk longitudinally marked with a slight channel; this disk is of a glossy deep green, the under one green tho paler and not glossy. this tree affords a considerable quantity of a fine clear arromatic balsom in appearance and taste like the canadian balsom. small pustuls filled with the balsom rise with a blister like appearance on the body of the tree and it's branches; the bark which covers these pustules is soft thin smothe and easily punctured. the bark of the tree is generally thin of a dark brown colour and reather smooth tho not as much so as the white pine of the u. states the wood is white and soft. no. a species of fir which in point of size is much that of no ,-. the stem simple branching assending and proliferous; the bark of a redish dark brown and thicker than that of no. . it is devided with small longitudinal interstices, but these are not so much ramefied as in the specis no. . the leaves with respect to their possition in reguard to each other is the same with the balsam fir, as is the leaf in every other respect than that, it is not more than / ds the width and little more than half the length of the other, nor is it's upper disk of so deep a green nor glossy. it affords no balsam, and but little rosin. the wood also white soft and reather porus tho tough-.- no. is a species of fir which arives to the size of no. , and no. . the stem simple branching, diffuse and proliferous. the bark thin dark brown, much divided with small longitudinal interstices scaleing off in thin rolling flakes. it affords but little rosin and the wood is redish white / ds of the diamieter in the center the ballance white somewhat porus and tough. the twigs are much longer and more slender than in either of the other speceies. the leaves are acerose / of an inch in width, and an inch in length, sessile, inserted on all sides of the bough, streight, their extremities pointing obliquely towards the extremities of the bough and more thickly placed than in either of the other species; gibbous and flexable but more stiff than any except no. and more blontly pointed than either of the other species; the upper disk has a small longitudinal channel and is of a deep green tho not so glossy as the balsam fir, the under disk is of a pail green. no. the white pine; or what is usially so called in virginia. i see no difference between this and that of the mountains in virginia; unless it be the uncommon length of the cone of this found here, which are sometimes or inches in length and about inches in surcumfrance. i do not recollect those of virginia, but it strikes me that they are not so long. this species is not common i have seen it only in three instances since i have been in this neighbourhood, i saw a few on haleys bay on the north side of the columbia river, a fiew scattering on the sea coast to the north on one of which i engraved my name-and some on the s s e side of e co la creek near the kil a mox nation, at which place i saw the white & red cedar [lewis, february , ] friday february th . this evening sergt. ordway and wiser returned with a part of the meat which r. fields had killed; the ballance of the party with sergt. gass remained in order to bring the ballance of the meat to the river at a point agreed on where the canoe is to meet them again tomorrow morning. this evening we had what i call an excellent supper it consisted of a marrowbone a piece and a brisket of boiled elk that had the appearance of a little fat on it. this for fort clatsop is living in high stile. in this neighbourhood i observe the honeysuckle common in our country i first met with it on the waters of the kooskooske near the chopunnish nation, and again below the grand rappids in the columbian valley on tidewater. the elder also common to our country grows in great abundance in the rich woodlands on this side of the rocky mountains; tho it differs here in the colour of it's berry, this being of a pale sky blue while that of the u states is a deep perple. the seven bark or nine-bark as it is called in the u states is also common in this quarter. there is a species of huckleberry common to the piny lands from the commencement of the columbian valley to the seacoast; it rises to the hight of or feet. is a simple branching some what defuse stem; the main body or trunk is cilindric and of a dark brown, while the colateral branches are green smooth, squar, and put forth a number of alternate branches of the same colour and form from the two horizontal sides only. the fruit is a small deep perple berry which the natives inform us is very good. the leaf is thin of a pale green and small being / of an inch in length and / in width; oval terminateing more accutely at the apex than near the insertion of the footstalk which is at the base; veined, nearly entire, serrate but so slightly so that it is scarcely perceptible; footstalk short and there position with rispect to each other is alternate and two ranked, proceeding from the horizontal sides of the bough only. the small pox has distroyed a great number of the natives in this quarter. it prevailed about years since among the clatsops and distroy several hundred of them, four of their chiefs fell victyms to it's ravages. those clatsops are deposited in their canoes on the bay a few miles below us. i think the late ravages of the small pox may well account for the number of remains of vilages which we find deserted on the river and sea coast in this quarter. [clark, february , ] friday february th this evening serjt ordway and wiser returned with a part of the meat which r. field had killed; the balance of the party with serjt. gass remained in order to bring the ballance of the meat to the river at a point agreeed on, where the canoe is to meet them again tomorrow morning. this evening we had what i call an excellent supper it consisted of a marrowbone, a piece of brisket of boiled elk that had the appearance of a little fat on it. this for fort clatsop is liveing in high stile, and in fact fiesting-. in this neighbourhood i observe the honeysuckle common in the u states, i first met with it on the waters of the kooskooske near the chopunnish nation, and again below the grand rapids in the columbian vally on tide water. the elder also common to our countrey grows in great abundance in the rich wood land on this side of the rocky mountains, tho it differs here in the colour of its berry, this being of a pale sky blue while that of the u, states is a deep purple. the seven or nine bark as it is called in the u, states is also common in this quarter. there is a species of huckkleberry common to the piney lands from the commencement of the columbian vally to the sea coast; it rises to the hight of or feet, is a simple branching, somewhat defused stem; the main body or trunk is cilindric branches are green smothe squar, and put foth a number of alternet branches of the same colour and form from the two horizontal sides only. the frute is a small deep purple berry which the nativs inform us is very good, the leaf is thin of a pale green and small being / of an inch in length and / in width; oval terminateing more accoutely at the apax, than near the insersion of the footstalk which is at the base vened nearly entire; footstalks short and their position in respect to each other is alternate and too ranked, proceeding from the horizontal side of the bough only. the small pox had distroyed a great number of the nativs in this quarter. it provailed about or yrs sinc among the clatsops, and distroy'd several hundreds of them, four of their chiefs fell a victym to it's ravages. these clatsops are deposited in their canoes on the bay a fiew miles below us. i think the late ravages of the small pox, may well account for the number of remains of villages which i saw on my rout to the kil a mox in several places-. [lewis, february , ] saturday february th . sent sergt. ordway and two men this morning to join the party with sergt. gass and bring the ballance of r. fields's elk. in the evening they returned with the balance of the flesh of five elk, that of one of them having become tainted and unfit for uce. late in the evening sergt. pryor returned with shannon labuish and his party down the netul. they brought with them the flesh of elk which those two hunters had killed. we have both dined and suped on elk's tongues and marrow bones. i have discovered that the shrub and fruit discribed on the th of january is not that which the indians call the shal-lon, but that is such as is there discribed, and the berry is estemed and used by the natives as there mentioned except that it is not like the shallon, baked in large loaves, but is simply dryed in the sun for winter uce, when they either eat them in thir dryed state or boil them in water. the shallon is the production of a shrub which i have heretofore taken to be a speceis of loral and mentioned as abounding in this neighbourhood and that the elk fed much on it's leaves. it generally rises to the hight of feet but not unusually attains to that of feet. it grows very thick and is from the size of a goos quill to that of a man's thumb, celindric, the bark of the older or larger part of the stock is of a redish brown colour while that of the younger branches and succulent shoots are red where most exposed to the sun and green elsewhere. the stem is simple branching reclining, and partially fluxouse, or at least the smaler stocks or such parts of them and the boughs as produce the leaves, take a different direction at the insertion of every petiole. the leaf is oval four & / inches in length and / in width. petiolate, the petiole short only / th of an inch in length, celindric with a slight channel on it's upper side where it is generally red; undivided or entire, slightly serrate, the apex termineating in an accute point; the upper disk of a glossey deep green, the under disk of a pale green; veined. the leaves are also alternate and two ranked. the root is horizontal puting forth perpendicular radicles. this shrub is an evergreen. the fruit is a deep perple berry about the size of a buck short or common black cherry, of an ovate form tho reather more bluntly pointed, than at the insertion of the peduncle; at the extremity, the thin coloured membranous pellicle, which forms the surface of the pericarp, is divided into five accute angular points, which meet in the center, and contains a soft pulp of the same colour invelloping a great number of small brown kidney formed seeds. each berry is supported by a seperate celindric peduncle of half an inch in length; these to the number of ten or twelve issue from a common peduncle or footstalk which is fuxouse and forms the termination of the twig of the present years growth; each peduncle supporting a berry is furnished with one oblong bracte placed at it's insertion on the common footstalk which when the fruit is ripe withers with the peduncle. [clark, february , ] saturday february th sent serjt. ordway and two men this morning to joint the party with serjt. gass, and bring the ballance of r. field's elk. in the evening they returned with the ballance of the flesh of five elk, that of one of them having become tainted and unfit for use. late in the evening serjt. pryor returned with shannon labieshe and his party down the netul. they brought with them the flesh of elk which those two hunters had killed. we have both dined and suped on elks tongues and marrowbones. a great luxury for fort clatsop. the shat lon is a production of shrub which i have taken heretofore to be a species of loral and mentioned as abounding in this neighbourhood, and that the elk feed much on its leaves. it generally rises to the hight of feet, and not unusially attain to that of feet. it grows very thick and is from the size of that of a goose quil to that of a mans thumb, celendric. the bark of the older or larger part of the stalk is of a redish brown colour, whilst that of the younger branches & succulent shoots are red where most exposed to the sun and green elsewhere. the stem is simple branching, reclineing and partially fuxouse, or at least the smaller stalks or such parts of them and their boughs which produce the leaves, take a different direction at the insertion of every petiole. a, a, the leaves as they grow from the stalk b. b. b the stalk between each leaf. the leaf is oval and / inches in length, and and a half in width. petiolate, the potiale short only / of an inch in length cilindric with a slight channel on its upper side where it is generally red; undevided, or entire, slightly serrate, the apex termonateing in an accute point; the upper disk of a glossy deep green, the under disk of a pail green, veined. the leaves are also alternate and two ranked. the root is horozontal, putting foth pirpendicular radicles. this shrub is an evergreen. the frute is a deep purple berry about the size of a buck shot or common black cherry, of an ovale form, tho reather more bluntly pointed than at the insertion of the peduncle, at the extremity, the thin coloured membranus pellicle, which forms the surfice of the paricarp, is divided into anguar points, which meet at the center, and contains a soft pulp of the same colour invelloping a great number of small brown kidney formed seedeach berry is supported by a seperate celindric peduncle of half an inch in length, these to the number of or issue from a common peduncle of footstalk which forms the termination of the twig of the present years groth; each peduncle supporting a berry is furnished with one oblong bracte placed at it's insertion on the common footstalk, which when the frute is ripe withers with the peduncle-. [lewis, february , ] sunday february th this morning collins and wiser set out on a hunting excurtion; they took our indian canoe and passed the netul a little above us. in the evening drewyer returned; had killed nothing but one beaver. he saw one black bear, which is the only one which has been seen in this neighbourhood since our arrival; the indians inform us that they are abundant but are now in their holes. in the marshy ground frequently overflown by the tides there grows a species of fir which i take to be the same of no. which it resembles in every particular except that it is more defusely branched and not so large, being seldom more than feet high and inches or feet in diameter; it's being more defusely branched may proceed from it's open situation seldom growing very close. the cone is / inches in length and / in it's greatest circumpherence, which is near it's base, and from which it tapers regularly to a point. it is formed of imbricated scales of a bluntly rounded form, thin not very firm and smoth. a thin leaf is inserted into the pith of the cone, which overlays the center of and extends / an inch beyond the point of each scale. the form of this leaf is somewhat thus overlaying one of the imbricated scales. the stem of the black alder of this country before mentioned as arriving to great size, is simply branching and defuse. the bark is smooth of a light colour with white coloured spreading spots or blotches, resembling much that of the beech; the leaf fructification &c is precisely that of the common alder of our country. these trees grow seperately from different roots and not in clusters or clumps as those of the atlantic states. fearing that our meat would spoil we set six men to jurking it. [clark, february , ] sunday february th this morning collins & wiser set out on a hunting excurtion; in the evening drewyer returned; had killed nothing but one beaver. he saw one black bear, which is the only one which has been seen in the neighbourhood since our arrival. the indians inform us that they are abundant but are now in their holes. in the marshey grounds frequently overflown by the tides there grows a species of fir which i took to be the same of no. . from examonation i find it a distinct species of fir. it is more perfusely branched. this tree seldom rises to a greater hight than or feet and is from to feet in diamieter; the bark the same with that of no. . only reather more rugid. the leaf is acerose, / of an inch in width and / in length, they are firm stiff and somewhat accuminated, ending in a short pointed hard tendril, gibbous thickly scattered on all sides of the bough as respects the upper sides only; those which have their insertion on the underside incline side--wise with their points upwards giveing the leaf the shape of a sythe. the others are perpindicular or pointing upwards, growing as in no. from small triangular pedestals of a soft spungy elastic bark. the under disk of these leaves or that which grows nearest to the base of the bough is of a dark glossy green, while the upper or opposit side is of a whiteish pale green; in this respect differing from almost all leaves. the boughs retain their leaves as far back as almost to the sixth year's groth. the peculiarity of the budscales observed in no. is obsd. in this species. the cone is / inches in length, and in circumfranse, of an ovale figure being thickest in the middle and tapering and terminateing in two obtuce points. it composes several flexable, thin, obtusely jointed smoth and redish brown imbricated scales. each scale covering two small winged seed and being itself covered in the center by a small thin inferior scale accutely pointed. the cone is some what of this figure. they proceed from the sides as well as the extremities of the bough, but in the former case allways at or near the commencement of some one years groth which in some instances are as far back as the third year the stem of the black alder of this countrey before mentioned as ariveing at great size, is simple branching and defuse. the bark is smoth of a light colour with white coloured spredding spots or blotches, resembling much that of beech. the leaf is procisely that of the common alder of the united states or virginia. those trees grow seperately from different roots and not in clusters or clumps, as those of the atlantic states, casts its folage about the st of december. fearing that our meat would spoil we set six men to jurking it to day, which they are obliged to perform in a house under shelter from the repeated rains. [lewis, february , ] monday february th . drewyer visited his traps today but caught no beaver. collins and wiser returned had killed no elk. willard arrived late in the evening from the saltworks, had cut his knee very badly with his tommahawk. he had killed four elk not far from the salt works the day before yesterday, which he had butched and took a part of the meat to camp, but having cut his knee was unable to be longer ucefull at the works and had returned. he informed us that bratton was very unwell, and that gibson was so sick that he could not set up or walk alone and had desired him to ask us to have him brought to the fort. coalter also returned this evening. continue the operation of drying our meat. there is a tree common to the columbia river below the entrance of cataract river which in it's appearance when divested of it's foliage, much resembles the white ash; the appearance of the wood and bark is also that of the ash. it's stem is simple branching and diffuse. the leaf is petiolate, plane, scattered, palmate lobate, divided by four deep sinuses; the lobes are repand, or terminate in from to accute angular points, while their margins are indented with irregular and somewhat circular incissures. the petiole is celendric smooth and inches long. the leaf inches in length and in bredth. this tree is frequently feet in diameter and rises to or feet high. the fruit is a winged seed somewhate like the maple. in the same part of the country there is also another growth which resembles the white maple in it's appearance, only that it is by no means so large; seldom being more than from to inches in diamater, and from to feet high; they frequently grow in clusters as if from the same bed of roots spreading and leaning outwards. the twigs are long and slender. the stems simple branching. the bark smooth and in colour resembling that of the white maple. the leaf is petiolate, plane, scattered nearly circular, with it's margin cut with accute angular incissures of an inch in length and from six to in number the accute angular points formed by which incissures are crenate, or cut with small accute angular incissures. or in this form. it is inches in length, and in width. the petiole celindric smooth and one and a / inches long. the fruit or flower not known. [clark, february , ] monday february th collins and wiser returned without killing any elk. willard arrived late this evening from the salt camp, he had cut his knee very badly with his tomahawk. he had killed four elk not far from the salt camp, the day before yesterday, which he had butchered and took a part of the meat to the camp, but haveing cut his knee was unable to be longer servisable at the works & had returned. he informed us that bratten was very unwell, and that gibson was so sick that he could not set up or walk alone, and had desired him to ask us to have him brought to the fort. colter also returnd. this evening. continue the opperation of dryin our meat. there is a tree common to the columbia river below the enterance of cataract river which in its appearance when divested of its folage, much resembles the white ash; the appearance of the wood and bark is also that of the ash. it's stem is simple branching and diffuse. the lief is petiolate, plane, scattered palmate lobate, divided by four deep sinusus; the lobes are repand or terminate in from to accute angular points, while their margins are indented with irregular and somewhat circular incissures. the peteole is celindric smoth and inches long. the leaf inches in length and in bredth. this tree is frequently & feet in diamieter, and rises to or feet high-the froot is a winged seed somewhat like the maple. in the same part of the countrey there is also another groth, which resembles the white maple in its appearance, only that it is by no means so large, seldom being more than from to inches in diamieter, and from to feet high; they frequently grow in clusters as if from the same bed or root, spreading and leaning outwards. the twigs are long and slender. the stems simple branching. the bark smoth and in colour resembles that of the white maple. the leaf is patiolate, plain, scattered nearly circular, with it's margin cut with accute anglar incissures of an inch in length and from to in number, the accute angular points formed, by which incissures, are crenate, or cut with small angular incissures. or in this form. it is inches in length, and in width. the petiole is cilendric smoth and / inches long. the froot or flour i have not as yet found out &c. [lewis, february , ] tuesday february th . this morning sergt. gass reubin fields and thompson passed the netul opposite to us on a hunting expedition. sent sergt pryor with a party of four men to bring gibson to the fort. also sent colter and wiser to the salt works to carry on the business with joseph fields; as bratton had been sick we desired him to return to the fort also if he thought proper; however in the event of his not coming wiser was directed to return. there is a shrub which grows commonly in this neighbourhood which is precisely the same with that in virginia some times called the quillwood. also another which grows near the water in somewhat moist grounds & rises to the hight of or feet with a large, peteolate spreading plane, crenate and somewhat woolly leaf like the rose raspberry. it is much branched the bark of a redish brown colour and is covered with a number of short hooked thorns which renders it extreemly disagreeable to pass among; it dose not cast it's foliage untill about the st of december. this is also the case with the black alder. there is also found in this neighbourhood an evergreen shrub which i take to be another variety of the shallun and that discribed under that name in mistake on the th of january. this shrub rises to the hight of from four to five feet, the stem simple branching, defuse and much branched. the bark is of a redish dark brown, that of the mane stein is somewhat rough while that of the boughs is smooth. the leaves are petiolate the petiole / of an inch long; oblong, obtuse at the apex and accute angular at the insertion of the petiole; / of an inch in length and ysths in width; convex, somewhat revolute, serrate, smoth and of a paler green than the evergreens usually are; they are also opposite and ascending. the fruit is a small deep perple berry like the common huckleberry of a pleasent flavor. they are seperately scattered & attatched to the small boughs by short peduncles.-. the natives eat this berry when ripe but seldom collect it in such quantities as to dry it for winter uce. [clark, february , ] tuesday february th . this morning serjt. gass r. field and j. thompson passed the netul opposit to us on a hunting expedition. sent serjeant natl. pryor with men in a canoe to bring gibson to the fort. also sent colter & p. weser to the salt works to carry on the business with jos. field; as bratten is also sick we derected that he should return to the fort if he continued unwell; there is shrub which grows commonly in this neighbourhood which grows on the steep sides of the hills and also in low moist grounds, and rise to the hight of or feet with a large peteolate, spreading plain crenate and somewhat woolly leaf like the rose raspberry. it is much branched the bark of a redish brown colour and is covered with a number of short hooked thorns which renders it extreamly disagreeable to pass among, it does not cast its foliage untill about the st of december. there is a species of bryor which is common in this neighbourhood of a green colour which grows most abundant in the rich dry lands near the water courses, but is also found in small quantities in the piney lands at a distance from the water courses in the former situations the stem is frequently the size of a mans finger and rise perpendicularly to the hight of or feet when it decends in an arch and becoms procumbent or rests on some neighbouring plant or srubs; it is simple unbranched and celindric; in the latter situation it is much smaller, and usially procumbent. the stem is armed with sharp and hooked bryors. the leaf is peteolate, ternate and resembles in shape and appearance that of the purple raspberry common to the atlantic states. the frute is a berry resembling the blackberry in every respect and is eaten when ripe and much esteemed by the nativs but is not dryed for winters consumption. in the countrey about the enterance of the quick sand rivers i first discovered this bryor, it grows so abundantly in the furtile vally of columbia and on the islands in that part of the river, that the countrey near the river is almost impenitrable in maney places. this green bryor retains its leaf or foliage and virdue untill late in december. the briory bush with a wide leaf is also one of its ascociates. [lewis, february , ] wednesday february th . this morning we were visited by a clatsop man who brought with him three dogs as a remuneration for the elk which him self and nation had stolen from us some little time since, how ever the dogs took the alarm and ran off; we suffered him to remain in the fort all night. there are two species of ever green shrubs which i first met with at the grand rappids of the columbia and which i have since found in this neighbourhood also; they grow in rich dry ground not far usually from some watercourse. the roots of both species are creeping and celindric. the stem of the st is from a foot to inches high and as large as a goosqull; it is simple unbranced and erect. it's leaves are cauline, compound and spreading. the leafets are jointed and oppositely pinnate, pare & terminating in one, sessile, widest at the base and tapering to an accuminated point, an inch and a quarter the greatest width, and inches & a / in length. each point of their crenate margins armed with a subulate thorn or spine and are from to in number. they are also veined, glossy, carinated and wrinkled; their points obliquely pointing towards the extremity of the common footstalk.--the stem of the nd is procumbent abot the size of the former, jointed and unbranched. it's leaves are cauline, compound and oppositely pinnate; the rib from to inches long celindric and smooth. the leafets / inches long and inch wide. greatest width / inch from their base, to which they are regularly rounded, and from the same point tapering to an accute apex, wich is mostly, but not invariably tirminated with a small subulate thorn. they are jointed and oppositely pinnate, consisting of pare and terminating in one, sessile serrate, or like the teeth of a whipsaw, each point terminating in a small subulate spine, being from to in number; veined, smooth, plane and of a deep green, their points tending obliquely towards the extremity of the rib or common footstalk. i do not know the fruit or flower of either. the st resembles the plant common to many parts of the u states called the mountain holley. [clark, february , ] wednesday february th . this morning we were visited by a clatsop man who brought with him three dogs as a remuneration for the elk which himself and nation had stolen from us some little time sence, however the dogs took the alarm and ran off; we suffered him to remain in the fort all night. there are two species of evergreen shrubs. this is the leaf of one which i first met with at the grand rapids of the columbia river, and which i have sence found in this neighbourhood also; they usially grow in rich dry ground not far from some water course. the roots of both species are creeping and celindric. the stem of the first (as above) is from a foot to inches high and as large as a goose quil; it is simple and erect. its leaves are cauline, and spredding. the leafits are jointed & oppositly poinnate par and termonateing in one, cessile widest at the base and tapering to an accuminated point, an inch and / the greatest width; & / inches in length. each point of their crenate margins armed with a thorn or spine, and are from to in number. they are also veined, glossy, corinated and wrinkled; their points obliquely pointing towards the extremity of the common footstalk. the stem of the nd is procumbent about the size of the former, jointed and umbracated. it's leaves are cauline, compound and oppositly pointed; the rib from to inches long celendric and smooth the leafits / inches long and inch wide. the greatest width / inch from their base which they are regularly rounded, and from the same point tapering to an accute apex, which is mostly but not entirely termonated with a small subulate thorn. they are jointed & oppositly pointed consisting of par and termonateing in one (in this form) sessile, serrate, or like the teeth of a whipsaw, each point terminateing in a small subulate spine, being from to in numbr; veined, smoth, plane and of a deep green, their points tending obliquely towards the extremity of the rib or common footstalk. i do not know the fruit or flower of either. the st resembles a plant common to maney parts of the united states called the mountain holly [lewis, february , ] thursday february th . the clatsop left us this morning at a.m. not any thing transpired during the day worthy of notice. yesterday we completed the operation of drying the meat, and think we have a sufficient stock to last us this month. the indians inform us that we shall have great abundance of a small fish in march which from their discription must be the herring. these people have also informed us that one more who sometimes touches at this place and trades with the natives of this coast, had on board of his vessel three cows, and that when he left them he continued his course along the n. w. coast. i think this strong circumstancial proof that there is a stettlement of white persons at nootka sound or some point to the n. w. of us on the coast. there is a species of bryer which is common in this neighbourhood of a green colour which grows most abundant in the rich dry lands near the watercourses, but is also found in small quantities in the piny lands at a distance from the watercourses in the former situation the stem is frequently the size of a man's finger and rises perpendicularly to the hight of or feet when it decends in an arch and becomes procumbent or rests on some neighbouring plants or shrubs; it is simple unbranched and celindric; in the latter situation it is much smaller and usually procumbent. the stem is armed with sharp and hooked bryers. the leaf is peteolate ternate and resembles in shape and appearance that of the perple raspberry common to the atlantic states. the fruit is a berry resembling the black berry in every rispect and is eaten when ripe and much esteemed by the natives but is not dryed for winter consumption. in the country about the entrance of the quicksand river i first discovered this bryer. it groows so abundantly in the fertile valley of columbia and the islands in that part of the river that the country near the river is almost impenitrable in many places. the briary bush with a wide leaf is also one of it's ascociates. the green bryer retains it's foliage and verdure untill late in december.--there are also two species of firn which are common to this country beside that formerly discribed of which the natives eat the roots. these from their disparity in point of size i shall designate the large and small firn. both species continue green all winter.--the large farn, rises to the height of or four feet the stem is a common footstalk or rib which proceedes immediately from the radix wich is somewhat flat on two sides about the size of a man's arm and covered with innumerable black coarce capillary radicles which issue from every pat of it's surface; one of those roots or a collected bed of them will send fourth from twenty to forty of those common footstalks all of which decline or bend outwards from the common center. these ribs are cylindric and marked longitudinally their whole length with a groove or channel on their upper side. on either side of this grove a little below it's edge, the leafets are inserted, being shortly petiolate for about / ds of the length of the middle rib commencing at the bottom and from thence to the extremity sessile. the rib is terminated by a single undivided lanceolate gagged leafet. the leafets are lanceolate, from to inches in length gagged and have a small accute angular projection on the upper edge near the base where it is spuar on the side which has the projection and obliquely cut at the base on the other side of the rib of the leafet. or which will give a better idea in this form. the upper surface is smooth and of a deep green the under disk of a pale green and covered with a brown bubersence of a woolly appearance particularly near the cental fiber or rib. these leafets are alternately pinnate. they are in number from to ; shortest at the two extremities of the common footstalk and longest in the center, graduly lengthening and deminishing as they succeed each other.- the small firn also rises with a common footstalk from the radix and are from four to eight in number. about inches long; the central rib marked with a slight longitudinal groove throughout it's whole length. the leafets are oppositely pinnate about / rd of the length of the common footstalk from the bottom and thence alternately pinnate; the footstalk terminating in a simple undivided nearly entire lanceolate leafet. the leafets are oblong, obtuse, convex absolutely entire, marked on the upper disk with a slight longitudinal groove in place of the central rib, smooth and of a deep green. near the upper extremity these leafets are decursively pinnate as are also those of the large f rn. the grasses of this neighbourhood are generally coase harsh and sedge-like, and grow in large tufts. there is none except in the open grounds. near the coast on the tops of some of the untimbered hills there is a finer and softer species which resembles much the green swoard. the salt marshes also produce a coarse grass, bull rushes and the cattail flagg. the two last the natives make great use in preparing their mats bags &c. [clark, february , ] tuesday february th . the clatsop left us this morning at a.m. not anything transpired dureing the day worthy of notice. yesterday we completed the opperation of drying the meat, and think we have a sufficient stock to last us this month. the indians inform us that we shall have great abundance of small fish in march. which from the discription must be the herring. those people have also informed us that one moore who sometimes touches at this place and traded with the nativs of this coast, had on board his ship cows, and that when he left them he continued his course along the n w. coast. i think this (if those cows were not coats) strong circumstantial proof that their is a settlement of white persons at nootka sound or some place to the n w. of us on the coast. there are also two species of firn which are common to this countrey besides that before mentioned of which the nativs eate the roots. these two from their disparity in point of size i shall distinguish the large and small firn. both species continue green all winter the large fern, rise to the hight of or feet, the stem is a common footstalk or rib which proceeds imediately from the radix which is somewhat flat on two sides about the size of a man's arm and covered with innumerable black coarse capillary radicles which issue from every part of its surface; one of those roots or a collected bead of them will send forth from to of those common footstalks all of which decline or bend outwards from the common center. those ribs are cylindric and marked longitudinally their whole length with a groove or channel on their upper side. on either side of this groove a little below it's edge, the leafets are inserted, being partly petiolate for about / ds of the length of the middle rib, commenceing at the bottom and from thence to the extremity sessile. the rib is termonated by a single undevided lanceolate gagged leafet. the leafets are lanceolate, from to inches in length gagged and have a small accute angular projection and obliquely cut at the base on either side of the rib of the leafet. upper surface is smooth and of a deep green, the under disk of a pale green and covered with a brown substance of a woolly appearance particalarly near the center fiber or rib these leafets are alternately pointed they are in number from to ; shortest at the two extremities of the common footstalk and longest in the center, gradually lengthing and diminishing as they suckceed each other the small firn also rises with a common footstalk from the radix and are from to in number, about inches long; the central rib marked with a slight longitudinal groove through out it's whole length. the leafets are oppositly pinnate about a of the length of the common footstalk from the bottom and thence alternately pinnate; the footstalk termonating in a simple undevided nearly entire lanceolate leafet. the leafets are oblong, obtuse, convex absolutely entire, marked on the upper disk with a slight longitudinal grove in place of the central rib, smooth and of a deep green; near the upper extremity those lefets are decurscivily pinnate as are also those of the larg firn. the grass's of this neighbourhood are generally coarse harsh and sedge like, and grow in large tufts. there is none except in the open grounds. near the coast on the top of some of the untimbered hills there is a finer and softer species which resembles much the greensword. the salt marshes also produce a corse grass, bullrushes and the cattail flaggs. of the two last the nativs make great use in prepareing their mats bags &c. in those bags they carry their fish berries roots &c. [lewis, february , ] friday february th . we are very uneasy with rispect to our sick men at the salt works. sergt. pryor and party have not yet returned nor can we conceive what causes their delay. drewyer visited his traps today and caught a very fine fat beaver on which we feasted this evening. on the th inst. capt clark completed a map of the country through which we have been passing from fort mandan to this place. in this map the missouri jefferson's river the s. e. branch of the columbia, kooskooske and columbia from the entrance of the s. e. fork to the pacific ocean as well as a part of flathead river and our tract across the rocky mountains are laid down by celestial observation and survey. the rivers are also connected at their sources with other rivers agreeably to the information of the natives and the most probable conjecture arrising from their capacities and the relative positions of their rispective entrances which last have with but few exceptions been established by celestial observation. we now discover that we have found the most practicable and navigable passage across the continent of north america; it is that which we traveled with the exception of that part of our rout from the neighbourhood of the entrance of dearborn's river untill we arrived on clarks river at the entrance of traveler's rest creek; the distance between those two points would be traveled more advantageously by land as the navigation of the missouri above the river dearborn is laborious and miles distant by which no advantage is gained as the rout which we are compelled to travel by land from the source of jefferson's river to the entrance of travelers rest creek is miles being further by miles than that from the entrance of dearborn's river to the last mentioned point and a much worse rout if indian information is to be relyed on; from the same information the flathead river like that of the s. e. fork of the columbia which heads with jefferson's and maddison's rivers can not be navigated through the rocky mountains in consequence of falls & rappids and as a confermation of this fact, we discovered that there were no salmon in the flathead river, which is the case in the s. e. branch of the columbia although it is not navigable. added to this, the indians further inform us, that the flathead river runs in the direction of the rocky mountains for a great distance to the north before it discharges itself into the columbia river, which last from the same information from the entrance of the s. e. fork to that of flathead river is obstructed with a great number of difficult and dangerous rappids. considering therefore the danger and difficulties attending the navigation of the columbia in this part, as well as the circuitous and distant rout formed by itself and the flathead river we conceive that even admitting the flathead river contrary to information to be as navigable as the columbia river below it's entrance, that the tract by land over the rocky mountains usually traveled by the natives from the entrance of traveller's-rest creek to the forks of the kooskooske is preferable; the same being a distance of miles. the inferrence therefore deduced from those premices are that the best and most practicable rout across the continent is by way of the missouri to the entrance of dearborn's river or near that place; from thence to flathead river at the entrance of traveller's rest creek, from thence up traveller's rest creek to the forks, from whence you pursue a range of mounttains which divides the waters of the two forks of this creek, and which still continuing it's west wardly course divides the waters of the two forks of the kooskooske river to their junction; from thence to decend this river by water to the s. e. branch of the columbia, thence down that river to the columbia and with the latter to the pacific ocean. ============ [clark, february , ] friday february th we are very uneasy with respect to our sick men at the salt works. serjt. pryor and party haveing not yet returneded, nor can we conceive what can be the cause of their delay. drewyer visited his traps & to day and cought a fine fat beaver on which we feasted this evening and thought it a great delecessey.-. i compleated a map of the countrey through which we have been passing from the mississippi at the mouth of missouri to this place. in the map the missouri jefferson's river the s. e. branch of the columbia or lewis's river, koos-koos-ke and columbia from the enterance of the s. e fork to the pacific ocian, as well as a part of clark's river and our track across the rocky mountains are laid down by celestial observations and survey. the rivers are also conected at their sources with other rivers agreeably to the information of the nativs and the most probable conjecture arrising from their capacities and the relative positions of their respective enterances which last have with but fiew exceptions been established by celestial observations. we now discover that we have found the most practicable and navigable passage across the continent of north america; it is that which we have traveled with the exception of that part of our rout from the foot of the falls of the missouri, or in neighbourhood of the enterance of the rocky mountains untill we arive on clarks river at the enterence of travelers-rest creek; the distance between those two points would be traveled more advantagiously by land as the navigation of the missouri above the falls is crooked laborious and miles distant by which no advantage is gained as the rout which we are compelled to travel by land from the source of jeffersons river to the enterance of travellers rest creek is miles being further by at. miles than that from the falls of the missourie to the last mentioned point (travellers rest creek) and a much worse rout if indian information is to be relied on which is from the so so nee or snake indians, and the flatheads of the columbia west of the rocky mountains. from the same information clarks river like that of the s. e. branch of the columbia which heads with jefferson's and maddisons river's can not be navagated thro the rocky mountains in consequence of falls and rapids, and as a confirmation of the fact we discovered that there were no salmon in clark's river, which is not the case in the s. e. branch of the columbia altho it is not navagable. added to this, the indians of different quartes further inform us, that clark's river runs in the direction of the rocky mountains for a great distance to the north before it discharges itself into the columbia river---from the same information the columbia from the enterance of the s. e. branch to the enterance of clark's river is obstructed with a great number of dificuelt and dangerous rapids (and the place clark's river comes out of the rocky mountains is a tremendious falls &c which there is no possibillity of passing the mountains either by land or water.) considering therefore the dangers and deficuelties attending the navigation of the columbia in this part, as well as the circuitous and distant rout formed by itself and that of clark's river we conceive that even admitting that clarks river contrary to information to be as navagable as the columbia below it's enterance, that the tract by land over the rocky mountains usially traveled by the nativs from the enterance of travellers rest creek to the forks of the kooskooske is preferable; the same being a distance of miles. the inferrence therefore deduced from these premises are, that the best and most practicable rout across the continent is by way of the missouri to the great falls; thence to clarks river at the enterance of travellers rest creek, from thence up travillers rest creek to the forks, from whence you prosue a range of mountains which divides the waters of the two forks of this creek, and which still continues it's westwardly course on the mountains which divides the waters of the two forks of the kooskooske river to their junction; from thence to decend this river to the s. e. branch of the columbia, thence down that river to the columbia, and down the latter to the pacific ocian-. there is a large river which falls into the columbia on its south side at what point we could not lern; which passes thro those extencive columbian plains from the south east, and as the indians inform us head in the mountains south of the head of jeffersons river and at no great distance from the spanish settlements, and that that fork which heads with the river rajhone and waters of the missouri passes through those extensive plains in which there is no wood, and the river crowded with rapids & falls many of which are impassable. the other or westerly fork passes near a range of mountains and is the fork which great numbers of indian bands of the so sone or snake indians, this fork most probably heads with north river or the waters of callifornia. this river may afford a practicable land communication with new mexico by means of its western fork. this river cannot be navagable as an unpracticable rapid is within one mile of its enterance into the columbia, and we are fully purswaded that a rout by this river if practicable at all, would lengthen the distance greatly and incounter the same dificuelties in passing the rocky mountains with the rout by way of travellers rest creek & clarks river. [lewis, february , ] saturday february th . drewyer and whitehouse set out this morning on a hunting excurtion towards the praries of point adams. we have heard our hunters over the netul fire several shot today, but have had no account from them as yet. about p.m. bratton arrived from the salt works and informed us that sergt. pryor and party were on their way with gibson who is so much reduced that he cannot stand alone and that they are obliged to carry him in a litter. bratton himself appears much reduced with his late indisposition but is now recovering fast. bratton informed that the cause of sergt. pryor's delay was attributeable to the winds which had been so violent for several days as to render it impossible to get a canoe up the creek to the point where it was necessary to pass with gibson. the s. w. winds are frequently very violent on the coast when we are but little sensible of them at fort clatsop. in consequence of the lofty and thickly timbered fir country which surrounds us on that quarter from the south to the north east. after dark sergt. pryor arrived with gibson. we are much pleased in finding him by no means as ill as we had expected. we do no conceive him in danger by any means, tho he has yet a fever and is much reduced. we beleive his disorder to have orriginated in a violent cold which he contracted in hunting and pursuing elk and other game through the swams and marshes about the salt works. he is nearly free from pain tho a gooddeel reduced and very languid. we gave him broken dozes of diluted nitre and made him drink plentifully of sage tea, had his feet bathed in warm water and at p.m. gave him drops of laudanum. the quadrupeds of this country from the rocky mountains to the pacific ocean are st the domestic animals, consisting of the horse and the dog only; cdly the native wild animals, consisting of the brown white or grizly bear, (which i beleive to be the same family with a mearly accedental difference in point of colour) the black bear, the common red deer, the black tailed fallow deer, the mule deer, elk, the large brown wolf, the small woolf of the plains, the large wolf of the plains, the tiger cat, the common red fox, black fox or fisher, silver fox, large red fox of the plains, small fox of the plains or kit fox, antelope, sheep, beaver, common otter, sea otter, mink, spuck, seal, racoon, large grey squirrel, small brown squirrel, small grey squirrel, ground squirrel, sewelel, braro, rat, mouse, mole, panther, hare, rabbit, and polecat or skunk. all of which shall be severally noticed in the order in which they occur as well as shuch others as i learn do exist and which not been here recapitulated. the horse is confined principally to the nations inhabiting the great plains of columbia extending from latitude ° to ° n. and occuping the tract of country lying between the rocky mountains and a range of mountains which pass the columbia river about the great falls or from longitude to west. in this extesive tract of principally untimbered country so far as we have leant the following nations reside (viz) the sosone or snake indians, the chopunnish, sokulks, cutssahnims, chymnapums, ehelutes, eneshuh & chilluckkittequaws. all of whom enjoy the bennefit of that docile, generous and valuable anamal the horse, and all of them except the three last have immence numbers of them. their horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty eligantly formed active and durable; in short many of them look like the fine english coarsers and would make a figure in any country. some of those horses are pided with large spots of white irregularly scattered and intermixed with the black brown bey or some other dark colour, but much the larger portion are of an uniform colour with stars snips and white feet, or in this rispect marked much like our best blooded horses in virginia, which they resemble as well in fleetness and bottom as in form and colours. the natives suffer them to run at large in the plains, the grass of which furnishes them with their only subsistence their masters taking no trouble to lay in a winters store for them, but they even keep fat if not much used on the dry grass of the plains during the winter. no rain scarcely ever falls in these plains and the grass is short and but thin. the natives appear to take no pains in scelecting their male horses from which they breed, in short those of that discription which i have noticed appeared much the most indifferent. whether the horse was orrigeonally a native of this country or not it is out of my power to determine as we can not understand the language of the natives sufficiently to ask the question. at all events the country and climate appears well adapted to this anamal. horses are said to be found wild in many parts of this extensive plain country. the several tribes of sosones who reside towards mexico on the waters of clark's river or particularly one of them called sh&-bo-bo-ah have also a great number of mules, which among the indians i find are much more highly prized than horses. an eligant horse may be purchased of the natives in this country for a lew peads or other paltry trinkets which in the u states would not cost more than one or two dollars. this abundance and cheapness of horses will be extremely advantageous to those who may hereafter attemt the fir trade to the east indies by way of the columbia river and the pacific ocean.--the mules in the possession of the indians are principally stolen from the spaniards of mexeco; they appear to be large and fine such as we have seen. among the sosones of the upper part of the s. e. fork of the columbia we saw several horses with spanish brands on them which we supposed had been stolen from the inhabitants of mexeco. [clark, february , ] saturday february th drewyer and whitehouse set out on a hunting excurtion towards the mountains southwest of us. we have heard our hunters over the netul fire several shot today, but have had no account of them as yet. p.m. bratten arived from the saltworks, and informed us that serjt. pryor and party were on their way with gibson in a litter. he is verry bad and much reduced with his present indisposition. wm. bratten appears much reduced, and is yet verry unwell. he informs that the cause of sergt. pryor's delay was attributiable to the winds which had been so violent for several days as to render it impossible to get a canoe up the creek to the point where it was necessary to pass with gibson. the s. w. winds are frequently very violent on the coast when we are but little sensible of them at fort clatsop. in consequence of the lofty and thickly timbered fir country which surrounds us from that quarter, from the south to the n. east.-. after dark sergt. pryor arrived with gibson. we are much pleased in findeing him by no means as ill as we had expected. we do not conceive him in danger by any means, tho he has yet a fever and is much reduced. we believe his disorder to have originated in a violent cold which he contracted in hunting and prosueing elk and other game through the swamps and marshes about the salt works. he is nearly free from pain tho a good deel reduced and very languid. we gave him double doses of diluted niter and made him drink plentifully of sage tea, had his feat bathed in worm water and at p.m. gave him drops of laudanum. the quadrupeds of this countrey from the rocky mountains to the pacific ocian are first the domestic animals, consisting of the horses and dogs only; ndly the native wild animals, consisting of the white, brown, or grizly bear (which i believe to be the same family with a mearly accidentail difference in point of colour) the black bear, the elk, the common red deer, the mule deer, the black tailed fallow deer, the large brown wolf, the small wolf of the plains, the large wolf of the plains, panther, the tiger cat, the common red fox, the black fox or fisher, the silver fox, large red fox of the plains, small fox of the plains or kit fox, antelope, sheep, beaver, common otter, sea otter, minks, seals racoons, large grey squerrel, small brown squirrel, small grey squirrel, ground squirrel, sewelel, braro, rat, mouse, mole, hare, rabbet, and pole cat or skunk. all of which shall be severally noticed in the order in which they occur as well as such others as i learn do exist, and which not been here recapitulated. the horse is principally confined to the nations inhabiting the great plains of columbia extending from latitude ° to ° n. and occupying the tract of countrey lying between the rocky mountains and a rang of mountains which pass the columbia river about the great falls or from longitude ° to ° west in this extensive tract of principally untimbered countrey so far as we have lernt the following nations reside (viz) the sosone, or snake indians inhabiting the south fork or ____ river, the chopunnish, sokulk's, cutssahnims, chym na pum, ehelutes, eneshuh & chilluckkittequaws. all of whome enjoy the benifit of that docile generous and valueable animal the horse, and all of them except the three last have emence numbers of them. their horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty eligantly formed active and durable; in short maney of them look like the fine english coursers and would make a figure in any country. some of those horses in pided with large spots of white irrigularly scattered and intermixed with black, brown, bey or some other dark colour, but much the larger portion are of a uniform colour with stars, snips, and white feet, or in this respect marked much like our best blooded horses in the u, states, which they resemble as well in fleetness and bottom as in form and colour. the nativs suffer them to run at large in the plains, the grass of which furnish them with their only subsistance, their owners takeing no trouble to lay in a winters store for them, but they keep fat if not much used on the dry grass of the plains dureing the winter. rain scercely ever falls in those plains and the grass is short and but thin. the nativs appear to take no pains in selecting their male horses from which they bread, in short those of that discription which i have noticed appear much the most indifferent. whether the horses was originally a native of this country or not, it is out of my power to determine as we cannot understand the language of the nativs sufficiently to ask the question. at all events the country and climate appears well adapted to this animal. horses are said to be found wild in maney parts of this extensive plain country-. the several tribes of sosones who reside near mexico on the waters of clark's river, or particularly one of them called shd-bo-bo-ah have also a great number of mules, which among the inds. i find are much more highly prized than horses. an eligant horse may be purchased of the nativs in this country for a fiew beeds or other paltry trinkits which in the united states would not cost more than one or two dollars. this abundance and cheepness of horses will be extremely advantagious to those who may hereafter attempt the fir trade to the east indies by way of the columbia and the pacific ocian.-. the mules in the possession of the inds. are principally stolen from the spaniards of new mexico; such as we have seen appear to be large with spanish brands. among the sosones of the upper part of lewis's river we saw several horses with spanish brands on them which the nativs informed us came from the south most probably from the settlement in new mexico, on the heads of the north river or waters of the bay of california. [lewis, february , ] sunday february th . by several trials made today in order to adjust my octant and ascertain her error in the direct observation, i found that it was ° ' " + or additive beyond the fracture; this error was ascertained by a comparison with my sextant the error of which had been previously ascertained. the error of octant in the direct observation on the broken limb next to or below ° inclusive is ° additive only.--sent shannon labuish and frazier this morning on a hunting excurtion up the kil-haw'-a-nak-kle river which discharges itself into the head of the bay. no tidings yet of sergt. gass and party. bratton is still very weak and complains of a pain in the lower part of the back when he moves which i suppose procedes from dability. i gave him barks. gibson's fever still continues obstenate tho not very high; i gave him a doze of dr. rush's which in many instances i have found extreemly efficatious in fevers which are in any measure caused by the presence of boil. the nitre has produced a profuse perspiration this evening and the pills operated late at night his fever after which abated almost entirely and he had a good night's rest. the indian dog is usually small or much more so than the common cur. they are party coloured; black white brown and brindle are the most usual colours. the head is long and nose pointed eyes small, ears erect and pointed like those of the wolf, hair short and smooth except on the tail where it is as long as that of the curdog and streight. the natives do not eat them nor appear to make any other use of them but in hunting the elk as has been before observed.--the brown white or grizly bear are found in the rocky mountains in the timbered parts of it or westerly side but rarely; they are more common below the rocky mountain on the borders of the plains where there are copses of brush and underwood near the watercouses. they are by no means as plenty on this side of the rocky mountains as on the other, nor do i beleive that they are found atall in the woody country, which borders this coast as far in the interior as the range of mountains which, pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids of that river. the black bear differs not any from those common to the united states and are found under the rocky mountains in the woody country on the borders of the great plains of columbia and also in this tract of woody country which lie between these plains and the pacific ocean. their oconimy and habits are also the same with those of the united states. [clark, february , ] sunday february th sent shannon labiesh and frazier on a hunting excurtion up the kilhaw-a-nak-kle river which discharges itself into the head of meriwethers bay. no word yet of sergt. gass and party. bratten is verry weak and complains of a pain in the lower part of the back when he moves which i suppose proceeds from debility. i gave him barks and salt peter. gibsons fever still continues obstinate tho not verry high; we gave him a dose of dr. rushes pills which in maney instancis i have found extreamly efficasious in fevers which are in any measure caused by the presence of boil. the niter has produced a perfuse perspiration this evening and the pils opperated late at night his feaver after which abated almost intirely and he had a good nights rest. the indian dogs are usually small or much more so than the common cur. they are party coloured; black white brown and brindle are the more usual colours. the head is long and nose pointed eyes small, ears erect and pointed like those of the wolf, hair short and smooth except on the tail where it is as long as that of the cur dog and streight. the nativs do not eate them, or make any further use of them than in hunting the elk as has been before observed. shannon an labiesh brought in to us to day a buzzard or vulture of the columbia which they had wounded and taken alive. i believe this to be the largest bird of north america. it was not in good order and yet it wayed lbs had it have been so it might very well have weighed lbs. more or lbs. between the extremities of the wings it measured feet inches; from the extremity of the beak to that of the toe feet inches and a half. from hip to toe feet, girth of the head inches / . girth of the neck / inches; girth of the body exclusive of the wings feet inches; girth of the leg inches. the diameter of the eye / ths of an inch, the iris of a pale scarlet red, the puple of a deep sea green or black and occupies about one third of the diameter of the eye the head and part of the neck as low as the figures is uncovered with feathers except that portion of it represented by dots foward and under the eye. (see likeness on the other side of this leaf) the tail is composed of twelve feathers of equal length, each inches. the legs are / inches in length and of a whitefish colour uncovered with feathers, they are not entirely smooth but not imbricated; the toes are four in number three of which are foward and that in the center much the longest; the fourth is short and is inserted near the inner of the three other toes and reather projecting foward. the thye is covered with feathers as low as the knee. the top or upper part of the toes are imbricated with broad scales lying transversly; the nails are black and in proportion to the size of the bird comparitively with those of the hawk or eagle, short and bluntly pointed---the under side of the wing is covered with white down and feathers. a white stripe of about inches in width, also marks the outer part of the wing, imbraceing the lower points of the feathers, which cover the joints of the wing through their whole length or width of that part of the wing. all the other feathers of whatever part are of a glossy shineing black except the down, which is not glossy, but equally black. the skin of the beak and head to the joining of the neck is of a pale orrange yellow, the other part uncovered with feathers is of a light flesh colour. the skin is thin and wrinkled except on the beak where it is smooth. this bird fly's very clumsily. nor do i know whether it ever seizes it's prey alive, but am induced to believe it does not. we have seen it feeding on the remains of the whale and other fish which have been thrown up by the waves on the sea coast. these i believe constitute their principal food, but i have no doubt but that they also feed on flesh. we did not meet with this bird untille we had decended the columbia below the great falls; and have found them more abundant below tide water than above. this is the same species of bird which r. field killed on the th of novr. last and which is noticed on that day tho not fully discribed then i thought this of the buzzard specis. i now believe that this bird is reather of the vulture genus than any other, tho it wants some of their characteristics particularly the hair on the neck, and the feathers on the legs. this is a handsom bird at a little distance. it's neck is proportionably longer than those of the hawks or eagle. shannon also brought a grey eagle which appeared to be of the same kind common to the u, states. it weighed pds. and measured feet inches between the extremities of the wings shannon and labiesh informed us that when he approached this vulture after wounding it, that it made a loud noise very much like the barking of a dog. the tongue is long firm and broad, filling the under chap and partakeing of its transvirs curvature, or its sides forming a longitudinal groove; obtuse at the point, the margin armed with firm cartelagenous prickkles pointed and bending inwards. [lewis, february , ] monday february th . collins and windsor were permited to hunt today towards the praries in point adams with a view to obtain some fresh meat for the sick. a little before noon shannon labuishe & frazier returned with the flesh and hide of an elk which had been wouded by sergt. gass's party and took the water where they pursued it and caught it. they did not see sergt. gass or any of his party nor learn what further success they had had. continue the barks with bratton, and commenced them with gibson his fever being sufficiently low this morning to permit the uce of them. i think therefore that there is no further danger of his recovery.--at p.m. joseph fields arrived from the salt works and informed us that they had about kegs of salt on hand which with what we have at this place we suppose will be sufficient to last us to our deposits of that article on the missouri. we there directed a party of six men to go with fields in the morning in order to bring the salt and kettles to the fort. shannon brought me one of the large carrion crow or buzzads of the columbia which they had wounded and taken alive. i bleive this to be the largest bird of north america. it was not in good order and yet it weighed lbs. had it have been so it might very well have weighed lbs mor or lbs. between the extremities of the wings it measured feet inches; from the extremity of the beak to that of the toe f. / in. from hip to toe feet, girth of head / in. girth of the neck / inches; do. of body exclusive of the wings feet inches; do of leg inches. diameter of the eye / /toths of an inch. the iris of a pale scarlet red, the puple of deep sea green or black and occupyed about one third of the diameter of the eye. the head and a part of the neck as low as the figures is uncovered with feathers except that portion of it represented by dots (see likeness). the tail is composed of feathers of equal length, each inches. the legs are / inches in length and of a white colour un covered with feathers, they are not entirely smooth but not imbricated; the toes are four in number three of which are forward and that in the center much the longes; the fourth is short and is inserted near the inner of the three other toes and reather projecting forward. the thye is covered with feathers as low as the knee. the top or upper part of the toes are imbricated with broad scales lying transversly; the nails are blak and in proportion to the size of the bird comparitively with those of the halk or eagle, short and bluntly pointed. the under side of the wing is covered with white down and feathers. a white stripe of about two inches in width, also marks the outer part of the wing, imbracing the lower points of the feathers, which cover the joints of the wing through their whole length or width of that part of the wing. all the other feathers of whatever part are glossey shining black except the down which is not glossey but equally black. the skin of the beak and head to the joining of the neck is of a pale orrange yellow the other part uncovered with feathers is of a light flesh colour. the skin is thin and wrinkled except on the beak where it is smooth. this bird flys very clumsily nor do i know whether it ever seizes it's prey alive, but am induced to beleive that it dose not. we have seen it feeding on the remains of the whale & other fish which have been thrown up by the waves on the sea coast. these i beleive constitute their prinsipal food, but i have no doubt but they also feed on flesh; we did not met with this bird untill we had decended the columbia below the great falls, and have found them more abundant below tide-water than above. i beleive that this bird is reather of the vulture genus than any other, tho it wants some of their charactaristics particularly the hair on the neck and feathers on the legs.--this is a handsome bird at a little distance. it's neck is proportionably longer than those of the hawks or eagle. shannon also brought me a grey eagle which appeared to be of the same kind common to the u states; it weighed lb. and measured feet inches between the extremities of the wings.--at p.m. sergt. gass and party arrived; they had killed eight elk. drewyer and whitehouse also returned late in the evening, had killed one elk.- labuishe informed me that when he approached this vulture, after wounding it, that it made a loud noise very much like the barking of a dog & the tongue is large firm and broad, filling the under chap and partaking of it's transverse curvature, or it's sides colapsing upwards forming a longitudinal groove; obtuse at the point, the margin armed with firm cartelaginous prickkles pointed and bending inwards. [clark, february , ] monday february th collins and windser were permited to hunt to day towards the praries in point adams with a view to obtain some fresh meat for the sick. a little before noon shannon and labiesh & frazier came with the flesh and hide of an elk which had been wounded by serjt. gasses party and took the water where they pursued it and cought it. they did not see sergt. gass or any of his party or learn what further sucksess they have had. continu the barks with bratten, and commenced them with gibson his feaver being sufficiently low this morning to permit the use of them. i think therefore that there is no further danger of his recovery.---at p.m. joseph field arrived from the salt works and informd us that they had about kegs of salt on hand (say bushels) which with what we have at this place we suppose will be sufficient to last us to our deposit of that article on the missouri. we directed a party of six men to go in the morning in order to bring the salt and kittles to the fort. at p.m. serjt. gass and party arrive; they had killed elk. drewyer and whitehouse also return late in the evening, they had killed one elk, part of the meat of which they brought in with them. the brown, white, or grizly bear are found in the rocky mountains in the timbered part of it or westerly side but rarely; they are more common below or on the east side of the rocky mountains on the borders of the plains where there are copses of bushes and underwood near the water cources. they are by no means as plenty on this side of the rocky mountains as on the other, nor do i believe they are found at all in the woody country which borders this coast as far in the interior as the range of mountains which pass the columbia between the enterance of clarks and the quick sand rivers or below the great falls of columbia. the black bear differs not any from those common to the u. states, and are found under the rocky mountains in the woody country on the borders of the great plain's of columbia and also in this tract of woody country which lie between these plains and the pacific ocian. their econimy and habits are also the same with those of the united states.-. [lewis, february , ] tuesday february th . this morning we dispatched a party to the saltworks with sergt. ordway and a second with sergt. gass after the elk killed over the netul. in the evening sergt. ordway returned and reported that the waves ran so high in the bay that he could not pass to the entrance of the creek which we had directed him to assend with the canoe. collins and winsor returned this evening with one deer which they had killed. the deer are poor and their flesh by no means as good as that of the elk which is also poor but appears to be geting better than some weeks past.--in the forenoon we were visited by eight clasops and chinnooks from whom we purchased a sea otter's skin and two hats made of waytape and white ceder bark. they remained untill late in the evening and departed for their village. these people are not readily obstructed by waves in their canoes.--sergt. ordway brought me a specemine of a species of pine peculiar to the swamps and marshes frequently overflown by the tide as this is a distinct species i shall call it no. . this tree seldom rises to a greater hight than feet and is from / to feet in diameter; the stem is simple branching diffuse and proliferous. the bark the same with that of no. only reather more rugged. the leaf is acerose, / ths of an inch in width and / in length. they are firm stif and somewhat accuminated, ending in a short pointed hard tendril, gibbous, thickly scattered on all sides of the bough but rispect the three upper sides only. those which have there insersion on the underside incline sidewise with their points upwards giving the leaf the figure of a sythe. the others are perpendicular or pointing upwards. is sessile growing as in no. from small triangular pedestals of a soft spungy elastic bark. the under disk of these leaves or that which grows nearest towards the base of the bough is a deep glossey green while the upper or opposite side is of a mealy whiteish pale green; in this rispect differing from almost all leaves. the boughs retain their leaves as far back as to the sixth years growth. the peculiarity of the bud scales observed in no is observed in this species. the cone is / inches in length and in circumpherence, of an ovate figure being thickest in the middle and tapering and terminating in two obtuse points. it is composes of small, flexible, thin, obtusely pointed smooth and redish brown imbricated scales. each scale covering two small winged seeds and being itself covered in the center by a small thin inferior scale accutely pointed. the cone is somewhat of this figure. they proceede from the side as well as the extremities of the bough but in the former case always at or near the commencement of some one years growth which is some instances are as far back as the third year. [clark, february , ] tuesday february th this morning we dispatched a party to the salt works with sergt. ordway. and a second party with sergt. gass after the eight elk killed over the netul. in the evening sergt. ordway returned and reported that the waves ran so high in the bay that he could not pass to the enterance of a creek which we had directed him to assend with the canoe. collins & windsir returned this evening with one deer which they had killed. the deer are pore and their flesh by no means as good as that of the elk which is also poore but appears to be getting better than some weeks past. in the forenoon we were visited by a clatsop & seven chinnooks from whome i purchased a sea otter's skin and two hats made of way tape and silk grass and white cedar bark. they remained untill late in the evening and departed for their village. those people are not readily obstructed by waves in their canoes. since their departure we have discovered that they have stole an ax.--whitehouse brought me a roab which he purchased of the indians formed of three skins of the tiger cat, this cat differs from any which i have ever seen. it is found on the borders of the plains and the woody country lying along the pacific ocian. this animale is about the size or reather larger than the wild cat of our countrey and is much the same in form, agility and ferosity. the colour of the back, neck and sides, is a redish brown irrigular varigated with small spots of dark brown the tail is about two inches long nearly white except the extremity which is black; it termonates abruptly as if it had been cut off. the belly is white with small black spots. butifully varigated. the legs are of the same colour with the sides and back marked with transvers stripes of black the ears are black on the outer side covered with fine black hair, short except at the upper point which is furnished with a pencil of verry fine streight black hair, / of an inch in length, the fur of this animale is long and fine. much more so than the wild cat of the u states but less so than the louserva of the n west. the nativs of this country make great use of the skins of this cat, to form the robes which they wear; three whole skins is the complement usually employed, and sometimes four in each roab. those cats are not marked alike maney of them have but fiew spots of a darker colour, particularly on the back. [lewis, february , ] wednesday february th . sergt. ordway set out again this morning with a party for the salt works by land. in the evening sergt. gass returned with the flesh of eight elk, and seven skins; having left one skin with shannon and labuishe who remained over the netul to continue the chase. we had the elk skins divided among the messes in order that they might be prepared for covering our baggage when we set out in the spring. our sick are recovering but they appear to strengthen but slowly. the common red deer we found under the rocky mts. in the neighbourhood of the chopunnish, and about the great falls of the columbia river and as low down the same as the commencement of tide water. these do not appear to differ essentially from those of our country being about the same size shape and appearance in every rispect except their great length of tail which is more than half as long again as our deer i measured one of them which was inches long. the black tailed fallow deer are peculiar to this coast and are a distinct species of deer partaking equally of peculiarities of the mule deer and the common deer. their ears are reather larger and their winter coat darker than the common deer; the recepticle of the eye or drane is mor conspicuous; their legs shorter and body thicker and larger than the common deer; their tail is about the length of our deer or from to inches the hair on the underside of which is white, and that of it's sides and top quite black the horns resemble in form and colour those of the mule deer which it also resembles in it's gate; that is bounding with all four feet off the ground at the same time when runing at full speed and not loping as the common deer or antelope do. they are sometimes found in the woodlands but most frequently in the praries and open grounds. they may be said generally to be a size larger than the common deer and that less than the mule deer. they are very seldom found in good order, or fat, even in the season which the common deer are so, and their flesh is inferior to any species of deer which i have ever seen.- [clark, february , ] wednesday february th . sergt. ordway set out again with a party to the salt works by land. in the evening sergt. gass returned with the flesh of eight elk, and seven skins haveing left one skin with shannon and labiche who remained over the netul to continue the chase. we devided the skins between the messes in order that they might be prepared for covering the baggage when we set out in the spring. our sick appear to strengthen but slowly i gave bratten of scotts pills which did not work him. he is very weak and complains of his back. the black fox or as they are more frequently called by the n west trader fisher is found in the woody country on this coast. how this animal obtained the name of fisher i know not, but certain it is, that the name is not appropriate, as it does not prey on or seek it as a prey-. they are extreeinly active strong and made for climbing which they do with great agility, and bound from tree to tree in pursute of the squirel or rackoon, their natural and most usual food. their colour is a jut black except a small spot of white on the breast. the body is long, legs short and formed something like the turnspit dog, with a remarkable long tail. it does not differ here from those of the united states. the silver fox this animale is very rare even in the countrey where it exists, i have never seen more than the skins of this animal and those were in the possession of the nativs of the woody country below the great falls of the columbia, from which i think it is most probably they are the inhabitants of the woody country exclusively. from the skins, it appeard to be about the size of the large red fox of the plains and much of its form with a large tail. the legs i think somewhat longer it has a fine long deep fur poil. the poil is of a dark lead colour and the long hairs intermixed with it, are either white or black at the lower part, and white at top, the whole mixture forming a butifull silver grey. i think this the handsomest of all the fox species, except a species of which i saw one running, and capt lewis had a good view of another of the same species on the missouri near the natural walls. the large red fox of the plains, and the kit fox are the same which we met with on the missouri and are the inhabitants almost exclusively of the open plains, or of the copse of bushes within the plain country. the common red or grey fox of the united states is also found in the woody country on this coast, nor does it appear to be altered in respect to it's fur colour or any other particular. we have seen none of the large red fox. [lewis, february , ] thursday february th . permited collins to hunt this morning he returned in the evening unsuccessfull as to the chase but brought with him some cranberries for the sick. gibson is on the recovery fast; bratton has an obstenate cough and pain in his back and still appears to be geting weaker. mcneal from his inattention to his disorder has become worse. this forenoon we were visited by tdh-cum a principal chief of the chinnooks and men of his nation. we had never seen this cheif before he is a good looking man of about years of age reather larger in statue than most of his nation; as he came on a friendly visit we gave himself and party some thing to eat and plyed them plentifully with smoke. we gave this cheif a small medal with which he seemed much grati-fyed. in the evening at sunset we desired them to depart as is our custom and closed our gates. we never suffer parties of such number to remain within the fort all night; for notwithstanding their apparent friendly disposition, their great averice and hope of plunder might induce them to be treacherous. at all events we determined allways to be on our guard as much as the nature of our situation will permit us, and never place our selves at the mercy of any savages. we well know, that the treachery of the aborigenes of america and the too great confidence of our countrymen in their sincerity and friendship, has caused the distruction of many hundreds of us. so long have our men been accustomed to a friendly intercourse with the natives, that we find it difficult to impress on their minds the necessity of always being on their guard with rispect to them. this confidence on our part, we know to be the effect of a series of uninterupted friendly intercouse, but the well known treachery of the natives by no means entitle them to such confidence, and we must check it's growth in our own minds, as well as those of our men, by recollecting ourselves, and repeating to our men, that our preservation depends on never loosing sight of this trait in their character, and being always prepared to meet it in whatever shape it may present itself.- the mule deer are the same with those of the plains of the missouri so frequently mentioned. we met with them under the rocky mountains in the neighbourhood of the chopunnish nation on the kooskooske river, but have not seen them since nor do we know whether they exist in the interior of the great plains of columbia or on their lower border near the mountains which pass the river about the great falls. the elk is the same with that found in much the greatest portion of north america, they are common to every part of this country, as well the timbered lands as the plains, but are much more abundant in the former than the latter the large brown woolf is like that of the atlantic states and are found only in the woody country on the pacific ocean imbracing the mountains which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids of the same. the large and small woolves of the plains are the inhabitants principally of the open country and the woodlands on their borders and resemble in their habits and appearance those of the plains of the missouri precisely. they are not abundant in the plains of columbia because there is but little game on which for them to subsist. [clark, february , ] thursday february th . permited collins to hunt this morning he returned in the evening unsucksessfull as to the chase, but brought with him some cramberries for the sick. gibson is on the recovery fast; bratten has an obstinate cough and pain in his back and still appears to be getting weaker. h. mcneal from his inattention to his disorder has become worse. willard has a high fever and complains of the pain in his head and want of appetite. the forenoon we were visited by tfih-cum a principal chief of the chinnooks and men of his nation. we had never seen this chief before he is a good looking man of about years of age reather larger in statue than most of his nation; as he came on a friendly visit we gave himself and party something to eate and plyed them plenty fully with smoke. we gave this chief a small medal with which he seamed much pleased. in the evening at sunset we desired them to depart as is our custom and close our gates. we never suffer parties of such numbers to remain within the fort all night; for not withstanding their apparent friendly disposition, their great averis and hope of plunder might induce them to be treacherous. at all events we are determined always to be on our guard, as much as the nature of our situation will permit us, and never place our selves at the mercy of any savages. we well know, that the treachery of the aborigenes of america and the too great confidence of our country men in their friendship and fadility has caused the distruction of maney hundreds of us. so long has our men been accustomed to a friendly intercourse with the nativs, that we find it dificult to impress on their minds the necessity of always being on their guard with respect to them. this confidence on our part we know to be the effect of a serious of a friendly and unintorupted intercourse. but the well known treachery of the natives by no means entitle them to such confidence, and we must check it's groth in our own minds as well as those of our men, by recollecting our selves, and repeating to our men, that our preservation depends on our never loseing sight of this trate in their character, and being always prepared to meet it in whatever shape it may present itself the mule deer are the same with those of the plains of the missouri so frequently mentioned. we met with them under the rocky mountains in the neighbourhood of the chopunnish nation on the koskooske river, but have not seen them since nor do we know whether they exist in the interiors of the great plains of columbia, or on the lower border near the mountains which pass the river about the great falls. the elk is the same with that found in much the greater portion of north america, they are common to every part of this country, as well the timbered lands as the plains. but are much more abundant in the former than the latter [lewis, february , ] friday february st . visited this morning by clatsop who remained with us all day; they are great begers; i gave one of them a few nedles with which he appeared much gratifyed. in the evening late they departed. drewyer and collins went in pursuit of some elk, the tracks of which collins had discovered yesterday; but it rained so hard that they could not pursue them by their tracks and returned unsuccessfull. drewyer saw a fisher black fox but it escaped from him among the fallen timber. sergt. ordway returned with the party from the salt camp which we have now evacuated. they brought with them the salt and eutensils. our stock of salt is now about gallons; gallons of which we secured in small iron bound kegs and laid by for our voyage. gave willard and bratton each a doze of scotts pills; on the former they operated and on the latter they (lid not. gibson still continues the barks three times a day and is on the recovery fast.- the tyger cat is found on the borders of the plains and in the woody country lying along the pacific ocean. this animal is about the size or reather larger than the wild cat of our country and is much the same in form, agility and ferosity. the colour of the back neck and sides is a redish brown irregularly variegated with small spots of dark brown the tail is about two inches long nearly white except the extremity which is black; it terminates abruptly as if it had been cut off. the belly is white with small black spots, beautifully variagated. the legs are of the same colour with the sides and back marked with transverse stripes of black the ears are black on the outer side covered with fine short hair except at the upper point which furnished with a pensil of fine, streight, black hair, = / of an inch in length. the fur of this anamal is long and fine, much more so than the wild cat of the united states but less so than that of louservea of the n. west. the natives in this quarter make great use of the skins of this cat to form the robes which they wear; four skins is the compliment usuly employed in each robe. the black fox, or as they most frequently called in the neighbourhood of detroit, fisher is found in the woody country on this coast. how this animal obtained the name of fisher i know not, but certain it is, that the name is not appropriate, as it dose not prey on fish or seek it as a prey. they are extreemly active strong and prepared for climbing, which they do with great agility, and bound from tree to tree in pursuit of the squirrel or rackoon their natural and most usual food. their colour is a jut black except a small spot of white on the breast. the body is long, legs short and formed something like the ternspit dog with a remarkable long tail. it dose not differ here from those of the united states. the silver fox this animal is very rare even in the country where it exists; i have never seen more than the skins of this anamal and those were in the possession of the natives of the woody country below the great falls of the columbia from which i think that it is most probably the inhabtant of the woody country exclusively. from the skin it appeared to be about the size of the large red fox of the plains and much of it's form with a large tail. the legs i think somewhat longer. it has a fine long deep fur poll. the poil is of a dark lead colour and the long hairs intermixed with it are either white or black at the lower part and white at the top, the whole mixture forming a beatifull silver grey. i think this the most beautifull of all the foxes except species of which i saw one only on the missouri near the natural walls. the large red fox of the plains and the kit fox are the same which we met with on the missouri and are the inhabitants almost exclusively of the open plains, or of the cops of brush within the pain country. the common red fox of the united states is also found in the woody country on this coast nor dose it appear to be altered in rispect to it's fur colour or any other particular [clark, february , ] friday february st visited this morning by three clatsops, who remained with us all day; they are great begers; capt lewis gave one of them a fiew nedles with which he appeared much gratified, in the evening late they departed. drewyer and collins went in pursute of some elk the tracks of which collins had discovered yesterday; but it rained so hard they could not pursue them by the tracks, and returned unsucksessfull. drewyer saw a fisher but it escaped from him among the fallen timber. sergt. ordway returned with the party from the salt camp which we have now avacuated. they brought with them the salt and utensels. our stock of salt is now about gallons; gallons we had secured in small iron bound kegs and laid by for our voyage. gave willard a dose of scots pills; they opperated very well. gibson still continus the bark times a day and is on the recovery fast. the large brown wolf is like that of the atlantic states, and are found only in the woody country on the pacific ocean embraceing the mountains which pass the columbia between the great falls an rapids of the same. the large and small wolves of the inhabitents principally of the open country and the wood land on their borders, and resemble in their habits those of the plains of missouri presisely they are not abundant in the plains of columbia because there is but little game on which for them to subsist- [lewis, february , ] saturday february cd . we were visited today by two clatsop women and two boys who brought a parsel of excellent hats made of cedar bark and ornamented with beargrass. two of these hats had been made by measures which capt clark and myself had given one of the women some time since with a request to make each of us a hat; they fit us very well, and are in the form we desired them. we purchased all their hats and distributed them among the party. the woodwork and sculpture of these people as well as these hats and their waterproof baskets evince an ingenuity by no means common among the aborigenes of america. in the evening they returned to their village and drewyer accompanied them in their canoe in order to get the dogs which the clatsops have agreed to give us in payment for the elk they stole from us some weeks since. these women informed us that the small fish began to run which we suppose to be herring from their discription. they also informed us that their chief, coma or comowooll, had gone up the columbia to the valley in order to purchase wappetoe, a part of which he in tended trading with us on his return. one of our canoes brake the cord by which it was attatched and was going off with the tide this evening; we sent sergt. pryor and a party after her who recovered and brought her back. our sick consisting of gibson, bratton, sergt. ordway, willard and mcneal are all on the recovery. we have not had as may sick at any one time since we left wood river. the general complaint seams to be bad colds and fevers, something i beleive of the influenza. the antelope is found in the great plains of columbia and are the same of those on the missouri found in every part of that untimbered country. they are by no means as plenty on this side of the rocky mountains as on the other. the natives here make robes of their skins dressed with the hair on them. when the salmon begin to decline in the latter end of the sunme and autumn the natves leave the river, at least a majority and remove to the plains at some distance for the purpose of hunting the antelope. they pursue them on horse back and shoot them with their arrows. the sheep is found in various parts of the rocky mountains, but most commonly in those parts which are timbered and steep. they are also found in greater abundance on the chain of mountains with form the commencement of the woody country on this coast and which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids we have never met with this anamal ourselves but have seen many of their skins in possession of the natives dressed with the wooll on them and aso seen the blankets which they manufacture of the wooll of this sheep. from the skin the animal appears to be about the size of the common sheep; of a white colour. the wooll is fine on most parts of the body but not so long as that of our domestic sheep. the wooll is also curled and thick. on the back and more particularly on the top of the neck the wooll is intermixed with a considerable proportion of long streight hairs. there is no wooll on a small part of the body behind the sholders on each side of the brisquit which is covered with a short fine hairs as in the domestic sheep. form the signs which the indians make in discribing this animal they have herect pointed horns, tho one of our engages la page, assures us that he saw them in the black hills where the little missouri passes them, and that they were in every rispect like the domestic sheep, and like them the males had lunated horns bent backwards and twisted. i should be much pleased at meeting with this animal, but have had too many proofs to admit a doubt of it's existing and in considerable numbers in the mountains near this coast. the beaver and common otter have before been mentioned in treating of the occupations of the natives in hunting fishing &c. these do not differ from those of other parts of the continent. [clark, february , ] saturday february nd we were visited to day by two clatsops women and two boys who brought a parcel of excellent hats made of cedar bark, and ornemented with bear grass. two of those hats had been made by measure which capt lewis and my self had given a woman some time since, with a request to make each of us a hat; they fit us very well, and are in the form we desired them. we purchased the hats and distribeted them among the party. the woodwork and sculpture of these people as well as those hats and the water proof baskits evince an ingenuity by no means common among the aborigenes of america. in the evining they returned to their village and drewyer accompanied them in order to get some dogs &c. these women informed us that the small fish began to run which we suppose to be herring from their discription. they also informed us that their chief conia comawool, had gorn up the columbia to the vally in order to purchase wappatoe, a part of which he entended tradeing with us on his return. our sick consisting of gibson, bratten, willard mcneal and baptiest lapage is something better serjt. ordway is complaining of a coald & head ake. we have not had as many sick at one time since we left the settlements of the illinois. the general complaint appears to be bad colds and fevers, with a violent pain in the head, and back, something i believe of the influenza. the antelope is found in the great plains of columbia and are the same with those of the missouri found in every part of that untimbered country. they are by no means as plenty on this side of the rocky mountains as on the other. the nativs here make robes of their skins dressed withe the hair on them. when the salmon begin to decline in the latter end of summer and autumn, the nativs leave the river, at least a majority and move out into the plains at some distance for the purpose of hunting the antelope. they pursue them on hors back and shute them with their arrows. the sheep is found in various parts of the rocky mountains, but most commonly on those parts which are timbered and steep. they are also found in greater abundance on the chain of mountains which forms the commencement of the woody country on this coast and which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids. we have never met with this animal ourselves but have seen maney of their skins in the possession of the nativs dressed with the wool on them and also seen and have the blankets which they manufacture of the wool of this sheep. from the skin the animal appears to be about the size of the common sheep; of a white colour. the wool is fine on most parts of the body, but not so long as that of the domestic sheep; the wool is also curled and thick. on the back and more particularly on the top of the neck the wool is intermixed with a considerable proportion of long streight hair. there is no wool on a small part of the body behind the sholders on each side of the brisquit which is covered with a short fine hairs as in the domestic sheep. from the signs which the indians make in discribing this animale they have herect pointed horns, tho one of our engages lapage, assures us that he saw them in the black hills where the little missouri river passes them, and that they were in every respect like our domestic sheep, and like them the mail had lunated horns bent backwards and twisted. i should be much pleased at meeting with this animal. but have had too maney proofs to admit a doubt of it's existing and in considerable numbers in the mountains on this coast. the beaver and common otter have before been mentioned in treating of the occupation of the nativs in hunting, fishing, &c. these do not differ from those of other parts of the continent-.-. [lewis, february , ] sunday february rd . not anything transpired during this day worthy of particular notice. our sick are all on the recovery, except sergt. ordway who is but little wose and not very ill tho more so than any of the others. the men have provided themselves very amply with mockersons and leather cloathing, much more so indeed than they ever have since they have been on this voige. the sea otter is found on the sea coast and in the salt water. this anamal when fully grown is as large as a common mastive dog. the ears and eyes are remarkaby small, particularly the former which is not an inch in length thick fleshey and pointed covered with short hair. the tail is about inches in length thick where it joins the body and tapering to a very sharp point; in common with the body it is covered with a deep fir particularly on the upper side, on the under part the fur is not so long. the legs are remarkably short and the feet, which have five toes each are broad large and webbed. the legs are covered with fur and the feet with short hair. the body of this animal is long and nearly of the same thickness throughout. from the extremity of the tail to that of the nose they will measure feet or upwards. the colour is a uniform dark brown and when in good order and season perfectly black and glossey. it is the riches and i think the most delicious fur in the world at least i cannot form an idea of any more so. it is deep thick silkey in the extreem and strong. the inner part of the fur when opened is lighter than the surface in it's natural position. there are some fine black and shining hairs intermixed with the fur which are reather longer and add much to it's beauty. the nose, about the eyes ears and forehead in some of these otter is of a lighter colour, sometimes a light brown. those parts in the young sucking otter of this species is sometimes of a cream coloured white, but always much lighter than the other parts. the fur of the infant otter is much inferior in point of colour and texture to that of the full grown otter, or even after it has been weaned. there is so great a difference that i have for some time supposed it a different animal; the indians called the infant otter spuck, and the full grow or such as had obtained a coat of good fur, e-luck'-ke. this still further confirmed the opinion of their being distinct species; but i have since learned that the spuck is the young otter. the colour of the neck, body, legs and tail is a dark lead brown. the mink is found in the woody country on this coast, and dose not differ in any particu from those of the atlantic coast. the seal are found here in great numbers, and as far up the columbia river as the great falls above which there are none. i have reason to beleive from the information of the men that there are several species of the seal on this coast and in the river but what the difference is i am unable to state not having seen them myself sufficiently near for minute inspection nor obtained the different kinds to make a comparison. the skins of such as i have seen are covered with a short coarse stiff and glossey hair of a redish hey brown colour. tho the anamal while in the water or as we saw them frequently in the river appear to be black and spoted with white sometimes. when we first saw those animals at the great falls and untill our arrival at this place we conseived they were the sea otter. but the indians here have undeceived us.--i am not much acquainted with the seal but suppose that they are the same common also to the atlantic ocean in the same parallel of latitude. the skins i have seen are precisely such as our trunks are frequently covered with. [clark, february , ] sunday february rd . not any thing transpired desering particular notice. our sick are all on the recovery. the men have provided themselves verry amply with mockersons & leather clothing, much more so indeed than they have ever been since they have been on the voyage. the sea otter is found only on the sea coast and in the salt water. those animals which i took to be the sea otter from the great falls of the columbia to the mouth, proves to be the phosia or seal which at a little distance has every appearance of the sea otters. the sea otter when fully grown is as large as the common mastif dog, the eail and eyes are remarkably small, particularly the former which is not an inch in length thick fleshey and pointed, covered with short hair. the tail is about inches in length thick where it joins the body and tapering to a very sharp point; in common with the body it is covered with a deep fur particularly on the upper side, on the under part the fur is not so long. the legs are remarkably short and the feat which have five toes each are broad large and webbed. the legs are covered with fur and the feet with short hair. the body of this animal is long and nearly of the same thickness throughout. from the extremity of the tail to that of the nose they will measure feet or upwards. the colour is of a uniform dark brown, and when in good order and season perfectly black and glossey. it is the richest and i think the most delightfull fur in the world at least i cannot form an idea of any more so. it is deep thick silky in the extream and strong. the inner part of the fur when open is lighter than the surface in its natural position. there are some fine black shineing hairs intermixed with the fur which are reather longer and add much to its beauty. the nose, about the eyes, ears and forehead in some of those otter is of a light colour, sometimes a light brown. those parts in the young suckling otters of this species is sometimes of a creem colour'd white, but always much lighter than the other parts. the fur of the infant otter is much inferior in point of colour, and texture, to that of the full grown otter, or even after it has been weened-. there is so great a difference that i have for some time supposed it a different animal; the indians call the infant otter spuck, and the full grown or such as had obtained a coat of good fur, e luck'ko. this still further confirmed the opinion of their being distinct species; but i have since lerned that the spuck is the young otter. the colour of the neck, body, legs and tail is a dark lead brown. the mink is found in the woody country on this coast and does not differ in any particular from those of the atlantic coasts. the seal or phoca are found here in great numbers, and as far up the columbia as the great falls, above which there are none. i have reasons to believe from the information of the men that there are several species of the phoca on this coast and in the river, but what the difference is i am unable to state not haveing seen them myself sufficiently near for manute inspection nor obtain the different kinds to make a comparison. the skins of such as i have seen are covered with a short thick coarse glossy hair of a redish bey brown colour. tho the animal while in the water, or as we saw them frequently in the river appear to be black and spoted with white sometimes. i am not much acquainted with the seal, but suppose that they are the same common also to the atlantic ocian in the same parrelal of latitude. the skins, or those which i have seen are presisely such as trunks are frequently covered with. the flesh of this animal is highly prised by the nativs who swinge the hair off and then roste the flesh on sticks before the fire. [lewis, february , ] monday february th . our sick are still on the recovery. shannon & labuishe returned in the forenoon; they had killed no elk and reported that they beleived the elk have retired from their former haunts and gone further back in the country to a considerable distance from this place. this is very unwelcome information for poor and inferior as the flesh of this animal is it is our principal dependance for subsistence. this evening we were visited by comowooll the clatsop chief and men women & children of his nation. drewyer came a passenger in their canoe, and brought with him two dogs. the chief and his party had brought for sail a sea otter skin some hats, stergeon and a species of small fish which now begin to run, and are taken in great quantities in the columbia r. about miles above us by means of skiming or scooping nets. on this page i have drawn the likeness of them as large as life; it as perfect as i can make it with my pen and will serve to give a general idea of the fish. the rays of the fins are boney but not sharp tho somewhat pointed. the small fin on the back next to the tail has no rays of bone being a thin membranous pellicle. the fins next to the gills have eleven rays each. those of the abdomen have eight each, those of the pinna-ani are and half formed in front. that of the back has eleven rays. all the fins are of a white colour. the back is of a bluish duskey colour and that of the lower part of the sides and belley is of a silvery white. no spots on any part. the first bone of the gills next behid the eye is of a bluis cast, and the second of a light goald colour nearly white. the puple of the eye is black and the iris of a silver white. the underjaw exceeds the uper; and the mouth opens to great extent, folding like that of the herring. it has no teeth. the abdomen is obtuse and smooth; in this differing from the herring, shad anchovey &c of the malacopterygious order & class clupea, to which however i think it more nearly allyed than to any other altho it has not their accute and serrate abdomen and the under jaw exceeding the upper. the scales of this little fish are so small and thin that without minute inspection you would suppose they had none. they are filled with roes of a pure white colour and have scarcely any perceptable alimentary duct. i find them best when cooked in indian stile, which is by roasting a number of them together on a wooden spit without any previous preperation whatever. they are so fat they require no additional sauce, and i think them superior to any fish i ever tasted, even more delicate and lussious than the white fish of the lakes which have heretofore formed my standart of excellence among the fishes. i have heard the fresh anchovey much extolled but i hope i shall be pardoned for beleiving this quite as good. the bones are so soft and fine that they form no obstruction in eating this fish. we purchased all the articles which these people brought us; we suffered these people to remain all night as it rained, the wind blew most violently and they had their women and children with them; the latter being a sure pledge of their pacific dispositions. the sturgeon which they brought us was also good of it's kind. we determine to send a party up the river to procure some of those fish, and another in some direction to hunt elk as soon as the weather will permit. [clark, february , ] monday february th our sick are still on the recovery. shannon and labiche returned in the forenoon, they had killed no elk, and reported that they believe the elk have returned from their former haunts and gorn further back in the mountains to a considerable distance from this place. this is very unwelcom information, for poore and inferior as the flesh of this animale is, it is our principal dependance for subsistance. the rackoon is found in the woody country on the coast in considerable quantities. the nativs take a fiew of them in snars, and deadfalls; tho appear not to value their skins much, and but seldom prepare them for robes. the large grey squirel appear to be a native of a narrow tract of country on the upper side of the mountains below the great falls of columbia which is pritty well covered in maney parts with a species of white oak. this animal is much larger than the gray squirel of our country, it resembles it much in form and colour. it is as large as the fox squirel of the south atlantic states. the tail is reather larger than the whole of the body and head, the hair of which is long and tho inserted on all sides reispect the horozontal one. the eyes are black, whiskers black and long. the back, sides, head, tale and outer parts of the legs are of a blue lead colour grey. the breast, belly, and inner parts of the legs are of a pure white. the hair is short as that of the fox squirel but is much finer and intermixed with a propotion of fur. the nativs make great use of those skins in forming their robes. this squirel subsists principally on the acorn and filburts, which last also grow abundantly in the oak country-. the small brown squirel is a butifull little animal about the size of the red squirel of the e. states or something larger than the ground squirel of the u states. the tail is as long as the body and neck formed somewhat hat. the eyes black, whiskers long and black but not abundant. the back, sides, head, neck and outer parts of the legs are of a redish dark brown. the throat, breast, belly and inner parts of the legs are of a pale brick red. the tail is a mixture of black and fox coloured red in which the black prodomonates in the middle, and the other on the edges and extremity. the hair of the body is about / inch long and so fine and soft that it has the appearance of fur. the hair of the tail is coarser and double as long. this animal subsists principally on the seeds of various species of pine and are always found in the piney country. they are common to the tract of woody country on this coast. they lodge in clefts of rocks, holes in the ground, old stumps of trees and the hollow trunks of falling timber; in this respect resemble the rat always haveing their habitation in or near the earth. the small grey squirel common to every part of the rocky mountains which is timbered, differ from the dark brown squirel just discribed only in its colour. it's back, neck, sides, head, tail and outer sides of the legs are of brown lead coloured grey; the tail has a slight touch of the fox colour near the extremity of some of the hairs. the throat, belly, breast, and inner part of the legs are of the colour of tanners ooze and have a narrow stripe of black commencing behing each sholder and extending longitudinally for about inches between the colours of the side & belly. their habits are also the same with the dark brown squirel of this neighbourhood, and like them are extreamly nimble and active. the ground squirel is found in various parts of the countrey as well the praries as wood lands, and is one of the fiew animals which we have seen in every part of our voy-age. it differs not at all from those of the u, states. the barking squirel and handsom ground squirel of the plains on the east side of the rocky mountains are not found in the plains of the columbia. this evening we were visited by comowooll the clatsop chief and men women and children of his nation. drewyer came a pasinger in their canoe, and brought with him two dogs. the chief and his party had brought for sale a sea otter skin, some hats, sturgeon and a species of fish which now begins to run and are taken in great quantities in the columbia river about miles above us by means of skiming or scooping nets. see likeness on the other side of this leaf or page. capt lewis gave an old coat and vest for a sea otter skin, we purchased several hads of the indian manufactry and distributed them among the party. we also purchased a fiew of the small fish which we found deliciously fine. [lewis, february , ] tuesday february th . it continued to rain and blow so violently that there was no movement of the party today. the indians left us in the morning on their return to their village. willard somewhat worse the other invalledes on the ricovery. i am mortifyed at not having it in my power to make more celestial observations since we have been at fort clatsop, but such has been the state of the weather that i have found it utterly impracticable.- the rackoon is found in the woody country on this coast in considerable quantities. the natives take a few of them in snars and deadfalls; tho appear not to vallue their skins much, and but seldom prepare them for robes. the large grey squirrel appears to be a native of a narrow tract of country on the upper side of the mountains just below the grand falls of columbia which is pretty well covered in many parts with a species of white oak. in short i beleive this squirrel to be coextensive with timber only, as we have not seen them in any part of the country where pine forms the majority of the timber, or in which the oak dose not appear. this animal is much larger than the grey squirrel of our country it resembles it much in form and colours. it is as large as the fox squirrel of the southern atlantic states. the tail is reather longer than the whole length of the body and head. the hair of which is long and tho inserted on all sides reispect the horizontal ones only. the eyes are black. whiskers black and long. the back, sides, head, tail and outer part of the legs are of a blue lead coloured grey. the breast belley and inner part of the legs are of a pure white. the hair is short as that of the fox-squirrel but is much finer and intermixed with a proportion of fur. the natives make great use of these skins in forming their robes. this squirrel subsists principally on the acorn and filbird which last also grows abundantly in the oak country.--the small brown squirrel is a beautifull little animal about the size and form of the red squirrel of the eastern atlantic states and western lakes. the tail is as long as the body and neck, formed like that of the red squirrel or somewhat flat. the eyes black. whiskers long and black but not abundant. the back, sides, head, neck and outer part of the legs are of a redish dark brown. the throat, breast, belley and inner part of the legs are of a pale brick red. the tail is a mixture of black and fox coloured red in which the black predominates in the midle and the other on the edges and extremity. the hair of the body is about / an inch long and so fine and soft that it has the appearance of fur. the hair of the tail is coarser and doubly as long. this animal subsists principally on the seeds of various species of pine, and are always found in the piny country they are common to the tract of wooddy country on this coast. they lodge in clifts of rocks, holes in the ground old stumps of trees and the hollow trunks of fallen timber; in this rispect resembling the rat, always having their habitatin in or near the earth. the small grey squirrel common to every part of the rocky mountain which is timbered, difirs from the dark brown squirrel just discribed only in it's colour. it's back, sides, neck, head tail and outer side of the legs are of a brown lead coloured grey; the tail has a slight touch of the fox colour near the extremity of some of the hairs. the throat, breast, belley, and inner parts of the legs are of the colour of tanner's ooze and have a narrow stripe of black, commencing just behide each sholder and extending longitudinaly for about inches betwen the colours of the sides and belley. their habids are also the same of the dark brown squirrel of this neighbourhood and like them are extreemly nimble and active. the ground squirrel is found in every part of the country, as well the praries as woodlands, and is one of the few animals which we have seen in every part of our voyage. it differs not at all from those of the u states. the barking squirrel and handsome ground squirrel of the plains on the east side of the rocky mountains are not found in the plains of columbia. [clark, february , ] tuesday february th it continued to rain and blow so violently that there was no movement of the party to day. the indians left us in the morning on their return to their village. willard somewhat worse the others are on the recovery. we are mortified at not haveing it in our power to make more celestial observations since we have been at fort clatsop, but such has been the state of the weather that we have found it utterly impractiable-. i purchased of the clatsops this morning about half a bushel of small fish which they had cought about miles up the columbia in their scooping nets. as this is an uncommon fish to me and one which no one of the party has ever seen. on the next page i have drawn the likeness of them as large as life; it's as perfect as i can make it with my pen and will serve to give a general idea of the fish. the rays of the fins are boney but not sharp tho somewhat pointed. the small fin on the back next to the tail has no rays of bone being a thin membranous pellicle. the fins next to the gills have eleven rays each. those of the abdomen have eight each, those of the pinna ani are and half formed in front. that of the back has eleven rays. all the fins are of a white colour. the back is of a blueish duskey colour and that of the lower part of the sides and belly is of a silvery white. no spots on any part. the first of the gills next behind the eye is of a blueish cast, and the second of a light gold colour nearly white. the puple of the eye is black and the iris of a silver white. the under jaw exceeds the upper; and the mouth opens to great extent, folding like that of the herring. it has no teeth. the abdomen is obtuse and smooth; in this differing from the herring, shad, anchovey &c. of the malacapterygious order and class clupea, to which however i think it more nearly allyed than to any other altho it has not their accute and serrate abdomen and the under jaw exceeding the upper. the scales of this little fish are so small and thin that without manute inspection you would suppose they had none. they are filled with roes of a pure white colour and have scercely any perceptable alimentary duct. i found them best when cooked in indian stile, which is by rosting a number of them together on a wooden spit without any previous preperation whatever. they are so fat that they require no aditional sauce, and i think them superior to any fish i ever tasted, even more dilicate and lussious than the white fish of the lakes which have heretofore formed my standard of excellence among the fishes. i have herd the fresh anchovey much extoll'd but i hope i shall be pardened for believeing this quit as good. the bones are so soft and fine that they form no obstruction in eating this fish. [lewis, february , ] wednesday february th . this morning we dispatched drewyer and two men in our indian canoe up the columbia river to take sturgeon and anchovey. or if they were unsuccessfull in fishing we directed them to purchase fish from the natives for which purpose we had furnished them with a few articles such as the natives are pleased with. we also sent shields, joseph fields and shannon up the netul to hunt elk. and directed reubin fields and some others to hunt in the point towards the praries of point adams. thus we hope shortly to replenish our stock of provision which is now reduced to a mere minnamum. we have three days provision only in store and that of the most inferior dryed elk a little tainted. a comfortable prospect for good living. sewelel is the chinnook and clatsop name for a small animal found in the timbered country on this coast. it is more abundant in the neighbourhood of the great falls and rapids of the columbia than immediately on the coast. the natives make great use of the skins of this animal in forming their robes, which they dress with the fur on them and attatch together with sinews of the elk or deer. i have never seen the animal and can therefore discribe it only from the skin and a slight view which some of our hunters have obtained of the living animal. the skin when dressed is from to inches in length and from to in width; the tail is always severed from the skin in forming their robes i cannot therefore say what form or length it is. one of the men informed me that he thought it reather short and flat. that he saw one of them run up a tree like a squirrel and that it returned and ran into a hole in the ground. the ears are short thin pointed and covered with short fine hair. they are of a uniform colour, a redish brown; tho the base of the long hairs, which exceed the fur but little in length, as well as the fur itself is of a dark colour for at least two thirds of it's length next to the skin. the fur and hair are very fine, short, thickly set and silky. the ends of the fur and tips of the hair being of the redish brown that colour predominates in the ordinary appearance of the animal. i take this animal to be about the size of the barking squirrel of the missouri. and beleive most probably that it is of the mustela genus, or perhaps the brown mungo itself. i have indeavoured in many instances to make the indians sensible how anxious i was to obtain one of these animals entire, without being skined, and offered them considerable rewards to furnish me with one, but have not been able to make them comprehend me. i have purchased several of the robes made of these skins to line a coat which i have had made of the skins of the tiger cat. they make a very pleasant light lining. the braro so called by the french engages is an animal of the civit genus and much resembles the common badger. this is an inhabitant of the open plains of the columbia as they are of those of the missouri but are sometimes also found in the woody country. they burrow in the hard grounds of the plains with surprising ease and dexterity an will cover themselves in the ground in a very few minutes. they have five long fixed nails on each foot; those of the forefeet are much the longest; and one of those on each hind foot is double like those of the beaver. they weigh from to lbs. the body is reather long in proportion to it's thickness. the forelegs remarkably large and muscular and are formed like the ternspit dog. they are short as are also the hind legs. they are broad across the sholders and brest. the neck short. the head is formed much like the common fist dog only that the skull is more convex. the mouth is wide and furnished with sharp streight teeth both above and below, with four sharp streight pointed tusks, two in the upper and two in the lower jaw. the eyes are black and small. whiskers are plased in four points on each side near the nose and on the jaws near the opening of the mouth. the ears are very short wide and appressed as if they had ben cut off. the apperture through them to the head is remarkably small. the tail is about inches long; the hair longest on it at it's junction with the body and becoming shorter towards it's extremity where it ends in an accute point. the hairs of the body are much longer on the side and rump than any other part, which gives the body and apparent flatness, particularly when the animal rests on it's belley. this hair is upwards of inches in length particularly on the rump where it extends so far towards the point of the tail that it almost conceals the shape of that part and gives to the whole of the hinder part of the body the figure of an accute angled triangle of which the point of the tail forms the accute angle. the small quantity of coarse fur which is intermixed with the hair is of a redish pale yellow. the hair of the back, sides, upper part of the neck and tail, are of a redish light or pale yellow for about / rds of their length from the skin, next black, and then tiped with white; forming a curious mixture of grey and fox coloured red with a yellowish hue. the belley flanks and breast are of the foxcoloured redish yellow. the legs black. the nails white the head on which the hair is short, is varia gated with black and white. a narrow strip of white commences on the top of the nose about / an inch from it's extremity and extends back along the center of the forehead and neck nearly to the sholders--two stripes of black succeed the white on either side imbracing the sides of the nose, the eyes, and extends back as far as the ears. two other spots of black of a ramboidal figure are placed on the side of the head near the ears and between them and the opening of the mouth. two black spots also immediately behind the ears. the other parts of the head white. this animal feeds on flesh, roots, bugs, and wild fruits.--it is very clumsy and runs very slow. i have in two instances out run this animal and caught it. in this rispect they are not much more fleet than the porcupine. [clark, february , ] wednesday february th this morning we dispatched drewyer and two men in our indian canoe up the columbia river to take sturgion and anchovey. or if they were unsucksessfull in fishing we directed them to purchase fish from the nativs, for which purpose we had furnished them with a fiew articles such as the nativs are pleased with. we also sent shields jo. field and shannon up the netul to hunt elk. and directed reubin field and some other man to hunt in the point towards the praries & point adams. thus we hope shortly to replenish our stock of provisions which is now reduced to a mear minnamum. we have three days provisions only in store and that of the most inferior dried elk a little tainted. what a prospect for good liveing at fort clatsop at present. se we lel is the clatsop and chinnook name for a small animal found in the timbered country on this coast. it is more abundant in the neighbourhood of the great falls and rapids of the columbia than imediately on the coast. the nativs make great use of the skins of this animal in forming their robes, which they dress with the fur on them and attached together with the sinears of the elk or deer. i have never seen the ammale and can therefore only discribe it from the skin and a slight view which some of our party have obtained of the liveing animal. the skin when dressed is from to inches in length, and from to in width; the tail is always severed from the body in forming their robes, i cannot therefore say in what form or length it is. one of the men informed me that he thought it reather short and flat. that he saw one of them run up a tree like a squirel, and that it returned and ran into a hole in the ground. the ears are short, thin, pointed and covered with short fine hair. they are of uniform colour, a redish brown; tho the base of the long hairs, exceed the fur but little in length, as well as the fur itself is of a dark colour for at least / ds of it's length next to the skin. the fur and hair are very fine, short, thickly set, and silky. the ends of the fur and tips of the hair is of a redish brown, that colour prodominates in the ordinary appearance of the animate. i took this animal to be about the size of the barking squirel of the missouri. and believe most probably that it is of the mustela genus, or perhaps the brown mungo itself i have in maney instances endeavured to make the nativs sensiable how anxious i was to obtain one of those animals entire, without being skined, and offered them rewards to furnish me with one, but have not been able to make them comprehend me. we have purchased several of the roabs made of those skins to loin a westcoat of the sea otter, which i have made and capt lewis a tiger cat skin coat loined with them also, they make a very pleasant light lighting. the rat in the rocky mountains on its west side are like those on the upper part of the missouri in and near those mountains and have the distingushing trait of possessing a tail covered with hair like other parts of the body; one of these we caught at the white bear islands in the beginning of july last and then partially discribed. there is rats in this neighbourhood but i have not seen them it is most probable that they are like those of the atlantic states, or at least the native rat of our country which have no hair on their tail. this specis we found on the missouri as far up it as the woody country extended. it is as large as the common european house rat or reather larger is of a lighter colour bordering more on the lead or drab colour, the hair longer; and the female has only four tits which are placed far back near the hinder legs. this rat i have seen in the southern parts of the state of kentucky & west of the miami. the mouse and mole of this neighbourhood are the same as those native animals with us. the panther is found indifferently either in the great plains of columbia the western side of the rocky mountains or on this coast in the timbered country. it is precisily the same animal common to the atlantic states, and most commonly met with on our frontiers or unsettled parts of the country. this animal is scerce in the country where they exist and are so remarkable shye and watchfull that it is extreamly dificuelt to kill them. the polecat is found in every part of the country. they are very abundant on some parts of the columbia, particularly in the neighbourhood of the great falls & narrows of that river, where they live in the clifts along the river & feed on the offal of the indian fishing shores. they are the same as those of other parts of north america. [lewis, february , ] thursday february th . reubin fields returned this evening and had not killed anything. he reports that there are no elk towards point adams. collins who had hunted up the netul on this side returned in the evening having killed a buck elk. willard still continues very unwell the other sick men have nearly recovered. gutridge and mcneal who have the pox are recovering fast, the former nearly well. the rat in the rocky mountain on it's west side are like those on the upper part of the missouri in and near those mountains and have the distinguishing trait of possessing a tail covered with hair like other parts of the body; one of those we caught at the white bear islands in the beginning of july last and was then discribed. i have seen the nests of those in this neighbourhood but not the animal. i think it most probable that they are like those of the atlantic states or at least the native rat of our country which have no hair on the tail. this species we found on the missouri as far up it as the woody country extended. it is as large as the common european house rat or reather larger, is of a lighter colour bordering more on the lead or drab colour, the hair longer; and the female has only four tits which are placed far back near the hinder legs. this rat i have observed in the western parts of the state of georgia and also in madison's cave in the state of virginia the mouse and mole of this neighbourhood are the same as those native animals with us. the panther is found indifferently either in the great plains of columbia, the western side of the rocky mountains or on this coast in the timbered country. it is precisely the same animal common to the atlantic coast, and most commonly met with on our frontiers or unsettled parts of the country. this animal is scarce in the country where they exist and are so remarkable shye and watchfull that it is extreemly difficult to kill them. [clark, february , ] thursday february th reubin field returned this evening and had not killed anything, he reported that there were no elk towards point adams. collins who had hunted up the netul on this side returned in the evening haveing killed a buck elk. willard still continue very unwell the other sick men have nearly recovered. goodrich & mcneal who have the pox are recovering fast, the former nearly well. la page complaining. the braro so called by the french engages is an animal of the civit genus and much resembles the common badger. this is an enhabitent of the open plains of the columbia as they are of those of the missouri, but are sometimes also found in the woody country. they burrow in the hard grounds in the plains with surprising ease and dexterity and will cover themselves in the ground in a very fiew minits. they have five long fixed nails on each foot; those of the fore feet are much the longest; and one of those on each hind foot is double like those of the beaver. they weigh from to lbs. the body is reather long in perportion to its thickness. the fore legs remarkably large and muscular and are formed like the turnspit dog. they are short as also the hind legs. they are broad across the sholders and breast. the neck short, the head is formed much like the common fist dog only that the skull is more convex, the mouth is wide and furnishid with long sharp teeth, both above and below, and with four sharp streight pointed tushes, two in the upper and two in the lower jaw. the eyes are black and small. whiskers are placed in four points on each side near the nose and on the jaws near the opening of the mouth. the ears are very short wide and appressed as if they had been cut off. the appertue through them to the head is remarkably small; the tail is about inches long; the hair longest on it at it's junction, with the body and becomeing shorter towards it's extremity where it ends in an accute point. the hairs of the body are much longer on the sides and rump than any other part, which givs the body an appearent flatness, particularly when the animal rests on it's belly. this hair is upwards of inches in length, particularly on the rump where it extends so far towards the point of the tail, that it almost conceals the shape of that part and givs to all the hinder part of the body an accute angled triangle, of which the point of the tail forms the accute angle. the small quantity of fur which is intermixed with the hair is of a redish pale yellow. the hair of the back, sides upper part of the neck and tail, are of redish light or pale yellow fox about two thirds of their length from the skin, next black, and then tiped with white; forming a curious mixture of grey and fox colourd. red with a yellowish hue. the belly flanks and breast are of the fox coloured redish yellow. the legs black, the nails white. the head on which the hair is short is varigated with black and white. a narrow strip of white commences on the top of the nose about half an inch from its extremity and extends back along the center of the forehead and neck nearly to the sholders- two stripes of black suckceed the white on either side, imbraceing the side of the nose, the eyes, and extends back as far as the ears. two other spots of black of a romboidal figure are placed on the side of the head near the ears and between them and the opening of the mouth. two black spots also imediately behind the ears. the other part of the head white. this animal feeds on flesh, roots, bugs and wild fruits.- it is very clumsy and runs very slow, depending more on burring to secure it self than running. i have in several instances out run and caught this animal. in this respect they are not much more fleet than the porcupine. [lewis, february , ] friday february th . reubin fields and collins set out this morning early on a hunting excurtion. kuskelar a clatsop man and his wife visited us today. they brought some anchovies, sturgeon, a beaver robe, and some roots for sail tho they asked so high a price for every article that we purchased nothing but a part of a sturgeon for which we gave a few fishing hooks. we suffered them to remain all night. shields jos. fields and shannon returned late this evening having killed five elk tho two of them ar on a mountain at a considerable distance. we ordered these hunters to return early in the morning and continue their hunt, and sergt. gass to take a party and go in quest of the elk which they had killed. the hunters inform us that the elk are tolerable plenty near the mountains about or ten miles distant. kuskelar brought a dog which cruzatte had purchased. the hare on this side of the rocky mountains is exclusively the inhabitant of the great plains of columbia, as they are of those of the missouri east of these mountains. they weigh from to eleven pounds. the measure of one which weighed ten lbs. was as follows. from the extremity of the hinder, to that of the fore feet when extended f. length from nose to the extremity of the tail f. i. hight when standing erect f. i. girth of the body f. i. length of tail / i. length of ear / i. width of do / i. from the hip to the extremity of toe of the hind foot f. / i.--the eye is large and prominent. the pupil is circular, of a deep sea green and occupys one third of the diameter of the eye, the iris is of a bright yellowish silver colour. the ears are placed far back on the head and very near each other, they are flexable and the animal moves them with great ease and quickness, and can dilate and throw them forward, or contract and fold them on his back at pleasure. the fold of the front of the ear is of a redish brown colour, the inner folds or those which lie together when the ears are thrown back, and which occupy / ds of the width of the ears are of a pure white except the tips of the ears for about an inch. the hinder folds or those which lie on the back are of a light grey. the head neck, back, sholders, sides, & outer part of the legs and thyes are of a lead coloured grey; the sides as they approach the belley become gradually more white. the belley, brest, and inner part of the legs and thyes are white, with a slight shade of the lead colour. the tail is round and blontly pointed, covered with fine soft white fur not quite as long as on the other parts of the body. the body is covered with a deep fine soft close fur. the colours here discribed are those which the animal assumes from the middle of april to the middle of november, the ballance of the year they are of a pure white, except the black and redish brown of the ears which never changes. a few redish brown spots are sometimes seen intermixed with the white, at this season, on their heads and upper part of the neck and sholders. the body of this animal is smaller and longer in proportion to it's hight than the rabbit. when it runs it carrys it's tail streight behind in the direction of it's body. they appear to run with more ease and bound with greater agility than any animal i ever saw. they are extreemly fleet and never burrow or take sheter in the ground when pursued. it's teeth are like those of the rabbit as is also it's upper lip which is divided as high as the nose. it's food is grass, herbs, and in winter feeds much on the bark of several aromatic shrubs which grow in the plains and the young willow along the rivers and other wartercourses.--i have measured the leaps of this animal and find them commonly from to feet. they are generally found seperate, and never seen to asscociate in any number or more than two or three.--the rabbit are the same of our country and are found indifferently either in the praries or woodlands. they are not very abundant in this country. the pole-cat is also found in every part of the country. they are very abundant on some parts of the columbia, particularly in the neighbourhood of the great falls and narrows of that river, where they live in the clifts along the river and feed on the offal of the indian fishing shores. these are the same as those of other parts of north america. [clark, february , ] friday february th reuben field and collins set out this morning early on a hunting excurtion up the netul. kus ke-lar a clatsop man, his wife and a small boy (a slave, who he informed me was his cook, and offerd to sell him to me for beeds & a gun) visited us to day they brought some anchovies, sturgeon, a beaver robe, and some roots for sale tho they asked such high prices for every article that we purchased nothing but a part of a sturgeon for which we gave a fiew fishing hooks. we suffered them to stay all night. shields jos. field and shannon returned late this evening haveing killed five elk tho two of them are of a mountain at a considerable distance. we ordered these hunters to return early in the morning and continue the hunt, and sergt. gass to take a party and go in quest of the elk which they had killed. the hunters informed us that the elk is tolerable plenty near the mountains about nine or ten miles distant. kuskalaw brought a dog which peter crusat had purchased with his capo which this fellow had on. the hare on this side of the rocky mountains is exclusively the inhabitents of the great plains of columbia, as they are of those of the missouri east of the mountains. they weigh from to pounds. the measure of one which weighed pounds, was as follows. from the extremity of the hinder, to that of the fore feet when extended feet. length from nose to the extremity of the tail feet, inches. hight when standing erect foot, inches-. girth of the body foot, inches-. length of tail / inches-. length of ear / inches-. width of ear inches and / -. from the hip to the extremity of toe of the hind foot foot / inches-. the eye is large and prominent. the pupil is circular, of a deep sea green and occupies one third of the diamiter of the eye, the iris is of a bright yellowish silver colour. the ears are placed far back on the head and very near each other, they are flexable and the animal moves them with great ease and quickness and can dilate and throw them foward, or contract and fold them on his back at pleasure. the fold of the front of the ear is of a redish brown colour, the inner folds are those which lie together when the ears are thrown back, and which occupies / ds of the width of the ears of a pure white except the tips of the ears for about an inch. the hinder folds or those which lie on the back are of a light grey; the sides as they approach the belly become gradually more white, the belly brest, and inner part of the legs and thyes are white, with a slight shade of a lead colour. the head, neck, back sholders, sides, outer part of the legs and thyes are of a lead coloured grey. the tail is bluntly pointed and round, covered with fine soft white fur not quite as long as on the other parts of the body. the body is covered with a deep fine soft close fur. the colours here discribed are those which the animale assumes from the middle of april to the middle of november, the ballance of the year they are of a pure white, except the black and redish brown of the ears which never changes. a fiew redish brown spots are sometimes seen intermixed with the white, at this season on the heads and upper parts of the neck an sholders. the body of this animal is smaller and longer in purpotion to it's hight than the rabbit. when it runs it carrys its tail streight behind in the direction of it's body. they appear to run with more ease and bound with greater agility than any animal i ever saw. they are extreemly fleet and never burrow or take shelter in the grounds when pursued. it's teeth are like those of the rabit, as is also its upper lip which is divided as high as the nose. it's food is grass, herbs, and in winter feeds much on the bark of several arematic shrubs which grow in the plains and the young willows along the rivers and other water courses.--i have measured the leaps of this animal and find them commonly from to feet. they are generally found seperate, and never seen to associate in any number or more than two or three. [lewis, march , ] saturday march st . this morning sergt. gass and a party set out in quest of the elk which had been killed by the hunters the day before yesterday. they returned with the flesh of three of them late in the evening. thompson was left with the hunters in order to jurk and take care of the flesh of the remaining two. kuskelar and wife left us about noon. he had a good looking boy of about years of age with him who he informed us was his slave. this boy had been taken prisoner by the killamucks from some nation on the coast to the s. east of them at a great distance. like other indian nations they adopt their slaves in their families and treat them very much as their own children. reubin fields and collins who have been absent since yesterday morning returned without having killed any game. the birds of the western side of the rocky mountain to the pacific ocean, for convenience i shall divide into two classes, which i shal designate from the habits of the birds, terrestrial and aquatic. the grouse or prarie hen is peculiarly the inhabitant of the grait plains of columbia they do not differ from those of the upper portion of the missouri, the tail of which is pointed or the feathers in it's center much longer than those on the sides. this species differs essentially in the construction of this part of their plumage from those of the illinois which have their tails composed of fathers of equal length. in the winter season this bird is booted even to the first joint of it's toes. the toes are also curiously bordered on their lower edges with narrow hard scales which are placed very close to each other and extend horizontally about / of an inch on each side of the toes thus adding to the width of the tread which nature seems bountifully to have furnished them at this season for passing over the snow with more ease. in the summer season those scales fall off. they have four toes on each foot. their colour is a mixture of dark brown redish and yellowish brown and white confusedly mixed in which the redish brown prevails most on the upper parts of the body wings and tail and the white underneath the belley and lower parts of the breast and tail. they associate in large flocks in autumn & winter and are frequently found in flocks of from five to six even in summer. they feed on grass, insects, the leaves of various shrubs in the plains and on the seeds of several species of spelts and wild rye which grow in the richer parts of the plains. in winter their food is the buds of the willow & cottonwood also the most of the native berries furnish them with food.the indians of this neighbourhood eat the root of the cattail or cooper's flag. it is pleasantly taisted and appears to be very nutricious. the inner part of the root which is eaten without any previous preperation is composed of a number of capillary white flexable strong fibers among which is a mealy or starch like substance which readily desolves in the mouth and separate from the fibers which are then rejected. it appears to me that this substance would make excellent starch; nothing can be of a purer white than it is.- [clark, march , ] saturday march the st this morning we despatched sergt. gass with men in two canoes in quest of the elk which had been killed by the hunters the day before yesterday. they returned with the flesh of three of them late in the evening. thompson was left with the hunters in order to jurk and take care of the flesh of the remaining two. kuskalar &c. left us about noon. the boy which this indian offered to sell to me is about years of age. this boy had been taken prisoner by the kit a mox from some nation on the coast to the s. east of them at a great distance. like other indian nations they adopt their slaves in their famelies and treat them very much like their own children. reuben field and collins who had been absent since yesterday morning returned without killing any thing. the birds on the western side of the rocky mountain's to the pacific ocian for convenience i shall devide into from the habit of the birds, terrestrial and aquatic. i e fowls of the air, and fowls of the water. the prarie hen sometimes called the grouse is peculiarly the inhabitent of the great plains of columbia. they do not differ from those of the upper portion of the missouri, the tails of which is pointed or the feathers in its center much longer than those on the sides. this species differ assentially in the construction of this part of their plumage from those of the illinois which have their tail composed of feathers of equal length. in the winter season this berd is booted even to the first joint of it's toes. the toes are also curiously bordered on their lower edges with narrow hard scales which are placed very close to each other and extend horizontally about / of an inch on each side of the toe, thus adding to the width of the tread which nature seams bountifully to have furnished them with at this season for passing over the snow with more ease. in the summer season those scales fall off. they have four toes on each foot. their colour is a mixture of dark brown redish and yellowish brown and white confusedly mixed in which the redish brown prevails most on the upper parts of the body wings and tail. and the white underneath the belley and lower parts of the breast and tail. they associate in large flocks in autumn & winter and are frequently found in flocks of from five to six even in summer. they feed on grass, insects, the leaves of various shrubs in the praries, and on the seeds of several species of spelts and wild rye which grow in the richer parts of the plains. in the winter their food is the buds of the willow and cottonwood also the most of the native berries furnish them with food. they cohabit in flock & the cocks fight verry much at those seasons. [lewis, march , ] sunday march cd the diet of the sick is so inferior that they recover their strength but slowly. none of them are now sick but all in a state of convalessence with keen appetites and nothing to eat except lean elk meat. late this evening drewyer arrived with a most acceptable supply of fat sturgeon, fresh anchovies and a bag containing about a bushel of wappetoe. we feasted on anchovies and wappetoe. the cock of the plains is found in the plains of columbia and are in great abundance from the entrance of the s. e. fork of the columbia to that of clark's river. this bird is about / rds the size of a turkey. the beak is large short curved and convex. the upper exceeding the lower chap. the nostrils are large and the beak black. the colour is an uniform mixture of dark brown reather bordeing on a dove colour, redish and yellowish brown with some small black specks. in this mixture the dark brown prevails and has a slight cast of the dove colour at a little distance. the wider side of the large feathers of the wings are of a dark brown only. the tail is composed of feathers of which that in the center is the longest, and the remaining on each side deminish by pairs as they receede from the center; that is any one feather is equal in length to one equa distant from the center of the tail on the oposite side. the tail when foalded comes to a very sharp point and appears long in proportion to the body. in the act of flying the tail resembles that of a wild pigeon. tho the motion of the wings is much that of the pheasant and grouse. they have four toes on each foot of which the hinder one is short. the leg is covered with feathers about half the distance between the knee and foot. when the wing is expanded there are wide opening between it's feathers the plumeage being so narrow that it dose not extend from one quill to the other. the wings are also proportionably short, reather more so than those of the pheasant or grouse. the habits of this bird are much the same as those of the grouse. only that the food of this fowl is almost entirely that of the leaf and buds of the pulpy leafed thorn; nor do i ever recollect seeing this bird but in the neighbourhood of that shrub. they sometimes feed on the prickley pear. the gizzard of it is large and much less compressed and muscular than in most fowls; in short it resembles a maw quite as much as a gizzard. when they fly they make a cackling noise something like the dunghill fowl. the following is a likeness of the head and beak. the flesh of the cock of the plains is dark, and only tolerable in point of flavor. i do not think it as good as either the pheasant or grouse.--it is invariably found in the plains.the feathers about it's head are pointed and stif some hairs about the base of the beak. feathers short fine and stif about the ears. [clark, march , ] sunday march nd the diet of the sick is so inferior that they recover their strength but slowly. none of them are now sick but all in a state of covelessence with keen appetites and nothing to eate except lean elk meat. the nativs of this neighbourhood eate the root of the cattail or cooper's flag. it is pleasantly tasted and appears to be very nutrecious. the inner part of the root which is eaten without any previous preperation is composed of a number of capellary white flexable strong fibers among which is a mealy or starch like substance which readily disolves in the mouth and seperates from the fibers which are then rejected. it appears to me that this substance would make excellent starch; nothing can be of a pureer white than it is this evening late drewyer, crusat & wiser returned with a most acceptable supply of fat sturgen, fresh anchoves and a bag containing about a bushel of wappato. we feasted on the anchovies and wappatoe.-. the heath cock or cock of the plains is found in the plains of columbia and are in great abundance from the enterance of lewis's river to the mountains which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids of that river. this fowl is about / ths the size of a turkey. the beak is large short curved and convex. the upper exceeding the lower chap. the nostrils are large and the back black. the colour is a uniform mixture of dark brown reather bordering on a dove colour, redish and yellowish brown with some small black specks. in this mixture the dark brown provails and has a slight cast of the dove colour at a little distance. the wider side of the larger feathers of the wings are of a dark brown only. the tail is composed of feathers of which that in the center is the longest, and the remaining on each side deminish by pairs as they receede from the center; that is any one feather is equal in length to one of an equal distance from the center of the tail on the opposit side. the tail when folded comes to a very sharp point and appears long in perpotion to the body in the act of flying the tail resembles that of a wild pigeon. tho the motion of the wings is much that of the pheasant and grouse. they have four toes on each foot of which the hinder one is short. the leg is covered with feathers about half the distance between the knee and foot. when the wings is expanded there are wide opening between it's feathers, the plumage being so narrow that it does not extend from one quill to another. the wings are also propotionably short, reather more so than those of the pheasant or grouse. the habits of this bird is much the same as those of the prarie hen or grouse. only that the food of this fowl is almost entirely that of the leaf and buds of the pulpy leafed thorn, nor do i ever recollect seeing this bird but in the neighbourhood of that shrub. the gizzard of it is large and much less compressed and muscular than in most fowls, in short it resembles a maw quite as much as a gizzard. when they fly they make a cackling noise something like the dunghill fowl. the flesh of this fowl is dark and only tolerable in point of flavour. i do not think it as good as wth the pheasant or prarie hen, or grouse. the feathers above it's head are pointed and stiff some hairs about the base of the beak. feathers short fine and stiff about the ears, and eye. this is a faint likeness of the cock of the plains or heath cock the first of those fowls which we met with was on the missouri below and in the neighbourhood of the rocky mountains and from to the mountain which passes the columbia between the great falls and rapids they go in large gangues or singularly and hide remarkably close when pursued, make short flights, &c. the large black & white pheasant is peculiar to that portion of the rocky mountains watered by the columbia river. at least we did not see them untill we reached the waters of that river, nor since we have left those mountains. they are about the size of a well grown hen. the contour of the bird is much that of the redish brown pheasant common to our country. the tail is proportionably as long and is composed of feathers of equal length, of a uniform dark brown tiped with black. the feathers of the body are of a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most prodomonates, and white feathers are irregularly intermixed with those of the black and dark brown on every part but in greater perpotion about the neck breast and belly. this mixture gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill fowl, which the henwives of our countrey call dommanicker. in the brest of some of those birds the white prodominates most. they are not furnished with tufts of long feathers on the neck as other pheasants are, but have a space on each side of the neck about / inches long and one inch in width on which no feathers grow, tho it is consealed by the feathers which are inserted on the hinder and front part of the neck, this space seams to serve them to dilate or contract the feathers of the neck with more ease. the eye is dark, the beak black, uncovered somewhat pointed and the upper exceeds the under chap. they have a narrow strip of vermillion colour above each eye which consists of a fleshey substance not protuberant but uneaven, with a number of minute rounded dots. it has four toes on each foot of which three are in front, it is booted to the toes. it feeds on wild fruits, particularly the berry of the sac-a-com-mis, and much also on the seed of the pine & fir. this fowl is usially found in small numbers two and three & together on the ground. when supprised flies up & lights on a tree and is easily shot their flesh is superior to most of the pheasant species which we have met with. they have a gizzard as other pheasants &c. feed also on the buds of the small huckleberry bushes [lewis, march , ] monday march rd . two of our perogues have been lately injured very much in consequence of the tide leaving them partially on shore. they split by this means with their own weight. we had them drawn out on shore. our convalessents are slowly on the recovery. lapage is taken sick, gave him a doze of scots pills which did not operate. no movement of the party today worthy of notice. every thing moves on in the old way and we are counting the days which seperate us from the st of april and which bind us to fort clatsop.--the large black and white pheasant is peculiar to that portion of the rocky mountain watered by the columbia river. at least we did not see them in these mountains until i we reached the waters of that river nor since we have left those mountains. they are about the size of a well grown hen. the contour of the bird is much that of the redish brown pheasant common to our country. the tail is proportionably as long and is composed of eighteen feathers of equal length, of an uniform dark brown tiped with black. the feathers of the body are of a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most predominates, and white feathers are irregularly intermixed with those of the black and dark brown on every part, but in greater proportion about the neck breast and belley. this mixture gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill fowl which the hen-wives of our country call dom-manicker. in the brest of some of these birds the white predominates most. they are not furnished with tufts of long feathers on the neck as our pheasants are, but have a space on each side of the neck about / inches long and in. in width on which no feathers grow, tho tis concealed by the feathers which are inserted on the hinder and front part of the neck; this space seems to surve them to dilate or contract the feathers of the neck with more ease. the eye is dark, the beak black, curved somewhat pointed and the upper exceeds the under chap. they have a narrow stripe of vermillion colour above each eye which consists of a fleshey substance not protuberant but uneven with a number of minute rounded dots. it has four toes on each foot of which three are in front. it is booted to the toes. it feeds on wild fruits, particularly the berry of the sac-a-commis, and much also on the seed of the pine and fir. the small speckled pheasant found in the same country with that above discribed, differs from it only in point of size and somewhat in colour. it is scarcely half the size of the other; ascociates in much larger flocks and is very gentle. the black is more predominant and the dark bron feathers less frequent in this than the larger species. the mixture of white is also more general on every part of this bird. it is considerably smaller than our pheasant and the body reather more round. in other particulars they differ not at all from the large black and white pheasant. this by way of distinction i have called the speckled pheasant. the flesh of both these species of party coloured phesants is of a dark colour and with the means we had of cooking them not very well flavored. the small brown pheasant is an inhabitant of the same country and is of the size and shape of the specled pheasant which it also resembles in it's economy and habits. the stripe above the eye in this species is scarcely perceptable, and is when closely examined of a yellow or orrange colour instead of the vermillion of the outhers. it's colour is an uniform mixture of dark and yellowish brown with a slight mixture of brownish white on the breast belley and the feathers underneath the tail. the whol compound is not unlike that of the common quail only darker. this is also booted to the toes. the flesh of this is preferable to either of the others and that of the breast is as white as the pheasant of the atlantic coast.the redish brown pheasant has been previously discribed.--the crow raven and large blackbird are the same as those of our country only that the crow is here much smaller yet it's note is the same. i observe no difference either between the hawks of this coast and those of the atlantic. i have observed the large brown hawk, the small or sparrow hawk, and the hawk of an intermediate size with a long tail and blewish coloured wings remarkably swift in flight and very firce. sometimes called in the u states the hen hawk. these birds seem to be common to every part of this country, and the hawks crows & ravens build their nests in great numbers along the high and inaccessable clifts of the columbia river and it's s. e. branch where we passed along them.--we also met with the large hooting owl under the rocky mountain on the kooskoskee river. it did not appear to differ materially from those of our country. i think it's colours reather deeper and brighter than with us, particularly the redish brown. it is the same size and form. [clark, march , ] monday march rd two of our canoes have been lately injured very much in consequence of the tide leaveing them partially on shore. they split by this means with their own weight. we had them drawn out on shore. our convalessents are slowly on the recovery. la page is taken sick. gave him some of scotts pills which did not opperate. no movement of the party to day worthey of notice. every thing moves on in the old way and we are counting the days which seperate us from the st of april, & which bind us to fort clatsop.-.-. the small speckled pheasant found in the rocky mountains, and differ from the large black and white pheasant only in point of size, and somewhat in colour. it is scercely half the size of the other; assosiates in much larger flocks and is also very gentle. the black is more predominate and the dark brown feathers less frequent in this than the larger species. the mixture of white is also more general on every part of this bird. it is considerably smaller than our pheasant and the body reather more round. in other particulars they differ not at all, from the large black and white pheasant. this by way of distinction i have called the speckled pheasant. the flesh of both these species of party coloured pheasant is of a dark colour, and with the means we had of cooking them were only tolerably flavoured tho these birds would be fine well cooked. the small brown pheasant is an inhabitant of the same country and is of the size and shape of the speckled pheasant, which it also resembles in it's economy and habits, the stripe above the eye in this species is scercely preceptable and is when closely examined of a yellow or orrange colour in sted of the vermillion of the others. it's colour is of a uniform mixture of dark and yellowish brown with a slight mixture of brownish white on the breast belley and the feathers under the tail. the whole compound is not unlike that of the common quaile only darker. this is also booted to the toes. the flesh is tolerable and that of the breast is as white as the pheasant of the atlantic coast. the redish brown pheasant has been previously discribed.-. the crow ravin and large blackbird are the same as those of our country, only that the crow here is much smaller, yet its note is the same. i observe no difference between the hawk of this coast and those of the atlantic. i have observed the large brown hawk, the small or sparrow hawk, and a hawk of an intermediate size with a long tail and blewish coloured wings, remarkably swift in flight and very ferce. sometimes called in the un. states the hen hawk. those birds seam to be common to every part of this country in greater or smaller numbers, and the hawks, crows, and ravins build their nests in great numbers along the high & inaxcessable clifts of the columbia, and lewis's rivers when we passd along them. we also met with the large hooting owl under the rocky mountains on the kooskooske r. it's colour reather deeper than with us, but differ in no other respect from those of the u states. [lewis, march , ] tuesday march th . not any occurrence today worthy of notice. we live sumptuously on our wappetoe and sturgeon. the anchovey is so delicate that they soon become tainted unless pickled or smoked. the natives run a small stick through their gills and hang them in the smoke of their lodges, or kindle a small fire under them for the purpose of drying them. they need no previous preperation of guting &c and will cure in hours. the natives do not appear to be very scrupelous about eating them when a little feated.--the fresh sturgeon they keep for many days by immersing it in water. they coock their sturgeon by means of vapor or steam. the process is as follows. a brisk fire is kindled on which a parcel of stones are lad. when the fire birns down and the stones are sufficiently heated, the stones are so arranged as to form a tolerable level surface, the sturgeon which had been previously cut into large fletches is now laid on the hot stones; a parsel of small boughs of bushes is next laid on and a second course of the sturgeon thus repating alternate layers of sturgeon and boughs untill the whole is put on which they design to cook. it is next covered closely with matts and water is poared in such manner as to run in among the hot stones and the vapor arrising being confined by the mats, cooks the fish. the whole process is performed in an hour, and the sturgeon thus cooked is much better than either boiled or roasted. the turtle dove and robbin are the same of our country and are found as well in the plain as open country. the columbian robbin heretofore discribed seems to be the inhabitant of the woody country exclusively. the magpy is most commonly found in the open country and are the same with those formerly discribed on the missouri. the large woodpecker or log cock, the lark woodpeckers and the small white woodpecker with a read head are the same with those of the atlantic states and are found exclusively in the timbered country. the blue crested corvus and the small white breasted do have been previously discribed and are the natives of a piney country invariably, being found as well on the rocky mountains as on this coast.--the lark is found in the plains only and are the same with those before mentioned on the missouri, and not very unlike what is called in virginia the old field lark.--the large bluefish brown or sandhill crain are found in the valley of the rocky mountains in summer and autumn where they raise their young, and in the winter and begining of spring on this river below tidewater and on this coast. they are the same as those common to the southern and western states where they are most generally known by the name of the sandhill crain. the vulture has also been discribed. there are two species of the flycatch, a small redish brown species with a short tail, round body, short neck and short pointed beak. they have some fine black specks intermixed with the uniform redish brown. this the same with that which remains all winter in virginia where it is sometimes called the wren. the second species has lately returned and dose not remain here all winter. it's colours are a yellowish brown on the back head neck wings and tail the breast and belley of a yellowish white; the tail is in proportion as the wren but it is a size smaller than that bird. it's beak is streight pointed convex reather lage at the base and the chaps of equal length. the first species is the smallest, in short it is the smalest bird that i have ever seen in america except the humming bird. both these species are found in the woody country only or at least i have never seen them elsewhere. [clark, march , ] tuesday march th not any accurrance to day worthy of notice. we live sumptiously on our wappatoe and sturgeon. the anchovey is so delicate that they soon become tainted unless pickled or smoked. the nativs run a small stick through their gills and hang them in the smoke of their lodges, or kindle small fires under them for the purpose of drying them. they need no previous preperation of gutting &c. and will cure in hours. the nativs do not appear to be very scrupilous about eating them a little feated. the fresh sturgeon they keep maney days by immersing it in water. they cook their sturgeon by means of vapor or steam. the process is as follows. a brisk fire is kindled on which a parcel of stones are sufficiently heated, the stones are so arranged as to form a tolerable leavel surface, the sturgeon which had been previously cut into large flaetches is now laid on the hot stones; a parcel of small boughs of bushes is next laid on, and a second course of the sturgeon thus repeating alternate layers of sturgeon & boughs untill the whole is put on which they design to cook. it is next covered closely with mats and water is poared in such manner as to run in among the hot stones, and the vapor arriseing being confind by the mats, cooks the fish. the whole process is performd in an hour and the sturgeon thus cooked is much better than either boiled or roasted. in their usial way of bolting of other fish in baskets with hot stones is not so good. the turtle doves and robin are the same of those of our countrey and are found as well as the plains as open countrey. the columbia robin heretofore discribed seams to be the inhabitent of the woody country exclusively. the magpye is most commonly found in the open country and are the same with those formerly discribed on the missouri. the large wood pecker or log cock the lark woodpecker and the common wood pecker with a red head are the same with those of the atlantic states, and are found exclusively in the timbered country. the blue crested corvus and the small white brested corvus are the nativs of a piney country invariably, being found as well on the rocky mountains as on this coast-. the lark is found in the plains only and are the same with those on the missouri and the illinois and not unlike what is called in virginia the old field lark. the large bluish brown or sandhill crain are found in the vally's of the rocky mountain in summer and autumn when they raise their young and in the winter and beginning of spring on this river below tide water and on this coast. they are the same as those common to the southern and western states where they are most generally known by the name of the sand hill crain. the vulture has already been discribed. there are two species of fly catch, a small redish brown with a short tail, round body, short neck, and short pointed beak, and the same as that with us sometimes called the wren. the d species does not remain all winter they have just returned and are of a yellowish brown colour. [lewis, march , ] wednesday march th . this morning we were visited by two parties of clatsops. they brought some fish a hat and some skins for sale most of which we purchased. they returned to their village in the evening. late in the evening the hunters returned from the kil-haw-a-nack-kle river which discharges itself into the head of the bay. they had neither killed nor seen any elk. they informed us that the elk had all gone off to the mountains a considerable distance from us. this is unwelcome information and reather allarming we have only days provision on hand, and that nearly spoiled. we made up a small assortment of articles to trade with the indians and directed sergt. pryor to set out early in the morning in a canoe with men, to ascend the columbia to the resort of the indian fishermen and purchase some fish; we also directed two parties of hunters to renew the chase tomorrow early. the one up the netul and the other towards point adams. if we find that the elk have left us, we have determined to ascend the river slowly and indeavour to procure subsistence on the way, consuming the month of march in the woody country. earlyer than april we conceive it a folly to attempt the open plains where we know there is no fuel except a few small dry shrubs. we shall not leave our quarters at fort clatsop untill the first of april, as we intended unless the want of subsistence compels us to that measure. the common snipe of the marshes and the small sand snipe are the same of those common to the atlantic coast tho the former are by no means as abundant here. the prarrow of the woody country is also similar to ours but not abundant. those of the plains of columbia are the same with those of the missouri, tho they are by no means so abundant. i have not seen the little singing lark or the large brown curloo so common to the plains of the missouri, but i beleive that the latter is an inhabitant of this country during summer from indian information. i have no doubt but what many species of birds found here in autumn and summer had departed before our arrival. [clark, march , ] wednesday march th . this morning we were visited by two parties of clatsops they brought some fish, a hat and some skins for sale most of which we purchased, they returned to their village in the evening with the returning tide. late in the evening the hunters returned from the kil-haw-d nack-kle river which discharges itself into the head of the bay. they had neither killed nor seen any elk. they informed us that the elk had all gorn off to the mountains a considerable distance from us. this is unwelcom information and reather alarming. we have only two days provisions on hand and that nearly spoiled. we made up a small assortment of articles to trade with the indians, and directed sergt natl. pryor to set out early in the morning in a canoe with two men, to assend the columbia to the resort of the indians fishermen and purchase some fish; we also derected two parties of hunters to renew the chase tomorrow early. the one up the netul, and the other towards point adams. if we find that the elk have left us, we have determined to assend the river slowly and endeaver to precure subsistance on the way, consumeing the month of march in the woody country, earlyer than april we conceive it a folly to attempt the open plains where we know there is no fuel except a fiew small dry shrubs. we shall not leave our quarters at fort clatsop untill the st of april as we intended, unless the want of subsistance compels us to that measure. the common snipe of the marshes and the small sand snipe are the same of those common to the atlantic coast tho the former are by no means as abundant here. the sparrow of the woody country is also similar to ours but not abundant. those of the plains of columbia are the same with those of the missouri. tho they are by no means so abundant. i have not seen the little singing lark or the large brown curloe so common to the plains of the missouri. but believe the curloe is an inhabitent of this countrey dureing summer from indian information and their attemps to mimick the notes of this fowl. i have no doubt but what maney species of birds found here in autumn and summer had departed before our arrival. the aquatic birds of this country or such as obtain their subsistence from the water, are the large blue and brown heron, fishing hawk, blue crested fisher, gulls of several species of the coast, the large grey gull of the columbia, comorant, loons of two species, white and the brown brant, small and large geese, small and large swans, the duckinmallard, canvis back duck, red headed fishing duck, black and white duck, little brown duck, black duck, two species of divers, blue winged teal, and some other species of ducks, two species of plevers. the hunters who were out last informed me that they discovered a very considerable fall in the kit-haw-a-nack-kle river on its main western fork at which place it falls abt. feet from the side of a mountain s. e. about miles from fort clatsop and nearly from its enterance into the bay by the meanderings of this river a high mountain is situated s ° w. about miles from fort clatsop on which there has been snow since nov. [lewis, march , ] thursday march th . this morning the fishing and hunting parties set out agreeably to their instructions given them last evening. at a.m. we were visited by comowoll and two of his children. he presented us with some anchovies which had been well cured in their manner. we foud them excellent. they were very acceptable particularly at this moment. we gave the old man some small articles in return. this we have found much the most friendly and decent savage that we have met with in this neighbourhood. hall had his foot and ankle much injured yesterday by the fall of a large stick of timber; the bones were fortunately not broken and i expect he will be able to walk again shortly. bratton is now weaker than any of the convalessants, all of whom recover slowly in consequence of the want of proper diet, which we have it not in our power to procure.- the aquatic birds of this country, or such as obtain their subsistence from the water, are the large blue and brown heron, fishing hawk, blue crested fisher, gulls of several species of the coast, the large grey gull of the columbia, cormorant, loons of two species, white, and the brown brant, small and large geese, small and large swan, the duckinmallard, canvis back duck, red headed fishing duck, black and white duck, little brown duck, black duck, two speceis of divers, blue winged teal, and some other speceis of ducks. [clark, march , ] thursday march th this morning, the fishing and hunting party's set out agreeably to their instructions given them last evening. at a.m. we were visited by commowoll and two boys sons of his. he presented us with some anchovies which had been well cured in their manner, we found them excellent. they were very acceptable perticularly at this moment. we gave the old mans sones a twisted wire to ware about his neck, and i gave him a par of old glovs which he was much pleased with. this we have found much the most friendly and decent indian that we have met with in this neighbourhood. hall had his foot and ankle much injured yesterday by the fall of a log which he had on his sholder; the bones are fortunately not broken, i expect he will be able to walk again shortly. bratten is now weaker than any of the convalessants, and complains verry much of his back, all of them recovering slowly in consequence of the want of proper diet, which we have it not in our power to precure. the large blue and brown herons or crains as they are usialy called in the u states are found below tide water. they are the same of those of the u, states. the fishing hawk with the crown of the head white, and back of a milkey white, and the blue crested or king fisher are found on every part of the columbia and its water along which we passed and are the same with those of the u, states. the fishing hawk is not abundant, particularly in the mountains. there are species of the larus or gull on this coast and river. st a small species the size of a pegion; white except some black spots about the head and the little bone on the but of the wing. d a species somewhat larger of a light brown colour, with a mealy coloured back. rd the large grey gull, or white larus with a greyish brown back, and light grey belly and breast, about the size of a well grown pullet, the wings are remarkably long in perpotion to the size of the body and it's under chap towards the extremity is gibbous and protuberant than in either of the other species. a white gull about the size of the second with a remarkable beak; adjoining the head and on the base of the upper chap there is an elivated orning of the same substance with the beak which forms the nostriels at a; it is somewhat in this form. the feet are webed and the legs and feet of a yellow colour. the form of the wings body &c are much that of the d species this bird was seen on haleys bay. the large grey gull is found on the columbian waters as high as the enterence of the koos koos ke and in common with the other species on the coast; the others appear confined to the tidewater, and the th species not so common as either of the others. the comorant is a large black duck which feeds on fish; i proceive no difference between it & these found in the rivers of the atlantic coasts. we met with as high up the river as the enterance of the chopunnish into the kooskooske river. they increased in numbers as we decended, and formed much the greatest portion of waterfowls which we saw on the columbia untill we reached tidewater, where they also abound but do not bear a similar proportion to the fowls found in this quarter. we found this bird fat and tolerably flavoured as we decended the columbia. [lewis, march , ] friday march th . the wind was so high that comowol did not leave us untill late this evening. labuish and drewyer returned at sunset having killed one elk only. they report that there are some scattering male elk in the neighbourhood of the place they killed this one or about miles up the netul on this side.--bratton is much wose today, he complains of a violent pain in the small of his back and is unable in consequence to set up. we gave him one of our flanel shirts, applyed a bandage of flannel to the part and bathed and rubed it well with some vollatile linniment which i prepared with sperits of wine, camphor, castile soap and a little laudinum. he felt himself better in the evening.--the large blue and brown herons, or crams as they are usually called in the u states are found on this river below tidewater. they are the same with those of the u states. the fishing hawk with the crown of the head white and back of a mealy white, and the blue crested or king fisher are found on every part of the columbia and it's waters and are the same with those of the u states. the fishing hawk is not abundant particularly in the mountains. there are four speceis of larus or gull on this coast and river, st a small speceis about the size of a pigeon; white except some black spots about the head and a little brown on the but of the wings, nd a speceis somewhat larger of a light brown colour with a whitish or mealy coloured back. rd the large grey gull, or white larus with a greyish brown back and a light grey belley and breast, about the size of a well grown pullet or reather larger. the wings are remarkably long in proportion to the size of the body and it's under chap towards the extremity is more gibbous and protuberant than in either of the other speceis. th a white gull about the size of the second with a remarkable beak; adjoining the head and at the base of the uper chap there is an elivated orning of the same substance with the beak which forms the nostrils; it is some what in this forma the feet are webbed and the legs and feet of a yellow colour. the form of the wings body &c are much that of the second species. the large grey gull is found on the river as high as the entrance of the kooskooske and in common with the other speceis on the coast; the others appear to be confined to tidewater; and the fourth speceis not so common as either of the others. the cormorant is a large black duck which feeds on fish; i perceive no difference between it and those found in the potomac and other rivers on the atlantic coast. tho i do not recollect seeing those on the atlantic so high up the rivers as those are found here. we first met with them on the kooskooske at the entrance of chopunnish river. they increased in quantity as we decended, and formed much the greatest portion of the waterfowl which we saw on the columbia untill we reached tidewater where they also abound but do not bear a similar proportion to the other fowls found in this quarter. there are two speceis of loons. st the speckled loon found on every part of the rivers of this country. they are the same size colours and form with those of the atlantic coast. the second speceis we first met with at the great falls of the columbia and from thence down. this bird is not more than half the size of the speckled loon, it's neck is long, slender and white in front. the colour of the body and back of the neck and head are of a dun or ash colour, the breast and belley are white. the beak is like that of the speckled loon and like them it cannot fly but flutters along on the top of the warter or dives for security when pursued. [clark, march , ] friday march th the wind was so high that comowol did not leave us untill late this evening. drewyer & labiesh returned at sunset haveing killed one elk only. they report that there are some scattering mail elk in the neighbourhood of the place they killed this one or about miles up the netul river on the west side-. bratten is much worst to day he complains of a violent pain in the small of his back, and is unable in consequence of it to set up. we gave him one of our flanel shirts. i applied a bandage of flanel to the part and rubed it well with some volatile linniment which was prepared with sperits of wine, camphire, sastile soap, and a little laudinum. he felt himself better in the evening at which time i repeated the linnement and bathed his feet to restore circulation which he complaind of in that part. there are two species of loons. st the speckled loon found on every part of the rivers of this quarter, they are the same size colour and form with those of the ohio, and atlantic coasts. the d species we first met with at the great falls of the columbia and from thence down. this bird is not more than half the size of the speckled loon, it's neck is long, slender and white in front. the colour of the body and back of the neck and head are of a dun or ash colour, the breast and belly are white. the back is like that of the speckled loon, and like them it cannot fly, but flutters along on the top of the water or dives for security when pursued. john shields reubin fields & robert frasure measured trees of the fur kind one feet around, appears sound, has but fiew limbs for feet it is east of the netul abt feet high. [lewis, march , ] saturday march th . bratton is much better today, his back gives him but little pain. collins returned early in the morning and informed us that he had killed three elk about five miles distant on the edge of the prarie in point adams. one of them fell in a deep pond of water and could not get it, the other two he butcherd and secured. he saw two large herds of elk in that quarter. we sent drewyer and joseph fields to hunt those elk. a party were also sent with labuish for the flesh of the elk which drewyer and himself had killed up the netul, they returned with it in the evening. shields, r. fields and frazier returned this evening from the kilhawanackkle unsuccessfull having seen no elk. mcneal and goodrich having recovered from the louis veneri i directed them to desist from the uce of mercury. the white brant is very common in this country particularly below tidewater where they remain in vast quantities during the winter. they feed like the swan gees &c on the grass roots and seeds which they find in the marshes. this bird is about the size of the brown brant or a third less than the common canadian or wild goose. the head is proportionably with the goose reather large; the beak also thicker shorter and of much the same form, being of a yellowish white colour except the edges of the chaps, which are frequently of a dark brown. the legs and feet are of the same form of the goose and are of a redish white or pale flesh colour. the tail is composed of sixteen feathers of equal length as those of the geese and brown brant are and bears about the same proportion in point of length. the eye is of a dark colour and nothing remarkable as to size. the wings are rether longer compared with those of the goose but not as much so as in the brown or pided brant. the colour of the plumage of this bird is unifomly a pure white except the large feathers of the extremities of the wings which are black. the large feathers of the st joint of the wing next to the body are white. the note of this bird differs essentially from that of the goose; it more resembles that of the brown brant but is somewhat different. it is like the note of young domestic goose which has not perfectly attained it's full note. the flesh of this bird is exceedingly fine, preferable to either the goose or pided brant.--the brown or pided brant are much the same size and form of the white only that their wings are considerably longer and more pointed. the plumage of the upper part of the body neck head and tail is much the colour of the canadian goose but reather darker in consequence of som dark brown feathers which are distributed and irregularly scattered throughout. they have not the white on the neck and sides of the head as the goose has nor is the neck darker than the body. like the goose there are some white feathers on the rump at the joining of the tail. the beak is dark and the legs and feet also dark with a greenish cast; the breast and belley are of a lighter colour than the back and is also irregularly intermixed with dark brown and black feathers which give it a pided appearance. the flesh of this bird is dark and in my estimation reather better than that of the goose. the habits of this bird are the same nearly with the goose and white brant with this difference that they do not remain in this climate in such numbers during the winter as the others, and that it sets out earlier in the fall season on it's return to the south and arrives later in the spring than the goose. i see no difference between this bird and that called simply the brant, common to the lakes the ohio and mississippi &c. the small goose of this country is reather less than the brant; it's head and neck like the brant are reather larger than that of the goose in proportion; their beak is also thicker and shorter. their notes are more like those of our tame gees; in all other rispects they are the same with the large goose with which, they so frequently ascociate that it was some time after i first observed this goose before i could determine whether it was a distinct speceis or not. i have now no hesitation in declaring them a distinct speceis. the large goose is the same of that common on the atlantic coast, and known by the appellation of the wild, or canadian goose. [clark, march , ] saturday march th bratten is much better this morning, his back givs him but little pain. collins returned early in the morning, and informed us that he had killed three elk about five miles distance on the edge of the prarie in point adams. one of them fell in a deep pond of water and he could not git to it. the other two he butchered and saved. he saw two large herds of elk in that quarter. we sent drewyer & jos. field to hunt these elk, a party was also sent with labiesh for the flesh of the elk which drewyer and himself had killd up the netul, they returned with it in the evening. shields, r. field and frasure returned this evening from the kilhawanackkle unsuccessfull haveing seen no elk. mcneal and goodrich haveing recovered from the louis veneri i detected them to desist from takeing the murcury or useing in future. willard is yet complaining and is low spirited. the white brant is very common in this country particularly below tide water where they remain in vast quantities dureing the winter. they feed like the swan goose &c. on the grass and roots & seeds which they find in the marshes this bird is a little larger than the brown brant and a fourth less than the common wild or canadian goose. the head is proportionably with the goose reather large; the beak thicker shorter and of the same form, being of a yellowish white colour except the edges of the chaps, which are frequently of a dark brown. the legs and feet are of the same form of the goose and are of a redish white or pail flesh colour. the tail is composed of sixteen feathers of equal length as those of the geese and brown brant are, and bears about the same perpotion in point of length. the eye is of a dark colour and nothing remarkable as to size. the wings are reather longer compared with those of the goose, but not as much so as is the brown or pieded brant. the colour of the plumage of this bird is uniformly a pure white except the large feathers of the extremities of the wings which are black. the large feathers of the st joint of the wing next to the body are white. the note of this bird differs essentially from that of the goose; it more resembles that of the brown brant but is somewhat different. it is like the note of a young domestic goose which has not perfectly attained its full note. the flesh of this bird is exceedingly fine, prefferable to either the goose or pieded brant. the neck is shorter in prpotion than that of the goose. the brown or pieded brant are nearly the size and much the same form of the white brante only that their wings are considerably longer and more pointed. the plumage of the upper part of the body, neck, head and tail is much the colour of the common or canadian goose but rather darker in consequence of some dark brown feathers which are distributed and irregularly scattered throughout. they have not the white on the neck and sides of the head as the goose has nor is the neck darker than the body. like the goose there are some white feathers on the rump at the junction of the tail. the beak, legs and feet are dark, with a greenish cast; the breast and belly are of a lighter colour than the back and is also intermixed, irregularly, with dark brown and black feathers which gives it a pieded appearance. the flesh of this bird is dark, and in my estimation reather better than that of the goose. the habits of this bird is nearly the same with the goose and white brant, with this difference that they do not remain in this climate in such numbers dureing the winter as the others. i see no difference between this bird and that called simpilly the brant common to the lakes and frequently seen on the ohio and mississippi in large flocks &c. the small goose of this country is reather less than the brant; it's head and neck like the brant are reather larger than that of the goose in purpotion; their beak is also thicker and shorter. their notes are more like those of our taim geese, in all other respect they are the same with the large goose with which, they so frequently ascoiete, that it was some time after i first observed this goose before i could whether it was a distinct speces or not. i have no hesitation now in declareing them a distinct species. the large goose is the same as that common to the ohio, and atlantic coast, and known by the appellation of the wild, or canadian goose. [lewis, march , ] sunday march th . this morning the men set out at daylight to go in gust of the elk which collins had killed, they returned with it at eleven a.m. bratton complains of his back being very painfull to him today; i conceive this pain to be something of the rheumatism. we still apply the linniment and flannel; in the evening he was much better. drewyer and joseph fields returned not having found any elk. sergt. pryor and the fishing party not yet arrived, suppose they are detained by the winds. visited by clatsop men who brought a dog some fish and a sea otter skin for sale. we suffered them to remain all night. we set shields at work to make some sacks of elk skin to contain various articles. the large swan is precisely the same common to the atlantic states. the small swan differs only from the larger one in size and it's note. it is about one fourth less and it's note entirely different. the latter cannot be justly immetated by the sound of letters nor do i know any sounds with which a comparison would be pertinent. it begins with a kind of whistleing sound and terminates in a round full note which is reather louder than the whistleing, or former part; this note is as loud as that of the large swan. from the peculiar whistleing of the note of this bird i have called it the whistleing swan it's habits colour and contour appear to be precisely those of the large swan. we first saw them below the great narrows of the columbia near the chilluckkittequaw nation. they are very abundant in this neighbourhood and have remained with us all winter. in number they are fully five for one of the large speceis. the duckinmallard or common large duck wich resembles the domestic duck are the same here with those of the u sts. they are abundant and are found on every part of the river below the mountains. they remain here all winter but i beleive they do not continue during winter far above tidewater. a beautifull duck and one of the most delicious in the world is found in considerable quantities in this neighbourhood during the autumn and winter. this is the same with that known in the delliware, susquehannah, and potomac by the name of the canvisback and in james river by that of shell-drake; in the latter river; however i am informed that they have latterly almost entirely disappeared. to the epicure of those parts of the union where this duck abounds nothing need be added in praise of the exqusite flavor of this duck. i have frequently eaten of them in several parts of the union and i think those of the columbia equally as delicious. this duck is never found above tide-water; we did not meet with them untill after we reached the marshey islands; and i beleive that they have already left this neighbourhood, but whether they have gone northwardly or southwardly i am unable to determin; nor do i know in what part of the continent they raise their young.--the read headed fishing duck is common to every part of the river and are found as well in the rocky mountains as elsewhere; in short this was the only duck we saw on the waters of the columbia within the mountains. they feed principally on crawfish and are the same in every rispect as those on the rivers in the mountains of the atlantic ocean. [clark, march , ] sunday mach th this morning the men set out at day light to go in quest of the elk which collins had killed, they returned at a.m. bratten complains of his backs being very painfull to him to day. we still apply the linnement & flannel; in the evening he was much better. jos. field & drewyer returned not haveing found any elk. sergt. pryor and the fishing party not yet returned, suppose they are detained by the winds. we are visited by clatsop men who brought a dog, some fish and a sea otter skin for sale. we suffered them to remain all night. we set shields at work to make some sacks of elk skin to contain my papers, and various articles which we wish kept dry. the large swan is precisely the same common to the missouri, mississippi and the atlantic states &c. the small swan differ only from the large one in size and it's note. it is about / th less, and its notes entirely different. the latter cannot be justly immetated by the sound of letters nor do i know any sound with which a comparison would be perti-nent. it begins with a kind of whistling sound and terminates in a round full note which is reather louder than the whistling, or former part; this note is as loud as that of the large swan. from the peculiar whistling of the note of this bird i have called it the whistleing swan. it's habits colour and contour appear to be precisely those of the large swan. we first saw them below the great narrows of the columbia near the chilluckkittequaw nation. they are very abundant in this neighbourhood and have remained with us all winter. in number they are fully five for one of the large species of the swan's. the duckinmallard are the same here with those of the u, states. they are abundant and are found on every part of the river below the mountains. they remain here all winter, but i believe they do not remain all winter above tide water.--a butifull duck and one of the most delicious in the world is found in considerable quantities in this neighbourhood dureing the autumn and winter. this is the same as that known in the dilliwar, susquehannah and potomac by the name of the canvisback and james river by that of shell-drake; in the latter river i am informed that they have latterly almost entirely disapeared. the epicures of those parts of the union where those ducks abound nothing need be added in prais of the exquisit flavor of this duck. i have eaten of them in several parts of the union and i think those of the columbia equally as delicious. this duck is never found above tide water; we did not meat with them untill after we reached the marshey islands; and i believe that they have already left this neighbourhood; but whether they are gorn northerly or southerly, i am unable to deturmine; nor do i know in what part of the country they rais their young the red headed fishing duck is common to every part of the river and are found as well in the rocky mountains as elsewhere; in short this was the only duck we saw within the mountain on the columbian waters. they feed principally on crawfish; and are the same in every respects as those on the ohio and rivers in the mountains of the atlantic ocian. the black and white duck are small about the size of the blue-winged teal, or reather larger. the mail is butifully varigated with black and white. the white occupies the side of the head, breast and back. black the tail, large feathers of the wing, two tufts of feathers which cover the upper part of the wings when folded, the neck and head. the female is darker or has much less white about her. i take this to be the same species of duck common to the ohio, as also the atlantic coast, and sometimes called the butter box. the back is wide and short, and as well as the legs of a dark colour. the flesh of this duck is verry well flavored i think superior to the duckinmallard. [lewis, march , ] monday march th . about p.m. it became fair and we sent out two parties of hunters on this side of the netul the one below and the other above. we also directed a party to set out early in the morning and pass the bay and hunt beyond the kilhowanackkle. from the last we have considerable hope as we have as yet hunted but little in that quarter. it blew hard all day. in the evening the indians departed. the hunters who were over the netull the other day informed us that they measured a pine tree, (or fir no ) which at the hight of a man's breast was feet in the girth about three feet higher, or as high as a tall man could reach, it was feet in the girth which was about the circumpherence for at least feet without a limb, and that it was very lofty above the commencement of the limbs. from the appearance of other trees of this speceis of fir and their account of this tree, i think it may be safely estimated at feet. it had every appearance of being perfectly sound. the black and white duck are small abut the size of the blue-winged teal, or reather larger. the male is beautifully variagated with black and white. the white occupys the sides of the head, breast and back, black, the tail feathers of the wings two tufts of feathers which cover the upper part of the wings when foalded, the neck and head. the female is darker or has much less white about her. i take this to be the same speceis of duck common to the atlantic coast, and frequently called the butterbox. the beak is wide and short, and as well as the legs, of a dark colour. the flesh of this duck is very well flavored. the brown duck is much in form like the duckinmallard, tho not much more than half it's size. the colour is an uniform mixture of yellowish and dark brown. there is nothing remarkable in the appearance of this duck it generally resorts the same kind of grassey marshes with the duckinmallard and feeds in a similar manner, on grass seed, and roots. both these ducks are common to the river for some distance above tide water as well as below. the black duck is about the size of the bluewinged teal. their colour is a duskey black the breast and belley somewhat lighter than the other parts, or a dark brown. the legs stand longitudinally with the body, and the bird when on shore stands of cours very erect. the legs and feet are of a dark brown, the toes are four on each foot, a short one at the heel and three long toes in front, which are unconnected with a web. the webs are attatched to each sides of the several joints of the toe, and divided by deep sinuses at each joint. the web assuming in the intermediate part an eliptical figure. the beak is about two inches long, streight, flated on the sides, and tapering to a sharp point. the upper chap somewhat longest, and bears on it's base at the joining of the head, a little conic protuberance of a cartelagenous substace, being redish brown at the point. the beak is of an ivory white colour. the eye dark. these ducks usually associate in large flocks, and are very noisey; their note being a sharp shrill whistle. they are usually fat and agreeably flavored; and feed principally on moss, and other vegitable productions of the water. we did not meet with them untill we reached tide-water, but i beleive them not exclusively confined to that district at all seasons, as i have noticed the same duck on many parts of the rivers ohio and mississippi. the gizzard and liver are also remarkably large in this fowl. the divers are the same with those of the atlantic states. the smaller species has some white feathers about the rump with no perceptable tail and is very active and cluck in it's motion; the body is of a redish brown. the beak sharp and somewhat curved like that of the pheasant. the toes are not connected but webed like those discribed of the black duck. the larger speceis are about the size of the teal and can flye a short distance which the small one scarcely ever attapts. they have a short tail. their colour is also an uniform brickredish brown, the beak is streight and pointed. the feet are of the same form of the other speceis and the legs are remarkably thin and flat one edge being in front. the food of both speceis is fish, and the flesh unfit for uce. the bluewinged teal are a very excellent duck, and are the same with those of the atlantic coast.--there are some other speceis of ducks which shall be hereafter discribed as i may hereafter have an opportunity to examine them. [clark, march , ] monday march th about p.m. it became fair and we sent out two parties of hunters on this side of the netul, one above and the other below, we also derected a party to set out early in the morning and pass meriwethers bay and hunt beyond the kilhow anak kle. from the last we have considerable hope, as we have as yet hunted but little in that quarter. it blew hard all day, in the evening the indians departed. the hunters, s. r. f. & f. who were over the netul the other day informed us that they measured a d tree of the fir speces (no. i) as high as a man could reach, was feet in the girth; it tapered but very little for about feet without any considerable limbs, and that it was a very lofty above the commmencement of the limbs. from the appearance of other species of fir, and their account of this tree, i think it might safely estimated at feet. it had every appearance of being perfectly sound in every part the brown duck is much in form like the duckinmallard, tho not much more than half it's size. the colour is one uniform mixture of yellowish and dark brown. there is nothing remarkable in the colour of this duck; it resorts the same kind of grassy marshes with the duckinmallard, and feeds in a similar manner, on grass, seeds & roots. both these ducks are common to the river for some distance above tide water as well as below. the black duck is about the size of the bluewinged teel. their colour is a duskey black the breast and belly somewhat lighter than the other parts, or a dark brown. the legs stand longitudianally with the body, and the bird when on shore stands very erect. the legs and feet are of a dark brown, the toes are four on each foot, a short one on the heel and three long toes in front which are unconnected with a web. the web is atached to each side of the several joints of the toes, and devided by deep sinuses at each joint. the web assumeing in the intermediate part an elipticle figure. the beak is about two inches long, streight, flated on the sides, and tapering to a sharp point. the upper chap somewhat longest and bears on its base at the joining of the head, a little conic protuberance of a cartelagenous substance, being redish brown. the beak is of a ivery white colour. the eye dark. these ducks usially associate in large flocks, and are very noisey; their note being a sharp shrill whistle. they are usially fat and tolerably flavoured; and feed on moss and other vegitable productions of the water. we did not meet with them untill we reached tide water, i have noticed the same duck on maney parts of the ohio an mississippi. the gizzard and liver are also remarkably large in this fowl-. the divers are the same with those of the atlantic states. the smaller species has some white feathers about the rump and no perceptable tail and is very active and quick in its motion; the body is of a redish brown. the beak sharp and somewhat curved like that of the pheasant the toes are not connected but webd. like those discribed of the black duck. the large species are about the size of the teal &c. the food of both those species is fish. and their flesh is unfit for use. the bluewinged teal are a very excellent duck, and are the same with those of the atlantic coast.--there are some other species of ducks which shall be hereafter discribd. as i may hereafter have an oppertunity of exameneing them. [lewis, march , ] tuesday march th . early this morning sergt. pryor arrived with a small canoe loaded with fish which he had obtained from the cathlahmah's for a very small part of the articles he had taken with him. the wind had prevented his going to the fisery on the opposite side of the river above the wackiacums, and also as we had suspected, prevented his return as early as he would otherwise have been back.--the dogs at the cathlahmahs had bitten the trong assunder which confined his canoe and she had gone a drift. he borrowed a canoe from the indians in which he has returned. he found his canoe on the way and secured her, untill we return the indians their canoe, when she can be brought back. sent sergt. gass and a party in surch of a canoe which was reported to have been sunk in a small creek on the opposite side of the netul a few miles below us, where she had been left by shields r. fields and frazier when they were lately sent out to hunt over the netul. they returned and reported that they could not find the canoe she had broken the cord by which she was attatched, and had been carried off by the tide. drewyer joseph fields and frazier set out by light this morning to pass the bay in order to hunt as they had been directed the last evening. we once more live in clover; anchovies fresh sturgeon and wappetoe. the latter sergt. pryor had also procured and brought with him. the reptiles of this country are the rattlesnake garter snake and the common brown lizzard. the season was so far advanced when we arrived on this side of the rocky mountains that but few rattlesnakes were seen i did not remark one particularly myself, nor do i know whether they are of either of the four speceis found in the different parts of the united states, or of that species before mentioned peculiar to the upper parts of the missouri and it's branches. the garter snake so called in the united states is very common in this country; they are found in great numbers on the open and sometimes marshey grounds in this neighbourhood. they differ not at all from those of the u states. the black or dark brown lizzard we saw at the rock fort camp at the commencement of the woody country below the great narrows and falls of the columbia; they are also the same with those of the united states. the snail is numerous in the woody country on this coast; they are in shape like those of the united states, but are at least five times their bulk. there is a speceis of water lizzard of which i saw one only just above the grand rapids of the columbia. it is about inches long the body is reather flat and about the size of a mans finger covered with a soft skin of a dark brown colour with an uneven surface covered with little pimples the neck and head are short, the latter terminating in an accute angular point and flat. the fore feet each four toes, the hinder ones five unconnected with a web and destitute of tallons. it's tail was reather longer than the body and in form like that of the musk-rat, first rising in an arch higher than the back and decending lower than the body at the extremity, and flated perpendicularly. the belley and under part of the neck and head were of a brick red every other part of the colour of the upper part of the body a dark brown. the mouth was smooth, without teeth. [clark, march , ] tuesday march th early this morning sergt. pryor arrived with a small canoe loaded with fish which he had obtained from the cath-lah-mah's for a very small part of the articles he had taken with him. the wind had prevented his going to the fishery on the opposit side of the river above the waukiecum's, and also as we had suspected, prevented his return as early as he otherwise would have been back. the dogs of the cathlahmah's had bitten the throng assunder which confined his canoe and she had gorn adrift. he borrowed a canoe from the indians in which he has returned. he found his canoe on the way and secured her, untill we return the indians their canoe--sent sergt. gass and a party in serch of one of our canoes which was reported to have been lost from a hunting party of shields r. field & frazier when they were last out on the opposit side of the netul. they returned and reported that they could not find the canoe which had broken the cord with which it was attached, and was caried off by the tide. drewyer jo. field & frazier set out by light this morning to pass the bay in order to hunt as they had been directed last evening. we once more live in clover; anchovies fresh sturgeon and wappatoe. the latter sergt. pryor had also procured a fiew and brought with him. the deer of this coust differ from the common deer, fallow deer or mule deer as has beformentiond. the mule deer we have never found except in rough country; they prefer the open grounds and are seldom found in the wood lands near the river; when they are met with in the wood lands or river bottoms and pursued, they imediately run to the hills or open country as the elk do, the contrary happens with the common deer. there are several differences between the mule and common deer as well as in form as in habits. they are fully a third larger in general, and the male is particularly large; think there is somewhat greater disparity of size between the male and the female of this species than there is between the male and female fallow deer; i am convinced i have seen a buck of this species twice the volume a buck of the common deer. the ears are peculiarly large, i measured those of a large buck which i found to be eleven inches long and / in width at the widest part; they are not so delicately formed, their hair in winter is thicker longer and of a much darker grey, in summer the hair is still coarser longer and of a paler red, more like that of the elk; in winter they also have a considerable quantity of very fine wool intermixed with the hair and lying next to the skin as the antelope has. the long hair which grows on the outer side of the first joint of the hind legs, and which in the common deer do not usially occupy more than inches in them occupy from to ; their horns also differ, those in the common deer consist of two main beams gradually deminishing as the points proceed from it, with the mule deer the horns consist of two beams which at the distance of or inches from the head divide themselves into two equal branches which again either divide into two other equal branches or terminate in a smaller, and two equal ones; haveing either , or points on a beam; the horn is not so rough about the base as the common deer, and are invariably of a much darker colour. the most strikeing difference of all, is the white rump and tail. from the root of the tail as a center there is a circular spot perfectly white of about / inches radius, which occupy a part of the rump and the extremities of buttocks and joins the white of the belley underneath; the tail which is usially from to inches long for the first or inches from its upper extremity is covered with short white hairs, much shorter indeed than those hairs of the body; from hence for about one inch further, the hair is still white but gradually becoms longer; the tail then termonates in a tissue of black hair of about inches long. from this black hair of the tail they have obtained among the french engages the appelation of the black tailed deer, but this i conceive by no means characteristic of the animal as much the larger portion of the tail is white. the ears and the tail of this animale when compared with those of the common deer, so well comported with those of the mule when compared with the horse, that we have by way of distinction adapted the appellation of the mule deer which i think much more appropriate. on the inner corner of each eye there is a drane (like the elk) or large recepticle which seams to answer as a drane to the eye which givs it the appearance of weeping, this in the common deer of the atlantic states is scercely proceptable but becoms more conspicious in the fallow deer, and still more so in the elk; this recepticle in the elk is larger than any of the pecora order with which i am acquainted. i have some reasons to believe that the calumet eagle is sometimes found on this side of the rocky mountains from the information of the indians in whose possession i have seen their plumage. those are the same with those of the missouri, and are the most butifull of all the family of the eagle of america it's colours are black and white with which it is butifully varigated. the feathers of the tail which is so highly prized by the indians is composed of twelve broad feathers of equal length those are white except about two inches at the extremity which is of a jut black. their wings have each a large circular white spot in the middle when extended. the body is variously marked with white and black. the form is much that of the common bald eagle, but they are reather smaller and much more fleet. this eagle is feared by all carnivarous birds, and on his approach all leave the carcase instantly on which they were feeding. it breads in the inaccessable parts of the mountains where it spends the summer, and decends to the plains and low country in the fall and winter when it is usially sought and taken by the nativs. two tails of this bird is esteemed by mandans, minnetares, ricaras, &c. as the full value of a good horse, or gun and accoutrements. with the osage & kanzas and those nations enhabiting countrys where this bird is more rare, the price is even double of that mentioned. with these feathers the nativs deckerate the stems of their sacred pipes or calumets; whence the name of calumet eagle, which has generally obtained among the engages. the ricaras have domesticated this bird in many instances for the purpose of obtaining its plumage. the nativs in every part of the continent who can precure those feathers attach them to their own hair and the mains and tail of their favorite horses by way of orniment. they also deckerate their own caps or bonnets with those feathers. the leather winged bat is found &c. [lewis, march , ] wednesday march th we sent a party again in surch of the perogue but they returned unsuccessful) as yesterday. sent one hunter out on this side of the netul, he did not return this evening. i beleive the callamet eagle is sometimes found on this side of the rocky mountains from the information of the indians in whose possession i have seen their plumage. these are the same with those of the missouri, and are the most beautiful) of all the family of the eagles of america. it's colours are black and white with which it is beautifully variagated. the feathers of the tail which are so highly prized by the indians is composed of twelve broad feathers of equal length. these are white except about inches at the extremity which is of a jut black. there wings have each a large circular white spot in the middle when extended. the body is variously marked with white and black. the form is much that of the common bald eagle, but they are reather smaller and much more fleet. this eagle is feared by all carnivorous birds, and on his approach all leave the carcase instantly on which they were feeding. it breads in the inaccessable parts of the mountains where it spends the summer, and decends to the plains and low country in the fall and winter when it is usually sought and taken by the natives. two tails of this bird is esteemed by the mandans minetares ricares, &c as the full value of a good horse, or gun and accoutrements. with the great and little osages and those nations inhabiting countries where this bird is more rare the price is even double of that mentioned. with these feathers the natives decorate the stems of their sacred pipes or callamets; whence the name, of callamet eagle, which has generally obtained among the engages. the ricares have domesticated this bird in many instancies for the purpose of obtaining it's plumage. the natives in every part of the con tinent who can procure these feathers attatch them to their own hair and the mains and tails of their favorite horses by way of ornament. they also decorate their war caps or bonnets with those feathers.--the leather winged batt common to the united states is also found on this side of the rocky mountains.--beside the fish of this coast and river already mentioned we have met with the following speceis viz. the whale, porpus, skaite, flounder, salmon, red charr, two speceis of salmon trout, mountain or speckled trout, and a speceis similar to one of those noticed on the missouri within the mountains, called in the eastern states, bottle-nose. i have no doubt but there are many other speceis of fish, which also exist in this quarter at different seasons of the year, which we have not had an oportunity of seeing. the shell fish are the clam, perrewinkle, common mussle, cockle, and a speceis with a circular flat shell. the whale is sometimes pursued harpooned and taken by the indians of this coast; tho i beleive it is much more frequently killed by runing fowl on the rocks of the coast in violent storms and thrown on shore by the wind and tide. in either case the indians preseve and eat the blubber and oil as has been before mentioned. the whalebone they also carefully preserve for sale.--our party are now furnished with pair of mockersons exclusive of a good portion of dressed leather.- [clark, march , ] wednesday march th we sent a party again in serch of the canoe but they returned unsucksessfull as yesterday sent one hunter out on this side of the netul he did not return this evening. our party are now furnished with par of mockersons exclusive of a good portion of dressed leather, they are also previded with shirts overalls capoes of dressed elk skins for the homeward journey. besides the fish of this coast and river already mentioned we have met with the following species. viz. the whale, porpus, skaite, flounder, salmon, red-carr, two specis of salmon trout, mountain or speckled trout, and a speceis similar to one of those noticed on the missouri within the mountains, called in the eastern states, bottle nose. i have no doubt but there are many other species of fish which also exist in this quarter at different seasons of the year, which we have not had an oppertunity of seeing. the shell fish are the clam, perriwinkle, common muscle, cockle, and a species with a circular flat shell. the whale is sometimes pursued harpooned and taken by the indians of this coast; tho i believe it is much more frequently killed by running on the rocks of the coast to s. s. w. in violent storms, and thrown on different parts of the coast by the winds and tide-. in either case the indians preserve and eat the blubber and oil as has been before mentioned. the whale bone they also carefully preserve for sale. the reptiles of this country are the rattle snake, garter snake a common brown lizzard. the season was so far advanced on this side of the rocky mountains that but fiew rattle snakes were seen, i did not remark one particularly my self, nor do i know if they are of either of the four species found in different parts of the united states, or of that species before observed only on the upper parts of the missouri & its branches. the garter snake so called in the u states is very common in this country, they are found in great numbers on the open and sometimes marshy grounds in this neighbourhood. they differ not at all from those of the united states. the black or dark brown lizzard we saw at the long narrows or commencement of the woody country on the columbia; they are also the same with those of the u, states. the snail is noumerous in the woodey country on this coast, they are in shape like those of the u, states, but are at least five times their bulk. there is a specis of water lizzard of which i only saw one just above the grand rapid of the columbia. it is about inches long the body is reather flat and about the size of a mans finger, covered with a soft skin of dark brown colour with an uneaven sufice covered with little pimples, the neck and head are short, the latter termonateing in an accute angular point and flat. the fore feet each have four toes, the hinder ones five unconnected with a web and destitute of tallons. it's tail was reather longer than the body, and in form like that of the muskrat, first riseing in an arch higher than the back, and decending lower than the body at the extremety, and flated perpindicularly. the belly and under part of the neck and head were of a brick red every other part of the colour of the upper part of the body are dark brown. the mouth was smooth without teeth. the horns of some of the elk have not yet fallen off and those of others have grown to the length of six inches. the latter are in the best order, from which it would seem that the pore elk retain their horns longer. [lewis, march , ] thursday march th . this morning drewyer jos feilds and frazier returned; they had killed two elk and two deer. visited by two cathlahmahs who left us in the evening. we sent drewyer down to the clatsop village to purchase a couple of their canoes if possible. sergt. pryor and a party made another surch for the lost peroge but was unsuccessfull; while engaged in surching for the perogue collins one of his party killed two elk near the netul below us. we sent sergt. ordway and a party for the flesh of one of the elk beyond the bay with which they returned in the evening. the other elk and two deer were at some distance. r. fields and thompson who set out yesterday morning on a hunting excurtion towards point adams have not yet returned. the horns of some of the elk have not yet fallen off, and those of others have shotten out to the length of six inches. the latter are in the best order, from which it would seem that the poor elk retain their horns longest. the porpus is common on this coast and as far up the river as the water is brackish. the indians sometimes gig them and always eat the flesh of this fish when they can procure it; to me the flavor is disagreeable. the skaite is also common to the salt water, we have seen several of them that had perished and were thrown out on the beach by the tide. the flounder is also an inhabitant of the salt water, we have seen them also on the beach where they had been left by the tide. the indians eat the latter and esteem it very fine. these several speceis are the same with those of the atlantic coast. the common salmon and red charr are the inhabitants of both the sea and rivers. the former is usually largest and weighs from to lbs. it is this speceis that extends itself into all the rivers and little creeks on this side of the continent, and to which the natives are so much indebted for their subsistence. the body of this fish is from / to feet long and proportionably broad. it is covered with imbricated scales of a moderate size and is variegated with irregular black spots on it's sides and gills. the eye is large and the iris of a silvery colour the pupil black. the rostrum or nose extends beyond the under jaw, and both the upper and lower jaws are armed with a single series of long teeth which are subulate and infleted near the extremities of the jaws where they are also more closely arranged. they have some sharp teeth of smaller size and same shape placed on the tongue which is thick and fleshey. the fins of the back are two; the first is plaised nearer the head than the ventral fins and has ____ rays, the second is placed far back near the tail is small and has no rays. the flesh of this fish is when in order of a deep flesh coloured red and every shade from that to an orrange yellow, and when very meager almost white. the roes of this fish are much esteemed by the natives who dry them in the sun and preserve them for a great length of time. they are about the size of a small pea nearly transparent and of a redish yellow colour. they resemble very much at a little distance the common currants of our gardens but are more yellow. this fish is sometimes red along the sides and belley near the gills particularly the male. the red charr are reather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon, the skales are also imbricated but reather large. the nostrum exceeds the lower jaw more and the teeth are neither as large nor so numerous as those of the salmon. some of them are almost entirely red on the belley and sides; others are much more white than the salmon and none of them are variagated with the dark spots which make the body of the other. their flesh roes and every other particular with rispect to their form is that of the salmon. this fish we did not see untill we decended below the grat falls of the columbia; but whether they are exclusively confined to this portion of the river or not at all seasons, i am unable to determine. [clark, march , ] thursday march th . this morning drewyer jos. fields and frazer returned; they had killed two elk and two deer. visited by two cath-lah-mars who left us in the evening. we sent drewyer down to the clatsop village to purchase a couple of their canoes if possible. sergt. pryor and a party made another serch for the lost canoe but was unsucksessfull; while engaged in serching for the canoe, collins one of his party killed two elk near the netul below us. we sent sergt. ordway and a party for the flesh of one of the elk beyond the bay with which they returned in the evening; the other elk and deer were at some distance--r. field and thompson who set out on a hunting excursion yesterday morning towards point adams have not yet returned. took equal altitudes to day this being the only fair day for sometime past. the porpus is common on this coast and as far up the river as the water is brackish. the indians sometimes gig them and always eat the flesh of this fish when they can precure it; to me the flavour is disagreeable. the skaite is also common to the salt water, i have seen several of them that had perished and were thrown out on the beach by the tide. the flounder is also an enhabitent of the salt water. we have seen them also on the beach where they had been left by the tide. the nativs eate the latter and esteem it very fine. these several species are the same of those of the atlantic coasts. the common salmon and red charr are the inhabitents of both the sea and river. the former is usially largest and weighs from to lbs. it is this species that extends itself into all the rivers and little creek on this side of the continent, and to which the nativs are so much indebted for their subsistence. the body of this fish is from / to feet long and perpotionably broad. it is covered with imbricated scales of a moderate size and is varigated with errigular black spots on its side and gills. the eye is large and the iris of a silvery colour the pupil black. the rostrum or nose extend beyond the under jaws, and both the upper and the lower jaw are armed with a single series of long teeth which are subulate and infleted near the extremities of the jaws where they are more closely arranged. they have some sharp teeth of smaller size and same shape on the tongue which is thick and fleshey. the fins of the back are two; the first is placed nearer the head than the venteral fins and has ____ rays, the second is placed far back near the tail is small and has no rays. the flesh of this fish when in order of a deep flesh coloured red and every shade from that to an orrange yellow, and when very meager almost white. the roe of this fish are much esteemed by the nativs, who dry them in the sun and preserve them for a great length of time. they are about the size of a small pea nearly transparrent and of a redish yellow colour. they resemble very much at a little distance the common current of our gardens but are more yellow. this fish is sometimes red along the sides and belly near the gills; particularly the male of this species. the red charr are reather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon, the skales are also embricated but reather large. the nostrum exceeds the lower jaw more and the teeth are neither so noumerous or large as those of the salmon. some of them are almost entirely red on the belly and sides; others are much more white than the salmon, and none of them are varigated with the dark spots which mark the body of the other. their flesh roe and every other particular with respect to their is that of the salmon. this fish we did not see untill we had decended below the great falls of the columbia; but whether they are exclusively confined to this portion of the river or not at all seasons, i am unable to determine. the salmon trout are seldom more than two feet in length, they are narrow in purportion to their length, at least much more so than the salmon & red charr. their jaws are nearly of the same length, and are furnished with a single series of subulate streight teeth, not so long or so large as those of the salmon, the mouth is wide, and the tongue is also furnished with some teeth. the fins are placed much like those of the salmon. at the great falls are met with this fish of a silvery white colour on the belly and sides, and a blueish light brown on the back and head. in this neighbourhood we have met with another species which does not differ from the other in any particular except in point of colour. this last is of a dark colour on the back, and its sides and belley are yellow with transverse stripes of dark brown. sometimes a little red is intermixed with these colours on the belly and sides towards the head. the flesh & roe is like those described of the salmon. the white species which we found below the falls were in excellent order when the salmon were entirely out of season and not fit for use. the species which we found here early in november on our arival in this quarter had declined considerably, reather more so than the red charr with which we found them asociated in the little riverlets and creeks. i think it may be safely asserted that the red charr and both species of the salmon trout remain in season longer in the fall of the year than the common salmon; but i have my doubt whether of the species of the salmon trout ever pass the great falls of the columbia. the indians tell us that the salmon begin to run early in the next month; it will be unfortunate for us if they do not, for they must form our principal dependance for food in assending the columbia above the falls and it's s. e. branch lewis's river to the mountains. the speckled or mountain trout are found in the waters of the columbia within the rocky mountains. they are the same of those found in the upper part of the missouri, but are not so abundent in the columbian waters as in that river. the bottle nose is also found on the waters of the columbia within the mountains. [lewis, march , ] friday march th . this morning we sent a party after the two elk which collins killed last evening, they returned with them about noon. collins, jos. fends and shannon went in quest of the flock of elk of which collins had killed those two. this evening we heared upwards of twenty shot, and expect that they have fallen in with and killed a number of them. reubin fields and thompson returned this evening unsuccessfull having killed one brant only. late in the evening drewyer arrived with a party of the clatsops who brought an indifferent canoe some hats and roots for sale. the hats and roots we purchased, but could not obtain the canoe without giving more than our stock of merchandize would lisence us. i offered him my laced uniform coat but he would not exchange. the salmon trout are seldom more than two feet in length they are narrow in proportion to their length, at least much more so than the salmon or red charr. the jaws are nearly of the same length, and are furnished with a single series of small subulate streight teeth, not so long or as large as those of the salmon. the mouth is wide, and the tongue is also furnished with some teeth. the fins are placed much like those of the salmon. at the great falls we met with this fish of a silvery white colour on the belley and sides, and a bluish light brown on the back and head. in this neighbourhood we have met with another speceis which dose not differ from the other in any particular except in point of colour. this last is of a dark colour on the back, and it's sides and belley are yellow with transverse stripes of dark brown. sometimes a little red is intermixed with these colours on the belley and sides towards the head. the eye, flesh, and roes are like those discribed of the salmon. the white speceis which we found below the falls was in excellent order when the salmon were entirely out of season and not fit for uce. the speceis which we found here on our arrival early in november had declined considerably, reather more so inded than the red charr with which we found them ascociated in the little rivulets and creeks. i think it may be safely asserted that the red charr and both speceis of the salmon trout remain in season longer in the fall of the year than the common salmon; but i have my doubts whether either of them ever pass the great falls of the columbia. the indians tell us that the salmon begin to run early in the next month; it will be unfortunate for us if they do not, for they must form our principal dependence for food in ascending the columbia, above the falls and it's s. e. branch to the mountains. the mountain or speckled trout are found in the waters of the columbia within the mountains. they are the same of those found in the upper part of the missouri, but are not so abundant in the columbia as on that river. we never saw this fish below the mountains but from the transparency and coldness of the kooskooske i should not doubt it's existing in that stream as low as it's junction with the s e. branch of the columbia.--the bottle nose is the same with that before mentioned on the missouri and is found exclusively within the mountains. [clark, march , ] friday march th this morning we dispatched a party after two elk which collins killed last evening, they returned with them about noon. jos. field, collins, go. shannon & labiesh went in quest of the gang of elk out of which collins had killed the yesterday. this evening we herd upwards of twenty shot and expect they have fallen in with and killed several of them. reuben field and thompson returned this evening unsuksessfull haveing killed only one brant. late in the evening geo. drewyer arrived with a party of the clatsops who brought an indifferent canoe, three hats and some roots for sale we could not purchase the canoe without giveing more than our stock of merchandize would lisence us. capt lewis offered his laced uniform coat for a verry indiferent canoe, agreeable to their usial way of tradeing his price was double. we are informed by the clatsops that they have latterly seen an indian from the quin-na-chart nation who reside six days march to the n. w and that four vessles were there and the owners mr. haley, moore, callamon & swipeton were tradeing with that noumerous nation, whale bone oile and skins of various discription. [lewis, march , ] saturday march th . this morning at ock. the hunters arrived, having killed four elk only. labuish it seems was the only hunter who fell in with the elk and having by some accedent lost the fore sight of his gun shot a great number of times but killed only the number mentioned. as the elk were scattered we sent two parties for them, they returned in the evening with four skins and the flesh of three elk, that of one of them having become putrid from the liver and pluck having been carelessly left in the animal all night. we were visited this afternoon by delashshelwilt a chinnook chief his wife and six women of his nation which the old baud his wife had brought for market. this was the same party that had communicated the venerial to so many of our party in november last, and of which they have finally recovered. i therefore gave the men a particular charge with rispect to them which they promised me to observe. late this evening we were also visited by catel a clatsop man and his family. he brought a canoe and a sea otter skin for sale neither of which we purchased this evening. the clatsops who had brought a canoe for sale last evening left us early this morning.- bratton still sick. there is a third speceis of brant in the neighbourhood of this place which is about the size and much the form of the pided brant. they weigh about / lbs. the wings are not as long nor so pointed as those of the common pided brant. the following is a likeness of it's head and beak. a little distance around the base of the beak is white and is suddonly succeeded by a narrow line of dark brown. the ballance of the neck, head, back, wings, and tail all except the tips of the feathers are of the bluish brown of the common wild goose. the breast and belly are white with an irregular mixture of black feathers which give that part a pided appearance. from the legs back underneath the tail, and arond the junction of the same with the body above, the feathers are white. the tail is composed of feathers; the longest of which are in the center and measure inches with the barrel of the quill; those sides of the tail are something shorter and bend with their extremeties inwards towards the center of the tail. the extremities of these feathers are white. the beak is of a light flesh colour. the legs and feet which do not differ in structure from those of the goose or brant of the other speceis, are of an orrange yellow colour. the eye is small; the iris is a dark yellowish brown, and pupil black. the note of this brant is much that of the common pided brant from which in fact they are not to be distinguished at a distance, but they certainly are a distinct speis of brant. the flesh of this fowl is as good as that of the common pided brant. they not remain here during the winter in such numbers as the white brant do, tho they have now returned in considerable quantities. first saw them below tide-water. [clark, march , ] saturday march th this morning at oclock the hunters arived, haveing killed four elk only. labiesh it seams was the only hunter who fell in with the elk and haveing by some accident lost the foresight of his gun shot a great number of times and only killed four. as the elk were scattered we sent two parties for them, they return in the evening with four skins, and the flesh of three elk, that of one of them haveing become putred from the liver and pluck haveing been carelessly left in the animal all night. we were visited this afternoon in a canoe feet i. wide by de-lash-hel-wilt a chinnook chief his wife and six women of his nation, which the old boud his wife had brought for market. this was the same party which had communicated the venereal to several of our party in november last, and of which.they have finally recovered. i therefore gave the men a particular charge with respect to them which they promised me to observe. late this evening we were also visited by ca-tel a clatsop man and his family. he brought a canoe and a sea otter skin for sale neither of which we could purchase of him. the clatsops which had brought a canoe for sale last evening left us this morning. bratten is still very weak and unwell. there is a third species of brant in the neighbourhood of this place which is about the size and much the form of the bided brant. they weigh about / lbs. the wings are not as long nor so pointed as the common pided brant. the following is a likeness of its head and beak. a little distance arround the base of the beak is white and is suddenly succeeded by a narrow line of dark brown. the ballance of the neck, head, back, wings and tail all except the tips of the feathers are of the blueish brown of the common wild goose, the breast and belly are white with an irregular mixture of black feathers which give that part a pided appearance. from the legs back underneath the tail, and around the junction of the same with the body above, the feathers are white. the tail is composed of feathers; the longest of which are in the center and measure inches with the barrel of the quill; those on the side of the tail are something shorter and bend with their extremities inwards towards the center of the tail. the extremities of these feathers are white. the beak is of a light flesh colour. the legs and feet which do not differ in structure from those of the goose or brant of the other species, are of an orrange yellow colour. the eye is small; the iris is of a dark yellowish brown, and puple black. the note of this brant is much that of the common pided brant from which in fact they are not to be distinguished at a distance, but they certainly are a distinct species of brant. the flesh of this fowl is as good as that of the common pided brant. they do not remain here dureing the winter in such numbers as the white brant do, tho they have now returned in considerable quantities. we first met with this brant on tide water. the clams of this coast are very small. the shells consist of two valves which open with a hinge, the shell is smooth thin and of an oval form or like that of the common muscle and of a skye blue colour; it is of every size under a inch & / in length, and hangs in clusters to the moss of the rocks, the nativs sometimes eate them.--the periwinkle both of the river and ocian are similar to those found in the same situation on the atlantic.--there is also an animal which inhabits a shell perfectly circular about inches in diameetor, thin and entire on the marjin, convex and smooth on the upper side, plain on the under part and covered with a number of minute capillary fibers by means of which it attaches itself to the sides of the rocks. the shell is thin and consists of one valve. a small circular opperture is formed in the center of the under shell the animal is soft and boneless &c.-. [lewis, march , ] sunday march th . not any occurrence worthy of relation took place today. drewyer and party did not return from the cathlahmahs this evening as we expected. we suppose he was detained by the hard winds of today. the indians remained with us all day, but would not dispose of their canoes at a price which it was in our power to give consistently with the state of our stock of merchandize. two handkercheifs would now contain all the small articles of merchandize which we possess; the ballance of the stock consists of blue robes one scarlet do. one uniform artillerist's coat and hat, five robes made of our large flag, and a few old cloaths trimed with ribbon. on this stock we have wholy to depend for the purchase of horses and such portion of our subsistence from the indians as it will be in our powers to obtain. a scant dependence indeed, for a tour of the distance of that before us. the clam of this coast are very small. the shell consists of two valves which open with a hinge. the shell is smooth thin of an oval form or like that of the common mussle, and sky blue colour. it is about / inches in length, and hangs in clusters to the moss of the rocks. the natives sometimes eat them. the perewinkle both of the river and ocean are similar to those found in the same situations on the atlantic coast. the common mussle of the river are also the same with those in the rivers of the atlantic coast. the cockle is small and also much the same of the atlantic. there is also an animal which inhabits a shell perfectly circular about inches in diameter, thin and entire on the margin, convex and smooth on the upper side, plain on the under part and covered with a number minute capillary fibers by means of which it attatches itself to the sides of the rocks. the shell is thin and consists of one valve. a small circular apperture is formed in the center of the under shell. the animal is soft & boneless. the white salmon trout which we had previously seen only at the great falls of the columbia has now made it's appearance in the creeks near this place. one of them was brought us today by an indian who had just taken it with his gig. this is a likness of it; it was feet inches long, and weighed lbs. the eye is moderately large, the puple black and iris of a silvery white with a small addmixture of yellow, and is a little terbid near it's border with a yellowish brown. the position of the fins may be seen from the drawing, they are small in proportion to the fish. the fins are boney but not pointed except the tail and back fins which are a little so, the prime back fin and ventral ones, contain each ten rays; those of the gills thirteen, that of the tail twelve, and the small fin placed near the tail above has no bony rays, but is a tough flexable substance covered with smooth skin. it is thicker in proportion to it's width than the salmon. the tongu is thick and firm beset on each border with small subulate teeth in a single series. the teeth of the mouth are as before discribed. neither this fish nor the salmon are caught with the hook, nor do i know on what they feed. [clark, march , ] sunday march th not any occurrence worthy of relation took place today. drewyer and party did not return from the cath lah mah's this evening as we expected. we suppose he was detained by the hard winds today. the indians remain with us all day, but would not dispose of their canoe at a price which it was in our power to give consistently with the state of our stock of merchandize. one handkerchief would contain all the small articles of merchandize which we possess, the ballance of the stock consists of small blue robes or blankets one of scarlet. one uniform artillerist's coat and hat, robes made of our larg flag, and a fiew our old clothes trimed with ribon. on this stock we have wholy to depend for the purchase of horses and such portion of our subsistence from the indians as it will be in our power to obtain. a scant dependence indeed for the tour of the distance of that before us. the pellucid jelly like substance, called the sea nettle i found in great abundance along the strand where it has been thrown up by the waves and tide, and adheres to the sand. there are two species of the fuci, or (seawead) seawreck which we also found thrown up by the waves. the st specie at one extremity consists of a large sesicle or hollow vessale which would contain from one to gallons, of a conic form, the base of which forms the extreem end and is convex and globelar bearing on its center some short broad and irregular fibers. the substance is about the consistancy of the rind of a citron mellon and / of an inch thick, yellow celindrick, and regularly tapering the tube extends to or feet and is then termonated with a number of branches which are flat / inch in width, rough particularly on the edges, where they are furnished with a number of little oval vesicles or bags of the size of a pigions egg. this plant seams to be calculated to float at each extremity, while the little end of the tube from whence the branches proceed, lies deepest in the water. the white salmon trout which we had previously seen only at the great falls of the columbia, or a little below the great falls, has now made its appearance in the creeks near this place. one of them was brought us to day by an indian who had just taken it with his gig. this is a likeness of it; it was feet inches long, and weighed ten pounds. the eye is moderately large, the puple black with a small admixture of yellow and the iris of a silvery white with a small admixture of yellow and a little tirbed near its border with a yellowish brown. the position of the fins may be seen from the drawing, they are small in perpotion to the fish. the fins are honey but not pointed except the tail and back fins which are a little so, the prime back fin and venteral ones, contain each ten rays; those of the gills twelve, and the small finn placed near the tail above has no long rays, but is a tough flexable substance covered with smooth skin. it is thicker in perpotion to it's width than the salmons. the tongue is thick and firm beset on each border with small subulate teeth in a single series. the teeth of the mouth are as before discribed. neither this fish nor the salmon are cought with the hook, nor do i know on what they feed.-now begin to run &c. &c. [lewis, march , ] monday march th . catel and his family left us this morning. old delashelwilt and his women still remain they have formed a camp near the fort and seem to be determined to lay close sege to us but i beleive notwithstanding every effort of their wining graces, the men have preserved their constancy to the vow of celibacy which they made on this occasion to capt c. and myself. we have had our perogues prepared for our departer, and shal set out as soon as the weather will permit. the weather is so precarious that we fear by waiting untill the first of april that we might be detained several days longer before we could get from this to the cathlahmahs as it must be calm or we cannot accomplish that part of our rout. drewyer returned late this evening from the cathlahmahs with our canoe which sergt. pryor had left some days since, and also a canoe which he had purchased from those people. for this canoe he gave my uniform laced coat and nearly half a carrot of tobacco. it seems that nothing excep this coat would induce them to dispose of a canoe which in their mode of traffic is an article of the greatest value except a wife, with whom it is equal, and is generally given in exchange to the father for his daughter. i think the u states are indebted to me another uniform coat, for that of which i have disposed on this occasion was but little woarn.--we yet want another canoe, and as the clatsops will not sell us one at a price which we can afford to give we will take one from them in lue of the six elk which they stole from us in the winter.- the pellucid jellylike substance, called the sea-nettle is found in great abundance along the strad where it has been thrown up by the waves and tide. there are two speceis of the fuci or seawreckwhich we also find thrown up by the waves. the st speceis at one extremity consists of a large vesicle or hollow vessell which would contain from one to two gallons, of a conic form, the base of which forms the extreem end and is convex and globelar bearing on it's center some short broad and irregular fibers. the substance is about the consistence of the rind of a citron mellon and / of an inch thick. the rihind is smooth. from the small extremity of the cone a long, hollow, celindrick, and regularly tapering tube extends to or thirty feet and is then terminated with a number of branches which are flat / an inch in width rough particular on the edges where they are furnished with a number of little ovate vesicles or bags of the size of a pigeon's egg. this plant seems to be calculated to float at each extremity while the little end of the tube from whence the branches proceed, lies deepest in the water. the other speceis i have never seen but capt. clark who saw it on the coast towards the killamucks informed me that it resembled a large pumpkin, it is solid and it's specific gravity reather greater than the water, tho it is sometimes thrown out by the waves. it is of a yellowis brown colour. the rhind smooth and consistence harder than that of a pumpkin tho easily cut with a knife. there are some dark brown fibers reather harder than any other part which pass longitudinally through the pulp or fleshey substance wich forms the interior of this marine production.the following is a list of the names of the commanders of vessels who visit the entrance of the columbia river in the spring and autumn fror the purpose of trading with the natives or hunting elk. these names are spelt as the indians pronounce them. mr. haley, their favorite trader visits them in a vessel with three masts, and continues some time youens, visits in a masted vessel- trader tallamon do. do. no trader callallamet do. do. trader. has a wooden leg. swipton do. do. trader. moore do. do. do. mackey do. do. do. washington do. do. do. mesship do. do. do. davidson do. no trader hunts elk jackson do. masted vessel trader bolch do. do. do. skelley do. do. do. tho he has been gone some years. he has one eye. [clark, march , ] monday march th catel and his family left us this morning. old delashelwill and his women still remain, they have formed a camp near the fort and seam determined to lay close sege to us, but i believe notwithstanding every effort of their wining graces, the men have preserved their constancy to the vow of celibacy which they made on this occasion to capt l. and my self. we have had our canoes prepared for our departure, and shall set out as soon as the weather will permit. the weather is so precarious that we fear by waiting untill the first of april that we might be detained several days longer before we could get from this to the cath-lah-mahs, as it must be calm or we cannot accomplish that part of the rout in our canoes. drewyer returned late this evening from the cath-lah-mahs with our indian canoe which sergt. pryor had left some days since, and also a canoe, which he had purchased from those people. for this canoe he gave captn. lewis's uniform laced coat and nearly half a carrot of to-bacco. it seams that nothing except this coat would induce them to dispose of a canoe which in their mode of traffic is an article of the greatest value except a wife, with whome it is nearly equal, and is generally given in exchange to the father for his daughter. i think that the united states are injustice indebted to captn lewis another uniform coat for that of which he has disposed of on this ocasion, it was but little worn. we yet want another canoe as the clatsops will not sell us one, a proposition has been made by one of our interpt and several of the party to take one in lieu of elk which they stole from us this winter &c. [lewis, march , ] tuesday march th . drewyer was taken last night with a violent pain in his side. capt. clark blead him. several of the men are complaining of being unwell. it is truly unfortunate that they should be sick at the moment of our departure. we directed sergt. pryor to prepare the two canoes which drewyer brought last evening for his mess. they wanted some knees to strengthen them and several cracks corked and payed. he completed them except the latter operation which the frequent showers in the course of the day prevented as the canoes could not be made sufficiently dry even with the assistance of fire. comowooll and two cathlahmahs visited us today; we suffered them to remain all night. this morning we gave delashelwilt a certificate of his good deportment &c. and also a list of our names, after which we dispatched him to his village with his female band. these lists of our names we have given to several of the natives and also paisted up a copy in our room. the object of these lists we stated in the preamble of the same as follows (viz) "the object of this list is, that through the medium of some civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the informed world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the u states in may to explore the interior of the continent of north america, did penetrate the same by way of the missouri and columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the pacific ocean, where they arrived on the th november , and from whence they departed the ____ day of march on their return to the united states by the same rout they had come out."--on the back of some of these lists we added a sketch of the connection of the upper branches of the missouri with those of the columbia, particularly of it's main s. e. branch, on which we also delienated the track we had come and that we meant to pursue on our return where the same happened to vary. there seemed so many chances against our government ever obtaining a regular report, though the medium of the savages and the traders of this coast that we declined making any. our party are also too small to think of leaving any of them to return to the u states by sea, particularly as we shall be necessarily divided into three or four parties on our return in order to accomplish the objects we have in view; and at any rate we shall reach the united states in all human probability much earlier than a man could who must in the event of his being left here depend for his passage to the united states on the traders of the coast who may not return immediately to the u states or if they should, might probably spend the next summer in trading with the natives before they would set out on their return. this evening drewyer went inquest of his traps, and took an otter. joseph fields killed an elk.--the indians repeated to us the names of eighteen distinct tribes residing on the s. e. coast who spoke the killamucks language, and beyound those six others who spoke a different language which they did not comprehend. [clark, march , ] tuesday march th drewyer was taken last night with a violent pain in his side. i bled him. several of the men are complaining of being unwell. it is truly unfortunate that they should be sick at the moment of our departure. derected sergt. pryor to prepare the two indian canoes which we had purchased for his mess. they wanted some knees to strengthen them, and several cracks corked and payed. he compleated them except paying. the frequent showers of rain prevented the canoes drying sufficient to pay them even with the assistance of fire. commorwool and two cathlahmahs visited us to day; we suffered them to remain all night. this morning we gave delashelwilt a certificate of his good deportment &c. and also a list of our names, after which we dispatched him to his village with his female band. those list's of our names we have given to several of the nativs, and also pasted up a copy in our room. the object of these lists we stated in the preamble of the same as follows viz: "the object of this list is, that through the medium of some civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the informed world, that the party consisting of the persons whoes names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the united states in may , to explore the interior of the continent of north america, did penetrate the same by way of the missouri and columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the pacific ocian, where they arrived on the th of november , and from whence they departed the ____ day of march on their return to the united states by the same rout they had come out." on the back of lists we added a sketch of the continent of the upper branches of the missouri with those of the columbia, particularly of its upper n. e. branch or lewis's river, on which we also delienated the track we had came and that we ment to pursue on our return, when the same happened to vary. there seemes so many chances against our governments ever obtaining a regular report, through the medium of the savages, and the traders of this coast that we decline makeing any. our party are too small to think of leaveing any of them to return to the unt. states by sea, particularly as we shall be necessarily devided into two or three parties on our return in order to accomplish the object we have in view; and at any rate we shall reach the u, states in all humain probabillity much earlier than a man could who must in the event of his being left here depend for his passage to the u, state on the traders of the coast, who may not return imediately to the u, states. or if they should, might probably spend the next summer in tradeing with the nativs before they would set out on their return. this evening drewyer went in quest of his traps, and took an otter. joseph field killd and elk.--the indians repeated to us eighteen distinct nations resideing on the s s. e coast who speak the kil a mox language or understand it. and beyend those six other nations which speak a different language which they did not comprehend. the d species of seawreck which i saw on the coast to the s. s. e. near the kil a mox nation. it resembles a large pumpkin, it is solid and it's specific gravity reather greater than the water, tho it is sometimes thrown out by the waves. it is of a pale yellowish brown colour. the rhind smooth and consistency harder than that of the pumpkin, tho easily cut with a knife. there are some fibers of a lighter colour and much harder than any other part which pass longitudinally through the pulp or fleshey substance which forms the interior of this marine production-- [lewis, march , ] wednesday march th . it continued to rain and hail today in such manner that nothing further could be done to the canoes. a pratry were sent out early after the elk which was killed yesterday with which they returned in the course of a few hours. we gave comowooll alias connia, a cirtificate of his good conduct and the friendly intercourse which he has maintained with us during our residence at this place; we also gave him a list of our names.do not. the killamucks, clatsops, chinnooks, cathlahmahs and wac-ki-a-cums resemble each other as well in their persons and dress as in their habits and manners.--their complexion is not remarkable, being the usual copper brown of most of the tribes of north america. they are low in statue reather diminutive, and illy shapen; possessing thick broad flat feet, thick ankles, crooked legs wide mouths thick lips, nose moderately large, fleshey, wide at the extremity with large nostrils, black eyes and black coarse hair. their eyes are sometimes of a dark yellowish brown the puple black. i have observed some high acqualine noses among them but they are extreemty rare. the nose is generally low between the eyes.--the most remarkable trait in their physiognomy is the peculiar flatness and width of forehead which they artificially obtain by compressing the head between two boards while in a state of infancy and from which it never afterwards perfectly recovers. this is a custom among all the nations we have met with west of the rocky mountains. i have observed the heads of many infants, after this singular bandage had been dismissed, or about the age of or eleven months, that were not more than two inches thick about the upper edge of the forehead and reather thiner still higher. from the top of the head to the extremity of the nose is one streight line. this is done in order to give a greater width to the forehead, which they much admire. this process seems to be continued longer with their female than their mail children, and neither appear to suffer any pain from the operation. it is from this peculiar form of the head that the nations east of the rocky mountains, call all the nations on this side, except the aliahtans or snake indians, by the generic name of flat heads. i think myself that the prevalence of this custom is a strong proof that those nations having originally proceeded from the same stock. the nations of this neighbourhood or those recapitulated above, wear their hair loosly flowing on the back and sholders; both men and women divide it on the center of the crown in front and throw it back behind the ear on each side. they are fond of combs and use them when they can obtain them; and even without the aid of the comb keep their hair in better order than many nations who are in other rispects much more civilized than themselves.--the large or apparently swolen legs particularly observable in the women are obtained in a great measure by tying a cord tight around the ankle. their method of squating or resting themselves on their hams which they seem from habit to prefer to siting, no doubt contributes much to this deformity of the legs by preventing free circulation of the blood. the dress of the man consists of a smal robe, which reaches about as low as the middle of the thye and is attatched with a string across the breast and is at pleasure turned from side to side as they may have occasion to disencumber the right or left arm from the robe entirely, or when they have occasion for both hands, the fixture of the robe is in front with it's corners loosly hanging over their arms. they sometimes wear a hat which has already been discribed. this robe is made most commonly of the skins of a small animal which i have supposed was the brown mungo, tho they have also a number, of the skins of the tiger cat, some of those of the elk which are used principally on their war excursions, others of the skins of the deer panther and bear and a blanket wove with the fingers of the wool of the native sheep. a mat is sometimes temperarily thrown over the sholders to protect them from rain. they have no other article of cloathing whatever neither winter nor summer. and every part except the sholders and back is exposed to view. they are very fond of the dress of the whites, which they wear in a similar manner when they can obtain them, except the shoe which i have never seen woarn by any of them. they call us pah-shish'e-ooks, or cloth men. the dress of the women consists of a robe, tissue, and sometimes when the weather is uncommonly cold, a vest. their robe is much smaller than that of the men, never reaching lower than the waist nor extending in front sufficiently far to cover the body. it is like that of the men confined across the breast with a string and hangs loosly over the sholders and back. the most esteemed and valuable of these robes are made of strips of the skins of the sea otter net together with the bark of the white cedar or silk-grass. these strips are first twisted and laid parallel with each other a little distance assunder, and then net or wove together in such manner that the fur appears equally on both sides, and unites between the strands. it make a warm and soft covering. other robes are formed in a similar manner of the skin of the rackoon, beaver &c. at other times the skin is dressed in the hair and woarn without any further preperation. in this way one beaver skin, or two of those of the raccoon or tiger catt forms the pattern of the robe. the vest is always formed in the manner first discribed of their robes and covers the body from the armpits to the waist, and is confined behind, and destitute of straps over the sholder to keep it up. when this vest is woarn the breast of the woman is concealed, but without it which is almost always the case, they are exposed, and from the habit of remaining loose and unsuspended grow to great length particularly in aged women in many of whom i have seen the hubby reach as low as the waist. the garment which occupys the waist, and from thence as low as nearly to the knee before and the ham, behind, cannot properly be denominated a petticoat, in the common acceptation of that term; it is a tissue of white cedar bark, bruised or broken into small shreds, which are interwoven in the middle by means of several cords of the same materials, which serve as well for a girdle as to hold in place the shreds of bark which form the tissue, and which shreds confined in the middle hang with their ends pendulous from the waist, the whole being of sufficient thickness when the female stands erect to conceal those parts usually covered from formiliar view, but when she stoops or places herself in many other attitudes, this battery of venus is not altogether impervious to the inquisitive and penetrating eye of the amorite. this tissue is sometimes formed of little twisted cords of the silk grass knoted at their ends and interwoven as discribed of the bark. this kind is more esteemed and last much longer than those of bark. they also form them of flags and rushes which are woarn in a similar manner. the women as well as the men sometimes cover themselves from the rain by a mat woarn over the sholders. they also cover their heads from the rain sometimes with a common water cup or basket made of the cedar bark and beargrass. these people seldom mark their skins by puncturing and introducing a colouring matter. such of them as do mark themselves in this manner prefer their legs and arms on which they imprint parallel lines of dots either longitudinally or circularly. the women more frequently than the men mark themselves in this manner. the favorite ornament of both sexes are the common coarse blue and white beads which the men wear tightly wound arond their wrists and ankles many times untill they obtain the width of three or more inches. they also wear them in large rolls loosly arond the neck, or pendulous from the cartelage of the nose or rims of the ears which are purforated for the purpose. the women wear them in a similar manner except in the nose which they never purforate. they are also fond of a species of wampum which is furnished them by a trader whom they call swipton. it seems to be the native form of the shell without any preperation. this shell is of a conic form somewhat curved, about the size of a raven's quill at the base, and tapering to a point which is sufficiently large to permit to hollow through which a small thred passes; it is from one to / inches in length, white, smooth, hard and thin. these are woarn in the same manner in which the beads are; and furnish the men with their favorite ornament for the nose. one of these shells is passed horizontally through the cartilage of the nose and serves frequently as a kind of ring to prevent the string which suspends other ornaments at the same part from chafing and freting the flesh. the men sometimes wear collars of bears claws, and the women and children the tusks of the elk variously arranged on their necks arms &c. both males and females wear braslets on their wrists of copper brass or iron in various forms. i think the most disgusting sight i have ever beheld is these dirty naked wenches. the men of these nations partake of much more of the domestic drudgery than i had at first supposed. they collect and prepare all the fuel, make the fires, assist in cleansing and preparing the fish, and always cook for the strangers who visit them. they also build their houses, construct their canoes, and make all their wooden utensils. the peculiar provence of the woman seems to be to collect roots and manufacture various articles which are prepared of rushes, flags, cedar bark, bear grass or waytape. the management of the canoe for various purposes seems to be a duty common to both sexes, as also many other occupations which with most indian nations devolves exclusively on the woman. their feasts which they are very fond are always prepared and served by the men. comowool and the two cathlahmahs left us this evening. it continued to rain so constantly today that sergt. pryor could not pitch his canoes. [clark, march , ] wednesday march th inds. descd. it continued to rain and hail in such a manner that nothing could be done to the canoes. a party were sent out early after the elk which was killed last evening, with which they returned in the course of a fiew hours, we gave commorwool alias cania, a certificate of his good conduct and the friendly intercourse which he has maintained with us dureing our residence at this place; we also gave him a list of our names &c.--the kilamox, clatsops, chinnooks, cath lah mahs wau ki a cum and chiltz i-resemble each other as well in their persons and dress as in their habits and manners.--their complexion is not remarkable, being the usial copper brown of the tribes of north america. they are low in statue reather diminutive, and illy shaped, possessing thick broad flat feet, thick ankles, crooked legs, wide mouths, thick lips, noses stuk out and reather wide at the base, with black eyes and black coarse hair. i have observed some high acqualine noses among them but they are extreemly reare. the most remarkable trate in their physiognamy is the peculiar flatness and width of the forehead which they artificially obtain by compressing the head between two boards while in a state of infancy, and from which it never afterwards perfectly recovers. this is a custom among all the nations, we have met with west of the rocky mountains. i have observed the head of maney infants, after this singular bandage had been dismissed, or about the age of or months, that were not more than two inches thick about the upper part of the forehead and reather thiner still higher. from the top of the head to the extremity of the nose is one streight line. this is done in order to give a greater width to the forehead, which they much admire. this process seams to be continued longer with their female than their male children, and neither appears to suffer any pain from the opperation. it is from this peculiar form of the head that the nations east of the rocky mountains, call all the nations on this side, except aliahtans, so-so-ne, or snake indians by the general name of flat heads. i think my self that the provalence of this custom is a strong proof of those nations haveing originally proceeded from the same stock. the nations of this neighbourhood or those recpitulated above, ware their hair loosly flowing on their back and sholders; both men and women divide it on the center of the crown in front and throw it back behind the ear on each side. they are fond of combs and use them when they can obtain them; and even without the aid of combs keep their in better order, than inaney nations who are in other respects much more civilized than themselves. the large or apparently sweled legs particularly observable in the women, are obtained in a great measure by tying a cord tight around the leg above the ancle bone. their method of squating or resting themselves on their hams which they seam from habit to prefer to setting, no doubt contributes much to this deformity of the legs by preventing free circulation of the blood. this is also the custom of the nations above. the dress of the men like those above on the columbia river consists of a small robe, which reaches about as low as the middle of the thye and is attatched with a string across the breast and is at pleasure turned from side to side as they may have an occasion to disincumber the right or left arm from the robe entirely, or when they have occasion for both hands, the fixture of the robe is in front with it's corner loosly hanging over their arms. they sometimes wear a hat which have already been discribed (see th jany.) their robes are made most commonly of the skins of a small animal which i have supposed was the brown mungo, tho they have also a number of the skins of the tiger cat, some of those of the elk which are used principally on their war excursions, others of the skins of deer, panthor, bear, and the speckle loon, and blankets wove with the fingers of the wool of the native sheep. and some of those on the sea coast have robes of beaver and the sea otter. a mat is sometimes temperaly thrown over the sholders to protect them from rain. they have no other article of cloathing whatever neither winter nor summer, and every part except the sholders and back is exposed to view. they are very fond of the dress of the whites, which they ware in a similar manner when they can obtain them, except the shoe or mockerson which i have never seen worn by any of them. they call us pah-shish-e-ooks or cloath men. the dress of the women consists of a roab, tissue, and sometimes when the weather is uncommonly cold, a vest. their robe is much smaller than that of the men, never reaching lower than the waist nor extending in front sufficiently far to cover the body. it is like that of the men confined across the breast with a string and hangs loosely over the sholders and back. the most esteemed & valuable of those robes are made of strips of the skin of the sea otter net together with the bark of the white cedar or silk grass. these fish are first twisted and laid parallel with each other a little distance asunder, and then net or wove together in such a manner that the fur appears equally on both sides, and united between the strands. it makes a worm and soft covering. other robes are formed in a similar manner of the skins of the rackoon, beaver &c. at other times the skins is dressed in the hair and worn without any further preperation. in this way one beaver skin or two of the rackoon or one of the tiger cat forms a vest and covers the body from the armpits to the waist, and is confined behind, and destitute of straps over the sholder to keep it up. when this vest is worn the breast of the woman in consealed, but without it which is almost always the case, they are exposed, and from the habit of remaining loose and unsuspended grow to great length, particularly in aged women, on many of whome i have seen the bubby reach as low as the waist. the petticoat or tissue which occupies the waiste has been already described (see th novr. ) formd. of the bark of white cedar, silk grass, flags & rushes. the women as well as the men sometimes cover themselves from the rain by a mat worn over the sholders. they also cover their heads from the rain sometimes with a common water cup or basket made of cedar bark and bear grass. those people sometimes mark themselves by punctureing and introducing a colouring matter. such of them as do mark themselves in this manner prefur the legs and arms on which they imprint parallel lines of dots either longitudinally or circularly. the woman more frequently than the men mark themselves in this manner. the favorite orniments of both sexes are the common coarse blue and white beads as before discribed of the chinnooks. those beads the men wear tightly wound around their wrists and ankles maney times untill they obtain the width of three or four inches. they also wear them in large rolls loosly around the neck, or pendulous from the cartelage of the nose or rims of the ears which are purfarated in different places round the extremities for the purpose. the woman wear them in a similar manner except in the nose which they never purfarate. they are also fond of a species of wompum, which is furnished by a trader whome they call swipton. it seams to be the nativ form of the shell without any preperation. this shell is of a conic form somewhat curved about the size of a ravens quill at the base, and tapering to a point which is sufficiently large to permit a hollow through which a small thread passes; it is from to / inches in length, white, smooth, hard and thin these are worn in the same manner in which the beeds are; and furnish the men with their favorite orniment for the nose. one of these shells is passed horizontally through cartilage of the nose and serves frequently as a kind of ring which prevents the string which suspends other orniments at the same part from chafing and freting the flesh. the men sometimes wear collars of bears claws, and the women and children the tusks of the elk variously arranged on their necks arms &c. both male and female wear bracelets on their wrists of copper, brass or iron in various forms. the women sometimes wash their faces & hands but seldom. i think the most disgusting sight i have ever beheld is those dirty naked wenches. the men of those nations partake of much more of the domestic drudgery than i had at first supposed. they collect and prepare all the fuel, make the fires, cook for the strangers who visit them, and assist in cleaning and prepareing the fish. they also build their houses, construct their canoes, and make all their wooden utensils. the peculiar province of the woman seams to be to collect roots and manufacture various articles which are prepared of rushes, flags, cedar bark, bear grass or way tape, also dress and manufacture the hats & robes for common use. the management of the canoe for various purposes seams to be a duty common to both sexes, as are many other occupations which with most indian nations devolve exclusively on the womin. their feasts of which they are very fond are always prepared and served by the men.-.-. it continued to rain so constantly dureing the day that sergt. pryor could not pay his canoes. the clatsop chief commowool and the two cath-lah-mahs left us this evening and returned to their village. [lewis, march , ] thursday march th . it continued to rain and blow so violently today that nothing could be done towards forwarding our departure. we intended to have dispatched drewyer and the two fieldses to hunt near the bay on this side of the cathlahmahs untill we jounded them from hence, but the rain rendered our departure so uncertain that we declined this measure for the present. nothing remarkable happened during the day. we have yet several days provision on hand, which we hope will be sufficient to subsist us during the time we are compelled by the weather to remain at this place. altho we have not fared sumptuously this winter and spring at fort clatsop, we have lived quite as comfortably as we had any reason to expect we should; and have accomplished every object which induced our remaining at this place except that of meeting with the traders who visit the entrance of this river. our salt will be very sufficient to last us to the missouri where we have a stock in store.--it would have been very fortunate for us had some of those traders arrived previous to our departure from hence, as we should then have had it our power to obtain an addition to our stock of merchandize which would have made our homeward bound journey much more comfortable. many of our men are still complaining of being unwell; willard and bratton remain weak, principally i beleive for the want of proper food. i expect when we get under way we shall be much more healthy. it has always had that effect on us heretofore. the guns of drewyer and sergt. pryor were both out of order. the first was repared with a new lock, the old one having become unfit for uce; the second had the cock screw broken which was replaced by a duplicate which had been prepared for the lock at harpers ferry where she was manufactured. but for the precaution taken in bringing on those extra locks, and parts of locks, in addition to the ingenuity of john shields, most of our guns would at this moment been untirely unfit for use; but fortunately for us i have it in my power here to record that they are all in good order. [clark, march , ] thursday march th it continued to rain and blow so violently to day that nothing could be done towards fowarding our departure. we intended to have dispatched drewyer & the field'es to hunt above point william untill we joined them from hense but the rain renders our departure so uncertain that we decline this measure for the present. nothing remarkable happened dureing the day. we have yet several days provisions on hand, which we hope will be sufficient to serve us dureing the time we are compell'd by the weather to remain at this place.-. altho we have not fared sumptuously this winter & spring at fort clatsop, we have lived quit as comfortably as we had any reason to expect we should; and have accomplished every object which induced our remaining at this place except that of meeting with the traders who visit the enterance of this river. our salt will be very sufficient to last us to the missouri where we have a stock in store.--it would have been very fortunate for us had some of those traders arrived previous to our departure from hence; as we should then have had it in our power to obtain an addition to our stock of merchandize, which would have made our homeward bound journey much more comfortable. maney of our men are still complaining of being unwell; bratten and willard remain weak principally i believe for the want of proper food. i expect when we get under way that we shall be much more healthy. it has always had that effect on us heretofore. the guns of sergt. pryor & drewyer were both out of order. the first had a cock screw broken which was replaced by a duplicate which had been prepared for the locks at harpers ferry; the second repared with a new lock, the old one becoming unfit for use. but for the precaution taken in bringing on those extra locks, and parts of locks, in addition to the ingenuity of john shields, most of our guns would at this moment been entirely unfit for use; but fortunate for us i have it in my power here to record that they are in good order, and complete in every respect- [lewis, march , ] friday march st . as we could not set out we thought it best to send out some hunters and accordingly dispatched sheilds and collins on this side the netul for that purpose with orders to return in the evening or sooner if they were successfull. the hunters returned late in the evening unsuccessfull. we have not now more than one day's provision on hand. we directed drewyer and the feildses to set out tomorrow morning early, and indevour to provide us some provision on the bay beyond point william. we were visited to day by some clatsop indians who left us in the evening. our sick men willard and bratton do not seem to recover; the former was taken with a violent pain in his leg and thye last night. bratton is now so much reduced that i am somewhat uneasy with rispect to his recovery; the pain of which he complains most seems to be seated in the small of his back and remains obstinate. i beleive that it is the rheumatism with which they are both afflicted. [clark, march , ] friday march st as we could not set out we thought it best to send out some hunters and accordingly dispatched shields and collins on this side of the netul for that purpose with orders to return in the evening or sooner if they were successfull. they returned late in the evening unsuccessfull. we have not now more than two days provisions on hand. we derected drewyer and the two fieldses to set out tomorrow morning early, and indevour to provide us some provision on the bay beyond point william. we were visited to day by some clatsops who left us in the evening. our sick men willard and bratten do not seem to recover; the former was taken with a violent pain in his leg and thye last night. bratten is now so much reduced that i am somewhat uneasy with respect to his recovery; the pain of which he complains most seems to be settled in the small of his back and remains obstenate. i believe that it is the rheumatism with which they are both affected.-. [lewis, march , ] saturday march cd . drewyer and the feildses departed this morning agreably to the order of the last evening. we sent out seven hunters this morning in different directions on this side the netul. about a.m. we were visited by clatsops and a killamucks; they brought some dried anchoveis and a dog for sale which we purchased. the air is perefectly temperate, but it continues to rain in such a manner that there be is no possibility of geting our canoes completed.--at ock. we were visited by comowooll and of the clatsops. to this cheif we left our houses and funiture. he has been much more kind an hospitable to us than any other indian in this neighbourhood. the indians departed in the evening. the hunters all returned except colter, unsuccessfull. we determined to set out tomorrow at all events, and to stop the canoes temperarily with mud and halt the first fair day and pay them. the leafing of the hucklebury riminds us of spring. [clark, march , ] saturday march nd drewyer and the two fieldses departed this morning agreably to the order of last evening. we sent out six hunters this morning in different directions on both sides of the netul. about a.m. we were visited by que-ne-o alias commorwool clatsops and a kil-a-mox; they brought some dried anchovies, a common otter skin and a dog for sale all of which we purchased. the dog we purchased for our sick men, the fish for to add to our small stock of provision's, and the skin to cover my papers. those indians left us in the evening. the air is perfectly temperate, but it continues to rain in such a manner that there is no possibillity of getting our canoes completed in order to set out on our homeward journey. the clatsops inform us that several of their nation has the sore throat, one of which has laterly died with this disorder. the hunters sent out to day all returned except colter unsessfull. [lewis, march , ] sunday march rd . half after a.m. colter arrived, having killed one elk but so distant that we could not send for the meat and get arround point william today, we therefore prefered seting out and depending on drewyer and the hunters we have sent forward for meat. the wind is pretty high but it seems to be the common opinion that we can pass point william. we accordingly distributed the baggage and directed the canoes to be launched and loaded for our departure.--at p.m. we bid a final adieu to fort clatsop. we had not proceeded more than a mile before we met delashelwilt and a party of chinnooks men and women. this cheif leaning that we were in want of a canoe some days past, had brought us one for sale, but being already supplyed we did not purchase it. i obtained one sea otter skin from this party. at a / before three we had passed meriwethers bay and commenced coasting the difficult shore; at / after five we doubled point william, and at arrived in the mouth of a small creek where we found our hunters. they had killed elk, at the distance of a mile & / . it was too late to send after it this evening. we therefore encamped on the stard side of the creek. the wind was not very hard. [clark, march , ] sunday rd march this morning proved so raney and uncertain that we were undeturmined for some time whether we had best set out & risque the river which appeared to be riseing or not. jo. colter returned haveing killed an elk about miles towards point adams. the rained seased and it became fair about meridean, at which time we loaded our canoes & at p.m. left fort clatsop on our homeward bound journey. at this place we had wintered and remained from the th of decr. to this day and have lived as well as we had any right to expect, and we can say that we were never one day without meals of some kind a day either pore elk meat or roots, not withstanding the repeeted fall of rain which has fallen almost constantly since we passed the long narrows on the ____ of novr. last indeed we have had only ____ days fair weather since that time. soon after we had set out from fort clatsop we were met by de lash el wilt & men of the chinnooks, and delashelwilts wife the old bond and his six girls, they had, a canoe, a sea otter skin, dried fish and hats for sale, we purchased a sea otter skin, and proceeded on, thro meriwethers bay, there was a stiff breese from the s. w. which raised considerable swells around meriwethers point which was as much as our canoes could ride. above point william we came too at the camp of drewyer & the field's. they had killed elk which was about / miles distant. here we encampd. for the night having made miles. [lewis, march , ] monday march th . this morning we sent out a party of , at light, for the meat, and concluded to take breakfast before we set out. they soon returned. we breakfasted and set out at / after a.m. saw a white woodpecker with a red head of the small kind common to the united states; this bird has but lately returned. they do not remain during the winter. the country thick and heavily timbered. we saw very few waterfowl today, not a single swan, white brant nor a small goose is to be seen. a few cormorant, duckinmallard, butterbox, and common large geese were only to be found the tide being out this morning we found some difficulty in passing through the bay below the cathlahmah village; this side of the river is very shallow to the distance of miles from the shore tho there is a channel sufficient for canoes near s. side. at p.m. we arrived at the cathlahmah village where we halted and purchased some wappetoe, a dog for the sick, and a hat for one of the men. on one of the seal islands opposite to the village of these people thy have scaffolded their dead in canoes elivating them above tidewater mark. these people are very fond of sculpture in wood of which they exhibit a variety of specemines about their houses. the broad peices supporting the center of the roof and those through which the doors are cut, seem to be the peices on which they most display their taist. i saw some of these which represented human figures setting and supporting the burthen on their sholders. at half after p.m. we set out and continued our rout among the seal islands; not paying much attention we mistook our rout which an indian perceiving pursued overtook us and put us in the wright channel. this cathlahmah claimed the small canoe which we had taken from the clatsops. however he consented very willingly to take an elk's skin for it which i directed should be given him and he immediately returned. we continued our rout along the south side of the river and encamped at an old village of houses opposite to the lower wackkiacum village. the night was cold tho wood was abundant after dark two chinnook men came to us in a small canoe. they remained with us all night. came miles today. [clark, march , ] monday th of march sent out men verry early this morning for the flesh of the two elk killed by drewyer and fields yesterday. they returned at oclock, after taking a slight brackfast we set out at half past a.m. and proceeded to the cath lah mah village at p.m. and remained untill / after p.m.at this village we purchased a fiew wappato and a dog for our sick men willard and bratten who are yet in a weak state. at this village i saw two very large elegant canoes inlaid with shills, those shills i took to be teeth at first view, and the nativs informed several of the men that they the teeth of their enemies which they had killed in war. in examineing of them closely haveing taken out several pices, we found that were sea shells which yet contained a part of the iner ____ they also deckerate their smaller wooden vessles with those shells which have much the appearance of humane teeth, capt cook may have mistaken those shills verry well for humane teeth without a close examination. the village of these people is the dirtiest and stinkingest place i ever saw in any shape whatever, and the inhabitants partake of the carrestick of the village. we proceeded on through some difficult and narrow channels between the seal islands, and the south side to an old village on the south side opposit to the lower war ki a com village, and encamped. to this old villg. a very considerable deposit of the dead at a short distance below, in the usial and customary way of the nativs of this coast in canoes raised from the ground as before described. soon after we made our camp indians visited us from the opposit side, one of them spoke several words of english and repeeted the names of the traders, and maney of the salors. made miles [lewis, march , ] tuesday march th . the morning being disagreeably cold we remained and took break-fast. at a.m. we set out and continued our rout along the south coast of the river against the wind and a strong current, our progress was of course but slow. at noon we halted and dined. here some clatsops came to us in a canoe loaded with dryed anchovies, which they call olthen, wappetoe and sturgeon. they informed us that they had been up on a trading voyage to the skillutes.--i observe that the green bryer which i have previously mentioned as being common on this river below tide water retains it's leaves all winter.--the red willow and seven bark begin to put fourth their leaves.--after dinner we passed the river to a large island and continued our rout allong the side of the same about a mile when we arrived at a cathlahmah fishing cam of one lodge; here we found men women and a couple of boys, who from appearances had remained here some time for the purpose of taking sturgeon, which they do by trolling. they had ten or douzen very fine sturgeon which had not been long taken. we offered to purchase some of their fish but they asked us such an extravegant price that we declined purchase. one of the men purchased a sea otterskin at this lodge, for which he gave a dressed elkskin and an handkercheif. near this lodge we met some cathlahmahs who had been up the river on a fishing excurtion. they had a good stock of fish on board, but did not seem disposed to sell them. we remained at this place about half an hour and then continued our rout up the island to it's head and passed to the south side. the wind in the evening was very hard. it was with some difficulty that we could find a spot proper for an encampment, the shore being a swamp for several miles back; at length late in the evening opposite to the place we had encamped on the th of november last; we found the entrance of a small creek which afforded us a safe harbour from the wind and encamped. the ground was low and moist tho we obtained a tolerable encampment. here we found another party of cathlahmahs about in number who had established a temperary residence for the purpose of fishing and taking seal. they had taken a fine parcel of sturgeon and some seal. they gave us some of the fleese of the seal which i found a great improvement to the poor elk. here we found drewyer and the feildses who had been seperated from us since morning; they had passed on the north side of the large island which was much nearer. the bottom lands are covered with cottonwood, the growth with a broad leaf which resembles ash except the leaf. the underbrush red willow, broad leafed willow, sevenbark, goosburry, green bryer & the larged leafed thorn; the latter is now in bloom; the natives inform us that it bears a freut about an inch in diameter which is good to eat. [clark, march , ] tuesday th of march last night and this morning are cool wend hard a head and tide going out, after an early brackfast we proceeded on about miles and came too on the south side to worm and dry our selves a little. soon after we had landed two indians came from a war kia cum village on the opposit side with dogs and a fiew wappato to sell neither of which we bought. som clatsops passed down in a canoe loaded with fish and wappato. as the wind was hard a head and tide against us we concluded to delay untill the return of the tide which we expected at oclock, at which hour we set out met two canoes of clatsops loaded with dried anchovies and sturgion which they had taken and purchased above we crossed over to an island on which was a cath lahmah fishing camp of one lodge; here we found man two woman and a couple of boys who must have for some time for the purpose of taking sturgeon which they do by trolling. they had or very fine sturgeon which had not been long taken; we wished to purchase some of their fish but they asked such extravegent prices that we declined purchaseing. one of our party purchased a sea otter skin at this lodge for which he gave a dressed elk skin & a handkerchief. we remained at this place about half an hour and then continued our rout. the winds in the evening was verry hard, it was with some dificuelty that we could find a spot proper for an encampment, the shore being a swamp for several miles back; at length late in the evening opposit to the place we had encamped on the th of novr. last; we found the enterance of a small creek which offered us a safe harbour from the winds and encamped. the ground was low and moist tho we obtained a tolerable encampment. here we found another party of cathlahmahs about in number, who had established a temporary residence for the purpose of fishing and takeing seal. they had taken about sturgeon and some seal. they gave us some of the flesh of the seal which i found a great improvement to the poor elk. here we found drewyer and the fields who had been seperated from us since morning; they had passed on the north side of the large island which was much nearest. the bottom lands are covered with a species of arspine, the growth with a broad leaf which resembles ash except the leaf. the under brush red willow, broad leafed willow, seven bark, goose berry, green bryor, and the larged leaf thorn; the latter is now in blume, the nativs inform us that it bears a fruit about an inch in diamieter which is good to eate. the red willow and bark begin to put foth their leaves. the green bryor which i have before mentioned retains leaves all winter. made miles [lewis, march , ] wednesday march th . the wind blew so hard this morning that we delayed untill a.m. we gave a medal of small size to a man by the name of wal-lal'-le, a principal man among the cathlahmahs, he appeared very thankfull for the honour conferred on him and presented us a large sturgeon. we continued our rout up the river to an old village on the stard. side where we halted for dinner. we met on the way the principal cheif of the cathlahmahs, sah-hah-woh-cap, who had been up the river on a trading voyage. he gave us some wappetoe and fish; we also purchased some of the latter. soon after we halted for dinner the two wackiacums who have been pursuing us since yesterday morning with two dogs for sale, arrived. they wish tobacco in exchange for their dogs which we are not disposed to give as our stock is now reduced to a very few carrots. our men who have been accustomed to the use of this article tobaco and to whom we are now obliged to deny the uce of this article appear to suffer much for the want of it. they substitute the bark of the wild crab which they chew; it is very bitter, and they assure me they find it a good substitute for tobacco. the smokers substitute the inner bark of the red willow and the sacacommis. here our hunters joined us having killed three eagles and a large goose. i had now an oportunity of comparing the bald with the grey eagle; i found that the greay eagle was about / larger, it's legs and feet were dark while those of the bald eagle wer of a fine orrange yellow; the iris of the eye is also of a dark yellowish brown while that of the other is of a bright silvery colour with a slight admixture of yellow. after dinner we proceeded on and passed an elegant and extensive bottom on the south side and an island near it's upper point which we call fanny's island and bottom. the greater part of the bottom is a high dry prarie. near the river towards the upper point we saw a fine grove of whiteoak trees; we saw some deer and elk at a distance in the prarie, but did not delay for the purpose of hunting them. we continued our rout after dinner untill late in the evening and encamped on the next island above fanny's island. we found it difficult to obtain as much wood as answered our purposes. the hunters who had proceeded on before us after dinner did not join us this evening. some indians visited us after dark, but did not remain long. agreeably to our estimate as we decended the river, we came m. rd, m. the th, the th, and m. the th, tho i now think that our estimate in decending the river was too short. [clark, march , ] wednesday march th the wind blew so hard untill a m. that we detained, we gave a medal to a man by the name of wal-lal-le a principal man among the cath lah mahs, he appeared very thankfull for the honor confured on him and presented us with a large sturgion. we continued our rout up the river to an old village on the south side where we halted for dinner. we met on the way the principal chief of the cathlahmahs, sah-hah-wah-cop, who had been up the river on a trading voyage, he gave us some wappato and fish, we also purchased some wappato soon after halted for dinner at an old village on the south point opposit the lower pt. of fannys island. the two warkiacums who had been pursueing us since yester day morning with two dogs for sale, arrived. they wish tobacco in exchange for their dogs which we are not disposed to give, as our stock is now reduced to carrots. our men who have been acustomed to the use of this article, and to whome we are now obliged to deny the use of this article appear to suffer much for the want of it. they substitute the bark of the wild crab which they chew; it is very bitter and they assure me they find it a good substitute for tobacco. the smokers substitute the iner bark of the redwillow and the saccommis. here our hunters joined us haveing killed eagles and a large wild goose. i had now an oppertunity of comparing the bald with the grey eagle; i found the grey eagle about / largest, its legs and feet were dark which those of the bald eagle were of a fine orrange yellow; the iris of the eye is also of a dark yellowish brown, while that of the grey is of a light silvery colour with a slight admixture of yellow. after dinner i walked on shore through an eligant bottom on the south side opposit to fannys island. this bottom we also call fannys bottom it is extensive and an open leavel plain except near the river bank which is high dry rich oak land. i saw some deer & elk at a distance in the prarie. we continued untill late in the evening and encamped on a small island near the middle of the river haveing made miles. indians visited us this evining [lewis, march , ] thursday march th . we set out early this morning and were shortly after joined by some of the skillutes who came along side in a small canoe for the purpose of trading roots and fish. at a.m. we arrived at two houses of this nation on the stard. side where we halted for breakfast. here we overtook our hunters, they had killed nothing. the natives appeared extreemly hospitable, gave us dryed anchovies, sturgeon, wappetoe, quamash, and a speceis of small white tuberous roots about inches in length and as thick as a man's finger; these are eaten raw, are crisp, milkey, and agreeably flavored. most of the party were served by the natives with as much as they could eat; they insisted on our remaining all day with them and hunting the elk and deer which they informed us were very abundant in their neighbourhood. but as the weather would not permit us to dry our canoes in order to pitch them we declined their friendly invitation, and resumed our voyage at ock. the principal village of these skillutes reside on the lower side of the cow-e-lis'-kee river a few miles from it's entrance into the columbia. these people are said to be numer-ous. in their dress, habits, manners and language they differ but little from the clatsops chinnooks &c. they have latterly been at war with chinnooks but peace is said now to be restored between them, but their intercourse is not yet resumed. no chinnooks come above the marshey islands nor do the skillutes visit the mouth of the columbia. the clatsops, cathlahmahs and wackkiacums are the carriers between these nations being in alliance with both.--the coweliskee is yards wide, is deep and from indian information navigable a very considerable distance for canoes. it discharges itself into the columbia about three miles above a remarkable high rocky vole which is situated on the n. side of the river by which it is washed on the south side and is seperated from the nothern hills of the river by a wide bottom of several miles to which it is united. i suspect that this river waters the country lying west of the range of mountains which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids, and north of the same nearly to the low country which commences on the n. w. coast about latitude ____ north. above the skillutes on this river another nation by the name of the hul-loo-et-tell reside, who are said also to be numerous. at the distance of m. above the village at which we breakfasted we passed the entrance of this river; we saw several fishing camps of the skillutes on both sides of the columbia, and were attended all the evening by parties of the natives in their canoes who visited us for the purpose of trading their fish and roots; we purchased as many as we wished on very moderate terms; they seemed perfectly satisfyed with the exchange and behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. late in the evening we passed our camp of the th of november and encamped about / above at the commencement of the bottom land on stard. below deer island. we had scarcely landed before we were visited by a large canoe with eight men; from them we obtained a dryed fruit which resembled the raspburry and which i beeive to be the fruit of the large leafed thorn frequently mentioned. it is reather ascid tho pleasently flavored. i preserved a specemine of this fruit i fear that it has been baked in the process of drying and if so the seed will not vegitate. saw the cottonwood, sweet willow, oak, ash and the broad leafed ash, the growth which resembles the beach &c. these form the growth of the bottom lands while the hills are covered almost exclusively with the various speceis of fir heretofore discribed. the black alder appears as well on some parts of the hills as the bottoms. before we set out from the skillute village we sent on gibson's canoe and drewyers with orders to proceed as fast as they could to deer island and there to hunt and wait our arrival. we wish to halt at that place to repair our canoes if possible. the indians who visited us this evening remained but a short time, they passed the river to the oposite side and encamped. the night as well as the day proved cold wet and excessively disagreeable. we came miles today. [clark, march , ] thursday march th . a rainey disagreeable night rained the greater part of the night we set out this morning verry early and proceeded on to two houses of the skil-lute indians on the south side here we found our hunters who had seperated from us last evening. the wind rose and the rain became very hard soon after we landed here we were very friendly receved by the natives who gave all our party as much fish as they could eate, they also gave us wappato and pashaquaw roots to eate prepared in their own way. also a species of small white tuberous roots about inches in length and as thick as a mans finger, these are eaten raw, or crips, milkey and agreeably flavoured; the nativs insisted on our remaining all day with them and hunt the elk and deer which they informed us was very abundant in this neighbourhood. but as the weather would not permit our drying our canoes in order to pitch them, we declined their friendly invertation, and resumed our voyage at oclock. the principal village of the skil-lutes is situated on the lower side of the cow-e-lis kee river a fiew miles from it's enterance into the columbia. those people are said to be noumerous, in their dress, habits, manners and language they differ but little from the clatsops, chinnooks &c. they have latterly been at war with the chinnooks, but peace is said to be now restored between them, but their inter course is not yet restored. no chinnook come above the warkiacums, nor do the skillutes visit the mouth of the columbia. the clatsops, cath lahmahs & war kia coms are the carriers between those nations being in alliance with both-. the cow e lis kee river is yards wide, is deep and from indian information navigable a very considerable distance for canoes. it discharges itself into the columbia about miles above a remarkable knob which is high and rocky and situated on the north side of the columbia, and seperated from the northern hills of the river by a wide bottom of several miles, to which it united. i suspect that this river waters the country lying west of a range of mountains which passes the columbia between the great falls and rapids, and north of the same nearly to the low country which commences on the n w. coast about latitude ° ____ north. above the skil lutes on this river another nation by the name of the hul-loo-et-tell reside who are said also to be numerous. at the distance of miles above the village at which we brackfast we passed the enterance of this river; we saw several fishing camps of the skillutes on both sides of the columbia, and also on both sides of this river. we were attended all the evening by parties of the nativs in their canoes who visited us for the purpose of tradeing their fish and roots; we purchased as maney as we wished on very moderate terms; they seamed perfectly satisfied with the exchange and behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. late in the evening we passed the place we camped the th of novr. and encamped about miles above at the commencement of the columbian vally on the stard. side below deer island. we had scercily landed before we were visited by a large canoe with men; from them we obtained a dried fruit which resembled the raspberry and which i beleave is the fruit of the large leafed thorn frequently mentioned. it is reather ascide tho pleasently flavored. saw cotton wood, sweet willow, white oake, ash and the broad leafed ash the growth which resembles the bark &c. these form the groth of the bottom lands, whilst the hills are almost exclusively covered with the various species of fir heretofore discribed. the black alder appears on maney parts of the hills sides as on the bottoms. before we set out from the houses where we brackfast we sent on two canoes with the best hunters, with orders to pro ceed as fast as they could to deer island and there to hunt and wait our arrival. we wish to halt at that place and repare of our canoes if possible. the indians that visited us this evining remained but a short time, they passed over to an island and encamped. the night as well as the day proved cold wet and excessively disagreeable. we came miles in the course of this day. [lewis, march , ] friday march th . this morning we set out very early and at a.m. arrived at the old indian village on lard side of deer island where we found our hunters had halted and left one man with the two canoes at their camp; they had arrived last evening at this place and six of them turned out to hunt very early this morning; by a.m. they all returned to camp having killed seven deer. these were all of the common fallow deer with the long tall. i measured the tail of one of these bucks which was upwards of inches long; they are very poor, tho they are better than the black tailed fallow deer of the coast. these are two very distinct speceis of deer. the indians call this large island e-lal-lar or deer island which is a very appropriate name. the hunters informed us that they had seen upwards of a hundred deer this morning on this island. the interior part of the island is praries and ponds, with a heavy growth of cottonwood ash and willow near the river. we have seen more waterfowl on this island than we have previously seen since we left fort clatsop, consisting of geese, ducks, large swan, and sandhill crams. i saw a few of the canvisback duck. the duckinmallard are the most abundant. one of the hunters killed a duck which appeared to be the male, it was a size less than the duckinmallard. the head neck as low as the croop, the back tail and covert of the wings were of a fine black with a small addmixture of perple about the head and neck, the belley & breast were white; some long feathers which lie underneath the wings and cover the thye were of a pale dove colour with fine black specks; the large feathers of the wings are of a dove colour. the legs are dark, the feet are composed of toes each of which there are three in front connected by a web, the th is short hat and placed high on the heel behind the leg. the tail is composed of short pointed feathers. the beak of this duck is remarkably wide, and is inches in length, the upper chap exceeds the under one in both length and width, insomuch that when the beak is closed the under is entirly concealed by the upper chap. the tongue, indenture of the margin of the chaps &c. are like those of the mallard. the nostrils are large longitudinal and connected. a narrow strip of white garnishes the upper part or base of the upper chap; this is succeeded by a pale skye blue colour which occupys about one inch of the chap, is again succeeded by a transverse stripe of white and the extremity is of a pure black. the eye is moderately large the puple black and iris of a fine orrange yellow. the feathers on the crown of the head are longer than those on the upper part of neck and other parts of the head; these feathers give it the appearance of being crested. at / after ten a.m. it became fair, and we had the canoes which wanted repairing hailed out and with the assistance of fires which we had kindled for the purpose dryed them sufficiently to receive the pitch which was immediately put on them; at in the evening we had them compleat and again launched and reloaded. we should have set out, but as some of the party whom we had permitted to hunt since we arrived have not yet returned we determined to remain this evening and dry our beding baggage &c. the weather being fair. since we landed here we were visited by a large canoe with ten natives of the quathlahpahtle nation who are numerous and reside about seventeen miles above us on the lard. side of the columbia, at the entrance of a small river. they do not differ much in their dress from those lower down and speak nearly the same language, it is in fact the same with a small difference of accent. we saw a great number of snakes on this island they were about the size and much the form of the common garter snake of the atlantic coast and like that snake are not poisonous. they have scuta on the abdomen and on the tail. the abdomen near the head, and jaws as high as the eyes, are of a bluefish white, which as it receedes from the head becomes of a dark brown. the field of the back and sides is black. a narrow stripe of a light yellow runs along the center of the back, on each side of this stripe there is a range of small transverse oblong spots of a pale brick ret which gradually deminish as they receede from the head and disappear at the commencement of the tail. the puple of the eye is black, with a narrow ring of white bordering it's edge; the ballance of the iris is of a dark yellowish brown.--the men who had been sent after the deer returned and brought in the remnent which the vultures and eagles had left us; these birds had devoured deer in the course of a few hours. the party killed and brought in three other deer a goose some ducks and an eagle. drewyer also killed a tiger cat. joseph fields informed me that the vultures had draged a large buck which he had killed about yards, had skined it and broken the back bone. we came five miles only today. [clark, march , ] friday march th this morning we set out verry early and at a.m. arived at an old indian village on the n e side of deer island where we found our hunters had halted and left one man with the canoes at their camp, they arrived last evening at this place, and six of them turned out very early to hunt, at a.m. they all returned to camp haveing killed seven deer, those were all of the common fallow deer with a long tail. i measured the tail of one of these bucks which was upwards of inches long; they are very poor, tho they are better than the black tail species of the sea coast. those are two very distinct species of deer. the indians call this large island e-lal-lar, or deer island, which is a very appropriate name. the hunters informed us that they had seen upwards of a hundred deer this morning on this island. the interior of this island is a prarie & ponds, with a heavy growth of cotton wood, ash & willow near the river. we have seen more water fowl on this island than we have previously seen since we left fort clatsop, consisting of geese, ducks, large swan & sand hill crains. i saw a fiew of the canvis back duck as i believe. at / after a.m. it became fair and we had the canoes which wanted repareing hauled out and with the assistance of fires which we had kindled for the purpose dryed them sufficiently to receve the pitch which was imedeately put on them; at in the evening we had them compleated and lanced and reloaded. we should have set out but some of the party whome we had permitid to hunt since we arrived heve not yet returned. we determined to remain here this evening and dry our bedding &c. the weather being fair. since we landed here we were visited by a large canoe with ten nativs of the quathlahpohtle nation who are numerous and reside about fourteen miles above us on the n e. side of the columbia above the enterance of a small river which the indians call chfih-w&h-na-hi-ooks. we saw a great number of snakes on this island; they were about the size and much the form of the garter snake of the u. s. the back and sides are black with a narrow stripe of light yellow along the center of the back, with small red spots on each side they have ____ scuta on the abdomin & ____ on the tail and are not poisonous. the men who had been sent after the deer returned with four only, the other haveing been eaten entirely by the voulturs except the skin. the men we had been permitted to hunt this evening killed deer eagles & a duck. the deer are remarkably pore. some rain in the after part of the day. we only made miles to day-. [lewis, march , ] saturday march th . we set out early this morning and proceeded along the side of deer island; halted at a.m. near its upper point and breakfasted. here we were joined by three men of the clan-nah-min-na-mun nation. the upper point of this island may be esteemed the lower side or commencement of the columbian valley. after breakfast we proceeded on and at the distance of miles from our encampment of the last evening we passed a large inlet yds in width. this inlet or arm of the river extends itself to the south or m. to the hills on that side of the river and receives the waters of a small creek which heads with killamucks river, and that of a bayau which passes out of the columbia about miles above, the large island thus formed we call wappetoe island. on this inlet and island the following nations reside, (viz) clan-nah-min-namun, clacks-star, cath-lah-cum-up, clah-in-na-ta, cath-lah-nah-qui-ah, and cath-lah-cam-mah-tup. the two first reside on the inlet and the others on the bayau and island.--observed a speceies of small wild onion growing among the moss on the rocks, they resemble the shives of our gardens and grow remarkably close together forming a perfect turf; they are quite as agreeably flavoured as the shives. on the north side of the columbia a little above the entrance of this inlet a considerable river discharges itself. this stream the natives call the cah-wah-na-hi-ooks. it is yards wide and at present discharges a large body of water, tho from the information of the same people it is not navigable but a short distance in consequence of falls and rappids a tribe called the hul-lu-ettell reside on this river above it's entr.--at the distance of three miles above the entrance of the inlet on the n. side behind the lower point of an island we arrived at the village of the cath-lah-poh-tle with consists of large wooden houses. here we arrived at p.m. the language of these people as well as those on the inlet and wappetoe island differs in some measure from the nations on the lower part of the river. tho many of their words are the same, and a great many others with the difference only of accent. the form of their houses and dress of the men, manner of living habits customs &c as far as we could discover are the same. their women wear their ornaments robes and hair as those do below tho here their hair is more frequently braded in two tresses and hang over each ear in front of the body. in stead of the tissue of bark woarn by the women below, they wear a kind of leather breech clout about the width of a common pocket handkerchief and reather longer. the two corners of this at one of the narrow ends are confined in front just above the hips; the other end is then brought between the legs, compressed into a narrow foalding bundel is drawn tight and the corners a little spread in front and tucked at the groin over and arround the part first confind about the waist. the small robe which dose not reach the waist is their usual and only garment commonly woarn be side that just mentioned. when the weather is a litte warm this robe is thrown aside and the leather truss or breech-clout constitutes the whole of their apparel. this is a much more indecent article than the tissue of bark, and bearly covers the mons venes, to which it is drawn so close that the whole shape is plainly perceived. the floors of most of their houses are on a level with the surface of the earth tho some of them are sunk two or feet beneath. the internal arrangement of their houses is the same with those of the nations below. they are also fond of sculpture. various figures are carved and painted on the peices which support the center of the roof, about their doors and beads. they had large quantities of dryed anchovies strung on small sticks by the gills and others which had been first dryed in this manner, were now arranged in large sheets with strings of bark and hung suspended by poles in the roofs of their houses; they had also an abundance of sturgeon and wappetoe; the latter they take in great quantities from the neighbouring bonds, which are numerous and extensive in the river bottoms and islands. the wappetoe furnishes the principal article of traffic with these people which they dispose of to the nations below in exchange for beads cloth and various articles. the natives of the sea coast and lower part of the river will dispose of their most valuable articles to obtain this root. they have a number of large symeters of iron from to feet long which hang by the heads of their beads; the blade of this weapon is thickest in the center tho thin even there. all it's edges are sharp and it's greatest width which is about inches from the point is about inches. the form is thus. this is a formidable weapon. they have heavy bludgeons of wood made in the same form nearly which i presume they used for the same purpose before they obtained metal. we purchased a considerable quantity of wappetoe, dogs, and sea otter skins of these people. they were very hospitable and gave us anchovies and wappetoe to eat. notwithstanding their hospitality if it deserves that appellation, they are great begers, for we had scarcely finished our repast on the wappetoe and anchovies which they voluntarily set before us before they began to beg. we gave them some small articles as is our custom on those occasions with which they seemed perfectly satisfyed. we gave the st cheif a small medal, which he soon transfered to his wife. after remaining at this place hours we set out & continued our rout between this island, which we now call cath-lah-poh-tle after the nation, and the lard shore. at the distance of miles we encamped in a small prarie on the main shore, having traveled miles by estimate. the river rising fast. great numbers of both the large and small swans, gees and ducks seen today. the former are very abundant in the ponds where the wappetoe is found, they feed much on this bulb. the female of the duck which was described yesterday is of a uniform dark brown with some yellowish brown intermixed in small specks on the back neck and breast. the garter snakes are innumerable, & are seen entwined arround each other in large bundles of forty or fifty lying about in different directions through the praries. the frogs are croaking in the swams and marhes; their notes do not differ from those of the atlantic states; they are not found in the salt marshes near the entrance of the river. heared a large hooting owl hollowing this evening. saw several of the crested fishers and some of the large and small black-birds. [clark, march , ] saturday march th we set out very early this morning and proceeded to the head of deer island and took brackfast. the morning was very cold wind sharp and keen off the rainge of mountains to the east covered with snow. the river is now riseing very fast and retards our progress very much as we are compelled to keep out at some distance in the curent to clear the bushes, and fallin trees and drift logs makeing out from the shore. dureing the time we were at brackfast a canoe with three indians of the clan-nar-min-na-mon nation came down, one of those men was dressed in a salors jacket & hat & the other two had a blanket each, those people differ but little either in their dress manners & language from the clatsops & chinnooks they reside on wappato inlet which is on the s w. side about miles above our encampment of the last night and is about miles from the lower point, four other tribes also reside on the inlet and since which passes on the south w. side of the island, the first tribe from the lower point is the clannarminamon, on the island, the clackster nation on the main s. w. shore. the next cath-lah-cum-up, clhh-in-na-ta, cath-lah-nah-qui-ah and at some distance further up is a tribe called cath-lah-com-mah-up those tribes all occupie single villages. we proceeded on to the lower point of the said island accompanied by the indians, & were met by canoes of nativs of the quath-lah-pah-tal who informed us that the chanel to the n e of the island was the proper one. we prosued their advice and crossed into the mouth of the chahwah-na-hi-ooks river which is about yards wide and a great portion of water into the columbia at this time it being high. the indians inform us that this river is crouded with rapids after some distance up it. several tribes of the hul-lu-et-tell nation reside on this river. at oclock p.m. we arived at the quath lah pah tie village of houses on main shore to the n e. side of a large island. those people in their habits manners customs and language differ but little from those of the clatsops and others below. here we exchanged our deer skins killed yesterday for dogs, and purchased others to the number of for provisions for the party, as the deer flesh is too poore for the men to subsist on and work as hard as is necessary. i also purchased a sea otter robe. we purchased wappatoe and some pashaquar roots. gave a medal of the small size to the principal chief, and at oclock reembarked and proceeded up on the n e. of an island to an inlet about mile above the village and encamped on a butifull grassy plat, where the nativs make a portage of their canoes and wappato roots to and from a large pond at a short dis-tance. in this pond the nativs inform us they collect great quantities of pappato, which the womin collect by getting into the water, sometimes to their necks holding by a small canoe and with their feet loosen the wappato or bulb of the root from the bottom from the fibers, and it imedeately rises to the top of the water, they collect & throw them into the canoe, those deep roots are the largest and best roots. great numbers of the whistling swan, gees and ducks in the ponds. soon after we landed of the nativs came up with wappato to sell a part of which we purchased. they continued but a short time. our men are recoverey fast. willard quit well & bratten much stronger. we made miles to day only. [lewis, march , ] sunday march th . we got under way very early in the morning, and had not reached the head of the island before we were met by three men of the clan-nah-minna-mun nation one of whom we recognized being the same who had accompanied us yesterday, and who was very pressing in his entreaties that we should visit his nation on the inlet s. w. of wappetoe island. at the distance of about m. or at the head of the quathlahpahtle island we met a party of the claxtars and cathlahcumups in two canoes; soon after we were met by several canoes of the different nations who reside on each side of the river near this place. wappetoe island is about miles long and from to in width; the land is high and extreemly fertile and intersected in many parts with ponds which produce great quantities of the sagittaria sagittifolia, the bulb of which the natives call wappetoe. there is a heavy growth of cottonwood, ash, the large leafed ash and sweet willow on most parts of this island. the black alder common on the coast has now disappeared. we passed several fishing camps on wappetoe island and at the distance of miles above quathlahpotle island on the n. e. side we halted for breakfast near the place we had encamped on the evening of the th of november last; here we were visited by several canoes which came off from two towns situated a little distance above us on wappetoe island. the st of these tribes about miles above us call themselves clan-nah-quah, the other about a mile above them call themselves mult-no-mah. from these visiters we purchased a sturgeon and some wappetoe and pashequa, for which we gave some small fishinghooks. these like the natives below are great higglers in dealing. at a.m. we set out and had not proceeded far before we came to a landing place of the natives where there were several large canoes drawn out on shore and several natives seting in a canoe apparently waiting our arrival; they joined the fleet and continued with us some miles. we halted a few minutes at this landing and the indians pointed to a village which was situated abut miles from the river behid a pond lying parallel with it on the n. e. side nearly opposite to the clan-nah-quah town. here they informed us that the sho-toes resided. here we were joined by several other canoes of natives from the island. most of these people accompanyed us untill in the evening when they all returned; their principal object i beive was merely to indulge their curiossity in looking at us. they appeared very friendly, tho most had taken the precaution to bring with them their warlike implements. we continued our rout along the n. e. shore of the river to the place we had halted to dine on the th of novembr opposite to the center of immage canoe island where the indians stole capt. clarks tomahawk. here we encamped a little before sunset in a beautifull prarie above a large pond having traveled m. i took a walk of a few miles through the prarie and an open grove of oak timber which borders the prarie on the back part. i saw deer in the course of my walk and much appearance of both elk and deer. joseph feields who was also out a little above me saw several elk and deer but killed none of them; they are very shye and the annual furn which is now dry and abundant in the bottoms makes so much nois in passing through it that it is extreemly difficult to get within reach of the game. fends killed and brought with him a duck. about p.m. an indian alone in a small canoe arrived at our camp, he had some conversation with the centinel and soon departed. the natives who inhabit this valley are larger and reather better made than those of the coast. like those people they are fond of cold, hot, & vapor baths of which they make frequent uce both in sickness and in health and at all seasons of the year. they have also a very singular custom among them of baithing themselves allover with urine every morning. the timber and apearance of the country is much as before discribed. the up lands are covered almost entirely with a heavy growth of fir of several speceis like those discribed in the neighbourhood of fort clatsop; the white cedar is also found hereof large size; no white pine nor pine of any other kind. we had a view of mount st. helines and mount hood. the st is the most noble looking object of it's kind in nature. it's figure is a regular cone. both these mountains are perfectly covered with snow; at least the parts of them which are visible. the highlands in this valley are rolling tho by no means too steep for cultivation they are generally fertile of a dark rich loam and tolerably free of stones. this valley is terminated on it's lower side by the mountanous country which borders the coast, and above by the rainge of mountains which pass the columbia between the great falls and rapids of the columbia river. it is about miles wide on a direct line and it's length i beleive to be very extensive tho how far i cannot determine. this valley would be copetent to the mantainance of or thousand souls if properly cultivated and is indeed the only desireable situation for a settlement which i have seen on the west side of the rocky mountains. [clark, march , ] sunday march th we got under way verry early and had not proceeded to the head of the island before we met with the three men of the clan-nar-min-a-mon's who met us yesterday brackfast at the upper point of the island we met several of the clackstar and cath-lah-cum-up in two canoes. soon after we were overtaken by several canoes of different tribes who reside on each side of the river the three above tribes and the cldh-in-na-ta cath-lahnah-qui-up & cath-lah-com-mah-tup reside on each side of wappato inlet and back of wappato island which island is formed by a small chanel which passes from the lower part of image canoe island into an inlet which makes in from the s w. side, and receves the water of a creek which heads with the kil a mox river. this wappato island is about or miles long and in places from to miles wide high & furtile with ponds on different parts of it in which the nativs geather wappato. nearly opposit the upper point of the isld. behing which we encamped last night, or on the wappato isld. is several camps of the nativs catching sturgion. about miles still higher up and on the n e. side we halted for brackfast at the place which we had encamped the th of november last. here we were visited by several canoes of indians from two towns a short distance above on the wappato island. the st of those tribes call themselves clan-nah-quah and situated about miles above us, the other about a mile above call themselves mult-no-mah we purchased of those visitors a sturgion and some wappato & quarmarsh roots for which we gave small fishing hooks. at a.m. we set out and had not proceeded far before we came to a landing place where there was several large canoes hauled up, and sitting in a canoe, appearantly waiting our arival with a view to join the fleet indian who was then along side of us. this man informed he was a shoto and that his nation resided a little distance from the river. we landed and one of the indians pointed to the shoto village which is situated back of pond which lies parrelal with the river on the n e. side nearly opposit the clan-nah quah village. here we were also joined by several canoes loaded with the natives from the island who continued to accompany us untill about oclock when they all returned and we proceeded on to the place the indians stole my tomahawk th novr. last and encamped in a small prarie above a large pond on n. e and opposit the center of image canoe island. capt lewis walked out and saw several deer. jo. field shot at elk he killed and brought in a fine duck. soon after i had got into bead an indian came up alone in a small canoe. those tribes of indians who inhabit this vally differ but little in either their dress, manners, habuts and language from the clat sops chinnooks, and others on the sea coast. they differ in a fiew words and a little in the accent. the men are stouter and much better formed than those of the sea coast. more of their womin ware their hair braded in two tresses and hang over each ear. in stead of the tissue of bark worn by the women below, they ware a kind of leather breech clout as before described as worn by the womin at the enterance of lewis's river-the width of a common pocket handkerchief or something smaller and longer. the two corners of this at one of the narrow ends are confined in front just above the hips; the other side is then brought between their legs, compressed into a narrow folding bundle is drawn tight, and the corners a little spred in front tucked at the ends over and around the part first confined about the waiste. a small roab which does not reach the waiste is their usial and only garment commonly worn besides this just mentioned. when the weather is a little worm the roab is thrown aside, and the latter truss or breach clout constitutes the whole of their apparreal. this is a much more indesant article than the tissue of bark, and bearly covers the mons versus, to which it is drawn so close that the whole shape is plainly perseived. the houses are similar to those already descrbed. they are fond of sculpture. various figures are carved and painted on the pieces which support the center of the roof about their dotes and beads. they are well supplied with anchoves sturgion and wappato. the latter furnishes the principal article of traffic with those tribes which they despose of to the nativs below in exchange for beeds, cloath and various articles. the nativs of the sea coast and lower part of this river will dispose of their most valueable articles to obtain this root. i saw in several houses of the cath lah poh tie village large symeters of iron from to feet long which hangs by the heads of their beads; the blade of this weapon is thickest in the center tho thin even there, all it's edges are sharp and its greatest width which is about inches from the point, is about inches. the form is this this is a formable weapon. they have heavy bludgeons of wood made in the same form nearly which i prosume they use for the same purpose before they obtained metal. we made miles only to day the wind and a strong current being against us all day, with rain. discovered a high mountain s e. covered with snow which we call mt. jefferson. [lewis, march , ] monday march st we set out early this morning and proceeded untill a.m. when we landed on the n. side opposite one large wooden house of the shah-ha-la nation and took breakfast. when we decended the river in november last there were other lodges formed of straw and covered with bark near this house; these lodges are now distroyed and the inhabitants as the indians inform us have returned to the great rapids of this river which is their permanent residence; the house which remains is inhabited; soon after we landed two canoes came over from this house with men and a woman. they informed us that their relations who were with them last fall usuly visit them at that season for the purpose of hunting deer and elk and collecting wappetoe and that they had lately returned to the rapids i presume to prepare for the fishing season as the salmon will begin to run shortly.--this morning we overtook the man who had visited our camp last night he had a fine sturgeon in his canoe which he had just taken. the sagittaria sagittifolia dose not grow on this river above the columbian valley.--these indians of the rapids frequently visit this valley at every season of the year for the purpose of collecting wappetoe which is abundant and appears never to be out of season at any time of the year. at a.m. we resumed our march accompanyed by three men in a canoe; one of these fellows appeared to be a man of some note among them; he was dressed in a salor's jacket which was decorated in his own fassion with five rows of large and small buttons in front and some large buttons on the pocket flaps. they are remarkably fond of large brass buttons. these people speak a different language from those below tho in their dress habits manners &c they differ but little from the quathlahpohtles. their women wear the truss as those do of all the nations residing from the quathlahpohtles to the entrance of lewis's river. they differ in the manner of intering their dead. they lay them horizontally on boards and cover them with mats, in a valt formed with boards like the roof of a hose supported by forks and a single pole laid horizontally on those forks. many bodies are deposited in the same valt above ground. these are frequently laid one on the other, to the hight of three or for corps. they deposit with them various articles of which they die possessed, and most esteem while living. their canoes are frequently broken up to strengthen the vault.--these people have a few words the same with those below but the air of the language is intirely different, insomuch, that it may be justly deemed a different language. their women wear longer and larger robes generally, than those below; these are most commonly made of deer skins dressed with the hair on them. we continued our rout along the n. side of the river passed diamond island and whitebrant island to the lower point of a handsom prarie opposite to the upper entrance of the quicksand river; here we encamped having traveled miles today. a little below the upper point of the white brant island seal river discharges itself on the n. side. it is about yards wide, and at present discharges a large body of water. the water is very clear. the banks are low and near the columbia overflow and form several large ponds. the natives inform us that it is of no great extent and heads in the mountains just above us. at the distance of one mile from the entrance of this stream it forks, the two branches being nearly of the same size. they are both obstructed with falls and innumerable rappids, insomuch that it cannot be navigated. as we could not learn any name of the natives for this stream we called it seal river from the great abundance of those animals which we saw about it's entrance. we determined to remain at our present encampment a day or two for the several purposes of examining quicksand river making some celestial observations, and procuring some meat to serve us as far as the falls or through the western mountains where we found the game scarce as we decended.--the three indians who accompanied us last evening encamped a little distance above us and visited our camp where they remained untill p.m. in the entrance of seal river i saw a summer duck or wood duck as they are sometimes called. this is the same with those of our country and is the first i have seen since i entered the rocky mountains last summer.--our hunters who had halted a little below seal river in consequence of the waves being too high for their small canoe did not join us untill after dark. drewyer who was out below seal river informed us that game was very scarce in that quarter, a circumstance which we did not expect. [clark, march , ] monday march st we set out this morning and proceeded untill oclock when we landed on the n. side opposit one large house of the shah-ha-la nation near this house at the time we passed on the th of november last was situated houses, of them were built of straw & covered with bark as before mentioned. those of that description are all distroyed, the one built of wood only remains and is inhabited. we overtook the man whome came to our camp last night and soon after we landed two canoes came over from the opposit side with men & a woman those people informed us that their relations who was with them last fall reside at the great rapids, and were down with them last fall gathering wappato which did not grow above, and also killing deer, that they secured the bark of the houses which they then lived in against their return next fall. they also inform us that their relations also visit them frequently in the spring to collect this root which is in great quantities on either side of the columbia. at a. m we proceeded on accompanied by one canoe and three men, one of them appeared to be a man of some note, dressed in a salors jacket which had rows of large & small buttons on it. those people speak a differant language from those below, with some fiew words the same, the accent entirely different. their dress and manners appear very similar. the women ware the truss or breach clout and short robes, and men roabs only passed up on the n. side of white brant island near the upper point of which a small river falls in about yards wide and at this time discharges a great quantity of water. the nativs inform us that this river is very short and heads in the range of mountains to the n e of its enterance into the columbia the nativs haveing no name which we could learn for this little river we call it seal river from the great number of those animals which frequents its mouth. this river forks into two nearly equal branches about mile up and each branch is crouded with rapids & falls. we proceed on about miles above the enterance of this seacalf river and imedeately opposit the upper mouth of the quick sand river we formed a camp in a small prarie on the north side of the columbia where we intend to delay one or two days to make some selestial observations, to examine quick sand river, and kill some meat to last us through the western mountains which commences a fiew miles above us and runs in a n. n. w. & s. s. e. derection. the three indians encamped near us and visited our fire we entered into a kind of a conversation by signs, of the country and situation of the rivers. they informed us that seal river headed in the mountains at no great distance. quick sand river was short only headed in mt. hood which is in view and to which he pointed. this is a circumstance we did not expect as we had heretofore deemed a considerable river. mount hood bears east from this place and is distant from this place about miles. this information if true will render it necessary to examine the river below on the south side behind the image canoe and wappato islands for some river which must water the country weste of the western mountains to the waters of california. the columbia is at present on a stand and we with dificuelty made miles to day-. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april st . this morning early we dispatched sergt. pryar with two men in a small canoe up quicksand river with orders to proceed as far as he could and return this evening. we also sent a party of three hunters over the river to hunt a large bottom of woodland and prarie above the entrance of the quicksand river; the ballance of the hunters we sent out in different directions on this side of the columbia and employed those about camp in making a rope of elkskin. the indians who encamped near us last evening continued with us untill about midday. they informed us that the quicksand river which we have heretofore deemed so considerable, only extendes through the western mountains as far as the s. western side of mount hood where it takes it's source. this mountain bears e from this place and is distant about miles. this information was corroborated by that of sundry other indians who visited us in the course of the day. we were now convinced that there must be some other considerable river which flowed into the columbia on it's south side below us which we have not yet seen, as the extensive valley on that side of the river lying between the mountainous country of the coast and the western mountains must be watered by some stream which we had heretofore supposed was the quicksand river. but if it be a fact that the quicksand river heads in mount hood it must leave the valley within a few miles of it's entrance and runs nearly parallel with the columbia river upwards. we indeavoured to ascertain by what stream the southern portion of the columbian valley was watered but could obtain no satisfactory information of the natives on this head. they informed us that the quicksand river is navigable a short distance only in consequence of falls and rapids; and that no nation inhabits it.- sergt. pryar returned in the evening and reported that he had ascended the river six miles; that above the point at which it divides itself into two channels it is about yds wide tho the channel is not more than yds and only ft deep. this is a large vollume of water to collect in so short a distance; i therefore think it probable that there are some large creeks falling into it from the s. w. the bed of this stream is formed entirely of quicksand; it's banks are low and at preasent overflows. the water is turbid and current rapid.the following are the courses taken by sergt. pryor. s. ° w. m. to a point on the lard. side passing a large island on stard. s. ° e. m. to the head of an island near the lard. shore. s ° e. m. to a stard. point passing several islands on the lard. side and a creek yds. wide on stard at / miles. the river from hence appeared to bend to the east. he heard falls of water. several different tribes informed us that it heads at mount hood. we were visited by several canoes of natives in the course of the day; most of whom were decending the river with their women and children. they informed us that they resided at the great rapids and that their relations at that place were much streightened at that place for the want of food; that they had consumed their winter store of dryed fish and that those of the present season had not yet arrived. i could not learn wheather they took the sturgeon but presume if they do it is in but small quantities as they complained much of the scarcity of food among them. they informed us that the nations above them were in the same situation & that they did not expect the salmon to arrive untill the full of the next moon which happens on the d of may. we did not doubt the varacity of these people who seemed to be on their way with their families and effects in surch of subsistence which they find it easy to procure in this fertile valley.--this information gave us much uneasiness with rispect to our future means of subsistence. above falls or through the plains from thence to the chopunnish there are no deer antelope nor elk on which we can depend for subsistence; their horses are very poor most probably at this season, and if they have no fish their dogs must be in the same situation. under these circumstances there seems to be but a gloomy prospect for subsistence on any terms; we therefore took it into serious consideration what measures we were to pursue on this occasion; it was at once deemed inexpedient to wait the arrival of the salmon as that would detain us so large a portion of the season that it is probable we should not reach the united states before the ice would close the missouri; or at all events would hazard our horses which we lelft in charge of the chopunnish who informed us that they intended passing the rocky mountains to the missouri as early as the season would permit them wich is as we believe about the begining of may. should these people leave their situation near kooskooske before our arrival we may probably find much difficulty in recovering our horses; without which there will be but little possibility of repassing the mountains; we are therefore determined to loose as little time as possible in geting to the chopunnish village. at p.m. the hunters who were sent over the river returned having killed elk and two deer; the elk were in good order but the deer extreemly poor. they informed us that game is very plenty in that quarter. the hunters on this side of the river also returned but had killed nothing; they saw a few elk and deer. there was also much sign of the black bear seen on the other side of the river. we sent a party to bring in the flesh of the elk and deer that were killed. they did not return this evening. i purchased a canoe from an indian today for which i gave him six fathoms of wampum beads; he seemed satisfyed with his bargain and departed in another canoe but shortly after returned and canceled the bargain; took his canoe and returned the beads. this is frequently the case in their method of traiding and is deemed fair by them. the last evening and this morning were so cloudy that i could neither obtain any lunar observations nor equal altitudes.- [clark, april , ] tuesday april st this morning early we dispatched sergt. pryor, with two men in a small canoe up quick sand river with orders to proceed as far as he could and return this evening. we also sent a party of three hunters over the river to hunt a large bottom of woodland and prarie above the enterance of q. sand river; the ballance of the hunters we sent out in different directions on this side of the columbia, and employed those about camp in makeing a rope of elk skin. the information given by the indians to us last night respecting quick sand river was corrobarated by sundery other indians who visited us in the course of this day. we were now convinced that if there information be just; that some considerable river which flowed into the columbia on it's south side below us which we have not yet seen, as the extensive vally on that side of the river lying between the mountanious country of the coast, and the western mountains must be watered by some stream, which we had heretofore supposed was the quick sand river. but if it be a fact that quick sand river heads in mount hood it must leave the vally within a fiew miles of it's enterance, and runs nearly parrilal with the columbia river upwards. we indeavered to assertained by what stream the south portion of the columbian vally was watered, but could obtain no satisfactory information of the waters on this head. they inform us that the quick sand river is not naviagable any distance in consequence of falls and rapids; and that no nation inhabit it. sergt. pryor returned in the evening and reported that he had assended the river six miles; that above the point which it divides itself into two chanels, it is about yards wide tho the chanel is not more than yards, and only feet deep. the other part of the river from to inches water, the bead of this river is formed entirely of quick sand; its banks are low and at present overflown. the water is turbed and current rapid.--the following are the courses taken by sergt. pryor.- "s. ° w. mile to a point on the lard. side passing a large island on stard side. s ° e. m. to the head of the island near the lard shore. s ° e m. to a stard. point passing several islands on the lard side and a creek yards wide on the stard. side at / miles. the river from hence upwards bend to the east. a fall of water heard at no great distance up this river." several diffirent tribes of indians inform us that it heads at mount hood which is in view. we were visited by several canoes of the nativs in the course of this day; most of whome were decending the river with their womin and children. they inform us that they reside at the great rapids and that their relations at that place were much streightened for the want of food; that they had consumed their winter store of dryed fish and those of the present season had not yet arived. i could not lern whether they took sturgion but prosume if they do it is in but small quantities as they complain much of the scercity of food among them, they informed us that the nativs above them were in the same situation, and that they did not expect the salmon to arrive untill the full of the next moon which happens on the nd of may. we did not doubt the veracity of those people who seamed to be on their way with their families and effects in serch of subsistence which they find it easy to precure in this fertile vally-. this information givs us much uneasiness with respect to our future means of subsistence, above the falls, on through the plains from thence to the chopunnish there are no deer antilopes or elk on which we could depend for subsistence; their horses are very poor most probably at this season, and if they have no fish their dogs must be in the same situation. under these circumstances there seams to be a gloomey prospect for subsistence on any terms; we therefore took it into serious consideration what measure we were to pursue on this occasion; it was at once deemed inexpedient to waite the arival of the salmon as that would detain us so long a portion of the season that it is probable we should not reach the u states before the ice would close the missouri; or at all events would hazard our horses which we left in charge of the chopunnish who informed us that they intended passing the rocky mountains to the missouri as early as the season would permit them which is about the first of may. should these people leave their situation near kooskooske before our arival we may probably find much dificulty in recovering our horses; without which there will be but little possibility of repassing the mountains; we are therefore determined to lose as little time as possible in getting to the cho punnish village. at p.m. the hunters who were sent over the river returned, haveing killed elk and deer; the elk were in good order but the deer extreemly poor. they informed us that game is very plenty in that quarter. the hunters on this side of the river also returned but had killed nothing; they saw a fiew elk and deer. there were also much sign of the black bear seen on the other side of the river. we sent a party to bring in the flesh of the elk and deer that were killed. they did not return this evening. we purchased a canoe from an indian today for six fathoms of white wampom; he seemed satisfied with his bargin and departed in another canoe but shortly after returned and canseled the bargain, took his canoe and returned the beeds. this is frequently the case in their method of tradeing and is deemed fair by them. the last evening and this morning were so cloudy that we could neither obtain any lunar observations nor equal altitudes [lewis, april , ] wednesday april ed . this morning we came to a resolution to remain at our present encampment or some where in this neighbourhood untill we had obtained as much dryed meat as would be necessary for our voyage as far as the chopunnish. to exchange our perogues for canoes with the natives on our way to the great falls of the columbia or purchase such canoes from them for elkskins and merchandize as would answer our purposes. these canoes we intend exchanging with the natives of the plains for horses as we proceed untill we obtain as many as will enable us to travel altogether by land. at some convenient point, perhaps at the entrence of the s. e. branch of the columbia, we purpose sending a party of four or five men a head to collect our horses that they may be in readiness for us by our arrival at the chopunnish; calculating by thus acquiring a large stock of horses we shall not only sucure the means of transporting our baggage over the mountains but that we will also have provided the means of subsisting; for we now view the horses as our only certain resource for food, nor do we look forward to it with any detestation or borrow, so soon is the mind which is occupyed with any interesting object reconciled to it's situation. the men who were sent in quest of the elk and deer that were killed yesterday returned at a.m. this morning. we now enformed the party of our intention of laying in a store of meat at this place, and immediately dispatched two parteis consisting of nine men to the opposite side of the river. five of those we sent below the quicksand river and above. we also sent out three others on this side, and those who remained in camp were employed in collecting wood making a scaffoald and cuting up the meat in order to dry it. about this time several canoes of the natives arrived at our camp and among others one from below which had on board eight men of the shah-ha-la nation these men informed us that young men whom they pointed out were cash-hooks and resided at the falls of a large river which discharges itself into the columbia on it's south side some miles below us. we readily prevailed on them to give us a sketch of this river which they drew on a mat with a coal. it appeared that this river which they called mult-no-mah discharged itself behind the island which we called the image canoe island and as we had left this island to the s. both in ascending and decending the river we had never seen it. they informed us that it was a large river and run a considerable distance to the south between the mountains. capt. clark determined to return and examine this river accordingly he took a party of seven men and one of the perogues and set out / after a.m., he hired one of the cashhooks, for a birning glass, to pilot him to the entrance of the multnomah river and took him on board with him. in their manners dress language and stature these people are the same with the quathlahpohtle nation and others residing in the neighbourhood of wappetoe island. near the entrance of multnomah river a considerable nation resides on the lower side of that stream by the same name. as many as ten canoes with natives arrived at our camp in the course of the day; most of them were families of men women and children decencing the river. they all gave the same account of the scarcity of provision above. i shot my air gun, with which they were much astonished. one family consisting of ten or twelve persons remained near us all night. they conducted themselves in a very orderly manner. the three hunters on this side of the river returned in the evening they had killed two deer, tho they were so poor and at such a distance from camp that they brought in their skins only. the night and morning being cloudy i was again disappointed in making the observations i wished. fir is the common growth of the uplands, as is the cottonwood, ash; large leafed ash and sweet willow that of the bottom lands. the huckleburry, shallon, and the several evergreen shrubs of that speceis which bear burries have seased to appear except that speceis which has the leaf with a prickly margin. among the plants of this prarie in which we are encamped i observe the passhequo, shannetahque, and compound firn the roots of which the natives eat; also the water cress, strawburry, flowering pea not yet in blume, the sinquefoil, narrow dock, sand rush which are luxuriant and abundant in the river bottoms; a speceis of the bearsclaw of which i preserved a specemine it is in blume. the large leafed thorn has also disappeared. the red flowering currant is found here in considerable quantities on the uplands. the hunters inform me that there are extensive praries on the highlands a few miles back from the river on this side. the land is very fertile. [clark, april , ] wednesday april nd this morning we came to a resolution to remain at our present encampment or some where in this neighbourhood untill we had obtained as much dried meat as would be necessary for our voyage as far as the chopunnish. to exchange our large canoes for small ones with the nativs on our way to the great falls of the columbia or purchase such canoes from them for elk skins and merchindize as would answer our purposes. these canoes we intend exchangeing with the nativs of the plains for horses as we proceed untill we obtain as maney as will enable us to travel altogether by land. at some convenient point, perhaps at the enterance of lewis's river we intend sending a party of or men ahead to collect our horses that they may be in readiness for us by our arrival at the chopunnish; calculating by thus acquireing a large stock of horses we shall not only secure the means of transporting our baggage over the mountains, but that we also have provided the means of subsisting; for we now view the horses as our only certain resource for food, nor do we look foward to it with any detestation or horrow, so soon is the mind which is occupied with any interesting object, reconsiled to it's situation. the men who went in quest of the elk and deer which were killed yesterday returned at a.m. this morning. we now informed the party of our intention of laying in a store of meat at this place, and imediately dispatched two parties consisting of nine men to the opposit side of the river. of them below and above quick sand river. we also sent out others on this side, and those who remained in camp were employd in collecting wood makeing a scaffold and cutting up the meat in order to dry it. about this time several canoes of the nativs arived at our camp among others two from below with eight men of the shah-ha-la nation those men informed us that they reside on the opposit side of the columbia near some pine trees which they pointed to in the bottom south of the dimond island, they singled out two young men whome they informed us lived at the falls of a large river which discharges itself into the columbia on it's south side some miles below us. we readily provailed on them to give us a sketch of this river which they drew on a mat with a coal, it appeared that this river which they call mult-no'-mah discharged itself behind the island we call the image canoe island, and as we had left this island to the south both in decending & assending the river we had never seen it. they informed us that it was a large river and runs a considerable distance to the south between the mountains. i deturmined to take a small party and return to this river and examine its size and collect as much information of the nativs on it or near its enterance into the columbia of its extent, the country which it waters and the nativs who inhabit its banks &c. i took with me six men. thompson j. potts, peter crusat, p. wiser, t. p. howard, jos. whitehouse & my man york in a large canoe, with an indian whome i hired for a sun glass to accompany me as a pilot. at half past a.m. i set out, and had not proceeded far eer i saw large canoes at some distance above decending and bending their course towards our camp which at this time is very weak capt. lewis haveing only men with him. i hisitated for a moment whether it would not be advisable for me to return and delay untill a part of our hunters should return to add more strength to our camp. but on a second reflection and reverting to the precautions always taken by my friend capt lewis on those occasions banished all apprehensions and i proceeded on down. at miles passed a village on the south side at this place my pilot informed me he resided and that the name of his tribe is ne-cha-co-lee, this village is back or to the south of dimond island, and as we passed on the north side of the island both decending & assending did not see or know of this village. i proceeded on without landing at this village. at p.m. i landed at a large double house of the ne-er-choki-oo tribe of the shah-ha-la nation. at this place we had seen aditional straw huts as we passed down last fall and whome as i have before mentioned reside at the great rapids of the columbia. on the bank at different places i observed small canoes which the women make use of to gather wappato & roots in the slashes. those canoes are from to feet long and from to inches wide in the widest part tapering from the center to both ends in this form and about inches deep and so light that a woman may with one hand haul them with ease, and they are sufficient to carry a woman an some loading. i think of those canoes were piled up and scattered in different directions about in the woods in the vecinity of this house, the pilot informed me that those canoes were the property of the inhabitents of the grand rapids who used them ocasionally to gather roots. i entered one of the rooms of this house and offered several articles to the nativs in exchange for wappato. they were sulkey and they positively refused to sell any. i had a small pece of port fire match in my pocket, off of which i cut a pece one inch in length & put it into the fire and took out my pocket compas and set myself doun on a mat on one side of the fire, and a magnet which was in the top of my ink stand the port fire cought and burned vehemently, which changed the colour of the fire; with the magnit i turned the needle of the compas about very briskly; which astonished and alarmed these nativs and they laid several parsles of wappato at my feet, & begged of me to take out the bad fire; to this i consented; at this moment the match being exhausted was of course extinguished and i put up the magnet &c. this measure alarmed them so much that the womin and children took shelter in their beads and behind the men, all this time a very old blind man was speaking with great vehemunce, appearently imploreing his gode. i lit my pipe and gave them smoke & gave the womin the full amount of the roots which they had put at my feet. they appeared somewhat passified and i left them and proceeded on on the south side of image canoe island which i found to be two islands hid from the opposit side by one near the center of the river. the lower point of the upper and the upper point of the lower cannot be seen from the north side of the columbia on which we had passed both decending and ascending and had not observed the apperture between those islands. at the distance of miles below the last village and at the place i had supposed was the lower point of the image canoe island, i entered this river which the nativs had informed us of, called mult no mah river so called by the nativs from a nation who reside on wappato island a little below the enterance of this river. multnomah discharges itself in the columbia on the s. e. and may be justly said to be / the size of that noble river. multnomah had fallen inches from it's greatest annual height. three small islands are situated in it's mouth which hides the river from view from the columbia from the enterance of this river, i can plainly see mt. jefferson which is high and covered with snow s. e. mt. hood east, mt st. helians a high humped mountain to the east of mt st. helians. i also saw the mt. raneer nearly north. soon after i arived at this river an old man passed down of the clark a'mos nation who are noumerous and reside on a branch of this river which receives it's waters from mt.,jefferson which is emensely high and discharges itself into this river one day and a half up, this distance i state at miles. this nation inhabits villages their dress and language is very similar to the quath-lah-poh-tle and other tribes on wappato island. the current of the multnomar is as jentle as that of the columbia glides smoothly with an eavin surface, and appears to be sufficiently deep for the largest ship. i attempted fathom it with a cord of fathom which was the only cord i had, could not find bottom / of the distance across. i proceeded up this river miles from it's enterance into the columbia to a large house on the n e. side and encamped near the house, the flees being so noumerous in the house that we could not sleep in it. this is the house of the cush-hooks nation who reside at the falls of this river which the pilot informs me they make use of when they come down to the vally to gather wappato. he also informs me that a number of other smaller houses are situated on two bayous which make out on the s. e. side a little below the house. this house appears to have been laterly abandoned by its inhabitants in which they had left sundery articles such as small canoes mats, bladdles of oil and baskits bowls & trenchers. and as my pilot informed me was gorn up this to the falls to fish which is days or miles up. this house is feet wide & presisely feet long. built in the usial form of broad boads covered with bark. the course and distance assending the molt no mar r from it's enterance into the columbia at the lower point of the rd image canoe island. viz. s. °w. miles to the upper point of a small island in the middle of moltnomar river. thence s. ° w. miles to a sluce yards wide which devides wappato island from the main stard. side shore passing a willow point on the lard. side. s. ° e. miles to a large indian house on the lard side below some high pine land. high bold shore on the starboard side. thence s. ° e miles to a bend under the high lands on the stard side miles passing a larborad point. thence the river bends to the east of s east as far as i could see. at this place i think the wedth of the river may be stated at yards and sufficiently deep for a man of war or ship of any burthen. [lewis, april , ] thursday april rd . early this morning joseph feilds came over and informed me that reubin feilds drewyer and himself had killed four elk. as the party with me were now but weak and the indians constantly crouding about our camp, i thought it best to send a few men to dry the meat on the other side of the river; accordingly sergt pryor and two men returned with jos. fields for that purpose. the hunters were ordered to continue the chase; while the others were employed in drying the meat. i have had no account as yet from the party below the entrance of quicksand river. the indians continued to visit us today in considerable numbers most of them were decending the river with their families. these poor people appeared to be almost starved, they picked up the bones and little peices of refuse meat which had been thrown away by the party. they confirm the report of the scarcity of provision among the natives above. i observe some of the men among them who wear a girdle arround the waist between which and the body in front they confine a small skin of the mink or polecat which in some measure conceals the parts of generation, they also frequently wear a cap formed of the skin of the deer's head with the ears left on it, they have some collars of leather wrought with porcupine quills after the method of the shoshonees. from this place mount hood bears s. e. distant miles. this evening we completed drying the flesh of the elk which had been brought to camp. at p.m. capt. clark returned, having completely succeeded in his expedition. he found the entrance of the large river of which the indians had informed us, just at the upper part of wappetoe island. the following is a sketch of the rivers furnished capt c. by an old and inteligent indian man.- [clark, april , ] thursday april rd the water had fallen in the course of last night five inches. i set out and proceeded up a short distance and attempted a second time to fathom the river with my cord of fathom but could find no bottom. the mist was so thick that i could see but a short distance up this river. where i left it, it was binding to the east of s. e. being perfectly sati'fyed of the size and magnitude of this great river which must water that vast tract of country betwen the western range of mountains and those on the sea coast and as far s. as the waters of callifornia about latd. ° north i deturmined to return. at oclock a.m. set out on my return. the men exirted themselves and we arived at the ne er cho ki oo house in which the nativs were so illy disposed yesterday at a.m. i entered the house with a view to smoke with those people who consisted of about families, finding my presence alarmed them so much that the children hid themselves, womin got behind their men, and the men hung their heads, i detained but a fiew minits and returnd on board the canoe. my pilot who continued in the canoe informed me on my return that those people as well as their relations were very illy disposed and bad people. i proceeded on along the south side met five canoes of the shah-ha-la nation from the great rapids with their wives and children decending the columbia into this fertile vally in pursute of provi-sions. my pilot informed me in a low voice that those people were not good, and i did not suffer them to come along side of my canoe which they appeared anxious to do. their numbers in those canoes who appeard anxious to come along side was men and boys. at p m. we arived at the residence of our pilot which consists of one long house with seven appartments or rooms in square form about feet each room opening into a passage which is quit through the house those passages are about feet in width and formed of wide boads set on end in the ground and reaching to the ruff which serves also as divisions to the rooms. the ground plot is in this form is the passages. &c. is the apartments about feet square. this house is built of bark of the white cedar supported on long stiff poles resting on the ends of broad boads which form the rooms &c. back of this house i observe the wreck of houses remaining of a very large village, the houses of which had been built in the form of those we first saw at the long narrows of the e-lute nation with whome those people are connected. i indeavored to obtain from those people of the situation of their nation, if scattered or what had become of the nativs who must have peopled this great town. an old man who appeared of some note among them and father to my guide brought foward a woman who was badly marked with the small pox and made signs that they all died with the disorder which marked her face, and which she was verry near dieing with when a girl. from the age of this woman this distructive disorder i judge must have been about or years past, and about the time the clatsops inform us that this disorder raged in their towns and distroyed their nation. those people speak a different language from those below tho in their dress habits and manners &c. they differ but little from the quathlahpohtles. theire women ware the truss as those do of all the nations risideing from the quathlahpohtle to the enterance of lewis's river and on the columbia above for some distance. those people have some words the same with those below but the air of their language is entirely different, their men are stouter and much better made, and their womin ware larger & longer robes than those do below; those are most commonly made of deer skins dressed with the hair on them. they pay great attention to their aged severall men and women whom i observed in this village had arived at a great age, and appeared to be helthy tho blind. i provailed on an old man to draw me a sketch of the multnomar river ang give me the names of the nations resideing on it which he readily done, see draft on the other side and gave me the names of nations who reside on this river two of them very noumerous. the first is clark a-mus nation reside on a small river which takes its rise in mount jefferson and falls into the moltnomar about miles up. this nation is noumerous and inhabit towns. the d is the cush-hooks who reside on the n e. side below the falls, the rd is the char-cowah who reside above the falls on the s w. side neether of those two are noumerous. the fourth nation is the cal-lar-po-e-wah which is very noumerous & inhabit the country on each side of the multnomar from its falls as far up as the knowledge of those people extend. they inform me also that a high mountain passes the multnomar at the falls, and above the country is an open plain of great extent. i purchased dogs of those people for the use of their oil in the plains, and at p m left the village and proceeded on to camp where i joind capt. lewis the enterance of multnomah river is miles up the columbia river from its enterance into the pacific ocean-. in my absence and soon after i left camp several canoes of men women and children came to the camp. and at one time there was about of those people in camp capt lewis fired his air gun which astonished them in such a manner that they were orderly and kept at a proper distance dureing the time they continued with him--as maney as canoes arrived at camp in the course of this day. they all seem to give the same account of the scercity of provisions above. one family continued all night and behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. on the rd joseph field returned from the woods and informed the drewyer rubin & himself had killed four elk. capt l. sent sergt. pryor and two men with joseph field to dry the flesh of the elk in the woods on scaffolds with fire. the party bilow quick sand river did not return to day. the indians continue to vist our camp in considerable number from above with their families. these pore people appeared half starved. they picked up the bones and little refuse meat which had been thrown away by the party. capt l had the flesh of the elk which was killed on the st inst. dried--some of the men of the nativs who visited capt lewis wore a girdle, with a small skin in front and a cap of the skin of the deers head &c. [lewis, april , ] friday april th . this morning early we sent sergt. ordway in surch of sergt. gass and party below the entrance of the quicksand river fom whom we have yet had no report. in the course of a few hours both parties returned. sergt. gass and party brought the flesh of a bear and some venison. they informed us that they had killed an elk and six deer tho the flesh of the greater part of those animals was so meagre that it was unfit for uce and they had therefore left it in the woods. collins who had killed the bear, found the bed of another in which there were three young ones; and requested to be permitted to return in order to waylay the bed and kill the female bear; we permitted him to do so; sergt. gass and windsor returned with him. several parties of the natives visit us today as usual both from above and below; those who came from above were moving with their families, and those from below appeared to be empeled mearly by curiossity to see us. about noon we dispatched gibson shannon howard and wiser in one of the light canoes, with orders to proceed up the columbia to a large bottom on the south side about six miles above us and to hunt untill our arrival. late in the evening joseph fields and drewyer returned. they had killed two deer yesterday, and informed us that the meat would be dryed by midday tomorrow. we directed drewyer and the two feildses to ascend the river tomorrow to join gibson and party, and hunt untill our arrival. this evening being fair i observed time and distance of ys eastern limb from regulus with sextant. k west. [clark, april , ] friday april th . mouth of quick sand river this morning early we sent sergt. ordway in serch of sergt. gass and party below the enterance of quick sand river from whome we have yet had no report. in the course of a fiew hours both parties returned. sergt. gass and party brought the flesh of a bear, and some venison. they informed us they had killed an elk and six deer tho the flesh of the greater part of those animals were so meagre that it was unfit for uce, and they had therefore left it in the woods. collins who had killed the bear, found the bead of another in which there was three young ones; and requested to be permited to return in order to waylay the bed and kill the female bear; we permited him to do so; sergt. gass and windser returned with him. several parties of the nativs visit us to day as usial both from above and below; those who came from above were moveing with their families, and those from below appeared to be impeled mearly by curiosity to see us. about noon we dispatched gibson, shannon, howard & wiser in one of the light canoes, with orders to proceed up the columbia to a large bottom on the south side about six miles above us and there to hunt untill our arrival. late in the evening jos fields and drewyer returned with a load of dried meat. they had killed two deer yesterday and informed us that the meat would be dryed by mid-day tomorrow. we directed drewyer and field's to assend the river tomorrow and join gibson & party, and hunt untill our arrival. this evening being fair observed time and distance of moon's eastern limb from regulus with sextant * west [lewis, april , ] saturday april th . this morning was so cloudy that i could not obtain any lunar observations with a aquila as i wished. joseph fields and drewyer departed this morning agreeably to their orders of last evening. at a.m. we sent sergt. ordway and a party to assist sergt. pryor in bringing in the meat of four elk which he had dryed. at p. m the party returned with the meat. it had been so illy dryed that we feared it would not keep. we therefore directed it to be cut thinner and redryed over a fire this evening, as we purpose setting out early in the morning. the deerskins which we have had cased for the purpose of containing our dryed meat are not themselves sufficiently dryed for that purpose, we directed them to be dryed by the fire also. the weather has been so damp that there was no possibility of pounding the meat as i wished.--we were visited today by several parties of the natives as usual; they behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. observed magnetic azimuth and altitude of the sun with circumferenter and sextant. saw the log cock, the hummingbird, gees ducks &c today. the tick has made it's appearance it is the same with those of the atlantic states. the musquetoes have also appeared but are not yet troublesome.--this morning at oclock sergt. gass returned with collins and windsor they had not succeeded in killing the female bear tho they brought the three cubs with them. the indians who visited us today fancyed these petts and gave us wappetoe in exchange for them. drewyer informed me that he never knew a female bear return to her young when they had been allarmed by a person and once compelled to leave them. the dogwood grows abundantly on the uplands in this neighbourhood. it differs from that of the united states in the appearance of it's bark which is much smoother, it also arrives here to much greater size than i ever observed it elsewhere sometimes the stem is nearly feet in diameter. we measured a fallen tree of fir no which was feet including the stump which was about feet high. this tree was only about / feet in diameter. we saw the martin, small gees, the small speckled woodpecker with a white back, the blue crested corvus, ravens, crows, eagles vultures and hawks. the mellow bug and long leged spider have appeared, as have also the butterfly blowing fly and many other insects. i observe not any among them which appear to differ from those of our country or which deserve particular notice. [clark, april , ] saturday april th . this morning was so cloudy that we could not obtain any lunar observations with a aquila as we wished. joseph field & drewrey left us this morning agreeably to their orders of last evening. at the same time we sent sergt. ordway and five men to assist sergt. pryor in bringing in the meat of four elk which he had dried in the woods. at p.m.the party returned with the meat. it was not sufficiently dryed to keep. we had it cut thiner and redryed over a fire this evening, as we purpose setting out early in the morning. the dear skins which we had cased for the purpose of holding our dried meat is not sufficently dry for that purpose, we derected them to be dried by the fire also. the weather being so damp that there was no possibullity of pounding the meat as i wished.--we were visited by several parties of the nativs to day; they behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. saw the log cock, the humming bird, geese, ducks &c. to day. the tick has made it's appearance it is the same with those of the atlantic states. the musquetors have also appeared, but are not yet much troublesom.--this morning at a m sergt. gass returned with collins and windser they had not succeeded in killing the female bear, tho they brought the three cub's with them. the indians who visited us to day fancied those petts and gave us wappato in exchange for them. fir and white cedar is the common growth of the up lands, as is the cotton wood, ash, large leafed ash and sweet willow that of the bottom lands. the huckleberry, shallon, and the several evergreen shrubs, of that speces that bears berries have seased to appear, except that species which has the leaf with a prickley margin. among the plants of this prarie in which we are encamped i observe the pashequo, shannetahque, and compound firn, the root of which the nativs eate; also the water cress, straw berry flowering pea not yet in blume, narrow dock, and rush which are luxuriant and abundent in the river bottoms. the large leafed thorn has also disappeard. the red flowering current is found here in considerable quantities on the upland, and the common dog wood is found on either side of the river in this neighbourhood and above multnomah river. the country on either side is fertile, the bottom on the south side is wide and inter sperced with small ponds in which the nativs gather their wappato. back of this bottom the country rises to about feet and the soil is very rich as that also above q sandy river quite to the mountains. the country on the n. side from a fiew miles above this place as low down as the enterance of cah-wah-na-ki-ooks river rises to the hight generally of or feet is tolerably leavel, thickly timbered with fir and white cedar. the soil of the richest quallity. some small praries on the bank of the river. that portion of country below as low down as the enterance of cah-wah na ki ooks river is a broken rich country. the hills are high, the bottom lands as before mentioned and fertile &c.-the country a fiew miles up the multnomah river rises from the river bottoms to the hight of from to feet and is rich & fertile. some plains can be seen to the n. e. of our camp of or miles in secumference the hunters & serjt pryor informed us that they had measured a tree on the upper side of quick sand river feet long and about feet through at the stump. [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . this morning we had the dryed meat secured in skins and the canoes loaded; we took breakfast and departed at a.m. we continued up the n. side of the river nearly to the place at which we had encamped on the rd of nov. when we passed the river to the south side in quest of the hunters we had sent up yesterday and the day before. from the appearance of a rock near which we had encamped on the rd of november last i could judge better of the rise of the water than i could at any point below. i think the flood of this spring has been about feet higher than it was at that time; the river is here about / miles wide; it's general width from the beacon rock which may be esteemed the head of tide water, to the marshey islands is from one to miles tho in many places it is still wider. it is only in the fall of the year when the river is low that the tides are persceptable as high as the beacon rock. this remarkable rock which stands on the north shore of the river is unconnected with the hills and rises to the hight of seven hundred feet; it has some pine or reather fir timber on it's nothern side, the southern is a precipice of it's whole hight. it rises to a very sharp point and is visible for miles below on the river. at the distance of ten miles from our encampment we met with our hunters in the upper end of the bottom to which we had directed them on the south side of the river. they had killed three elk this morning and wounded two others so badly that they expected to get them. we therefore determined to encamp for the evening at this place in order to dry the meat, in surch of which we sent a party immediately and employed others in preparing scaffoalds and collecting firewood &c against their return. we found some indians with our hunters when we arrived; these people are constantly hanging about us.--as has been before mentioned capt c set out with a party of seven men on ed inst. in surch of the entrance of the multnomah river. he departed at / after a. m and directed his course along the southern side of the river. at the distance of miles he passed the village of the na-cha-co-lee tribe of the e-lute nation; this village is not large and being situated on the main shore opposite to and s. of the diamond island it was concealed by that island from our view both ascending and decending the columbia as we passed near the northern shore. capt c. passed this village without halting and continued his rout untill p.m. when he arrived at a large double house of the ne-er-cho-ki-oo tribe of the shah'ha-la nation; at this place we had seen additional straw and bark huts as we passed down last fall, the inhabitants of which as i have before mentioned reside at the great rapids of the columbia river. about this place in different directions capt c. saw a great number of small canoes lying scattered on the bank. these small canoes are employed by the women in collecting wappetoe; with one of these a woman enters a pond where the sagitaria sagittifolia grows frequently to her breast in water and by means of her toes and feet breakes the bulb of this plant loos from the parent radicle and disincumbering it from the mud it immediately rises to the surface of the water when she seizes it and throws it into her canoe which she always keeps convenient to her. they will remain in the water for hours together in surch of this bulb in middle of winter. those canoes are from to feet in length, from to inches in width near the middle tapering or becoming narrower towards either extremity and inches deep their form is thus. they are so light that a woman can draw them over land or take them with ease through the swamps in any direction, and are sufficient to carry a single person and several bushells of roots. capt. clarks pilot informed him that the small canoes which he saw in the vicinity of this lodge were the property of the shah-ha-las who used them occasionally when they visit this neighbourhood for the purpose of collecting roots. while at this place capt c. entered one of the appartments of the house and offered several articles to the natives in exchange for wappetoe, they appeared to be in an ill humour and positively refused to let him have any. capt. c. sat himself down near the fire and having a part of a portfire match in his pocket cut of a small peice of it and threw it in the fire; at the same time he took out his pocket compass and by means of a magnet which he had in the top of his inkstand he turned the nedle of the compass about very briskly; the match took fire and birned vehemently; the indians astonished and allarmed at these exhibitions, ran and brought several parcels of wappetoe and laid at his feet and begged that he would put out the bad fire; to this he consented; at this moment the match being exhausted was of course extenguished and he put up his compass & magnet. they were now much more complisant, tho the women and children were yet so much allarmed that they took refuge in their beads and behing the men who were seting opposite to capt. c. during the whole of this farcical seen an old man who was seting by continued to speak with great vehemence apparently imploring his god for protection. capt. c. gave them an adiquate compensation for their roots and having lighted his pipe smoaked with the men. they appeared in a great measure to get the better of their allarm and he left them and continued his rout along the south side of image canoe island which he found to be three islands, the one in the center concealing the apperture between the two others in such manner that from the north side of the river where we have previously passed they all appeared to form one island only. at the distance of miles below the village just mentioned, and at the lower point of what we have heretofore deemed the image canoe island, capt c. entered the multnomah river so called by the natives from a nation of that name who reside on wappetoe island a little below the entrance of this river? multnomah river discharges itself on the s. side of the columbia miles above the entrance of the latter into the pacific ocean, and may be justly esteemed one fourth of that noble river. capt. c. found that this river had attained it's greatest annual hight and had now fallen about inches. it has three small islands in it's mouth which conceal the river from the view of those who pass with the stream of the columbia. from the columbia at the entrance of the multonomah river mount jefferson bears s. e. this is a noble mountain. i think equally as high as mount st. helines but it's distance being much greater than that of the latter, so great a portion of it dose not appear above the range of mountains which lie betwen boath those stupendious mountains and this point of view. like mount st. heleans it's figure is a regular cone and is covered with eternal snow. m. st. heleans from the same point boar n ____, mount hood due east, and mount raniei nearly north. there is also a very high humped mountain a little to the east of mount st. heleans which appears to lie in the same chain with those conic pointed mountains before mentioned. soon after capt clark entered the multnomah river he was met by an old indian man alone in a canoe decending the river, the pilot had some conversation with him and informed capt. c. that this was a man of the clark-a'-mas nation who are numerous and inhabit eleven vilages on either side of a river of the same name which has it's source in mount jefferson and after tranversing a woody and fertile country discharges itself into the multnomah river on it's e. side at the distance of about miles from it's junction with the columbia. the clarkamas river is navigable for canoes a great distance, from the indian account almost to the foot of mount, jefferson. the nation who inhabit it's borders live principally on fish with which this stream abounds and also on roots which they procure on it's borders. they sometimes also come down to the multnomah and columbia in surch of wappatoe. they do not differ essentially in their language dress &c from the quathlahpohtles and others in the vicinity of wappetoe island. the current of the multnomah river is as gentle as that of the columbia, glides smoothly with an even surface, and appears to possess sufficient debth for the largest ship. capt. c. attempted to sound it with a cord of fathoms which was the longest in his possession but could not find bottom at this debth for at least one third of the width of the river. capt. c. ascended this river ten miles to a large wood house on the east side of the river, near which he encamped for the evening; the house being infested with such swarms of flees that they could not remain in it. this his guide informed him was the house of the cush-hooks nation who reside just below the falls of the multnomah river and who occasionally reside at this place for the purpose of collecting wappetoe. at present this house appeared to have been lately abandoned by the natives who had left therein exposed to every visiter various articles such as small canoes, mats, bladders of train oil, baskets, bowls and trenchers. this is a strong evidence of the honesty of the natives with rispect to the property of each other, but they have given us several evidences that they do not pay the same rispect to the property of white men. his guide further informed him that there were a number of small houses belonging to the last mentioned nation situated on two bayous which make out of the river a little above this large hose on the east side; that the inhabitants of these as well as those of the large house had gone up to the falls of the multnomah river for the purpose of taking fish. these falls are situated at the distance of days travel from the junction of the multnomah and columbia rivers agreeably to the indian account which we have estimated at miles or m. above the entrance of clarkamus river. capt c. took the dementions of the hose of the ne-mal-quin-ner tribe of the cushhooks nation near which he encamped on the ed inst. and found it presisely thirty feet by squar constructed with broad boards and covered with the bark of the white cedar or arborvita; the floor is on a level with the surface of the earth and the internal arrangement is similar to those of the natives of the sea coast.--these people carry on a trafic with the killamucks of the coast across the mountains and by way of the killamucks river from the killamucks they obtain their train oil. the courses and distances taken by capt. clark in ascending the multnomah river from it's junction with the columbia river, commencing at the lower extremity of the image canoe islands are as follows. (viz) s. ° w. m. to the upper point of a small island in the center of multnomah river. thence s ° w. m. to a sluce yds. wide on stard. which dividing wappetoe island from the main land discharges itself into wappetoe inlet passed a willow point on lard. s. ° w. ms. to a large indian house on the lard. side, just below some high fir land the shore is bold and high on stard. side. s ° e. ms. to the center of a bend under the highlands on stard. side, passing a lard. point; from hence the river directed it's course to the e. of s. e. as far as capt. c. could perceive it.--at this place the multnomah river is yds. wide and sufficiently deep to admit the largest ship. the river appears to be washing away it's banks in some places, and has more sandbars and willow points than the columbia.on the morning of the rd inst. capt. clark observed that the water had fallen in the course of the night about inches. he set out early and proceeded up the river a short distance few miles and attempted a second time to fathom it but with the same success as before he could nt find bottom with his cord of fathoms for the distance of half the width of the stream. capt c. having fully satisfyed himself of the magnitude of this great river he set out on his return at a.m. i have but little doubt but that this river waters a vast tract of country lying between the western mountains and the mountainous country of the sea coast extending as far south as the waters of the gulph of callifornia or about latitude ° north. at a.m. capt. c. arrived at the ne-er-cho-ki-oo house where he had allarmed the inhabtants yesterday. he halted here a few minutes to smoke with these people who consisted of eight families. he found that his presents excited fresh allarm particularly among the women and children who hid themselves and took refuge behind the men as yesterday; the men held down their heads and seemed much conserned; he therefore remained in the house but a few minutes, returned to his canoe and pursued his rout. his pilot now informed him that these people as well as their relations at the falls of the columbia were illy disposed bad men. soon after he set out he met five canoes on board of which there were as many families of the shah-ha-la nation decending the river in surch of subsistence. they were extreemly anxious to come along side, but he forbid their doing so as their number was too considerable there being men on board these canoes. his pilot told him that they were mischevous bad men. at p.m. he arrived at the present residence of his pilot on the south side of the river opposite the diamond island. here he halted about an hour he found this house very large; it consisted of seven appartments in one range above ground each about feet square. the entrances to these appartments were from passages which extended quite across the house, about feet wide and formed like the walls of the hose of broad boards set on end extending from beneath the floor to the roof of the house. the apperture or hole through which they enter all those wooden houses are remarkably small not generally more than feet high and about inches wide. the ground plot of the nechecolee house is thus the passages of feet and &c. the appartments of feet square. this house is covered with the bark of the white cedar, laid on in a double course, supported by rafters and longitudinal round poles attatched to the rafters with cores of this bark. the peices of the cedar bark extend the whole length of the side of the roof and jut over at the eve about inches. at the distance of inches transverse splinters of dry fir is inserted through the cedar bark in order to keep it smooth and prevent it's edges from colapsing by the heat of the sun; in this manner the natives make a very secure light and lasting roof of this bark. in the vicinity of this house capt. clark observed the remains of five other large houses which appeared to have been sunk in the ground several feet and built after the method of those of the elutes nation at the great narrows of the columbia with whom these people claim affinity. their language is the same with the elutes, tho in their habits, dress manners &c they differ but little from the quathlahpohtles and others in this neighborhood. they make use of some words common to their neighbours but the air of their language is entirely different. they are much better formed and their men larger than the nations below. their women wear larger and longer robes which are made principally of deerskins dressed in the hair. they pay great rispect to their aged persons. capt. c. observed several persons of both sexes who appeared to have arrived to great age yet they appeared perfectly healthy tho most of them perfectly blind. the loss of sight i have observed to be more common among all the nations inhabiting this river than among any people i ever observed. they have almost invariably soar eyes at all stages of life. the loss of an eye is very common among them; blindness in perdsons of middle age is by no means uncommon, and it is almost invariably a concommitant of old age. i know not to what cause to attribute this prevalent deficientcy of the eyes except it be their exposure to the reflection of the sun on the water to which they are constantly exposed in the occupation of fishing. capt. c. enquired of the nechecole the cause of the decline of their village. an old man who appeared to be of some note among them and the father of his guide brought forward a woman who was much marked with the small pox, and made signs that the inhabitants of those houses which he saw in ruins had all died with the disorder which marked the face of the woman and with which this woman was very near dying when a girl. from the apparent age of the woman capt. c. supposed that it was about or years since this disorder had prevailed among these people. this is about the time which we have supposed that it prevailed among the clatsops and others of the coast. capt c. now prevailed on this old man to give him a sketch of the multnomah river it's branches and the position and names of the indian nations residing thereon this the old man son executed with his finger in the dust. (see scetch inserted on the rd inst.). he informed that the cush-hooks and char-cow-ah nations who reside at the falls of that river were not numerous; but that the cal-lah-po-e-wah nation who inhabited both sides of this river above the falls as far as it was known to himself or his nation were very numerous. that the country they inhabited was level and wholy destitute of timber. that a high range of mountains passed the multnomah river at the falls, on the upperside of which the country was one vast plain. the nations who inhabit this country reside on the rivers and subsist like those of the columbia on fish and roots principally. capt c. bought five dogs of these people and set out for my camp at p.m. where he arrived a little before dark, on the evening of the third.--the party whom we sent for the flesh of the elk which shannon had killed returned in the evening with that of four, one had by some mistake been omitted. drewyer and shannon found the two wounded elk and had killed them. we set all hands at work to prepare the meat for the saffoald they continued their operations untill late at night. we directed shannon to go out early in the morning with a party to bring in the elk which had been left last evening in mistake. we also directed drewyer and the two feildses to ascend the river early in the morning to a small bottom a few miles above and hunt untill our arrival.- [clark, april , ] sunday april th . two indians came last night very late to our camp and continued all night. early we had all the meat packed up and our canoes loaded ready for to set out and after an early brackfast at which time all things were ready and we set out and proceeded to the camp of gibson & party about miles, they had killed elk at no great distance and wounded two others so badly that we expect to precure them. sent a party of six men with shannon who had killed the elk to bring in the elk, and formed a camp, near which we had a scaffold made ready to dry the meat as soon as it should arive. reubin field killed a bird of the quail kind or class which was whistleing near our camp it is larger than the quail or partridge as they are called kentucky and virginia. it's form is presisely that of our partridge tho its plumage differs in every part. the upper part of the head, sides and back of the neck, including the croop and about of the under part of the body is of a bright dove coloured blue, under neath the under beak, as high as the lower edge of the eye, and back as far as the hinder part of the eyes and thence comeing down to a point in the front of the neck about / rd of it's length downwards, is of a fine dark brick red. between this brick red and the dove colour there runs a narrow stripe of pure white. the ears are covered with some coarse dark brown feathers. just at the base of the under chap there is a narrow transvirce stripe of white. from the crown of the head two long round feathers extend backwards nearly in the direction of the beak and are of a black colour. the length of these feathers is / inches. one overlais and conseals the other which is somewhat shorter and seems to be raped in the plumage of that in front which folding backwards colapses behing and has a round appearance. the tail is composed of dark brown feathers of nearly equal length. the large feathers of the wings are of a dark brown & are reather short in purpotion to the body of the bird. in this respect very similar to the partridge. the covert of the wings and back are of a dove colour with a slight admixture of redish brown. a wide stripe which extends from side to side of the body and occupies the lower region of the breast is beautifully varigated with the brick red white & black which perdominates in the order they are mentioned and the colours mark the feathers transversely. the legs are covered with feathers as low as the knee; these feathers are of dark brown tiped with a dark brick red as are also those between and about the joining of the legs with the body. the foot is presisely that of the common partridge except that they are as also the legs white. the upper beak is short, wide at it's base, black, convex, curved downwards and reather obtusely pointed. it exceeds the under chap considerably which is of a white colour, also convex under neath and obtusely pointed. the nostrils are remarkably small, placed far back and low down on the sides of the beak. they are covered by a thin proterant elastic, black leather like substance. the eyes are of a uniform pierceing black colour. this is a most butifull bird i preserved the skin of this bird retaining the wings feet & head which i hope will give a just idea of the bird. it's loud note is single and consists of a loud squall, intirely different from the whistling of our partridge or quailes. it has a chiping note when allarmed like our partridge.--to day there was a second of those birds killed which presisely resembles that just discribed. i believe those to be the mail bird the female, if so, i have not yet seen.-. at p.m. shannon and party returned with the flesh of five elk. the two he had wounded in the morning he found dead near the place he had shot them. we had the meat cut into thin pices and scaffored with a fire under it to dry out, which we expect in the course of the night can be effected. four indians from the great rapids visited us to day and continued all day. they give the same account of the scercity of provisions above the falls as has already been given by others. this supply of elk i think by useing economey and in addition of roots and dogs which we may probably precure from he nativs on lewis's river will be sufficient to last us to the chopunnish where we shall meet with our horses-. and near which place there is some deer to be precured. frazer killed a pheasent of the common kind. jos. field killed a vulture of that speces already discribed. in the evening late the indians left us and returned to their village. we detected that fires be kept under the meat all night. and tha drewyer and the two fields proceed on to the next bottom and hunt untill we should arive. miles [lewis, april , ] monday april th . this morning early the flesh of the remaining elk was brought in and drewyer with the feildses departed agreeably to the order of the last evening. we employed the party in drying the meat today which we completed by the evening, and we had it secured in dryed elkskins and put on board in readiness for an early departure. we were visited today by several parties of indians from a village about miles above us of the sahhalah nation. i detected one of them in steeling a peice of lead and sent him from camp. i hope we have now a sufficient stock of dryed meat to serve us as far the chopunnish provided we can obtain a few dogs horses and roots by the way. in the neighbourhood of the chopunnish we can procure a few deer and perhaps a bear or two for the mountains. last evening reubin fields killed a bird of the quail kind it is reather larger than the quail, or partridge as they are called in virginia. it's form is precisely that of our patridge tho it's plumage differs in every part. the upper part of the head, sides and back of the neck, including the croop and about / of the under part of the body is of a bright dove coloured blue, underneath the under beak, as high as the lower edge of the eyes, and back as far as the hinder part of the eyes and thence coming down to a point in front of the neck about two thirds of it's length downwards, is of a fine dark brick red. between this brick red and the dove colour there runs a narrow stripe of pure white. the ears are covered with some coarse stiff dark brown feathers. just at the base of the under chap there is narrow transverse stripe of white. from the crown of the head two long round feathers extend backwards nearly in the direction of the beak and are of a black colour. the longest of these feathers is two inches and an half, it overlays and conceals the other which is somewhat shorter and seems to be raped in the plumage of that in front which folding backwards colapses behind and has a round appearance. the tail is composed of twelve dark brown feathers of nearly equal length. the large feathers of the wings are of a dark brown and are reather short in proportion to the body of the bird in that rispect very similar to our common partridge. the covert of the wings and back are of a dove colour with a slight admixture of redish brown. a wide stripe which extends from side to side of the body and occupyes the lower region of the breast is beautifully variagated with the brick red white and black which pedominate in the order they are mentioned and the colours mark the feathers transversely. the legs are covered with feathers as low as the knee; these feathers are of a dark brown tiped with the dark brick red as are also those between and about the joining of the legs with the body. they have four toes on each foot of which three are in front and that in the center the longest, those one each side nearly of a length; that behing is also of good length and are all armed with long and strong nails. the legs and feet are white and imbrecated with proportionably large broad scales. the upper beak is short, wide at it's base, black, convex, curved downwards and reather obtusely pointed. it exceeds the under chap considerably which is of a white colour, also convex underneath and obtusely pointed. the nostrils are remarkably small placed far back and low down on the sides of the beak. they are covered by a thin protuberant elastic, black leatherlike substance. the eyes are of a uniform piercing black colour. this is a most beautifull bird. i preserved the skin of this bird retaining the wings feet and head which i hope will give a just idea of the bird. it's loud note is single and consists of a loud squall, intirely different from the whistling of our quales or partridge. it has a cherping note when allarmed something like ours.--today there was a second of these birds killed by capt c. which precisely resembled that just discribed. i believe these to be the male bird the female, if so, i have not yet seen.--the day has been fair and weather extreemly pleasant. we made our men exercise themselves in shooting today and regulate their guns found several of them that had their sights moved by accedent, and others that wanted some little alterations all which were compleatly rectifyed in the course of the day. in the evening all the indians departed for their village. [clark, april , ] monday april th this morning drewyer & the two fields set out agreeably to their orders of last evening, the remainder of the party employed in drying the flesh of the five elk killed by shannon yesterday. which was completed and we had it secured in dried shaved elk skins and put on board in readiness for our early departure. we were visited by several parties of indians from a village about miles above us of the sahhalah nation. one of them was detected in stealing a piece of lead. i sent him off imedeately. i hope now we have a sufficient stock of dryed meat to serve us as far as the chopunnish provided we can obtain a fiew dogs, horses and roots by the way. in the neighbourhood of the chopunnish under the rocky mountains we can precure a fiew deer, and perhaps a bear or two for the mountains. the day has been fair and weather exceedingly pleasent. we made our men exersise themselves in shooting and regulateing their guns, found several of them that had their sights moved by accident, and others that wanted some little alterations all which were compleated rectified in the course of the day except my small rifle, which i found wanted cutting out. about oclock p m all the indians left us, and returned to their village. they had brought with them wappato, & pashequa roots chapellel cakes, and a species of raspberry for sale, none of which they disposed of as they asked such enormous prices for those articles that we were not able to purchase any. drewyer returned down the river in the evening & informed us that the nativs had sceared all the elk from the river above. joseph & reuben fields had proceeded on further up the river in the canoe, he expected to the village. i provaled on an old indian to mark the multnomah r down on the sand which hid and perfectly corisponded with the sketch given me by sundary others, with the addition of a circular mountain which passes this river at the falls and connects with the mountains of the seacoast. he also lais down the clark a mos passing a high conical mountain near it's mouth on the lower side and heads in mount jefferson which he lais down by raiseing the sand as a very high mountain and covered with eternal snow. the high mountain which this indian lais down near the enterance of clark a mos river, we have not seen as the hills in it's diretion from this vally is high and obscures the sight of it from us. mt jefferson we can plainly see from the enterance of multnomah from which place it bears s. e. this is a noble mountain and i think equally as high or something higher than mt. st. heleansa but its distance being much greater than that of the latter, so great a portion of it does not appear above the range of mountains which lie between both those stupendious mountains and the mouth of multnomah. like mt. st. heleans its figure is a regular cone and is covered with eturnial snow. that the clarkamos nation as also those at the falls of the multnomah live principally on fish of which those streams abound and also on roots which they precure on it's borders, they also sometimes come down to the columbia in serch of wappato. they build their houses in the same form with those of the columbian vally of wide split boads and covered with bark of the white cedar which is the entire length of the one side of the roof and jut over at the eve about inches. at the distance of about inches transvers spinters of dried pine is inserted through the ceder bark inorder to keep it smooth and prevent it's edge from colapsing by the heat of the sun; in this manner the nativs make a very secure light and lasting roof of this bark. which we have observed in every vilege in this vally as well as those above. this indian also informed me the multnomah above the falls was crouded with rapids and thickly inhabited by indians of the callah-po-e-wah nation. he informed he had himself been a long way up that river &c. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th . the wind blew so violently this morning that we were obliged to unlode our perogues and canoes, soon after which they filled with water. being compelled to remain during the day at our present station we sent out some hunters in order to add something to our stock of provision; and exposed our dryed meat to the sun and the smoke of small fires. in the evening the hunters returned having killed a duck only; they saw two bear and some of the blacktailed jumping or fallow deer, such as are found about fort clatsop; this kind of deer are scarce in this neighbourhood, the common longtailed fallow deer being most abundant. we have seen the black bear only in this quarter. the wind continued without intermission to blow violently all day. i took a walk today of three miles down the river; in the course of which i had an opportunity to correct an errow which i have heretofore made with rispect to the shrub i have hithertoo called the large leafed thorn. the leaf of this thorn is small being only abut / inches long, is petiolate, conjugate; the leafets are petiolate accutely pointed, having their margins cut with unequal angular insissures. the shrub which i have heretofore confounded with this grows in similar situations, has a stem precisely like it except the thorn and bears a large three loabed leaf. this bryer is of the class polyandria and order polygynia. the flowers are single, the peduncle long and celindric. the calix is a perianth, of one leaf, five cleft, & accutely pointed. the perianth is proper, erect, inferior with rispect to both petals and germen, and equal. the corolla consists of five accute pale scarlet petals, insirted in the recepticle with a short and narrow claw. the corolla is smooth, moderately long, situated at the base of the germen, permanent, and cup shaped. of the stamens the filaments are subulate, inserted into the recepticle, unequal and bent inwards concealing the pistillum; anther two loabed and inflected situated on the top of the fillaments of the pistillum the germ is conical, imbricated, superior, sessile and short. the styles are short with rispect to the stamen, capillary smooth, obtuse, distributed over the serface of the germ and decid-uous. no perseptable stigma.--late at night the centinel detected an old indian man in attempting to creep into camp in order to pilfer; he allarmed the indian very much by presenting his gun at him; he gave the fellow a few stripes with a switch and sent him off. this fellow is one of a party of six who layed incamped a few hundred yards below us, they departed soon after this occurrence. [clark, april , ] tuesday april th this morning about day light i heard a considerable roreing like wind at a distance and in the course of a short time ways rose very high which appeared to come across the river and in the course of an hour became so high that we were obliged to unload the canoes, at oclock a.m. the winds suelded and blew so hard and raised the waves so emensely high from the n. e and tossed our canoes against the shore in such a manner as to render it necessary to haul them up on the bank. finding from the appearance of the winds that it is probable that we may be detained all day, we sent out drewyer, shannon colter & collins to hunt with derections to return if the wind should lul, if not to continue the hunt all day except they killed elk or bear sooner &c. we had the dried meat which was cured at our last encampment below exposed to the sun. john shields cut out my small rifle & brought hir to shoot very well. the party ows much to the injenuity of this man, by whome their guns are repared when they get out of order which is very often. i observed an indian woman who visited us yesterday blind of an eye, and a man who was nearly blind of both eyes. the loss of sight i have observed to be more common among all the nations inhabiting this river than among any people i ever observed. they have almost invariably sore eyes at all stages of life. the loss of an eye is very common among them; blindness in persons of middle age is by no means uncommon, and it is almost invariably a concammitant of old age. i know not to what cause to attribute this prevalent deficientcy of the eye except it be their exposure to the reflection of the sun on the water to which they are constantly exposed in the occupation of fishing. about p m collins shannon and colter returned. collins saw bear but could not get a shot at them. neither shannon nor colter saw any thing worth shooting. soon after drewyer returned haveing only a summer duck. the elk is gorn to the mountains as the hunters suppose. in the evening late an old man his son & grand son and their wives &c. came down dureing the time the waves raged with great fury. the wife of the grand son is a woman of differant appearance from any we have seen on this river, she has a very round head and pierceing black eyes. soon after those people arived the old man was detected in stealing a spoon and he was ordered away, at about yards below our camp they built themselves a fire and did not return to our fires after-. the wind continued violently hard all day, and threw our canoes with such force against the shore that one of them split before we could get it out. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th . this morning early we commenced the operation of reloading our canoes; at a.m. we departed and proceeded on to the camp of reubin and joseph fields they had not killed any game; we made no halt at this place but continued our rout to the wah-clel-lah village which is situated on the north side of the river about a mile below the beacon rock; here we halted and took breakfast. john colter one of our party observed the tomehawk in one of the lodges which had been stolen from us on the th of november last as we decended this river; the natives attempted to wrest the tomahawk from him but he retained it. they indeavoured afterwards to exculpate themselves from the odium of having stolen it, they alledged that they had bought it from the natives below; but their neighbours had several days previously, informed us that these people had stolen the tommehawk and then had it at their village. this village appears to be the winter station of the wah-clel-lahs and clahclellars, the greater part of the former have lately removed to the falls of the multnomah, and the latter have established themselves a few miles above on the north side of the river opposite the lower point of brant island, being the commencement of the rapids, here they also take their salmon; they are now in the act of removing, and not only take with them their furniture and effects but also the bark and most of the boards which formed their houses. houses remain entire but are at this time but thinly inhabited, nine others appear to have been lately removed, and the traces of ten or twelve others of ancient date were to be seen in the rear of their present village. they sometimes sink their houses in the earth, and at other times have their floors level with the surface of the earth; they are generally built with boards and covered with cedar bark. most of them have a devision in their houses near the entrance wich is at the end or in the event of it's bing a double house is from the center of a narrow passage. several families inhabit one appartment. the women of these people pierce the cartelage of the nose in which they wear various ornaments in other rispects they do not differ from those in the neighbourhood of the diamond island; tho most of the women brad their hair which hanges in two tresses one hanging over each ear. these people were very unfriendly, and seemed illy disposed had our numbers not detered them any acts of violence. with some difficuly we obtained five dogs from them and a few wappetoe. on our way to this village we passed several beautifull cascades which fell from a great hight over the stupendious rocks which cloles the river on both sides nearly, except a small bottom on the south side in which our hunters were encamped. the most remarkable of these casscades falls about feet perpendicularly over a solid rock into a narrow bottom of the river on the south side. it is a large creek, situated about miles above our encampment of the last evening. several small streams fall from a much greater hight, and in their decent become a perfect mist which collecting on the rocks below again become visible and decend a second time in the same manner before they reach the base of the rocks. the hills have now become mountains high on each side are rocky steep and covered generally with fir and white cedar. we saw some turkey buzzards this morning of the speceis common to the united states which are the first we have seen on this side the rocky mountains. during our halt at this village the grand cheif and two inferior cheifs of the chil-luck-kit-to-quaw nation arrived with several men and women of their nation in two large canoes. these people were on their return up the river, having been on a trading voyage to the columbean vally, and were loaded with wappetoe dryed anchovies, with some beads &c which they had received in exchange for dryed and pounded salmon shappelell beargrass &c. these people had been very kind to us as we decended the river we therefore smoked with them and treated them with every attention. at p.m. we renewed our voyage; passed under the beacon rock on the north side, to the left of two small islands situated near the shore. at four p.m. we arrived at the clah-clel-lah village; here we found the natives busily engaged in erecting their new habitations, which appear to be reather of a temperary kind; it is most probable that they only reside here during the salmon season. we purchased two dogs of these people who like those of the village blow were but sulky and illy disposed; they are great rogues and we are obliged to keep them at a proper distance from our bag-gage. as we could not ascend the rapid by the north side of the river with our large canoes, we passed to the oposite side and entered the narrow channel which seperates brant island from the south shore; the evening being far spent and the wind high raining and very cold we thought best not to attempt the rapids this evening, we therefore sought a safe harbour in this narrow channel and encamped on the main shore. our small canoe with drewer and the two feildses was unable to pass the river with us in consequence of the waves they therefore toed her up along the n. side of the river and encamped opposite the upper point of brant island. after halting this evening i took a turn with my gun in order to kill a deer, but was unsuccessfull. i saw much fresh sign. the fir has been lately injured by a fire near this place and many of them have discharged considerable quantities of rozin. we directed that collins should hunt a few hours tomorrow morning and that gibson and his crew should remain at his place untill we returned and employ themselves in collectng rozin which our canoes are now in want of. [clark, april , ] wednesday april th last night at a late hour the old amsiated indian who was detected in stealing a spoon yesterday, crept upon his belley with his hands and feet, with a view as i suppose to take some of our baggage which was in several defferent parcels on the bank. the sentinal observed the motions of this old amcinated retch untill he got with a fiew feet of the baggage at he hailed him and approached with his gun in a possion as if going to shoote which allarmed the old retch in such a manner that he ran with all his power tumbleing over brush and every thing in his way. at a.m. we set out and proceeded on to the camp of joseph & reubin fields. they had killed nothing. here we did not delay but proceeded on to wah-clel-lah village on the north side and brackfast here one the men colter observed the tomahawk which was stolen from on the th of novr. last as we decended the columbia, he took the tomahawk the natives attempted to wrest it from him, he held fast the tomahawk. those people attempted to excuse themselves from odium of stealing it, by makeing signs that they had purchased the tomahawk, but their nighbours informed me otherwise and made signs that they had taken it. this village appears to be the wintering station of two bands of the shah-ha-la nation. one band has already moved the falls of the multnomah which is the place they take their salmon. the other band is now moveing a fiew miles above to the foot of the first rapid on this river, at which place they take their salmon. houses only appear occupied and the inhabitants of those moveing off hourly, they take with them in their canoes independent of all their houshold effects the bark of their houses, and boards. houses has been latterly abandened and others is yet is thinly inhabited at present, and the remains of or others are to be seen and appears to have been enhabited last fall. those people were not hospital and with some dificuelty we precured dogs and a fiew wappato of them. soon after we arived at this village the grand cheif and two others of the chee-luck-kit-le-quaw nation arived from below. they had with them men and womin and had been trading in the columbia vally for wappato, beeds and dried anchovies &c in exchange for which they had given pounded fish shappalell, bear grass, acorns boiled berries &c. &c. and are now on their return to their village. as those people had been very kind to us as we decended the river we gave them smoke. at oclock p. m we set out and passed under the beacon rock on the north side of two small islds. situated nearest the n. side. at p.m. we arived at the first rapid at the head of straw berry island at which place on the n w. side of the columbia here we found the nativs from the last village rebuilding their habitations of the bark of their old village huts are already compleated and appear only temporrary it is most probable that they only reside here dureing the season of the salmon. as we could not pass with the large canoes up the n. w. side for the rocks, the wind high and a rainey disagreeable evining. our smallest canoe being too low to cross through the high waves, we sent her up on the n w. side with drewyer and the two fields and after purchaseing dogs crossed and into the sluce of a large high island seperated from the s. e side by a narrow chanel, in this chanel we found a good harbor and encamped on the lower side. we saw some deer sign and collins to hunt in the mornig untill the canoes were toed above the rapids. made miles to day. evening wet & disagreeable. [lewis, april , ] thursday april th . we set out early and droped down the channel to the lower end of brant island from whence we drew them up the rapid by a cord about a quarter of a mile which we soon performed; collins and gibson not having yet come over we directed sergt. pryor to remain with the cord on the island untill gibson arrived and assist him with his crew in geting his canoe up the rapid, when they were to join us on the oposite side at a small village of six houses of the clah-clah'lahs where we halted for breakfast. in passing the river which is here about yds. wide the rapidity of the currant was such that it boar us down a considerable distance notwithstanding we employed five oars. on entering one of these lodges, the natives offered us a sheepskin for sail, than which nothing could have been more acceptable except the animal itself. the skin of the head of the sheep with the horns remaining was cased in such manner as to fit the head of a man by whom it was woarn and highly prized as an ornament. we obtained this cap in exchange for a knife, and were compelled to give two elkskins in exchange for the skin. this appeared to be the skin of a sheep not fully grown; the horns were about four inches long, celindric, smooth, black, erect and pointed; they rise from the middle of the forehead a little above the eyes. they offered us a second skin of a full grown sheep which was quite as large as that of a common deer. they discovered our anxity to purchase and in order to extort a great plrice declared that they prized it too much to dispose of it. in expectation of finding some others of a similar kind for sale among the natives of this neighbourhood i would not offer him a greater price than had been given for the other which he refused. these people informed us that these sheep were found in great abundance on the hights and among the clifts of the adjacent mountains. and that they had lately killed these two from a herd of , at no great distance from their village. we could obtain no provision from those people except four white salmon trout. at ten oclock sergt. pryor and gibson joined us with collins who had killed deer. these were all of the blacktailed fallow kind. we set out and continued our rout up the n. side of the river with great difficulty in consequence of the rapidity of the current and the large rocks which form this shore; the south side of the river is impassable. as we had but one sufficient toerope and were obliged to employ the cord in geting on our canoes the greater part of the way we could only take them one at a time which retarded our progress very much. by evening we arrived at the portage on the north side where we landed and conveyed our bagage to the top of the hill about paces distant where we formed a camp. we had the canoes drawn on shore and secured. the small canoe got loose from the hunters and went a drift with a tin vessel and tommahawk in her; the indians caught her at the last village and brought her up to us this evening for which service we gave them a couple of knives; the canoe overset and lost the articles which were in her.--saw the white pine at this place. [clark, april , ] thursday april th collins went out in the bottom to hunt agreeable to the order of last evening, and gibsons crew was derected to delay for collins dureing which time they were derected to collect rozin from the pines in the bottom near our camp at a m. we set out and proceeded to the lower point of the island from whence we were compelled to draw our canoes up a rapid for about / mile which we soon performed. collins & gibson haveing not yet come over we derected serjt. pryor to delay on the island untill gibson came over & assist him with the large toe roap which we also left and to join us at a village of four houses of the clah-lah-lar tribe which is opposit to this island on north side at which place we intened to brackfast. in crossing the river which at this place is not more than yards wide we fell down a great distance owing to the rapidity of the current. i entered one of the houses of those people and was scercely seated before they offered me a sheep skin for sale nothing could be more acceptable except the animal itself in examoning this skin i found it was a young one, the skin of the head was cased so as to fit the head of a man and was esteemed as a great orniment and highly prised by them. we precured this cased head for a knife and, the skin we were obliged to give two raw elk skins for. soon after they offered a large one for sall. after finding us anxious to purchase they declined silling this skin. those people informed us that they killed those animals among the rocks in the mountains under which they live; and that great numbers of those animals inhabit those mountains & that the lamb was killed out of a gange of at a short distance from their village. the wool of the full grown sheep, or that on the skin which we saw was much corser than that of the one which we purchased, the skin was about the size of that of a common deer. the skin we obtained appeared to be the skin of a sheep not fully grown, the wool fine, the horns were abought inches long, celindric, smooth, black, a little bending backwards and pointed; they rise from the middle of the foeheard, and a little above the eyes, and appeared to possess all the marks of the common sheep as already discribed. we could precure no provisions from those people except four white salmon trout. at oclock sergt. pryor and gibson joined us with collins who had killed deer. these were all of the blacktailed fallow kind. we set out and continued up on the n. side of the river with great dificuelty in consequence of the rapidity of the current and the large rocks which forms this shore; the south side of the river is impassable. as we had but one sufficent toe roap and were obliged to employ the cord in getting on our canoes the greater part of the way we could only take them one at a time which retarded our progress very much. by evening we arived at the portage on the n. side where we landed and conveyed our baggage to the top of the hill about paces distant where we found a camp. we had the canoes drawn on shore and secured. the small canoe got loose from the hunters and went adrift with a tin cup & a tomahawk in her; the indians caught her at the last village and brought her up to us this evening for which we gave them two knives; the canoe overset and lost the articles which were in her.-. [lewis, april , ] friday april th . as the tents and skins which covered both our men and baggage were wet with the rain which fell last evening, and as it continued still raining this morning we concluded to take our canoes first to the head of the rapids, hoping that by evening the rain would cease and afford us a fair afternoon to take our baggage over the portage. this portage is two thousand eight hundred yards along a narrow rough and slipery road. the duty of getting the canoes above the rapid was by mutual consent confided to my friend capt. c. who took with him for that purpose all the party except bratton who is yet so weak he is unable to work, three others who were lamed by various accedents and one other to cook for the party. a few men were absolutely necessary at any rate to guard our baggage from the war-clel-lars who crouded about our camp in considerable numbers. these are the greates theives and scoundrels we have met with. by the evening capt. c. took of our canoes above the rapids tho with much difficulty and labour. the canoes were much damaged by being driven against the rocks in dispite of every precaution which could be taken to prevent it. the men complained of being so much fatiegued in the evening that we posponed taking up our th canoe untill tomorrow. these rapids are much worse than they were fall when we passed them, at that time there were only three difficult points within seven miles, at present the whole distance is extreemly difficult of ascent, and it would be impracticable to decend except by leting down the empty vessels by a cord and then even the wrisk would be greater than in taking them up by the same means. the water appears to be upwards of feet higher than when we decended the river. the distance by way of the river between the points of the portage is msmany of the natives crouded about the bank of the river where the men were engaged in taking up the canoes; one of them had the insolence to cast stones down the bank at two of the men who happened to be a little detatched from the party at the time. on the return of the party in the evening from the head of the rapids they met with many of the natives on the road, who seemed but illy disposed; two of these fellows met with john sheilds who had delayed some time in purchasing a dog and was a considerable distance behind the party on their return with capt. c. they attempted to take the dog from him and pushed him out of the road. he had nothing to defend himself with except a large knife which he drew with an intention of puting one or both of them to death before they could get themselves in readiness to use their arrows, but discovering his design they declined the combat and instantly fled through the woods. three of this same tribe of villains the wah-clel-lars, stole my dog this evening, and took him towards their village; i was shortly afterwards informed of this transaction by an indian who spoke the clatsop language, and sent three men in pursuit of the theives with orders if they made the least resistence or difficulty in surrendering the dog to fire on them; they overtook these fellows or reather came within sight of them at the distance of about miles; the indians discovering the party in pursuit of them left the dog and fled. they also stole an ax from us, but scarcely had it in their possession before thompson detected them and wrest it from them. we ordered the centinel to keep them out of camp, and informed them by signs that if they made any further attempts to steal our property or insulted our men we should put them to instant death. a cheif of the clah-clel-lah tribe informed us that there were two very bad men among the wah-clel-lahs who had been the principal actors in these seenes of outradge of which we complained, and that it was not the wish of the nation by any means to displease us. we told him that we hoped it might be the case, but we should certainly be as good as our words if they presisted in their insolence. i am convinced that no other consideration but our number at this moment protects us. the cheif appeared mortified at the conduct of his people, and seemed friendly disposed towards us. as he appeared to be a man of consideration and we had reason to beleive much rispected by the neighbouring tribes we thought it well to bestoe a medal of small size upon him. he appeared much gratifyed with this mark of distinction, and some little attention which we shewed him. he had in his possession a very good pipe tomahawk which he informed us he had received as a present from a trader who visited him last winter over land pointing to the n. w., whome he called swippeton; he was pleased with the tommahawk of capt. c. in consequence of it's having a brass bowl and capt. c. gratified him by an exchange. as a further proof of his being esteemed by this white trader, he gave us a well baked saylor's bisquit which he also informed us he had received from swippeton. from these evidences i have no doubt but the traders who winter in some of the inlets to the n. of us visit this part of the columbia by land at certain seasons, most probably when they are confined to their winter harbour. and if so some of those inlets are probably at no great distance from this place, as there seems to be but little inducement to intice the trader hither from any considerable distance particularly as the difficulty in traveling on the borders of this mountainous country must be great at that season as the natives informed me their snows were frequently breast deep. i observe snowshoes in all the lodges of the natives above the columbean vally. i hope that the friendly interposition of this chief may prevent our being compelled to use some violence with these people; our men seem well disposed to kill a few of them. we keep ourselves perefectly on our guard. this evening we send drewyer and the two feildses on a few miles up the river to the entrance of cruzatt's river to hunt untill our arrival. the inhabitants of the y-eh-huh village on the north side immediately above the rapids have lately removed to the opposite side of the river, where it appears they usually take their salmon. like their relations the wah-clel-lars they have taken their houses with them. i observe that all the houses lately established have their floors on the surface of the earth, are smaller and of more temperary structure than those which are sunk in the ground. i presume the former are their spring and summer dwellings and the latter those of the fall and winter. these houses are most generally built with boards and covered with bark. some of an inferior ore more temperary cast are built entirely of cedar bark, which is kept smooth and extended by inserting small splinters of wood through the bark crosswise at the distance of or inches assunder. several families inhabit the same appartment. their women as well as those of the villages next below us pierce the cartelage of the nose and insert various ornaments. they very seldom imprint any figures on their skins; a few i observed had one or two longitudinal lines of dots on the front of the leg, reaching from the ankle upwards about midleg. most of their women braid their hair in two tresses as before mentioned. the men usually cew their hair in two parsels which like the braded tresses of the female hang over each ear in front of the sholder, and gives an additional width to the head and face so much admired by them. these cews are usually formed with throngs of dressed otterskin crossing each other and not roled in our manner arrond the hair. in all other rispects i observe no difference in their dress habits manners &c. from those in the neighbourhood of the diamond island. today we recognized a man of the elute nation who reside at the long narrows of the columbia, he was on his return from a trading voyage to the columbean valley with or others of his nation. many other natives from the villages above were employed in taking their roots &c over the portage on their return. i observed that the men equally with the women engage in the labour of carrying. they all left their canoes below the rapids and took others above which they had left as they decended. those which were left below were taken down the river by the persons from whom they had been hired or borrowed. the natives from above behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. the salmon have not yet made their appearance, tho the natives are not so much distressed for food as i was induced to believe. i walked down today about / of a mile below our encampment to observe the manner in which these people inter their dead. i found eight sepulchers near the north bank of the river built in the following manner. four strong forks are first sunk several feet in the ground and rise about six feet high, froming a parrallelogram of by feet. the intervals between these upright forks, on which four poles are laid, are filled up with broad erect boards with their lower ends sunk in the ground and their upper ends confined to the horizontal poles. a flat roof is formed of several layers of boards; the floors of these sepulchres are on a level with the surface of the earth. the human bodies are well rolled in dressed skins and lashed securely with chords and laid horizontaly on the back with the head to the west. in some of these sepulchres they are laid on each other to the debth of three or four bodies. in one of those sepulchres which was nearly decayed i observed that the human bones filled it perfectly to the hight of about three feet. many articles appear to be sacreficed to the dead both within and without the sepulcres. among other articles, i observed a brass teakettle, some scollep shells, parts of several robes of cloth and skins, with sticks for diging roots &c.--this appears to be the burying ground of the wahclellahs, clahclellahs and yehhuhs. [clark, april , ] friday april th rained the greater part of the last night and continued to rain this morning, as the skins and the covering of both the mend and loading were wet we determined to take the canoes over first in hopes that by the evening the rain would sease and afford us a fair afternoon to carry our baggage over the portage which is miles by land and a slipery road. i therefore took all the men except three who had sore feet and two to cook, and who were with the baggage; and with great dificuelty and much fatigue we drew up of our canoes above the rapids miles in extent. the men became so fatigued that we deturmined to puspone takeing the th canoe untill tomorrow. those rapids are much worse than they were at the time we passed last fall at that time there was only three bad places in the distance of miles. at this time the whole distance is a rapid and dificuelt of assent; and would be very dangerous at this stage of the water (which is ____ feet higher than when we passed down) to decent in any kind of craft. great numbers of the nativs visited us and viewed us from the banks as we passed on with the canoes, maney of those people were also about our baggage and on the portage road. two of those fellows insulted john shields who had delayed in purchaseing a dog at the upper part of the rapids and was some distance behind myself and the party on our return to camp. they attempted to take his dog and push him out of the road. he had nothing to defend himself except a large knife which he drew with a full deturmination to put one of them to death before he had an oppertunity of dischargeing his arrow. the nativs obseveing his motion ran off. one other indn. stold an ax and was not in possession before he was detected by thompson and the ax taken from him. one other fellow attempted to steal capt. lewis's dog, and had decoyed him nearly half a mile we were informed of it by a man who spoke the clatsop language and imediately sent three men with their guns who over took the indians, who on their approach ran off and lift the dog--we informed the nativ's by signs that if the indians insulted our men or stold our property we should certainly put them to death a chief of the clah-clal-lahs tribe informed us that there was two very bad men who had been guilty of those mischevious acts. that it was not the wish of their tribe that any thing should be done which might displese the white people. this chief had a large fine pipe tomahawk which he informed me he got from a trader he called swippeton. i exchanged tomahawks with this chief, and as he appeared to be a man of consideration among the tribes of this neighbourhood and much conserned for the ingiries offered us, we gave him a medal of the small size which appeard. to please him verry much; and will i hope have a favourable tendincy, in as much as it will attach him to our interest, and he probably will harang his people in our favour, which may prevent any acts of violence being commited, on either side. nothing but the strength of our party has prevented our being robed before this time. sent drewyer & fields on a head to hunt. the inhabitents of the wyach-hich tribe village imediately above those rapids on the n w. side have latterly moved their village to the opposit side of the river, where they take their salmon; they are now in the act of removeing and not only take their furniture and effects but also the bark and most of the boards which formed their houses. those like the tribes below sometimes sink their houses in the earth, and at other times have their flowrs leavil with the surface of the earth; they are generally built of boards and covered with bark. those which appear intended for temporary use are most generally built of the white cedar bark. most of those have a division in the houses near the enterance which is at the end, or in the event of it's being a double house is from the center of a narrow passage. several families enhabit one appartment. the women of those people as well as those in the villages below pierce the cartilage of the nose in which they ware various orniments. in other respects they do not deffer from those of the dimond island. tho most of the women brad their hair which hangs in two tresses, one hanging over each ear. the yound men of all those tribes ware their hair plated, in two plats anging over each sholder, maney of them also cew their hair with otter skin divided on the crown of the head and hanging over each ear. to day i recognised a man of the elute nation who reside at the long narrows, he was on his return from a tradeing voyage to the columbian vally with or of his tribe. maney others from the villages above this were takeing their roots &c. over the portage to day on their return home. vegitation is rapidly progressing. sarvis berry, sackacommis and the large leafed ash is in blume. also fir n. ____ in bloom [lewis, april , ] saturday april th . it rained the greater part of last night and still continued to rain this morning. i therefore determined to take up the remaining perogue this morning for which purpose i took with me every man that could be of any service. a small distance above our camp there is one of the most difficult parts of the rapid. at this place the current sets with great violence against a projecting rock. in hawling the perogue arround this point the bow unfortunately took the current at too great a distance from the rock, she turned her side to the stream and the utmost exertions of all the party were unable to resist the forse with which she was driven by the current, they were compelled to let loose the cord and of course both perogue and cord went a drift with the stream. the loss of this perogue will i fear compell us to purchase one or more canoes of the indians at an extravegant price. after breakfast all hands were employed in taking our baggage over the portage. we caused all the men who had short rifles to carry them, in order to be prepared for the natives should they make any attempts to rob or injure them. i went up to the head of the rapids and left capt. c. below. during the day i obtained a vocabulary of the language of the war-clel-lars &c. i found that their numbers were precisely those of the chinnooks but the other parts of their language essentially different. by p.m. we had brought up all our baggage and capt. c. joined me from the lower camp with the clahclellah cheif. there is an old village situated about halfway on the portage road the fraim of the houses, which are remarkably large one by feet, remain almost entire. the covering of the houses appears to have been sunk in a pond back of the village. this the chief informed us was the residence occasionally of his tribe. these houses are fraimed in the usual manner but consist of a double set as if oune house had been built within the other. the floors are on a level with the ground. the natives did not croud about us in such numbers today as yesterday, and behaved themselves much better; no doubt the precautions which they observed us take had a good effect. i employed sergt. pryor the greater part of the day in reparing and corking the perogue and canoes. it continued to rain by showers all day. about of the y-eh-huhs remained with me the greater part of the day and departed in the evening. they conducted themselves with much propryety and contemned the conduct of their relations towards us. we purchased one sheepskin for which we gave the skin of an elk and one of a deer. this animal was killed by the man who sold us the skin near this place; he informed us that they were abundant among the mountains and usually resorted the rocky parts. the big horned animal is also an inhabitant of these mountains. i saw several robes of their skins among the natives.as the evening was rainy cold and far advanced and ourselves wet we determined to remain all night. the mountains are high steep and rocky. the rock is principally black. they are covered with fir of several speceis and the white cedar. near the river we find the cottonwood, sweet willow, broad leafed ash, a species of maple, the purple haw, a small speceis of cherry; purple currant, goosberry, red willow, vining and white burry honeysuckle, huckkle burry, sacacommis, two speceis of mountain holley, &common ash. for the three last days this inclusive we have made only miles. [clark, april , ] saturday april th . rained the greater part of the last night and this morning untile a.m. we employed all hands in attempting to take up the lost canoe. in attempting to pass by a rock against which the current run with emence force, the bow unfortunately took the current at too great a distance from the rock, she turned broad side to the stream, and the exertions of every man was not sufficient to hold her. the men were compelled to let go the rope and both the canoe and rope went with the stream. the loss of this canoe will i fear compell us to purchase another at an extravigent price. after brackfast all hands who were employed in carrying the baggage over the portage / miles which they performed by p.m. the nativs did not visit us in such crouds to day as yesterday. we caused all the men of the party who ha short guns to carry them on the portage for fear of some attempt on the part of the nativs to rob the party. the rain continued at intervales all day. in the evening after everry thing was taken from the lower camp i set out myself accompanied by the cheif of the clah-clal lars to the head of the portage. as we passed the remains of an old village about half way the portage, this cheif informed me that this old village had been the residence of his tribe dureing the last salmon season. this village i mentiond in decending this river, but did not know the tribes that had inhabited it that time. capt. lewis took a vocabulary of the languge of those people whilst i had all the baggage taken across the portage & we formed a camp at the place we had encamped on our way down. at my arival at the head of the portage found about of the natives of the wy ach hich tribe who reside above the rapids, with capt lewis. those people appeared much better disposed towards us than either the clahclallah or wahclellah and condemn their conduct much. those tribes i believe to be all the same nation their language habits manners dress &c. are presisely alike and differ but little from those below the great narrows of this river. i observed a woman with a sheep skin robe on which i purchased for one elk and one deer skin. the father of this woman informed me that he had killed the animal off of which he had taken this skin on the mountains imediately above his village, and that on those mountains great numbers of those animals were to be found in large flocks among the steep rocks. i also purchased pieces of chapellell and some roots of those people. as the evening was rainey and ourselves and party wet we concluded to delay untill the morning and dry our selves. the indians left us about p m and returned to their village on the opposit side. mountains are high on each side and covered with snow for about / of the way down. the growth is principally fir and white cedar. the bottoms and low situations is covered with a variety such as cotton, large leafed ash, sweet willow a species of beech, alder, white thorn, cherry of a small speces, servis berry bushes, huckleberries bushes, a speces of lorel &c. &c. i saw a turkey buzzard which is the rd which i have seen west of the rocky mountains. the st was on the inst. above quick sand river. for the three last days this inclusive we have made miles only. [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . the loss of one of our perogues rendered it necessary to distribute her crew and cargo among the remaining perogues and canoes, which being done we loaded and set out a.m. we passed the village immediately above the rapids where only one house at present remains entire, the other having been taken down and removed to the oposite side of the river as before mentioned. we found the additional laiding which we had been compelled to put on board rendered our vessels extreemly inconvenient to mannage and in short reather unsafe in the event of high winds; i therefore left capt. c. with the two perogues to proceede up the river on the n. side, and with the two canoes and some additional hands passed over the river above the rapids to the y-eh-huh village in order to purchase one or more canoes. i found the village consisting of houses crouded with inhabitants; it appeared to me that they could have mustered about fighting men then present. they appeared very friendly disposed, and i soon obtained two small canoes from them for which i gave two robes and four elkskins. i also purchased four paddles and three dogs from them with deerskins. the dog now constitutes a considerable part of our subsistence and with most of the party has become a favorite food; certain i am that it is a healthy strong diet, and from habit it has become by no means disagreeable to me, i prefer it to lean venison or elk, and is very far superior to the horse in any state. after remaining about hours at this village i departed and continued my rout with the four canoes along the s. side of the river the wind being too high to pass over to the entrance of cruzatts river where i expected to have overtaken capt. c. not seing the perogues on the opposite side i ascended the river untill one oclock or about ms. above the entrance of cruzat's river. being convinced that the perogues were behind i halted and directed the men to dress the dogs and cook one of them for dinner; a little before we had completed our meal capt. c. arrived with the perogues and landed opposite to us. after dinner i passed the river to the perogues and found that capt. c. had halted for the evening and was himself hunting with three of the party. the men in formed me that they had seen nothing of the hunters whom we had sent on the th ints. to the entrance of cruzatt's riv. i directed sergt. ordway to take the two small canoes for his mess and the loading which he had formerly carried in the perogue we lost yesterday, and to have them dryed this evening and payed with rozin. capt. clark returned in about an hour and being convinced that the hunters were yet behind we dispatched sergt. pryor in surch of them with two men and an empty canoe to bring the meat they may have killed. john sheilds returned a little after six p.m. with two deer which he had killed. these were also of the blacktailed fallow deer; there appears to be no other speceis of deer in these mountains. capt. c. informed me that the wind had detained him several hours a little above cruzatt's river; that while detained here he sent out some men to hunt; one of them wounded two deer but got neither of them. the wind having lulled in the evening and not seing anything of drewyer and the feildses he had proceeded on to this place where he intended waiting for me, and as he did not see my canoes when he landed had taken a hunt with some of the men as before mentioned. [clark, april , ] sunday april th the loss of one of our large canoes rendered it necessary to divide the loading and men of that canoe between the remaining four, which was done and we loaded and set out at oclock a.m. passed the village imediately above the rapids, where only one house remains entire the other haveing been taken down and moved to the opposit side of the columbia as already mentioned. the additional men and baggage in each canoe renders them crouded and unsafe. capt. lewis with of the smallest canoes of sergt. pryor & gibson and crossed above the rapids to the village on the s e side with a view to purchase a canoe of the nativs if possible. he took with him some cloth and a fiew elk skins and deer skins. i with the two large canoes proceeded on up the n. w. side with the intention of gitting to the encampment of our hunters who was derected to hunt in the bottom above crusats river, and there wait the arival of capt. lewis. i proceeded on to the bottom in which i expected to find the hunters but could see nothing of them. the wind rose and raised the ways to such a hight that i could not proceed any further. we landed and i sent out shields and colter to hunt; shields shot two deer but could get neither of them. i walkd. to crusats river and up it / a mile on my return to the party found that the wind had lulled and as we could see nothing of our hunters. i deturmined to proceed on to the next bottom where i thought it probable they had halted at / passed p m set out and proceeded on to the bottom miles and halted at the next bottom formed a camp and sent out all the hunters. i also walked out my self on the hills but saw nothing. on my return found capt. lewis at camp with two canoes which he had purchased at the y-ep-huh village for two robes and four elkskins. he also purchased paddles and three dogs from the nativs with deer skins. the dogs now constitutes a considerable part of our subsistance & with most of the party has become a favourable food. certain i am that is a helthy strong diet, derected serjt. ordway to take the small canoes purchased by capt. lewis for his mess and the loading he had in his canoe which we lost yesterday, and drawed up and paid with rozin. i was convinced that the hunters must have been up river cruzatt. despatched sergt. pryor with men in a canoe, with directions to assend crusats river and if he found the hunters to assist them in with the meat. jo. shields returned about sunset with two deer which he had killed, those were of the black tail fallow deer. there appears to be no other species of deer in those mountains. we proceeded on miles. [lewis, april , ] monday april th . this morning at seven ock. we were joined by sergt. pryor and the three hunters they brought with them deer which drewyer had killed yesterday. we took breakfast and departed. at a.m. the wind arrose and continued hard all day but not so violent as to prevent our proceeding. we kept close along the n. shore all day. the river from the rapids as high as the commencement of the narrows is from / to / of a mile in width, and possesses scarcely any current. the bed is principally rock except at the entrance of labuish's river which heads in mount hood and like the quicksand river brings down from thence vast bodies of sand. the mountains through which the river passes nearly to the sepulchre rock, are high broken, rocky, partially covered with fir white cedar, and in many places exhibit very romantic seenes. some handsome cascades are seen on either hand tumbling from the stupendious rocks of the mountains into the river. near the border of the river i observed today the long leafed pine. this pine increases in quantity as you ascend the river and about the sepulchre rock where the lower country commences it superceedes the fir altogether. throughout the whole course of this river from the rapids as high as the chilluckkittequaws, we find the trunks of many large pine trees sanding erect as they grew at present in feet water; they are much doated and none of them vegetating; at the lowest tide of the river many of these trees are in ten feet water. certain it is that those large pine trees never grew in that position, nor can i account for this phenomenon except it be that the passage of the river through the narrow pass at the rapids has been obstructed by the rocks which have fallen from the hills into that channel within the last years; the appearance of the hills at that place justify this opinion, they appear constantly to be falling in, and the apparent state of the decayed trees would seem to fix the era of their decline about the time men-tioned. at p.m. we arrived at a large village situated in a narrow bottom on the n. side a little above the entrance of canoe creek. their houses are reather detatched and extent for several miles. they are about in number. these people call themselves we-ock-sock, wil-lacum. they differ but litte in appeance dress &c. from those of the rapids. their men have some leging and mockersons among them. these are in the stile of chopunnish. they have some good horses of which we saw ten or a douzen. these are the fist horses we have met with since we left this neighbourhood last fall, in short the country below this place will not permit the uce of this valuable animal except in the columbian vally and there the present inhabitants have no uce for them as they reside immediately on the river and the country is too thickly timbered to admit them to run the game with horses if they had them. we halted at this village and dined. purchased five dogs some roots, shappalell, filberds and dryed burries of the inhabitants. here i observed several habitations entirely under grownd; they were sunk about feet deep and covered with strong timber and several feet of earth in a conic form. these habitations were evacuated at present. they are about feet in diameter, nearly circular, and are entered through a hole at the top which appears to answer the double purpose of a chimney and a door. from this entrance you decend to the floor by a ladder. the present habitations of these people were on the surface of the ground and do not differ from those of the tribes of the rapids. their language is the same with that of the chilluckkittequaws. these people appeared very friendly. some of them informed us that they had lately returned from a war excurtion against the snake indians who inhabit the upper part of the multnomah river to the s. e. of them. they call them to-wannah'-hi'-ooks. that they had been fortunate in their expedition and had taken from their enimies most of the horses which we saw in their possession. after dinner we pursued our voyage; capt. clark walked on shore with charbono. i ascended the river about six miles at which place the river washed the base of high clifts on the lard. side, here we halted a few minutes and were joined by capt. c. and charbono and proceeded on to the entrance of a small run on n. side a little below a large village on the same side opposite the sepulchre rock. this village can raise about an hundred fighting men they call themselves. they do not differ in any rispect from the village below. many of them visited our camp this evening and remained with us untill we went to bed. they then left us and retired to their quarters.- [clark, april , ] monday april th this morning at oclock we were joined by sgt. pryor and they three hunters they brought with them deer which drewyer had killed yesterday. we took brackfast and departed at a.m. the wind rose and continued to blow hard all day but not so violent as to prevent our proceeding. we kept close allong the n. shore all day. the river from the rapids to the commencement of the narrows is from / to / of a mile in wedth, and possesses but little current. the bead is rock except at the enterence of labiech's river which heads in mt. hood and like the quick sand river brings down from thence vast bodies of sand the mountains through which the river passes nearly to cataract river are high broken rocky, particularly covered with fir and white cedar, and in maney places very romantic scenes. some handsom cascades are seen on either side tumbling from the stupendious rocks of the mountains into the river. i observe near the river the long leafed pine which increas as we assend and superseeds the fir altogether about the sepulchre rock. we find the trunks of maney large pine trees standing erect as they grew, at present in feet water; they are much doated and none of them vegitateing. at the lowest water of the river maney of those trees are in feet water. the cause i have attempted to account for as i decended. at p m. we arrived at a large village situated in a narrow bottom on the n. side a little above the enterance of canoe creek. their houses are reather detached, and extend for several miles. they are about in number. those people call themselves wil-la-cum. they differ but little in appearance dress &c. from those of the rapids. their men have some legins and mockersons among them. those are in the stile of chopunnish. they have some good horss of which we saw or these are the first horses we have met with since we left this neighbourhood last fall in short the country below this place will not permit the use of this valuable animal except in the columbian vally, and there the present inhabitents have no use for them as they reside imediately on the river and the country is too thickly timbd. we halted at this village dined and purchased five dogs, some roots chappalell, philberds and dried berries of the inhabitents. here i observed several habitations under ground; they were sunk about feet deep and covered with strong timber and several feet of earth in a conic form. those habitations are avacuated at present. they are about feet diamieter, nearly circular, and are entered through a hole at top which appears to answer the double purpose of a chimney and a dore. from this enterance you decend to the flore by a ladder. the present habitations of those people were on the surface of the ground and do not differ from those of the tribes about the rapids. their language is the same with the che luck kit to quaws. these people appeared very friendly. some of them informed us that they had latterly returned from the war excurtion against the snake indians who inhabit the upper part of the multnomah river to the s. e. of them they call them to wan nah hi ooks. that they had been fortunate in the expidition and had taken from their enimies most of the horses which we saw in their possession. after dinner we proceeded on our voyage. i walked on shore with shabono on the n. side through a handsom bottom. met several parties of women and boys in serch of herbs & roots to subsist on maney of them had parcels of the stems of the sunflower. i joined capt lewis and the party at miles, at which place the river washed the bottom of high clifts on the n. side. several canoes over take us with families moveing up. we passed encampments and came too in the mouth of a small creek on the n. side imediately below a village and opposit the sepulchar rock. this village consists of about fighting men of several tribes from the plains to the north collected here waiting for the salmon. they do not differ in any respect from those below. many of them visited our camp this evening and remaind. with us untill we went to bead. they then left us and returned to their quarters. made ____ miles. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th we delayed this morning untill after breakfast in order to purchase some horses of the indians; accordingly we exposed some articles in exchange for horses the natives were unwilling to barter, we therefore put up our merchandize and at a.m. we set out. we halted a few minutes at the sepulchre rock, and examined the deposits of the ded at that place. these were constructed in the same manner of those already discribed below the rapids. some of them were more than half filled with dead bodies. there were thirteen sepulchres on this rock which stands near the center of the river and has a surface of about acres above highwater mark.--from hence we returned to the nothern shore and continued up it about four miles to another village of the same nation with whom we remained last night. here we halted and informed the natives of our wish to purchase horses; the produced us several for sale but would not take the articles which we had in exchange for them. they wanted an instrumet which the northwest traders call an eye-dag which we had not. we procured two dogs of them and departed. a little below the entrance of cataract river we halted at another village of the same people, at which we were equally unsuccessful) in the purchase of horses. we also halted at the two villages of the chilluckkittequaws a few miles above with no better success. at three in the evening we arrived at the entrance of quinnette creek which we ascended a short distance and encamped at the place we have called rockfort camp. here we were visited by some of the people from the villages at the great narrows and falls. we informed them of our wish to purchase horses, & agreed to meet them on the opposite or north side of the river tomorrow for the purpose of bartering with them. most of them returned to their villages this evening three only remained with us all night. these people are much better clad than any of the nations below; their men have generally leging mockersons and large robes, many of them wear shirts of the same form those of the chopunnish and shoshonees highly ornamented with the quills of the porcupine as are also their mockersons and legings. they conceal the parts of generation with the skin of a fox or some other small animal drawn underneath a girdle and hanging loosly in front of them like a narrow apron. the dress of their women differs very little from those about the rapids. both men and women cut their hair in the forehead which comes down as low as the eyebrows, they have long earlocks cut square at the end. the other part of their hair is dressed in the same manner as those of the rapids. after we landed and formed our camp this evening drewyer and some others took a hunt and killed a deer of the longtailed kind. it was a buck and the young horns had shot fourth about inches. [clark, april , ] tuesday april th we delayed this morning untill after brackfast in order to purchase some horses of the indians; accordingly we exposed some articles in exchange for horses the nativs were unwilling to exchange their horses, we put up our merchindize and at a m. set out. we halted a fiew minits at the sepulchar rock and examined the deposit of the dead at that place. those were constructed in the same manner of those already described below the rapids. some of them were more than half filled with dead bodies. there were sepulchers on this rock which stands near the center of the river, and has a cerface of about two acres above the water.-. from hence we returned to the northern shore and continued up it about miles to a village at the enterance of cateract river, here we halted and informed the nativs of our wish to purchase horses; the produced several for sale but would not take the articles we had in exchange for them. they wanted an instriment which the northw traders call an eye dag which we had not. we precured two dogs and departed we also halted at the two villages of the chil luck kitequaws a fiew ms. above with no better sucksess. at in the evening we arivied at the enterance of quinnett creek which we assended a short distance and encamped at the place we had called rock fort camp. here we were visited by some of the people from the villages at the long narrows & falls. we informed them of our wish to purchase horses, and agreed to meet them on the opposit or north side on tomorrow for the purpose of bartering with them. most of them returned to their village this evening three only remained with us all night. those people are much better clad than the nativs below. their men have generaly legins mockersons & large robes. maney of them were shirts of the same form of those of the chopunnish & shoshonees highly ornamented with the quils of the purcupine, as are also their mockersons & legins. they conseal the parts of generation with the skins of the fox or some other small animal drawn under neath a girdle and hanging loosely in front of them like a narrow apron. the dress of their women differ verry little from those about the rapids. both men & women cut their hair in the forehead which comes down as low as the eyebrows, they have long ear locks cut square at the end. the other parts of their hair is dressed in the same manner as those of the rapids. after we landld and formed our camp this evening drewyer and some oths took a hunt and killed a deer of the log tailed kind. it was a buck and the young deer horns had shot foth about two inches made ____ miles to day. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th . about a.m. capt. clark passed the river with the two interpreters, the indian woman and nine men in order to trade with the natives for their horses, for which purpose he took with him a good part of our stock of merchandize. i remained in camp; sent out the hunters very early in the morning, and set sergts. gass and pryor with some others at work to make a parsel of packsaddles. twelve horses will be sufficient to transport our baggage and some pounded fish which we intend taking with us as a reserved store for the rocky mountains. i was visited today by several of the natives, and amused myself in making a collection of the esculent plants in the neighbourhood such as the indians use, a specemine of which i preserved. i also met with sundry other plants which were strangers to me which i also preserved, among others there is a currant which is now in blume and has yellow blossom something like the yellow currant of the missouri but is a different speceis. reubin feilds returned in the evening and brought with him a large grey squrrel and two others of a kind i had never before seen. they are a size less than the grey squirrel common to the middle atlantic states and of a pided grey and yellowish brown colour, in form it resembles our grey squrrel precisely. i had them skined leaving the head feet and tail to them and placed in the sun to dry. joseph feilds brought me a black pheasant which he had killed; this i found on examination to be the large black or dark brown pheasant i had met with on the upper part of the missouri. it is as large as a well grown fowl the iris of the eye is of a dark yellowish brown, the puple black, the legs are booted to the toes, the tail is composed of black feathers tiped with bluish white, of which the two in the center are reather shorter than the others which are all of the same length. over the eye there is a stripe of a / of an inch in width uncovered with feathers of a fine orrange yellow. the wide spaces void of feathers on the side of the neck are also of the same colour. i had some parts of this bird preserved. our present station is the last point at which there is a single stick of timber on the river for a great distance and is the commencement of the open plains which extend nearly to the base of the rocky mts. labuish returned this evening having killed two deer i sent and had them brought in. this evening capt. c. informed me by some of the men whom he sent over that that he had obtained no horses as yet of the natives. that they promised to trade with him provided he would remove to their vil-lage. to this he had consented and should proceede to the skillute village above the long narrows as soon as the men returned whom he had sent to me for some other articles. i dispatched the men on their return to capt. c. immediately with these articles and he set out with his party accompanyed by the natives to their village where he remained all night.--the natives who had spent the day with me seemed very well disposed, they left me at in the evening and returned to their rispective villages. the hunters informed me that they saw some antelopes, & the tracks of several black bear, but no appearance of any elk. we were informed by the indians that the river which falls in on the s. side of the columbia just above the eneshur village heads in mount hood and dose not water the extensive country which we have heretofore calculated on. a great portion of that extensive tract of country to the s. and s. w. of the columbia and it's s. e. branch, and between the same and the waters of callifornia must be watered by the multnomah river.- [clark, april , ] april th crossed the river and sent drewyer & goodrich to the skil lute village to envite the indians to trade horses with us, also sent frazer & shabono to the che-luck-kit-ti-quar village for the same purpose a number of indians came of both nations and delayed the greater part of the day without tradeing a single horse the great chief of the skillutes also came with drewyer. he was lame and could not walk he told me if i would go to his town his people would trade with me. i set out late and arrived at sunset and informd. the natives that in the morning i would trade with them. he gave me onions to eate which had been sweated. peter played the violin and the men danced. saw abt. stacks of fish. maney nations visit this place for trade. the discription of the houses, their dress habits &c. smoked &c. i saw great numbers of horses [clark, april , ] wednesday april th about oclock this morning i passed the river with the two interpreters, and nine men in order to trade with the nativs for their horses, for which purpose i took with me a good part of our stock of merchindize. capt l. sent out the hunters and set several men at work makeing pack saddles. twelve horses will be sufficient to trans port our baggage and some pounded fish with our dried elk. which we intend takeing with us as a reserved store for the plains & rocky mountains. i formed a camp on the n. side and sent drewyer & goodrich to the skillute village, and shabono & frazer down to the chilluckkitequaw villages with derections to inform the nativs that i had crossed the river for the purpose of purchaseing horses, and if they had horses to sell us to bring them to my camp. great numbers of indians came from both villages and delayed the greater part of the day without tradeing a single horse. drewyer returned with the principal chief of the skillutes who was lame and could not walk. after his arival some horses were offered for sale, but they asked nearly half the merchindize i had with me for one horse. this price i could not think of giveing. the chief informed me if i would go to his town with him, his people would sell me horses. i therefore concluded to accompany him to his village miles distant. we set out and arrived at the village at sunset. after some serimony i entered the house of the chief. i then informed them that i would trade with them for their horses in the morning for which i would give for each horse the articles which i had offered yestered. the chief set before me a large platter of onions which had been sweeted. i gave a part of those onions to all my party and we all eate of them, in this state the root is very sweet and the tops tender. the nativs requested the party to dance which they very readily consented and peter cruzat played on the violin and the men danced several dances & retired to rest in the houses of the st and second cheif. this village is moved about yards below the spot it stood last fall at the time we passed down. they were all above grown and built in the same form of those below already discribed. we observed maney stacks of fish remaining untouched on either side of the river. the inhabitents of this village ware the robe of deer elk goat &c. and most of the men ware legins and mockersons and shirts highly ornimented with porcupine quills & beeds. the women were the truss most commonly. tho some of them have long shirts all of those articles they precure from other nations who visit them for the purpose of exchangeing those articles for their pounded fish of which they prepare great quantities. this is the great mart of all this country. ten different tribes who reside on taptate and catteract river visit those people for the purpose of purchaseing their fish, and the indians on the columbia and lewis's river quite to the chopunnish nation visit them for the purpose of tradeing horses buffalow robes for beeds, and such articles as they have not. the skillutes precure the most of their cloth knivs axes & beeds from the indians from the north of them who trade with white people who come into the inlets to the north at no great distance from the tapteet. their horses of which i saw great numbers, they precure from the indians who reside on the banks of the columbia above, and what fiew they take from the to war ne hi ooks or snake indians. i smoked with all the principal men of this nation in the house of their great cheif and lay my self down on a mat to sleep but was prevented by the mice and vermin with which this house abounded and which was very troublesom to me. [lewis, april , ] thursday april th . this morning early i sent out the hunters, and set several additional hands about the packsaddles. i find that the sturgeon is not taken by any of the natives above the columbean vally. the inhabitants of the rapids at this time take a few of the white salmon trout and considerable quantities of a small indifferent mullet on which they principally subsist. i have seen none except dryed fish of the last season in the possession of the people above that place, they subsist on roots principally with some dryed and pounded fish. the salmon not having made their appearance proves a serious inconvenience to us. but few of the natives visited my camp today and those only remained a few hours. even at this place which is merely on the border of the plains of columbia the climate seems to have changed the air feels dryer and more pure. the earth is dry and seems as if there had been no rain for a week or ten days. the plain is covered with a rich virdure of grass and herbs from four to nine inches high and exhibits a beautiful) seen particularly pleasing after having been so long imprisoned in mountains and those almost impenetrably thick forrests of the seacoast. joseph feilds brought me today three eggs of the party coloured corvus, they are about the size and shape of those of the pigeon. they are bluish white much freckled with dark redish brown irregular spots, in short it is reather a mixture of those colours in which the redish brown predominates, particularly towards the larger end.--this evening willard and cruzatte returned from capt. clark and brought me a note in which capt. c. informed me that he had sill been unsuccessful) having not obtained a single horse as yet from the natives and the state of our stores are so low that i begin to fear we shall not be enabled to obtain as many horses at this place as will convey our baggage and unless we do obtain a sufficient number for that purpose we shall not hasten our progress as a part of our baggage must still be conveyed by water. capt. c. informed me that he should proceed as far as the eneshur village today and would return tomorrow and join me at the skillute village to which place i mean to proceed with the party tomorrow. i dispatched shannon with a note to capt. clark in which i requested him to double the price we have heretofore offered for horses and if possible obtain as many as five, by this means we shall be enabled to proceed immediately with our small canoes and those horses to the villages in the neighbourhood of the mussel shell rapid where horses are more abundant and cheaper; with the remainder of our merchandize in addition to the canoes we can no doubt obtain as many horses there as will answer our purposes. delay in the villages at the narrows and falls will be expensive to us inasmuch as we will be compelled to purchase both fuel and food of the indians, and might the better enable them to execute any hostile desighn should they meditate any against us.--all the hunters returned in the evening. sheilds had killed one deer which he brought with him. the packsaddles were completed this evening. i had some elkskins put in the water today make harnes for the packhorses but shall not cut them untill i know the number we can obtain.--there is a species of hiasinth in these plains the bulb of which the natives eat either boiled baked or dryed in the sun. this bulb is white, not entirely solid, and of a flat form; the bulb of the present year overlays, or crowns that of the last, and seems to be pressed close to it, the old bulb is withered much thiner equally wide with that of the present year and sends fourth from it's sides a number of small radicles.--this hiasinth is of a pale blue colour and is a very pretty flower. i preserved a specemine of it. [clark, april , ] april th i rose early and took a position near to the village and exposed the artiles i had for sale great numbers of indians came from different derections, some from below some above and others across the countrey from the tapteet river see description of the nations &c.--i obtained a sketch of the columbia as also clarks river. see sketch i made a bargin with the chief who has more horses than all the village besides for horses. soon after he canseled his bargin, and we again bargined for horses, they were brought forward, and only one fit for service, the others had such intolerable backs as to render them entirely unfit for service. as i would not take the he would not sell the good one to me, and we were off the bargin. i then packed up and was about setting out for the falls when one indian sold me horses and one other one horse, and some others said they wished to trade which caused me to conclude to delay here one other night. maney of the natives from above come and said they would trade, but asked a higher price than i thought i could give or reather more than this nation asked.--great numbers of men.--i hed to purchase dogs for the men to eate & some shap-per-lell. i sent crusat, wiser, willard and mcneal back to capt lewis informing him of my ill suck'sess, and adviseing him to proceed on to this place as soon as possible, and my intention of proceededing on to the falls to purchase horses if possible several indians arived late this evening. capt. lewis sent me a note by shannon informing me that he would set early on tomorrow morning early &c. &c. i sleped in house of the d chief and they had not any thing except fish to eate and no wood for fire. those people have a number of buffalow robes. they have great number of skimming nets [clark, april , ] thursday th of april i rose early after bad nights rest, and took my merchindize to a rock which afforded an elegable situation for my purpose, and at a short distance from the houses, and divided the articles of merchindize into parsels of such articles as i thought best calculated to pleas the indians, and in each parcel i put as many articles as we could afford to give, and thus exposed them to view, informing the indians that each parcel was intended for a horse. they tanterlised me the greater part of the day, saying that they had sent out for their horses and would trade as soon as they came. several parcels of merchindize was laid by for which they told me they would bring horses. i made a bargin with the chief for horses, about an hour after he canseled the bargin and we again bargained for horses which were brought foward, only one of the could be possibly used the other two had such intolerable backs as to render them entirely unfit for service. i refused to take two of them which displeased him and he refused to part with the rd. i then packed up the articles and was about setting out for the village above when a man came and sold me two horses, and another man sold me one horse, and several others informed me that they would trade with me if i would continue untill their horses could be drove up. this induced me to continue at this village another day. maney of the nativs from different villages on the columbia above offered to trade, but asked such things as we had not and double as much of the articles which i had as we could afford to give. this was a very unfavourable circumstance as my dependance for precureing a sufficiency of horses rested on the suckcess above where i had reasons to believe there were a greater abundance of those animals, and was in hopes of getting them on better terms. i purchased dogs for the party with me to eate and some chap-pa-lell for my self. before precureing the horses i dispatched crusat, willard & mcneal and peter wiser to capt lewis at the rock fort camp with a note informing him of my ill suckcess in precureing horses, and advised him to proceed on to this place as soon as possible. that i would in the mean time proceed on to the enesher nation above the great falls and try to purchase some horses of that people. soon after i had dispatched this party the chief of the enesher's and or of his people visited me and appeared to be anxious to see the articles i offered for the horses. several of them agreeed to let me have horses if i would add sundery articles to those i offered which i agreeed to, and they lay'd those bundles by and informed me they would deliver me the horses in the morning. i proposed going with them to their town. the chief informed me that their horses were all in the plains with their womin gathering roots. they would send out and bring the horses to this place tomorrow. this entiligence was flattering, tho i doubted the sincerity of those people who had several times disapointed me in a similar way. however i deturmined to continue untill tomorrow. in the mean time industously employd. our selves with the great multitude of indians of differant nations about us trying to purchase horses. shabono purchased a verry fine mare for which he gave hurmen, elks teeth, a belt and some other articles of no great value. no other purchase was made in the course of this day. in the evening i recved a note from capt l--by shannon informing me that he should set out early on tomorrow morning and should proceed up to the bason miles below the skillute village. and adviseing me to give double the prices which we had first agreed on for each horse. i observe at every house scooping nets with which they take the salmon. i was envited into the house of the nd chief where concluded to sleep. this man was pore nothing to eat but dried fish, and no wood to burn. altho the night was cold they could not rase as much wood as would make a fire [lewis, april , ] friday april th . late last evening we were visited by the principal cheif of chilluckkittaquaws and of his nation they remained with us untill oc. when they all departed except the cheif and two others who slept at my feet. we loaded our vessels and set out after an early breakfast this morning. we gave the indians a passage to the n. shore on which they reside and pursued our rout to the foot of the first rapid at the distance of ms. here we found it necessary to unload the perogues and canoes and make a portage of paces over a rock; we then drew our vessels up by a cord and the assistance of setingpoles. from hence we proceeded to the bason below the long narrows ms. further and landed on the lard. side at / after . the cheif when he left me this morning promised to bring some horses to barter with me at the bason.- the long narrows are much more formidable than they were when we decended them last fall there would be no possibility of passind either up or down them in any vessel.--after unloading the canoes and arranging the camp i walked up to the skillute village and jouined capt. he had procured four horses only for which a high price had been given, at least more than double that which we had formerly given for those which we purchased from the shoshonees and the first band of flatheads. they have a great abundance of horses but will not dispose of them. we determined to make the portage to the head of the long narrows with our baggage and five small canoes. the perogues we could take no further and therefore cut them up for fuel. in the evening capt. c. and myself returned to the camp at the bason and left drewyer and three others with the merchandize at the village, three parsels of which had been laid by at the request of individuals who promised to give us horses for them in the morning.--i shot my airgun in the presents of the natives at the village which excited great astonishment. [clark, april , ] april th early this morning i was awoke by a indian from the nieghbourhood of our horses, he had he arived here yesterday & this morning found a small bag of powder and ball which had been left when we exposed our goods yesterday and brought it to me. i had a fire made out and exposed the articles &c. having increased the articles for each horse, and sent out men to hunt the horses bought yesterday. after colecting them sent shabono and frazer with the i had purchased down to capt lewis. and was tanterlised with the expectation of purchaseing more imediately. great numbers of the indians from the falls and both above and below. none of them appeared anxious to part with their horses but told me that several were comeing from the plains about or p m. and laid by parcels of merchindize and told me that they had sent for their horses. among other tribes was those of the skad-datts who bantered the skillutes to play with them at a singular kind of game which was soon made up and of aside sat down they were some time making up their bets of beeds, brass thimbles or tubes robes &c. &c. when the bets were all made up the nine on each side took opposides faceing each other at the distance of about feet. in front of each party was placed a long pole on which they struck with a stick and sung. they made use of small pices of bone in this form and size a bone was given to men of the same party who changed it from hand to hand with great dexterity one hand above the other looking down, and when he was ready for the opposit party to guess he seperated his hands swinging them around the breast looking at the opposit party who waved their hand to the side the bone was in. if the opposit party guessed the hand of each man the bone was given to them. if neither it was nothing. if they guessed one which they might single out if they pleased they recived his bone, and lost on the other as they hapened to fail in guessing the also lose one if they fail guessing both the game is plaid at different numbers & each party has sticks. several of those games were played to day in which the skillute won, indeed the won all the beeds and som robes of the skad datts which they _____ one other game which they also played _____ by men with sticks. black & white under a kind of hat made of bark. as this is a very intrecut game i cannot describe it: the one who holds the sticks places them in different positions, and the opposit party, guess the position of the black sticks by a motion of either one or both of the hands. each man has sticks. this as also the other is accompanied with a kind of song. this hat is about inches diamuter and the sticks about inches long---at p m sergt ordway arived with men from capt lewis with elk skins and some fiew articles such as a coat & robes. i had dogs purchased, soon after capt. lewis came up with j. fields he had assended the river with much dificuelty to the bason miles below. i left drewyer, warner, shannon & goodrich with the articles and went down with capt lewis to the bason, cut up of our canoes for fire wood no horses more maney nations resort here for trade [clark, april , ] friday th april early this morning i was awoke by an indian man of the chopunnish nation who informed me that he lived in the neighbourhood of our horses. this man delivered me a bag of powder and ball which he had picked up this morning at the place the goods were exposed yesterday i had a fire made of some poles purchased of the nativs at a short distance from the houses and the articles exposed as yesterday. collected the horses purchased yesterday and sent frazier and shabono with them to the bason where i expected they would meet cap l-s and commence the portage of the baggage on those horses. about a.m. the indians came down from the eneesher villages and i expected would take the articles which they had laid by yesterday. but to my estonishment not one would make the exchange to day-. two other parcels of good were laid by and the horses promised at p.m. i payed but little attention to this bargain however suffered the bundles to lye. i dressed the sores of the principal chief gave some small things to his children and promised the chief some medicine for to cure his sores. his wife who i found to be a sulky bitch and was somewhat efflicted with pains in her back. this i thought a good oppertunity to get her on my side giveing here something for her back. i rubed a little camphere on her temples and back, and applyed worm flannel to her back which she thought had nearly restored her to her former feelings. this i thought a favourable time to trade with the chief who had more horses than all the nation besides. i accordingly made him an offer which he excepted and sold me two horses. great numbers of indians from defferent derections visited me at this place to day, none of them appeared willing to part with their horses, but told me that several were comeing from the plains this evening. among other nations who visit this place for the purpose of trade is the skad-datt's. those people bantered the skillutes to play at a singular kind of game. in the course of the day the skillutes won all their beeds skins arrows &c. this game was composed of men on a side. they set down opposit to each other at the distance of about feet. in front of each party a long pole was placed on which they struck with a small stick to the time of their songs. after the bets were made up which was nearly half an hour after they set down, two round bones was producd about the size of a mans little finger or something smaller and / inches in length. which they held in their hand changeing it from one hand to the other with great dexterity. men on the same side performed this part, and when they had the bone in the hand they wished, they looked at their advosarys swinging arms around their sholders for their advosary guess which they pirformed by the motion the hand either to the right or left. if the opposit party guessed the hand of both of the men who had the bone, the bones were given to them. if neither the bones was retained and nothing counted. if they guessed one and not the other, one bone was dilivered up and the party possessing the other bone counted one. and one for every time the advosary miss guessed untill they guessed the hand in which the bone was in-in this game each party has sticks. and one side wins all the sticks, once twice or thrice as the game may be set. i observed another game which those people also play and is played by persons with sticks about the size of a mans finger and about inches in length. two of those sticks are black and the other white and something larger than the black ones. those sticks they place in defferent positions which they perform under a kind of trencher made of bark round and about inches diamieter. this is a very intricate game and i cannot sufficiently understand to discribe it. the man who is in possession of the sticks &c places them in defferent positions, and the opposit party tels the position of the black sticks by a motion of either or both of his hands &c. this game is counted in the same way as the one before mentioned. all their games are accompanied with songs and time. at p. m sergt. ordway & three men arived from cap lewis they brought with them several elk skins, two of my coats and robes of the party to add to the stores i had with me for the purchase of horses. sgt. o. informed me that cap l. had arived with all the canoes into the bason miles below and wished some dogs to eate. i had dogs purchased and sent down. at p.m. capt. lewis came up. he informed me that he had the river to the bason with much difecuelty and danger, haveing made one portage. as i had not slept but very little for the two nights past on account of mice & virmen with which those indian houses abounded, and haveing no blanket with me, and the means of keeping a fire sufficent to keep me worm out was too expensive i deturmined to proceed with capt l. down to camp at the bason. i left the articles of merchendize &c. with drewyer, werner, shannon & goodrich untill the morning---at the bason we cut up two of our canoes for fire wood verry much to the sagreen of the nativs not with standing they would give us nothing for them. in my absence several inds. visited capt. lewis at his camp among others was the great cheif of the chilluckkitquaw who continued with him untill he left rock fort camp. capt l. had pack saddles completed and strings prepared of the elk skins for lashing the loads he also kept out all the hunters who killed just deer enough for the party with him to subsist on. the cheif who had visited capt lewis promised him that he would bring some horses to the bason and trade with him. but he was not as good as his word. capt lewis gave a large kittle for a horse which was offered to him at the bason this evening. [lewis, april , ] saturday aprl. th . this morning early we had our small canoes drawn out, and employed all hands in transporting our baggage on their backs and by means of the four pack horses, over the portage. this labour we had accomplished by p.m. and established our camp a little above the present skil-lute village which has been removed a few hundred yards lower down the river than when we passed them last fall and like others below have the floors of their summer dwellings on the surface of the earth instead of those cellars in which they resided when we passed them. there was great joy with the natives last night in consequence of the arrival of the salmon; one of those fish was caught; this was the harbinger of good news to them. they informed us that these fish would arrive in great quantities in the course of about days. this fish was dressed and being divided into small peices was given to each child in the village. this custom is founded in a supersticious opinon that it will hasten the arrival of the salmon. with much difficulty we obtained four other horses from the indians today, we wer obliged to dispence with two of our kettles in order to acquire those. we have now only one small kettle to a mess of men. in the evening capt. clark set out with four men to the enesher village at the grand falls in order to make a further attempt to procure horses. these people are very faithless in their contracts. they frequently receive the merchandize in exchange for their horses and after some hours insist on some additional article being given them or revoke the exchange. they have pilfered several small articles from us this evening.--i directed the horses to be hubbled & suffered to graize at a little distance from our camp under the immediate eye of the men who had them in charge. one of the men willard was negligent in his attention to his horse and suffered it to ramble off; it was not to be found when i ordered the others to be brought up and confined to the picquits. this in addition to the other difficulties under which i laboured was truly provoking. i repremanded him more severely for this peice of negligence than had been usual with me. i had the remaining horses well secured by picquits; they were extreemly wrestless and it required the attention of the whole guard through the night to retain them notwithstanding they were bubbled and picquted. they frequently throwed themselves by the ropes by which they were confined. all except one were stone horse for the people in this neighbourhood do not understand the art of gelding them, and this is a season at which they are most vicious. many of the natives remained about our camp all night. [clark, april , ] april th this morning early some rain had the small canoes hauled out to dry every man capable of carrying a load comencd the portage and by p. m had every part of our baggage and canoes across the portage. i then took sgt. pryor, g. shannon & crusat & labiech and went up to the falls at which place i arivd. about p.m. in the course of this day i purchased horses at the town & capt lewis purchased one. the nativs finding that we were about to proceed on by water sold us those fiew horses for which we were compd. to pay them emence prices and the horses were indefferent. several showers of rain this day. description of those people &c narrows bad [clark, april , ] saturday th april . we deturmined to make the portage to the head of the long narrows with our baggage and small canoes, the large canoes we could take no further and therefore cut them up for fuel. we had our small canoes drawn up very early and employed all hands in transporting our baggage on their backs and by means of pack horses, over the portage. this labour we had accomplished by p.m. and established our camp a little above the present skillute village which has been removed as before observed a fiew hundred yards lower down the river than when we passed it last fall. i left capt l. at the bason and proceeded to the village early this morning with a view to recive the horses which were promised to be brought this morning for articles laid by last evining. in the course of this day i purchased four horses at the village, and capt lewis one at the bason before he left it. after the baggage was all safely landed above the portage, all hands brought over the canoes at lodes which was accomplished by p.m. as we had not a sufficiency of horses to transport our baggage we agreed that i should proceed on to the enesher villages at the great falls of the columbia and if possible purchase as maney horses as would transport the baggage from that place, and rid us of the trouble and dificuelty of takeing our canoes further. i set out with serjt pryor, geo shannon peter crusat & labiech at half past p.m. for the enesher village at which place i arrived at p.m. several showers of rain in the after part of to day, and the s w wind very high. there was great joy with the nativs last night in consequence of the arrival of the salmon; one of those fish was cought, this was the harbenger of good news to them. they informed us that those fish would arive in great quantities in the course of about days. this fish was dressed and being divided into small pieces was given to each child in the village. this custom is founded on a supersticious opinion that it will hasten the arrival of the salmon. we were oblige to dispence with two of our kitties in order to acquire two of the horses purchasd. to day. we have now only one small kittle to a mess of men. these people are very fathless in contracts; they frequently reive the merchindize in exchange for their horses and after some hours insist on some additional article being given them or revoke the exchange. the long narrows are much more formadable than they were when we decended them last fall, there would be no possibility of passing either up or down them in any vessle at this time. i entered the largest house of the eneeshers village in which i found all the enhabitents in bead. they rose and made a light of straw, they haveing no wood to burn. many men collected. we smoked and i informed them that i had come to purchase a fiew horses of them. they promused to sell me some in the morning. [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . some frost this morning. the enesher an skillutes are much better clad than they were last fall, there men have generally legings mockersons and large robes; many of them wear shirts of the same form with those of the shoshone chopunnish &c highly ornamented with porcupine quills. the dress of their women differs very little from those of the great rapids and above. their children frequently wear robes of the large grey squirrel skins, those of the men and women are principally deer skins, some wolf, elk, bighorn and buffaloe; the latter they procure from the nations who sometimes visit the missouri. indeed a considerable poportion of their wearing apparel is purchased from their neighbours to the n. w. in exchange for pounded fish copper and beads. at present the principal village of the eneshur is below the falls on the n. side of the river. one other village is above the falls on the s. side and another a few miles above on the n. side. the first consists of , the cd of , and the rd of lodges. their houses like those of the skillutes have their floors on the surface of the ground, but are formed of sticks and covered with mats and straw. they are large and contain usually several families each for fuel they use straw, small willows and the southern wood. they use the silk grass in manufacturing their fishing nets and bags, the bear grass and cedar bark are employed in forming a variety of articles. they are poor, dirty, proud, haughty, inhospitable, parsimonious and faithless in every rispect, nothing but our numbers i beleive prevents their attempting to murder us at this moment. this morning i was informed that the natives had pilfered six tommahawks and a knife from the party in the course of the last night. i spoke to the cheif on this subject. he appeared angry with his people and addressed them but the property was not restored. one horse which i had purchased and paid for yesterday and which could not be found when i ordered the horses into close confinement yesterday i was now informed had been gambled away by the rascal who had sold it to me and had been taken away by a man of another nation. i therefore took the goods back from this fellow. i purchased a gun from the cheif for which i gave him elkskins. in the course of the day i obtained two other indifferent horses for which i gave an extravigant price. i found that i should get no more horses and therefore resolved to proceed tomorrow morning with those which i had and to convey the baggage in two small canoes that the horses could not carry. for this purpose i had a load made up for seven horses, the eighth bratton was compelled to ride as he was yet unable to walk. i barted my elkskins old irons and canoes for beads. one of the canoes for which they would give us but little i had cut up for fuel. these people have yet a large quantity of dryed fish on hand yet they will not let us have any but for an exorbitant price. we purchased two dogs and some shappellel from them. i had the horses graized untill evening and then picquited and bubbled within the limits of our camp. i ordered the indians from our camp this evening and informed them that if i caught them attempting to perloin any article from us i would beat them severely. they went off in reather a bad humour and i directed the party to examine their arms and be on their guard. they stole two spoons from us in the course of the day. the scaddals, squan-nan-os, shan-wah-purrs and shallattas reside to the n. w. of these people, depend on hunting deer and elk and trade with these people for ther pounded fish. [clark, april , ] april th this morning very cold hills covered with snow. i showed the nativs what i had to give for their horses and attempted to purchase them. they informed me that they would not sell any horses to me, that their horses were at a long ways off and they would not trade them. my offer was a blue robe, callico shirt, a handkerchef, parcels of paint a knife, a wampom moon braces of ribin, a pice of brass and about braces of yellow heeds; and to that amount for what i had i also offered my large blue blanket for one, my coat sword & plume none of which seem to entice those people to give horses if they had any. they set in their huts which is of mats supported on poles without fire. at night when they wish a light they burn dry straw & some fiew small dry willows. they speak defferent from those below, have but little to eate. some roots & dryed fish is to be found in their houses. i am half frozed at this inhospitable village which is moved from its position above the falls to one below and contains large houses, a village is also established on the other side imedeately above the falls. all the natives who was established above the falls for some distance has removed those people are much better dressed than they were at the time we went down the river. they have all new, deer, elk, ibex goat & wolf skin robes, their children also the large squirel skin robes, maney of them have legins and mockersons, all of which they precure of the indians at a distance in exchange for their pounded fish & beeds, they also purchase silk grass, of which they make their nets & sales for takeing fish they also purchase bear grass and maney other things for their fish. those people gave me roots and berries prepared in different ways for which i gave some small articles in return.-great numbers of skiming knets on their houses. those people are pore and kind durty & indolt. they ware their hair loose flowing the men cut in the foward which the skilloots do not &c. &c. i could not precure a single horse of those people, dureing this day at any price, they offered me for kittles of which we could not spear. i used every artifice decent & even false statements to enduce those pore devils to sell me horses. in the evening two different men offered to sell me three horses which they informed me was a little distance off and they would bring them imediately. those two persons as i found went imediately off up the river to their tribe without any intention to find or sell their horses. a little before sunset men arived from some distance above and informed me that they came to see me. at sunset finding no probability of capt lewis arival, packed up the articles and took them into the lodge in which i lay last night. great numbers of those people geathered around me to smoke. i gave them pipes and lay down in the back part of the house with sgt. p. & the men with our arms in a situation as to be ready in case of any alarm. those pore people appear entirely harmless--i purchased a dog and some wood with a little pounded fish and chappaless. made a fire on the rocks and cooked the dogs on which the men breckfast & dined. wind hard all day cold from n w. [clark, april , ] sunday th april a very cold morning the western mountains covered with snow i shewed the eneshers the articles i had to give for their horses. they without hezitation informed me that they would not sell me any for the articles i had, if i would give them kitties they would let me have horses, and not without. that their horses were at a long ways off in the planes and they would not send for them &c. my offer was a blue robe, a calleco shirt, a silk handkerchief, parcels of paint, a knife, a wampom moon, yards of ribon, several pieces of brass, a mockerson awl and braces of yellow beeds; and to that amount for each horse which is more than double what we gave either the sohsohne or first flat heads we met with on clarks river i also offered my large blue blanket, my coat sword & plume none of which seamed to entice those people to sell their horses. not with standing every exertion not a single horse could be precured of those people in the course of the day. those people are much better clad than they were last fall, their men have generally legins mockersons and large robes. maney of them ware shirts of the same form of those of the chopunnish and shoshone highly ornimented with porcupine quills. the dress of their winen differs verry little from those above the great rapids. their children have small robes of the squirel skins. those of the men & women are principally deer, some elk, wolf, ibix & buffalow which they precure from distant nations who purchase their pounded fish in exchange for those robes & beeds. the principal village of the enesher nation is imedeately below the falls on the n. side. one other village of the same nation above the falls on the opposit side and one other a few miles above on the north side.--the houses of those people like the skillutes have the flores of their summer dwelling on the surface of the earth in sted of those sellers in which they resided when we passed them last fall. those houses are covered with mats and straw are large and contain several families each. i counted at this village & on the opposit side. those people are pore durty haughty. they burn straw and small willows. have but little to eate and deer with what they have. they precure the silk grass of which they make their nets, the bear grass for makeing their mats and several other necessary of the indians of the following nations who trade with them as also the skillutes for their pounded fish. viz. skad-dats, squan-nun-os, shan-wappoms, shall-lat-tos, who reside to the north and several bands who reside on the columbia above.--i precured a sketch of the columbia and its branches of those people in which they made the river which falls into the columbia imediately above the falls on the south side to branch out into branches one of which they make head in mt.jefferson, one in mount hood and the other in the s w. range of mountains and does not water that extensive country we have heretofore calculated on. a great portion of that extensive tract of country to the s. and s. w. of the columbia and lewis's river and between the same and the waters of callifornia must be watered by the multnomah river.--see sketch in the latter part of this book (no. ). those people are great jokies and deciptfull in trade. at sunset finding that capt lewis would not arrive this evening as i expected, i packed up all the articles which i had exposed, at a situation i had pitched on to encamp, and at which place we had bought as maney fishing poles as made a fire to cook a dog which i had purchased for the men to eate, and returned to the lodge which i had slept in last night. great number gathered around me to smoke, i gave them two pipes, and then lay my self down with the men to sleep, haveing our merchendize under our heads and guns &c in our arms, as we always have in similar situations [lewis, april , ] monday april st . notwithstanding all the precautions i had taken with rispect to the horses one of them had broken his cord of strands of elkskin and had gone off spanseled. i sent several men in surch of the horse with orders to return at a.m. with or without the horse being determined to remain no longer with these villains. they stole another tomahawk from us this morning i surched many of them but could not find it. i ordered all the spare poles, paddles and the ballance of our canoe put on the fire as the morning was cold and also that not a particle should be left for the benefit of the indians. i detected a fellow in stealing an iron socket of a canoe pole and gave him several severe blows and mad the men kick him out of camp. i now informed the indians that i would shoot the first of them that attempted to steal an article from us. that we were not affraid to fight them, that i had it in my power at that moment to kill them all and set fire to their houses, but it was not my wish to treat them with severity provided they would let my property alone. that i would take their horses if i could find out the persons who had stolen the tommahawks, but that i had reather loose the property altogether than take the hose of an inosent person. the chiefs were present hung their heads and said nothing. at a.m. windsor returned with the lost horse, the others who were in surch of the horse soon after returned also. the indian who promised to accompany me as far as the chopunnish country produced me two horses one of which he politely gave me the liberty of packing. we took breakfast and departed a few minutes after oclock. having nine horses loaded and one which bratton rode not being able as yet to march; the two canoes i had dispatched early this morning. at p.m. i arrived at the enesher village where i found capt clark and party; he had not purchased a single horse. he informed me that these people were quite as unfriendly as their neighbours the skillutes, and that he had subsisted since he left me on a couple of platters of pounded roots and fish which an old man had the politeness to offer him. his party fared much better on dogs which he purchased from those people. the man resided here from whom i had purchased the horse which ran off from me yesterday. i had given him a large kettle and a knife in exchange for that horse which i informed him should be taken from him unles he produced me the lost horse or one of equal value in his stead, the latter he prefered and produced me a very good horse which i very cheerfully received. we soon made the portage with our canoes and baggage and halted about / a mile above the village where we graized our horses and took dinner on some dogs which we purchased of these people. after dinner we proceeded on about four miles to a village of mat lodges of the enesher a little below the entrance of clark's river and encamped; one of the canoes joined us the other not observing us halt continued on. we obtained two dogs and a small quantity of fuel of these people for which we were obliged to give a higher price than usual. our guide continued with us, he appears to be an honest sincere fellow. he tells us that the indians a little above will treat us with much more hospitality than those we are now with. we purchased another horse this evening but his back is in such a horid state that we can put but little on him; we obtained him for a trifle, at least for articles which might be procured in the u states for shillings virga cory.- we took the precaution of piquting and spanseling our horses this evening near our camp. [clark, april , ] april st a fair cold morning. i find it useless to offer any articles or attempt to trade at this village and therefore deturmine to ____ before i rose the house was crouded with indians to smoke i gave them none. they are well supplied with straw & bark bags ready to hold their pounded fish. at oclock the advance of the party from below arived and soon after the canoes all things were taken above the falls & canoes, turned out the horss and cooked & eat dogs which we purchased of the nativs, purchased one horse for which we are to give a kittle which was given by us to a man for a horse days past &c. the horse was either taken or strayed off. the chief from below came up and appeared concerned for what had been done at his village (see journal) a p m loaded up & set out the canoes also proceed on about miles opposit to the mouth of clarks river, and an indian man who has attached himself to us and who has lent us a horse to pack & lives near the rocky mountains. he told us that as the day was far spent we had better camp at a village of lodges a little off the road opsd. the river cclarks this river has a great falls above forks on its west side. we formed a camp purchased some wood & dogs for which we gave pewter buttons which buttons we had made &c. but fiew indians with us this evining purchased an old horse and tied up all the horses when we went to bed those are the same people with those below at the falls. see journal for the next day- skad data ill looking people reside to the n about or miles they played against the skillutes a game they call ____ of a side and lost all the beeds & other articles also a single game with black & white sticks under a kind of hat. men played this game is intricit and each party has pegs to count it the former game is played with bones or sticks about the size of a large quill and inches long passing from one hand to the other and the adverse party guess. see description before mentioned. the nations abov at the falls also play this game and bet high [clark, april , ] monday st april a fair cold morning i found it useless to make any further attempts to trade horses with those unfriendly people who only crouded about me to view and make their remarks and smoke, the latter i did not indulge them with to day. at oclock capt lewis and party came up from the skillutes village with horses packed and one which bratten who was yet too weak to walk, rode, and soon after the two small canoes also loaded with the residue of the baggage which could not be taken on horses. we had everry thing imedeately taken above the falls, in the mean time purchased dogs on which the party dined--whilst i remained at the enesher village i subsisted on platters of roots, some pounded fish and sun flour seed pounded which an old man had the politeness to give me. in return for which i gave him several small articles-. capt lewis informed me that imedeately after i left him the nativs began to steal and had stolen tomahawks of the party, and in the course of the night had let our horses loose he had burnt one and sold of the largest canoes for beeds, the other brought on. an indian was detected in stealing a socket and was kicked out of camp. capt l. informed the indians that the next man who attempted to steal should be shot and thretened them and informed them that he could kill them in a moment and set their town on fire if he pleased. but it was not his desire to hurt them severly if they would let the property of the party alone. the chiefs hung their heads and said nothing. he lost the horse that was given for a large kittle, and a chopunnish man lent a horse to carry a load and accompanied the party--the man who we had reason to believe had stolen the horse he had given for the kittle we thretend a little and he produced a very good horse in the place of that one which we chearfully receved. after dinner we proceeded on about miles to a village of mat lodges of the enesher, a little below the enterance of to war nah hi ooks river and encamped. one of the canoes joined us, the other not haveing observed us halt continued on. we obtained dogs and a small quantity of fuel of those people for which we were obliged to give a higher price than usial. our guide continued with us, he appears to be an honest fellow. he tels us that the indians above will treat us with much more hospitallity than those we are now with. we purchased another horse this evening but his back is in such a horrid state that we can put but little on him; we obtained him for a triffle, at least for articles which might be precured in the u. states for /-virga. currency--we took the precaution of picqueting and spancelling our horses this evening near our camp. the evening cold and we could afford only one fire. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april cd . last night two of our horses broke loos from the picquits and straggled off some little distance, the men who had charge of them fortunately recovered them early. at a.m. we set out having previously sent on our small canoe with colter and potts. we had not arrived at the top of a hill over which the road leads opposite the village before charbono's horse threw his load, and taking fright at the saddle and robe which still adhered, ran at full speed down the hill, near the village he disengaged himself from the saddle and robe, an indian hid the robe in his lodge. i sent our guide and one man who was with me in the rear to assist charbono in retaking his horse which having done they returned to the village on the track of the horse in surch of the lost articles they found the saddle but could see nothing of the robe the indians denyed having seen it; they then continued on the track of the horse to the place from whence he had set out with the same success. being now confident that the indians had taken it i sent the indian woman on to request capt. c. to halt the party and send back some of the men to my assistance being determined either to make the indians deliver the robe or birn their houses. they have vexed me in such a manner by such repeated acts of villany that i am quite disposed to treat them with every severyty, their defenseless state pleads forgivness so far as rispects their lives. with this resolution i returned to their village which i had just reached as labuish met me with the robe which he informed me he found in an indian lodg hid behind their baggage. i now returned and joined capt clark who was waiting my arrival with the party. the indian woman had not reached capt c. untill about the time i arrived and he returned from a position on the top of a hill not far from where he had halted the party. from the top of this emmenense capt. c. had an extensive view of the country. he observed the range of mountains in which mount hood stands to continue nearly south as far as the eye could reach. he also observed the snow clad top of mount jefferson which boar s. w. mount hood from the same point boar s. w. the tops of the range of western mountains are covered with snow. capt c. also discovered some timbered country in a southern direction from him at no great distance. clarks river which mouths immediately opposite this point of view forks at the distance of or miles from hence, the wright hand fork takes it rise in mount hood, and the main branch continues it's course to the s. e. we now made the following regulations as to our future order of march (viz) that capt. c. & myself should devide the men who were disencumbered by horses and march alternately each day the one in front and the other in rear. haveing divided the party agreeably to this arrangement, we proceeded on through an open plain country about miles to a village of houses of the eneshur nation, here we observed our canoes passing up on the opposite side; the wind being too high for them to pass the river they continued on. we halted at a small run just above the village where we dined on some dogs which we purchased of the inhabitants and suffered our horses to graize about three hours. there is no timber in this country we are obliged to purchase our fuel of the natives, who bling it from a great distance. while we halted for dinner we purch a horse. after dinner we proceeded on up the river about miles to a village of mat lodges of the last mentioned nation. here our chopunnish guide informed us that the next village was at a considerable distance and that we could not reach it tonight. the people at this place offered to sell us wood and dogs, and we therefore thought it better to remain all night. a man blonging to the next village abovd proposed exchanging a horse for one of our canoes, just at this moment one of our canoes was passing. we hailed them and ordered them to come over but the wind continued so high that they could not join us untill after sunset and the indian who wished to exchange his horse for the canoe had gone on. charbonoe purchased a horse this evening. we obtained dogs and as much wood as answered our purposes on moderate terms. we can only afford ourselves one fire, and are obliged to lie without shelter, the nights are cold and days warm.- colter and pots had passed on with their canoe. [clark, april , ] tuesday nd of april last night of our horses broke loose and strayed of at a short dis-tance. at oclock we loaded up and set out, haveing previously sent off the canoe with colter and potts we had not arived at the top of the hill which is feet before shabonos horse threw off his load and went with great speed down the hill to the village where he disengaged himself of his saddle & the robe which was under it, the indians hid the robe and delayed capt. lewis and the rear party some time before they found the robe which was in a lodge hid behind their baggage, and took possession of it. dureing the time the front of the party was waiting for cap lewis, i assended a high hill from which i could plainly see the range of mountains which runs south from mt. hood as far as i could see. i also discovered the top of mt. jefferson which is covered with snow and is s to w. mt. hood is s. ° w. the range of mountains are covered with timber and also mt hood to a sertain bite. the range of mountains has snow on them. i also discovered some timbered land in a s. detection from me, short of the mountains. clarks river which mouthes imedeately opposit to me forks at about or miles, the west fork runs to the mt hood and the main branch runs from s. e. after capt lewis came up we proceeded on through a open ruged plain about miles to a village of houses on the river. here we observed our canoes passing up on the opposit side and the wind too high for them to join us. i halted at the mouth of a run above the village near some good grass to let the horses graze and for the party to dine. sent to the huts and purchased a dog & some wood. dureing the time the party was takeing diner we purchased one horse. after we proceeded on up the river about miles to a village of mat lodges. here our chopunnish guide informed me that the next villg. was at some distance and that we could not get to it to night, and that there was no wood to be precured on this side. a man offered to sell us a horse for a canoe. just at the moment we discovered one of our canoes on the opposit side. we concluded to camp here all night with the expectation of precureing some horses. sent and purchased some wood and dogs & shapillele. shabono purchased a hors for which he gave a red rapper, shirt, ploom & tomahawk &c. the party purchased a great quantity of chapellell and some berries for which they gave bits of tin and small pieces of cloth & wire &c. had our horses led out and held to grass untill dusk when they were all brought to camp, and pickets drove in the ground and the horses tied up. we find the horses very troublesom perticularly the stud which compose / of our number of horses. the air i find extreemly cold which blows continularly from mt. hoods snowey regions. those indians reside in small lodges built of the mats of grass, flags &c. and crouded with inhabitents, who speak a language somewhat different from those at the falls. their dress habits and appearance appear to be very much the same with those below. we made miles to day with the greatest exirtion. serjt. gass & r. fields joined us with one canoe this evening. the other canoe with colter & pots is a head. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april rd . at day light this morning we were informed that the two horses of our interpreter charbono were absent; on enquiry it appeared that he had neglected to confine them to picquts as had been directed last evening. we immediately dispatched reubin feilds and labuish to assist charbono in recovering his horses. one of them was found at no great distance and the other was given over as lost. at a.m. reuben feilds and sergt. gass proceeded in the canoe. at labuish and charbono returned unsuccessfull, they had gone back on the road nearly to the last village and suched the plains on either hand to a considerable distance. our remaining longer would have prevented our making a timely stage which in our situation is all important; we therefore determined to proceed immediately to the next village which from the information of our guide will occupy the greater part of the day to reach at eleven ock. we loaded our horses and set out. during the time we were detained this morning we had two packsaddles made. we continued our march along a narrow rocky bottom on the n. side of the river about miles to the wah-how-pum village of temperary mat lodges near the rock rapid. these people appeared much pleased to see us, sold us dogs and some wood for our small articles which we had previously prepared as our only resource to obtain fuel and food through those plains. these articles conisted of pewter buttons, strips of tin iron and brass, twisted wire &c. we also obtained some shap-pe-lell newly made from these people. here we met with a chopunnish man on his return up the river with his family and about head of horses most of them young and unbroken. he offered to hire us some of them to pack as far a his nation, but we prefer bying as by hireing his horses we shal have the whole of his family most probably to mentain. at a little distance below this village we passed five lodges of the same people who like those were waiting the arrival of the salmon. after we had arranged our camp we caused all the old and brave men to set arround and smoke with us. we had the violin played and some of the men danced; after which the natives entertained us with a dance after their method. this dance differed from any i have yet seen. they formed a circle and all sung as well the spectators as the dancers who performed within the circle. these placed their sholders together with their robes tightly drawn about them and danced in a line from side to side, several parties of from to seven will be performing within the circle at the same time. the whole concluded with a premiscuous dance in which most of them sung and danced. these people speak a language very similar to the chopunnish whome they also resemble in their dress their women wear long legings mockersons shirts and robes. their men also dress with legings shirts robes and mockersons. after the dance was ended the indians retired at our request and we retired to rest. we had all our horses side bubbled and turned out to graize; at this village, a large creek falls in on the n. side which we did not observe as we decended the river. the river is by no means as rapid as when we decended or at least not obstructed with those dangerous rapids the water at present covers most of the rocks in the bed of the river. the natives promised to barter their horses with us in the morning we therefore entertained a hope that we shall be enabled to proceede by land from hence with the whole of our party and baggage. came miles by land. the sands made the march fatieguing.- [clark, april , ] wednesday rd at day light this morning we were informed that the two horses of our interpreter shabono were missing on enquirey we were informed that he had neglected to tie up his horses as derected last evening. we imedeately dispatch him, r. fields & labiech in serch of the horses, one of them were found at no great distance. the other was not found. r. fields retd. without finding the horse set out with sergt gass in the small canoe at about a m. at shabono and labiech returned also unsucksessfull they had went on the back trail nearly to the last village and took a circle around on the hills. as our situation was such that we could not detain for a horse, which would prevent our makeing a timely stage which is a great object with us in those open plains, we concluded to give up the horse and proceed on to the next village which we were informed was at some distance and would take us the greater part of the day. at a.m. we packed up and set out and proceeded up on the n. side of the columbia on a high narrow bottom and rockey for miles to the wah-how-pum village near the rock rapid of temporary mat lodges, those people appeared pleased to see us. they sold us dogs some shapollell and wood for our small articles such as awls pieces of tin and brass. we passed several lodges on the bank of the river where they were fixed waiting for the salmon. i over took a choponish man whome i had seen at the long, and who had found a bag of our powder and brought it to me at that place. this man had his family on the ____ and about head of horses which appeared young and unbroke. his spous as also that of the other gave me a cake of chapellell and proceeded on with me to the wah howpum village and formed his camp near us. we caused all the old & brave men to set around and smoke with us. we caused the fiddle to be played and some of the men danced. after them the nativs danced. they dance different from any indians i have seen. they dance with their sholders together and pass from side to side, defferent parties passing each other, from to . and parties danceing at the same time and concluding the dance by passing promiscuisly throu & beetween each other. after which we sent of the indians and retired to bed. those people speak a language verry similal to the chopunish and with a very inconsiderable difference. their dress and appearance is more like those of the great falls of the columbia. we had all our horses side hobbled and let out to feed. at this village a large creek falls in on the n. side which i had not observed as i decended the river. the river is by no means as rapid as it was at the time we decended. the nativs promised to give is a horse for one of our canoes. and offer to sell us another for a scarlet robe which we have not at present. shabono made a bargin with one of the indian men going with us, for a horse for which he gave his shirt. and two of the leather sutes of his wife. the sand through which we walked to day is so light that renders the march verry fatigueing. made miles by land. [lewis, april , ] thursday april th . we were up early this morning and dispatched the men in surch of our horses, they were all found in a little time except mcneal's. we hired an indian to surch for this horse it was one in the evening before he returned with him. in the intermediate time we had packsaddles made purchased three horses of the wah-howpums, and hired three others of the chopunnish man who accompanys us with his family and horses. we now sold our canoes for a few strands of beads, loaded up and departed at p.m. the natives had tantalized us with an exchange of horses for our canoes in the first instance, but when they found that we had made our arrangements to travel by land they would give us nothing for them i determined to cut them in peices sooner than leave them on those terms, drewyer struck one of the canoes and split of a small peice with his tommahawk, they discovered us determined on this subject and offered us several strands of beads for each which were accepted. we proceeded up the river between the hills and it's northen shore. the road was rocky and sandy alternately, the road difficult and fatiegu-ing. at ms. we arrived at a village of lodges of the met-cow-wes, having passed lodges at and at ms. further. we ramined all night near the met-cow-we lodges about miles below our encampment of the ____ of october last; we purchased three dogs and some shappellel of these people which we cooked with dry grass and willow boughs. many of the natives pased and repassed us today on the road and behaved themselves with distant rispect towards us. most of the party complain of the soarness of their feet and legs this evening; it is no doubt caused by walking over the rough stones and deep sands after bing for some months passed been accustomed to a soft soil. my left ankle gives me much pain. i baithed my feet in cold water from which i experienced considerable releif. the curloos are abundant in these plains and are now laying their eggs. saw the kildee, the brown lizzard, and a moonax which the natives had petted. the winds which set from mount hood or in a westerly direction are much more cold than those from the opposite quarter. there are now no dews in these plains, and from the appearance of the earth there appears to have been no rain for several weeks.--we derected that the three horses which we purchased yesterday should be bubbled and confined to a picqut, and that the others should be disposed of in the same manner they were last evening. [clark, april , ] thursday th april rose early this morning and sent out after the horses all of which were found except mcneals which i hired an indian to find and gave him a tomahawk had pack saddles made ready to pack the horses which we may purchase. we purchased horses, and hired others of the chopunnish man who accompanies us with his family, and at p.m. set out and proceeded on through a open countrey rugid & sandy between some high lands and the river to a village of lodges of the met-cow-we band haveing passed lodges at miles and lodges at miles. great numbers of the nativs pass us on hors back maney meet us and continued with us to the lodges. we purchased dogs which were pore, but the fattest we could precure, and cooked them with straw and dry willow. we sold our canoes for a fiew strands of beeds. the nativs had tantelized us with an exchange of horses for our canoes in the first instance, but when they found that we had made our arrangements to travel by land they would give us nothing for them. we sent drewyer to cut them up, he struck one and split her they discovered that we were deturmined to destroy the canoes and offered us several strans of beeds which were acceptd most of the party complain of their feet and legs this evening being very sore. it is no doubt causd. by walking over the rough stone and deep sand after being accustomed to a soft soil. my legs and feet give me much pain. i bathed them in cold water from which i experienced considerable relief. we directed that the horses purchased yesterday should be hobbled and confined to pickquets and that the others should be hobbled & spancled, and strictly attended to by the guard made miles to day.- [lewis, april , ] friday april th . this morning we collected our horses and set out at a.m. and proceeded on ms. to the village of the pish-quit-pahs of mat lodges where we arrived at p.m. purchased five dogs and some wood from them and took dinner. this village contains about hundred souls. most of those people were in the plains at a distance from the river as we passed down last fall, they had now therefore the gratification of beholding whitemen for the first time. while here they flocked arround us in great numbers tho treated us with much rispect. we gave two medals of the small size to their two principal cheifs who were pointed out to us by our chopunnish fellow traveller and were acknowledged by the nation. we exposed a few old clothes my dirk and capt. c's swoard to barter for horses but were unsuccessfull these articles constitute at present our principal stock in trade. the pish-quit-pahs insisted much on our remaining with them all night, but sudry reasons conspired to urge our noncomplyance with their wishes. we passed one house or reather lodge of the metcowwees about a mile above our encampment of the ____th of october last the pish-quit-pahs, may be considered hunters as well as fishermen as they spend the fall and winter months in that occupation. they are generally pleasently featured of good statue and well proportioned. both women and men ride extreemly well. their bridle is usually a hair rope tyed with both ends to the under jaw of the horse, and their saddle consists of a pad of dressed skin stuffed with goats hair with wooden stirups. almost all the horses which i have seen in possession of the indians have soar backs. the pishquitpah women for the most part dress with short shirts which reach to their knees long legings and mockersons, they also use large robes; some of them weare only the truss and robe they brade their hair as before discribed but the heads of neither male nor female of this tribe are so much flattened as the nations lower down on this river. at p.m. we set out accompanyed by eighteen or twenty of their young men on horseback. we continued our rout about nine miles where finding as many willows as would answer our purposes for fuel we encamped for the evening. the country we passed through was much as that of yesterday. the river hills are about feet high and generally abrupt and craggey in many places faced with a perpendicular and solid rock. this rock is black and hard. leve plains extend themselves from the tops of the river hills to a great distance on either side of the river. the soil is not as fertile as about the falls, tho it produces a low grass on which the horses feed very conveniently. it astonished me to seed the order of their horses at this season of the year when i knew that they had wintered on the dry grass of the plains and at the same time road with greater severity than is common among ourselves. i did not see a single horse which could be deemed poor and many of them were as fat as seals. their horses are generally good. this evining after we had encamped, we traded for two horses with nearly the same articles we had offered at the village; these nags capt. c. and myself intend riding ourselves; haveing now a sufficiency to transport with ease all our baggage and the packs of the men.--we killed six ducks in the course of the day; one of them was of a speceis which i had never before seen i therefore had the most material parts of it reserved as a specimine, the leggs are yellow and feet webbed as those of the duckandmallard. saw many common lizzards, several rattlesnakes killed by the party, they are the same as those common to the u states. the horned lizzard is also common.--had the fiddle played at the request of the natives and some of the men danced. we passed five lodges of the walldh wolldhs at the distance of miles above the pishquitpahs. [clark, april , ] friday th of april this morning we collected our horses very conveniently and set out at a m and proceeded on to a village of pish-quit-pahs of mat lodges miles this village contains about soles here we turned out our horses and bought dogs & some wood and dined here we met with a chief and gave him a medal of the small size. we passed a house a little above the place we encamped on the th of octr. . we offered to purchase with what articles we had such as old clothes &c. emence numbers of those indians flocked about us and behaved with distant respect towards us. we attempted to purchase some horses without suckcess. at p. m set out. i was in the rear and had not proceeded verry far before one of the horses which we had hired of the chopunnish, was taken from hall who i had directed to ride. he had fallen behind out of my sight at the time. we proceeded on about miles through a country similar to that of yesterday and encamped below the mouth of a small creek we passed at miles a village of mat lodges of the war-war-wa tribe. we made a chief and gave a medal to a chief of each of those two tribes. great numbers of the nativs accompanied us to our encampmt. the curloos are abundant in those plains & are now laying their eggs. saw the kildee the brown lizzard, and a moonax which the nativs had petted. the winds which set from mount hood or in a westwardly direction are much more cold than those from any other quarter. there are no dews in these plains, and from the appearance of the earth there appears to have been no rain for several weeks. the pish-quit pahs may be considered as hunters as well as fishermen as they spend the fall & winter months in that occupation. they are generally pleasently featured of good statue and well proportiond. both women and men ride extreamly well. their bridle is usially a hair rope tied with both ends to the under jaw of the horse, and their saddles consist of a pad of dressed skin stuffed with goats hair with wooden sturreps. almost all the horses i have seen in the poss ession of the indians have sore backs. the pishquitpahs women for the most part dress with short shirts which reach to their knees long legins, and mockersons, they also use long robes; some of them weare only the truss and robe, they brade their hair as before discribed but the heads of neither the male nor female of this tribe are so much flattend as the nativs lower down on this river. we were accompd. by or young men on horsback. we continued our rout about miles, where finding as maney willows as would answer our purpose for fuel we encamped for the night. the country we passed through was sandy indifferent rocky and hills on the left. proceeded up on the north side the river hills are about feet high & generally abrupt and craggey in maney places faced with a pirpendicular and solid rock. this rock is black and hard. leavel plains extend themselves from the top of the river hills to a great distance on either side of the river. the soil is not as fertile as about the falls tho it produces low grass on which the horses feed very conveniently. it astonished me to see the order of their horses at this season of the year when i know they had wintered on dry grass of the plains and at the same time rode with greater severity than is common among ourselves. i did not see a single horse which could be deemed pore, and maney of them were verry fat. their horses are generally good. this evening after we had encamped we traded for two horses with nearly the same articles we had offered at the village. these nags capt. l-s and myself intend rideing ourselves; haveing now a sufficency to transport with ease all our baggage and the packs of the men.--we killed ducks in the course of the day; one of them were of a species i had never before seen. the legs yellow and feet wibbed as those of the duckinmallard. saw great numbers of common lizzard. several rattle snakes, killed by the party, they are the same as those common to the u. states. the horned lizzard is also common.--a chief over took us. we had the fiddle played by the request of the nativs and some of the men danced. i think those plains are much more sandy than any which i have seen and the road is a bed of loose sand. made miles. [lewis, april , ] saturday april th . this morning early we set forward and at the distance of three miles entered a low level plain country of great extent. here the river hills are low and receede a great distance from the river this low country commenced on the s. side of the river about miles below our encampment of last evening. these plains are covered with a variety of herbatious plants, grass, and three speceis of shrubs specimines of which i have preserved. at the distance of twelve miles we halted near a few willows which afforded us a sufficient quantity of fuel to cook our dinner which consisted of the ballance of the dogs we had purchased yesterday evening and some jirked elk. we were overtaken today by several families of the natives who were traveling up the river with a number of horses; they continued with us much to our annoyance as the day was worm the roads dusty and we could not prevent their horses from crouding in and breaking our order of mach without using some acts of severity which we did not wish to commit. after dinner we continued our march through the level plain near the river ms. and encamped about a mile below three lodges of the wollah wollah nation, and about ms. above our encampment of the of october last. after we encamped a little indian boy caught several chubbs with a bone in this form which he substituted for a hook. these fish were of about inches long small head large abdomen, small where the tail joined the body, the tail wide long in proportion and forked. the back and ventral fins were equadistant from the head and had each bony rays, the fns next the gills nine each and that near the tail . the upper exceeded the under jaw, the latter is truncate at the extremity and the tonge and pallet are smooth. the colour is white on the sides and belley and a blewish brown on the back. the iris of the eye is of a silvery colour and puple black.--we covered ourselves partially this evening from the rain by means of an old tent. [clark, april , ] saturday april th this morning early we proceeded on and at the distance of three miles entered a low leavel plain country of great extent. here the river hills are low and receed a great distance from the river this low country comenced on the south side about miles below our encampment of the last night, those plains are covered with a variety of herbatious plants, grass and species of shrubs. at the distance of miles halted near some willows which afforded us a sufficent quantity of fuel to cook our dinner which consisted of the ballance of the dogs we had purchased yesterday evening and some jerked elk. we were over taken to day by several families of the nativs who were traveling up the river with a numr. of horses; they continued with us much to our ennoyance as the day was worm the roads dusty and we could not prevent their horses crouding in and breaking our order of march without useing some acts of severty which we did not wish to commit. after dinner we continued our march through a leavel plain near the river miles and encamped about a mile below lodges of the fritened band of the wallah wallah nation, and about miles above our encampment of the th of octr. last. after we encamped a little indian boy cought several chubbs with a bone in this form which he substituted for a hook. those fish were of about inches long. we covered our selves perfectly this evening from the rain by means of an old tent. saw a goat and a small wolf at a distance to day. made miles [lewis, april , ] sunday april th . this morning we were detained untill a.m. in consequence of the absence of one of charbono's horses. the horse at length being recovered we set out and at the distance of fifteen miles passed through a country similar to that of yesterday; the hills at the extremity of this distance again approach the river and are rocky abrupt and feet high. we ascended the hill and marched through a high plain for miles when we again returned to the river, i now thought it best to halt as the horses and men were much fatiegued altho had not reached the wallah wollah village as we had been led to beleive by our guide who informed us that the village was at the place we should next return to the river, and the consideration of our having but little provision had been our inducement to make the march we had made this morning. we collected some of the dry stalks of weeds and the stems of a shrub which resembles the southern wood; made a small fire and boiled a small quantity of our jerked meat on which we dined; while here the principal cheif of the wallahwallahs joined us with six men of his nation. this cheif by name yel-lept had visited us on the morning of the of october at our encampment a little below this place; we gave him at that time a small medal, and promised him a larger one on our return. he appeared much gratifyed at seeng us return, invited us to remain at his village three or four days and assured us that we should be furnished with a plenty of such food as they had themselves; and some horses to assist us on our journey. after our scanty repast we continued our march accompanyed by yellept and his party to the village which we found at the distance of six miles situated on the n. side of the river at the lower side of the low country about ms. below the entrance of lewis's river. this cheif is a man of much influence not only in his own nation but also among the neighbouring tribes and nations.--this village consists of large mat lodges. at present they seem to subsist principally on a speceis of mullet which weigh from one to three lbs. and roots of various discriptions which these plains furnish them in great abundance. they also take a few salmon trout of the white kind.--yellept haranged his village in our favour intreated them to furnish us with fuel and provision and set the example himself by bringing us an armfull of wood and a platter of roasted mullets. the others soon followed his example with rispect to fuel and we soon found ourselves in possession of an ample stock. they birn the stems of the shrubs in the plains there being no timber in their neighbourhood of any discription. we purchased four dogs of these people on which the party suped heartily having been on short allowance for near two days. the indians retired when we requested them this evening and behaved themselves in every rispect extreemly well. the indians informed us that there was a good road which passed from the columbia opposite to this village to the entrance of the kooskooske on the s. side of lewis's river; they also informed us, that there were a plenty of deer and antelopes on the road, with good water and grass. we knew that a road in that direction if the country would permit would shorten our rout at least miles. the indians also informed us that the country was level and the road good, under these circumstances we did not hesitate in pursuing the rout recommended by our guide whos information was corroberated by yellept & others. we concluded to pass our horses over early in the morning. [clark, april , ] sunday april th . this morning we were detained untill a m in consequence of the absence of one of shabono's horses. the horse being at length recovered we set out and to the distance of miles passed through a country similar to that of yesterday. (passed muscle shell rapid) and at the experation of this distance again approached the river, and are rocky abrupt and feet high. we assended the hill and marched through a high plain miles where we again returned to the river. we halted altho we had not reached the wal-lah-lal-lah village as we had been led to believe by our guide who informed us that the village was at the place we should next return to the river, and the considiration of our haveing but little provisions had been our inducement to make the march we had made this morning. we collected some of the dry stalks of weeds and the stems of shrubs or weeds which resemble the southern wood; made a small fire and boiled a small quantity of our jurked meat on which we dined; while here we were met by the principal chief of the wal lah wal lah nation and several of his nation. this chief by name yel lep-pet had visited us on the morning of the th of octr. at our encampment imedeately opposit to us; we gave him at that time a small medal, and promised him a large one on our return. he appeared much gratified at seeing us return. he envited us to remain at his village or days and assured us that we should be furnished with a plenty of such food as they had themselves, and some horses to assist us on our journey. after our scanty repast we continued our march accompanied by yelleppit and his party to the village which we found at the distance of six miles, situated on the north side of the river. about miles below the enterance of lewis's river. this chief is a man of much influence not only in his own nation but also among the neighbouring tribes and nations.--the village consists of large mat lodges. at present they seam to subsist principally on a species of mullet which weighs from one to pds. and roots of various discriptions which those plains furnish them in great abundance. they also take a fiew salmon trout of the white kind. yelleppet haranged his village in our favor intreated them to furnish us with fuel & provisions and set the example himself by bringing us an armfull of wood, and a platter with rosted mullets. the others soon followed his example with respect to fuel and we soon found ourselves in possession of an ample stock, they burn the stems of the shrubs in the plains, there being no timber in this neighbourhood of any description. we purchased dogs of those people on which the party suped hartily haveing been on short allowance for near days. the indians retired when we requested them this evening and behaved themselves in every respect very well. the indians informed us that there was a good road which passed from the columbia opposit to this village to the enterance of kooskooske on the s. side of lewis's river, they also informed us, there were a plenty of deer and antilopes on the road with good water and grass. we knew that a road in that direction if the country would permit it would shorten the rout at least miles. the indians also inform us that the county was leavel and the road good, under those circumstances we did not hesitate in pursueing the rout recommended by our guide and corroberated by yetleppit and others. we concluded to pass our horses over early in the morning.- made miles to day [lewis, april , ] monday april th . this morning early yellept brought a very eligant white horse to our camp and presented him to capt. c. signifying his wish to get a kettle but on being informed that we had already disposed of every kettle we could possibly spear he said he was content with whatever he thought proper to give him. capt. c. gave him his swoard a hundred balls and powder and some sail articles with which he appeared perfectly satisfyed. it was necessary before we entered on our rout through the plains where we were to meet with no lodges or resident indians that we should lay in a stock of provision and not depend altogether on the gun. we directed frazier to whom we have intrusted the duty of makeing those purchases to lay in as many fat dogs as he could procure; he soon obtained ten. being anxious to depart we requested the cheif to furnish us with canoes to pass the river, but he insisted on our remaining with him this day at least, that he would be much pleased if we would conset to remain two or three, but he would not let us have canoes to leave him today. that he had sent for the chym nap'-pos his neighbours to come down and join his people this evening and dance for us. we urged the necessity of our going on immediately in order that we might the sooner return to them with the articles which they wished but this had no effect, he said that the time he asked could not make any considerable difference. i at length urged that there was no wind blowing and that the river was consequently in good order to pass our horses and if he would furnish us with canoes for that purpose we would remain all night at our present encampment, to this proposition he assented and soon produced us a couple of canoes by means of which we passed our horses over the river safely and bubbled them as usual. we found a shoshone woman, prisoner among these people by means of whome and sahcahgarweah we found the means of conversing with the wollahwollahs. we conversed with them for several hours and fully satisfyed all their enquiries with rispect to ourselves and the objects of our pursuit. they were much pleased. they brought several diseased persons to us for whom they requested some medical aid. one had his knee contracted by the rheumatism, another with a broken arm &c to all of which we administered much to the gratification of those poor wretches. we gave them some eye-water which i beleive will render them more essential service than any other article in the medical way which we had it in our power to bestoe on them. soar eyes seem to be a universal complaint amonge these people; i have no doubt but the fine sand of these plains and river contribute much to this disorder. ulsers and irruptions of the skin on various parts of the body are also common diseases among them. a little before sunset the chymnahpos arrived; they were about men and a few women; they joined the wallahwollahs who were about the same number and formed a half circle arround our camp where they waited very patiently to see our party dance. the fiddle was played and the men amused themselves with dancing about an hour. we then requested the indians to dance which they very cheerfully complyed with; they continued their dance untill at night. the whole assemblage of indians about men women and children sung and danced at the same time. most of them stood in the same place and merely jumped up to the time of their music. some of the men who were esteemed most brave entered the space arrond which the main body were formed in solid column, and danced in a circular manner sidewise. at p.m. the dance concluded and the natives retired; they were much gratifyed with seeing some of our party join them in their dance. [clark, april , ] monday april th this morning early the great chief yel lip pet brought a very eligant white horse to our camp and presented him to me signifying his wish to get a kittle but being informed that we had already disposed of every kittle we could possibly spare he said he was content with what ever i thought proper to give him. i gave him my swoard, balls & powder and some small articles of which he appeared perfectly satisfied. it was necessary before we entered on our rout through the plains where we were to meet with no lodges or resident indians that we should lay in a stock of provisions and not depend altogether on the gun. we derected r. frazer to whome we have intrusted the duty of makeing the purchases, to lay in as maney fat dogs as he could procure; he soon obtained . being anxious to depart we requested the chief to furnish us with canoes to pass the river, but he insisted on our remaining with him this day at least, that he would be much pleased if we would consent to remain two or days, but he would not let us have canoes to leave him this day. that he had sent for the chim-na-pums his neighbours to come down and join his people this evening and dance for us. we urged the necessity of our proceeding on imediately in order that we might the sooner return to them, with the articles which they wishd. brought to them but this had no effect, he said that the time he asked could not make any considerable difference. i at length urged that there was no wind blowing and that the river was consequently in good order to pass our horses and if he would furnish us with canoes for that purpose we would remain all night at our present encampment, to this proposition he assented and soon produced a canoe. i saw a man who had his knee contracted who had previously applyed to me for some medisene, that if he would fournish another canoe i would give him some medisene. he readily consented and went himself with his canoe by means of which we passed our horses over the river safely and hobbled them as usial-. we found a sho sho ne woman, prisoner among those people by means of whome and sah-cah gah-weah, shabono's wife we found means of converceing with the wallahwallfirs. we conversed with them for several hours and fully satisfy all their enquiries with respect to our selves and the object of our pursute. they were much pleased. they brought several disordered persons to us for whome they requested some medical aid. one had his knee contracted by the rhumitism (whome is just mentioned above) another with a broken arm &c. to all of whome we administered much to the gratification of those pore wretches, we gave them some eye water which i believe will render them more esential sirvece than any other article in the medical way which we had it in our power to bestow on them sore eyes seam to be a universial complaint among those people; i have no doubt but the fine sands of those plains and the river contribute much to the disorder. the man who had his arm broken had it loosely bound in a peice of leather without any thing to surport it. i dressed the arm which was broken short above the wrist & supported it with broad sticks to keep it in place, put in a sling and furnished him with some lint bandages &c. to dress it in future. a little before sun set the chim nah poms arrived; they were about men and a fiew women; they joined the wallah wallahs who were about men and formed a half circle arround our camp where they waited verry patiently to see our party dance. the fiddle was played and the men amused themselves with danceing about an hour. we then requested the indians to dance which they very chearfully complyed with; they continued their dance untill at night. the whole assemblage of indians about men women and children sung and danced at the same time. most of them danced in the same place they stood and mearly jumped up to the time of their musick. some of the men who were esteemed most brave entered the space around which the main body were formed in solid column and danced in a circular manner side wise. at p m. the dance ended and the nativs retired; they were much gratified in seeing some of our party join them in their dance. one of their party who made himself the most conspicious charecter in the dance and songs, we were told was a medesene man & could foretell things. that he had told of our comeing into their country and was now about to consult his god the moon if what we said was the truth &c. &c. [lewis, april , ] tuesday april th . this morning yellept furnished us with two canoes and we began to transport our baggage over the river; we also sent a party of the men over to collect the horses. we purchased some dogs and shappellell this morning. we had now a store of dogs for our voyage through the plains. by a.m. we had passed the river with our party and baggage but were detained several hours in consequence of not being able to collect our horses. our guide now informed us that it was too late in the evening to reach an eligible place to encamp; that we could not reach any water before night. we therefore thought it best to remain on the wallahwollah river about a mile from the columbia untill the morning, and accordingly encamped on that river near a fish wear. this wear consists of two curtains of small willow switches matted together with four lines of withs of the same materials extening quite across the river, parrallel with eah other and about feet assunder. those are supported by several parsels of poles placed in the manner before discribed of the fishing wears. these curtains of willow are either roled at one end for a few feet to permit the fish to pass or are let down at pleasure. they take their fish which at present are a mullet only of from one to five lbs., with small seines of or feet long drawn by two persons; these they drag down to the wear and raise the bottom of the seine against the willow curtain. they have also a small seine maniaged by one person it bags in the manner of the scooping net; the one side of the net is confined to a simicircular bow of half the size of a man's arm and about feet long; the other side is confined to a strong string which being attatched to the extremities of the bow forms the cord line to the simicircle. the wallahwollah river discharges itself into the columbia on it's s. side miles below the entrance of lewis's river or the s. e. branch. a high range of hills pass the columbia just below the entrance of this river. this is a handsome stream about / feet deep and yds. wide; it's bed is composed of gravel principally with some sand and mud; the banks are abrupt but not high, tho it dose not appear to overflow; the water is clear. the indians inform us that it has it's surces in the range of mountains in view of us to the e and s. e. these mountains commence a little to the south of mt. hood and extending themselves in a n. eastwardly direction terminate near a southen branch of lewis's river short of the rocky mountains. the towannahiooks river, river lapage and the wollah-wollah rivers all take their rise on the n side of these mountains; two principal branches of the first of these take their rise in mountains jefferson and hood. these mountains are covered with snow at present tho do not appear high; they seperate the waters of the multnomah from those of the columbia river. they appear to be about or miles distant from hence. the snake indian prisoner informed us that at some distance in the large plains to the south of those mountains there was a large river runing to the n. w. which was as wide as the columbia at this place which is nearly one mile. this account is no doubt some what exagerated but it serves to evince the certainty of the multnomah being a very large river and that it's waters are seperated from the columbia by those mountains and that with the aid of a southwardly branch of lewis's river which passes arrond the eastern extremity of those mountains, it must water that vast tract of country extending from those mountains to the waters of the gulph of california. and no doubt it heads with the yellowstone river and the del nord. we gave small medals to two inferior cheifs of this nation and they each presented us a fine horse in return we gave them sundry articles and among others one of my case pistols and several hundred rounds of amunition. there are other lodges of the wollahwollah nation on this river a little distance below our camp. these as well as those beyond the columbia appear to depend on this fishing wear for their subsistence. these people as well as the chymnahpos are very well dressed, much more so particularly their women than they were as we decended the river last fall most of them have long shirts and leggings, good robes and mockersons. their women wear the truss when they cannot procure the shirt, but very few are seen with the former at this moment. i presume the success of their winters hunt has produced this change in their attire. they all cut their hair in their forehead and most of the men wear the two cews over each sholder in front of the body; some have the addition of a few small plats formed of the earlocks and others tigh a small bundle of the docked foretop in front of the forehead. their ornaments are such as discribed of the nations below and are woarn in a similar manner. they insisted on our dancinq this evening but it rained a little the wind blew hard and the weather was cold, we therefore did not indulge them. [clark, april , ] tuesday april th this morning yelleppit furnished us with canoes, and we began to transport our baggage over the river; we also sent a party of the men over to collect our horses. we purchased some deer and chappellell this morning. we had now a store of dogs for our voyage through the plains. by a.m. we had passed the river with our party and baggage but were detained several hours in consequence of not being able to collect our horses. our guide now informed us that it was too late in the evening to reach an eligible place to encamp; that we could not reach any water before night. we therefore thought it best to remain on the wallah wallah river about a mile from the columbia untill the morning, accordingly encampd on the river near a fish wear. this weare consists of two curtains of small willows wattled together with four lines of withes of the same materials extending quite across the river, parralal with each other and about feet asunder. those are supported by several parrelals of poles placed in this manner those curtains of willows is either roled at one end for a fiew feet to permit the fish to pass or are let down at pleasure. they take their fish which at present are a mullet only of from one to pounds wt. with small seines of or feet long drawn by two persons; these they drag down to the wear and rase the bottom of the seine against the willow curtain. they have also a small seine managed by one person, it bags in the manner of the scooping nets; the one side of the net is confined to a simicircular bow of half the size of a mans arm and about feet long, the other side is confined to a strong string which being attatched to the extremities of the bow forms the cord line to the simicurcle. the wallah wallah river discharges it's self into the columbia on it's south side miles below the enterance of lewis's river, or the s. e. branch. a range of hills pass the columbia just below the enterance of this river. this is a handsom stream about / feet deep and yards wide; it's bead is composed of gravel principally with some sand and mud; the banks are abrupt but not high, tho it does not appear to overflow; the water is clear. the indians inform us that it has it's source in the range of mountains in view of us to the e. and s. e. these mountains commence a little to the south of mt. hood and extend themselves in a s eastwardly direction terminateing near the southern banks of lewis's river short of the rockey mountains. ta wan nahiooks river, river lapage and ____ river all take their rise on those mountains. the two principal branches of the first of those take their rise in the mountain's, jefferson and hood. those mountains are covered at present with snow. those s w. mountains are covered with snow at present tho do not appear high. they seperate the waters of the multnomah from those of the columbia river. they appear to be or miles distant from hence. the snake indian prisoner informed us that at some distance in the large plains to the south of those mountains there was a large river running to the n. w. which was as wide as the columbia at this place, which is nearly mile. this account is no doubt somewhat exagurated but it serves to evince the certainty of the multnomah being a very large river and that it's waters are seperated from the columbia by those mountains, and that with the aid of a southwardly branch of lewis's river which pass around the eastern extremity of those mountains, it must water that vast tract of country extending from those mountains to the waters of the gulf of callifornia. and no doubt it heads with the rochejhone and del nord. we gave small medals to two inferior chiefs of this nation, and they each furnished us with a fine horse, in return we gave them sundery articles among which was one of capt lewis's pistols & several hundred rounds of amunition. there are other lodges of the wallahwallah nation on this river a short distance below our camp. those as well as those beyond the columbia appear to depend on their fishing weres for their subsistance. those people as well as the chym na poms are very well disposed, much more so particular their women than they were when we decended the river last fall. most of them have long shirts and leggins, good robes and mockersons. their women were the truss when they cannot precure the shirt, but very fiew are seen with the former at the present. i prosume the suckcess of their winters hunt has produced this change in their attere. they all cut their hair in the fore head, and most of the men ware the two cews over each sholder in front of the body; some have the addition of a fiew small plats formed of the eare locks, and others tigh a small bundle of the docked foretop in front of the fore head. their orniments are such as discribed of the nativs below, and are worn in a similar manner. they insisted on our danceing this evening but it rained a little the wind blew hard and the weather was cold, we therefore did not indulge them.--several applyed to me to day for medical aides, one a broken arm another inward fever and several with pains across their loins, and sore eyes. i administered as well as i could to all. in the evining a man brought his wife and a horse both up to me. the horse he gave me as a present. and his wife who was verry unwell the effects of violent coalds was placed before me. i did not think her case a bad one and gave such medesine as would keep her body open and raped her in flannel. left some simple medesene to be taken. we also gave some eye water g. of ela v v. & grs. of sacchm stry. to an ounce of water and in that perpotion. great no. of the nativs about us all night. [lewis, april , ] wednesday april th . this morning we had some difficulty in collecting our horses notwithstanding we had bubbled and picquited those we obtained of these people. we purchased two other horses this morning and several dogs. we exchanged one of our most indifferent horses for a very good one with the chopunnish man who has his family with him. this man has a daughter new arrived at the age of puberty, who being in a certain situation is not permitted to ascociate with the family but sleeps at a distance from her father's camp and when traveling follows at some distance behind. in this state i am informed that the female is not permitted to eat, nor to touch any article of a culinary nature or manly occupation. at a.m. we had collected all our horses except the white horse which yellept had given capt. c. the whole of the men soon after returned without being able to find this horse. i lent my horse to yellept to surch capt. c's about half an hour after he set out our chopunnish man brought up capt. c's horse we now determined to leave one man to bring on my horse when yellept returned and to proceed on with the party accordingly we took leave of these friendly honest people the wollahwollahs and departed at a.m. accompanyed by our guide and the chopunnish man and family. we continued our rout n. e. ms. through an open level sandy plain to a bold creek yds. wide. this stream is a branch of the wallahwollah river into which it discharges itself about six miles above the junction of that river with the columbia. it takes it's rise in the same range of mountains to the east of the sources of the main branch of the same. it appears to be navigable for canoes; it is deep and has a bold current. there are many large banks of pure sand which appear to have been drifted up by the wind to the hight of or feet, lying in many parts of the plain through which we passed today. this plain as usual is covered with arromatic shrubs hurbatious plants and a short grass. many of those plants produce those esculent roots which form a principal part of the subsistence of the natives. among others there is one which produces a root somewhat like the sweet pittaitoe.--we encamped at the place we intersepted the creek where we had the pleasure once more to find an abundance of good wood for the purpose of making ourselves comfortable fires, which has not been the case since we left rock fort camp. drewyer killed a beaver and an otter; a pan of the former we reserved for ourselves and gave the indians the ballance. these people will not eat the dog but feast heartily on the otter which is vastly inferior in my estimation, they sometimes also eat their horses, this indeed is common to all the indians who possess this annimal in the plains of columbia; but it is only done when necessity compells them.--the narrow bottom of this creek is very fertile, tho the plains are poor and sandy. the hills of the creek are generally abrupt and rocky. there is a good store of timber on this creek at least fold more than on the columbia river itself. it consists of cottonwood, birch, the crimson haw, redwillow, sweetwillow, chokecherry yellow currants, goosberry, whiteberryed honeysuckle rose bushes, seven bark, and shoemate. i observed the corngrass and rushes in some parts of the bottom. reubin feilds overtook us with my horse. our stock of horses has now encresed to and most of them excellent young horses, but much the greater portion of them have soar backs. these indians are cruell horse-masters; they ride hard, and their saddles are so illy constructed that they cannot avoid wounding the backs of their horses; but reguardless of this they ride them when the backs of those poor annimals are in a horrid condition. [clark, april , ] wednesday april th . this morning we had some dificuelty in collecting our horses notwithstanding we had hobbled & picqueted those we obtained of those people. we purchased two other horses this morning and dogs. we exchanged one of our most indeferent horses for a very good one with the choponnish man who has his family with him. this man has a doughter now arived at the age of puberty who being in a certain situation-is not permited to acoiate with the family but sleeps at a distance from her father's camp, and when traveling follows at some distance be-hind. in this state i am informed that the female is not permited to eat, nor to touch any article of a culinary nature or manly occupation. at a.m. we had collected all our horses except the white horse which yelleppit the great chief had given me. the whole of the men haveing returned without being able to find this hors. i informed the chief and he mounted capt lewis's horse and went in serch of the horse himself. about half an hour after the chopunnish man brought my horse. we deturmined to proceed on with the party leaving one man to bring up capt l.-s horse when yelleppit should return. we took leave of those honest friendly people the wallah wallahs and departed at a.m. accompanied by our guide and the chopunnish man and family. we continued our rout n. ° e. ms. through an open leavel sandy plain to a bold creek yards wide. this stream is a branch of the wallahwallah river, and takes it's rise in the same range of mountains to the east of the main branch. deep and has a bold current. there are maney large banks of pure sand which appear to have been drifted up by the wind to the hight of or feet, lying in maney parts of the plains through which we passed to day. this plain as usial is covered with arromatic shrubs, hurbatious plants and tufts of short grass. maney of those plants produce those esculent roots which forms a principal part of the subsistance of the nativs. among others there is one which produce a root somewhat like the sweet potato. we encamped at the place we intersepted the creek where we had the pleasure once more to find a sufficency of wood for the purpose of makeing ourselves comfortable fires, which has not been the case since we left rock fort camp below the falls. drewyer killed a beaver and an otter. the narrow bottoms of this creek is fertile. tho the plains are pore & sandy. the hills of the creek are generaly abrupt and rocky. there is some timber on this creek. it consists of cotton wood, birch, the crimson haw, red willow, sweet willow, choke cherry, yellow current, goose berry, white berried honey suckle, rose bushes, seven bark, shoemate &c. &c. rushes in some parts of the bottoms. r. fields over took us with capt lewis's horse our stock of horses have now increased to and most of them excellent young horses, but much the greatest part of them have sore backs. those indians are cruel horse masters; they ride hard and their saddles illey constructed. &c. &c. [lewis, may , ] thursday may st . we collected our horses tolerably early this morning took and set out a little after a.m. we pursued the indian road which led us up the creek about nine miles, here the chopunnish man wo was in front with me informed that an old unbeaten tract which he pointed out to the left was our nearest rout. we halted the party and directed them to unload and let their horses graize untill our guide came up who was at some distance behind. i wished to obtain good information of this newly recommended tract before i could consent to leave the present road which seemed to lead us in the proper direction was level and furnished with wood and water. when the guide arrived he seemed much displeased with the other, he assured us that the rout up the creek was the nearest, and much the best, that if we took the other we would be obliged to remain here untill tomorrow morning, and then travel a whole day before we could reach water, and that there was no wood; the other agreed that this was the case. we therefore did not hesitate to pursue the rout recommended by the guide. the creek, it's bottom lands, and the appearance of the plains were much as those of esterday only with this difference that the latter were not so sandy. we had sent out four hunters this morning two on foot and on horseback they joined us while we halted here. drewyer had killed a beaver. at p.m. we resumed our march, leaving the chopunnish man and his family; he had determined to remain at that place untill the next morning and then pursue the rout he had recommended to us. he requested a small quantity of powder and lead which we gave him. we traveled miles this evening, making a total of ms. and encamped. the first miles of our afternoons march was through a similar country with that of the forenoon; the creek bottoms then became higher and widened to the extent of from to ms. the hills on the n. side were low but those on the opposite side retained their hight. we saw a number of deer of which labuish killed one. the timber on the creek becomes more abundant and it's extensive bottoms affords a pleasent looking country. the guide informs us that we shall now find a plenty of wood water and game quite to the kooskooske. we saw a great number of the curloos, some grains, ducks, prarie larks and several speceis of sparrows common to the praries. i see very little difference between the apparent face of the country here and that of the plains of the missouri only that these are not enlivened by the vast herds of buffaloe elk &c which ornament the other. the courses and distances of this day are n. e. m. and n. e. m. along the northern side of this creek to our encampment. some time after we had encamped three young men arrived from the wallahwollah village bringing with them a steel trap belonging to one of our party which had been neglegently left behind; this is an act of integrity rarely witnessed among indians. during our stay with them they several times found the knives of the men which had been carelessly lossed by them and returned them. i think we can justly affirm to the honor of these people that they are the most hospitable, honest, and sincere people that we have met with in our voyage. [clark, may , ] thursday may st . this morning we collected our horses and made an early start, haveing preveously sent a hed hunters with derections to proceed up the creek and kill every species of game which they might meet with. the small portion of rain which fell last night caused the road to be much furmer and better than yesterday. the morning cloudy and cool. we proceeded up the creek on the n. e. side through a countrey of less sand and some rich bottoms on the creek which is partially supplyed with small cotton trees, willow, red willow, choke cherry, white thorn, birch, elder, ____ rose & honey suckle. great portion of these bottoms has been latterly burnt which has entirely distroyed the timbered growth. at the distance of nine miles we over took our hunters, they had killed one bever only at this place the road forked, one leaveing the creek and the corse of it is nearly north. the chopunnish who had accompanied us with his family informed us that this was our best way. that it was a long distance without water. and advised us to camp on the creek at this place and in the morning to set out early. this information perplexed us a little, in as much as the idea of going a days march without water thro an open sandy plain and on a course ° out of our derection. we deturmined to unlode and wate for our guide, or the chopunnish man who had accompanied us from the long narrows, who was in the rear with drewyer our interpreter. on his arrival we enquired of him which was the best and most direct roade for us to take. he informed us that the road pointed out by his cumerade was through a open hilly and sandy countrey to the river lewis's river, and was a long ways around, and that we could not git to any water to day. the other roade up the creek was a more derect course, plenty of water wood and only one hill in the whole distance and the road which he had always recomended to us. some words took place between those two men the latter appeared in great pation mounted his horse and set out up the creek. we sent a man after him and brought him back informed him that we believed what he said and should imedeately after dinner proceed on the road up the creek with him. we gave the former man some powder and ball which had been promised him, and after an early dinner set out up the creek with our guide leaveing the chopunnish man and his family encamped at the forks of the road where they intended to stay untill the morning and proceed on the rout he had recommended to us. we traviled miles this evening makeing a total of mls. and encamped. the first miles of our afternoons march was through a simaler country of that of the fore noon; the creek bottoms then became higher and wider; to the extent of from to miles. we saw several deer of which labiech killed one. the timber on the creek become more abundant and less burnt, and its extensive bottoms afford a pleasent looking country. we saw a great number of curloos, some crains, ducks, prarie cocks, and several species of sparrows common to the praries. i see very little difference between the apparant face of the country here and that of the plains of the missouri. only that those are not enlivened by the vast herds of buffalow, elk &c. which animated those of the missouri. the courses & distances of this day are n. ° e. mls. & n. ° e. miles allong the north side of this creek to our encampment. sometime after we had encamped three young men arrived from the wallah wallah village bringing with them a steel trap belonging to one of our party which had been negligently left behind; this is an act of integrity rearly witnessed among indians. dureing our stay with them they several times found the knives of the men which had been carefully lossed by them and returned them. i think we can justly affirm to the honor of those people that they are the most hospitable, honist and sencere people that we have met with on our voyage.- [lewis, may , ] friday may cd . this morning we dispatched two hunters a head. we had much difficulty in collecting our horses. at a.m. we obtained them all except the horse we obtained from the chopunnish man whom we seperated from yesterday. we apprehended that this horse would make some attempts to rejoin the horses of this man and accordingly had him as we thought securely bubbled both before and at the side, but he broke the strings in the course of the night and absconded. we sent several men in different directions in surch of him. i engaged one of the young indians who overtook us last evening to return in surch of him. at half after p.m. the indian and joseph feilds returned with the horse, they had found him on his way back about ms. i paid the indian the price stipulated for his services and we immediately loaded up and set forward. steered east m. over a hilly road along the n. side of the creek, wide bottom on s. side. a branch falls in on s. side which runs south towards the s. w. mountains which appear to be about ms. distant low yet covered with snow n. e. through an extensive level bottom. more timber than usual on the creek, some pine of the long leafed kind appears on the sides of the creek hills, also about acres of well timbered pine land where we passed the creek at m. on this course n. e. ms. repassed the creek at m. and continued up a n. e. branch of the same which falls in about a mile below where we passed the main creek. the bottoms though which we passed were wide. the main creek boar to the s. and heads in the mountains; it's bottoms are much narrower above where we passed it and the hills appear high. we passed the small creek at / from the commencement of this course and encamped on the n. side in a little bottom, having traveled miles today. at this place the road leaves the creek and takes the open high plain. this creek is about yds. wide and bears east as far as i could observe it. i observed considerable quantities of the qua-mash in the bottoms through which we passed this evening now in blume. there is much appearance of beaver and otter along these creeks. saw two deer at a distance; also observed many sandhill crains curloos and other fowls common to the plains. the soil appears to improve as we advance on this road. our hunters killed a duck only. the three young men of the wollahwollah nation continued with us. in the course of the day i observed them eat the inner part of the young and succulent stem of a large coarse plant with a ternate leaf, the leafets of which are three loabed and covered with a woolly pubersence. the flower and fructification resembles that of the parsnip this plant is very common in the rich lands on the ohio and it's branches the mississippi &c. i tasted of this plant found it agreeable and eat heartily of it without feeling any inconvenience. [clark, may , ] friday may nd this morning we dispatched two hunters a head. we had much dificuelty in collecting our horses. at a.m. we obtained them all except the horse we obtained from the chopunnish man whome we seperated from yesterday. we apprehended that this horse would make some attempts to rejoin the horses of this man and accordingly had him as we thought scurely hobbled both before and at the side, but he broke the strings in the course of the night and absconded. we sent several men in different directions in serch of him. and hired one of the men who joined us last night to prosue him and over take us & at after p.m. the indian and joseph fields returned with the horse they had found him on his way back about miles. i paid the indian the price stipulated for his services and we imediately loaded up and set forward. east miles over a hilly road along the n. side of the creek. wide bottoms on the s. side. a branch falls in on the s. side which runds from the s w. mountains, which appear to be about m. distant low yet covered with snow. n. ° e. m. through an extencive leavel bottom. more timber than usial on the creek. some pine of the long leaf kind appear on the creek hills. also about acres of well timbered pine land where we passed the creek at m. on the course. n. ° e. m. passed the creek at m. and continued up on the n. e. side. the bottoms wide. the main creek bear to the s. and head in the mountains. we passed a small creek at / m. from the commencement of this course and encamped on the n. side in a little bottom. haveing traviled miles to day. at this place the road leaves the creek and passes through the open high plains. this creek is yds wide and bears east towards the mts. i observed a considerable quantity of the qua mash in the bottoms through which we passed this evening now in blume. there is much appearance of beaver & otter along these creeks. saw two deer at a distance, also sand hill cranes, curloos and fowls common to the plains. the soil appears to improve as we advance on this road. our hunters killed a deer only. the three young men of the wallah wallah nation continue with us in the course of this day. i observed them cut the inner part of the young and succulent stem of a large corse plant with a ternate leaf, the leafets of which are three loabes and covered with woolly pubersence. the flower and fructification resembles that of the parsnip. this plant is very common in the rich lands on the ohio and its branches. i tasted of this plant found it agreeable and eate hartily of it without feeling any inconveniance. [lewis, may , ] saturday may rd . this morning we set out at a.m. steered n. e ms. to kimooenem creek through a high level plain. this creek is about yds. wide pebbly bottom low banks and discharges a considerable body of water it heads in the s. w. mountains and discharges itself into lewis's river a few miles above the narrows. the bottoms of this creek are narrow with some timber principally cottonwood and willow. the under brush such as mentioned on n. east creek. the hills are high and abrupt. the land of the plains is much more fertile than below, less sand and covered with taller grass; very little of the aromatic shrubs appear in this part of the plain. we halted and dined at this creek; after which we again proceeded n. e. m. through the high plain to a small creek yds. wide branch of the kimooenem c. this stream falls into the creek some miles below. the hills of this creek like those of the kimooenem are high it's bottoms narrow and possess but little timber, lands of a good quality, a dark rich loam. we continued our rout up this creek, on it's n. side. n. e. ms. the timber increases in quantity the hills continue high. east ms. up the creek. here we met with we-ark-koomt whom we have usually distinguished by the name of the bighorn cheif from the circumstance of his always wearing a horn of that animal suspended by a cord to he left arm. he is the st cheif of a large band of the chopunnish nation. he had of his young men with him. this man went down lewis's river by land as we decended it by water last fall quite to the columbia and i beleive was very instrumental in procuring us a hospitable and friendly reception among the natives. he had now come a considerable distance to meet us. after meeting this cheif we continued still up the creek bottoms n. . e. m to the place at which the road leaves the creek and ascends the hills to the plain here we encamped in small grove of cottonwood tree which in some measure broke the violence of the wind. we came ms. today. it rained hailed snowed and blowed with great violence the greater portion of the day. it was fortunate for us that this storm was from the s. w. and of course on our backs. the air was very cold. we divided the last of our dryed meat at dinner when it was consumed as well as the ballance of our dogs nearly we made but a scant supper and had not anything for tomorrow; however we-arkkoomt consoled us with the information that there was an indian lodge on the river at no great distance where we might supply ourselves with provision tomorrow. our guide and the three young wallahwollahs left us this morning reather abruptly and we have seen nothing of them since. the s. w. mountains appear to become lower as they proceede to the n. e. this creek reaches the mountains. we are nearer to them than we were last evening [clark, may , ] saturday rd may this morning we set out at a.m. steared n. ° e m. to kimoo e nimm creek through a high leavel plain this creek is yds. wide pebbly bottom low banks and discharges a considerable quanty of water it head in the s w. mountains and discharges it self into lewis's river a fiew miles above the narrows. the bottoms of this creek is narrow with some timber principally cotton wood & willow. the under brush such as mentioned in the n. e. creek. the hills are high and abrupt. the lands of the plains is much more furtile than below, less sand and covered with taller grass; very little of the aramatic shrubs appear in this part of the plain. we halted and dined at this creek. after which we again proceeded n. ° e. mes. through a high plain to a small creek yds. wide, a branch of the kimooenimm creek. the hills of this stream like those of the ki moo enimm are high its bottoms narrow and possess but little timber. the land of a good quallity dark rich loam. we continued our rout up this creek on it's n. side n. ° e mes. the timber increas in quantity the hills continue high. we met with the we arh koont whome we have usially distinguished by the name of the big horn chief from the circumstance of his always wareing a horn of that animal suspended by a cord to his left arm. he is a st chief of a large band of the chopunnish nation. he had ten of his young men with him. this man went down lewis's river by land as we decended it by water last fall quite to the columbia, and i believe was very instremental in precureing us a hospital and friendly reception among the nativs. he had now come a considerable distance to meet us. after meeting this cheif we continued still up the creek bottoms n. ° e. m. to the place at which the roade leaves the creek and assends the hill to the high plains: here we encamped in a small grove of cotton trees which in some measure broke the violence of the wind. we came miles today. it rained, hailed, snowed & blowed with great violence the greater portion of the day. it was fortunate for us that this storm was from the s. w. and of course on our backs. the air was very cold. we devided the last of our dried meat at dinner when it was consumed as well as the ballance of our dogs nearly we made but a scant supper, and had not any thing for tomorrow; however we-ark-koomt consoled us with the information that there was an indian lodge on the river at no great distance where we might supply our selves with provisions tomorrow. our guide and the three young wallah wallah's left us this morning reather abruptly and we have seen nothing of them sence. the s w. mountains appear to become lower as they receed to the n, e. this creek reaches the mountains. we are much nearer to them than we were last evening. they are covered with timber and at this time snow. [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . collected our horses and set out early; the morning was cold and disagreeable. we ascended the lard. hills of the creek and steered n. ° e. miles through a high level plain to a ravine which forms the source of a small creek, thence down this creek n. ° e. ms. to it's entrance into lewis's river / ms. below the entrance of the kooskooske. on the river a little above this creek we arrived at a lodge of families of which weark-koomt had spoken. we halted here for breakfast and with much difficulty purchase lean dogs. the inhabitants were miserably poor. we obtained a few large cakes of half cured bread made of a root which resembles the sweet potatoe, with these we made some scope and took breakfast. the lands through which we passed today are fertile consisting of a dark rich loam the hills of the river are high and approach it nearly on both sides. no timber in the plains. the s. w. mountains which appear to be about ms. above us still continue to become lower they are covered with snow at present nearly to their bases. lewis's river appeas to pass through these mots. near their n. eastern extremity. these hills terminate in a high level plain between the kooskooske and lewis's river. these plains are in many places well covered with the longleafed pine, with some larch and balsom fir. the soil is extreemly fertile no dose it appear so thisty as that of the same apparent texture of the open plains. it produces great quantities of the quawmash a root of which the natives are extreemly fond. a great portion of the chopunnish we are informed are now distributed in small vilages through this plain collecting the quawmash and cows; the salmon not yet having arrived to call them to the river. the hills of the creek which we decended this morning are high and in most parts rocky and abrupt. one of our pack horses sliped from one of those hights and fell into the creek with it's load consisting principally of ammunition but fortunately neith the horse nor load suffered any material injury. the amunition being secured in canesters the water did not effect it.--after dinner we continued our rout up the west side of the river ms. opposite to lodges the one containing and the other families of the chopunnish nation; here we met with te-toh, ar sky, the youngest of the two cheifs who accompanied us last fall the great falls of the columbia here we also met with our pilot who decended the river with us as far as the columbia. these indians recommended our passing the river at this place and ascending the kooskooske on the n. e. side. they said it was nearer and a better rout to the forkes of that river where the twisted hair resided in whose charge we had left our horses; thither they promised to conduct us. we determined to take the advice of the indians and immediately prepared to pass the river which with the assistance of three indian canoes we effected in the course of the evening, purchased a little wood and some bread of cows from the natives and encamped having traveled ms. only today. we-ark-koomt whose people resided on the west side of lewis's river above left us when we determined to pass the river and went on to his lodg. the evening was cold and disagreeable, and the natives crouded about our fire in great numbers insomuch that we could scarcely cook of keep ourselves warm. at all these lodges of the chopunnish i observe an appendage of a small lodg with one fire which seems to be the retreat of their women in a certain situation. the men are not permitted to approach this lodge within a certain distance and if they have any thing to convey to the occupants of this little hospital they stand at the distance of or paces and throw it towards them as far as they can and retire. [clark, may , ] sunday may th collected our horses and set out early; the morning was cold and disagreeable. we assended the larboard hill of the creek and steared n ° e m. through a high leavil plain to a revine which forms the source of a small creek, thence down the creek n ° e. ms. to it's enterance into lewis's river / ms. below the enterance of koos koos ke. on the river a little above this creek we arived at a lodge of families of which we-ark'-koomt had spoken. we halted here for brackfast and with much dificuelty purchased lean dogs. the inhabitents were miserably pore. we obtained a fiew large cakes of half cured bread made of a root which resembles the sweet potatoe, with these we made some soope and took brackfast. the lands through which we passed to day are fertile consisting of a dark rich loam. the hills of the river are high and abrupt approaching it nearly on both sides. no timber in the plains. the s. w. mountains which appear to be about miles from us still continue to become lower, they are covered with snow at present nearly to their bases. lewis's river appear to pass through those mountains near the n eastern extremity. those hills termonate in a high leavil plain between the kooskoske & lewis's river. these plains are in maney places well covered with the long leafed pine and some balsom fir. the soil is extreamly fertile. no does it appear so thirsty as that of the same apparrant texture of the open plains. it produces great quantities of the quawmash a root of which the nativs are extreemly fond. a great portion of the chopunnish we are informed are now distributed in small villages through this plain collecting the cowse a white meley root which is very fine in soup after being dried and pounded; the salmon not yet haveing arived to call them to the river-. the hills of the creek which we decended this morning are high and in most parts rocky and abrupt. one of our pack horses sliped from one of those hights and fell into the creek with it's load consisting principally of amunition, but fortunately neither the horse nor load suffered any matereal injury. the ammunition being secured in canesters the water did not effect it. after dinner we continued our rout up the west side of the river ms. opposit lodges the one containing and the other families of the chopunnish nation; here we met with te-toh-ar-sky the oldest of the two chiefs who accompanied us last fall to the great falls of the columbia. here we also met with our old pilot who decended the river with us as low as the columbia these indians recommended our passing the river at this place and going up on the n e side of the kooskoske. they sayed it was nearer and a better rout to the forks of that river where the twisted hair resided in whose charge we had left our horses; thither they promised to conduct us. we determined to take the advise of the indians and imediately prepared to pass the river which with the assistance of three indian canoes we effected in the course of the evening, purchased a little wood, some cows bread and encamped, haveing traveled miles to day only. we ark koomt whose people reside on the west side of lewis's river above left us when we deturmined to pass the river. before he left us he expressed his concern that his people would be deprived of the pleasure of seeing us at the forks at which place they had assimbled to shew us sivilities &c. i gave him a small piece of tobacco and he went off satisfied. the evening was cold and disagreeable, and the nativs crouded about our fire in great numbers in so much that we could scercely cook or keep ourselves worm. at all those lodges of the chopunnish i observe an appendage of a small lodge with one fire, which seames to be the retreat of their women in a certain situation. the men are not permited to approach this lodge within a certain distance, and if they have any thing to convey to the occupents of this little hospital they stand at the distance of or paces and throw it towards them as far as they can and retire. [lewis, may , ] monday may th . collected our horses and set out at a.m. at / miles we arrived at the entrance of the kooskooske, up the n. eastern side of which we continued our march ms. to a large lodge of families having passed two other large mat lodges the one at and the other at ms. from the mouth of the kooskooske but not being able to obtain any provision at either of those lodges continued our march to the third where we arrived at p.m. & with much difficulty obtained dogs and a small quanty of root bread and dryed roots. at the second lodge we passed an indian man gave capt. c. a very eligant grey mare for which he requested a phial of eye-water which was accordingly given him. while we were encamped last fall at the entrance of the chopunnish river capt. c. gave an indian man some volitile linniment to rub his kee and thye for a pain of which he complained, the fellow soon after recovered and has never ceased to extol the virtues of our medecines and the skill of my friend capt c. as a phisician. this occurrence added to the benefit which many of them experienced from the eyewater we gave them about the same time has given them an exalted opinion of our medicine. my friend capt. c. is their favorite phisician and has already received many applications. in our present situation i think it pardonable to continue this deseption for they will not give us any provision without compensation in merchandize and our stock is now reduced to a mere handfull. we take care to give them no article which can possibly oinjure them. we foud our chopunnish guide at this lodge with his family. the indians brought us capt. clark's horse from the oposite side of the river and delivered him to us while here. this horse had by some accedent seperated from our other horses above and had agreeably to indian information been in this neighbourhood for some weeks. while at dinner an indian fellow verry impertinently threw a poor half starved puppy nearly into my plait by way of derision for our eating dogs and laughed very heartily at his own impertinence; i was so provoked at his insolence that i caught the puppy and thew it with great violence at him and struk him in the breast and face, siezed my tomahawk and shewed him by signs if he repeated his insolence i would tommahawk him, the fellow withdrew apparently much mortifyed and i continued my repast on dog without further molestation. after dinner we continued our rout miles to the entrance of colter's creek about / a mile above the rapid where we sunk the st canoe as we decended the river last fall. we encamped on the lower side of this creek at a little distance from two lodges of the chopunnish nation having traveled / ms. today. one of these lodges contained eight families, the other was much the largest we have yet seen. it is feet long and about wide built of mats and straw. in the form of the roof of a house having a number of small doors on each side, is closed at the ends and without divisions in the intermediate space this lodge contained at least families. their fires are kindled in a row in the center of the house and about feet assunder. all the lodges of these people are formed in this manner. we arrived here extreemly hungry and much fatiegued, but no articles of merchandize in our possession would induce them to let us have any article of provision except a small quantity of bread of cows and some of those roots dryed. we had several applications to assist their sick which we refused unless they would let us have some dogs or horses to eat. a man whose wife had an absess formed on the small of her back promised a horse in the morning provided we would administer to her accordingly capt. c. opened the absess introduced a tent and dressed it with basilicon; i prepared some dozes of the flour of sulpher and creem of tarter which were given with directions to be taken on each morning. a little girl and sundry other patients were offered for cure but we posponed our operations untill morning; they produced us several dogs but they were so poor that they were unfit for use. this is the residence of one of principal cheifs of the nation whom they call neesh-ne,-park-ke-ook or the cut nose from the circumstance of his nose being cut by the snake indians with a launce in battle. to this man we gave a medal of the small size with the likeness of the president. he may be a great cheif but his countenance has but little inteligence and his influence among his people seems but inconsiderable. a number of indians beside the inhabitants of these lodges geathered about us this evening and encamped in the timbered bottom on the creek near us. we met with a snake indian man at this place through whome we spoke at some length to the natives this evening with rispect to the objects which had induced us to visit their country. this address was induced at this moment by the suggestions of an old man who observed to the natives that he thought we were bad men and had come most probably in order to kill them. this impression if really entertained i beleive we effaced; they appeared well satisfyed with what we said to them, and being hungry and tired we retired to rest at oclock.--we-ark-koomt rejoined us this evening. this man has been of infinite service to us on several former occasions and through him we now offered our address to the natives. [clark, may , ] monday may th collected our horses and set out at a m. at / ms. we arived at the enterance of kooskooske, up the n e. side of which we continued our march miles to a large lodge of families haveing passed two other large mat lodges the one at and the other at miles from the mouth of the kooskooske, but not being able to obtain provisions at either of those lodges continued our march to the rd where we arived at p.m. and with much dificuelty obtained dogs and a small quantity of bread and dryed roots. at the second lodge of eight families capt l. & my self both entered smoked with a man who appeared to be a principal man. as we were about to leave his lodge and proceed on our journey he brought foward a very eligant gray mare and gave her to me, requesting some eye water. i gave him a phial of eye water a handkerchief and some small articles of which he appeared much pleased-. while we were encamped last fall at the enterance of chopunnish river, i gave an indian man some volitile leniment to rub his knee and thye for a pain of which he complained. the fellow soon after recovered and have never seased to extol the virtue of our medicines. near the enterance of the kooskooske, as we decended last fall i met with a man, who could not walk with a tumure on his thye. this had been very bad and recovering fast. i gave this man a jentle pirge cleaned & dressed his sore and left him some casteel soap to wash the sore which soon got well. this man also assigned the restoration of his leg to me. those two cures has raised my reputation and given those nativs an exolted oppinion of my skill as a phician. i have already received maney applications. in our present situation i think it pardonable to continue this deception for they will not give us any provisions without compensation in merchendize, and our stock is now reduced to a mear handfull. we take care to give them no article which can possibly injure them. and in maney cases can administer & give such medicine & sergical aid as will effectually restore in simple cases &c. we found our chopunnish guide with his family. the indians brought my horse which was left at the place we made canoes, from the opposit side and delivered him to me while here. this horse had by some accident seperated from our other horses above, and agreeably to indian information had been in this neighbourhood some weeks. while at dinner an indian fellow very impertinently threw a half starved puppy nearly into the plate of capt. lewis by way of derision for our eating dogs and laughed very heartily at his own impertinence; capt l.--was so provoked at the insolence that he cought the puppy and threw it with great violence at him and struck him in the breast and face, seazed his tomahawk, and shewed him by sign that if he repeeted his insolence that he would tomahawk him, the fellow withdrew apparently much mortified and we continued our dinner without further molestation. after dinner we continued our rout miles to the enterance of colter's creek about / a mile above the rapid where we sunk the st canoe as we decended the river last fall. we encamped on the lower side of this creek a little distance from two lodges of the chopunnish nation haveing traviled / miles to day one of those lodges contained families, the other was much the largest we have yet seen. it is feet long and about feet wide built of mats and straw, in the form of the roof of a house haveing a number of small dores on each side, is closed at the ends and without divisions in the intermediate space. this lodge at least families. their fires are kindled in a row in the center of the lodge and about feet assunder. all the lodges of these people are formed in this manner. we arrived here extreemly hungary and much fatigued, but no articles of merchindize in our possession would induce them to let us have any article of provisions except a small quantity of bread of cows and some of those roots dryed. we had several applications to assist their sick which we refused unless they would let us have some dogs or horses to eat. a man whose wife had an absess formed on the small of her back promised a horse in the morning provided we would administer to her, i examined the absess and found it was too far advanced to be cured. i told them her case was desperate. agreeably to thir request i opened the absess. i then introduced a tent and dressed it with bisilican; and prepared some dozes of the flour of sulpher and creem of tarter which were given with directions to be taken on each morning. a little girl and sundery other patients were brought to me for cure but we posponed our opperations untill the morning; they produced us several dogs but they were so pore that they were unfit to eat. this is the residence of one of four principal cheafs of the nation whome they call neesh-ne-park-ke-ook or the cut nose from the circumstance of his nose being cut by the snake indians with a launce in battle. to this man we gave a medal of the small size with a likeness of the president. he may be a great chief but his countinance has but little inteligence and his influence among his people appears very inconsiderable. a number of indians besides the inhabitents of these lodges gathered about us this evening and encamped in the timbered bottom on the creek near us. we met with a snake indian man at this place through whome we spoke at some length to the nativs this evening with respect to the object which had enduced us to visit their country. this address was induced at this moment by the suggestions of an old man who observed to the nativs that he thought we were bad men and had come most probably in order to kill them.--this impression if really entertained i believe we effected; they appeared well satisfied with what we said to them, and being hungary and tired we retired to rest at oclock.--we-ark-koomt rejoined us this evening. this man has been of infinate service to us on several former occasions and through him we now offered our address to the nativs-. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . this morning the husband of the sick woman was as good as his word, he produced us a young horse in tolerable order which we immediately killed and butchered. the inhabitants seemed more accomodating this morning; they sold us some bread. we received a second horse for medecine and prescription for a little girl with the rheumatism. capt. c. dressed the woman again this morning who declared that she had rested better last night than she had since she had been sick. sore eyes is an universal complaint with all the natives we have seen on the west side of the rocky mountains. capt. c. was busily engaged for several hours this morning in administering eye-water to a croud of applicants. we once more obtained a plentifull meal, much to the comfort of all the party. i exchanged horses with we-ark'-koomt and gave him a small flag with which he was much gratifyed. the sorrel i obtained is an eligant strong active well broke horse perfictly calculated for my purposes. at this place we met with three men of a nation called the skeets-so-mish who reside at the falls of a large river disharging itself into the columbia on it's east side to the north of the entrance of clark's river. this river they informed us headed in a large lake in the mountains and that the falls below which they resided was at no great distance from the lake. these people are the same in their dress and appearance with the chopunnish, tho their language is intirely different a circumstance which i did not learn untill we were about to set out and it was then too late to take a vocabulary. the river here called clark's river is that which we have heretofore called the flathead river, i have thus named it in honour of my worthy friend and fellow traveller capt. clark. for this stream we know no indian name and no whiteman but ourselves was ever on it's principal branches. the river which fidler calls the great lake river may possibly be a branch of it but if so it is but a very inconsiderable branch and may as probably empty itself into the skeetssomish as into that river. the stream which i have heretofore called clark's river has it's three principal sources in mountains hood, jefferson & the northern side of the s. w. mountains and is of course a short river. this river i shall in future call the to-wannahiooks river it being the name by which it is called by the eneshur nation. the kooskooske river may be safely navigated at present all the rocks of the shoals and rapids are perfectly covered; the current is strong, the water clear and cold. this river is rising fast.the timber of this river which consists principally of the long leafed pine commences about miles below our present camp on colter's creek. it was two oclock this evening before we could collect our horses. at p.m. we set out accompanyed by the brother of the twisted hair and we arkkoomt. i directed the horse which we had obtained for the purpose of eating to be led as it was yet unbroke, in performing this duty a quarrel ensued between drewyer and colter. we continued our march this evening along the river miles to a lodge of families, built of sticks mats & dryed hay in the same form of those heretofore discribed. we passed a lodge of families at ms. on the road. no provision of any discription was to be obtained of these people. a little after dark our young horse broke the rope by which he was confined and made his escape much to the chagrine of all who recollected the keenness of their appetites last evening. the brother of the twisted hair and wearkkoomt with or others encamped with us this evening.- the natives have a considerable salmon fishery up colter's creek. this stream extends itself to the pirs of the rocky mountain and in much the greater part of it's course passes through a well timbered pine country it is yds. wide and discharges a large body of water. the banks low and bed formed of pebbles.--had a small shower of rain this evening. [clark, may , ] tuesday may th this morning the susband of the sick woman was as good as his word. he produced us a young horse in tolerable order which we imedeately had killed and butchered. the inhabitents seemed more accommodating this morning. they sold us some bread. we received a second horse for medecine & procription to a little girl with the rhumitism whome i had bathed in worm water, and anointed her a little with balsom capivia. i dressed the woman again this morning who declared that she had rested better last night than she had since she had been sick. sore eyes is an universal complaint among all the nations which we have seen on the west side of the rocky mountains. i was busily imployed for several hours this morning in administering eye water to a croud of applicants. we once more obtained a plentiful meal, much to the comfort of all the party. capt lewis exchanged horses with we ark koomt and gave him a small flag with which he was much pleased and gratifyed. the sorrel which cap l. obtained is a strong active well broke horse-. at this place we met with three men of a nation called the skeetsso-mish who reside at the falls of a small river dischargeing itself into the columbia on its east side to the south of the enterance of clarks river. this river they informed us headed in a large lake in the mountains and that the falls below which they reside was at no great distance from the lake. these people are the same in their dress and appearance with the chopunnish, tho their language is entirely different. one of them gave me his whip which was a twisted stick ins. in length at one end a pice of raw hide split so as to form two strings about inches in length as a lash, to the other end a string passed through a hole and fastened at each end for a loope to slip over the wrist. i gave in return for this whip a fathom of narrow binding. the river here calld. clarks river is that which we have heretofore called flathead river. capt. lewis has thought proper to call this after myself for this stream we know no indhan name and no white man but our selves was ever on this river. the river which fiddler call's the great lake river may possiably be a branch of it, but if so it is but a very inconsiderable branch, and may as probably empty itself into the columbia above as into clarks river. the stream which the party has heretofore called clarks river imedeately above the great falls, has it's three principal branches in mountains jefferson, hood and the northern side of the s. w. mountains and is of course a short river. this river is called by the skillutes & eneshure nations towannahhiooks which is also the name they call those bands of snake indians who come on this river every spring to catch the salmon-. the kooskooske river may be safely navigated at present all the rocks of the sholes and rapids are perfectlly covered; the current is strong, the water clear and cold. this river is riseing fast-. the timber of this river which consists principally of the long leafed pine which commences about miles below our present encampment on colters creek. it was p m. this evening before we could collect our horses. at p m. we set out accompanied by the brother of the twisted hair and we-ark-koomt. we derected the horse which i had obtained for the purpose of eateing to be led as it was unbroke, in performing this duty a quarrel ensued between drewyer and colter-. we continued our march along the river on its north side miles to a lodge of families built of sticks mats and dryed hay. of the same form of those heretofore discribed. we passed a lodge of families at ms. on the river, no provisions of any discription was to be obtained of these people. a little after dark our young horse broke the rope by which he was confined and made his escape much to the chagrine of all who recollected the keenness of their appetites last evening. the brother of the twisted hair & wearkkoomt with others encamped with us this evening the nativs have a considerable salmon fishery up colters creek. this stream extends itself to the spurs of the rocky mountain and in much the greater part of its course passes through a well timbered pine country. it is yds. wide and discharges a large body of water. the banks low and bead formed of pebbles-. had a small shower of rain this evening. the chopunnish about the mouth of the kooskooske bury their dead on stoney hill sides generally, and as i was informed by an indian who made signs that they made a hole in the grown by takeing away the stones and earth where they wished to deposit the dead body after which they laid the body which was previously raped in a robe and secured with cords. over the body they placed stones so as to form a sort of arch on the top of which they put stones and earth so as to secure the body from the wolves and birds &c. they sometimes inclose the grave with a kind of sepulcher like the roof of a house formed of the canoes of the disceased. they also sacrifice the favorite horses of the disceased. the bones of many of which we see on and about the graves. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th . this morning we collected our horses and set out early accompanyed by the brother of the twisted hair as a guide; wearkkoomt and his party left us. we proceeded up the river miles to a lodge of families just below the entrance of a small creek, here our guide recommended our passing the river. he informed us that the road was better on the south side and that game was more abundant also on that side near the entrance of the chopunnish river. we determined to pursue the rout recommended by the guide and accordingly unloaded our horses and prepared to pass the river which we effected by means of one canoe in the course of hours. a man of this lodge produced us two canisters of powder which he informed us he had found by means of his dog where they had been buried in a bottom near the river some miles above, they were the same which we had buryed as we decended the river last fall. as he had kept them safe and had honesty enough to return them to us we gave him a fire steel by way of compensation. during our detention at the river we took dinner, after which or at p.m. we renewed our march along the river about ms. over a difficult stony road, when we left the river and asscended the hills to the wright which are here mountains high. the face of the country when you have once ascended the river hills is perfectly level and partially covered with the longleafed pine. the soil is a dark rich loam thickly covered with grass and herbatious plants which afford a delightfull pasture for horses. in short it is a beautifull fertile and picteresque country. neeshneparkeeook overtook us and after riding with us a few miles turned off to the wright to visit some lodges of his people who he informed me were geathering roots in the plain at a little distance from the road. our guide conducted us through the plain and down a steep and lengthey hill to a creek which we called musquetoe creek in consequence of being infested with swarms of those insects on our arrival at it. this is but an inconsiderable stream about yds. wide heads in the plains at a small distance and discharges itself into the kooskooke miles by water below the entrance of the chopunnish river. we struck this creek at the distance of ms. from the point at which we left the river our cours being a little to the s. of east. ascending the creek one mile on the s. e. side we arrived at an indian incampment of six lodges which appeared to have been recently evacuated. here we remained all night having traveled miles only. the timbered country on this side of the river may be said to commence near this creek, and on the other side of the river at a little distance from it the timber reaches as low as colter's creek. the earth in many parts of these plains is thrown up in little mounds by some animal whose habits are similar to the sallemander, like that animal it is also invisible; notwithstanding i have observed the work of this animal thoughout the whole course of my long tract from st. louis to the pacific ocean i have never obtained a view of this animal. the shoshone man of whom i have before made mention evertook us this evening with neeshneparkeeook and remained with us this evening.--we suped this evening as we had dined on horse-beef. we saw several deer this evening and a great number of the tracks of these animals we determined to remain here untill noon tomorrow in order to obtain some venison and accordingly gave orders to the hunters to turn out early in the morning.--he spurs of the rocky mountains which were in view from the high plain today were perfectly covered with snow. the indians inform us that the snow is yet so deep on the mountains that we shall not be able to pass them untill the next full moon or about the first of june; others set the time at still a more distant period. this unwelcom inteligence to men confined to a diet of horsebeef and roots, and who are as anxious as we are to return to the fat plains of the missouri and thence to our native homes. the chopunnish bury their dead in sepulchres formed of boards like the roofs of houses. the corps is rolled in skins and laid on boards above the surface of the earth. they are laid in several teer one over another being seperated by a board only above and below from other corps. i did observe some instances where the body was laid in an indifferent woden box which was placed among other carcased rolled in skin in the order just mentioned. they sacrifice horses canoes and every other speceis of property to their ded. the bones of many horses are seen laying about those sepulchres. this evening was cold as usual. [clark, may , ] wednesday may th this morning we collected our horses and set out early accompanied by the brother of the twisted hair as a guide; wearkkoomt and his party left us. we proceeded up the river miles to a lodge of families just below the enterance of a small creek, here our guide recommended our passing the river, he informed us that the road was better on the south side, and that game was more abundant also on that side near the enterance of chopunnish river. we deturmined to pursue the rout recommended by the guide, and accordingly unloaded our horses and prepared to pass the river which we effected by means of one canoe in the course of hours. a man of this lodge produced us two canisters of powder which he informed us he had found by means of his dog where they had been berried in the bottom near the river a fiew miles above. they were the same which we had burried as we decended the river last fall. as he had kept them safe and had honisty enough to return them to us, we gave him a fire steel by way of compensation. dureing our detention at the river we took dinner. after which we renewed our march along the s. e. side of the river about miles over a dificuelt stoney road, when we left the river and assended the hills to the right which are here mountains high. the face of the country when you have once assended the river hills, is perfectly level and partially covered with the long leafed pine. the soil is a dark rich loam, thickly covered with grass and herbatious plants which afford a delightfull pasture for horses. in short it is a butifull fertile picteresque country. neeshneparkeeook over took us and after rideing with us a fiew miles turned off to the right to visit some lodges of his people who he informed us were gathering roots in the plains at a little distance from the road. our guide conducted us through the plain and down a steep and lengthy hill to a creek which we call musquetoe creek in consequence of being infested with sworms of those insects on our arival at it. this is but an inconsiderable stream about yards wide heads in the plains at a short distance and discharges itself into the kooskooske ms. by water below the forks. we struck this creek at the distance of miles from the point at which we left the river our course being a little to the s. of east. we proceeded up the creek one mile and on the s. e. side we arived at an old indian incampment of six lodges which appeared to have been recently evacuated. here we remained all night haveing traveled ms. only. the timbered country on this side of the river may be said to commence a short distance below this creek, and on the other side of the river at a little distance from it the timber reaches as low as colter's creek. the earth in maney parts of those plains is thown up in little mounds by some animal whose habits are similar to the sallemander, like that animal it is also invisible; notwithstanding i have observed the work of this animal throughout the whole course of my trail from st. louis to the pacific ocian, i have never obtained a view of this animal. the shoshone man of whome i have before mentioned over took us this evening with neesh neparkeeook or cut nose and remained with us this evening. we suped this evening as we had done on horse beef. we saw several deer this evening, and a great number of the tracks of these animals we deturmined to remain here untill noon tomorrow in order to obtain some venison, and accordingly gave orders to the hunters to turn out early in the morning. the spurs of the rocky mountains which were in view from the high plain to day were perfectly covered with snow. the indians inform us that the snow is yet so deep on the mountains that we shall not be able to pass them untill after the next full moon or about the first of june. others set the time at a more distant period. this unwelcom intiligence to men confined to a diet of horsebeef and roots, and who are as anxious as we are to return to the fat plains of the missouri, and thence to our native homes. the chopunnish bury their dead in different ways as i have obseved, besides that already discribed they scaffold some and deposit others in sepulchers, those are rearly to be seen in this upper part of the columbian waters. the one already discribed is the most common. they all sacrifice horses, canoes and every species of property to the dead. the bones of maney horses are seen lyeing about those repositaries of the dead &c.-. i observed in all the lodges which we have passed since we crossed lewis's river decoys, or stocking heads as they are sometimes called. these decoys are for the deer and is formed of the skin of the head and upper portion of the neck of that animale extended in the nateral shape by means of a fiew little sticks placed within. the hunter when he sees a deer conseals himself and with his hand givs to the decoy the action of a deer at feed, and this induces the deer within arrowshot; in this mode the indians near the woody country hunt on foot in such places where they cannot pursue the deer with horses which is their favourite method when the grounds will permit-.-. the orniments worn by the chopunnish are, in their nose a single shell of wampom, the pirl & beeds are suspended from the ears. beads are worn arround their wrists, neck and over their sholders crosswise in the form of a double sash-. the hair of the men is cewed in two rolls which hang on each side in front of the body. collars of bears claws are also common; but the article of dress on which they appear to bestow most pains and orniments is a kind of collar or brestplate; this is most commonly a strip of otter skins of about six inches wide taken out of the center of the skin it's whole length including the head. this is dressed with the hair on, this is tied around the neck & hangs in front of the body the tail frequently reaching below their knees; on this skin in front is attatched pieces of pirl, beeds, wampom, pices of red cloth and in short whatever they conceive most valuable or ornamental-.-. [lewis, may , ] thursday may th . most of the hunters turned out by light this morning a few others remained without our permission or knoledge untill late in the morning, we chid them severely for their indolence and inattention to the order of last evening. about ock. sheilds returned with a small deer on which we breakfasted. by a.m. all our hunters returned, drewyer and cruzatte brought each a deer, collins wounded another which my dog caught at a little distance from the camp. our stock of provision now consisted of deer and the remnant of the horse which we killed at colter's creek. sheilds killed a duck of an uncommon kind. the head beak and wing of which i preserved. the beak is remarkably wide and obtusely pointed, on it's edges it is furnished with a sceries of teeth very long and fine not unlike the teeth of a comb. the belley is of a brick red, the lower part of the neck white, the upper part or but of the wing is a sky blue, underneath which a narrow stripe of white succeeds marking the wing transversly, the large feathers are of a dark colour. tail short and pointed and consists of dark brown feathers. the back is black and sides white; legs yellow and feet formed like the duckinmallard which it also resembles in size and form. the eye is moderately large, puple black and iris of an orrange colour. the colours and appearance of the female is precisely that of the duckinmallard only, reather smaller. we are informed that the natives in this quarter were much distressed for food in the course of the last winter; they were compelled to collect the moss which grows on the pine which they boiled and eat; near this camp i observed many pine trees which appear to have been cut down about that season which they inform us was done in order to collect the seed of the longleafed pine which in those moments of distress also furnishes an article of food; the seed of this speceis of pine is about the size and much the shape of the seed of the large sunflower; they are nutricious and not unpleasent when roasted or boiled, during this month the natives also peal this pine and eat the succulent or inner bark. in the creek near our encampment i observed a falling trap constructed on the same plan with those frequent seen in the atlantic states for catching the fish decending the stream capt. c. took several small trout from this trap. neesh-ne-park-kee-ook and several other indians joined us this morning. we gave this cheif and the indians with us some venison, horsebeef, the entrels of the four deer, and four fawns which were taken from two of the does that were killed, they eat none of their food raw, tho the entrals had but little preperation and the fawns were boiled and consumed hair hide and entrals. these people sometimes eat the flesh of the horse tho they will in most instances suffer extreem hunger before they will kill their horses for that purpose, this seems reather to proceede from an attatchment to this animal, than a dislike to it's flesh for i observe many of them eat very heartily of the horsebeef which we give them. the shoshone man was displeased because we did not give him as much venison as he could eat and in consequence refused to interpret, we took no further notice of him and in the course of a few hours he became very officious and seemed anxious to reinstate himself in our good opinons. the relation of the twisted hair and neeshneparkkeook gave us a sketch of the principall watercourses west of the rocky mountains a copy of which i preserved; they make the main southwardly branch of lewis's river much more extensive than the other, and place many villages of the shoshonees on it's western side. at half after p.m. we departed; for the lodge of the twisted hair accompanyed by the cheif and sundry other indians. the relation of the twisted hair left us. the road led us up a steep and high hill to a high and level plain mostly untimbered, through which we passed parrallel with the river about miles when we met the twisted hair and a party of six men. to this cheif we had confided the care of our horses and a part of our saddles when we decended the river last fall. the twisted hair received us very coolly an occurrence as unexpected as it was unaccountable to us. he shortly began to speak with a loud voice and in a angry manner, when he had ceased to speak he was answered by the cutnose cheif or neeshneparkkeook; we readily discovered that a violet quarrel had taken place between these cheifs but at that instant knew not the cause; we afterwards learnt that it was on the subject of our horses. this contreversy between the cheifs detained us about minutes; in order to put an end to this dispute as well as to releive our horses from the embarasment of their loads, we informed the cheifs that we should continue our march to the first water and encamp accordingly we moved on and the indians all followed. about two miles on the road we arrived at a little branch which run to the wright. here we encamped for the evening having traveled miles today. the two cheifs with their little bands formed seperate camps at a short distance from ours, they all appeared to be in an ill humour. we had been informed some days since that the natives had discovered the deposit of our saddles and taken them away and that our horses were much scattered. we were very anxious to learn the particulars or truth of these reports from the twisted hair, as it must in some measure govern us in the establishment of our perminent camp which in consequence of our detention by the snow of the mountains has become necessary. to obtain our horses and saddles as quickly as possible is our wish, and we are somewhat apprehensive that this difference which has taken place between these chiefs may millitate against our operations in this rispect. we were therefore desireous to bring about a good understanding between them as soon as possible. the shoshone boy refused to speak, he aledged it was a quarrel between two cheifs and that he had no business with it; it was in vain that we urged that his interpreting what we said on this subject was not taking the responsibil ity of the inteference on himself, he remained obstenately silent. about an hour after we had encamped drewyer returned from hunting we sent him to the twisted hair to make some enquiries relative to our horses and saddles and to ask him to come and smoke with us. the twisted hair accepted the invitation and came to our fire. the twisted hair informed us that accordingly to the promis he had made us when he seperated from us at the falls of the columbia he collected our horses on his return and took charge of them, that about this time the cutnose or neeshneparkkeook and tun-nach'-emoo-tools or the broken arm returned from a war excurtion against the shoshonees on the south branch of lewis's river which had caused their absence when we were in this neighbourhood. that these men became dissatisfyed with him in consequence of our having confided the horses to his care and that they were eternally quarreling with him insomuch that he thought it best as he was an old man to relinquish any further attention to the horses, that they had consequently become scattered; that most of the horses were near this place, a part were in the forks between the chopunnish and kooskooske rivers and three or four others were at the lodge of the broken arm about half a days march higher up the river. he informed us with rispect to our saddles that on the rise of the water this spring the earth had fallen from the door of the cash and exposed the saddles, he being informed of their situation had taken them up and placed them in another cash where they were at this time; he said it was probable that a part of them had fallen into the water but of this he was not certain. the twisted hair said if we would spend the day tomorrow at his lodge which was a few miles only from hence and on the road leading to the broken arm's lodge, he would collect such of our horses as were near this place and our saddles, that he would also send some young men over the kooskooske to collect those in the forks and bring them to the lodge of the broken arm to met us. he advised us to go to the lodge of the broken arm as he said he was a cheif of great emenence among them, and promised to accompany us thither if we wished him. we told him that we should take his advice in every particular, that we had confided the horses to his care and expected that he would collect them and deliver them to us which when he performed we should pay him the two guns and amunition we had promised him for that service. he seemed much pleased and promised his utmost exertions. we sent drewyer to the cutnose who also came to our fire and smoked with ourselves and the twisted hair we took occasion in the course of the evening to express our regret that there should be a misunderstanding between these cheifs; the cutnose told us in the presents of the twisted hair that he the twisted hair was a bad old man that he woar two faces, that in stead of taking care of our horses as he had promised us that he had suffered his young men to ride them hunting and had injured them very much; that this was the cause why himself and the broken arm had forbid his using them. the other made no reply. we informed the cutnose of our intention of spending tomorrow at the twisted hair's lodge in order to collect our horses and saddles and that we should proceede the next day to the broken arm's lodge, he appeared well satisfyed with this arrangement and said he would continue with us, and would give us any assistance in his power; he said he knew the broken arm expected us at his lodge and that he had two bad horses for us, metaphorically speaking a present of two good horses. he said the broken arm had learnt our want of provision and had sent four of his young men with a supply to meet us but that they had taken a different road and had missed us.--about p.m. our guests left us and we layed down to rest. [clark, may , ] thursday th of may . this morning our hunters was out by the time it was light. about oclock shields brought in a small deer, on which we brackfast by a.m. all our hunters returned drewyer & p. crusat brought in a deer each & collins wounded one which our dog caught near our camp. total of our stock of provisions deer & some horse flesh. on the small creek which passes our camp, the nativs have laterly encamped and as we are informed have been much distressed for provisions, they have fallen a number of small pine in the vicinity of this encampment for the seed which is in the bur of which they eate. we are informed that they were compelled to collect the moss off the pine boil & eate it in the latter part of the last winter. on the creek near our camp i observed a kind of trap which was made with great panes to catch the small fish which pass down with the stream this was a dam formed of stone so as to collect the water in a narrow part not exceeding feet wide from which place the water shot with great force and scattered through some small willows closely connected and fastened with bark. this mat of willow switches was about feet wide and long lying in a horozontal position, fastened at the extremety. the small fish which fell on those willows was washed on the willows where they untill taken off &c. i cought or took off those willows small trout from to inches in length. soon after i returned from the fishery an indian came from a fishery of a similar kind a little above with small fish which he offered me which i declined axcepting as i found from his signs that his house was a short distance above, and that those fisheries afforded the principal part of the food for his children. the great chief of the bands below who has a cut nose joined us this morning. we gave the interals with young fauns which was in two of the deer killed to day to the indians also some of our deer & horse flesh. the paunch of the deer they eate without any preperation further than washing them a little. the fauns they boiled and eate every part of them even the skins with the hair. the snake indian was much displeased that he was not furnished with as much deer as he could eate. he refused to speake to the wife of shabono, through whome we could understand the nativs. we did not indulge him and in the after part of the day he came too and spoke verry well. one of the indians drew me a sketch of the river (see the latter part of this book) in this sketch he makes the st large southerly fork of lewis's river much the longest and on which great numbers of the snake indians reside &c. at ____ p.m. we loaded up and set on on the roade leading as we were informed to the lodge of the twisted hair, the chief in whoes care we had left our horses. we were accompanied by the cut nose chief our old chief who had accompanied us down the river and several men. we assended the hills which was steep and emencely high to a leavel rich country thinly timbered with pine. we had not proceeded more than miles before we met the twisted hair and several men meeting of us. we were verry coolly recved by the twisted hair. he spoke aloud and was answered by the cut nose. we could not learn what they said. but plainly discovered that a missunderstanding had taken place between them. we made signs to them that we should proceed on to the next water and encamp. accordingly i set out and they all followed. we had not proceeded far before the road crossed a small handsom stream on which we encamped. the parties of those two chiefs took different positions at some distance from each other and all appeared sulkey. after we had formed our camp we sent drewyer with a pipe to smoke with the twisted hair and lern the cause of the dispute between him and the cut nose, and also to invite him to our fire to smoke with us. the twisted hair came to our fire to smoke we then sent drewyer to the cut noses fire with the same directions. he returned and informed us that the cut nose said he would join us in a fiew minits. it appears that the cause of the quarrel between those two men is about our horses. and we cannot lern the particulars of this quarrel which probably originated through jelousy on the part of the cut nose who blames the twisted hair for suffer our horses to be rode, and want water dureing the winter &c. twisted hair says the horses were taken from him &c. the cut nose joined us in a short time we smoked with all the party of both chiefs, and told them that we were sorry to find them at varience with each other the cut nose said that the twisted hair was a bad man and wore two fases, that he had not taken care of our horses as was expected. that himself an the broken arm had caused our horses to be watered in the winter and had them drove together, and that if we would proceed on to the village of the great chief whome we had left a flag last fall the broken arm he would send for our horses, that he had himself three of them. he also informed us that the great chief hering of our distressed situation had sent his son and men to meet us and have us furnished on the way &c. that the young men had missed us and could never over take us untill this time. that the great chief had bad horses for us and expected us to go to his lodge which was near the river and about half a days march above &c. the twisted hair told us that he wished to smoke with us at his lodge which was on the road leading to the great chiefs lodge, and but a fiew miles a head. if we would delay at his lodge tomorrow he would go after our saddles and horses which was near the place we made our canoes last fall. we deturmined to set out early in the morning and proceed on to the lodge of the twisted hair and send for our saddles and powder which we had left burried mear the forks. and the day after tomorrow to proceed on to the lodge of the grand chief. accordingly we informed the indians of our intentions. we all smoked and conversed untill about p m. the indians retired and we lay down. derected hunters to turn out early in the morning to hunt and meet us at the twisted hair's lodge. [lewis, may , ] friday may th . we sent out several hunters early this morning with instructions to meet us at the lodge of the twisted hair. collecting our horses detained us untill a.m. when we charged our packhorses and set out. our rout lay through a level rich country similar to that of yesterday; at the distance of miles we arrived at the lodge of the twisted hair; this habitation was built in the usual form with sticks mats and dryed hay, and contained firs and about persons. even at this small habitation there was an appendage of the soletary lodge, the retreat of the tawny damsels when nature causes them to be driven into coventry; here we halted as had been previously concerted, and one man with horses accompayed the twisted hair to the canoe camp, about ms. in quest of the saddles. the twisted hair sent two young men in surch of our horses agreeably to his promis. the country along the rocky mountains for several hundred miles in length and about in width is level extreemly fertile and in many parts covered with a tall and open growth of the longleafed pine. near the watercouses the hills are steep and lofty tho are covered with a good soil not remarkably stony and possess more timber than the level country. the bottom lands on the watercourses are reather narrow and confined tho fertile & seldom inundated. this country would form an extensive settlement; the climate appears quite as mild as that of similar latitude on the atlantic coast if not more so and it cannot be otherwise than healthy; it possesses a fine dry pure air. the grass and many plants are now upwards of knee high. i have no doubt but this tract of country if cultivated would produce in great abundance every article essentially necessary to the comfort and subsistence of civillized man. to it's present inhabitants nature seems to have dealt with a liberal hand, for she has distributed a great variety of esculent plants over the face of the country which furnish them a plentiful) store of provision; these are acquired with but little toil, and when prepared after the method of the natives afford not only a nutricious but an agreeable food. among other roots those called by them the quawmash and cows are esteemed the most agreeable and valuable as they are also the most abundant. the cows is a knobbed root of an irregularly rounded form not unlike the gensang in form and consistence. this root they collect, rub of a thin black rhind which covers it and pounding it expose it in cakes to the sun. these cakes ate about an inch and / thick and by in width, when dryed they either eat this bread alone without any further preperation, or boil it and make a thick muselage; the latter is most common and much the most agreeable. the flavor of this root is not very unlike the gensang.--this root they collect as early as the snows disappear in the spring and continue to collect it until) the quawmash supplys it's place which happens about the latter end of june. the quawmash is also collected for a few weaks after it first makes it's appearance in the spring, but when the scape appears it is no longer fit for use untill the seed are ripe which happens about the time just mentioned, and then the cows declines. the latter is also frequently dryed in the sun and pounded afterwards and then used in making soope.--i observed a few trees of the larch and a few small bushes of the balsam fir near the lodge of the twisted hair. at p.m. our hunters joined us drewyer killed a deer but lost it in the river. a few pheasants was the produce of the hunt. we procured a few roots of cows of which we made scope. late in the evening the twisted hair and willard returned; they brought about half of our saddles, and some powder and lead which had been buried at that place. my saddle was among the number of those which were lost. about the same time the young men arrived with of our horses. the greater part of our horses were in fine order. five of them appeared to have been so much injured by the indians riding them last fall that they had not yet recovered and were in low order. three others had soar backs. we had these horses caught and hubbled. the situation of our camp was a disagreeable one in an open plain; the wind blew violently and was cold. at seven p.m. it began to rain and hail, at it was succeeded by a heavy shower of snow which continued untill the next morning.--several indians joined us this evening from the village of the broken arm or tunnachemootoolt and continued all night. the man who had imposed himself on us as a relation of the twisted hair rejoined us this evening we found him an impertinent proud supercilious fellow and of no kind of rispectability in the nation, we therefore did not indulge his advances towards a very intimate connection. the cutnose lodged with the twisted hair i beleive they have become good friends again. several indians slept about us. [clark, may , ] friday th may the hunters set out very early agreeable to their derections. we were detained untill a.m. for our horses which were much scattered at which time we collected our horses and set out and proceeded on through a butifull open rich country for miles to the camp of the twisted hair. this campment is formed of two lodges built in the usial form of mats and straw. the largest and principal lodge is calculated for fires only and contains about ____ persons. the second lodge is small & appears to be intended for the sick women who always retire to a seperate lodge when they have the ____ this custom is common to all the nations on this river as well as among all other indian nations with whom i am acquainted. at the distance of miles we passd. a lodge of fires on a fork of the road which leads to the right situated on a small branch which falls into musquetor creek. before p m all our hunters joined us haveing killed only one deer which was lost in the river and a pheasent. soon after we halted at the lodge of the twisted hair he set out with two boys and willard with a pack horse down to the river near the place we made the canoes for our saddles and a cannister of powder and some lead buried there, also a part of our horses which resorted near that place. late in the evening they returned with of our horse and about half of our saddles with the powder and ball. the greater part of the horses were in fine order, tho five of them had been rode & worsted in such a manner last fall by the inds. that they had not recovered and are in very low order, and with sore backs. we had all the recovered horses cought & hobbled. we precured some pounded roots of which a supe was made thick on which we suped. the wind blew hard from the s. w. accompanied with rain untill from oclock untill p.m. when it began to snow and continued all night. several indians came from the village of the chief with whome we had left a flag and continued with us all night. they slept in the house of the twisted hair and two of them along side of us. [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . this morning the snow continued falling / after a.m. when it ceased, the air keen and cold, the snow inches deep on the plain; we collected our horses and after taking a scant breakfast of roots we set out for the village of tunnachemootoolt; our rout lay through an open plain course s. e. and distance ms. the road was slippery and the snow clogged to the horses feet, and caused them to trip frequently. the mud at the sources of the little ravines was deep black and well supplyed with quawmash. drewyer turned off to the left of the road in order to hunt and did not join us this evening. at in the afternoon we decended the hills to commearp creek and arrived at the village of tunnachemootoolt, the cheeif at whos lodge we had left a flag last fall. this flag was now displayed on a staff placed at no great distance from the lodge. underneath the flag the cheif met my friend capt. c. who was in front and conducted him about yds. to a place on the bank of the creek where he requested we should encamp; i came up in a few minutes and we collected the cheifs and men of consideration smoked with them and stated our situation with rispect to provision. the cheif spoke to his people and they produced us about bushels of the quawmas roots dryed, four cakes of the bread of cows and a dryed salmon trout. we thanked them for this store of provision but informed them that our men not being accustomed to live on roots alone we feared it would make them sick, to obviate which we proposed exchangeing a good horse in reather low order for a young horse in tolerable order with a view to kill. the hospitality of the cheif revolted at the aydea of an exchange, he told us that his young men had a great abundance of young horses and if we wished to eat them we should by furnished with as many as we wanted. accordingly they soon produced us two fat young horses one of which we killed, the other we informed them we would pospone killing untill we had consumed the one already killed. this is a much greater act of hospitality than we have witnessed from any nation or tribe since we have passed the rocky mountains. in short be it spoken to their immortal honor it is the only act which deserves the appellation of hospitallity which we have witnessed in this quarter. we informed these people that we were hungry and fatiegued at this moment, that when we had eaten and refreshed ourselves we would inform them who we were, from whence we had come and the objects of our resurches. a principal cheif by name ho-hast,-ill-pilp arrived with a party of fifty men mounted on eligant horses. he had come on a visit to us from his village which is situated about six miles distant near the river. we invited this man into our circle and smoked with him, his retinue continued on horseback at a little distance. after we had eaten a few roots we spoke to them as we had promised; and gave tinnachemootoolt and hohastillpilp each a medal; the former one of the small size with the likeness of mr. jefferson and the latter one of the sewing medals struck in the presidency of washington, we explained to them the desighn and the importance of medals in the estimation of the whites as well as the red men who had been taught their value. the cheif had a large conic lodge of leather erected for our reception and a parsel of wood collected and laid at the door after which he invited capt. c. and myself to make that lodge our home while we remained with him. we had a fire lighted in this lodge and retired to it accompanyed by the cheifs and as many of the considerate men as could croud in a circcle within it. here after we had taken a repast on some horsebeef we resumed our council with the indians which together with smoking the pipe occupyed the ballance of the evening. i was surprised to find on decending the hills of commearp cr. to find that there had been no snow in the bottoms of that stream. it seems that the snow melted in falling and decended here in rain while it snowed on the plains. the hills are about six hundred feet high about one fourth of which distance the snow had decended and still lay on the sides of the hills. as these people had been liberal with is with rispect to provision i directed the men not to croud their lodge surch of food in the manner hunger has compelled them to do at most lodges we have passed, and which the twisted hair had informed me was disgreeable to the natives. but their previous want of hospitality had induced us to consult their enclinations but little and suffer our men to obtain provision from them on the best terms they could. the village of the broken arm as i have heretofore termed it consists of one house only which is feet in length built in the usual form of sticks matts and dry grass. it contains twenty four fires and about double that number of families. from appearances i presume they could raise fighting men. the noise of their women pounding roots reminds me of a nail factory. the indians seem well pleased, and i am confident that they are not more so than our men who have their somachs once more well filled with horsebeef and mush of the bread of cows.--the house of coventry is also seen here.- [clark, may , ] saturday th of may this morning the snow continued falling untill / past a m when it seased. the air keen and cold the snow inches deep on the plain. we collected our horses and after takeing a scanty brackfast of roots, we set out for the village of the chief with a flag, and proceeded on through an open plain. the road was slipry and the snow cloged and caused the horses to trip very frequently. the mud at heads of the streams which we passed was deep and well supplied with the car mash. drewyer turned off the road to hunt near the river to our lef and did not join us to day. at p m we arrived at the village of tin nach-e-moo-toolt the chief whome we had left a flag. this flag was hoisted on a pole unde the flag the chief met me and conducted me to a spot near a small run about paces from his lodges where he requested me to halt which i did. soon after cap lewis who was in the rear came up and we smoked with and told this chief our situation in respect to provisions. they brought foward about bushels of quawmash cakes of bread made of roots and a dried fish. we informed the chief that our party was not accustomed to eate roots without flesh & proposed to exchange some of our oald horses for young ones to eate. they said that they would not exchange horses, but would furnish us with such as we wished, and produced one of which we killed and informd. them that we did not wish to kill the other at this time. we gave medals to the broken arm or tin-nach-e-moo tolt and hoh-halt-ill-pitp two principal chiefs of the chopunnish natn. and was informed that there was one other great chief (in all ) who had but one eye. he would be here tomorrow. a large lodge of leather was pitched and capt. lewis and my self was envited into it. we entered and the chief and principal men came into the lodge and formed a circle a parcel of wood was collected and laid at the dore and a fire made in this conic lodge before we entered it. the chief requested that we might make the lodge our homes while we remained with him. here after we had taken a repast on roots & horse beef we resumed our council with the indians which together with smokeing took up the ballance of the evening. i was supprised to find decending the hill to commearp creek to find that there had been no snow in the bottoms of that stream. it seams that the snow melted in falling and decended here in rain while it snowed in the plain. the hills are about eight hundred feet high about / of which distance the snow had decended and still lay on the sides of the hill. as those people had been liberal i directed the men not to croud their lodge in serch of food the manner hunger has compelled them to do, at most lodges we have passed, and which the twisted hair had informed us was disagreeable to the nativs. but their previous want of hospitality had enduced us to consult their enclinations but little and suffer our men to obtain provisions from them on the best terms they could. the village of the broken arm consists of one house or lodge only which is feet in length built in the usial form of sticks, mats and dry grass. it contains fires and about double that number of families. from appearance i prosume they could raise fighting men. the noise of their women pounding the cows roots remind me of a nail factory. the indians appear well pleased, and i am confident that they are not more so than our men who have their stomach once more well filled with horse beef and the bread of cows. those people has shewn much greater acts of hospitallity than we have witnessed from any nation or tribe since we have passed the rocky mountains. in short be it spoken to their immortal honor it is the only act which diserves the appelation of hospitallity which we have witnessed in this quarter. [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . the last evening we were much crouded with the indians in our lodge, the whole floor of which was covered with their sleeping carcases. we arrose early and took breakfast. at a.m. a cheif of great note among these people arrived from his village or lodge on the s. side of lewis's river. this is a stout fellow of good countenance about years of age and has lost the left eye. his name is yoom-park'-kar-tim. to this man we gave a medal of the smal kind. those with the likeness of mr. jefferson have all been disposed of except one of the largest size which we reserve for some great cheif on the yellow rock river. we now pretty fully informed ourselves that tunnachemootoolt, neeshneparkkeeook, yoomparkkartim and hohastillpilp were the principal cheif of the chopunnish nation and ranked in the order here mentioned; as all those cheifs were present in our lodge we thought it a favourable time to repeat what had been said yesterday and to enter more minutely into the views of our government with rispect to the inhabitants of this western part of the continent, their intention of establishing trading houses for their releif, their wish to restore peace and harmony among the natives, the strength power and wealth of our nation &c. to this end we drew a map of the country with a coal on a mat in their way and by the assistance of the snake boy and our interpretters were enabled to make ourselves understood by them altho it had to pass through the french, minnetare, shoshone and chopunnish languages. the interpretation being tedious it ocupyed nearly half the day before we had communicated to them what we wished. they appeared highly pleased. after this council was over we amused ourselves with shewing them the power of magnetism, the spye glass, compass, watch, air-gun and sundry other articles equally novel and incomprehensible to them. they informed us that after we had left the minnetares last spring that three of their people had visited that nation and that they had informed them of us and had told them that we had such things in our possession but that they could not place confidence in the information untill they had now witnessed it themselves.--a young man, son of a conspicuous cheif among these people who was killed not long since by the minnetares of fort de prarie, brought and presented us a very fine mare and colt. he said he had opened his ears to our councils and would observe them strictly, and that our words had made his heart glad. he requested that we would accept this mear and colt which he gave in token of his determination to pursue our advise.--about p.m. drewyer arrived with deer which he had killed. he informed us that the snow still continued to cover the plain. many of the natives apply to us for medical aid which we gave them cheerfully so far as our skill and store of medicine would enable us. schrofela, ulsers, rheumatism, soar eyes, and the loss of the uce of their limbs are the most common cases among them. the latter case is not very common but we have seen thee instances of it among the chopunnish. it is a very extraordinary complaint. a cheif of considerable note at this place has been afflicted with it for three years, he is incapable of moving a single limb but lies like a corps in whatever position he is placed, yet he eats heartily, digests his food perfectly, injoys his understanding, his pulse are good, and has retained his flesh almost perfectly, in short were it not that he appears a little pale from having lain so long in the shade he might well be taken for a man in good health. i suspect that their confinement to a diet of roots may give rise to all those disorders except the rheumatism & soar eyes, and to the latter of these, the state of debility incident to a vegetable diet may measureably contribute.--the chopunnish notwithstanding they live in the crouded manner before mentioned are much more clenly in their persons and habitations than any nation we have seen since we left the ottoes on the river platte.--the twisted hair brought us six of our horses. [clark, may , ] sunday th may some little rain last night. we were crouded in the lodge with indians who continued all night and this morning great numbers were around us. the one eyed chief yoom-park-kar-tim arived and we gave him a medal of the small size and spoke to the indians through a snake boy shabono and his wife. we informed them who we were, where we came from & our intentions towards them, which pleased them very much. a young man son to the great chief who was killed not long sence by the indians from the n. e. brought an elegant mare and coalt and gave us. and said he had opend. his ears to what we had said and his heart was glad and requested us to take this mare and coalt as a token of his deturmination to pursue our councels &c. the twisted hair brough six of our horses all in fine order. great numbers of indians apply to us for medical aide which we gave them cherfully so far as our skill and store of medicine would enable us. schrofla, ulsers, rhumitism, sore eyes, and the loss of the use of their limbs are the most common cases among them. the latter case is not very common but we have seen instances of it among the chopunnish. a very extroadinery complnt. about p.m. geo. drewyer arived with deer which he had killed. he informed us that the snow still continued to cover the plains. we are now pretty well informed that tunnachemootoolt, hohastillpilp, neshneparkkeeook, and yoomparkkartim were the principal chiefs of the chopunnish nation and ranked in the order here mentioned; as all those chiefs were present in our lodge we thought it a favourable time to repeet what had been said and to enter more minutely into the views of our government with respect to the inhabitents of this western part of the continent, their intention of establishing tradeing houses for their relief, their wish to restore peace and harmony among the nativs, the strength welth and powers of our nation &c. to this end we drew a map of the country with a coal on a mat in their way, and by the assistance of the snake boy and our intrepeters were enabled to make ourselves under stood by them altho it had to pass through french, minnetare, shoshone and chopunnish languages. the interpretation being tegious it occupied the greater part of the day, before we had communicated to them what we wished. they appeared highly pleased. after this council was over we amused ourselves with shewing them the power of magnetism, the spye glass, compass, watch, air gun and sundery other articles equally novel and incomprehensible to them. they informed us that after we left the menetares last spring that of their people had visited that nation, and that they had informed them of us, and had told them that we had such things in our possession but that they could not place confidence in the information untill they had now witnessed it themselves in the evening a man was brought in a robe by four indians and laid down near me. they informed me that this man was a chief of considerable note who has been in the situation i see him for years. this man is incapable of moveing a single limb but lies like a corps in whatever position he is placed, yet he eats hartily, dejests his food perfectly, enjoys his under standing, his pulse are good, and has retained his flesh almost perfectly; in short were it not that he appears a little pale from having been so long in the shade, he might well be taken for a man in good health. i suspect that their confinement to a deet of roots may give rise to all the disordes of the nativs of this quarter except the rhumitism & sore eyes, and to the latter of those, the state of debility incident to a vegitable diet may measureably contribute.-. the chopunnish not withstanding they live in the crouded manner before mentioned are much more clenly in their persons and habitations than any nation we have seen sence we left the illinois. these nativs take their fish in the following manner to wit. a stand small stage or warf consisting of sticks and projecting about feet into the river and about feet above the water on the extremity of this the fisherman stands with his guilt or a skooping net which differ but little in their form those commonly used in our country it is formed thus with those nets they take the suckers and also the salmon trout and i am told the salmon also. [lewis, may , ] monday may th . this morning a great number of indians collected about us as usual. we took an early breakfast and capt. c. began to administer eyewater to a croud of at least applicants. the indians held a council among themselves this morning with rispect to the subjects on which we had spoken to them yesterday. the result as we learnt was favourable. they placed confidence in the information they had received and resolved to pusue our advise. after this council was over the principal cheif or the broken arm, took the flour of the roots of cows and thickened the scope in the kettles and baskets of all his people, this being ended he made a harangue the purport of which was making known the deliberations of their council and impressing the necessity of unanimity among them and a strict attention to the resolutions which had been agreed on in councill; he concluded by inviting all such men as had resolved to abide by the decrees of the council to come and eat and requested such as would not be so bound to shew themselves by not partaking of the feast. i was told by one of our men who was present, that there was not a dissenting voice on this great national question, but all swallowed their objections if any they had, very cheerfully with their mush. during the time of this loud and animated harangue of the cheif the women cryed wrung their hands, toar their hair and appeared to be in the utmost distress. after this cerimony was over the cheifs and considerate men came in a body to where we were seated at a little distance from our tent, and two young men at the instance of the nation, presented us each with a fine horse. we caused the cheifs to be seated and gave them each a flag a pound of powder and fifty balls. we also gave powder and ball to the two young men who had presented the horses. neeshneeparkkeeook gave drewyer a good horse. the band of ten-nach-e-moo-toolt have six guns which they acquired from the minnetaries and appear anxious to obtain arms and amunition. after they had received those presents the cheifs requested we would retire to the tent whither they accompanied us, they now informed us that they wished to give an answer to what we had said to them the preceeding day, but also informed us that there were many of their people waiting in great pain at that moment for the aid of our medecine. it was agreed between capt. c. and myself that he should attend the sick as he was their favorite phisician while i would here and answer the cheifs. the father of hohastillpilp was the orrator on this occasion. he observed that they had listened with attention to our advise and that the whole nation were resolved to follow it, that they had only one heart and one tongue on this subject. he said they were fully sensible of the advantages of peace and that the ardent desire which they had to cultivate peace with their neighbours had induced his nation early last summer to send a pipe by of their brave men to the shoshonees on the s. side of lewis's river in the plains of columbia, that these people had murdered these men, which had given rise to the war expedition against that nation last fall; that their warriors had fallen in with the shoshonees at that time and had killed of them with the loss of only on their part; that this had satisfyed the blood of their disceased friends and that they would never again make war against the shoshonees, but were willing to receive them as friends. that they valued the lives of their young men too much to wish them to be engaged in war. that as we had not yet seen the black foot indians and the minnetares of fort de prarie they did not think it safe to venture over to the plains of the missouri, where they would fondly go provided those nations would not kill them. that when we had established our forts on the missouri as we had promised, they would come over and trade for arms amunition &c. and live about us. that it would give them much pleasure to be at peace with these nations altho they had shed much of their blood. he said that the whitemen might be assured of their warmest attatchment and that they would alwas give them every assistance in their power; that they were poor but their hearts were good. he said that some of their young men would go over with us to the missouri and bring them the news as we wished, and that if we could make a peace between themselves and their enimies on the other side of the mountain their nation would go over to the missouri in the latter end of the summer. on the subject of one of their cheifs accompanying us to the land of the whitemen they could not yet determine, but that they would let us know before we left them. that the snow was yet so deep in the mountain if we attempted to pass we would certainly perish, and advised us to remain untill after the next full moon when the said the snow would disappear and we could find grass for our horses.--when the oald man had concluded i again spoke to them at some length with which they appeared highly gratifyed. after smoking the pipe which was about p.m. they gave us another fat horse to kill which was thankfully received by the party. capt c. now joined us having just made an end of his medical distrabution. we gave a phiol of eyewater to the broken arm, and requested that he would wash the eyes of such as might apply for that purpose, and that when it was exhausted we would replenish the phiol. he was much pleased with this present. we now gave the twisted hair one gun and a hundred balls and lbs. of powder in part for his attention to our horses and promised the other gun and a similar quantity of powder and lead when we received the ballance of our horses. this gun we had purchased of the indians below for elkskins. this evening three other of our original stock of horses were produced, they were in fine order as well as those received yesterday. we have now six horses out only, as our old guide toby and his son each took a horse of ours when they returned last fall. these horses are said to be on the opposite side of the river at no great distance from this place. we gave the young men who had delivered us the two horses this morning some ribbon, blue wampum and vermillion, one of them gave me a hansome pare of legings and the broken arm gave capt. c. his shirt, in return for which we gave him a linin shirt.--we informed the indians of our wish to pass the river and form a camp at some proper place to fish, hunt, and graize our horses untill the snows of the mountains would permit us to pass. they recommended a position a few miles distant from hence on the opposite side of the river, but informed us that there was no canoe at this place by means of which we could pass our baggage over the river, but promised to send a man early in the morning for one which they said would meet us at the river by noon the next day. the indians formed themselves this evening into two large parties and began to gamble for their beads and other ornaments. the game at which they played was that of hiding a stick in their hands which they frequently changed acompanying their opperations with a song. this game seems common to all the nations in this country, and dose not differ from that before discribed of the shoshonees on the s. e. branch of lewis's river. we are anxious to procure some guides to accompany us on the different routs we mean to take from travellers rest; for this purpose we have turned our attention to the twisted hair who has several sons grown who are well acquainted as well as himself with the various roads in those mountains. we invited the old fellow to remove his family and live near us while we remained; he appeared gratifyed with this expression of our confidence and promissed to do so.--shot at a mark with the indians, struck the mark with balls. distn. yds. [clark, may , ] monday th may a fine morning great number of indians flock about us as usial. after brackfast i began to administer eye water and in a fiew minits had near applicants with sore eyes, and maney others with other complaints most common rhumatic disorders & weaknesses in the back and loins perticularly the womin. the indians had a grand council this morning after which we were presented each with a horse by two young men at the instance of the nation. we caused the chiefs to be seated and gave then each a flag a pint of powder and balls to the two young men who had presented the horses we also gave powder and ball. the broken arm or tun na the mootoolt pulled off his leather shirt and gave me. i in return gave him a shirt. we retired into the lodge and the natives spoke to the following purpote, i e they had listened to our advice and that the whole nation were deturmined to follow it, that they had only one heart and one tongue on this subject. explained the cause of the war with the shoshones. they wished to be at peace with all nations & some of their men would accompany us to the missouri &c. &c. as a great number of men women & children were wateing and requesting medical assistance maney of them with the most simple complaints which could be easily releived, independent of maney with disorders intirely out of the power of medison all requesting some thing, we agreed that i should administer and capt l--to here and answer the indians. i was closely employed until p.m. administering eye water to about grown persons. some simple cooling medicenes to the disabled chief, to several women with rhumatic effections & a man who had a swelled hip &c. &c-. in the evening three of our horses were brought all in fine order. we have now only six remaining out. we gave to each a chief a pint of powder and balls a small flag and to the two young men who delivered us the horses we gave also powder & ball and some blue wompom & ribin. all appeared much pleased-. those people are much affraid of the black foot indians, and the big bellies of fort deprarie establishment. those indians kill great numbers of this nation whenever they pass over to hunt on the missouri. one of our men bought a horse for a fiew small articles of an indian. the indians brought up a fat horse and requested us to kill and eate it as they had nothing else to offer us to eate. the cut nose made a present of a horse to drewyer at the same time the two horses were offered to capt. lewis & my self. the horses of those people are large well formed and active. generally in fine order. sore backs caused by rideing them either with out saddles, or with pads which does not prevent the wate of the rider pressing imedeately on the back bone, and weathers of the horse. the indians formed two partis and plaied for their heeds. we gave the twisted hair a gun, powder & ball in part for takeing care of our horses &c. and wish him to camp near us untill we crossed the mountains which he agreeed to do, and was much pleased we have turned our attentions towards the twisted hair who has several sons grown who are well acquainted as well as himself with the various roads through the rocky mountains and will answer very well as guides to us through those mountains-in the council to day the father of hohastillpelp said the chopunnish were fully convinced of the advantages of peace and ardently wished to cultivate peace with their neighbours. early last summer of their brave men were sent with a pipe to the shoshones on the s e. fork of lewis's river in the plains of columbia, their pipe was disreguarded and their men murdered, which had given rise to the war expedition against that nation last fall; that their warriers had fallen in with and killed of the shoshones with the loss of men only on their part; that this had satisfied the blood of the deceased friends and they would never again make war against the shoshones, but were willing to receve them as friends-. that as we had not seen the indians towards fort de prere they did not think it safe to venture over to the plains of the missouri, where they would fondly go provided those nations would not kill them. i gave a vial of eye water to the broken arm for to wash the eyes of all who applied to him and told him when it was out we would replenish it again [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . this morning capt. c. as usual was busily engaged with his patients untill eleven ock. at p.m. we collected our horses and set out for the river escorted by a number of the natives on horseback. we followed the creek downwards about two miles, passing a stout branch at m. which flowed in on the wright. our course s. e. we now entered an extensive open bottom of the kooskooske r. through which we passed nearly n. about / miles and halted on the bank of the river at the place appointed to meet the canoe. the man had set out early this morning for the purpose but had not yet arrived with the canoe we therefore unloaded our horses and turned them out to graize. as the canoe did not arrive untill after sunset we remained here all night; a number of the natives continued with us. in the evening we tryed the speed of several of our horses. these horses are active strong and well formed. these people have immence numbers of them , or a hundred hed is not unusual for an individual to possess. the chopunnish are in general stout well formed active men. they have high noses and many of them on the acqueline order with cheerfull and agreeable countenances; their complexions are not remarkable. in common with other savage nations of america they extract their beards but the men do not uniformly extract the hair below, this is more particularly confined to the females. i observed several men among them whom i am convinced if they had shaved their beards instead of extracting it would have been as well supplyed in this particular as any of my countrymen. they appear to be cheerfull but not gay; they are fond of gambling and of their amusements which consist principally in shooting their arrows at a bowling target made of willow bark, and in riding and exercising themselves on horseback, racing &c. they are expert marksmen and good riders. they do not appear to be so much devoted to baubles as most of the nations we have met with, but seem anxious always to obtain articles of utility, such as knives, axes, tommahawks, kettles blankets and mockerson alls. blue beads however may form an exception to this remark; this article among all the nations of this country may be justly compared to goald or silver among civilized nations. they are generally well cloathed in their stile. their dress consists of a long shirt which reaches to the middle of thye, long legings which reach as high as the waist, mockersons, and robes. these are formed of various skins and are in all rispects like those particularly discribed of the shoshones. their women also dress like the shoshones. their ornaments consist of beads shells and peices of brass variously attatched to their dress, to their ears arrond their necks wrists arms &c. a bando of some kind usually surrounds the head, this is most frequently the skin of some fir animal as the fox otter &c. tho they have them also of dressed skin without the hair. the ornament of the nose is a single shell of the wampum. the pirl and beads are suspended from the ears. beads are woarn arround their wrists necks and over their sholders crosswise in the form of a double sash. the hair of the men is cewed in two rolls which hang on each side in front of the body as before discribed of other inhabitants of the columbia. collars of bears claws are also common; but the article of dress on which they appear to bstow most pains and ornaments is a kind of collar or brestplate; this is most commonly a strip of otterskin of about six inches wide taken out of the center of the skin it's whole length including the head. this is dressed with the hair on; a hole is cut lengthwise through the skin near the head of the animal sufficiently large to admit the head of the person to pass. thus it is placed about the neck and hangs in front of the body the tail frequently reaching below their knees; on this skin in front is attatched peices of pirl, beads, wampum peices of red cloth and in short whatever they conceive most valuable or ornamental. i observed a tippit woarn by hohastillpilp, which was formed of human scalps and ornamented with the thumbs and fingers of several men which he had slain in battle. their women brade their hair in two tresses which hang in the same position of those of the men. they also wear a cap or cup on the head formed of beargrass and cedar bark. the men also frequently attatch some small ornament to a small plat of hair on the center of the crown of their heads. [clark, may , ] tuesday th may . a fine morning i administered to the sick and gave directions. we collected all our horses and set out at p.m. and proceeded down the creek to the flat head river a short distance below the enterance of the creek at the distance of miles from the village. at this place we expected to have met the canoe which was promised to be furnished us, and for which an indian set out very early this morning. we halted at the flat head river unloaded our horses and turnd. them out to feed. several indians accompanied us to the river and continued untill evening. the man who set out early this morning to the forks of this river for a canoe and was to meet us at this place. as the canoe did not arive untill after sun set we remained all night; in the evening we tried the speed of several of our horses. these horses are strong active and well formed. those people have emence numbers of them or or a hundred head is not unusial for an individual to possess. the chopunnish are in general stout well formd active men. they have high noses and maney of them on the acqueline order with chearfull and agreeable countinances; their complexions are not remarkable. in common with other indian nations of america they extract their beard, but the men do not uniformly extract the hair below, this is more particularly confined to the females. they appear to be cheerfull but not gay; they are fond of gambling and of their amusements which consists principally in shooting their arrows at a targit made of willow bark, and in rideing and exersiseing themselves on horsback, raceing &c. they are expirt marks men & good riders. they do not appear to be so much devoted to baubles as most of the nations we have met with, but seen anxious always to riceve articles of utility, such as knives, axes, kittles, blankets & mockerson awls. blue beeds however may form an exception to this remark; this article among all the nations of this country may be justly compared to gold and silver among civilized nations. they are generally well clothed in their stile. their dress consists of a long shirt which reaches to the middle of leg, long legins which reach as high as the waist, mockersons & robe. those are formed of various skins and are in all respects like those of the shoshone. their orniments consists of beeds, shells and peices of brass variously attached to their dress, to their ears arround theire necks wrists arms &c. a band of some kind usially serounds the head, this is most frequently the skin of some fer animal as the fox otter &c.; i observed a tippet worn by hohastillpilp, which was formed of humane scalps and ornemented with the thumbs and fingers of several men which he had slain in battle. they also were a coller or breast plate of otter skin orniminted with shells beeds & quills. the women brade their hair in two tresses which hang in the same position of those of the men, which ar cewed and hang over each sholder. &c [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th . the morning was fair, we arrose early and dispatched a few of our hunters to the opposite side of the river, and employed a part of the men in transporting our baggage to the opposite shore wile others were directed to collect the horses; at a.m. we had taken our baggage over and collected our horses, we then took breakfast, after which we drove our horses into the river which they swam without accedent and all arrived safe on the opposite shore. the river is yds. wide at this place and extreemly rapid. tho it may be safely navigated at this season, as the water covers all the rocks which lie in it's bed to a considerable debth. we followed our horses and again collected them, after which we removed our baggage to a position which we had previously selected for our permanent camp about half a mile below. this was a very eligible spot for defence it had been an ancient habitation of the indians; was sunk about feet in the ground and raised arround it's outer edge about three / feet with a good wall of eath. the whole was a circle of about feet in diameter. arround this we formed our tents of sticks and grass facing outwards and deposited our baggage within the sunken space under a shelter which we constructed for the purpose. our situation was within paces of the river in an extentsive level bottom thinly timbered with the longleafed pine. here we are in the vicinity of the best hunting grounds from indian information, are convenient to the salmon which we expect daily and have an excellent pasture for our horses. the hills to the e and north of us are high broken and but partially timbered; the soil is rich and affords fine grass. in short as we are compelled to reside a while in this neighbourhood i feel perfectly satisfyed with our position.immediately after we had passed the river tunnachemootoolt and hosastillpilp arrived on the south side with a party of a douzen of their young men; they began to sing in token of friendship as is their custom, and we sent the canoe over for them. they left their horses and came over accompanyed by several of their party among whom were the young men who had presented us with two horses in behalf of the nation; one of these was the son of tunnachemootoolt and the other the son of the cheif who was killed by the minnetares of fort de prarie last year and the same who had given us the mare and colt. we received them at our camp and smoked with them; after some hours hohastillpilp with much cerimony presented me with a very eligant grey gelding which he had brought for that purpose. i gave him in return a handkercheif balls and lbs. of powder. with which he appeared perfectly satisfyed. collins killed two bear this morning and was sent with two others in quest of the meat; with which they returned in the evening; the mail bear was large and fat the female was of moderate size and reather meagre. we had the fat bear fleaced in order to reserve the oil for the mountains. both these bear were of the speceis common to the upper part of the missouri. they may be called white black grzly brown or red bear for they are found of all those colours. perhaps it would not be unappropriate to designate them the variagated bear. we gave the indians who were about in number half the female bear, with the sholder head and neck of the other. this was a great treat to those poor wretches who scarcely taist meat once a month. they immediately prepared a brisk fire of dry wood on which they threw a parsel of smooth stones from the river, when the fire had birnt down and heated the stones they placed them level and laid on a parsel of pine boughs, on these they laid the flesh of the bear in flitches, placing boughs between each course of meat and then covering it thickly with pine boughs; after this they poared on a small quantity of water and covered the whoe over with earth to the debth of four inches. in this situation they suffered it to remain about hours when they took it out. i taisted of this meat and found it much more tender than that which we had roasted or boiled, but the strong flavor of the pine distroyed it for my pallate. labuish returned late in the evening and informed us that he had killed a female bear and two large cubbs, he brought with him several large dark brown pheasants which he had also killed. shannon also returned with a few pheasants and two squirrells. we have found our stone horses so troublesome that we indeavoured to exchange them with the chopunnish for mears or gelings but they will not exchange altho we offer for one; we came to a resolution to castrate them and began the operation this evening one of the indians present offered his services on this occasion. he cut them without tying the string of the stone as is usual, and assures us that they will do much better in that way; he takes care to scrape the string very clean and to seperate it from all the adhereing veigns before he cuts it. we shall have an opportunity of judging whether this is a method preferable to that commonly practiced as drewyer has gelded two in the usual way. the indians after their feast took a pipe or two with us and retired to rest much pleased with their repast. these bear are tremendious animals to them; they esteem the act of killing a bear equally great with that of an enimy in the field of action.--i gave the claws of those which collins killed to hohastillpilp. [clark, may , ] wednesday th of may a fine day. we had all our horses collected by a.m. dureing the time we had all our baggage crossed over the flat head river which is rapid and about yards wide. after the baggage was over to the north side we crossed our horss without much trouble and hobbled them in the bottom after which we moved a short distance below to a convenient situation and formed a camp around a very conveniant spot for defence where the indiands had formerly a house under ground and hollow circler spot of about feet diamieter feet below the serfce and a bank of feet above this situation we concluded would be seffiently convenient to hunt the wood lands for bear & deer and for the salmon fish which we were told would be here in a fiew days and also a good situation for our horses. the hills to the e. & n. of us are high broken & but partially timbered; the soil rich and affords fine grass. in short as we are compelled to reside a while in this neighbourhood i feel perfectly satisfied with our position. imediately after we had crossed the river the chief called the broken arm or tin nach-e-moo toll another principal chief hoh-host'-ill-pitp arived on the opposite side and began to sing. we sent the canoe over and those chiefs, the son of the broken arm and the sone of a great chief who was killed last year by the big bellies of sas kas she win river. those two young men were the two whome gave capt lewis and my self each a horse with great serimony in behalf of the nation a fiew days ago, and the latter a most elligant mare & colt the morning after we arived at the village. hohast ill pilt with much serimoney presented capt. lewis with an elegant gray horse which he had brought for that purpose. capt lewis gave him in return a handkerchief two hundred balls and four pouds of powder with which he appeared perfictly satisfyed, and appeared much pleased. soon after i had crossed the river and during the time cap lewis was on the opposit side john collins whome we had sent out verry early this morning with labiech and shannon on the north side of the river to hunt, came in and informed me, that he had killed two bear at about miles distant on the up lands. one of which was in good order. i imediately depatched jo. fields & p. wiser with him for the flesh. we made several attempts to exchange our stalions for geldings or mars without success we even offered two for one. those horses are troublesom and cut each other very much and as we can't exchange them we think it best to castrate them and began the opperation this evening one of the indians present offered his services on this occasion. he cut them without tying the string of the stone as is usial. he craped it very clean & seperate it before he cut it. about meredian shannon came in with two grows & squireles common to this country. his mockersons worn out obliged to come in early. collins returned in the evening with the two bears which he had killed in the morning one of them an old hee was in fine order, the other a female with cubs was meagure. we gave the indians about us in number two sholders and a ham of the bear to eate which they cooked in the following manner. to wit on a brisk fire of dryed wood they threw a parcel of small stones from the river, when the fire had burnt down and heated the stone, they placed them level and laid on a parsel of pine boughs, on those they laid the flesh of the bear in flitches, placeing boughs between each course of meat and then covering it thickly with pine boughs; after this they poared on a small quantity of water, and covered the whole over with earth to the debth of inches. in this situation they suffered it to remain about hours when they took it out fit for use. at oclock p m labiech returned and informed us that he had killed a female bear and two cubs, at a long distance from camp towards the mountains. he brought in two large dark brown pheasents which he had also killed shannon also returned also with a few black pheasents and two squirels which he had killed in the wood land towards collins creek. this nation esteem the killing of one of those tremendeous animals (the bear) equally great with that of an enemy in the field of action-. we gave the claws of those bear which collins had killed to hohastillpelp. [lewis, may , ] thursday may th . this morning early reubin fields in surching for his horse saw a large bear at no great distance from camp; several men went in pursuit of the bear, they followed his trail a considerable distance but could not come up with him. labuish and shannon set out with a view to establish a hunting camp and continuing several days, two others accompanyed them in order to bring in the three bear which labuish had killed. drewyer and cruzatte were sent up the river; sheilds r. feilds and willard hunted in the hills near the camp they returned in the evening with a few pheasants only and reported that there was much late appearance of bear, but beleived that they had gone off to a greater distance. at a.m. the men returned with the bear which labuich had killed. these bear gave me a stronger evidence of the various coloured bear of this country being one speceis only, than any i have heretofore had. the female was black with a considerable proportion of white hairs intermixed and a white spot on the breast, one of the young bear was jut black and the other of a light redish brown or bey colour. the poil of these bear were infinitely longer finer and thicker than the black bear their tallons also longer and more blont as if woarn by diging roots. the white and redish brown or bey coloured bear i saw together on the missouri; the bey and grizly have been seen and killed together here for these were the colours of those which collins killed yesterday. in short it is not common to find two bear here of this speceis precisely of the same colour, and if we were to attempt to distinguish them by their collours and to denominate each colour a distinct speceis we should soon find at least twenty. some bear nearly white have also been seen by our hunters at this place. the most striking differences between this speceis of bear and the common black bear are that the former are larger, have longer tallons and tusks, prey more on other animals, do not lie so long nor so closely in winter quarters, and will not climb a tree tho eversoheardly pressed. the variagated bear i beleive to be the same here with those on the missouri but these are not as ferocious as those perhaps from the circumstance of their being compelled from the scarcity of game in this quarter to live more on roots and of course not so much in the habit of seizing and devouring living animals. the bear here are far from being as passive as the common black bear they have attacked and faught our hunters already but not so fiercely as those of the missouri. there are also some of the common black bear in this neighbourhood. frazier, j. fields and wiser complain of violent pains in their heads, and howard and york are afflicted with the cholic. i attribute these complaints to their diet of roots which they have not been accustomed. tunnachemootoolt and of his young men left us this morning on their return to their village. hohastillpilp and three old men remained untill in the evening when they also departed. at p.m. a party of natives on horseback passed our camp on a hunting excurtion; they were armed with bows and arrows and had decoys for the deer these are the skins of the heads and upper portions of the necks of the deer extended in their natural shape by means of a fraim of little sticks placed within. the hunter when he sees a deer conceals himself and with his hand gives to the decoy the action of a deer at feed; and thus induces the deer within arrowshot; in this mode the indians hunt on foot in the woodlands where they cannot pursue the deer with horses which is their favorite method when the ground will permit.--we had all of our horses driven together today near our camp, which we have directed shall be done each day in order to familiarize them to each other. several of the horses which were gelded yesterday are much swolen particularly those cut by drewyer, the others bled most but appear much better today than the others. we had our baggage better secured under a good shelter formed of grass; we also strengthened our little fortification with pine poles and brush, and the party formed themselves very comfortable tents with willow poles and grass in the form of the orning of a waggon, these were made perfectly secure as well from the heat of the sun as from rain. we had a bower constructed for ourselves under which we set by day and sleep under the part of an old sail now our only tent as the leather lodge has become rotten and unfit for use. about noon the sun shines with intense heat in the bottoms of the river. the air on the tom of the river hills or high plain forms a distinct climate, the air is much colder, and vegitation is not as forward by at least or perhaps days. the rains which fall in the river bottoms are snows on the plain. at the distance of fifteen miles from the river and on the eastern border of this plain the rocky mountains commence and present us with winter it it's utmost extreem. the snow is yet many feet deep even near the base of these mountains; here we have summer spring and winter within the short space of or miles.--hohastillpilp and the three old men being unable to pass the river as the canoe had been taken away, returned to our camp late in the evening and remained with us all night. [clark, may , ] thursday th of may this morning reubin fields went out to hunt his horse very early and saw a large bear and no great distance from camp. several men went in pursute of the bear, and prosued his trail some time without gitting sight of this monster. shannon went out with labeach to hunt and continue out days, gibson and hall accompanied them for the meat labeech killed yesterday which they brought in by a m. this morning the female was black with white hares intermixed and a white spot on the breast the cubs were about the size of a dog also pore. one of them very black and the other a light redish brown or bey colour. these bear give me a stronger evidence of the various coloured bear of this country being one specie only, than any i have heretofore had. several other colours have been seen. drewyer and peter crusat went up the river. john shields, r. fields and willard hunted in the hills near camp and returned before p. m without killing any thing except a fiew grows. they saw but few deer. some bear sign. frazur jo. fields and peter wizer complain of a violent pain in their heads. howard and york with violent cholicks. the cause of those disorders we are unable to account for. their diet and the sudin change of climate must contribute. the great chief tin nach-e-moo-tolt (or broken arm) and of the young men of his nation left us today about oclock and crossed the river to his village hoh-hast-ill-pilt and old men continued with us untill about p. m when they left us and returnd. to their village. a party of indians passed our camp about p.m. on their way to the leavel uplands to run and kill the deer with their horses and bows and arrows. some of them were also provided with deers heads cased for the purpose of decoying the deer. those men continued withus but a fiew minits and proceeded on. those people hunt most commonly on horse back seround the deer or goat which they find in the open plains & kill them with their arrows. tho they sometimes hunt the deer on foot & decoy them. we had all of our horses drove together to day with a view to fermilurize them to each other. those that were cut yesterday are stiff and several of them much swelled. we had all our baggage secured and covered with a rouf of straw. our little fortification also completely secured with brush around which our camp is formed. the greater part of our security from the rains &c. is the grass which is formed in a kind of ruff so as to turn the rain completely and is much the best tents we have. as the days are worm &c. we have a bowry made to write under which we find not only comfortable but necessary, to keep off the intence heet of the sun which has great effect in this low bottom. on the high plains off the river the climate is entirely different cool. some snow on the north hill sides near the top and vegetation near weeks later than in the river bottoms. and the rocky mountains imedeately in view covered several say & feet deep with snow. here i behold three different climats within a fiew miles a little before dark hoh-hast-ill-pilt and the old men & one other returned to our camp and informed us the canoe was a great way off and they could not cross this evening. [lewis, may , ] friday may th . drewyer's horse left his camp last night and was brought to us this morning by an indian who informed us he had found him a considerable distance towards the mountains. hohastillpilp and all the natives left us about noon and informed us that they were going up the river some distance to a place at which they expected to fine a canoe, we gave them the head and neck of a bear, a part of which they eat and took the ballance with them. these people sometimes kill the variagated bear when they can get them in the open plain where they can pursue them on horseback and shoot them with their arrows. the black bear they more frequently kill as they are less ferocious. our sick men are much better today. sahcargarmeah geathered a quantity of the roots of a speceis of fennel which we found very agreeable food, the flavor of this root is not unlike annis seed, and they dispell the wind which the roots called cows and quawmash are apt to create particularly the latter. we also boil a small onion which we find in great abundance, with other roots and find them also an antidote to the effects of the others. the mush of roots we find adds much to the comfort of our diet.--we sent out several hunters this morning but they returned about a.m. without success; they killed a few pheasants only. at p.m. drewyer and cruzatte returned having killed one deer only. drewyer had wounded three bear which he said were as white as sheep but had obtained neither of them. they informed us that the hunting was but bad in the quarter they had been, the country was broken and thickly covered in most parts with underbrush. a little after dark shannon and labuish returned with one deer; they informed us that game was wild and scarce, that a large creek (collins creek) ran parallel with the river at the distance of about or miles which they found impracticable to pass with their horses in consequence of the debth and rapidity of it's current. beyond this creek the indians inform us that there is great abundance of game. sergt. pryor and collins who set out this morning on a hunting excurtion did not return this evening.--i killed a snake near our camp, it is feet inches in length, is much the colour of the rattlesnake common to the middle atlantic states, it has no poisonous teeth. it has scutae on the abdomen and fifty nine squamae or half formed scutae on the tail. the eye is of moderate size, the iris of a dark yellowish brown and puple black. there is nothing remarkable in the form of the head which is not so wide across the jaws as those of the poisonous class of snakes usually are.--i preserved the skin of this snake. [clark, may , ] friday th may a cloudy morning with some rain which continued untill meridean at intervales, but very moderately. a man and boy came to our camp at a. m with drewyers horse which he informed us he found at a long distance towards the mtns. this horse must have strayed from drewyers camp last night. hohhastillpelt and all the nativs left us at merdn. and went up the river with a view to cross at some distance above where they expected to find a canoe. we gave those people a head and neck of the largest bear a part of which they eate and the balance they carefully took with them for their children. the indians of this country seldom kill the bear they are very much afraid of them and the killing of a white or grzley bear, is as great a feet as two of their enimy. the fiew of those animals which they chance to kill is found in the leavel open lands and pursued on horses & killed with their arrows. they are fond of the flesh of this animal and eate emoderately of it when they have a sufficiency to indulge themselves. the men who were complaining of the head ake and cholicks yesterday and last night are much better to day. shabonos squar gatherd a quantity of fenel roots which we find very paleatiable and nurishing food. the onion we also find in abundance and boil it with our meat. shields rode out and hunted in the morning without suckcess he returned at a.m. having killed only a black wood pecker with a red breast as discribed hereafter. a snake which resembles the rattle snake in colour and spots on the skin, longer and inosent. at p m drewyer and crusat returned haveing killed only one deer only. d. shot white bear but could get neither of them. they inform us that the hunting in the derection they were is very bad. the country hilly & brushey. a little after dark shannon & labiech came in from the chass. shannon killed one deer which he brought in. this deer being the only animal they could kill. they informed that a large creek (collens's creek) run parrelal with the river at about or miles distant between which there was but little game, and the creek being high rapid and the smothe rocks in the bottom rendered it impossible for them to pass it on hors back. sergt. pryor and collins who set out early this morning hunting have not returned. we derected that the horses be drove up in future at oclock on each day [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . it rained the greater part of the last night and this morning untill ock. the water passed through flimzy covering and wet our bed most perfectly in shot we lay in the water all the latter part of the night. unfortunately my chronometer which for greater security i have woarn in my fob for ten days past, got wet last night; it seemed a little extraordinary that every part of my breechies which were under my head, should have escaped the moisture except the fob where the time peice was. i opened it and founded it nearly filled with water which i carefully drained out exposed it to the air and wiped the works as well as i could with dry feathers after which i touched them with a little bears oil. several parts of the iron and steel works were rusted a little which i wiped with all the care in my power. i set her to going and from her apparent motion hope she has sustained no material injury.--at a.m. sergt. pryor and collins returned, sergt. pryor brought the skin and flesh of a black bear which he had killed; collins had also killed a very large variegated bear but his horse having absconded last evening was unable to bring it. they had secured this meat perfectly from the wolves or birds and as it was at a considerable distance we did not think proper to send for it today. neither of these bear were in good order. as the bear are reather ferocious and we are obliged to depend on them pincipally for our subsistence we thought it most advisable to direct at least two hunters to go together, and they accordingly peared themselves out for this purpose. we also apportioned the horses to the several hunters in order that they should be equally rode and thereby prevent any horse being materially injured by being too constantly hunted. we appointed the men not hunters to take charge of certain horses in the absence of the hunters and directed the hunters to set out in different directions early in the morning and not return untill they had killed some game. it rained moderately the greater part of the day and snowed as usual on the plain. sergt. pryor informed me that it was shoe deep this morning when he came down. it is somewhat astonishing that the grass and a variety of plants which are now from a foot to inches high on these plains sustain no injury from the snow or frost; many of those plants are in blume and appear to be of a tender susceptable texture. we have been visited by no indians today, and occurrence which has not taken place before since we left the narrows of the columbia.--i am pleased at finding the river rise so rapidly, it now doubt is attributeable to the meting snows of the mountains; that icy barier which seperates me from my friends and country, from all which makes life esteemable.--patience, patience [clark, may , ] saturday th may rained moderately all the last night and this morning untill we are wet. the little river on which we are encamped rise sepriseingly fast. at a.m. sergt. pryor and collins returned with the flesh and skin of a black bear on sgt. pryors horse. collins's horse haveing run off from him yesterday. they informed us that they had each killed a bear neither of which were fat. the one which they left in the woods was of the white species and very large we did not think it necessary in the cours of this day to send for the flesh of the bear left in the woods. the rains of the last night unfortunately wet the crenomuter in the fob of capt. l. breaches. which has never before been wet since we set out on this expedition. her works were cautiously wiped and made dry by capt. l. and i think she will recive no injury from this misfortune &c. we arranged the hunters and horses to each hunter and directed them to turn out in the morning early and continue out untill they killed something. others arranged so as to take care of the hunters horses in their absence. rained moderately all day. at the same time snowed on the mountains which is in to the s. e. of us. no indians visit us to day which is a singular circumstance as we have not been one day without indians since we left the long narrows of the columbia. the fiew worm days which we have had has melted the snows in the mountains and the river has rose considerably. that icy barier which seperates me from my friends and country, from all which makes life estimable, is yet white with the snow which is maney feet deep. i frequently consult the nativs on the subject of passing this tremendious barier which now present themselves to our view for great extent, they all appear to agree as to the time those mountains may be passed which is about the middle of june. sergt. pryor informs me that the snow on the high plains from the river was shoe deep this morning when he came down. it is somewhat estonishing that the grass and a variety of plants sustain no injurey from the snow or frost; maney of those plants are in blume and appear to be of tender susceptable texture. at the distance of miles from the river and on the eastern border of the high plain the rocky mountain commences and presents us with winter here we have summer, spring and winter in the short space of twenty or thirty miles [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . twelve hunters turned out this morning in different directions agreeably to the order of last evening. potts and whitehouse accompanied collins to the bear he had killed on the th inst. with which they returned in the afternoon. the colours of this bear was a mixture of light redish brown white and dark brown in which the bey or redish brown predominated, the fur was bey as well as the lower pertion of the long hairs, the white next succeeded in the long hairs which at their extremites were dark brown, this uncommon mixture might be termed a bey grizzle. our indian woman was busily engaged today in laying in a store of the fennel roots for the rocky mountains. these are called by the shoshones year-pah. at p.m. indians who had been hunting towards the place at which we met with chopunnish last fall, called by them the quawmash grounds, called at our camp; they informed us that they had been hunting several days and had killed nothing; we gave them a small peice of meat which they told us they would reserve for their small children who were very hungary; we smoked with them and they shortly after departed. early this morning the natives erected a lodge on the opposite side of the river near a fishing stand a little above us. no doubt to be in readiness for the salmon, the arrival of which they are so ardently wishing as well as ourselves. this stand is a small stage are warf constructed of sticks and projecting about feet into the river and about feet above the surface of the water on the extremity of this the fisherman stands with his scooping net, which differ but little in their form from those commonly used in our country it is formed thus. the fisherman exercised himself some hours today but i believe without success. at p.m. j. fields returned very unwell having killed nothing. shortly after an old man and woman arrived; the former had soar eyes and the latter complained of a lax and rheumatic effections. we gave the woman some creem of tartar and flour of sulpher, and washed the old man's eyes with a little eyewater. a little before dark drewyer r. fields and lapage returned having been also unsuccessfull they had killed a hawk only and taken the part of a salmon from an eagle, the latter altho it was of itself not valuable was an agreeable sight as it gave us reason to hope that the salmon would shortly be with us. these hunters had scowered the country between the kooskooske and collins's creek from hence to their junction about miles and had seen no deer or bear and but little sign of either. shortly after dark it began to rain and continued raining moderately all night. the air was extreemly cold and disagreeable and we lay in the water as the preceeding night. [clark, may , ] sunday th may cloudy morning hunters turned out this morning in different directions agreeably to the order of yesterday. potts and whitehouse accompanied collins to the bear which he had killed on the th and brought in the flesh and skin. this bear was not large but remarkably light coloured the hair of it as also the hair of all those which has been killed is very thick and long. the squar wife to shabono busied her self gathering the roots of the fenel called by the snake indians year-pah for the purpose of drying to eate on the rocky mountains. those roots are very paliatiable either fresh rosted boiled or dried and are generally between the size of a quill and that of a mans fingar and about the length of the latter. at p.m. indians who had been out hunting towards the place we met with the chopunnish last fall, which place they call the quarmash grounds. those men had been out several days and killed nothing. we gave them a small piece of meat which they told us they would reserve for their small children who was very hungary. we smoked with them and they departed. the nativs made a lodge on the opposit bank of the river a little above us at a fishing place. as all communication is cut off between us and the nativs on the opposit side of the river, we cannot say by whome or for what service that lodge has been errected as no one has been near it since it was errected this morning. at p m jo. field returned from the chase without killing any thing he complains of being unwell. son after an old man and a woman arived the man with sore eyes, and the woman with a gripeing and rhumatic effections. i gave the woman a dose of creme of tarter and flour of sulphur, and the man some eye water. a little before night rueben field drewyer and lapage returned haveing killed nothing but a large hawk they had hunted in the point between the kooskooske and collins's creek and saw but little sign of either deer or bear. the evening cloudy, soon after dark it began to rain and rained moderately all night-. lapage took a salmon from an eagle at a short distance below our camp. this is induces us to believe that the salmon is in this river and most probably will be here in great numbers in the course of a fiew days. [lewis, may , ] monday may th . it continued to rain this morning untill ock. when it became fair. we sent charbono, thompson, potts, hall and wiser over the river to a village above in order to purchase some roots to eat with our lean bear meat. for this purpose we gave them a few awls, kniting pins and armbands. we were informed that there was a canoe at the village in which they could pass the river. i sent joseph and r. feilds up the river in surch of the horse which i rode over the rocky mountains last fall. he had been seen yesterday with a parse) of indian horses and has become almost wild. at a.m. thompson returned from the village accompanied by a train of invalids consisting of men women and a child. the men had soar eyes and the women in addition to soar eyes had a variety of other complaints principally rheumatic; a weakness and pain in the loins is a common complaint with their women. eyewater was administered to all; to two of the women cathartics were given, to a third who appeared much dejected and who from their account of her disease we supposed it to be histerical, we gave drops of laudanum. the several parts of the others where the rheumatic pains were seated were well rubed with volitile linniment. all of those poor wretches thought themselves much benefited and all returned to their village well satisfyed. at p.m. or marketers returned with about bushels of the cows roots and a considerable quanty of bread of the same materials. late in the evening reubin and joseph feilds returned with my horse; we had him immediately castrated together with two others by drewyer in the ordinary. we amused ourselves about an hour this afternoon in looking at the men running their horses. several of those horses would be thought fleet in the u states. a little after dark sheilds and gibson returned unsuccessful) from the chase. they had seen some deer but no bear. [clark, may , ] monday th may rained this morning untill oclock when it cleared off and became fair-. we sent shabono, thomson, potts, hall & wizer over to the villages above to purchase some roots to eate with our pore bear meat, for which purchase we gave them a fiew awls, knitting pins, & arm bans and directed them to proceed up on this side of the river opposit to the village and cross in the cano which we are informed is at that place. sent jo. & reuben field up the river a short distance after the horse which capt. lewis rode over the mountains last fall, which horse was seen yesterday with a gangue of indian horses, and is very wild-. about oclock men and women came to our camp with thompson who went to the village very early this morning. those men applyed for eye water and the women had a variety of complaints tho the most general complaint was the rhumitism, pains in the back and the sore eyes, they also brought fowd. a very young child whome they said had been very sick-. i administered eye water to all, two of the women i gave a carthartic, one whose spirets were very low and much hipedz i gave drops of lodomem, and to the others i had their backs hips legs thighs & arms well rubed with volitile leniment all of those pore people thought themselves much benifited by what had been done for them, and at p.m. they all returned to their villages well satisfied. at p.m. potts, shabono &c. returned from the village with about bushels of the root the nativs call cowse and some bread of the same root. rubin & jos. fields returned with the horse capt. lewis rode across the rocky mountains we had this horse imedeately cut with others which we had not before thought proper to castrate. we amused ourselves about an hour this after noon looking at the men run their horses, several of them would be thought swift horses in the atlantic states. a little after dark john shields and gibson returned haveing killed nothing. they saw some deer but saw no bear. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . it rained the greater part of last night and continued this morning untill noon when it cleared away about an hour and then rained at intervals untill in the evening. our covering is so indifferent that capt c. and myself lay in the water the greater part of the last night. drewyer, and the two feildses set out on a hunting excurtion towards the mountains. shannon and colter came in unsuccessfull, they had wounded a bear and a deer last evening but the night coming on they were unable to pursue them, and the snow which fell in the course of the night and this morning had covered the blood and rendered all further pursuit impracticable. at p.m. labuish arrived with a large buck of the mule deer speceis which he had killed on collins's creek yesterday. he had left cruzatte and collins on the creek where they were to wait his return. he informed us that it was snowing on the plain while it was raining at our camp in the river bottom. late in the evening labuish and lapage set out to join collins and cruzatte in order to resume their hunt early tomorrow morning. this evening a party of indians assembled on the opposite bank of the river and viewed our camp with much attention for some time and retired.--at p.m. frazier who had been permitted to go to the village this morning returned with a pasel of roots and bread which he had purchased. brass buttons is an article of which these people are tolerably fond, the men have taken advantage of their prepossession in favour of buttons and have devested themselves of all they had in possesson which they have given in exchange for roots and bread. [clark, may , ] tuesday th may rained the greater part of the last night and this morning untill meridean when it cleared away for an hour and began to rain and rained at entervals untill p.m. our covering was so indefferent that capt lewis and my self was wet in our bed all the latter part of the night. drewyer, jos. & r. fields set out to towards the mountains. shannon & colter came in without any thing. they had seen and shot at a bear and a deer neither of which they could get. both of those animals they must have wounded mortally, but the night comeing on prevented their following them, and this morning the snow had covered the tracks and hid the blood and prevented their getting either of them. at p.m. labiech came in with a large buck of the mule deer speces which he had killed on collins's creek yesterday. he left collins and peter crusat on the creek at which place they would continue untill his return. he informd. us that it was snowing on the leavel plains on the top of the hill all the time it was raining in the bottom at our camp. labiech & lapage returned to collins & crusat in the evening late for the purpose of pursueing the hunt in the morning early. several indians came to the opposit side of the river and viewed us some time. at p m frazur who had leave to go to the village returned with some roots which he had purchased. cloudy &c. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may st . it rained a few hours this morning. sheilds and gibson set out to hunt towards the mountains. collins came to camp at noon and remained about hours; he has killed nothing since he left us last. we set five men at work to make a canoe for the purpose of fishing and passing the river. the indians have already promised us a horse for this canoe when we have no longer any uce for her. as our tent was not sufficient to shelter us from the rain we had a lodge constructed of willow poles and grass in the form of the orning of a waggon closed at one end. this we had made sufficiently large to sleep in and to shelter the most important part of our baggage. it is perfectly secure against the rain sun and wind and affords us much the most comfortable shelter we have had since we left fort clatsop. today we divided the remnant of our store of merchandize among our party with a view that each should purchase therewith a parsel of roots and bread from the natives as his stores for the rocky mountains for there seems but little probability that we shall be enabled to make any dryed meat for that purpose and we cannot as yet form any just idea what resource the fish will furnish us. each man's stock in trade amounts to no more than one awl, one kniting pin, a half an ounce of vermillion, two nedles, a few scanes of thead and about a yard of ribbon; a slender stock indeed with which to lay in a store of provision for that dreary wilderness. we would make the men collect these roots themselves but there are several speceis of hemlock which are so much like the cows that it is difficult to discriminate them from the cows and we are affraid that they might poison themselves. the indians have given us another horse to kill for provision which we keep as a reserved store. our dependence for subsistence is on our guns, the fish we may perhaps take, the roots we can purchase from the natives and as the last alternative our horses. we eat the last morsel of meat which we had for dinner this evening, yet nobody seems much conserned about the state of provision. willard, sergt. ordway and goodrich were permitted to visit the village today; the former returned in the evening with some roots and bread, the two last remaining all night. one of our party brought in a young sandhill crain it was about the size of a pateridge and of a redish brown colour, it appeared to be about or six days old; these crains are abundant in this neighbourhood. [clark, may , ] wednesday st may rained this morning. shields and gibson set out to hunt towards the mountains. collins came in to day and stayed in about two hours, he has killed nothing since he went out last. we set men at work to build a canoe for the purpose of takeing fish and passing the river and for which we can get a good horse. as our tent is not sufficient to keep off the rain we are compelled to have some other resort for a security from the repeeted showers which fall. we have a small half circular place made and covered with grass which makes a very secure shelter for us to sleep under. we devided our store of merchindize amongst our party for the purpose of precureing some roots &c. of the nativs to each mans part amounted to about an awl knitting pin a little paint and some thread & needles which is but a scanty dependance for roots to take us over those great snowey barriers (rocky mountains) which is and will be the cause of our detention in this neighbourhood probably untill the or of june. they are at this time covered deep with snow. the plains on the high country above us is also covered with snow. serjt. ordway, goodrich, & willard went to the village to day to precure a fiew roots. we eate the last of our meat for dinner to day, and our only certain dependance is the roots we can precure from the nativs for the fiew articles we have left those roots with what game we can precure from the wods will probably last us untill the arival of the salmon. if they should not; we have a horse in store ready to be killed which the indians have offered to us. willard returned from the village. sergt. ordway and goodrich continued all night. one of the men brought me a young sandhill crain which was about or days old it was of a yellowish brown colour, about the size of a partridge. those crains are very abundant in every part of this country in pars of two, and sometimes three together. the party had gathered roots with leaves still attached they probably could have been sorted with indian assistance. however, the parsley family (apiaceae) is one of the most diverse and confusing plant families in the region, and lewis could not be sure that the men would not bring back some other poisonous species not well known to the indians. the decision to purchase roots was probably prudent. [lewis, may , ] thursday may ed . a fine morning we exposed all our baggage to air and dry as well as our store of roots and bread purchased from the natives. permited windsor and mcneal to go to the indian village. sergt. ordway and goodrich returned this morning with a good store of roots and bread. about noon indian men came down the river on a raft and continued at our camp about hours and returned to their village. we.sent out shannon and colter to hunt towards the mountains. we sent sergt. pryor down to the entrance of collins's creek to examine the country and look out for a good position for an encampment on the river below that creek, having determined to remove our camp below that crek if it continues high, as soon as we have completed our canoe, as the country to which we are confined to hunt at present is limited by this creek and river to a very narrow tract, and game have already become scarce. if we can obtain a good situation below the entrance of this creek it will be much more eligible as the hunting country is more extensive and game more abundant than above. the horse which the indians have given us to kill was driven away yesterday by the natives with a gang of their horses i presume in mistake; being without meat at noon we directed one of the largest of our colts to be killed. we found the flesh of this animal fat tender and by no means illy flavoured. we have three others which we mean to reserve for the rocky mountains if we can subsist here without them. my horse which was castrated the day before yesterday wounded his thigh on the inner side with the rope by which he was confined that evening and is now so much swolen with the wound the castraiting and the collection of vermen that he cannot walk, in short he is the most wretched specticle; i had his wounds clensed of the vermen by washing them well with a strong decoction of the bark of the roots & leaves of elder but think the chances are against his recovery. at p.m. we observed a large party of indians on horseback in pursuit of a deer which they ran into the river opposite to our camp; capt. c. myself & three of our men shot and killed the deer in the water; the indians pursued it on a raft and caught it. it is astonishing to see these people ride down those steep hills which they do at full speed. on our return to camp we found drewyer the two feildses gibson and sheilds just arrived with five deer which they had killed at a considerable distance towards the mountains. they also brought with them two red salmon trout which they had purchased from some indians whom they had met with on their return to camp.--two indians who were just arrived at our camp informed us that these salmon trout remained in this river the greater part of the winter, that they were not good at this season which we readily discovered, they were very meagre. these indians also informed us that there were at this time a great number of salmon at no great distance from hence in lewis's river which had just arrived and were very fat and fine, they said it would be some yet before they would ascend this river as high as this place. a party of the natives on the opposite shore informed those with us that a party of the shoshones had two nights past surrounded a lodge of their nation on the south side of lewis's river, that the inhabitants having timely discovered the enimy effected their retreat in the course of the night and escaped. charbono's child is very ill this evening; he is cuting teeth, and for several days past has had a violent lax, which having suddonly stoped he was attacked with a high fever and his neck and throat are much swolen this evening. we gave him a doze of creem of tartar and flour of sulpher and applyed a poltice of boiled onions to his neck as warm as he could well bear it. sergt. pryor returned late in the evening and informed us that he had been down the river eight miles and that the clifts set in so abruptly to the river he could get no further without returning several miles back and ascending the hills and that he had thought it best to return and ride down tomorrow on the high plain as he believed the mouth of the creek was a considerable distance. drewyer who has been at the place informs us that it is about ms. and that there is no situation on the river for some distance below this creek which can possibly answer our purposes.--we dryed our baggage &c perfectly and put it up.- [clark, may , ] thursday nd may a fine day we exposed all our baggage to the sun to air and dry, also our roots which we have precured of the nativs. gave promission to windser & mcneal to go to the indian villages. sergt. ordway and goodrich returned at a.m. soon after indian men came down on a raft and continued with us about hours and then returned to their village. shannon & colter went out to day to hunt towards the mountains. sergt. pryor went out to hunt down the river, and examine the mouth of collins creek, if a good situation was below that creek for a camp. this creek which cannot be passed owing to it's debth & rapidity is a great beariore in our way to the best hunting country. it confines us to a narrow scope between this creek and the river on which we are camped. if a situation can be found imedeately below the creek it will answer us better than our present one as from thence we can get out to some distance to hunt, and be convenient also to the fish should they pass up &c. the horse the indian's left with us to kill has been drove to their village with a gang of horses which i suppose belonged to another man. as the greater part of our men have not had any meat to eate for days, and the roots they complain of, not being accustiomed to live on them altogether we derected a large coalt which was given to us by a young man with an elegant mare on the ____ instant. this coalt was fat and was handsom looking meat. late in the evening we were informed that the horse which capt l. rode over the rocky mountains and which was cut day before yesterday had his hip out of place since that time, and could not walk. capt. lewis examined him and thought he could not recover. at p.m. we observed a number of indians in chase of a deer on their horses on the opposit hill sides. soon after the deer took the water i capt l. and men run down on this side, and killed the deer in the water, the deer floated down and the indians took it by means of a raft which they had ready. on my return to camp found drewyer jos. & reuben fields, shields and gibson just arrived from the chass with deer which they had killed on the high lands toward the mountains. they also brought with them two salmon trout which they had purchased of indians which they saw on their return to camp. at p. m. two young men highly decurated in their way came to our camp and informed us that the fat fish were in great numbers in lewis's river. that those salmon trout which our hunters brought were pore and such as were cought in the winter in this river and were not the kind which comes up in the spring of the year. great number of indians come to the opposit bank and inform those on this side that the snake indians had come to a lodge on lewis's river at night. the inhabitents previously discovering them abandened the house. shabonoes son a small child is, dangerously ill. his jaw and throat is much swelled. we apply a poltice of onions. after giveing him some creem of tarter &c. this day proved to be fine fair which afforded us an oppertunety of drying our baggage which had got a little wet. [lewis, may , ] friday may rd . sergt. pryor wounded a deer early this morning in a lick near camp; my dog pursud it into the river; the two young indian men who had remained with us all night mounted their horses swam the river and drove the deer into the water again; sergt. pryor killed it as it reached the shore on this side, the indians returned as they had passed over. we directed half this deer to be given to the indians, they immediately made a fire and cooked their meat, others joined them from the village with the assistance of whom they consumed their portion of the spoil in less than hours and took their leave of our camp. the creem of tartar and sulpher operated several times on the child in the course of the last night, he is considerably better this morning, tho the swelling of the neck has abated but little; we still apply polices of onions which we renew frequently in the course of the day and night. at noon we were visited by indians who informed us they cad come from their village on lewis's river at the distance of two days ride in order to see us and obtain a little eyewater, capt. c. washed their eyes and they set out on their return to their village. our skill as phisicans and the virture of our medecines have been spread it seems to a great distance. i sincerely wish it was in our power to give releif to these poor afficted wretches. at p.m. shannon, colter, labuish, cruzatte, collins, and lapage returned from hunting without having killed anything except a few pheasants of the dark brown kind, which they brought with them.these hunters informed us that they had hunted the country deligently between the river and creek for some distance above and below our camp and that there was no game to be found. all the horses which have been castrated except my poor unfortunate horse appear as if they would do very well. i am convinced that those cut by the indians will get well much soonest and they do not swell nor appear to suffer as much as those cut in the common way. [clark, may , ] friday rd may a fair morning. sergt. pryor wounded a deer at a lick near our camp and our dog prosued it into the river. two indians which happened to be at our camp mounted their horses and swam across the river chased the deer into the water again and pursued it across to the side on which we were, and as the deer came out of the water sgt. pryor killed it. we derected half of this deer to be given to those two indians. they imediately made a fire and cooked the meat. others joined them from the village and they soon consumed their portion. the child is something better this morning than it was last night. we apply a fresh poltice of the wild onion which we repeeted twice in the course of the day. the swelling does not appear to increas any since yesterday. the indians who visited us to day informed us that they came from their village on lewis's river two days ride from this place for the purpose of seeing of us and getting a little eye water i washed their eyes with some eyewater and they all left us at p.m. and returned to the villages on the opposit side of this river. at oclock shannon, colter, labiech, crusatt lapage and collins all returned from hunting without haveing killed any thing except a fiew heath hens & black pheasants two of which they brought with them. labiech also brought a whisteling squerel which he had killed on it's hole in the high plains. this squerel differs from those on the missouri in their colour, size, food and the length tal and from those found near the falls of columbia our hunters brought us a large hooting owl which differ from those of the atlantic states. the plumage of this owl is an uniform mixture of dark yellowish brown and white, in which the dark brown prodominates. it's colour may be properly termed a dark iron gray. the plumage is very long and remarkably silky and soft. those have not the long feathers on the head which give it the appearance of ears, or horns, remarkable large eyes the hunters informed us that they had hunted with great industry all the country between the river and for some distance above and below without the smallest chance of killing any game. they inform us that the high lands are very cold with snow which has fallen for every day or night for several past. our horses which was cut is like to doe well. [lewis, may , ] saturday may th . the child was very wrestless last night; it's jaw and the back of it's neck are much more swolen than they were yesterday tho his fever has abated considerably. we gave it a doze of creem of tartar and applyed a fresh poltice of onions. we ordered some of the hunters out this morning and directed them to pass collins's creek if possible and hunt towards the quawmash feilds. william bratton still continues very unwell; he eats heartily digests his food well, and his recovered his flesh almost perfectly yet is so weak in the loins that he is scarcely able to walk nor can he set upwright but with the greatest pain. we have tryed every remidy which our engenuity could devise, or with which our stock of medicines furnished us, without effect. john sheilds observed that he had seen men in a similar situation restored by violent sweats. bratton requested that he might be sweated in the manner proposed by sheilds to which we consented. sheilds sunk a circular hole of feet diamiter and four feet deep in the earth. he kindled a large fire in the hole and heated well, after which the fire was taken out a seat placed in the center of the hole for the patient with a board at bottom for his feet to rest on; some hoops of willow poles were bent in an arch crossing each other over the hole, on these several blankets were thrown forming a secure and thick orning of about feet high. the patient being striped naked was seated under this orning in the hole and the blankets well secured on every side. the patient was furnished with a vessell of water which he sprinkles on the bottom and sides of the hole and by that means creates as much steam or vapor as he could possibly bear, in this situation he was kept about minutes after which he was taken out and suddonly plunged in cold water twise and was then immediately returned to the sweat hole where he was continued three quarters of an hour longer then taken out covered up in several blankets and suffered to cool gradually. during the time of his being in the sweat hole, he drank copious draughts of a strong tea of horse mint. sheilds says that he had previously seen the tea of sinnecca snake root used in stead of the mint which was now employed for the want of the other which is not be found in this country.--this experiment was made yesterday; bratton feels himself much better and is walking about today and says he is nearly free from pain.--at a.m. a canoe arrived with of the natives one of them the sick man of whom i have before made mentions as having lost the power of his limbs. he is a cheif of considerable note among them and they seem extreemly anxious for his recovery. as he complains of no pain in any particular part we conceive it cannot be the rheumatism, nor do we suppose that it can be a parelitic attack or his limbs would have been more deminished. we have supposed that it was some disorder which owed it's origine to a diet of particular roots perhaps and such as we have never before witnessed. while at the village of the broken arm we had recommended a diet of fish or flesh for this man and the cold bath every morning. we had also given him a few dozes of creem of tarter and flour of sulpher to be repeated every rd day. this poor wretch thinks that he feels himself of somewhat better but to me there appears to be no visible alteration. we are at a loss what to do for this unfortunate man. we gave him a few drops of laudanum and a little portable soup. of our party pased the river and visited the lodge of the broken arm for the purpose of traiding some awls which they had made of the links of small chain belonging to one of their steel traps, for some roots. they returned in the evening having been very successfull, they had obtained a good supply of roots and bread of cows.--this day has proved warmer than any of the preceeding since we have arrived here. [clark, may , ] saturday th may a fine morning the child was very restless last night its jaw and back of its neck is much more swelled than it was yesterday. i gave it a dost of creme of tarter and a fresh poltice of onions. ordered shields, gibson, drewyer, crusat, collins, and jo. & rubin fields to turn out hunting and if possible cross collins creek and hunt towards the quar mash fields. w. brattin is yet very low he eats hartily but he is so weak in the small of his back that he can't walk. we have made use of every remidy to restore him without it's haveing the desired effect. one of our party, john shields observed that he had seen men in similar situations restored by violent swets. and bratten requested that he might be swetted in the way sheilds purposed which we agreed to. shields dug a round hole feet deep & feet diamuter in which he made a large fire so as to beet the hole after which the fire was taken out a seet placed in the hole. the patent was then set on the seat with a board under his feet and a can of water handed him to throw on the bottom & sides of the hole so as to create as greate a heat as he could bear. and the hole covered with blankets supported by hoops. after about minits the patient was taken out and put in cold water a few minits, & returned to the hole in which he was kept about hour. then taken out and covered with several blankets, which was taken off by degrees untill he became cool. this remedy took place yesterday and bratten is walking about to day and is much better than he has been. at a.m. a canoe came down with the indian man who had applyed for medical assistance while we lay at the broken arms village. this man i had given a fiew doses of flower of sulpher & creme of tarter and derected that he should take the cold bath every morning. he conceited himself a little better than he was at that time. he had lost the use of all his limbs and his fingers are contracted. we are at a loss to deturmine what to do for this unfortunate man. i gave him a few drops of lodman and some portable supe as medisine. of our men crossed the river and went to the broken arms village and returned in the evening with a supply of bread and roots which they precured in exchange for awls which were made of pieces of a chane--we were visited to day by the young men who gave capt. l. and my self a horse each at the village. those men stayed about two hours and returned to their village. this day proved to be very worm. [lewis, may , ] sunday may th . it rained the greater part of last night and continued untill a.m. our grass tent is impervious to the rain. the child is more unwell than yesterday. we gave it a doze of creem of tartar which did not operate, we therefore gave it a clyster in the evening. we caused a sweat to be prepared for the indian cheif in the same manner in which bratton had been sweated, this we attempted but were unable to succeed, as he was unable to set up or be supported in the place. we informed the indians that we knew of no releif for him except sweating him in their sweat houses and giving him a plenty of the tea of the horsemint which we shewed them. and that this would probably nos succeed as he had been so long in his present situation. i am confident that this would be an excellent subject for electricity and much regret that i have it not in my power to supply it.--drewyer labuish and cruzatte set out this morning to hunt towards the quawmash grounds if they can possibly pass collins's creek. joseph and reuben feilds passed the river in order to hunt on the opposite side some miles above where the natives inform us that there is an abundance of bear and some deer. goodrich visited a village about ms. above on the opposite side of the river and returned in the evening; he procured but few roots, he informed us that there were but persons at home; the others were either hunting, diging roots or fishing on lewis's river. he saw several salmon in their lodges which they informed him came from that river these fish were remarkably fat and fine. gibson and shields returned this evening having killed a sandhill crain only. they had wounded a female bear and a deer but got neither of them. gibson informed me that the bear had two cubbs one of which was white and other as black as jett. four indians remained with us this evening.- [clark, may , ] sunday th may rained moderately the greater part of last night and this morning untill a.m. the child is not so well to day as yesterday. i repeeted the creem of tarter and the onion poltice. i caused a swet to be prepared for the indn. in the same hole which bratten had been sweeten in two days past drewyer labiech and peter crusatt set out hunting towards the quarmash grounds if they can cross the creek which is between this and that place, which has been the bearrer as yet to our hunters. jos. & r fields crossed the river to hunt on the opposit side. goodrich went to the d village to purchase roots a fiew of which he precured. he informed us that only persons remained in the village. the men were either hunting on lewis's river fishing, & the women out digging roots. he saw several fresh salmon which the nativs informed him came from lewis's river and were fat and fine. one of our men purchased a bear skin of the nativs which was nearly of a cream coloured white. this skin which was the skin of an animal of the middle size of bears together with the defferent sizes colours &c. of those which have been killed by our hunters give me a stronger evidence of the various coloured bear of this country being one species only, than any i have heretofore had. the poil of these bear were infinately longer finer & thicker than the black bear their tallons also longer & more blunt as worn by digging roots. the white redish brown and bey coloured bear i saw together on the missouri; the bey & grizly have been seen and killed together here. for these were the colours of those which collins killed on the th inst. in short it is not common to find two bear here of this species presisely of the same colour, and if we were to attempt to distinguish them by their colours and to denomonate each colour a distinct species we should soon find at least twenty. the most strikeing difference between this species of bear and the common black bear are that the former are large and have longer tallens, hair, and tushes, prey more on other animals, do not lie so long or so closely in winter quarters, and will not climb a tree, tho ever so hardly pursued. the varigated bear i believe to be the same here with those of the missouri but these are not so ferocious as those on the missouri perhaps from the circumstance of their being compeled from the scercity of game in this quarter to live more on roots and of course not so much in the habit of seizing and debowering liveing animals. the bear here is far from being as passive as the common black bear, they have atacked and fought our hunters already but not so feircely as those of the missouri. there are also some of the common black bear in this neghbourhood tho no so common as the other species. we attempted to swet the sick indian but could not suckceed. he was not able either to set up or be supported in the place prepared for him. i therefore deturmined to inform the nativs that nothing but sefere swetts would restore this disabled man, and even that doubtfull in his present situation. in the evening shields & gibson returned haveing killed a sandhill crane only. they saw a female bear, & cubs & several deer. they shot the bear and a deer both of which made their escape. gibson told me that the cubs were of different colours one jut black and the other of a whiteish colour-. indians continue with us, one return to their village to daey [lewis, may , ] monday may th . had frequent showers in the course of the last night. collins, shannon and colter set out to hunt on the high lands some distance up on the n. e. side of collins's creek. the clyster given the child last evening operated very well. it is clear of fever this evening and is much better, the swelling is considerably abated and appears as if it would pass off without coming to a head. we still continue fresh poltices of onions to the swolen part. we directed the indians in what manner to treat the dieased cheif, gave him a few dozes of flour of sulpher and creem of tartar & some portable soupe and directed them to take him home. they seemed unwilling to comply with the latter part of the injunction for they consumed the day and remained with us all night. at p.m. joseph and r. feilds returned, accompanyed by hohastillpilp several other inferior cheifs and some young men. these hunters informed us they were unable to reach the grounds to which they had been directed in consequence of the debth and rapidity of a large creek which falls in about ms. above. they passed commearp creek at about / ms. and a second creek reather larger at ms. further. at the distance of ms. up this last creek on their return they called at a village which our traders have never yet visited, here they obtained a large quantity of bread and roots of cows on very moderate terms. we permitted sergt. pryor and four men to pass the river tomorrow morning with a view to visit this village we also directed charbono york and lepage to set out early for the same place and procure us some roots. our meat is again exhausted, we therefore directed r. fields to hunt the horse in the morning which the indians have given us to kill. one of our men saw a salmon in the river today. in the afternoon we compleated our canoe and put her in the water; she appears to answer very well and will carry about persons.--the river still rising fast and snows of the mountains visibly diminish [clark, may , ] monday th may some small showers of rain last night, and continued cloudy this morning untill a. m when it cleared away and became fair and worm. collins shannon & colter set out to hunt on the high lands to the n e of us towards collins creek. the child something better this morning tho the swelling yet continues. we still apply the onion poltice. i detected what should be done for the disabled man, gave him a fiew doses of creem of tarter & flour sulphur, and some portable supe and directed that he should be taken home & swetted &c. at p.m. joseph & r. fields returned accompanied by hoh hast ill pilt and an second chief and men several young men also rode down on this side. jo & r fields informed us that they were at a village miles up the nd creek from this place on the opposit side above at which place on the opposit side above at which place they precured roots on very reasonable terms. they could not proceed higher up to hunt as the creeks were too high for them to cross, &c. we gave permission to serjt. pryor and men to cross the river and trade with nativs of the village the field's were at yesterday for roots &c. we also directed shabono & york to proceed on to the same village and precure some roots for our selves if possible. one of our men saw a salmon in the river to day. and two others eat of salmon at the near village which was brought from lewis's river. our canoe finished and put into the water. it will carry men. the riseing very fast and snow appear to melt on the mountains. [lewis, may , ] tuesday may th . early this morning we sent reubin fields in surch of the horse which the indians had given us to kill. at in the morning he returned with the horse and we killed and butchered him; he was large and in good order. hohastillpilp told us that most of the horses we saw runing at large in this neighbourhood belonged to himself and his people, and whenever we were in want of meat he requested that we would kill any of them we wished; this is a peice of liberallity which would do honour to such as host of civilization; indeed i doubt whether there are not a great number of our countrymen who would see us fast many days before their compassion would excite them to a similar act of liberallity. sergt. pryor and the party ordered to the indian village set out early this morning. in the evening he returned with gibson and sheilds. the others remained at the village all night; they brought a good store of roots and bread. we also sent sergt. ordway and men this morning over to lewis's river for salmon, which the indians inform us may be procured in abundance at that place, and that it is but half a days ride, nearly south.--drewyer, cruzatte, and labuish returned at p.m. with five deer which they had killed at some distance up collins's creek on this side; that stream still continues so high that they could not pass it.--charbono's son is much better today, tho the swelling on the side of his neck i beleive will terminate in an ugly imposthume a little below the ear. the indians were so anxious that the sick cheif should be sweated under our inspection that they requested we would make a second attept today; accordingly the hole was somewhat enlarged and his father a very good looking old man, went into the hole with him and sustained him in a proper position during the operation; we could not make him sweat as copiously as we wished. after the operation he complained of considerable pain, we gave him drops of laudanum which soon composed him and he rested very well.--this is at least a strong mark of parental affection. they all appear extreemly attentive to this sick man nor do they appear to relax in their asceduity towards him notwithstand he has been sick and helpless upwards of three years. the chopunnish appear to be very attentive and kind to their aged people and treat their women with more rispect than the nations of the missouri.--there is a speceis of burrowing squirrel common in these plains which in their habits somewhat resemble those of the missouri but are a distinct speceis. this little animal measures one fot five and / inches from the nose to the extremity of the tail, of which the tail occupys / inches only; in the girth it is in. the body is proportionably long, the neck and legs short; the ears are short, obtusely pointed, and lie close to the head; the aperture of the ear is larger proportionably than most animals which burrow. the eyes are of moderate size, the puple black and iris of a dark sooty brown. the teeth are like those of the squirrel as is it's whole contour. the whiskers are full, long and black; it also has some long black hairs above the eyes. it has five toes on each foot; the two inner toes of the fore feet are remarkably short, and have short blont nails. the remaining toes on those feet are long, black, slightly curved, and sharply pointed. the outer and inner toes of the hind feet are not short yet they are by no means as long as the three toes in the center of the foot which are remarkably long but the nails are not as long as those of the fore feet tho of the same form and colour. the hair of the tail tho of the same form and colour. the hair of the tail tho thickly inserted on every part rispects the two sides only. this gives it a flat appearance and a long ovol form. the tips of the hair which form the outer edges of the tail are white. the base of the hairs are either black or a fox red. the under disk of the tail is an iron grey, the upper a redish brown. the lower part of the jaws, under part of the neck, legs and feet from the body down and belley are of a light brick red. the nose as high as the eyes is of a darker brick red. the upper part of the head neck and body are of a curious brownish grey colour with a cast of the brick red. the longer hair of these parts being of a redish white colour at their extremities, fall together in such manner as to give it the appearance of being speckled at a little distance. these animals form large ascociations as those of the missouri, occupying with their burroughs one or sometimes acres of land. the burrows are seperate and are each occupyed perhaps by ten or of those animals. there is a little mound in front of the hole formed of the earth thrown out of the burrow and frequently there are three or four distinct holes forming what i term one burrow with their mouths arround the base of this little mound which seems to be occupyed as a watch-tower in common by the inhabitants of those several holes. these mounds are sometimes as much as feet high and feet in diameter, and are irregularly distributed over the tract they occupy at the distance of from ten to thirty or yds. when you approach a burrow the squirrels, one or more, usually set erect on these mounds and make a kind of shrill whistleing nois, something like tweet, tweet, tweet, &c. they do not live on grass as those of the missouri but on roots. one which i examined had in his mouth two small bulbs of a speceis of grass, which resemble very much what is sometimes called the grassnut. the intestins of those little animals are remarkably large for it's size. fur short and very fine.--the grass in their villages is not cut down as in those of the plains of the missouri. i preserved the skins of several of these animals with the heads feet and legs entire. the black woodpecker which i have frequently mentioned and which is found in most parts of the roky mountains as well as the western and s. w. mountains. i had never an opportunity of examining untill a few days since when we killed and preserved several of them. this bird is about the size of the lark woodpecker of the turtle dove, tho it's wings are longer than either of those birds. the beak is black, one inch long, reather wide at the base, somewhat curved, and sharply pointed; the chaps are of equal length. arround the base of the beak including the eye and a small part of the throat is of a fine crimson red. the neck and as low as the croop in front is of an iron grey. the belly and breast is a curious mixture of white and blood reed which has much the appearance of having been artifically painted or stained of that colour. the red reather predominates. the top of the head back, sides, upper surface of the wings and tail are black, with a gossey tint of green in a certain exposure to the light. the under side of the wings and tail are of a sooty black. it has ten feathers in the tail, sharply pointed, and those in the center reather longest, being / inches in length. the tongue is barbed, pointed, and of an elastic cartelaginous substance. the eye is moderately large, puple black and iris of a dark yellowish brown. this bird in it's actions when flying resembles the small redheaded woodpecke common to the atlantic states; it's note also somewhat resembles that bird. the pointed tail seems to assist it in seting with more eas or retaining it its resting position against the perpendicular side of a tree. the legs and feet are black and covered with wide imbricated scales. it has four toes on each foot of which two are in rear and two in front; the nails are much curved long and remarkably keen or sharply pointed. it feeds on bugs worms and a variety of insects. [clark, may , ] tuesday th may a cloudy morning serjt. pryor and party set out at a.m. serjt. ordway and two men are ordered to cross this river and proceed on through the plains to lewis's and precure some salmon on that river, and return tomorrow if possible he set out at a.m. we sent rub. field in serch of the horse which the indians had given us to kill. at a. m he returned with the horse and he was killed and butchered; he was large and in good order. hohastillpilp told us that most of the horses which we saw running in those plains in this neighbourhood at large belonged to himself and his people, and whenever we were in want of meet, he requested that would kill any of them we wished; this is a piece of liberallity which would do honour to such as host of civilization. serjt. pryor, gibson & shields returned from the village with a good stock of roots and bread. shabono lapage & yourk whome we had sent to purchase roots for ourselves remained at the village all night. drewyer, labiech & crusat return at p.m. with deer which they had killed at some distance up collin's creek on this side, that stream still continue so high that they could not pass it. shabono's child is much better to day; tho the swelling on the side of his neck i believe will termonate in an ugly imposthume a little below the ear. the indians were so anxious that the sick chief (who has lost the use of his limbs) should be sweted under our inspection they requested me to make a d attempt to day; accordingly the hole was enlargened and his father a very good looking old man performed all the drugery &c. we could not make him swet as copously as we wished. being compelled to keep him erect in the hole by means of cords. after the oppiration he complained of considerable pain, i gave him drops of laudnom which soon composed him and he rested very well-. i observe the strongest marks of parental affection. they all appear extreemly attentive to this sick man, no do they appear to relax in their ascituity towards him not withstanding he has been sick and helpless for near years. the chopunnish appeare to be very attentive & kind to their aged people and treat their women with more respect than the nativs on the missouri. there is a species of whistleing squirel common in these plains which in their habit somewhat resembles those of the missouri but are a distinct species. this little animale measures foot inches & a half from the nose to the extremity of the tail, of which the tail occupies / inches only; in the girth it is inches the body is perpotionably long, the neck and legs short; the ears are short, obtusely pointed, and lye close to the head; the aperture of the ear is larger proportionably than most animals which burrow. the eyes are of moderate size, the puple black and iris of a dark dusky brown. the teeth are like those of the squirel as is it's whole contour. the whiskers are full, long and black; it has also some long black hars above the eye-. it has five toes on each foot; the iner toes of the fore feet are remarkably short, and have short blunt nails. the remaining toes on these feet are long slightly curved, black and sharply pointed. the outer and inner toes of the hind feet are not short yet they are by no means as long as the three toes in the center of the foot which are remarkably long but the nails are not as long as those of the fore feet tho of the same form and colour. the bars of the tail tho thickly inserted on every part respects the two sides only. this givs it a flat appearance and a long oval form. the tips of the hair which forms the outer edges of the tail are white. the bace of the hair are either black or a fox red. the under disk of the tail is an iron gray, the upper a redish brown. the lower part of the jaws, under part of the neck, legs and feet from the body down and belly are of a light brick red. the nose as high as the eyes is of a darker brick red. the upper part of the head neck and body are of a curious brownish gray colour with a cast of the brick red. the longer hairs of these parts being of a redish white colour at their extremities fall together in such a manner as to give it to the appearance of being spekled at a little distance. these animals form large ascoations as those of the missouri, occupying with their burroughs one or sometimes acres of land. the burrows are seperate and are each occupyed perhaps by or of those animals. there is a little mound in front of the hole formed of the earth thrown out of the burrow and frequently there are three or four distinct holes forming what i call one burrow, around the base of the mound, which seams to be occupied as a watch tower in common by the inhabitents of those several holes. these mounds are sometimes as much as feet high, and feet in diameter, and are irregularly distributed over the tract they occupy at the distance of from ten to or forty yards. when you approach a burrow the squirels one, or more, usially set erect on these mounds and make a kind of shrill whistleing nois, something like tweet, tweet, tweet &c. they do not live on grass as those of the missouri but on roots. one which i examoned had in his mouth two small bulbs of a species of grass, which resembles very much what is sometimes called the grass nut. the intestins of these little animals are remarkably large for it's size; fur short and very fine. the grass in their village is not cut down as in these of the plains of the missouri. i preserved the skins of several of these animals with the heads feet and legs entire-.-. the black wood pecker which is found in most parts of the rocky mountains as will as the western and s w. mountains, i had never an oppertunity of examineing, untill a fiew days since when we killed and preserved several of them. this bird is about the size of the lark woodpecker or the turtle dove, tho it's wings are longer than either of these birds. the beak is black, one inch long reather wide at the base, somewhat cirved, and sharply pointed; the chaps are of equal length. around the bace of the beak including the eye and a small part of the throat is of a crimson red. the neck and as low as the croop in front is of an iron gray. the belly and breast is of a curious mixture of white and blood red which has much the appearance of haveing been artifically painted or stained of that colour, the red reather predominates. the top of the head, back, sides, upper surface of the wings and tail are black, the under side of the wings and tail are black. it has ten feathers in the tail, sharply pointed, and those in the center reather longest, being / inches in length. the tongue is barbed, pointed, and of an elastic cartalaginous substance. the eye is moderately large, puple black and iris of a dark yellowish brown. this bird in it's actions when flying resemble the small redish woodpecker common to the altantic states; it's note also somewhat resembles that bird. the pointed tail seems to assist it in sitting with more ease or retaining it, in it's resting position against the perpendicular side of a tree. the legs and feet are black, and covered with imbricated scales. it has four toes on each foot, of which two are in rear and two in front; the nails are much curved long and remarkably keen or sharply pointed. it feeds on bugs, worms and a variety of insects.-. [lewis, may , ] wednesday may th . we sent goodrich to the village of the broken arm this morning he returned in the evening with some roots bread and a parsel of goats-hair for making our saddle pads. reubin and joseph feilds set out this morning to hunt high up on a creek which discharges itself into this river about miles above us. at noon charbono, york and lapage returned; they had obtained four bags of the dryed roots of cows and some bread. in the evening collins shannon and colter returned with eight deer. they had fortunately discovered a ford on collins's creek where they were enabled to pass it with their horses and had hunted at the quawmash ground where we first met with the chopunnish last fall. deer were very abundant they informed us, but there were not many bear. the sick cheif was much better this morning he can use his hands and arms and seems much pleased with the prospect of recovering, he says he feels much better than he has for a great number of months. i sincerely wish these sweats may restore him; we have consented that he should still remain with us and repeat these sweats. he set up a great proportion of the day.--the child is also better, he is free of fever, the imposthume is not so large but seems to be advancing to maturity.- since my arrival here i have killed several birds of the corvus genus of a kind found only in the rocky mountains and their neighbourhood. i first met with this bird above the three forks of the missouri and saw them on the hights of the rocky mountains but never before had an opportunity of examining them closely. the small corvus discribed at fort clatsop is a different speceis, tho untill now i had taken it to be the same, this is much larger and has a loud squawling note something like the mewing of a cat. the beak of this bird is / inches long, is proportionably large, black and of the form which characterizes this genus. the upper exceeds the under chap a little. the head and neck are also proportionably large. the eye full and reather prominent, the iris dark brown and puple black. it is about the size and somewhat the form of the jaybird tho reather rounder or more full in the body. the tail is four and a half inches in length, composed of feathers nearly of the same length. the head neck and body of this bird are of a dove colour. the wings are black except the extremities of six large fathers ocupying the middle joint of the wing which are white. the under disk of the wing is not of the shining or grossy black which marks it's upper surface. the two feathers in the center of the tail are black as are the two adjacent feathers for half their width the ballance are of a pure white. the feet and legs are black and imbricated with wide scales. the nails are black and remarkably long and sharp, also much curved. it has four toes on each foot of which one is in the rear and three in front. the toes are long particularly that in the rear. this bird feeds on the seed of the pine and also on insects. it resides in the rocky mountains at all seasons of the year, and in many parts is the only bird to be found.--our hunters brought us a large hooting owl which differs considerably from those of the atlantic states which are also common here. the plumage of this owl is an uniform mixture of dark yellowish brown and white, in which the dark brown predominates. it's colour may be properly termed a dark iron grey. the plumage is very long and remarkably silky and soft. these have not the long feathers on the head which give it the appearance of ears or horns. the leathers of the head are long narrow and closely set, they rise upwright nearly to the extremity and then are bent back sudonly as iff curled. a kind of ruff of these feathers incircle the thoat. the head has a flat appearance being broadest before and behind and is foot is. in circumference. incircling the eyes and extending from them like rays from the center a tissue of open hairy long feathers are placed of a light grey colour, these conceal the ears which are very large and are placed close to the eyes behind and extending below them. these feathers meet over the beak which they nearly conceal and form the face of the owl. they eyes are remarkably large and prominant, the iris of a pale goald colour and iris circular and of a deep sea green. the beak is short and wide at it's base. the upper chap is much curved at the extremity and comes down over and in front of the under chap. this bird is about the size of the largest hooting owl. the tail is composed of eleven feathers, of which those in the center are reather the longest. it is booted to the extremity of the toes, of which it has four on each foot, one in the rear one on the outer side and two in front. the toes are short particularly that in rear, but are all armed with long keen curved nails of a dark brown colour. the beak is white and nostrils circular large and unconnected. the habits and the note of this owl is much that of the common large hooting owl. [clark, may , ] wednesday may th we sent goodrich to the village of the broken arm for hair to stuff saddle pads. jo. & r. fields set out this morning to hunt towards the mountains. at noon shabono york and lapage returned. they had obtained bags of the dried roots of cowse and some bread. in the evening collins, shannon & cotter returned with deer. they fortunately discovered a ford on collin's creek where they were enable to pass it with there horses and had hunted at the quawmash grounds where we first met with the chopunnish last fall. deer were verry abundant they informed us, but there was not many bear. the sick chief is much better this morning he can use his hands and arms and seems much pleased with the prospects of recovering, he says he feels much better than he has done for a great number of months. i sincerly wish that the swetts may restore him. i have consented to repeet the sweets. the country along the rocky mountains for several hundred miles in length and about in width is leavel extremely fertile and in many parts covered with a tall and opult. growth of the long leafed pine. near the watercourses the hills are lofty tho are covered with a good soil and not remarkably stoney and possess more timber than the leavel country. the bottom lands on the water courses are reather narrow and confined tho fertile and seldom inundated. this country would form an extensive settlement; the climate appears quit as mild as that of a similar latitude on the atlantic coast; & it cannot be otherwise than healthy; it possesses a fine dry pure air. the grass and maney plants are now upwards of knee high. i have no doubt that this tract of country if cultivated would produce in great abundance every article esentially necessary to the comfort and subsistence of civillized man. to it's present inhabitents nature seems to have dealt with a liberal hand, for she has distributed a great variety of esculent plants over the face of the country which furnish them a plentiful store of provisions; those are acquired but little toil; and when prepared after the method of the nativs afford not only a nutricious but an agreeable food. among other roots those called by them the quawmash and cows are esteemd. the most agreeable and valuable as they are also the most abundant in those high plains. the cows is a knobbed root of an erregularly rounded form not unlike the gensang in form and consistence; this root they collect, rub off a thin black rhind which covers it and pounding it exposes it in cakes to the sun. these cakes are about an inch and / thick and by in wedth, when dry they either eat this bread alone without any further preperation, or boil it and make a thick musilage; the latter is most common & much the most agreeable. the flower of this root is not very unlike the gensang-. this root they collect as early as the snow disappears in the spring, and continues to collect it untill the quawmash supplies it's place which happins about the middle of june. the quawmash is also collected for a fiew weeks after it first makes it's appearance in the spring, but when the scape appears it is no longer fit for use untill the seed are ripe which happens about the time just mentioned. and then the cows declines. the cows is also frequently dried in the sun and pounded afterwards and used in thickening supe and makeing mush. the chopunnish held a council in the morning of the th among themselves in respect to the subject on which we had spoken to them the day before, the result as we learnt was favourable, they placed confidence in the information they had recived and resolved to pursue our advise. after this council was over the principal chief or the broken arm, took the flour of the roots of cows and thickened the soup in the kitiles and baskets of all his people, this being ended he made a harangue the purpote of which was makeing known the deliberations of their councils and impressing the necessity of unanimity among them, and a strict attention to the resolution which had been agreed on in councell; he concluded by enviting all such men as had resolved to abide by the decree of the councill to come and eat, and requested such as would not be so bound to show themselves by not partakeing of the feast. i was told by one of our men who was present in the house, that there was not a decenting voice on this great national question, but all swallowed their objections if any they had, very cheerfully with their mush-. dureing the time of this loud animated harangue of the chief the women cryed wrung their hands, tore their hair and appeared to be in the utmost distress. after this cerimoney was over, the chiefs and considerate men came in a body to where we were seated at a little distance from our tent, and two young men at the instance of the nation presented capt l. and myself each a fine horse. and informed us that they had listened with attentioned to what we had said and were resolved to pursue our counsels &c.--that as we had not seen the black foot indians and the minetarries of fort deprarie they did not think it safe to venter over to the plains of the missouri, where they would fondly go provided those nations would not kill them. that when we had established a tradeing house on the missouri as we had promised they would come over and trade for arms amunition &c. and live about us. that it would give them much pleasure to be at peace with those nations altho they had shed much of their blood-. they said that they were pore but their hearts were good. we might be assured of their sincerety. some of their brave men would go over with us to the missouri and bring them the news as we wished, and if we could make a peace between them and their enimies on the other side of the mountains their nation would go over to the missouri in the latter end of the summer. on the subject of one of their chiefs accompanying us to the land of the white men they could not yet determine, but that they would let us know before we left them. that the snow was yet so deep in the mountains that if we attempted to pass, we would certainly perish, and advised us to remain untill after the next full moon when the snow would disappear on the south hill sides and we would find grass for our horses.-. shabonos child is better this day that he was yesterday. he is free from fever. the imposthume is not so large but seems to be advanceing to meturity-. [lewis, may , ] thursday may th . no movement of the party today worthy of notice. we have once more a good stock of meat and roots. bratton is recovering his strength very fast; the child and the indian cheif are also on the recovery. the cheif has much more uce of his hands and arms. he washed his face himself today which he has been unable to do previously for more than twelvemonths. we would have repeated the sweat today had not been cloudy and frequently raining. a speceis of lizzard called by the french engages prarie buffaloe are native of these plains as well as of those of the missouri. i have called them the horned lizzard. they are about the size and a good deel the figure of the common black lizzard. but their bellies are broader, the tail shorter and their action much slower; they crawl much like the toad. they are of brown colour with yellowish and yellowishbrown spots. it is covered with minute scales intermixed with little horny prosesses like blont prickles on the upper surface of the body. the belley and throat is more like the frog and are of a light yelowish brown colour. arround the edge of the belley is regularly set with little horney projections which give to those edges a serrate figure the eye is small and of a dark colour. above and behind the eyes there are several projections of the bone which being armed at their extremities with a firm black substance has the appearance of horns sprouting out from the head. this part has induced me to distinguish it by the apppellation of the horned lizzard. i cannot conceive how the engages ever assimilated this animal with the buffaloe for there is not greater analogy than between the horse and the frog. this animal is found in greatest numbers in the sandy open parts of the plains, and appear in great abundance after a shower of rain; they are sometimes found basking in the sunshine but conceal themselves in little holes in the earth much the greater preportion of their time. they are numerous about the falls of the missouri and in the plains through which we past lately above the wallahwallahs.--the choke cherry has been in blume since the th inst. it is a simple branching ascending stem. the cortex smooth and of a dark brown with a redish cast. the leaf is scattered petiolate oval accute at its apex finely serrate smooth and of an ordinary green. from / to inches in length and / to in width. the peduncles are common, cilindric, and from to inches in length and are inserted promiscuously on the twigs of the preceeding years growth. on the lower portion of the common peduncle are frequently from to small leaves being the same in form as those last discribed. other peduncles / of an inch in length are thickly scattered and inserted on all sides of the common peduncle at wright angles with it each elivating a single flower, which has five obtuse short patent white petals with short claws inserted on the upper edge of the calyx. the calyx is a perianth including both stamens and germ, one leafed fine cleft entire simiglobular, infrior, deciduous. the stamens are upwards of twenty and are seated on the margin of the flower cup or what i have called the perianth. the filaments are unequal in length subulate inflected and superior membranous. the anthers are equal in number with the filaments, they are very short oblong & flat, naked and situated at the extremity of the filaments, is of a yelow colour as is also the pollen. one pistillum. the germen is ovate, smooth, superior, sessile, very small; the style is very short, simple, erect, on the top of the germen, deciduous. the stigma is simple, flat very short.- [clark, may , ] thursday th of may no movement of the party to day worthy of notice. we have once more a good stock of meat and roots. bratten is recovering his strength very fast. the child, and the indian cheaf are also on the recovery. the chief has much more use of his hands and arms. he washed his face himself today. which he has not been able to do previously for more than twelve months past. i would have repeeted the sweat to day had it not been cloudy and frequently raining.-. sence my arrival here i have killed several birds of the corvus genus of a kind found only in the rocky mountains and their neighbourhood. i first met with bird on jeffersons river. and saw them on the hights of the rocky mountains. but never before had an oppertunity of examineing them closely. the small corvus discribed at fort clatsop is a different species, tho untill now i had taken it to be the same, this is much larger and has a loud squaling note something like the newing of a cat. the beak of this bird is / inches long, is proportionably large, black and of the form which characterize this genus. the upper exeeds the under chap a little. the head and neck are also propotionably large, the eyes full and reather prominant, the iris dark brown and purple black. it is about the size and some what the form of the jay bird, tho reather rounder and more full in the body. the tail is four and a half inches in length, composed of feathers nearly of the same length. the head, neck and body of this bird is of a dove colour. the wings are black except the extremities of six large feathers occupying the middle joint of the wings which are white. the under disk of the wings are not of the shineing or glossy black which mark it's upper surface. the two feathers in the center of the tail are black as are the two adjacent feathers for half their wedth, the ballance are of a pure white. the feet and legs are black, and imbricated with wide scales, the nails are black and remarkably long and sharp, also much curved, it has four toes on each foot of which one is in the rear and in front. the toes are long particular that in the rear. this bird feeds on the seeds of the pine and also on insects. it resides in the rocky mountains at all seasons of the year, and in many parts is the only bird to be found. a species of lizzard called by the french engages, prarie buffaloe are nativs of these plains as well as those of the missouri. i have called them the horned lizzard. they are about the size and a good deel the figure of the common black lizzard. but their bellies are broader, the tail shorter and their action much slower; they crawl much like the toad. they are of a brown colour with yellowish and yellowish brown spots. it is covered with minute scales intermixed with little horney like blunt prickkles on the upper surface of the body. the belly and throat is more like the frog and are of a light yellowish brown colour. around the edge of the belly is regularly set with little horney prejections which give to those edges a serrate figure, the eye is small and of a dark colour. above and behind the eyes there are several projections of the bone which being armed at their extremities with a firm black substance has the appearance of horns sprouting out from the head. this part has induced me to distinguish it by the appellation of the horned lizard. i cannot conceive how the engagees ever assimilated this animal withe buffalow for there is not grater anology than between the horse and the frog. this animal is found in greatest numbers in the sandy open parts of the plains, and appear in great abundance after a rain; they are sometimes found basking in the sunshine but conceal themselves in little holes under the tufts of grass or herbs much the greater proportion of their time. they are noumerous about the falls of missouri, and in the plains through which we passed lately above the falls of columbia the choke cherry has been in blume since the th inst. it is a simple branching ascending stem. the cortex smooth and of a dark brown with a redish cast. the leaf is scattered petiolate oval accute at it's apex finely serated smooth and of an ordinary green, from / to inches in length and from / to in width. the peduncles cilindric and common from to inches in length and are inserted promiscuisly on the twigs of the proceeding years growth. on the lower portion of the common peduncle are frequently from to small leaves, being the same in form as those last discribed. other peduncles / of an inch in length are scattered and thickly inserted on all sides of the common peduncle at right-angles with it, each elivateing a single flower, which has five obtuse short patent white petals with short claws incerted on the upper edge of the calyx. the calyx is a perianth including both stemes & germ, one leafed five cleft entire, semi globular. the stamons are upwards of twenty and are seated on the margin of the flower cup or what i have called the perianth. the filaments are unequal in length subulate inflected and superior membranous. the anthers are equal in number with the filaments, they are very short oblong and flat, naked and situated at the extremity of the filaments. is of a yellowish colour asis also the pollen. one pistillum. the germin is ovate, smooth, superior, sessile, very small; the style is very short, simple, erect, on the top of the germen deciduous. the stigma is simple, flat very short. this shrub rises to the hight of from to feet generally but sometimes rich situations much higher. it is not confined to any particular situation capt. l-s met with a singular plant in blume of which we preserved a specimene. it grows on the steep fertile hill sides near this place the radix is fibrous, not much branched, annual, woody, white and nearly smooth. the stem is simple branching ascending / feet high. celindric, villose and of a pale red colour. the branches are but fiew and those near it's upper extremity. the extremities of the branches are flexable and are bent down near their extremities with the weight of the flowers. the leaf is sessile, scattered thinly, nearly lineor tho somewhat widest in the middle, two inches in length, absolutely entire, villose, obtusely pointed and of an ordinary green. above each leaf a small short branch protrudes, supporting a tissue of four or five small leaves of the same appearance of those discribed. a leaf is placed under neath each branch and each flower. the calyx is one flowered spatha. the corolla superior, consists of four pale perple petals which are tripartite, the centeral lobe largest and all terminate obtusely; they are inserted with a long and narrow claw on the top of the germ, are long, smooth and deciduous. there are two distinct sets of stamens the first or principal consists of four, the filaments which are capillary, erect, inserted on the top of the germ alternately with the petals, equal short, membranus; the anthers are also four each being elivated with it's fillaments; they are reather flat, erect sessile, cohering to the base, membranous, longitudinally furrowed, twise as long as the fillament naked, and of a pale purple colour, the second set of stamens are very minute, are also four and placed within and opposit to the petals, those are scercely precptable while the first are large & conspicious, the fillaments are capillary equal, very short white and smooth. the anthers are four, oblong, beaked, erect cohering at the base, membanous, shorter than the fillaments, white naked and appear not to form pollen, there is one pistillum; the germ of which is also one, celindric, villous, inferior, sessile, as long as the first stamuns, and grooved. the single style and stigma form a perfect mono petallous corolla only with this difference that the style which elivates the stigma or limb is not a tube but solid tho it's outer appearance is that of a tube of a monopetallous corolla swelling as it ascends and gliding in such manner into the limb that it cannot be said where the style ends or the stigma begins, jointly they are as long as the gorilla, while the limb is four cleft, sauser shaped, and the margin of the lobes entire and rounded. this has the appearance of a monopetallous flower growing from the center of the four petalled corollar which is rendered more conspicuous in consequence of the first being white and the latter of a pale purple. i regret very much that the seed of this plant are not ripe as yet and it is probable will not be so dureing our residence in this neighbourhood-. our horses maney of them have become so wild that we cannot take them without the assistance of the indians who are extreemly dextrous in throwing a rope and takeing them with a noose about the neck; as we frequently want the use of our horses when we cannot get the use of the indians to take them, we had a strong pound formed to day in order to take them at pleasure- [lewis, may , ] friday may th . lapage and charbono set out to the indian vilages early this morning for the purpose of trading with them for roots; sergt. gass was sent this morning to obtain some goats hair to stuff the padds of our saddles. he ascended the river on this side and being unable to pass the river opposite to the village he wished to visit, returned in the evening unsuccessfull. shannon and collins were permitted to pass the river in order to trade with the natives and lay in a store of roots and bread for themselves with their proportion of the merchandize as the others had done; in landing on the opposite shore the canoe was driven broad side with the full forse of a very strong current against some standing trees and instantly filled with water and sunk. potts who was with them is an indifferent swimer, it was with much difficulty he made the land. they lost three blankets a blanket coat and their pittance of merchandize. in our bear state of clootheing this was a serious loss. i sent sergt. pryor and a party over with the indian canoe in order to raise and secure ours but the debth of the water and the strength of the current baffled every effort. i fear that we have also lost our canoe. all our invalides are on the recovery. we gave the sick cheif a severe sweat today, shortly after which he could move one of his legs and thyes and work his toes pretty well, the other leg he can move a little; his fingers and arms seem to be almost entirely restored. he seems highly delighted with his recovery. i begin to entertain strong hope of his restoration by these sweats. in the evening joseph feild returned in surch of his horses which had left them last evening and returned to camp. feilds informed us that himself and his brother whom he had left at their camp ms. distant on collin's creek, had killed deer. the reptiles which i have observed in this quarter are the rattlesnake of the speceis discribed on the missouri, they are abundant in every part of the country and are the only poisonous snake which we have yet met with since we left st. louis. the speceis of snakes of an inosent kind already discribed. the common black lizzard, the horned lizzard, a smal green tree frog, the smal frog which is common to our country which sings in the spring of the year, a large speceis of frog which resorts the water considerably larger than our bull frog, it's shape seems to be a medium between the delicate and lengthy form of our bull frog and that of our land frog or toad as they are sometimes called in the u states. like the latter their bodies are covered with little pustles or lumps, elivated above the ordinary surface of the body; i never heard them make any sound or nois. the mockerson snake or coperhead, a number of vipers a variety of lizzards, the toad bullfrog &c common to the u states are not to be found in this country. most of the insects common to the u states are found here. the butterflies, common house and blowing flies, the horse flies, except the goald coloured ear fly, tho in stead of this fly we have a brown coloured fly about the same size which attatches itself to that part of the horse and is equally as troublesome. the silkworm is also found here. a great variety of beatles common to the atlantic states are found here likewise. except from this order the large cow beatle and the black beatle usually alled the tumble bug which are not found here. the hornet, the wasp and yellow wasp or yellow jacket as they are frequently called are not met with in this quarter. there is an insect which much resembles the latter only a vast deel larger which are very numerous particularly in the rocky mountains on the waters of the columbia; these build in the ground where they form a nest like the hornet with an outer covering to the comb in which they deposit their eggs and raise their young. the sheets of this comb are attatched to each other as those of the hornets are. their wings are four of a dark brown colour. the head is black, the body and abdomen are yellow incircled with transverse rings of black, they are ferce and sting very severely, we found them troublesome in frightening our horses as we passed those mountains. the honey bee is not found here. the bumble bee is. one of the men brought me today some onions from the high plain of a different speceis from those near the borders of the river as they are also from the shive or small onion noticed below the falls of the columbia. these onions were as large as a nutmeg, they generally grow double or two bulbs connected by the same tissue of radicles; each bulb has two long liniar flat solid leaves. the peduncle is solid celindric and crowned with an umbal of from to flowers. this onion is exceedingly crisp and delicately flavoured indeed i think more sweet and less strong than any i ever taisted. it is not yet perfectly in blow, the parts of the flower are not distinct. [clark, may , ] friday may th . lapage and shabono set out early this morning to the indian village in order to trade with them for roots; serjt. gass was sent this morning to obtain some goats hair to stuf the pads of our saddles; he assended the river on this side and being unable to pass the river to the village he wished to visit returned in the evening unsucksessfull. shannon and collins were permited to pass the river in order to trade with the nativs and lay in a store of roots and bread for themselves with their proportion of the merchendize as others had done; on landing on the opposit shore the canoe was driven broad side with the full force of a very strong current against some standing trees and instantly filled with water and sunk. potts who was with them is an indifferent swimer, it was with dificuelty he made the land. they lost three blankets and a blanket cappo and their pittance of merchindize. in our bear state of clothing this was a serious loss. i sent serjt. pryor and a party over in the indian canoe in order to raise and secure ours but the debth of the water and the strength of the current baffled every effort. i fear that we have also lost our canoe.all our involedes are on the recovery. we gave the sick chief a severe swet to day, shortly after which he could move one of his legs and thy's and work his toes pritty well, the other leg he can move a little; his fingers and arms seem to be almost entirely restored. he seems highly delighted with his recovery. i begin to entertain strong hope of his recovering by these sweats in the evening joseph fields returned in serch of his horses which had left them last evening and returned to camp. field informed us that himself and his brother whome he had left at their camp ms. distant on collins creek had killed deer.--the reptiles which i have observed in this quarter are the rattle snake of the species discribed on the missouri, they are abundant in every part of the country and are the only poisonous snake which we have met with since we left st. louis. the second species of snake of an inosent kind already discribd. the common black lizzard, the horned lizzard, a small green tree-frog; the same frog which is common to our country which sings in the spring of the year. a large species of frog which resorts the water considerably larger than our bull-frog, it's shape seems to be a medium between the delicate and lengthy form of our bullfrogs and that of our land frog or toad as they are sometimes called in the united states. like the latter their bodies are covered with little pustles or lumps, elevated above the ordinary surface of the body; i never heard them make any sound or noise, the mockerson snake or copper head, a number of vipers, a variety of lizzards, the toad bullfrog &c. common to the u. states are not to be found in this country. most of the insects common to the u states are found here. the butterfly, common house and blowing flies, the horse flies, except the gold coloured ear fly. tho in stead of this fly we have a brown coloured fly about the same size which attatches itself to that part of the horse and is equally as troublesom. the silk worm is also found here. a great variety of beatles common to the atlantic states are seen here likewise. except from this order the large cow beatle and the black beatle usially termed tumble bug which are not found here. the hornet, the wasp and yellow wasp or yellow jacket as they are frequently called are not met with in this quarter. there is an insect which much resembles the latter only a vast deel larger which are very noumerous particular in the rocky mountains on the waters of the columbia, those build in the ground where they form a nest like the hornet with an outer covering to the comb in which they deposit their eggs and raise their young. the sheets of this comb are attatched to each other as those of the hornets are. their wings are four of a dark brown colour--the head is black, the body and abdomin are yellow insercled with transverce rings of black, they are firce and sting very severely; we found them troublesom in frightening our horses as we passed through mountains. the honey bee is not found here. the bumblebee is. one of the men brought me to day some onions from the high plains of a different species from those near the borders of the river as they are also from the shive or small onion noticed below the falls of columbia. these onions were as large as an nutmeg, they generally grow double or two bulbs connected by the same tissue of radicles; each bulb has two long liner flat solid leaves. the pedencle is solid celindric and cround with an umble of from to flowers. this onion is exceedingly crisp and delicately flavoured indeed. i think more sweet and less strong than any i ever tasted, it is not yet perfectly in blume, the parts of the flower are not distinct [lewis, may , ] saturday may st . goodrich and willard visited the indian villages this morning and returned in the evening. willard brought with him the dressed skin of a bear which he had purchased for capt. c. this skin was an uniform pale redish brown colour, the indians informed us that it was not the hoh-host or white bear, that it was the yack-kah. this distinction of the indians induced us to make further enquiry relative to their opinons of the several speceis of bear in this country. we produced the several skins of the bear which we had killed at this place and one very nearly white which i had purchased. the white, the deep and plale red grizzle, the dark bron grizzle, and all those which had the extremities of the hair of a white or frosty colour without regard to the colour of the ground of the poil, they designated hoh-host and assured us that they were the same with the white bear, that they ascosiated together, were very vicisious, never climbed the trees, and had much longer nails than the others. the black skins, those which were black with a number of intire white hairs intermixed, the black with a white breast, the uniform bey, brown and light redish brown, they designated the yack-kah;-said that they climbed the trees, had short nails and were not vicious, that they could pursue them and kill them with safety, they also affirmed that they were much smaller than the white bear. i am disposed to adopt the indian distinction with rispect to these bear and consider them two distinct speceis. the white and the grizzly of this neighbourhood are the same of those found on the upper portion of the missouri where the other speceis are not, and that the uniform redish brown black &c of this neighbourhood are a speceis distinct from our black bear and from the black bear of the pacific coast which i believe to be the same with those of the atlantic coast, and that the common black bear do not exist here. i had previously observed that the claws of some of the bear which we had killed here had much shorter tallons than the variagated or white bear usually have but supposed that they had woarn them out by scratching up roots, and these were those which the indians called yak-kah. on enquiry i found also that a cub of an uniform redish brown colour, pup to a female black bear intermixed with entire white hairs had climbed a tree. i think this a distinct speceis from the common black bear, because we never find the latter of any other colour than an uniform black, and also that the poil of this bear is much finer thicker and longer with a greater proportion of fur mixed with the hair, in other ispects they are much the same.--this evening joseph and r. feilds returned with the three deer which they had killed. the indians brought us another of our origional stock of horses; there are only two absent now of those horses, and these the indians inform us that our shoshone guide rode back when he returned. we have sixty five horses at this time, most of them in excellent order and fine strong active horses.- the indians pursued a mule deer to the river opposite to our camp this evening; the deer swam over and one of our hunters killed it. there being a large party of indians assembled on this occasion on the opposite side, hohast-ill-pilp desired them to raise our canoe which was sunk on that side of the river yesterday; they made the attempt but were unable to effect it. [clark, may , ] saturday may st goodrich and willard visited the indian village this morning and returned in the evening willard brought with him the dressed skin of a bear which he had purchased for me. this skin was of a uniform pale redish brown colour, the indians inform us that it was not the hoh-host or white bear, that it was the yack-kah this distinction of the indians induced us to make further enquiry relitive to their oppinions of the defferent species of bear in this country. we produced the several skins of the bear which our hunters had killed at this place and one very nearly white which capt lewis had purchased. the white, the deep and pale red grizzle, the dark brown grizzle, and all those that had the extremities of the hair of a white or frosty colour without reguard to the colour of the ground of the poil, they disignated hoh-host and assured us that they were the same with the white bear, that they associated together, were very vicisious, never climb the trees, and had much longer nails than the others. the black skins, those which were black with a number of entire white hairs intermixed, the black with a white breast, the uniform bey, brown and light redish brown, they disignated the yack-kah-; said that they climb the trees had short nails and were not viscisious, that they could prosue them and kill them in safty, they also affirmed that they were much smaller than the white bear. i am disposed to adopt the indians distinction with respect to these bear and consider them two distinct species. the white and the grizzly of this neighbourhood are the same as those found on the upper part of the missouri where the other species are not, and that the uniform redish brown black &c. of this neighbourhood are a species distinct from both species of our black bear and from the black bear of the pacific coast which i believe to be the same with those of the atlantic coast, and that the common black bear do not exist here. i had previously observed that the claws of some of the bear which we had killed here had much shorter tallons than the varigated or white bear usially have but supposed that they had worn them out by scratching out roots, and these were those which the indians call yahkah. on enquiry i found also that a cub of a uniform redish brown colour pup to a female black bear intermixed with entire white hairs, had climbed a tree. i think this a distinct species from the common black bear becaus we never find the latter of any other colour than a uniform black, and also that the poil of this bear is much finer thicker and longer with a greater proportion of fur mixed with the hair, in other respects they are much the same this evening, joseph and reuben fields returned with the three deer they had killed. the indians brought us another of our original stock of horses; there are only two absent now of these horses, and these the indians inform us that our sho-sho-ne guide rode back when he returned. we have sixty five horses at this time, most of them in excellent order and fine strong active horses the indians pursued a mule deer to the river opposit to our camp this evening; the deer swam over and one of our hunters killed it. there being a large party of indians assembled on this occasion on the opposit side with tin-nach-e-moo-tolt they attempted to rais our canoe which was sunk on that side of the river yesterday; they made the attempt but were unable to effect it-. [lewis, june , ] sunday june st . yesterday evening charbono an lapage returned, having made a broken voyage. they ascended the river on this side nearly opposite to a village eight miles above us, here their led horse which had on him their merchandize, feell into the river from the side of a steep clift and swam over; they saw an indian on the opposite side whom they prevailed on to drive their horse back again to them; in swiming the river the horse lost a dressed elkskin of lapages and several small articles, & their paint was destroyed by the water. here they remained and dryed their articles the evening of the th ult. the indians at the village learning their errand and not having a canoe, made an attempt esterday morning to pass the river to them on a raft with a parsel of roots and bread in order to trade with them; the indian raft struck a rock, upset and lost thir cargo; the river having fallen heir to both merchandize and roots, our traders returned with empty bags. this morning drewyer accompanyed by hohastillpilp set out in surch of two tomahawks of ours which we have understood were in the possession of certain indians residing at a distance in the plains on the south side of the kooskoske; the one is a tomahawk which capt. c. left at our camp on musquetoe creek and the other was stolen from us while we lay at the forks of this and the chopunnish rivers last fall. colter and willard set out this morning on a hunting excurtion towards the quamash grounds beyond collins's creek. we begin to feel some anxiety with rispect to sergt. ordway and party who were sent to lewis's river for salmon; we have received no inteligence of them since they set out. we desired drewyer to make some enquiry after the twisted hair; the old man has not been as good as his word with rispect to encamping near us, and we fear we shall be at a loss to procure guides to conduct us by the different routs we wish to pursue from traveller's rest to the waters of the missouri.--i met with a singular plant today in blume of which i preserved a specemine; it grows on the steep sides of the fertile hills near this place, the radix is fibrous, not much branched, annual, woody, white and nearly smooth. the stem is simple branching ascending, / feet high celindric, villose and of a pale red colour. the branches are but few and those near it's upper extremity. the extremities of the branches are flexable and are bent down near their extremities with the weight of the flowers. the leaf is sissile, scattered thinly, nearly linear tho somewhat widest in the middle, two inches in length, absolutely entire, villose, obtusely pointed and of an ordinary green. above each leaf a small short branch protrudes, supporting a tissue of four or five smaller leaves of the same appearance with those discribed. a leaf is placed underneath eah branch, and each flower. the calyx is a one flowered spathe. the corolla superior consists of four pale perple petals which are tripartite, the central lobe largest and all terminate obtusely; they are inserted with a long and narrow claw on the top of the germ, are long, smooth, & deciduous. there are two distinct sets of stamens the st or principal consist of four, the filaments of which are capillary, erect, inserted on the top of the germ alternately with the petals, equal short, membranous; the anthers are also four each being elivated with it's fillament, they are linear and reather flat, erect sessile, cohering at the base, membranous, longitudinally furrowed, twise as long as the fillament naked, and of a pale perple colour. the second set of stamens are very minute are also four and placed within and opposite to the petals, these are scarcely persceptable while the st are large and conspicuous; the filaments are capillary equal, very short, white and smooth. the anthers are four, oblong, beaked, erect, cohering at the base, membranous, shorter than the fillaments, white naked and appear not to form pollen. there is one pistillum; the germ of which is also one, cilindric, villous, inferior, sessile, as long as the st stamens, and marked with longitudinal furrows. the single style and stigma form a perfict monapetallous corolla only with this difference, that the style which elivates the stigma or limb is not a tube but solid tho it's outer appearance is that of the tube of a monopetallous corolla swelling as it ascends and gliding in such manner into the limb that it cannot be said where the style ends, or the stigma begins; jointly they are as long as the corolla, white, the limb is four cleft, sauser shaped, and the margins of the lobes entire and rounded. this has the appearance of a monopetallous flower growing from the center of a four petalled corollar, which is rendered more conspicuous in consequence of the st being white and the latter of a pale perple. i regret very much that the seed of this plant are not yet ripe and it is proble will not be so during my residence in this neighbourhood. [clark, june , ] sunday june st . late last evening shabono & lapage returnd. haveing made a broken voyage. they assended the river on this side nearly opposit to the village eight miles above us, here their led horse who had on him their stock of merchindize fell into the river from the side of a steep clift and swam over, they saw an indian on the opposit side whome they provailed on to drive their horse back again to them; in swiming the horse lost a dressed elk skin of lapages and several small articles, and their paint was distroyed by the water. here they remained and dryed their articles the evening of the th ulto. the indians at the village learned their errand and not haveing a canoe, made an attempt yesterday morning made an attempt to pass the river to them on a raft with a parcel of roots and bread in order to trade with them; the indian raft struck a rock upset and lost their cargo; the river haveing swallowed both merchindize & roots, our traders returned with empty bags. this morning geo. drewyer accompanied by hohastillpilp set out in serch of two tomahawks of ours which we have understood were in the possession of certain indians resideing at a distance in the plains on the south side of flat head river; one is a pipe tomahawk which capt l. left at our camp on musquetor creek and the other was stolen from me whilst we lay at the forks of this and chopunnish rivers last fall. colter and willard set out this morning on a hunting excurtion towards the quawmash grounds beyond colins creek. we begin to feel some anxiety with respect to sergt. ordway and party who were sent to lewis's river for salmon; we have receved no intillegence of them sence they set out. we desired drewyer to make some enquiry after the twisted hair; the old man has not been as good as his word with respect to encamping near us, and we fear we shall be at a loss to procure guides to conduct us by the different routs we wish to pursue from travillers rest to the waters of the missouri [lewis, june , ] monday june cd . mcneal and york were sent on a trading voyage over the river this morning. having exhausted all our merchandize we are obliged to have recourse to every subterfuge in order to prepare in the most ample manner in our power to meet that wretched portion of our journy, the rocky mountain, where hungar and cold in their most rigorous forms assail the waried traveller; not any of us have yet forgotten our sufferings in those mountains in september last, and i think it probable we never shall. our traders mcneal and york were furnished with the buttons which capt. c. and myself cut off our coats, some eye water and basilicon which we made for that purpose and some phials and small tin boxes which i had brought out with phosphorus. in the evening they returned with about bushels of roots and some bread having made a successful) voyage, not much less pleasing to us than the return of a good cargo to an east india merchant.--collins, sheilds, r & j. feilds and shannon set out on a hunting excurtion to the quawmash grounds on the lower side of collins's creek. our horses many of them have become so wild that we cannot take them without the assistance of the indians who are extreemly dextrous in throwing a rope and taking them with a noose about the neck; as we frequently want the use of our horses when we cannot get the assistance of the indians to take them, we had a strong pound formed today in order to take them at pleasure. drewyer arrived this evening with neeshneparkkeeook and hohastillpilp who had accompanyed him to the lodges of the persons who had our tomahawks. he obtained both the tomahawks principally by the influence of the former of these cheifs. the one which had been stolen we prized most as it was the private property of the late sergt. floyd and capt. c. was desireous of returning it to his friends. the man who had this tomahawk had purchased it from the indian that had stolen it, and was himself at the moment of their arrival just expiring. his relations were unwilling to give up the tomehawk as they intended to bury it with the disceased owner, but were at length induced to do so for the consideration of a hadkerchief, two strands of beads, which drewyer gave them and two horses given by the cheifs to be killed agreeably to their custom at the grave of the disceased. the bands of the chopunnish who reside above the junction of lewis's river and the kooskooske bury their dead in the earth and place stones on the grave. they also stick little splinters of wood in betwen the interstices of the irregular mass of stone piled on the grave and afterwards cover the whole with a roof of board or split timber. the custom of sacreficing horses to the disceased appears to be common to all the nations of the plains of columbia. a wife of neeshneeparkkeeook died some short time since, himself and hir relations saceficed horses to her. the indians inform us that there are a plenty of moos to the s. e. of them on the east branch of lewis's river which they call tommanamah r. about noon sergt. ordway frazier and wizer returned with salmon and some roots of cows; the distance was so great from which they had brought the fish that most of them were nearly spoiled. these fish were as fat as any i ever saw; sufficiently so to cook themselves without the addition of grease; those which were sound were extreemly delicious; their flesh is of a fine rose colour with a small admixture of yellow. these men set out on the th ult. and in stead of finding the fishing shore at the distance of half a days ride as we had been informed, they did not reach the place at which they obtained their fish untill the evening of the th having travelled by their estimate near miles. the rout they had taken however was not a direct one; the indians conducted them in the first instance to the east branch of lewis's river about miles above it's junction with the south branch, a distance of about ms. where they informed them they might obtain fish; but on their arrival at that place finding that the salmon had not yet arrived or were not taken, they were conducted down that river to a fishery a few miles below the junction of the forks of lewis's river about ms. further, here with some difficulty and remaining one day they purchased the salmon which they brought with them. the first ms. of their rout was up commeap creek and through a plain open country, the hills of the creek continued high and broken with some timber near it's borders. the ballance of their rout was though a high broken mountanous country generally well timbered with pine the soil fertile in this quarter they met with an abundance of deer and some bighorned animals. the east fork of lewis's river they discribe as one continued rapid about yds. wide it's banks are in most places solid and perpendicular rocks, which rise to a great hight; it's hills are mountains high. on the tops of some of those hills over which they passed, the snow had not entirely disappeared, and the grass was just springing up. at the fishery on lewis's river below the forks there is a very considerable rapid nearly as great from the information of segt. ordway as the great falls of the columbia the river yds. wide. their common house at this fishery is built of split timber feet long and feet wide flat at top. the general course from hence to the forks of lewis's river is a little to the west of south about ms.--the men at this season resort their fisheries while the women are employed in collecting roots. both forks of lewis's river above their junction appear to enter a high mountainous country.--my sick horse being much reduced and apearing to be in such an agoni of pain that there was no hope of his recovery i ordered him shot this evening. the other horses which we casterated are all nearly recovered, and i have no hesitation in declaring my beleif that the indian method of gelding is preferable to that practiced by ourselves. [clark, june , ] monday june nd mcneal and york were sent on a tradeing voyage over the river this morning. having exhosted all our merchendize we were obliged to have recourse to every subterfuge in order to prepare in the most ample manner in our power to meet that wretched portion of our journy, the rocky mountains, where hungar and cold in their most regorous form assail the waried traveller; not any of us have yet forgotten our those mountains in september last, i think it probable we never shall. our traders mcneal and york are furnished with the buttons which capt l-. and my self cut off of our coats, some eye water and basilicon which we made for that purpose and some phials of eye water and some tin boxes which capt l. had brought from philadelphia. in the evening they returned with about bushels of roots and some bread haveing made a suckcessfull voyage, not much less pleasing to us than the return of a good cargo to an east india merchant. shields, collins, reuben & joseph field & shannon set out on a hunting excurtion to the quaw mash the lower side of collins creek & towards the mountains. drewyer arived this evening with neeshneparkkeeook and hohashillpilp who had accompanied him to the lodge of the person who had our tomahawks. he obtained both the tomahawks principally by the influence of the former of those chiefs. the one which had been stolen we prized most as it was the private property of the late serjt. floyd and i was desireous of returning it to his friends. the man who had this tomahawk had purchased it from the man who had stolen it, and was himself at the moment of their arival just expireing. his relations were unwilling to give up the tomahawk as they intended to bury it with the deceased owner, but were at length to do so for the consideration of a handkerchief, two strands of heeds, which drewyer gave them and two horses given by the chiefs to be killed agreeable to their custom at the grave of the deceased. the custom of sacrificeing horses to the disceased appears to be common to all the nations of the plains of the columbia. a wife of neeshneeparkkeeook died some short time sence, himself and her relations sacrificed horses to her. the indians inform us that there is a plenty of moos to the s. e. of them on the east branch of lewis's river which they call tommawamah river. about noon sergt. ordway frazier and wiser returnd. with salmon and some roots of the cows; the distance was so great from whence they brought the fish, that most of them were nearly spoiled. those fish were as fat as any i ever saw; sufficiently so to cook themselves without the addition of grease or butter; those which were sound were extreemly delicious; their flesh is of a fine rose colour with a small admixture of yellow. these men set out on the th ulto. and in sted of finding the fishing shore at the distance of half a days ride as we had been informed, they did not reach the place at which they obtained their fish untill the evening of the th haveing traveled near miles. the rout they had taken however was not a direct one; the indians conducted them in the first instance to the east fork of lewis's river about miles above it's junction with the south branch, a distance of about miles where they informed them they might obtain fish; but on their arival at that place finding that the salmon had not arived or were not taken, they were conducted down that river to a fishery a fiew miles below the junction of the forks of lewis's river about miles further, here they remained one day and with some dificuelty, they purchased the salmon which they brought with them. the first ms. of their rout was up commeap creek and through a plain open country, the hills of the creek continued high and broken with some timber near it's borders, the ballance of their rout was through a high broken mountanious country. generally well timbered with pine the soil fertile. in this quarter the meet with abundance of deer and some big-horned animals. the east fork of lewis's river they discribe as one continued rapid of about yards wide, it's banks are in most places solid and perpindicular rocks, which rise to a great hight; it's hills are mountanious high. on the top of some of those hills over which they passed, the snow had not entirely disappeared, and the grass was just springing up. at the fishery on lewis's river below the forks there is a very considerable rapid, nearly as great from the information of sergt. ordway as the great falls of the columbia the river yards wide. their common house at this fishery is built of split timber feet long and feet in width, flat at top. the general course from here to the forks of lewis's river is a little to the west of south about ms. the men at this season resort their fisheries while the womin are employed in collecting roots-. both forks above the junction of lewis's river appear to enter a high mountainious country. our horses are all recovering & i have no hesitation in declareing that i believe that the indian method of guilding preferable to that practised by ourselves. [lewis, june , ] tuesday june rd . our invalids are all on the recovery; bratton is much stronger and can walk about with considerable ease. the indian cheif appears to be gradually recovering the uce of his limbs, and the child is nearly well; the imposthume on his neck has in a great measure subsided and left a hard lump underneath his left ear; we still continue the application of the onion poltice. at p.m. the broken arm and of his wariars visited us and remained all night. colter, jo. fields and willard returned this evening with five deer and one bear of the brown speceis; the hair of this was black with a large white spot on the breast containing a small circular black spot. today the indians dispatched an express over the mountains to travellers rest or the neighbourhood of that creek on clark's river in order to learn from the oote-lash-shoots a band of the flatheads who have wintered there, the occurrences that have taken place on the east side of the mountains during that season. this is the band which we first met with on that river. the mountains being practicable for this express we thought it probable that we could also pass, but the indians informed us that several of the creeks would yet swim our horses, that there was no grass and that the roads were extreemly deep and slipery; they inform us that we may pass conveniently in twelve or fourteen days. we have come to a resolution to remove from hence to the quawmash grounds beyond collins's creek on the th to hunt in that neighbourhood a few days, if possible lay in a stock of meat and then attempt the mountains about the middle of this month. i begin to lose all hope of any dependance on the salmon as this river will not fall sufficiently to take them before we shall leave it, and as yet i see no appearance of their runing near the shores as the indians informed us they would in the course of a few days. i find that all the salmon which they procure themselves they obtain on lewis's river, and the distance thither is too great for us to think of sending after them even had we merchandize with which to purchase. [clark, june , ] tuesday june rd our invalids are all on the recovery; bratten is much stronger and can walk about with considerable ease. the indian chief appears to be gradually recovering the use of his limbs, and the child is nearly well; the inflomation on his neck continus but the swelling appears to subside. we still continue the application of the onion poltice. at p.m. the broken arm and three wariors visited us and remained all night. colter, jos. fields and willard returned this evening with five deer and one bear of the brown species; the hair of this was black with a large white spot on the breast containing a small circular black spot. (this species of bear is smaller than our common black bear) this was a female bear and as our hunters informed us had cubs last year, this they judged from the length and size of her tits &c. this bear i am confident is not larger than the yerlin cubs of our country. to day the indians dispatched an express over the mountains to travellers rest or to the neighbourhood of that creek on clark's river in order to learn from a band of flat-heads who inhabit that river and who have probably wintered on clarks river near the enterance of travellers rest creek, the occurences which have taken place on the east side of the mountains dureing the last winter. this is the band which we first met with on that river. the mountains being practicable for this express we thought it probable that we could also pass, but the chiefs informs us that several of the creek's would yet swim our horses, that there was no grass and that the road was extreemly deep and slipery; they inform us that we may pass conveniently in twelve or fourteen days. we have come to a resolution to remove from hence to the quawmash grounds beyond colins creek on the th to hunt in that neighbourhood a fiew days, if possible lay in a stock of meat, and then attempt the mountains about the middle of this month. i begin to lose all hope of any dependance on the salmon as this river will not fall sufficiently to take them before we shall leave it, and as yet i see no appearance of their running near the shore as the indians informed us they would in the course of a fiew days. i find that all the salmon which they precure themselves they obtain on lewis's river, and the distance thither is too great for us to think of sending after them, even had we merchendize with which to purchase the salmon.-. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . about noon the cheifs left us and returned to their vilages. while they were with us we repeated the promises we had formerly made them and invited them to the missouri with us, they declined going untill the latter end of the summer and said it was there intention to spend the ensuing winter on the east side of the rocky mountains. they gave us no positive answer to a request which we made, that two or three of their young men should accompany me to the falls of the missouri and there wait my return from the upper part of maria's river where it was probable i should meet with some of the bands of the minnetares from fort de prarie; that in such case i should indeavor to bring about a good understanding between those indians and themselves, which when effected they would be informed of it though the young men thus sent with me, and that on the contrary should i not be fortunate enough to meet with these people nor to prevail on them to be at peace they would equally be informed through those young men, and they might still remain on their guard with rispect to them untill the whites had it in their power to give them more effectual releif. the broken arm invited us to his village and said he wished to speak to us before we set out, and that he had some roots to give us for our journey over the mountains; capt. c. promised to visit him as he wished the day after tomorrow.--sheilds returned this evening from the quawmash grounds with deer which he had killed. [clark, june , ] wednesday june th about noon the chiefs left us and returned to their villages. while they were with us we repeeted the promisces we had formerly made them and envited them to the missouri with us, they declined going untill the latter end of the summer, and said it was their intintion to spend the insiewing winter on the east side of the rocky mountains, they gave us no positive answer to a request which we made, that two or three of their young men should accompany capt l. to the falls of missouri and there wait his return from the upper part of maria's river where it was probable he should meet with some of the bands of the blakfoot indians and minitarres of fort deprarie, that in such case capt l. would indeavor to bring about a good understanding between those indians and themselves, which when effected they would be informed of it through the young men thus sent with him. and that on the contrary should he not be fortunate enough to meet with those people, nor to provaile on them to be at peace they would equally be informed through those young men, and they might still remain on their guard with respect to them, untill the whites had it more in their power to give them more effectual relief. i also urged the necessaty of sending one or two of their considerate men to accompany me by way of the shoshonees on the head of jeffersons river and about the three forks of the missouri which whome there is most probably some of the chiefs of those bands of shoshones with whome they are at war, and by which means a message sent to that nation & good understanding brought about between the shoshones and the chopunnish nations which appears to be the wish of both nations. the broken arm envited us to his village and said he wished to speak to us before we set out, and that he had some roots to give us for our journey over the mountains; i promised to visit him as he wished the day after tomorrow-. shields returned this evining from the quawmash grounds with two deer which he had killed [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . colter and bratton were permitted to visit the indian villages today for the purpose of trading for roots and bread, they were fortunate and made a good return. we gave the indian cheif another sweat today, continuing it as long as he could possibly bear it; in the evening he was very languid but appeared still to improve in the use of his limbs. the child is recovering fast the inflamation has subsided intirely, we discontinued the poltice, and applyed a plaster of basilicon; the part is still considerably swolen and hard. in the evening r. feilds shannon and labuish return from the chaise and brought with them five deer and a brown bear. among the grasses of this country i observe a large speceis which grows in moist situations; it rises to the hight of eight or ten feet, the culm is jointed, hollow, smooth, as large as a goos quill and more firm than ordinary grasses; the leaf is linnear broad and rough; it has much the appearance of the maden cain as it is called in the state of gergia, and retains it's virdure untill late in the fall. this grass propegates principally by the root which is horizontal and perennial. a second speceis grows in tussucks and rises to the hight of six or eight feet; it seems to delight in the soil of the river bottoms which possess a greater mixture of sand than the hills in this neighbourhood. this is also a harsh course grass; it appears to be the same which is called the corn grass in the southern states, and the foxtail in virginia. a third speceis resembles the cheet, tho the horses feed on it very freely. a fourth and most prevalent speceis is a grass which appears to be the same called the blue grass common to many parts of the united states; it is common to the bottom as well as the uplands, is now seeding and is from inches to feet high; it affords an excellent pasture for horses and appears to bear the frosts and snow better than any grass in our country; i therefore regret very much that the seed will not be ripe before our probable departure. this is a fine soft grass and would no doubt make excellent hay if cultivated. i do not find the greenswoard here which we met with on the lower part of the columbia. there are also several speceis of the wild rye to be met with in the praries. among the plants and shrubs common to our contry i observe here the seven bark, wild rose, vining honeysickle, sweet willow, red willow, longleafed pine, cattail or cooper's flag, lamsquarter, strawberry, raspberry, tonge grass, musterd, tanzy, sinquefield, horsemint, coltsfoot, green plantin, cansar weed, elder, shoemate and several of the pea blume flowering plants.- [clark, june , ] thursday june th colter and bratten were permitted to visit the indian village to day for the purpose of tradeing for roots and bread, they were fortunate and made a good return. we gave the indian cheif another sweat to-day, continuing it as long as he could bear it. in the evening he was very languid but still to improve in the use of his limbs. the child is revovereing fast. i applied a plaster of sarve made of the rozen of the long leafed pine, beas wax and beare oil mixed, which has subsided the inflomation entirely, the part is considerably swelled and hard-. in the evening reuben fields, g. shannon, labiech, & collins returned from the chaise and brought with them five deer and a brown bear. among the grasses of this country i observe a large species which grows in moist situations; it rises to the hight of eight or ten feet, the culm is jointed, hollow, smooth, as large as a goose quill, and more firm than ordinary grass; the leaf is linner broad and rough; it has much the appearance of the meadin cain as it is called in the southern parts of the u states, and retains it's virdue untill late in the fall. this grass propegates principally by the root which is horozontal and perennial.-. a second species grows in tussucks and rises to the hight of six or eight feet; it seams to delight in the soil of the river bottoms which possess agreater mixture of sand than the hills in this neighbourhood. this is also a harsh course grass; it appears to be the same which is called the corn grass in the southern states, and the foxtail in virginia. a third species resembles the cheet, tho the horses feed on it very freely. a fouth and most prevalent species is a grass which appears to be the same called the blue grass common to maney parts of the united states; it is common to the bottoms as well as the uplands, is now seeding and is from inches to feet high; it affords an excellent paterage for horses and appears to bear the frost and snow better than any grass in our country; i therefore regrete very much that the seed will not be ripe before our probable departure. this is a fine soft grass and would no doubt make excellent hay if cultivated. i do not find the green sword here which we met with on the lower part of the columbia. there are also several species of the wild rye to be met with in the praries. among the plants and shrubs common to our country i observe here the seven bark, wild rose, vineing honey suckle, sweet willow, red willow, long leafed pine, cattail or coopers flag. lambs quarter, strawberries, raspberries, goose berries, tongue grass, mustard, tanzy, sinquefield, horse mint, water penerial, elder, coalts foot, green plantin, canser weed, shoemate, and several of the pea blume flowering plants.-. frazier who had permission to visit the twisted hairs lodge at the distance of ten or twelve miles did not return this evening-. the river falls in course of the day and rises some at night as will be seen by the remarks in the diary of the weather. this most probably is the melding of the snows dureing the day &c. [lewis, june , ] friday june th . this morning frazier returned having been in quest of some roots and bread which had left at the lodg of the twisted hair when on his way to the fishery on lewis's river. the twisted hair came with him but i was unable to converse with him for the want of an interpreter, drewyer being absent with capt. c. this cheif left me in the evening and returned to his village. capt c. visited the broken arm today agreeably to his promise; he took with him drewyer and several others. they were received in a friendly manner. the broken arm informed capt. c. that the nation would not pass the mountain untill the latter end of the summer, and that with rispect to the young men whom we had requested should accompany us to the falls of the missouri, were not yet scelected for that purpose nor could they be so untill there was a meeting of the nation in counsil. that this would happen in the course of ten or twelve days as the whole of the lodges were about to remove to the head of the commeap creek in the plain near lewis's river, that when they had assembled themselves they would hold a council and scelect the young men. that if we set out previously to that period the men would follow us. we therefore do not calculate on any assistance from them as guides, but depend more upon engageing some of the ootlashshoots in the neighborhood of travellers rest c. for that purpose. the broken arm gave capt. c. a few dryed quawmas roots as a great present, but in our estimation those of cows are much better, i am confident they are much more healthy. the men who were with capt. c. obtained a good store of roots and bread in exchange for a number of little notions, using the yanke phrase, with which their own enginuity had principally furnished them. on examination we find that our whole party have an ample store of bread and roots for our voyage, a circumstance not unpleasing. they retuned at p.m. shortly after which we were visited by hohastillpilp the two young cheifs who gave us the horses in behalf of the nation some time since and several others, who remained all night. the kooskooske is about yds. wide at this place and discharges a vast body of water; notwithstanding it high state the water remains nearly transparent, and it's temperature appeas to be quite as cold as that of our best springs. we meet with a beautifull little bird in this neighbourhood about the size and somewhat the shape of the large spar-row. it is reather longer in proportion to it's bulk than the sparrow. it measures inches from the extremity of the beek to that of the tail, the latter occupying / inches. the beak is reather more than half an inch in length, and is formed much like the virginia nitingale; it is thick and large for a bird of it's size; wide at the base, both chaps convex, and pointed, the uper exceeds the under chap a little is somewhat curved and of a brown colour; the lower chap of a greenish yellow. the eye full reather large and of a black colour both puple and iris. the plumage is remarkably delicate; that of the neck and head is of a fine orrange yellow and red, the latter predominates on the top of the head and arround the base of the beak from whence it graduly deminishes & towards the lower part of the neck, the orrange yellow prevails most; the red has the appearance of being laid over a ground of yellow. the breast, the sides, rump and some long feathers which lie between the legs and extend underneath the tail are of a fine orrange yellow. the tail, back and wings are black, ecept a small stripe of yellow on the outer part of the middle joint of the wing, / of an inch wide and an inch in length. the tail is composed of twelve feathers of which those in the center are reather shortest, and the plumage of all the feathers of the tail is longest on that side of the quill next the center of the tail. the legs and feet are black, nails long and sharp; it has four toes on each foot, of which three are forward and one behind; that behind is as long as the two outer of the three toes in front. [clark, june , ] friday june th i visited the broken arm to day agreeable to my promis of the th inst. and took with me drewyer & three other men i was receved in a friendly manner. the broken arm informed me that maney of the small chiefs of the different bands of his nation had not heard our word from our own mouths, several of them were present and was glad to see me &c. i repeeted in part what had been said in council before. the broken arm told me that the nation would not pass the mountains untill the latter part of the summer, and with respect to the young men who we had requested to accompany us to the falls of missouri, were not yet selected for that purpose nor could they be so untill they had a meeting of the nation in council. that this would happen in the course of ten or days as the whole of the lodges were about to move to the head of commeap creek in the plain of lewis's river, that when they held a council they would select two young men. that if we set out previously to that time the men would follow us. we therefore do not calculate any assistance from them as guides, but depend more upon engageing some of the oatlash-shoots on clarks river in the neighbouringhood of travellers rest c. for that purpose. the broken arm gave me a fiew quawmash roots as a great preasent, but in my estimation those of cows is much better. i am confident they are much more healthy. the broken arm informed me that they had latterly been informed that a party of the shoshones had arived at the ye-e-al-po nation who reside to the south of the enterance of kooskooske into lewis's river. and had informed that people that their nation (the shoshones) had received the talk which was given their relations on the head of the east fork of lewis's river last fall, and were resolved to pursue our councils, and had came foward for the purpose of makeing peace with them, and allso with the chopunnish &c. that they had sent several men in serch of those people with a view to bring them to lewis's river at which place the broken arm informed me he should meet them and smoke the pipe of peace. which he should afterwards send by with some of his chiefs in company with those shoshones to their nation and confirm a piece which never should be broken on his part. he produced two pipes one of which he said was as a present to me the other he intended to send to the shoshones &c. and requested me to take one, i receved the one made in the fascion of the country, the other which was of stone curiously inlaid with silver in the common form which he got from the shoshones. i deckorated the stem of this pipe with blue ribon and white wampom and informed the chief this was the emblem of peace with us. the men who accompanied me obtained a good store of roots and bread in exchange for a number of little notions, useing the yanke phrase, with which their own enginuiety had principally furnished them. on examonation we find our whole party have a sufficient store of bread and roots for our voyage. a circumstance not unpleasing-. i returned at p. m followed by hohastillpilp the young chiefs who gave us the horses in behalf of the nation some time sence, the young man who gave us the horse at collins creek to kill as we came up, and several others. i met the twisted hair and two other indians with frazier on the opposit bank from our camp this morning & sent him over to our camp. i met him this evening on his return home. he informed me he could not accompany us across the mountains as his brother was sick &c.-. [clark, june , ] the chopunnish call the crow indians up-shar-look-kar chopunnish name for sin-sho-cal dearbourne r ditto--do--cal la mar-sha mosh meddesons ditto--do--co-ma win-nim maria river ditto ditto- ta-ki-a-ki-a mescle shell r ditto--ditto wah-wo-ko-ye-o-cose is th ____ ditto do--rockejhone--elk river ditto do--koos-koos-an-nim-a the little missouri ditto--do- walch-nim-mah--knife r ditto--do ni-hi-sir-te--c. r [lewis, june , ] saturday june th . the two young cheifs who visited last evening returned to their village on commeap c. with some others of the natives. sergt. gass, mcneal, whitehouse and goodrich accompanyed them with a view to procure some pack or lash ropes in exchange for parts of an old sain, fish giggs, peices of old iron, old files and some bullets. they were also directed to procure some bags for the purpose of containing our roots & bread. in the evening they all returned except whitehouse and goodrich who remained all night. they procured a few strings but no bags. hohastillpilp passed the river today and brought over a horse which he gave frazier one of our party who had previously made him a present of a pair of cannadian shoes or shoe-packs. drewyer set out on a hunting excurtion up collins's creek this evening. we wish to leave the deer in the neighbourhood of the quawmash plains undisturbed untill the th when we intend removing thither to lay in some meat for our voyage over the mountains. our party are much engaged in preparing their saddles arranging their loads provisions &c for our departure. there is a speceis of cherry which grows in this neighbourhood in sitations like the choke cherry or near the little rivulets and wartercouses. it seldom grows in clumps or from the same cluster of roots as the choke cherry dose. the stem is simple branching reather diffuse stem the cortex is of a redish dark brown and reather smooth. the leaf is of the ordinary dexture and colour of those of most cherries, it is petiolate; a long oval / inhes in length and / an inch in width, obtuse, margin so finely serrate that it is scarcely perseptable & smooth. the peduncle is common inch in length, branch proceeding from the extremities as well as the sides of the branches, celindric gradually tapering; the secondary peduncles are about / an inch in length scattered tho proceeding more from the extremity of the common peduncle and are each furnished with a small bracted. the parts of fructification are much like those discribed of the choke cherry except that the petals are reather longer as is the calix reather deeper. the cherry appears to be half grown, the stone is begining to be hard and is in shape somewhat like that of the plumb; it appears that when ripe it would be as large as the kentish cherry, which indeed the growth of the bush somewhat resembles; it rises about or feet high [clark, june , ] saurday june th . the two young cheafs and other indians who accompanied them crossed the river and returned to their village this morning after brackfast; shabono sergt gass mcneal, whitehouse & goodrich accompanied them for the purpose of purchaseing or exchangeing old peces of sane, fish gig, peces of iron, bullets, and old files and such articles as they could raise for ropes and strings for to lash their loads, and bags to cary their roots in sergt. gass, shabono & mcneal returned at p m haveing precured a string each only. whitehouse and goodrich continued at the village all night. hohastillpilp crossed the river to day and brought over a horse and gave it to frazier one of our party who had made him a present previously of a par of canidian shoes. one of our men informed me one of the young chiefs who had given us two horses already was in serch of one which he intended to give to me. george drewyer set out on a hunting excurtion up collins's creek alone. our party are all much engaged in prepareing sadles and packing up their stores of provisions &c.--the flat head river is about yards wide at this place and discharges a vast body of water; notwithstanding it's high state the water remains nearly transparent, and it's temperature appears to be quit as cold as that of our best springs. we met with a butifull little bird in this neighbourhood about the size and somewhat the shape of the large sparrow. it measures inches from the extremity of the beak to that of the tail, the latter occupying / inches. the beak is reather more than half an inch in length, and is formed much like the virginia nightingal; red bd. it is thick and large for a bird of it's size, wide at the base, both chaps convex, and pointed, the upper exceeds the under chap a little is somewhat cirved and of a brown colour; the lower chap of a greenish yellow. the eye full reather large and of a black colour both puple and iris. the plumage is remarkably delicate; that of the neck and head is of a fine orrange yellow and red. the latter predomonates on the top of the head and around the base of the beak from whence it gradually diminishes towards the lower part of the neck, the orring yellow prevails most, the red has the appearance of haveing been laid over a ground of yellow. the breast, the sides, rump and some long feathers which lie between the legs extend underneath the tail is of a fine orrange yellow. the tail, back and wings are black, except a small strip of yellow on the outer part of the middle joint of the wing, / of an inch wide and an inch in length. the tail is composed of feathers of which those in the center are reather shortest, and the plumage of all the feathers of the tail is longest on that side of the quill next to the center of the tail. the legs and feet are black, nails long and sharp; it has four toes on each foot, of which three are forward and one behind; that behind is as long as the two outer of the three toes in front [lewis, june , ] sunday june th . drewyer returned this morning from the chase without having killed anything. his hose left him last night, he pursued him but did not overtake him untill he had nearly reached our camp. the sick cheif is fast on the recovery, he can bear his weight on his legs, and has acquired a considerable portion of strength. the child is nearly well; bratton has so far recovered that we cannot well consider him an invalid any longer, he has had a tedious illness which he boar with much fortitude and firmness.--the cutnose visited us today with ten or twelve warriors; two of the latter were y-e-let-pos a band of the chopunnish nation residing on the south side of lewis's river whom we have not previously seen. the band with which we have been most conversent call themselves pel-late-pal-ler. one of the yeletpos exchanged his horse for an indifferent one of ours and received a tomahawk to boot; this tomahawk was one for which capt. c. had given another in exchange with the clahclel-lah chief at the rapids of the columbia. we also exchanged two other of our indifferent horses with unsound backs for much better horses in fine order without any consideration but the horse itself. several foot rarces were run this evening between the indians and our men. the indians are very active; one of them proved as fleet as drewer and r. fields, our swiftest runners. when the racing was over the men divided themselves into two parties and played prison base, by way of exercise which we wish the men to take previously to entering the mountain; in short those who are not hunters have had so little to do that they are geting reather lazy and slouthfull.--after dark we had the violin played and danced for the amusement of ourselves and the indians.--one of the indians informed us that we could not pass the mountains untill the full of the next moon or about the first of july, that if we attempted it sooner our horses would be at least three days travel without food on the top of the mountain; this information is disagreable inasmuch as it causes some doubt as to the time at which it will be most proper for us to set out. however as we have no time to loose we will wrisk the chanches and set out as early as the indians generally think it practicable or the middle of this month. [clark, june , ] sunday june th drewyer returned this morning from the chase without killing any thing. his horse left him last night and he prosued him near our camp before he cought him. the sick chief is much mended, he can bear his weight on his legs and recovers strength. the child has nearly recovered. the cut nose and ten or came over today to visit us, two of those were of the tribes from the plains of lewis's river whome we had not before seen; one of those men brought a horse which i gave a tomahawk which i had exchanged for with the chief of the clahclahlah's nation below the great rapids of columbia, and broken-down horse which was not able to cross the mountains. we also exchanged of our indeferent horses for sound back horses. in the evening several foot races were run by the men of our party and the indians; after which our party divided and played at prisoners base untill night. after dark the fiddle was played and the party amused themselves in danceing. one of those indians informed us that we could not cross the mountains untill the full of the next moon, or about the st of july. if we attempted it sooner our horses would be three days without eateing, on the top of the mountns. this information is disagreeable to us, in as much as it admits of some doubt, as to the time most proper for us to set out. at all events we shall set out at or about the time which the indians seem to be generally agreed would be the most proper. about the middle of this month [lewis, june , ] monday june th . this morning we had all our horses brought up and indeavoured to exchange five or shix with the indians in consequence of their having unsound backs but succeeded in exchanging one only. hohastillpilp with several of the natives who visited us yesterday took leave of us and set out for the plains near lewis's river where the nation are about to assemble themselves. the broken arm made us a short visit this morning and took leave of us, being about to set out with his village today in order to join the nation at their rendezvouz on lewis's r. the cutnose or neeshneeparkkeeook borrowed a horse and rode down the kooskooske river a few miles this morning in quest of some young eagles which he intends raising for the benifit of their feathers; he returned soon after with a pair of young eagles of the grey kind; they were nearly grown and prety well feathered. in the evening the young chief who gave both capt. c. and myself a horse some time since, came to our camp with a party of young men and remained all night. this evening one of our party obtained a very good horse for an indifferent one by giving the indian an old leather shirt in addition. we eat the last of our meat yesterday evening and have lived on roots today. our party seem much elated with the idea of moving on towards their friends and country, they all seem allirt in their movements today; they have every thing in readiness for a move, and notwithstanding the want of provision have been amusing themselves very merrily today in runing footraces pitching quites, prison basse &c. the river has been falling for several days and is now lower by near six feet than it has been; this we view as a strong evidence that the great body of snow has left the mountains, though i do not conceive that we are as yet loosing any time as the roads is in many parts extreemly steep rocky and must be dangerous if wet and slippry; a few days will dry the roads and will also improve the grass. [clark, june , ] moday june th we had all of our horses brought up and attempted to exchange our sore back and most indifferent horses with the indians for sound back horses, we exchanged one only. hohasillpilp took his leave of us and set out for the plains of lewises river, with several of the nativs who visited us yesterday. the broken arm came over and continued a fiew minits with us this morning, and also took his leave of us & set out with his village for the plains of lewis's river. the cut nose borrowed a horse and rode down the flathead river a fiew miles to take some young eagles, which he intends to raise for their feathers. in the evening one of the young cheifs who had given both capt lewis and my self a horse came to our camp accompanied by of his people and continued with us all night. one of our men exchanged a very indefferent horse for a very good one. our party exolted with the idea of once more proceeding on towards thier friends and country are elert in all their movements and amuse themselves by pitching quates, prisoners bast running races &c-. the flat head river is still falling fast and nearly as low as it was at the time we arrived at this place. this fall of water is what the nativs have informed us was a proper token for us. when this river fell the snows would be sufficiently melted for us to cross the mountains. the greater length of time we delayed after that time, the higher the grass would grow on th mountains-. [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th . this morning we arrose early and had our horses collected except one of cruzatt's and one of whitehouse's, which were not to be found; after a surch of some hours cruzatt's horse was obtained and the indians promised to find the other and bring it to us at the quawmash flatts where we purpose encamping a few days. at a.m. we set out with the party each man being well mounted and a light load on a second horse, beside which we have several supenemary horses in case of accedent or the want of provision, we therefore feel ourselves perfectly equiped for the mountains. we ascended the river hills which are very high and about three miles in extent our sourse being n. ° e. thence n. w. m to collins's creek. thence due north m. to the eastern border of the quawmash flatts where we encamped near the place we first met with the chopunnish last fall. the pass of collins's creek was deep and extreemly difficult tho we passed without sustaining further injury than weting some of our roots and bread. the country through which we passed is extreemly fertile and generally free of stone, is well timbered with several speceis of fir, long leafed pine and larch. the undergrowth is chooke cherry near the water courses, black alder, a large speceis of redroot now in blume, a growth which resembles the pappaw in it's leaf and which bears a burry with five valves of a deep perple colour, two speceis of shoemate sevenbark, perple haw, service berry, goosburry, a wild rose honeysuckle which bears a white berry, and a species of dwarf pine which grows about ten or twelve feet high. bears a globular formed cone with small scales, the leaves are about the length and much the appearance of the common pitch pine having it's leaves in fassicles of two; in other rispects they would at a little distance be taken for the young plants of the long leafed pine. there are two speceis of the wild rose both quinqui petallous and of a damask red but the one is as large as the common red rose of our gardens. i observed the apples of this speceis last fall to be more than triple the size of those of the ordinary wild rose; the stem of this rose is the same with the other tho the leaf is somewhat larger. after we encamped this evening we sent out our hunters; collins killed a doe on which we suped much to our satisfaction. we had scarcely reached collins's creek before we were overtaken by a party of indians who informed us that they were going to the quawmash flatts to hunt; their object i beleive is the expectation of bing fed by us in which how ever kind as they have been we must disappoint them at this moment as it is necessary that we should use all frugallaty as well as employ every exertion to provide meat for our journey. they have encamped with us. we find a great number of burrowing squirels about our camp of which we killed several; i eat of them and found them quite as tender and well flavored as our grey squirel. saw many sand hill crains and some ducks in the slashey glades about this place. [clark, june , ] tuesday june th . rose early this morning and had all the horses collected except one of whitehouses horses which could not be found, an indian promised to find the horse and bring him on to us at the quawmash fields at which place we intend to delay a fiew days for the laying in some meat by which time we calculate that the snows will have melted more off the mountains and the grass raised to a sufficient hight for our horses to live. we packed up and set out at a m we set out with the party each man being well mounted and a light load on a d horse, besides which we have several supernumary horses in case of accident or the want of provisions, we therefore feel ourselves perfectly equiped for the mountains. we assended the hills which are very high and about three miles in extent our course being n. ° e, thence n. ° w ms. to collins creek. thence north miles to the eastern boarders of the quawmash flatts where we encamped near the place i first met with the chopunnish nation last fall. the pass of collins creek was deep and extreemly difficult tho we passed without sustaining further injury than wetting some of our roots and bread. the country through which we passed is extreemly fertile and generally free from stone, is well timbered with several species of fir, long leafed pine and larch. the undergrowth is choke cherry near the watercourses, black alder, a large species of red root now in blume, a growth which resembles the poppaw in it's leaf and which bears a berry with five valves of a deep purple colour, two species of shoemate, seven bark, perple haw, service berry, goose berry, wildrose, honey suckle which bears a white berry, and a species of dwarf pine which grows about or feet high, bears a globarlar formed cone with small scales, the leaf is about the length and much the appearance of the pitch pine haveing it's leaves in fassicles of two; in other respects they would at a little distance be taken for the young plants of the long leafed pine. there are two species of the wild rose both quinque petallous and of a damask red, but the one is as large as the common red rose of our guardens. i observed the apples of these species last fall to be more than triple the size of those of the ordinary wild rose; the stem of this rose is the same with the other tho the leaf is somewhat larger. after we encamped this evening we sent out our hunters; collins killed a doe on which we suped much to our satisfaction, we had not reached the top of the river hills before we were overtaken by a party of indians who informed me that they were gowing to the quawmash flatts to hunt; their object i belive is the expectation of being fed by us in which however kind as they have been we must disappoint them at this moment as it is necessary that we should use all frugallaty as well as employ every exertion to provide meat for our journey. they have encamped with us. we find a great number of burrowing squirels about our camp of which we killed several; i eate of them and found them quit as tender and well flavd. as our grey squirel. saw many sand hill crains and some ducks in the slashey glades about this place-. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . all our hunters were out this morning by daylight; labuish and gibson only proved successfull, the former killed a black bear of the brown speceis and a very large buck, the latter also killed a fine fat buck. five of the indians also turned out and hunted untill noon, when they returned without having killed anything; at three p.m. the left us on their return to ther villages. previous to their departure one of our men exchanged an indifferent horse with one of them for a very good one. in the evening our hunters resumed the chase; as game has become scarce and shye near our camp they were directed to hunt at a greater distance and therefore set out prepared to remain all night and make a mornings hunt in grounds not recently frequented. whitehouse returned this morning to our camp on the kooskooske in surch of his horse.--as i have had frequent occasion to mention the plant which the chopunnish call quawmash i shall here give a more particular discription of that plant and the mode of preparing it for food as practiced by the chopunnish and others in the vicinity of the rocky mountains with whom it forms much the greatest portion of their subsistence. we have never met with this plant but in or adjacent to a piny or fir timbered country, and there always in the open grounds and glades; in the columbian vally and near the coast it is to be found in small quantities and inferior in size to that found in this neighbourhood and in the high rich flatts and vallees within the rocky mountains. it delights in a black rich moist soil, and even grows most luxuriantly where the land remains from to nine inches under water untill the seed are nearly perfect which in this neighbourhood or on these flats is about the last of this month. neare the river where i had an opportunity of observing it the seed were begining to ripen on the th inst. and the soil was nearly dry. it seems devoted to it's particular soil and situation, and you will seldom find it more than a few feet from the inundated soil tho within it's limits it grows very closely in short almost as much so as the bulbs will permit; the radix is a tunicated bulb, much the consistence shape and appearance of the onion, glutanous or somewhat slymy when chewed and almost tasteless and without smell in it's unprepared state; it is white except the thin or outer tunicated scales which are few black and not succulent; this bulb is from the size of a nutmeg to that of a hens egg and most commonly of an intermediate size or about as large as an onion of one years growth from the seed. the radicles are numerous, reather large, white, flexable, succulent and diverging. the foliage consists of from one to four seldom five radicale, linear sessile and revolute pointed leaves; they are from to inches in length and from to / of an inch in widest part which is near the middle; the uper disk is somewhat groved of a pale green and marked it's whole length with a number of small longitudinal channels; the under disk is a deep glossy green and smooth. the leaves sheath the peduncle and each other as high as the surface of the earth or about inches; they are more succulent than the grasses and less so than most of the fillies hyesinths &c.--the peduncle is soletary, proceeds from the root, is columner, smooth leafless and rises to the hight of or / feet. it supports from to forty flowers which are each supported by seperate footstalk of / an inch in length scattered without order on the upper portion of the peduncle. the calix is a partial involucret situated at the base of the footstalk of each flower on the peduncle; it is long thin and begins to decline as soon as the corolla expands. the corolla consists of six long oval, obtusly pointed skye blue or water coloured petals, each about inch in length; the corolla is regular as to the form and size of the petals but irregular as to their position, five of them are placed near ech other pointing upward while one stands horizantally or pointing downwards, they are inserted with a short claw on the extremity of the footstalk at the base of the germ; the corolla is of course inferior; it is also shriveling, and continues untill the seeds are perfect. the stamens are perfect, six in number; the filaments each elivate an anther, near their base are flat on the inside and rounded on the outer terminate in a subulate point, are bowed or bent upwards, inserted on the inner side and on the base of the claws of the petals, below the germ, are equal both with rispect to themselves and the corolla, smooth & membraneous. the anther is oblong, obtusely pointed, horned or forked at one end and furrowed longitudinally with four channels, the upper and lower of which seem almost to divide it into two loabs, incumbent patent, membranous, very short, naked, two valved and fertile with pollen, which last is of a yellow colour---the anther in a few hours after the corolla unfoalds, bursts, discharges it's pollen and becomes very minute and shrivled; the above discription of the anther is therefore to be understood of it at the moment of it's first appearance. the pistillum is only one, of which, the germ is triangular reather swolen on the sides, smooth superior, sessile, pedicelled, short in proportion to the corolla atho wide or bulky; the style is very long or longer than the stamens, simple, cilindrical, bowed or bent upwards, placed on the top of the germ, membranous shrivels and falls off when the pericarp has obtained its full size. the stigma is three cleft very minute, & pubescent. the pericarp is a capsule, triangular, oblong, obtuse, and trilocular with three longitudinal valves. the seed so far as i could judge are numerous not very minute and globelar.--soon after the seeds are mature the peduncle and foliage of this plant perishes, the grownd becomes dry or nearly so and the root encreases in size and shortly becomes fit for use; this happens about the middle of july when the natives begin to collect it for use which they continue untill the leaves of the plant attain some size in the spring of the year. when they have collected a considerable quantity of these roots or bushels which they readily do by means of stick sharpened at one end, they dig away the surface of the earth forming a circular concavity of / feet in the center and feet in diameter; they next collect a parsel of split dry wood with which they cover this bason in the grown perhaps a foot thick, they next collect a large parsel of stones of about or lbs. weight which are placed on the dry wood; fire is then set to the wood which birning heats the stones; when the fire has subsided and the stones are sufficiently heated which are nearly a red heat, they are adjusted in such manner in the whole as to form as level a surface as pissible, a small quantity of earth is sprinkled over the stones and a layer of grass about an inch thick is put over the stones; the roots, which have been previously devested of the black or outer coat and radicles which rub off easily with the fingers, are now laid on in a conical pile, are then covered with a layer of grass about or inches thick; water is now thrown on the summit of the pile and passes through the roots and to the hot stones at bottom; some water is allso poared arround the edges of the hole and also finds its way to the hot stones; as soon as they discover from the quantity of steem which issues that the water has found its way generally to the hot stones, they cover the roots and grass over with earth to the debth of four inches and then build a fire of dry wood all over the connical mound which they continue to renew through the course of the night or for ten or hours after which it is suffered to cool two or three hours when the earth and grass are removed and the roots thus sweated and cooked with steam are taken out, and most commonly exposed to the sun on scaffoalds untill they become dry, when they are black and of a sweet agreeable flavor. these roots are fit for use when first taken from the pitt, are soft of a sweetish tast and much the consistency of a roasted onion; but if they are suffered to remain in bulk hour after being cooked they spoil. if the design is to make bread or cakes of these roots they undergo a second process of baking being previously pounded after the fist baking between two stones untill they are reduced to the consistency of dough and then rolled in grass in cakes of eight or ten lbs are returned to the sweat intermixed with fresh roots in order that the steam may get freely to these loaves of bread. when taken out the second time the women make up this dough into cakes of various shapes and sizes usually from / to / of an inch thick and expose it on sticks to dry in the sun, or place it over the smoke of their fires.--the bread this prepared if kept free from moisture will keep sound for a great length of time. this bread or the dryed roots are frequently eaten alone by the natives without further preparation, and when they have them in abundance they form an ingredient in almost every dish they prepare. this root is pallateable but disagrees with me in every shape i have ever used it. [clark, june , ] wednesday june th all of our hunters were out by daylight this morning. labeech and shann was the only suckcessull hunters, labeech killed a black bear and a large buck, and gibson killed a very fat buck. five of the indians also turned out and hunted untill near meridn. without having killed any thing. at p m they all packed up and returned to their village. one of our men exchanged an indifferent horse for a verey good one with those people before they left us. in the evening all our hunters turned out in different directions with a view to find some probable spot of killing deer and were directed to lay out all night and hunt in the morning early. whitehouse returned this morning to our camp on the kooskooske in serch of his horse. as i have had frequent occasion to mention the plant which the chopunnish and other nations of the columbia call quawmash i shall here give a more particular discription of that plant and the mode of prepareing it for food as practiced by the chopinnish and others in the vicinity of the rocky mountains with whome it forms much the greatest portion of their subsistence. we have never met with this plant but in or adjacent to a piney or fir timbered country, and there always in the open grounds and glades; in the columbian vally and near the coast it is to be found in small quantities and inferior in size to that found in this neighbourhood or on those high rich flatts and vallies within the rocky moun-tains. it delights in a black rich moist soil, and even grows most luxuriently where the lands remain from to inches under water untill the seed are nearly perfect, which in this neighbourhood or on those flatts is about the last of this month. near the river where i had an oppertunity of observing it, the seed were beginning to ripen on the th inst. and the soil was nearly dry. it seems devoted to it's particular soil and situation, and you will seldom find more than a fiew feet from an inundated soil tho within it's limits it grows very closely. in short almost as much so as the bulbs will permit. the radix is a tumicated bulb, much the consistence shape and appearance of the onion, glutinous or somewhat slymey when chewed and almost tasteless and without smell in it's unprepared state; it is white except the thin or outer tumicated scales which are flew black and not suculent; this bulb is from the size of a nutmeg to that of a hen egg and most commonly of an intermediate size or about as large as a common onion of one years growth from the seed. the radicles are noumerous, reather large, white, flexeable, succulent and deviding the foliage consists of from one to four seldom five radicals, liner sessile and revolute pointed leaves; they are from to inches in length and from to / of an inch in widest part which is nearest the middle; the upper disk is somewhat groved of a pale green and marked it's whole length with a number of small longitudinal channels; the under disk is of a deep glossy green and smooth. the leaves sheath the peduncle and each other as high as the surface of the earth or about inches; they are more succulent than the grasses and less so than most of the lillies hyisinths &c.--the peduncle is soletary, proceeds from the root, is columner, smooth and leafless and rises to the hight of or / feet. it supports from to flowers which are each surported by a seperate footstalk of / an inch in length scattered without order on the upper portion of the peduncle. the calix is a partial involucre or involucret situated at the base of the footstalk of each flower on the peduncle; it is long thin and begins to decline as soon as the corrolla expands. the corolla consists of five long oval obtusely pointed skye blue or water coloured petals, each about inch in length; the corolla is regular as to the form and size of the petals but irregular as to their position, five of them are placed near each other pointing upwards while one stands horozontially, or pointing downwards, they are inserted with a short claw on the extremity of the footstalk at the base of the germ; the corolla is of course inferior; it is also shriveling, and continues untill the seed are perfect. the stamens are perfect, six in number; the falaments each elivate an anther, near their base are flat on the inner side and rounded on the outer, termonate in a subulate point, and bowed or bent upwards inserted on the inner side and on the base of the claws of the petals, below the germ, are equal both with respect to themselves and the corolla, smooth membranous. the anther is oblong obtusely pointed, horned or forked at one end and furrowed longitudinally with four channels, the upper and lower of which seem almost to divide it into two loabs, incumbent, patent, membranous, very short, necked, two valved and fertile with pollen, which last is of a yellow colour. the anther in a fiew hours after the corolla unfoalds, bursts discharges it's pollen and becomes very manute and chrivled; the above discription of the anther is therefore to be understood of it, at the moment of it's first appearance. the pistillum is only one, of which the germ is triangular reather swolen on the sides, smooth, superior, sessile, pedicelled, short in proportion to the corolla tho wide or bulky; the style is very long or longer than the stamens, simple, cilindrical, bowed or bent upwards, placed on the top of the germ, membranous shrivels and falls off when the pericarp has obtained it's full size. the stigma is three clefts very manute and pubescent. the pericarp is a capsule, triangular, oblong, obtuse, and trilocular with three longitudinal valves. the seed so far as i could judge are noumerous not very manute and globilar.--soon after the seed are mature the peduncle and foliage of this plant perishes, the ground becoms dry or nearly so and the root increases in size and shortly become fit for use; this happens about the middle of july when the nativs begin to collect it for use which they continue untill the leaves of the plant obtain some size in the spring of the year. when they have collected a considerable quantity of these roots or or bushels which they readily do by means of sticks sharpened at one end, they dig away the surface of the earth forming a cercular concavity of / feet in the center and feet in diameter; they next collect a parcel of dry split wood with which they cover this bason from the bottom perhaps a foot thick, they next collect a parcel of stones from to lb. weight which are placed on the dry wood; fire is then set to the wood which burning heats the stones; when the fire has subsided and the stones are sufficiently heated which are nearly a red heat, they are adjusted in such manner in the hole as to form as leavel a surface as possible, a small quantity of earth is sprinkled over the stones, and a layer of grass about an inch thick is laid over the stone; the roots which have been previously devested of the black or outer coat and radicles which rub off easily with the fingers, are now laid on in a circular pile, are then covered with a layer of grass about or inches thick; water is then thrown on the summit of the pile and passes through the roots and to the hot stones at bottom; some water is also pored around the edges of the hole, and also find it's way to the hot stones. they cover the roots and grass over with earth to the debth of four inches and then build a fire of dry wood all over the connical mound which they continue to renew through the course of the night or for or hours, after which it is suffered to cool, or three hours, when the earth and grass are removed. and the roots thus sweated are cooled with steam or taken out, and most commonly exposed to the sun on scaffolds untill they become dry. when they are black and of a sweet agreeable flavor. these roots are fit for use when first taken from the pitt, are soft of a sweetish taste and much the consistancy of a roasted onion; but if they are suffered to remain in bulk hours after being cooked they spoil. if the design is to make bread or cakes of those roots they undergo a second preperation of baking being previously pounded after the first baking between two stones untill they are reduced to the consistancy of dough and then rolled in grass in cakes of or pounds, are returned to the sweat intermixes with fresh roots in order that the steam may get freely to those loaves of bread. when taken out the second time the indn. woman make up this dough into cakes of various shapes and sizes, usually from / to / of an inch thick and expose it on sticks to dry in the sun, or place it over the smoke of their fires.--the bread thus prepared if kept free from moisture will sound for a great length of time. this bread or the dryed roots are frequently eaten alone by the nativs without further preperation, and when they have them in abundance they form an ingrediant in almost every dish they prepare. this root is palateable but disagrees with us in every shape we have ever used it. the nativs are extreemly fond of this root and present it their visiters as a great treat. when we first arrived at the chopunnish last fall at this place our men who were half starved made so free a use of this root that it made them all sick for several days after. [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . all our hunters except gibson returned about noon; none of them had killed anything except sheilds who brought with him two deer. in the evening they resumed their hunt and remained out all night. an indian visited us this evening and spent the night at our camp. whitehouse returned with his horse at p.m. the days are now very warm and the musquetoes our old companions have become very troublesome. the cutnose informed us on the th before we left him that two young men would overtake us with a view to accompany me to the falls of the missouri. nothing interesting occurred in the course of this day. our camp is agreeably situated in a point of timbered land on the eastern border of an extensive level and beautiful) prarie which is intersected by several small branches near the bank of one of which our camp is placed. the quawmash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete is this deseption that on first sight i could have swoarn it was water. [clark, june , ] thursday june th . all our hunters except gibson returned about noon; none of them had killed any thing except shields who brought with him two deer. in the evening they resumed their hunt and remained out all night. an indian visited us this evening and spent the night at our camp. whitehouse returned with his horse at p.m. the days are very worm and the musquetors our old companions have become very troublesom. the cutnose informed us on the th before we left him that two young chiefs would overtake us with a view to accompany us to the falls of the missouri and probably to the seat of our governmt. nothing interesting occured in the course of this day. our camp is agreeably situated in a point of timbered land on the eastern borders of an extensive leave) and butifull prarie which is intersected by several small branches near the bank of one of which our camp is placed. the quawmash is now in blume at a short distance it resembles a lake of fine clear water, so complete is this deseption that on first sight i could have sworn it was water. [lewis, june , ] friday june th . reubin feilds and willard were ordered to proceed on our road to a small prarie miles distant on this side of collins's creek and there hunt until our arrival; they departed at a.m. about noon seven of our hunters returned with deer; they had wounded several others and a bear but did not get them. in the evening labuish and cruzatte returned and reported that the buzzards had eaten up a deer which they had killed butchered and hung up this morning. the indian who visited us yesterday exchanged his horse for one of ours which had not perfectly recovered from the operation of castration and received a small ax and a knife to boot, he seemed much pleased with his exchange and set out immediately to his village, as if fearfull that we would cansel the bargain which is customary among themselves and deemed only fair. we directed the meat to be cut thin and exposed to dry in the sun. we made a digest of the indian nations west of the rocky mountains which we have seen and of whom we have been repeated informed by those with whom we were conversent. they amount by our estimate to , [clark, june , ] friday june th . ordered rubin fields and willard to proceed on to a small prarie in the mountains about miles and there hunt untill we arrive the set out at a.m. soon after they set out all of our hunters returned each with a deer except shields who brought two in all deer. labeech and p. crusatt went out this morning killed a deer & reported that the buzzds. had eate up the deer in their absence after haveing butchered and hung it up. the indian who visited us yesterday exchanged his horse with one of our party for a very indiferant one in which exchange he rcived a small ax a knife &c. soon after he had exchanged he returned to his village well satisfied. we caused the meat to be cut thin and dried in the sun. i make a list of the indian nations their place of residence, and probable number of soles of each nation from estimation and indian information &c. [lewis, june , ] saturday june th . sent our hunters out early this morning. colter killed a deer and brought it in by a.m. the other hunters except drewyer returned early without having killed anything. drewyer returned. we had all our articles packed up and made ready for an early departure in the morning. our horses were caught and most of them hubbled and otherwise confined in order that we might not be detained. from hence to traveller's rest we shall make a forsed march; at that place we shal probably remain one or two days to rest ourselves and horses and procure some meat. we have now been detained near five weeks in consequence of the snows; a serious loss of time at this delightfull season for traveling. i am still apprehensive that the snow and the want of food for our horses will prove a serious imbarrassment to us as at least four days journey of our rout in these mountains lies over hights and along a ledge of mountains never intirely destitute of snow. every body seems anxious to be in motion, convinced that we have not now any time to delay if the calculation is to reach the united states this season; this i am detirmined to accomplish if within the compass of human power. [clark, june , ] saturday june th sent out hunters this morning colter killed a deer and brought it in by a m drewyer did not return untill night he wounded deer but could get none &c ____ neither of the other hunters killed nothing. we had our articles packed up ready for a start in the morning, our horses collected and hobble that they may not detain us in the morning. we expect to set out early, and shall proceed with as much expedition as possible over those snowey tremendious mountains which has detained us near five weeks in this neighbourhood waiting for the snows to melt sufficent for us to pass over them. and even now i shudder with the expectation with great dificuelties in passing those mountains, from the debth of snow and the want of grass sufficient to subsist our horses as about days we shall be on the top of the mountain which we have every reason to beleive is covered with snow the greater part of the year. [lewis, june , ] sunday june th . we had some little difficulty in collecting our horses this morning they had straggled off to a greater distance than usual. it rained very hard in the morning and after collecting our horses we waited for it to abait, but as it had every appearance of a settled rain we set out at a.m. we passed a little prarie at the distance of / me. to which we had previously sent r. feilds and willard. we found two deer which they had killed and hung up. at the distance of / miles further we arrived at collins's creek where we found our hunters; they had killed another deer, and had seen two large bear together the one black and the other white. we halted at the creek, dined and graized our horses. the rains have rendered the road very slippery insomuch that it is with much difficulty our horses can get on several of them fell but sustained no injury. after dinner we proceeded up the creek about / a mile, passing it three times, thence through a high broken country to an easterly fork of the same creek about / miles and incamped near a small prarie in the bottom land the fallen timber in addition to the slippry roads made our march slow and extreemly laborious on our horses. the country is exceedingly thickly timbered with long leafed pine, some pitch pine, larch, white pine, white cedar or arborvita of large size, and a variety of firs. the undergrowth principally reed root from to feet high with all the other speceis enumerated the other day. the soil is good; in some plaices it is of a red cast like our lands in virginia about the s. w. mountains. saw the speckled woodpecker, bee martin and log cock or large woodpecker. found the nest of a humming bird, it had just began to lay its eggs.--came miles today. [clark, june , ] sunday june th collected our horses early with the intention of makeing an early start. some hard showers of rain detained us untill ____ a m at which time we took our final departure from the quawmash fields and proceeded with much dificuelty owing to the situation of the road which was very sliprey, and it was with great dificulty that the loaded horses could assend the hills and mountains they frequently sliped down both assending and decending those steep hills. at g miles we passed through a small prarie in which was quawmash in this prarie reubin fields & willard had killed and hung up two deer at miles further we arrived at the camp of r. fields & willard on collin's creek, they arrived at this creek last evening and had killed another deer near the creek. here we let our horses graze in a small glade and took dinner. the rain seased and sun shown out. after detaining about hours we proceeded on passing the creek three times and passing over some ruged hills or spurs of the rocky mountain, passing the creek on which i encamped on the th septr. last to a small glade of about acres thickly covered with grass and quawmash, near a large creek and encamped. we passed through bad fallen timber and a high mountain this evening. from the top of this mountain i had an extensive view of the rocky mountains to the south and the columbian plains for great extent also the s w. mountains and a range of high mountains which divides the waters of lewis's & clarks rivers and seems to termonate nearly a west cours. several high pts. to the n & n. e. covered with snow. a remarkable high rugd mountain in the forks of lewis's river nearly south and covered with snow. the vally up the chopunnish river appears extensive tolerably leavel and covered with timber. the s w. mountain is very high in a s s w. derection. [lewis, june , ] monday june th . we collected our horses very readily this morning, took breakfast and set out at a.m.; proceeded up the creek about miles through some handsom meadows of fine grass abounding with quawmash, here we passed the creek & ascended a ridge which led us to the n. e. about seven miles when we arrived at a small branch of hungry creek. the difficulty we met with from the fallen timber detained us untill oc before we reached this place. here is a handsome little glade in which we found some grass for our horses we therefore halted to let them graize and took dinner knowing that there was no other convenient situation for that purpose short of the glaids on hungry creek where we intended to encamp, as the last probable place, at which we shall find a sufficient quantity of grass for many days. this morning windsor busted his rifle near the muzzle. before we reached this little branch on which we dined we saw in the hollows and n. hillsides large quatities of snow yet undisolved; in some places it was from two to three feet deep. vegetation is proportionably backward; the dogtooth violet is just in blume, the honeysuckle, huckburry and a small speceis of white maple are begining to put fourth their leaves; these appearances in this comparatively low region augers but unfavourably with rispect to the practibility of passing the mountains, however we determined to proceed, accordingly after taking a haisty meal we set out and continued our rout though a thick wood much obstructed with fallen timber, and intersepted by many steep ravines and high hills. the snow has increased in quantity so much that the greater part of our rout this evening was over the snow which has become sufficiently firm to bear our horshes, otherwise it would have been impossible for us to proceed as it lay in immence masses in some places or ten feet deep. we found much difficulty in pursuing the road as it was so frequently covered with snow. we arrived early in the evening at the place that capt. c. had killed and left the flesh of a horse for us last september. here is a small glade in which there was some grass, not a sufficiency for our horses but we thought it most advisable to remain here all night as we apprehended if we proceeded further we should find less grass. the air is pleasent in the course of the day but becomes very cold before morning notwithstanding the shortness of the nights. hungry creek is but small at this place but is deep and runs a perfect torrent; the water is perfectly transparent and as cold as ice. the pitch pine, white pine some larch and firs constite the timber; the long leafed pine extends a little distance on this side of the main branch of collins's creek, and the white cedar not further than the branch of hungry creek on which we dined. i killed a small brown pheasant today, it feeds on the tender leaves and buds of the fir and pitch pine. in the fore part of the day i observed the cullumbine the blue bells and the yelow flowering pea in blume. there is an abundance of a speceis of anjelico in these mountains, much stonger to the taist and more highly scented than that speceis common to the u states. know of no particular virtue or property it possesses; the natives dry it cut it in small peices which they string on a small cord and place about their necks; it smells very pleasantly. we came miles today. [clark, june , ] monday june th collected our horses early and set out a m proceeded on up the creek through a gladey swompy bottom with grass and quawmash crossed the creek to the east and proceeded on through most intolerable bad fallen timber over a high mountain on which great quantity of snow is yet lying premisquissly through the thick wood, and in maney places the banks of snow is feet deep. we noned it or dined on a small creek in a small open vally where we found some grass for our horses to eate, altho serounded by snow no other convenient situation short of the glades on hungery creek where we intended to encamp, as the last probable place, at which we shall find a sufficent quantity of grass for maney days. this morning windsor bursted his rifle near the muzzle. vigitation is propotionable backward; the dog tooth violet is just in blume, the honeysuckle, huckleberry and a small species of white maple are beginning to put foth their leaves, where they are clear of the snow, those appearances in this comparratively low region augers but unfavourably with respect to the practibility of passing the mountains, however we deturmine to proceed, accordingly after takeing a hasty meal we set out and continued our rout through a thick wood much obstructed with fallen timber, and interupted by maney steep reveins and hills which wer very high. the snow has increased in quantity so much that the great part of our rout this evening was over the snow which has become sufficently firm to bear our horses, otherwise it would have been impossible for us to proceed as it lay in emince masses in some places or ten feet deep. we found much dificulty in finding the road, as it was so frequently covered with snow. we arived early in the evening at the place i had killed and left the flesh of a horse for the party in my rear last septr. here is a small glade in which there is some grass, not a sufficency of our horses, but we thought it adviseable to remain here all night as we apprehended if we proceeded further we should find less grass. the air is pleasant in the course of the day, but becomes very cold before morning not withstanding the shortness of the night. hungary creek is but small at this place but is deep and runs a perfect torrent; the water is perfectly transparent and as cold as ice. the titch pine, white pine some larch and firs consists the timber, the long leafed pine extends but a short distance on the mts. capt. l. killed a small brown pheasant today, it feeds on the tender leaves and buds of the fir and pitch pine. in the forepart of the day i observed the cullumbine the blue bells and the yellow flowering pea in blume. there is an abundance of a species of anjelico in the mountains much stronger to the taiste, and more highly scented than that species common to the u states. i know of no particular virtue or property it possesses the nativs dry it cut it in small pieces which they string on a small cord and place about the necks; it smells pleasently. we come ms. today. [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th . we collected our horses and set out early; we proceeded down hungry creek about seven miles passing it twice; we found it difficult and dangerous to pass the creek in consequence of its debth and rapidity; we avoided two other passes of the creek by ascending a very steep rocky and difficult hill. beyond this creek the road ascends the mountain to the hight of the main leading ridges which divides the waters of the chopunnish and kooskooske rivers. this hill or reather mountain we ascended about miles when we found ourselves invelloped in snow from to feet deep even on the south sides of the hills with the fairest exposure to the sun; here was winter with all it's rigors; the air was cold, my hands and feet were benumbed. we knew that it would require five days to reach the fish wears at the entrance of colt creek, provided we were so fortunate as to be enabled to follow the proper ridges of the mountains to lead us to that place; short of that point we could not hope for any food for our horses not even underwood itself as the whole was covered many feet deep in snow. if we proceeded and should get bewildered in these mountains the certainty was that we should loose all our horses and consequently our baggage instruments perhaps our papers and thus eminently wrisk the loss of the discoveries which we had already made if we should be so fortunate as to escape with life. the snow boar our horses very well and the travelling was therefore infinitely better that the obstruction of rocks and fallen timber which we met with in our passage over last fall when the snow lay on this part of the ridge in detached spots only. under these circumstances we conceived it madnes in this stage of the expedition to proceed without a guide who could certainly conduct us to the fish wears on the kooskooske, as our horses could not possibly sustain a journey of more than five days without food. we therefore came to the resolution to return with our horses while they were yet strong and in good order and indevour to keep them so untill we could procure an indian to conduct us over the snowey mountains, and again to proceed as soon as we could procure such a guide, knowing from the appearance of the snows that if we remained untill it had desolved sufficiently for us to follow the road that we should not be enabled to return to the united states within this season. having come to this resolution, we ordered the party to make a deposit for all the baggage which we had not immediate use for, and also all the roots and bread of cows which they had except an allowance for a few days to enable them to return to some place at which we could subsist by hunting untill we procured a guide. we left our instruments papers &c beleiving them safer here than to wrisk them on horseback over the roads and creeks which we had passed. our baggage being laid on scaffoalds and well covered we began our retrograde march at p.m. having remained about hours on this snowey mountain. we returned by the rout we had come to hungry creek, which we ascended about miles and encamped. we had here more grass for our horses than the preceeding evening yet it was but scant. the party were a good deel dejected tho not so as i had apprehended they would have been. this is the first time since we have been on this long tour that we have ever been compelled to retreat or make a retrograde march. it rained on us most of this evening. [clark, june , ] tuesday june th we collected our horses and set out early; we proceeded down hungary creek about miles passing it twice; we found it dificuelt and dangerous to pass the creek in consequence of it's debth and rapidity; we avoided two other passes of the creek, by assending a steep rockey and difficuelt hill. beyond this creek the road assends the mountain to the hight of the main leading ridges, which divides the waters of the kooskooske and chopunnish riv's. this mountain we ascended about miles when we found ourselves invelloped in snow from to feet deep even on the south side of the mountain. i was in front and could only prosue the derection of the road by the trees which had been peeled by the nativs for the iner bark of which they scraped and eate, as those pealed trees were only to be found scattered promisquisley, i with great difficulty prosued the direction of the road one mile further to the top of the mountain where i found the snow from to feet deep, but fiew trees with the fairest exposure to the sun; here was winter with all it's rigors; the air was cold my hands and feet were benumed. we knew that it would require four days to reach the fish weare at the enterance of colt creek, provided we were so fortunate as to be enabled to follow the poper ridge of the mountains to lead us to that place; of this all of our most expert woodsmen and principal guides were extreemly doubtfull; short of that point we could not hope for any food for our horses not even under wood itself as the whole was covered many feet deep in snow. if we proceeded and should git bewildered in those mountains the certainty was that we should lose all of our horses and consequencely our baggage enstrements perhaps our papers and thus eventially resque the loss of our discoveries which we had already made if we should be so fortunate as to escape with life. the snow bore our horses very well and the traveling was therefore infinately better than the obstruction of rocks and fallen timber which we met with in our passage over last fall when the snow lay on this part of the ridge in detached spops only. under these circumstances we conceived it madness in this stage of the expedition to proceed without a guide who could certainly conduct us to the fishwears on the kooskooske, as our horses could not possibly sustain a journey of more than or days without food. we therefore come to the resolution to return with our horses while they were yet strong and in good order, and indeaver to keep them so untill we could precure an indian to conduct us over the snowey mountains, and again to proceed as soon as we could precure such a guide, knowing from the appearance of the snows that if we remained untill it had disolved sufficiently for us to follow the road that we should not be enabled to return to the united states within this season. having come to this resolution, we ordered the party to make a deposit of all the baggage which we had not imediate use for, and also all the roots and bread of cows which they had except an allowance for a fiew days to enable them to return to some place at which we could subsist by hunting untill we precured a guide. we left our instrements, and i even left the most of my papers believing them safer here than to wrisk them on horseback over the road, rocks and water which we had passed. our baggage being laid on scaffolds and well covered, we began our retragrade march at p.m. haveing remain'd about three hours on this snowey mountain. we returned by the rout we had advanced to hungary creek, which we assended about miles and encamped. we had here more grass for our horses than the proceeding evening, yet it was but scant. the party were a good deel dejected, tho not as much so as i had apprehended they would have been. this is the first time since we have been on this long tour that we have ever been compelled to retreat or make a retragrade march. it rained on us the most of this evening. on the top of the mountain the weather was very fluctiating and uncertain snowed cloudy & fair in a few minets. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . this morning we had considerable difficulty in collecting our horses they having straggled off to a considerable distance in surch of food on the sides of the mountains among the thick timber; at ock. we collected them all except one of drewyers and one of sheildes; we set out leaving sheilds and lapage to collect the two lost horses and follow us. we dispatched drewyer and shannon to the chopunnish indians in the plains beyond the kooskooske in order to hasten the arrival of the indians who had promised to accompany us or to procure a gude at all events and rejoin us as soon as possible. we sent by them a rifle which we offered as a reward to any of them who would engage to conduct us to traveller's rest; we also dirrected them if they found difficulty in induciny any of them to accompany us to offer the reward of two other guns to be given them immediately and ten horses at the falls of missouri. we had not proceeded far this morning before potts cut his leg very badly with one of the large knives; he cut one of the large veigns on the inner side of the leg; i found much difficulty in stoping the blood which i could not effect untill i applyed a tight bandage with a little cushon of wood and tow on the veign below the wound. colter's horse fel with him in passing hungry creek and himself and horse were driven down the creek a considerable distance rolling over each other among the rocks. he fortunately escaped without injury or the loss of his gun. by p.m. we returned to the glade on the branch of hungry creek where we had dined on the th inst. here we again halted and dined. as there was much appearance of deer about this place we left r. and j. feilds with directions to hunt this evening and tomorrow morning at this place and to join us in the evening at the meadows of collin's creek where we intend remaining tomorrow in order to rest our horses and hunt. after dinner we proceeded on to collin's creek and encamped in a pleasant situation at the upper part of the meadows about ms. above our encampment of the th inst. we sent out several hunters but they returned without having killed anything. they saw a number of salmon in the creek and shot at them several times without success. we directed colter and gibson to fix each of them a gigg in the morning and indevour to take some of the salmon. the hunters saw much fresh appearance of bear but very little of deer. we hope by means of the fish together with what deer and bear we can kill to be enabled to subsist untill our guide arrives without the necessity of returning to the quawmash flats. there is a great abundance of good food here to sustain our horses. [clark, june , ] wednesday june th this morning we had considerable dificuelty in collecting our horses they haveing strageled of to a considerable distance in serch of food on the sides of the mountains among the thick timber, at oclock we collected them all except one of shields & one of drewyer's. we set out leaving shields and lepage to collect the two lost horses and follow us. we dispatched drewyer and shannon to the chopunnish indians in the plains beyond the kooskooske in order to hasten the arrival of the indians who promised to accompany us, or to precure a guide at all events and rejoin us as soon as possible. we sent by them a riffle which we offered as a reward to any of them who would engage to conduct us to clarks river at the entrance of travellers rest creek; we also directed them if they found difficuelty in induceing any of them to accompany us to offer the reward of two other guns to be given them immediately and ten horses at the falls of missouri. we had not proceeded far this morning before j. potts cut his leg very badly with one of the large knives; he cut one of the large veins on the iner side of the leg; colters horse fell with him in passing hungary creek and himself and horse were driven down the creek a considerable distance roleing over each other among the rocks. he fortunately escaped without much injurey or the loss of his gun. he lost his blanket. at p. m we returned to the glade on a branch of hungary creek where we had dined on the th instant. here we again halted and dined. as there was some appearance of deer about this place we left j. & r field with directions to hunt this evening and tomorrow morning at this place and join us in the evening in the meadows on collin's creek where we intended to remain tomorrow in order to restour horses and hunt. after dinner we proceeded on to the near fork of collins creek and encamped in a pleasant situation at the upper part of the meadows about miles above our encampment of the th inst. we sent out several hunters but they returned without having killed any thing-. they saw a number of large fish in the creek and shot at them several times without suckcess. we gibson and colter to fix each of themselves a gigg in the morning and indeaver to take some of those fish. the hunters saw much fresh appearance of bear, but very little deer sign. we hope by the means of the fish together with what deer and bear we can kill to been abled to subsist untill our guide arives without the necessaty of returning to the quawmash flats. there is great abundance of good food here to sustain our horses. we are in flattering expectations of the arrival of two young chiefs who informed us that they intended to accompany us to the u. states, and should set out from their village in nights after we left them on the th inst. if they set out at that time drewyer & shannon will meet them, and probably join us on the th or st-. musquetors troublesome. [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . our hunters were out very early this morning, they returned before noon with one deer only. the fishermen had been more unsuccessfull, they returned without a single fish and reported they could find but few and those they had tryed to take in vain. they had broke both their giggs which were of indian fabrication made of bone. i happened to have a pointed peice of iron in my pouch which answered by cuting in two peices to renew boath giggs. they took one fish this evening which proved to be a salmon trout much to our mortification, for we had hoped that they were the salmon of this spring arrival and of course fat and fine. these trout are of the red kind they remain all winter in the upper parts of the rivers and creeks and are generally poor at this season. at p.m. j & r feilds arived with two deer; john sheilds and lapage came with them, they had not succeeded in finding their horses. late in the evening frazier reported that my riding horse that of capt clark and his mule had gone on towards the quawmash flatts and that he had pursued their tracks on the road about / miles. we determined to send out all the hunters in the morning in order to make a fair experiment of the pactability of our being able to subsist at this place and if not we shall move the day after to the quawmash flatts. the musquetoes have been excessively troublesome to us since our arrival at this place particularly in the evening. cruzatte brought me several large morells which i roasted and eat without salt pepper or grease in this way i had for the first time the true taist of the morell which is truly an insippid taistless food. our stock of salt is now exhausted except two quarts which i have reserved for my tour up maria's river and that i left the other day on the mountain.- [clark, june , ] thursday june th this morning early collins labeesh & crusat turned out to hunt, and gibson & colter fixed two indian giggs and went in serch of fish in the creek. i took my gun and walked up the creek about miles saw some bear sign and one fish only. gibson killed only one fish which we found to be the salmon trout of the dark species. this fish was of the common size pore, and indifferently flavoured. labeesh killed one deer neither of the others killed any thing. about p.m. jo. & r fields shields & lapage came up. reubin &joseph fields brought two deer which r. had killed in the small glade on a branch of hungary creek where we had left them yesterday. shields & lapage did not find the two horses which we lost yesterday morning. they report that they hunted with great diligence in the vicinity of our camp of the th without suckcess. in my walk of this day up the creek i observed a great abundance of fine grass sufficient to sustain our horses any length of time we chose to stay at this place. several glades of quawmash. the s w. sides of the hills is fallen timber and burnt woods, the n. e. sides of the hills is thickly timbered with lofty pine, and thick under growth this evening several salmon trout were seen in the creek, they hid themselves under the banks of the creek which jutted over in such a manner as to secure them from the stroke of our giggs nets and spears which were made for the purpose of taking those salmon trout. we concluded to delay at this place another day with a view to give time to the two young chiefs to arrive in case they set out on the th inst. as they informed us they should they will have sufficient time to join us tomorrow or early the next day. should we get a guide from this place it will save us two days march through some of the worst road through those mountains, crouded with fallin timber mud holes and steep hills &c. we directed all the hunters to turn out early and kill something for us to live on &c. musquetors troublesom [lewis, june , ] friday june th . our hunters set out early this morning; most of them returned before noon. r. feilds killed a brown bear the tallons of which were remarkably short broad at their base and sharply pointed this was of the speceis which the chopunnish call yah-kar. it was in very low order and the flesh of the bear in this situation is much inferior to lean venison or the flesh of poor elk. labush and cruzatte returned late in the evening with one deer which the former had killed. we also caught seven salmon trout in the course of the day. the hunters assured us that their greatest exertions would not enable them to support us here more than one or two days longer from the great scarcity of game and the difficult access of the country, the under brush being very thick and great quantities of fallen timber. as we shall necessarily be compelled to remain more than two days for the return of drewyer and shannon we determined to return in the morning as far as the quawmash flatts and indeavour to lay in another stock of meat for the mountains, our former stock being now nearly exhausted as well as what we have killed on our return. by returning to the quawmash flatts we shall sooner be informed whether or not we can procure a guide to conduct us through the mountains; should we fail in procuring one, we have determined to wrisk a passage on the following plan immediately, because should we wait much longer or untill the snow desolves in such manner as to enable us to follow the road we cannot hope to reach the united states this winter; this is that capt. c. or myself shall take four of our most expert woodsmen with three or four of our best horses and proceed two days in advance taking a plentiful) supply of provision. for this party to follow the road by the marks which the baggage of the indians has made in many places on the sides of the trees by rubing against them, and to blaize the trees with a tomahawk as they proceeded. that after proceeding two days in advance of hungary creek two of those men would be sent back to the main party who by the time of their return to hungary creek would have reached that place. the men so returning would be enabled to inform the main party of the probable success of the preceeding party in finding the road and of their probable progress, in order that should it be necessary, the main party by the delay of a day or two at hungary creek, should give the advance time to mark the road through before the main party could overtake them, and thus prevent delay on the part of the rout where no food is to be obtained for our horses. should it so happen that the advance could not find the road by the marks on the trees after attempting it for two days, the whole of then would return to the main party. in which case we wold bring back our baggage and attempt a passage over these mountains through the country of the shoshones further to the south by way of the main s. westerly fork of lewis's river and madison or gallatin's rivers, where from the information of the chopunnish there is a passage which at this season of the year is not obstructed by snow, though the round is very distant and would require at least a month in it's performance. the shoshones informed us when we first met with them that there was a passage across the mountains in that quarter but represented the difficulties arrising from steep high and rugged mountains and also an extensive and barren plain which was to be passed without game, as infinitely more difficult than the rout by which we came. from the circumstance of the chopunnish being at war with that part of the shoshones who inhabit the country on this side of the mountains through which the road passes i think it is highly probable that they cannot be well informed with rispect to the road, and further, had there been a better road in that quarter the shoshones on the east fork of lewis's river who knew them both would not have recommended that by which we came to this country. the travelling in the mountains on the snow at present is very good, the snow bears the horses perfictly; it is a firm coase snow without a crust, and the horses have good foot hold without sliping much; the only dificulty is finding the road, and i think the plan we have devised will succeed even should we not be enabled to obtain a guide. although the snow may be stated on an average at feet deep yet arround the bodies of the trees it has desolved much more than in other parts not being generally more than one or two feet deep immediately at the roots of the trees, and; of course the marks left by the rubing of the indian baggage against them is not concealed. the reason why the snow is comparitively so shallow about the roots of the trees i presume proceeds as well from the snow in falling being thrown off from their bodies by their thick and spreading branches as from the reflection of the sun against the trees and the warmth which they in some measure acquire from the earth which is never frozen underneath these masses of snow. bratton's horse was also discovered to be absent this evening. i presume he has also returned to the flatts. [clark, june , ] friday june th the hunters turned out early in different directions, our guiggers also turned out with guigs a bayonet fixed on a pole, a scooping nett and a snar made of horse. near the ford of the creek in a deep hole we killed six salmon trout & others were killed in the creek above in the evening. reubin field killed a redish brown bear which was very meagure. the tallons of this bear was remarkably short broad at their base and sharply pointed, this was of the species the chopunnish call yahkar. as it was in very low order the flesh was indifferent. labiesh & crusat returned late in the evening with one deer which the former had killed. the hunters assured us that, their greatest exertions would not enable them to support us here more than one or two days longer, from the great scercity of game and the dificuelt access of the country, the under brush being very thick and great quantities of fallen timber. as we shall necessarily be compelled to remain more than two days for the return of drewyer & shannon we determine to return in the morning as far as the quawmash flatts, and endeaver to lay in another stock of meat for the mountains, our former stock now being nearly exhosted as well as what we have killed on our rout. by returning to the quawmash flatts we shall sooner be informed wheather or not we can precure a guide to conduct us through the mountains; should we fail in precureing one, we are deturmined to wrisk a passage on the following plan immediately, because should we wait much longer, or untill the snow disolves in such manner as to enable us to follow the road we cannot expect to reach the u states this winter; this is that capt. l. or myself shall take four of our most expert woods men with or four of our best horses and proceed two days in advance takeing a plentiful supply of provisions. for this party to follow the road by the mark the indins have made in many places with their baggage on the sides of the trees by rubbing against them, and to blaize the trees with a tomahawk as they proceed. that after proceeding two days in advance of hungary creek, two of those men would be sent back to the party who by the time of their return to hungary creek would have reached that place. the men so returning would be enabled to inform the main party of the probable suckcess of the proceeding party in finding the road and of their probable progress, in order that should it be necessary, the main party by a delay of a day or two a hungary creek, should give the advance time to make the road through before the main party could overtake them, and thus prevent delay on that part of the rout where no food is to be obtained for our horses. should it so happen that the advance should not find the road by the marks of the trees after attempting it for two days, the whole of them would return to the main party. in which case we would bring back our baggage and attempt a passage over the mountains through the country of the shoshones further to the south, by way of the main s westerly fork of lewis's river and madisons or gallitins river's, where from the information of the chopunnish, there is a passage where at this season of the year is not obstructed by snow, though the round is very distant and would require at least a month in it's preformance. the shoshones informed us when we first met with them that there was a passage across the mountains in that quarter but represented the difficuelties arriseing from steep ruggid high mountains, and also an extensive and barren plain which was to be passed without game, as infinitely more difficuelt than the rout by which we came. from the circumstance of the chopunnish being at war with that part of the shoshones who inhabit the country on this side of the mountains through which the road passes, i think it is highly probable they cannot be well informed with respect to the road, and further, had there been a better road in that quarter the shoshones on the east fork of lewis's river who knew them boath would not have recommend'd that by which we came to this country. the travelling in the mountains on the snow, at present is very good, the snow bears the horses perfectly; it is a firm coase snow without a crust, and the horses have good foot hold without slipping much; the only dificuelty is finding the road, and i think the plan we have devised will suckceed even should we not be enabled to obtain a guide. altho the snow may be stated on an average at feet deep, yet arround the body of the trees it has disolved much more than in other parts, not being generally more than one or two feet deep imediately at the roots of the trees, and of course the marks made by the rubbing of the indian baggage against them is not concealed. the reason why the snow is comparitively so shallow about the roots of the trees, prosume proceeds as well from the snow in falling being thrown off from their bodies by the thick and spreading branches, as from the reflection of the sun against the trees and the warmth which they in some measure acquire from the earth which is never frozen underneath those masses of snow. of our horses are absent. [lewis, june , ] saturday june st . we collected our horses early set out on our return to the flatts. we all felt some mortification in being thus compelled to retrace our steps through this tedious and difficult part of our rout, obstructed with brush and innumerable logs of fallen timber which renders the traveling distressing and even dangerous to our horses. one of thompson's horses is either choked this morning or has the distemper very badly i fear he is to be of no further service to us. an excellent horse of cruzatte's snagged himself so badly in the groin in jumping over a parsel of fallen timber that he will evidently be of no further service to us. at the pass of collin's creek we met two indians who were on their way over the mountain; they had brought with them the three horses and the mule that had left us and returned to the quawmash grounds. these indians returned with us about / a mile down the creek where we halted to dine and graize our horses at the same place i had halted and remained all night with the party on the ____ of septembr last. as well as we could understand the indians they informed us that they had seen drewyer and shannon and that they would not return untill the expiration of two days; the cause why drewyer and shannon had not returned with these men we are at a loss to account for. we pressed these indians to remain with us and to conduct us over the mountain on the return of drewyer and shannon. they consented to remain two nights for us and accordingly deposited their store of roots and bread in the bushes at no great distance and after dinner returned with us, as far as the little prarie about miles distant from the creek, here they halted with their horses and informed us they would remain untill we overtook them or at least two nights. they had four supenumery horses with them. we sent on four hunters a head to the quawmash flatts to take an evenings hunt; they so far succeeded as to kill one deer. we left reubin and j. feilds at the creek where we dined together with sergt gass in order to hunt about that place untill our return. at seven in the evening we found ourselves once more at our old encampment where we shall anxiously await the return of drewyer and shannon. [clark, june , ] saturday june st we collected our horses early and set out on our return to the flatts. we all felt some mortification in being thus compelled to retrace our steps through this tedious and difficuelt part of our rout, obstructed with brush and innumerable logs and fallen timber which renders the traveling distressing and even dangerous to our horses. one of thompsons horses is either choked this morning or has the distemper badly. i fear he is to be of no further survice to us. an excellent horse of cruzatt's snagged himself so badly in the groin in jumping over a parcel of fallen timber that he will eventually be of no further survice to us. at the pass of collin's creek we met two indians who were on their way over the mountains, they had brought with them the three horses and the mule which had left us and returned to the quawmash ground. those indians returned with us about / a mile down the creek where we halted to dine and graze our horses. as well as we could understand the indians they informed us they had seen geo drewyer & shannon, and that they would not return untill the expiration of two days. the cause why drewyer & shannon did not return with these men we are at a loss to account for. we pressed those indians to remain with us and conduct us over the mountains on the return of drewyer & shannon. they consented to remain two nights for us and accordingly deposited their stores of roots & bread in the bushes at no great distance and after dinner returned with us, as far as the little prarie about miles distance from the creek, here they halted with their horses and informed us they would remain untill we overtook them or at least nights. they had four supernoumery horses with them. we sent on four hunters a head to the quawmash flatts to make an evening hunt; they so far suckceeded as to kill one deer. we left r. and jo. fields at the creek where we dined, and sergt. gass in order to hunt about that place untill our return. at in the evening we found ourselves once more at our old encampment where we shall anxiously await the return of drewyer & shannon. [lewis, june , ] sunday june nd . this morning by light all hands who could hunt were sent out; the result of this days perfomance was greater than we had even hoped for. we killed eight deer and three bear. we dispatched whitehouse to the kooskooske near our old encampment above collins's creek in order to procure some salmon which we have understood the natives are now taking in considerable quantities near that place. we gave whitehouse a few beads which capt. c. had unexpectedly found in one of his waistcoat pockets to purchase the fish. nothing further worthy of notice occurred in the course of this day. the last evening was cool but the day was remarkably pleasent with a fine breize from the n. w. neither drewyer shannon nor whitehouse returned this evening.--potts's legg is inflamed and very painfull to him. we apply a poltice of the roots of cows.- [clark, june , ] sunday june nd this morning by light all hands who could hunt were sent out, the result of the days performance was greater than we had even hopes for. we killed eight deer and three bear. we despatched whitehouse to the kooskooke near our old encampment above collins creek in order to precure some salmon which we understood the nativs are now takeing in considerable quantities near that place. we gave whitehouse a fiew beeds which i unexpectedly found in one of my waistcoat pockets to purchase the fish. nothing further occured in the course of this day. the last evening was cool but the day was remarkably pleasant with a fine breeze from the n. w. neither shannon drewyer nor whitehouse returned this evening.--potts legg is inflamed and very painfull to him. we apply a poltice of the root of cowes [lewis, june , ] monday june rd . apprehensive from drewyer's delay that he had met with some difficulty in procuring a guide, and also that the two indians who had promised to wait two nights for us would set out today, we thought it most advisable to dispatch frazier and wiser to them this morning with a vew if possible to detain them a day or two longer; and directed that in the event of their not being able to detain the indians, that sergt. gass, r & j. feilds and wiser should accompany the indians by whatever rout they might take to travellers rest and blaize the trees well as they proceeded and wait at that place untill our arrivall with the party. the hunters as usual wer dispatched early this morning. the does now having their fawns the hunters can bleat them up and in that manner kill them with more facility and ease. the indians pursue the game so much on horseback in this neighbourhood that it is very shye. our hunters killed deer and a bear today. at p.m. drewyer shannon and whitehouse returned. drewyer brought with him three indians who had consented to accompany us to the falls of the missouri for the compensation of two guns. one of those men is the brother of the cutnose and the other two are the same who presented capt. clark and myself each with a horse on a former occasion at the lodge of the broken arm. these are all young men of good character and much respected by their nation. we directed the horses to be brought near camp this evening and secured in such manner that they may be readily obtained in the morning being determined to make an early start if possible.--colter one of our hunters did not return this evening. [clark, june , ] monday june rd apprehensive from drewyer & shannons delay that they had met with some dif icuelty in precureing a guide, and also that the two indians who had promised to wait two nights for us would set out today, we thought it most adviseable to dispatch wizer & frazier to them this morning with a view if possible to detain them a day or two longer; and directed that in the event of their not being able to detain the indians, that sergt. gass, jo. & r. field & wiser should accompany the indians by whatever rout they might take to travellers rest and blaize the trees well as they proceeded, and wait at that place untill our arival with the party. the hunters as usial were dispatched early this morning. the does now haveing their young the hunters can blait them up, and in that manner kill them with more facillity and ease. the indians pursue the game so much on horse back in this neighbourhood that it is very shye. our hunters killed ____ deer today. at p.m. shannon drewyer & whitehouse returned. shannon & drewyer brought with them three indians who had consented to accompany us to the falls of the missouri for the compensation of guns. one of those men is the brother of the cutnose and the other two are the same who presented capt l. and myself with a horse on a former occasion at the lodge of the broken arm, and the two who promised to pursue us in nine nights after we left the river, or on the th inst. those are all young men of good charrector and much respected by their nation. those men infor us that thir nation as well as the wallar-wallars have made peace with the shoshones agreeable to our late advice to them. they also inform us that they have heard by means of the skeetsomis nation & clarks river that the big bellies of fort de prarie killed great numbers of the shoshons and otte lee shoots which we met with last fall on the east fork of lewis's river and high up the west fork of clarks river &c. we directed the horses to be brought near camp and secured in such a manner that they may be readily obtained in the morning being deturmined to make an early start if possible-.--colter one of our hunters did not return this evening [lewis, june , ] tuesday june th . we collected our horses early this morning and set out accompanyed by our three guides. colter joined us this morning having killed a bear, which from his discription of it's poverty and distance we did not think proper to send after. we nooned it as usual at collins's creek where we found frazier, solus; the other four men having gone in pursuit of the two indian men who had set out from collins's creek two hours before frazier and wizer arrived. after dinner we continued our rout to fish creek a branch of collins's creek where we had lain on the th & th inst. here we found sergt. gass wiser and the two indians whom they had prevailed on to remain at that place untill our arrival; r. & j. feilds had only killed one small deer only while they lay at collins's creek and of this they had been liberal to the indians insomuch that they had no provision; they had gone on to the branch of hungary creek at which we shall noon it tomorrow in order to hunt. we had fine grass for our horses this evening. [clark, june , ] tuesday june th we collected our horses early this morning and set out accompanied by our guides. colter joined us this morning haveing killed a bear, which from his discription of it's poverty and distance we did not think proper to send after. we nooned it as usial at collins's creek where we found frazier, solus; the other four men haveing born in pursute of the two indians who had set out from collin's creek two hours before fraziers arrival wiser arrived there. after dinner we continued our rout to fish creek a branch of collin's creek where we had lain the th th th & th inst. here we found sargt. gass, wiser and the two indian men whome they had prevaild on to remain at that place untill our arival; jos. & r. field had killed one small deer only while they lay at collins creek, and of this they had been liberal to the indians insomuch that they had no provisions; they had gone on to the branch of hungary creek at which we shall noon it tomorrow in order to hunt. we had fine grass for our horses this evening. [lewis, june , ] wednesday june th . last evening the indians entertained us with seting the fir trees on fire. they have a great number of dry lims near their bodies which when set on fire creates a very suddon and immence blaze from bottom to top of those tall trees. they are a beatifull object in this situation at night. this exhibition reminded me of a display of fireworks. the natives told us that their object in seting those trees on fire was to bring fair weather for our journey.--we collected our horses readily and set out at an early hour this morning. one of our guides complained of being unwell, a symptom which i did not much like as such complaints with an indian is generally the prelude to his abandoning any enterprize with which he is not well pleased. we left them at our encampment and they promised to pursue us in a few hours. at a.m. we arrived at the branch of hungary creek where we found r. & j. feilds. they had not killed anything. here we halted and dined and our guides overtook us. at this place i met with a plant the root of which the shoshones eat. it is a small knob root a good deel in flavor an consistency like the jerusalem artichoke. it has two small oval smooth leaves placed opposite on either side of the peduncle just above the root. the scape is only about inches long is round and smooth. the roots of this plant formed one of those collections of roots which drewyer took from the shoshones last summer on the head of jefferson's river. after dinner we continued our rout to hungary creek and encamped about one and a half miles below our encampment of the th inst.--the indians continued with us and i beleive are disposed to be faithfull to their engagement. i gave the sik indian a buffaloe robe he having no other covering except his mockersons and a dressed elkskin without the hair. drewyer and sheilds were sent on this morning to hungry creek in surch of their horses which they fortunately recovered. [clark, june , ] wednesday june th last evening the indians entertained us with setting the fir trees on fire. they have a great number of dry limbs near their bodies which when set on fire create a very sudden and eminence blaize from bottom to top of those tail trees. they are a boutifull object in this situation at night. this exhibition remide me of a display of firewoks. the nativs told us that their object in setting those trees on fire was to bring fair weather for our journey-. we collected our horses and set out at an early hour this morning. one of our guides complained of being unwell, a symptom which i did not much like as such complaints with an indian is generally the prelude to his abandoning any enterprize with which he is not well pleased. we left of those indians at our encampment they promised to pursue us in a fiew hours. at a.m. we arrived at the branch of hungary creek where we found jo. & r. fields. they had not killed anything. here we halted and dined and our guides overtook us. at this place the squaw collected a parcel of roots of which the shoshones eat. it is a small knob root a good deel in flavour and consistency like the jerusolem artichoke. it has two small smooth oval leaves placed opposit on either side of the peduncle just above the root. the scope is only about inches long is round and smooth. the roots of this plant forms one of the colection of roots which d-. took from the shoshones last fall on the head of jefferson river. after dinner we continued our rout to hungary creek and encamped about one and a half miles below our encampment of the th inst.--the indians all continue with us and i beleive are disposed to be faithfull to their engagements. capt. l. gave the sick indian a small buffalow robe which he brought from the missouri, this indian having no other covering except his mockersons and a dressed elk skin without the hair-. drewyer & shields were sent on this morning to hungary creek in serch of their horses which they fortunately recovered.---came ____ miles to daye. [lewis, june , ] thursday june th . this morning we collected our horses and set out after an early breakfast or at a.m. we passed by the same rout we had travelled on the th inst. to our deposit on the top of the snowey mountain to the n. e. of hungary creek. here we necessarily halted about hours to arrange our baggage and prepare our loads. we cooked and made a haisty meal of boiled venison and mush of cows. the snow has subsided near four feet since the th inst. we now measured it accurately and found from a mark which we had made on a tree when we were last here on the th that it was then feet inches which appeared to be about the common debth though it is deeper still in some places. it is now generally about feet. on our way up this mountain about the border of the snowey region we killed of the small black pheasant and a female of the large dommanicker or speckled pheasant, the former have fathers in their tail and the latter while the common pheasant have only . the indians informed us that neither of these speceis drumed; they appear to be very silent birds for i never heared either of them make a noise in any situation. the indians haistened to be off and informed us that it was a considerable distance to the place which they wished to reach this evening where there was grass for our horses. accordingly we set out with our guides who lead us over and along the steep sides of tremendious mountains entirely covered with snow except about the roots of the trees where the snow had sometimes melted and exposed a few square feet of the earth. we ascended and decended severall lofty and steep hights but keeping on the dividing ridge between the chopunnish and kooskooske rivers we passed no stream of water. late in the evening much to the satisfaction of ourselves and the comfort of our horses we arrived at the desired spot and encamped on the steep side of a mountain convenient to a good spring. having passed a few miles our camp of sepr here we found an abundance of fine grass for our horses. this situation was the side of an untimbered mountain with a fair southern aspect where the snows from appearance had been desolved about days. the grass was young and tender of course and had much the appearance of the greenswoard. there is a great abundance of a speceis of bear-grass which grows on every part of these mountains it's growth is luxouriant and continues green all winter but the horses will not eat it. soon after we had encamped we were overtaken by a chopunnish man who had pursued us with a view to accompany me to the falls of the missouri. we were now informed that the two young men whom we met on the st and detained several days are going on a party of pleasure mearly to the oote-lash-shoots or as they call them sha-lees a band of the tush-she-pah nation who reside on clark's river in the neighbourhood of traveller's rest. one of our guides lost of his horses, which he returned in surch of; he found them and rejoined us a little before dark. [clark, june , ] thursday june th we collected our horses and set out early and proceeded on down hungary creek a fiew miles and assended to the summit of the mountain where we deposited our baggage on the th inst. found every thing safe and as we had left them. the snow which was feet inches deep on the top of the mountain, had sunk to feet tho perfectly hard and firm. we made some fire cooked dinner and dined, while our horses stood on snow feet deep at least. after dinner we packed up and proceeded on. about the borders of the snowey region we killed small black pheasents and a female of the large dommanicker or speckled pheasent, the former have feathers in the tail and the latter while the common pheasent have . the indians informed us that neither of these speces drumed; they appear to be very silent birds for i never heard any of them make any noise. the indians hastened us off and informed us that it was a considerable distance to the place they wished to reach this evening where there was grass for our horses. accordingly we set out with our guides who led us over and along the steep sides of tremendious mountains entirely covered with snow except about the roots of the trees where the snow was partially melted and exposed a small spot of earth. we assended and decended several steep lofty hights but keeping on the dividing ridge of the chopunnish & kooskooske river we passed no stream of water. late in the evening much to the satisfaction of ourselves and the comfort of the horses we arived at the desired spot and encamped on the steep side of a mountain convenient to a good spring. here we found an abundance of fine grass for our horses. this situation was the side of an untimbered mountain with a fair southern aspect where the snow from appearance had been disolved about days, the grass was young and tender of course and had much the appearance of the green swoard. there is a great abundance of species of bear grass which grows on every part of those mountains, its growth is luxurient and continues green all winter but the horses will not eate it. soon after we had encamped we were over taken by a chopunnish man who had pursued us with a view to accompany capt lewis to the falls of missouri. we were now informed that the two young men we met on the st and detained several days were going on a party of pleasure mearly to the oat-lash-shoots or as they call them sha-lees a band of the tush-she-pah nation who reside on clarks river in the neighbourhood of the mouth of travelers rest. one of our guides lost of his horses, he returned in serch of them he found them & rejoined us at dark. all of the indians with us have two & horses each. i was taken yesterday with a violent pain in my head which has tormented me ever since, most violently [lewis, june , ] friday june th . we collected our horses early and set out. the road still continued on the heights of the same dividing ridge on which we had traveled yesterday for nine miles or to our encampment of the th of september last. about one mile short of this encampment on an elivated point we halted by the request of the indians a few minutes and smoked the pipe. on this eminence the natives have raised a conic mound of stones of or eight feet high and on it's summit erected a pine pole of feet long from hence they informed us that when passing over with their familes some of the men were usually sent on foot by the fishery at the entrance of colt creek in order to take fish and again met the main party at the quawmash glade on the head of the kooskooske river. from this place we had an extensive view of these stupendous mountains principally covered with snow like that on which we stood; we were entirely surrounded by those mountains from which to one unacquainted with them it would have seemed impossible ever to have escaped; in short without the assistance of our guides i doubt much whether we who had once passed them could find our way to travellers rest in their present situation for the marked trees on which we had placed considerable reliance are much fewer and more difficult to find than we had apprehended. these fellows are most admireable pilots; we find the road wherever the snow has disappeared though it be only for a few hundred paces. after smoking the pipe and contemplating this seene sufficient to have damp the sperits of any except such hardy travellers as we have become, we continued our march and at the distance of ms. decended a steep mountain and passed two small branches of the chopunnish river just above their forks and again ascended the ridge on which we passed several miles and at a distance of ms. arrived at our encampment of september near which we passed small branches of the chopunnish river and again ascended to the dividing ridge on which we continued nine miles when the ridge became lower and we arrived at a situation very similar to our encampment of the last evening tho the ridge was somewhat higher and the snow had not been so long desolved of course there was but little grass. here we encamped for the night having traveled miles over these mountains without releiving the horses from their packs or their having any food. the indians inform us that there is an abundance of the mountain sheep or what they call white buffaloe. we saw three black-tailed or mule deer this evening but were unable to get a shoot at them. we also saw several tracks of those animals in the snow. the indians inform that there is great abundance of elk in the vally about the fishery on the kooskooske river. our meat being exhausted we issued a pint of bears oil to a mess which with their boiled roots made an agreeable dish. potts's legg which has been much swolen and inflamed for several days is much better this evening and gives him but little pain. we applyed the pounded roots and leaves of the wild ginger & from which he found great relief.--neare our encampment we saw a great number of the yellow lilly with reflected petals in blume; this plant was just as forward here at this time as it was in the plains on the th of may. [clark, june , ] friday june th we collected our horses early and set out. the road still continue on the hights of the dividing ridge on which we had traveled yesterday for ms. or to our encampment of the th septr. last. about m. short of the encampment we halted by the request of the guides a fiew minits on an ellevated point and smoked a pipe on this eminance the nativs have raised a conic mound of stons of or feet high and erected a pine pole of feet long. from hence they informed us that when passing over with their families some of the men were usually sent on foot by the fishery at the enterance of colt creek in order to take fish and again meet the party at the quawmash glade on the head of kooskoske river. from this place we had an extencive view of these stupendeous mountains principally covered with snow like that on which we stood; we were entirely serounded by those mountains from which to one unacquainted with them it would have seemed impossible ever to have escaped, in short without the assistance of our guides, i doubt much whether we who had once passed them could find our way to travellers rest in their present situation for the marked trees on which we had placed considerable reliance are much fewer and more difficuelt to find than we had apprehended. those indians are most admireable pilots; we find the road wherever the snow has disappeared tho it be only for a fiew paces. after haveing smoked the pipe and contemplating this scene sufficient to have dampened the spirits of any except such hardy travellers as we have become, we continued our march and at the dist. of m. decended a steep mountain and passed two small branches of the chopunnish river just above their fok, and again assend the ridge on which we passed. at the distance of m. arived at our encampment of th septr. last passed small branches passed on a dividing ridge rugid and we arived at a situation very similar to our situation of last night tho the ridge was somewhat higher and the snow had not been so long disolved of course there was but little grass. here we encamped for the night haveing traveled ms. over these mountains without releiveing the horses from their packs or their haveing any food. the indians inform us that there is an abundance of the mountain sheep, or what they call white buffalow on those mountains. we saw black tail or mule deer this evening but were unable to get a shoot at them. we also saw several tracks of those animals in the snow. our meat being exhosted we issued a point of bears oil to a mess which with their boiled roots made an agreeable dish. jo. potts leg which had been much swelled and inflaimed for several days is much better this evening and givs him but little pain. we applied the poundd root & leaves of wild ginger from which he found great relief. near our encampment we saw great numbers of the yellow lilly with reflected petals in blume; this plant was just as foward here at this time as it was in the plains on the th of may. my head has not pained me so much to day as yesterday and last night. [lewis, june , ] saturday june th . this morning we collected our horses and set out as usual after an early breakfast. several of our horses had straggled to a considersble distance in surch of food but we were fortunate enough to find them in good time they look extreemly gant this morning, however the indians informed us that at noon we would arrive at a place where there was good food for them. we continued our rout along the dividing ridge passing one very deep hollow and at the distance of six miles passed our encampment of the of september last, one and a half miles further we passed the road which leads by the fishery falling in on the wright immediately on the dividing ridge about eleven o'clock we arrived at an untimbered side of a mountain with a southern aspect just above the fishery here we found an abundance of grass for our horses as the indians had informed us. as our horses were very hungary and much fatiegued and from information no other place where we could obtain grass for them within the reach of this evening's travel we determined to remain at this place all night having come miles only. the water was distant from our encampment we therefore melted snow and used the water principally. the whole of the rout of this day was over deep snows. we find the traveling on the snow not worse than without it, as the easy passage it gives us over rocks and fallen timber fully compensate for the inconvenience of sliping, certain it is that we travel considerably faster on the snow than without it. the snow sinks from to inches with a hors, is coarse and firm and seems to be formed of the larger and more dense particles of the snow; the surface of the snow is reather harder in the morning than after the sun shines on it a few hours, but it is not in that situation so dense as to prevent the horse from obtaining good foothold. we killed a small black pheasant; this bird is generally found in the snowey region of the mountains and feeds on the leaves of the pine and fir. there is a speceis of small whortleburry common to the hights of the mountains, and a speceis of grass with a broad succulent leaf which looks not unlike a flag; of the latter the horses are very fond, but as yet it is generally under the snow or mearly making it's appearance as it confined to the upper parts of the highest mountains. [clark, june , ] saturday june th this morning we colected our horses and set out as usial after an early brackfast. we continued our rout along the dividig ridge over knobs & through deep hollows passed our encampmt of the sept. last near the forks of the road leaving the one on which we had came one leading to the fishery to our right imediately on the dividing ridge. at oclock we arived at an untimberd side of a mountain with a southern aspect just above the fishery here we found an abundance of grass for our horses as the guids had informed us. as our horses were hungary and much fatiegued and from information no other place where we could obtain grass for them within the reach of this evening's travel we deturmined to remain at this place all night haveing come m. only. the water was distant from our encampment we therefore melted snow and used the water. the whole of the rout of this day was over deep snow. we find the travelling on the snow not worse than without it, as easy passage it givs us over rocks and fallen timber fully compensates for the inconvenience of sliping, certain it is that we travel considerably faster on the snow than without it. the snow sinks from to inches with a horse, is course and firm and seems to be formed of the larger particles the surface of the snow sees to be rather harder in the morning than after the sun shines on it a fiew hours, but it is not in that situation so dense as to prevent the horses from obtaining good foothold. i killed a small black pheasant; this bird is generally found in the snowey region of the mountains and feeds on the leaves of the pine & fir. there is a species of small huckleberry common to the hights of the mountains, and a species of grass with a broad succulent leaf which looks not unlike a flag; of the latter the horses are very fond, but as yet it is generally under the snow, or mearly makeing it's appearance as it confined to the upper part of the highest mountains. [lewis, june , ] sunday june th . we collected our horses early this morning and set out, having previously dispatched drewyer and r. fields to the warm springs to hunt. we pursued the hights of the ridge on which we have been passing for several days; it terminated at the distance of ms. from our encampment and we decended to, and passed the main branch of the kooskooske / ms. above the entrance of quawmash creek wid falls in on the n. e. side. when we decended from this ridge we bid adieu to the snow. near the river we fund a deer which the hunters had killed and left us. this was a fortunate supply as all our oil was now exhausted and we were reduced to our roots alone without salt. the kooskooske at this place is about yds. wide and runs with great volocity. the bed as all the mountain streams is composed of smooth stones. beyond the river we ascended a very steep acclivity of a mountain about miles and arrived at it's summit where we found the old road which we had pased as we went out, coming in on our wright. the road was now much plainer and more beaten, which we were informed happened from the circumstance of the ootslashshoots visiting the fishery frequently from the vally of clark's river; tho there was no appearance of there having been here this spring. at noon we arrived at the quawmas flatts on the creek of the same name and halted to graize our horses and dine having traveled miles. we passed our encampment of the th of september at ms. where we halted there is a pretty little plain of about acres plentifully stocked with quawmash and from apperances this fromes one of the principal stages or encampments of the indians who pass the mountains on this road. we found after we had halted that one of our packhorses with his load and one of my riding horses were left behind. we dispatched j. feilds and colter in surch of the lost horses. after dinner we continued our march seven miles further to the warm springs where we arrived early in the evening and sent out several hunters, who as well as r fields and drewyer returned unsuccessful; late in the evening colter and j. fields joined us with the lost horses and brought with them a deer which they had killed, this furnished us with supper. these warm springs are situated at the base of a hill of no considerable hight on the n side and near the bank of travellers rest creek which at that place is about yards wide. these springs issue from the bottoms and through the interstices of a grey freestone rock, the rock rises in iregular masy clifts in a circular range arround the springs on their lower side. immediately above the springs on the creek there is a handsome little quamas plain of about acres. the prinsipal spring is about the temperature of the warmest baths used at the hot springs in virginia. in this bath which had been prepared by the indians by stoping the run with stone and gravel, i bathed and remained in minutes, it was with dificulty i could remain thus long and it caused a profuse sweat two other bold springs adjacent to this are much warmer, their heat being so great as to make the hand of a person smart extreemly when immerced. i think the temperature of these springs about the same as the hotest of the hot springs in virginia. both the men and indians amused themselves with the use of a bath this evening. i observed that the indians after remaining in the hot bath as long as they could bear it ran and plunged themselves into the creek the water of which is now as cold as ice can make it; after remaining here a few minutes they returned again to the warm bath, repeating this transision several times but always ending with the warm bath. i killed a small black pheasant near the quamash grounds this evening which is the first i have seen below the snowy region. i also saw some young pheasants which were about the size of chickens of days old. saw the track of two bearfoot indians who were supposed to be distressed rufugees who had fled from the minnetares. [clark, june , ] sunday june th we colected our horses and set out haveing previously dispatched drewyer & r. field to the warm springs to hunt. we prosued the hights of the ridge on which we have been passing for several days; it termonated at the distance of m. from our encampment, and we decended to & passed the main branch of kooskooke / ms. above the enterance of glade creek which falls in on the n. e. side. we bid adew to the snow. near the river we found a deer which the hunters had killed and left us. this was a fortunate supply as all our bears oil was now exhosted, and we were reduced to our roots alone without salt. the river is yds wide and runs with great velossity. the bead as all the mountain streams is composed of smooth stone. beyond this river we assended a steep mountain about miles to it's sumit where we found the old road which we had passed on as we went out. comeing in on our right, the road was now much plainer and much beaten. at noon we arived at the quawmash flatts on vally creek and halted to graize our horses and dined haveing traveled miles here is a pretty little plain of about acres plentifully stocked with quawmash and from appearance this forms one of the principal stages of the indians who pass the mountains on this road. we found that one of our pack horss with his load and one of capt. l.s. horses were missing we dispatched jo. field & colter in serch of the lost horse's. after dinner we continued our march ms further to the worm springs where we arrived early in the evening, and sent out several hunters, who as well as r. field & drewyer returned unsuksessfull; late in the evening jo. field & colter joined us with the lost horses and brought with them a deer which j. f. had killed, this furnished us with a supper. those worm or hot springs are situated at the base of a a hill of no considerable hight, on the n. side and near the bank of travellers rest creek which is at that place about yds wide. these springs issue from the bottom and through the interstices of a grey freestone rock, the rock rises in irregular masy clifts in a circular range, arround the springs on their lower side. imediately above the springs on the creek there is a handsom little quawmash plain of about acres. the principal spring is about the temperature of the warmest baths used at the hot springs in virginia. in this bath which had been prepared by the indians by stopping the river with stone and mud, i bathed and remained in minits it was with dificuelty i could remain this long and it causd a profuse swet. two other bold springs adjacent to this are much warmer, their heat being so great as to make the hand of a person smart extreemly when immerced. we think the temperature of those springs about the same as that of the hotest of the hot springs of virginia. both the men and the indians amused themselves with the use of the bath this evening. i observe after the indians remaining in the hot bath as long as they could bear it run and plunge themselves into the creek the water of which is now as cold as ice can make it; after remaining here a fiew minits they return again to the worm bath repeeting this transision several times but always ending with the worm bath. saw the tracks of bearfooted indians-. [lewis, june , ] monday june th . we dispatched drewyer and j. fields early this morning to hunt on the road and indeavour to obtain some meat for us. just as we had prepared to set out at an early hour a deer came in to lick at these springs and one of our hunters killed it; this secured us our dinners, and we proceeded down the creek sometimes in the bottoms and at other times on the top or along the steep sides of the ridge to the n. of the creek. at one mile from the springs we passed a stout branch of the creek on the north side and at noon having travelled ms. we arrived at the entrance of a second northen branch of the creek where we had nooned it on the th of septr. last. here we halted, dined and graized our horses. while here sheilds took a small tern and killed a deer. at this place a road turns off to the wright which the indians informed us leads to clarks river some distance below where there is a fine extensive vally in which the shalees or ootslashshoots sometimes reside. in descending the creek this morning on the steep side of a high hill my horse sliped with both his hinder feet out of the road and fell, i also fell off backwards and slid near feet down the hill before i could stop myself such was the steepness of the declivity; the horse was near falling on me in the first instance but fortunately recovers and we both escaped unhirt. i saw a small grey squirrel today much like those of the pacific coast only that the belly of this was white. i also met with the plant in blume which is sometimes called the lady's slipper or mockerson flower. it is in shape and appearance like ours only that the corolla is white, marked with small veigns of pale red longitudinally on the inner side. after dinner we resumed our march. soon after seting out sheilds killed another deer and in the course of the evening we picked up three others which drewyer had killed along the road making a total of today. deer are very abundant in the neighbourhood of travellers rest of both speceis, also some bighorns and elk. a little before sunset we arrived at our old encampment on the south side of the creek a little above it's entrance into clark's river. here we encamped with a view to remain two days in order to rest ourselves and horses & make our final arrangements for seperation. we came ms. after dinner the road being much better than it has been since we entered the mountains we found no appearance of the ootslashshoots having been here lately. the indians express much concern for them and apprehend that the minnetares of fort de prarie have distroyed them in the course of the last winter and spring, and mention the tracks of the bearfoot indians which we saw yesterday as an evidence of their being much distressed.--our horses have stood the journey supprisingly well, most of them are yet in fine order, and only want a few days rest to restore them perfectly.- [clark, june , ] monday june th we dispatched drewyer & jo. field early this morning ahead to hunt. just as we had prepard. to set out at an early hour, a deer came in to lick at the springs and one of our hunters killed it; this secired to us our dinner. and we proceeded down the creek, sometimes in the bottoms and at other times on the tops or along the steep sides of the ridge to the n of the creek. at / m. we passd our encampment of the th of septr. last. we noon'd it at the place we had on the of septr. last whiles here shields killed a deer on the n. fork near the road. here a rode leads up the n. fork and passed over to an extensive vally on clarks river at some distance down that river as our guids inform us. after dinner we resumed our march. soon after setting out shields killed another deer, and we picked up others which g drewyer had killed along the road. deer are very abundant in the neighbourhood of travellers rest of boath specis, also some big horn and elk. a little before sunset we arrived at our old encampment on the s. side of the creek a little above its enterance into clarks river. here we encamped with a view to remain days in order to rest ourselves and horses and make our final arrangements for seperation. we found no signs of the oatlashshots haveing been here lately. the indians express much concern for them and apprehend that the menetarries of fort d prar have destroyed them in the course of the last winter and spring, and mention the tracts of the bearfooted indians which we saw yesterday as an evidence of their being much distressed-. our horses have stood the journey supirisinly well and only want a fiew days rest to restore them. [clark, june , ] descended the mountain to travellers rest leaveing those tremendious mountanes behind us-in passing of which we have experiensed cold and hunger of which i shall ever remember. in passing over this part of the rocky mountains from clarks river, to the quawmash flats from the th to the th of septr. we marched through snow, which fell on us on the night of the th and nearly all the day of the in addition to the cold rendered the air cool and the way difficuelt. our food was horses of which we eate three.--on our return we set out from the quawmash flats on the th of june and commenes the assent of the rocky mountains; the air became cool and vigitation backward--on the th we met with banks of snow and in the hollars and maney of the hill sides the snow was from to feet deep and scercely any grass vegitation just commencing where the snow had melted--on the th at meridian, the snow became so deep in every derection from to feet deep we could not prosue the road there being no grass for our horses we were obliged to return to the quawmash flatts to precure meat to live on as well as grass for our horses--leaveing our baggage on the mountains we precured indians as pilots and on the th of june we again under took those snowey regn. on the th we with our baggage arived at an open plain serounded with snow where there was grass for horses on the th & th also passing over snow or feet deep all the way on th passed over but little snow--but saw great masses of it lying in different directions [lewis, july , ] tuesday july st . this morning early we sent out all our hunters. set sheilds at work to repair some of our guns which were out of order capt. clark & my self consurted the following plan viz. from this place i determined to go with a small party by the most direct rout to the falls of the missouri, there to leave thompson mcneal and goodrich to prepare carriages and geer for the purpose of transporting the canoes and baggage over the portage, and myself and six volunteers to ascend maria's river with a view to explore the country and ascertain whether any branch of that river lies as far north as latd. and again return and join the party who are to decend the missouri, at the entrance of maria's river. i now called for the volunteers to accompany me on this rout, many turned out, from whom i scelected drewyer the two feildses, werner, frazier and sergt gass accompanied me the other part of the men are to proceed with capt clark to the head of jefferson's river where we deposited sundry articles and left our canoes. from hence sergt ordway with a party of men are to decend the river with the canoes; capt c. with the remaining ten including charbono and york will proceed to the yellowstone river at it's nearest approach to the three forks of the missouri, here he will build a canoe and decend the yellowstone river with charbono the indian woman, his servant york and five others to the missouri where should he arrive first he will wait my arrival. sergt pryor with two other men are to proceed with the horses by land to the mandans and thence to the british posts on the assinniboin with a letter to mr. heney whom we wish to engage to prevail on the sioux chefs to join us on the missouri, and accompany them with us to the seat of the general government. these arrangements being made the party were informed of our design and prepared themselves accordingly. our hunters killed deer in the course of this day of which were fine bucks, deer are large and in fine order. the indians inform us that there are a great number of white buffaloe or mountain sheep of the snowey hights of the mountains west of this river; they state that they inhabit the most rocky and inaccessible parts, and run but badly, that they kill them with great ease with their arrows when they can find them. the indian warrior who overtook us on the th ult. made me a present of an excellent horse which he said he gave for the good council we had given himself and nation and also to assure us of his attatchment to the white men and his desire to be at peace with the minnetares of fort de prarie. we had our venison fleeced and exposed in the sun on pole to dry. the dove the black woodpecker, the lark woodpecker, the logcock, the prarie lark, sandhill crain, prarie hen with the short and pointed tail, the robin, a speceis of brown plover, a few curloos, small black birds, ravens hawks and a variety of sparrows as well as the bee martin and the several speceis of corvus genus are found in this vally. windsor birst his gun near the muzzle a few days since; this sheilds cut off and i then exchanged it with the cheif for the one we had given him for conducting us over the mountains. he was much pleased with the exchange and shot his gun several times; he shoots very well for an inexperienced person. the little animal found in the plains of the missouri which i have called the barking squirrel weighs from to / pounds. it's form is that of the squirrel. it's colour is an uniform light brick red grey, the red reather predominating. the under side of the neck and bely are lighter coloured than the other parts of the body. the legs are short, and it is wide across the breast and sholders in propotion to it's size, appears strongly formed in that part; the head is also bony muscular and stout, reather more blontly terminated wider and flatter than the common squirrel. the upper lip is split or divided to the nose. the ears are short and lie close to the head, having the appearance of being cut off, in this particular they resemble the guinea pig. the teeth are like those of the squrrel rat &c. they have a false jaw or pocket between the skin and the mustle of the jaw like that of the common ground squrrel but not so large in proportion to their size. they have large and full whiskers on each side of the nose, a few long hairs of the same kind on each jaw and over the eyes. the eye is small and black. they have five toes on each foot of which the two outer toes on each foot are much shoter than those in the center particularly the two inner toes of the fore feet, the toes of the fore feet are remarkably long and sharp and seem well adapted to cratching or burrowing those of the hind feet are neither as long or sharp as the former; the nails are black. the hair of this animal is about as long and equally as course as that of the common grey squrrel of our country, and the hair of the tail is not longer than that of the body except immediately at the extremity where it is somewhat longer and frequently of a dark brown colour. the part of generation in the female is placed on the lower region of the belly between the hinder legs so far forward that she must lie on her back to copolate. the whole length of this animal is one foot five inches from the extremity of the nose to that of the tail of which the tail occupyes inches. it is nearly double the size of the whistleing squirrel of the columbia. it is much more quick active and fleet than it's form would indicate. these squirrels burrow in the ground in the open plains usually at a considerable distance from the water yet are never seen at any distance from their burrows. six or eight usually reside in one burrow to which there is never more than one entrance. these burrows are of great debth. i once dug and pursued a burrow to the debth of ten feet and did not reach it's greatest debth. they generally associate in large societies placing their burrows near each other and frequently occupy in this manner several hundred acres of land. when at rest above ground their position is generally erect on their hinder feet and rump; thus they will generally set and bark at you as you approach them, their note being much that of the little toy dogs, their yelps are in quick succession and at each they a motion to their tails upwards. they feed on the grass and weeds within the limits of their village which they never appear to exceed on any occasion. as they are usually numerous they keep the grass and weeds within their district very closely graized and as clean as if it had been swept. the earth which they throw out of their burrows is usually formed into a conic mound around the entrance. this little animal is frequently very fat and it's flesh is not unpleasant. as soon as the hard frosts commence it shuts up it's burrow and continues within untill spring. it will eat grain or meat. [clark, july , ] tuesday july st on clark's river we sent out all the hunters very early this morning by oclock they all returned haveing killd. deer six of them large fat bucks, this is like once more returning to the land of liveing a plenty of meat and that very good. as capt. lewis and myself part at this place we make a division of our party and such baggage and provisions as is souteable. the party who will accompany capt l. is g. drewyer, sergt. gass, jo. & r. fields, frazier & werner, and thompson goodrich & mcnear as far as the falls of missouri at which place the latter will remain untill i send down the canoes from the head of jeffersons river. they will then join that party and after passing the portage around the falls, proceed on down to the enterance of maria where capt. lewis will join them after haveing assended that river as high up as laid. ° north. from the head of jeffersons river i shall proceed on to the head of the rockejhone with a party of or men and desend that river. from the r rockejhone i shall dispatch sergt. pryor with the horses to the mandans and from thence to the tradeing establishments of the n. w. co on the assinniboin river with a letter which we have written for the purpose to engage mr. h. haney to endeaver to get some of the principal chiefs of the scioux to accompany us to the seat of our government &. we divide the loading and apportion the horses. capt l. only takes horses with him, only of which he intends to take up the maria &c. one of the indians who accompaned us swam clarks river and examined the country around, on his return he informed us that he had discovered where a band of the tushepaws had encamped this spring passed of lodges, & that they had passed down clarks river and that it was probable that they were near the quawmash flatts on a easterly branch of that river. those guides expressed a desire to return to their nation and not accompany us further, we informed them that if they was deturmined to return we would kill some meat for them, but wished that they would accompy capt. lewis on the rout to the falls of missouri only nights and show him the right road to cross the mountains. this they agreed to do. we gave a medal of the small size to the young man son to the late great chief of the chopunnish nation who had been remarkably kind to us in every instance, to all the others we tied a bunch of blue ribon about the hair, which pleased them very much. the indian man who overtook us in the mountain, presented capt. lewis with a horse and said that he opened his ears to what we had said, and hoped that cap lewis would see the crovanters of fort de prarie and make a good peace that it was their desire to be at peace. shew them the horse as a token of their wishes &c. [lewis, july , ] wednesday july ed . we sent out the hunters early this morning, they returned not so succesfull as yesterday having killed deer only. sheilds continued repairing the gunns which he compleated by evening. all arrangements being now compleat we determined to set out in the morning. in the course of the day we had much conversation with the indians by signs, our only mode of communicating our ideas. they informed us that they wished to go in surch of the ootslashshoots their friends and intended leaving us tomorrow morning, i prevailed on them to go with me as far as the east branch of clark's river and put me on the road to the missouri. i gave the cheif a medal of the small size; he insisted on exchanging names with me according to their custom which was accordingly done and i was called yo-me-kol-lick which interpreted is the white bearskin foalded. in the evening the indians run their horses, and we had several foot races betwen the natives and our party with various success. these are a race of hardy strong athletic active men. nothin worthy of notice transpired in the course of the day. goodrich and mcneal are both very unwell with the pox which they contracted last winter with the chinnook women this forms my inducement principally for taking them to the falls of the missouri where during an intervail of rest they can use the murcury freely. i found two speceis of native clover here, the one with a very narrow small leaf and a pale red flower, the other nearly as luxouriant as our red clover with a white flower the leaf and blume of the latter are proportionably large. i found several other uncommon plants specemines of which i preserved. the leaf of the cottonwood on this river is like that common to the columbia narrower than that common to the lower part of the missouri and mississippi and wider than that on the upper part of the missouri. the wild rose, servise berry, white berryed honeysuckle, seven bark, elder, alder aspin, choke cherry and the broad and narrow leafed willow are natives of this valley. the long leafed pine forms the principal timber of the neighbourhood, and grows as well in the river bottoms as on the hills. the firs and larch are confined to the higher parts of the hills and mountains. the tops of the high mountains on either side of this river are covered with snow. the musquetoes have been excessively troublesome to us since our arrival at this place. [clark, july , ] wednesday july nd sent out hunters this morning and they killed deer. the musquetors has been so troublesom day and night since our arrival in this vally that we are tormented very much by them and cant write except under our bears. we gave the second gun to our guides agreeable to our promis, and to each we gave powder & ball i had the greater part of the meat dried for to subsist my party in the mountains between the head of jeffersons & clarks rivers where i do not expect to find any game to kill. had all of our arms put in the most prime order two of the rifles have unfortunately bursted near the muscle, shields cut them off and they shute tolerable well one which is very short we exchanged with the indian whoe we had given a longer gun to induc them to pilot us across the mountains. we caused every man to fill his horn with powder & have a sufficincy of balls &c. the last day in passing down travellers rest creek capt lewis fell down the side of a steep mountain near feet but fortunately receved no dammage. his hors was near falling on him but fortunately recovered and they both escaped unhurt. i killed a small grey squurel and a common pheasant. capt l. showed me a plant in blume which is sometimes called the ladies slipper or mockerson flower. it is in shape and appearance like ours only that the corolla is white marked with small veigns of pale red longitudinally on the inner side, and much smaller. the indians and some of our men amused themselves in running races on foot as well as with their horses. [lewis, july , ] thursday july rd . all arrangements being now compleated for carrying into effect the several scheemes we had planed for execution on our return, we saddled our horses and set out i took leave of my worthy friend and companion capt. clark and the party that accompanyed him. i could not avoid feeling much concern on this occasion although i hoped this seperation was only momentary. i proceeded down clark's river seven miles with my party of nine men and five indians. here the indians recommended our passing the river which was rapid and yds. wide. miles above this place i passed the entrance of the east branch of clark's river which discharges itself by two channels; the water of this river is more terbid than the main stream and is from to yds. wide. as we had no other means of passing the river we busied ourselves collecting dry timber for the purpose of constructing rafts; timber being scarce we found considerable difficulty in procuring as much as made three small rafts. we arrived at a.m. and had our rafts completed by p.m. when we dined and began to take over our baggage which we effected in the course of hours the rafts being obliged to return several times. the indians swam over their horses and drew over their baggage in little basons of deer skins which they constructed in a very few minutes for that purpose. we drove our horses in after them and they followed to the opposite shore. i remained myself with two men who could scarcely swim untill the last; by this time the raft by passing so frequently had fallen a considerable distance down the river to a rapid and difficult part of it crouded with several small islands and willow bars which were now overflown; with these men i set out on the raft and was soon hurried down with the current a mile and a half before we made shore, on our approach to the shore the raft sunk and i was drawn off the raft by a bush and swam on shore the two men remained on the raft and fortunately effected a landing at some little distance below. i wet the chronometer by this accedent which i had placed in my fob as i conceived for greater security. i now joined the party and we proceeded with the indians about ms. to a small creek and encamped at sunset. i sent out the hunters who soon returned with three very fine deer of which i gave the indians half these people now informed me that the road which they shewed me at no great distance from our camp would lead us up the east branch of clark's river and a river they called cokahlarishkit or the river of the road to buffaloe and thence to medicine river and the falls of the missouri where we wished to go. they alledged that as the road was a well beaten track we could not now miss our way and as they were affraid of meeting with their enimies the minnetares they could not think of continuing with us any longer, that they wished now to proceed down clark's river in surch of their friends the shalees. they informed us that not far from the dividing ridge between the waters of this and the missouri rivers the roads forked they recommended the left hand as the best rout but said they would both lead us to the falls of the missouri. i directed the hunters to turn out early in the morning and indeavour to kill some more meat for these people whom i was unwilling to leave without giving them a good supply of provision after their having been so obliging as to conduct us through those tremendious mountains. the musquetoes were so excessively troublesome this evening that we were obliged to kindle large fires for our horses these insects tortured them in such manner untill they placed themselves in the smoke of the fires that i realy thought they would become frantic. about an hour after dark the air become so coald that the musquetoes disappeared. we saw the fresh track of a horse this evening in the road near our camp which the indians supposed to be a shale spye. we killed a prarie hen with the short and pointed tail she had a number of young which could just fly. [lewis, july , ] july th . an indian arrived alone from the west side of the mountains. he had pursued and overtook us here. sent out the hunters early to kill some meat to give the indians as they would not go with us further and i was unwilling after they service they had rendered to send them away without a good store of provision. they are going down clark's river in surch of the shalees their friends, and from thence intend returning by this rout home again, they fleesed their meat informed us that they should dry it and leave it for their homeward journey.--set out at . had killed no deer. [lewis, july , ] friday july th . i arrose early this morning and sent out drewyer and the fieldses to hunt. at . a.m. a man of the pallote pellows arrived from the west side of the rocky mountains; he had pursued us a few days after our departure and overtook us at this place; he proved to be the same young man who had first attempted to pass the rocky mountains early in june last when we lay on the kooskooske and was obliged to relinquish the enterprize in consequence of the debth and softness of the snow. i gave a shirt a handkercheif and a small quantity of ammunition to the indians. at half after eleven the hunters returned from the chase unsuccessfull. i now ordered the horses saddled smoked a pipe with these friendly people and at noon bid them adieu. they had cut the meat which i gave them last evening thin and exposed it in the sun to dry informing me that they should leave it in this neighbourhood untill they returned as a store for their homeward journey. it is worthy of remark that these people were about to return by the same pass by which they had conducted us through the difficult part of the rocky mountains, altho they were about to decend clark's river several days journey in surch of the shale's their relations, a circumstance which to my mind furnishes sufficient evidence that there is not so near or so good a rout to the plains of columbia by land along that river as that which we came. the several war routs of the minetarees which fall into this vally of clark's river concenter at traveller's rest beyond which point they have never yet dared to venture in pursuit of the nations beyond the mountains. all the nations also on the west side of the mountain with whom we are acquainted inhabiting the waters of lewis's river & who visit the plains of the missouri pass by this rout. these affectionate people our guides betrayed every emmotion of unfeigned regret at seperating from us; they said that they were confidint that the pahkees, (the appellation they give the minnetares) would cut us off. the first miles of our rout was through a part of the extensive plain in which we were encamped, we then entered the mountains with the east fork of clark's river through a narrow confined pass on it's n. side continuing up that river five ms. further to the entrance of the cokahlahishkit r which falls in on the n. e. side, is yds. wide deep and rapid. the banks bold not very high but never overflow. the east fork below its junction with this stream is yds. wide and above it about . the water of boath are terbid but the east branch much the most so; their beds are composed of sand and gravel; the east fork possesses a large portion of the former. neither of those streams are navigable in consequence of the rapids and shoals which obstruct their currents. thus far a plain or untimbered country bordered the river which near the junction of these streams spread into a handsome level plain of no great extent; the hills were covered with long leafed pine and fir. i now continued my rout up the n. side of the cokahlahishkit river through a timbered country for miles and encamped in a handsom bottom on the river where there was an abundance of excelence grass for our horses. the evening was fine, air pleasent and no musquetoes. a few miles before we encamped i killed a squirrel of the speceis common to the rocky mountains and a ground squirrel of a speceis which i had never before seen, i preserved the skins of both of these animals. [lewis, july , ] july th . set out at a.m.--steered n. e. / m. passed a stout c. n side at / m. another just above saw an old indian encampment of lodges of bark and leather on s. side at / m. killed a deer. n. e. m. passing a small creek at one m. on s side on which there is a handsom and extensive valley and plain for or ms. also another creek yd. wide at / a mile further on n. sides and another yds. wide on n. side at ms further one & / m. short of the extremity of this course arrive at a high prarie on n. side from one to three miles in width extending up the river. halted and dined in the mouth of a little drane on the left of the plain where there was a considerable quantity of quawmash. saw a gang of antelopes here of which we killed one the does at this season herd with each other and have their young. the bucks are alone there are many wild horses on clarkes river about the place we passed it we saw some of them at a distance. there are said to be many of them about the head of the yellowstone river. east m. to the entrance of werner's creek yds. wide through a high extensive prairie on n. side. hills low and timbered with the long leafed pine, larch, and some fir. the road passes at some distance to the left of the river and this couses is with the river. n. w. miles to a high insulated knob just above the entrance of a creek yards wide which discharges itself into werners creek. n. e. / m. to the river passing through an extensive and handsom plain on werner's creek, crossing that creek at m. and leaving a high prarie hill to the right seperating the plain from the river. saw two swan in this beautiful creek. east m. to the entrance of a large creek yds. wide called m. seamans creek passing a creek at m. yds. wide. this course with the river, the road passing through an extensive high prarie rendered very uneven by a vast number of little hillucks and sinkholes at the heads of these two creeks high broken mountains stand at the distance of m. forming a kind of cove generally of open untimbered country.--we encamped on the lower side of the last creek just above it's entrance. here a war party had encamped about months since and conceald their fires.- [lewis, july , ] july th . set out a little after sunrise passed the creek a little above our encampment. east m. to the point at which the river leaves the extensive plains and enters the mountains these plains i called the prarie of the knobs from a number of knobs being irregularly scattered through it. passed the n. fork of the cokahlarishkit rivers at m. it is yds. wide deep and rapid. had some difficulty in passing it. passed a large crooked pond at ms. further. great number of the burrowing squirrls in this prarie of the speceis common to the plains of columbia. saw some goats and deer. the hunters killed one of the latter. the trail which we take to be a returning war-party of the minnetares of fort de prarie becomes much fresher. they have a large pasel of horses. saw some curloos, bee martains woodpeckers plover robins, doves, ravens, hawks and a variety of sparrows common to the plains also some ducks. the north fork is terbid as is also the main branch which is about yds. wide the other streams are clear. these plains continue their course s e. and are wide where the river leaves them. up this valley and creek a road passes to dearbourn's river and thence to the missouri. n. e / up the river. here we halted and dine and our hunters overtook us with a deer which they had killed. river bottoms narrow and country thickly timbered. cottonwood and pine grow intermixed in the river bottoms musquitoes extreemely troublesome. we expect to meet with the minnetares and are therefore much on our guard both day and night. the bois rague in blume.--saw the common small blue flag and peppergrass. the southern wood and two other speceis of shrub are common in the prarie of knobs. preserved specemines of them. passed several old indian encampments of brush lodges.- s e m. to two nearly equal forks of the river here the road forks also one leading up each branch these are the forks of which i presume the indians made mention. passed a creek on n. side yds. wide shallow and clear. n e. m. to our encampment of this evening over a steep high ms. balld toped hill for m. thence through and to the left of a large low bottom m. thence three miles through a thick wood along the hill side bottoms narrow. thence m. to our encampment on a large creek some little distance above it's mouth through a beatifull plain on the border of which we passed the remains of old lodges. they appear to be those of the minnetares as are all those we have seen today. killed five deer and a beaver today. encamped on the creek much sign of beaver in this extensive bottom. [lewis, july , ] july . set out at a.m. n. e. m. with the road through a level beatifull plain on the north side of the river much timber in the bottoms hills also timbered with pitch pine. no longleafed pine since we left the praries of the knobs. crossed a branch of the creek yds. wid. on which we encamped at / m. also passed a creek yd. wide at / further. north ms.--passed the main creek at a mile / and kept up it on the wright hand side through handsom plain bottoms to the foot of a ridge which we ascended the main stream boar n w & w. as far as i could see it a wright hand fork falls into this creek at m. above the commencement of this course. n. e. m. over two ridges and again striking the wrighthand fork at ms. then continued up it on the left hand side much appearance of beaver many dams. bottoms not wide and covered with low willow and grass. halted to dine at a large beaver dam the hunters killed deer and a fawn. deer are remarkably plenty and in good order. reubin fields wounded a moos deer this morning near our camp. my dog much worried. n. e. m. up the same creek on the east side through a handsome narrow plain. n e. m. passing the dividing ridge betwen the waters of the columbia and missouri rivers at / of a mile from this gap which is low and an easy ascent on the w. side the fort mountain bears north eaast, and appears to be distant about miles. the road for one and / miles desends the hill and continues down a branch. n. w. ms. over several hills and hollows along the foot of the mountain hights passing five small rivulets running to the wright. saw some sighn of buffaloe early this morning in the valley where we encamped last evening from which it appears that the buffaloe do sometimes penetrate these mountains a few miles. we saw no buffaloe this evening. but much old appearance of dung, tracks &c. encamped on a small run under the foot of the mountain. after we encamped drewyer killed two beaver and shot third which bit his knee very badly and escaped [lewis, july , ] july th . set out at a.m. n w. / m. to the top of a hill from whence we saw the shishequaw mountain about m. distant, immediately before us. passed dearborne's river at m. this stream comes form the s. w. out of the mountains which are about ms. to our left. the bed of the river is about yds. wide tho the water occupys only about yds. it appears to spread over it's bottoms at certain seasons of the year and runs a mear torrant tearing up the trees by the roots which stand in it's bottom the shishiquaw mountain is a high insulated conic mountain standing several miles in advance of the eastern range of the rocky mountains. country broken and mountanous to our wright. north-- / ms. through an open plain to shishequaw creek yds. wide bottoms and considerable gantity of timber it leaves the mountain to the s e and enters the mountains. we struck it about miles below the mountain which boar s. w. from us. the road continued along the foot of the mountain to the west of north which not being anything like our course and the country becoming tolerably level at the commencement of this course we steered through the plains leaving the road with a view to strike medicine river and hunt down it to it's mouth in order to procure the necessary skins to make geer, and meat for the three men whom we mean to leave at the falls as none of them are hunters. we halted and dined on shishequaw creek r. fields killed a fine buck and a goat; josh. fields saw two buffaloe below us some distance which are the first that have been seen. we saw a great number of deer goats and wolves as we passed through the plains this morning but no elk or buffaloe. saw some barking squirrils much rejoiced at finding ourselves in the plains of the missouri which abound with game. n. e m. to the discharge of shishequaw creek into the medicine rivers through an extensive beautiful) and level bottom. n. ° e. m. to our encampment of this evening on a large island the bottoms continue level low and extensive plains level and not very elivated partcularly on the n. e. side of the river. the land of neither the plains nor bottoms is fertile. it is of a light colour intermixed with a considerable proportion of gravel the grass generally about inghes high. the hunters were unsuccessful this evening. i killed a very large and the whitest woolf i have seen- [lewis, july , ] july th . set out early and had not proceeded far before it began to rain. the air extreemly cold. halted a few minutes in some old lodges until it cased to rain in some measure. we then proceeded and it rained without intermission wet us to the skin. n. ° e. ms. through a handsome level wide bottom in which there is a considerable quanty of narrow leafed cottonwood timber. the river is generally about yds. wide rapid yet i think it migt be navigated. it's bed is loose gravel and pebbles. the banks low but seldom overflow. water clear. s e ms still on the s w. side of the river through wide and level bottoms some timber. joseph feilds killed a very fat buffaloe bull and we halted to dine. we took the best of the meat as much as we could possibly carry on our horses. the day continuing rainy and cold i concluded to remain all day. we feasted on the buffaloe. saw a number of deer wolves and antelopes. killed two deer. [lewis, july , ] july th . set out early and continued down the s w bank of the river n e m. to our encampment in a grove of cottonwood timber. the latter part of this course for miles there is no timber in the river bottom, the other parts of the river possesses bottoms of the wide leafed cottonwood. much the greater part of the bottom is untimbered. the bottoms are wide and level the high praries or plains are also beautiful level and smooth. great quantities of prickly pear of two kinds on the plains. the ground is renderd so miry by the rain which fell yesterday that it is excessively fatiegueing to the horses to travel. we came miles and halted for dinner the wind blowing down the river in the fore part of the day was unfavourable to the hunters they saw several gangs of elk but they having the wind of them ran off. in the evening the wind set from the west and we fell in with a few elk of which r. fields and myself killed one of which swam the river and fell on the opposite so we therefore lost it's skin i sent the packhorses on with sergt. gass directing them to halt and encamp at the first timber which proved to be about ms. i retained frazier to assist in skining the elk. we wer about this time joined by drewer. a large brown bear swam the river near where we were and drewyer shot and killed it. by the time we butchered thes elk and bar it was nearly dark we loaded our horses with the best of the meat and pursud the party and found them encamped as they had been directed in the first timber. we did not reach them until p.m. they informed us that they had seen a very large bear in the plains which had pursued sergt. gass and thomson some distance but their horses enabled them to keep out of it's reach. they were affraid to fire on the bear least their horses should throw them as they were unaccustomed to the gun. we killed five deer elk and a bear today saw vast herds of buffaloe in the evening below us on the river. we hered them bellowing about us all night. vast assemblages of wolves. saw a large herd of elk making down the river. passed a considerable rapid in medicine river after dark. the river about a hundred yards wide is deep and in many parts rappid and today has been much crouded with islands. from our encampment down we know the river and there is no rapids and scarcely any courant. goosberries are very abundant of the common red kind and are begining to ripen. no currants on this river. both species of the prickly pears just in blume. [lewis, july , ] july th . the morning was fair and the plains looked beatifull the grass much improved by the late rain. the air was pleasant and a vast assemblage of little birds which croud to the groves on the river sung most enchantingly. we set out early. i sent the hunters down medicine river to hunt elk and proceeded with the party across the plain to the white bear islands which i found to be ms. distant my course s. e.- through a level beautiful) and extensive high plain covered with immence birds of buffaloe.--it is now the season at which the buffaloe begin to coppelate and the bulls keep a tremendious roaring we could hear them for many miles and there are such numbers of them that there is one continual roar. our horses had not been acquainted with the buffaloe they appeared much allarmed at their appearance and bellowing. when i arrived in sight of the whitebear islands the missouri bottoms on both sides of the river were crouded with buffaloe i sincerely belief that there were not less than thousand buffaloe within a circle of miles arround that place. i met with the hunters at a little grove of timber opposite to the island where they had killed a cowl and were waiting our arrival. they had met with no elk. i directed the hunters to kill some buffaloe as well for the benifit of their skins to enable us to pass the river as for their meat for the men i meant to leave at this place. we unloaded our horses and encamped opposite to the islands. had the cow skined and some willows sticks collected to make canoes of the hides by ock. they killed eleven buffaloe most of them in fine order. the bulls are now generally much fatter than the cows and are fine beef. i sent out all hands with the horses to assist in buthering and bringing in the meat by in the evening we had brought in a large quantity of fine beef and as many hides as we wanted for canoes shelters and geer. i then set all hands to prepare two canoes the one we made after the mandan fassion with a single skin in the form of a bason and the other we constructed of two skins on a plan of our own. we were unable to compleat our canoes this evening. the wind blew very hard. we continued our operations untill dark and then retired to rest. i intend giving my horses a couple of days rest at this place and deposit all my baggage which is not necessary to my voyage up medicine river. [lewis, july , ] july th . we arrose early and resumed our operations in compleating our canoes which we completed by a.m. about this time two of the men whom i had dispatched this morning in quest of the horses returned with seven of them only. the remaining ten of our best horses were absent and not to be found. i fear that they are stolen. i dispatch two men on horseback in surch of them. the wind blew so violently that i did not think it prudent to attempt passing the river.--at noon werner returned having found three others of the horses near fort mountain. sergt. gass did not return untill p.m. not having found the horses. he had been about ms. up medecine river. i now dispatched joseph fields and drewyer in quest of them. the former returned at dark unsuccessfull and the latter continued absent all night. at p.m. the wind abated and we transported our baggage and meat to the opposite shore in our canoes which we found answered even beyond our expectations. we swam our horses over also and encamped at sunset. quetoes extreemly troublesome. i think the river is somewhat higher than when we were here last summer. the present season has been much more moist than the preceeding one. the grass and weeds are much more luxouriant than they were when i left this place on the th of july saw the brown thrush, pigeons, doves &c. the yellow currants begining to ripen. [lewis, july , ] th july. removed above to my old station opposite the upper point of the white bear island. formed our camp and set thompson &c at work to complete the geer for the horses. had the cash opened found my bearskins entirly destroyed by the water, the river having risen so high that the water had penitrated. all my specimens of plants also lost. the chart of the missouri fortunately escaped. opened my trunks and boxes and exposed the articles to dry. found my papers damp and several articles damp. the stoper had come out of a phial of laudinum and the contents had run into the drawer and distroyed a gret part of my medicine in such manner that it was past recovery. waited very impatiently for the return of drewyer he did not arrive. musquetoes excessively troublesome insomuch that without the protection of my musquetoe bier i should have found it impossible to wright a moment. the buffaloe are leaving us fast and passing on to the s. east. killed a buffaloe picker a beatifull bird. [lewis, july , ] th july had the carriage wheels dug up found them in good order. the iron frame of the boat had not suffered materially. had the meat cut thiner and exposed to dry in the sun. and some roots of cows of which i have yet a small stock pounded into meal for my journey. i find the fat buffaloe meat a great improvement to the mush of these roots. the old cash being too damp to venture to deposit my trunks &c in i sent them over to the large island and had them put on a high scaffold among some thick brush and covered with skins. i take this precaution lest some indians may visit the men i leave here before the arrival of the main party and rob them. the hunters killed a couple of wolves, the buffaloe have almost entirely disappeared. saw the bee martin. the wolves are in great numbers howling arround us and loling about in the plains in view at the distance of two or three hundred yards. i counted about the carcase of a buffaloe which lies in the water at the upper point of the large island. these are generally of the large kind. drewyer did not return this evening.- [lewis, july , ] july . sent mcneal down this morning to the lower part of the portage to see whether the large perogue and cash were safe.--drewyer returned without the horses and reported that he had tracked them to beyond our camp of the [lewis, july , ] tuesday july th . dispatched mcneal early this morning to the lower part of portage in order to learn whether the cash and white perogue remained untouched or in what state they were. the men employed in drying the meat, dressing deerskins and preparing for the reception of the canoes. at p.m. drewyer returned without the horses and reported that after a diligent surch of days he had discovered where the horses had passed dearborn's river at which place there were lodges that had been abandoned about the time our horses were taken; he pursued the tracks of a number of horses from these lodges to the road which we had traveled over the mountains which they struck about ms. south of our encampment of the th inst. and had pursued this road westwardly; i have no doubt but they are a party of the tushapahs who have been on a buffaloe hunt. drewyer informed that there camp was in a small bottom on the river of about acres inclosed by the steep and rocky and lofty clifts of the river and that so closely had they kept themselves and horses within this little spot that there was not a track to be seen of them within a quarter of a mile of that place. every spire of grass was eaten up by their horses near their camp which had the appearance of their having remained here some time. his horse being much fatiegued with the ride he had given him and finding that the indians had at least days the start of him thought it best to return. his safe return has releived me from great anxiety. i had already settled it in my mind that a whitebear had killed him and should have set out tomorrow in surch of him, and if i could not find him to continue my rout to maria's river. i knew that if he met with a bear in the plains even he would attack him. and that if any accedent should happen to seperate him from his horse in that situation the chances in favour of his being killed would be as to . i felt so perfectly satisfyed that he had returned in safety that i thought but little of the horses although they were seven of the best i had. this loss great as it is, is not intirely irreparable, or at least dose not defeat my design of exploring maria's river. i have yet horses remaining, two of the best and two of the worst of which i leave to assist the party in taking the canoes and baggage over the portage and take the remaining with me; these are but indifferent horses most of them but i hope they may answer our purposes. i shall leave three of my intended party, (viz ) gass, frazier and werner, and take the two feildses and drewyer. by having two spare horses we can releive those we ride. having made this arrangement i gave orders for an early departure in the morning, indeed i should have set out instantly but mcneal road one of the horses which i intend to take and has not yet returned. a little before dark mcneal returned with his musquet broken off at the breech, and informed me that on his arrival at willow run he had approached a white bear within ten feet without discover him the bear being in the thick brush, the horse took the allarm and turning short threw him immediately under the bear; this animal raised himself on his hinder feet for battle, and gave him time to recover from his fall which he did in an instant and with his clubbed musquet he struck the bear over the head and cut him with the guard of the guns and broke off the breech, the bear stunned with the stroke fell to the ground and began to scratch his head with his feet; this gave mcneal time to climb a willow tree which was near at hand and thus fortunately made his escape. the bear waited at the foot of the tree untill late in the evening before he left him, when mcneal ventured down and caught his horse which had by this time strayed off to the distance of ms. and returned to camp. these bear are a most tremenduous animal; it seems that the hand of providence has been most wonderfully in our favor with rispect to them, or some of us would long since have fallen a sacrifice to their farosity. there seems to be a sertain fatality attatched to the neighbourhood of these falls, for there is always a chapter of accedents prepared for us during our residence at them. the musquetoes continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist; for my own part i am confined by them to my bier at least / ths of my time. my dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them, they are almost insupportable, they are so numerous that we frequently get them in our thrats as we breath. [lewis, july , ] wednesday july th . i dispatched a man early this morning to drive up the horses as usual, he returned at a.m. with one of them only. allarmed at this occurrence i dispatched one of my best hands on horseback in surch of them he returned at a.m. with them and i immediately set out. sent drewyer and r. fields with the horses to the lower side of medecine river, and proceeded myself with all our baggage and j. fields down the missouri to the mouth of medecine river in our canoe of buffaloe skins. we were compelled to swim the horses above the whitebear island and again across medicine river as the missouri is of great width below the mouth of that river. having arrived safely below medicine river we immediatly sadled our horses and proceeded down the river to the handsom fall of feet where i halted about hours and took a haisty sketch of these falls; in the mean time we had some meat cooked and took dinner after which we proceeded to the grand falls where we arrived at sunset. on our way we saw two very large bear on the opposite side of the river. as we arrived in sight of the little wood below the falls we saw two other bear enter it; this being the only wood in the neighbourhood we were compelled of course to contend with the bear for possession, and therefore left our horses in a place of security and entered the wood which we surched in vain for the bear, they had fled. here we encamped and the evening having the appearance of rain made our beds and slept under a shelving rock. these falls have abated much of their grandure since i first arrived at them in june , the water being much lower at preset than it was at that moment, however they are still a sublimely grand object. i determined to take a second drawing of it in the morning. we saw a few buffaloe as we passed today, the immence hirds which were about this place on our arrival have principally passed the river and directed their course downwards. we see a number of goats or antilopes always in passing through the plains of the missouri above the mandans. at this season they are thinly scattered over the plains but seem universally distributed in every part; they appear very inquisitive usually to learn what we are as we pass, and frequently accompany us at no great distance for miles, frequently halting and giving a loud whistle through their nostrils, they are a very pretty animal and astonishingly fleet and active. we spent this evening free from the torture of the musquetoes. there are a great number of geese which usually raise their young above these falls about the entrance of medicine river we saw them in large flocks of several hundred as we passed today. i saw both yesterday and today the cookkoo or as it is sometimes called the rain craw. this bird is not met with west of the rocky mountains nor within them. [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . i arrose early this morning and made a drawing of the falls. after which we took breakfast and departed. it being my design to strike maria's river about the place at which i left it on my return to it's mouth in the begining of june . i steered my course through the wide and level plains which have somewhat the appearance of an ocean, not a tree nor a shrub to be seen. the land is not fertile, at least far less so, than the plains of the columbia or those lower down this river, it is a light coloured soil intermixed with a considerable proportion of coarse gravel without sand, when dry it cracks and appears thursty and is very hard, in it's wet state, it is as soft and slipry as so much soft soap the grass is naturally but short and at present has been rendered much more so by the graizing of the buffaloe, the whole face of the country as far as the eye can reach looks like a well shaved bowlinggreen, in which immence and numerous herds of buffaloe were seen feeding attended by their scarcely less numerous sheepherds the wolves. we saw a number of goats as usual today, also the party coloured plover with the brick red head and neck; this bird remains about the little ponds which are distributed over the face of these plains and here raise their young. we killed a buffaloe cow as we passed throug the plains and took the hump and tonge which furnish ample rations for four men one day. at p.m. we arrived at rose rivers where i purposed remaining all night as i could not reach maria's river this evening and unless i did there would be but little probability of our finding any wood and very probably no water either. on our arrival at the river we saw where a wounded and bleading buffaloe had just passed and concluded it was probable that the indians had been runing them and were near at hand. the minnetares of fort de prarie and the blackfoot indians rove through this quarter of the country and as they are a vicious lawless and reather an abandoned set of wretches i wish to avoid an interview with them if possible. i have no doubt but they would steel our horses if they have it in their power and finding us weak should they happen to be numerous wil most probably attempt to rob us of our arms and baggage; at all events i am determined to take every possible precaution to avoid them if possible. i hurried over the river to a thick wood and turned out the horses to graize; sent drewyer to pursue and kill the wounded buffaloe in order to determine whether it had been wounded by the indians or not, and proceeded myself to reconnoitre the adjacent country having sent r. fields for the same purpose a different rout. i ascended the river hills and by the help of my glass examined the plains but could make no discovery, in about an hour i returned to camp, where i met with the others who had been as unsuccessfull as myself. drewyer could not find the wounded buffaloe. j. fields whom i had left at camp had already roasted some of the buffaloe meat and we took dinner after which i sent drewyer and r. fields to resume their resurches for the indians; and set myself down to record the transactions of the day. rose river is at this place fifty yards wide, the water which is only about feet deep occupys about yds. and is very terbid of a white colour. the general course of this river is from east to west so far as i can discover it's track through the plains, it's bottoms are wide and well timbered with cottonwood both the broad and narrow leafed speceis. the bed of this stream is small gravel and mud; it's banks are low but never overflow, the hills are about or feet high; it possesses bluffs of earth like the lower part of the missouri; except the debth and valocity of it's stream and it is the missouri in miniture. from the size of rose river at this place and it's direction i have no doubt but it takes it's source within the first range of the rocky mountains. the bush which bears the red berry is here in great plenty in the river bottoms the spies returned having killed beaver and a deer. they reported that they saw no appearance of indians.- [lewis, july , ] friday july th . we set out this morning a little before sunrise ascended the river hills and continued our rout as yesterday through the open plains at about miles we reached the top of an elivated plain which divides the waters of the rose river from those of maria's river. from hence the north mountains, the south mountains, the falls mountains and the tower mountain and those arround and to the east of the latter were visible. our course led us nearly parrallel with a creek of maria's river which takes it's rise in these high plains at the place we passed them; at noon we struck this creek about ms. from its junction with maria's river where we found some cottonwood timber; here we halted to dine and graize our horses. the bed of this creek is about yds. wide at this place but is nearly dry at present, the water being confined to little pools in the deeper parts of it's bed. from hence downwards there is a considerable quantity of timber in it's bottom. we passed immence herds of buffaloe on our way in short for about miles it appeared as one herd only the whole plains and vally of this creek being covered with them; saw a number of wolves of both speceis, also antelopes and some horses. after dinner we proceeded about miles across the plain to maria's river where we arrived at p.m. we killed a couple of buffaloe in the bottom of this river and encamped on it's west side in a grove of cottonwood some miles above the entrance of the creek. being now convinced that we were above the point to which i had formerly ascended this river and faring that a fork of this stream might fall in on the northside between this place and the point to which i had ascended it, i directed drewyer who was with me on my former excurtion, and joseph fields to decend the river early in the morning to the place from whence i had returned, and examine whether any stream fell inn or not. i keep a strict lookout every night, i take my tour of watch with the men. [lewis, july , ] saturday july th . drewyer and j. fields set out early this morning in conformity to my instructions last evening. they returned at / after ock. and informed me that they had proceeded down the river to the place from which i had returned on the ____ of june last and that it was miles distant. they passed the entrance of buffaloe creek at ms. the course of the river from hence downwards as far as they were is n. e. they killed deer and two antelopes on their way; most of the deer were large fat mule bucks. having completed my observation of the sun's meridian altitude we set out, ascended the river hills having passed the river and proceeded through the open plains up the n. side of the river miles and encamped. at miles we passed a large creek on n. side a little above it's entrance; there is but little running water in this creek at present, it's bed is about yds. wide and appears to come from the broken mountains so called from their raggid and irregular shape there are three of them extending from east to west almost unconnected, the center mountain terminates in a conic spire and is that which i have called the tower mountain they are destitute of timber. from the entrance of this creek they bore n. ° w. the river bottoms are usually about / a mile wide and possess a considerable quantity of timber entirely cottonwood; the underbrush is honeysuckle rose bushes the narrow leafed willow and the bush which bears the acid red berry called by the french engages grease de buff. just as we halted to encamp r. fields killed a mule doe. the plains are beautifull and level but the soil is but thin. in many parts of the plains there are great quantities of prickly pears. saw some herds of buffaloe today but not in such quantities as yesterday, also antelopes, wolves, gees, pigeons, doves, hawks, ravens crows larks sparrows &c. the curlooe has disappeared. [lewis, july , ] sunday july th we set at sunrise and proceed through the open plain as yesterday up the north side of the river. the plains are more broken than they were yesterday and have become more inferior in point of soil; a great quanty of small gravel is every where distributed over the surface of the earth which renders travling extreemly painfull to our bearfoot horses. the soil is generally a white or whiteish blue clay, this where it has been trodden by the buffaloe when wet has now become as firm as a brickbat and stands in an inumerable little points quite as formidable to our horses feet as the gravel. the mineral salts common to the plains of the missouri has been more abundant today than usual. the bluffs of the river are about feet high, steep irregular and formed of earth which readily desolves with water, slips and precipitates itself into the river as before mentioned frequentlly of the bluffs of the missouri below which they resemble in every particular, differing essencially from those of the missouri above the entrance of this river, they being composed of firm red or yellow clay which dose not yeald readily to the rains and a large quantity of rock. the soil of the river bottom is fertile and well timbered, i saw some trees today which would make small canoes. the timber is generally low. the underbrush the same as before mentioned. we have seen fewer buffaloe today than usual, though more elk and not less wolves and antelopes also some mule deer; this speceis of deer seems most prevalent in this quarter. saw some gees ducks and other birds common to the country. there is much appearance of beaver on this river, but not any of otter. from the apparent decent of the country to the north and above the broken mountains i am induced to beleive that the south branch of the suskashawan receives a part of it's waters from the plain even to the borders of this river and from the brakes visible in the plains in a nothern direction think that a branch of that river decending from the rocky mountains passes at no great distance from maria's river and to the n. e. of the broken mountains. the day has proved excessively warm and we lay by four hours during the heat of it; we traveled miles and encamped as usual in the river bottom on it's n. side. there is scarcely any water at present in the plains and what there is, lies in small pools and is so strongly impregnated with the mineral salts that it is unfit for any purpose except the uce of the buffaloe. these animals appear to prefer this water to that of the river. the wild liquorice and sunflower are very abundant in the plains and river bottoms, the latter is now in full blume; the silkgrass and sand rush are also common to the bottom lands. the musquetoes have not been troublesome to us since we left the whitebear islands.- [lewis, july , ] monday july st . we set out at sunrise and proceeded a short distance up the north side of the river; we found the ravines which made in on this side were so steep and numerous that we passed the river in doing which the pack horse which carried my instruments missed the ford and wet the instruments. this accident detained us about half an hor. i took the instruments out wiped them and dryed their cases, they sustained no naterial injury. we continued on the s. side of the river about miles when we again passed over to the n. side and took our course through the plains at some distance from the river. we saw a large herd of elk this morning. the buffaloe still become more scarce. at p.m. we struck a northern branch of marias river about yds. wide at the distance of about miles from it's entrance. this stream is closely confined between clifts of freestone rocks the bottom narrow below us and above the rocks confine it on each side; some little timber below but not any above; the water of this stream is nearly clear. from the appearance of this rock and the apparent hight of the bed of the streem i am induced to beleive that there are falls in these rivers somewhere about their junction. being convinced that this stream came from the mountains i determined to pursue it as it will lead me to the most nothern point to which the waters of maria's river extend which i now fear will not be as far north as i wished and expected. after dinner we set out up the north branch keeping on it's s. side; we pursued it untill dark and not finding any timber halted and made a fire of the dung of the buffaloe. we lay on the south side in a narrow bottom under a clift. our provision is nearly out, we wounded a buffaloe this evening but could not get him. [lewis, july , ] tuesday july ed . we set out very early this morning as usual and proceeded up the river. for the first seven miles of our travel this morning the country was broken the land poor and intermixed with a greater quantity of gravel than usual; the ravines were steep and numerous and our horses feet have become extreemly soar in traveling over the gravel we therefore traveled but slow. we met with a doe elk which we wounded but did not get her. the river is confined closely between clifts of perpendicular rocks in most parts. after the distance of seven miles the country became more level les gravly and some bottoms to the river but not a particle of timber nor underbush of any discription is to be seen. we continued up the river on it's south side for miles when we halted to glaize our horses and eat; there being no wood we were compelled to make our fire with the buffaloe dung which i found answered the purpose very well. we cooked and eat all the meat we had except a small peice of buffaloe meat which was a little tainted. after dinner we passed the river and took our course through a level and beautifull plain on the n. side. the country has now become level, the river bottoms wide and the adjoining plains but little elivated above them; the banks of the river are not usually more than from to four feet yet it dose not appear ever to overflow them. we found no timber untill we had traveled miles further when we arrived at a clump of large cottonwood trees in a beautifull and extensive bottom of the river about miles below the foot of the rocky mountains where this river enters them; as i could see from hence very distinctly where the river entered the mountains and the bearing of this point being s of west i thought it unnecessary to proceed further and therefore encamped resolving to rest ourselves and horses a couple of days at this place and take the necessary observations. this plain on which we are is very high; the rocky mountains to the s. w. of us appear but low from their base up yet are partially covered with snow nearly to their bases. there is no timber on those mountains within our view; they are very irregular and broken in their form and seem to be composed principally of clay with but little rock or stone. the river appears to possess at least double the vollume of water which it had where we first arrived on it below; this no doubt proceeds from the avapparation caused by the sun and air and the absorbing of the earth in it's passage through these open plains. the course of the mountains still continues from s. e. to n. w. the front rang appears to terminate abrubtly about ms. to the n. w. of us. i believe that the waters of the suskashawan apporoach the borders of this river very nearly. i now have lost all hope of the waters of this river ever extending to n latitude ° though i still hope and think it more than probable that both white earth river and milk river extend as far north as latd. °--we have seen but few buffaloe today no deer and very few antelopes; gam of every discription is extreemly wild which induces me to beleive that the indians are now, or have been lately in this neighbourhood. we wounded a buffaloe this evening but our horses were so much fatiegued that we were unable to pursue it with success.- [lewis, july , ] wednesdy july rd i dispatched drewyer an joseph fields this morning to hunt. i directed drewyer who went up the river to observe it's bearings and the point at which it entered the mountains, this he did and on his return i observed the point at which the river entered to bear s ° w. distant about ten miles the river making a considerable bend to the west just above us. both these hunters returned unsuccessful and reported that there was no game nor the appearance of any in this quarter. we now rendered the grease from our tainted meat and made some mush of cows with a part of it, reserving as much meal of cows and grease as would afford us one more meal tomorrow. drewyer informed us that there was an indian camp of eleven leather lodges which appeared to have been abandoned about days, the poles only of the lodges remained. we are confident that these are the minnetares of fort de prarie and suspect that they are probably at this time somewhere on the main branch of maria's river on the borders of the buffaloe, under this impression i shall not strike that river on my return untill about the mouth of the north branch. near this place i observe a number of the whistleing squirrel of the speceis common to the plains and country watered by the columbia river, this is the first instance in which i have found this squirrel in the plains of the missouri. the cottonwood of this place is also of the speceis common to the columbia. we have a delightfull pasture for our horses where we are. the clouds obscured the moon and put an end to further observation. the rok which makes its appearance on this part of the river is of a white colour fine grit and makes excellet whetstones; it lies in horizontal stratas and makes it's appearance in the bluffs of the river near their base. we indeavoured to take some fish but took only one small trout. musquetoes uncommonly large and reather troublesome. [lewis, july , ] thursday july th . at a.m. the sun made it's appearance for a few minutes and i took it's altitude but it shortly after clouded up again and continued to rain the ballance of the day i was therefore unable to complete the observations i wished to take at this place. i determined to remain another day in the hope of it's being fair. we have still a little bread of cows remaining of which we made a kettle of mush which together with a few pigeons that we were fortunate enough to kill served us with food for this day. i sent the hunters out but they shortly returned without having killed anything and declared that it was useless to hunt within or miles of this place that there was no appearance of game within that distance. the air has become extreemly cold which in addition to the wind and rain renders our situation extreemly unpleasant. several wolves visited our camp today, i fired on and wounded one of them very badly. the small speceis of wolf barks like a dog, they frequently salute us with this note as we pass through the plains. [lewis, july , ] friday july th . the weather still continues cold cloudy and rainy, the wind also has blown all day with more than usual violence from the n. w. this morning we eat the last of our birds and cows, i therefore directed drewyer and j. fields to take a couple of the horses and proceed to the s. e. as far as the main branch of maria's river which i expected was at no great distance and indeavour to kill some meat; they set out immediately and i remained in camp with r. fields to avail myself of every opportunity to make my observations should any offer, but it continued to rain and i did not see the sun through the whole course of the day r. fields and myself killed nine pigeons which lit in the trees near our camp on these we dined. late in the evening drewyer and j. fields returned the former had killed a fine buck on which we now fared sumptuously. they informed me that it was about miles to the main branch of maria's river, that the vally formed by the river in that quarter was wide extensive and level with a considerable quantity timber; here they found some wintering camps of the natives and a great number of others of a more recent date or that had from appearance been evacuated about weeks; we consider ourselves extreemly fortunate in not having met with these people. i determined that if tomorrow continued cloudy to set out as i now begin to be apprehensive that i shall not reach the united states within this season unless i make every exertion in my power which i shall certainly not omit when once i leave this place which i shall do with much reluctance without having obtained the necessary data to establish it's longitude-as if the fates were against me my chronometer from some unknown cause stoped today, when i set her to going she went as usual. [lewis, july , ] saturday july th . the moring was cloudy and continued to rain as usual, tho the cloud seemed somewhat thiner. i therefore posponed seting out untill a.m. in the hope that it would clear off but finding the contrary result i had the horses caught and we set out biding a lasting adieu to this place which i now call camp disappointment. i took my rout through the open plains s. e. ms. passing a small creek at ms. from the mountains wher i changed my direction to s. e. for ms. further and struck a principal branch of maria's river yds. wide, not very deep, i passed this stream to it's south side and continued down it ms. on the last mentioned course when another branch of nearly the same dignity formed a junction with it, coming from the s. w. this last is shallow and rappid; has the appearance of overflowing it's banks frequently and discharging vast torrants of water at certain seasons of the year. the beds of both these streams are pebbly particularly the s. branch. the water of the n. branch is very terbid while that of the s. branch is nearly clear not withstanding the late rains. i passed the s. branch just above it's junction and continued down the river which runs a little to the n of e ms. and halted to dine and graize our horses here i found some indian lodges which appeared to have been inhabited last winter in a large and fertile bottom well stocked with cottonwood timber. the rose honeysuckle and redberry bushes constitute the undergrowth there being but little willow in this quarter both these rivers abov their junction appeared to be well stocked with timber or comparitively so with other parts of this country. here it is that we find the three species of cottonwood which i have remarked in my voyage assembled together that speceis common to the columbia i have never before seen on the waters of the missouri, also the narrow and broad leafed speceis. during our stay at this place r. fields killed a buck a part of the flesh of which we took with us. we saw a few antelopes some wolves and of the smallest speceis of fox of a redish brown colour with the extremity of the tail black. it is about the size of the common domestic cat and burrows in the plains. after dinner i continued my rout down the river to the north of eat about ms. when the hills putting in close on the s side i determined to ascend them to the high plain which i did accordingly, keeping the fields with me; drewyer passed the river and kept down the vally of the river. i had intended to decend this river with it's course to it's junction with the fork which i had ascended and from thence have taken across the country obliquely to rose river and decend that stream to it's confluence with maria's river. the country through which this portion of maria's river passes to the fork which i ascended appears much more broken than that above and between this and the mountains. i had scarcely ascended the hills before i discovered to my left at the distance of a mile an assembleage of about horses, i halted and used my spye glass by the help of which i discovered several indians on the top of an eminence just above them who appeared to be looking down towards the river i presumed at drewyer. about half the horses were saddled. this was a very unpleasant sight, however i resolved to make the best of our situation and to approach them in a friendly manner. i directed j. fields to display the flag which i had brought for that purpose and advanced slowly toward them, about this time they discovered us and appeared to run about in a very confused manner as if much allarmed, their attention had been previously so fixed on drewyer that they did not discover us untill we had began to advance upon them, some of them decended the hill on which they were and drove their horses within shot of it's summit and again returned to the hight as if to wate our arrival or to defend themselves. i calculated on their number being nearly or quite equal to that of their horses, that our runing would invite pursuit as it would convince them that we were their enimies and our horses were so indifferent that we could not hope to make our escape by flight; added to this drewyer was seperated from us and i feared that his not being apprized of the indians in the event of our attempting to escape he would most probably fall a sacrefice. under these considerations i still advanced towards them; when we had arrived within a quarter of a mile of them, one of them mounted his horse and rode full speed towards us, which when i discovered i halted and alighted from my horse; he came within a hundred paces halted looked at us and turned his horse about and returned as briskly to his party as he had advanced; while he halted near us i held out my hand and becconed to him to approach but he paid no attention to my overtures. on his return to his party they all decended the hill and mounted their horses and advanced towards us leaving their horses behind them, we also advanced to meet them. i counted eight of them but still supposed that there were others concealed as there were several other horses saddled. i told the two men with me that i apprehended that these were the minnetares of fort de prarie and from their known character i expected that we were to have some difficulty with them; that if they thought themselves sufficiently strong i was convinced they would attempt to rob us in which case be their numbers what they would i should resist to the last extremity prefering death to that of being deprived of my papers instruments and gun and desired that they would form the same resolution and be allert and on their guard. when we arrived within a hundred yards of each other the indians except one halted i directed the two men with me to do the same and advanced singly to meet the indian with whom i shook hands and passed on to those in his rear, as he did also to the two men in my rear; we now all assembled and alighted from our horses; the indians soon asked to smoke with us, but i told them that the man whom they had seen pass down the river had my pipe and we could not smoke untill he joined us. i requested as they had seen which way he went that they would one of them go with one of my men in surch of him, this they readily concented to and a young man set out with r. fields in surch of drewyer. i now asked them by sighns if they were the minnetares of the north which they answered in the affermative; i asked if there was any cheif among them and they pointed out i did not believe them however i thought it best to please them and gave to one a medal to a second a flag and to the third a handkercheif, with which they appeared well satisfyed. they appeared much agitated with our first interview from which they had scarcely yet recovered, in fact i beleive they were more allarmed at this accedental interview than we were. from no more of them appearing i now concluded they were only eight in number and became much better satisfyed with our situation as i was convinced that we could mannage that number should they attempt any hostile measures. as it was growing late in the evening i proposed that we should remove to the nearest part of the river and encamp together, i told them that i was glad to see them and had a great deel to say to them. we mounted our horses and rode towards the river which was at but a short distance, on our way we were joined by drewyer fields and the indian. we decended a very steep bluff about feet high to the river where there was a small bottom of nearly / a mile in length and about yards wide in the widest part, the river washed the bluffs both above and below us and through it's course in this part is very deep; the bluffs are so steep that there are but few places where they could be ascended, and are broken in several places by deep nitches which extend back from the river several hundred yards, their bluffs being so steep that it is impossible to ascend them; in this bottom there stand tree solitary trees near one of which the indians formed a large simicircular camp of dressed buffaloe skins and invited us to partake of their shelter which drewyer and myself accepted and the fieldses lay near the fire in front of the sheter. with the assistance of drewyer i had much conversation with these people in the course of the evening. i learned from them that they were a part of a large band which lay encamped at present near the foot of the rocky mountains on the main branch of maria's river one / days march from our present encampment; that there was a whiteman with their band; that there was another large band of their nation hunting buffaloe near the broken mountains and were on there way to the mouth of maria's river where they would probably be in the course of a few days. they also informed us that from hence to the establishment where they trade on the suskasawan river is only days easy march or such as they usually travel with their women and childred which may be estimated at about ms. that from these traders they obtain arm amunition sperituous liquor blankets &c in exchange for wolves and some beaver skins. i told these people that i had come a great way from the east up the large river which runs towards the rising sun, that i had been to the great waters where the sun sets and had seen a great many nations all of whom i had invited to come and trade with me on the rivers on this side of the mountains, that i had found most of them at war with their neighbours and had succeeded in restoring peace among them, that i was now on my way home and had left my party at the falls of the missouri with orders to decend that river to the entrance of maria's river and there wait my arrival and that i had come in surch of them in order to prevail on them to be at peace with their neighbours particularly those on the west side of the mountains and to engage them to come and trade with me when the establishment is made at the entrance of this river to all which they readily gave their assent and declared it to be their wish to be at peace with the tushepahs whom they said had killed a number of their relations lately and pointed to several of those present who had cut their hair as an evidince of the truth of what they had asserted. i found them extreemly fond of smoking and plyed them with the pipe untill late at night. i told them that if they intended to do as i wished them they would send some of their young men to their band with an invitation to their chiefs and warriors to bring the whiteman with them and come down and council with me at the entrance of maria's river and that the ballance of them would accompany me to that place, where i was anxious now to meet my men as i had been absent from them some time and knew that they would be uneasy untill they saw me. that if they would go with me i would give them horses and some tobacco. to this proposition they made no reply, i took the first watch tonight and set up untill half after eleven; the indians by this time were all asleep, i roused up r. fields and laid down myself; i directed fields to watch the movements of the indians and if any of them left the camp to awake us all as i apprehended they would attampt to seal steal our horses. this being done i fell into a profound sleep and did not wake untill the noise of the men and indians awoke me a little after light in the morning.- [lewis, july , ] july th sunday. this morning at day light the indians got up and crouded around the fire, j. fields who was on post had carelessly laid his gun down behid him near where his brother was sleeping, one of the indians the fellow to whom i had given the medal last evening sliped behind him and took his gun and that of his brothers unperceived by him, at the same instant two others advanced and seized the guns of drewyer and myself, j. fields seing this turned about to look for his gun and saw the fellow just runing off with her and his brothers he called to his brother who instantly jumped up and pursued the indian with him whom they overtook at the distance of or paces from the camp sized their guns and rested them from him and r fields as he seized his gun stabed the indian to the heart with his knife the fellow ran about steps and fell dead; of this i did not know untill afterwards, having recovered their guns they ran back instantly to the camp; drewyer who was awake saw the indian take hold of his gun and instantly jumped up and sized her and rested her from him but the indian still retained his pouch, his jumping up and crying damn you let go my gun awakened me i jumped up and asked what was the matter which i quickly learned when i saw drewyer in a scuffle with the indian for his gun. i reached to seize my gun but found her gone, i then drew a pistol from my holster and terning myself about saw the indian making off with my gun i ran at him with my pistol and bid him lay down my gun which he was in the act of doing when the fieldses returned and drew up their guns to shoot him which i forbid as he did not appear to be about to make any resistance or commit any offensive act, he droped the gun and walked slowly off, i picked her up instantly, drewyer having about this time recovered his gun and pouch asked me if he might not kill the fellow which i also forbid as the indian did not appear to wish to kill us, as soon as they found us all in possession of our arms they ran and indeavored to drive off all the horses i now hollowed to the men and told them to fire on them if they attempted to drive off our horses, they accordingly pursued the main party who were drying the horses up the river and i pursued the man who had taken my gun who with another was driving off a part of the horses which were to the left of the camp, i pursued them so closely that they could not take twelve of their own horses but continued to drive one of mine with some others; at the distance of three hundred paces they entered one of those steep nitches in the bluff with the horses before them being nearly out of breath i could pursue no further, i called to them as i had done several times before that i would shoot them if they did not give me my horse and raised my gun, one of them jumped behind a rock and spoke to the other who turned arround and stoped at the distance of steps from me and i shot him through the belly, he fell to his knees and on his wright elbow from which position he partly raised himself up and fired at me, and turning himself about crawled in behind a rock which was a few feet from him. he overshot me, being bearheaded i felt the wind of his bullet very distinctly. not having my shotpouch i could not reload my peice and as there were two of them behind good shelters from me i did not think it prudent to rush on them with my pistol which had i discharged i had not the means of reloading untill i reached camp; i therefore returned leasurely towards camp, on my way i met with drewyer who having heared the report of the guns had returned in surch of me and left the fieldes to pursue the indians, i desired him to haisten to the camp with me and assist in catching as many of the indian horses as were necessary and to call to the fieldes if he could make them hear to come back that we still had a sufficient number of horses, this he did but they were too far to hear him. we reached the camp and began to catch the horses and saddle them and put on the packs. the reason i had not my pouch with me was that i had not time to return about yards to camp after geting my gun before i was obliged to pursue the indians or suffer them to collect and drive off all the horses. we had caught and saddled the horses and began to arrange the packs when the fieldses returned with four of our horses; we left one of our horses and took four of the best of those of the indian's; while the men were preparing the horses i put four sheilds and two bows and quivers of arrows which had been left on the fire, with sundry other articles; they left all their baggage at our mercy. they had but guns and one of them they left the others were armed with bows and arrows and eyedaggs. the gun we took with us. i also retook the flagg but left the medal about the neck of the dead man that they might be informed who we were. we took some of their buffaloe meat and set out ascending the bluffs by the same rout we had decended last evening leaving the ballance of nine of their horses which we did not want. the feildses told me that three of the indians whom they pursued swam the river one of them on my horse. and that two others ascended the hill and escaped from them with a part of their horses, two i had pursued into the nitch one lay dead near the camp and the eighth we could not account for but suppose that he ran off early in the contest. having ascended the hill we took our course through a beatiful level plain a little to the s of east. my design was to hasten to the entrance of maria's river as quick as possible in the hope of meeting with the canoes and party at that place having no doubt but that they would pursue us with a large party and as there was a band near the broken mountains or probably between them and the mouth of that river we might expect them to receive inteligence from us and arrive at that place nearly as soon as we could, no time was therefore to be lost and we pushed our horses as hard as they would bear. at miles we passed a large branch yds. wide which i called battle river. at p.m. we arrived at rose river about miles above where we h ad passed it as we went out, having traveled by my estimate compared with our former distances and couses about ms. here we halted an hour and a half took some refreshment and suffered our horses to graize; the day proved warm but the late rains had supplyed the little reservors in the plains with water and had put them in fine order for traveling, our whole rout so far was as level as a bowling green with but little stone and few prickly pears. after dinner we pursued the bottoms of rose river but finding inconvenient to pass the river so often we again ascended the hills on the s. w. side and took the open plains; by dark we had traveled about miles further, we now halted to rest ourselves and horses about hours, we killed a buffaloe cow and took a small quantity of the meat. after refreshing ourselves we again set out by moon light and traveled leasurely, heavy thunderclouds lowered arround us on every quarter but that from which the moon gave us light. we continued to pass immence herds of buffaloe all night as we had done in the latter part of the day. we traveled untill ock in the morning having come by my estimate after dark about ms. we now turned out our horses and laid ourselves down to rest in the plain very much fatiegued as may be readily conceived. my indian horse carried me very well in short much better than my own would have done and leaves me with but little reason to complain of the robery. [lewis, july , ] july th monday. the morning proved fair, i slept sound but fortunately awoke as day appeared, i awaked the men and directed the horses to be saddled, i was so soar from my ride yesterday that i could scarcely stand, and the men complained of being in a similar situation however i encourged them by telling them that our own lives as well as those of our friends and fellow travellers depended on our exertions at this moment; they were allert soon prepared the horses and we again resumed our march; the men proposed to pass the missouri at the grog spring where rose river approaches it so nearly and pass down on the s. w. side, to this i objected as it would delay us almost all day to reach the point by this circuetous rout and would give the enemy time to surprise and cut off the party at the point if they had arrived there, i told them that we owed much to the safety of our friends and that we must wrisk our lives on this occasion, that i should proceed immediately to the point and if the party had not arrived that i would raft the missouri a small distance above, hide our baggage and march on foot up the river through the timber untill i met the canoes or joined them at the falls; i now told them that it was my determination that if we were attacked in the plains on our way to the point that the bridles of the horses should be tied together and we would stand and defend them, or sell our lives as dear as we could. we had proceeded about miles on an east course when we found ourselves near the missouri; we heared a report which we took to be that of a gun but were not certain; still continuing down the n. e. bank of the missouri about miles further, being then within five miles of the grog spring we heared the report of several rifles very distinctly on the river to our right, we quickly repared to this joyfull sound and on arriving at the bank of the river had the unspeakable satisfaction to see our canoes coming down. we hurried down from the bluff on which we were and joined them striped our horses and gave them a final discharge imbrarking without loss of time with our baggage. i now learned that they had brought all things safe having sustaned no loss nor met with any accident of importance. wiser had cut his leg badly with a knife and was unable in consequence to work. we decended the river opposite to our principal cash which we proceeded to open after reconnoitering the adjacent country. we found that the cash had caved in and most of the articles burried therin were injured; i sustained the loss of two very large bear skins which i much regret; most of the fur and baggage belonging to the men were injured. the gunpowder corn flour poark and salt had sustained but little injury the parched meal was spoiled or nearly so. having no time to air these things which they much wanted we droped down to the point to take in the several articles which had been buried at that place in several small cashes; these we found in good order, and recovered every article except traps belonging to drewyer which could not be found. here as good fortune would have it sergt. gass and willard who brought the horses from the falls joined us at p.m. i had ordered them to bring down the horses to this place in order to assist them in collecting meat which i had directed them to kill and dry here for our voyage, presuming that they would have arrived with the perogue and canoes at this place several days before my return. having now nothing to detain us we passed over immediately to the island in the entrance of maria's river to launch the red perogue, but found her so much decayed that it was impossible with the means we had to repare her and therefore mearly took the nails and other ironwork's about her which might be of service to us and left her. we now reimbarked on board the white peroge and five small canoes and decended the river about ms. and encamped on the s. w. side near a few cottonwood trees, one of them being of the narrow leafed speceis and was the first of that kind which we had remarked on our passage up the river. we encamped late but having little meat i sent out a couple of hunters who soon returned with a sufficient quantity of the flesh of a fat cow. there are immence quantities of buffaloe and elk about the junction of the missouri and maria's rivers.--during the time we halted at the er.crance of maria's river we experienced a very heavy shower of rain and hail attended with violent thunder and lightning. [lewis, july , ] tuesday july th . shortly after dark last evening a violent storm came on from n. w. attended with rain hail thunder and lightning which continued the greater part of the night. no having the means of making a shelter i lay in the water all night. the rain continued with but little intermission all day. i intend halting as soon as the weather proves fair in order to dry our baggage which much wants it. i placed the two fieldses and colter and collins in the two smallest canoes with orderes to hunt, and kill meat for the party and obtain as many elkskins as are necessary to cover our canoes and furnish us with shelters from the rain. we set out early and the currant being strong we proceeded with great rapidity. at a.m. we passed that very interesting part of the missouri where the natural walls appear, particularly discribed in my outward bound journey. we continued our rout untill late in the evening and encamped on the n. e. side of the river at the same place we had encamped on the th of may . on our way today we killed bighorns of which i preserved the skins and skeletons of females and one male; the flesh of this aninmal is extreemly delicate tender and well flavored, they are now in fine order. their flesh both in colour and flavor much resembles mutton though it is not so strong as our mutton. the eye is large and prominant, the puple of a pale sea green and iris of a light yellowish brown colour. these animals abound in this quarter keeping themselves principally confined to the steep clifts and bluffs of the river. we saw immence hirds of buffaloe in the high plains today on either hand of the river. saw but few elk. the brown curloo has left the plains i presume it has raised it's young and retired to some other climate and country. as i have been very particular in my discription of the country as i ascended this river i presume it is unnecesssesary here to add any-thing further on that subject. the river is now nearly as high as it has been this season and is so thick with mud and sand that it is with difficulty i can drink it. every little rivulet now discharges a torrant of water bringing down immece boddies of mud sand and filth from the plains and broken bluffs.- [lewis, july , ] wednesday july th . the rain still continued this morning it was therefore unnecessary to remain as we could not dry our baggage i consequently set out early as usual and pursued my rout downwards. the currant being strong and the men anxious to get on they plyed their oars faithfully and we went at the rate of about seven miles an hour. we halted several times in the course of the day to kill some bighorns being anxious to procure a few more skins and skeletons of this animal; i was fortunate enough to procure one other malle and female for this purpose which i had prepared accordingly. seven others were killed by the party also buffaloe one elk beaver with & a female brown bear with tallons / inches in length. i preserved the skin of this bear also with the tallons; it was not large and in but low order. we arrived this evening at an island about ms. above goodriches island and encamped on it's n. e. side. the rain continued with but little intermission all day; the air is cold and extreemly disagreeable. nothing extraordinary happened today [lewis, july , ] thursday july st . the rain still continuing i set out early and proceeded on as fast as possible. at a.m. we fell in with a large herd of elk of which we killed and took their skins. the bottoms in the latter part of the day became wider better timbered and abound in game. the party killed deer in the course of the day without attempting to hunt but little for them. we also killed bighorns and beaver; saw but few buffaloe. the river is still rising and excessively muddy more so i think than i ever saw it. we experienced some very heavy showers of rain today. we have been passing high pine hills all day. late in the evening we came too on the n. e. side of the river and took sheter in some indian lodges built of sticks, about ms. below the entrance of north mountain creek. these lodges appeared to have been built in the course of the last winter. these lodges with the addition of some elk skins afforded us a good shelter from the rain which continued to fall powerfully all night. i think it probable that the minnetares of fort de prarie visit this part of the river; we meet with their old lodges in every bottom.- [lewis, august , ] friday august st . the rain still continuing i set out early as usual and proceeded on at a good rate. at a.m. we saw a large brown bear swiming from an island to the main shore we pursued him and as he landed drewyer and myself shot and killed him; we took him on board the perogue and continued our rout. at a.m. we passed the entrance of mussel shell river. at in the evening we arrived at a bottom on s. w. side where there were several spacious indian lodges built of sticks and an excellent landing. as the rain still continued with but little intermission and appearances seemed unfavorable to it's becomeing fair shortly, i determined to halt at this place at least for this evening and indeavour to dry my skins of the bighorn which had every appearance of spoiling, an event which i would not should happen on any consideration as we have now passed the country in which they are found and i therefore could not supply the deficiency were i to loose these i have. i halted at this place being about ms. below missel shell river, had fires built in the lodges and my skins exposed to dry. shortly after we landed the rain ceased tho it still continued cloudy all this evening. a white bear came within paces of our camp before we perceived it; it stood erect on it's hinder feet and looked at us with much apparent unconsern, we seized our guns which are always by us and several of us fired at it and killed it. it was a female in fine order, we fleesed it and extracted several gallons of oil. this speceis of bar are rearly as poor at this season of the year as the common black bear nor are they ever as fat as the black bear is found in winter; as they feed principally on flesh, like the wolf, they are most fatt when they can procure a sufficiency of food without rispect to the season of the year. the oil of this bear is much harder than that of the black bear being nearly as much so as the lard of a hog. the flesh is by no means as agreeable as that of the black bear, or yahkah or partycoloured bear of the west side of the rocky mountains. on our way today we killed a buck elk in fine order the skins and a part of the flesh of which we preserved. after encamping this evening the hunters killed deer and a beaver. the elk are now in fine order particularly the males. their horns have obtained their full growth but have not yet shed the velvet or skin which covers them. the does are found in large herds with their young and a few young bucks with them. the old bucks yet herd together in parties of two to or .- [lewis, august , ] saturday august cd . the morning proved fair and i determined to remain all day and dry the baggage and give the men an opportunity to dry and air their skins and furr. had the powder parched meal and every article which wanted drying exposed to the sun. the day proved warm fair and favourable for our purpose. i permitted the fieldses to go on a few miles to hunt. by evening we had dryed our baggage and repacked it in readiness to load and set out early in the morning. the river fell inches since yesterday evening. the hunters killed several deer in the course of the day. nothing remarkable took place today. we are all extreemly anxious to reach the entrance of the yellowstone river where we expect to join capt. clark and party. [lewis, august , ] saturday august rd . i arrose early this morning and had the perogue and canoes loaded and set out at half after a.m. we soon passed the canoe of colter and collins who were on shore hunting, the men hailed them but received no answer we proceeded, and shortly after overtook j. and r. fields who had killed deer since they left us yesterday; deer are very abundant in the timbered bottoms of the river and extreemly gentle. we did not halt today to cook and dine as usual having directed that in future the party should cook as much meat in the evening after encamping as would be sufficient to serve them the next day; by this means we forward our journey at least or miles pr. day. we saw but few buffaloe in the course of this day, tho a great number of elk, deer, wolves, some bear, beaver, geese a few ducks, the party coloured covus, one callamet eagle, a number of bald eagles, redheaded woodpeckers &c. we encamped this evening on n. e. side of the river ms. above our encampment of the th of may soon after we encamp drewyer killed a fat doe. the fieldses arrived at dark with the flesh of two fine bucks, besides which they had killed two does since we passed them making in all deer since yesterday morning. collins and colter did not overtake us this evening. [lewis, august , ] monday august th . set out at a.m. this morning. permited willard and sergt. ordway to exchange with the feildses and take their small canoe to hunt to-day. at / after eleven o'ck. passed the entrance of big dry river; found the water in this river about yds. wide tho shallow. it runs with a boald even currant. at p.m. we arrived at the entrance of milk river where we halted a few minutes. this stream is full at present and it's water is much the colour of that of the missouri; it affords as much water at present as maria's river and i have no doubt extends itself to a considerable distance north. during our halt we killed a very large rattlesnake of the speceis common to our country. it had scuta on the abdomen and on the tail, it's length feet. the scutae on the tail fully formed. after passing this river we saw several large herds of buffaloe and elk we killed one of each of these animals and took as much of the flesh as we wished. we encamped this evening two miles below the gulph on the n. e. side of the river. tonight for the first time this season i heard the small whippoorwill or goatsucker of the missouri cry. colter and collins have not yet overtaken us. ordway and willard delayed so much time in hunting today that they did not overtake us untill about midnight. they killed one bear and deer. in passing a bend just below the gulph it being dark they were drawn by the currant in among a parsel of sawyers, under one of which the canoe was driven and throwed willard who was steering overboard; he caught the sawyer and held by it; ordway with the canoe drifted down about half a mile among the sawyers under a falling bank, the canoe struck frequently but did not overset; he at length gained the shore and returned by land to learn the fate of willard whom he found was yet on the sawyer; it was impossible for him to take the canoe to his relief willard at length tied a couple of sticks together which had lodged against the sawyer on which he was and set himself a drift among the sawyers which he fortunately escaped and was taken up about a mile below by ordway with the canoe; they sustained no loss on this occasion. it was fortunate for willard that he could swim tolerably well. [lewis, august , ] tuesday august th . colter and collins not having arrived induced me to remain this morning for them. the hunters killed four deer this morning near our encampment. i remained untill noon when i again reimbarked and set out concluding that as colter and collins had not arrived by that time that they had passed us after dark the night of the rd inst. as sergt ordway informed me he should have done last evening had not the centinel hailed him. we continued our rout untill late in the evening when i came too and encamped on the south side about miles below little dry river. on our way we killed a fat cow and took as much of the flesh as was necessary for us. the feildses killed large bear this evening one of them measured nine feet from the extremity of the nose to that of his tail, this is the largest bear except one that i have seen. we saw several bear today as we passed but did not kill any of them. we also saw on our way immence herds of buffaloe & elk, many deer antelopes, wolves, geese eagles &c. but few ducks or prarie hens. the geese cannot fly at present; i saw a solitary pillacon the other day in the same situation. this happens from their sheding or casting the fathers of the wings at this season. [lewis, august , ] wednesday august th . a little after dark last evening a violent storm arrose to the n. e. and shortly after came on attended with violent thunder lightning and some hail; the rain fell in a mere torrant and the wind blew so violently that it was with difficulty i could have the small canoes unloaded before they filled with water; they sustained no injury. our situation was open and exposed to the storm. in attending to the canoes i got wet to the skin and having no shelter on land i betook myself to the orning of the perogue which i had, formed of elkskin, here i obtained a few hours of broken rest; the wind and rain continued almost all night and the air became very cold. we set out early this morning and decended the river about miles below porcupine river when the wind became so violent that i laid by untill p.m. the wind then abaiting in some measure we again resumed our voyage, and decended the river about miles below our encampment of the st of may where we halted for the night on the s. w. side of the river. after halting we killed three fat cows and a buck. we had previously killed today deer a buck elk and a fat cow. in short game is so abundant and gentle that we kill it when we please. the feildses went on ahead this evening and we did not overtake them. we saw several bear in the course of the day. [lewis, august , ] thursday august th . it began to rain about midnight and continued with but little intermission until a.m. today. the air was cold and extreemly unpleasant. we set out early resolving if possible to reach the yelowstone river today which was at the distance of ms. from our encampment of the last evening; the currant favoured our progress being more rapid than yesterday, the men plyed their oars faithfully and we went at a good rate. at a.m. we passed the entrance of marthy's river which has changed it's entrance since we passed it last year, falling in at preasent about a quarter of a mile lower down. at or just below the entrance of this river we meet with the first appearance of coal birnt hills and pumicestone, these appearances seem to be coextensive. here it is also that we find the first elm and dwarf cedar on the bluffs, the ash first appears in the instance of one solletary tree at the ash rapid, about the elk rapid and from thence down we occasionly meet with it scattered through the bottoms but it is generally small. from marthy's river to milk river on the n. e. side there is a most beautifull level plain country; the soil is much more fertile here than above. we overtook the feildses at noon. they had killed bear and seen others, we saw and fired on two from our perogue but killed neither of them. these bear resort the river where they lie in wate at the crossing places of the game for the elk and weak cattle; when they procure a subject of either they lie by the carcase and keep the wolves off untill they devour it. the bear appear to be very abundant on this part of the river. we saw a number of buffaloe elk &c as we passed but did not detain to kill any of them. we also saw an unusual flight of white gulls about the size of a pigeon with the top of their heads black. at p.m. we arrived at the entrance of the yellowstone river. i landed at the point and found that capt. clark had been encamped at this place and from appearances had left it about or days. i found a paper on a pole at the point which mearly contained my name in the hand wrighting of capt. c. we also found the remnant of a note which had been attatched to a peace of elk's horns in the camp; from this fragment i learned that game was scarce at the point and musquetoes troublesome which were the reasons given for his going on; i also learnt that he intended halting a few miles below where he intended waiting my arrival. i now wrote a note directed to colter and collins provided they were behind, ordering them to come on without loss of time; this note i wraped in leather and attatced onto the same pole which capt. c. had planted at the point; this being done i instantly reimbarked and decended the river in the hope of reaching capt. c's camp before night. about miles below the point on the s. w. shore i saw some meat that had been lately fleased and hung on a pole; i directed sergt. ordway to go on shore examine the place; on his return he reported that he saw the tracks of two men which appeared so resent that he beleived they had been there today, the fire he found at the plce was blaizing and appeared to have been mended up afresh or within the course of an hour past. he found at this place a part of a chinnook hat which my men recognized as the hat of gibson; from these circumstances we included that capt. c's camp could not be distant and pursued our rout untill dark with the hope of reaching his camp in this however we were disappointed and night coming on compelled us to encamp on the n. e. shore in the next bottom above our encampment of the rd and th of april . as we came too a herd of buffaloe assembled on the shore of which we killed a fat cow.- [lewis, august , ] friday august th . beleiving from the recent appearances about the fire which we past last evening that capt clark could be at no great distance below i set out early; the wind heard from the n. e. but by the force of the oars and currant we traveled at a good rate untill a.m. by which time we reached the center of the beaver bends about ms. by water and by land above the entrance of white earth river. not finding capt. clark i knew not what calculation to make with rispect to his halting and therefore determined to proceed as tho he was not before me and leave the rest to the chapter of accedents. at this place i found a good beach for the purpose of drawing out the perogue and one of the canoes which wanted corking and reparing. the men with me have not had leasure since we left the west side of the rocky mountains to dress any skins or make themselves cloaths and most of them are therefore extreemly bare. i therefore determined to halt at this place untill the perogue and canoe could be repared and the men dress skins and make themselves the necessary cloathing. we encamped on the n. e. side of the river; we found the musquetoes extreemly troublesome but in this rispect there is but little choise of camps from hence down to st. louis. from this place to the little missouri there is an abundance of game i shall therefore when i leave this place travel at my leasure and avail myself of every opportunity to collect and dry meat untill i provide a sufficient quantity for our voyage not knowing what provision capt c. has made in this rispect. i formed a camp unloaded the canoes and perogue, had the latter and one of the canoes drawn out to dry, fleased what meat we had collected and hung it on poles in the sun, after which the men busied themselves in dressing skins and making themselves cloaths. drewyer killed elk and a deer this evening. the air is cold yet the musquetoes continue to be troublesome.- [lewis, august , ] saturday august th . the day proved fair and favourable for our purposes. the men were all engaged dressing skins and making themselves cloathes except r & j. fields whom i sent this morning over the river with orders to proceed to the entrance of the white earth river in surch of capt. c. and to hunt and kill elk or buffaloe should they find any convenient to the river. in the evening these men returned and informed me that they saw no appearance of capt. clark or party. they found no game nor was there a buffaloe.to be seen in the plains as far as the eye could reach. nothing remarkable took place in the course of the day. colter and collins have not yet overtaken us i fear some missfortune has happened them for their previous fidelity and orderly deportment induces me to beleive that they would not thus intentionally delay. the perogue is not yet sufficiently dry for reparing. we have no pitch and will therefore be compelled to use coal and tallow. [lewis, august , ] sunday august th . the morning was somewhat cloudy i therefore apprehended rain however it shortly after became fair. i hastened the repairs which were necessary to the perogue and canoe which were compleated by p.m. those not engaged about this business employed themselves as yester-day. at in the evening it clouded up and began to rain which puting a stop to the opperation of skindressing we had nothing further to detain us, i therefore directed the vessels to be loaded and at p.m. got under way the wind has blown very hard all day but did not prove so much so this evening as absolutely to detain us. we decended this evening as low nearly as the entrance of white earth river and encamped on the s. w. side. the musquetoes more than usually troublesome this evening. [lewis, august , ] monday august th . we set out very early this morning. it being my wish to arrive at the birnt hills by noon in order to take the latitude of that place as it is the most northern point of the missouri, enformed the party of my design and requested that they would exert themselves to reach the place in time as it would save us the delay of nearly one day; being as anxious to get forward as i was they plyed their oars faithfully and we proceeded rapidly. i had instructed the small canoes that if they saw any game on the river to halt and kill it and follow on; however we saw but little game untill about a.m. when we came up with a buffaloe swiming the river which i shot and killed; leaving the small canoes to dress it and bring on the meat i proceeded. we had gone but little way before i saw a very large grizzly bear and put too in order to kill it, but it took wind of us and ran off. the small canoes overtook us and informed that the flesh of the buffaloe was unfit for uce and that they had therefore left it half after a.m. we saw a large herd of elk on the n. e. shore and i directed the men in the small canoes to halt and kill some of them and continued on in the perogue to the birnt hills; when i arrived here it was about minutes after noon and of course the observation for the o's meridian altitude was lost; jus opposite to the birnt hills there happened to be a herd of elk on a thick willow bar and finding that my observation was lost for the present i determined to land and kill some of them accordingly we put too and i went out with cruzatte only. we fired on the elk i killed one and he wounded another, we reloaded our guns and took different routs through the thick willows in pursuit of the elk; i was in the act of firing on the elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye about an inch below my hip joint, missing the bone it passed through the left thye and cut the thickness of the bullet across the hinder part of the right thye; the stroke was very severe; i instantly supposed that cruzatte had shot me in mistake for an elk as i was dressed in brown leather and he cannot see very well; under this impression i called out to him damn you, you have shot me, and looked towards the place from whence the ball had come, seeing nothing i called cruzatte several times as loud as i could but received no answer; i was now preswaded that it was an indian that had shot me as the report of the gun did not appear to be more than paces from me and cruzatte appeared to be out of hearing of me; in this situation not knowing how many indians there might be concealed in the bushes i thought best to make good my retreat to the perogue, calling out as i ran for the first hundred paces as loud as i could to cruzatte to retreat that there were indians hoping to allarm him in time to make his escape also; i still retained the charge in my gun which i was about to discharge at the moment the ball struck me. when i arrived in sight of the perogue i called the men to their arms to which they flew in an instant, i told them that i was wounded but i hoped not mortally, by an indian i beleived and directed them to follow me that i would return & give them battle and releive cruzatte if possible who i feared had fallen into their hands; the men followed me as they were bid and i returned about a hundred paces when my wounds became so painfull and my thye so stiff that i could scarcely get on; in short i was compelled to halt and ordered the men to proceed and if they found themselves overpowered by numbers to retreat in order keeping up a fire. i now got back to the perogue as well as i could and prepared my self with a pistol my rifle and air-gun being determined as a retreat was impracticable to sell my life as deerly as possible. in this state of anxiety and suspense remained about minutes when the party returned with cruzatte and reported that there were no indians nor the appearance of any; cruzatte seemed much allarmed and declared if he had shot me it was not his intention, that he had shot an elk in the willows after he left or seperated from me. i asked him whether he did not hear me when i called to him so frequently which he absolutely denied. i do not beleive that the fellow did it intentionally but after finding that he had shot me was anxious to conceal his knowledge of having done so. the ball had lodged in my breeches which i knew to be the ball of the short rifles such as that he had, and there being no person out with me but him and no indians that we could discover i have no doubt in my own mind of his having shot me. with the assistance of sergt. gass i took off my cloaths and dressed my wounds myself as well as i could, introducing tents of patent lint into the ball holes, the wounds blead considerably but i was hapy to find that it had touched neither bone nor artery. i sent the men to dress the two elk which cruzatte and myself had killed which they did in a few minutes and brought the meat to the river. the small canoes came up shortly after with the flesh of one elk. my wounds being so situated that i could not without infinite pain make an observation i determined to relinquish it and proceeded on. we came within eight miles of our encampment of the th of april and encamped on n. e. side. as it was painfull to me to be removed i slept on board the perogue; the pain i experienced excited a high fever and i had a very uncomfortable night. at p.m. we passed an encampment which had been evacuated this morning by capt. clark, here i found a note from capt. c. informing me that he had left a letter for me at the entrance of the yelow stone river, but that sergt. pryor who had passed that place since he left it had taken the letter; that sergt. pryor having been robed of all his horses had decended the yelowstone river in skin canoes and had over taken him at this encampment. this i fear puts an end to our prospects of obtaining the sioux cheifs to accompany us as we have not now leasure to send and enjage mr. heney on this service, or at least he would not have time to engage them to go as early as it is absolutely necessary we should decend the river. [lewis, august , ] thursday august th . being anxious to overtake capt. clark who from the appearance of his camps could be at no great distance before me, we set out early and proceeded with all possible expedition at a.m. the bowsman informed me that there was a canoe and a camp he beleived of whitemen on the n. e. shore. i directed the perogue and canoes to come too at this place and found it to be the camp of two hunters from the illinois by name joseph dickson and forest hancock. these men informed me that capt. c. had passed them about noon the day before. they also informed me that they had left the illinois in the summer since which time they had been ascended the missouri, hunting and traping beaver; that they had been robed by the indians and the former wounded last winter by the tetons of the birnt woods; that they had hitherto been unsuccessfull in their voyage having as yet caught but little beaver, but were still determined to proceed. i gave them a short discription of the missouri, a list of distances to the most conspicuous streams and remarkable places on the river above and pointed out to them the places where the beaver most abounded. i also gave them a file and a couple of pounds of powder with some lead. these were articles which they assured me they were in great want of. i remained with these men an hour and a half when i took leave of them and proceeded. while i halted with these men colter and collins who seperated from us on the rd ist. rejoined us. they were well no accedent having happened. they informed me that after proceeding the first day and not overtaking us that they had concluded that we were behind and had delayed several days in waiting for us and had thus been unable to join us untill the present momet. my wounds felt very stiff and soar this morning but gave me no considerable pain. there was much less inflamation than i had reason to apprehend there would be. i had last evening applyed a poltice of peruvian barks at p.m. i overtook capt. clark and party and had the pleasure of finding them all well. as wrighting in my present situation is extreemly painfull to me i shall desist untill i recover and leave to my frind capt. c. the continuation of our journal. however i must notice a singular cherry which is found on the missouri in the bottom lands about the beaverbends and some little distance below the white earth river. this production is not very abundant even in the small tract of country to which it seems to be confined. the stem is compound erect and subdivided or branching without any regular order it rises to the hight of eight or ten feet seldom puting up more than one stem from the same root not growing in cops as the choke cherry dose. the bark is smooth and of a dark brown colour. the leaf is peteolate, oval accutely pointed at it's apex, from one and a / to / inches in length and from / to / of an inch in width, finely or minutely serrate, pale green and free from bubessence. the fruit is a globular berry about the size of a buck-shot of a fine scarlet red; like the cherries cultivated in the u states each is supported by a seperate celindric flexable branch peduncle which issue from the extremities of the boughs the peduncle of this cherry swells as it approahes the fruit being largest at the point of insertion. the pulp of this fruit is of an agreeable ascid flavour and is now ripe. the style and stigma are permanent. i have never seen it in blume. [clark, july , ] thursday july rd we colected our horses and after brackfast i took my leave of capt lewis and the indians and at a m set out with ____ men interpreter shabono & his wife & child (as an interpreter & interpretess for the crow inds and the latter for the shoshoni) with horses. we proceeded on through the vally of clarks river on the west side of the river nearly south miles and halted on the upper side of a large creek, haveing crossed streams of which were small. this vally is from to ms. in width tolerably leavel and partially timberd with long leaf & pitch pine, some cotton wood, birch, and sweet willow on the borders of the streams. i observed species of clover in this vally one the white clover common in the western parts of the u. states, the other species which is much smaller than either the red or white both it's leaf & blossom the horses are excessively fond of this species. after letting our horses graze a sufficient length of time to fill themselves, and taking dinner of venison we again resumed our journey up the vally which we found more boutifully versified with small open plains covered with a great variety of sweet cented plants, flowers & grass. this evening we crossed streams of which were large creeks which comes roleing their currents with velocity into the river. those creeks take their rise in the mountains to the west which mountains is at this time covered with snow for about / of the way from their tops downwards. some snow is also to be seen on the high points and hollows of the mountains to the east of us. our course this evening was nearly south ms. makeing a total of miles today. we encamped on the n. side of a large creek where we found tolerable food for our horses. labeish killed a deer this evening. we saw great numbers of deer and bear today. i also observed the burring squirel of the species common about the quawmarsh flatts west of the rocky mountains. musquetors very troublesom.--one man jo. potts very unwell this evening owing to rideing a hard trotting horse; i give him a pill of opiom which soon releve him. [clark, july , ] friday july th i order three hunters to set out early this morning to hunt & kill some meat and by a.m. we collected our horses took braekfast and set out proceeded on up the vally on the west side of clarks river crossing three large deep and rapid creeks, and two of a smaller size to a small branch in the spurs of the mountain and dined. the last creek or river which we pass'd was so deep and the water so rapid that several of the horses were sweped down some distance and the water run over several others which wet several articles. after crossing this little river, i observed in the road the tracks of two men whome i prosume is of the shoshone nation. our hunters joined us with deer in tolerable order. on the side of the hill near the place we dined saw a gange of ibex or big horn animals i shot at them running and missed. this being the day of the decleration of independence of the united states and a day commonly scelebrated by my country i had every disposition to selebrate this day and therefore halted early and partook of a sumptious dinner of a fat saddle of venison and mush of cows (roots) after dinner we proceeded on about one mile to a very large creek which we assended some distance to find a foard to cross in crossing this creek several articles got wet, the water was so strong, alto the debth was not much above the horses belly, the water passed over the backs and loads of the horses. those creeks are emensely rapid has great decnt the bottoms of the creek as well as the low lands on each side is thickly covered with large stone after passing this creek i inclined to the left and fell into the road on which we had passed down last fall near the place we had dined on the th of sept. and continued on the road passing up on the w. side of clarks river miles to the west fork of sd. river and encamped on an arm of the same i sent out men to hunt, and in serch of a foard to pass the river. at dark they all returned and reported that they had found a place that the river might be passed but with some risque of the loads getting wet i order them to get up their horses and accompany me to those places &c. our hunters killed deer to day. we made ms. to day on a course nearly south vally from to mes. wide. contains a good portion of pitch pine. we passed three large deep rapid creeks this after noon [clark, july , ] saturday july th i rose at day light this morning despatched labeash after a buck which he killed late last evening; and i with the three men who i had sent in serch of a ford across the west fork of clarks river, and examined each ford neither of them i thought would answer to pass the fork without wetting all the loads. near one of those places pointed out by colter i found a practiable foard and returned to camp, ordered everything packed up and after brackfast we set out passed chanels of the river which is divided by small islands in passing the th & last chanel colter horse swam and with some dificuelty he made the opposite shore, shannon took a different derection from colter rained his horse up the stream and passed over very well i derected all to follow shannon and pass quartering up the river which they done and passed over tolerably well the water running over the back of the smaller horses only. unfortunately my trunk & portmantue containing sea otter skins flags some curiosites & necessary articles in them got wet, also an esortment of medicine, and my roots. about mile we struk the east fork which had fallen and was not higher than when we passed it last fall we had not proceeded up this fork more than mile eer we struck the road by which we passed down last fall and kept it at one mile we crossed the river at a very good foard and continued up on the east side to the foot of the mountain nearly opposite flour crek & halted to let our horses graze and dry our wet articles. i saw fresh sign of horses and a fire burning on the side of the road. i prosume that those indians are spies from the shoshones. shannon & crusat killed each a deer this morning and j. shields killed a female ibex or bighorn on the side of the mountain, this animal was very meager. shannon left his tomahawk at the place he killed his deer. i derect him to return for it and join me in the vally on the east side of this mountain. gave shields permission to proceed on over to the st vally and there hunt untill my arival this evening at that place, after drying every article which detained us untill / past p.m. we packed up and crossed the mountain into the vally where we first met with the flatheads here i overtook shields he had not killed any thing. i crossed the river which heads in a high peecked mountain covered with snow n. e. of the vally at about miles. shields informed me that the flat head indians passed up the small creek which we came down last fall about miles above our encampment of the th & th of, septr. i proceeded up this south branch miles and encamped on the e. side of the creek, and sent out several men to examine the road. shields returned at dark and informed me that the best road turned up the hill from the creek miles higher up, and appeared to be a plain beaten parth. as this rout of the oat lash shoots can be followed it will evidently shorten our rout at least days and as the indians informed me last fall a much better rout than the one we came out. at all events i am deturmined to make the attempt and follow their trail if possible if i can prosue it my rout will be nearer and much better than the one we came from the shoshones, & if i should not be able to follow their road; our rout can't possibly be much wors. the hunters killed two deer this evening. the after part of the day we only come miles makeing a total of miles-. shannon came up about sunset haveing found his tomahawk. [clark, july , ] sunday th july some frost this morning the last night was so cold that i could not sleep. we collected our horses which were much scattered which detained us untill a.m. at which time we set out and proceeded up the creek on which we camped miles and left the road which we came on last fall to our right and assended a ridge with a gentle slope to the dividing mountain which seperates the waters from the middle fork of clarks river from those and lewis's river and passed over prosueing the rout of the oat lash shute band which we met last fall to the head of a branch of wisdom r and down the said branch crossing it frequently on each side of this handsom glades in which i observe great quantities of quawmash just beginning to blume on each side of those glades the timber is small and a great propotion of it killed by the fires. i observe the appearance of old buffalow roads and some heads on this part of the mountain. the snow appears to lying in considerable masses on the mountain from which we decended on the th of septr. last. i observe great numbers of the whistleing squirel which burrows their holes scattered on each side of the glades through which we passed. shields killed a hare of the large mountain species. the after part of the day we passed on the hill side n of the creek for ms. creek and entered an extensive open leavel plain in which the indian trail scattered in such a manner that we could not pursue it. the indian woman wife to shabono informed me that she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well that the creek which we decended was a branch of wisdom river and when we assended the higher part of the plain we would discover a gap in the mountains in our direction to the canoes, and when we arived at that gap we would see a high point of a mountain covered with snow in our direction to the canoes. we proceeded on mile and crossd. a large creek from the right which heads in a snow mountain and fish creek over which there was a road thro a gap. we assended a small rise and beheld an open boutifull leavel vally or plain of about miles wide and near long extending n & s. in every direction around which i could see high points of mountains covered with snow. i discovered one at a distance very high covered with snow which bore s. ° e. the squar pointed to the gap through which she said we must pass which was s. ° e. she said we would pass the river before we reached the gap. we had not proceeded more than miles in the last creek, before a violent storm of wind accompand. with hard rain from the s w. imediately from off the snow mountains this rain was cold and lasted / hours. i discovd. the rain wind as it approached and halted and formd. a solid column to protect our selves from the violency of the gust. after it was over i proceeded on about miles to some small dry timber on a small creek and encampd. made large fires and dryed our selves. here i observed some fresh indian signs where they had been gathering quawmash. [clark, july , ] monday th july this morning our horses were very much scattered; i sent out men in every direction in serch of them. they brought all except by oclock and informed me that they could not find those . i then ordered men to take horses and go different directions and at a greater distance those men all returned by a.m. and informed me that they had circles in every direction to or miles around camp and could not see any signs of them, that they had reasons to believe that the indians had stolen them in the course of the night, and founded their reasons on the quallity of the horses, all being the most valuable horses we had, and several of them so attached to horses of inferior quallity which we have they could not be seperated from each other when driveing with their loads on in the course of the day. i thought it probable that they might be stolen by some skulking shoshones, but as it was yet possible that they may have taken our back rout or rambled to a greater distance i deturmined to leave a small party and hunt for them to day, and proceed on with the main party and all the baggage to the canoes, raise them out of the water and expose them to the sun to dry by the time this party should overtake me. i left sergt. ordway, shannon, gibson collins & labeech with directions to hunt this day for the horses without they should discover that the inds. had taken them into the mountains, and prosue our trail &c. at / past a m i set out and proceeded on through an open rich vally crossing four large creeks with extensive low and mirey bottoms, and a small river keeping the course i had set out on s. ° e after crossing the river i kept up on the n e. side, sometimes following an old road which frequently disappeared, at the distance of miles we arived at a boiling spring situated about paces from a large easterly fork of the small river in a leavel open vally plain and nearly opposit & e. of the forks of this little river which heads in the snowey mountains to the s e. & s w of the springs. this spring contains a very considerable quantity of water, and actually blubbers with heat for paces below where it rises. it has every appearance of boiling, too hot for a man to endure his hand in it seconds. i directt sergt. pryor and john shields to put each a peice of meat in the water of different sises. the one about the size of my fingers cooked dun in minits the other much thicker was minits before it became sufficiently dun. this water boils up through some loose hard gritty stone. a little sulferish after takeing dininer and letting our horses graize hour and a half we proceeded on crossed this easterly branch and up on the n. side of this middle fork miles crossed it near the head of an easterly branch and passed through a gap of a mountain on the easterly side of which we encamped near some butifull which fall into willards creek. i directed that the rambling horses should be hobbled, and the sentinal to examine the horses after the moon rose. emence beaver sign. this extensive vally surround with covered with snow is extreemly fertile covered esculent plants &c and the creeks which pass through it contains emence numbers of beaver &c. i now take my leave of this butifull extensive vally which i call the hot spring vally, and behold one less extensive and much more rugid on willards creek for near miles in length. remarkable cold night [clark, july , ] tuesday july th our horses being scattered we were detained unill a. m before we set out. we proceeded on down willards creek on the s.w. side about miles near which the creek passes through the mountain we then steared s. ° e. to the west branch of jeffersons river in snake indian cove about miles and halded two hours to let the horses graize. after dinner we proceeded on down the forke which is here but small miles to our encampment of augt. at which place we sunk our canoes & buried some articles, as before mentioned the most of the party with me being chewers of tobacco become so impatient to be chewing it that they scercely gave themselves time to take their saddles off their horses before they were off to the deposit. i found every article safe, except a little damp. i gave to each man who used tobacco about two feet off a part of a role took one third of the ballance myself and put up / in a box to send down with the most of the articles which had been left at this place, by the canoes to capt. lewis. as it was late nothing could be done with the canoes this evening. i examined them and found then all safe except one of the largest which had a large hole in one side & split in bow. the country through which we passed to day was diversified high dry and uneaven stoney open plains and low bottoms very boggy with high mountains on the tops and north sides of which there was snow, great quantities of the species of hysoop & shrubs common to the missouri plains are scattered in those vallys and hill sides. the road which we have traveled from travellers rest creek to this place an excellent road. and with only a few trees being cut out of the way would be an excellent waggon road one mountain of about miles over excepted which would require a little digging the distance is miles-. shields killed an antelope [clark, july , ] wednesday th july rose early had the horses brought up. after which i had the canoes raised washed, brough down and drawn up on shore to dry and repard. set several men to work digging for the tobacco capt. lewis informed me he had buried in the place the lodge stood when we lay here last summer, they serched diligently without finding anything. at a m sergt. ordway and party arrived with the horses we had lost. he reported that he found those horses near the head of the creek on which we encamped, makeing off as fast as they could and much scattered. nothing material took place with his party in their absence. i had the canoes repared men & lodes appotioned ready to embark tomorrow morning. i also formd. the party to accomp me to the river rejhone from applicants and apportioned what little baggage i intended to carry as also the spear horses. this day was windy and cold. the squar brought me a plant the root of which the nativs eat. this root most resembles a carrot in form and size and something of its colour, being of a pailer yellow than that of our carrot, the stem and leaf is much like the common carrot, and the taste not unlike. it is a native of moist land.--john sheilds and collins each killed a deer this morning. the wind dried our canoes very much they will be sufficiently dry by tomorrow morning to set out in them down the river. [clark, july , ] thursday july th last night was very cold and this morning everything was white with frost and the grass stiff frozend. i had some water exposed in a bason in which the ice was / of an inch thick this morning. i had all the canoes put into the water and every article which was intended to be sent down put on board, and the horses collected and packed with what fiew articles i intend takeing with me to the river rochejhone, and after brackfast we all set out at the same time & proceeded on down jeffersons river on the east side through sarviss vally and rattle snake mountain and into that butifull and extensive vally open and fertile which we call the beaver head vally which is the indian name in their language har na hap pap chah. from the no. of those animals in it & a pt. of land resembling the head of one this vally extends from the rattle snake mountain down jeffersons river as low as fraziers creek above the big horn mountain and is from to miles in width and ____ miles on a direct line in length and jeffersons river in passing through this vally reives mcneals creek, track creek, phalanthrophy river, wisdom river, fields river and fraziers creek each throw in a considerable quantity of water and have innoumerable beaver and otter on them; the bushes in their low bottoms are the resort for great numbers of deer, and in the higher parts of the vally we see antelopes scattered feeding. i saw also on the sides of the rock in rattle snake mountain big horn animals, those animals feed on the grass which grow on the sides of the mountn. and in the narrow bottoms on the water courses near the steep sides of the mountains on which they can make their escape from the pursute of wolves bear &c. at meridian i halted to let the horses graze having come miles i ordered the to land. sergt. ordway informed me that the party with him had come on very well, and he thought the canoes could go as farst as the horses &c. as the river now become wider and not so sholl, i deturmined to put all the baggage &c. which i intend takeing with me to the river rochejhone in the canoes and proceed on down with them myself to the forks or madisons & galletens rivers. leaveing the horses to be taken down by sergt. pryor and of the men of the party to accompany me to the river rochejhone and directed sergt. pryor to proceed on moderately and if possible encamp with us every night. after dinner had my baggage put on board and set out, and proceeded on tolerable well to the head of the mile island on which we had encamped on the th of augt last. the canoes passed six of my encampments assending, opposit this island i encamped on the east side. the musquetors were troublesom all day and untill one hour after sunset when it became cool and they disappeared. in passing down in the course of this day we saw great numbers of beaver lying on the shores in the sun. wild young gees and ducks are common in this river. we killed two young gees this evening. i saw several large rattle snakes in passing the rattle snake mountain they were fierce. [clark, july , ] friday th july sent on of the best hunters in canoes to proceed on a fiew miles a head and hunt untill i came up with them, after an early brackfast i proceeded on down a very crooked chanel, at a. m i overtook one canoe with a deer which collins had killed, at meridian passed sergt. pryors camp near a high point of land on the left side which the shoshones call the beavers head. the wind rose and blew with great violence from the s w imediately off some high mountains covered with snow. the violence of this wind retarded our progress very much and the river being emencly crooked we had it imediately in our face nearly every bend. at p m i passed phalanthrophy river which i proceved was very low. the wind shifted about to the n. e. and bley very hard tho much wormer than the forepart of the day. at p m i arrived at the enterance of wisdom river and encampd. in the spot we had encamped the th of august last. here we found a bayonet which had been left & the canoe quite safe. i directed that all the nails be taken out of this canoe and paddles to be made of her sides & here i came up with gibson & colter whome i had sent on a head for the purpose of hunting this morning, they had killed a fat buck and young gees nearly grown. wisdom river is very high and falling. i have seen great nos. of beaver on the banks and in the water as i passed down to day, also some deer and great numbers young gees, sand hill cranes &c. &c. sgt. pryor left a deer on the shore [clark, july , ] saturday th,july sergt. pryor did not join me last night he has proceeded on down. the beaver was flacking in the river about us all the last night. this morning i was detained untill a m makeing paddles and drawing the nails of the canoe to be left at this place and the one we had before left here. after completing the paddles &c and takeing some brackfast i set out the current i find much stronger below the forks than above and the river tolerably streight as low as panther creek when it became much more crooked the wind rose and blew hard off the snowey mountains to the n. w. and renderd it very difficuelt to keep the canoes from running against the shore at p.m. the canoe in which i was in was driven by a suden puff of wind under a log which projected over the water from the bank, and the man in the stern howard was caught in between the canoe and the log and a little hurt after disingaging our selves from this log the canoe was driven imediately under a drift which projected over and a little abov the water, here the canoe was very near turning over we with much exertion after takeing out some of the baggage hauled her out, and proceeded on without receving any damage. the men in the other canoes seeing our situation landed and come with as much speed as possible through the briers and thick brush to our assistance. but from the thickness of the brush did not get up to our assistance untill we had got clear. at p m we halted at the enterance of fields creek and dined here willard and collins over took us with two deer which they had killd. this morning and by takeing a different side of an island from which we came, we had passed them. after dinner i proceeded on and encamped a little below our encampmt. of the st of july last. the musquetoes very troublesome this evening some old buffalow signs. i killed young gees and collins killed bever this evening. [clark, july , ] sunday th july set out early this morning and proceded on very well to the enterance of madicines river at our old encampment of the th july last at where i found sergt. pryor and party with the horses, they had arived at this place one hour before us. his party had killed deer & a white bear i had all the horses driven across madicine & gallitines rivers and halted to dine and let the horses feed imediately below the enterance of gallitine. had all the baggage of the land party taken out of the canoes and after dinner the canoes and the party of men under the direction of sergt. ordway set out. previous to their departur i gave instructions how they were to proceed &c. i also wrote to capt lewis by sergt. ordway-. my party now consists of the following persons viz: serjeant n. pryor, jo. shields, g. shannon william bratton, labiech, windsor, h. hall, gibson, interpreter shabono his wife & child and my man york; with horses and a colt. the horses feet are very sore and several of them can scercely proceed on. at . p. m i set out from the head of missouri at the forks, and proceeded on nearly east miles and encamped on the bank of gallitines river which is a butifull navigable stream. saw a large gange of elk in the plains and deer in the river bottoms. i also observe beaver and several otter in galletines river as i passed along. gibson killed an otter the fur of which was much longer and whiter than any which i had seen. willard killed deer this morning. all the meat i had put into the canoes except a sufficiency for supper. the country in the forks between gallitins & madisens rivers is a butifull leavel plain covered with low grass.--on the lower or n e. side of gallitins river the country rises gradually to the foot of a mountain which runs nearly parrelal. those plains are indefferant or the soil of which is not very rich they are stoney & contain several stratas of white rock. the current of the river is rapid and near the mouth contains several islands, it is navigable for canoes. i saw several antelope common deer, wolves, beaver, otter, eagles, hawks, crows, wild gees both old and young, does &c. &c. i observe several leading roads which appear to pass to a gap of the mountain in a e. n e. direction about or miles distant. the indian woman who has been of great service to me as a pilot through this country recommends a gap in the mountain more south which i shall cross.-. [clark, july , ] monday th july sent sheilds a head to kill a deer for our brackfast and at an early hour set out with the party crossed gallitines river which makes a considerable bend to the n. e. and proceeded on nearly s. ° e through an open leavel plain at miles i struck the river and crossed a part of it and attemptd to proceed on through the river bottoms which was several miles wide at this place, i crossed several chanels of the river running through the bottom in defferent directions. i proceeded on about two miles crossing those defferent chanels all of which was damed with beaver in such a manner as to render the passage impracticable and after swamped as i may say in this bottom of beaver i was compelled to turn short about to the right and after some difficuelty made my way good to an open low but firm plain which was an island and extended nearly the course i wished to proceed. here the squar informed me that there was a large road passing through the upper part of this low plain from madicins river through the gap which i was stearing my course to. i proceeded up this plain miles and crossed the main chanel of the river, having passed through a skirt of cotton timber to an open low plain on the n e. side of the river and nooned it. the river is divided and on all the small streams inoumerable quantities of beaver dams, tho the river is yet navagable for canoes. i overtook shields soon after i set out; he had killed a large fat buck. i saw elk deer & antelopes, and great deel of old signs of buffalow. their roads is in every direction. the indian woman informs me that a fiew years ago buffalow was very plenty in those plains & vallies quit as high as the head of jeffersons river, but flew of them ever come into those vallys of late years owing to the shoshones who are fearfull of passing into the plains west of the mountains and subsist on what game they can catch in the mountains principally and the fish which they take in the e. fork of lewis's river. small parties of the shoshones do pass over to the plains for a few days at a time and kill buffalow for their skins and dried meat, and return imediately into the mountains. after dinner we proceeded on a little to the south of east through an open leavel plain to the three forks of the e branch of gallitines river at about miles, crossed the most southerly of those forks and struck an old buffalow road which i kept continuing nearly the same course up the middle fork crossed it and camped on a small branch of the middle fork on the n e. side at the commencement of the gap of the mountain--the road leading up this branch, several other roads all old come in from the right & left. emence quantities of beaver on this fork quit down, and their dams very much impeed the navigation of it from the forks down, tho i beleive it practicable for small canoes by unloading at a fiew of the worst of those dams. deer are plenty. shannon shields and sergt. pryor each killed one which were very fat much more so than they are commonly at this season of the year. the main fork of galletins river turn south and enter them mountains which are yet covered with snow. madisens river makes a great bend to the east and enters the same mountain. a leavel plain between the two rivers below the mountain. [clark, july , ] tuesday th july we collected our horses and after an early brackft at a m set out and proceeded up the branch to the head thence over a low gap in the mountain thence across the heads of the n e. branch of the fork of gallitins river which we camped near last night passing over a low dividing ridge to the head of a water course which runs into the rochejhone, prosueing an old buffalow road which enlargenes by one which joins it from the most easterly branch of the east fork of galetins r. proceeding down the branch a little to the n. of east keeping on the north side of the branch to the river rochejhone at which place i arrived at p m. the distance from the three forks of the easterly fork of galletines river (from whence it may be navigated down with small canoes) to the river rochejhone is miles on an excellent high dry firm road with very incoiderable hills. from this river to the nearest part of the main fork of gallitine is miles mostly through a leavel plain. from the head of the missouri at the forks miles through a leavel plain the most of the way as may be seen by the remarks in the evening after the usial delay of hours to give the horses time to feed and rest and allowing our selves time also to cook and eate dinner, i proceeded on down the river on an old buffalow road at the distance of miles below the mountains shield river discharges itself into the rochejhone on it's n w. side above a high rocky clift, this river is yards wide deep and affords a great quantity of water it heads in those snowey mountains to the n w with howards creek, it contains some timber such as cotton & willow in it's bottoms, and great numbers of beaver the river also abounds in those animals as far as i have seen. passed the creek and over a high rocky hill and encamped in the upper part of a large bottom. the horses feet are very sore many of them can scercely proceed on over the stone and gravel in every other respect they are sound and in good sperits. i saw two black bear on the side of the mountains this morning. several gangs of elk from to in a gangue on the river, great numbers of antelopes. one elk only killed to day. the roche passes out of a high rugid mountain covered with snow. the bottoms are narrow within the mountains but widen from / a m. to ms. in the vally below, those bottoms are subject to over flow, they contain some tall cotton wood, and willow rose bushes & rushes honey suckle &c. a second bottom on the n e. side which rises to about feet higher the first & is m. wide this bottom is coars gravel pebils & sand with some earth on which the grass grow very short and at this time is quit dry this d bottom over flows in high floods on the opposit side of the river the plain is much higher and extendes quite to the foot of the mountain. the mountains to the s. s. e on the east side of the river is rocky rugid and on them are great quantities of snow. a bold snow mountain which bears east & is imediately at & n w of the forks of the east fork of gallitins river may be seen, there is also a high rugid mtn. on which is snow bearing north or miles. but fiew flowers to be seen in those plains. low grass in the high plains, and the common corse grass, rushes and a species of rye is the growth of the low bottoms. the mountains have some scattering pine on them, and on the spurs and hill sides there is some scrubby pine. i can see no timber sufficient large for a canoe which will carry more than men and such a one would be too small to answer my purpose [clark, july , ] wednesday th july i gave labeech promission to proceed on early this morning a head and kill a fat elk or buffalow. our horses haveing rambled to a long distance down the river detained us much later than common. we did not set out untill a m. we had not proceeded on far before i saw a buffalow & sent shannon to kill it this buffalow provd. to be a very fat bull i had most of the flesh brought on an a part of the skin to make mockersons for some of our lame horses. proceeded on down the river without finding any trees sufficently large for a canoe about miles and halted having passed over to an island on which there was good food for our horses to let them graze & dine. i have not seen labeech as yet. saw a large gangue of about elk and nearly as many antilope also two white or grey bear in the plains, one of them i chased on horse back about miles to the rugid part of the plain where i was compelled to give up the chase two of the horses was so lame owing to their feet being worn quit smooth and to the quick, the hind feet was much the worst i had mockersons made of green buffalow skin and put on their feet which seams to releve them very much in passing over the stoney plains. after dinner i proceeded on soon after i had set out labeech joined us with part of a fat elk which he had killed. i passed over a stoney point at which place the river runs close to the high land on the n w. side crossed a small creek and encamped on the river a little below its enterance. saw emence heards of elk feeding on the opposit side of the river. i saw a great number of young gees in the river. one of the men brought me a fish of a species i am unacquainted; it was inches long formed like a trout. it's mouth was placed like that of the sturgeon a red streak passed down each side from the gills to the tail. the rocks which the high lands are faced with and which may also be seen in perpendicular straters in the high plains, is a dark freestone. the greater part of this rock is of an excellent grit for grindstones hard and sharp. observe the silkgrass sunflower & wild indigo all in blume. but fiew other flowers are to be seen in those plains. the river and creek bottoms abound in cotton wood trees, tho none of them sufficiently large for canoes. and the current of the rochejhone is too rapid to depend on skinn canoes. no other alternetive for me but to proceed on down untill i can find a tree sufficently large &c. to make a canoe.- [clark, july , ] thursday th july the rain of last night wet us all. i had the horses all collected early and set out, proceeded ove the point of a ridge and through an open low bottom crossed a large creek which heads in a high snow toped mountain to the n w. imediately opposit to the enterance of the creek one something larger falls in from the high snow mountains to the s w. & south those creeks i call rivers across they contain some timber in their vallys at the distance of ____ miles by water we arive at the enterance of two small rivers or large creeks which fall in nearly opposit to each other the one on the n e side is yards wide. i call it otter river the other beaver r below the enterance of this creek i halted as usial to let the horses graze &c. i saw a single pelicon which is the first which i have seen on this river. after dinner i proceeded on down the rochejhone passing over a low ridge through a small bottom and on the side of a stoney hill for miles and through a small bottom and again on the side of a high hill for / m. to a bottom in which we incamped opposit a small island. the high lands approach the river on either side much nearer than it does above and their sides are partially covered with low pine & cedar, none of which are sufficently large for canoes, nor have i seen a cotton tree in the low bottoms sufficently large for that purpose. buffalow is getting much more plenty than they were above. not so many elk & more deer shannon killed one deer. i saw in one of those small bottoms which i passed this evening an indian fort which appears to have been built last summer. this fort was built of logs and bark. the logs was put up very closely capping on each other about feet and closely chinked. around which bark was set up on end so as to cover the logs. the enterance was also guarded by a work on each side of it and faceing the river. this work is about feet diameter & nearly round. the squaw informs me that when the war parties find themselves pursued they make those forts to defend themselves in from the pursuers whose superior numbers might other wise over power them and cut them off without receiveing much injurey on hors back &c. [clark, july , ] friday th july as we were about setting out this morning two buffalow bulls came near our camp several of the men shot at one of them. their being near the river plunged in and swam across to the opposit side and there died. shabono was thrown from his horse to day in pursute of a buffaloe, the hose unfortunately steping into a braroe hole fell and threw him over his head. he is a good deel brused on his hip sholder & face. after brackfast i proceeded on as usial, passd. over points of ridges so as to cutoff bends of the river crossed a small muddy brook on which i found great quantities of the purple, yellow & black currents ripe. they were of an excellent flavour. i think the purple superior to any i have ever tasted. the river here is about yards wide rapid as usial and the water gliding over corse gravel and round stones of various sizes of an excellent grite for whetestones. the bottoms of the river are narrow. the hills are not exceeding feet in hight the sides of them are generally rocky and composed of rocks of the same texture of a dark colour of grit well calculated for grindstones &c. the high bottoms is composed of gravel and stone like those in the chanel of the river, with a mixture of earth of a dark brown colour the country back from the river on each side is generally open wavering plains. some pine is to be seen in every direction in those plains on the sides of hills &c. at a.m. i observed a smoke rise to the s. s. e in the plains towards the termonation of the rocky mountains in that direction (which is covered with snow) this smoke must be raisd. by the crow indians in that direction as a signal for us, or other bands. i think it most probable that they have discovered our trail and takeing us to be shoshone &c. in serch of them the crow indians to trade as is their custom, have made this smoke to shew where they are-or otherwise takeing us to be their enemy made this signal for other bands to be on their guard. i halted in a bottom of fine grass to let the horses graze. shields killed a fat buck on which we all dined. after dinner and a delay of hours to allow the horses time to feed, we set out at p.m. i set out and proceeded down the river through a butifull bottom, passing a indian fort on the head of a small island near the lard shore and encamped on a small island seperated from the lard shore by a very narrow chanel. shields killed a buffalow this evening which caused me to halt sooner than common to save some of the flesh which was so rank and strong that we took but very little. gibson in attempting to mount his horse after shooting a deer this evening fell and on a snag and sent it nearly two inches into the muskeler part of his thy. he informs me this snag was about inch in diamuter burnt at the end. this is a very bad wound and pains him exceedingly. i dressed the wound. [clark, july , ] saturday th july . i rose early and dressed gibsons wound. he slept but very little last night and complains of great pain in his knee and hip as well as his thy. there being no timber on this part of the rochjhone sufficintly large for a canoe and time is pracious as it is our wish to get to the u states this season, conclude to take gibson in a litter if he is not able to ride on down the river untill i can find a tree sufficently large for my purpose. i had the strongest and jentlesst horse saddled and placed skins & blankets in such a manner that when he was put on the horse he felt himself in as easy a position as when lying. this was a fortunate circunstance as he could go much more at his ease than in a litter. passed rose bud river on sd side i proceeded on about miles, and halted to let the horses graze and let gibson rest. his leg become so numed from remaining in one position, as to render extreemly painfull to him. i derected shields to keep through the thick timber and examine for a tree sufficently large & sound to make a canoe, and also hunt for some wild ginger for a poltice for gibsons wound. he joined me at dinner with fat bucks but found neither tree or ginger. he informed me that white bear chased him on horsback, each of which he shot from his horse &c. currents are ripe and abundant, i, e, the yellow, black & purple spcies. we passed over two high points of land from which i had a view of the rocky mounts. to the w. & s. s. e. all covered with snow. i also saw a low mountain in an easterly direction. the high lands is partially covered with pine and form purpendcular clifts on either side. afer dinner i proceeded on the high lands become lower on either side and those of the stard side form bluffs of a darkish yellow earth; the bottom widens to several ms. on the stard side. the timber which cotton wood principally scattered on the borders of the river is larger than above. i have seen some trees which would make very small canoes. gibsons thy became so painfull that he could not set on the horse after rideing about hours and a half i directed sergt pryor and one man to continue with him under the shade of a tree for an hour and then proceed on to the place i should encamp which would be in the first good timber for canoes for the below. it may be proper to observe that the emence sworms of grass hoppers have distroyed every sprig of grass for maney miles on this side of the river, and appear to be progressing upwards. about miles below the place i left sergt. pryor with gibson found some large timber near which the grass was tolerably good i encamped under a thick grove of those trees which was not sufficiently large for my purpose, tho two of them would mak small canoes. i took shields and proceeded on through a large timbered bottom imediately below in serch of better trees for canoes, found several about the same size with those at my camp. at dark i returned to camp sergt. pryor had arived with gibson. after my arival at this place the hunters killed seven elk, four deer, and i wounded a buffalow very badly near the camp imediately after i arived. in the forepart of the day the hunters killed two deer an antelope & shot two bear. shabono informed me that he saw an indian on the high lands on the opposit side of the river, in the time i was absent in the woods. i saw a smoke in the same direction with that which i had seen on the th inst. it appeared to be in the mountains. [clark, july , ] sunday th july i directed sergt. pryor and shields each of them good judges of timber to proceed on down the river six or miles and examine the bottoms if any larger trees than those near which we are encamped can be found and return before twelve oclock. they set out at daylight. i also sent labech shabono & hall to skin & some of the flesh of the elk labeech had killed last evening they returned with one skin the wolves haveing eaten the most of the other four elk. i also sent two men in serch of wood soutable for ax handles. they found some choke cherry which is the best wood which can be precured in this country. saw a bear on an island opposit and several elk. sergt. pryor and shields returned at half past a m. and informed me that they had proceeded down the timbered bottoms of the river for about miles without finding a tree better than those near my camp. i deturmined to have two canoes made out of the largest of those trees and lash them together which will cause them to be study and fully sufficient to take my small party & self with what little baggage we have down this river. had handles put in the axes and after sharpening them with a file fell the two trees which i intended for the two canoes. those trees appeared tolerably sound and will make canoes of feet in length and about or inches deep and from to inches wide. the men with the three axes set in and worked untill dark. sergt. pryor dressed some skins to make him clothes. gibsons wound looks very well. i dressed it. the horses being fatigued and their feet very sore, i shall let them rest a fiew days. dureing which time the party intended for to take them by land to the mandans will dress their skins and make themselves clothes to bare, as they are nearly naked. shields killed a deer & buffalow & shannon a faun and a buffalow & york an elk one of the buffalow was good meat. i had the best of him brought in and cut thin and spread out to dry. [clark, july , ] monday st july this morning i was informed that half of our horses were absent. sent out shannon bratten, and shabono to hunt them. shabono went up the river shanon down and bratten in the bottom near camp, shabono and bratten returned at a m and informed me that they saw no signs of the horses. shannon proceeded on down the river about miles and did not return untill late in the evening, he was equally unsuckcessfull. shannon informed me that he saw a remarkable large lodge about miles below, covered with bushes and the top deckorated with skins &c and had the appearance of haveing been built about years. i sent out two men on hors back to kill a fat cow which they did and returned in hours the men work very diligiently on the canoes one of them nearly finished ready to put in the water. gibsons wound is beginning to heal. i am in great hope that it will get well in time for him to accompany sgt. pryor with the horses to the mandans. this evening late a very black cloud from the s. e. accompanied with thunder and lightning with hard winds which shifted about and was worm and disagreeable. i am apprehensive that the indians have stolen our horses, and probably those who had made the smoke a fiew days passed towards the s. w. i deturmined to have the ballance of the horses guarded and for that purpose sent out men, on their approach near the horses were so alarmed that they ran away and entered the woods and the men returned- a great number of geese which raise their young on this river passed down frequently since my arival at this place. we appear to be in the beginning of the buffalow country. the plains are butifull and leavel but the soil is but thin stoney and in maney parts of the plains & bottoms there are great quantity of prickly pears. saw several herds of buffalow since i arived at this camp also antilops, wolves, pigions, dovs, hawks, ravins, crows, larks, sparrows, eagles & bank martins &c. &c. the wolves which are the constant attendants of the buffalow are in great numbers on the scerts of those large gangues which are to be seen in every direction in those praries [clark, july , ] tuesday nd of july . the wind continued to blow very hard from the n. e. and a little before day light was moderately cool. i sent sergt. pryor and shabono in serch of the horses with directions to proceed up the river as far as the st narrows and examine particularly for their tracks, they returned at p m and informed me that they had proceeded up the distance i derected them to go and could see neither horses nor tracks; the plains imediately out from camp is so dry and hard that the track of a horse cannot be seen without close examination. i therefore derected sergt. pryor shannon shabono & bratten to incircle the camp at some distance around and find the tracks of the horses and prosue them, they serched for tracks all the evening without finding which course the horses had taken, the plains being so remarkably hard and dry as to render it impossible to see a track of a horse passing through the hard parts of them. begin to suspect that they are taken by the indians and taken over the hard plains to prevent our following them. my suspicions is grounded on the improbibility of the horses leaveing the grass and rushes of the river bottoms of which they are very fond, and takeing imediately out into the open dry plains where the grass is but short and dry. if they had continued in the bottoms either up or down, their tracks could be followed very well. i directed labeech who understands traking very well to set out early in the morning and find what rout the horses had taken if possible [clark, july , ] wednesday rd july . last night the wolves or dogs came into our camp and eat the most of our dryed meat which was on a scaffold labeech went out early agreeable to my directions of last evening. sergt. pryor and windser also went out. sgt. pryor found an indian mockerson and a small piece of a roab, the mockerson worn out on the bottom & yet wet, and have every appearance of haveing been worn but a fiew hours before. those indian signs is conclusive with me that they have taken the horses which we lost on the night of the th instant, and that those who were about last night were in serch of the ballance of our horses which they could not find as they had fortunately got into a small prarie serounded with thick timber in the bottom. labeech returned haveing taken a great circle and informed me that he saw the tracks of the horses makeing off into the open plains and were by the tracks going very fast. the indians who took the horses bent their course reather down the river. the men finished both canoes by oclock to day, and i sent them to make oars & get poles after which i sent shields and labeech to kill a fat buffalow out of a gangue which has been in a fiew miles of us all day. i gave sergt pryor his instructions and a letter to mr. haney and directed that he g. shannon & windser take the remaining horses to the mandans, where he is to enquire for mr. h. heney if at the establishments on the assinniboin river to take or horses and proceed on to that place and deliver mr. heney the letter which is with a view to engage mr. heney to provale on some of the best informed and most influential chiefs of the different bands of sieoux to accompany us to the seat of our government with a view to let them see our population and resourses &c. which i believe is the surest garentee of savage fidelity to any nation that of a governmt. possessing the power of punishing promptly every aggression. sergt. pryor is directed to leave the ballance of the horses with the grand chief of the mandans untill our arival at his village also to keep a journal of the of his rout courses distances water courss soil production, & animals to be particularly noted. shields and labeech killed three buffalow two of them very fat i had as much of the meat saved as we could conveniently carry. in the evening had the two canoes put into the water and lashed together ores and everything fixed ready to set out early in the morning, at which time i have derected sergt. pryor to set out with the horses and proceed on to the enterance of the big horn river at which place the canoes will meat him and set him across the rochejhone below the enterance of that river. [clark, july , ] speech for yellowstone indians children. the great spirit has given a fair and bright day for us to meet together in his view that he may inspect us in this all we say and do. children i take you all by the hand as the children of your great father the president of the u. states of america who is the great chief of all the white people towards the riseing sun. children this great chief who is benevolent, just, wise & bountifull has sent me and one other of his chiefs (who is at this time in the country of the blackfoot indians) to all his read children on the missourei and its waters quite to the great lake of the west where the land ends and the sun sets on the face of the great water, to know their wants and inform him of them on our return. children we have been to the great lake of the west and are now on our return to my country. i have seen all my read children quite to that great lake and talked with them, and taken them by the hand in the name of their great father the great chief of all the white people. children we did not see the ____ or the nations to the north. i have come across over high mountains and bad road to this river to see the ____ natn. i have come down the river from the foot of the great snowey mountain to see you, and have looked in every detection for you, without seeing you untill now children i heard from some of your people ____ nights past by my horses who complained to me of your people haveing taken of their cummerads. children the object of my comeing to see you is not to do you injurey but to do you good the great chief of all the white people who has more goods at his command than could be piled up in the circle of your camp, wishing that all his read children should be happy has sent me here to know your wants that he may supply them. children your great father the chief of the white people intends to build a house and fill it with such things as you may want and exchange with you for your skins & furs at a very low price. & has derected me to enquire of you, at what place would be most convenient for to build this house. and what articles you are in want of that he might send them imediately on my return children the people in my country is like the grass in your plains noumerous they are also rich and bountifull. and love their read brethren who inhabit the waters of the missoure children i have been out from my country two winters, i am pore necked and nothing to keep of the rain. when i set out from my country i had a plenty but have given it all to my read children whome i have seen on my way to the great lake of the west. and have now nothing. children your great father will be very sorry to here of the ____ stealing the horses of his chiefs warrors whome he sent out to do good to his red children on the waters of missoure. _____ their ears to his good counsels he will shut them and not let any goods & guns be brought to the red people. but to those who open their ears to his counsels he will send every thing they want into their country. and build a house where they may come to and be supplyed whenever they wish. children your great father the chief of all the white people has derected me to inform his red children to be at peace with each other, and the white people who may come into your country under the protection of the flag of your great father which you. those people who may visit you under the protection of that flag are good people and will do you no harm children your great father has detected me to tell you not to suffer your young and thoughtless men to take the horses or property of your neighbours or the white people, but to trade with them fairly and honestly, as those of his red children below. children the red children of your great father who live near him and have opened their ears to his counsels are rich and hapy have plenty of horses cows & hogs fowls bread &c.&c. live in good houses, and sleep sound. and all those of his red children who inhabit the waters of the missouri who open their ears to what i say and follow the counsels of their great father the president of the united states, will in a fiew years be as hapy as those mentioned &c. children it is the wish of your great father the chief of all the white people that some of the principal chiefs of this ____ nation should visit him at his great city and receive from his own mouth. his good counsels, and from his own hands his abundant gifts, those of his red children who visit him do not return with empty hands, he send them to their nation loaded with presents children if any one two or of your great chiefs wishes to visit your great father and will go with me, he will send you back next summer loaded with presents and some goods for the nation. you will then see with your own eyes and here with your own years what the white people can do for you. they do not speak with two tongues nor promis what they can't perform children consult together and give me an answer as soon as possible your great father is anxious to here from (& see his red children who wish to visit him) i cannot stay but must proceed on & inform him &c. [clark, july , ] thursday th july . had all our baggage put on board of the two small canoes which when lashed together is very study and i am convinced will the party i intend takeing down with me. at a m. we set out and proceeded on very well to a riffle about mile above the enterance of clarks fork or big horn river at this riffle the small canoes took in a good deel of water which obliged us to land a little above the enterance of this river which the ____ has called clarks fork to dry our articles and bail the canoes. i also had buffalow skin tacked on so as to prevent the waters flacking in between the two canoes. this last river is yards wide at it's mouth and a short destance up the water of a light muddy colour and much colder than that of the rochejhone a small island is situated imediately in its mouth, the direction of this river is south and east of that part of the rocky mountains which can be seen from its enterance and which seem to termonate in that direction.--i thought it probable that this might be the big horn river, and as the rochejhone appeared to make a great bend to the n. i deturmined to set the horses across on s. side. one chanel of the river passes under a high black bluff from one mile below the place we built the canoes to within miles of the enterance of clarks fork when the bottoms widen on each side those on the stard side from / to a mile in width. river much divided by islands. at ms. below the fork i halted on a large island seperated from the stard. shore by a narrow channel, on this this being a good place to cross the river i deturmined to wait for sergt. pryor and put him across the river at this place. on this island i observd a large lodge the same which shannon informed me of a fiew days past. this lodge a council lodge, it is of a conocil form feet diamuter at its base built of poles each pole / feet in secumpheranc and feet long built in the form of a lodge & covered with bushes. in this lodge i observed a cedar bush sticking up on the opposit side of the lodge fronting the dore, on one side was a buffalow head, and on the other several sticks bent and stuck in the ground. a stuffed buffalow skin was suspended from the center with the back down. the top of those poles were deckerated with feathers of the eagle & calumet eagle also several curious pieces of wood bent in circleler form with sticks across them in form of a griddle hung on tops of the lodge poles others in form of a large sturrip. this lodge was errected last summer. it is situated in the center of a butifull island thinly covered with cotton wood under which the earth which is rich is covered with wild rye and a species of grass resembling the bluegrass, and a mixture of sweet grass which the indian plat and ware around their necks for its cent which is of a strong sent like that of the vinella after dinner i proceeded on passed the enterance of a small creek and some wood on the stard. side where i met with sergt. pryor, shannon & windser with the horses they had but just arived at that place. sergt. pryor informed me that it would be impossible for the two men with him to drive on the horses after him without tireing all the good ones in pursute of the more indifferent to keep them on the course. that in passing every gangue of buffalow several of which he had met with, the loos horses as soon as they saw the buffalow would imediately pursue them and run around them. all those that speed suffient would head the buffalow and those of less speed would pursue on as fast as they could. he at length found that the only practiacable method would be for one of them to proceed on and when ever they saw a gang of buffalow to scear them off before the horses got up. this disposition in the horses is no doubt owing to their being frequently exercised in chasing different animals by their former owners the indians as it is their custom to chase every speces of wild animal with horses, for which purpose they train all their horses. i had the horses drove across the river and set sergt. pryor and his party across. h. hall who cannot swim expressed a wiliness to proceed on with sergt. pryor by land, and as another man was necessary to assist in driveing on the horses, but observed he was necked, i gave him one of my two remaining shirts a par of leather legins and pr. of mockersons which equipt him completely and sent him on with the party by land to the mandans. i proceeded on the river much better than above the enterance of the clarks fork deep and the current regularly rapid from to yards in width where it is all together, much divided by islands maney of which are large and well supplyed with cotton wood trees, some of them large, saw emenc number of deer elk and buffalow on the banks. some beaver. i landed on the lard side walked out into the bottom and killd the fatest buck i every saw, shields killed a deer and my man york killed a buffalow bull, as he informed me for his tongue and marrow bones. for me to mention or give an estimate of the differant spcies of wild animals on this river particularly buffalow, elk antelopes & wolves would be increditable. i shall therefore be silent on the subject further. so it is we have a great abundance of the best of meat. we made ms. to day current rapid and much divided by islands. campd a little below pryers river of yds. on s e. [clark, july , ] friday th july . we set out at sunrise and proceeded on very well for three hours. saw a large gange of buffalow on the lard bank. i concluded to halt and kill a fat one, dureing which time some brackfast was ordered to be cooked. we killed buffalow and took as much of their flesh as i wished. shields killed two fat deer and after a delay of one hour and a half we again proceeded on. and had not proceeded far before a heavy shower of rain pored down upon us, and the wind blew hard from the s w. the wind increased and the rain continued to fall. i halted on the stard. side had some logs set up on end close together and covered with deerskins to keep off the rain, and a large fire made to dry ourselves. the rain continued moderately untill near twelve oclock when it cleared away and become fair. the wind contined high untill p m. i proceeded on after the rain lay a little and at p m arived at a remarkable rock situated in an extensive bottom on the stard. side of the river & paces from it. this rock i ascended and from it's top had a most extensive view in every direction. this rock which i shall call pompy's tower is feet high and paces in secumphrance and only axcessable on one side which is from the n. e the other parts of it being a perpendicular clift of lightish coloured gritty rock on the top there is a tolerable soil of about or feet thick covered with short grass. the indians have made piles of stone on the top of this tower. the nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which i marked my name and the day of the month & year. from the top of this tower i could discover two low mountains & the rocky mts. covered with snow s w. one of them appeard to be extencive and bore s. ° e. about miles. the other i take to be what the indians call the little wolf mtn. i can only see the southern extremity of it which bears n ° w about miles. the plains to the south rise from the distance of about miles the width of the bottom gradually to the mountains in that derection. a large creek with an extencive vally the direction of which is s. ° e. meanders boutifully through this plain. a range of high land covered with pine appears to run in a n. & s. direction approaching the river below. on the northerly side of the river high romantic clifts approach &jut over the water for some distance both above and below. a large brooks which at this time has some running muddy water falls in to the rochejhone imediately opposit pompys tower. back from the river for some distance on that side the hills are ruged & some pine back the plains are open and extensive. after satisfying my self sufficiently in this delightfull prospect of the extensive country around, and the emence herds of buffalow, elk and wolves in which it abounded, i decended and proceeded on a fiew miles, saw a gang of about big horn animals fired at them and killed on the sides of the rocks which we did not get. i directed the canoes to land, and i walked up through a crevis in the rocks almost inaxcessiable and killed of those animals one a large doe and the other a yearlin buck. i wished very much to kill a large buck, had there been one with the gang i should have killd. him. dureing the time the men were getting the two big horns which i had killed to the river i employed my self in getting pieces of the rib of a fish which was semented within the face of the rock this rib is about inchs in secumpherance about the middle it is feet in length tho a part of the end appears to have been broken off i have several peces of this rib the bone is neither decayed nor petrified but very rotten. the part which i could not get out may be seen, it is about or miles below pompys tower in the face of the lard. clift about feet above the water. after getting the big horn on board &c i proceeded on a short distance and encamped, an earlyer than i intended on accout of a heavy cloud which was comeing up from the s. s w. and some appearance of a violent wind. i walked out and killed a small buck for his skin which the party are in want of for clothes. about sunset the wind blew hard from the w. and some little rain. i encamped on the stard. side imediately below the enteranc shannons river about yards wide, and at this time discharges a great portion of water which is very muddy. emence herds of buffalow about our as it is now running time with those animals the bulls keep such a grunting nois which is very loud and disagreeable sound that we are compelled to scear them away before we can sleep. the men fire several shot at them and scear them away. [clark, july , ] saturday th july . set out this morning very early proceeded on passed creeks very well. the current of the river reagulilarly swift much divided by stoney islands and bars also handsome islands covered with cotton wood the bottoms extensive on the stard. side on the lard. the clifts of high land border the river, those clifts are composed of a whitish rock of an excellent grit for grindstones. the country back on each side is wavering lands with scattering pine. passed small brooks on the stard. side and two large ones on the lard. side. i shot a buck from the canoe and killed one other on a small island. and late in the evening passed a part of the river which was rock under the lard. clifts fortunately for us we found an excellent chanel to pass down on the right of a stony island half a mile below this bad place, we arived at the enterance of big horn river on the stard. side here i landed imediately in the point which is a sof mud mixed with the sand and subject to overflow for some distance back in between the two rivers. i walked up the big horn / a mile and crossed over to the lower side, and formed a camp on a high point. i with one of my men labeech walked up the n e side of big horn river miles to th enterance of a creek which falls in on the n e. side and is yds wide some running water which is very muddy this creek i call muddy creek some fiew miles above this creek the river bent around to the east of south. the courses as i assended it as follows viz: the bottoms of the big horn river are extencive and covered with timber principally cotton. it's current is regularly swift, like the missouri, it washes away its banks on one side while it forms extensive sand bars on the other. contains much less portion of large gravel than the r. rochjhone and its water more mudy and of a brownish colour, while that of the rochejhone is of a lightish colour. the width of those two rivers are very nearly the same imediately at their enterances the river rochejhone much the deepest and contain most water. i measured the debth of the bighorn quit across a / a mile above its junction and found it from to feet only while that of the river is in the deepest part or feet water on the lower side of the bighorn is extencive boutifull and leavil bottom thinly covered with cotton wood under which there grows great quantities of rose bushes. i am informed by the menetarres indians and others that this river takes its rise in the rocky mountains with the heads of the river plate and at no great distance from the river rochejhone and passes between the coat nor or black mountains and the most easterly range of rocky mountains. it is very long and contains a great perpotion of timber on which there is a variety of wild animals, perticularly the big horn which are to be found in great numbers on this river. buffalow, elk, deer and antelopes are plenty and the river is said to abound in beaver. it is inhabited by a great number of roveing indians of the crow nation, the paunch nation and the castahanas all of those nations who are subdivided rove and prosue the buffalow of which they make their principal food, their skins together with those of the big horn and antilope serve them for clothes. this river is said to be navagable a long way for perogus without falls and waters a fine rich open country. it is yds water & / of a me. wd. i returned to camp a little after dark, haveing killed one deer, finding my self fatigued went to bead without my supper. shields killed bull & elk. [clark, july , ] sunday th july i marked my name with red paint on a cotton tree near my camp, and set out at an early hour and proceeded on very well the river is much wider from to yards much divided by islands and sand bars, passed a large dry creek at miles and halted at the enterance of river yards wide on the lard side i call r. labeech killed buffalow and saved as much of their flesh as we could carry took brackfast. the buffalow and elk is estonishingly noumerous on the banks of the river on each side, particularly the elk which lay on almost every point in large gang and are so jintle that we frequently pass within or paces of them without their being the least alarmd. the buffalow are generally at a greater distance from the river, and keep a continueing bellowing in every direction, much more beaver sign than above the bighorn. i saw several of those animals on the bank to day. the antilopes are scerce as also the bighorns and the deer by no means so plenty as they were near the rocky mountains. when we pass the big horn i take my leave of the view of the tremendious chain of rocky mountains white with snow in view of which i have been since the st of may last. about sunset i shot a very large fat buck elk from the canoe near which i encamped, and was near being bit by a rattle snake. shields killed a deer & a antilope to day for the skins which the party is in want of for clothes. this river below the big horn river resembles the missouri in almost every perticular except that it's islands are more noumerous & current more rapid, it's banks are generally low and falling in the bottoms on the stard. side low and exteneive and covered with timber near the river such as cotton wood willow of the different species rose bushes and grapevines together with the red berry or buffalow grees bushes & a species of shoemake with dark brown back of those bottoms the country rises gradually to about feet and has some pine. back is leavel plains. on the lard side the river runs under the clifts and bluffs of high which is from to feet in hight and near the river is some scattering low pine back the plains become leavel and extencive. the clifts are composed of a light gritty stone which is not very hard. and the round stone which is mixed with the sand and formes bars is much smaller than they appeared from above the bighorn, and may here be termed gravel. the colour of the water is a yellowish white and less muddy than the missouri below the mouth of this river. [clark, july , ] monday th july . set out this morning at day light and proceeded on glideing down this smooth stream passing maney isld. and several creeks and brooks at miles passed a creek or brook of yards wide on the n w. side containing but little water. miles lower passed a small creek yds wide on the stard side miles lower passed a large dry creek on the lard side miles lower passed a river yards wide containing but little water on the lard side which i call table creek from the tops of several mounds in the plains to the n w. resembling a table. four miles still lower i arived at the enterance of a river yards wide back of a small island on the south side. it contains some cotton wood timber and has a bold current, it's water like those of all other streams which i have passed in the canoes are muddy. i take this river to be the one the indians call the little big horn river. the clifts on the south side of the rochejhone are generally compd. of a yellowish gritty soft rock, whilest those of the n. is light coloured and much harder in the evening i passd. straters of coal in the banks on either side those on the stard. bluffs was about feet above the water and in vanes from to feet thick, in a horozontal position. the coal contained in the lard bluffs is in several vaines of different hights and thickness. this coal or carbonated wood is like that of the missouri of an inferior quallity. passed a large creek on the stard. side between the st and nd coal bluffs passed several brooks the chanel of them were wide and contained but little running water, and encamped on the upper point of a small island opposit the enterance of a creek yards wide on the stard. side with water. the elk on the banks of the river were so abundant that we have not been out of sight of them to day. j shields killed deer & labeech killed an antilope to day. the antilopes and deer are not abundant. beaver plenty [clark, july , ] tuesday th july a slight rain last night with hard thunder and sharp lightening accompanied with a violent n. e. wind. i set out early this morning wind so hard a head that w made but little way. in the fore part of the day, i saw great numbers of buffalow on the banks. the country on either side is like that of yesterday. passed three large dry brooks on the stard. side and four on the lard side. great quantities of coal in all the hills i passed this day. late in the evening i arived at the enterance of a river which i take to be the lazeka or tongue river it discharges itself on the stard. side and is yards wide of water the banks are much wider. i intended to encamp on an eligable spot imediately below this river, but finding that its water so muddy and worm as to render it very disagreeable to drink, i crossed the rochejhone and encamped on an island close to the lard. shore. the water of this river is nearly milk worm very muddy and of a lightish brown colour. the current rapid and the chanel contains great numbers of snags. near its enterance there is great quantities of wood such as is common in the low bottoms of the rochejhone and missouri. tho i believe that the country back thro which this river passes is an open one where the water is exposed to the sun which heats it in its passage. it is shallow and throws out great quantities of mud and some cors gravel. below this river and on the stard side at a fiew miles from the rochejhone the hills are high and ruged containing coal in great quantities. beaver is very plenty on this part of the rochejhone. the river widens i think it may be generally calculated at from " yards to half a mile in width more sand and gravelly bars than above. cought cat fish. they wer small and fat. also a soft shell turtle. [clark, july , ] friday th july set out early this morning at miles arived at the commencement of shoals the chanel on the stard side near a high bluff. passed a succession of those shoals for miles the lower of which was quit across the river and appeared to have a decent of about feet. here we were compeled to let the canoes down by hand for fear of their strikeing a rock under water and splitting. this is by far the wost place which i have seen on this river from the rocky mountains to this place a distance of miles by water. a perogu or large canoe would with safty pass through the worst of those shoals, which i call the buffalow sholes from the circumstance of one of those animals being in them. the rock which passes the river at those sholes appear hard and gritty of a dark brown colour. the clifts on the stard. side is about feet in hight, on the lard side the country is low and the bottom rises gradually back. here is the first appearance of birnt hills which i have seen on this river they are at a distance from the river on the lard side. i landed at the enterance of a dry creek on the lard side below the shoals and took brackfast. those dry rivers, creeks &c are like those of the missouri which take their rise in and are the conveyance of the water from those plains. they have the appearanc of dischargeing emence torrents of water. the late rains which has fallen in the plains raised sudenly those brooks which receive the water of those plains on which those suden & heavy showers of rain must have fallen, several of which i have seen dischargeing those waters, whiles those below heading or takeing their rise in the same neighbourhood, as i passed them appears to have latterly been high. those broods discharge emencely of mud also, which contributes much to the muddiness of the river. after brackfast proceeded on the river much narrower than above from to yards wide only and only a fiew scattering trees to be seen on the banks. at miles below the buffalow shoals passed a rapid which is by no means dangerous, it has a number of large rocks in different parts of the river which causes high waves a very good chanel on the lard. side. this rapid i call bear rapid from the circumstance of a bears being on a rock in the middle of this rapid when i arived at it. a violent storm from the n. w. obliged us to land imediately below this rapid, draw up the canoes and take shelter in an old indian lodge above the enterance of a river which is nearly dry it has laterly been very high and spread over nearly / a mile in width. its chanel is yards and in this there is not more water than could pass through an inch auger hole. i call it yorks dry r. after the rain and wind passed over i proceeded on at miles passed the enterance of a river the water of which is yds wide, the bead of this river nearly / of a mile this river is shallow and the water very muddy and of the colour of the banks a darkish brown. i observe great quantities of red stone thrown out of this river that from the appearance of the hills at a distance on its lower side induced me to call this red stone river. as the water was disagreeably muddy i could not camp on that side below its mouth. however i landed at its enteranc and sent out and killed two fat cows, and took as much of the flesh as the canoes would conveniently carry and crossed the river and encamped at the enterance of a brook on the lard. side under a large spredding cotton tree. the river on which we passed to day is not so wide as above containing but fiew islands with a small quantity of cotton timber. no timber of any kind to be seen on the high lands on either side. in the evening below the enterance of redstone river i observed great numbers of buffalow feeding on the plains, elk on the points and antilopes. i also saw some of the bighorn animals at a distance on the hills. gibson is now able to walk, he walked out this evening and killed an antilope. [clark, july , ] saturday st of july i was much disturbed last night by the noise of the buffalow which were about me. one gang swam the river near our camp which alarmed me a little for fear of their crossing our canoes and splitting them to pieces. set out as usial about sun rise passed a rapid which i call wolf rapid from the circumstance of one of those animals being at the rapid. here the river approaches the high mountanious country on the n w. side those hills appear to be composed of various coloured earth and coal without much rock i observe several conical mounds which appear to have been burnt. this high country is washed into curious formed mounds & hills and is cut much with reveens. the country again opens and at the distance of miles below the redston or war-har-sah river i landed in the enterance of a small river on the stard. side yards wid shallow and muddy. it has lately been very high. haveing passed the enterance of a river on the lard side yards wide which has running water this river i take to be the one the menetarries call little wolf or sa-a-shah river the high country is entirely bar of timber. great quantities of coal or carbonated wood is to be seen in every bluff and in the high hills at a distance on each side. saw more buffalow and elk and antilopes this evening than usial. miles below the last river on the stard. side, i passed one yards wide which had running water. this stream i call oak-tar-pon-er or coal river has very steep banks on each side of it. passed several large brooks some of them had a little running water, also several islands some high black looking bluffs and encamped on the stard. side on a low point. the country like that of yesterday is open extencive plains. as i was about landing this evening saw a white bear and the largest i ever saw eating a dead buffalow on a sand bar. we fired two shot into him, he swam to the main shore and walked down the bank. i landed and fired more shot into this tremendious animal without killing him. night comeing on we could not pursue him he bled profusely. showers all this day [clark, august , ] sunday st of august . we set out early as usial the wind was high and ahead which caused the water to be a little rough and delayed us very much aded to this we had showers of rain repeetedly all day at the intermition of only a fiew minits between them. my situation a very disagreeable one. in an open canoe wet and without a possibility of keeping my self dry. the country through which we passed is in every respect like that through which i passed yesterday. the brooks have all some water in them from the rains which has fallen. this water is excessively muddy. several of those brooks have some trees on their borders as far as i can see up them. i observe some low pine an cedar on the sides of the rugid hills on the stard. side, and some ash timber in the high bottoms. the river has more sand bars today than usial, and more soft mud. the current less rapid. at p.m. i was obliged to land to let the buffalow cross over. not withstanding an island of half a mile in width over which this gangue of buffalow had to pass and the chanel of the river on each side nearly / of a mile in width, this gangue of buffalow was entirely across and as thick as they could swim. the chanel on the side of the island the went into the river was crouded with those animals for / an hour. the other side of the island for more than / of an hour. i took of the men and killed fat cows for their fat and what portion of their flesh the small canoes could carry that which we had killed a few days ago being nearly spoiled from the wet weather. encamped on an island close to the lard shore two gangues of buffalow crossed a little below us, as noumerous as the first. [clark, august , ] monday august nd . musquetors very troublesom this morning i set out early river wide and very much divided by islands and sand and mud bars. the bottoms more extencive and contain more timber such as cotton wood ash willow &c. the country on the n w. side rises to a low plain and extends leavel for great extent. some high rugid hills in the forepart of this day on the s e. side on which i saw the big horns but could not get near them. saw emence numbers of elk buffalow and wolves to day. the wolves do catch the elk. i saw wolves in pursute of doe elk which i beleive they cought they very near her when she entered a small wood in which i expect they cought her as she did not pass out of the small wood during my remaining in view of it which was or minits &c. passed the enterance of several brooks on each side, a small river yds wide with steep banks on the stard. side, which i call ibex river the river in this days decent is less rapid crouded with islds and muddy bars and is generally about one mile in wedth. as the islands and bars frequently hide the enterance of brooks &c. from me as i pass'd maney of them i have not noticed. about a. m this morning a bear of the large vicious species being on a sand bar raised himself up on his hind feet and looked at us as we passed down near the middle of the river. he plunged into the water and swam towards us, either from a disposition to attack't or from the cent of the meat which was in the canoes. we shot him with three balls and he returned to shore badly wounded. in the evening i saw a very large bear take the water above us. i ordered the boat to land on the opposit side with a view to attack't him when he came within shot of the shore. when the bear was in a fiew paces of the shore i shot it in the head. the men hauled her on shore and proved to be an old shee which was so old that her tuskes had worn smooth, and much the largest feemale bear i ever saw. after taking off her skin, i proceeded on and encampd a little above the enterance of jo. feilds creek on stard. side in a high bottom covered with low ash and elm. the musquetors excessively troublesom. i have noticed a great preportion buck elks on this lower part of the river, and but very few above. those above which are emencely noumerous are feemales generally. shields killed a deer this morning dureing the time we were at brackfast. we were very near being detained by the buffalow today which were crossing the river we got through the line between gangues. [clark, august , ] tueday august rd, . last night the musquetors was so troublesom that no one of the party slept half the night. for my part i did not sleep one hour. those tormenting insects found their way into my beare and tormented me the whole night. they are not less noumerous or troublesom this morn-ing. at miles passed the enterance of jo. field's creek yds wide imediately above a high bluff which is falling into the river very fast. on the side of this bluff i saw some of the mountain bighorn animals. i assended the hill below the bluff. the musquetors were so noumerous that i could not shute with any certainty and therefore soon returned to the canoes. i had not proceeded far before i saw a large gangue of ewes & yearlins & fawns or lambs of the bighorn, and at a distance alone i saw a ram. landed and sent labeech to kill the ram, which he did kill and brought him on board. this ram is not near as large as maney i have seen. however he is sufficiently large for a sample i directed bratten to skin him with his head horns & feet to the skin and save all the bone. i have now the skin & bone of a ram a ewe & a yearlin ram of those big horn animals. at . a.m. i arived at the junction of the rochejhone with the missouri, and formed my camp imediately in the point between the two river at which place the party had all encamped the th of april- . at landing i observed several elk feeding on the young willows in the point among which was a large buck elk which i shot & had his flesh dryed in the sun for a store down the river. had the canoes unloaded and every article exposed to dry & sun. maney of our things were wet, and nearly all the store of meat which had been killed above spoiled. i ordered it to be thrown into the river. several skins are also spoiled which is a loss, as they are our principal dependance for clothes to last us to our homes &c. the distance from the rocky mountains at which place i struck the river rochejhone to its enterance into the missouri miles miles of this distance i decended in small canoes lashed together in which i had the following persons. john shields, george gibson, william bratten, w. labeech, toust. shabono his wife & child & my man york. the rochejhone or yellow stone river is large and navagable with but fiew obstructions quite into the rocky mountains. and probably near it's source. the country through which it passes from those mounts. to its junction is generaly fertile rich open plains the upper portion of which is roleing and the high hills and hill sides are partially covered with pine and stoney. the middle portion or from the enterance of clarks fork as low as the buffalow shoals the high lands contain some scattering pine on the lard. side. on the stard. or s. e. side is some hills thickly supplied with pine. the lower portion of the river but fiew pines are to be seen the country opens into extencive plains river widens and contains more islands and bars; of corse gravel sand and mud. the current of this river may be estimated at miles and / pr. hour from the rocky mts. as low as clarks fork, at / miles pr. hour from thence as low as the bighorn, at --miles pr. hour from thence as low as the tongue river, at / miles pr. hour from thence as low as wolf rapid and at / miles pr. hour from thence to its enterance into the missouri the colour of the water differs from that of the missouri it being of a yellowish brown, whilst that of the missouri is of a deep drab colour containing a greater portion of mud than the rochejhone. this delighfull river from indian information has it's extreem sources with the north river in the rocky mountains on the confines of new mexico. it also most probably has it's westerly sources connected with the multnomah and those the main southerly branch of lewis's river while it's easterly branches head with those of clark's r. the bighorn and river platte and may be said to water the middle portion of the rocky mountains from n w to s. e. for several hundred miles. the indians inform us, that a good road passes up this river to it's extreem source from whence it is buta short distance to the spanish settlements. there is also a considerable fall on this river within the mountains but at what distance from it's source we never could learn like all other branches of the missouri which penetrate the rocky mountains all that portion of it lying within those mountains abound in fine beaver and otter, it's streams also which issuing from the rocky mountain and discharging themselves above clark's fork inclusive also furnish an abundance of beaver and otter and possess considerable portions of small timber in their values. to an establishment on this river at clarks fork the shoshones both within and west of the rocky mountains would willingly resort for the purposes of trade as they would in a great measure be relived from the fear of being attacked by their enimies the blackfoot indians and minnetares of fort de prarie, which would most probably happen were they to visit any establishment which could be conveniently formed on the missouri. i have no doubt but the same regard to personal safety would also induce many numerous nations inhabiting the columbia and lewis's river west of the mountains to visit this establishment in preference to that at the entrance of maria's river, particularly during the first years of those western establishments. the crow indians, paunch indians castahanah's and others east of the mountains and south of this place would also visit this establishment; it may therefore be looked to as one of the most important establishments of the western fur trade. at the entrance of clark's fork there is a sufficiency of timber to support an establishment, an advantage that no position possesses from thence to the rocky mountains. the banks of the yellowstone river a bold not very high yet are not subject to be overflown, except for a few miles immediately below where the river issues from the mountain. the bed of this river is almost entirely composed of loose pebble, nor is it's bed interrupted by chains of rock except in one place and that even furnishes no considerable obstruction to it's navigation. as you decend with the river from the mountain the pebble becomes smaller and the quantity of mud increased untill you reah tongue river where the pebble ceases and the sand then increases and predominates near it's mouth. this river can be navigated to greater advantage in perogues than any other craft yet it possesses suficient debth of water for battauxs even to the mountains; nor is there any of those moving sand bars so formidable to the navigation of many parts of the missouri. the bighorn r and clark's fork may be navigated a considerable distance in perogues and canoes. tongue river is also navigable for canoes a considerable distance. [clark, august , ] wednesday th august musquetors excessively troublesom so much so that the men complained that they could not work at their skins for those troublesom insects. and i find it entirely impossible to hunt in the bottoms, those insects being so noumerous and tormenting as to render it imposseable for a man to continue in the timbered lands and our best retreat from those insects is on the sand bars in the river and even those situations are only clear of them when the wind should happen to blow which it did to day for a fiew hours in the middle of the day. the evenings nights and mornings they are almost indureable perticelarly by the party with me who have no bears to keep them off at night, and nothing to screen them but their blankets which are worn and have maney holes. the torments of those missquetors and the want of a sufficety of buffalow meat to dry, those animals not to be found in this neighbourhood induce me to deturmine to proceed on to a more eliagiable spot on the missouri below at which place the musquetors will be less troublesom and buffalow more plenty. (i will here obseve that elk is abundant but their flesh & fat is hard to dry in the sun, and when dry is much easirspoiled than either the buffalow or deer) i ordered the canoes to be reloaded with our baggage & dryed meat which had been saved on the rochejhone together with the elk killed at this place. wrote a note to capt lewis informing him of my intentions and tied it to a pole which i had stuck up in the point. at p. m set out and proceeded on down to the d point which appeared to be an eligable situation for my purpose killed a porcupine on this point the musquetors were so abundant that we were tormented much worst than at the point. the child of shabono has been so much bitten by the musquetor that his face is much puffed up & swelled. i encamped on this extensive sand bar which is on the n w. side. [clark, august , ] thursday th august . the musquetors was so troublesom to the men last night that they slept but very little. indeed they were excessive troublesom to me. my musquetor bear has a number of small holes worn through they pass in. i set out at an early hour intending to proceed to some other situation. i had not proceded on far before i saw a ram of the big horn animal near the top of a lard. bluff i assended the hill with a view to kill the ram. the misquetors was so noumerous that i could not keep them off my gun long enough to take sight and by thair means missed. at a.m. the wind rose with a gentle breeze from the n. w. which in some measure thinned the misquetors. i landed on a sand bar from the south point intending to form a camp at this place and continue untill capt lewis should arive. and killed two buck elks and a deer the best of their flesh & fat i had saved. had all the dryed meat & fat put out to sun and continued at this place untill late in the evening finding that there were no buffalow or fresh sign i deturmined to proceed on accordingly set out at p. m and proceeded on but a fiew miles eeir i saw a bear of the white species walking on a sand bear. i with one man went on the sand bear and killed the bear which proved to be a feemale very large and fat. much the fattest animale we have killed on the rout as this bear had got into the river before we killed her i had her toed across to the south side under a high bluff where formed a camp, had the bear skined and fleaced. our situation was exposed to a light breeze of wind which continued all the forepart of the night from the s w. and blew away the misquetors. [clark, august , ] friday th august i rose very wet. about p m last night the wind become very hard for a fiew minits suckceeded by sharp lightning and hard claps of thunder and rained for about hours very hard after which it continued cloudy the balance of the night. as we were about setting out a female big horn animal came on the bluff imediately above us and looked down. i derected labeech to shoot it which he did, after skinning this animal we set out and proceeded on to a sand bar on the s w. side below the enterance of white earth river where i landed and had the meat skins and bedding all put out to dry. wind hard from the n w. i halted on the n w. side of this river in the bend above the white earth river, where i saw where the indians had been digging a root which they eate and use in seup, not more than or days past. this morning a very large bear of white specis, discovered us floating in the water and takeing us, as i prosume to be buffalow imediately plunged into the river and prosued us. i directed the men to be still. this animal came within about yards of us, and tacked about. we all fired into him without killing him, and the wind so high that we could not pursue him, by which means he made his escape to the shore badly wounded. i have observed buffalow floating down which i suppose must have been drounded in crossing above. more or less of those animals drown or mire in passing this river. i observed several floating buffalow on the r. rochejhone imediately below where large gangues had crossed. the wind blew hard all the after part of the day. i derected the men to dress their skins except one which i took with me and walkd. through the bottom to the foot of the hills i killed five deer and the man with me killed . four others were killed in the course of the day by the party only of those deer were fat owing as i suppose to the musquetors which are so noumerous and troublesom to them that they cannot feed except under the torments of millions of those musquetors. [clark, august , ] saturday th august some hard rain this morning after daylight which wet us all. i formed a sort of camped and delayed untill a.m. when it stoped raining for a short time. i directed every thing put on board and proceeded on down. the rain continued at intervales all day tho not hard in the evenig saw a bear on the bank but could not get a shoot at it. at p m i landed on a sand bar on the south side and campd. soon after we landed the wind blew very hard for about hours, when it lulled a little. the air was exceedingly clear and cold and not a misquetor to be seen, which is a joyfull circumstance to the party. [clark, august , ] sunday th august a cool windey morning i derected shields and gibson to turn out and hunt this morning. at a.m. sergt. n. pryor shannon, hall & windsor came down the river in two canoes made of buffalow skins. sergt. pryor informed me that the second night after he parted with me on the river rochejhone he arived about p m on the banks of a large creek which contained no running water. he halted to let the horses graze dureing which time a heavy shower of rain raised the creek so high that several horses which had stragled across the chanel of this creek was obliged to swim back. here he deturmined to continue all night it being in good food for the horses. in the morning he could see no horses. in lookg about their camp they discovered several tracks within paces of their camp, which they pursued found where they had caught and drove off all the horses. they prosued on five miles the indians there divided into two parties. they continued in pursute of the largest party five miles further finding that there was not the smallest chance of overtakeing them, they returned to their camp and packed up their baggage on their backs and steared a n. e. course to the river rochejhone which they struck at pompys tower, there they killed a buffalow bull and made a canoe in the form and shape of the mandans & ricares (the form of a bason) and made in the following manner. viz: sticks of / inch diameter is tied together so as to form a round hoop of the size you wish the canoe, or as large as the skin will allow to cover, two of those hoops are made one for the top or brim and the for the bottom the deabth you wish the canoe, then sticks of the same size are crossed at right angles and fastened with a throng to each hoop and also where each stick crosses each other. then the skin when green is drawn tight over this fraim and fastened with throngs to the brim or outer hoop so as to form a perfect bason. one of those canoes will carry or men and their loads. those two canoes are nearly the same size feet inches diamieter & inchs deep ribs or cross sticks in each. sergt. pryor informs me that the cause of his building two canoes was for fear of ones meating with some accedent in passing down the rochejhone a river entirely unknown to either of them by which means they might loose their guns and amunition and be left entirely destitute of the means of precureing food. he informed me that they passed through the worst parts of the rapids & shoals in the river without takeing a drop of water, and waves raised from the hardest winds dose not effect them. on the night of the th ulto. the night after the horses had been stolen a wolf bit sergt. pryor through his hand when asleep, and this animal was so vicious as to make an attempt to seize windsor, when shannon fortunately shot him. sergt. pryers hand has nearly recovered. the country through which st. pryor passed after he parted with me is a broken open country. he passed one small river which i have called pryors river which rises in a mtn. to the south of pompys tower. the note i left on a pole at the mouth of the river rochejhone sergt. pryor concluding that capt. lewis had passed took the note and brought it with him. capt. lewis i expect will be certain of my passing by the sign which i have made and the encampment imediately in the point. sergt. pryor bing anxious to overtake me set out some time before day this morning and forgot his saddlebags which contains his papers &c. i sent bratten back with him in serch of them. i also sent shannon over to hunt the bottom on the opposit side. shields and gibson returned at a.m. with the skins and part of the flesh of three deer which they had killed in this bottom. i derected them to take one of the skin canoes and proceed down to the next bottom and untill my arival which will be this evening if sergt. pryor returns in time. my object is to precure as many skins as possible for the purpose of purchaseing corn and beans of the mandans. as we have now no article of merchindize nor horses to purchase with, our only resort is s kins which those people were very fond the winter we were stationed near them. after dark sergt. pryor returned with his saddlebeggs &c. they were much further up than he expected. [clark, august , ] monday th august a heavy dew this morning. loaded the canoes and proceeded on down about miles and landed at the camp of the hunters shields and gibson whome i had sent down to hunt last evening, they had killed five deer two of which were in good order which they brought in. here i took brackfast and proceeded on a fiew miles and i walked on shore across a point of near miles in extent in this bottom which was mostly open i saw some fiew deer and elk. i killed of the deer which were meagure the elk appeared fat. i did not kill any of them as the distance to the river was too great for the men to carry the meat at the lower part of this bottom a large creek of runnig water yds wide falls in which meanders through an open roleing plain of great extent. in the low bottoms of this creek i observed some timber such as cottonwood, ash & elm. on my arival at the lower part of the bottom found that the canoes had been in waiting for me nearly two hours. the squar brought me a large and well flavoured goose berry of a rich crimsin colour, and deep purple berry of the large cherry of the current speces which is common on this river as low as the mandans, the engagees call it the indian current. i landed opposit to a high plain on the s. e. side late in the evening and walked in a grove of timber where i met with an elk which i killed. this elk was the largest buck i ever saw and the fattest animal which have been killed on the rout. i had the flesh and fat of this elk brought to camp and cut thin ready to dry. the hunters killed nothing this evening. [clark, august , ] tuesday th august had the flesh of the elk hung on poles to dry, and sent out the the hunters. wind blew hard from the east all day. in the after part of the day it was cloudy & a fiew drops of rain. i finished a copy of my sketches of the river rochejhone. shields killed a black tail deer & an antilope. the other hunters killed nothing. deer are very scerce on this part of the river. i found a species of cherry in the bottom the srub or bush which are differant from any which i have ever seen and not very abundant even in this small tract of country to which it seems to be confined. the stem is compound erect and subdivided or branching without any regular order. it rises to the hight of or feet seldom putting out more than one stem from the same root not growing in cops as the choke cherry does. the bark is smooth and of a dark brown colour. the leaf is petialate, oval accutely pointed at it's apex, from and a / to one and a / inch in length and from a half to / of an inch in wedth, finely or manutely serrate, pale green and free from bubessance. the fruit is a globular berry about the size of a buck shot of a fine scarlet red; like the cherries cultivated in the u. states each is supported by a seperate celindric flexable branch peduncle which issues from the extremities of the boughs. the peduncle of this cherry swells as it approaches the fruit being largest at the point of insertion. the pulp of this fruit is of an agreeable ascid flavour and is now ripe. the style and stigma are permanent. i have never seen it in blume. it is found on the high stiff lands or hill sides-. the men dug great parcel of the root which the nativs call hankee and the engagees the white apple which they boiled and made use of with their meat. this is a large insipid root and very tasteless. the nativs use this root after it is dry and pounded in their seup. [clark, august , ] wednesday th august i set out early this morning. at a.m. landed on a sand bar and brackfast dureing brackfast and my delay at this place which was hours had the elk meat exposed to the sun. at meridian i set out and had not proceeded more than miles before i observed a canoe near the shore. i derected the canoes to land here i found two men from the illinoies jos. dixon, and ____ handcock those men are on a trapping expedition up the river rochejhone. they inform me that they left the illinois in the summer . the last winter they spent with the tetons in company with a mr. coartong who brought up goods to trade the tetons robed him of the greater part of the goods and wounded this dixon in the leg with a hard wad. the tetons gave mr. coartong some fiew robes for the articles they took from him. those men further informed me that they met the boat and party we sent down from fort mandan near the kanzas river on board of which was a chief of the ricaras, that he met the yankton chiefs with mr. deurion, mcclellen & several other traders on their way down. that the mandans and menitarrais wer at war with the ricaras and had killed two of the latter. the assinniboins were also at war with the mandans &c and had prohibited the n w. traders from comeing to the missouri to trade. they have latterly killed one trader near the mous river and are now in wait for mr. mckenzey one of the clerks who have been for a long time with menetarias. those dificulties if true will i fear be a bar to our expectations of having the mandan minetarra & ricara chief to acompany us to the u. states. tho we shall endeaver to bring abot a peace between mandans mennetaries & ricaras and provail on some of their cheifs to accompany us to the u. states. proceeded on to a point on the s w side nearly opposit the enterance of goat pen creek and encamped found the musquetors excessively troublesom. [clark, august , ] thursday th august i set out early this morning and had not proceeded on far before shannon discovered he had lost his tomahk. i derected him to land his skin canoe and go back to our camp of last night in serch of it, and proceeded on my self with the two wood and one skin canoe to a large hottom on the n. e side above the head of jins island and landed to take brackfast as well as to delay untill shannon & gibson should arive. sent out shields & labiech to hunt deer in the bottom, at p m. shannon and gibson arived having found the tomahawk at our camp they killed elk &c. one of the canoes of buffalow skin by accident got a hole peirced in her of about inches diamuter. i derected two of the men to patch the canoe with a piece of elk skin over the hole, which they did and it proved all sufficient, after which the canoe did not leak one drop. the two hunters returned without haveing killed any thing. at meridian capt lewis hove in sight with the party which went by way of the missouri as well as that which accompanied him from travellers rest on clarks river; i was alarmed on the landing of the canoes to be informed that capt. lewis was wounded by an accident-. i found him lying in the perogue, he informed me that his wound was slight and would be well in or days this information relieved me very much. i examined the wound and found it a very bad flesh wound the ball had passed through the fleshey part of his left thy below the hip bone and cut the cheek of the right buttock for inches in length and the debth of the ball. capt l. informed me the accident happened the day before by one of the men peter crusat misstakeig him in the thick bushes to be an elk. capt lewis with this crusat and several other men were out in the bottom shooting of elk, and had scattered in a thick part of the woods in pursute of the elk. crusat seeing capt l. passing through the bushes and takeing him to be an elk from the colour of his cloathes which were of leather and very nearly that of the elk fired and unfortunately the ball passed through the thy as aforesaid. capt lewis thinking it indians who had shot him hobbled to the canoes as fast as possible and was followered by crusat, the mistake was then discovered. this crusat is near sighted and has the use of but one eye, he is an attentive industerous man and one whome we both have placed the greatest confidence in dureing the whole rout.--after capt. lewis and my self parted at travellers rest, he with the indians proceeded down the west side of clarks river seven miles and crossed on rafts miles below the east fork yards wide, after crossing the river he proceeded up the north side of the east fork and encampd. here the indians left him and proceeded down clarks river in serch of the tushepaws. an indian man came up with cap l. from the w. of the mountains and proceeded on with those who had accompanied us. capt. l. proceeded up the e. fork of clarks river ms. to the enterance of cokahlarishkit river or the river to buffalow, he proceeded up on the north side of this river which is yards wide crossing several small streams and the n. fork, and passing over part of the dividing mountain onto the waters of deabourns river in the plains and in a derection to the n. extremity of easte range of rocky mountains which pass the missouri at the pine island rapid. from thence he bore his course to the n e untill he struck meadcin river near where that river enters the rocky mts. and proceeded down medicine river to the missouri at the white bear islands at the upper part of the portage. this rout is a very good one tho not the most derect rout, the most derect rout would be to proceed up the missouri above dearborns river and take a right hand road & fall on a south branch of the cokatlarishkit r. and proceed down that river to the main road but the best rout would be from the falls of the missouri by fort mountain and passing the n. extremity of that range of the rocky mountains which pass the missouri at the pine island rapid course nearly s. w. and to the gap through which the great road passeds the dividing mountain the distance from the falls to this gap about miles through a tolerable leavel plain on an old indian road. and the distance from thence to clarks river is miles. the total distance from the falls of the missouri to clarks river is only miles of a tolerable road--capt l. arived at the white bear islands and encampd. on the west side of the missouri and in the morning he discovered that the indians had taken of seven of his best horses, drewyer prosued the indians two day's on the rout towards clarks river. he saw their camp on dearborns river near the road on which capt. lewis & party come on a by place where they had left only one or two day at this encampment he saw great appearanc of horses--on the return of drewyer capt l. took drewyer & the fieldses & proceeded on his intended rout up marias river leaving sergt. gass, thompson, frazier, werner, mcneal & goodrich at the portage to prepare geer and repar the wheels & carrage against the arival of the canoes and he also left horses for the purpose of hauling the canoes across. the canoes arrived on the th, and on the th they had all except one across, the plains becom so muddy from the emence rains which had fallen, that they could not get her over the portage. on the th they joined capt lewis at the grog spring a fiew miles above the enterance of marias river from the falls of missouri capt. l. proceeded on with drewyer & the fieldses courss on the th of july capt lewis set out on his return to the enterance of marias river to meet with the party with, the canoes from the falls. his course was through the plains s. e. miles--passing a small creek from the mts s. ° e. miles to a principal branch of marias river yards wide not very deep at mile. this last branch is shallow and rapid about the size of the former from the s w. both of those streams contain a great preportion of timber--here we find the specis of cotton before mentioned n ° e. miles down marias river and met with indians of the blackfoot nation with about horses, those indians professed friendship and set out with him and encamped together the night of the th of july, thy informed him that there was two large bands of their nation in that quarter one of which would be at the enterance of marias river in a fiew days. they also informed that a french trader was with one of those bands, that they traded with the white people on the suskashwen river at easy days march or about miles distant from whome they precured guns powder lead blankets &c. in exchange for wolf and beaver skins. capt lewis gave them a flag meadel & handkerchief capt. l. informed those indians where he was from & where he had been and his objects & friendly views &c. of which they appeared to be well satisfied. "on the morning of the th at day light the indians got up and crouded around the fire, jo. field who was on post had carelessly laid his gun down behind him near where his brother was sleeping. one of the indians slipd. behind him and took his gun and that of his brother unperceived by him, at the same instant two others advanced and seized the guns of drewyer and capt lewis who were yet asleep. jo. fields seeing this turned about to take his gun and saw the fellow running off with his and his brothers, he called to his brother who instantly jumped up and prosued the indian with him whome they overtook at the distance of or paces siezed their guns and rested them from him and r. field as he seized his gun stabed the indian to the heart with his knif who fell dead; (this cap l. did not know untill some time after.) drewyer who awoke at the first alarm jumped up and seized & rested his gun from the indian &c. capt l. awoke and asked what was the matter seeing drewyer in a scuffle for his gun he turned to get his gun and found her gorn, he drew a pistol from his holsters and prosued the indian whom he saw in possession of his gun making off he presented the pistol and the indian lay down the gun. the two fields came up and drew up to shoot the indian which capt l. forbid the indians then attempted to drive off all the horses. capt l. derected the men to fire on them if they attempted to drive off the horses, and prosued two fellows who continued to drive of his horses he shot the indian who had taken his gun and then in possession of his horse through the belly, he fell and raised on his elbow and fired at capt l. the other made his escape into a nitch out of sight with his bow and arrows and as capt l. guns was empty and he without his shot pouch he returnd. to the camp where the fields and drewyer joind him having prosued the indians across the river the were now in possession of the most of their own as well as the indian horses and a gun several bows & arrows and all the indians baggage the gun & some feathers and flag they took and burnt all the other articles. and saddled up a many of the best horses as they wished with some spear horses, and set out for to intersept the party at marias river and proceded on a little to the s. of east miles to the missouri at the grog spring. here they met with canoes and party decending joined them leaving their horses on the river bank, and proceeded on to the enterance of marias river opened the deposits, found several articles damaged. beaver traps could not be found, the red perogue unfit for service, from thenc they proceeded without delay to the river rochejhone see cources of capt lewis rout in next book." at p.m. shannon & gibson arived in the skin canoe with the skins and the greater part of the flesh of elk which they had killed a fiew miles above. the two men dixon & handcock the two men we had met above came down intending to proceed on down with us to the manclans. at p m we proceded on all together having left the leather canoes on the bank. a little below the enterance of (jos) shabonos creek we came too on a large sand point from the s. e. side and encamped. the wind blew very hard from the s w. and some rain. i washed capt l. wound which has become sore and somewhat painfull to him. [clark, august , ] friday th august the last night was very cold with a stiff breeze from the n. w. all hands were on board and we set out at sunrize and proceeded on very well with a stiff breeze astern the greater part of the day. passed the enterance of the little missouri river at a.m. and arived at the enterance of myry river at sun set and encamped on the n e side haveing came by the assistance of the wind, the current and our oars miles. below the little bason i with drewyer walked through the n. e point. we saw an elk and several deer. drewyer wounded the elk but could not get him. i joined the perogus & party again in the bend below and proceeded on. some indians were seen in a skin canoe below, they were decending from an old camp of theirs on the s. w. side, those i suppose to be some of the minetaras who had been up on a hunting expedition, one canoe was left at their camp. we had not proceeded far before i discovered two indians on a high hill. nothing very remarkable took place. the misquetors are not so troublesom this evening as they have been. the air is cool &c. [clark, august , ] thursday th august set out at sunrise and proceeded on. when we were opposit the minetares grand village we saw a number of the nativs viewing of we derected the blunderbuses fired several times, soon after we came too at a croud of the nativs on the bank opposit the village of the shoe indians or mah-har-ha's at which place i saw the principal chief of the little village of the menitarre & the principal chief of the mah-har-has. those people were extreamly pleased to see us. the chief of the little village of the menetarias cried most imoderately, i enquired the cause and was informed it was for the loss of his son who had been killed latterly by the blackfoot indians. after a delay of a fiew minits i proceeded on to the black cats village on the n. e. side of the missouri where i intended to encamp but the sand blew in such a manner that we deturmined not to continu on that side but return to the side we had left. here we were visited by all the inhabitants of this village who appeared equally as well pleased to see us as those above. i walked up to the black cats village & eate some simnins with him, and smoked a pipe this village i discovered had been rebuilt since i left it and much smaller than it was; on enquirey into the cause was informed that a quarrel had taken place and lodges had removed to the opposd side. i had soon as i landed despatched shabono to the minetarras inviting the chiefs to visit us, & drewyer down to the lower village of the mandans to ask mr. jessomme to come and enterpret for us. mr. jessomme arived and i spoke to the chiefs of the village informing them that we spoke to them as we had done when we were with them last and we now repeeted our envitation to the principal chiefs of all the villages to accompany us and to the u states &c. &c. the black cat chief of the mandans, spoke and informed me that he wished to visit the united states and his great father but was afraid of the scioux who were yet at war with them and had killed several of their men since we had left them, and were on the river below and would certainly kill him if he attempted to go dow.i. i indeavered to do away with his objections by informig him that we would not suffer those indians to hurt any of our red children who should think proper to accompany us, and on their return they would be equally protected, and their presents which would be very liberal, with themselves, conveyed to their own country at the expence of the u. states &c. &c. the chief promised us some corn tomorrow. after the council i directed the canoes to cross the river to a brook opposit where we should be under the wind and in a plain where we would be clear of musquetors & after crossing the chief of the mah har has told me if i would send with him he would let me have some corn. i directed sergt gass & men to accompany him to his village, they soon returned loaded with corn. the chief and his wife also came down. i gave his wife a fiew needles &c.--the great chif of all the menitarres the one eye came to camp also several other chiefs of the different villages. i assembled all the chiefs on a leavel spot on the band and spoke to them & see next book. [clark, august , ] thursday august th continued mandans vilg after assembling the chiefs and smokeing one pipe, i informed them that i still spoke the same words which we had spoken to them when we first arived in their country in the fall of . we then envited them to visit their great father the president of the u. states and to hear his own councils and receive his gifts from his own hands as also see the population of a government which can at their pleasure protect and secur you from all your enimies, and chastize all those who will shut their years to his councils. we now offer to take you at the expense of our government and send you back to your country again with a considerable present in merchendize which you will recive of your great father. i urged the necessity of their going on with us as it would be the means of hastening those supples of merchindize which would be sent to their country and exchanged as before mentioned for a moderate price in pelteries and furs &c. the great chief of the menetaras spoke, he said he wished to go down and see his great father very much, but that the scioux were in the road and would most certainly kill him or any others who should go down they were bad people and would not listen to any thing which was told them. when he saw us last we told him that we had made peace with all the nations below, since that time the seioux had killed of their people and stole a number of their horses. he said that he had opened his ears and followed our councils, he had made peace with the chyennes and rocky mountains indians, and repieted the same objecctions as mentioned. that he went to war against none and was willing to receive all nations as friends. he said that the ricaras had stolen from his people a number of horses at different times and his people had killed ricaras. if the sieoux were at peace with them and could be depended on he as also other chiefs of the villages would be glad to go and see their great father, but as they were all afraid of the sieoux they should not go down &c. the black cat chief of the mandans village on the north side of the missouri sent over and requested me to go over to his village which envertation i axceptd and crossed over to his village. he had a parcel of corn about bushuls in a pile in his lodge. he told me that his people had but little corn part of which they had given me. after takeing a smoke he informed me that as the sieoux were very troublesom and the road to his great father dangerous none of this village would go down with us. i told the cheifs and wariers of the village who were there present that we were anxious that some of the village should go and see their great father and hear his good words & recve his bountifull gifts &c. and told them to pitch on some man on which they could rely on and send him to see their great father, they made the same objections which the chief had done before. a young man offered to go down, and they all agreeed for him to go down the charector of this young man i knew as a bad one and made an objection as to his age and chareckter at this time gibson who was with me informed me that this young man had stole his knife and had it then in his possession, this i informed the chief and directed him to give up the knife he delivered the knife with a very faint apology for his haveing it in his possession. i then reproached those people for wishing to send such a man to see and hear the words of so great a man as their great father; they hung their heads and said nothing for some time when the cheif spoke and said that they were afraid to send any one for fear of their being killed by the sieux. after smoking a pipe and relateing some passages i recrossed to our camp-. being informed by one of our enterpreters that the d chief of the mandans comonly called the little crow intended to accompany us down, i took charbono and walked to the village to see this chief and talk with him on the subject. he told me he had deturmined to go down, but wished to have a council first with his people which would be in the after part of the day. i smoked a pipe with the little crow and returned to the boat. colter one of our men expressed a desire to join some trappers who offered to become shearers with and furnish traps &c. the offer a very advantagious one, to him, his services could be dispenced with from this down and as we were disposed to be of service to any one of our party who had performed their duty as well as colter had done, we agreed to allow him the prvilage provided no one of the party would ask or expect a similar permission to which they all agreeed that they wished colter every suckcess and that as we did not wish any of them to seperate untill we should arive at st. louis they would not apply or expect it &c. the maharha chief brought us some corn, as did also the chief of the little village of the menetarras on mules of which they have several. the evening is cool and windy. great number of the nativs of the different villages came to view us and exchange robes with our men for their skins--we gave jo colter some small articles which we did not want and some powder & lead. the party also gave him several articles which will be usefull to him on his expedittion.--this evening charbono informed me that our back was scercely turned before a war party from the two menetarry villages followed on and attacked and killed the snake indians whome we had seen and in the engagement between them and the snake indians they had lost two men one of which was the son of the principal chief of the little village of the menitarras. that they had also went to war from the menetarras and killed two ricaras. he further informed me that a missunderstanding had taken place between the mandans & minetarras and had verry nearly come to blows about a woman, the menitarres at length presented a pipe and a reconsilliation took place between them [clark, august , ] friday th august a cool morning. sent up sergt. pryor to the mandan village, for some corn which they offered to give us. he informed that they had more corn collected for us than our canoes could carry six load of which he brought down. i thanked the chief for his kindness and informed him that our canoes would not carry any more corn than we had already brought down. at a. m the chiefs of the different villages came to see us and smoke a pipe &c. as our swivel could no longer be serveceable to us as it could not be fireed on board the largest perogue, we concluded to make a present of it to the great chief of the menetaras (the one eye) with a view to ingratiate him more strongly in our favour i had the swivel charged and collected the chiefs in a circle around it and adressed them with great ceremoney. told them i had listened with much attention to what the one eye had said yesterday and beleived that he was sincere & spoke from his heart. i reproached them very severely for not attending to what had been said to them by us in council in the fall of and at different times in the winter of & , and told them our backs were scercely turned befor a party followed and killed the pore defenceless snake indians whom we had taken by the hand & told them not to be afraid that you would never strike them again &c. also mentioned the ricers &c. the little cherry old chief of the menetarras spoke as follows viz: "father we wish to go down with you to see our great father, but we know the nations below and are afraid of the scioux who will be on the river and will kill us on our return home. the scioux has stolen our horses and killed of our men since you left us, and the ricaras have also struck us. we staid at home and listened to what you had told us. we at length went to war against the scioux and met with ricaras and killed two of them, they were on their way to strike us. we will attend to your word and not hurt any people all shall be welcom and we shall do as you direct-." the one eye said his ears would always be open to the word of his great father and shut against bad council &c. i then a good deel of ceremony made a preasent of the swivel to the one eye chief and told him when he fired this gun to remember the words of his great father which we had given him. this gun had anounced the words of his great father to all the nations which we had seen &c. &c. after the council was over the gun was fired & delivered, they chief appeared to be much pleased and conveyed it immediately to his village &c. we settled with and discharged colter. in the evening i walked to the village to see the little crow and know when he would be ready, took with me a flag intending to give him to leave at his lodge but to my astonishment he informed me he had declined going down the reason of which i found was through a jellousy between himself and the principal chief he refused a flag & we sent for mr. jessomme and told him to use his influn to provail on one of the chiefs to acompany us and we would employ him. he informed us soon after that the big white chief would go if we would take his wife & son & jessoms wife & children we wer obliged to agree to do [clark, august , ] saturday th of august a cool morning gave some powder & ball to big white chief settled with touisant chabono for his services as an enterpreter the pric of a horse and lodge purchased of him for public service in all amounting to $ / cents. derected two of the largest of the canoes be fastened together with poles tied across them so as to make them study for the purpose of conveying the indians and enterpreter and their families we were visited by all the principal chiefs of the menetarras to take their leave of us at oclock we left our encampment after takeing leave of colter who also set out up the river in company with messrs. dickson & handcock. we also took our leave of t. chabono, his snake indian wife and their son child who had accompanied us on our rout to the pacific ocean in the capacity of interpreter and interpretes. t. chabono wished much to accompany us in the said capacity if we could have provailed the menetarre chiefs to dcend the river with us to the u. states, but as none of those chiefs of whoes language he was conversent would accompany us, his services were no longer of use to the u states and he was therefore discharged and paid up. we offered to convey him down to the illinois if he chose to go, he declined proceeding on at present, observing that he had no acquaintance or prospects of makeing a liveing below, and must continue to live in the way that he had done. i offered to take his little son a butifull promising child who is months old to which they both himself & wife wer willing provided the child had been weened. they observed that in one year the boy would be sufficiently old to leave his mother & he would then take him to me if i would be so freindly as to raise the child for him in such a manner as i thought proper, to which i agreeed &c.--we droped down to the big white cheifs mandan village / a mile below on the south side, all the indians proceeded on down by land. and i walked to the lodge of the chief whome i found sorounded by his friends the men were setting in a circle smokeing and the womin crying. he sent his bagage with his wife & son, with the interpreter jessomme & his wife and children to the canoes provided for them. after smoking one pipe, and distributing some powder & lead which we had given him, he informed me that he was ready and we were accompd to the canoes by all the village maney of them cried out aloud. as i was about to shake with the grand cheifs of all the villages there assembled they requested me to set one minit longer with them which i readily agreed to and directed a pipe to be lit. the cheifs informed that when we first came to their country they did not beleive all we said we then told them. but they were now convinced that every thing we had told them were true, that they should keep in memory every thing which we had said to them, and strictly attend to our advice, that their young men should stay at home and should no go again to war against any nation, that if any atacted them they should defend themselves, that we might depend on what they said, and requested us to inform their great father. the also requested me to tell the ricaras to come and see them, not to be afraid that no harm should be done them, that they were anxious to be in peace with them. the seeoux they said they had no dependance in and should kill them whenever they came into their country to do them harm &c. i told them that we had always told them to defend themselves, but not to strike those nations we had taken by the hand, the sieoux with whome they were at war we had never seen on our return we should inform their great fathe of their conduct towards his faithfull red children and he would take such steps as will bring about a lasting peace between them and his faithfull red children. i informed them that we should inform the ricaras what they had requested &c. the grand chief of the mineterres said that the great cheif who was going down with to see their great father was a well as if he went also, and on his return he would be fully informed of the words of his great father, and requested us to take care of this gt. chief. we then saluted them with a gun and set out and proceeded on to fort mandan where i landed and went to view the old works the houses except one in the rear bastion was burnt by accident, some pickets were standing in front next to the river. we proceeded on to the old ricara village the s e wind was so hard and the waves so high that we were obliged to come too, & camp on the s w side near the old village. ( mils) [clark, august , ] monday th august . moderate rain last night, the wind of this morning from the s. e. as to cause the water to be so rough that we could not proceed on untill a.m. at which time it fell a little & we proceeded on tho the waves were yet high and the wind strong. saw several indians on either side of the river. at a.m. i saw an indian running down the beech and appd. to be anxious to speak to us i derected the canoes to land. this indian proved to be the brother of the chief we had on board and came down from his camp at no great distance to take his leave of his brother. the chief gave him a par of legins and took an effectunate leave of his brother and we procedeed on haveing previously sent on canoes with hunters to kill some meat at p. m we overtook the canoe hunters, they had killed three deer which was divided and we halted and cooked some dinner on the sandbar. wind still high and from the same point. the chief pointed out several places where he said his nation formerly lived and related some extroadinary stories of their tredition. after dinner we proceeded on, to a point on the n e. side opposit the remains of an old mandan village a little below the enterance of chiss-che for river and the place we encamped as we assended this river th of october haveing come miles today. after landing which was a little before night the hunters run out into the bottom and killed four deer. the winds blew hard from the s. e. all day which retarded our progress very much after the fires were made i set my self down with the big white man chiefe and made a number of enquiries into the tredition of his nation as well as the time of their inhabiting the number of villages the remains of which we see on different parts of the river, as also the cause of their evacuation. he told me his nation first came out of the ground where they had a great village. a grape vine grew down through the earth to their village and they saw light some of their people assended by the grape vine upon the earth, and saw buffalow and every kind of animal also grapes plumbs &c. they gathered some grapes & took down the vine to the village, and they tasted and found them good, and deturmined to go up and live upon the earth, and great numbers climbed the vine and got upon earth men womin and children. at length a large big bellied woman in climbing broke the vine and fell and all that were left in the village below has remained there ever since (the mandans beleive when they die that they return to this village) those who were left on earth made a village on the river below and were very noumerous &c. he said that he was born in the village opposit to our camp and at that time his nation inhabited villages as large as that and were full of people, the sieoux and small pox killed the greater part of them and made them so weak that all that were left only made two small villages when collected, which were built near the old ricaras village above. their troubles with the scioux & pawnees or ricaras compelled them to move and build a village where they now live. he said that the menitarras came out of the water to the east and came to this country and built a village near the mandans from whome they got corn beens &c. they were very noumerous and resided in one village a little above this place on the opposit side. they quarreled about a buffalow, and two bands left the village and went into the plains, (those two bands are now known bye the title pounch, and crow indians.) the ballance of the menetaras moved their village to where it now stands where they have lived ever since- [clark, august , ] tuesday th of august some rain last night and this morning the wind rose and blew with great violence untill p. m and as our camp was on a sand bar we were very much distressd with the blows of sand. i directed the hunters to proceed on down the bottom and kill and butcher some meat and if the wind should lie that i should proceed on down to their camp &c. capt. lewis'es wounds are heeling very fast, i am much in hope of his being able to walk in or days-. at p. m the wind seased to blow with that violence which it had done all day we set out and proceeded on down. the hunters which was sent out this morning killed elk & deer near the river we came too and brought in the most of the flesh and proceeded on to a sand on the n e side and encamped. the wind rose and become very strong from the s. e. and a great appearance of rain. jessomme the interpreter let me have a piece of a lodge and the squars pitched or stretched it over some sticks, under this piece of leather i slept dry, it is the only covering which i have had suffecient to keep off the rain since i left the columbia. it began to rain moderately soon after night. the indians appear well satisfyed with the party and mode of proceedure. we decended only miles to day saw some elk and buffalow on the shore near where we encamped. the elk beginning to run. the buffalow are done running & the bulls are pore. [clark, august , ] wednesday th of august a violent hard rain about day light this morning. all wet except myself and the indians. we embarked a little after sun rise wind moderate and ahead. we proceeded on at meridn. passed the enterance of cannonball river imediately above is the remains of a large sieoux encampment which appears to have been made this spring. at p m passed the enterance of wardepon river saw great number of wolves on the bank some buffalow & elk, tho not so abundant as near the river rochejhone. passed the place where we left the last encampment of ricaras in the fall and encamped on a sandbar from the n. e. side, having made miles only, the wind blew hard all day which caused the waves to rise high and flack over into the small canoes in such a manner as to employ one hand in throwing the water out. the plains begin to change their appearance the grass is turning of a yellow colour. i observe a great alteration in the corrent course and appearance of this pt. of the missouri. in places where there was sand bars in the fall at this time the main current passes, and where the current then passed is now a sand bar sand bars which were then naked are now covered with willow several feet high. the enteranc of some of the rivers & creeks changed owing to the mud thrown into them, and a layor of mud over some of the bottoms of inches thick. [clark, august , ] thursday st august musquetors very troublesom in the early part of last night and again this morning i directed sergt. ordway to proceed on to where there was some ash and get enough for two ores which were wanting. men all put their arms in perfect order and we set out at a.m. over took sergt. ordway with wood for oars &c. at a.m. met three french men comeing up, they proved to be three men from the ricaras two of them reevea & greinyea wintered with us at the mandans in we came too, those men informed us that they were on their way to the mandans, and intended to go down to the illinois this fall. one of them quit a young lad requested a passage down to the illinois, we concented and he got into a canoe to an ore. those men informd us that seeoux had passed the ricaras on their way to war with the mandans & menitarras and that their encampment where the squaws and children wer, was some place near the big bend of this river below. no ricaras had accompanied them but were all at home, they also informed us that no trader had arived at the ricaras this season, and that they were informed that the pania or ricara chief who went to the united states last spring was a year, died on his return at smoe place near the sieoux river &c. those men had nether powder nor lead we gave them a horn of powder and some balls and after a delay of an hour we parted from the men reevey & grienway and proceeded on. the wind rose and bley from the n. w. at half past a.m. we arived in view of the upper ricara villages, a great number of womin collecting wood on the banks, we saluted the village with four guns and they returned the salute by fireing several guns in the village, i observed several very white lodges on the hill above the town which the ricaras from the shore informed me were chyennes who had just arived-. we landed opposit to the d villages and were met by the most of the men women and children of each village as also the chyennes they all appeared anxious to take us by the hand and much rejoiced to see us return. i steped on shore and was saluted by the two great chiefs, whome we had made or given medals to as we assend this river in , and also saluted by a great number both of ricaras & chyennes, as they appeared anxious to here what we had done &c. as well as to here something about the mandans & minetarras. i set my self down on the side of the bank and the chiefs & brave men of the ricaras & chyennes formed a cercle around me. after takeing a smoke of mandan tobacco which the big white chief who was seated on my left hand furnished, i informed them as i had before informed the mandans & menitarras, where we had been what we had done and said to the different nations in there favour and envited some of their chiefs to accompany us down and see their great father and receve from his own mouth his good councils and from his own hands his bountifull gifts &c. telling pretty much the same which i had told the mandans and menitarras. told them not to be afraid of any nation below that none would hurt them &c. a man of about years of age was intreduced to me as st chief of the nation this man they call the grey eyes or ____ he was absent from the nation at the time we passed up, the man whome we had acknowledged as the principal chief informed me that the grey eyes was a greater chief than himself and that he had given up all his pretentions with the flag and medal to the grey eyes--the principal chief of the chyenne's was then introduced he is a stout jolley fellow of about years of age whome the ricaras call the grey eyes i also told the ricaras that i was very sorrey to here that they were not on friendly terms with their neighbours the mandans & menetarras, and had not listened to what we had said to them but had suffered their young men to join the sieoux who had killed mandans &c. that their young men had stolen the horses of the minetarras, in retaliation for those enjories the mandans & menetarras had sent out a war party and killed ricaras. how could they expect other nations would be at peace with them when they themselves would not listen to what their great father had told them. i further informed them that the mandans & menetaras had opened their ears to what we had said to them but had staid at home untill they were struk that they were still disposed to be friendly and on good terms with the ricaras, they then saw the great chief of the mandans by my side who was on his way to see his great father, and was derected by his nation & the menetaras & maharhas, to smoke in the pipe of peace with you and to tell you not to be afraid to go to their towns, or take the birds in the plains that their ears were open to our councils and no harm should be done to a ricara. the chief will speak presently the grey eyes chief of the ricaras made a very animated speach in which he mentioned his williness of following the councels which we had given them that they had some bad young men who would not listen to the councels but would join the seioux, those men they had discarded and drove out of their villages, that the seioux were the cause of their missunderstanding &c. that they were a bad peoples. that they had killed several of the ricaras since i saw them. that several of the chiefs wished to accompany us down to see their great father, but wished to see the chief who went down last sumer return first, he expressed some apprehention as to the safty of that chiefs in passing the sieoux. that the ricaras had every wish to be friendly with the mandans &c. that every mandan &c. who chose to visit the ricares should be safe that he should continue with his nation and see that they followed the council which we had given them &c.--the sun being very hot the chyenne chief envited us to his lodge which was pitched in the plain at no great distance from the river. i accepted the invitation and accompanied him to his lodge which was new and much larger than any which i have seen it was made of dressed buffalow skins in the same form of the sceoux and lodges of other nations of this quarter. about this lodges was others several of them of nearly the same size. i enquired for the ballance of the nation and was informed that they were near at hand and would arive on tomorrow and when all together amounted to lodges after smokeing i gave a medal of the small size to the chyenne chief &c. which appeared to alarm him, he had a robe and a fleece of fat buffalow meat brought and gave me with the meadel back and informed me that he knew that the white people were all medecine and that he was afraid of the midal or any thing that white people gave to them. i had previously explained the cause of my gveing him the medal & flag, and again told him the use of the medal and the caus of my giveing it to him, and again put it about his neck delivering him up his preasent of a roab & meat, informing him that this was the medecene which his great father directed me to deliver to all the great chiefs who listened to his word and followed his councils, that he had done so and i should leave the medal with him as a token of his cincerity &c. he doubled the quantity of meat, and received the medal the big white chief of the mandans spoke at some length explainin the cause of the misunderstanding between his nation and the ricaras, informing them of his wish to be on the most freindly termes &c. the chyennes accused both nations of being in folt. i told to them all that if they eve wished to be hapy that they must shake off all intimecy with the seioux and unite themselves in a strong allience and attend to what we had told them &c. which they promesed all to do and we smoked and parted on the best terms, the mandan chief was saluted by several chiefs and brave men on his way with me to the river--i had requested the ricaras & chyennes to inform me as soon as possible of their intentions of going down with us to see their great father or not. in the evening the great chief requested that i would walk to his house which i did, he gave me about quarts of tobacco, beaver skins and a trencher of boiled corn & beans to eat (as it is the custom of all the nations on the missouri to give something to every white man who enters their lodge something to eat) this chief informed me that none of his chiefs wished to go down with us they all wished to see the cheif who went down return first, that the chyennes were a wild people and were afraid to go. that they should all listen to what i had said. i gave him some ribon to suspend his medal to and a shell which the snake indians gave me for which he was very much pleased. the interpreter informed me that the cheifs of those villages had no intention of going down. one the cheifs of the village on the island talkd. of going down. i returned to the boat where i found the principal chief of the lower vilege who had cut part of his hair and disfigured himself in such a manner that i did not know him, he informed me the sieux had killed his nephew and that was in tears for him &c. we deturmind to proceed down to the island and accordingly took the chief on board and proceeded on down to the isd village at which place we arived a little before dark and were met as before by nearly every individual of the village, we saluted them and landed imediately opposit the town. the one arm d cheif of this village whome we had expected to accompany us down spoke to the mandan cheif in a loud and thretening tone which caused me to be some what alarmed for the safty of that cheif, i inform the ricaras of this village that the mandans had opened their ears to and fold. our councils, that this cheif was on his way to see their great father the p. of u s. and was under our protection that if any enjorey was done to him by any nation that we should all die to a man. i told the ricaras that they had told us lies, they promised to be at peace with the mandans & menetarras. that our back was scrcely turned before they went to war & killd. them and stole their horses &c--the cheif then envited me & the mandan chief to his house to talk there. i accompanied him, after takeing a very serimonious smoke the d cheif informd. me that he had opened his ears to what we had said to him at the time we gave him the medal that he had not been to war against any natn. since, that once been to see the mandans and they were going to kill him, they had not killed the mandans, it was the seeoux who killed them and not the ricaras, he said that the mandan cheif was as safe as if he was in his own vilg that he had opened his ears and could here as well as the mandans. i then informd them what i had told the upper villages and we all become perfectly reconsiled all to each other and smoked in the most perfect harmony we had invatations to go into their lodges and eate. i at length went to the grand chiefs lodge by his particelar invitation, the mandan chief stuck close to me the chief had prepd. a supper of boiled young corn, beens & quashes of which he gave me in wooden bowls. he also gave me near quarts of the tobacco seed, & informed me he had always had his ears open to what we had said, that he was well convinced that the seeoux was the caus of all the trouble between the mandans & them the ricars had stolen horses from the mandan which had been returned all except one which could not be got, this mischief was done by some young men who was bad. a long conversation of explanations took place between the ricara & mandan chiefs which appeared to be satisfactory on both sides. the chief gave a pipe with great form and every thing appeared to be made up. i returned to the river & went to bead. the indians contd on board. made miles today only. [clark, august , ] friday nd august . rained all the last night every person and all our bedding wet, the morning cloudy, at a m. i was requested to go to the chiefs, i walkd up and he informed me that he should not go down but would stay and take care of the village and prevent the young men from doing rong and spoke much to the same porpt of the grey eyes, the d chief spoke to the same and all they said was only a repitition of what they had said before. the chief gave me some soft corn and the d chief some tobacco seed--the interpreter garrow informed me that he had been speeking to the chiefs & warriers this morning and assured me that they had no intention of going down untill the return of the cheif who went down last spring was a year. i told the cheifs to attend to what we had said to them, that in a short time they would find our words tru and councils good. they promised to attend strictly to what had been said to them, and observed that they must trade with the sieoux one more time to get guns and powder; that they had no guns or powder and had more horses than they had use for, after they got guns and powder that they would never again have any thing to do with them &c. &c. i returned the canoes & derected the men to prepare to set out. some chyennes from two lodges on the main s e. shore came and smoked with me and at a. m we set out haveing parted with those people who appeared to be sorry to part with us. at this nation we found a french man by the name of rokey who was one of our engagees as high as the mandans this man had spend all his wages, and requested to return with uswe agreed to give him a passage down. i directed guns to be fired. we proceeded on passed the marapa and the we ter hoo rivers, and landed to dry our bedding and robes &c which were all wet. here we delayed untill p m. and dryed our things which were much spoiled. i derected of the hunters to proceed on to grouse island a fiew miles below and hunt on that island untill we arived, we proceded on to the main n e shore below the island and encamped, the hunters joined us without any thing. they saw no game on the island. we made only miles to day. below the ricaras the river widens and the sand bars are emencely noumerous much less timber in the bottoms than above the chyenne's are portly indians much the complections of the mandans & ricaras high cheeks, streight limbed & high noses the men are large, their dress in sumner is simpelly a roab of a light buffalow skin with or without the hair and a breach clout & mockerson some ware leagins and mockersons, their ornaments are but fiew and those are composed principally of such articles as they precure from other indians such as blue beeds, shell, red paint rings of brass broaches &c. they also ware bears claws about their necks, strips of otter skin (which they as well as the ricaras are excessively fond of) around their neck falling back behind. their ears are cut at the lower part, but fiew of them were ornements in them, their hair is generally cut in the forehead above their eyes and small ornimented plats in front of each sholder the remainder of the hair is either twisted in with horse or buffalow hair divided into two plats over the sholder or what is most common flow's back, their women are homely, corse feetured wide mouthes they ware simpially a leathe habit made in a plain form of two pieces of equal length and equal weadth, which is sewen together with sinues from the tail to about half way from the hip to the arm, a string fastens the pieces together over the sholders leaveng a flap or lapells which fall over near half way ther body both before and behind. those dresses usially fall as low as mid leg, they are frequently ornemented with beeds and shells & elk tuskes of which all indians are very fond of. those dresses are als frequently printed in various regular figures with hot sticks which are rubed on the leather with such velosity as to nearly burn it this is very handsom. they were their hair flowing and are excessively fond of ornamenting their ears with blue beeds--this nation peacbly disposed they may be estimated at from to men inhabetig from to lodges, they are rich in horses & dogs, the dogs carry a great preportion of their light baggage. they confess to be at war with no nation except the sieoux with whome they have ever since their remembranc been on a difencive war, with the bands of sieoux. as i was about to leave the cheifs of the chyennes lodge he requested me to send some traders to them, that their country was full of beaver and they would then be encouraged to kill beaver, but now they had no use for them as they could get nothing for their skins and did not know well, how to catch beaver. if the white people would come amongst them they would become acquainted and the white people would learn them how to take the beaver-. i promised the nation that i would inform their great father the president of the u states, and he would have them supplied with goods, and mentioned in what manner they would be supplied &c. &c. i am happy to have it in my power to say that my worthy friend capt lewis is recovering fast, he walked a little to day for the first time. i have discontinud the tent in the hole the ball came out i have before mentioned that the mandans maharhas menetarras & ricarras, keep their horses in the lodge with themselves at night. [clark, august , ] saturday rd august we set out very early, the wind rose & became very hard, we passed the sar-war-kar-na-har river at a. m and at half past eleven the wind became so high and the water so rough that we were obliged to put to shore and continue untill p. m. when we had a small shower of rain after which the wind lay, and we proceeded on. soon after we landed i sent shields & jo. & reubin fields down to the next bottom of timber to hunt untill our arival. we proceeded on slowly and landed in the bottom. the hunters had killed three elk and deer the deer were pore and elk not fat had them fleece & brought in. the musqueters large and very troublesom. at p. m a cloud from the n w with a violent rain for about half an hour after the rain we again proceeded on. i observe great quantities of grapes and choke cheries, also a speces of currunt which i had never before observed the leas is larger than those above, the currt. black and very inferior to either the yellow, red, or perple--at dark we landed on a small sand bar under a bluff on the s w. side and encamped, this situation was one which i had chosen to avoid the musquetors, they were not very troublesom after we landed. we came only miles to daye my frend capt lewis is recoverig fast the hole in his thy where the ball passed out is closed and appears to be nearly well. the one where the ball entered discharges very well-. [clark, august , ] sunday th august a fair morning we set out as usial about sunrise and proceeded on untill p m when the wind blew so hard from the n. w. that we could not proceed came too on the s w. side where we continued untill p.m. when the wind lay a little and we again proceeded on. at a m. we passed la-hoo-catts island, opposit the lower point of this island on the s. w. side near the top of the bluff i observed a stratea of white stone i landed and examined it found it to be a soft white stone containing very fine grit, when expd. to the sun and become dry this stone will crumble the clay of this bluff to the above and below is remarkably black. at half past a.m. passed good hope island and at a. m passed caution island a short distance below this island we came too. sent out a hunter he saw several deer they were very wild and he returned without haveing killed any, the deer on this pt. of the missouri is mostly the mule or black tail species. we saw only buffalow to day the sieoux have been laterly encamped on the river and have secured the most of the game opp. a large trail has passed on a derection to the enterance of the chyenne this probably is the trail of a war party. at p.m. we proceeded on a fiew miles and encampd. on the gouge of the lookout bend of miles around and / through, a little above an old tradeing house and miles above of our outward bound encampment of the st of october , haveing made miles to day. [clark, august , ] monday th august a cool clear morning a stiff breeze ahead we set out at the usial hour and proceeded on very well. i derected shields collins shannon and the two fieldses to proceed on in the two small canoes to the ponia island and hunt on that island untill we came on, they set out before day light the skirt of timber in the bend above the chyenne is not very considerable the timber is scattered from to miles on the s w side of the river, and the thickest part is at the distance of & miles from the chyenne, a narrow bottom of small cotton trees is also on the n e pt. at the distance of from to / miles above the chyenne imediately at the enterance of that river i observe but fiew large trees some small growth and willows on the lower side bottom on the missouri about / a mile and extends up the chyen mile about a quarter of a mile above is a d bottom of cotton timber, in the point above the chyenne there is a considerable bottom of about miles on that river and a large timbered bottom a short distance above. at a.m. we came to at the mouth of the chyenne to delay untill to make a meridian observation and derected hunters to proced up this river and hunt its bottoms untill twelve at which hou we shall proceed on. the hunters returned with deer the chyenne discharges but little water which is much the colour of the missouri tho not so muddy i observe a very eligable situation on the bank of the chyenne on it's lower side about paces from it's enterance. this situation is above the high floods and has a perfect command of each river we obtained a meridian altitude with the sextt. and artificial horizon ° ' "- after which we proceeded on passed the pania island and came up with shields and collins they had killed two deer only at p m we passed the place where we saw the last encampement of troubleson tetons below the old ponia village on the s w side. a very large timbered bottom on the n. e. side imedialely below the pania island. latd. of chyenne is ____ north. at sunset we landed about the center of a large bottom on the n e side a little below the enterance of no timber creek and below our encampment of th of septr. . dreyer killed a deer after we encamped. a little above our encampmt. the ricaras had formerly a large village on each side which was destroyed by the seioux. there is the remains of other villages on the s w. side below the chyenne river and one on le ho catts isld. all those villages have been broken up by the seioux. this day proved a fine still day and the men played their oars and we made miles to day. the fields and shannon did not join this evening which caused me to encamp earlier than usial for them. we saw no game on the plains today. the tetons have been on the river not long since [clark, august , ] tuesday th of august a heavy dew this morning the hunters or shannon & the fields came up at sunrise and we set out, they had killed only small deer one of which they had eat at passed the place the tetons were encamped at the time they attempted to stop us in septr. , and at a.m. passed the enterance of teton river. saw several black tail or mule deer and sent out to kill them but they were wild and the hunters could not get a shot at either of them. a fiew miles below the teton river i observed a buffalow skin canoe lying on the s shore and a short distance lower a raft which induces me to suspect that the tetons are not on the missouri at the big bend as we were informed by the ricaras, but up the teton river. at meridn. we halted on the n e. side opposit a handsom leavel plain in which there is great quantities of plumbs which are not yet ripe. we passed the enteranc of smoke creek and landed and continued two hours to stop a leak in the perogue and fix the stearing oare, saw great quantities of grapes, they are black tho not thurerly ripe. at p m. we landed a louisells fort on ceder island, this fort is entire and every part appears to be in the same state it was when we passed it in septr. . i observed the appearance of fires in the houses which appeared to have been made or days past. we proceeded on about miles lower and encamped on the s. w. side opposit our outward bound encampment of the st of septr. , a fiew miles above tylors river. we had a stiff breeze from the s. e. which continued to blow the greater part of the night dry and pleasent. as we were now in the country where we were informed the sceoux were assembled we were much on our guard deturmined to put up with no insults from those bands of seioux, all the arms &. in perfect order. capt. l. is still on the mending hand he walks a little. i have discontinued the tent in the hole where the ball entered, agreeable to his request. he tells me that he is fully convinced that the wound is sufficiently heeled for the tents to be discontinued. we made miles to day with the wind ahead greater part of the day- [clark, august , ] wednesday th augt. set out before sunrise a stiff breeze a head from the east proceeded to the enterance of tylors river on the s w side and landed on a sand bar and sent out the hunters to kill some meat, our stock of meat being now exousted and this the most favourable place to precure a fresh supply, the hunters returned in hours without haveing killed any thing. they informed me that the bottoms were entirely beaten up and the grass laid flat by the emence number of buffalow which had been here a short time past. the deer had left the bottom. they saw several buffalow bulls which they did not think proper to kill as they were unfit for use. here we discover the first signs of the wild turkey. at p m we halted in the big bend and killed a fat buck elk near the river, which was very timely as our meat was entirely exhosted. at p. m we again proceeded on down saw several buffalow bulls on each side of the river also some deer of the common kind at p.m. we herd the bellowing of the buffalow bulls in the lower isld. of the big bend below the gouge which induced a belief that there was some fat cows, men went out from the small canoes which was a little a head, and killed two cows one bull and a calf nether of them wer fat we droped the perogue & canoes to the lower part of the island near to where the buffalow was killed and incamped haveing come miles only to day. had the buffalow butched and brought in and divided. my friend capt lewis hurt himself very much by takeing a longer walk on the sand bar in my absence at the buffalow than he had strength to undergo, which caused him to remain very unwell all night. [clark, august , ] thursday th of august capt lewis had a bad nights rest and is not very well this morning. we set out early and proceded on very well, saw a number of buffalow bulls on the banks in different places. passd the rivers of the seioux pass at a.m. a short distance below on the s w side sent out reubin & joseph feild to hunt for the mule deer or the antilope neither of which we have either the skins or scellitens of, we detected those two men to proceed on down to the places we encamped the th & th of septr. and which place the party had called pleasant camp from the great abundance of game such as buffalow elk, antilopes, blacktail or mule deer, fallow deer, common deer wolves barking squirels, turkies and a variety of other animals, aded to which there was a great abundance of the most delicious plumbs and grapes. this situation which is a short distance above the enterance of corvus creek we are deturmined to delay one day for the purpose of prcureing the sceletins of the mule deer & antilope, and some barking squirels. a fiew miles below the place the fields were set on shore we set drewyer and labeech on shore with the same directions which had been given to the field's at oclock we landed on the s w. side at the same spot which we had encamped on the th and th of september , and formed a camp, sent out serjt. pryor, shields, go. gibson, willard and collins to hunt in the plains up corvus creek for the antilope and mule deer sent out bratten and frazier to kill the barking squirel, and gave directions to all of them to kill the magpye if they should see any of them several of the men and the squaws of the enterpreter jessomme and the mandan chief went to some plumb bushes in the bottom and geathered more plumbs than the party could eate in days, those blumbs are of speces, the most of them large and well flavored. our situation is pleasent a high bottom thinly timbered and covered with low grass without misquitors. at p. m drewyer and labeech arived, the latter haveing killd. a deer of the common speceis only. in the evening late all the hunters returned without any speces of animal we were in want of, they killed common deer and two buffalow a part of the best of the meat of those animals they brought in. we precured two of the barking squirels only. as we could not precere any mule deer or antelope we concluded to send the hunters on a head early in the morning and delay untill a. m to give them time to hunt. i derected shannon & collins to go on the opposit side, and labeech and willard to proceed down on this side at some distance from the river and join the party at the round island &c. and r. field to proceed on slowly in the small canoe to that place and take in any thing which the hunters might kill. made miles to day the hunters informed me that they saw great numbers of buffalow in the plains. i saw several herds of those animals on either side to day at a distance. [clark, august , ] friday th august a cloudy morning the hunters proceeded on agreeable to their orders of last night. i sent out two men to the village of barking squirels with direcitions to kill some of them. they after hours returned and informed me that not one of those squirels were to be seen out of their holes. the skins of the party which they had been dressing since yesterday being now completely dressed i derected all loose baggage to be put on board the canoes and at a.m. set out and proceeded on passed the white river at oclock and halted below the enterance of shannons creek where we were joined by labeech shannon and willard, they had killed common der but no mule deer or antilopes. willard informed me that he saw antilopes but could not get near to them. willard and labiech waded white river a fiew miles above its enterance and inform me that they found it feet water and yards wide. the water of this river at this time nearly as white as milk. put drewyer out to hunt on the s w. side and proceeded on below the round island and landed on the n. e. side i with several of the men went out in pursute of buffalow. the men killed bulls near me they were very por i assended to the high country and from an eminance, i had a view of the plains for a great distance. from this eminance i had a view of a greater number of buffalow than i had ever seen before at one time. i must have seen near , of those animals feeding on this plain. i have observed that in the country between the nations which are at war with each other the greatest numbers of wild animals are to be found- on my return to the river i killed young deer. after dinner we proceeded down the river about mile to the camp of jo. & rubin fields and collins, and encamped on the s w. side a little below our encampment of th septr. , haveing made miles only. neither of the hunters killed either a black tail deer or an antilope. jo. fields & shields each killed a porcupin and two others of the hunters killed deer, drewyer did not join us untill p.m. he informed that he saw some antilopes and mule deer but could kill none of them. jo. field informed that he wounded female of the mule deer a little below our camp late in the evening and could not prosue her i directed him to set out with others and follow the deer and get her if possible early in the morning. [clark, august , ] saturday th of august capt. lewis is mending slowly. we set out at the usial hour and proceeded on very well a fiew miles jo field who was on the shore being behind i derected one of the small canoes with r. fields & shannon to continue on the point of a sand bar untill he corns up. i took hunters and walked on the n e shore with a view to kill some fat meet. we had not proceeded far before saw a large plumb orchd of the most deelicious plumbs, out of this orchard large buck elks ran the hunters killed them. i stoped the canoes and brought in the flesh which was fat and fine. here the party collected as many plumbs as they could eate and several pecks of which they put by &c. after a delay of nearly hours we again proceeded on downwards passed small islands and as we were about to land at the place appointed to wait for the fields and shannon, i saw several men on horseback which with the help of a spie glass i found to be indians on the high hills to the n e we landed on the s. w. side and i sent out two men to a village of barking squirels to kill some of those animals imedeatily after landing about indians was discovered on an eminanc a little above us on the opposite side. one of those men i took to be a freinch man from his a blanket capoe & a handkerchief around his head. imediately after or indian men all armed with fusees & bows & arrows came out of a wood on the opposite bank about / of a mile below us. they fired of their guns as a salute we returned the salute with rounds. we were at a loss to deturmin of what nation those indians were. from their hostile appearance we were apprehensive they were tetons. but from the country through which they roved we were willing to believe them eithe the yanktons, ponars or mahars either of which nations are well disposed towards the white people. i deturmined to find out who they were without running any resque of the party and indians, and therefore took three french men who could speak the mahar pania and some seioux and in a small canoe i went over to a sand bar which extended sufficently near the opposite shore to converse. imedeately after i set out young men set out from the opposite side and swam next me on the sand bar. i derected the men to speak to them in the pania and mahar languages first neither of which they could understand i then derected the man who could speak a fiew words of seioux to inquire what nation or tribe they belong to they informed me that they were tetons and their chief was tar-tack-kah-sabbar or the black buffalow this chief i knew very well to be the one we had seen with his band at teton river which band had attempted to detain us in the fall of as we assended this river and with whome we wer near comeing to blows. i told those indians that they had been deef to our councils and ill treated us as we assended this river two years past, that they had abused all the whites who had visited them since. i believed them to be bad people & should not suffer them to cross to the side on which the party lay, and directed them to return with their band to their camp, that if any of them come near our camp we should kill them certainly. i lef them on the bear and returned to th party and examined the arms &c. those indians seeing some corn in the canoe requested some of it which i refused being deturmined to have nothing to do with those people. several others swam across one of which understood pania, and as our pania interpreter was a very good one we had it in our power to inform what we wished. i told this man to inform his nation that we had not forgot their treatment to us as we passed up this river &c. that they had treated all the white people who had visited them very badly; robed them of their goods, and had wounded one man whome i had seen. we viewed them as bad people and no more traders would be suffered to come to them, and whenever the white people wished to visit the nations above they would come sufficiently strong to whip any vilenous party who dare to oppose them and words to the same purpote. i also told them that i was informed that a part of all their bands were gorn to war against the mandans &c, and that they would be well whiped as the mandans & menetarres & had a plenty of guns powder and ball, and we had given them a cannon to defend themselves. and derected them to return from the sand bar and inform their chiefs what we had said to them, and to keep away from the river or we should kill every one of them &c. &c. those fellows requested to be allowed to come across and make cumerads which we positively refused and i directed them to return imediately which they did and after they had informed the chiefs &c. as i suppose what we had said to them, they all set out on their return to their camps back of a high hill. of them halted on the top of the hill and blackguarded us, told us to come across and they would kill us all &c. of which we took no notice. we all this time were extreamly anxious for the arival of the fields & shannon whome we had left behind, and were some what consd. as to their safty. to our great joy those men hove in sight at p.m. jo. fields had killed black tail or mule deer. we then set out, as i wished to see what those indians on the hill would act. we steared across near the opposit shore, this notion put them some agitation as to our intentions, some set out on the direction towards their camps others walked about on the top of the hill and one man walked down the hill to meet us and invited us to land to which invitation i paid no kind of attention. this man i knew to be the one who had in the fall accompaned us days and is said to be the friend to the white people. after we passd. him he returned on the top of the hill and gave strokes with the gun he had in his hand this i am informed is a great oath among the indians. we proceeded on down about miles and encamped on a large sand bar in the middle of the river about miles above our encampment on mud island on the th septr. haveing made miles only to day. saw several indians on the hills at a distance this evening viewing us. our encampment of this evening was a very disagreable one, bleak exposed to the winds, and the sand wet. i pitched on this situation to prevent being disturbed by those scioux in the course of the night as well as to avoid the musquetors-. killed whistleing squirels. [clark, august , ] saturday st august all wet and disagreeable this morning. at half past last night the wind shifted about to the n. w. and it began to rain with hard claps of thunder and lightning the clouds passd over and the wind shifted about to the s w. & blew with great violence so much so that all hands were obliged to hold the canoes & perogue to prevent their being blown off from the sand bar, however a suden squal of wind broke the cables of the two small canoes and with some dificuelty they were got to shore soon after the canoes in which sergt. pryor and the indians go in broke loose with wiser and willard in them and were blown quite across the river to the n e. shore where fortunately they arived safe, i sent sergt. jo ordway with a small perogue and men to prosue the canoes and assist them in effecting a landing, those canoes being tied together men could not manage them, the wind slackened a little and by a.m. sergt ordway with willard wiser and the canoes returned all safe, the wind continud to blow and it rained untill day light all wet and disagreeable. all the party examind their arms and put them in order and we set out and proceeded on down. saw several indians on the hills untill we passed the island of cedar a. m the morning cloudy and wind down the the river at p.m. passed the doome and lowest village of barking squirels. this is also the highest up the river where i observed the fox squirel in the bottom above the doome on n. e side i killed fox squirels. we saw no game of any kind to day as the banks as usial. the sun shone with a number of flying clouds. we encamped on the n. e. side a little below our encampment of the th of septr. on no preserve island haveing come miles. [clark, september , ] monday st of september musquitors very troublesom last night, we set out at the usial hour and had not proceeded on far before the fog became so thick that we were oblige to come too and delay half an hour for the fog to pass off which it did in some measure and we again proceded on r. jo. fields and shannon landed on an ponceras island to try to kill some deer which was seen on the beech and the canoes all passed them at a. m we passed the enterance of river quiequur which had the same appearance it had when we passed up water rapid and of a milky white colour about two miles below the quicurre, indians ran down the bank and beckened to us to land, they appeared to be a war party, and i took them to be tetons and paid no kind of attention to them further than an enquirey to what tribe they belonged, they did not give me any answer, i prosume they did not understand the man who spoke to them as he spoke but little of their language. as one canoe was yet behind we landed in an open commanding situation out of sight of the indians deturmined to delay untill they came up. about minits after we had landed several guns were fired by the indians, which we expected was at the three men behind. i calld out men and ran up with a fill deturmination to cover them if possible let the number of the indians be what they might. capt lewis hobled up on the bank and formed the remainder of the party in a situation well calculated to defend themselves and the canoes &c. when i had proceeded to the point about yards i discovered the canoe about mile above & the indians where we had left them. i then walked on the sand beech and the indians came down to meet me i gave them my hand and enquired of them what they were shooting at, they informed me that they were shooting off their guns at an old keg which we had thrown out of one of the canoes and was floating down. those indians informed me they were yanktons, one of the men with me knew one of the indians to be the brother of young durion's wife. finding those indians to be yanktons i invited them down to the boats to smoke. when we arived at the canoes they all eagerly saluted the mandan chief, and we all set and smoked several pipes. i told them that we took them to be a party of tetons and the fireing i expected was at the three men in the rear canoe and i had went up with a full intention to kill them all if they had been tetons & fired on the canoe as we first expected, but finding them yanktons and good men we were glad to see them and take them by the hand as faithfull children who had opened their ears to our councils. one of them spoke and said that their nation had opened their years, & done as we had directed them ever since we gave the meadel to their great chief, and should continue to do as we had told them we enquired if any of their chiefs had gone down with mr. durion, the answered that their great chief and many of their brave men had gone down, that the white people had built a house near the mahar village where they traded. we tied a piec of ribon to each mans hair and gave them some corn of which they appeared much pleased. the mandan cheif gave a par of elegant legins to the principal man of the indian party, which is an indian fashion. the canoe & men haveing joined us we took our leave of this party telling them to return to their band and listen to our councils which we had before given to them. their band of lodges were on plum creek a fiew miles to north. those nine men had five fusees and bows & quivers of arrows. at p.m. we came too on the upper point of bon homme opposit the antient fortification and sent out men to hunt on each side and on the island. and the canoes on each side of the island to receive any meat might be killed i walked on the n. e. main shore found the bottom rich and thickly covered with peavine rich weed grass interwoven in such a manner with grape vines that i could not get through and was obliged to assend a high plains the passing through which i also found tiresom. the grass was nearly as high as my head and the musquitors excessively bad. at the lower point of the island all the canoes & hunters came together. labeech killed an elk only the flesh of which was brought on in the perogue. at this island we brought years together or on the st of septr. we encamped at the lower point of this island. after we all came together we again proceeded on down to a large sand bar imediately opposit to the place were we met the yanktons in council at the calumet bluffs and which place we left on the it of septr. . i observed our old flag staff or pole standing as we left it. the musquitors excessively troublesom untill about p.m. when the s w wind became strong and blew the most of them off. we came miles to day only with a head wind. the country on either side are butifull and the plains much richer below the queiquer river than above that river. [clark, september , ] tuesday nd of september set out at the usial hour passed the river jacque at a.m. in the first bottom below on the n e. side i observed the remains of a house which had been built since we passed up, this most probably was mcclellins tradeing house with the yanktons in the winter of & the wind was hard a head & continued to increas which obliged us to lay by nearly all day. as our store of meat, i took with me men and prosued a small gang of cows in the plains miles and killed two which was in very good order, had them butchered and each man took a load as much as he could carry and returned to the canoes, the wind still high and water rough we did not set out untill near sun set we proceded to a sand bar a short distance below the place we had come too on account of the wind and encamped on a sand bar, the woods being the harbor of the musquetors and the party without the means of screaning themselves from those tormenting insects. on the sand bars the wind which generaly blows moderately at night blows off those pests and we sleep soundly. the wind continued to blow hard from the same point s. e untill p. m i saw in my walk to day lynn and slipery elm. the plains are tolerably leavel on each side and very fertile. i saw prarie fowls common to the illinois, those are the highest up which have been seen, white oak is very common also white ash on the riveens and high bottoms. two turkys killed to day of which the indians very much admired being the first which they ever saw. capt l. is mending fast--we made only miles to day. [clark, september , ] wednesday rd of september wind continued to blow very hard this morning. it shifted last night to the s. w. and blew the sand over us in such a manner as to render the after part of the night very disagreeable. the wind luled a little and we set out and proceeded on with the wind a head passed the enterance of redstone river on the n e. side at a m. and at half past p. m we spied two boats & several men, our party peyed their ores and we soon landed on the side of the boats the men of these boats saluted us with their small arms i landed & was met by a mr. james airs from mackanaw by way of prarie dechien and st. louis. this gentleman is of the house of dickson & co. of prarie de chian who has a licence to trade for one year with the sieoux he has batteaux loaded with merchendize for that purpose. this gentleman receved both capt. lewis and my self with every mark of friendship he was himself at the time with a chill of the agu on him which he has had for several days. our first enquirey was after the president of our country and then our friends and the state of the politicks of our country &c. and the state indian affairs to all of which enquireys mr. aires gave us as satisfactory information as he had it in his power to have collected in the illinois which was not a great deel. soon after we landed a violent storm of thunder lightning and rain from the n w. which was violent with hard claps of thunder and sharp lightning which continued untill p m after which the wind blew hard. i set up late and partook of the tent of mr. aires which was dry. mr. aires unfortunately had his boat sunk on the of july last by a violent storm of wind and hail by which accident he lost the most of his usefull articles as he informd. us. this gentleman informed us of maney changes & misfortunes which had taken place in the illinois amongst others the loss of mr. cady choteaus house and furniture by fire. for this misfortune of our friend choteaus i feel my self very much concernd &c. he also informed us that genl. wilkinson was the governor of the louisiana and at st. louis. of the american troops had been contuned on the missouri a fiew miles above it's mouth, some disturbance with the spaniards in the nackatosh country is the cause of their being called down to that country, the spaniards had taken one of the u, states frigates in the mediteranean, two british ships of the line had fired on an american ship in the port of new york, and killed the capts. brother. indians had been hung in st. louis for murder and several others in jale. and that mr. burr & genl. hambleton fought a duel, the latter was killed &c. &c. i am happy to find that my worthy friend capt l's is so well as to walk about with ease to himself &c., we made miles to day the river much crowded with sand bars, which are very differently situated from what they were when we went up. [clark, september , ] thursday th september the musquitors became troublesom early this morning i rose at the usial hour found all the party as wet as rain could make them. as we were in want of some tobacco i purposed to mr. airs to furnish us with carrots for which we would pay the amount to any merchant of st. louis he very readily agreed to furnish us with tobacco and gave to each man as much as it is necessary for them to use between this and st. louis, an instance of generossity for which every man of the party appears to acknowledge. mr. airs also insisted on our accepting a barrel of flourwe gave to this gentleman what corn we could spear amounting to about bushels, this corn was well calculated for his purpose as he was about to make his establishment and would have it in his power to hull the corn & the flower was very acceptable to us. we have yet a little flour part of what we carried up from the illinois as high as maria's river and buried it there untill our return &c. at a. m we took our leave and set out, and proceeded on very well, at a.m. passed the enterance of the big sieoux river which is low, and at meridian we came too at floyds bluff below the enterance of floyds river and assended the hill, with capt lewis and several men, found the grave had been opened by the nativs and left half covered. we had this grave completely filled up, and returned to the canoes and proceeded on to the sand bar on which we encamped from the th to the th of august near the mahar village, here we came to and derected every wet article put out to dry, all the bedding of the party and skins being wet. as it was late in the evening we deturmined to continue all night. had issued to each man of the party a cup of flour. we see no species of game on the river as usial except wild geese and pelicans. i observed near sergt floyds grave a number of flurishing black walnut trees, these are the first which i have seen decending the river. a little before night several guns were heard below and in a direction towards the mahar village which induced us to suspect that mr. mcclellin who we was informed was on his way up to trade with the mahars had arived at the creek below and that those reports of guns was some of his party out hunting. every thing being dry we derected the perogue & canoes to be loaded and in readiness to set out in the morning early. at dark the musquetors became troublesom and continued so all night the party obtained but little sleep--we made miles only to daye. [clark, september , ] friday th september the musquetors being so excessively tormenting that the party was all on board and we set out at day light and proceeded on very well. here the river is bordered on both sides with timber &c becoms much narrower more crooked and the current more rapid and crouded with snags or sawyers than it is above, and continus so all day. we did not meet with mcclellen as we expected at the creek. the report of the guns which was heard must have been the mahars who most probably have just arrived at their village from hunting the buffalow. this is a season they usialy return to their village to secure their crops of corn beens punkins &c &c. proceeded on very well passd. the blue stone bluff at p. m here the river leaves the high lands and meanders through a low rich bottom. encamped on the s w side on a sand bar at a cut off a little below our encampment of the th of august . haveing made miles to day- capt. lewis still in a convelesent state. we saw no game on the shores to day worth killig only such as pelicans geese ducks, eagles and hawks &c.- [clark, september , ] saturday th of september the musquetors excessively troublesom we set out early at the great cut off saw a herd of elk, we landed and sent out several hunters to kill some of the elk, they returnd. without killing any as the elk was wild and ran off much fritened. i sent the two small canoes on a head with derections to hunt in two bottoms below, and after a delay of half an hour proceeded on wind-hard a head at the lower point of pelecan island a little above the petite river de seeoux we met a tradeing boat of mr. ag. choteaux of st louis bound to the river jacque to trade with the yanktons, this boat was in care of a mr. henry delorn, he had exposed all his loading and sent out five of his hands to hunt they soon arived with an elk. we purchased a gallon of whiskey of this man and gave to each man of the party a dram which is the first spiritious licquor which had been tasted by any of them since the of july . several of the party exchanged leather for linen shirts and beaver for corse hats. those men could inform us nothing more than that all the troops had movd. from the illinois and that genl. wilkinson was prepareing to leave st. louis. we advised this trader to treat the tetons with as much contempt as possible and stated to him where he would be benefited by such treatment &c &c. and at p. m set out those men gave us shots from a swivell they had on the bow of their boat which we returned in our turn. proceeded on about miles and came up with two of the hunters, they had not killd. any thing. at miles we over took the canoe of the other hunters with shannon in it floating down, the two fields being in the woods behind we came too on a sand bar on the n. e. side and delayed all the after part of the day for the two fields, sent out men to hunt in the bottom up the river and observe if they saw any sign of the hunters. the evening proved cloudy and the wind blew hard two pelicans were killed to day. we came miles only to day the fieldses did not join us i think they are below. the chief & the squaws & children are awarey of their journey. children cry &c. [clark, september , ] sunday th september as we were doubtfull that the two fieldses were behind i derected sergt. ordway with men to continue untill meridian and if those men did not arive by that hour to proceed on. if we met with them at any short distance a gun should be fired which would be a signal for him to proceed on. we had proceeded on about miles by water and the distance through not more than mile when we saw the fire of those men, i derected a gun fired as a signal for sergt. ordway to proceed on, and took the boys on board. they had killed nothing & informed me they had been somewhat almd. at our delay, that the distance across from the little sieoux river was about / miles only, the bottoms thick and grass very high. we proceded on with a stiff breeze ahead (note the evaperation on this portion of the missouri has been noticed as we assended this river, and it now appears to be greater than it was at that time. i am obliged to replenish my ink stand every day with fresh ink at least / of which must evaperate.) we proceded on to a bottom on the s w side a little above the soldiers river and came too and sent out all the hunters. they killed elk which was at no great distance we sent out the men and had the flesh brought in cooked and dined. sergt. ordway came up & after takeing a sumptious dinner we all set out at p m wind ahead as usial. at dusk we came too on the lower part of a sand bar on the s w side found the musquetors excessively tormenting not withstanding a stiff breeze from the s. e. a little after dark the wind increased the musquetors dispersed our camp of this night is about miles below our encampment of the th of august ascending we came miles to day only [clark, september , ] munday th september set out very early this morning, passed an old tradeing house on the s w side a few miles above the council bluffs, at a m we came too at the bluffs and capt lewis and myself walked up on the bluffs and around to examine the country and situation more particularly, the situation appeared to us eaqually as eligable as when we passed up for an establishment, the hill high and commanding with a high rich bottom of great extent below. we proceeded on very well all being anxious to get to the river platt to day they ply'd their orers very well, and we arived at our old encampment at white catfish camp miles above the river platt at which place we lay from the th to the th of july here we encamped haveing made miles to day. the missouri at this place does not appear to contain more water than it did miles above this, the evaperation must be emence; in the last miles this river receives the water rivers and maney creeks several of the rivers large and the size of this river or the quantity of water does not appear to increas any- [clark, september , ] tuesday th september set out early at a. m passed the enterance of the great river platt which is at this time low the water nearly clear the current turbelant as usial; the sand bars which choked up the missouri and confined the river to a narrow snagey chanel are wastd a way and nothing remains but a fiew small remains of the bear which is covered with drift wood, below the r. platt the current of the missouri becomes evidently more rapid than above and the snags much more noumerous and bad to pass late in the evening we arived at the bald pated prarie and encamped imediately opposit our encampment of the th and th of july . haveing made miles only to day. the river bottoms are extencive rich and covered with tall large timber, and the hollows of the reveins may be said to be covered with timber such as oake ash elm and some walnut & hickory. our party appears extreamly anxious to get on, and every day appears produce new anxieties in them to get to their country and friends. my worthy friend cap lewis has entirely recovered his wounds are heeled up and he can walk and even run nearly as well as ever he could. the parts are yet tender &c. &. the musquetors are yet troublesom, tho not so much so as they were above the river platt. the climate is every day preceptably wormer and air more sultery than i have experienced for a long time. the nights are now so worm that i sleep comfortable under a thin blanket, a fiew days past was not more than sufficient [clark, september , ] wednesday th of september we set out very early this morning and proceeded on very well with wind moderately a head at ____ p m we met a mr. alexander la fass and three french men from st. louis in a small perogue on his way to the river platt to trade with the pania luup or wolf indians. this man was extreemly friendly to us he offered us any thing he had, we axcepted of a bottle of whisky only which we gave to our party, mr. la frost informed us that genl. wilkinson and all the troops had decended the mississippi and mr. pike and young mr. wilkinson had set out on an expedition up the arkansaw river or in that direction after a delay of half an hour we proceedd on about miles and met a large perogue and men from st. louis bound to the mahars for the purpose of trade, this perogue was in charge of a mt. la craw, we made some fiew enquiries of this man and again proceeded on through a very bad part of the river crouded with snags & sawyers and incamped on a sand bar about miles above the grand nemahar. we find the river in this timbered country narrow and more moveing sands and a much greater quantity of sawyers or snags than above. great caution and much attention is required to stear clear of all those dificuelties in this low state of the water. we made miles to day. we saw deer rackoons and turkies on the shores to day one of the men killed a racoon which the indians very much admired. [clark, september , ] thursday th septr. a heavy cloud and wind from the n w. detained us untill after sunrise at which time we set out and proceeded on very well, passed the nemahar which was low and did not appear as wide as when we passed up. wolf river scercely runs at all, at p. m we halted a little above the nadawa river on the s. side of the missouri to kill some meat that which we killed a fiew days past being all spoiled. sent out hunters they killed and brought in two deer only, we proceeded on a fiew miles below the nadawa island and encamped on a small isld. near the n. e. side, haveing came miles only to day, river rapid and in maney places crouded with snag's. i observe on the shores much deer sign--the mosquitoes are no longer troublesome on the river, from what cause they are noumerous above and not so on this part of the river i cannot account. wolves were howling in different directions this evening after we had encamped, and the barking of the little prarie wolves resembled those of our common small dogs that / of the party believed them to be the dogs of some boat assending which was yet below us. the barking of those little wolves i have frequently taken notice of on this as also the other side of the rocky mountains, and their bark so much resembles or sounds to me like our common small cur dogs that i have frequently mistaken them for that speces of dog--the papaws nearly ripe [clark, september , ] friday th of september a thick fog a litile before day which blew off at day light. a heavy dew this morning. we set out at sunrise the usial hour and proceeded on very well about miles met perogues from st. louis one contained the property of mr. choteau bound to the panias on river platt, the other going up trapping as high as the mahars. here we met one of the french men who had accompanied us as high as the mandans he informed us that mr. mcclellen was a fiew miles below the wind blew a head soon after we pased those perogues, we saw a man on shore who informed us that he was one of mr. mcclellens party and that he was a short distance below, we took this man on board and proceeded on and met mr. mcclellin at the st. michl. prarie we came too here we found mr. jo. gravelin the ricaras enterpreter whome we had sent down with a ricaras chief in the spring of and old mr. durion the sieux enterpreter, we examined the instructions of those interpreters and found that gravelin was ordered to the ricaras with a speach from the president of the u. states to that nation and some presents which had been given the ricara cheif who had visited the u. states and unfortunately died at the city of washington, he was instructed to teach the ricaras agriculture & make every enquirey after capt lewis my self and the party mr. durion was enstructed to accompany gravelin and through his influence pass him with his presents & by the tetons bands of sieux, and to provale on some of the principal chiefs of those bands not exceeding six to visit the seat of the government next spring he was also enstructed to make every enquirey after us. we made some small addition to his instructions by extending the number of chiefs to or or from each band including the yanktons &c. mr. mcclellin receved us very politely, and gave us all the news and occurrences which had taken place in the illinois within his knowledge the evening proveing to be wet and cloudy we concluded to continue all night, we despatched the two canoes a head to hunt with hunters in them [clark, september , ] saturday th september rose early mr. mcclellen gave each man a dram and a little after sunrise we set out the wind hard a head from the s e at a m we landed at the camp of the hunters whome we had sent a head, they had killed nothing, the wind being too high for us to proceed in safty through the emecity of snags which was imediately below we concluded to lye by and sent on the small canoes a short distance to hunt and kill some meat, we sent out men in the bottom they soon returned with one turky and informed that the rushes was so high and thick that it was impossible to kill any deer. i felt my self very unwell and derected a little chocolate which mr. mcclellen gave us, prepared of which i drank about a pint and found great relief at a.m. we proceeded on about mile and come up with the hunters who had killed deer, here we delayed untill p. m when the hunters all joined us and we again proceded on down a fiew miles and encamped on the n e side of the missouri haveing decended miles only to day. the day disagreeably worm. one man george shannon left his horn and pouch with his powder ball and knife and did not think of it untill night. i walked in the bottom in the thick rushes and the growth of timber common to the illinois such as cotton wood, sycamore, ash mulberry, elm of different species, walnut, hickory, horn beem, pappaw arrow wood willow, prickly ash, &c and grape vines, pees of species &c &c. birds most common the buzzard crow the hooting owl and hawks, &c. &c.- [clark, september , ] sunday th sept. set out early and proceeded on very well. this being the part of the missouri the kanzas nation resort to at this season of the year for the purpose of robbing the perogues passing up to other nations above, we have every reason to expect to meet with them, and agreeably to their common custom of examining every thing in the perogues and takeing what they want out of them, it is probable they may wish to take those liberties with us, which we are deturmined not to allow of and for the smallest insult we shall fire on them. at p.m. a little below the lower of the old kanzas village we met three large boats bound to the yanktons and mahars the property of mr. lacroy, mr. aiten & mr. coutau all from st. louis, those young men received us with great friendship and pressed on us some whisky for our men, bisquet, pork and onions, & part of their stores, we continued near hours with those boats, makeing every enquirey into the state of our friends and country &c. those men were much affraid of meeting with the kanzas. we saw deer on the banks and in the river to day of which we killed those deer were meager. we proceeded on to an island near the middle of the river below our encampment of the st of july and encamped haveing decended only miles to day. our party received a dram and sung songs untill oclock at night in the greatest harmoney. [clark, september , ] monday th of september we set out early with a stiff breeze a head saw several deer swiming the river soon after we set out. at a.m. passed the enterance of the kanzas river which was very low, about a mile below we landed and capt lewis and my self assended a hill which appeared to have a commanding situation for a fort, the shore is bold and rocky imediately at the foot of the hill, from the top of the hill you have a perfect command of the river, this hill fronts the kanzas and has a view of the missouri a short distance above that river. we landed one time only to let the men geather pappaws or the custard apple of which this country abounds, and the men are very fond of. we discovered a buck elk on a small island, and sent the fields and shannon in pursute of it they soon came up with and killed the elk, he was large and in fine order we had his flesh secured and divided. as the winds were unfabourable the greater part of the day we only decended miles and encamped a short distance above hay cabin creek we are not tormented by the musquetors in this lower portion of the river, as we were above the river plat and as high up as the rochejhone and for a fiew miles up that river, and above its enterance into the missouri. we passd some of the most charming bottom lands to day and the uplands by no means bad, all well timberd. the weather disagreeably worm and if it was not for the constant winds which blow from the s. and s e. we should be almost suficated comeing out of a northern country open and cool between the latd. of ° and ° north in which we had been for nearly two years, rapidly decending into a woody country in a wormer climate between the latds. °& ° north is probably the cause of our experiencing the heat much more senceable than those who have continued within the parralel of latitude. [clark, september , ] tuesday th september we set out early this morning and proceded on tolerably well the day proved excessively worm and disagreeable, so much so that the men rowed but little, at a m we met a large tradeing perogue bound for the panias we continued but a short time with them. at a. m we met young mr. bobidoux with a large boat of six ores and canoes, the licenes of this young man was to trade with the panias mahars and ottoes reather an extroadanary a license for young a man and without the seal of the teritory anexed, as genl. wilkensons signeture was not to this instrement we were somewhat doubtfull of it. mr. browns signeture we were not acquainted with without the teritorial seal. we made some enquireys of this young man and cautioned him against prosueing the steps of his brother in attempting to degrade the american charector in the eyes of the indians. we proceeded on to an island a little above our encampment of the th & th of june haveing came miles only to day. [clark, september , ] wednesday th september we set out as usial early pass the island of the little osage village which is considered by the navigater of this river to be the worst place in it. at this place water of the missouri is confined between an island and the s e main shore and passes through a narrow chanel for more than miles which is crouded with snags in maney places quite across obligeing the navigater to pica, his passage between those snags as he can, in maney places the current passing with great velocity against the banks which cause them to fall &c. at a.m. we met a captain mcclellin late a capt. of artily of the u states army assending in a large boat. this gentleman an acquaintance of my friend capt. lewis was somewhat astonished to see us return and appeared rejoiced to meet us. we found him a man of information and from whome we received a partial account of the political state of our country, we were makeing enquires and exchangeing answers &c. untill near mid night. this gentleman informed us that we had been long since given out by the people of the u s generaly and almost forgotton, the president of the u. states had yet hopes of us; we received some civilities of capt. mcclellin, he gave us some buisquit, chocolate sugar & whiskey, for which our party were in want and for which we made a return of a barrel of corn & much obliges to him. capt. mcclellin informed us that he was on reather a speculative expedition to the confines of new spain, with the view to entroduce a trade with those people. his plan is to proceede up this river to the entcrance of the river platt there to form an establishment from which to trade partially with the panas & ottoes, to form an acquaintance with the panias and provail some of their principal chiefs to accompany him to santa fee where he will appear in a stile calculated to atract the spanish government in that quarter and through the influence of a handsome present he expects to be promited to exchange his merchindize for silver & gold of which those people abound. he has a kind of introductory speach from govr. wilkinson to the panias and ottoes and a quantity of presents of his own which he purposes distributing to the panias and eleatans with a view to gain their protection in the execution of his plans, if the spanish governmt. favour his plans, he purposes takeing his merchendize on mules & horses which can easily be procured of the panias, to some point convenient to the spanish settlements within the louisiana teritory to which place the inhabitants of new mexico may meet him for the purpose of trade &c. capt mcclellins plan i think a very good one if strictly prosued &c. we sent hunters a head with directions to halt below grand river and hunt untill we arived which would be in the morning. this day proved worme. we decended only miles to day and encamped miles above grand river on s e. side. [clark, september , ] thursday th of september we rose early capt mcclellin wrote a letter and we took our leave, and proceeded on passed the grand river at a m. a short distance below we came up with our hunters, they had killed nothing. at oclock we came too and gathered pottows to eate we have nothing but a fiew buisquit to eate and are partly compelled to eate poppows which we find in great quantities on the shores, the weather we found excessively hot as usial. the lands fine particularly the bottoms. a charming oake bottom on the s e side of the missouri above the charletons rivers we find the current of this part of the missouri much more jentle than it was as we assended, the water is now low and where it is much confin'd it is rapid. we saw very little appearance of deer, saw one bear at a distance and turkeys only to day. our party entirely out of provisions subsisting on poppaws. we divide the buiskit which amounted to nearly one buisket per man, this in addition to the poppaws is to last is down to the settlement's which is miles the party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on the pappaws. we made miles to day only. one of our party j. potts complains very much of one of his eyes which is burnt by the sun from exposeing his face without a cover from the sun. shannon also complains of his face & eyes &c. encamped on an island nearly opposit to the enterance of mine river. [clark, september , ] friday th of sept. set out this morning a little after day & proceeded on very well the men ply their oares & we decended with great velocity, only came too once for the purpose of gathering pappows, our anxiety as also the wish of the party to proceed on as expeditiously as possible to the illinois enduce us to continue on without halting to hunt. we calculate on ariveing at the first settlements on tomorrow evening which is miles, and objecet of our party is to divide the distance into two days, this day to the osarge river, and tomorrow to the charriton a small french village--we arived at the enterance of osage river at dark and encamped on the spot we had encamped on the st & d of june haveing came miles. a very singular disorder is takeing place amongst our party that of the sore eyes. three of the party have their eyes inflamed and sweled in such a manner as to render them extreamly painfull, particularly when exposed to the light, the eye ball is much inflaimed and the lid appears burnt with the sun, the cause of this complaint of the eye i can't account for. from it's sudden appearance i am willing to believe it may be owing to the reflection of the sun on the water [clark, september , ] saturday th septr. as three of the party was unabled to row from the state of their eyes we found it necessary to leave one of our crafts and divide the men into the other canoes, we left the two canoes lashed together which i had made high up the river rochejhone, those canoes we set a drift and a little after day light we set out and proceeded on very well. the osage river very low and discharges but a small quantity of water at this time for so large a river. at meridian we passed the enterance of the gasconnade river below which we met a perogue with french men bound to the osarge gd. village. the party being extreemly anxious to get down ply their ores very well, we saw some cows on the bank which was a joyfull sight to the party and caused a shout to be raised for joy at ____ p m we came in sight of the little french village called charriton the men raised a shout and sprung upon their ores and we soon landed opposit to the village. our party requested to be permited to fire off their guns which was alowed & they discharged rounds with a harty cheer, which was returned from five tradeing boats which lay opposit the village. we landed and were very politely received by two young scotch men from canada one in the employ of mr. aird a mr. ____ and the other mr. reed, two other boats the property of mr. lacomb & mr. ____ all of those boats were bound to the osage and ottoes. those two young scotch gentlemen furnished us with beef flower and some pork for our men, and gave us a very agreeable supper. as it was like to rain we accepted of a bed in one of their tents. we purchased of a citizen two gallons of whiskey for our party for which we were obliged to give eight dollars in cash, an imposition on the part of the citizen. every person, both french and americans seem to express great pleasure at our return, and acknowledged them selves much astonished in seeing us return. they informed us that we were supposed to have been lost long since, and were entirely given out by every person &c. those boats are from canada in the batteaux form and wide in perpotion to their length. their length about feet and the width feet & pointed bow & stern, flat bottom and rowing six ores only the skeneckeity form. those bottoms are prepared for the navigation of this river, i beleive them to be the best calculated for the navigation of this river of any which i have seen. they are wide and flat not subject to the dangers of the roleing sands, which larger boats are on this river. the american inhabitants express great disgust for the govermt of this teritory. from what i can lern it arises from a disapmt. of getting all the spanish grants confirmed-. came ms. to day. [clark, september , ] sunday st septr. rose early this morning colected our men several of them had axcepted of the invitation of the citizens and visited their families. at half after a. m we set out. passed canoes of kickapoos assending on a hunting expedition. saw several persons also stock of different kind on the bank which reviv'd the party very much. at p m we met two large boats assending. at p m we arived in sight of st. charles, the party rejoiced at the sight of this hospital village plyed thear ores with great dexterity and we soon arived opposit the town, this day being sunday we observed a number of gentlemen and ladies walking on the bank, we saluted the village by three rounds from our blunderbuts and the small arms of the party, and landed near the lower part of the town. we were met by great numbers of the inhabitants, we found them excessively polite. we received invitations from several of those gentlemen a mr. proulx, taboe, decett, tice dejonah & quarie and several who were pressing on us to go to their houses, we could only visit mr. proulx and mr. deucett in the course of the evening. mr. querie under took to supply our party with provisions &c. the inhabitants of this village appear much delighted at our return and seem to vie with each other in their politeness to us all. we came only miles today. the banks of the river thinly settled &c. [clark, september , ] monday nd of sept. this morning being very wet and the rain still continueing hard, and our party being all sheltered in the houses of those hospitable people, we did not think proper to proceed on untill after the rain was over, and continued at the house of mr. proulx. i took this oppertunity of writeing to my friends in kentucky &c. at a m. it seased raining and we colected our party and set out and proceeded on down to the contonemt. at coldwater creek about miles up the missouri on it's southern banks, at this place we found colo. hunt & a lieut peters & one company of artillerists we were kindly received by the gentlemen of this place. mrs. wilkinson the lady of the govr. & genl. we wer sorry to find in delicate health. we were honored with a salute of ____ guns and a harty welcom at this place there is a publick store kept in which i am informed the u. s have $ worth of indian goods [clark, september , ] thursday rd of septr. we rose early took the chief to the publick store & furnished him with some clothes &c. took an early breckfast with colo. hunt and set out decended to the mississippi and down that river to st. louis at which place we arived about oclock. we suffered the party to fire off their pieces as a salute to the town. we were met by all the village and received a harty welcom from it's inhabitants &. here i found my old acquaintance majr. w. christy who had settled in this town in a public line as a tavern keeper. he furnished us with store rooms for our baggage and we accepted of the invitation of mr. peter choteau and took a room in his house we payed a friendly visit to mr august chotau and some of our old friends this evening. as the post had departed from st. louis capt lewis wrote a note to mr. hay in kahoka to detain the post at that place untill tomorrow which was reather later than his usial time of leaveing it [clark, september , ] wednesday th of september i sleped but little last night however we rose early and commencd wrighting our letters capt. lewis wrote one to the presidend and i wrote govr. harrison & my friends in kentucky and sent of george drewyer with those letters to kohoka & delivered them to mr. hays &. we dined with mr. chotoux to day, and after dinner went to a store and purchased some clothes, which we gave to a tayler and derected to be made. capt lewis in opening his trunk found all his papers wet, and some seeds spoiled [clark, september , ] thursday th of septr. had all of our skins &c. suned and stored away in a storeroom of mr. caddy choteau. payed some visits of form, to the gentlemen of st. louis. in the evening a dinner & ball [clark, september , ] friday th of september a fine morning we commenced wrighting &c. produced from images generously made available by the internet archive.) [illustration] the columbia river its history, its myths, its scenery, its commerce by william denison lyman professor of history in whitman college, walla walla, washington _with illustrations and a map_ g. p. putnam's sons new york and london the knickerbocker press copyright, by g. p. putnam's sons the knickerbocker press, new york to my parents horace lyman and mary denison lyman pioneers of , who bore their part in laying the foundations of civilization upon the banks of the columbia, this volume is dedicated by the author i see the living tide roll on, it crowns with rosy towers the icy capes of labrador, the spaniard's land of flowers; it streams beyond the splintered ridge that parts the northern showers. from eastern rock to sunset wave, the continent is ours. holmes. preface as one of the american waterways series, this volume is designed to be a history and description of the columbia river. the author has sought to convey to his reader a lively sense of the romance, the heroism, and the adventure which belong to this great stream and the parts of the north-west about it, and he has aimed to breathe into his narrative something of the spirit and sentiment--a spirit and sentiment more easily recognised than analysed--which we call "western." with this end in view, his treatment of the subject has been general rather than detailed, and popular rather than recondite. while he has spared no pains to secure historical accuracy, he has not made it a leading aim to settle controverted points, or to present the minutiæ of historical research and criticism. in short, the book is rather for the general reader than for the specialist. the author hopes so to impress his readers with the majesty of the columbia as to fill their minds with a longing to see it face to face. frequent reference in the body of the book to authorities renders it unnecessary to name them here. suffice it to say that the author has consulted the standard works of history and description dealing with oregon--the old oregon--and its river, and from the voluminous matter there gathered has selected the facts that best combine to make a connected and picturesque narrative. he has treated the subject topically, but there is a general progression throughout, and the endeavour has been to find a natural jointure of chapter to chapter and era to era. while the book has necessarily been based largely on other books, it may be said that the author has derived his chief inspiration from his own observations along the shores of the river and amid the mountains of oregon and washington, where his life has mainly been spent, and from familiar conversations in the cabins of pioneers, or at camp-fires of hunters, or around indian tepees, or in the pilot-houses of steamboats. in such ways and places one can best catch the spirit of the river and its history. the author gladly takes this opportunity of making his grateful acknowledgments to prof. f. g. young, of oregon university, for his kindness in reading the manuscript and in making suggestions which his full knowledge and ripe judgment render especially valuable. he wishes also to express his warmest thanks to mr. harvey w. scott, editor of the _oregonian_, for invaluable counsel. similar gratitude is due to prof. henry landes of washington university for important assistance in regard to some of the scientific features of the first chapter. w. d. l. whitman college, walla walla, wash., . contents page part i.--the history chapter i the land where the river flows chapter ii tales of the first white men along the coast chapter iii how all nations sought the river from the sea and how they found it chapter iv first steps across the wilderness in search of the river chapter v the fur-traders, their bateaux, and their stations chapter vi the coming of the missionaries to the tribes of the river chapter vii the era of the pioneers, their ox-teams, and their flatboats chapter viii conflict of nations for possession of the river chapter ix the times of tomahawk and firebrand chapter x when the "fire-canoes" took the place of the log-canoes chapter xi era of the miner, the cowboy, the farmer, the boomer, and the railroad-builder chapter xii the present age of expansion and world commerce part ii.--a journey down the river chapter i in the heart of the canadian rockies chapter ii the lakes from the arrow lakes to chelan chapter iii in the land of wheat-field, orchard, and garden chapter iv where river and mountain meet, and the traces of the bridge of the gods chapter v a side trip to some of the great snow-peaks chapter vi the lower river and the ocean tides index illustrations page st. peter's dome, columbia river, feet high _frontispiece_ copyright, kiser photograph co., . mount adams from the south photo. by w. d. lyman. capt. robert gray the "columbia rediviva" mount hood from lost lake photo. by e. h. moorehouse. eliot glacier, mt. hood photo. by e. h. moorehouse. astoria in from an old print. astoria, looking up and across the columbia river photo. by woodfield. one of the lagoons of the upper columbia river, near golden b. c. photo. by c. f. yates, golden. saddle mountain, or swallalochort near astoria, famous in indian myth photo. by woodfield. steamer "beaver," the first steamer on the pacific, portland, oregon, in from an old print. grave of marcus whitman and his associate martyrs at waiilatpu photo. by w. d. chapman. cayuse babies-- copyright by lee moorehouse, . cayuse babies-- copyright by lee moorehouse, . col. b. f. shaw, who won the battle of grande ronde in by courtesy of lee moorehouse. fort sheridan on the grande ronde, built by philip sheridan in by courtesy of lee moorehouse. tullux holliquilla, a warm springs indian chief, famous in the modoc war as a scout for u. s. troops by courtesy of lee moorehouse. hallakallakeen (eagle wing) or joseph, the nez percÉ chief by t. w. tolman. camp of chief joseph on the nespilem, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. tirzah trask, a umatilla indian girl--taken as an ideal of sacajawea photo. by lee moorehouse, pendleton. oregon pioneer in his cabin photo. by e. h. moorehouse. old portage railroad at cascades in a log-boom down the river for san francisco photo. by woodfield. lumber mill and steamboat landing at golden, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates. a typical lumber camp photo. by trueman. a logging railroad, near astoria photo. by woodfield. natural bridge, kicking horse or wapta river, and mt. stephen, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates. sunrise on columbia river, near washougal copyright, kiser photograph co., . lake windermere, upper columbia, where david thompson's fort was built in photo. by w. d. lyman. mt. burgess and emerald lake, one of the sources of the wapta river, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates. bonnington falls in kootenai river, near nelson photo. by allan lean. bridge creek, a tributary of lake chelan, wash. photo. by f. n. kneeland, northampton, mass. kootenai lake, from proctor, b. c. photo. by allan lean, nelson. lower arrow lake, b. c. photo. by allan lean, nelson. bridal veil falls on columbia river photo. by e. h. moorehouse. shoshone falls, in snake river, feet high photo. by w. d. lyman. lake pend oreille, idaho photo. by t. w. tolman. lake coeur d'alene, idaho photo. by t. w. tolman. the "shadowy st. joe," idaho photo. by t. w. tolman. on the coeur d'alene river, idaho photo. by t. w. tolman. gorge of chelan river, the outlet of lake chelan photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. head of lake chelan--looking up stehekin caÑon photo. by w. d. lyman. cascade pass at head of stehekin river, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. doubtful lake, cascade range, washington, near lake chelan photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane, wash. horseshoe basin through a rock gap, stehekin caÑon photo. by t. w. tolman. lake chelan photo. by w. d. lyman. a harvest outfit, dayton, wash. _sunset magazine._ a combined harvester, near walla walla photo. by w. d. chapman. inland empire system's power plant, near spokane, , horse-power photo. by t. w. tolman. lower spokane falls photo. by t. w. tolman. caÑon of the stehekin, near lake chelan photo. by t. w. tolman. memorial building, whitman college, walla walla photo. by w. d. chapman. starting the ploughs in the wheat land, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman, walla walla. on the historic walla walla river photo. by w. d. chapman. blalock fruit ranch of a thousand acres at walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman. witch's head, near old wishram village. the indian superstition is that these eyes will follow any unfaithful woman by courtesy of lee moorehouse. cabbage rock, four miles north of the dalles photo. by lee moorehouse, pendleton. eagle rock, just above shoshone falls in snake river photo. by w. d. lyman. stehekin caÑon, feet deep photo. by w. d. lyman. steamer "dalles city," descending the cascades of the columbia memaloose island, columbia river photo. by e. h. moorehouse. horseshoe basin near lake chelan, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. castle rock, columbia river copyright, kiser photograph co., . the lyman glacier and glacier lake in north star park, near lake chelan photo. by w. d. lyman. hunters on lake chelan, with their spoils photo. by w. d. lyman. a morning's catch on the touchet, near dayton, wash. _sunset magazine._ oneonta gorge--looking in photo. by e. h. moorehouse. cape horn, columbia river--looking up photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland. looking up the columbia river from the cliff above multnomah falls, ore. copyright, , by kiser photograph co. spokane falls and city, photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. spokane falls and city, photo. by t. w. tolman. in the heart of the cascade mountains, above lake chelan, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane. birch-tree channel, upper columbia, near golden, b. c. photo by c. f. yates, golden. typical mountain meadow, stehekin valley, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman. high school, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman, walla walla. lake chelan photo. by f. n. kneeland. on the banks of the columbia river, near hood river photo. by e. h. moorehouse. rooster rock, columbia river--looking up photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland. band of elk on w. p. reser's ranch, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman. oregon city in from an old print. fort vancouver in lone rock, columbia river, about fifty miles east of portland photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland. willamette falls, oregon city, ore. photo. by e. h. moorehouse. among the big spruce trees, near astoria, oregon photo. by woodfield, astoria. portland in . mt. st. helens sixty-five miles distant portland harbour, oregon photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland. fish river road in upper columbia region, b. c. photo. by trueman, victoria. multnomah falls, feet high, on south side of columbia river about sixty miles above portland photo. by e. h. moorehouse. chinook salmon, weight pounds photo. by woodfield, astoria. lake adela, near head of columbia river, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates. bridal veil bluff, columbia river, oregon photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland. band of kootenai indians, b. c. photo. by allan lean, nelson. maps _at end_ part i the history chapter i the land where the river flows contrasts--the two islands--uplift--volcanic action--flood--age of ice--story of wishpoosh and creation of the tribes--outline of the mountain systems--peculiar interlocking of the columbia and the kootenai--the cascade range--the inland empire--the valleys west of the cascade mountains--the forests--the climate--the native races and some of their myths--story of the kamiah monster--the tomanowas bridge at the cascades--origin of three great mountains--the chinook wind--myths of the unseen life--klickitat story of the spirit baby--beauty of the native names. wonderfully varied though rivers are, each has a physiognomy of its own. each preserves its characteristics even in the midst of constant diversity. we recognise it, as we recognise a person in different changes of dress. the ohio has one face, the hudson another, and each keeps its essential identity. the traveller would not confuse the rhine with the danube, or the nile with the volga. even more distinctive than most rivers in form and feature is the columbia, the old oregon that now hears far other sounds than "his own dashings," the river of the west, the thegayo, the rio de los reyes, the rio estrachos, the rio de aguilar, the many-named river which unites all parts of the pacific north-west. it is to its records of romance and heroism, of legend and history, as well as to its alternating scenes of stormy grandeur and tranquil majesty that the reader's attention is now invited. though among the latest of american rivers to be brought under the control of civilised men, the columbia was among the earliest to attract the interest of the explorers of all nations, and the struggles of international diplomacy over possession were among the most momentous in history. the distance of the columbia from the centres of population and the difficulty of reaching it made its development slow, and for this reason its pioneer stage lasted longer than would otherwise have been the case. in this part of its history there was a record of pathos, tragedy, and achievement not surpassed in any of the annals of our country, while, in its later phases, the north-west has had the sweep and energy of growth and power characteristic of genuine american development. finally, by reason of scenic grandeur, absorbing interest of physical features, the majesty and mystery of its origin in the greatest of american mountains, the swift might of its flow through some of the wildest as well as some of the most beautiful regions of the globe, and at the last by the peculiar grandeur of its entrance into the greatest of the oceans, this "achilles of rivers" attracts alike historian, scientist, poet, statesman, and lover of nature. * * * * * "a land of old upheaven from the abyss," a land of deepest deeps and highest heights, of richest verdure here, and barest desolation there, of dense forest on one side, and wide extended prairies on the other; a land, in brief, of contrasts, contrasts in contour, hues, productions, and history;--such is that imperial domain watered by the columbia river and its affluents. to the artist, the poet, the scientist, and the sportsman, this region presents noble and varied scenes of shore, of mountain, of river, of lake, while to the romancer and historian it offers a wealth of native legend and of record from the heroic ages of american history. as a fit introduction to the picture of the land as it now appears, there may be presented a brief record of the manner in which it was wrought into its present form. professor thomas condon of oregon thought that the first land to rise on the pacific coast was composed of two islands, one in the region of the siskiyou mountains of northern california and southern oregon, and the other in the heart of what are now the blue mountains and saw-tooth mountains of north-eastern oregon, south-eastern washington, and western idaho. other geologists have doubted the existence of the second of these two islands. those islands, if both existed, were the nuclei of the pacific coast region. the rock consisted of the earlier granite, sandstone, and limestone crust of the earth. for long ages these two islands, washed by the warm seas of that early age, and bearing a life now found in the tropics, were slowly rising and widening their boundaries in all directions. next, or perhaps as early, to respond to the pressure of the shrinking crust of the earth and to appear above the sea, was the vast cordon of pinnacled peaks which compose the present okanogan and chelan uplift, granite and porphyry, broken by volcanic outflow. these peaks are veined with gold, silver, and copper. that first age of mountain uplift was ended by the coming on of the age of fire. the granite upheaval of the blue and the cascade mountains was blown apart and cracked asunder by volcanic eruption and seismic force. a vast outflow of basalt and andesite swept westward from the blue mountains to meet a similar outflow moving eastward from the cascades. thus, throughout the columbia basin, the surface is mainly of volcanic rock overlying the shattered fragments of the original earth crust. at many points, however, the primeval granite or sandstone surface was not covered, while at frequent intervals the breaking forth of the fiery floods transformed those original rocks into various forms of gneiss, porphyry, and marble. but the greatest result of the age of volcanic outflow was the elevation of the stupendous isolated snow peaks which now constitute so striking a feature of columbian landscapes. with the close of the age of fire, the mountain chains were in place, as they now stand, but the plains and valleys were not yet fashioned. another series of forces must needs come to elaborate the rude outlines of the land. and so came on the third great age, the age of flood. the upheaval of the mingled granite and volcanic masses of the cascade and blue mountains, while at the same time the rockies were undergoing the same process, imprisoned a vast sea over the region now known by westerners as the inland empire. in the depths of this sea the sediment from a thousand torrents was deposited to fashion the smooth and level valleys of the yakima, the walla walla, the spokane, and lesser streams, while a similar process fashioned the valleys of the willamette and other streams between the cascades and the coast mountains westward. but while the age of flood was shaping the great valley systems, a fourth age--the age of ice--was working still other changes upon the plastic land. the mountains had been reared by upheaval and volcanic outflow to a stupendous height. then they became glaciated. the whole northern hemisphere, in fact, took on the character of the present greenland. enormous glaciers descended the flanks of the mountains, gouging and ploughing out the abysmal cañons which now awe the beholder, and scooping out the deeps where chelan, coeur d'alene, pend oreille, kaniksu, and other great lakes delight the vision of the present day. such were the forces that wrought the physical features of the land where the river flows. we do not mean to convey the impression that there was a single age of each, and that they followed each other in regular chronological order. as a matter of fact there were several eras of each, interlocked with each other: upheaval, fire, flood, and frost. but as the resultant of all, the columbia basin assumed its present form. the great forces which have thus fashioned this land manifested themselves on a scale of vast energy. evidences of upheaval, fire, flood, and glacier are exhibited on every side, and these evidences constitute a testimony of geological history of the most interesting nature. long before this record of the rocks had found a white reader, the native red man had read the open pages, and interpreted them in the light of his ardent fancy. the indian conception of the flood, involving also that of the creation of the native tribes, is one of the most fantastic native legends. this is the story of the great beaver, wishpoosh, of lake kichelos. according to this myth the beaver wishpoosh inhabited that lake on the summit of the cascade mountains, the source of the yakima river. in the time of the watetash (animal people) before the advent of men, the king beaver, wishpoosh, of enormous size and voracious appetite, was in the evil habit of seizing and devouring the lesser creatures and even the vegetation. so destructive did he become that speelyei, the coyote god of the mid-columbia region, undertook to check his rapacities. the struggle only made the monster more insatiate, and in his wrath he tore out the banks of the lake. the gathered floods swept on down the cañon and formed another great lake in the region now known as the kittitas valley. but the struggle between wishpoosh and speelyei did not end, and the former in his mad fury went on thrashing around in this greater lake. for a long time the rocky barriers of the umtanum restrained the flood, but at last they gave way before the onslaughts of the wrathful beaver, and the loosened waters swept on down and filled the great basin now occupied by the fruit and garden ranches of the cowiche, natchees, and atahnum. in like fashion the restraining wall at the gap just below yakima city was torn out, and a yet greater lake was formed over all the space where we now see the level plains of the simcoe and toppenish. the next lake formed in the process covered the yet vaster region at the juncture of the yakima, snake and columbia rivers. for a long time it was dammed in by the umatilla highlands, but in process of time it, too, was drained by the bursting of the rocky wall before the well-directed attacks of wishpoosh. the yet greater lake, the greatest of all, now formed between the umatilla on the east and the cascade mountains on the west. but even the towering wall of the cascades gave way in time and the accumulated floods poured on without further hindrance to the open sea. thus was the series of great lakes drained, the level valleys left, and the great river suffered to flow in its present course. but there is a sequel to the story of the flood. for wishpoosh, being now in the ocean, laid about him with such fury that he devoured the fish and whales and so threatened all creation that speelyei perceived that the time had come to end it all. transforming himself into a floating branch, he drifted to wishpoosh and was swallowed. once inside the monster, the wily god resumed his proper size and power; and with his keen-edged knife proceeded to cut the vitals of the belligerent beaver, until at last all life ceased, and the huge carcass was cast up by the tide on clatsop beach, just south of the mouth of the great river. and now what to do with the carcass? speelyei solved the problem by cutting it up and from its different parts fashioning the tribes as each part was adapted. from the head he made the nez percés, great in council and oratory. from the arms came the cayuses, powerful with the bow and war-club. the klickitats were the product of the legs, and they were the runners of the land. the belly was transformed into the gluttonous chinooks. at the last there was left an indiscriminate mass of hair and gore. this speelyei hurled up the far distance to the east, and out of it sprung the snake river indians. such is the native physiography and anthropogenesis of the land of the oregon. if now one could rise on the pinions of the chinook wind (the warm south wind of the columbia basin, of which more anon), and from the southern springs of the owyhee and the malheur could wing his way to the snowy peaks in british columbia, from whose fastnesses there issues the foaming torrent of canoe river, the most northerly of all the tributaries of the great river, he would obtain, in a noble panorama, a view of the land where the river flows, in its present aspect, as fashioned by the elemental forces of which we have spoken. but not to many is it given thus to be "horsed on the sightless couriers of the air," and we must needs use imagination in lieu of them. even a map will be the safest guide for most. inspection of the map will show that the distance to which we have referred covers twelve degrees of latitude, while the distance from the source of the snake river in the yellowstone national park to the pacific requires a span of fifteen degrees of longitude. the south-eastern part of this vast area occupying southern idaho is mainly an arid plain; arid, indeed, in its natural condition, but, when touched by the vivifying waters in union with the ardent sun, it blossoms like a garden of the lord. upon these vast plains where the volcanic dust has drifted for ages, now looking so dismal in their monotonous garb of sage-brush, the millions of the future will some time live in peace and plenty, each under his own vine and apple-tree. on the eastern boundary, all the way from western wyoming to eastern british columbia, stand cordons of stupendous mountains, the western outposts of the great continental divide. these constitute one spur after another, from whose profound cañons issues river after river to swell the torrents of the turbid and impetuous snake on its thousand-mile journey to join the columbia. among these tributary streams are the payette, the boisé, the salmon, and the clearwater. yet farther north, beyond the system of the snake, are the bitter root, the missoula, the pend oreille, the spokane, and the kootenai (we follow here the american spelling, the canadian being kootenay), with almost innumerable affluents, draining the huge labyrinths of the bitter root mountains and the silver bow. thus our northward flight carries us to the international boundary in latitude degrees. far beyond that parallel stretches chain after chain of divisions of the great continental range, the selkirks, the gold range, purcell's range, sky-piercing heights, snow-clad and glaciated. up and down these interlocking chains the columbia and the kootenai, with their great lakes and unexplored tributaries, seem to be playing at hide-and-seek with each other. these rivers form here one of the most singular geographical phenomena of the world, for so strangely are the parallel chains of mountains tilted that the kootenai, rising in a small lake on the western flank of the main chain of the canadian rockies and flowing south, passes within a mile of the source of the columbia at columbia lake, separated only by a nearly level valley. connection, in fact, is so easy that a canal once joined the two rivers. from that point of contact the kootenai flows far south into idaho, then makes a grand wheel to the north-west, forming kootenai lake on the way, then wheeling again in its tortuous course to the west, it joins the greater stream in the midst of the majestic mountain chains which stand guard over the arrow lakes. and meanwhile where has the columbia itself been journeying? after the parting from the kootenai it flows directly north-west between two stupendous chains of mountains. reaching its highest northern point in latitude degrees, where it receives the canoe river, which has come two hundred miles or more from the north, it turns sharply westward, finding a passageway cleft in the mountain wall. thence making a grand wheel toward the south, it casts its turbid floods into the long expanse of the arrow lakes, from which it emerges, clear and bright, soon to join the kootenai. and how far have they journeyed since they parted? the columbia about six hundred miles, and the kootenai hardly less, though having passed within a mile of each other, flowing in opposite directions. it will be readily seen from this description that the mountains which feed the columbian system of rivers on the east and north, are of singular grandeur and interest. but now as we bear our way southward again we discover that another mountain system, yet grander and of more curious interest, forms the western boundary of the upper columbia basin. this is the cascade range. sublime, majestic, mysterious, this noble chain of mountains, with its tiaras of ice, its girdles of waterfalls, its draperies of forest, its jewels of lakes, must make one search long to find its parallel in any land for all the general features of mountain charm. but over and beyond those more usual delights of the mountains, the cascade range has a unique feature, one in which it stands unrivalled among all the mountains of the earth, with the exception possibly of the andes. this is the feature of the great isolated snow peaks, stationed like sentinels at intervals of from thirty to sixty miles all the way from the british line to california. there is nothing like this elsewhere on the north american continent. the sierras of california are sublime, but their great peaks are not isolated monarchs like those of the cascades. the high sierras are blended together in one mountain wall, in which no single peak dominates any wide extended space. but in the long array of the cascades, five hundred miles and more from the international boundary to the california line, one glorious peak after another uplifts the banner and sets its regal crown toward sunrise or sunset, king of earth and air to the border where the shadow of the next mountain monarch mingles with its own. hence these great cascade peaks have an individuality which gives them a kind of living personality in the life of any one who has lived for any length of time within sight of them. from the north, moving south, we might gaze at these great peaks, and find no two alike. baker--how much finer is the native name, kulshan, the great white watcher--first on the north; shuksan next, the place where the storm-winds gather, in the native tongue; then glacier peak, with its girdle of ice, thirteen great glaciers; stewart next with its dizzy horn of rock set in a field of snow; then the great king-peak of all, rainier, better named by the natives, takhoma, the fountain breast of milk-white waters; and after this, adams, or in the indian, klickitat, with st. helens or loowit near at hand on the west; then, across the great river, hood or wiyeast, with its pinnacled crest; next southward, jefferson with its sharp chimney whose top has never yet been touched by human foot; yet beyond, the marvellous group of the three sisters, each with its separate personality and yet all together combining in one superb whole; then mt. scott, mt. thielson, diamond peak, mt. pitt, and with them we might well include the truncated cone of mt. mazama, once the lordliest of the chain, but by some mighty convulsion of nature, shorn of crown and head, and now bearing on its summit instead the most singular body of water, crater lake, on all the american continent. fifteen is the number of the great peaks named, but there are dozens of lesser heights, snow-crowned and regal. the great cascade chain is, therefore, the noblest and most significant feature of the topography of the land of the columbia. between the rocky mountains and the cascades lies what is locally known as the inland empire, mainly a continuous prairie or series of prairies and valleys, wheat land, orchard land, garden land, fertile, beautiful, attractive, broken by an occasional mountain spur, as the irregular mass of the blue mountains, but substantially an inhabited land, reaching from colville, spokane, and the okanogan on the north to the klamath valleys on the south, a region five hundred miles long by two hundred wide, a goodly land, one difficult to excel in all the potentialities of use for human needs. such are the distinguishing features of the columbia basin on the east side of the cascade mountains. to the west of those mountains is another vast expanse of interior valleys, not so large indeed and not more fertile, but even more beautiful, and by reason of earlier settlement and contiguity to the ocean, better developed. this series of valleys is enclosed between the cascade mountains and the coast range, and in a general way parallels the inland empire already described. but this statement should be qualified by the explanation that north-western washington consists of the puget sound basin, which is a distinct geographical system, while south-western oregon consists of the umpqua and rogue river valleys, and these valleys though commercially and politically a part of the columbia system, are geographically separate, since they debouch directly into the pacific ocean. there is left, therefore, for the columbia region proper west of the cascade mountains, the willamette valley in oregon, and the valleys of the lewis, kalama, and cowlitz in washington, with several smaller valleys on each side. the willamette valley is the great distinguishing feature of this part of the columbia basin. a more attractive region is hard to find. mountains snow-clad and majestic, the great peaks of the cascades already described, guard it on the east, while westward the gentler slopes of the coast range separate it from the sea. between the two ranges lies the valley, two hundred miles long by about a hundred broad, including the foot-hills, a succession of level plains, oak-crowned hills, and fertile bottoms. not greece nor italy nor the vale of cashmere can surpass this earthly paradise in all the features that compose the beautiful and grand in nature. geologists tell us that this willamette region was once a counterpart of puget sound, only with less depth of water, and that, as the result of centuries of change, the old-time willamette sound has become the willamette valley. it has now become the most thickly settled farming region of the columbia basin, and, as its fitting metropolis, portland sits at the gateway of the willamette and columbia, the "rose city," handsomest of all western cities, to welcome the commerce of the world. the valleys on the washington side of the columbia make up together a region of great beauty, fertility, and productiveness, perhaps a hundred miles square, and, though yet but partially developed, contain many beautiful homes. the larger part of the columbia valley west of the cascade mountains is, in its natural state, densely timbered. here are found "the continuous woods where rolls the oregon and hears no sound but his own dashings." these great fir, spruce, cedar, and pine forests, extending a thousand miles along the pacific coast from central california to the straits of fuca (and indeed they continue, though the trees gradually diminish in size, for nearly another thousand miles up the alaska coast), constitute the world's largest timber supply. the demands upon it have been tremendous during the past twenty years, and the stately growths of centuries have vanished largely from all places in the near vicinity of shipping points. yet one can still find primeval woods where the coronals of green are borne three hundred feet above the damp and perfumed earth, and where the pillars of the wood sustain so continuous a canopy of foliage that the sunlight is stopped or filters through only in pale and watery rays. hence all manner of vines and shrubs grow with almost tropic profusion, though with weak and straggling stems. throughout the entire pacific north-west the soil is of extraordinary fertility. it is largely of volcanic dust as fine as flour and seems to contain the constituents of plant life in inexhaustible abundance. even in the arid belts of eastern oregon, where to the eye of the stranger the appearance is of a hopeless waste, those same elements of plant food exist, and with water every manner of tree or vine or flower bursts quickly into perfect life. the climate of the columbia basin is a puzzle to the stranger, but in most of its aspects it quickly becomes an equal delight. as is well known, the japan ocean current exercises upon the pacific coast an effect similar to that of the gulf stream on ireland and england. hence the states of the columbia valley are much warmer in winter than regions of the same latitude on the atlantic coast or in the mississippi valley. though the average temperature is higher, yet it is cooler in summer on the pacific coast than on the atlantic. the pacific climate has much less of extremes. the state of washington has about the same isothermal line as north carolina. there is, however, another feature of the columbia climate not so well known to non-residents, which is worthy of a passing paragraph. this is the division of the country by the cascade mountains into a humid western section and a dry eastern one. the mountain wall intercepts the larger part of the vapour rising from the pacific and flying eastward, and these warm masses of vapour are condensed by the icy barrier and fall in rain on the western side. hence western oregon and washington are damp and soft, with frequent clouds and fogs. the rainfall, though varying much, is in most places from forty to fifty inches a year. but east of the mountain wall which has "milked the clouds," the air is clear and bright, the sun shines most of the year from cloudless skies, and there seems to be more of tingle and electricity in the atmosphere. the rainfall ranges from ten to thirty inches, and in the drier parts vegetation does not flourish without irrigation. any view of primeval oregon would be incomplete without a glimpse of the native race, that melancholy people, possessed of so many interesting and even noble traits, whose sad lot it has mainly been to struggle against the advent of a civilisation which they could not understand nor resist, and before which they have melted away in pitiful impotency. but they have at least had the highest dignity of defeat, for they have died fighting. they have realised the conception of the roman emperor: "_me stantem mori oportet_." the oregon indians have essentially the same characteristic traits as other indians, secretiveness, patience, vindictiveness, stoicism; and, in their best state, fidelity and boundless generosity to friends. the poor broken fragments of the once populous tribes along the columbia cannot but affect the present-day observer with pity. most of the tangible memorials of this fallen race have vanished with them. not many of the conquerors have been sympathetic or even rational in their treatment of the indians. hence memorials of memory and imagination which might have been drawn from them and treasured up have vanished with them into the darkness. yet many indian legends have been preserved in one manner and another, and these are sufficient to convince us that the native races are of the same nature as ourselves. some of the legends which students of indian lore have gathered, will, perhaps, prove interesting to the reader. a quaint nez-percé myth accounts for the creation as follows: there was during the time of the watetash a monster living in the country of kamiah in central idaho. this monster had the peculiar property of an irresistible breath, so that when it inhaled, the winds and grass and trees and even different animals would be sucked into its devouring maw. the coyote god, being grieved for the destruction wrought by this monster, made a coil of rope out of grass and with this went to the summit of wallowa mountains to test the suction power of the monster. appearing like a tiny spear of grass upon the mountain, he blew a challenge to the monster. descrying the small object in the distance kamiah began to draw the air inward. but strange to say, coyote did not move. "ugh, that is a great medicine," said the monster. coyote now took his station upon the mountains of the seven devils, a good deal closer, and blew his challenge again. again the kamiah monster tried to breathe so deeply as to draw the strange challenger into his grasp, but again he failed. "he is a very big medicine," he said once more. and now coyote mounted the top of the salmon river mountains, somewhere near the buffalo hump of the present time, and again the monster's breath failed to draw him. the baffled kamiah was now sure that this was most extraordinary medicine. in reality, coyote had each time held himself by a grass rope tied to the mountain. coyote now called into counsel kotskots, the fox. providing him with five knives, kotskots advised coyote to force an entrance into the interior of the monster. entering in, coyote found people in all stages of emaciation, evidently having had their life gradually sucked out of them. it was also so cold and dark in the interior that they were chilled into almost a condition of insensibility. looking about him, coyote began to see great chunks of fat and pitch in the vitals of the monster, and accordingly he rubbed sticks together and started a fire, which being fed with the fat and pitch, soon grew into a cheerful glow. now, armed with his knives, he ascended the vast interior until he reached the heart. he had already directed kotskots to rouse up and gather together all the emaciated stowaways and provide that when the monster was cut open they should see how to rush out into the sunlight. great as was the monster kamiah, he could not stop the persistent hacking away at his heart which coyote now entered upon. when the fifth knife was nearly gone, the heart dropped down and kamiah collapsed into a lifeless mass. the people under the guidance of kotskots, burst out into the sunshine and scattered themselves abroad. it must be remembered that these were animal people, not human. coyote called upon them to wait until he should have shown them a last wonder, for, cutting the monster in pieces, he now began to fashion from the pieces a new race of beings to be called men. the portion which he cut from the head he flung northward, and of this was fashioned the flathead tribe. the feet he cast eastward, making them the blackfeet. so he continued, making new tribes here and there. but at the last kotskots interposed an objection. "you have made no people," he said, "for the valley of the lapwai, which is the most beautiful of all." realising the force of the suggestion, coyote mixed the blood of the monster with water and sprinkled it in a rain over the entire valley of the clearwater. from these drops of blood and water, the nez percé tribe was formed. the heart of the monster is still to be seen by all travellers in that country, being a heart-shaped hill in the valley of kamiah. perhaps the most perfect and beautiful of all indian fire myths of the columbia, is that connected with the famous "tomanowas bridge" at the cascades. this myth not only treats of fire, but it also endeavours to account for the peculiar formation of the river and for the great snow peaks in the near vicinity. this myth has various forms, and in order that it may be the better understood, we shall say a word with respect to the peculiar physical features in that part of the columbia. the river, after having traversed over a thousand miles from its source in the heart of the great rocky mountains of canada, has cleft the cascade range asunder with a cañon three thousand feet in depth. while generally swift, that portion between the dalles and the cascades is deep and sluggish. there are, moreover, sunken forests on both sides visible at low water, which seem plainly to indicate that at that point the river was dammed up by some great rock slide or volcanic convulsion. some of the indians affirm that their grandfathers have told them that there was a time when the river at that point passed under an immense natural bridge, and that there were no obstructions to the passage of boats under the bridge. at the present time there is a cascade of forty feet at that point. this is now overcome by government locks. among other evidences of some such actual occurrence as the indians relate, is the fact that the banks at that point are gradually sliding into the river. the prodigious volume of the columbia, which here rises from fifty to seventy-five feet during the summer flood, is continually eating into the banks. the railroad has slid several inches a year at this point toward the river and requires frequent readjustment. it is obvious at a slight inspection that this weird and sublime point has been the scene of terrific volcanic and probably seismic action. one indian legend, probably the best known of their stories, is to the effect that the downfall of the bridge and consequent damming of the river was due to a battle between mt. hood and mt. adams,--or, some say, mt. st. helens--in which mt. hood hurled a great rock at his antagonist; but, falling short of the mark, the rock demolished the bridge instead. this event has been made use of by frederick balch in his story, _the bridge of the gods_. but the finer, though less known legend, which unites both the physical conformation of the cascades and the three great snow mountains of hood, adams, and st. helens, with the origin of fire, is to this effect. according to the klickitats, there was once a father and two sons who came from the east down the columbia to the region in which dalles city is now located, and there the two sons quarrelled as to who should possess the land. the father, to settle the dispute, shot two arrows, one to the north and one to the west. he told one son to find the arrow to the north and the other the one to the west, and there to settle and bring up their families. the first son, going northward, over what was then a beautiful plain, became the progenitor of the klickitat tribe, while the other son was the founder of the great multnomah nation of the willamette valley. to separate the two tribes more effectively, sahale, the great spirit, reared the chain of the cascades, though without any great peaks, and for a long time all things went in harmony. but for convenience' sake, sahale had created the great tomanowas bridge under which the waters of the columbia flowed, and on this bridge he had stationed a witch woman called loowit, who was to take charge of the fire. this was the only fire in the world. as time passed on loowit observed the deplorable condition of the indians, destitute of fire and the conveniences which it might bring. she therefore besought sahale to allow her to bestow fire upon the indians. sahale, greatly pleased by the faithfulness and benevolence of loowit, finally granted her request. the lot of the indians was wonderfully improved by the acquisition of fire. they began to make better lodges and clothes and had a variety of food and implements, and, in short, were marvellously benefited by the bounteous gift. but sahale, in order to show his appreciation of the care with which loowit had guarded the sacred fire, now determined to offer her any gift she might desire as a reward. accordingly, in response to his offer, loowit asked that she be transformed into a young and beautiful girl. this was accordingly affected, and now, as might have been expected, all the indian chiefs fell deeply in love with the guardian of the tomanowas bridge. loowit paid little heed to any of them, until finally there came two chiefs, one from the north called klickitat and one from the south called wiyeast. loowit was uncertain which of these two she most desired, and as a result a bitter strife arose between the two. this waxed hotter and hotter, until, with their respective warriors, they entered upon a desperate war. the land was ravaged, all their new comforts were marred, and misery and wretchedness ensued. sahale repented that he had allowed loowit to bestow fire upon the indians, and determined to undo all his work in so far as he could. accordingly he broke down the tomanowas bridge, which dammed up the river with an impassable reef, and put to death loowit, klickitat, and wiyeast. but, inasmuch as they had been noble and beautiful in life, he determined to give them a fitting commemoration after death. therefore he reared over them as monuments, the great snow peaks; over loowit, what we now call mt. st. helens; over wiyeast, the modern mt. hood; and, above klickitat, the great dome which we now call mt. adams. of the miscellaneous myths which pertain to the forces of nature, one of the best is that accounting for the chinook wind. all people who have lived long in oregon or washington have a conception of that marvellous warm wind which in january and february suddenly sends them almost summer heat amid snow banks and ice-locked streams, and causes all nature to rejoice as with a resurrection of spring time. scarcely anything can be imagined in nature more picturesque and dramatic than this chinook wind. the thermometer may be down nearly to zero, a foot of snow may rest like a pall on the earth, or a deadly fog may wrap the earth, when suddenly, as if by the breath of inspiration, the fog parts, the peaks of the mountains may be seen half stripped of snow, and then, roaring and whistling, the warm south wind comes like an army. the snow begins to drip like a pressed sponge, the thermometer goes with a jump to sixty, and within two hours we find ourselves in the climate of southern california. no wonder the indians personified this wind. we personify it ourselves. the yakima account of the chinook wind was to the effect that it was caused by five brothers who lived on the columbia river, not far from the present town of columbus. now there is at rare intervals in this country a cold north-east wind, which the indians on the lower columbia call the walla walla wind because it comes from the north-east. the cold wind was caused by another set of brothers. both these sets of brothers had grandparents who lived near what is now umatilla. the two groups of brothers were continually fighting each other, sweeping one way or the other over the country, alternately freezing or thawing it, blowing down trees and causing the dust to fly in clouds, and rendering the country generally very uncomfortable. finally, the walla walla brothers sent a challenge to the chinook brothers to undertake a wrestling match, the condition being that those who were defeated should forfeit their lives. it was agreed that speelyei should act as umpire and should inflict the penalty by decapitating the losers. speelyei secretly advised the grandparents of the chinook brothers to throw oil on the wrestling ground so that their sons might not fall. in like manner he secretly advised the grandparents of the walla walla brothers to throw ice on the ground. between the ice and the oil it was so slippery that it would be hard for any one to keep upright, but inasmuch as the walla walla grandfather got ice on the ground last, the chinook brothers were all thrown and killed. the eldest chinook had an infant baby at home, whose mother brought him up with one sole purpose in view, and that was that he must avenge the death of his father and uncles. by continual practice in pulling up trees he became prodigiously strong, insomuch that he could pull up the largest fir trees and throw them about like weeds. the young man finally reached such a degree of strength that he felt that the time had come for him to perform his great mission. therefore he went up the columbia, pulling up trees and tossing them around in different places, and finally passed over into the valley of the yakima, where he lay down to rest by the creek called the setas. there he rested for a day and a night, and the marks of his couch are still plainly visible on the mountain side. now, turning back again to the columbia, he sought the hut of his grandparents, and when he had found it, he found also that they were in a most deplorable condition. the walla walla brothers had been having it all their own way during these years and had imposed most shamefully upon the old people. when he learned this, the young chinook told his grandfather to go out into the columbia to fish for sturgeon, while he in the meantime would lie down in the bottom of the boat and watch for the walla walla wind. it was the habit of these tormenting walla walla wind brothers to wait until the old man had got his boat filled with fish, and then they, issuing swiftly and silently from the shore, would beset and rob him. this time they started out from the shore as usual, but to their great astonishment, just as they were about to catch him, the boat would shoot on at miraculous speed and leave them far behind. so the old man landed safely and brought his fish to the hut. the young chinook then took his grandparents to a stream and washed from them the filth which had gathered upon them during all those years of suffering. strange to say, the filth became transformed into trout, and this is the origin of all the trout along the columbia. as soon as the news became known abroad that there was another chinook champion in the field, the walla walla brothers began to demand a new wrestling match. young chinook very gladly accepted the challenge, though he had to meet all five. but now speelyei secretly suggested to the chinook grandfather that he should wait about throwing the oil on the ground until the ice had all been used up. by means of this change of practice, the walla walla brothers fell speedily before the young chinook. one after another was thrown and beheaded until only the youngest was left. his courage failing, he surrendered without a struggle. speelyei then pronounced sentence upon him, telling him that he must live, but could henceforth only blow lightly, and never have power to freeze people to death. speelyei also decreed that in order to keep chinook within bounds he should blow his hardest at night time, and should blow upon the mountain ridges first in order to prepare people for his coming. thus there came to be moderation in the winds, but chinook was always the victor in the end. and thus at the present time, in the perpetual flux and reflux of the oceans of the air, when the north wind sweeps down from the chilly zones of canada upon the columbia basin, his triumph is but transient. for within a few hours, or days at most, while the cattle are threatened with destruction and while ranchers are gazing anxiously about, they will discern a blue-black line upon the southern horizon. in a short time the mountain ridges can be seen bare of snow, and deliverance is at hand. for the next morning, rushing and roaring from the south, comes the blessed chinook, and the icy grip of the north melts as before a blast from a furnace. the struggle is short and chinook's victory is sure. nearly all our native races had a more or less coherent idea of a future state of rewards and punishments. "the happy hunting ground" of the indians is often referred to in connection with the indians of the older part of the united states. our indians have ideas in general quite similar. some believe that there is a hell and a heaven. the siskiyou indians in southern oregon have a curious idea similar to that of the ancient egyptians as well as of the mohammedans. this is to the effect that the regions of the blessed are on the other side of an enormously deep chasm. to pass over this, one must cross on a very narrow and slippery pole. the good can pass, but the bad fall off into empty space, whence they reappear again upon the earth as beasts or birds. the klickitat indians, living along the dalles of the columbia have a fine legend of the land of spirits. there lived a young chief and a girl who were devoted to each other and seemed to be the happiest people in the tribe, but suddenly he sickened and died. the girl mourned for him almost to the point of death, and he, having reached the land of the spirits, could find no happiness there for thinking of her. and so it came to pass that a vision began to appear to the girl at night, telling her that she must herself go into the land of the spirits in order to console her lover. now there is, near that place, one of the most weird and funereal of all the various "memaloose" islands, or death islands, of the columbia. the writer himself has been upon this island and its spectral and volcanic desolation makes it a fitting location for ghostly tales. it lies just below the "great chute," and even yet has many skeletons upon it. in accordance with the directions of the vision, the girl's father made ready a canoe, placed her in it, and passed out into the great river by night, to the memaloose island. as the father and his child rowed across the dark and forbidding waters, they began to hear the sounds of singing and dancing and great joy. upon the shore of the island they were met by four spirit people, who took the girl, but bade the father return, as it was not for him to see into the spirit country. accordingly the girl was conducted to the great dance-house of the spirits, and there she met her lover, far stronger and more beautiful than when upon earth. that night they spent in unspeakable bliss, but when the light began to break in the east and the song of the robins was heard from the willows on the shore, the singers and the dancers fell asleep. the girl, too, had gone to sleep, but not soundly like the spirits. when the sun had reached the meridian, she woke, and now, to her horror, she saw that instead of being in the midst of beautiful spirits, she was surrounded by hideous skeletons and loathsome, decaying bodies. around her waist were the bony arms and skeleton fingers of her lover, and his grinning teeth and gaping eye-sockets seemed to be turned in mockery upon her. screaming with horror, she leaped up and ran to the edge of the island, where, after hunting a long time, she found a boat, in which she paddled across to the indian village. having presented herself to her astonished parents, they became fearful that some great calamity would visit the tribe on account of her return, and accordingly her father took her the next night back to the memaloose island as before. there she met again the happy spirits of the blessed, and there again her lover and she spent another night in ecstatic bliss. in the course of time a child was born to the girl, beautiful beyond description, being half spirit and half human. the spirit bridegroom, being anxious that his mother should see the child, sent a spirit messenger to the village, desiring his mother to come by night to the memaloose island to visit them. she was told, however, that she must not look at the child until ten days had passed. but after the old woman had reached the island, her desire to see the wonderful child was so intense that she took advantage of a moment's inattention on the part of the guard, and, lifting the cloth from the baby board, she stole a look at the sleeping infant. and then, dreadful to relate, the baby died in consequence of this premature human look. grieved and displeased by this foolish act, the spirit people decreed that the dead should never again return nor hold any communication with the living. in concluding this chapter we cannot forbear to call the attention of our readers to the rare beauty of many of the native indian names of localities. these names always have some significance, and ordinarily there is some such poetic or figurative conception involved in the name as plainly reveals the fact that these rude and unfortunate natives have the souls of poets beneath their savage exterior. it is truly lamentable that some of the sonorous and poetic native names have been thrust aside for the commonplace and oft-repeated names of eastern or european localities or the still less attractive names of discoverers or their unimportant friends. think of using the names salem and portland for chemeketa and multnomah, the native names. chemeketa means "here we rest," or, some say, the "place of peace," for it was the council ground of the willamette valley indians. but the methodist missionaries thought that it would have a more biblical sound and conduce to the spiritual welfare of the natives to translate the word into its equivalent, salem. so they spoiled the wild native beauty of the name for all time. multnomah means "down the waters." but two yankee sea captains, with a sad deficiency of poetry in them, tossed up a coin to decide whether to employ the name of boston or portland, the native town of each, and the latter won the toss. oregon has been more fortunate than washington in its state name, for it has the unique name, stately and sonorous, which old jonathan carver first used for the river and which is one of the most distinctive of all the names of states. but whether oregon is indian, spanish, french, or a corruption of something else, or a pure invention of carver's is one of the mooted points in our history. idaho, too, has one of the most mellifluous of names, meaning the "gem of the mountains." all three states have many beautiful and appropriate names of rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities. such are chelan, "beautiful water"; umatilla, "the wind-blown sand"; walla walla, "where the waters meet"; shuksan, "the place of the storm winds"; spokane, "the people of the sun"; kulshan, "the great white watcher"; snoqualmie, "the falls of the moon god." seattle derives its name from the old chief seattle, or sealth. the most bitterly disputed name of all is tacoma _vs._ rainier, as the name of the greatest of our mountains. the name of rainier was derived by vancouver from that of an officer of the british navy, a man who never knew anything of oregon and had no part or lot in its discovery or development. tacoma, or more accurately, _takhoma_ (a peculiar guttural which we cannot fully indicate), was the native indian name, meaning, according to some, "the great white mountain," and according to others meaning "the fountain-breast of milk-white waters." with these glances at the character of the land, and its native inhabitants, we are now ready to see how they became known to the world. chapter ii tales of the first white men along the coast nekahni mountain and tallapus--quootshoi and toulux--original beauty of clatsop plains--the story told by celiast and cultee--casting of the "thing" upon the beach--the pop-corn--burning of the ship--konapee, the iron-worker--franchère's account of soto--the treasure ship on the beach at nekahni mountain--the black spook and mysterious chest--the inscription still found on the rock--the beeswax ship--quiaculliby. we have told something of the mountains, rivers, and lakes which make up the framework of our pacific north-west. we have also tried to see the land through the eyes of the native red men, and have called back a few of the grotesque, fantastic, sometimes heroic, sometimes pathetic legends which they associated with every phase of their country. now the very centre of indian lore, the parnassus, the delphi, the dodona, of the lower columbia river indians, is the stretch of mingled bluff, plain, lake, sand-dune, and mountain, marvellously diversified, from the south shore of the columbia's mouth to the sacred nekahni mountain. it is a wonderously picturesque region. from it came tallapus, the hermes trismegistus of the oregon indians. its forests were haunted by the skookums and cheatcos. from the volcanic pinnacles of swallallochast, now known as saddle mountain, the thunder bird went forth on its daily quest of a whale, while at the mountain's foot quootshoi and toulux produced the first men from the monstrous eggs of that same great bird. in short, that region was rich in legend, as it was, and still is, in scenic beauty. it is said by the indians that a hundred years or more ago it was much finer than now, for the entire breadth of clatsop plains was sodded with deep green grass and bright with flowers almost the whole year through. this bright-hued plain lay open to the sea, and across its southern end flowed three tide streams, having the aboriginal names of nekanikum, ohanna, and neahcoxie. it was a veritable paradise for the indians. the forests were filled with elk (moosmoos) and deer (mowitch), while fish of almost every variety thronged the waters, from that king of all fish now known as the royal chinook of the columbia down to such smaller fry as the smelt and the herring, which even now sometimes so throng the lesser streams that the receding tide leaves them by the thousands on the muddy flats. on the beach were infinite numbers of clams; and as an evidence of their abundance we can now see shell mounds by the acre, in such quantity, indeed, that some of the modern roads have been paved with shells. this favoured region was the home of the clatsops. there, too, according to the legends, the first white men landed. the story of the first appearance of the white men has reached our own times in various forms, but the most coherent account is through the word of celiast, an indian woman who died many years ago, but who became the wife of one of the earliest white settlers and the mother of silas smith, now dead, but known in his time as one of the best authorities on indian history. celiast was the daughter of kobaiway, a chieftain whose sway extended over the land of the clatsops in the time of the astor company a century ago. celiast was in fact the best authority for many of the indian legends. but she is not alone in the knowledge of this appearance of the white men, for a number of other indians tell the substance of the same tale. among others an old indian of bay centre, washington, by the name of charlie cultee, related the story to dr. franz boas, whose work in the smithsonian institute is known as among the best on the native races. this is the story, a composite of that of celiast and that of cultee. it appears that an old woman living near the ancient indian village of ne-ahkstow, about two miles south of the mouth of the great river (the columbia) had lost her son. "she wailed for a whole year, and then she stopped." one day, after her usual custom, she went to the seaside, and walked along the shore towards clatsop. while on the way she saw something very strange. at first it seemed like a whale, but, when the old woman came close, she saw that it had two trees standing upright in it. she said, "this is no whale; it is a monster." the outside was all covered over with something bright, which they afterwards found was copper. ropes were tied all over the two trees, and the inside of the thing was full of iron. while the old woman gazed in silent wonder, a being that looked like a bear, but had a human face, though with long hair all over it, came out of the thing that lay there. then the old woman hastened home in great fear. she thought this bearlike creature must be the spirit of her son, and that the thing was that about which they had heard in the ekanum tales. the people, when they had heard the strange story, hastened with bows and arrows to the spot. there, sure enough, lay the thing upon the shore, just as the old woman had said. only instead of one bear there were two standing on the thing. these two creatures,--whether bears or people the indians were not sure,--were just at the point of going down the thing (which they now began to understand was an immense canoe with two trees driven into it) to the beach, with kettles in their hands. as the bewildered people watched them they started a fire and put corn into the kettles. very soon it began to pop and fly with great rapidity up and down in the kettles. the pop-corn (the nature of which the clatsops did not then understand) struck them with more surprise than anything else,--and this is the one part of the story preserved in every version. then the corn-popping strangers made signs that they wanted water. the chief sent men to supply them with all their needs, and in the meantime he made a careful examination of the strangers. finding that their hands were the same as his own, he became satisfied that they were indeed men. one of the indians ran and climbed up and entered the thing. looking into the interior, he found it full of boxes. there were also many strings of buttons half a fathom long. he went out to call in his relatives, but, before he could return, the ship had been set on fire. or, in the language of charlie cultee, "it burnt just like fat." as a result of the burning of the ship, the clatsops got possession of the iron, copper, and brass. now the news of this strange event became noised abroad, and the indians from all the region thronged to clatsop to see and feel of these strange men with hands and feet just like ordinary men, yet with long beards and with such peculiar garb as to seem in no sense men. there arose great strife as to who should receive and care for the strange men. each tribe or village was very anxious to have them, or at least one of them. the quienaults, the chehales, and the willapas, from the beach on the north side, came to press their claims. from up the river came the cowlitz, the cascades, and even the far-off klickitat. the different tribes almost had a battle for possession, but, according to one account, it was finally settled that one of the strange visitors should stay with the clatsop chief, and that one should go with the willapas on the north side of the great river. according to another, they both stayed at clatsop. from this first arrival of white men, the indians called them all "tlehonnipts," that is, "of those who drift ashore." one of the men possessed the magical art of taking pieces of iron and making knives and hatchets. it was indeed to the poor indians a marvellous gift of tallapus, their god, that they should have a man among them that could perform that priceless labour, for the possession of iron knives and hatchets meant the indefinite multiplying of canoes, huts, bows and arrows, weapons, and implements of every sort. the iron-maker's name was konapee. the indians kept close watch of him for many days and made him work incessantly. but, as the tokens of his skill became numerous, his captors held him in great favour and allowed him more liberty. being permitted to select a site for a house, he chose a spot on the columbia which became known to the indians, even down to the white occupancy of the region, as "konapee." among other possessions, konapee had a large number of pieces of money, which, from the description, must have been chinese "cash." from this some have inferred that konapee must have been a chinaman, and the wrecked ship a chinese or japanese junk. this does not, however, follow. for the spaniards had become entirely familiar with china, and any spanish vessel returning from the philippine islands or from china would have been likely to have a supply of chinese money on board. there is an interesting bit of testimony which seems to belong to this same story of konapee. it is found in the book by gabriel franchère in regard to the founding of astoria, the book which was the chief authority of irving in his fascinating narrative entitled _astoria_. franchère describes meeting an old man, eighty years old, in , at the cascades, whose name was soto, and who said that his father was one of four spaniards wrecked on clatsop beach many years before. his father had tried to reach the land of the sunrise by going eastward, but having reached the cascades was prevented from going farther and had there married an indian woman, soto's mother. it is thought likely that the father of soto was konapee. the two stories seem to fit quite well. if this be true, it is likely that konapee's landing was as early as . if all the details of konapee's life could be known, what a romance might be made of it! there is no reason to suppose that he ever saw other white men or ever got away from the region where the fortune of shipwreck had cast him. yet he was in possession of one of the greatest geographical secrets of that country, for the hope of the discovery of some great "river of the west," the elusive stream which many believed to be a pure fabrication of aguilar and other old navigators, had enticed many a "marinere" from many a far "countree." in any event it is probable that the columbia river indians had got a general knowledge of the whites and their arts from konapee long before the authentic discovery of the river was made. especially it seems that from him they got a knowledge of iron and implements fashioned from it. captain cook mentions that when he visited the coast in the indians manifested no surprise at the weapons or implements of iron. in fact even all whites who supposed themselves to be the first to visit this coast found the indians ready to trade and especially eager to get iron. a new era of trade and business seems to have been inaugurated among these clatsops and chinooks dating from about the supposed time of konapee. but he was by no means the only one of his race to be cast upon the oregon shore. there is a story of a treasure ship cast upon the beach near nekahni mountain. this mountain, the original home of tallapus, while on its summit the great chief god nekahni himself dwelt, is one of the noblest pieces of nature's art all along the shore. fronting the ocean with a precipitous rampart of rock five hundred feet high and thence rising in a wide sweeping park clad in thick turf, and dotted here and there with beautiful spruce and fir trees, to an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet, the sacred nekahni presents as fine a combination of the beautiful and sublime as can be seen upon a whole thousand miles of coast. it was a favourite spot with the natives. for lying upon its open and turfy slopes they could gaze upon many miles of sea, and could no doubt light up their signal fires which might be seen over a wide expanse of beach. very likely there, too, they celebrated the mysterious rites of nekahni and tallapus. one pleasant afternoon in early summer, a large group of natives assembled upon the lower part of nekahni, almost upon the edge of the precipitous cliff with which it fronts the sea. gazing into the offing they saw a great object like a huge bird drawing near from the outer sea. it approached the shore, and then from it a small boat with a number of men and a large black box put out to land. coming to the beach the men took out the box and also a black man whom the indians supposed to be a spook or evil demon. going a little way up the beach the men dug a hole into which they lowered the box, and then having struck down the black man they threw him on top of the box and, covering it up, they returned to the ship, which soon disappeared from sight. on account of the black man buried with the box, the superstitious indians dared not undertake to exhume the contents of the grave. but the story was handed from one generation to another, and it came to constitute the story of the "treasure ship." in recent times the idea that here some chest, with gold and jewels in the most approved style of buried fortunes, might be found has caused much searching. the ground has been dug over for the sight of the regulation rusty handle which is to lead to the great iron-bound chest with its doubloons of gold and crucifixes of pearls. parties have come from the eastern states to join the search. one party even secured the guidance of spirits who professed to locate the treasure. but though the spirit-led enthusiasts turned over every stone and dug up the sand for many feet along the beach, they found never an iron-bound chest, and never a sign of the treasure. there is, however, in plain sight now, on a rock at the foot of nekahni mountain, a character cut in the rock bearing a rude resemblance to a cross. some think it looks more like the letters, i.h.s., the sacred emblem of the catholic church. there is also what seems to be quite a distinct arrow pointing in a certain direction. but the treasure remains unfound. the next legend of the prehistoric white man is that of the "beeswax ship." this, too, has a real confirmation in the presence of large quantities of beeswax at a point also near nekahni mountain, just north of the mouth of the nehalem river. some naturalists claimed at one time that this substance was simply the natural paraffine produced from the products of coal or petroleum. but more recently cakes of the substance stamped with the sacred letters, "i.h.s.," together with tapers, and even one piece with a bee plainly visible within, may be considered incontestable proof that this is indeed beeswax, while the letters, "i.h.s." denote plainly enough the origin of the substance in some spanish colony. an interesting point in connection with this is the historical fact that on june , , the ship _san josé_ left la paz, lower california, for san diego, and was never heard from again. some have conjectured that the _san josé_ was the "beeswax ship," driven far north by some storm or mutiny. as to the peculiar fact that a ship should have been entirely loaded with beeswax it has been conjectured that some of the good padres of the spanish missions meant to provide a new station with a large amount of wax for the sake of providing tapers for their service, the lighted candles proving then, as they do now, a matter of marvel and wonder to the natives, and, with other features of ceremonial worship, having a great effect to bring them into subjection to the church. the indian legend runs on to the effect that several white men were saved from the wreck of the "beeswax ship," and that they lived with them. but having infringed upon the family rights of the natives, they became obnoxious, and were all cut off by an attack from them. one story, however, asserts that there was one man left, a blue-eyed, golden-haired man, that he took a nehalem woman, and that from him was descended a fair-complexioned progeny, of which a certain chieftain who lived at a beautiful little lake on clatsop plains, now known as culliby lake, was our quiaculliby. such in brief survey, are some of the stories which preserve the record of the space betwixt the indian age of myth and the period of authentic discovery. chapter iii how all nations sought the river from the sea and how they found it search for gold--economic effects--early extension of exploration westward--cortez--magellan--aguilar--fables of the sea--shakspere and swift--maps--great wars of the seventeenth century and downfall of spain--long delay--resumption of exploration--spanish settlement of california--russia and behring--perez--heceta--cook--fur-trade--gathering of nations--the yankees--gray and kendrick--meares and vancouver--the complete discovery--strife between england and the united states. the period of the renaissance is one, which by reason of splendid achievements in literature, in art, in science, and in discovery, can hardly be duplicated. we are here especially concerned with the discoverers. a mingling of motives impelled those dauntless spirits onward, and among the most potent was the greed for gold. much american history is bound up with the mad rush for the precious metals, and the spread of exploration from the west indies and mexico, the first centres of spanish power, was one of its results. only eight years after the landing of columbus on san salvador, the portuguese gaspar cortereal had conceived the idea of a north-west passage, which in some unexplained manner became known as the strait of anian. in , the spaniards cabrillo and ferrelo coasted along the shores of california, and the latter was doubtless the first white man to look upon the coast of oregon. in , england appeared in the person of that boldest and most picturesque of the half-discoverers, half-pirates, of that time, francis drake. in that year he set forth on the wonderful voyage in which he plundered the treasures of the spanish main, cut the golden girdle of manila, queen of the spanish orient, skirted along the coast of california and oregon, and at last circumnavigated the globe. brilliant as were drake's exploits, they did not result in the discovery of our great river. in , just a century after columbus, juan de fuca, whose name is now preserved in the strait leading to puget sound, is said to have made that voyage which is regarded by most historians as a myth, but which affords so fascinating a bit of narration that it ought to be true. two hundred years later john meares, the english navigator, attached the name of the stout old greek pilot to that inlet now familiar to ships of all nations. with the passage of a few years more, explorations upon the western shore of america began to assume a more definite form. in the best equipped squadron thus far sent out left acapulco under command of vizcaino, with the aim of carrying out monterey's great purpose for the northward extension of spanish power. the fleet being scattered by storm, the _fragata_ in command of martin aguilar ran up the coast as far as latitude degrees. there they found a cape to which they attached the name still held, cape blanco. from that point, following the north-westerly trending of the coast, they soon came abreast of a "rapid and abundant river, with ash trees, willows, and brambles, and other trees of castile upon its banks." this they endeavoured to enter, but from the strength of the current could not. "and seeing that they had already reached a higher latitude than had been ordered by the viceroy and that the number of the sick was great, they decided to return to acapulco." torquemada, the historian, from whom the account is taken, goes on to say: it is supposed that this river is one leading to a great city, which was discovered by the dutch when they were driven thither by storms, and that it is the strait of anian, through which the vessels passed in sailing from the north sea to the south sea; and that the city called quivera is in those parts; and that this is the region referred to in the account which his majesty read, and which induced him to order this expedition. the interesting question arises, was the river the columbia? it is the only large river on the oregon coast, though the umpqua, if at flood stage, might have given the impression of size. the latitude is not right, either, though the spanish narrator does not say how far north of cape blanco they went. but whether or not aguilar really went so far north as the columbia, his voyage was one of much interest. it gave spain a warrant to claim the western coast of america; it still further strengthened the idea of the strait of anian; it seemed to confirm the romantic conception of a great city or group of cities with civilised inhabitants along that passage way, and it gave the first name to the river, the rio de aguilar. thenceforth the navigators of all nations accepted as the primary object of their search some great river of the west. hidden in the fogs of fancy, as it lay shrouded in truth in the mists of the ocean, the supposed rio de aguilar yet held the spell of enchantment over many an "ancient mariner" of many a land. whatsoever nation could actually find the river and establish a definite claim to first discovery, would have, by the generally accepted usage of nations, the right of occupation and ownership. that was a fruitful time for fables of the sea, and around the great river many of them gathered. the original of baron munchausen seems to have existed in the persons of captain lorenzo ferrer de maldonado and admiral pedro bartolomé de fonte. the first of these worthies, whose voyage was said to have been made in , describes in a very circumstantial manner his passage through the strait of anian and his exit upon the asiatic side of the continent. this he averred was marked with a very remarkable rocky eminence which rendered it wonderfully adapted to fortification and defence, the mountain being so steep, in fact, that a missile dropped from the summit would fall directly upon a ship in mid-channel. it is thought by some students that some unchronicled spanish navigator may have actually made the inland passage up the alaskan coast and that some report of it may have become transformed into maldonado's story. fonte's story seems to have first appeared in a london publication in , though his voyage was alleged to have been made in . he told a marvellous tale of a great river which led to a magnificent lake on whose banks stood a great city. the river he located in latitude degrees, and he named it the rio de los reyes, or river of kings. this is far north of the columbia, but the account persisted in popular idea for a long time. the name became associated with those of the rio de aguilar and the river of the west. these and other similar tales, the flotsam and jetsam of ocean myths, gave something of inspiration and suggestion to literature. for even long before the alleged exploits of fonte, the fertile mind of shakspere had conceived of caliban and ariel and other fancies of the age of western adventure. and in the next century the prince of political satirists, jonathan swift, had located almost exactly at the mouth of the rio de aguilar, the land of the brobdingnagians, while the countries into which the veracious gulliver was thrown at a later time, luggnagg and blubdubrib, were in the pacific at a somewhat indefinite distance from the land of the giants. the land of the oregon was in short, the land of the great unexplored and of boundless fancy. some of the old maps illustrating that period are of much interest. zaltieri's map of shows a generally accurate conception of the eastern part of america and of the western coast of mexico and california, but the entire continent above about latitude degrees is occupied with a _mare septentrionale incognito_. luck's map of presents a fairly good conception of florida and mexico, but is entirely astray on the western coast. the wytfliet-ptolemy map of has a singularly indented coast running nearly east and west in the location of oregon, while cape blanco and a river, the rio de los estrachos, in about latitude degrees, seem to be an attempt to denote aguilar's cape of , and to locate the river by still another name, though in a higher latitude. maldonado's map of the strait of anian of is manifestly manufactured to suit the occasion, and is interesting only as showing how far mendacity and gullibility could travel hand in hand. but now the first age of discovery on the coast of oregon drew to a close. it cannot be said that much of tangible knowledge had been attained. puzzling questions had been raised. labyrinths of conjecture, with no definite clues for exit, had been entered. fascinating romances had been so interwoven with probable fact that no one could untangle them. a general conception of a great river and a great north-west passage had been held up with some distinctness as the goal of navigators. finally, most important of all, what had been seen was of so enticingly interesting a nature and seemed to promise results so important, that they furnished a motive for continued exploration. it certainly looked as though the nations would continue the search for the great river of the west. spain had the inside track of all, though drake and cavendish and hawkins had run down many a richly laden treasure galleon and had laid the booty at the feet of the virgin queen, and many an embittered buccaneer of french or english race had hounded the flag of spain across the breadth of half the seas. but a great change was impending. there was a new shuffle of the cards in the hands of the fates and the furies as the seventeenth century moved on apace. spain's time had come. her cup of iniquity was now full. her whole measure of national policy had been the sword for the pagan and the inquisition for the heretic. the banished moors of granada and the murdered "beggars" of holland and the wasted incas and montezumas of america united to call down the vengeance of nemesis upon the destroyer of a fair world's peace. the stupendous struggles engendered by the reformation, culminating in the thirty years' war, went on almost without pause for over a century. that strife, ending at westphalia in , saw spain prostrate and the principle of religious toleration triumphant. but almost immediately another struggle arose, the natural successor of the first, the struggle against the absolute monarchy of the bourbons. as may well be seen, the nations of europe were so enchained in the strife against pope and king that they had little thought for new discoveries. over a hundred and sixty years passed after the voyage of aguilar before there was another serious movement of discovery on the coast of oregon. this new movement of pacific exploration, destined to continue with no cessation to our own day, was ushered in by spain. there was even yet much vitality in the fallen mistress of the world. impelled by both religious zeal and hope of material gain, the immigration of went forth from la paz to san diego and monterey. that inaugurated the singular and poetic, in some aspects even beautiful, history of spanish california, an era which has provided so much of romance and poetry for literature in the california of our own times. the march of events had made it plain to the spanish government that, if it was to retain a hold on the pacific coast, it must bestir itself. russia, england, and france, released in a measure from the pressure of european struggles, were fitting out expeditions to resume the arrested efforts of the sixteenth century. it seemed plain also that colonial america was going to be an active rival on the seas. and well may it have so seemed, for, in the sign of the yankee sailor, the conquest was to be made. but just at that important juncture a most favouring condition arose for spain. the government of england precipitated the struggle of the american revolution. france soon joined to strike her island rival a deadly blow by assisting in the liberation of the colonies. for the time, spain had nearly a clear field for pacific discovery, so far as england and france were concerned. as for russia, the danger was more imminent. russia had, indeed, begun to look in the direction of pacific expansion a long time prior to the spanish immigration to california. that vast monarchy, transformed by the genius of peter the great, had stretched its arms from the baltic to the aleutian archipelago, and had looked from the frozen seas of siberia to the open pacific as a fairer field for expansion. many years elapsed, however, before peter's great designs could be fulfilled. not till did vitus behring thread the thousand islands of sitka and gaze upon the glaciated crest of mt. st. elias. and it was not till thirty years later that it became understood that the bay of avatcha was connected by the open sea with china. in the first cargo of furs was shipped directly from avatcha to canton. then first the vastness of the pacific ocean was comprehended. then first it was understood that the same waters which lashed the frozen ramparts of kamchatka encircled the coral islands of the south sea and roared against the stormy barriers of cape horn. the russians had not found the great river, though it appears that behring in had gone as far south as latitude degrees, just the parallel of the mouth of the columbia. but he was so far off the coast as not to see it. three spanish voyages followed in rapid succession: that of perez in , of heceta in , and of bodega in . the only notable things in connection with the voyage of perez were his discovery of queen charlotte's island, with the sea-otter furs traded by the natives, the first sight of that superb group of mountains which we now call the olympic, but which the spaniards named the sierra de santa rosalia, and finally the fine harbour of nootka on vancouver island, named by perez port san lorenzo, for years the centre of the fur-trade and the general rendezvous of ships of all nations. but no river was found. with another year a still completer expedition was fitted out, bruno heceta being commander and francisco de la bodega y quadra, second in command. this voyage was the most important and interesting thus far in the history of the columbia river exploration. for heceta actually found the great river, so long sought and so constantly eluding discovery. on june , , heceta passed cape mendocino, and entered a small bay just northward. there he entered into friendly relations with the natives and took solemn possession of the country in the name of his catholic majesty of spain. sailing thence northward, he again touched land just south of the straits of fuca, but there he met disaster at the ill-omened point subsequently named destruction island. for there his boat landing for exploration was set upon by the savage inhabitants, and the entire boat-load murdered. moving southward again, on august th, in latitude degrees minutes, heceta found himself abreast of some great river. deciding that this must be indeed the mysterious strait of fuca, or the long concealed river of the other ancient navigators, he made two efforts to enter, but the powerful current and uncertain depths deterred him, and he at last gave up the effort and bore away for monterey. three additional names were bestowed upon the river at this time. thinking the entrance a bay, heceta named it, in honour of the day, ensenada de asuncion. later it was more commonly known as ensenada de heceta, while the spanish charts designated the river as rio de san roque. the name of cabo de frondoso (leafy cape) was bestowed upon the low promontory on the south, now known as point adams, while upon the picturesque headland on the north which we now designate as cape hancock, the devout spaniards conferred the name of cabo de san roque, august th being the day sacred to that saint. the original account given by heceta is so interesting that we insert it here: on the th day of august i sailed along the coast to the th degree, and observed that from the latitude degrees minutes to that of degrees minutes, it runs in the angle of degrees of the second quadrant, and from that latitude to degrees minutes, in the angle of degrees of the same quadrant; the soundings, the shore, the wooded character of the country, and the little islands, being the same as on the preceding days. on the evening of this day i discovered a large bay, to which i gave the name assumption bay, and a plan of which will be found in this journal. its latitude and longitude are determined according to the most exact means afforded by theory and practice. the latitudes of the two most prominent capes of this bay are calculated from the observations of this day. having arrived opposite this bay at six in the evening, and placed the ship nearly midway between the two capes, i sounded and found bottom in four brazas [nearly four fathoms]. the currents and eddies were so strong that, notwithstanding a press of sail, it was difficult to get out clear of the northern cape, towards which the current ran, though its direction was eastward in consequence of the tide being at flood. these currents and eddies caused me to believe that the place is the mouth of some great river, or of some passage to another sea. had i not been certain of the latitude of this bay, from my observations of the same day, i might easily have believed it to be the passage discovered by juan de fuca, in , which is placed on the charts between the th and the th degrees; where i am certain no such strait exists; because i anchored on the th day of july midway between these latitudes, and carefully examined everything around. notwithstanding the great difference between this bay and the passage mentioned by de fuca, i have little difficulty in conceiving they may be the same, having observed equal or greater differences in the latitudes of other capes and ports on this coast, as i will show at the proper time; and in all cases latitudes thus assigned are higher than the real ones. i did not enter and anchor in this port, which in my plan i suppose to be formed by an island, notwithstanding my strong desire to do so; because, having consulted with the second captain, don juan perez, and the pilot don christoval revilla, they insisted i ought not to attempt it, as, if we let go the anchor, we should not have men enough to get it up, and to attend to the other operations which would be thereby necessary. considering this, and also, that in order to reach the anchorage, i should be obliged to lower my long boat (the only boat i had) and to man it with at least fourteen of the crew, as i could not manage with fewer, and also as it was then late in the day, i resolved to put out; and at the distance of three leagues i lay to. in the course of that night, i experienced heavy currents to the south-west, which made it impossible to enter the bay on the following morning, as i was far to leeward. these currents, however, convinced me that a great quantity of water rushed from this bay on the ebb of the tide. the two capes which i name in my plan, cape san roque and cape frondoso, lie in the angle of degrees of the third quadrant. they are both faced with red earth and are of little elevation. on the th i observed cape frondoso, with another cape, to which i gave the name of cape falcon, situated in the latitude of degrees minutes, and they lay at an angle of degrees of the third quadrant, and from the last mentioned cape i traced the coast running in the angle of degrees of the second quadrant. this land is mountainous, but not very high, nor so well wooded as that lying between the latitudes of degrees minutes, and degrees. on sounding i found great differences: at a distance of seven leagues i got bottom at brazas; and nearer the coast i sometimes found no bottom; from which i am inclined to believe there are reefs or shoals on these coasts, which is also shown by the colour of the water. in some places the coast presents a beach, in others, it is rocky. a flat-topped mountain, which i named the table, will enable any navigator to know the position of cape falcon without observing it; as it is in the latitude of degrees minutes, and may be seen at a great distance, being somewhat elevated. it may be added that the cape falcon of heceta was the bold elevation fronting the sea, known now as tillamook head, while the table mountain was doubtless what we now call nekahni mountain, both points especially the scenes of indian myth. such was the actual discovery of the columbia river, and as such the spaniards justly laid claim to oregon. their treaty with the united states in was the formal conveyance of their claims to us. nevertheless heceta only half discovered the river. it seems very strange that with the all-important object of two centuries' search before him, he should so readily have succumbed to the fear of the powerful outstanding current. but the spaniards were not in general the patient and persistent students of the shores that the english and americans were. their charts were in general worthless. nevertheless spain came nearest "making good" of any of the european powers. in bodega and arteaga sailed far north and sighted a vast snow peak "higher than orizaba," which was doubtless st. elias. in the same year martinez and de haro established themselves at nootka. subsequent voyages of bodega, valdez, and galiano, and their first circumnavigation of vancouver island (named by them quadra's island, but, by mutual courtesy and good-will of the british and spanish rivals, designated vancouver's and quadra's island), gave them a clear title to the pacific coast of north america from latitude degrees to mexico. but "that is another story." what of the great river? in the very year of the declaration of american independence, the most elaborate expedition yet fitted out for western discovery, set forth from england in command of that columbus of the eighteenth century, captain james cook. after nearly two years of important movements in the southern hemisphere and among the pacific islands, cook turned to that goal of all nations, the coast of oregon. but the same singular fatality which had baffled many of the explorers thus far, attended this most skilful navigator and best equipped squadron thus far seen on pacific waters. for cook passed and repassed the near vicinity of both the straits of fuca and the columbia river, but without finding either. killed by the treacherous natives of hawaii in , cook left a great name, a more intelligent conception of world geography than was known before, and greatly strengthened claims by great britain to the ownership of pivotal points of the pacific. of all the great english navigators, cook is perhaps best entitled to join the grand chorus that sings the _songs of seven seas_. but he did not see the great river of the west. what had become of it? after the fleeting vision which it accorded to heceta, it seemed to have gone into hiding. but a new set of motives came into play immediately after cook's voyage. the two ships, the _resolution_ and _discovery_, took with them to china a quantity of furs from nootka. a few years earlier, as previously stated, the russian fur-trade from avatcha to china had been inaugurated. a great demand for peltries sprang up at once. a new régime dawned in chinese and east india trade. gold, silver, and jewels had not thus far rewarded the search of explorers. they were reserved for our later days of need. but the fur-trade was as good as gold. the north pacific coast, already interesting, assumed a new importance in the eyes of europeans. the "struggle for possession" was on. the ships of all nations converged upon the fabled strait and river of oregon. english, dutch, french, portuguese, spanish, americans, began in the decade of the eighties to crowd to the land where the sea-otter, beaver, seal, and many other of the most profitable furs could be obtained for a trifle. the dangers of trading and the chances of the sea were great, but the profits of success were yet greater. the fur-trade began to take the place of the gold hunt as a matter of international strife. the manner in which our own country, weak and discordant as its different members were when just emerging from the revolutionary war, entered the lists, and by the marvellous allotment of fortune or the design of providence, slipped in between the greater nations and secured the prize of oregon, is one of the epics of history, one which ought to have some native tasso or calderon to celebrate its triumph. following quickly upon the conclusion of the american war, came a series of british, french, and russian voyages, which gradually centred more particularly about vancouver island and nootka sound. the british exceeded the others in numbers and enterprise. among them we find names now preserved at many conspicuous points on the northern coast: as portlock, hanna, dixon, duncan, and barclay. the most notable of the french was la pérouse, who was best equipped for scientific research of any one. a number of russian names appear at that period, most of which may yet be found upon the maps of alaska, as schelikoff, ismyloff, betschareff, resanoff, krustenstern, and baranoff. but none of them set eyes on the river, and it seemed more mythical than ever. as a result, however, of their various expeditions, incomplete though they were, each nation followed the usual practice of claiming everything in sight, either in sight of the eye or the imagination, and demanded the whole coast by priority of discovery. never did a geographical entity seem so to play the _ignis fatuus_ with the world as did the river. thirteen years elapsed from the discovery of the rio san roque by heceta before any one of the dozens who had meanwhile passed up and down the coast, looked in again between the cabo de frondoso and the cabo de san roque. then there came on one negative and two positive discoveries, and the elusive stream was really found never to be lost again. the negative discovery was that of captain john meares in . since england afterwards endeavoured to make the voyages of meares an important link in her chain of proof to the ownership of oregon, it is worthy of some special attention. it happened on this wise. meares came first to the coast of oregon in , in command of the _nootka_ to trade for furs for the east india company. with the _nootka_ was the _sea-otter_, in command of captain walter tipping. both seem to have been brave and capable seamen. but disaster followed on their track. for having sailed far up the coast, they followed the aleutian archipelago eastward to prince william's sound. separated on the journey, the _nootka_ reached a safe haven, but her consort never arrived, nor was she ever heard of more. the _nootka_, after an arctic winter of distress and after losing a large part of the crew through the ravages of scurvy, abandoned the trade and returned to china. discouraged by the outcome, the east india company abandoned the american trade and confined themselves henceforth to india. but meares, finding that the portuguese had special privileges in the fur-trade and in the harbour of nootka, entered into an arrangement with some portuguese traders whereby he went nominally as supercargo, but really as captain of the _felice_, under the portuguese flag. with her sailed the _iphigenia_ with william douglas occupying a place similar to that of meares. in estimating the subsequent pretensions of great britain, the student of history may well remember that these two mariners, though englishmen, were sailing under the flag of portugal. reaching again the coast of oregon, meares looked in, june , , at the broad entrance of an extensive strait which he believed to be the mythical strait of juan de fuca of two centuries earlier, but which he did not pause to explore. he had resolved to solve the riddle of the rio san roque or the ensenada de asuncion or de heceta, and turned his prow southward. on july th, in latitude degrees minutes, he perceived a deep bay which he considered at once to be the object of his search. essaying to enter, he found the water shoaling with dangerous rapidity and a prodigious easterly swell breaking on the shore. from the masthead it seemed that the breakers extended clear across the entrance. with rather curious timidity for a bold briton right on the eve of a discovery for which all nations had been looking, meares lost courage and hauled out, attaching the name deception bay to the inlet and cape disappointment to the northern promontory, the last a name still officially used. meares left as his final conclusion in the matter, the following memorandum: "we can now assert that there is no such river as that of st. roc exists, as laid down in the spanish charts." in view of this statement of the case it would certainly seem that he could not be accepted as a witness for english discovery, even if the portuguese flag had not been flying at his masthead. after bestowing the name of lookout upon the great headland christened cape falcon by heceta and known to us as tillamook head, meares squared away for nootka, and there he spent a very profitable season in the fur-trade. but into the harbour of nootka that same year of , there sailed the ship of destiny, the _columbia rediviva_, in command of john kendrick. with the _columbia_ came the _lady washington_, commanded by robert gray. these were the advance guard of yankee ships which the energies of our liberated forefathers were sending forth as an earnest of the coming conquest of oregon by the universal yankee nation. gray and kendrick were engaged in the fur-trade, and their energy and intelligence made it speedily profitable. it took a long time and a long arm, sure enough, in that day, to complete the great circuit of the outfitting, the bartering, the transferring, the return trip, and the final sale;--three years in all. the ship would be fitted out in boston or new york with trinkets, axes, hatchets, and tobacco, and proceed by the horn to the coast of oregon,--six months or sometimes eight. then up and down the coast, as far as known, they would trade with natives for the precious furs, making a profit of a thousand per cent. on the investment. gray on one occasion got for an axe a quantity of furs worth $ . the fur-barter would take another six or eight months. then with hold packed with bales of furs, the ship would square away for macao or canton, six or eight months more. in china, the cargo of furs would go out and a cargo of nankeens, teas, and silks go in, with a great margin of profit at both ends. then away again to boston, there to sell the proceeds of that three years' "round-up" of the seas, for probably ten times the entire cost of outfitting and subsistence. the glory, fascination, and gain of the ocean were in it, and also its dangers. of this sufficient witness is found in vanished ships, murdered crews, storm, scurvy, famine, and war. but it was a great age. gray and kendrick were as good specimens of their keen, facile, far-sighted countrymen, as meares and vancouver were of the self-opinionated, determined, yet withal manly and thorough britons. among other pressing matters, such as looking out for good fur-trade in order to recoup the boston merchants who had put their good money into the venture, and looking out for the health of their crew, steering clear of the uncharted reefs and avoiding the treacherous natives, gray and kendrick remembered that they were also good americans. they must see that the new stars and stripes had their due upon the new coast. the first voyage of the two yankee skippers was ended and they set forth for another round in , but with ships exchanged, gray commanding the _columbia_ on this second voyage. the year was now come, and it was a great year in the annals of oregon, three hundred years from columbus, two hundred from juan de fuca. the struggle between england and spain over conflicting rights at nootka, which at one time threatened war, had been settled with a measure of amicability. as a commissioner to represent great britain, captain george vancouver was sent out, while bodega y quadra was empowered to act in like capacity for spain. spaniards and britons alike realised that, whatever the nootka treaty may have been, possession was nine points of the law, and both redoubled their efforts to push discovery, and especially to make the first complete exploration of the straits of fuca and the supposed great river. there were great names among the spaniards in that year, some of which still commemorate some of the most interesting geographical points, as quimper, malaspina, fidalgo, caamano, elisa, bustamente, valdez, and galiano. a list of british names now applied to many points, as vancouver, puget, georgia, baker, hood, rainier, st. helens, whidby, vashon, townsend, and others, attests the name-bestowing care of the british commander. in going to nootka as british commissioner, vancouver was under instructions to make the most careful examination of the coast, especially of the rivers or any interoceanic channels, and thereby clear up the many conundrums of the ocean on that shore. with the best ship, the war sloop _discovery_, accompanied by the armed tender _chatham_, in command of lieutenant w. r. broughton, and with the best crew and best general equipment yet seen on the coast, it would have been expected that the doughty briton would have found all the important places yet unfound. that the americans beat him in finding the river and that the spaniards beat him in the race through the straits and around vancouver island, may be regarded as due partly to a little british obstinacy at a critical time, but mainly due to the appointment of the fates. on april , , vancouver passed a "conspicuous point of land composed of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high and projecting into the sea." this cape was in latitude degrees minutes, and vancouver decided that here were doubtless the cape disappointment and deception bay of meares. in spite of the significant fact that the sea here changed its colour, the british commander was so prepossessed with the idea that meares must have decided correctly the nature of the entrance (for how was it possible for an english sailor to be wrong and a spaniard right?) that he decided that the opening was not worthy of more attention and passed on up the coast. so the english lost their second great chance of being first to enter the river. two days later the lookout reported a sail, and as the ships drew together, the newcomer was seen to be flying the stars and stripes. it was the _columbia rediviva_, captain robert gray, of boston. in response to vancouver's rather patronising queries, the yankee skipper gave a summary of his log for some months past. among other things he stated that he had passed what seemed to be a powerful river in latitude degrees minutes, which for nine days he had tried in vain to enter, being repelled by the strength of the current. he now proposed returning to that point and renewing his effort. vancouver declined to reconsider his previous decision that there could be no large river, and passed on to make his very elaborate exploration of the straits of fuca and their connected waters, and to discover to his great chagrin, that the spaniards had forestalled him in point of time. the vessels parted. gray sailed south and on may , , paused abreast of the same reflex of water where before for nine days he had tried vainly to enter. the morning of the th dawned clear and favourable, light wind, gentle sea, a broad, clear channel, plainly of sufficient depth. the time was now come. the man and the occasion met. gray seems from the first to have been ready to take some chances for the sake of some great success. he always hugged the shore closely enough to be on intimate terms with it. and he was ready boldly to seize and use favouring circumstances. so, as laconically stated in his log-book, he ran in with all sail set, and at ten o'clock found himself in a large river of fresh water, at a point about twenty miles from the ocean. the geographical sphinx was answered. gray was its oedipus, though unlike the ancient theban myth there was no need that either the sphinx of the oregon coast or its discoverer perish. the river recognised and welcomed its master. the next day the _columbia_ moved fifteen miles up the stream. finding that he was out of the channel, gray stopped further progress and turned again seaward. natives, apparently friendly disposed, thronged in canoes round the ship, and a large quantity of furs was secured. the river already bore many names, but gray added another, and it was the one that has remained, the name of his good ship _columbia_. upon the southern cape he bestowed the name of adams, and upon the northern, the name hancock. these also remain. the great exploit was completed. the long sought river of the west was found, and by an american. the path of destiny for the new republic of the west was made secure. without oregon we probably would not have acquired california, and without a pacific coast, the united states would inevitably have been but a second-class power, the prey to european intrigue. the vast importance of the issue then becomes clear. gray's happy voyage, that yankee foresight and confidence in his seamanship and intuitive suiting of times and conditions to results which marks the vital turning points of history, differentiate gray's discovery from all others upon our north-west coast. as we view the matter now, a century and more later, we can see that our national destiny, and especially the vast part that we now seem at the point of taking in world interests through the commerce of the pacific, hung in the balance to a certain extent upon the stubborn adherence by vancouver, the briton, to the preconceived opinion that there was no important river at the point designated by his spanish predecessor, and the contrasted readiness of the american gray to embrace boldly the chances of some great discovery. it is true that the "oregon question" was not to be settled for several decades. much diplomacy and contention, almost to the verge of war, were yet to come, but gray's fortunate dash, "with all sail set, in between the breakers to a large river of fresh water," gave our nation a lead in the ultimate adjustment of the case, which we never lost. we have said that there was one negative discovery--that of meares--and two positive ones. gray's was one of the two, and that of broughton, in command of the _chatham_ accompanying vancouver, was the other. on the th of may, the _columbia rediviva_--a most auspicious name--bade adieu to the scene of her glory, and with the stars and stripes floating in triumph at her mizzen-mast, turned northward. again the american captain encountered vancouver and narrated to him his discovery of the columbia. with deep chagrin at his own failure in the two most important objects of discovery in his voyage, the british commander directed broughton to return to latitude degrees minutes, enter the river, and proceed as far up as time allowed. accordingly, on october st, the companion ships parted at the mouth of the river, the _discovery_ proceeding to monterey, while the _chatham_ crossed the bar, described by broughton as very bad, and endeavoured to ascend the bay that stretched out beautiful and broad before them. but finding the channel intricate and soundings variable, the lieutenant deemed it advisable to leave the ship at a point which must have been about twenty miles from the ocean, and to proceed thence in the cutter. there is one thing observable in vancouver's account of this expedition of broughton, and that is extreme solicitude to establish these two propositions:--first, that the lower part of the columbia is a bay and that its true mouth is at a point above that reached by gray; and second, that the river is much smaller than it really is. it is hard to reconcile the language used in broughton's report as given by vancouver with the supposition of candour and honesty. for while it is true that the lower part of the river is of bay-like expanse from four to nine miles in width, yet it is entirely fresh and has all river characteristics. one of the points especially made by gray was that he filled his casks with fresh water. moreover, the bar is entirely at the ocean limit. so completely does the river debouch into the ocean, in fact, that in the great flood of the clams were killed on the ocean beaches for a distance of several miles on either side of the outer headlands through the freshening of the sea. as to the size of the river, broughton gives its width repeatedly as half a mile or a quarter of a mile, whereas it is at almost no point below the cascades less than a mile in width, and a mile and a half is more usual. broughton expresses the conviction that it can never be used for navigation by vessels of any size. in view of the vast commerce now constantly passing in and out, the absurdity of that idea is and has been for years sufficiently exhibited. the animus of the british explorers is obvious. by showing that the mouth of the river was really an inlet of the sea, they hoped to lay a claim to british occupancy as against gray's discovery, and by belittling the size of the river they hoped to save their own credit with the british admiralty for having lost so great a chance for first occupation. broughton ascended the river to a point near the modern town of washougal. he bestowed british names after the general fashion, as mt. hood, cape george, vancouver point, puget's island, young's bay, menzies' island, and whidby's river. with true british assurance, he felt that he had "every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilised nation or state had ever entered this river before; in this opinion he was confirmed by mr. gray's sketch, in which it does not appear that mr. gray either saw or was ever within five leagues of its entrance." therefore he "took possession of the river, and the country in its vicinity, in his britannic majesty's name." in view of all the circumstances of gray's discovery, and his impartation of it to the british, this language of vancouver has a coolness, as john fiske remarks, which would be very refreshing on a hot day. on november th, the _chatham_ crossed the bar outward bound for monterey to join the _discovery_. such, in rapid view, were the essential facts in the long and curiously complicated finding of our river. we see that various nations bore each a part. we see the foundation of the subsequent contention between great britain and the united states. chapter iv the first steps across the wilderness in search of the river jefferson and ledyard--verendrye--montcachabe, the indian--the indians--the canadians--results of the louisiana purchase--fitting out the lewis and clark expedition--the winter with the mandans--crossing of the great divide--meeting of sacajawea and cameahwait--descent from the mountains to the clearwater and kimooenim--canoe journey down the snake and columbia--first sight of mt. hood--clark in the rôle of a magician--the timm or great falls--the sunken forests--first appearances of the tide--the winter of - at fort clatsop--the beginning of the return trip--faithfulness of the indians--reception of lewis and clark in the states--the hunt expedition--the _voyageurs_ and trappers--slow progress to the snake river--disasters and distress along the "accursed mad river"--starvation--new year's day of --a respite from suffering in the umatilla--first sight of the columbia and the mid-winter descent to astoria--melancholy lot of crooks and day--results of the hunt expedition. the pacific north-west was discovered both by land and by sea. to thomas jefferson, the great apostle of democracy, is due the gathering of american interests in the far west, and the opening of the road by which american sovereignty was to reach the pacific. his great mind outran that of the ordinary statesman of his time, and, with what seems at first sight the strangest inconsistency in our political history, he was the state-rights theorist and at the same time the creator of nationality beyond any other one of our early statesmen. away back in , jefferson met john ledyard, one of cook's associates in his great voyage to the pacific ocean, and grasped from the eager and energetic yankee sailor, the idea of american destiny on the pacific coast. the fertile mind of jefferson may justly be considered as the fountain of american exploration up the missouri, across the crest of the shining mountains, as they then called the rockies, and down the columbia to the pacific. although jefferson never himself took any steps beyond the alleghanies, he was the inspiration of all the americans who did take those steps. since we are speaking of first steps across the wilderness we should not forget that those of other nationalities than ours first crossed the american continent. the honour of the pioneer expedition to the crest of the rocky mountains belongs to the frenchman, verendrye. in he set forth from montreal for the rocky mountains, and made many important explorations. his party is said to have reached the vicinity of the site of helena, but never saw the sunset side of the great divide. we are told by the interesting french writer, la page, that the first man to proceed across the continent to the shores of the pacific was a yazoo indian, montcachabe or montcacht ape by name. according to the story, his two-year journey across the great wilderness through every species of peril and hardship, savage beasts and forbidding mountains and deserts, hostile indians often barring his progress for many days, was one of the most remarkable explorations ever made by man. this yazoo indian with the long name was a veritable columbus in the nature of his achievements. but results for the world could hardly follow his enterprise. the first traveller to lead a party of civilised men through the shining, or the stony mountains, finally known as rocky mountains, to the pacific ocean, was alexander mackenzie, a canny scotchman, leading a party of scotch and french canadian explorers. in he reached the pacific coast at the point of degrees minutes seconds north latitude. his inscription upon a rock with letters of vermilion and grease, were read many years afterwards: "alexander mackenzie, from canada by land, july , ." but the explorations of canadians were too far north to come within the scope of the pacific north-west of our day. we must therefore take up the american expeditions which proceeded from the master mind of jefferson. the first of these was the expedition of lewis and clark. this expedition did more to broaden the american mind and to fix our national destiny than any similar event in our whole history. as soon as jefferson was inaugurated president, he had urged upon congress the fitting out of an expedition "to explore the missouri river and such principal streams of it as, by its course of communication with the waters of the pacific ocean, whether the columbia, oregon, colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce." but before anything had actually been accomplished in the way of exploration, that vast and important event, the louisiana purchase, had been effected. the significance of this event was but little understood at the time, even by statesmen, but jefferson realised that a great thing had been accomplished towards the development of the nation. his enthusiasm and hopefulness spread to congress and to the leaders of opinion throughout the land. a like enthusiasm soon possessed the mass of population, and emigration westward began. already the older west was teeming with that race of pioneers which has made up the life and the grandeur of the nineteenth century. the american hive began to swarm. "out west" began to mean something more than ohio and kentucky. the distant sources of the missouri and the heights of the shining mountains, with all the fantastic tales that had been told of them, were drawing our grandfathers farther and farther from the old colonial america of the eastern coast, and were beginning to modify the whole course of american history. the atmosphere of boundless expectation gathered over farm and town in the older states and the proposed expedition of lewis and clark fascinated the people as much as the voyage of columbus fascinated the spain of his day. and what manner of men were in charge of this expedition, thus filled with both interest and peril? meriwether lewis was the leader of the party. he was a captain in the u. s. army who was well known to jefferson and who had been selected by him as possessed of the endurance, boldness, and energy which made him the fittest man within jefferson's knowledge for the duties of commander. his whole life, from his boyhood days in virginia, had been one of bold adventure. it is related that at the tender age of eight, he was already illustrious for successful midnight forays upon the coon and possum. he had not received a scientific education, but immediately upon receiving the appointment of commander of the expedition, he entered with great energy upon the acquisition of knowledge along geographical lines which would best fit him for preserving an accurate record of his journey. william clark, the lieutenant of the expedition, was also a united states officer, a man of very good judgment, boldness, and skill in organising his work, and readiness in meeting every kind of emergency. the party was made up of fourteen united states regular soldiers, nine kentucky volunteers, two french voyageurs, a hunter, an interpreter and a negro servant. the soldiers were offered the munificent bounty of retirement upon full pay, with a grant of land. by jefferson's directions, the party were encouraged to keep complete records of all they saw and did. they carried out the instruction so fully that seven journals besides those of lewis and clark themselves, were carefully kept, and in them a record was made of every important, as well as unimportant, discovery, even down to the ingredients of their meals and their doses of medicine. it is safe to say that no expedition was ever more fully or accurately reported. although not a single one of the party possessed literary attainments, there is nevertheless a singular charm about the combined record which has been recognised to this day by repeated editions of the work. it was well understood that the success of the expedition depended largely upon making friends with the indians, and the explorers were therefore completely fitted out with beads, mirrors, knives, and all manner of trinkets. the summer of was spent in an easy and uneventful journey of five months up the missouri to the country of the mandan indians, in what is now dakota. there they determined to winter. the winter was devoted to making the acquaintance of indians and to collecting botanical and zoölogical specimens, of which they sent president jefferson a large amount by a portion of the party which now left them and descended the river. and, while speaking of their relations to indians, it is very interesting to note the attitude jefferson instructed them to take in respect to the native tribes. he insisted upon a policy of peace and good-will toward all the tribes upon the route. it is observable that jefferson refers in a most considerate and friendly manner to the indians, and instructs the explorers to arrange, if possible, to have some of the more important chiefs induced to come back with the explorers to the city of washington. he also points out the desirability of urging any bright young indians to receive such arts as might be useful to them when in contact with the white men. jefferson even goes so far as to advise the explorers to take along vaccine matter that the indians might be instructed in the advantages of vaccination. a number of medallion medals were made that were intended to be given as presents to indian chiefs, the inscription of which was "peace and friendship," with the design of clasped hands. these medals, it may be remarked, seem to have been prized by the indians as among their greatest treasures. several of them have been found in indian graves; one even in a grave of the nez percé indians in idaho. while among the mandans, the expedition was joined by the most attractive personage in it, that is to say, sacajawea. this young indian woman, the only woman in the expedition, seems to have furnished the picturesque element in the composition of the party, and she has in later days become the subject of great interest on the part of students of pacific coast history. [illustration: mt. adams from the south. photo. by w. d. lyman.] on april th, everything was in readiness for resuming their journey up the river. the explorers embarked again in a squadron of six canoes and two pirogues. on the twelfth day of august, an advance party of the explorers crossed the great divide of the rocky mountains, the birthplace of mighty rivers. descending the western slope, they found themselves in the country of the shoshone indians. captain lewis was leading this advance expedition, and, as he neared the highest point of the pass, he realised the significance of the transition from the waters of the missouri to those of the columbia. a quotation from his narrative at this most interesting point of the journey gives the reader a better conception than any description could, of the feelings of the explorers: the road was still plain, and as it led directly toward the mountains, the stream gradually became smaller, till after their advancing two miles further, it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the men in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the rivulet, thanked god that he had lived to bestride the missouri. as they proceeded, their hope of seeing the waters of the columbia rose to almost painful anxiety; when at the distance of four miles from the last abrupt turn of the stream, they reached a small gap formed by the high mountains which recede on either side, leaving room for the indian road. from the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains, which arises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issued the remotest water of the missouri. they had now reached the hidden sources of that river, which had never before been seen by civilised man; and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy fountain,--as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean,--they felt themselves rewarded for all their labours and difficulties. they left reluctantly this interesting spot, and pursuing the indian road through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge from which they saw high mountains, partially covered with snow, still to the west of them. the ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of the atlantic and the pacific oceans. they found the descent much steeper than on the eastern side, and at the distance of three-quarters of a mile, reached a handsome, bold creek of cold, clear water running to the westward. they stopped to taste for the first time the waters of the columbia. the party was now upon the western slope of the great divide, in the vicinity of the present fort lemhi in eastern idaho. they supposed that they were almost to the pacific, not realising that a thousand miles of difficult and dangerous travel and more than two months of time still separated them from their wished-for goal. the journey, in fact, from the springs of the missouri to the navigable waters of the columbia, proved to be the most critical of the whole series. soon after passing the crest of the mountains, the party encountered a band of sixty indians of the shoshone tribe, coming to meet them at full speed, upon fine horses, and armed for battle. captain lewis, who always showed great discretion with indians, took the stars and stripes in his hand, and advanced alone to meet the party. as soon as the indians perceived that he was a white man, they showed signs of great rejoicing, and the three leaders of the war-party, dismounting, embraced the american captain with great exuberance, shouting words which he afterwards discovered meant, "we are rejoiced! we are rejoiced!" the valiant captain, however, was much more pleased with the hearty good-will of their intentions than in the manner of its expression, inasmuch as they had transferred a good portion of the war paint from their own faces to his. lewis now brought up his companions and entered upon a long and friendly conference with the chief of the party, whose name was cameahwait. captain lewis, as the representative of the great american nation, set forth to the eager listeners about him, a glowing report as to the benevolence of the great father at washington, and his desire that his brothers of the west should come into friendly relations with him and trade their furs for the beads and blankets and knives which the indians so highly prize. he also explained to them that they would receive from his government guns and ammunition which would enable them to cope with the dreaded sioux or the pitiless blackfeet. captain lewis also greatly aroused the curiosity of these indians by indicating to them that he had with him a woman of their tribe, and also a man who was perfectly black and yet not painted. he now made a proposition to cameahwait to go back with him and his companions to the forks of the missouri where they had left the main party with their goods and boats. cameahwait very gladly agreed to do this and also to provide them with horses for the journey westward to the navigable waters of the columbia. [illustration: capt. robert gray.] [illustration: the _columbia rediviva_.] after a journey of several days upon the back trail, the party found themselves again at the forks of the missouri, but, somewhat to their surprise and consternation, the main party was not there. the indians at first were very much excited, and, believing that they had been deceived and that the white men were enticing them to destruction, they were at the point of wreaking vengeance upon them. but with great tact and boldness, lewis gave the chief his gun and ammunition, telling him that if it proved that he had been a deceiver, they might instantly kill him. reassured, the indians proceeded onward and in a short time they could descry the boats, making their way slowly up the impetuous stream toward a bold promontory where the indians were stationed. in the bow of the foremost boat was seated sacajawea, clad in her bright red blanket, and gazing eagerly at the group of indians, thinking it possible that they might be of her own tribe. as the boat approached the band, the keen-sighted little indian woman soon perceived that these people were indeed of her own shoshone tribe. quickly disembarking, she made her way to them, when suddenly her eyes fell upon the chief, cameahwait. then to the astonishment of the white men who were with her, she broke forth suddenly into a torrent of tears which were soon changed into joyful smiles as the chief, with almost as much emotion as herself, rushed forward to embrace her. she then explained to captain lewis that cameahwait was her own brother, whom she had not seen since, as a little girl, she had been seized by the mandans and carried into captivity. of course there was now the kindliest feeling between the party of explorers and the indians. they found everything that they needed, horses, provisions, and guides, placed at their disposal. they were at that time, as would be seen by an inspection of the map, at the head waters of salmon river. they hoped that they might find a route down that powerful stream to navigable water. but the indians assured them that the river was white with foam for many miles and disappeared in a chain of terrific snowy mountains. it became necessary, therefore, to find a more northerly route, and on the last day of august, with twenty-nine horses, having bidden a hearty good-bye to the hospitable shoshones, they turned north-westward and soon became entangled in the savage ridges and defiles, already spotted with snow, of the bitter root mountains. they were at this time among some of the upper branches of the second largest tributary of the columbia, named by them clark's fork, though at the present time more commonly known by the more rhythmic title of pend oreille. after several days of the most difficult, and indeed dangerous, journeying of their entire trip, they abandoned the northern route, turned southward, and soon reached the wild and beautiful stream which they called the kooskooskie, commonly known to modern times as the clearwater, one of the finest of all the fine rivers of idaho, the "gem of the mountains." but they were not yet by any means clear of danger. the country still frowned on them with the same forbidding crags, and the same blinding snow storms as before. they were approaching the starvation point. the craggy precipices were marked with almost daily accidents to men and beasts. their only food was the flesh of their precious horses. under these harassing circumstances, it was decided that the wisest thing was for captain clark to take six of his best men and press rapidly forward in search of game and a more favourable country. after a hard journey of twenty miles, he found himself upon the crest of a towering cliff, from which stretched in front a vast open plain. this was the great plain, now covered with wheat-fields and orchards, lying east and north of the present city of lewiston, idaho. having made their way down the declivities of the bitter root mountains to the prairie, where they found a climate that seemed almost tropical after the bitter cold of the high mountains, the advance guard camped and waited for the main party to come up. rejoicing at their release from the distressing conditions of their passage of the bitter root mountains, they passed onward to a beautiful mountain-enclosed valley, which must have been in the near vicinity of what is known as the kamiah valley of the present time. here they found themselves with a large body of indians who became known subsequently as the nez percés. these indians appeared to be the most honest, intelligent, and attractive they had yet met,--eager to assist them, kind and helpful, although shrewd and business-like in their trading. the nez percés imparted to them the joyful news that the great river was not far distant. seeing the clearwater to be a fine, navigable stream, the explorers determined to abandon the weary land journey and once more commit their fortunes to the waters. they left their horses with the nez percés, asking that they should meet them at that point in the following spring when they expected to be on their return trip. the scrupulous fidelity with which the nez percés carried out their trust is some evidence of the oft-made assertion that the treachery characteristic of the indians was learned afterwards from the whites. with five large and well-filled canoes, and with a good supply of eatables and all the other necessaries of life, the explorers now cast themselves upon the clear, swift current of the kooskooskie, and on the th of october reached that striking and interesting place where the beautiful modern town of lewiston is located, at the junction of the clearwater and the snake. the turbid, angry, sullen snake, so striking a contrast with the lesser stream, received from the explorers the name of kimooenim, its indian name. subsequently they christened it lewis's fork, but the still less attractive name of snake is the one by which it is universally known. the journey of a hundred and twenty miles from the junction of the clearwater and the snake to the junction of the latter stream with the mighty columbia, seems to have been a calm and uneventful journey, though the explorers record every manner of event, whether important or unimportant. knowledge of their approach seems to have reached the indian world, and when on october th they reached the point where the modern city of pasco is located, they were met by a regular procession of two hundred indians. the two great rivers were then at their lowest point in the year, and they found by measurement that the columbia was yards in width and the snake, yards. in the glimmering haze of the pleasant october day they noted how the vast, bare prairie stretched southward until it was broken by the rounded summits of the blue mountains. to their astonishment, they found that the sohulks, who lived at the junction of the rivers, so differed from other indians that the men were content with one wife and that they would actually assist her in the drudgery of the family life. after several days spent in rest and getting fish, which seemed to throng the river in almost countless numbers, they resumed their journey upon the magnificent flood of the columbia. soon after passing what we now call the umatilla highland, they caught their first glimpse, clear-cut against the horizon of the south-west, of the bold cone of mt. hood, glistening with its eternal snows. landing upon the broad prairie near where umatilla is now located, captain clark shot a crane and a duck. he then perceived a group of indians who were almost paralysed with terror and yet able to make their way with considerable expedition to a little group of tepees. having entered one of these, captain clark discovered thirty-two indians, men, women, and children, all of whom seemed to be in the greatest terror, wailing and wringing their hands. endeavouring by kind looks and gestures to soothe their perturbation, captain clark held up a burning glass to catch a stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe. whereupon the consternation of the indians was redoubled, to be soothed only by the arrival of the two indian guides who were accompanying the party. the terrified indians explained to the guides that they knew that captain clark must have some bad medicine about him, for he had dropped out of the sky with a dead crane and a duck, accompanied by a terrible noise. [illustration: mt. hood from lost lake. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] the indians being now convinced that he was a mortal man, and, moreover, having heard the sound of the violin which the negro servant carried with him, became so enamoured with the strangers that they stayed up with them all night, and in the morning collected by hundreds to bid them good-bye. the indians had now given them to understand that in a short time they would reach the place which they knew as "timm." this seems to have been an indian word for falls. it still appears in the name tumwater falls applied to the falls at celilo on the columbia. a weird, savage place this proved to be; crags of basalt, thrust through the soil, like clenched hands, seemed almost to grasp the rushing river. making several portages, the voyagers reached that extraordinary place now called the dalles, or the "big chute," where all the waters of the columbia are squeezed into a crack only a hundred and fifty feet in width. the river, in fact, is "turned on edge." the explorers, finding the shore so rough that it was difficult to carry their boats over, steered boldly through that witch's caldron. though they must have been carried with frightful rapidity through the boiling stream, they reached the end of the cataract without accident. at this point they began to be aware of the fact that they were reaching the sphere of the white traders from the ocean, for they began to see blankets, axes, brass kettles, and other articles of civilised manufacture. the indians, too, were more saucy, suspicious, and treacherous than those of the upper country. being launched upon the calm, deep flood of the river below the dalles, they observed the phenomenon of the submerged forest, which at a low state of water is still conspicuous. they correctly inferred that this indicated a damming up of the river at some recent time. they thought indeed that it could not have been more than twenty years previous. we know, however, that submerged trees or piles, as indicated by remains of old roman wharves in britain, may remain intact for hundreds of years. this place on the columbia is, however, one of the most interesting of its many interesting phenomena. it is evident that within very recent times, geologically speaking, there was a prodigious rock-slide from the mountains which closed the river, producing the cataract of the cascades and raising the river above, some forty feet. here the explorers had their last portage. on the second day of november they reached the foot of the cascades and perceived the movement of the tide, which made it plain to them that the ocean was near at hand. yet, in reality, it was much farther than they thought, for the majestic lower river extends one hundred and sixty miles from the foot of the last cataract to the pacific. it is interesting to notice comments made by the explorers upon the green and fertile islands at the lower end of the cascades, and that spired and turreted volcanic cliff which they called beacon rock, but which we know now as castle rock. the rest of the journey of lewis and clark was a calm floating down the tranquil flood of the lower columbia in the midst of the fog and clouds which at that season of the year generally embrace all objects. on november th the mist suddenly broke away before them, the bold mountainous shores vanished in front, and, through the parted headlands, they looked forth into the expanse of the ocean. [illustration: eliot glacier, mt. hood. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] their journey was now ended. they had demonstrated the possibility of crossing the continent and of linking together the waters of the missouri and the columbia. the winter of - was spent in log buildings at a point named by the explorers, fort clatsop, situated on the lewis and clark river at the south side of the columbia a few miles from the present site of astoria. the location of this fort has been identified in modern times, as has also the location of the salt cairn, upon what is now known as the seaside beach, commemorated by an inscription. one of the interesting little human touches in the narrative of captain lewis describes the casting of a whale upon clatsop beach and the journey of the party to see the great marine curiosity, as well as to secure some of its fat and blubber. the indian woman, sacajawea, was to be left behind to keep camp while they were all at the beach, but she put up the earnest plea that inasmuch as she had never seen any such curiosity as the "big fish," and as she had journeyed all those weary miles from the country of the mandans, it seemed hard that she should be denied the privilege of satisfying her eyes with a view of the whale. lewis remarks that the request of the poor woman seemed so reasonable that they at once fixed up camp in such manner that it could be left, and took her with them, to her intense satisfaction. after four months spent in the fogs and mists of the coast, and without seeing any of the ships which the indians said were accustomed to come in considerable numbers during the spring and summer, the party turned their faces homeward on the d of march, . the commander posted upon the fort a notice which read as follows: the object of this last is that through the medium of some civilised person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world that the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed and who were sent out by the government of the united states to explore the interior of the continent of north america, did penetrate the same by way of the missouri and columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the pacific ocean, at which they arrived on the th day of november, , and departed on their return to the united states by the same route by which they had come. they also gave to the chiefs of the clatsops and chinooks certificates, to which they attached great importance and which were afterwards exhibited to other explorers, setting forth the just and hospitable treatment which these indians had accorded the party. the return from fort clatsop to the missouri was in the main a pleasant and successful journey without extraordinary event, except the fact that upon their return they discovered the willamette river, which, strange to say, had eluded their observation on their journey down the river in november. the journal contains the somewhat quaint statement that the chief cultivable region which they discovered in oregon was wapatoo island, now known as sauvie's island, at the mouth of the willamette. they express the conviction that that fertile tract of country and the region adjoining might sometime support a population of fifty thousand people. they seem to regard this as an extraordinary prophecy of prosperity. inasmuch as there are already over four times that number of people in the city of portland, it would seem that lewis and clark were hardly "boomers" in the modern sense of the word. one interesting thing in connection with the lewis and clark expedition receives special emphasis from them in the account of their return journey, and that is, the faithfulness, honesty, and devotion of the indians when entrusted with any charge, as the care of horses or canoes. this character of the indians was so marked that one can hardly avoid the conclusion that the subsequent troubles with the indians were due very largely to abuse by the whites. no better summary can be given of the scope of this historic journey than that by captain lewis himself in his journal. he says: the road by which we went out by way of the missouri to its head is three thousand ninety-six miles; thence by land by way of lewis river over to clark's river and down that to the entrance of traveller's rest creek, where all the roads from different routes meet; thence across the rugged part of the rocky mountains to the navigable waters of the columbia, three hundred and ninety-eight miles, thence down the river six hundred and forty miles to the pacific ocean, making a total distance of four thousand one hundred and thirty-four miles. on our return in we reduced the distance from the mississippi to the pacific ocean to three thousand five hundred and fifty-five miles. the safe return of the explorers to their homes created a sensation throughout the united states and the world. leaders and men were suitably rewarded. though the expedition was not marked by many remarkable adventures or dramatic events, and though the narration given by the explorers is of a plain and simple kind with no attempt at literary ornamentation, yet occurring, as the expedition did, at such a peculiar juncture in our history, and having such an effect to bridge the chasm between the old time and the new, this lewis and clark expedition has continued to receive, and justly, more attention than any other journey in our history. president jefferson, paying a tribute to captain lewis in , expressed himself thus: never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the united states; the humblest of its citizens have taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey and looked with impatience for the information it would furnish. nothing short of the official journals of this extraordinary and interesting journey will exhibit the importance of the service, the courage, devotion, zeal, and perseverance, under circumstances calculated to discourage, which animated this little band of heroes, throughout the long dangerous, and tedious travel. the expedition of lewis and clark may justly be considered as constituting the first steps across the wilderness. the breadth of the american continent was now known. the general relations of its rivers and mountain systems and prairies were understood. something of its prodigality of resources became set forth to the world. a dim consciousness of the connection of this vast pacific domain with the progress of american destiny appeared to our grandfathers. and although the wilderness traversed by this complete expedition did not come into possession of the united states for many years, yet it might well be said that our subsequent acquirement of it was due to the lewis and clark expedition. of the many remarkable explorations which followed, with all of their adventure and tragedy, we cannot here speak. for several years all the expeditions to the far west were the outgrowth of the fur-trade. most remarkable of these early journeys was that of the hunt party which was the land division of the great astor movement to establish the pacific fur company. that company was established by john jacob astor of new york for the purpose of making a bold and far-reaching attempt to control the fur-trade of the pacific coast in the interests of the united states. while the sea division was upon its journey around cape horn, the land division was in process of organisation at st. louis. wilson price hunt, the commander of this division, was the second partner in the astor company. he had been merchandising for some years at st. louis, and had become impressed with the financial profits of the fur-trade as well as with the vast possibilities of american development on the continent. hunt was a fine type of the pioneer promoter of that age. brave, humane, cheerful, and resolute, he appears to us as the very flower of the adventurous argonauts who were searching for the seal and beaver fleeces of the far west. with hunt were associated four other partners of the expedition, crooks, mckenzie, miller, and mccellan. accompanying the party were two english naturalists, bradbury and nuttall, who did the first scientific study of the rocky mountain region. there were forty canadian _voyageurs_ whose duties consisted of rowing, transporting, cooking, and general drudgery. the remaining twelve of the party consisted of a group of american hunters and trappers, the leader of whom was a virginian named john day. the company was in all respects fitted out most bountifully. there were at that time two great classes of trappers. the first and most numerous were the canadian _voyageurs_. these were mainly of french descent, many of them being half-breeds. almost amphibious by nature and training, gay and amiable in disposition, with true french vivacity and ingenuity, gliding over every harsh experience with laugh and song, possessed of quick sympathies and humane instincts which enabled them to readily find the best side of the indians,--these french _voyageurs_ constituted a most interesting as well as indispensable class in the trapper's business. the free trappers were an entirely different class of men. they were usually american by birth, virginia and kentucky being the homes of most of them. patient and indefatigable in their work of trapping, yet, when on their annual trip to the towns, given to wild dissipation and savage revellings, indifferent to sympathy or company, harsh and cruel to the indians, bold and overbearing, with blood always in their eyes, thunder in their voices, and guns in their hands, yet underneath all of their harsh exterior having noble hearts, could they but be reached, these now vanished trappers have gone to a place in history alongside of the old spartans and the followers of pizarro and cortez in spanish conquest. of the many adventures of the hunt party on the journey up the missouri, we cannot speak. for some reason, although taking a more direct route than did lewis and clark, and having, to all appearance, a better equipped party, they did not make so good time. guided by indians, they crossed chain after chain of mountains, supposing each to be the summit, only to find another yet to succeed. at last on the th of september, they stood upon a lofty eminence over which they could gaze both eastward and westward. scanning attentively the western horizon, the guide pointed out three shining peaks, whose bases, he told them, were touched by a tributary of the columbia river. these peaks are now known as the three tetons. and now the party set forth upon the long descent of the western slope, passing mountain after mountain and stream after stream, some of the way in boats which the _voyageurs_ made from the green timber of the forests, and much of the way being obliged to carry their effects around cataracts and rapids, and thus losing much time. nevertheless, they found one long stretch of over a hundred miles upon the upper snake which they navigated with comparative ease. but having reached what is now known as the seven devils country in south-western idaho, they found themselves in a chain of rapids and precipitous bluffs where neither boats nor horses, apparently nothing but wings, could be of service. this was in fact the beginning of over a hundred miles of the most ragged and inaccessible region upon the whole course of the snake river, a region which even to this day contains neither road nor steamboat route, and by which the great state of idaho is separated into two divisions, neither directly accessible to the other by any ordinary modes of travel. after a forty-mile tramp up and down the river, hunt decided that the only way to escape the difficulties with which they were surrounded, was to divide the party into four divisions, hoping that one of them might find game and a way out of the forbidding volcanic wastes in which they were beleaguered. two of the parties soon returned. one, being in charge of mckenzie, continued upon its course northward and reached the mouth of the columbia, without ever again seeing the main party. during the weeks that followed, the main party, lost amid the great mountains which lie eastward from the present vicinity of baker city and wallowa lake, suffered all the torments of famine and cold. in places the river ran through volcanic sluiceways, roaring and raging; in some cases, although within hearing, yet entirely inaccessible, so that although within sound of its angry raving, the travellers were often obliged to lie down with tongues parched and swollen for lack of water. the party applied to this long volcanic "chute" the name of the devil's scuttle-hole, and to the river they applied the name _la rivière maudite enragée_, or "accursed mad river." the lives of the party were evidently at stake. in the emergency hunt determined to divide his force into two divisions, one on the north and one on the south side of the river. from the th of november until the first part of december they urged on this dismal and heart-sickening march. they passed a few wretched indian camps where they managed to secure dogs for food, and once they got a few horses. the frightened and half-starved indians could give them no clear information as to the location of the great river, but they signified that they supposed it to be yet a long way off. the party was evidently approaching something, for gigantic snowy mountains now loomed dimly through the winter mists. finding it impossible to make headway against blinding snowstorms and up the icy crags, they turned their course down to the river itself and made a cheerless camp. in the morning they were startled by seeing upon the opposite side of the river, a group of men more wretched and desolate than themselves. it soon appeared that this was the other party, which had entirely failed in finding either food or guidance from the indians. finding it necessary that some provision should be made for these dying men, hunt constructed a rude canoe from the limbs of trees and the skin of one of the horses. in this crazy craft one of the daring canadian _voyageurs_ made his way with some of the horse meat, which, poor as it was, was sufficient to save life for the time. with their little remaining strength, they pressed on down the river until they reached another small village of the wretched snake indians. urging these indians to provide for them a guide, and at last securing one by the most bounteous offers of rewards, hunt succeeded in gathering all of his party together, with the exception of six sick men whom they were obliged to leave to the tender mercies of the indians. for another fortnight, the cold and hungry party floundered painfully through the snow across the rugged mountains which lie between what we now know as the powder river valley and the grande ronde. reaching a lofty mountain height on the last day of december, they looked far down into a fair and snowless prairie, bathed in sunshine and appearing to the winter-worn travellers like a gleam of summer. moreover, they soon discerned a group of indian lodges which they judged were well supplied with dogs and horses. thither hastening eagerly, they soon found themselves in a beautiful valley, which from their description must have been the grande ronde valley. beautiful at all times, it must have seemed trebly so to these ragged and famished wanderers. the next morning the new year of shone in upon them bright and cheerful, as if to make amends for the stern severity of the outgoing year. and now the canadians insisted upon having their new year's holiday. not even death and famine could rob the light-hearted _voyageurs_ of their festivals. so with dance and song and with dog meat, roasted, boiled, fried, and fricasseed, they met the newly-crowned year with their gallic happiness and abandon. the indians assured them that they could reach the great river within three days. but they found it twice that, and their way led across another lofty chain of snowy mountains, before the canopy of clouds which hung above them parted. there, looking far down from their snowy eyre, they beheld the boundless and sunny plains of the great river. swiftly descending the slopes of the mountains, they emerged upon that finest land of all eastern oregon, the plains of the umatilla. here they found the tribe of the tushepaw indians with thirty-four lodges and two hundred horses. more significant than these to hunt were axes, kettles, and other implements of white construction, indicating that these indians had already come into communication with the traders upon the lower river. in answer to his eager questions, the tushepaws informed him that the great river was but two days distant and that a small party of white men had just descended it. being now certain that this was the advance guard which had left him at the devil's scuttle-hole, hunt felt sure that they were safe and was therefore relieved of one great anxiety. after a few days' rest upon the pleasant prairies and in the comparatively genial climate of the umatilla, the party set forth upon horses obtained from the tushepaws, and after a pleasant ride of two days across the rolling prairie, they beheld flowing at their feet, a majestic stream, deep and blue, a mile in width, sweeping toward the sunset, evidently the columbia. at the great falls of the river, known to the indians as the timm or the tumwater, just above what we now call dalles city, hunt exchanged his horses for canoes. this last stage of two hundred and twenty miles by boat down the river, was calm and peaceful and a refreshing rest after the distress and disaster of their winter journey through the mountains. not till the th of february, however, did they reach the newly christened town of astoria. rounding the bluffs of tongue point, they beheld with full hearts the stars and stripes floating over the only civilised abode west of st. louis. westward they saw the parted headlands between which the river pours its floods into the ocean. as the boats drew near the shore, the whole population, trappers, sailors, and indians, came down to meet them. foremost in the crowd they saw the members of the party which had gone on ahead through the snake river mountains. having had no hope that hunt and his men could survive the famine and the cold, these members of the advance guard were the more rejoiced to see them. the canadians, with their french vivacity, rushed into each other's arms, sobbing and hugging like so many schoolgirls. even the nonchalant americans and the stiff-jawed scotchmen smiled and gave themselves up to the gladness of the hour. the next two or three days were mainly devoted to eating and telling stories. as we have seen, they had lost several of their number from starvation and drowning along the banks of the snake river. they had also left six sick men with the indians in the heart of the mountains. they had little hope of ever seeing these again, but the next summer the party on their way up the columbia river, saw two wretched looking beings, naked and haggard, wandering on the river bank near the mouth of the umatilla. stopping to investigate, they discovered that these were day and crooks, the leaders of the party which they had left behind. their forlorn plight was relieved with food and clothes, and, having been taken into the boat, they related their dismal tale. it appeared that they had been provided sufficiently by the indians to sustain their lives through the winter. in the spring they had left the canadians among the indians, and had set forth in the hope of reaching the great river. but having reached the dalles, they had been robbed of rifles and ammunition, stripped of their clothing, and driven forth into the wilderness. they were almost at the point of a final surrender to ill-fortune when they beheld the rescuing boat. so, with joyful hearts, they turned their boat's prow to astoria, which they reached in safety. but poor day never regained his health. his mind was shattered by the hardships of his journey, and he soon pined away and died. the barren and rugged shores of the john day river in eastern oregon take on an added interest in view of the sad story of the brave hunter who discovered them, and who wandered in destitution for so many days beside them. strange to say, the four canadians who remained among the indians were afterwards found alive, though utterly destitute of all things. hence it appears that the loss of life in this difficult journey was not great. the journeys here narrated may be considered as covering what we have designated as the first steps across the wilderness. within a few years, many parties of trappers, explorers, and adventurers, with some scientists, and a little later, parties of missionaries, made their way over the great plains, through the defiles of the mountains, and down the barren shores of the snake river to the columbia and the sea. each party had its special experiences, and made its special contribution to geographical or commercial advancement. but to the parties led by lewis and clark and by hunt, we must accord the greatest meed of praise for having broken the first pathways across the continent and for having linked the two oceans by the footsteps of civilised men. chapter v the fur-traders, their bateaux, and their stations importance of the fur-trade as connected with all other parts of the history--fur-hunters compared with gold-hunters--sea-otter--ledyard's exploration--the european inaugurators of the trade--beginnings of the american trade--the great british companies and their struggles with the french--mackenzie's journey across the continent--thompson's descent of the columbia--union of the two great canadian companies--the american fur companies--henry's fort--the winship enterprise on the river--john jacob astor and the pacific fur company--rivalry with the north-westers--arrangements for expeditions by land and sea, and the personnel of these--voyage of the _tonquin_ and her disastrous approach of the river--founding of astoria--appearance of thompson and the north-westers--interior expedition and founding of fort okonogan--mcdougall, the smallpox chief and bridegroom of the indian princess--evil tidings in regard to the _tonquin_--other disasters--war of and sale of astoria to the north-westers--restoration of astoria to the americans--monopolisation of the river by the hudson's bay company--their expeditions--hard lot of madame dorion and her children--adventures of alexander ross--the forts and general plan of work--fort vancouver and its remarkable advantages--dr. mcloughlin, or the "white eagle"--profits of the fur-trade--the canoes and bateaux and the _voyageurs_--the routes of the brigades--later americans. as the reader will doubtless already have discovered, we are presenting the history of the river topically rather than chronologically. the various great stages of progress, discovery by sea, discovery by land, fur-trade, indian wars, missionary undertakings, international contests, beginnings of steamboat navigation, and settlement, overlap each other, and each topic compels us in a measure to anticipate its successors. this is especially true of the topic treated of in this chapter. the fur-trade was an important factor in the eras of discovery both by land and by sea, in the indian wars and in the era of settlement, while the strife of nations for the possession of the land of oregon is almost a history of the fur companies and their international policies. remembering this synthetic nature of these features of our history, we shall endeavour, with as little repetition as possible, to present a coherent picture of that great era of the fur-traders. without doubt one of the earliest uses to which man has put the lower animals is that of clothing his body in their captured skins. the acquisition of furs has been a special feature of the colder climes. it is obviously also a feature of discovery and conquest, for it is the wilderness only which yields any considerable number of fur-producing animals. thus navigation, commerce, discovery, invention, economics, finally international wars and policies, have been rooted to a large degree in this primal business. the fur-hunters have held the hunters of gold and precious stones and spicery a close race in the rank of world movers. indeed it may well be questioned whether results of greater moment to humanity have not proceeded from the quest for furs than from that for gold. the spaniards expended their energies in the gold and silver hunt in mexico and peru and annihilated the races of those lands in their pitiless rapacity. the other great exploring nations of the sixteenth century, especially the french, while not indifferent to the possibility of encountering the precious metals, found more certain and permanent results in the less feverish and dazzling pursuit of the wild animals of the wilderness. neither the hunters for gold nor those for peltries were the state-builders and home-builders without whom our american union would not exist. but they were the avant-couriers of both. our land of oregon has had the peculiar fortune of being opened by both for both. china furnished the most active and convenient market for furs to those who secured their supplies on the pacific coast of north america. the russians were the first europeans to enter the chinese market, and they began their voyages as early as . the sea-otter seems to have had its chief habitat on the pacific shore from oregon to alaska, and, as the ships of all nations began to crowd upon the location of the fabled strait of anian, the trade with the natives for these precious furs became constantly augmented, until the curious and interesting creatures, so fatally attractive, were added to the long list of "lower creatures" whom the greed of the "higher creatures" has exterminated. a book by coxe published in london in first made known to the english-speaking people the rich profits of the russians from the transportation of the sea-otter skins to china. he instanced a case of a profit of $ , from a single cargo. it had, however, been known in from the report of the voyage of captain cook that the north-west coast of america contained a new source of wealth from the accumulation of these furs by the indians and their eager desire to trade them for trinkets and implements of civilised manufacture. the first american to comprehend the greatness of the fur-trade on the north-west coast of the pacific, both as a means of profit to himself and as a patriotic impulse to direct his own nation into the channels of westward expansion, was john ledyard. thomas jefferson and john paul jones became deeply interested in ledyard's extravagant hopes of future wealth and glory, but all his efforts came to naught, and in this brilliant adventurer, just on the eve of setting out to explore the interior of africa, suddenly put an end to his own life at cairo, egypt. ledyard should always be remembered by his countrymen, for, though his glowing visions were unfulfilled, he was an important link in the great chain which bound oregon to our own country. during these same years, several englishmen, already noted in the chapter on discovery, portlock, dixon, hanna, barclay, and meares, were actively engaged in the fur-trade, while the voyages of la pérouse and marchand carried the flag of france on the same quest, and spain's once illustrious emblem of world dominion was borne by quadra, valdes, galiano, fidalgo, quimper, caamano, and several others. while these explorers all were impelled in part by national pride and diplomacy, the hope of sharing the spoils of the sea-otter droves was the chief lure to the tempestuous seas of the north pacific. in bullfinch's _oregon and el dorado_ is a very interesting narration of the inception of the american part in the fur-trade of oregon. in a building known as the coolidge building in boston a company were gathered together in discussing the reports, then first made public, of cook's voyages. mr. joseph barrell, a rich merchant of boston, was much impressed with cook's account of the chances of barter with the indians for furs and the disposal of them in china for yet more profitable cargoes of teas, silks, and other characteristic commodities of that land. as a result of this conference, a company was formed in boston to prosecute such enterprise, the members of the company, messrs. barrell, brown, bulfinch, darby, hatch, and pintard, being among the foremost of the business men in boston in that good year of the creation of the american constitution. the enterprising yankees rapidly drew to the front, so that during the years from to , the records show one hundred and eight american vessels regularly engaged in the business, while only twenty-two english, with a few portuguese and french are found. it should, of course be remembered that the tremendous strife of the napoleonic wars was engrossing the attention of european nations during that time. so well known did the boston navigators become in that period that the common name of americans used by the oregon indians was "bostons." robert gray, the discoverer of the columbia river, was fitted out by bulfinch and others of the first boston company. during the period under consideration the profits of the traffic were usually very great, though variable, sometimes actual losses being incurred, while disaster from wreck, storm, scurvy, and murderous indians was frequent. during the two years, and , if dixon is to be followed, there were sold in canton five thousand eight hundred sea-otter hides for $ , . swan figures that with the four years ending with , forty-eight thousand five hundred skins were sold. sturgis states that he knew a capital of $ , to yield a gross income of $ , . he relates that he had collected as high as six thousand fine skins in a single voyage and once secured five hundred and sixty of the best quality in one day. the indians, however, learned to become very expert traders, and as they discovered the eagerness with which the whites sought their furs, they raised the price. they became, moreover, very capricious and unreliable, so that the phenomenal profits could no longer be obtained. the stage of the history of the fur-trade of which we have thus far spoken may be called its first era of a free-for-all rush to the new seas, with no vast moneyed interests in any position of leadership. but commercial conditions were already in existence which were bound to reverse the situation. great operators, gigantic companies, foreshadowings of the great trusts of the present, with monopolistic aims, were seeking the ear of the british government, while enterprises, larger, though not so monopolistic, were rapidly forming in the united states. the great monopolies of europe had indeed existed long prior to the period of the oregon fur-traders. as far back as the beginning of the sixteenth century, de monts, pontgrave, champlain, and other great french explorers had secured monopolies on the fur-trade from louis xiii. and his minister, richelieu. later la salle, hennepin, d'iberville, and others had the same advantages. the st. lawrence, the great lakes, and the upper mississippi were the great "preserve" of these great concessionaires. the english and their american colonists set themselves in battle array against the monopolistic bourbon methods of handling the vast domain which the genius and enterprise of de monts and champlain had won for france, with the result that upon the heights of abraham the fleur-de-lis was lowered before the cross of st. george, and north america became english instead of gallic, and one of the world's milestones was set for good. then by one of those beautiful ironies of history which baffle all prescience, victorious britain violated the principles of her own conquest and adopted the methods of bourbon tyranny and monopoly, with the result that another milestone was set on the highway of liberty and the new continent became american instead of european. but out of the struggles of that century, french, english, and american, out of the final distribution of territory, by which england retained canada and with it a large french and indian population, mingled with english and scotch,--out of these curious comminglings, economic, commercial, political, religious, and ethnic, grew the great english fur companies, whose history was largely wrought out on the shores of the columbia, and from whose juxtaposition with the american state-builder the romance and epic grandeur of the history of the river largely comes. many enterprises were started by the french and english in the seventeenth century, but the hudson's bay company became the goliath of them all. the first charter of this gigantic organisation was granted in by charles ii. to prince rupert and seventeen others, with a capital stock of ten thousand five hundred pounds. from this small beginning, the profits were so great that, notwithstanding the loss of two hundred thousand pounds from the french wars during the latter part of the century, the company declared dividends of from twenty-five to fifty per cent. the field of operations was gradually extended from the south-eastern regions contiguous to hudson's bay until it embraced the vast and dreary expanses of snowy prairie traversed by the saskatchewan, the athabasca, the peace, and finally the mackenzie. many of the greatest expeditions by land under british auspices which resulted in great geographical discoveries were primarily designed for the expansion of the fur-trade. just at the critical moment, both for the great canadian fur company, as well as for discovery and acquisition in the region of the columbia, a most important and remarkable champion entered the lists. this was the north-west fur company of montreal. it was one of the legitimate consequences of the treaty of paris in , ceding canada to great britain. the french in canada became british subjects by that treaty, and many of them had extensive interests as well as experience in the fur business. furthermore a number of scotchmen of great enterprise and intelligence betook themselves to canada, eager to partake of the boundless opportunities offered by the new shuffle of the cards. these scotchmen and frenchmen became natural partners in the foundation of enterprises independent of the hudson's bay monopoly. in a group of the boldest and most energetic of these active spirits, of whom the leaders were mcgillivray, mctavish, benjamin and joseph frobisher, rechebleve, thain, and frazer, united in the formation of the north-west fur company. bitter rivalry soon arose between the new company and the old monopoly. following the usual history of special privilege, the old company, which had now been in existence one hundred and thirteen years, had learned to depend more on privilege than on enterprise, and had become somewhat degenerate. the north-westers "rustled" for new business in new regions. in alexander mackenzie, as one of the north-westers, made his way, with incredible hardship, down the river which bears his name to the frozen ocean. a few years later he made the first journey to the shore of the pacific, commemorating his course by painting on a rock on the shore of the cascade inlet, north-east of vancouver island, these words: "alexander mackenzie, from canada, by land, the twenty-second of july, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three." as a result of the new undertakings set on foot by the north-westers and the reawakened hudson's bay company, both companies entered the columbia valley. the struggle for possession of oregon between the english and american fur companies and their government was on. in the summer of david thompson of the north-west company crossed the continental divide by the athabasca pass in latitude ° '. the north-westers had heard of the astor enterprise in new york and realised that they must be up and doing if they would control the land of the oregon. although the character of soil, climate, and productions of the columbia valley was but imperfectly known, enough had been derived from lewis and clark, and from ocean discoveries to make it plain that the columbia furnished the most convenient access to the interior from the sea, and that its numerous tributaries furnished a network of boatable waters unequalled on the western slope, while there was every reason to suppose that its forests abounded in fur-bearing animals and that its climate would admit of much longer seasons of work than was possible in the biting winters of the athabasca. it became vital to the continental magnitude of the designs of the canadian companies that they control oregon. for greater topical clearness we will anticipate a little at this point and state that after several years of intense rivalry it became plain to the british parliament that it was suicidal to allow a policy of division in the face of a common enemy. hence in , by act of parliament, the two companies were reorganised and united under a charter which was to last twenty-one years (and as a matter of fact was renewed at the end of that time), and under the provisions of which the north-westers were to have equal shares in both stock and offices, though the name of the hudson's bay company, was retained. it will be remembered therefore, that up to the year , the two great canadian companies were distinct, and that during that time the north-west company was much the more active and aggressive in the columbia valley, but that after that date the entire force of the canadian companies was combined under the name of the old monopoly. but however bitter the first enmity of the canadian rivals, they agreed on the general proposition that the americans must be checkmated, and during the score of years prior to their coalition they were seizing the pivotal points of the oregon country. during the next two decades they created a vast network of forts and stations, and reduced the country contiguous to the river and its tributaries to a system so elaborate and interesting as to be worthy of extended study. we can sketch only its more general features. and the more perfectly to understand them, we must arrest here the story of the great canadian monopoly and bring up the movement of the american fur companies. it may be noted, first of all, that by reason of the quicker colonisation and settlement and consequent establishment of agriculture and other arts pertaining to home life, the region of the united states east of the mississippi never became the natural habitat of the trapper and fur-trader to anything like the degree of canada and the western part of our own land. nevertheless extensive fur interests grew up on the mississippi during the french régime, and in - august and pierre choteau located a trading post on the present site of st. louis, and the fascinating history of that great capital began. most of the american trading companies confined their operations to the east side of the rocky mountains. but the missouri fur company of st. louis, composed of a miscellaneous group of americans and hispano-gallo-americans, under the presidency of manuel lisa, a bold and enterprising spaniard, took a step over the crest of the mountains and established the first trading post upon the waters of the columbia. this was in . andrew henry, one of the partners of the aforesaid company, crossed the mountains in that year and a year later built a fort on a branch of snake river. this seems to have been on what subsequently became known as henry's river. it was in one of the wildest and grandest regions of all that wild grand section of snake river. henry's river drains the north side of the three tetons, while the south branch, known afterwards as lewis and finally as snake river, drains the south of that group of mountains. _henry must be remembered as the first american and the first white man recorded in history who built any structure upon any tributary of our river, and the year was ._ both henry and his company had hopes of accomplishing great things in the way of the fur-trade in that very favourable region. but the next year the indians were so threatening that the fort was forsaken and the party returned to the missouri. when the hunt party in the fall of sought refuge at this point they found only a group of abandoned huts, with no provisions or equipment of which they could make any use. but though henry's fort was but a transient matter, his american countrymen were beginning to press through the open gateways of both mountain and sea. in the early part of the winship brothers of boston, together with several other keen-sighted yankees, formed a project for a definite post on the columbia river, proposing to reach their destination by ship. accordingly they fitted out an old vessel known as the _albatross_, with nathan winship as captain, william gale as captain's assistant, and william smith as first mate. captain gale kept a journal of the entire enterprise, and it is one of the most interesting and valuable of the many ship's records of the north-western coast. setting sail with a crew of twenty-two men and an excellent supply of stores and ammunition, and abundance of tools and hardware for erecting needful buildings, the _albatross_ left boston in the summer of . after a slow and tedious, but very healthful and comfortable voyage, stopping at the hawaiian islands on the route, the _albatross_ reached the mouth of the columbia river on may , . many american and other ships had entered the mouth of the river prior to that date, but so far as known none had ascended any considerable distance. apparently gray and broughton were the only shipmasters who had ascended above the wide expanse now known as gray's bay, while the lewis and clark expedition contained the only white men who had seen the river above tide-water. the winship enterprise may be regarded with great interest, therefore, as the first real attempt to plant a permanent establishment on the banks of the river. winship and his companions spent some days in careful examination of the river banks and as a result of their search they decided on a strip of valley land formed by a narrowing of the river on the north and an indentation of the mountain on the south. this pleasant strip of fertile land is located on the south bank of the lordly stream, and its lower end is about forty-five miles from the ocean. being partially covered with a beautiful grove of oak trees, the first to be seen on the ascent of the river, the place received the name of oak point. it may be noted that this name was subsequently transferred to a promontory nearly opposite on the north bank, and this circumstance has led many to locate erroneously the site of the first buildings designed for permanent use on the banks of the columbia. and such these were, for the lewis and clark structures at what they called fort clatsop, erected four and a half years earlier, were meant only for a winter's use. but the winship party had glowing visions of a great emporium of the fur-trade, another montreal or st. louis, to inaugurate a new era for their country and themselves. they designed paying the indians for their lands and in every way treating them justly. they seem in short to have had a very high conception of the dignity and worth of their enterprise. they were worthy of the highest success, and the student of to-day cannot but grieve that their high hopes were dashed with disaster. tying the _albatross_ to the bank on june th, they entered at once with great energy on the task of felling trees, rearing a large log house, clearing a garden spot, in which they at once began the planting of seeds, and getting ready to trade with the natives. but within four days the river began to rise rapidly, and the busy fort-builders perceived to their dismay that they had located on land subject to inundation. all the work thus far done went for naught, and they pulled their fort to pieces and floated the logs down stream a quarter of a mile to a higher place. there they resumed their buildings with redoubled energy. but within a week a much more dangerous situation again, and this time permanently, arrested their grand project. this time it was the very men toward whom they had entertained such just and benevolent designs, the indians, who thwarted the plans. for, as captain gale narrates in a most entertaining manner, a large body of chinooks and cheheeles, armed with bows and arrows, and some muskets, made their appearance, announcing that they were on their way to war against the culaworth tribe who had killed one of their chiefs a year before. but the next day the indians massing themselves about the whites, gave such plain indications that the previous declaration was a pretence that the party hastily got into a position of defence. their cannon on board the _albatross_ had already been loaded in anticipation of emergencies, and so plain was it that they could make a deadly defence that the threatened attack did not come. a long "pow-wow" ensued instead, and the chinooks insisted that the builders must select a site lower down the river. after due consideration the party decided that any determined opposition by the indians would so impair their enterprise, even though they might be able to defend themselves, that it would be best to seek a new location. accordingly they reloaded their effects, dropped down the river, and finally decided to make a voyage down the california coast and return the next year. return they did, but by that time the next year the pacific fur company had already located at astoria the first permanent american settlement, and the winship enterprise faded away. that the design of the winships was not at all chimerical is apparent from the fact that within twenty years the hudson's bay company had made of vancouver, sixty miles farther up the river, the very kind of a trading entrepôt of which the winships had dreamed. their dream was reasonable, but the time and place were unpropitious. a quotation from captain gale's journal will give a conception of his feelings: june th.--the ship dropped further down the river, and it was now determined to abandon all attempts to force a settlement. we have taken off the goats and hogs which were left on shore for the use of the settlement, and thus we have to abandon the business, after having, with great difficulty and labour, got about forty-five miles above cape disappointment; and with great trouble began to clear the land and build a house a second time, after cutting timber enough to finish nearly one-half, and having two of our hands disabled in the work. it is, indeed, cutting to be obliged to knuckle to those whom you have not the least fear of, but whom, from motives of prudence, you are obliged to treat with forbearance. what can be more disagreeable than to sit at the table with a number of these rascally chiefs, who while they supply their greedy mouths with your food with one hand, their bloods boil within them to cut your throat with the other, without the least provocation. on the way out of the river captain winship learned that the chinooks designed capturing his vessel, and would doubtless have done so, had not his vigilance prevented. while the crew of the _albatross_ were engaged in these adventures the largest american fur company yet formed was getting ready to effect a lodgment on the shores of the columbia. this was the pacific fur company. john jacob astor was the founder of this enterprise. though unfortunate in almost every feature of its history and its final outcome, this company had a magnificent conception, a royal grandeur of opportunity, and it possessed also the felicity, shared by no one of its predecessors, of the genius of a great literary star to illuminate its records. to washington irving it owes much of its fame. yet the commercial genius of astor could not prevent errors of judgment by the management any more than the literary genius of irving was able to conceal their errors, or the genius of american liberty able to order events so as to prevent victory for a time by the "britishers." as we view the history in the large it may be that we shall conclude that the british triumph at first was the best introduction to american triumph in the end. john jacob astor may, perhaps, be justly regarded as the first of the great promoters or financial magnates who have made the united states the world's el dorado. coming from germany to this land of opportunity after the close of the revolutionary war, he soon manifested that keen intuition in money matters, as well as intense devotion to accumulation, which has led to the colossal fortunes of his own descendants and of the other multimillionaires of this age. having made quite a fortune by transporting furs to london, mr. astor turned to larger fields. with his broad and keen geographical and commercial insight, he could readily grasp the same fact which the north-westers of montreal were also considering, that the columbia river might well become the key to an international fur-trade, as well as a strategic point for american expansion westward. he made overtures to the north-westers for a partnership, but they declined. then he determined to be the chief manager, and to associate individual americans and canadians with himself. with the promptitude of the skilful general, he proceeded to form his company and make his plan of campaign in time to anticipate the apparent designs of the active canadians. they saw, as well as astor did, the magnitude of the stake and at once made ready to play their part. for, as already noted, david thompson crossed the rockies by the athabasca pass in , spent the winter at lake windermere on the columbia river, and in the summer of reached astoria, only to find the astor company already established there. it should be especially noted that the thompson party was the first to descend the river from near its source to the ocean, although of course lewis and clark had anticipated them on the portion below the junction of the snake with the main river. mr. astor's plans provided for an expedition by sea and one by land. the first was to convey stores and equipment for founding and defending the proposed capital of the empire of the fur-traders. of the expedition by land under hunt we have already given a full account in the preceding chapter, since its events rather allied it to the era of exploration than that of the traders. the organisation of mr. astor's company provided that there should be a capital stock of a hundred shares, of which he should hold half and his associates half. mr. astor was to furnish the money, though not to exceed four hundred thousand dollars, and was to bear all losses for five years. the term of the association was fixed at twenty years, though with the privilege of dissolving it in five years if it proved unprofitable. the general plan and the details of the expedition had been decided upon by the master mind of the founder with statesmanlike ability. it comes, therefore, as a surprise to the reader that mr. astor should have made a capital mistake at the very beginning of his undertaking. this mistake was in the selection of his associates and the captains of some of his ships. of the partners, five were americans and five were canadians. two only of the americans remained with the company long enough to have any determining influence on its policies. take the fact that the majority of the active partners and almost all the clerks, trappers, and other employees of the company were canadians, and put it beside the other fact that war was imminent with great britain and did actually break out within two years, and the dangerous nature of the situation can be seen. of the ship-captains, the first one, captain jonathan thorn of the _tonquin_, was a man of such overbearing and obstinate nature that disaster seemed to be fairly invited by placing him in such vitally responsible a position. the captain of the second ship, the _beaver_, was cornelius sowles, and he seems to have been as timid and irresolute as captain thorn was bold and implacable. both lacked judgment. it was probably natural that mr. astor, having had his main prior experience as a fur-dealer in connection with the canadians centring at montreal, should have looked in that direction for associates. but inasmuch as war between england and the united states seemed a practical certainty, it was a great error, in founding a vast enterprise in remote regions whose ownership was not yet definitely recognised, to share with citizens of great britain the determination of the important issues of the enterprise. it would have saved mr. astor great loss and chagrin if he had observed the maxim: "put none but americans on guard." as to the captains of the two vessels, that was an error that any one might have made. yet for a man of astor's exceptional ability and shrewdness to err so conspicuously in judging the character of the men appointed to such important places seems indeed strange. [illustration: astoria in . from an old print.] [illustration: astoria. looking up and across the columbia river. photo. by woodfield.] to these facts in regard to the personnel of the partners, the captains, and the force, must be added two others; _i. e._, war and shipwreck. the combination of all these conditions made the history of the astoria enterprise what it was. yet, with all of its adversity, this was one of the best conceived, and, in most of its details, the best equipped and executed of all the great enterprises which have appeared in the commercial history of our country. as an element in the development of the land of the oregon, it must be accorded the first place after the period of discovery. the _tonquin_ left new york on september , . she carried a fine equipment of all things needed for founding the proposed emporium. she was manned by a crew of twenty-one and conveyed members of the fur-trading force to the number of thirty-three. stopping at the sandwich islands, an added force of twenty-four natives was taken aboard. at various times on the journey the rigid ideas of naval discipline and the imperious temper of captain thorn came near producing mutiny among the partners and clerks. when the _tonquin_ hove to off the mouth of the columbia on march , , the eager voyagers saw little to attract. the wind was blowing in heavy squalls, and the sea ran high. nevertheless the hard-hearted captain issued orders to the first mate, fox, with a boat's crew of four men, to go into the foaming waves and sound the channel. the boat was insufficiently provided, and it seemed scarcely short of murder to despatch a crew under such circumstances. but the tyrannical captain would listen to no remonstrances, and the poor little boat went tossing over the billows on her forlorn hope. such indeed it proved to be, for neither boat nor any one of the crew was ever heard of again. this was a wholly unnecessary sacrifice of life, for the _tonquin_ was in no danger, and time could just as well have been taken for more propitious weather. the next day, the wind and sea having abated, the _tonquin_ drew near the dreaded bar, but, no entrance that satisfied the captain appearing, the ship again stood off to spend the night in deep water. on the next day, the th, the wind fell and a serene sky seemed to invite another attempt. the pinnace in command of mr. aikin, with two white men and two kanakas, was sent out to find the channel. following the pinnace the ship moved in so rapidly under a freshening breeze that she passed the pinnace, the unfortunate men on board finding it impossible to effect an entrance and being borne by the refluent current into the mad surge where ocean tide and outflowing river met in foamy strife. so the pinnace disappeared. but meanwhile the crew had all their energies engaged to save the _tonquin_. for the wind failed at the critical moment and the ship struck the sands with violence. night came on. had the men been classically trained (as in fact franchère was) they might have remembered virgil, _ponto nox incubat atra_. but they had no time for classical or other quotations. hastily dropping the anchors they lay to in the midst of the tumult of waters, in that worst of situations, on an unknown coast in the dark and in storm. but as franchère expresses it, providence came to their succour, and the tide flooding and the wind rising, they weighed the anchors, and in spite of the obscurity of the night, they gained a safe harbour in a little cove inside of cape disappointment, apparently just about abreast of the present town of ilwaco. thus the _tonquin_ was saved, and with the light of morning it could be seen that she was fairly within the bar. natives soon made their appearance, desirous of trading beaver-skins. but the crew were in no mood for commerce while any hope existed for finding the lost sailors. taking a course toward the shore by what must have been nearly the present route from ilwaco to long beach, the captain and a party with him, began a search and soon found weeks, one of the crew of the pinnace. he was stark naked and suffering intensely from the cold. as soon as sufficiently revived he narrated the loss of the pinnace in the breakers, the death of three of the crew, and the casting of himself and one of the kanakas upon the beach. the point where they were cast would seem to have been near the present location of the life-saving station. the two survivors of the ill-fated pinnace having been revived, the party returned to the _tonquin_, which was now riding safely at anchor in the bay on the north side of the river, named baker's bay by broughton nineteen years before. joy for their own escape from such imminent perils was mingled with melancholy at the loss of their eight companions of the two boats, and with the melancholy there was a sense of bitterness toward the captain, who was to blame, at least for the loss of the small boat. but now the new land was all before them where to choose, and since captain thorn was in great haste to depart and begin his trading cruise along the coast, the partners on the _tonquin_, messrs. mckay, mcdougal, david stuart, and robert stuart, decided somewhat hurriedly to locate at the point which had received from lieutenant broughton the name of point george. franchère gives a pleasant picture of the beauty of the trees and sky, and the surprise of the party to find that, though it was only the th of april when they set to work upon the great trees which covered the site of their chosen capital, yet spring was already far advanced. they did not then understand the effect of the japan current upon the pacific coast climate. an incident of special interest soon after landing was the appearance on june th of two strange indians, a man and a woman, bearing a letter addressed to _mr. john stuart, fort estekatadene, new caledonia_. these two indians wore long robes of dressed deerskins with leggings and moccasins more like the indians of the rocky mountains. they could not understand the speech of the astoria indians nor of any of the mixture of dialects which the white men tried on them, until one of the canadian clerks addressed them in the knisteneaux language with which they seemed to be partially familiar. after several days of stay at the fort the two wandering indians succeeded in making it clear to the traders that they had been sent out by a clerk named finnan mcdonald of the north-west fur company from a fort which that company had just established on the spokane river. they said that they had lost their way and in consequence had descended the _tacousah-tessah_ (and this franchère understood to be the indian name for the columbia, though the general impression among the indians is that tacousah-tessah, or tacoutche-tesse, signified frazer river). from the revelation gradually drawn from these two indians (and the surprising discovery was made that they were both women) the very important conclusion was drawn that the north-west fur company was already prepared to contest with the astor company the possession of the river. the peculiar feature of the situation was that the most of the astorians, though american by the existing business tie, were canadian and british by blood and sympathy, and hence were very likely to fraternise with the montreal traders. [illustration: one of the lagoons of the upper columbia river, near golden, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates, golden.] [illustration: saddle mt., or swallalochost, near astoria, famous in indian myth. photo. by woodfield.] however the astorians decided to send an expedition into the interior to verify the story given by the two indian women, but, just as they were ready to go, a large canoe with the british flag floating from her stern appeared, from which, when it had reached the landing, there leaped ashore an active, well-dressed man who introduced himself as david thompson, of the north-west company. this was the same man, the reader will remember, who had crossed the rocky mountains the year before, had wintered near the head of the river, and had then descended it, seeking a location for the columbia river emporium of the canadian company. but he was too late. it was quite strange by what narrow margins on several occasions the british failed to forestall the yankees. on july d the delayed expedition of the astorians set forth far to the interior, and as a result of their investigations, david stuart, in charge of the party, began the erection of a trading house at the mouth of the okanogan, five hundred and forty miles above astoria. it was on september , , that this post was begun, and hence fort okanogan may be regarded as the first american establishment in the present state of washington. it was antedated a few months by the post of the north-west company at the entrance of the little spokane into the spokane, near the present site of the city of spokane. during the fall of the indians around astoria became very threatening. direful rumours, too, in regard to the destruction of the _tonquin_ began to disquiet the astorians. in the emergency the wary mcdougall, then acting as the head of the company, bethought himself of a very effective expedient. he had learned that dreadful loss of life among the indians had resulted a few years before from smallpox and that the indians were mortally afraid of it. calling into his room several of the principal chiefs, he asked if they remembered the smallpox. their serious faces were sufficient proof that they did. mcdougall then held up a small vial and continued with awful solemnity: "listen to me. i am the great smallpox chief. in this little bottle i keep the smallpox. if i uncork the bottle and let it out i will kill every man, woman, and child of the indians. now go in peace, but if you make war upon us i will open the bottle, and you will die." the chiefs filed out in terror, and peace was preserved. mcdougall still further cemented the bond of union with the natives by becoming united in wedlock with the daughter of comcomly, the one-eyed chieftain of the chinooks. after numerous and thorough ablutions had somewhat mitigated the oiliness and general fishiness of the chinook princess, she was clad in the most brilliant style of the native beauty, a grand holiday was declared at astoria, and white men and indians joined in the wedding feast and made the welkin ring with their demonstrations. thus did the daughter of comcomly become the first lady of the land, and thus did peace brood over the broad waters of the lower river. during the winter of - the two instalments of the hunt party made their appearance, after their distressful journey from st. louis as already narrated in chapter iv. in may, , the company's ship _beaver_ arrived from new york, loaded with stores and trading equipment, and bringing a considerable addition to the force of men. in the following month sixty men were despatched up-river, and by them a trading post was located at spokane and another on the snake river somewhere near the present site of lewiston, while one section of the party went across the mountains and down the missouri to convey dispatches to mr. astor. at this stage of the history of the astoria enterprise, every aspect was encouraging. the trade in furs on the spokane, the okanogan, the snake, the coeur d'alene was excellent, a successful cruise along the coast by the _beaver_ seemed sure, and the indians about the mouth of the river were friendly and well disposed. mr. astor's great undertaking seemed sure to be crowned with success. in the midst of all the signs of hope came tidings of dismay. it became known with certainty that the _tonquin_ had been destroyed. this appalling disaster was related directly to the astoria company by the only survivor. this was an indian of the chehalis tribe whose name is given by irving as lamazee, by ross as lamazu, and by bancroft as lamanse. he had escaped from the indians who had held him after the destruction of the _tonquin_ and had finally found his way to astoria, there to tell his tale, one of the most sanguinary in the long roll of struggles with the indians. the next great disaster was the wrecking of the _lark_, the third of the company's ships from new york. during the same period mr. hunt, the partner next in rank to mr. astor and the one above all who could have acted wisely and patriotically in the forthcoming crisis, had gone in the _beaver_ on a trading cruise among the russians of sitka, and by a most remarkable series of detentions he had been kept away from astoria for over a year. to cap the climax of misfortunes, the war of burst upon the knowledge of the fur-traders and seemed to force upon such of the partners as were of british nationality the question of their paramount duty. as a result of the crisis, mcdougal and mckenzie, although against the wishes of the other partners present, sold out to the agent of the north-westers, who had repaired at once to astoria upon knowledge of the declaration of war. thus the great astoria enterprise was abandoned, and the stars and stripes went down and the union jack went up. soon after the transfer, the british man-of-war _raccoon_, captain black, arrived at astoria, expecting to have seized the place as a rich prize of war. imagine the disgust of the expectant british mariners to discover that the post had already been sold to british subjects, that their long journey was useless, and that their hopes of prize money had vanished. with the close of the war of a series of negotiations between the ministers of the two countries took place in regard to the possession of the river, by which it was finally decided that astoria should be restored to the united states. accordingly, on the th of october, , the british commissioners, captain f. hickey, of his majesty's ship _blossom_, and j. keith, representing the north-west fur company, signed an act of delivery restoring fort george (astoria) to the united states. mr. j. b. prevost, commissioner for the united states, signed the act of acceptance. astoria was once again american property. [illustration: steamer _beaver_, the first steamer on the pacific, .] [illustration: portland, oregon, in . from an old print.] while the river was now nominally in possession of the united states, it was practically under the control of the british fur companies. the pacific fur company ceased to operate, and the north-westers entered upon active work both by sea and land in exploring the vast and profitable domain which the misfortunes of their american rivals, supplemented in a most timely manner by the treachery of mcdougall and mckenzie, had put within their power. the canny scotchmen, mcdougall, mctavish, mckenzie, mcdonald, and the various other macs who now guided the plans of the north-westers, signalled their entrance into power by despatching companies to the various pivotal points of the great columbia basin, the walla walla, yakima, okanogan, spokane, and snake rivers. two incidents may be related to illustrate the character of people and the conditions of that wilderness period. a party of ninety men in ten canoes left astoria for up-river points on april , . while passing the mouth of the yakima, about three hundred and fifty miles up the river, the men were surprised to see three canoes putting out from shore and to hear a child's voice calling out, "_arretez donc! arretez donc!_" stopping to investigate, the party found in one of the boats the indian wife of pierre dorion, with her children. dorion, with five other canadians, had gone the previous summer with a party under command of john reed of the astor company. while trapping and hunting, deep in the mountains of snake river, the party had been massacred by indians. the woman and her two boys had alone escaped the massacre. it was the dead of winter and the snows lay deep on the blue mountains. but the wife of dorion found shelter in a remote fastness of the mountains, putting up a bark hut for a shelter and subsisting on the carcasses of some of her horses. in the spring, the pitiful little company of mother and children descended to walla walla and found there more kindly disposed natives, who cared for them and turned them over to the protection of the whites. a more thrilling story of suffering and heroism than this of madame dorion and her children has never come up from the chronicles of the wild west. equally illustrative of the life of the fur-traders is the account given by alexander ross of one of his many adventures in the columbia country. in ross went from okanogan to yakima to secure horses. with him were four other whites and three indian women. the yakima valley was then as now a paradise of the indians. there the tribes gathered by the thousands in the spring to dig camas, to race horses, and to gamble, as well as to form alliances and make plans for war. when the little company of traders reached the encampment, they discovered to their astonishment that it was a veritable city. six thousand men, women, and children, with ten thousand horses, and uncounted dogs and many shackled bears and wolves, were strewn across the plain. it was a dangerous situation for the traders, for it became plain to them that the indians were unfriendly. but assuming an air of careless bravado, ross proceeded to display his store of trinkets for the purpose of starting a traffic in horses. assuming a very hilarious manner the indians would seize and drive away the animals as fast as the white men got them. then the indians began to deprive them of clothes and food. finally they made ready to seize their three women as slaves. ross managed to have the women escape temporarily, but then the savages were worse than ever. matters reached a crisis when an obstreperous chief named yaktana snatched a knife from the hands of one of the canadians. a desperate struggle was just at the point of breaking out, which would inevitably have resulted in the death of all the white men, when a sudden intuition flashed through the quick mind of ross, and rushing between the combatants he handed his own knife, a much more elegant one, to yaktana, saying in a friendly tone, "this is a chief's knife. take it and give back the other." there was an instant revulsion. yaktana was so much flattered that he turned at once into a stanch supporter of the shrewd trader. food was brought. the horses were restored. equipment was provided. the three women were regained, and the company made their way without further trouble to okanogan. we have already mentioned the important fact that in the two great canadian companies, the north-western and the hudson's bay, decided to unite. with the union, the great era of fur-trade in the columbia basin fairly began, to continue about twenty-five years, yielding then to the american immigrant. that twenty-five years of the dominance of the great fur company contained nearly all the poetry and romance as well as the profit and statesmanship of the business. the entire region of the river, as well as that of the puget sound country, was mapped out in a most systematic manner with one chief central fort, vancouver on the columbia. a more magnificent location for the purpose cannot be conceived. it is now the site of a flourishing city and of the united states fort headquarters for the north-west, generally conceded to be the finest fort location in the united states. fort vancouver was established in upon a superb bench of land gently sloping back from the river for two miles. great trees fringed the site, mt. hood lifted its pinnacled majesty sixty miles to the eastward, the sinuous mazes of the willamette valley stretched out far southward, while the lordly river was in full view a dozen miles up and down. every natural advantage and delight which wild nature could offer was here in fullness. ships could readily ascend the hundred miles from the ocean to unload their merchandise and take on their cargoes of precious furs, the furs collected at the outlay of so much toil and suffering over the area of hundreds of miles. every species of game and fish abounded in the waters and along the banks of the river. deer and elk tossed their antlers between the stately firs of the upland, and pheasant and grouse whirred among the branches. geese, cranes, ducks, and swans, in countless numbers, darkened the lagoons amid the many islands enclosed by the mouths of the willamette and the adjacent waters of the larger stream. fish of many varieties, the royal chinook salmon, king of food fish, being at the head in beauty and edibility, though surpassed in size by the gigantic sturgeon, which sometimes weighed a thousand pounds, abounded in the river. no epicure of the world's capitals could command such viands as nature brought to the doors of the denizens of fort vancouver. the fort itself was laid out on a scale of amplitude suitable to the spaciousness of the site. it was enclosed with a picket wall twenty feet high, with massive buttresses of timber inside. this enclosure was a parallelogram seven hundred and fifty by five hundred feet. inside were about forty buildings, the governor's residence of generous dimensions being in the centre. two chapels provided for the spiritual needs of the company, while schoolhouse, stores, "bachelors' halls," and shops of various kinds attested the variety of the needs. along the bank of the river, outside the enclosure, lay quite a village of cottages for the married employees, together with hospital, boathouses, granaries, warehouses, threshing mills, and dairy buildings. taken altogether fort vancouver was the model fort of the western slope. moreover, the fertile soil and genial, humid climate soon encouraged the factors of the company to experiment with gardens and orchards, and, within a few years after founding, fifteen hundred acres of land were in the finest state of productivity, while three thousand head of cattle, twenty-five hundred sheep, three hundred brood mares, and over a hundred milch cows, added their bounteous contributions to the already plentiful resources of the fort. with this rich larder, with the spacious buildings, with the annual arrivals and departures of ships by sea and fleets of bateaux by river, with hunting trips and indian policies, with the intercoast traffic with the russians on the north and the spaniards on the south,--there was as much to engage and delight the minds of these people as if they had lived in the heart of civilisation. any account of fort vancouver would be incomplete without some reference to dr. john mcloughlin, chief factor of the company in the columbia district from to the time of his retirement from the company in and settlement at oregon city, oregon, as an american citizen. rarely has any one in the stormy history of the columbia basin received such unvarying and unqualified praise as has this truly great man. physically, mentally, and morally, dr. mcloughlin was altogether exceptional among the mixed population that gathered about the emporium of the traders. six feet four inches in height, his noble and expressive face crowned with a great cascade of snowy hair, firm yet kindly, prompt and businesslike yet sympathetic and helpful, "old whitehead" or "white eagle," as the indians called him, was a true-born king of men. we have said that fort vancouver was the great central fort. the others commanding the pivotal points upon the river and its tributaries were fort hall and fort boisé on the snake, spokane house on the spokane near the present metropolis of the inland empire, fort colville on the river of the same name near its junction with the columbia, fort okanogan at the junction of the stream of that name with the great river, fort owen in the coeur d'alene region, fort simcoe in the yakima country, fort walla walla, first known as fort nez percé, on the columbia at the mouth of the walla walla, and fort george on the former site of astoria. these forts were all laid out in the same general fashion as fort vancouver, though no one was so large, elaborate, or comfortable. besides the forts there were a number of small trading posts. the chief furs procured in the interior were beaver, and those on the coast were sea-otter. many others, as the mink, sharp-toothed otter, fox, lynx, raccoon, were found in abundance. the profits of the business were immense. alexander ross relates that he secured one morning before breakfast one hundred and ten beaver skins for a single yard of white cloth. ross spent one hundred and eighty-eight days alone in the yakima country. during that time he collected one thousand five hundred and fifty beavers, besides other peltries, worth in the canton market two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, which cost him in his objects of trade only thirty-five pounds. that was while ross was connected with the astor company. in completing this necessarily hurried chapter on the fascinating era of the fur-traders, we cannot omit a brief reference to the movements of the regular brigades of boats up and down the river, for these comprised a great part of both the business and the romance of the age. the course of these brigades was from the southern shores of hudson bay, through manitoba, to the crest of the rockies at the head of the columbia. water was utilised to the greatest possible extent, while at the portages and across the mountains horse-power and man-power were employed. once afloat upon the columbia, the brigades braved most of the rapids, paying occasional toll of men and goods to the envious deities of the waters, yet with marvellous skill and general fortune making their way down the thousand or more miles from boat encampment to fort vancouver. the descent was easy compared with the ascent. the first journey of the east-bound brigade of the north-westers from astoria to montreal was in , and it required the time from april th to may th to reach the mouth of canoe river, the point at which they entered upon the mountain climb to the head of the athabasca. the boatmen were french-canadians, a hardy, mercurial, light-hearted race, half french, with the natural grace and politeness of their race, and having the pleasant patois which has made them the theme of much popular present-day literature. they were half indian, either in tastes and manners or in blood, with the atmosphere of forests and streams clinging to every word and gesture. they were perhaps the best boatmen in the world. upon those matchless lakes into which the columbia and its tributaries expand at intervals the fur-laden boats would glide at ease, while the wild songs of the _coureurs des bois_ would echo from shore to shore in lazy sibilations, apparently betokening no thought of serious or earnest business. but once the rapids were reached, the gay and rollicking knight of the paddle became all attention. with keen eyes fixed on every swirl or rock, he guided the light craft with a ready skill which would be inconceivable to one less daring and experienced. the brigades would run almost all the rapids from death rapids to the sea, making portages at kettle falls, tumwater or celilo falls, and the cascades, though at some stages of the water they could run down even them. they always had to carry around those points in ascending the river. in spite of all the skill of the _voyageurs_ the columbia and the snake, the pend oreille and the kootenai have exacted a heavy toll of life from those who have laid their compelling hands upon the white manes of chute and cataract. many, even of the _voyageurs_, are the human skeletons that have whitened the volcanic beds of the great streams. the boats used by the fur brigades were either log canoes obtained of the indians or bateaux. the former were hollowed from the magnificent cedars which grew on the banks of the river, sometimes fifty or sixty feet long, with prow carved in fantastic, even beautiful fashion. they would hold from six to twenty persons with from half a ton to two or three tons of load, yet were so light that two men could carry one of the medium size while four could handle one of any size around a portage. but the _voyageurs_ never took quite so much to the canoes as did the indians, whose skill in handling them in high waves is described by ross and franchère as something astonishing. and even the indians of the present show much the same ability, though the splendid cedar canoes are no longer made, and only here and there can one of the picturesque survivors be seen. the bateaux were boats of peculiar shape, being built very high and broad so that in an unloaded condition they seemed to rest on the water almost like a paper shell. both ends were high and pointed as prows. they were propelled with oars and steered with paddles. one of the usual size was about thirty feet long and five feet wide. being of light-draft, double-enders, capable of holding large loads and yet easily conveyed around portages, more steady and roomy than canoes, these bateaux were the typical columbia river medium of commerce during the era of the fur-traders. they, too, have mainly vanished from the scenes of their former glory. canoes, bateaux, cries and yells of indians, songs of _voyageurs_, have gone into the engulfing limbo of the bygone, along with the keen-eyed scotch factor and the sharp-featured yankee skipper. yet the swans and geese and ducks still darken the more placid expanses of the river and the salmon still start the widening circles in almost undiminished numbers, while the glaciated heights of hood and adams and st. helens (we would rather say wiyeast, klickitat, and loowit) still stand guard over the unchanging waters. this part of our topic has mainly centred upon the british possession of the river. a full history of the fur era on the river would demand a chapter on the later attempts of three remarkable men to reestablish american interests in the disputed territory. these men were jedediah smith, capt. e. l. bonneville, and nathaniel j. wyeth. but though these men belong properly to this era, their efforts in the fur-trade were relatively unimportant in comparison with the influence of their lives in the direction of permanent american occupation. it seemed the appointment of destiny that the american should play second fiddle to his british rival in the fur-trade. but as tenfold, a thousandfold compensation, the american farmers, home-builders, and tradesmen were to acquire final possession of one of the goodliest lands on which the stars and stripes has ever floated. the bateaux and canoes must needs give way to the steamboat and the launch, the _coureur des bois_ to the lumberman and the miner and farmer, and the picturesque emporium of the british fur-trader on the river to the modern american city. we shall, therefore, more fittingly chronicle the later american fur-traders as a part of the march of their countrymen to permanent ownership of oregon. chapter vi the coming of the missionaries to the tribes of the river journey of the nez percé chiefs to find the white man's book of life--interest excited among christian people by this event--methodist church leads in preparing for a missionary party--jason lee and his mission near chemeketa--the reinforcement by the _lausanne_--importance of jason lee as a force in oregon history--the missions of the american board at walla walla, lapwai, and tshimakain--preliminary journey of whitman and parker in --the wedding journey from missouri to the columbia in --dr. whitman and his associates and their traits of character--on the summit of south pass--whitman's waggon--arrival at vancouver and conference with mcloughlin--locations of the missionaries--reinforcement in --friendship of the nez percés--first printing press--whitman's ride in - --the catholic missions--fathers blanchet, demers, and de smet--influence of the missions. in a strange thing happened. four indians appeared in st. louis seeking the "white man's book of life." at that time general william clark was superintendent of indian affairs, located at st. louis. he was familiar with the western indians and had greatly sympathised with them. learning of these strange indians and their stranger quest, general clark sought them, and entered into communication with them. it is usually stated that these indians were flatheads from the pend oreille region, but miss kate macbeth, a missionary for many years to the nez percés, became convinced that three were nez percés and the fourth a flathead. how they had learned that the white man had a "book of life" is not known. captain bonneville's journal states that pierre pambrun had given many of the oregon indians instruction in the rudiments of the catholic worship. some have conjectured that jedediah smith, a noted american trapper, and, most remarkable of all, a devout christian, may have imparted religious thoughts to them. miss macbeth believed that the motive of the mission was to find lewis and clark, the explorers, whose visit in - had produced a profound impression on the nez percés. the first published account of these four indians appeared in the _new york christian advocate_ for march , . this was in the form of a letter from g. p. disoway, in which he enclosed a letter to himself from his agent, william walker, an interpreter for the wyandotte indians. walker was at st. louis at the time, and met these four indians in general clark's office. he was much impressed with their appearance, and learned that general clark had given them as full an account as possible of the nature and history of man, of the advent of the saviour, and of his work for men. walker states that two of the four men died in st. louis, and as to whether the others reached their native land he did not know. in the _illinois patriot_ of october, , the same topic was taken up, together with the statement that walker's report had excited so much interest that a committee of the illinois synod had been appointed to investigate and report on what seemed the duty of the churches in the premises. the committee accordingly went to st. louis and confirmed the account by conference with general clark. they also made it an object to learn all available facts in regard to the general conditions among the indians west of the rocky mountains. one of the most valuable records in respect to these indians is from george catlin, the noted painter and student of indian life. catlin was on the steamer going up the missouri toward fort benton with these two remaining indians on their homeward journey. his account of them in the _smithsonian report_ for is thus: these two men, when i painted them, were in beautiful sioux dresses which had been presented to them in a talk with the sioux, who treated them very kindly, while passing through the sioux country. these two men were part of a delegation that came across the mountains to st. louis, a few years since, to inquire for the truth of representation which they said some white man had made among them, that our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it. two old and venerable men of this party died in st. louis, and i travelled two thousand miles, companion with these two fellows, toward their own country, and became much pleased with their manners and dispositions. when i first heard the objects of their extraordinary mission across the mountains, i could scarcely believe it; but, on conversing with general clark on a future occasion, i was fully convinced of the fact. it appears from still another account of the matter that the two surviving indians were disappointed in that they did not actually get possession of the "book." a speech of one of the chiefs as he left general clark has been published in a number of books, and is well worthy of preservation. it should be stated, however, that this speech has no authentic source, nor does it appear anywhere how it was obtained. it is commonly stated that it was "taken down" at the time by one of the clerks in general clark's office. the historian mowry is authority for the statement that one of the indians gave the substance of the speech to the missionary, spalding, at a later time. it has, also, a somewhat conventionalised sound. yet with whatever discredit may be cast upon it, it possesses so many elements of interest that it may well be given here. this is the reported speech. i come to you over the trail of many moons from the setting sun. you were the friend of my fathers, who have all gone the long way. i came with an eye partly open for my people, who sit in darkness. i go back with both eyes closed. how can i go back blind, to my blind people? i made my way to you with strong arms through many enemies and strange lands that i might carry back much to them. i go back with both arms broken and empty. two fathers came with us. they were the braves of many winters and wars. we leave them asleep here by your great water and wigwams. they were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore out. my people sent me to get the white man's book of heaven. you took me to where you allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the book was not there. you took me to where they worship the great spirit with candles, and the book was not there. you showed me images of the good spirits and the pictures of the good land beyond, but the book was not among them to tell us the way. i am going back the long and sad trail to my people in the dark land. you make my feet heavy with gifts and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, yet the book is not among them. when i tell my poor blind people after one more snow, in the big council, that i did not bring the book, no word will be spoken by our old men or by our young braves. one by one they will rise up and go out in silence. my people will die in darkness, and they will go on a long path to other hunting grounds. no white man will go with them, and no white man's book to make the way plain. i have no more words. taken altogether, it may be said that this event, as preserved in these various ways, constitutes one of the most pleasing and significant, though pathetic, incidents in indian history. it was, moreover, pregnant with results. it might almost be said that it was the key to american possession of oregon. for upon the acquisition of the story by the christian people of the united states, there rose an immediate demand that something be done to carry the gospel to the indians of the oregon country. this story was interpreted as a macedonian cry. the period was one of strong religious feeling, as well as missionary zeal. the warm-hearted followers of the cross felt at once that here was a providential opening to honour that cross and to advance its kingdom upon the western border of civilisation. the methodist church was first to take up the work of sending forth missionaries to the oregon indians. to wilbur fiske of wesleyan university seems due the credit of the first move. he enlisted the interest of jason lee, a former student at wesleyan university, but then engaged in missionary work in the province of quebec. lee was a tall, athletic young man, full of zeal and consecration, not polished or graceful in manner, but powerful in spirit. he grasped at once the great possibilities in the proposition of dr. fiske, and, going to boston, became appointed by the new england conference as superintendent of a mission to oregon. daniel lee, cyrus shepard, and p. l. edwards were named his associates. in , this mission band learned that nathaniel wyeth, famous as a fur-trader, was expecting to cross the continent, sending his goods by the brig _may dacre_ to the columbia river. such an opportunity was too favourable to be lost, and the methodist board at once opened negotiations with captain wyeth, with the result that this first missionary company to oregon went with him and arrived safely at vancouver on the columbia, the headquarters of the hudson's bay company. the _may dacre_ reached her destination soon after, and thus mr. lee and his comrades found themselves at the threshold of their labours. the first intention had been to locate among the nez percés and flatheads, the ones from whom the macedonian cry had gone up. but dr. mcloughlin, the chief factor at vancouver, who had received them with the utmost interest and cordiality, persuaded them that the willamette valley would be a more promising field. its advantages were obvious. it was directly on water navigation to the sea, and within easy distance of it. it was so near the chief entrepôt of the hudson's bay company as to be comparatively safe and accessible to all mails. the valley was of extraordinary scenic charm and salubrious climate. the natives, moreover, seemed more tractable and peaceful than those of the upper valley. accordingly the methodist brethren ascended the willamette to a point near a group of farms which had been located by french employees of the hudson's bay company on what is known now as french prairie. one of these frenchmen was joseph gervais, and from him the subsequent town of gervais was named. the mission was located on the willamette near chemawa, the present site of the united states indian school. it was ten miles north of chemeketa, which was the great indian council ground, or peace ground, from which fact the missionary applied to it the name of salem,--a change of name more commendable for piety than for taste. jason lee set to work at once with zeal, patience, and intelligence, to inaugurate the work to which he had consecrated his life. at times his efforts seemed to be well rewarded. then pestilence would attack the indians, followed by suspicion and excitement, as a result of which all the gains would be lost. the work among the whites and their half-breed families was more encouraging than that with the indians. at the best, indians have been inconstant and unreliable in respect to religious instruction. in a strong reinforcement arrived, among whom were dr. elijah white, destined to become a man of note as superintendent of indian affairs. in , rev. daniel lee and rev. h. k. w. perkins established a new station at wascopum, now the location of the dalles. in the same year jason lee returned east to secure an addition to the mission. his efforts were crowned with success. five missionaries, one physician, six mechanics, four farmers, one steward, and four female teachers, with a number unclassified,--in all thirty-six adults and seventeen children,--reached the columbia river on the good ship _lausanne_, under charge of captain spalding, on may , . this was the most notable company that had yet reached our great river. among them were men and women who contributed in a great degree to the subsequent growth of oregon. of the number were revs. gustavus hines, alvin waller, j. p. richmond, and j. h. frost; dr. ira l. babcock, george abernethy, afterwards governor of the territory, j. l. parrish, and l. h. judson. all the men were accompanied by their wives, and most of them had children. they were, in short, the advance guard of the american home-builders in oregon, and as such they deserve a special place on the roll of honour. with this added force, it was possible to enlarge the work, in both secular and religious lines, both among the whites and the indians. a mission was started at clatsop on the south side of the mouth of the columbia under mr. parrish, one at the falls of the willamette, and another on tualatin plains, under mr. hines, while still another was located by mr. richmond at nisqually on puget sound. as time passed on, it became more and more evident that this work was to become less for indians and more for the incoming whites. the whole aspect of it changed. the methodist board in new england decided that they were not justified in maintaining the missions, and these were discontinued during the decade of the forties. out of the mission at chemeketa grew willamette university, one of the most prominent educational institutions of oregon. jason lee returned to the east and died in canada in . his life, though short, was heroic and influential. he looms large on the background of the history of the columbia. in brief retrospect, it may be said of him that he combined religious zeal with shrewd common sense and capacity to see and adapt himself to the business and political conditions of his time and place. this capacity is illustrated by his shrewd management of a bold and enterprising character named ewing young. this man was about starting a distillery in the willamette valley. knowing the ruinous effects of intoxicants on indians, the missionaries strongly opposed the enterprise. but knowing also that young was a man of force and capacity and much more valuable as a friend than as an enemy, mr. lee accomplished the abandonment of the distillery by indirection, and at the same time gained one of the most important steps in the development of the country. for he induced young to undertake the great work of driving into the willamette valley a large herd of cattle from california. to the settlers beginning to locate on the fat pasture land along the willamette and its tributaries, this was a stage in history of priceless moment. up to that time the only cattle in the country belonged to the hudson's bay company and it was not their policy to encourage american settlers. another fact in connection with jason lee constitutes a landmark in the history of american acquisition of oregon. this was a memorial prepared by him, with the assistance of p. l. edwards and david leslie, and signed by practically all the adult men then accessible in the willamette valley, thirty-six in number, addressed to the united states congress and praying that the government would consider the importance of the columbia river country and the question of acquisition. this memorial was dated march , , and was taken by mr. lee to the east and given to senator linn of missouri, in january, . senator linn was so aroused over the boundless possibilities offered to westward expansion that he introduced a bill in the senate calling for the establishment of oregon territory and the occupation of it by the military forces of the united states. though this bill did not become a law, it constituted a rallying cry for the friends of american possession, which had results of utmost importance. in short, to jason lee, more than to any other one, unless we except dr. marcus whitman, of whom we shall speak later, must be attributed the inauguration of that remarkable chain of causes and effects, a long line of sequences, by which oregon and our pacific coast in general became american possessions, and the international destiny of our nation was secured. from the methodist missions of lower columbia we turn to the presbyterian and congregational missions of the upper river and its tributaries. the american board of foreign missions was at that time under the joint control of three religious bodies, presbyterian, congregational, and dutch reformed. at the instance of the last named body, the board in commissioned rev. samuel parker of ithaca, n. y., and marcus whitman, m.d., of rushville, n. y., to make a reconnaissance of the country of the columbia, with the view of a mission. under the protection of the american fur company, the two spiritual prospectors journeyed as far as green river. there deciding that what they learned of the land beyond the rocky mountains warranted the carrying out of the missionary project, they determined to part company, dr. whitman returning to the "states" for reinforcements, and dr. parker going onward through oregon to the mouth of the columbia, and proceeding thence by ship to honolulu, whence he returned by water to his home. dr. parker was an elderly man, somewhat pedantic and notional in his ways, but withal full of energy and zeal in the cause. he was not so popular with trappers and frontiersmen as his companion. for whitman was a young, athletic man, capable of any degree of fatigue, very ready in proffering his professional or other services to those in need. there was a bonhommie and general disregard of the conventionalities in whitman that caused the rough spirits of the border to "take to" him at once, while they rather looked askance at the more straight-laced ecclesiastic. but parker was a man worthy of all respect for his qualities both of mind and purpose. he was a keen observer, and has left us, as his contribution to history, his _travels beyond the rocky mountains_, one of the most readable and valuable books of travel in our western literature. his journey was, in fact, the first one across the continent, after that of lewis and clark, which produced a book of high standard. dr. whitman made his way at once to his home in new york, accompanied by two nez percé indians. arriving late on saturday night he stopped with his brother, and no one else of the village knew of his arrival, until at the hour of service the next morning, he appeared in the aisle followed by his two indians. his appearance was so like that of an apparition that his usually staid and proper mother lost her head entirely, and leaped to her feet, shouting "why, there is marcus!" the equilibrium of the meeting was for the time almost destroyed. within a few months, dr. whitman was married to narcissa prentiss. he persuaded rev. h. h. spalding and wife, who had hitherto planned to go as missionaries to the osage indians, to join them for oregon. w. h. gray was secured to go with the party as secular manager. and now began the famous "wedding journey" from new york to the banks of the columbia. it included within itself the romance, the pathos, the devotion, the heroism, and at the last, the tragedy of missions. _the history of oregon_, by w. h. gray, is the chief original authority for this journey, though the women of the party kept journals which are of great value. it would seem that all the members of the party were of marked personality. dr. whitman was a tall, spare man, with deep blue eyes, wide mouth, iron-grey hair, of inflexible resolution, and very set when his mind was once made up, though flexible and even variable till that point had been reached. he was of enormous physical strength and endurance, with a constitution, as one who knew him later told the writer, "like a saw-mill." mrs. whitman was a woman of liberal education for those times, large, fair-haired, blue-eyed, dignified, and somewhat reserved (rather "starchy," the mountain men thought her), very ladylike, refined, and attractive. one of the pathetic and interesting things about her is related by mrs. martha j. lamb in the _magazine of american history_, in . this relates the fact that the church of which miss prentiss (mrs. whitman) was a member in plattsburg, n. y., held a farewell service for her, and in the course of it the minister gave out the hymn: yes, my native land, i love thee, all thy scenes, i love them well; friends, connections, happy country, can i bid you all farewell. the entire congregation joined heartily in singing, but before the hymn was ended voice after voice was choked with sobs, and in the last words the clear, sweet soprano voice of miss prentiss was heard alone, unwavering, like a peal of triumph. mr. spalding was a very different man from dr. whitman and has not been so well treated by historians. he is said to have been more nervous and crotchety, though of remarkable industry and intense likes and dislikes, which he never scrupled to express in vigorous fashion. the fact remains, however, that his mission was altogether the most successful of all those founded in oregon. mrs. spalding was tall, dark, rather coarse featured, and of fragile health. it is truly wonderful that with such a handicap she should have been able to accomplish the arduous journey to oregon. she was less fastidious and reserved than mrs. whitman and adopted the policy of taking the habits and manners of the indians in greater degree, whereas her more dignified sister believed in the policy of trying to raise the indians to her own level. the indians therefore understood mrs. spalding better. the indians always desired the privilege of entering mrs. whitman's private room unannounced, and, if possible, of seeing her at her bath or toilette. her natural objection to such intrusion was a chronic grievance which resulted in the suspicion by the indians that she was conspiring against them. w. h. gray, the secular agent, was a young, fine-looking, daring, and athletic man, very skilful in making and handling boats, teams, waggons, and anything else of a practical nature. he was so positive and even violent in his views as to alienate many with whom he came in contact. yet he was one of the manliest men that ever came to oregon, and was intimately connected with nearly every important event in the history of the columbia river, navigation included. his four sons, all born in oregon, became steamboat captains and pilots, and without question, no one family has been so intimately associated with the river as has the gray family. if any one group of people could be said to have filed a claim on the river, it is the family of w. h. gray. gray's history is of high value, yet so intense was his hatred of the hudson's bay company and of the british in general, as well as of roman catholics, that his book has been subjected to unsparing criticism by later writers. the little missionary band of five, accompanied by the two nez percé indians who had gone east with whitman the year before, joined the westbound caravan of the american fur company, and journeyed with them the greater part of the way. one of the most thrilling and suggestive moments in their journey was when they stood on the summit of the rockies at south pass. there they looked down the westward maze of mountains and valleys drained by the snake river and its tributaries as these swept west to join the columbia and thence proceed to the pacific. with that vision before them, they spread the stars and stripes to the breeze and kneeling upon the turf, they took possession of the great unknown to the westward in the name of god and the american union. nobly was the claim maintained, though with it came the crown of martyrdom. whitman desired above all other things to demonstrate the feasibility of a waggon road to the pacific. he therefore insisted on taking his waggon,--"_chick-chick-shaile-kikash_," the indians called it, in attempted onomatopoeia. his demonstration was successful, though the trouble was infinite. he was compelled to leave the waggon at the hudson's bay fort on the boisé, near the present site of boisé city, with the intention of getting it the next year. the hudson's bay people used every effort to discourage whitman in his waggon enterprise, though according to gray, they made much use of the vehicle in their fort. on september , , the mission party reached the hudson's bay company's fort at the mouth of the walla walla, a little more than four months and two thousand two hundred miles from the banks of the missouri to those of the columbia. but the journey was not complete, for their definite location must yet be selected. they proceeded now in bateaux down the great river to vancouver, the headquarters of the hudson's bay company's empire. there dr. mcloughlin, the chief factor, met them with his own peculiar cordiality, and yet with the dignity befitting the head of so great an establishment. he was a noble man, and though business considerations and the orders of the directors of the company would have led him to "freeze out" the americans, yet humanity and his own genial nature forbade him to withhold the cordial hand from the mission band. the fort and two ships in the river were arrayed in gala attire in honour of the event. dr. mcloughlin did the honours of his spacious hall to mrs. whitman and mrs. spalding in a style that would have graced a baronial mansion. by dr. mcloughlin's advice, since the methodist mission had been located in the willamette valley, whitman decided to establish himself among the cayuses in the beautiful and fertile valley of the walla walla, at waiilatpu, the "place of the rye-grass." spalding accepted the urgent appeal of the nez percés to go a hundred and twenty-five miles eastward to lapwai on the clearwater, near the modern site of lewiston. both stations were fair to look upon, with every natural advantage. it proved, however, that the cayuses were fierce and intractable, while the nez percés, though warlike and manly, were also docile, ambitious to learn, and predisposed to friendly relations with the americans. in , the american board of foreign missions sent a reinforcement to the field, consisting of revs. elkanah walker, cushing eells, a. b. smith, and their wives. mr. gray, who had returned the previous year in order to organise this reinforcement, had found a wife, and with her was now accompanying this second missionary band to oregon. messrs. walker and eells located at tshimakain, on what is now called walker's prairie, near spokane. mr. smith went to kamiah up the clearwater, about sixty miles from mr. spalding's station at lapwai. time fails to speak of the many interesting events marking each of the missions. they were all located in singularly attractive spots, and every one of the missionaries made great progress in cultivating the ground, building mills, houses, and fences, and interesting the indians in the arts of peace. it is true that when the novelty of the white man's ways had passed, many of the natives lost all interest. yet upon the spokanes and the nez percés, lasting influences were wrought. the nez percés in particular, under the influence of their noble and intelligent chief, hal-hal-tlos-sot, or lawyer, almost decided the fate of american institutions in the upper columbia river region for years. one of the especially interesting events in connection with the nez percé mission was the acquisition by mr. spalding of the first printing-press used west of the rocky mountains. this was donated by the church of rev. h. bingham at honolulu in . the indefatigable spalding, with the assistance of his wife, who had unusual powers as a linguist, began at once reducing the nez percé language to a written form and printing in it translations of hymns and portions of the bible. some of these first books of the columbia river are still in existence. the venerable printing-press is in the museum of the oregon pioneer society at portland. the most dramatic and influential event in connection with the missions of the columbia, one of the most so in all american history, was dr. whitman's mid-winter ride in - from waiilatpu to st. louis. dr. whitman, in common with jason lee, soon began to perceive that the columbia valley possessed resources and a location which would inevitably make it the seat of a civilised population. the corollary of this was that the mission must conform to the movements of the whites and in time cease to be simply an indian mission. he perceived another thing. that was the purpose of the hudson's bay company to hold oregon under english possession and keep it a wilderness for the sake of the fur-trade. the corollary of that was that, if american families could be induced to locate in oregon, they would in time topple the scale in favour of american ownership. the value of oregon was then but dimly understood among the americans. webster, benton, and others of the great statesmen are on record in the _congressional globe_ with many disparaging remarks upon "that worthless columbia river country." whitman watched all signs with anxious eye. negotiations between england and the united states indicated a probable surrender to the former. the american board was considering the abandonment of the mission. looking over the broad field of the future of the american nation with a statesman's vision, dr. whitman readily saw that the interests of his country and of christian civilisation demanded the acquisition of oregon. those interests were in jeopardy. he made the great resolution to proceed at once to the "states" with the threefold aim: confer with the officers of the american board on the retention of the mission, confer with president tyler, secretary webster, and such others of the officers of government as he could see at washington, and finally help organise and lead back to oregon an american immigration. his fellow-missionaries strongly opposed his purpose. they felt that it was abandoning the religious aims of the mission to take up political questions. but he declared that he had not expatriated himself by becoming a missionary. go he would. the undertaking seemed chimerical, even desperate. but whitman was bold, athletic, persistent, possessing all the qualities of a hero. with a single white companion, a. l. lovejoy, and one or more indian guides, he left waiilatpu on october , . his journey through snow, ice, wind, hunger, peril, and deprivation of every sort, has been ofttimes described. the extent of his influence in securing the adoption by our government of the policy of retaining oregon has become the theme of earnest, even acrimonious discussion. the simple fact remains that oregon was "saved" to the american union. the missionaries lee and whitman bore, each his part, and a great one, in the great final result. it is not too much to say that of the various lines of influence by which the valley of the columbia became american territory, that of missions was one of the strongest. the catholic missions of the columbia valley have found several chroniclers, of whom the most valuable are rev. f. n. blanchet and rev. pierre j. de smet. the former in his book, _the catholic church in oregon_, gives a clear and circumstantial account of the founding and carrying on of the work in the willamette valley. the latter in his _oregon missions_, and _western missions and missionaries_, has given a singularly graphic and interesting report on religious progress, and with it many charming descriptions of the scenery and other natural conditions of the country. father blanchet, in company with rev. modest demers, went from montreal to vancouver, a journey of over four thousand miles, in . at the little dalles of the columbia, near the present northport, a lamentable disaster cost the lives of twelve of the company with whom they were travelling. reaching vancouver on november , , they received from dr. mcloughlin, who had himself been brought up a catholic, a most cordial welcome, though apparently not more cordial than the good man had given lee, the methodist, and whitman, the presbyterian. the fact that there were so many french canadians in the country made the way of the catholic fathers easier than that of the other missionaries. for the french, with their gayety, sociability, and usual habit of intermarriage with the indians, were much more popular with them than were the more harsh and reserved british and americans. in fact the catholic fathers found a building all ready for their use at the historic town of champoeg on the willamette, thirty miles above portland. there in , the french settlers had built a log church, the first church building in oregon. it is rather sad to relate that petty dissensions and jealousies marred the relations between the catholics and the methodists. but both alike were zealous and indefatigable in promoting the secular and religious interests of both red men and white men. while fathers blanchet and demers and their associates were busily engaged in the willamette valley, father de smet had come in into the flathead country, in what is now northern idaho. his first mission was st. mary's, on the flathead river, founded by the planting of the cross on september , . other missions were soon established on coeur d'alene lake and pend oreille lake. branching out from them were missions in colville, and ultimately in the walla walla, yakima, wenatchee, and chelan valleys. de smet greatly overestimated the number of indians, reckoning those in oregon at one hundred and ten thousand. he numbered his converts by the thousands. so pressing seemed the needs that in , he went to europe for reinforcements. he was very successful in his quest, returning the following year in the ship _l'indefatigable_, from antwerp, accompanied by four fathers, six sisters, and several lay brothers. he gives a thrilling account of his entrance of the columbia river on july , . he vividly portrays the terrors of the bar with the mighty surges dashing across the entrance. the captain did not understand the channel and became diverted from the true course, which was then by the north channel, and got into the south. the latter is now the main channel, but then was dangerous. de smet piously regards their escape from wreck as due to the special interposition of divine providence, and to the favour extended to them because of its being the day sacred to st. ignatius loyola, founder of their order. de smet's brilliant and poetical descriptions of the grandeur of the river and its forests denote a keen appreciation of nature and a facile pen. demers, de smet, and blanchet entered upon their work with such energy that by the time of de smet's report in there had been established four dioceses in the region tributary to the columbia; viz., oregon city, walla walla, fort hall, and colville. oregon city was the metropolitan see and in charge of rev. f. n. blanchet. walla walla was under the direction of rev. magloire blanchet, who at that date had charge also of forts hall and colville. eleven chapels had been erected at different points; five in the willamette valley, one at vancouver, one on the cowlitz, one on coeur d'alene lake, one on pend oreille lake, one at kettle falls on the columbia near colville, and one near calispell among the flatheads. there were three schools; one being st. mary's among the flatheads, while at st. paul's on the willamette, there were two, a college for boys, still the site of a college, and a girls' academy. twelve clergymen were engaged at that time in the work, and the number was soon increased to twenty-six by another reinforcement from europe. with the reinforcement were also seven female teachers. each of these three chief groups of missions had its special aims, methods, and results. the catholic was more exclusively religious, while the protestants passed over readily from their initial religious aims to the domain of political and educational interest. the net result was tremendous in the history of the country. among the educational institutions growing directly out of the labours of the missionaries we may mention willamette university at salem, the direct successor of the methodist mission at chemeketa; whitman college at walla walla, founded by cushing eells as a memorial to marcus whitman; pacific university at forest grove, oregon, founded by a later set of congregational home missionaries; and the catholic college at st. paul's, the successor of the school founded in by blanchet. they rest from their labours and their works do follow them. chapter vii the era of the pioneers: their ox-teams and their flatboats events and men who led the way to the pioneer age--kelley, wyeth, and bonneville--ewing young--farnham, shortess, and the "oregon dragoons"--the wilkes expedition--the _star of oregon_, and the cattle enterprise--dr. john mcloughlin and the americans--dr. marcus whitman and his winter ride, and the immigration of --retrospect of j. w. nesmith--features of the journey across the plains--whitman's services--getting the waggons across the plains--reaching the river and building boats--delights and then distress of the descent of the river--battle with the river--condition in which they reached vancouver, and their reception by dr. mcloughlin--subsequent immigrations--the barlow road--the donation land law--quotation from jesse applegate. the pioneer era was ushered in by the coming to oregon of fur-hunters, missionaries, and little bands of adventurers, who together composed the nucleus of that american community which formed the provisional government of . there were certain individuals, too, whose agency in leading the way to the immigration movement was so unique as to deserve mention. one of these was hall j. kelley of boston. he was a native of new hampshire and a harvard graduate. as early as , when seventeen years old, he conceived the idea of the colonisation of americans in oregon. he was a man of high scholarship, philanthropic spirit, and patriotic purpose. he was a dreamer and idealist, planning to form a community on the columbia, as one of the utopias which minds of that stamp, from plato down, have been fond of locating somewhere in the unexplored west. after making a great effort, with partial success, to enlist congress in his schemes, he succeeded in organising a company of several hundred, and by shaped the definite plan of going to st. louis and following the route of the fur companies across the plains to the river of oregon. but opposition by those same fur companies, and adverse criticism by the press broke up his enterprise for that time. in he started with a small party for the land of his dreams by the route through mexico and california. in california, he met with ewing young, an american of great natural abilities and some education. young and kelley, brainy and original men, the former from shrewd commercial instinct and the latter from philanthropic dreams, formed a little company, and proceeded overland from california to oregon. this was in the autumn of . when, after some disasters, the company of eleven reached the columbia, young took up a great tract of land in the chehalem valley, where he devoted himself to stock-raising. kelley, having become an invalid, went in distress to fort vancouver, where dr. mcloughlin treated him with kindness, though the exclusive "britishers" would not admit him to "social equality." the other members of the company were scattered in various directions, but some of them remained till american occupancy became an accomplished fact. this company of ,--the same year that the methodist missionaries under jason lee arrived--may be considered the advance guard of american immigration. kelley, upon his return to new england by way of the sandwich islands, disseminated much useful information about oregon. to him, without doubt, is to be attributed much of the subsequent wave of interest which swept on toward american immigration. as first a new england college man, educator, and social theoriser, and then a leader of the pioneer movement to oregon, hall j. kelley is worthy of permanent remembrance. ewing young became distinguished for leading the party which in drove a band of seven hundred cattle from california to oregon. this even marked an epoch in preparing for immigration and subsequent american possession. one of the peculiarly noteworthy facts in connection with young's enterprise, is that dr. mcloughlin, the hudson's bay company's magnate, who had at first discountenanced young on account of a charge of stealing brought against him from california, and who frowned upon the cattle enterprise for fear of american influence, became reconciled to both young and the cattle, and subscribed liberally to the enterprise. nearly contemporary with kelley and young were bonneville and wyeth. bonneville was a well-educated french-american, a west pointer, and holding the commission of captain in the united states army. his ardent and imaginative disposition became fired with the thought of a far western expedition, and in he organised a fur-traders' company of a hundred and ten men. though not realising his dreams of a fortune in furs, bonneville made many interesting and valuable observations upon the salmon, clearwater, snake, and columbia rivers. he became thoroughly imbued with the romance and scenic grandeur of the far west. upon his return to new york, he had the good fortune to meet washington irving at the home of john jacob astor. irving had already felt the irresistible fascination which the river of oregon has wrought upon all poetical natures, and the result of this meeting was one of irving's most charming volumes, _bonneville's adventures_, a volume which became another potent force in turning toward the pacific slope the thoughts of the eager, restless people of the frontier. still another in the group of men who led the way to immigration was nathaniel wyeth. he was a talented, well-educated, and energetic bostonian. so distinguished a personage as james russell lowell has said of him: "he was a very remarkable person, whose conversation i valued highly. a born leader of men, he was fitly called captain nathaniel wyeth as long as he lived." wyeth conceived the idea of a great trading company on the columbia, whose operations would necessarily create rivalry with the british. his design was to send companies across the continent to the columbia head-waters and to maintain also ship connection by way of cape horn. he believed that a ship load of salmon from the columbia river to the atlantic sea-board would be a paying venture. on so large a scale did he lay out his enterprise that he expected soon to have a business of two hundred thousand dollars a year. but he looked beyond the fur and salmon business to american possession and settlement, at least south of the river to the california line. he therefore embraced in his view the building of enterprises which should lead up to and then profit by american immigration. wyeth spent five years in oregon, having many interesting adventures, and as many business reverses. as was the case with astor, the british fur-traders proved too powerful for the yankee. among other undertakings, he built a fort on sauvie's island at the mouth of the willamette, which he called fort william. he desired to make this the basis of his trade, and he expected the indians to go there to trade. but such was the influence of the hudson's bay people and their employees with the indians that wyeth's fort had no trade. it was during those years that a frightful pestilence swept the natives away like flies, and there was great fear among them that wyeth's fort might harbour the scourge. the period of wyeth's enterprise in oregon extended from the spring of to the autumn of . though not a business success, it had a great bearing on the creation of an interest in oregon, and on preparing for immigration a few years later. it opened the eyes of many americans to the attractions of oregon and to the tremendous power and profits of the hudson's bay company. the next movement may be called a real immigration to oregon. it consisted of a party of nineteen, commonly known as the "peoria party," since they went from peoria, ill. jason lee, the missionary of chemeketa, delivered a lecture at that place in , and so much interest in oregon was aroused that in the year following, the peoria party, the first regular party from the mississippi valley, set forth for the river of the west. their leader, t. j. farnham, christened his followers the "oregon dragoons" and mrs. farnham gave them a flag with the inscription, "oregon or the grave." farnham declared his purpose to seize oregon for the united states. the peoria party had the good fortune to have two writers in the number, whose accounts possess rare interest. these writers were the leader farnham, and robert shortess. the party went to pieces at bent's fort on the arkansas, but its members reached oregon somewhat in driblets during that year, and the one following. shortess reached the whitman mission at walla walla in the fall of , and there he remained until the following spring, when he went down the river to the dalles. from the dalles, he made his way over the cascade mountains to the willamette valley, and there he lived many years. farnham also finally reached oregon, but his avowed mission was unfulfilled. shortess says of him: "instead of raising the american flag and turning the hudson's bay company out-of-doors, he accepted the gift of a suit of clothes and a passage to the sandwich islands, and took a final leave of oregon." but upon his return to the "states," farnham published a _pictorial history of oregon and california_, a book of many interesting features, and one which played a worthy part in waking the people of the mississippi valley to the attractions of the pacific coast. soon after the close of wyeth's enterprise, there were two notable government expeditions to the columbia river. one was commanded by sir edward belcher of the british navy, and the other by lieutenant charles wilkes of the american navy. the wilkes expedition was one of the most interesting and important ever undertaken by the united states government. the squadron consisted of two sloops-of-war, the _peacock_ and the _vincennes_, the store ship, _relief_, the brig, _porpoise_, and the schooners, _sea gull_ and _flying fish_. this fine squadron took up its principal station on puget sound, from which extensive surveys were made, one across the mountains to fort okanogan; another of the cowlitz valley and the columbia river as far as wallula. one of the most important results of this elaborate wilkes expedition was to establish in the minds of officers of the government the essential unity of all parts of the pacific coast and the boundless opportunities offered to american immigration. wilkes and his intelligent officers readily grasped, and conveyed through an elaborate report to the government, the idea that puget sound was an inherent and integral part of oregon and that the columbia basin was essential to the proper development of american commerce upon the pacific. they may also have forecast the time when california with her girdles of gold and chaplets of freedom would spring, athena-like, from the zeus brain of american enterprise. the control of the river was the key to the control of the entire coast from san diego to the straits of fuca;--and american ownership should have extended to sitka. a memorable calamity occurred to the squadron upon its entrance to the river, and that was the loss of the _peacock_ on the columbia river bar. the oft-depicted terrors of the river were realised at that time, and yet it was not the river's fault for the _peacock_ was out of the channel. the spit is known as "peacock spit" to this day. among the many episodes connecting wilkes with the early immigration was the building of the schooner _star of oregon_ and her voyage to california for cattle. this was in . it will be remembered that ewing young had made a successful trip from california with cattle. but as the population of the columbia had increased, there was a great desire among the settlers to obtain a larger number of cattle to let loose upon the rich pasture lands of the willamette valley. a little group of americans conceived the adventurous project of building a schooner of oregon timber, sailing with her to california, exchanging her there for stock, and driving the band across the country home again. the schooner was built by felix hathaway, joseph gale, and ralph kilbourne. the oak and fir timber of which the vessel was built was cut on sauvie's island, at the mouth of the willamette, and in due time she was launched and taken to willamette falls for fitting. a difficulty arose. dr. mcloughlin refused to sell sails, cordage, and other materials. he had the only supply in oregon. in despair the enterprising ship-builders appealed to lieutenant wilkes. he felt a keen interest in their laudable undertaking and made a visit to mcloughlin to try to change his resolution. by assuring the doctor that he would be responsible both for all the bills, as well as for the good conduct of the party, he induced him to allow the requisition for all materials necessary to complete the gallant craft. gale was the only sailor in the party. having satisfied wilkes that he was qualified to command a ship, and having received from him a present of a flag, an ensign, a compass, kedge-anchor, hawser, log line, and two log glasses, the captain flung the flag to the oregon breeze and turned the prow of the _star of oregon_ toward the river's mouth. she may be remembered as the first sea-going vessel built of oregon timber. crossing the bar in a storm, she sped southward in a spanking breeze, all hands seasick except gale. he held the wheel thirty-six hours continuously, and in five days "dashed through the portals of the golden gate like an arrow, september , ." as it was too late to get the cattle back to oregon that fall, the party sold their schooner for three hundred and fifty cows, wintered in california, and the next spring drove to the columbia twelve hundred and fifty head of cattle, six hundred head of mules and horses, and three thousand sheep. this was an achievement which made the way for immigration clearer than ever before, and in a most effective manner united the american settlers with the american government. some of the hudson's bay company people could begin to see the handwriting on the wall. dr. mcloughlin saw most quickly and most clearly, and as elsewhere narrated, began to transfer his interests to the american side. this fine old man was big-brained, big-bodied, and big-souled, a natural american, though compelled to work for the british fur monopolists for the time. he admired the independent spirit of the incoming yankee immigrants, even when the joke was on him. he afterwards told with much gusto of an american named woods crossing the columbia to vancouver to try to get goods. he found his credit shaky, and somewhat piqued, he exclaimed: "well, never mind, i have an uncle back east rich enough to buy out the whole of your old hudson's bay company!" "well, well, mr. woods," demanded the autocrat, "who may this very rich uncle of yours be?" "uncle sam," was the unabashed and characteristic american reply. "old whitehead" also appreciated, though he was obliged to manifest a dignified disapproval, when two young men from new york, having reached the fort on the river, were asked about their passports. laying their hands on their rifles they replied, "these are an american's passports." these small miscellaneous immigrations were in continuance from about to . in the latter year a hundred came. in , as elsewhere related, the provisional government was instituted. at the very same time, the immigration of was on its way to the river. this immigration of was in many respects the most remarkable of all. it was the first large one, and it was a type of all. it will be remembered that dr. marcus whitman had made his great winter ride in - across the rockies to st. louis, with a double aim. first he wished to see the officers of the american board of missions, and then to enlist the american government and people in the policy of holding oregon against the manifest aims of the british. there was already a tremendous interest felt in oregon among the people of missouri, illinois, and the other great prairie states. whitman's opportune arrival and his announced purpose to guide an immigration to the columbia became widely known, and brought to a focus many vaguely-considered plans. j. w. nesmith, subsequently one of the most prominent pioneers and a member of each house of congress from oregon, has given a humorous account of the manner of starting this immigration of , of which he was a member, which is so characteristic that we quote it here. mr. burnett, or as he was more familiarly styled, "pete," was called upon for a speech. mounting a log the glib-tongued orator delivered a glowing florid address. he commenced by showing his audience that the then western tier of states and territories were crowded with a redundant population, who had not sufficient elbow room for the expansion of their enterprise and genius, and it was a duty they owed to themselves and posterity to strike out in search of a more expanded field and a more genial climate, where the soil yielded the richest return for the slightest amount of cultivation,--where the trees were loaded with perennial fruit,--and where a good substitute for bread, called la camash, grew in the ground; where salmon and other fish crowded the streams; and where the principal labour of the settlers would be confined to keeping their gardens free from the inroads of buffalo, elk, deer, and wild turkeys. he appealed to our patriotism by picturing forth the glorious empire we should establish upon the shores of the pacific,--how with our trusty rifles we should drive out the british usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from the avarice and pretensions of the british lion,--and how posterity would honour us for placing the fairest portion of the land under the stars and stripes.... other speeches were made full of glowing descriptions of the fair land of promise, the far-away oregon, which no one in the assemblage had ever seen, and about which not more than half a dozen had ever read any account. after the election of mr. burnett as captain, and other necessary officers, the meeting, as motley and primitive a one as ever assembled, adjourned with "three cheers" for captain burnett and oregon. peter burnett to whom nesmith here refers, was the same who became the first governor of california. by the walnut hearth-fires in many a home of the prairie states and at the corn-huskings and quilting bees the talk of oregon and the forests of the columbia, and the rich pasture lands of the willamette, and the salmon and game, and genial climate and majestic mountains, went the rounds. interest grew into enthusiasm, enthusiasm waxed hot, and in the early spring the great immigration of set forth from westport, missouri, for the columbia waters. though the immigration of was the earliest of any size and the first with any number of women and children, it had perhaps the least trouble and misfortune and the most romance and gayety and enthusiasm of any. the experience of crossing the plains was one which nothing else could duplicate;--the hasty rising in the chill damp of the morning, the preparing the cattle and horses for the long, hard drive, the rounds of the waggons to strengthen bolts and tires and tongues, the loading of the rifles for possible hostile indians or buffalo, the setting forth of the scouts on horseback, the long train strung across the dusty plain, the occasional bands of wild indians emerging like a whirlwind from the broad expanse, and then the approaching cool of night with its hurried rest on the rough prairie sod. sometimes there were nights of storm and stampede and darkness. sometimes savage beasts and savage men startled the train, or one of the stupendous herds of buffalo went thundering across the prairie. then came the first glimpse of snowy heights, then of deep cañons, and then the summit was attained, and far westward stretched the maze of plains and mountains through which the snake river, the greatest of the tributaries of the columbia, took its swift way. during most of the journey, dr. marcus whitman was guide, physician, and friend. while severe controversy has arisen as to the extent of his services in organising the immigration, the testimony is unvarying as to the value of his presence with the train. last to bed at night and first up in the morning, attending both people, cattle, and horses in their sicknesses and accidents, ahead of the train on horseback to find the passes of the hills and the fords of the rivers, the watcher by night and the pilot by day, the missionary doctor was the veritable "mr. greatheart" of the immigration. great was the astonishment of captain grant, commandant of the hudson's bay fort hall on snake river, near the present pocatello, when the long train filed past the enclosure. grant had known whitman before and was aware of his stubborn determination and patriotic purpose. but grant attempted just the same to dissuade the immigrants of from going farther with their waggons, declaring the blue mountains to be impassable. the doughty doctor simply laughed quietly and told the immigrants to push on, and he would see them through. but just as they were entering the rough defiles of the blue mountains, a band of indians from waiilatpu, headed by sticcus, came to meet the train, searching for whitman, telling him that his medical services were in great demand at lapwai. the much-needed guide turned over the pilotage of the train to sticcus, and he himself hastened on to minister to the sick at lapwai. as he passed through waiilatpu he learned that the threatening conduct of the indians had led mrs. whitman to go to vancouver, and that during his absence the indians had burned his mill and committed other depredations. but it was his lot to labour and suffer. he had become accustomed to it. the event proved that sticcus was a thoroughly capable guide. for, though not speaking a word of english, he made his directions so well understood by pantomime that, as mr. nesmith has said, he led them safely over the roughest mountain road that they ever saw. and so in due time the train emerged from the screen of timber on the blue mountains. stretched wide before them, lay the plains of umatilla and walla walla, while in the far distance the river of the west poured through the arid waste. yet farther the snow summits of the cascades ridged the western sky. after a brief pause at waiilatpu, the train reached the banks of the river. the immediate vicinity of the section of the river first reached is very dry in autumn. aside from the river itself, the immediate scene is desolate and forbidding. but probably those immigrants of ' gazed upon the blue flood, a mile wide and hastening to the western ocean, with feelings almost akin to those which swelled the hearts of the pilgrims landing from the _mayflower_. this was another epic of state-making, and one generation after another of the americans who have wrought such achievement may well turn back to join hands with those before. doubtless the immigrants, as they stood by the river in the pleasant haze of the october afternoon, felt as though their journey was substantially at an end. being now at fort walla walla on the river of that name, they paused to make ready for the last stage of the journey, little realising what perils and sufferings it would entail. dr. whitman and archibald mckinley, the chief factor at the fort, advised them to leave their cattle and waggons to winter on the walla walla, while they pursued their way down the stream on flatboats. part of the company accepted the advice, but a number determined to keep all their belongings together and to take their road along the bank of the river to the dalles, and there make their flatboats. to those who remained on the walla walla now fell the difficult task of constructing flatboats. huge, uncouth, structures they were, made of timber gathered on the river bank. but when loaded and pushed out into the swift current, steered with immense sweeps in the stern, these flatboats afforded to the footsore and exhausted immigrants a delightful change. out of the dust, off the rocks, away from the sage-brush, with more of laugh and song than they had had for many a day, they swept gaily on. for a hundred miles or more the elements were propitious. with the bright sunshine, the clear, cool water, the majestic snow-peaks in the distance, the easily gliding boats,--this seemed the pleasantest part of the entire journey. but after the dalles had been reached and the two divisions of the company were again united and on their way down the river to the cascades, disaster began to haunt them. at the cascades, a boat with several members of the applegate family, one of the most prominent in the immigration as well as afterwards, was overturned in the rapids, and three of the party drowned in the boiling surge. two were saved in a way that seems almost miraculous. one of these was a young boy, the other a young man. the boy was very active and an excellent swimmer. after the overturning of the boat he was carried two miles in the current, part of the time being entirely sucked under by the whirling under-current. after being tossed with violence betwixt rock and wave till it seemed that he must expire, he was suddenly spewed forth upon a ledge of slippery rock, to which he clung desperately till he had recovered breath. then he drew himself up on a narrow shelf, and at the same instant saw the young man swept by. reaching forth, the brave boy managed to bring the struggling man to the same shelter with himself. but when they had regained sufficient strength to examine their surroundings, they discovered that they were on a rocky niche from which they could find no ascent of the ragged precipitous cliff. they were in a trap. looking across the river, they could see that the bank was smooth and that on that side lay the trail. young applegate saw that a reef extended a considerable part of the way across the river, and desperate as the attempt seemed, he resolved to pick his way along the reef to a point whence he might swim to the other shore. it was his only chance for life. fearful as were the odds, the daring lad accomplished his aim. he emerged on the further end of the reef. looking around, he discovered that his comrade had not possessed the nerve to follow. and then,--most wonderful of all,--back he went to assist his more timid fellow. in this, too, he succeeded, and after a return in which they should have been drowned a dozen times, they both reached the farther end of the reef. there casting themselves again into the inhospitable flood, they buffeted their way to shore. battered, bruised, exhausted, they yet recovered and lived to a good old age to tell the tale of their fight with the columbia river. from the cascades to vancouver, the company suffered more than in all the rest of their journey. the fall rains were at hand, and it poured with an unremitting energy such as no one can realise who has not seen a rain storm on the lower river. food had become almost exhausted. clothing was in rags. tired, hungry, wet, cold, disheartened, the immigrants who had so jauntily descended the river to this "strait of horrors," presented a most woful appearance. it actually seemed that many must perish. but in the crisis, help came. one of the party managed to procure a canoe and hastened down the river to fort vancouver. as soon as dr. mcloughlin learned that nearly nine hundred men, women, and children were beleaguered in the mist and chill, he equipped boats with flour, meat, and tea, and in his choleric excitement, waving his huge cane, bade the boatman hurry to the rescue. it was not business for the good doctor to thus aid and abet american immigrants, and the directors of the hudson's bay company and the cold-blooded sir george simpson, governor-in-chief, disapproved. but it was humanity, and that ever predominated in the mind of "old whitehead." the next night he caused vast bonfires to be alight along the bank, and gathered all the eatables and blankets that the place afforded. when the boat loads of the battered, but rescued americans drew near, the doctor was on the bank to meet them, to hand out the women and children, to administer the balm of cheery words and warmth and food. few were the travellers on the river, none were the immigrants of ' , who would not rise up and call him blessed. after this happy pause at vancouver, the immigration passed on to the willamette falls, then the centre of operations in oregon, and there they were soon joined by the chosen men who had driven their thirteen hundred head of cattle by the trail over the cascade mountains, a task toilsome and even distressing, but one that was accomplished. after an inactive winter in the mild, muggy, misty oregon climate, the immigrants of ' spread abroad in the opening spring to secure land, each his square mile, as the provisional government provided, and as the american government was contemplating. such was the coming of the immigrants to the river. subsequent immigrations bore a general resemblance to that of . each had its special feature. that of was conspicuous for its size. it was three thousand strong. it was also illustrious for the laying out of the road across the cascade mountains near the southern flank of mt. hood. this noble and difficult undertaking was carried through by s. k. barlow and william rector. it was a terrific task, and was not completed the first year. cañons, precipitous rocks, morasses, sand-hills, tangled forests, fallen trees, criss-crossed and interlaced with briars and vines and shrubbery of tropical luxuriance, such as no one can appreciate who has not seen an oregon jungle,--these were the obstructions to the barlow road. but they were vanquished and in and thence onward the immigrants made this the regular route to the willamette valley. so steep was laurel hill on the western slope that waggons had to be let down by ropes from level to level. the marks of the ropes or chains are still seen on the trees of laurel hill. the immigration of was sadly conspicuous for the devastations of cholera. many a family was broken in sunder and some even were entirely eliminated by the dreadful plague. the immigrations of and were notable for the indian outbreaks, and especially for the atrocious butchery of the ward family near boisé in the earlier year, the most pitiless indian outrage in oregon history. from onward for some years the donation land law of congress was a great lure to immigrants, for by it a man and wife could obtain a section of land. a single man could take up half a section. that situation encouraged early marriages. girls were in great demand. it was not uncommon to see fourteen-year-old brides. some narrators relate having found married women in the woods of the columbia who were playing with their dolls! but though the immigrations varied in special features, they were all alike in their mingling of mirth and melancholy, of toil and rest, of suffering and enjoyment, of heroism, and self-sacrifice. they embodied an epoch of american history that can never come again. to have been an immigrant from the missouri to the columbia was an experience to which nothing else on earth is comparable. it confers a title of american nobility by the side of which the coronets of some european dukes are tawdry and contemptible. perhaps no one ever better phrased the spirit of oregon immigration than jesse applegate of the train of ' , one of the foremost of oregon's builders, long known as the "sage of yoncalla." so fitting do we deem his language that we quote here an extract from one of his addresses. the western pioneer had probably crossed the blue ridge or the cumberland mountains when a boy and was now in his prime. rugged, hardy, and powerful of frame, he was full to overflowing with the love of adventure, and animated by a brave soul that scorned the very idea of fear. all had heard of the perpetually green hills and plains of western oregon, and how the warm breath of the vast pacific tempered the air to the genial degree and drove winter back to the north. many of them contrasted in imagination the open stretch of a mile square of rich, green, and grassy land, where the strawberry plant bloomed through every winter month, with their circumscribed clearings in the missouri bottoms. of long winter evenings neighbours visited each other, and before the big shell-bark hickory fire, the seasoned walnut fire, the dry black-jack fire, or the roaring dead elm fire, they talked these things over; and as a natural consequence, under these favourable circumstances, the spirit of emigration warmed up; and the "oregon fever" became as a household expression. thus originated the vast cavalcade, or emigrant train, stretching its serpentine length for miles, enveloped in vast pillars of dust, patiently wending its toilsome way across the american continent. how familiar these scenes and experiences with the old pioneers! the vast plains, the uncountable herds of buffalo; the swift-footed antelope; the bands of mounted, painted warriors; the rugged snow-capped mountain ranges; the deep, swift, and dangerous rivers; the lonesome howl of the wild wolf; the midnight yell of the assaulting savage; the awful panic and stampede; the solemn and silent funeral at the dead hour of night, and the lonely and hidden grave of departed friends,--what memories are associated with the plains across! chapter viii conflict of nations for possession of the river the six nations at first engaged in the conflict--the three left in it--claims by sea of spain, england, and the united states--claims by land--rivalries of the great fur companies--capture of astoria by the english--its restoration to the united states--appearance of fort george in --joint occupation treaty of --florida treaty of --treaty with russia in --forces on the side of england and those on the side of the united states--american triumph inevitable--policy of the hudson's bay company in contrast with that of the american immigration--indifference of the american government--utterances of some american statesmen--doings of the american people--gathering of the little american colony in the willamette valley--need of government--first meeting at champoeg--advice of commodore wilkes that they delay--the "wolf meetings"--second meeting at champoeg, and establishment of the provisional government--its chief provisions--thornton's account of the "hall" at champoeg--peter h. burnett--dr. mcloughlin's position--triumphs of the american immigrant over the great fur company--mcloughlin and whitman--movements of diplomacy between england and the united states--webster, linn, benton, and calhoun--inconsistent positions of the democratic party--polk and the platform of degrees minutes, or fight--near approach of war--compromise on the line of degrees--momentous nature of the issue--triumph of american home-builders. earlier chapters of this volume have already developed some of the essential elements in the complicated strife of the maritime nations of the world for possession of the land of the oregon. this brief chapter will endeavour to recapitulate and group those steps, and to trace the course of events by which the line finally was drawn on the parallel of degrees. as we have seen, the many-named river, and the fact that it was the key to a vast region and that the shores of the ocean contiguous to it seemed to abound in the finest of furs, was a lure to portuguese, frenchman, russian, spaniard, englishman, and american. the first three became early eliminated from the conflict, and the last three fought the triangular battle to its ending with the final result that uncle sam inserted his broad shoulders between mexico and the th parallel, and thus controls the choicest land of the sunset slope of the continent. spain, england, and the united states each had a valid claim to oregon. spain, by the partial discovery of the river by heceta in , by the voyages of bodega and arteaga in the same year and again in , and by the voyage of valdez and galiano around vancouver island in , together with many other voyages of a less definite nature by illustrious navigators, as malaspina, bustamente, elisa, and others, had a strong position. yet she had failed to clinch her discoveries or to take effective possession. great britain could point to the elaborate examinations of cook and vancouver. the latter had made a minute investigation of the noble group of waters whose outlet preserves the name of the old greek pilot of cephalonia, juan de fuca; and his lieutenant broughton had entered the columbia river and proceeded over a hundred miles up the stream. the nomenclature given to both the river and the sound regions by vancouver had been the first in any sense complete. so england, too, had a strong claim. and what were the claims of the united states? first and foremost was the discovery by robert gray of the river and his actual twenty-five-mile ascension of it in may, . he had gone much farther than heceta, who had only looked in, but he had not gone so far as broughton. the latter indeed, claimed, and his government followed him in the claim, that gray had not really been in the river at all, but was only in an estuary of the sea into which the river flowed. but that, to any one who has seen the river, is too much of a forced construction to stand serious examination. moreover, gray antedated broughton by some months. turning from sea claims to land claims, england could point to alexander mackenzie as having crossed the continent in , and as having reached the veritable ocean at cascade inlet. but it again was a very strained construction to extend that claim so far as to include the lower columbia valley. the united states could justly advance as a sufficient offset, the expedition of lewis and clark in . in david thompson had traversed the entire length of the columbia for the british flag, only to find the astor company already established under the stars and stripes at the mouth of the river. from these essential facts out of many, we can easily draw the conclusion that no one of these three contestants could justly be too arrogant and exclusive. some degree of modesty was befitting each. we have already seen the rivalries of the great fur companies, the hudson's bay and the north-western of the british, and the pacific of the americans, and the effect of the war of on their fortunes. as a result of that war the pacific fur company sold out to the north-westers, and a few years later the north-westers united with the hudson's bay company under the name of the latter. to all appearance the yankee was worsted, and the briton in possession of the river. but the treaty of ghent in , closing the war of , provided that all territory taken by either party should be restored. the boundary line west of the lake of the woods was left undrawn. john jacob astor now applied to the government to restore his captured property on the columbia, stating that if again in possession, he would resume his former operations. the united states government accordingly notified great britain of its intention to re-occupy the fort at the columbia's mouth. for two years the communication lay unanswered. in september, , the sloop-of-war, _ontario_, captain j. biddle, was despatched to the columbia with mr. j. b. provost as special agent, under instructions to assert the claim of the united states to the territory of the river. this decisive move compelled great britain to come out from under cover. a long and tedious diplomatic warfare ensued. meanwhile the _ontario_ was pursuing her long journey around cape horn. in , an agreement was reached to the effect that astoria should be formally restored to the united states, but that the north-western fur company should be allowed to remain in actual possession. captain biddle of the _ontario_ had left mr. provost in chile and had proceeded to the columbia to take possession. captain sheriff, commandant of the british ships in the pacific, being in valparaiso, in h. m. s. _blossom_, learning of mr. provost's presence there, conceived the happy thought that it would be an international courtesy to invite mr. provost to accompany him to astoria. accordingly on october , , the _blossom_ pushed her bow across the bar, and on the th the formal ceremony of transfer from the union jack to the stars and stripes took place. captain j. hickey of the _blossom_ represented great britain, mr. j. keith acted for the north-west fur company, while mr. provost stood for the united states. it seems to have been a very good-natured affair throughout. placards were posted at the capes on both sides of the river declaring the change of sovereignty. fort george was quite a powerful structure at that time, consisting of a strong stockade of fir logs twelve feet high, enclosing a parallelogram one hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, having within it dwellings, shops, store houses, and magazines. on the walls were two eighteen-pound cannon, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and seven swivels. the day of transfer must have been a very picturesque day among the many such in astoria's history. we can imagine the soft october haze floating over cape hancock, and the long, lazy swell of six thousand miles of sea, thundering across point adams. one interesting feature of mr. provost's presence at astoria was his observation of the bar at the entrance of the river. this had generally been represented to the world as something frightful. it is often so represented at the present time. mr. provost in a letter to secretary of state, john quincy adams, says that there is a spacious bay, by no means so difficult of ingress as has been represented. he states that there is a bar across the mouth of the river, at either extremity of which there are sometimes appalling breakers; but that there is a channel of nearly a league in width with a depth of twenty-one feet at the lowest tides. he thinks, therefore, that with proper buoys the access to vessels of almost any tonnage may be rendered secure. this statement in regard to the bar is of much interest as furnishing a basis for comparison with the present conditions. the depth at low tide now is about twenty-six feet, the increase probably being due to the jetty. the logic of the restoration of astoria to the united states, while at the same time the british fur company was left in practical possession, was realised in the joint occupation treaty of . by this singular arrangement it was agreed that any country on the north-west coast of america that may be claimed by either power shall be open for ten years to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers. in another very important step was taken; viz.: the florida treaty with spain. by this, spain retired to the line of degrees, ceding to the american republic all her rights above that line. with her own claims joined to those of spain, the republic would seem to be able to snap her fingers at england. but, with characteristic tenacity, the latter power made ready to insist all the more strenuously upon her claims. in england and the united states agreed with russia upon the line of degrees minutes, as the southern line of russian claims. with spain and russia out of it, oregon was left for england and the united states to fight over. the joint occupation treaty was to last ten years, with the privilege of renewal. meanwhile what were the factors in the struggle for possession? there was on the side of england the briarean monopoly of the hudson's bay company, supported by a disciplined and intelligent government. but the english people were not in it. on the american side the government was strangely indifferent. there were several ambitious attempts to control the situation by american trading and fur companies. but the essential forces were the american immigrant, the american missionary, the declaration of independence, and the ox-team. those were the champions of america. they were the davids against the goliaths of british monopoly. at first thought it seemed that goliath would have a "walk-over." the case seemed hopeless for the americans. but to the deeper observer, american triumph was inevitable. it was the age of democracy. the conception both of popular government and of individual ownership of land, with which went the corollary of "equal opportunities for all men and special privileges for none," was graven deep upon american character. with these things there went, of necessity, the disapproval of slavery and the support of free labour. still further there went, by the same logic, the doctrine of unity and continental expansion. these various influences have constituted the broad foundation on which were reared the towers and battlements of american nationality. in previous chapters we have outlined the operations of the hudson's bay company, the coming of the missionaries, and the immigrations of americans. the policy of the hudson's bay company was to keep the country a wilderness, to maintain amicable relations with the indians, and to depend mainly on the fur-trade for the great profits of their enterprise. the policy of the american immigrants was to build homes, cities, roads, steamboats, mills, develop the country, crowd out the natives, and depend on mining, farming, stock-raising, lumbering, for their profits; not profits of a monopoly located in a distant money centre, but profits of the individual worker on his own land. the difference was world-wide. it represented two different conceptions of government and of life itself. but though the american people had the manifest destiny of expanding to the pacific, the government was strangely supine. we say "strangely," but it was not so strange after all. congress was dominated by the south in the interest of slavery, and by the east in the interest of the tariff. calhoun usually led the south, and he weighed everything in the scales of slavery. webster governed eastern sentiment largely, and he spoke for new england manufacturers. it is true that clay was at all times a power in the councils of the nation, and clay's constant word was nationalisation and expansion. but even clay was so committed to the tariff that he did not always appreciate the possibilities of the "west-most west." the presidents of the period from to were from the south or the atlantic seaboard and not usually inclined to regard the far west with special interest. the american people were away ahead of the american government in the struggle for possession of oregon. a few of the utterances of leading statesmen of that period as significant of their conception of oregon, may be given here. benton, who became later the greatest champion of oregon, was so imperfectly informed in that he spoke thus: "the ridge of the rocky mountains may be named as a convenient, natural, and everlasting boundary. along this ridge the western limit of the republic should be drawn, and the statue of the fabled god terminus should be erected on its highest peak, never to be thrown down." but benton improved, for later referring to the columbia, he said, "that way lies the orient." webster said of oregon: "what do we want of this vast, worthless area, this region of savages and wild beasts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs. to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts or these great mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their base with eternal snow? what can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of three thousand miles, rock-bound, cheerless, and uninviting, and not a harbour on it? what use have we of such a country? mr. president, i will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the pacific coast one inch nearer boston than it is now." and that was "god-like dan!" dayton expressed himself thus: "god forbid that the time should ever come when a state on the shores of the pacific, with interests and tendencies of trade all looking toward the asiatic nations of the east, shall add its jarring claims to our distracted and already overburdened confederacy." the _national intelligencer_ doubtless expressed a common sentiment in the following: "of all the countries upon the face of the earth, oregon is one of the least favoured by nature. it is almost as barren as sahara and quite as unhealthy as the campagna of italy." such an estimate by american statesmen was all right to the hudson's bay company. they wished such an estimate and had taken pains to foster it. but while the gullible american statesmen were thus accepting just the version which their rivals were disseminating, the hard-handed and hard-headed, though not hard-hearted frontiersmen of missouri and illinois and iowa were packing their ox-teams and starting across the desert for that sahara on the columbia river. also one marcus whitman, a missionary physician of the walla walla, was floundering in the snows of the sierra madre and crossing the arkansas through broken ice, in order to tell the benighted statesmen what the land of the oregon really was like. the american people were busy, and the statesmen looked askance. and so, a few here and a few there, by trail or ship, adventurers, missionaries, sailors, trappers, there was formed a gathering in the willamette of the advance guard of american home-builders. they began to call out of the wilderness to uncle sam. as a result of the coming of the missionaries and of the small immigrations of the thirties and early forties, together with the settlement in the willamette valley of various french-canadian employees of the hudson's bay company, there was enough of a population to demand some sort of organised society. w. h. gray made a summary of population in to consist of two hundred persons, of whom a hundred and thirty-seven were american and sixty-three canadian. up to the only law was the rules of the hudson's bay company. in that year the methodist missionaries suggested that two persons be named as magistrates to administer justice according to the ordinary rules of american law. this was the first move looking to american political organisation. in and memorials were presented to the senate by senator linn of missouri at the request of american settlers praying for the attention of congress to their needs. but, not content with lifting their voices to the home land, they proceeded to organise for themselves. at that time, champoeg, a few miles above the falls of the willamette and located pleasantly on the west bank of that river, was the chief settlement. there, on the seventh of february, , a gathering of the settlers was held "for the purpose of consulting upon steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws, and the election of officers to execute them." jason lee, the methodist missionary, was chairman of the meeting, and he outlined what he deemed the needed method of establishing a reign of law and order. the meeting proved rather a conference than an organisation and the people dispersed to meet again at the call of the chairman. a week later an event occurred which brought most forcibly to the minds of the settlers the need of better organisation. this was the death of ewing young, one of the most prominent men of the little community. he left considerable property, with no known heirs and no one to act as administrator. it became clear that some legal status must be established for the settlement. another meeting was held, in which it was determined that a government be instituted, having the officers usual in an american locality. the work of framing a constitution was entrusted to a committee, in which the five different elements, the methodist missionaries, the catholics, the french canadians, the independent american settlers, and the english, had representation. the committee was instructed to confer with commodore wilkes of the american exploring squadron, just at that time in the river, and dr. mcloughlin, the hudson's bay magnate. wilkes advised the settlers to wait for added strength and for the united states government to throw its mantle over them. the committee decided that his advice was sound and indefinitely adjourned. constitution building rested for a time along the shores of the willamette. in and , two hundred and twenty americans reached oregon, doubling the population. the americans were ill at ease without a government and kept agitating the question of another meeting. but the english and the catholic influences opposed this. some diplomacy was needed. the irrepressible yankees were equal to it. they determined to draw the settlers together under the announcement of a meeting for the purpose of discussing the means of protecting themselves against the ravages of the numerous wild beasts of the valley. w. h. gray was the leading spirit in this enterprise. in a most picturesque and valuable account of it, john minto has developed the thought that the founding of the oregon state bore a striking resemblance to that stage in the roman state, subsequently celebrated in the festival of lupercalia, wherein the first organisation was for defence against the wild beasts. so the willamette witnessed again the gathering of the clans, americans, english, french, half-breeds, catholics, protestants, independents, all coming together to protect themselves against the bears, cougars, and wolves. the meetings were usually known thereafter as the "wolf meetings." james o'neil was made chairman of this historic gathering. with the astuteness characteristic of american politicians, a previous understanding had been made between mr. o'neil and the little coterie of which mr. gray was the manager, that everything should be shaped to the ultimate end of raising the question of a government. as soon, therefore, as the ostensible aim of the meeting had been attained, w. h. gray arose and broached the all-important issue. after declaring that no one could question the wisdom and rightfulness of the measures looking to protecting their herds from wild beasts, he continued: how is it, fellow-citizens, with you and me, and our wives and children? have we any organisation on which we can rely for mutual protection? is there any power in the country sufficient to protect us and all that we hold dear, from the worse than wild beasts that threaten and occasionally destroy our cattle? we have mutually and unitedly agreed to defend and protect our cattle and domestic animals; now, therefore, fellow-citizens, i submit and move the adoption of the two following resolutions, that we may have protection for our lives and persons, as well as our cattle and herds: _resolved_ that a committee be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection of this colony; _resolved_ that this committee consist of twelve persons. there spoke the true voice of the american state-builder, the voice of the declaration of independence and the constitution. the resolutions were passed and the committee of twelve appointed, mainly americans. the committee met at the falls of the willamette, which by that time was becoming known as oregon city. unable to arrive at a definite decision, the committee issued a call for a general meeting at champoeg on may d. pending the meeting, there was a general policy of opposition developed among the french canadians in the interest of the hudson's bay company and england. this opposition threatened the overthrow of the entire plan. it was, however, checkmated in an interesting fashion. george w. le breton was one of the leading settlers and occupied a peculiar position. he was of french origin, from baltimore to oregon, and had been a catholic. his existing affiliations were with the americans. he was keen, facile, and well educated. he discovered that the canadians had been drilled to vote "no" on all questions, irrespective of the bearing which such a vote might have on the leading issue. le breton accordingly proposed that measures be introduced upon which the canadians ought to vote "yes." these tactics were carried out. the canadians were confused thereby. le breton watched developments carefully and, becoming satisfied that he could command a majority, rose and exclaimed, "we can risk it, let us divide and count!" gray shouted, "i second the motion!" jo meek, famous as one of the mountain men, stepped out of the crowd and said, "who is for a divide? all in favour of an organisation, follow me!" the americans speedily gathered behind the tall form of the erstwhile trapper. a count followed. it was a close vote. fifty-two voted for, and fifty against. the americans would have been outvoted had it not been that le breton, with two french canadians, françois matthieu and Étienne lucier, voted with them. the defeated canadians withdrew, and the indians, who lined the banks of the river to discover what strange proceedings the white men were engaged in, perceived from the loud shouts of triumph that the "bostons" had won. though the victory was gained by so scanty a margin, it was gained, and it was decisive. it was one of the most interesting events in the history of oregon or the united states, for it illustrates most vividly the inborn capacity of the american for self-government. the new government went at once into effect. the constitution formulated by the committee and adopted by the meeting at champoeg provided that the people of oregon should adopt laws and regulations until the united states extended its jurisdiction over them. freedom of worship, habeas corpus, trial by jury, proportionate representation, and the usual civil rights of americans were guaranteed. education should be encouraged, lands and property should not be taken from indians without their consent. slavery or involuntary servitude should not exist. the officers of government consisted of a legislative body of nine persons, an executive body of three, and a judiciary of a supreme judge and two justices of the peace, with a probate court and its justices, and a recorder and treasurer. every white man of twenty-one years or more could vote. the laws of iowa were designated to be followed in common practice. marriage was allowed to males at sixteen and females at fourteen. one of the most important provisions was the land law. this permitted any individual to claim a mile square, provided it be not on a town site or water-power, and that any mission claims already made be not affected, up to the limit of six miles square. this land law was framed upon the general conception of the proposed linn bill already brought before congress. the land law allowed land to be taken in any form, but since there was no existing survey, each man had to make his own survey. the first elected executive committee consisted of david hill, alanson beers, and joseph gale. within a year an amendment was made to the constitution providing for a governor. george abernethy, a former member of the methodist mission, was chosen to fill the place. outer things were pretty crude in the little colony on the willamette, though brains and energy were there in abundance. j. quinn thornton expressed himself as follows on the "oregon state house," which he says was in several respects different from that in which laws are made at washington city: the oregon state house was built with posts set upright, one end set in the ground, grooved on two sides, and filled in with poles and split timber, such as would be suitable for fence rails, with plates and poles across the top. rafters and horizontal poles, instead of iron ribs, held the cedar bark which was used instead of thick copper for roofing. it was twenty by forty feet and therefore did not cover three acres and a half. at one end some puncheons were put up for a platform for the president; some poles and slabs were placed around for seats; three planks, about a foot wide and twelve feet long, placed upon a sort of stake platform for a table, were all that was believed necessary for the use of the legislative committee and the clerks. there are several facts in connection with the inauguration of this provisional government of oregon which are almost equal to itself in interest. one of these is that peter h. burnett, a lawyer and the most notable member of the emigration of , rendered the opinion that, by the spirit of american institutions, the provisional government might be regarded as possessing valid authority. going in a few years to california, mr. burnett incorporated the same principles into the government of that state and became its first governor. another most significant fact was the attitude of the hudson's bay company. that great organisation was of course opposed to american ownership and to the provisional government. at first, the management under sir james douglas (dr. mcloughlin had been superseded by douglas because of his supposed leaning toward the americans) affected to ignore the government framed at champoeg, declaring loftily that the company could protect itself. dr. mcloughlin, in his very interesting account of this, says that the americans adopted in a provision in the constitution that no one should be called to do any act contrary to his allegiance. this provision struck him as designed to enable british subjects to join the organisation. dr. mcloughlin was so pleased with the wise and liberal spirit which this evinced that he prevailed on douglas to join the provisional government. the family was now complete. the american farmers and immigrants and missionaries had triumphed over the autocratic government of the great fur company. the american idea--government of the people, by the people, and for the people--was vindicated. the local battle was won for the yankee. before leaving this great epoch of the history of the river, it will interest the reader to know that dr. mcloughlin, so conspicuous in the story thus far, removed to oregon city, and became an avowed american citizen, living on the claim on which he filed at the falls. much trouble subsequently arose between him and the methodist mission people represented by rev. a. f. waller. harder yet, congress was led by delegate thurston of oregon, to exclude him from the benefit of the donation land law. the final result was that the great-hearted ex-king of the columbia lost the most of his claim on the ground that he was an alien at the time of taking it. the hudson's bay company directors chose to disapprove his acts in bestowing provisions upon the weary and hungry and ragged american immigrants, and they charged him personally with the cost. this, in addition to the loss of his claim, rendered him almost penniless and sadly embittered his old age. he said that he supposed he was becoming an american, but found that he was neither american nor british, but was without a country. it is pleasant to be able to record the fact that the oregon legislature restored his land in so far as the state controlled it, but this was only just before his death. of all the brave and big-souled men who bore their part in redeeming oregon and the columbia from the wilderness, john mcloughlin has stood at the head of the column, side by side with marcus whitman, the american physician and missionary. though identified at first with rival interests and conflicting aims, mcloughlin and whitman had many traits in common, and the story of their lives and life-work in oregon should be written in one chapter. no one that ever knew or sympathised with oregon history has failed to give his meed of praise to both whitman and mcloughlin. no one ever stood on the hill at waiilatpu and viewed the mission home of whitman in the fertile vale of the walla walla, the scene of martyrdom and anguish, without joining it in mind with the expanse of the columbia at vancouver and recalling "old whitehead," and his large-minded and humane lordship for twenty years of the land of the oregon. nor can one withhold the thrill of indignation at the cold-blooded commercialism of the hudson's bay company, and at the petty ingratitude of some americans, which together brought darkness to the old hero's last days. but though american democracy was winning a bloodless triumph on the columbia, it seemed by no means certain that american diplomacy would win on the potomac. webster, as secretary of state under harrison and during part of tyler's administration, represented the conservative councils of the new england seaboard, and was inclined to yield to england in respect to the oregon boundary. senator linn of missouri was the most steadfast friend of american occupancy. he was the one to frame land bills to encourage american immigration, and in his hands the memorials of the settlers on the columbia had been placed. but in , he died, with his work undone. benton, his colleague, had meanwhile become fully as pronounced, and he pursued the same policy with uncompromising and volcanic energy. but a curious and anomalistic alignment of interests and parties now arose. the oregon question became entangled with those of texas and slavery. calhoun became tyler's secretary of state upon webster's resignation. while the democrats in general were more inclined to western expansion than the whigs, yet the slaveholders of the south were much more interested in texas than in oregon. the provisional government of oregon had prohibited slavery. calhoun was ready to fight mexico for the possession of texas, but he did not want to fight england for possession of oregon. nevertheless, he did not dare to offend the west by a square back-down on oregon. he therefore adopted a policy of "masterly inactivity." he believed that if war arose with england, we would lose "every inch of oregon," for england could hurry a fleet to the columbia river from china in six weeks, whereas american ships would have to double cape horn, and an american army would have to cross the continent under every disadvantage of transportation. but time, he believed, would win all for the americans. in this conception, von holst thinks calhoun was wise. roosevelt in his _life of benton_, thinks that the war, if there had been war, would have been fought out in canada, and that, while calhoun was not wrong in desiring delay, he should never have abated one jot in demanding all of oregon up to degrees minutes. the democratic platform on which polk was elected president, demanded " degrees minutes," and, in popular clamour, the words, "or fight," were added. oregon, texas, and slavery were practically the issues on which polk was elected. his inaugural address declared our title to oregon to be "clear and unquestionable." great excitement ensued, for if congress stood by the president, war was almost inevitable, unless england yielded. to the surprise of the world, however, james buchanan, the yielding, not to say shifty, secretary of state under the new administration, now announced the willingness of our government to compromise on the line of degrees. but here another complication ensued. pakenham, the british envoy, declined, in almost insulting terms, to accept degrees. polk thereupon withdrew the proposition and in his next message stated that "no compromise which the united states ought to accept can be effected." at the same time he advised the cancellation of the joint occupation treaty. it seemed now that the conflict between the nations for the possession of the river would surely eventuate in war. senator cass of michigan fanned the flame by a speech declaring that "war is almost upon us." the committees on foreign relations in both house and senate proposed resolutions to notify england at once of the close of the joint occupation treaty. excitement rose to fierce heat, and the standing of marine risks and commercial ventures at once showed the popular sentiment. "fifty-four, forty, or fight!" was the spirit of congress. but now calhoun found himself betwixt the devil and the deep sea. he did not really wish to get all of oregon, for fear of the effect on slavery. yet he dared not throw cold water on the tremendous spirits of patriotism and ambition in the west demanding oregon. a compromise was the only recourse. powerful men of the "moderates" in both england and the united states brought their influence to bear. calhoun caused lord aberdeen, foreign secretary of england, to understand that the president would again take up the line of degrees. lord aberdeen directed pakenham to revive the negotiations which had been somewhat rudely broken off. the senate reconsidered the situation more calmly and opened the way to a new treaty. this was consummated and signed by president polk on june , , and confirmed by the senate on june th. the line of degrees was accepted. the great river was divided by that line nearly equally between the two nations, there being about seven hundred and fifty miles in american territory and six hundred and fifty in british. the decision of the ownership of the river was one of the most momentous in american history. if we had not got oregon, we probably would not have got california. and without the pacific coast, the history of the great republic would be essentially different, and the history of the world would be essentially different. the oregon question owed much of its interest to its very complicated nature. it was at first a question between the governments of five different nations, england, france, russia, spain, and the united states. in time it became a question between england and the united states. then it was a question between oregon immigrants and british fur company. then it became a question between slavery and freedom. this was still further complicated by the fact that it was also a question between west, east, and south. different factions of different parties still further complicated it. it was in truth a manifold question, and in its final solution we read some of the most vital of american traits and movements. out of it all the settlers of the river may justly be said to have emerged with highest credit. the american home-builder, the great democracy of the west, the inborn impulse to expand and to nationalise,--these were the essential factors in the triumph. the settlers on the willamette, the constitution-makers of champoeg, the immigrants and the missionaries, had already gained the day before diplomacy took it up. chapter ix the times of tomahawk and fire-brand extent of indian troubles in the region of the columbia--destruction of the _tonquin_--conflicting policies of the british and the americans in regard to the fur-trade--advances in settlement by americans, and indian opposition--the whitman mission and its relations to the indians, and to the hudson's bay company--the pestilence of --the whitman massacre--mr. osborne's reminiscences--saving of the lapwai and tshimakain missions--the cayuse war--great war of - --kamiakin and peupeumoxmox--governor i. i. stevens of washington territory and his efforts to make treaties--the walla walla council and the division among the indians--pearson and his ride--outburst of hostilities and the destruction that followed--conflict between the regulars and the volunteers--battles of walla walla, cascades, and grande ronde--second walla walla council--an unsatisfactory peace--continued incoming of prospectors and land-seekers--third indian war--disastrous steptoe campaign--garnett's campaign in the yakima--wright's campaign to spokane and overthrow of indian power--peace proclaimed and the country thrown open to settlement--nez percé war of --hallakallakeen, or joseph, the indian warchief--his melancholy fate--the bannock war. columbia river history has had its full share of indian wars. to narrate these in full would transcend the limits of this chapter. even during the era of discovery desperate affrays with the natives were a common experience of explorers. captain gray of the _columbia_ lost a boat's crew of seamen at tillamook. the ship _boston_ was seized in by the wily old chief maquinna at nootka. in the _tonquin_, the first vessel of the pacific fur company, in command of captain thorn, was captured at some point to the north of the columbia river, variously known as eyuck whoola on newcetu bay, or newity bay, or newcetee. she was, as a result of the capture, blown up by the explosion of her own powder magazine. gabriel franchère and alexander ross, of the astoria party, are the original authorities for this dramatic story. irving has made the event a leading feature of his charming _astoria_. h. h. bancroft has discussed it at length in his history of the pacific coast. in recent years major h. m. chittenden in his valuable book, _history of the american fur trade_, presents new testimony of much interest. but whatever discrepencies existed in the records, the general truth remains that the ship and all her crew, with the exception of one indian, disappeared, and great was the loss to the traders at astoria as a result. for more than three decades after the destruction of the _tonquin_ there were no serious indian conflicts. the hudson's bay company carried out consistently the general policy of harmony with the natives. most of the employees were of french canadian origin, and, with their general sociability, they were more popular with the indians than the americans usually have been. but with the incoming of american missionaries, trappers, explorers, and immigrants, the situation changed. conflicts of interests, ambitions, and national aims led both americans and british to be somewhat more ready to encourage the hostile and suspicious disposition of the natives. chiefly, however, the cause of the changing attitude of the natives must be attributed to the perception by the more intelligent of the fact that the actual occupation of the country by white farmers, home builders, and land owners, meant their own destruction. though this truth dawned on them only vaguely and gradually, they had begun to be somewhat familiar with it by the decade of the thirties. the founding of american missions during that decade, as narrated earlier, at chemeketa, walla walla, lapwai, and tshimakain, and, during the years following, the obvious intent of the americans to draw immigration to the country, prepared the way for the first and perhaps the most ferocious, though by no means the greatest, of the four principal wars which we plan to consider. this first one was the war connected with the whitman massacre. we have already described the founding of the whitman mission at waiilatpu, six miles from the present site of walla walla, and twenty-six miles from the hudson's bay fort on the columbia, known as fort walla walla. we have also told of whitman's journey across the continent in the mid-winter of - , of his efforts to secure the attention of congress and of the executive to the importance of the oregon country, and of his return to walla walla in , with the first large immigration of american settlers. after the incoming of this immigration, it became more than ever clear to the more intelligent indians that this movement of settlers portended a change in their whole condition. their wild life could not co-exist with farming, houses, and the fixed and narrowed limits of the white man's life. moreover, since they saw the antagonism between the americans and the hudson's bay company, and since the latter was obviously more favourable to perpetuating the life of the wilderness, the natives were naturally drawn into sympathy with the latter. still further, since the americans were protestants and naturally affiliated with the whitman mission and its associated missions, and since the hudson's bay people were mainly catholics and interested in maintaining the missionary methods adapted to the régime of the fur-traders, there became injected into the situation the dangerous element of religious jealousy. dr. whitman perceived that he was standing on the edge of a powder magazine, and, during the summer of , he arranged to acquire the mission property of the methodists at the dalles, a hundred and sixty miles down the river, intending to remove thither in the spring. but meanwhile, the explosives being all ready, the spark was prepared for igniting them. during the summer of measles became epidemic among the indians. their method of treating any disease of which fever was a part was to enter a pit into which hot rocks had been thrown, then casting water on the rocks, to create a dense vapour, in which, stripped of clothing, they would remain until thoroughly steamed. thence issuing, stark naked and dripping with perspiration, they would plunge into an icy cold stream. death was the almost inevitable result in case of measles. whitman, who was, it should be remembered, a physician, not a clergyman, was skilful and devoted in his attentions, yet many died. now just at that time a renegade half-breed known as jo lewis seems to have become possessed with the diabolical mania of massacre. he made the indians think that whitman was poisoning them. istickus or sticcus, a umatilla indian and a warm friend of whitman, had formed some impression of the plot and suggested the danger. whitman's intrepid spirit laughed at this, but mrs. whitman, though equally intrepid, seems to have felt some premonition of the swift coming doom, for the mission children found her in tears for the first time since the death of her beloved little girl eight years before. the doctor tried to soothe her by declaring that he would arrange to go down the river at once. but on that very day, november , , the picturesque little hill rising a hundred feet above the mission ground, now surmounted by the granite shaft of the whitman monument, was observed to be black with indians. it was evident from various sinister aspects that something was impending. on the next day, november th, at about one o'clock, while dr. whitman sat reading, a number of indians entered the room. having gained his attention by the usual request for medicines, one of them, afterwards said by some to have been tamahas, and by others have been tamsaky, rushed suddenly upon the doctor and struck his head with a tomahawk. another wretch named telaukait, to whom the doctor had been the kindest friend, then cut and hacked the noble face of the philanthropist. the work of murder thus inaugurated went on with savage energy. the men about the mission were speedily slain, with the exception of a few who were in remote places and managed by special fortune to elude observation. mrs. whitman, bravely coming forward to succour her dying husband, was shot in the breast and sank to the floor. she did not die at once, and it is said by some of the survivors, then children, that she lingered some time, being heard to murmur most tender prayers for her parents and children. mrs. whitman was the only woman killed. the other women and girls were cruelly outraged and held in captivity for several days. william mcbean was at that time in charge of the fort at walla walla, and with a strange disregard of humane feelings, he shut the door of the fort in the face of one of the escaped americans, and a little later served the osborne family in the same manner. mcbean sent a courier down the river to convey the tidings to vancouver, but this courier did not even stop at the dalles to warn the people, though they were not attacked. james douglas was then chief factor at vancouver, as successor to dr. mcloughlin. as soon as he was apprised of the massacre, he sent peter skeen ogden with a force to rescue the survivors. ogden acted with promptness and efficiency, and by the use of several hundred dollars' worth of commodities ransomed forty-seven women and children. thirteen persons had been murdered. one of the most distressing experiences was that of the osborne family. of this mr. osborne says: as the guns fired and the yells commenced i leaned my head upon the bed and committed myself and family to my maker. my wife removed the loose floor. i dropped under the floor with my sick family in their night clothes, taking only two woollen sheets, a piece of bread, and some cold mush, and pulled the floor over us. in five minutes the room was full of indians, but they did not discover us. the roar of guns, the yells of the savages, and the crash of clubs and knives and the groans of the dying continued till dark. we distinctly heard the dying groans of mrs. whitman, mr. rogers, and francis, till they died away one after the other. we heard the last words of mr. rogers in a slow voice calling "come, lord jesus, come quickly." soon after this i removed the floor and we went out. we saw the white face of francis by the door. it was warm as we laid our hand upon it, but he was dead. i carried my two youngest children, who were sick, and my wife held on to my clothes in her great weakness. we had all been sick with measles. two infants had died. she had not left her bed in six weeks till that day, when she stood up a few minutes. the naked, painted indians were dancing the scalp dance around a large fire at a little distance. there seemed no hope for us and we knew not which way to go, but bent our steps toward fort walla walla. a dense cold fog shut out every star and the darkness was complete. we could see no trail and not even the hand before the face. we had to feel out the trail with our feet. my wife almost fainted but staggered along. mill creek, which we had to wade, was high with late rains and came up to the waist. my wife in her great weakness came nigh washing down, but held to my clothes. i braced myself with a stick, holding a child in one arm. i had to cross five times for the children. the water was icy cold and the air freezing some. staggering along about two miles, mrs. osborne fainted and could go no farther, and we hid ourselves in the brush of the walla walla river, not far below tamsukey's (a chief) lodges, who was very active at the commencement of the butchery. we were thoroughly wet, and the cold fog like snow was about us. the cold mud was partially frozen as we crawled, feeling our way, into the dark brush. we could see nothing, the darkness was so extreme. i spread one wet sheet down on the frozen ground; wife and children crouched upon it. i covered the other over them. i thought they must soon perish as they were shaking and their teeth rattling with cold. i kneeled down and commended us to my maker. the day finally dawned and we could see the indians riding furiously up and down the trail. sometimes they would come close to the brush and our blood would warm and the shaking would stop from fear for a moment. the day seemed a week. expected every moment my wife would breathe her last. tuesday night, felt our way to the trail and staggered along to sutucksnina (dog creek), which we waded as we did the other creek, and kept on about two miles when my wife fainted and could go no farther. crawled into the brush and frozen mud to shake and suffer on from hunger and cold, and without sleep. the children, too, wet and cold, called incessantly for food, but the shock of groans and yells at first so frightened them that they did not speak loud. wednesday night my wife was too weak to stand. i took our second child and started for walla walla; had to wade the touchet; stopped frequently in the brush from weakness; had not recovered from measles. heard a horseman pass and repass as i lay concealed in the willows. have since learned that it was mr. spalding. reached fort walla walla after daylight; begged mr. mcbean for horses to get my family, for food, for blankets, and clothing to take to them, and to take care of my child till i could bring my family in, should i live to find them alive. mr. mcbean told me i could not bring my family to his fort. mr. hall came in on monday night, but he could not have an american in his fort, and he had put him over the columbia river; that he could not let me have horses or anything for my wife and children, and i must go to umatilla. i insisted on bringing my family to the fort, but he refused; said he would not let us in. i next begged the priests to show pity, as my wife and children must perish and the indians undoubtedly would kill me, with no success. i then begged to leave my child who was not safe in the fort, but they refused. there were many priests in the fort. mr. mcbean gave me breakfast, but i saved most of it for my family. providentially mr. stanley, an artist, came in from colville, narrowly escaped the cayuse indians by telling them he was "alain" h. b. he let me have his two horses, some food he had left from rev. eells and walker's mission; also a cap, a pair of socks, a shirt, and handkerchief, and mr. mcbean furnished an indian who proved most faithful, and thursday night we started back, taking my child, but with a sad heart that i could not find mercy at the hands of the priests of god. the indian guided me in the thick darkness to where i supposed i had left my dear wife and children. we could see nothing and dared not call aloud. daylight came and i was exposed to indians, but we continued to search till i was about to give up in despair when the indian discovered one of the twigs i had broken as a guide in coming out to the trail. following these he soon found my wife and children still alive. i distributed what little food and clothing i had, and we started for the umatilla, the guide leading the way to a ford. mr. mcbean came and asked who was there. i replied. he said he could not let us in; we must go to umatilla or he would put us over the river, as he had mr. hall. my wife replied she would die at the gate but she would not leave. he finally opened and took us into a secret room and sent an allowance of food for us every day. next day i asked him for blankets for my sick wife to lie on. he had nothing. next day i urged again. he had nothing to give, but would sell a blanket out of the store. i told him i had lost everything, and had nothing to pay; but if i should live to get to the willamette i would pay. he consented. but the hip-bones of my dear wife wore through the skin on the hard floor. stickus, the chief, came in one day and took the cap from his head and gave it to me, and a handkerchief to my child. the whitman massacre was a prelude to the cayuse war. it should be remembered that, the year before the massacre, the oregon country had, by treaty with great britain, become the property of the united states. no regular government had yet been inaugurated, but the provisional government already instituted by the americans met on december th and provided for sending fourteen companies of volunteers to the walla walla. these were immigrants who had come to seek homes and their section of land, and it was a great sacrifice for them to leave their families and start in mid-winter for the upper columbia. but they bravely and cheerfully obeyed the call of duty and set forth, furnishing mainly their own equipment, without a thought of pecuniary gain or even reimbursement. cornelius gilliam, an immigrant of from missouri, was chosen colonel of the regiment. he was a man of great energy and courage, and though not a professional soldier,--none of them were,--had the frontier american's capacity for warfare. the command pushed rapidly forward, their way being disputed at various points. at sand hollows the indians, led by five crows and war eagle, made an especially tenacious attempt to prevent the crossing of the umatilla river. five crows claimed to have wizard powers by which he could stop all bullets, and war eagle declared that he could swallow all balls fired at him. but at the first onset the wizard was so badly wounded that he had to retire and "swallow ball" was killed. tom mckay had levelled his rifle and said, "let him swallow this." [illustration: grave of marcus whitman and his associate martyrs at waiilatpu. photo. by w. d. chapman.] the way was now clear to waiilatpu, which the command reached on march th. the mangled remains of the victims of the massacre had been hastily interred by the ogden party, but coyotes had partially exhumed them. the remains were brought together by the volunteers and reverently, though rudely, buried at a point near the mission, a place where a marble crypt now encloses the commingled bones of the martyrs. a lock of long, fair hair was found near the ruined mission ground which was thought surely to be from the head of mrs. whitman. it was preserved by one of the volunteers and is now one of the precious relics in the historical museum of whitman college. the cayuse war dragged along in a desultory fashion for nearly three years. the refusal of the nez percés and spokanes and the indifference of the yakimas to join the cayuses made their cause hopeless, though there were several fierce fights with them and much severe campaigning. in a band of friendly umatilla indians undertook to capture the chief band of the cayuses under tamsaky, which had taken a strong position about the head waters of the john day river. after a savage battle tamsaky was killed and most of the warriors captured. of these, five, charged with the leading part in the whitman massacre, were hanged at oregon city on june , . it remains a question to this day, however, whether the victims of the gallows were really the guilty ones. the cayuse indians were quite firm in their assertion that tamahas, who, by one version, struck dr. whitman the first blow, was the only one of the five concerned in the murder. thus ended the first principal war in the columbia basin. it was quickly followed by another, which was so extensive that it may be well called universal. this was the war of - . this was the greatest indian war in the entire history of the columbia river. as we have seen, the american home-builders had outmatched the english fur-traders in the struggle for possession. on the d of march, , washington territory, embracing the present states of washington and idaho, with parts of wyoming and montana, was created by act of congress, and isaac i. stevens was appointed governor. this remarkable man entered with tremendous energy upon his task of organising the chaos of his great domain. the indian problem was obviously the most dangerous and pressing one. there were at that time two remarkable chiefs of the mid-columbia region, natural successors of philip, pontiac, black hawk, and tecumseh, possessing those indian traits of mingled nobleness and treachery which have made the best specimens of the race such interesting objects of study. these indians were kamiakin of the yakimas, and peupeumoxmox of the walla wallas. [illustration: cayuse babies . (copyright by lee moorehouse, .)] [illustration: cayuse babies . (copyright by lee moorehouse, .)] in the great war broke out almost simultaneously at different points. there were six widely scattered regions especially concerned. four of these, the cascades, the yakima valley, the walla walla, and the grande ronde, were on or adjacent to the river. the others were the rogue river region and puget sound. so wide was the area of this war that intelligent co-operation among the indians proved impracticable. this, in fact, was the thing that saved the whites. for there were probably not less than four thousand indians on the war-path, and if they had co-operated, the smaller settlements, possibly all in the country except those in the willamette valley, might have been annihilated. the first efforts of governor stevens were to secure treaties with the indians. having negotiated several treaties in with the puget sound indians, the governor passed over the cascade mountains to walla walla in may, . there during the latter part of may and first part of june, he held a great council with representatives of seventeen tribes. lieutenant kip, u. s. a., has preserved a vivid account of this great gathering, one of the most important ever held in the annals of indian history. according to lieutenant kip, there were but about fifty men in the escort of the daring governor, and if he had been a man sensible to fear he might well have been startled when there came an army of twenty-five hundred nez percés under halhaltlossot, known as lawyer by the whites. two days later three hundred cayuses, those worst of the columbia river indians, surly and scowling, led by five crows and young chief, made their appearance. two days later a force of two thousand yakimas, umatillas, and walla wallas came in sight under kamiakin and peupeumoxmox. the council was soon organised. governor stevens and general palmer, the latter the indian agent for oregon, set forth their plan of reservations, all their speeches being translated and retranslated until they had filtered down among the general mass of the indians. then there must be a great "wawa," or discussion by the indians. it soon became apparent that there were two bitterly contesting parties. one was a large faction of nez percés led by lawyer, who favoured the whites. the other faction of the nez percés, with all the remaining tribes, were set against any treaty. with remarkable skill and patience, governor stevens, with the powerful assistance of lawyer, had brought the indians to a point of general agreement to the creation of a system of reservations. but suddenly there was a commotion. into the midst of the council there burst the old chief looking glass (apashwahayikt), second only to lawyer in influence among the nez percés. he had made a desperate ride of three hundred miles in seven days, following a buffalo hunt and a raid against the blackfeet, and as he now burst into the midst, there dangled from his belt the scalps of several slaughtered blackfeet. as quoted in hazard stevens's _life of governor stevens_, he began his harangue thus: "my people, what have you done? while i was gone you sold my country. i have come home and there is not left me a place on which to pitch my lodge. go home to your lodges. i will talk with you." lieutenant kip declares that though he could understand nothing of the speech of looking glass to his own tribe, which followed, the effect was tremendous. all the evidence showed that looking glass was a veritable demosthenes. the work of governor stevens was all undone. but later the governor and lawyer succeeded in rallying their forces and gaining the acquiescence of the indians to the setting aside of three great reservations, one on the umatilla, one on the yakima, and the third on the clearwater and the snake. these reservations still exist, imperial domains in themselves, though now divided into individual allotments. the acquiescence of the indians in this treaty, as the sequel proved, was feigned by a number of them, but for the time it seemed a great triumph for governor stevens. from walla walla the governor departed to the coeur d'alene, the pend oreille, and the missoula regions to continue his arduous task of negotiating treaties. this great walla walla council cannot be dismissed without brief reference to an event, not fully known at the time, but which subsequent investigation made clear, and stamped as one of the most dramatic in the entire history of indian warfare. this event was the conspiracy of the cayuses and yakimas to kill governor stevens and his entire band, and then exterminate the whites throughout the country. while the acceptance of the treaty was still pending, kamiakin and peupeumoxmox were framing the details of this wide-reaching plot, which was indeed but the culmination of their great scheme of years. kamiahkin was the soul of the conspiracy. he was a remarkable indian. he was of superb stature, and proportions, over six feet high, sinewy and active. governor stevens said of him: "he is a peculiar man, reminding me of the panther and the grizzly bear. his countenance has an extraordinary play, one moment in frowns, the next in smiles, flashing with light and black as erebus the same instant. his pantomime is great, and his gesticulation much and characteristic. he talks mostly in his face and with his hands and arms." he was withal a typical indian in treachery and secretiveness. peupeumoxmox was similar in nature, but was older and less capable. exactly opposite to these was halhaltlossot, or lawyer, the solon of the nez percés. lawyer became convinced of the existence of this conspiracy and went by night to the camp of governor stevens and revealed it. he concluded his revelation by saying: "i will come with my family and pitch my lodge in the midst of your camp, that those cayuses may see that you and your party are under the protection of the head chief of the nez percés." when it became clear to the conspiring cayuses and yakimas that lawyer's powerful division of the nez percés was sustaining the little band of whites, they did not execute their design. lawyer and his nez percés saved the day for the whites. and yet the sequel is one of the most lamentable examples of the miscarriage of justice in indian affairs that we have any record of. the friendly nez percés saved the whites. the unfriendly faction of the nez percés, led by joseph and looking glass, finally yielded and accepted the treaty. but they did this with certain expectations in regard to their reservation. this was set forth to the author by william mcbean, a half-breed indian, son of the mcbean who was the commandant of the hudson's bay post at wallula. mcbean the younger was a boy at the time of the council at walla walla. he was familiar with all the indian languages spoken at the council and in appearance was so much of an indian that he could pass unquestioned anywhere. governor stevens asked him to spy out the situation and learn what the nez percés were going to decide. the result of his investigations was to show that the whole decision hinged on the understanding by joseph's faction that, if they acquiesced in the treaty and turned their support to the whites, they might retain perpetual possession of the wallowa country in north-eastern oregon as their special allotment. becoming finally satisfied that this would be granted them, they yielded to the lawyer faction and thus the entire nez percé tribe made common cause with the whites, rendering the execution of the great plot of kamiakin and peupeumoxmox a foredoomed failure. but now for the sequel. though it was thus clear in the minds of joseph and his division of the nez percés that the loved wallowa (one of the fairest regions that ever the sun shone on and a perfect land for indians) was to be their permanent home, yet the stipulation, if indeed it were intended by governor stevens, never became definitely set down in the "great father's" records at washington. the result was that when, twenty years later, the manifold attractions of the wallowa country began to draw white immigration, the indians, now under young joseph, son of the former chief, stood by their supposed rights and the great nez percé war of ensued. and now, to resume the thread of our discourse, we may note that governor stevens proceeded on his laborious mission to the flatheads in the region of the coeur d'alene and pend oreille lakes in what is now northern idaho. after protracted and at times excited discussion, a treaty was accepted by which an immense tract of a million and a quarter acres was set apart for a reservation. from pend oreille, governor stevens with his little force, now reduced to twenty-two, crossed the rockies to fort benton. but what was happening on the walla walla? no sooner was the governor fairly out of sight across the flower-bespangled plains which extended two hundred miles north-east from walla walla, than the wily kamiakin began to resume his plots. so successful was he, with the valuable assistance of peupeumoxmox, young chief, and five crows, that the treaties, just ratified, were torn to shreds, and the flame of savage warfare burst forth across the entire columbia valley. hazard stevens, in his invaluable history of his father, gives a vivid picture of how the news reached them in their camp thirty-five miles up the missouri from fort benton. summer had now passed into autumn. a favourable treaty had been made with the blackfeet. on october th, the little party were gathered around their campfire in the frosty air of fall in that high latitude, when they discerned a solitary rider making his way slowly toward them. as he drew near they soon saw that it was pearson, the express rider. pearson was one of the best examples of those scouts whose lives were spent in conveying messages from forts to parties in the field. he usually travelled alone, and his life was always in his hand. he seemed to be made of steel springs, and it had been thought that he could endure anything. "he could ride anything that wore hair." he rode seventeen hundred and fifty miles in twenty-eight days at one time, one stage of two hundred and sixty miles having been made in three days. but as he slowly drew up to the party in the cold evening light, it was seen that even pearson was "done." his horse staggered and fell, and he himself could not stand or speak for some time. after he had been revived he told his story, and a story of disaster and foreboding it was, sure enough. all the great tribes of the columbia plains west of the nez percés had broken out, the cayuses, yakimas, palouses, walla wallas, umatillas, and klickitats. they had swept the country clean of whites. the ride of pearson from the dalles to the point where he reached governor stevens is one of the most thrilling in the annals of the river. by riding all day and night, he reached a horse ranch on the umatilla belonging to a noted half-breed indian, william mckay, but he found the place deserted. seeing a splendid horse in the bunch near by, he lassoed and saddled him. though the horse was as wild as air, pearson managed to mount and start on. just then there swept into view a force of indians who, instantly divining what pearson was trying to do, gave chase. up and down hill, through vale, and across the rim-rock, they followed, sending frequent bullets after him, and yelling like demons, "whupsiah si-ah-poo, whup-si-ah!" ("kill the white man!") but the wild horse which the intrepid rider bestrode proved his salvation, for he gradually outran all his pursuers. travelling through the walla walla at night pearson reached the camp of friendly nez percé red wolf on the alpowa the next day, having ridden two hundred miles from the dalles without stopping except the brief time changing horses. snow and hunger now impeded his course. part of the way he had to go on snowshoes without a horse. but with unflinching resolution he passed on, and so now here he was with his dismal tidings. the despatches warned governor stevens that kamiakin with a thousand warriors was in the walla walla valley and that it would be impossible for him to get through by that route, and that he must therefore return to the east by the missouri and come back to his territory by the steamer route of panama. that meant six months' delay. with characteristic boldness, governor stevens at once rejected the more cautious course and went right back to spokane by the coeur d'alene pass, deep already with the winter snows, suffering intensely with cold and hunger, but avoiding by that route the indians sent out to intercept him. with extraordinary address, he succeeded in turning the spokane indians to his side. the nez percés, thanks to lawyer's fidelity, were still friendly, and with these two powerful tribes arrayed against the yakimas, there was still hope of holding the columbia valley. after many adventures, governor stevens reached olympia in safety. governor curry of oregon had already called a force of volunteers into the field. the oregon volunteers were divided into two divisions, one under colonel j. w. nesmith, which went into the yakima country, and the other under lieutenant-colonel j. k. kelley, which went to walla walla. the latter force fought the decisive battle of the campaign on the th, th, th, and th of december, . it was a series of engagements occurring in the heart of the walla walla valley, a "running fight" culminating at what is now called frenchtown, ten miles west of the present city of walla walla. the most important feature of it all was the death of the great walla walla chieftain, peupeumoxmox. but though defeated and losing so important a chief, the indians scattered across the rivers and were still unsubdued. in march, , the sublime section of the columbia lying between the dalles and the cascades became the scene of a series of atrocities the most distressing in the entire war. the klickitats swooped down upon the defenceless settlers and massacred them with revolting cruelty. they vanished like a whirlwind, but men whom the writer has known have related to him how the volunteers, returning to the scenes of desolation, found all houses destroyed and the carcasses of cattle thrown into the springs and wells. they found the naked bodies of the girls and women with stakes driven through, and those of men horribly mutilated. in savage humour, the indians had killed the hogs and left parts of human bodies in their mouths. one interesting fact connected with the campaign at the cascades is that general phil sheridan fought his first battle there. the old block house on the north side of the river, nearly opposite the present cascade locks, existed until a few years ago, and there was sheridan's first battle. meanwhile governor stevens had organised a force of washington volunteers. as the year progressed, it seemed more plain that the discord which developed between the regulars under command of general john e. wool and the volunteers would result in fatal weakness. nevertheless governor stevens and governor curry kept pressing the movements of their backwoods soldiers with unflagging energy. they were at last rewarded with a measure of success. for colonel b. f. shaw, commanding the washington volunteers, learning that the hostiles were camped in force in the grande ronde valley, made a rapid march from walla walla across the western spur of the blue mountains and struck the collected force of indians a deadly blow, scattering them in all directions and ending the war in that quarter. but the end had not yet come in walla walla. governor stevens determined to hold another great council at the site of the first. leaving the dalles on august th, he pressed on to shaw's camp, two miles above the present location of walla walla. on september th, colonel e. j. steptoe, with four companies of regulars, arrived at the same place and made camp on the site of the present fort. [illustration: col. b. f. shaw, who won the battle of grande ronde in . by courtesy of major lee moorehouse.] and now came on the second great walla walla council. the tribes were gathered as before, and were aligned as before. the division of nez percés under lawyer stood firmly by stevens and the treaty. the others did not. the most unfortunate feature of the entire matter was that colonel steptoe, acting under general wool's instructions, thus far kept secret, refused to grant stevens adequate support and subjected him to humiliations which galled the fiery governor to the limit. in fact, had it not been for the vigilance of the faithful nez percés of lawyer's band, stevens and his force would surely have met the doom prepared for them at the first council. the debt of gratitude due lawyer is incalculable. spotted eagle ought to be recorded, too, as of similar devotion and watchfulness. governor stevens afterward declared that a speech by him in favour of the whites was equal in feeling, truth, and courage to any speech that he ever heard from any orator whatever. but in spite of oratory, zeal, and argument, nothing could overcome the influence of kamiakin, owhi, quelchen, five crows, and others of the yakimas and cayuses. nothing was gained. they stood just where they were a year before. the fatal results of divided counsels between regulars and volunteers were apparent. the baffled governor now started on his way down the river, but not without another battle. for, as he was marching a short distance south of what is now walla walla city, the indians burst upon his small force with the evident intention of ending all scores then and there. but colonel steptoe came to the rescue, and with united forces the indians were repulsed. that was the last battle on the walla walla. colonel steptoe established a rude stockade fort on mill creek in what is now the heart of the present walla walla city, and went into winter quarters there in - . governor stevens returned to olympia and launched forth a bitter arraignment against wool. the latter, however, was in a position of vantage and issued a proclamation commanding all whites in the upper country to go down the river and leave the cascade mountains as the eastern limit of the white settlement. thus ended for a time this unsatisfactory and distressing war. to all appearances kamiakin and his adherents had accomplished all they wanted. but this was not the end. gold had been discovered in eastern washington. vast possibilities of cattle raising were evident on those endless bunch-grass hills. although there was as yet little conception of the future developments of the inland empire in agriculture and gardening, yet the keen-eyed immigrants and volunteers had scanned the pleasant vales and abounding streams of the walla walla and the umatilla and the palouse, and had decided in their own minds that, wool or no wool, this land must be opened. in the government decided on a change of policy and sent general n. s. clarke to take wool's place. general clarke opened the gates, and the impatient army of land hunters and gold hunters began to move in. meanwhile, colonel wright and colonel steptoe, though formerly they had closely followed wool's policy, now began to experience a change of heart. out of these conditions the third indian war, in , quickly succeeded the second, being indeed its inevitable sequence. [illustration: fort sheridan on the grande ronde, built by philip sheridan in . by courtesy of major lee moorehouse.] three campaigns marked this third war. the first was conducted by colonel steptoe against the spokanes and coeur d'alenes, and ended in his humiliating and disastrous defeat. the second was directed by major garnett against the yakimas, resulting in their permanent overthrow. the third was conducted by colonel wright against the spokanes and other northern tribes who had defeated steptoe. this was the waterloo of the indians, and it ushered in the occupation and settlement of the upper columbia country. the steptoe expedition was the most ill-starred event in the whole history of the north-west, unless we except that of the destruction of the _tonquin_. colonel wright was then in command of the new fort walla walla, located in on the present ground. perceiving his former error in giving the turbulent and treacherous natives undisputed sway, he ordered colonel steptoe to go with two hundred dragoons to the spokane region and subject the restless tribes centring there. steptoe's force was well equipped in every way except one. the pack train was heavily laden, and an inebriated quartermaster conceived the brilliant idea of lessening the burden by _leaving out the larger part of the ammunition_. even aside from this fatal blunder, colonel steptoe seems to have had no adequate conception of the vigour and resources of the indians. as before, the nez percés were the faithful friends of the whites. timothy, a nez percé chief living on snake river at the mouth of the alpowa, put them across the wicked stream, then running high with the may freshet, and went on with them as guide. on may , , the force reached a point near four lakes, probably the group of which silver lake and medical lake are the chief ones, a few miles west of spokane. here was gathered a formidable array, spokanes, pend oreilles, coeur d'alenes, okanogans, and colvilles, the hosts of the upper country. steptoe was soldier enough to perceive that it was time for caution, and he halted for a parley. saltese, a brawny chief of the coeur d'alenes, declared to him that the indians were ready to dispute his farther progress, but that if the white men would retire the indians would not molest them. a friendly nez percé, seeing the duplicity of saltese, struck his mouth, exclaiming, "you speak with a double tongue." the force turned back and that night all seemed well. but at nine o'clock the next morning, while the soldiers were descending a cañon to pine creek, near the present site of rosalia, a large force of indians burst upon them like a cyclone. as the battle began to wax hot, the terrible consequences of the error of lack of ammunition began to become manifest. man after man had to cease firing. captain o. h. p. taylor and lieutenant gaston commanded the rear-guard. with extraordinary skill and devotion they held the line intact and foiled the efforts of the savages to burst through. meanwhile the whole force was moving as rapidly as consistent with formation on their way southward. taylor and gaston sent a messenger forward, begging steptoe to halt the line and give them a chance to load. but the commander felt that the safety of the whole force depended on pressing on. soon a fierce rush of indians followed, and, when the surge had passed, the gallant rear-guard was buried under it. one notable figure in the death-grapple was de may, a frenchman, trained in the crimea and algeria, and an expert fencer. for some time he used his gun barrel as a sword and swept the indians down by dozens with his terrific sweeps. but at last he fell before numbers, and one of his surviving comrades relates that he heard him shouting his last words, "o, my god, my god, for a sabre!" but the lost rear-guard saved the rest. for they managed to hold back the swarm of foes until nightfall, when they reached a somewhat defensible position a few miles from the towering cone of what is now known as steptoe butte. there they spent part of a dark, rainy, and dismal night, anticipating a savage attack. but the indians, sure of their prey, waited till morning. surely the first light would have revealed a massacre equal to the custer massacre of later date, had not the unexpected happened. and the unexpected was that old timothy, the nez percé guide, knew a trail through a rough cañon, the only possible exit without discovery. in the darkness of midnight the shattered command mounted and followed at a gallop the faithful timothy on whose keen eyes and mind their salvation rested. the wounded and a few footmen were dropped at intervals along the trail. after an eighty-mile gallop during the day and night following, the yellow flood of snake river suddenly broke before them between its desolate banks. saved! the unwearied timothy threw out his own warriors as a screen against the pursuing foe, and set his women to ferrying the soldiers across the turbulent stream. thus the larger part of the command reached fort walla walla alive. one of the most extraordinary individual experiences connected with the steptoe retreat, was that of snickster and williams. some of the survivors question the correctness of this, and others vouch for its accuracy. it perhaps should not be set down as proven history. snickster and williams were riding one horse, and could not keep up with the main body. the indians, therefore, overtook and seized them before they reached the snake river. in a rage because of having been balked of their prey, the indians determined to have some amusement out of the unfortunate pair, and told them to go into the river with their horse and try to swim across. into the dangerous stream, two thousand feet wide, almost ice-cold, and with a powerful current, they went. as soon as they were out a score of yards, the indians began their fun by making a target of them. the horse was almost immediately killed. williams was struck and sank. snickster's arm was broken by a ball, but diving under the dead horse, and keeping himself on the farther side till somewhat out of range, and then boldly striking across the current, which foamed with indian bullets, he reached the south side of the river and was drawn out, almost dead, by some of timothy's nez percé indians. [illustration: tullux holiquilla, a warm springs indian chief, famous in the modoc war as a scout for u. s. troops. by courtesy of major lee moorehouse.] with the defeat of steptoe, the indians may well have felt that they were invincible. but their exultation was short-lived. as already noted, garnett crushed the yakimas at one blow, and wright a little later repeated steptoe's march to spokane, but did not repeat his retreat. for in the battle of four lakes on september st, and that of spokane plains on september th, wright broke for ever the power and spirits of the northern indians. the treaties were thus established at last by war. the reservations, embracing the finest parts of the umatilla, yakima, clearwater, and coeur d'alene regions, were set apart, and to them after considerable delay and difficulty the tribes were gathered. with the end of this third great indian war and the public announcement by general clarke that the country might now be considered open to settlement, immigration began to pour in, and on ranch and river, in mine and forest, the well-known labours of the american state-builders and home-builders became displayed. the ever-new west was repeating itself. the valley of the columbia now rested from serious strife for a number of years. but in , an echo of the war of suddenly startled the country, and provided an event to which lovers of the tragic and romantic in history have ever since turned with deep interest. this was the "joseph war" in the wallowa. our readers will recall that the so-called joseph band of nez percés opposed the walla walla treaty at first, but finally acquiesced, with what they understood was the stipulation that they should possess the wallowa country as their permanent home. the joseph of that time was succeeded by his son, whose indian name was hallakallakeen, "eagle wing." he was the finest specimen of the native red man ever produced in the columbia valley. of magnificent stature and proportions, with a rare dignity and nobility, which wider opportunities would have made remarkable, and with a career of mingled light and shade, pathos and tragedy, hallakallakeen will go down into history with a record of passionate devotion from his followers and unstinted encomiums from most of his opponents. joseph loved the wallowa with a passionate affection, and made at first every effort to maintain amity with his white neighbours. but when the government violated what he had regarded its sacred pledge and permitted entrance upon the lands which he claimed, he refused to abide by the decision and led out his warriors to battle. the nez percés, though few in number, could fight face to face with white men, and could use white men's weapons and white men's tactics. at a desperate battle at white bird cañon they routed the detachment in command of colonel perry. the result was to put arms, ammunition, and provisions in abundance into the hands of the indians and hope into their hearts. general o. o. howard, then commanding the department of the columbia, now assumed command and began so vigorous a campaign against joseph that the indian chief plainly saw that with all his activity he could not avoid being seized in the closing arms of howard's command. the interesting details of the marches, countermarches, desperate encounters, sometimes favourable to white man and sometimes to red, are to be found in general howard's own book. at last, with marvellous skill and good fortune, joseph eluded capture and adopted the desperate resolution of crossing the bitter root mountains by the lolo trail, descending the missouri, and ultimately reaching the canadian line beyond the land of the sioux. encumbered as he was with his women, children, and entire movable possessions, obliged to forage and hunt on the way, and avoiding pursuers in rear as well as forces coming to meet him in front, fighting frequent and some of the time successful battles,--the nez percé chieftain exhibited qualities of leadership and resources of mind and body which offer materials for a historical romance equal to de quincey's _flight of the kalmuck tartars_. [illustration: hallakallakeen (eagle wing) or joseph, the nez percé chief. by t. w. tolman.] howard's tireless pursuit in the rear and the active and intelligent co-operation of gibbon and miles, who ascended the missouri to meet the fleeing nez percés, resulted at last in their capture at bear paw mountain on the milk river in montana. general howard says that the campaign from the beginning of the indian pursuit across the lolo trail until the embarkation on the missouri for the homeward journey, including all stoppages and halts, extended from july th to october th, during which time his command marched one thousand three hundred and twenty-one miles. he says that joseph, encumbered with women, children, and possessions, traversed even greater distances, "for he had to make many a loop in his skein, many a deviation into a tangled thicket, to avoid or deceive his enemy." howard pays the highest tribute to his indian foe and declares that some of his operations are not often equalled in warfare. joseph's subsequent career was a melancholy one. transported with his band to oklahoma, the wild eagle of the wallowa so pined away on the flat prairie and begged so piteously to be allowed to return to the waters of the columbia, that his request was granted. but so intense was the feeling among the people who had suffered from their dangerous enemy that this poor fragment of the nez percés was placed on the colville reservation in northern washington. there the restless heart of the nez percé bonaparte was eaten out by bitter yearnings for his loved wallowa. he had an occasional proud and interesting hour. at the time of general grant's obsequies at new york, joseph was in washington to see the "great father" about his reservation. general miles, who greatly admired the hero of the lolo trail, asked him to ride with himself at the head of the funeral procession. mounted on a magnificent charger, joseph rode solemnly through the streets of the metropolis by the side of the conqueror of bear paw mountain, and there were not wanting those who said that the indian was the finer horseman and the finer-looking man. but joseph died at his camp on the nespilem without ever seeing wallowa. his last request was that he be buried there. he remained an indian to the last, not ordinarily living in a house or wearing civilised costume or even speaking english, though perfectly able to do so. his life might have been happier had he never been known to fame. [illustration: camp of chief joseph on the nespilem, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] the next year after the joseph war, or in , occurred the bannock war, the scene of which was mainly umatilla county in oregon and other parts adjoining the river. though at first, as has happened so many times, the indians met with successes, the end was their inevitable defeat. with the close of the bannock war it may be said that indian warfare practically ended. the war-whoop ceased to be heard and the tomahawk was brandished no more along the columbia. chapter x when the fire-canoes took the place of the log-canoes variety of craft that have navigated the columbia--the _beaver_, _carolina_, _columbia_, and _lot whitcomb_--beginning of steamboating above the cascades--steamboats above the dalles--rival companies on the river--the oregon steam navigation company--great business developments of the decade of the sixties--specimen shipments in --the steamboat ride from portland to lewiston--some of the steamboat men of the period--story of w. h. gray and his sailboat on the snake river--descending the dalles--captain coe's account of the first steamboat ride on the upper columbia and the snake--navigation above colville and on the lakes--the locks and prospects of future navigation--remarkable trips on the river--some steamboats of the present. we have learned that our river has been navigated by boats of almost every description. at one time it was the hollowed cedar-log canoes of the aborgines. again, the bateaux of the trappers were the chief craft to cut the blue lakes and the white rapids. at yet other times it was the flat-boats of the immigrants. sailing ships of every sort--frigates, galleons, caravels, men-of-war, full-rigged ships, barks, brigs, schooners, and sloops--crowded early to the silver gate of the river. in due process of time the "fire-canoes," as the natives called steamers, let loose their trails of smoke amid the tops of the "continuous woods." the _beaver_, a small steamship belonging to the hudson's bay company and sent from england, entered the river in , the first steamer to ply these waters. the company afterwards sent her to puget sound, and, if we are correctly informed, she is still afloat on the gulf of georgia. in the first american steamship, the _carolina_, crossed the bar. in the same year a little double-ender, called the _columbia_, began running between portland and astoria. [illustration: tirzah trask, a umatilla indian girl--taken as an ideal of sacajawea. photo. by lee moorehouse, pendleton.] the first river steamer of any size to ply upon the willamette and columbia was the _lot whitcomb_. this steamer was built by whitcomb and jennings. j. c. ainsworth was the first captain, and jacob kamm was the first engineer. both these men became leaders in every species of steamboating enterprise. in dan bradford and b. b. bishop inaugurated a movement to connect the up-river region with the lower river by getting a small iron propeller called the _jason p. flint_ from the east and putting her together at the cascades, whence she made the run to portland. the _flint_ has been named as first to run above the cascades, but the author has the authority of mr. bishop for stating that the first steamer to run above the cascades was the _eagle_. that steamer was brought in sections by allen mckinley to the upper cascades in , there put together, and set to plying on the part of the river between the cascades and the dalles. in , the _mary_ was built and launched above the cascades, the next year the _wasco_ followed, and in the _hassalo_ began to toot her jubilant horn at the precipices of the mid-columbia. in r. r. thompson and lawrence coe built the _colonel wright_, the first steamer on the upper section of the river. in the same year the same men built at the upper cascades a steamer called the _venture_. this craft met with a curious catastrophe. for on her very first trip she swung too far into the channel and was carried over the upper cascades, at the point where the cascade locks are now located. she was subsequently raised, rebuilt, and rechristened the _umatilla_. this part of the period of steamboat building was cotemporary with the indian wars of and . the steamers, _wasco_, _mary_, and _eagle_ were of much service in rescuing victims of the murderous assault on the cascades by the klickitats. while the enterprising steamboat builders were thus making their way up-river in the very teeth of indian warfare, steamboats were in course of construction on the willamette. the _jennie clark_ in and the _carrie ladd_ in were built for the firm of abernethy, clark & company. these both, the latter especially, were really elegant steamers for the time. the close of the indian wars in saw a quite well-organised steamer service between portland and the dalles, and the great rush into the upper country was just beginning. the _señorita_, the _belle_, and the _multnomah_, under the management of benjamin stark, were on the run from portland to the cascades. a rival steamer, the _mountain buck_, owned by ruckle and olmstead, was on the same route. these steamers connected with boats on the cascades-dalles section by means of portages five miles long around the rapids. there was a portage on each side of the river. that on the north side was operated by bradford & company, and their steamers were the _hassalo_ and the _mary_. ruckle and olmstead owned the portage on the south side of the river, and their steamer was the _wasco_. sharp competition arose between the bradford and stark interests on one side and ruckle and olmstead on the other. the stark company was known as the columbia river navigation company, and the rival was the oregon transportation company. j. c. ainsworth now joined the stark party with the _carrie ladd_. so efficient did this reinforcement prove to be that the transportation company proposed to them a combination. this was effected in april, , and the new organisation became known as the union transportation company. this was soon found to be too loose a consolidation to accomplish the desired ends, and the parties interested set about a new combination to embrace all the steamboat men from celilo to astoria. the result was the formation of the oregon steam navigation company, which came into legal existence on december , . its stock in steamboats, sailboats, wharf-boats, and miscellaneous property was stated at $ , . such was the genesis of the "o. s. n. co." in a valuable article by irene lincoln poppleton in the _oregon historical quarterly_ for september, , to which we here make acknowledgments, it is said that no assessment was ever levied on the stock of this company, but that from the proceeds of the business the management expended in gold nearly three million dollars in developing their property, besides paying to the stockholders in dividends over two million and a half dollars. never perhaps was there such a record of money-making on such a capitalisation. the source of the enormous business of the oregon steam navigation company was the rush into idaho, montana, and eastern oregon and washington by the miners, cowboys, speculators, and adventurers of the early sixties. the up-river country, as described more at length in another chapter, wakened suddenly from the lethargy of centuries, and the wilderness teemed with life. that was the great steamboat age. money flowed in streams. fortunes were made and lost in a day. when first organised in , the oregon steam navigation company had a nondescript lot of steamers, mainly small and weak. the two portages, one of five miles around the cascades and the other of fourteen miles from the dalles to celilo falls, were unequal to their task. the portages at the cascades on both sides of the river were made by very inadequate wooden tramways. that at the dalles was made by teams. such quantities of freight were discharged from the steamers that sometimes the whole portage was lined with freight from end to end. the portages were not acquired by the company with the steamboat property, and as a result the portage owners reaped the larger share of the profits. during high water the portage on the oregon side at the cascades had a monopoly of the business, and it took one-half the freight income from portland to the dalles. this was holding the whip-hand with a vengeance, and the vigorous directors of the steamboat company could not endure it. accordingly, they absorbed the rights of the portage owners, built a railroad from celilo to the dalles on the oregon side, and one around the cascades on the washington side. the company was reorganised under the laws of oregon in october, , with a declared capitalisation of two million dollars. business on the river in was something enormous. hardly ever did a steamer make a trip with less than two hundred passengers. freight was offered in such quantities at portland that trucks had to stand in line for blocks, waiting to deliver and receive their loads. new boats were built of a much better class. two rival companies, the independent line and the people's transportation line, made a vigorous struggle to secure a share of the business, but they were eventually overpowered. some conception of the amount of business may be gained from the fact that the steamers transported passengers to an amount of fares running from $ to $ a trip. on april , , the _tenino_, leaving celilo for the lewiston trip, had a passenger load amounting to $ , , and a few trips later reported receipts of $ , , for freight, passengers, meals, and berths. the steamships sailing from portland to san francisco showed equally remarkable records. on june , , the _sierra nevada_ conveyed a treasure shipment of $ , ; july th, $ , ; august th, $ , ; december th, $ , . the number of passengers carried on the dalles-lewiston route in was , and the tons of freight were , . it was a magnificent steamboat ride in those days from portland to lewiston. the fare was sixty dollars; meals and berths, one dollar each. a traveller would leave portland at five a.m. on, perhaps, the _wilson g. hunt_, reach the cascades sixty-five miles distant at eleven a.m., proceed by rail five miles to the upper cascades, there transfer to the _oneonta_ or _idaho_ for the dalles, passing in that run from the humid, low-lying, heavily timbered west-of-the-mountains, to the dry, breezy, hilly east-of-the-mountains. reaching the dalles, fifty miles farther east, he would be conveyed by another portage railroad, fourteen miles more, to celilo. there the _tenino_, _yakima_, _nez percé chief_, or _owyhee_ was waiting. with the earliest light of the morning the steamer would head right into the impetuous current of the river, bound for lewiston, two hundred and eighty miles farther yet, taking two days, sometimes three, though only one to return. those steamers were mainly of the light-draught, stern-wheel structure, which still characterises the columbia river boats. they were swift and roomy and well adapted to the turbulent waters of the upper river. the captains, pilots, and pursers of that period were as fine a set of men as ever turned a wheel. bold, bluff, genial, hearty, and obliging they were, even though given to occasional outbursts of expletives and possessing voluminous repertoires of "cuss-words" such as would startle the effete east. any old oregonian who may chance to cast his eyes upon these pages will recall, as with the pangs of childhood homesickness, the forms and features of steamboat men of that day; the polite yet determined ainsworth, the brusque and rotund reed, the bluff and hearty knaggs, the frolicsome and never disconcerted ingalls, the dark, powerful, and nonchalant coe, the patriarchal beard of stump, the loquacious "commodore" wolf, who used to point out to astonished tourists the "diabolical strata" on the banks of the river, the massive and good-natured strang, the genial and elegant o'neil, the suave and witty snow, the tall and handsome sampson, the rich scotch brogue of mcnulty, and dozens of others, whose combined adventures would fill a volume. one of the most experienced pilots of the upper river was captain "eph" baughman, who has been running on the snake and columbia rivers for fifty years, and is yet active at the date of this publication. w. h. gray, who came to waiilatpu with whitman as secular agent of the mission, became a river man of much skill. he gave four sons, john, william, alfred, and james, to the service of the river, all four of them being skilled captains. a story narrated to the author by captain william gray, now of pasco, washington, well illustrates the character of the old columbia river navigators. w. h. gray was the first man to run a sailboat of much size with regular freight up snake river. that was in before any steamers were running on that stream. mr. gray built his boat, a fifty-ton sloop, on oosyoos lake on the okanogan river. in it he descended that river to its entrance into the columbia. thence be descended the columbia, running down the entiat, rock island, cabinet, and priest rapids, no mean undertaking of itself. reaching the mouth of the snake, he took on a load of freight and started up the swift stream. at five-mile rapids he found that his sail was insufficient to carry the sloop up. men had said that it was impossible. his crew all prophesied disaster. the stubborn captain merely declared, "there is no such word as fail in my dictionary." he directed his son and another of the crew to take the small boat, load her with a long coil of rope, make their way up the stream until they got above the rapid, there to land on an islet of rock, fasten the rope to that rock, then pay it out till it was swept down the rapid. they were then to descend the rapid in the small boat. "very likely you may be upset," added the skipper encouragingly, "but if you are, you know how to swim." they were upset, sure enough, but they did know how to swim. they righted their boat, picked up the end of the floating rope, and reached the sloop with it. the rope was attached to the capstan, and the sloop was wound up by it above the swiftest part of the rapid to a point where the sail was sufficient to carry, and on they went rejoicing. any account of steamboating on the columbia would be incomplete without reference to captain james troup, who was born on the columbia, and almost from early boyhood ran steamers upon it and its tributaries. he made a specialty of running steamers down the dalles and the cascades, an undertaking sometimes rendered necessary by the fact that more boats were built in proportion to demand on the upper than the lower river. these were taken down the dalles, and sometimes down the cascades. once down, they could not return. the first steamer to run down the tumwater falls was the _okanogan_, on may , , piloted by captain t. j. stump. the author enjoyed the great privilege of descending the dalles in the _d. s. baker_ in the year , captain troup being in command. at that strange point in the river, the whole vast volume is compressed into a channel but one hundred and sixty feet wide at low water and much deeper than wide. like a huge mill-race this channel continues nearly straight for two miles, when it is hurled with frightful force against a massive bluff. deflected from the bluff, it turns at a sharp angle to be split in sunder by a low reef of rock. when the _baker_ was drawn into the suck of the current at the head of the "chute" she swept down the channel, which was almost black, with streaks of foam, to the bluff, two miles in four minutes. there feeling the tremendous refluent wave, she went careening over and over toward the sunken reef. the skilled captain had her perfectly in hand, and precisely at the right moment, rang the signal bell, "ahead, full speed," and ahead she went, just barely scratching her side on the rock. thus close was it necessary to calculate distance. if the steamer had struck the tooth-like point of the reef broadside on, she would have been broken in two and carried in fragments on either side. having passed this danger point, she glided into the beautiful calm bay below and the feat was accomplished. captain j. c. ainsworth and captain james troup were the two captains above all others to whom the company entrusted the critical task of running steamers over the rapids. in the _overland monthly_ of june, , there is a valuable account by captain lawrence coe of the maiden journey of the _colonel wright_ from celilo up what they then termed the upper columbia. this first journey on that section of the river was made in april, . the pilot was captain lew white. the highest point reached was wallula, the site of the old hudson's bay fort. the current was a powerful one to withstand, no soundings had ever been made, and no boats except canoes, bateaux, flatboats, and a few small sailboats, had ever made the trip. no one had any conception of the location of a channel adapted to a steamboat. no difficulty was experienced, however, except at the umatilla rapids. this is a most singular obstruction. three separate reefs, at intervals of half a mile, extend right across the river. there are narrow breaks in these reefs, but not in line with each other. through them the water pours with tremendous velocity, and on account of their irregular locations a steamer must zigzag across the river at imminent risk of being borne broadside on to the reef. the passage of the umatilla rapids is not difficult at high water, for then the steamer glides over the rocks in a straight course. in the august _overland_ of the same year, captain coe narrates the first steamboat trip up snake river. this was in june, , just at the time of the beginning of the gold excitement. the _colonel wright_ was loaded with picks, rockers, and other mining implements, as well as provisions and passengers. most of the freight and passengers were put off at wallula, to go thence overland. part continued on to test the experiment of making way against the wicked-looking current of snake river. after three days and a half from the starting point a few miles above celilo, the _colonel wright_ halted at a place which was called slaterville, thirty-seven miles up the clearwater from its junction with the snake. there the remainder of the cargo was discharged, to be hauled in waggons to the oro fino mines. the steamer _okanogan_ followed the _colonel wright_ within a few weeks, and navigation on the snake may be said to have fairly begun. during that same time the city of lewiston, named in honour of meriwether lewis, the explorer, was founded at the junction of the snake and clearwater rivers. while parts of the columbia and it chief tributary, the snake, were thus opened to navigation by , no "fire-canoe" had yet appeared on that magnificent stretch of navigable water from colville into the arrow lakes. from contemporary files of the _daily mountaineer_ of the dalles, we learn that captain lew white launched the _forty-nine_ in november, , at colville. in december the _forty-nine_ ascended the columbia one hundred and sixty miles, nearly to the head of lower arrow lake, whence, meeting floating ice, she returned. from the _mountaineer_ we learn also that in the early months of a steamer was constructed at the mouth of boisé river for navigation of the far upper snake. at the same time also the steamer _mary moody_ was constructed by z. f. moody, on pend oreille lake, the first steamer on any of the lakes except the arrow lakes of the columbia. with the close of the decade of the sixties, it may be said that the columbia and its tributaries had fairly entered upon the steamboat era. while many steamers were added within the succeeding years, the steamboat business was never so active on the upper river as during that early age. after the building of the railroads along the river and into interior valleys and eastward, it became apparent that the heavy handicap of rehandling freight at two portages would forbid the steamers from competing with the railroads. in the oregon steam navigation company sold out to the villard interests for $ , , , and the oregon railroad and navigation company was the result. since that time there have been few steamboats on that part of the river above the dalles. the section between the dalles and the cascades was joined to the tide-water section by the opening of the government locks at the cascades in , and since that time many of the finest steamers on the river do an immense tourist business between the dalles and portland. it is only a question of a few years till the locks at celilo will be completed, and then the whole vast inland empire, with its enormous production, will be thrown open to the sea. then there will come on a new age of steamboat navigation, and with it the electric railroad. the steamer and the trolley car will set the whole columbia basin next door to tide-water. when improvements now in view by government are completed, our river will be one of the most superb steamer courses in the world. that may truthfully be said already of the two hundred and twenty miles from the dalles to the ocean, as well as of the three hundred miles from kettle falls, washington, to death rapids, b. c. the government engineers in senate document, , february, , name the amount of navigable water on the columbia and its tributaries at miles. this may, perhaps, be an underestimation, since president roosevelt has recently referred to it as twenty-five hundred miles, in which he probably included the lakes. generally speaking, the rivers of the pacific slope descend from high altitudes in comparatively short distances, and are necessarily swift. hence we can expect no such vast extent of navigable water on them as the mississippi and its affluents offer. aside from the columbia itself, the main streams, east of the cascade mountains offering steamboat transportation, are the snake, okanogan, and kootenai, together with lakes pend oreille, chelan, coeur d'alene, flathead, okanogan, kootenai, arrow, christina, and slocan. on the west side are the willamette, cowlitz, and lewis rivers. it would fill a volume to narrate even a tithe of the thrilling tales of daring and tragedy which gather around the subject of boating in all its forms on the columbia. one of the most remarkable steamboat journeys was that elsewhere described in this work, under command of captain f. p. armstrong, of the _north star_, from jennings, montana, on the kootenai to canal flats and thence through the canal to lake columbia. with that should be coupled as equally daring and more difficult, the trip down snake river, from the seven devils to lewiston, in a steamer piloted by captain w. p. gray. undoubtedly the most remarkable journey in any other sort of craft than a steamboat was that undertaken by a party of eighteen miners in . they built a large sailing boat at colville and in her ran up the entire course of the river, never having their boat entirely out of water, though our informant says that they must have had her on skids part of the way. they reached the very head of the columbia, over seven hundred miles above their starting point, hauled their boat across canal flats, launched her again on the kootenai, and so descended that furious stream to fort steele on wild horse creek. the full history of that journey would be deserving of a place in any record of daring exploration. in concluding this chapter, it may be said that there are now upon the lower columbia some of the swiftest and most beautiful "fire-canoes" in the world. these ply on the two great scenic routes, one from portland to astoria, and the other from portland to the dalles. the most noted of these swift steamers at present writing are the _hassalo_ (no. ), the _t. j. potter_, the _charles d. spencer_, and the _bailey gatzert_. chapter xi era of the miner, the cowboy, the farmer, the boomer, and the railroad builder early gold-hunters--gold in california--effects of that discovery on the columbia river country--growth of towns on the columbia--discovery of gold in the colville country--gold on the clearwater--stampede to the idaho mines--cowboys rush in with the miners--sudden development of industries at walla walla, lewiston, and other towns--profits and fare in the mines in --the hard winter--development of the farming industry--the boomers--the hard times--the railroad age--beginning of railroading in the willamette valley--ben holladay--transcontinental railways--henry villard--his great building and his downfall--the present railroads on the river--dr. d. s. baker and the pioneer railroad on the upper river. the age of gold in the columbia pressed hard upon that of the trappers. but it dawned first far south. the spaniards had sought the precious metals with boundless energy. richly had the treasures of the montezumas and the incas rewarded their reckless cupidity. but as they moved northward they met with nothing but disappointment. the el dorados of their ardent fancy had vanished as they turned toward oregon and california. in the guns of stockton and fremont thundered the salvos of american occupation over the sierras. just as the sovereignty of uncle sam was acknowledged, the long-sought discovery of gold startled the world. in a gay, mercurial switzer, captain sutter, had made his way with a band of trappers across the plains to oregon, and thence had gone to california. a dashing adventurer, without money, but with boundless _sang-froid_ and _bonhommie_, sutter had marvellously interested all whom he met and in some inexplicable manner had got money and credit sufficient to build a fort and start an immense ranch on the sacramento, almost on the site of the present capital of the golden state. "sutter's fort" became one of the most notable places in california. in james w. marshall went to the columbia, but after only a year's stay made his way to california. in he entered into partnership with sutter in a sawmill enterprise at coloma on the south fork of the american river. there, while at work in the mill-race on the th of january, , marshall discovered shining particles. gold! the discovery was made, and soon the secret was out. and then--! there never was anything quite comparable to what followed. the first and greatest of the great stampedes for gold took place. when the tidings reached oregon it was as though a prairie fire were running over the country. men went fairly mad. throngs, hardly stopping to take their ploughs from the furrow, mounted their horses, galloped off up the willamette, through the lonely valleys of the umpqua and the rogue river, over the siskiyou, and down the sacramento, where a fortune could be had for the digging. all the stress and strain of american life and history reached the utmost intensity in the fever strife for gold on the sacramento. the willamette and columbia were almost equally stirred. during the first two years of the gold excitement homes on the columbia were well-nigh deserted. then the oregonians began to drift back again. some came with gold-bricks in their pockets and sacks of gold-dust in their packs. some came broken in health and spirits, sick with disappointment. some did not come at all, and their bones found unmarked graves in the pestilential ditches of the sacramento. but the shrewder oregonians perceived that they had better than a gold mine in the trade with california. grain, fruit, eggs, lumber,--these were in such demand that frequently twenty ships at a time were moored by the dense forests of the lower willamette waiting for cargoes. gold-dust was the universal medium, and it seemed to be cheaper than anything else. four bushels of oregon apples brought five hundred dollars in gold-dust in san francisco. tons of eggs were sold for a dollar apiece in the gold mines. portland, the lonely little village on the willamette, with just enough of a foothold by the edge of the forest to keep from rolling into the river, sprang at a bound into the rank of a city. the huge firs were dug out, and wharves went in. the face of nature, even, as well as that of industry and politics, was transformed by that gold-dust in marshall's mill-race on the sacramento. but, most of all, the disposition of the people was changed. the serene, idyllic, pastoral age passed, and the fierce lust for wealth, the boundless imagination, the fever in the veins, came on. why should there not be gold as well by the columbia as by the sacramento! the men who had come down the columbia in search for homes and grass-land for cattle, now began to retrace their steps and turn again up the river in search of the precious metals. nor was it long before discovery of gold in the region tributary to colville was made known. the first discovery was at the mouth of the pend oreille river. a regular stampede ensued. other discoveries on a greater scale were soon to follow. during the early days of the gold excitement of california, a nez percé indian had wandered on to the sacramento. he made acquaintance with a group of miners, who became impressed with his general force and dignity. among these miners was e. d. pearce, and to him the indian gave a vivid account of his home in the wilds of what is now idaho. he told also a tale of how he with two companions were once in the high mountains, when they beheld in the night a light of dazzling brilliance, with the appearance of a refulgent star. the indians looked at this with awe as the eye of the great spirit. but in the morning they summoned courage sufficient to investigate, and found a glittering ball that looked like glass. it was so embedded in the rock that they could not dislodge it. it was clear to them that this was some great "tomanowas." on hearing this fantastic story, the mind of pearce was kindled with the idea that perhaps the indians had found an immense diamond. he determined to seek it. after several years he made his way up the columbia and reached walla walla. from that point he ranged the mountains of idaho, but for a long time met no success. with a company of seven men, he entered upon an elaborate search, which finally so much aroused the suspicion of the indians that they ordered him from the country. nothing daunted, however, he induced a nez percé woman to guide the party from the palouse to the lolo trail, from which they reached an unfrequented valley on the north fork of the clearwater. there one of the party, w. f. bassett, tried washing a pan of dirt, with the result that he got a "colour." this was the first discovery of gold in idaho, and the spot was where oro fino afterwards stood. fall was coming on, and after digging out a small amount of dust, the party deemed it wise to return to the settlements for a more thorough outfitting. accordingly, they went to walla walla and located with j. c. smith, to whom they imparted their secret. so impressed was mr. smith with the tidings that he organised a party of fifteen, with whom he returned just at the opening of the winter of that same year, . soon shut in by deep snows in inaccessible mountains, the little company built five rude huts, and in the intervals of the storms they dug for gold along the streams, meeting with such success that in march mr. smith made his way to walla walla with $ in gold-dust. the dust was sent to portland. now ensued another gold excitement and stampede almost equal to that of ' in california. as the miners rushed into idaho, every other species of industry rushed up the river with them. the cowboy came side by side with the miner. in fact, already following close on the heels of the indian war, had come an inrush of cattle, horses, and sheep. during the last years of the decade of the fifties, stockmen had driven from the willamette valley thousands of head of stock to the rich pasture lands of the walla walla, umatilla, and yakima. when the gold discoveries of and became known, the activities of the cowboys were multiplied, added bands of stock were driven in, all the wild and extravagant features of a combined cowboy and mining age, vendors of "chain-lightning and forty-rod," gamblers, prostitutes, murderers,--and with them missionaries and teachers,--became reproduced again on the shores of the columbia, snake, clearwater, salmon, walla walla, and other rivers of the inland empire. it was another of those wild eras in which the worst and the best that are in human nature jostled each other at every turn. transportation problems followed close upon the cowboy and the miner. the oregon steam navigation company, organised in , began within a year to run steamboats from portland to lewiston, with portage railroads around the cascades and the dalles. stage lines were started from umatilla, walla walla, and lewiston, within a year or two after the gold discoveries of oro fino. prairie-schooners, huge waggons, sometimes three in tandem fashion, drawn by a team of twenty mules, with jingling bells, driven with a "single line," formed the approved system of hauling freight over the mountain roads. in addition to the stages and prairie-schooners, however, thousands of mules and horses were driven with pack-saddles over the trails and roads. then was the time when "throwing the diamond hitch" became a fine art. then was the time, too, when it behooved stage-drivers and packers to be handy with a "gun," for "road-agents" were plentiful and vigilant. many a man with a pack-saddle loaded with gold-dust, or sometimes with whiskey or even "canned goods," "passed in his checks" under some over-shadowing tree or behind some sheltering rock. both the distresses and the successes of that epoch are well illustrated by extracts from some of the newspapers of the time. from issues of the _washington statesman_ of walla walla, we learn that flour was at one time a dollar a pound; beef, thirty to fifty cents a pound; bacon, sixty; beans, thirty; rice, fifty; tea a dollar and a half; tobacco, a dollar and a half; sugar, fifty cents; candles, a dollar. some of these staples could not be had at all. physicians, when they got into the mines, would charge twenty dollars a visit. board was from five to ten dollars a day, frequently more. but as an offset to the expense and frequent positive suffering, we gather the following item from an issue of the _statesman_ in december, : s. f. ledyard arrived last evening from the salmon river mines, and from him it is learned that some six hundred miners would winter there; that some two hundred had gone to the south side of the river, where two streams head that empty into the salmon, some thirty miles south-east of the present mining camp. coarse gold is found, and as high as one hundred dollars per day to the man has been taken out. the big mining claim of the old locality belongs to mr. weiser of oregon, from which two thousand six hundred and eighty dollars were taken out on the th, with two rockers. on the st, three thousand three hundred and sixty dollars were taken out with the same machines. the _statesman_ for december , , contains the following: during the week past not less than two hundred and twenty-five pack animals, heavily laden with provisions, have left this city for the mines. a report in relation to a rich strike by mr. bridges of oregon city seems to come well authenticated. the first day he worked on his claim (near baboon gulch) he took out fifty-seven ounces; the second day he took out one hundred and fifty-seven ounces; the third day, two hundred and fourteen ounces; and the fourth day, two hundred ounces in two hours. as an ounce of gold was worth sixteen dollars, it will be seen that mr. bridges of oregon city had truly "struck it rich." within a year, a million and a half dollars in gold-dust had been taken from those mines. anticipated demands led cattlemen to rush still larger numbers of stock into the upper columbia basin, and traders brought in yet larger supplies of goods into walla walla and lewiston, as well as the mining camps themselves. a considerable part of these goods, we regret to narrate, consisted of material for spirituous refreshments. that the said refreshments were of a stalwart character may be inferred from a reminiscence of a traveller to walla walla, who relates that upon going into one of the numerous saloons, he found the floor covered with sawdust, and upon asking for whiskey, he received with it a whisk-broom. feeling puzzled as to the intent of the latter, and not wishing to reveal his ignorance, he waited till another man came in. waiting for developments, he found that the object of the broom was to sweep off a place on the floor to have a fit on, for the whiskey was sure to produce one. after having got through his fit, the happy (?) purchaser would return the broom and go on his way. [illustration: an oregon pioneer in his cabin. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] just as miners, cowboys, and traders were plunging eagerly into every form of enterprise, the famous "hard winter" of ' descended upon the country. it was almost a minnesota winter. there was snow on the ground from december st to march d, something never known before or since in the columbia basin. cattle could find no food and perished by the thousands. miners were found frozen into the stiff crust. in the rude cabins, with wide cracks into which the snow drifted, the few women and children in the inland empire fought a distressing and frequently losing fight. even in the willamette valley where houses were more comfortable, supplies more plentiful, and the weather less severe, the conditions were hard enough. at portland the price of hay was eighty dollars a ton. in eastern oregon it could not be obtained for any price, and the maintenance of life by cattle depended entirely on their endurance. but with the coming on of tardy spring, the rush up the river was resumed, and the game went on. seven millions in gold was reported in , besides almost as much, as was estimated, taken out in ways of which no record was reported. at florence in february, , flour was a dollar a pound; butter, three dollars; sugar, a dollar and a quarter; coffee, two dollars; boots, thirty dollars a pair. the enormous profits, as well as enormous expense, of developing those mines hastened the coming of the farmer. among the throng that passed madly into the mountains for gold, and among the throng that drove the wide-horned cattle over the bunch-grass hills, there were a few keen-eyed observers who asked themselves if wheat and corn and potatoes and barley and fruit-trees might not grow on those broad prairies, and especially along the numerous watercourses descending from the blue mountains. a farm here and there at some favourable point beside some favouring stream, followed in two or three years by a flour-mill, then a few apples whose bright red cheeks and fragrant smell showed that the upper columbia lands could match those of the willamette, then an experimental wheat-field or barley-field on the high bunch-grass prairies,--and, almost before people realised it, the farmer was standing up beside the miner and the stockman, as tall and broad and important as either. the plough and the hoe and the mowing-machine took their places beside the pick and gold-pan and quirt and schapps and spurs as symbols of columbia river nobility. the "boomer" was the logical result of the development of mine and range and farm and garden and orchard. if people were going to eat and travel and raise wheat and cattle, they must inevitably buy and sell. and if they were going to buy and sell, they must needs "boom." the decade of the eighties was the great age of the boom in real estate along the columbia and its tributaries. then, as also upon puget sound, cities were founded with most extravagant size and expectations--on paper. farm lands changed hands rapidly. if a man could raise nothing else on his land, he could at least raise the price. that was the time when the boomer boomed, the promoter promoted, and the sucker sucked. it was a great age, but alas, it was followed by an awakening, similar to that which follows a night of carousal, when the next day brings a dark-brown taste in the mouth and a very heavy head. the decade of the nineties was dolorous along the river and in the mines and forests and farms and town-lots and additions and suburbs adjoining. [illustration: old portage railroad at cascades in .] [illustration: a log-boom down the river for san francisco. photo. by woodfield.] interlocked with the days of miner, cowboy, rancher, and boomer, was another age of equal importance and one that was both result and cause of the others. this was the age of the railroad builder. transportation by the river was a great feature of traffic in the fifties and sixties. but, during the second of those decades, the people of portland began to realise that the time had arrived for rails as well as sails. the first great transcontinental railroad, the union pacific and central pacific, was in active process of building between california and omaha. a fever of railroad building spread to the columbia river people. railroads were projected from portland on both sides of the willamette, up the valley, with the view of ultimate connection with california. surveys were made by s. g. elliott from marysville, california, to portland in . it was october, , when the first train reached salem, the capital of the state. the road was known as the oregon central railroad, and its manager and ultimately its chief owner was ben holladay, the most famous railroad man of that period in oregon. in and , railroad building was extended on the west side of the willamette. the lines on both sides were reorganised under mr. holladay's control as the oregon and california railroad. meanwhile the air was full of discussion of a transcontinental line to the pacific northwest. the conception of a northern pacific railroad was nothing new. away back in , governor i. i. stevens and captain george b. mcclellan had made a reconnaissance across the rocky and cascade mountains and over the great plains of the columbia, for the purpose of ascertaining a route for a northern line. they pronounced the route feasible, but the time had not yet come for such an undertaking. in a letter to mcclellan of april , , governor stevens states the route to be from st. paul to puget sound by the great bend of the missouri river. it is interesting to note that this is nearly the course afterwards followed. work on the northern pacific was begun in the vicinity of kalama on the columbia in . the financial panic of resulted in the failure of jay cooke & company, the backers of the enterprise, and for several years railroad work was at a standstill. in there came to oregon the greatest railroad builder of that era, henry villard. he was a true financial genius, daring, far-seeing, persistent, and self-reliant. with the quick grasp of a statesman, mr. villard perceived that the columbia river was the key to a boundless opportunity. he saw that a central line up the columbia with branches north, east, and south-east, might be thrust like a wedge between the northern pacific and the union pacific and control both. in pursuance of this conception he made three rapid moves. the first was the incorporation of the oregon railway and navigation company. the second was the formation of the "blind pool" and the oregon and transcontinental company. the third was the acquisition of a controlling interest in the northern pacific railroad. the three years up to and including were years of almost feverish activity along the river. the line of the oregon railroad and navigation company between wallula and portland was pushed on with tireless energy. rock bluffs were split off by enormous charges of dynamite, or were tunnelled through. the road was indeed built so hastily and the curves were in some cases so extreme that much work had to be done over at later times. [illustration: lumber mill and steamboat landing at golden, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates.] a part of villard's plan in pushing the work so hastily was to divert the northern pacific system to the river, and make portland rather than puget sound the western terminus. the undertaking seemed to be crowned with success. the connection was made. a gorgeous celebration, the greatest ever held in the columbia river country, commemorated, in october, , the completion of the transcontinental railroad to tide-water on the columbia river. but in the very hour of victory, the sceptre fell from villard's hands. his downfall was as sudden and dramatic as his rise. by clever jobbing of the market, the wright interests regained possession of the majority of the northern pacific stock, the transcontinental pool broke, and at the very time that mr. villard was being worshipped at portland as the financial god of the north-west, he learned that his gigantic enterprise had fallen into the hands of the enemy. but in spite of defeat the work of villard was assured, and his name and fame as the champion railroad builder of the columbia river was established. after the wright interests had regained possession of the northern pacific, that great system was pushed to puget sound. the oregon short line was carried to a connection with the union pacific system. thus two independent transcontinental lines reached the river. yet later the southern pacific system acquired control of the oregon and california railroad, and, by joining the sections, connected the columbia river with the golden gate. through connecting lines the canadian pacific railroad gained access to the columbia river. there are, therefore, four distinct transcontinental railroad systems into the valley of our river. two more are rapidly approaching completion. as a logical result, too, many local and connecting lines have been built. the astoria and columbia river railroad, on the oregon side of the river, joins portland to astoria and seaside and the other resorts of the ocean beach. the oregon railway and navigation company has continuous connection on the south side of the columbia and snake rivers to riparia on the latter stream, and thence by a road on the north side, owned jointly with the northern pacific, to lewiston, idaho. the most remarkable of all these connecting and joint roads is the portland, seattle, and spokane railroad, commonly called the "north bank road." this is supposed to be the joint property of the northern pacific and great northern railroads. it is one of the many monuments in the west to the financial genius and tireless energy of james j. hill. it was completed in , between pasco and portland, and at the first of the year following, from pasco to spokane. it is said to be the most expensively and scientifically built road in the united states, having curves and grades reduced to a minimum, being, in fact, a continuous descent from near spokane to tide-water. its builders evidently expect stupendous traffic, and every feature of the line is adjusted to such expectation. [illustration: a typical lumber camp. photo. by trueman.] any account of the great railroads joining the inland empire to the river and thence to the seaboard would be incomplete without reference to the pioneer of them all, the "strap-iron" narrow-gauge from walla walla to wallula. this line was forced by the exigencies of the times, but it commemorates the rare commercial foresight and ability of a man, who, in native business genius, ranks with the foremost in the history of the columbia valley. this man was dr. d. s. baker, a native of illinois, an immigrant to the columbia in , and a settler in walla walla in . perceiving the vast latent resources of the inland empire, he invested in land, founded a bank, became a partner in a store, and during much of the time was also actively engaged in his profession of medicine. in , the oregon steam navigation company was running boats from portland to lewiston, over four hundred miles, having short railroad portages at the cascades and the dalles. that was the most active era of the mines in idaho. rates from portland to up-river points were as follows: freight from portland to wallula, $ . per ton; to lewiston, $ . ; fare from portland to wallula, $ . ; to lewiston, $ . . (the rates had been much higher a year or two earlier.) from wallula to walla walla, freight was hauled by prairie-schooners at from $ . to $ . a ton, thirty miles. needless to say, the company piled up a fortune. dr. baker saw the possibilities of the region and, almost unaided, with every difficulty and discouragement, constructed a narrow gauge, with wooden rails, on which strap-iron was fastened. an astonishing amount of business was soon developed, steel rails were substituted, and the business made a fortune for its builder. it was absorbed by the oregon steam navigation company. but dr. baker's strap-iron road may be considered the true progenitor of the railroads of the upper columbia. during these first years of the twentieth century, the shores of the river have echoed with the sound of whistles on many a new road, but the distinguishing mark has been the construction of electric roads. the lower willamette valley, centring at portland, has become fairly swarming with electric roads. spokane has become almost an equal centre of electric lines, while walla walla is following close behind her larger sisters in the procession. when lines already constructed from spokane southward are joined to a system projected from walla walla northward and westward, there will be a complete system of independent electric lines from all parts of eastern washington and north-eastern oregon to steamboat connections on the river, and thence to tide-water. the significance of this as a commercial fact cannot be realised as yet. [illustration: a logging railroad, near astoria. photo. by woodfield.] chapter xii the present age of expansion and world commerce population and productions of the region on the river and its tributaries--extent of its navigability--improvements needed--kinds of traffic--local traffic--transcontinental traffic--world traffic--advantages of the river route for these kinds of traffic--the bar--the competition of puget sound--the combination of river route and sound route. we have traced the successive eras which have brought the land of the oregon from a wilderness to a group of powerful young american states, abounding in resources and filled to the brim with hope and enthusiasm. we have followed the river through its eras of canoe, bateau, flatboat, sail-ship, and steamboat, and we have seen railroads built along its banks. it remains only to cast a brief final glance at the river in its present age, and to forecast something of what seems its sure future. it may be said that the population of those parts of oregon, washington, idaho, wyoming, and montana, which are embraced in the watershed of the columbia, is probably nearly a million and a quarter. the population of the area in british columbia is scanty, but rapidly increasing. the productive capacity is very great. a rough estimate of production in the valley of the columbia for the year would probably give a grain production of seventy million bushels, a lumber output of three billion feet, a mineral output worth sixty million dollars, and a combined output of pastoral, horticultural, fishing, and miscellaneous industries of fifty millions of dollars. such figures indicate that the columbia river is already a factor in world commerce. yet its development is but begun. what is to be its part in the world commerce of the future? inspection of a map will show that the columbia possesses the only water-level route from the vast productive regions of the inland empire to the seaboard. as has been shown in the course of this volume, the river is navigable throughout the larger part of its course from revelstoke in british columbia to the ocean. in that distance there is one canal, with locks. that is at the cascades, sixty-five miles from portland. before the river can be continuously navigable it will be necessary that a canal be constructed to overcome the obstructions at the dalles, a few miles above the city of that name, another at priest rapids, seventy miles above pasco, and still another at kettle falls. the government is already engaged in the first of these works. the second seems comparatively near of accomplishment by reason of work done and projected by a powerful irrigation company. nothing has yet been done at kettle falls, but it would be comparatively a light task to provide canal and locks at that point. besides these larger obstructions there are several rapids at points between kettle falls and the dalles which impede navigation at certain stages of water. the government has made surveys of these sections of the river, and has announced that with comparatively small outlay the rocks and reefs may be removed, the channels deepened and straightened, and the river made navigable. one thing may be emphasised in this connection, and this is that the columbia river has mainly a rocky bed, and hence work on the channels is permanent. it will not cut and fill, nor pile up islands and bars as does the missouri. in view of the capability of the river to carry great water traffic, and in view of the fact that railroad traffic is seeking and will still more seek the down-hill grade to the sea, it becomes a question of great interest what the future commerce of the river will be. it is evident that there will be three kinds of traffic: local, transcontinental, world-wide. each is bound to be vast beyond the calculations or even the imagination of the present. the local traffic is sure to be immense, for it is estimated that there is a million acres of land immediately contiguous to the river, irrigable and adapted to intensive farming. present experience shows that five or ten acres of such land are sufficient to support a family. many cities and towns are sure to grow upon the banks of the river. its banks will sometime become populated like those of ancient nile. besides the immediate region of the river, there are millions upon millions of acres of land more remote, the great wheat fields and stock ranges and valley lands of tributary streams, and these broad areas will seek the river route. much of this immense local traffic of the future will be conveyed by steamboats and barges. the second class of traffic will be the transcontinental. all the railroads across the continent, except those down the columbia, are obliged to climb the cascade mountains, four thousand feet or more in height. with difficulty two powerful locomotives pull a freight train of forty cars up the grades, and at some points even a third is needed. but a single locomotive will pull eighty cars on the level grades of the river roads. in the even keener competition bound to come, this advantage of grades and curves will be a factor of immense importance. the third class of future commerce is the world-wide. no western american can contemplate the future of the world without being persuaded that the pacific ocean and its shores will be the scene of the greatest problems of the twentieth century. if this prove true, that world commerce of the pacific will seek that point of the american continent which most swiftly and cheaply communicates with the eastern side of the continent and with europe. granting that a large part of world commerce will pass through the panama canal, there will still be, without question, an immense trade between the orient and such points in our own country as are so far from the atlantic seaboard that a transcontinental route is a necessity. moreover, even for our atlantic seaboard and for europe, there will be large amounts of products, for the transit of which time will be a great object. hence we may be sure that there will be extensive world commerce across the american continent. if so, where will it cross? inspection of a globe demonstrates that the columbia river route is shortest, and, for reasons already given, it is cheapest of all. puget sound is its only present competitor. but the water-grade through the cascade mountains, along the banks of the columbia, constitutes an advantage beyond the reach of permanent competition. here, however, the critic comes in and claims that the bar at the mouth of the river forbids entrance of the largest ships. this in a measure is true, though the difficulties of the columbia bar have been grossly exaggerated. there are over twenty-five feet of water on the bar at the lowest tide. the flood-tide adds from six to twelve feet. in any ordinary weather, forty feet of water is safe enough for any vessel. but if marine architecture is going to keep pace with growing commerce, we may soon have ships drawing forty or fifty feet of water. if so, the bar may indeed seriously block the heaviest commerce. some observers have, therefore, believed that the big freights of the future will enter the straits of fuca, go to some one of the puget sound ports, thence pass by rail across the low tract of country between the sound and the columbia river, and proceed thence by the river route to the interior and eastward. this would combine the advantages of the two great routes of the pacific north-west, abundant depth of water, low altitudes, and easy grades. this would, in truth, come nearest to realising the dream of the old navigators, the strait of anian. in any event, the future world will look to our river as the goal of markets as well as of vision, and as a highway of nations both for freights and for tourists. part ii a journey down the river chapter i in the heart of the canadian rockies extent of navigation on the river--attractions of a canoe journey--the canadian pacific railroad--banff and lake louise--summit of the rockies--the continental divide and its western descent--field and the wapta river--golden and the upper columbia--peculiar interlocking of the columbia and the kootenai, and professor dawson's explanation of this--views of the selkirks and the rockies--some steamboat men and their tales--captain armstrong's adventures on the kootenai--the picture rocks--lake windermere--the location of the old thompson fort--baptiste morigeau and his stories of pioneer days--the war between the shuswaps and the okanogans--down the river from golden--rapids and navigation--by the canadian pacific through the selkirks--glacier and the illecillewaet--revelstoke and the river again--wise management of the canadian government and the railroad. a journey upon the river may best begin with its source and end with the ocean. it is about fourteen hundred miles by the windings of the stream from its origin in the upper columbia lake to the pacific. it descends twenty-five hundred feet in that distance. it is therefore swift in many places. yet it would be possible to descend almost the entire length of the river in a small boat. nor can one imagine a more fascinating journey, especially if he could conjure back the shades of the great _voyageurs_ of seventy years ago, as monique and charlefoux, famous in dr. mcloughlin's time, and listen to their gay song, mingling with the plash of oars: rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, en roulant, ma boule roulant. the way of approach for the eastern tourist to a journey down the columbia is by the canadian pacific railway, a magnificent road in a gallery of masterpieces. wonders begin before he reaches the western watershed. he will see banff, with its hot springs, its immense hotel, its bow river and falls and valley. he will see the gem of the canadian rockies, one of the gems of the earth, lake louise. imagine a glistening wall of purest white, mts. lefroy and victoria, with a vast glacier descending from them, great bastions of variously tinted rock closing on either side as a frame of the snowy picture, and in front a lake, small indeed, but of perfect form, a mirror in which the snowy wall, the glacier, the rocky ramparts, find a duplication as distinct as themselves. a few miles farther west, and the traveller will find himself at one of the most significant of all places, the continental divide. eastward the water flows into the bow, thence into the saskatchewan, and ultimately into the atlantic. westward the springs find their way to the branches of the wapta, thence to the columbia and the pacific. the long westward ascent which we have followed all the way from winnipeg ends at last. the track becomes level. we are at the summit. looking southward we can see descending the steep slope, a clear mountain stream, which is parted into two branches by a little wall of stone. one branch goes east to the atlantic, the other west to the pacific. it must have been of some such place, though farther north, that holmes was imagining when he wrote: yon stream, whose sources run turned by a pebble's edge, is athabasca, rolling toward the sun, through the cleft mountain-ledge. the slender rill had strayed but for the slanting stone, to evening's ocean, with the tangled braid of foam-flecked oregon. at the parting of the streams, a pretty rustic framework has been erected, bearing the words, "the continental divide." we are now on the columbia's waters. we are also in the heart of the canadian rockies, and in the midst of a perfect sea of mountains. it has been said that british columbia is "fifty or sixty switzerlands rolled into one." here are five distinct ridges, up and down, and through and around which, the columbia and its affluents chase each other in a dizzy dance. the descent of the west side of the divide is appallingly steep. from stephen to field is a drop of one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven feet in ten miles. in that distance are several places which reach two hundred and thirty-six feet to the mile. most explicit directions are given to engineers in respect to handling trains on this grade. a speed of only six miles an hour is allowed, and frequent stops and tests of air-brakes and signals are required. by reason of the exceeding care, no serious accident has ever occurred. in ascending three locomotives are required for an ordinary train. there are several splendid resorts on the line of the canadian railroad. banff and lake louise are the resorts on the east side of the divide. the first one west of that point is field. there, as at all the other resorts, the hotels are managed by the canadian pacific railroad company. they are conducted with great skill and elegance, and may well be regarded as a tribute to the business ability and artistic taste of the managers. as we descend the steep grade from stephen to field, we catch glimpses of peak after peak, range after range, valley after valley, glacier after glacier, purple, saffron, red, dazzling white, glistening greens and blues. mt. stephen lifts its great wall over a mile of almost perpendicular height, and nearly opposite is the spire of mt. burgess. mountain wonders and attractions of every sort lie in all directions from field. perhaps the finest is yoho valley. there are the takkakaw falls, twelve hundred feet high. there is the wapta glacier, itself a part of a prodigious ice-field, known as wahputekh, lying between the towering heights of mts. gordon, balfour, and tralltinderne. leaving field, the road runs between two chains of mountains, the ottertail on the north and the van horne on the south. the former is bold and spire-like in outline, with the snow-fields and ice pinnacles of mt. goodwin closing the vista. the latter is less bold in contour, but has a colouring of yellow rock-slopes in beautiful contrast with the rich purple of the lower forests. passing between those sublime mountain chains, we soon plunge into the wapta cañon, with its perpendicular walls of rock rising hundreds of feet on either side. the wapta is more commonly known as the kicking horse. it received that name in this wise. the palliser exploring expedition of had been seeking unsuccessfully a feasible route through the rockies. in the progress of the search, sir james hector, then in charge of the party, pitched camp on the wapta. while there a vicious horse kicked him with such effect that he was left on the ground apparently dead. the three indians with him had, in fact, dug his grave. but while they were conveying him to it, he suddenly came to himself. having recovered, he became curious to follow the stream where he had met with the disaster. as a result he discovered the cañon and a short route through the main chain. upon the pass he bestowed the name of "kicking horse," and this has latterly been bestowed upon the river itself. the river is one of the most remarkable of the tributaries of the upper columbia. it drains a cordon of glaciated peaks, from which it bears a vast volume of water, foaming and frothing with frequent cataracts down the steep descent, from fifty to a hundred feet to the mile. [illustration: natural bridge kicking horse or wapta river, and mt. stephen, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates.] [illustration: sunrise on columbia river, near washougal. (copyright, , by kiser photograph co.)] forty-five miles west of the divide we reach golden on the columbia. it is indeed a thrilling moment to the traveller when he first sets eyes upon these head-waters of the river of the west. golden is a pleasant little town, a hundred and fifty miles below the upper columbia lake and twelve hundred and fifty by the windings of the river from its destination in the pacific. at golden we must pause and make ready for our first journey on the river. the greater part of the tourist travel passes by golden, not realising that between that pretty town and the lakes lie some of the most charming scenes in all the vast play-ground of british columbia. we find at golden several steamboats in command of captains who are very princes of good fellows, as captain armstrong of the _ptarmigan_ and captain blakeney of the _isabel_, with whom we may journey from golden to lake windermere. over the hundred miles between these two points the columbia is a slack-water stream, having a descent of but fifty feet in the distance from the extreme head waters to golden. over considerable part of this distance the river runs in bayous. these bayous or channels wind their serpentine courses through low flats, flooded at high water, and exposing fair expanses of vivid green at the subsidence of the waters. professor dawson, the eminent canadian geologist, made a study of this section of the river some years before his death, and as a result expressed the opinion that the section of the columbia above the mouth of blue river, some thirty miles below golden, formerly united with the kootenai. but owing to some convulsion of nature, the surface was tilted just sufficiently to turn the section of the stream from columbia lake toward the north instead of the south, with the result that we have this slack-water system of lagoons and lakes constituting this marvellously picturesque division of the river. now in confirmation of this theory of professor dawson we have in the relations of the columbia and kootenai the singular geographical phenomenon already referred to in an earlier chapter. the kootenai runs through "canal flats," in which the upper columbia lake is situated, and comes within a mile of that lake. it is nine feet higher than the lake, but there is no high land there, and at one time a canal joined the kootenai with the lake. this canal was wrecked in the great flood of , but steamboats had run through it from the kootenai to the columbia, and it would be entirely feasible to reconstruct it. after having thus passed within a mile of each other and evidently having once been actually connected, the two rivers part company. the columbia flows north and the kootenai south. each makes a vast bend. again they reverse directions, the columbia flowing south and the kootenai north, and then come together many miles from their point of separation. aside from the unique beauty of the lagoons and the grassy shores, the eye of the traveller is delighted with the two mountain chains which confront each other across those glassy channels throughout the entire stretch from golden to windermere. on the east side is the main chain of the rockies, and on the west are the selkirks. as we proceed on the deep, still stream, gliding from channel to channel, we may find ourselves mightily entertained by the conversation of such a navigator as captain armstrong or captain blakeney. for each can command a fund of historical and descriptive matter of rare interest. captain armstrong was one of the earliest pilots on the kootenai. in he built the _north star_ at jennings, montana, ran her up the wild stream to canal flats, thence through the canal to the columbia lakes, and into the river itself. a more exquisite stretch of river navigation than that through columbia lake, lake adela, and lake windermere, and from them into the lagoons of the river, can scarcely be found or even imagined, and it was the lot of the _north star_ to ply upon that route until her unhappy destruction by fire in . there is little danger of accident on the placid water of the uppermost columbia, but it is far different on the kootenai. we heard many a tale of steamboating adventure from these pilots. one of these so well illustrates those old-time conditions that we repeat here its chief points. captain armstrong owned two steamers, the _ruth_ and the _gwendoline_. both were engaged in transporting freight by way of jennings to fort steele and the various mining camps in that district. the business was enormously profitable, for the boats received two and one half cents a pound. at that particular time there were twenty-six cars on the great northern railway awaiting shipments. from his two steamers captain armstrong sometimes made two thousand dollars a day in gross receipts. but though profitable, the business was also correspondingly risky. the jennings cañon, above bonner's ferry, is, perhaps, the worst piece of water that has ever been navigated on the columbia or its tributaries. a strip of water, foaming-white, down-hill almost as on a steep roof, hardly wider than the steamboat, savage-looking rocks waiting to catch hold of any unwary craft that might venture through,--so forbidding in fact was that route that captain armstrong found no insurance agent that felt disposed to insure his boats and cargo. at last he induced a san francisco agent to make the trip with him and to offer a rate. after sitting in silence on the deck while the steamer whirled down the jennings cañon, the agent stated that his rate would be twenty-five per cent. of the cargo. the daring captain decided to take the risk himself. he had made a number of trips with entire success and immense profit. but just at the height of the season, when the twenty-six cars were on the track and a sack full of gold was waiting for him, the captain got into too much of a hurry. he was running the _gwendoline_; one of his best pilots, the _ruth_. the _ruth_ was ahead. both were making their best possible time down the cañon to get a cargo. captain armstrong, at the wheel of the _gwendoline_, was whizzing down the cañon at a rate which made stopping impossible, when to his dismay he saw the _ruth_ right ahead of him in a narrow turn, lying across the channel, wedged in the rocks. to stop was impossible. to select any comfortable landing-place was equally so. the _gwendoline_ piled right on top of the _ruth_. both were total wrecks, without a dollar of insurance. a two-thousand-dollar cargo gone in five minutes, to say nothing of boats and business that could not be replaced and a fortune within grasp that would never be so near again. [illustration: lake windermere, upper columbia, where david thompson's fort was built in . photo. by w. d. lyman.] but such were the risks of steamboating on the kootenai. there are two historical notes of special interest to be made in connection with the journey to windermere. one of these is a prehistoric drawing in some kind of red pigment on the smooth surface of a rock on the upper columbia lake. it seems to represent a battle scene, and, though rude, denotes some conception of picture art. the indians think that it was made prior to indian times. apparently it belongs to the same order of pictures as the drawings on the rocks of lake chelan and other places in the north-west, furnishing a worthy theme for the antiquarian. the other object of historical interest is the remains of the temporary fort built by david thompson of the north-west fur company in . thompson crossed the rockies in that year in order to descend the columbia and gain possession of its territory for his fur company. he was a brave, intelligent, and enterprising man with considerable knowledge of astronomy. but he waited one season too long. for, finding it late in the year when he had reached the sources of the columbia, he decided to winter there and descend the river in the spring. he selected a beautiful spot capable of defence on all sides on lake windermere and there built a rude fort, the trench and mound of which still remain. in the spring of he went down the river (and this was the first party to traverse the entire course of the columbia) full of hope that he might take possession for great britain and the north-westers, only to find that the astor party of americans had preceded them by three months in effecting what might be called permanent occupation. this was one of the important links in the history of the control of the north-west. doubt has been raised as to the authenticity of this windermere location, but there are certainly the remains of mound and trench, and the tradition has it that here was the place of the thompson party of , the first place located by white men on the upper columbia. [illustration: mt. burgess and emerald lake, one of the sources of the wapta river. b. c. photo. by c. f. yates.] an interesting character lives on the shore of lake windermere in the person of baptiste morigeau. he is a man of sixty-six, the son of a french father and indian mother. the father, francis morigeau, was born at quebec in , and came to the upper columbia region as a free trapper in . he trapped up and down the columbia for many years, selling his catches to the hudson's bay company, usually at fort colville. baptiste was born at windermere in . three years after that the father with his numerous family went to colville. he had a number of horses and cattle, a large supply of valuable furs, ammunition, and traps. he located at colville at just the right time. for, having taken up a large body of the rich land in that valley, he began raising hay and grain. his stock increased. he was surrounded with every species of rude plenty, and just at the most profitable time for him the gold discoveries began in , followed the next year by the great indian war. the fat cattle, the horses, the grain, hay, and vegetables of the morigeaus were in great and immediate demand. money came in to them by the handful. baptiste states that they took in one hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the five years of indian wars and settlement. their lives were often in peril, but with good fortune, aided by their own connection with the natives, they escaped any serious harm. on one occasion indians were about to plunder them of their valuables and take possession of the barn where several of the family were thrashing grain with flails, when the oldest son, aleck, suddenly turned his flail upon the marauders. so vigorously did he lay about him and so astonished were the indians at the novel assault that they gave way and retreated. morigeau told us the interesting fact that there were practically no indians living in the windermere district until about a century ago. at that time some branches of the shuswaps and of the kootenais came in. their relations were usually very amicable, but between the shuswaps and the okanogans was deadly and long-continued enmity. this was ended in a curious and interesting manner by the following event. the shuswaps had captured the only daughter of the okanogan chief. she was led with other captives into the shuswap camp. the boasting warriors were gloating over the poor victim, and the squaws were discussing the greatest possible indignities and tortures for her, when an aged, white-haired chief got the attention of the crowd. he declared that his heart had been opened, and that he now saw that torture and death ought to end. he proposed that instead of shame and torture they should confer honour on the chieftain's child. he said: "i can hear the old chief and his squaw weeping all the night for their lost daughter." he then proposed that they adorn the captive with flowers, put her in a procession, with all the chiefs loaded with presents, and restore her to her father. the girl meanwhile, who did not understand a word of the language, was awaiting torture or death. what was her astonishment to find herself decorated with honour, and sent with the gift-laden chiefs toward her father's camp. on the next day the mourning chief of the okanogans and his wife, looking from their desolate lodge, saw a large procession approaching, and they said: "they are coming to demand a ransom." [illustration: bonnington falls in kootenai river, near nelson. photo by allan lean.] as the procession drew nearer, one of their men said that it looked like a woman adorned with flowers in the midst of the men with presents of robes and necklaces. then they cried out: "it is our child, and she is restored to us." so they met the procession with rejoicing and heard the speech of the old shuswap chief. and after that there was peace between the shuswaps and the okanogans. having returned from lake windermere to golden by small boat,--one of the most charming of all water trips,--we are prepared to make a new start down the river. the river from golden holds a general north-westerly course to its highest northern point in latitude degrees. there having received its northmost tributary, canoe river, a furious mountain stream, it makes a grand wheel southward, forming what is known as the big bend. this section of the river was navigated by the bateaux of the trappers and the canoes of the indians. there are, however, several bad rapids, of which surprise rapids, kimbasket rapids, and death rapids, are the worst. these cannot be passed by steamboats. the _voyageurs_ seem to have run them sometimes, though they ordinarily made portages. a golden steamboat captain assures us that none but fools ever ran death rapids,--and they were mostly drowned. the canadian pacific railroad follows the columbia from golden to beavermouth, then turns up the beaver to cross the selkirk mountains. the beaver is a magnificent mountain stream, and from the railroad, high on the mountain side, the traveller can at many points look down hundreds of feet upon the river. though the selkirks are not quite so high as the main chain of the rockies, they are even grander. the snowfall is materially greater in the selkirks, and the glaciers are vast in extent. it is said that the snowfall at glacier averages thirty-five feet during the winter, and that it lies from four to eight feet deep from october to april. there are thirty immense snowsheds on this section of the railroad. glacier is the great resort in the selkirks. this splendid resort has attractions in some respects superior to those of banff, lake louise, or field. it is in the very heart of the selkirks. the great glacier is only a mile and a half distant, a glacier which is said to cover an area of two hundred square miles; more than all the glaciers of switzerland combined. from the watch tower at glacier, this mass of ice, twisted and contorted, with all the colours of the rainbow playing upon it, is one of those visions of elemental force which only great mountains reveal. like all the glaciers of the northern hemisphere, this is receding at a rapid rate. a record on the rock indicates the point to which the ice attained in july, , and the ice is now over seven hundred feet distant from that point. the asulkan glacier is a more beautiful sight, as viewed from abbott rampart, than the great glacier. every traveller should climb the trail to abbott in order to get that sight. and with it he will view the twin peaks of castor and pollux yet farther south, while to the north the splendid peaks of cheops, hermit, and cougar dominate the majestic wilderness. [illustration: bridge creek, a tributary of lake chelan, wash. photo. by f. n. kneeland, northampton, mass.] but the most striking single sight is the granite monolith of sir donald. this is almost a counterpart of the matterhorn of switzerland, though not so high. it rises in one huge block to a height of , feet. it has been climbed, though this is one of the most daring and difficult of climbs. from the dizzy spire there is visible a perfect map of peaks, rivers, valleys, and lakes. it is said that a hundred and twenty glaciers can be seen. from sir donald and the great glacier issues the illecillewaet river, well-named, for this means the "swift flowing." from its source in the great glacier to its entrance of the columbia it descends thirty-five hundred feet in forty-five miles. it is swift. one of the most interesting places on this section of the road is the "loops," a place where the track has to descend five hundred and twenty-two feet in seven miles. to accomplish this, it has been carried in a "double s" around the bases of mts. ross and bonney. so close are the tracks that the two parts of the loop a mile in length are not more than eighty feet apart, one being almost perpendicularly above the other. some miles farther down is the albert cañon on the illecillewaet. on this point the distinction has been conferred of a complete pause of the train, while from it the passengers hasten to a platform to gaze down the perpendicular walls three hundred feet to the white torrent tearing its way through the rock. soon revelstoke is reached, and we are again on the navigable waters of the columbia. every traveller, as he leaves the line of the canadian pacific railroad, must pay his tribute of respect to the skill, energy, and intelligence with which this superb road is conducted. it has been said that english money supplied this road, scotch energy built it, and irish keenness and adaptability run it. sir thomas shaughnessey, the manager, is certainly entitled to the respect and gratitude of thousands of tourists. with the railroad, all tourists will associate the canadian park managers. the canadian government is a singularly intelligent one. it has grasped the possibilities in these vast and varied scenic charms, and has used exceedingly good judgment in rendering them accessible to the travelling public. this entire mountain area bordering the railroad, to an extent of five thousand seven hundred and thirty-two square miles, has been set apart as a park, in charge of the department of the interior. superb roads are constructed in available places, and improvements are continually in progress about the springs and falls and lakes and other points of interest. the government, in fact, exercises entire control, but grants concessions to the railroad company in the matter of hotels and other conveniences. as we bid good-bye to the canadian rockies, we may say that perhaps the world offers nowhere else such a sea of mountains, such knots and clusters and cordons of elevations, as in this strange and sublime region where the columbia and its tributaries, the kootenai, the illecillewaet, the wapta, the beaver, the canoe, seem to be playing hide-and-seek with the thompson and the fraser. there are not less than five distinct snowy ridges between the head waters of the saskatchewan and the pacific ocean. the existence of this immense watershed of snowy mountains accounts for the vast volume of the columbia. although not half as long as the mississippi, the columbia equals it in volume. [illustration: kootenai lake, from proctor, b. c. photo. by allan lean.] well joined, in truth, are the sublime river and the sublime mountains. one cannot fully understand the river unless he has seen its cradle and the cradle of its affluents beneath the shadows of the great peaks of british columbia. chapter ii the lakes from the arrow lakes to chelan the lake plateau--the glacial origin of the lakes--down the arrow lakes from revelstoke--the fine steamers--characteristics of the scenery--by rail from robson to nelson--agricultural, mineral, and lumbering resources around nelson--kootenai lake and its charms--on the river from robson to kettle falls--historic features around kettle falls--on lakes coeur d'alene, pend oreille, and kaniksu in northern idaho--from kettle falls to chelan--appearance of chelan river--first view of the lake--delights of a boat ride up the lake--comparison of chelan with other great scenes--storm on the lake--goat mountain--views from railroad creek--the red drawings--rainbow falls and stehekin cañon--the wrecked cabin and its story--railroad creek and north star park--cloudy pass and glacier peak. in the progress of our journey down the river on the route of the old-time fur brigades, we have passed over what may be considered the first two stages of the stream. the first is the lagoon-like expanse of the section from canal flats to golden, one hundred and fifty miles. the second is the more swift and turbulent part from golden to revelstoke, two hundred and fifty miles. at the latter place we enter upon a third stage of the river, the lake stage. the region of the lakes constitutes one of the most unique and delightful of all parts of the river. let the reader consult the map and he will find an area of probably one hundred thousand square miles in british columbia, washington, idaho, and montana filled with lakes. this lake region constitutes a plateau, crossed indeed by mountains and somewhat rough in surface, but of a uniform general elevation. it constitutes a sort of debatable region between the two great slopes, one from the rocky summits to the lakes and the other from the lakes to tide-water. on those slopes the white waters of cataract and rapid are found; on the plateau, the deep, still lakes. a glance at the map reveals the fact that the larger of these lakes are long and narrow, and lie on north and south lines. a journey on them reveals the fact that they are deep and clear and cold. join these facts with the additional one that they are surrounded by snowy mountains, and you have no difficulty in deciding their origin. they are glacial. at some time in the glacial ages, stupendous ploughshares of ice descending from rockies, selkirks, gold range, cascades, and bitter roots, gouged out profound cañons in the rents already wrought by earthquakes, and these became the lake beds. [illustration: lower arrow lake, b. c. photo. by allan lean, nelson.] each one of the branches of the river in this plateau region has one or more of these expansions. on the columbia itself are the arrow lakes. kootenai lake is an enlargement of the river of the same name. okanogan lake is likewise an expansion of its river. christina lake is the source of kettle river. the slocan river derives its icy torrents from slocan lake. flathead, kaniksu, and pend oreille lakes feed clark's fork, now more commonly known in its lower section as pend oreille river. coeur d'alene lake supplies the spokane river. chelan pours its cold flood into the columbia through a river of the same sweet sounding name. wenatchee lake gives life to the wenatchee river. we find at revelstoke that the chief current of tourist travel follows the main line of the canadian pacific railroad. nevertheless, there is a rapidly increasing movement of travellers on the branch by steamboat over the arrow lakes and the kootenai to what is known as the crow's nest line from spokane to calgary, winnipeg, and other points east. the canadian pacific line has excellent steamers, the _rossland_, the _kootenai_, the _kaslo_, the _kuskanook_, and others of similar grade. the journey on the _rossland_ or _kootenai_ down the arrow lakes from arrowhead to robson is one to dream of, one to recall in waking hours, and even, we almost suspect, in another life. the two lakes together constitute one hundred and thirty miles of steamboating, and every mile has its special charm. it was the peculiar joy of the _voyageurs_, after having toiled over the snowy and wind-swept athabasca pass and buffeted the foamy descent of death rapids, to reach the arrow lakes and lazily paddle down their tranquil deeps. in fact, pleasant as is our journey on the _rossland_, we would rather reconstruct the bateaux of and in them make the whole long journey to the sea, a thousand miles away. the traveller learns from the captain, if he can persuade that busy personage to indulge in conversation, that the arrow lakes derived their name from the fact that in early times great bundles of arrows could be seen stuck in the clay banks or in the crevices of the rocks at the head of the upper lake. the upper arrow lake has mountain banks rising thousands of feet to the zone of eternal snow. the shores are usually precipitous, though it is not uncommon to see smooth slopes furnishing timbered margins to enchanting little bays. at various places along the shores we see the beginnings of fruit and dairy ranches. it is only within four or five years that anything has been done here in the way of cultivation. the results thus far attained prove the wonderful adaptability of soil and climate to choice fruits. and the flowers,--heaven bless them!--the sweetest and biggest and brightest of roses, pinks, sweet peas, larkspurs,--every kind that grows, are seen in profusion at almost every point where there has been any cultivation. by a little conversation with people at the landings we learn that the new-fledged ranches are very profitable. one tells us that he has made a net profit of two dollars and twenty-five cents per crate on his strawberries, or five hundred dollars an acre. [illustration: bridal veil falls on columbia river. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] perhaps the most attractive place on the arrow lakes is the point where the upper lake narrows into the stretch of fifteen miles of river joining the two lakes. the mountains on either hand, in great billows of forest green and blue, rise ever upward till they break against the eternal frost. the shores are clothed in dense forests, and on either hand bold promontories enclose sheltered bays, the very beau ideals of camping places. we find the lower arrow lake of a gentler type of scenery than the upper. the mountains no longer bear snow-peaks and glaciers on their crests, and there are no longer to be seen the stupendous rocky walls which in places enclose the upper lake. but as a compensation for the loss of this pre-eminent grandeur, the lower lake possesses a charm of colouring, both of water and shore, a richness of mountain outline and tints, and a certain serenity which may well make it an equal of its grander companion. at the lower end of the arrow lakes the steamer stops and transfers her freight and passengers to the trains running from robson to nelson. this is necessitated by the fact that the kootenai river, which enters the columbia just below robson, has a descent from nelson of over two hundred feet. the railroad follows the kootenai, which almost rivals the columbia in magnitude. we pass the bonnington falls, the noblest waterfall on the entire system of columbia's tributaries, with the exception of the great shoshone of the snake. reaching nelson, the metropolis of this entire lake country, we find a bustling, active, well-built little city of seven thousand people. the leading industries centring at nelson are mining and lumbering. it has been discovered very recently, however, that the soil and air and climate are peculiarly adapted to choice berries and fruits. the shores of the river and lake at this point are rugged and rocky, at first thought ill adapted to horticulture. but it is well known that rough locations produce choicer fruit. between the boulders or nestling against the hillsides, the peach and apple take on an added blush, absorb a more delicate nectar, exhale a more exquisite perfume. we are told that during the season of there were twenty thousand crates of berries, mainly strawberries, shipped from nelson, at a price of two to three dollars per crate. in every direction from nelson is mineral wealth of untold quantity. almost every mineral known, gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, to say nothing of every kind of fine building stone, including marble, besides coal and iron, is found east, west, north, and south of nelson. the town itself was founded by reason of the silver king mine, which can be seen high up on the mountain side south of the place. the output of these mines has been immense. in spite of the comparatively hard times, the output of the three districts of the kootenai, rossland, and boundary, was estimated at $ , , in . one interesting fact connected with the mining industry in the lake country is that at nelson is located an electric zinc smelter, the only one of the kind in the world. zinc is found in association with gold, silver, and copper, and, though valuable, is quite an impediment to the mining of the gold and silver. this unique smelter works by what is called the snyder process, an electrical system, which, if it accomplishes all that is hoped for, will open every mine on the kootenai. [illustration: shoshone falls, in snake river, feet high. photo. by w. d. lyman.] from nelson we find the way open by fine steamers to all parts of the kootenai. this largest of all the lakes of the columbia system, containing , acres of surface, bears a general resemblance to the arrow lakes, clear, deep, cold, with lofty mountains on either side and vast stretches of purple forests crowding to the very margin of the water. this lake consists of three arms, northern, southern, and western. the kootenai river enters by the southern and leaves by the western. the northern part of the kootenai region, especially around kaslo, possesses vast mineral wealth. a railroad proceeds from kaslo to sandon in the heart of the mountains, and to slocan lake and thence to nakusp on the upper arrow lake. the scenery of slocan lake is even more wild and rugged than that of the kootenai. both abound in fine trout. we saw a lake trout at nelson of a weight of twenty-two pounds. ducks and geese and swan are common on the water, limitless grouse and pheasants are found in the woods, while deer, elk, and bear are common in the wild maze of mountains and cañons;--a sportsman's paradise. tourists taking the route eastward go from nelson on the elegant steamer _kuskanook_ to kootenai landing and there take up again the railway route by the crow's nest. such as desire to go to spokane can leave the line at curzon and go southward to a connection with the spokane international. there is also a rail connection more directly between nelson and spokane by the spokane and northern. this pursues more nearly the course of the columbia river, of which the traveller obtains delightful glimpses at intervals. but for ourselves, we would rather go by rowboat from robson down the river over the historical route of the old _voyageurs_. no rail route compares with the water. the river is a superb water-way from robson, british columbia, to kettle falls, washington, about ninety miles. in fact, the section of the river from death rapids above revelstoke to kettle falls, including the arrow lakes, is the longest unbroken stretch of deep, still water on the entire river, being about three hundred miles. kettle falls, too, is a historic spot. for here was fort colville of the americans and also the old hudson's bay post. here was the greatest centring of the fur-trade on the upper river. here were the strongest of all the catholic missions, and here were the most fertile fields and the earliest cultivated of any on the upper river. here is the colville indian reservation, and here for many years the wily and untamable old savage moses herded his bands of "cuitans," watched the incoming whites with jealous eye, and, as opportunity offered, made way with such wandering prospectors or stockmen as he could find off their guard in rocky glen or forest depth. (and none ever knew what became of them.) here hallakallakeen (eagle wing) the great nez percé chief, commonly known as joseph, who waged the wallowa war of to its bitter conclusion, carried on the sad remnant of his days, and not far distant on the wild nespilem, he held his summer camp. in all directions around colville and kettle falls, up the sans poil and kettle rivers, are opening mines and farms, one of the most promising sections of all the promising state of washington. [illustration: lake pend oreille, idaho. photo by t. w. tolman.] [illustration: lake coeur d'alene, idaho. photo. by t. w. tolman.] time forbids us to visit all the lakes in this wonderful lake section. but we must see the most important. while at spokane, we should not fail to go, by trolley or train or auto or horseback, to the greatest of all spokane resorts, coeur d'alene lake. of its beauties and delights, and of the "shadowy st. joe river," and of the canoeing and fishing and hunting which may be found there galore, some of our pictures speak. and of them any one who has ever been there will also speak in no uncertain tone. it seems no whit short of the unpardonable sin to give no longer space to that wonderland of lakes, coeur d'alene, pend oreille, and kaniksu, in northern idaho, each the centre of every conceivable scenic attraction. in their near vicinity, too, lie the great mines of the coeur d'alene district, the greatest silver lead mines in the world, whose fabulous wealth (forty million dollars a year) has built many a stone mansion at spokane, or sent the prospectors of yesterday to the ends of the earth for the pleasure or display of to-day. but the limits of this chapter forbid description of these masterpieces. though each lake has its individual character, there is a general similarity. all have the characteristics of their common glacial origin and mountainous surroundings. we may therefore make one visit and give descriptions of the one great inclusive scene or group of scenes which may be said to express the beauty, the sublimity, the wonder of the lakes of the columbia river. and this one typical lake, the all-inclusive, is chelan, "beautiful water." true to our purpose of following the river from source to sea, we turn back now from spokane in order to go from kettle falls to chelan by boat. there are no regular steamboats running from kettle falls to brewster at the mouth of the okanogan, but from the last named point to wenatchee the steamboat is the regular and indeed only means of public travel. throughout the entire course of two hundred miles from kettle falls to wenatchee the river is wild and swift. yet steamers have traversed the entire distance, and government engineers are now engaged in surveys looking to improvements such as will make steamboat traffic easy and profitable. we pass numberless points of interest, but "chelan, chelan," "beautiful water, beautiful water," is our goal. [illustration: the "shadowy st. joe," idaho. photo. by t. w. tolman.] we had thought that the columbia was clear, but we did not then know what clear water really was. when we reach the mouth of chelan river we know. we see a streak of blue cutting right across the impetuous downflow of the river. as we push our way into it we discover that it is so clear as to make little more obstruction to the view of rocks and fish below than does the air itself. this transparent torrent is the outlet of the lake. it is only four miles long and descends three hundred and eighty feet in that distance. it furnishes one hundred and twenty-five thousand horse-power at low water. the cañon, riven and tortured, through which it descends, is a fitting approach to the lake, unique chelan. for having traversed the four miles, we find the lake outstretched before us. at this first view the lake has that look of a serene obliviousness to the flight of passing centuries, that impressure of eternity, that belongs to all great works of god or man. but majestic as is the view at the lower end of the lake, we are not content to remain there. "_neskika klatawa sahale_," cry we with a single voice, which being interpreted is, "let us go up higher," the motto, by the way, of our mazama (mountain-climbers') club of the pacific north-west. in skiffs, well-laden with provisions and ammunition, we set forth on our sixty-mile pull toward "where the spectral glaciers shone." delightful, delightful, almost ecstatic in truth, this rocking on the glassy swell; this bed of romantic spruce and pine boughs on the beach; this star-lit sky which is our only roof; this murmur of cascades falling from the bluffs; this trolling for five-pound trout; this disembarking on some rocky point and climbing a granite pinnacle from which a perfect maze of mountains, streams, and forests, lies extended below; this experience of the deadly attack of "buck-ague" which paralyses our arms as some goat or deer dashes by; and then the inexpressible delight with which we, "stepping down by zigzag paths and juts of pointed rock, came on the shining levels of the lake." we do not wish to hurry our oars. we must take time to look into the heavenly blue of the waters through the foam-streaks left by our advancing prows. we must suspend the oar-dip entirely at times while we gaze dizzied, with strained necks, up, up, thousands of feet, toward "death and morning on the silverhorns." we must study shore and water as we pass slowly by, finding therein ample confirmation of the theory of glacial origin. this is one of the deepest cañons on earth. not such another furrow has time wrought on the face of the western hemisphere, at least. at some points the granite walls rise almost vertically six thousand feet from the water's edge. here, too, soundings of seventeen hundred feet have been necessary to touch bottom. over a mile and a half of verticality! this surpasses in depth yosemite, yellowstone, columbia, or even colorado cañon. as compared with those more familiar wonders, chelan lacks the incomparable symmetry and completeness of yosemite; it has not such a multitude of waterfalls and groups of "castled crags" as are seen within the basaltic gates of the columbia; it does not display that variety of colouring, especially of the lighter and warmer hues, which astonishes the beholder of the colorado or the yellowstone, and it has no especially curious feature like the geysers of the last; but for immensity, for a certain chaotic sublimity, for the rich and sombre grandeur of the purple and garnet, dusky, and indigo-tinted shore views, chelan surpasses any of the others, while in its water views,--such colourings and such blendings, light-green, ultramarine, lapis lazuli, violet, indigo, almost black,--such light and shade, "sea of glass mingled with fire," where every cloud in the changing sky and all the untold majesty of the hills find their perfect mirror, all hues and forms, a kaleidoscope of earth and heaven, beyond imagination to conceive or pen to describe or brush to portray,--in all this, chelan is without a rival. [illustration: on the coeur d' alene river, idaho. photo. by t. w. tolman.] as we round a shaggy promontory, there the snow-peaks stand in battle array, azure, purple, amethystine, with lines and masses of glistening white, flushed on their topmost pinnacles with rosy light from the westering sun, solemn, solitary, very oracles of mountain revelation, so grand, so beautiful, so true, looking as though they had been there forever waiting for an interpreter,--before that scene we bow the head and make involuntary obeisance, the homage of the true in man to the true in nature, that is, the recognition of a common brotherhood in one divine origin. not of every scene on this lake of wonders can we speak. yet every mile brought its special revelation. sometimes we found the lake in storms. as we rowed in what seemed a summer calm, winter from his throne eight thousand feet above sent forth his cloud-legions, which, like the "thunder birds" of indian story, spread their wings and came down. the thunder clash went echoing in long reverberations "from peak to peak, the rattling crags among." "if a squall ever strikes you, put for the first crack in the bank that you see," had been the parting injunction of the lake sailors when we started on our cruise. we observed the warning and made the best possible time to a cranny in the ill-omened "windy cape." and there we lay till morning, when the tumult fell as suddenly as it rose, and lake and sky smiled as serenely at each other as ever. the chief point on the lake, for photographing, hunting, fishing, and climbing, is railroad creek, fifty miles up the lake. railroad creek comes from the "roof of the world," having its source in the very heart of a great group of glaciers. it descends probably six thousand feet in twenty-five miles. it is swift! the fury with which it hurls logs and even boulders down its cataract bed is fairly appalling. the very earth quivers beneath its flail-like strokes. nowhere, perhaps, can one see more work done by rivers than here. the entire course of one of these rivers can be traced from the lake. rising in a snow bank six thousand feet above, its route marked by a streak of foam, sometimes falling in spray hundreds of feet, then hiding behind a cliff, to burst forth in snow-white "chute," augmented by similar streams from lateral cañons, it plunges into the lake with a perfect delirium of motion. so great is the erosion that were not the lake of enormous depth, it would soon be filled with the jetsam and flotsam of the hills. the sunset effects looking up the lake from railroad creek are marvellous, though, alas, the cool black and white of the photograph cannot preserve the wealth of colouring, "the illumination of all gems," which for a few transcendent moments fills the mighty cañon "bank-full" with such radiance that one might think it the grand gathering place of all the rainbows of earth. the light greens and blues of the shallower water shade into deepest indigo toward the centre, reflecting the ever-changing hues of the cañon walls, a deep, rich, and sombre purple on the shaded side, while on the sun-lit side are poured forth upon the shaggy mountain slopes perfect inundations of orange, carmine, and saffron. from these floods of glory there falls into the lake a seeming rain of pearls and rubies, barred with stripes of gold and crimson. but the sun drops lower and the splendour fades, the conflagration of the sky is quenched, and it seems as though ten thousand ships, "all decked with funeral scarfs from stem to stern," were putting out from the glooming western shores, strewing darkness as they move,--and night is at hand. [illustration: gorge of chelan river, the outlet of lake chelan. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] like all travellers to lake chelan, we must make a journey to the head of the lake, to the stehekin river, and to rainbow falls. the view up the cañon of the stehekin is the crowning glory of this panorama of sublimities. a forest of almost tropical luxuriance covers the morass through which the impetuous river makes its way. on either side tower the cañon walls, capped with snow. the background consists of glittering pinnacles of some of the glacier range. majesty, might, elemental force, eternity,--such are the only words to express the emotions excited by this scene. one curious thing to be seen at the mouth of the stehekin, and at several other places on the lake is a series of rude drawings on the smooth, white surface of the granite bluff, the work of some prehistoric artist, unknown to the indians, and of so ancient date that the lake is now twenty feet below their level. the drawings are of men, goats, tents, and trees, and are in strong red colours, of some very enduring nature. one is ashamed to record that alleged human beings in the form of white tourists have used these curious relics of bygone days as targets to shoot at from their boats, and have ruined some of the finest. also that some vandal has desecrated the place by painting a glaring advertisement of his ferry underneath. although it may well seem to the tourist who has attained the head of lake chelan that nature has reached her acme of grandeur, and that it would tax his powers of belief to be informed that there is grander yet, we shall run the risk of saying just that, and bid him join us on side journeys up the mighty cañons of the stehekin river and railroad creek. lake chelan being, as already indicated, in the very heart of the cascade mountains, and these mountains here attaining an average elevation of seven or eight thousand feet, with dozens of peaks of ten thousand or more, and the countless impetuous streams from those snowy heights having cut their way deep down toward the lake level, it follows as a matter of course that the entire chelan region, for an area of probably ten thousand square miles, is perfectly gridironed with cañons. many of them have never been explored or even entered. in them are myriads of lakes, waterfalls, parks, glaciers, and, in fact, every species of mountain attraction. there is no question that within this vast cordon of mountains there are more glaciers than in all the rest of the united states combined, and, with the exception of the sierras and the canadian rockies, there is certainly no other region on this continent that can for a moment enter into competition with it. travellers have assured the author that the alps in no respect except historical association, surpass, and some say, do not equal this crowning glory of our great north-west state. [illustration: head of lake chelan--looking up stehekin cañon. photo. by w. d. lyman.] amid the bewildering profusion of great cañons radiating from the lake, the two most accessible are those of the stehekin river and railroad creek. the former enters the head of the lake, after a course of probably fifty miles from skagit pass. to ascend this cañon we must commit our lives and fortunes to cayuse ponies and a mountain trail, which, though good enough to the initiated, is a terror to the "tenderfoot." four miles up the stehekin we reach rainbow falls, heralded by distant gusts and eddies of mist, which at first seem to be from woods on fire. but a dull roar, a harsh rumble, then a lighter splash,--and we see that what at first had seemed smoke eddying out of the cañon wall is the mist driven before the gusts created by the falling torrents. with a few more hurried steps we find ourselves before a fall three hundred and fifty feet high. its clouds of spray swirl like a thunder-shower, drenching the rocks and trees far around. picking our way amid the pelting mist to the top of a slippery hillock from which we can look right down into the very heart of the fall, we see, swinging against the mist, a perfect rainbow, a complete double circle, a blaze of lustre. the thrilling roar deepens as we hang over the slippery verge, and sounds like voices, trampling of armies, clatter of innumerable hoofs, rattling of artillery, all the grandeur and frenzy of conflict, seem to rise from that wild gorge. now the mist eddies forth and blurs the vision, and then falls back, and that dazzling bow hangs there unmarred. the bridge of iris or heimdall, we say,--but no; it is no more a bridge, it is a perfect circle, the symbol of eternity. the symbol also of peace, for eternity is peace. that mist-hung bow becomes to us an emblem of the harmony of all jarring sounds and discordant forces. and so with that bow of peace swaying behind us, and the deep thunder fading in musical diminuendo, we pass on to the next wonder; and this is not far, for every mile brings its special revelation. time forbids that we pause for more than one added scene on the stehekin, and this is the horseshoe basin, thirty miles up the river. this is in the upper cañon. imagine yourself perched upon a granite pinnacle, looking possibly a little anxiously for bear in the thick copses at its bases, for this is said to be the greatest bear region in the country, but soon lifting your eyes to the heights on either side. six thousand feet deep is that stupendous gorge. on the south side you see the "castled crags," glacier-crested, while on the north, horseshoe basin stands revealed. a long line of dark-red minarets, at whose foot stretches two miles of glistening and twisted ice, then below that a great terrace, vivid green with spring foliage, and over it falling a perfect symposium of waterfalls, if we may be allowed such an expression. twenty-one falls and cataracts all in one view. they vary in descent from two hundred to two thousand feet. joining at the foot of the terrace in one foaming torrent the waters of the basin plunge in one fall of two hundred feet, thence pass under a snow tunnel and down a rocky chute swept clean by the flood to augment the already raging waters of the stehekin. the horseshoe basin, though not grander, not so sublimely terrible, in fact, as some other scenes in the cañon, has that indescribable look of perfectness which belongs to the immortal works of nature and art. it has a symmetry of form and colour beyond any other in the entire region. the dark-red minarets which form the outer escarpment, ten thousand feet above sea-level, form a marvellous contrast and yet harmony with the green and blue and white of the glacier and the snow-field, and this in turn is margined with the deep-green and olive hues of the lower terrace, while joining and unifying all is the flashing and opalescent splendour of the cataracts. [illustration: cascade pass at head of stehekin river, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] at the mouth of the horseshoe creek, lodged on a little rocky island, is a shattered cabin. we camp near this, and while we are engaged in preparing an appetising meal of fish and venison, a grizzled prospector appears coming down the trail. after the manner of the mountains, he makes himself at home and camps with us for the night. in the course of his conversation he narrates many stories of this wild region and of the prospecting and hunting adventures that have happened in it. finally he tells us the story of the lost cabin, a story that certainly contains all the elements of a romance. it appears that some years ago two young fellows from the east, cousins, had come to the stehekin to prospect. the old man who told us the story was then the only prospector in the cañon, and he soon made friends with the two adventurers. from broken pieces of conversation and finally some confidences on the part of one of the boys, he learned something of their story. they had been bosom friends all their lives, but had fallen in love with the same girl. the poor girl, not knowing which she did like best, told them that the only thing was for both to leave her for two years, and at the end of the time she would decide in favour of the one that had showed himself the braver and more successful man. each kept his destination a perfect secret, but to their astonishment, within a month after, they found each other in spokane. they concluded that it was the appointment of fate, and so went together to the wild country of chelan, to seek a fortune. after they had been there a short time they found a mutual distrust springing up, and finally, by the advice of the old man, they agreed to separate. george was to stay below. he was the more sullen and selfish of the two, and it was due to him that they had fallen out. harry was of a frank and generous nature, and when it became evident that they must part he insisted that he should help build a cabin for george. and the cabin that they built was the very one that we now saw lodged against the rocks. harry went up the cañon toward the skagit pass, and there in the lonely grandeur of the glaciers he plied his pick and shovel. a few months later there came a mighty chinook, the warm wind of the cascades, which strips the peaks of snow within a day, transforms the creeks into raging torrents, and sends floods down every dry gulch. the night after the wind began to blow the old miner came to george's cabin, and in the intense darkness of the cloudy night they listened to the hurtling of the storm and the roar of the rapidly growing river. about midnight there came suddenly a succession of rifle shots near at hand, and in a few minutes a thunder and roar of water beyond anything that they had heard. rushing out they saw that the water was already surrounding the cabin and they had to run in the darkness for their lives. stumbling among the rocks they reached at last land high enough for safety, while the floods went tearing by. with the first light they looked out to see that the cabin had gone adrift, but sadder to tell, they soon found harry, mangled, tortured, at the point of death, just strong enough to tell them that from his situation he had seen that a fearful flood was coming and he was trying to save george. but he had fallen in the darkness and crashed upon the rocks, and even in his suffering he had fired his rifle as a warning, hoping that it might be heard and save, and so it did. and the faithful fellow died content. "we tell the tale as it was told us." but the poor old wreck of a cabin took on something of a new significance as it leaned up against the rocks, while the restless river sobbed and frothed about it. [illustration: doubtful lake, cascade range, washington, near lake chelan. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] there is great strife among the chelan people as to which is the grander section, the stehekin or railroad creek. as a matter of fact, both are so superlatively magnificent that whichever place one is in, that he thinks the finer. but there is one feature of the case, and this is that the grandest part of railroad creek is seldom visited. few have ever been to glacier lake, north star park, and cloudy pass, at the extreme head of the creek, and these are the central features of the scenery. they are about twenty-five miles from lake chelan, and the road and trail are mainly good, so that the journey to the head of the creek and return can be made very comfortably in four days. neither words nor pictures are adequate to convey any true conception of glacier lake and its surroundings. imagine a park of four or five thousand acres, set with grass and flowers, filled with ice-cold streams of water clear as crystal, and dotted here and there with trees of the most exquisite beauty. on every side except the one down which the creek descends, stupendous, glacier-crowned, and pinnacled peaks penetrate the blue-black sky at an elevation of ten or eleven thousand feet. at the south side of the park lies glacier lake, a mile long and half as wide, margined with vivid grass, brilliant flowers, and trees of the alpine type, clear as crystal, unless darkened by some sudden scud from the heights. at the southern end of the lake is a bold bluff of five hundred feet, over which fall the waters of railroad creek, a white band across the darkness of the bluff. above may be seen the source of this stream. it issues from a smaller lake, which lies in the very end of a vast glacier, a mass of ice two miles wide and about four miles long. passing west of glacier lake through the enchanted north star park, a veritable land of beulah (at least when the sun is shining), we climb a thousand or twelve hundred feet higher, and find ourselves at one of those thrilling points in the mountains, a "divide." we are on the crest of the cascade mountains. to the east the water flows to lake chelan, thence to the columbia, and thence to the pacific by a journey of six hundred miles. to the west the water descends through the sauk and the skagit to puget sound, only a hundred and fifty miles away. this pass is almost always wrapped in clouds, and it is fittingly known as cloudy pass. the masses of warm vapour rising from the pacific are hurled against the icy crowns of glacier peak, mt. nixon, mt. le conte, north star peak, bonanza peak, and the rest of the wintry brotherhood, most not yet even named, and make of them a genuine "_patriam nimborum_," in virgil's phrase. [illustration: horseshoe basin through a rock gap, stehekin cañon. photo. by t. w. tolman.] this is the breeding place of tempests. we had just reached the pass on one occasion, with a smiling sky below, and were just getting our cameras ready to catch the westward maze of peaks, when almost instantly there began to wheel and whirl above us great cloud-masses, seemingly from nowhere, formed right there, in fact, and before we had time to think, we were wrapped in a furious blizzard. with difficulty, benumbed, drenched, and exhausted, we managed to pick our way to camp, four miles below. this was in the early part of august. to be caught in a chelan snowstorm is a serious matter at any time, and later in the year, may be all a man's life is worth. but the greatest sight, the crowning feature, of all this panorama of sublimities is glacier peak seen from cloudy pass. this is pre-eminently the storm-king, the "cloud-compeller" (_nephelegereta_, in the sounding word of homer), and rarely can one catch an unobstructed view of its glistening cone. after much watching and waiting we caught the base and part of the double crown of the mighty mass. glacier peak is the "great unknown" among our washington peaks. every one has heard of rainier, most people know of adams, st. helens, baker, and stewart, but glacier peak, alone in its solitary grandeur, not visible from the cities or routes of travel, is little known even to the people of the state. as its name denotes, it is the centre of a vast glacial system. to any tourist with a taste for adventure, glacier peak affords the finest field, while it offers an almost untouched mark for the scientist. [illustration: lake chelan. photo. by w. d. lyman.] chapter iii in the land of wheat-field, orchard, and garden increasing population and cultivation as we go south--chelan and wenatchee orchards--the wheat-plains east of wenatchee to spokane--spokane, the metropolis of the inland empire--the falls and their power--interesting points in and around spokane--the palouse farming country--snake river and its orchards--vast irrigating enterprises of the upper snake--shoshone falls--walla walla--waiilatpu and whitman monument--whitman college--pendleton and its wheat-fields and historical characters--wallowa lake--from wenatchee to priest rapids--origin of name of priest rapids--irrigating enterprises below priest rapids--by steamboat from priest rapids to pasco--the yakima valley, its fruits and towns--pasco and kennewick and the meeting of the waters--prospects of the future for the irrigable country--from pasco to celilo--the umatilla palisades--umatilla rapids--tumwater falls--the canal and locks at celilo--what will be accomplished by them for the inland empire--the dalles--its historic interest--its wool business, its horticultural and agricultural resources, its scenery. our journey on the river thus far has been mainly in those sections where scenery is the greatest product, and where the country, scantily inhabited, has almost as primitive an appearance as when the gay songs of the _voyageurs_ raised the echoes against the rock-walls of the lakes, while paddles and bateau-prows started correspondent ripples on the clear surface. but as we proceed southward into the state of washington, we find more and more evidences of cultivation and inhabitancy. at the mouths of the streams and on the frequent "benches" and islands, orchards and gardens attest the enterprise and patience of the settlers. around the lower end of lake chelan the big red apple, luscious peaches, plethoric pears, huge bunches of grapes, like the grapes of eschol, make a picture of fruitfulness and delight. when we reach wenatchee on the columbia,--a river, a lake, and a town of the same name, meaning in the native tongue the "butterfly,"--we find ourselves in the uppermost of those belts of fruit land which have made the river so famous. as we stroll through these model orchards and vines and berry patches and gardens, and see the wonders wrought on the arid soil by the life-giving waters of the wenatchee, we are almost ready to join the throng that are continually accepting the invitation to "be independent on ten acres of land and find health, wealth, and happiness in wenatchee." in truth, these irrigated lands are marvels of productiveness. the valley of the wenatchee is small, and not over twelve thousand acres are yet in productive bearing; but in not less than five hundred carloads of fruit and vegetables were shipped. like all the irrigated regions, wenatchee is a place of pleasant homes, good schools and social advantages, and all the accompaniments of the finest type of genuine, whole-souled, ambitious americanism. at wenatchee we are on the main line of the great northern railroad, and by it we can go west through the cascade mountains to puget sound, or east to spokane. we must return again to wenatchee in order to resume our journey down the river, but we will first turn eastward and make a tour of the great "inland empire" of washington, idaho, and oregon. [illustration: a harvest outfit, dayton, wash. _sunset magazine._] [illustration: a combined harvester, near walla walla. photo. by w. d. chapman.] one must necessarily visit spokane on a journey through the great wheat country. spokane, the metropolis and the pride of eastern washington, is a wonder to the eastern tourist. such a city, over one hundred thousand people, with costly brick and stone buildings, four, six, ten stories high, impressive public buildings, schools, churches, hotels, hundred-foot avenues well-paved, private dwellings of architectural excellence,--and hardly a soul there thirty years ago! a grand spectacle the falls offered the eye in old spokane, but now, alas, so cribbed and cabined is the noble stream by the march of industrial and electrical power that its wild energy is well-nigh gone except at the highest water. the total fall in the spokane river is one hundred and forty-six feet, and the horse-power capacity at low water is forty thousand, at high water over half a million. many points of interest must be hastily passed. the author feels great reluctance to omit a visit to the state college of washington at pullman, and the university of idaho at moscow. there are also historic spots, as one at rosalia where a monument has recently been erected in commemoration of the steptoe defeat in , and the site of the first church in eastern washington on walker's prairie, where eells and walker started a mission for the spokane indians in . there is also at the junction of the spokane and little spokane, the site of spokane house, a post of the hudson's bay company, started in . one might also well desire to visit the location of the old spokane bridge, where colonel wright crushed forever the pride and power of the spokanes by killing eight hundred of their choicest horses. on whatever side viewed, either past or present, or in the forecast of the future, spokane is worthy of careful study. its extensive railroad system and its network of electric lines reaching the many lakes, garden and fruit tracts, and rapidly developing suburbs, are concentrating the interests of a vast and wealthy region. but there are other cities to see and other boomers to hear and other bright futures to forecast, and so we turn our faces southward on the line of the o. r. & n. railway, passing through vale after vale between the swelling prairies, with wheat, wheat, wheat, oats, oats, oats, hay, hay, hay, cattle, horses, hogs, apple trees, and sugar beets, elegant farmhouses on the knolls and spacious barns in the hollows,--the great palouse farming country, one of the most productive in the world. whitman county has produced eight million bushels of wheat in a season, besides vast quantities of other products. a hundred and forty miles from spokane the great wheat plateau is broken by the profound abyss of snake river. dark, turbid, sullen, not so beautiful as the northern branches flowing out of the lakes, this largest of all the tributaries of the river goes on its swift and treacherous course to the union with the columbia. snake river is famous for its orchards. almota, penewawa, alpowa, kelly's bar, clarkston, asotin, are the most prominent among many points where the cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, berries, grapes, go out by the carload and steamerload, earlier than anywhere else except on the banks of the columbia itself, to all parts of the west and even at times to chicago and new york. the region of these enormously productive fruit ranches is a narrow ribbon of fertile land at the bottom of a cañon fifteen hundred feet deep. hot? yes, hot! they say the mercury sometimes boils out of the top of the thermometer. but heat and water and good soil make the rich juice and bright cheeks of the peach and nectarine. hundreds of miles up snake river in the wide expanses of southern idaho the waters are being diverted for some of the largest irrigation enterprises on earth. there the twin falls canal, one hundred feet wide and deep enough for a steamboat, conveys the water to two hundred and eighty thousand acres of land. the minidoka canal covers almost as much. that part of the snake river valley, three hundred miles long by fifty miles wide, will ere long count its inhabitants by the million. [illustration: inland empire system's power plant, near spokane, , horse-power. photo. by t. w. tolman.] [illustration: lower spokane falls. photo. by t. w. tolman.] no one could consider that he had really seen snake river unless he had visited the great shoshone falls, or "pahchulaka." this sublime manifestation of nature's power is about forty miles from the town of shoshone on the oregon short line. the total descent is nearly three hundred feet, of which eighty consists of cataracts and chutes broken by rocky islands, while the entire stream unites in the one final plunge of two hundred and twelve feet. it is ten hundred and fifty feet wide, and the walls of basaltic rock rise perpendicularly a thousand feet. niagara is the only waterfall on the american continent that can be compared with shoshone. niagara is much wider but not so high. its banks are tame, while those of shoshone are wildly sublime. the spectres of history rise up at every stage of a journey along snake river. but we cannot pause. we pass on from the crossing of snake river and soon find ourselves approaching walla walla. this is the most historic city of the inland empire and the oldest of the entire state of washington, with the exception of vancouver. the pleasant-sounding name signifies in the native tongue "many waters," though more literally, as the author has been told by an old cayuse indian, "place where four creeks meet." the city of walla walla is thirty-two miles from the columbia river in the midst of a broad and fertile valley, through which dozens of clear rivulets issuing from springs make their way through the birches and cottonwoods. the warm climate, rich soil, and abundant water, with multitudes of trees, give the "garden city" an appearance of almost tropical luxuriance. on all sides for many miles stretch the wheat-fields, orchards, gardens, and alfalfa-fields. it is a land of plenty. it is commonly said that walla walla has more automobiles, more bicycles, more pianos, more flowers, and more pretty girls in proportion to population, than any other town in the north-west. the special historic interest of walla walla is found in the fact that it was the location of the whitman mission and that the whitman massacre took place at the mission station, waiilatpu, six miles from the city. that spot is now marked with a marble crypt in which the bones of the martyrs rest, and a plain but imposing granite shaft stands upon the crest of the hill just above. [illustration: cañon of the stehekin, near lake chelan. photo. by t. w. tolman.] a more living monument to the missionary is found in whitman college. this institution, planned on the model of amherst, yale, and williams, though co-educational, was founded by rev. cushing eells in as an academy. it was not till that college work was undertaken. during that period the self-denying missionary and his family supported the infant institution by selling the products of their farm and devoting to it all except what was absolutely necessary for their own support. during years of slow, patient growth under very discouraging conditions, whitman college has made friends east and west, and within the last few years it has become equipped with buildings and general facilities of high grade. an effort is now in progress, apparently sure of fulfilment, to raise two million dollars for buildings and general endowment. walla walla is becoming peculiarly known as the educational centre and the home city of the inland empire. from walla walla we take a flying trip through the continued wheat belt on the umatilla and its branches in northern oregon, a region similar to that around walla walla, rich and fruitful. of this part of oregon, pendleton on the umatilla is the metropolis. the umatilla indian reservation, one of the most important in the history of this country, adjoins it. one of the most interesting persons in north-west history, now deceased, lived at pendleton many years, dr. william c. mckay, the son of thomas mckay, and grandson of alexander mckay, the last named being that one of the astor company who lost his life on the _tonquin_. dr. william mckay was a three-quarter-blood indian, but he was well educated and one of the most interesting men in our history. another noted man, still living in the prime of life, is major lee moorehouse, famous in earlier times as an indian fighter and agent, and more recently as one of the most successful students and photographers of indian life. some of his pictures have gained national fame, and the publishers of this volume are indebted to his courtesy for their appearance here. another interesting fact in connection with pendleton is that here the pendleton indian robes and blankets are manufactured, and these have borne the name of their home place to all parts of the united states and even the world. while in this part of oregon we must take advantage of the opportunity to visit lake wallowa, with its tragic and pathetic memories of indian war and early settlement and with its glorious scenery, almost equal to that of chelan. right over the lake, deep-set in precipitous mountain walls, towers the battlemented crest of eagle cap, which the people of wallowa now declare to be the highest mountain in oregon, , feet in elevation. wallowa lake is the veritable jewel of the blue mountains, a chain which, while not in general equal to the cascades for height, grandeur, and variety, possesses in the wallowa basin a group of attractions not surpassed in any part of the north-west. [illustration: memorial building, whitman college, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman.] and now we must retrace our course after this long detour through the productive land bordering the tributaries of the river or we can in imagination fly on the wings of the south wind, which almost always blows across the inland empire, and find ourselves again at wenatchee in order to resume our interrupted journey down the river. from wenatchee to the foot of priest rapids, about sixty miles, there is no regular steamboat communication. we can, however, use the same means of transportation that we have hitherto used so liberally, imagination, and upon that airy and convenient ship we can descend the swift and tortuous stream. the fur brigades used to trust themselves to the skill of their paddles and boldly descend the rapids, seldom meeting with disaster. there are three principal rapids in this section of the river, rock island, cabinet, and priest. in the first the river is very narrow and split in sunder by ragged pinnacles of basaltic rock. at first observation it looks a reckless thing to push a boat out into the white water whirling through these fantastic points of rock. yet a bateau or canoe skilfully handled will plunge like a race-horse down the foaming stretch, and emerge below bow down with little water aboard and inmates intact. steamboats have both descended and ascended this rapid, though it is considered a somewhat dangerous performance. cabinet rapids are less picturesque and interesting than rock island, but they offer even more serious obstacles to navigation, the channel being narrow and the water shallow. the river has cut this part of its course through the great plateau, and its banks on either side are rocky walls a thousand feet high, with occasional sandy stretches, sad, barren, and monotonous. there is, in fact, not so much to catch the eye or enlist the interest of the tourist (if he were here) in this dismal expanse of rock and sand as there is either above or below. it is practically uninhabited. but as we proceed upon our way the banks fall away, wider expanses of land appear, and we discover an occasional band of cattle or a settler's hut on the generally bare, brown prairie. we are now approaching the longest rapid and the most serious impediment to navigation in the whole course of the river from kettle falls to tumwater falls. this is priest rapids. it is ten miles in length and represents a descent in the river of seventy feet. it would certainly be impossible of navigation by steamboats, were it not that the descent is distributed quite uniformly over the ten miles and the river in general is quite straight and with a fair depth of water throughout. the old _voyageurs_ had little difficulty in racing down, and they seem to have usually ascended by _cordelling_ their bateaux beside the rocks, and at some especially difficult places by lightening the load and carrying around. steamers have both ascended and descended, but it is so slow and tedious (on one occasion requiring a steamer three days to ascend the ten miles) that it cannot be considered commercially navigable. it will doubtless become necessary to construct a canal and locks at this point to render the river continuously and profitably navigable. alexander ross, in his _adventures on the columbia_, tells us how priest rapids came to be named. the first expedition of the pacific fur company, of which ross was a member, was making its way from astoria up the river in , and had reached the lower end of this fall. while reconnoitring and making preparations for proceeding, a large body of indians gathered, watching operations with great interest. among them was a fantastically dressed individual, with many feathers on his head, who was going through some kind of a performance which the explorers conceived to have a religious significance. considering him a priest, they named the rapids thus. [illustration: starting the ploughs in the wheat land, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman, walla walla.] the country around priest rapids is barren and unpromising in its natural state, but just below the foot of the rapids is one of the most interesting irrigation projects in the state. along the west side of the river for twenty-five miles extends a belt of the most fertile land. an immense pumping plant run by electricity, which in turn is generated by the current, has been put in at the foot of the rapids. by this the water is conducted over the twenty thousand or more acres of land available, and it is the expectation that within a few years a dense population will line the river bank and repeat on a larger and finer scale the miracle of redemption by water already performed at various points on the river and its tributaries. several town sites, of which the chief is hanford, named from the president of the company, have already been laid out, and investments both in town property and orchard land are being rapidly made. the same process of irrigating is becoming inaugurated at many points from hanford for a hundred and fifty miles down the river. it is plain to the observer that it is but a question of time when the shores of the river in this arid section will bloom and blossom like the rose, and repeat the history of old nile in massing of population and creation of cities and towns. it has been estimated that there are about a million acres of irrigable land contiguous to the river between chelan and the dalles. since from five to twenty acres of irrigated land are ample to maintain a family, and since cities and villages are bound to grow on such tracts commensurate with their productive capacity, it seems probable that a million people will sometime live on this long belt of fertile soil redeemed by the river. the beauty of irrigation on the columbia is that it can be made to pump itself. for by taking advantage of such a fall as that of priest rapids (a half million horse-power at ordinary water), electric power can be generated by which limitless water can be raised sufficiently to cover any desired amount of land. some have expressed the opinion that this process would exhaust the river, but this is hardly possible. for the great demands are in june and july when the river is at its flood. it has been estimated that at low water the columbia at celilo discharges , cubic feet per second, and at extreme high water, , , cubic feet per second. such a prodigious volume of water would be scarcely at all affected by any possible withdrawals. the river from the foot of priest rapids is regularly navigated by several steamers connecting the new lands and towns with pasco, the railroad centre seventy miles below. this section of the river is deep and tranquil, a superb watercourse. below hanford the river receives the yakima river, which is the important agent in the irrigation of the great yakima valley. no one could say that he knew the columbia river or the state of washington without a visit to that valley, the largest in the state and the scene of the most extensive development in irrigated lands anywhere in the north-west. three thousand carloads of fruit and vegetables were shipped from the yakima in . buyers of yakima fruits come from all parts of the east, from england, and even from france. fortunes have been made in that fair land,--a fair land when supplied with water, but an arid waste without it. the united states government has acquired control of most of the water system of the yakima, and by means of storage basins in the mountain lakes where the yakima and its branches rise, will be able to supply water for over a million acres of land. [illustration: on the historic walla walla river. photo. by w. d. chapman.] the productive capacity of these fat lands when softened with an irrigating ditch and tickled with a hoe or cultivator is almost beyond belief. in an orchardist in what is known as parker bottom in the yakima valley raised on fifty-eight pear trees a crop of pears which was sold for over three thousand dollars. this statement is well attested, extraordinary as it sounds. it should be understood that such production does not represent an average yield. the trees were of large size and of the choicest variety, while conditions of production, price, and sale were of the best. yet similar records may be found in wenatchee, hood river, walla walla, and others of the fine fruit-producing regions of the columbia valley. a man in the touchet valley near dayton, who had been for twenty years a teacher at an average salary of a thousand a year, became discontented with his narrow conditions, and by making credit arrangements for a rich body of land has devoted himself for some years to the development of an apple orchard. he has a hundred acres of trees, young and of choice varieties, from which in the year he sold thirty-four thousand boxes of fruit for approximately fifty thousand dollars. but while we have been flying in imagination over the spacious valley of the yakima, our steamer has been speeding down the broad river, and we are now within sight of a vast prairie stretching east and south, bounded on the southern horizon by the azure wall, ridged with white, of the blue mountains. to the east, this great plain melts into the sky. in fact it extends to the bitter root mountains, a distance of over two hundred miles. on the west bank of the river we see a narrower plain bounded by a steep treeless ridge. on either bank we see taking shape before us houses and trees, while extended over the river, like threads of gossamer in the distance, a bridge is outlined against the sky. we soon discover that we are near pasco on the east bank and kennewick on the west bank of the river. the bridge is that of the northern pacific and spokane, portland, and seattle railroads. a mile below the bridge the snake river joins its greater brother. this point is the very hub of the inland empire. here the two great rivers unite. here steamboating on a vast scale will take place in the near future. as soon as the locks are placed in the river at celilo, a hundred and thirty miles below, steamers can move freely to the ocean. here three transcontinental railroads pass, two down the river and one to puget sound. another is in process of construction to puget sound. here a body of the richest soil, on both sides of both rivers, embracing at least a hundred and fifty thousand acres, waits only for water to bloom and yield as wenatchee and yakima have already done. here the long, hot summer insures the earliest production of any part of the north-west, and in early production the profit is found. [illustration: blalock fruit ranch of a thousand acres at walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman.] it is, in fact, obvious at a glance that here at the junction of the columbia and snake rivers, at the crossings of the great railroads, and at the point of the greatest area of irrigable land in one body, with every advantage of soil, climate, and transportation, there is bound to be in the near future a large city. already on the west side of the columbia the beautiful little town of kennewick, of three thousand inhabitants, where six years ago the jack-rabbits, coyotes, and sage-hens held sway, shows what can be done with water. for at that point the first irrigating canal was put through the waste, and the traveller can now see the results. other irrigating enterprises are now in progress, and by the time the readers of this volume come to descend the river in the splendid steamboats which will sometime run through canals and locks the whole length from revelstoke to the ocean, there will be one of the most splendid cities in the north-west at this meeting of the waters. pasco is likely to be the location of the big city. from pasco there are steamers running to celilo, conveying wheat. the traveller who desires to know the river from its surface should take passage on such a steamer. we see the same characteristic features of the inauguration of irrigating enterprises from point to point, but mainly the shores are still uninhabited and barren, and the river, mainly untouched by sail or steamer, sweeps on its swift course, as lonely as when lewis and clark first turned their canoe prows westward. as we pass the desolate sand heaps near the disconsolate little old town of wallula, we can recall the old hudson's bay fort, the indian wars, the struggle for possession, the missions, the incoming immigrants, all the tragedy and striving which marked the century just closed. below wallula the umatilla highlands throw a barrier eight hundred feet high athwart the course of the stream, and the bold escarpments of rock, palisades grander than those of the hudson, attest the energy with which the river fulfilled his mission of cleaving the intercepting barrier in two. below these palisades, a vast plain extends many miles on the south to where the purple line of the blue mountains cuts the horizon. on the margin of this plain the little town of irrigon (where is published a paper with the alliterative title of the _irrigon irrigationist of irrigon, oregon_), green and flowery in the wide aridity, shows us again what part water plays in reclamation of land. of similar interest is blalock island, commemorating the name of dr. n. g. blalock of walla walla, whom the north-west honours as the father of great enterprises. we pass several rapids on this section of the river, the chief of which are the umatilla, john day, and hell-gate. these are somewhat serious impediments to navigation at low water. the umatilla rapid presents the curious feature of a reef extending almost directly across the river with the channel running parallel to it and at right angles to the course of the stream. hence when the water is so low that the reef cannot be passed directly over, the steamer pilot must follow a channel running right across the current, a current which tends to throw him broadside onto the reef. the government is at present engaged in blasting a channel directly through this reef. the country becomes more rugged as we descend, and at various points, if the sky be clear, we can see the great peaks of the cascades to the west. passing through the wild water of hell-gate, where the steamer quivers as though great hands were reaching up from below and shaking her, we soon find ourselves at celilo. [illustration: witch's head, near old wishram village. the indian superstition is that these eyes will follow any unfaithful woman. by courtesy of major lee moorehouse.] this is the beginning of the greatest series of obstructions on the river and the point where the government is now constructing a canal, by means of which the entire upper course of the river will be brought into connection with the lower. in the distance of twelve miles the river falls eighty-one feet at low water and sixty feet at high water. the tumwater falls at the head of this series of obstructions has a descent of twenty feet at low water, but at high water the volume of the river is so great that it passes directly over the fall and a boat can shoot over the steep slope. here was one of the most famous places in early history. on the north side was the wishram village, noted in irving's _astoria_. this, too, was the greatest place for fishing on the upper river. even now the indians gather in autumn in great numbers and can be seen spearing the salmon. several immense fish-wheels also can be seen upon the verge of the falls. the most remarkable of all these obstructions is five-mile rapids. this is the place to which in the first place the french _voyageurs_ applied the name _dalles_, meaning a trough through the flat plates of rock. it is sometimes called the "big chute." it is planned by the government to overcome these obstructions by a canal and locks. the expense is estimated at four and a half million dollars. the resulting advantages will be vast. the greater part of the inland empire will be thrown open to steamer competition with the railroads. the freight tariff at the present time is heavier than in any other part of the united states. if the productive capacity of the region were not extraordinary, it could not have developed as it has with such a handicap. it is estimated that by the reduction of freight which will follow steamboat navigation, the inland empire will save not less than two million dollars annually. in the tremendous movement now sweeping over our country to improve waterways, the columbia will bear its part and receive its improvement. it will be a great day for the storied and scenic river of the west when some magnificent excursion steamer descends the thousand miles from revelstoke to the outer headlands. and with canals at celilo, priest rapids, and kettle falls, with some improvements at minor points, at no immoderate expense, the thing can be done. and now we reach the city of the dalles. the traveller will find this a place hardly surpassed in historic interest by any other on the river. the old trading posts, the united states fort, the missions, the indian wars, the early immigrations, the steamboat enterprises, all unite to give rare value to this picturesque "capital of the sheep country." for, aside from historic interest, the dalles surpasses any other point in the united states as a wool shipping station. it is now becoming also the centre of a farming and orchard country. for it is now understood that the rolling hill land for many miles is adapted to wheat raising and to fruit of the finest quality. if our visitors to the river should happen to be in the dalles in autumn they would find at the wasco county horticultural fair one of the most attractive and appetising displays of fruit that the whole country affords. [illustration: cabbage rock, four miles north of the dalles. photo. by lee moorehouse, pendleton.] the scenery about the dalles, with the majestic river, the great white cones of hood and adams, and wide sweeps of rolling prairie and hollowed hills, is noble and inspiring. it may be considered the gateway of the open prairie to the east and the passage of the cascade mountains by the river to the west. chapter iv where river and mountain meet, and the traces of the bridge of the gods the most unique point yet on the river--river, mountains, and tide--the only place where the cascade range is cleft--distant view of mt. hood and gradual appearance of lesser heights--limits of region where river and mountain meet--geological character of this region--forces of upheaval and erosion and volcano--we may journey by rail, by steamboat, horseback, waggon, or afoot, but we prefer a rowboat--paha cliffs--on the track of speelyei--memaloose island--hood river and white salmon valleys and their fruit--beginnings of the great heights--the sunken forest--the bridge of the gods--loowit, wiyeast, and klickitat--difference in climate between the east-of-the-mountains and the west--sheridan's old blockhouse--passing the locks--petrified trees--fish-wheels--castle rock--ascent of castle rock--story of wehatpolitan--st. peter's dome--oneonta gorge--multnomah falls--cape horn--getting out of the mountains--cape eternity and rooster rock--this section of the journey ended--comparison of the river with other great scenes. in the long journey down our river we have had a panoramic view of towering mountains and broad plains, foaming cataracts and tranquil lakes, fruitful valleys and volcanic desolations, growing cities and lonely wastes. all illustrate that infinite variety of the river which imparts its unrivalled charm. but now we are approaching a point which is unique even in the midst of the unique, varied in never-ending variety, sublime even in almost continuous sublimity, singular even upon our most singular river. this place is where the mountains and the river meet. by mountains we mean the great chain of the cascades, which under various names parallels the pacific coast all the way from alaska to southern california. but not only do mountains and river meet here, but the ocean sends his greetings, for at the lower end of the rapids which here mark the gateway of the mountains, the first pulse-beat of the pacific, the first throb of the tide, is discernible, though it is a hundred and sixty miles farther to where the river is lost in that greatest of the oceans. river, mountains, ocean,--a very symposium of sublimities. [illustration: eagle rock, just above shoshone falls in snake river. photo. by w. d. lyman.] there is, too, another especially interesting feature of this spot, and that is, it is the only place for twelve hundred miles where the cascade-sierra range is cleft asunder. in fact it is the only place in the entire extent of the range where it is cut squarely across. this fact imparts not only scenic interest, but commercial value. it is the only water-level route from the seacoast to the inland empire. the place where river and mountains meet had been heralded to us long before we reached it. for as we passed the plains of the umatilla we got an intimation of the mountain majesty which we were approaching. clear-limned against the south-western horizon, a glistening cone, cold-white in the earliest morning, rosy-red with the rising dawn, and warm with the yellow halo of noon, fixes our eyes and bids us realise that from the far vision of a hundred miles we can see and worship at the shrine of oregon's noblest and most historic peak, mt. hood. as we speed on down the current we begin to see long lines of lesser peaks rising to the westward. the prairies of the umatilla have been succeeded by picturesque bare hills, and these by ragged palisades of columnar basalt, with higher hills yet, crowned with gnarled oak-trees. of the wheat-fields and orchards and sheep ranges centring at the dalles, we have already spoken, and we have paused at celilo and gazed on the historic "timm," or the tumwater falls, and the "big chute," observing especially the government canal and locks now started, from whose completion such vast commercial possibilities are plainly foreshadowed. our present quest is therefore yet farther on, to the gateway of the mountains. this is found at the "cascade locks," fifty miles below dalles city. the section of river which we have styled "where river and mountain meet" may be considered as extending from the mouth of the klickitat river, a few miles west of dalles city, to rooster rock, about thirty miles east of vancouver. the distance between these points is about fifty miles, and through this space we may see all the evidences of a titanic struggle between the master forces of fire and water and upheaval. as we descend the majestic stream with the majestic banks on either hand and mark the apparent ancient water-marks hundreds of feet above our heads, we recall the indian myth of wishpoosh in an earlier chapter. the opinion of geologists in regard to this extraordinary passageway of the river is that it represents ages of gradual elevation of the mountain chain and a cotemporary erosion by the river, so that as the heights became higher, the river bed became deeper. the one-time shore slowly mounted skyward, and as the new upheavals rose from the ocean deeps the lines of erosion were in turn wrought on them, and river shore succeeded river shore through long ages. with these fundamental forces of upheaval and erosion there were eras of local seismic and volcanic activity, more cataclysmic in nature, from which there came the magnificent pillars of columnar basalt and the first trenching of the profound chasms which subsequent lateral streams carved through the rising base of the great range. [illustration: stehekin cañon, feet deep. photo. by w. d. lyman.] to view this great picture gallery of history and physiography, we may have the choice of nearly every method of travel, horseback, afoot, by team (though the waggon roads are not continuous), or by train, on either bank. the river himself offers his broad back for any kind of craft. several swift and elegant steamers make daily trips between portland and the dalles, passing through the government canal and lock at the cascades. launches, scows, sailing craft of almost every kind, are in constant movement, loaded with every sort of commodity. of all the means of transit, however, we will, if you please, float down the stately stream in our well-tried skiff. independent as the coyote god speelyei when he used to pass up and down the river, transforming presumptuous beasts or mortals into rock at will, we will drift with the current, partaking of the very life of the rich and multifarious nature about us. we can pause as we wish on jutting crag or fir-crowned promontory or at the foot of spouting cataract. we can camp for the night beneath some wide-spreading pine, and breathe the balsamic fragrance of the "continuous woods." we can trace the historic stages of bateaux or canoes or immigrant flatboats, and open and shut the camera at will amid the open volumes of our heroic age of discovery and settlement, or the yet vaster and grander epoch of nature's creative day. no palace car or even floating palace of steamer for us when we can have two or three days of such unalloyed bliss in an open skiff moving at our own sweet will. we shall find here a marked change in the movement of the river as compared with its prevailing character in the five hundred miles from the british line to the dalles. the impetuous might above has become transformed into a slow and stately majesty. with the exception of the five miles at the cascades round which the canal passes, the river below the dalles is deep and calm, seldom less than a mile in width. of the almost numberless objects at which we level eye and camera, we can here describe but few. a fitting introduction to this stage of our journey is found in paha cliffs at the mouth of the klickitat, a perpendicular bastion of lava rock, not remarkable for height, but of such regularity and symmetry as to seem the work of men's hands. a short distance below the paha cliffs, also on the washington side of the river, is a most singular semicircular wall of gigantic area, surrounding on the west what seems to be an immense sunken enclosure. the indians have a story to the effect that once speelyei, being on his way up the river before this wall existed, paused here to perform some unworthy deed (for speelyei was a curious mixture of the noble and the base). having done the deed, he began to fear that it would become known. so he hurriedly built a wall to keep in the report. but while he was engaged in building on the west, the report got out on the east. the wall that we now see is the remains of his building. of a similar order of indian fancy is the "baby-on-the-board" and the "coyote head" farther down the river, also on the north side. the coyote head is near white salmon. it commemorates the transformation of a presumptuous klickitat chief who wished to proclaim himself equal to speelyei, so he crowned himself with a coyote skin and took his station on the great rock wall above the mouth of the white salmon. and there he remains still, for speelyei with a wave of the hand transformed the offending chieftain into rock. [illustration: steamer _dalles city_ descending the cascades of the columbia.] a few miles below the mouth of the klickitat, there stands in mid-channel one of the most curious and interesting objects on the river, "memaloose island." this desolate islet of basalt was one of the most noted of the frequent "death" or burial places of the indians. they were accustomed to build platforms and place the dead upon them. apparently this island was used for its gruesome purpose for centuries. a large white marble monument facing the south attracts the attention of all travellers, and as we pass we see that it is sacred to the memory of vic trevett. he was a prominent pioneer of the dalles, and in the course of his various experiences became a special friend of the indians, who looked upon him with such love and reverence that when his end approached he gave directions that his permanent burial-place and monument should be on the place sacred to his aboriginal friends. we have spoken of the region between the mouth of the klickitat and rooster rock as the mountain section of the river. but as we move on down the stream we discover that there are numerous nooks and glens adjoining it which are the choicest locations for fruit and garden ranches. at a point just about midway from the dalles to the cascades there is a remarkable break in the otherwise unbroken and constantly rising mountain walls. this break constitutes one of the most charming residence regions on the columbia shores, and at the same time the avenue of approach to the most magnificent of mountains. there are here two great valleys. one of these is that of hood river, better called by its musical indian name waukoma, "the place of cottonwoods." it proceeds directly from the foot of mt. hood, twenty-five miles distant to the south. the valley on the north bears a similar relation to mt. adams, forty miles distant, and is drained by the white salmon river. from favourable points on the river, or from the heights which border it, we obtain views of the two peaks which create an unappeasable longing to tread their crags and snow-fields. though truly mountain valleys, these two valleys are of spacious extent. they are moreover so richly provided with sun and water and all the ingredients of soil necessary to produce the choicest fruit that they have become the very paradise of the orchardist. the hood river apples grace the tables of royalty in the old world and delight the palates of epicures in both hemispheres, while to the eyes and the nostrils of any one of delicate sensibilities their colour and fragrance impart a still more æsthetic charm. as we pass on down the river from those two vales of beauty and plenty, we begin to see the first of those lofty crags on either hand, the basaltic pinnacles, turretted, spired, castellated, which make the distinguishing feature of columbia river scenery for these fifty miles. mitchell's point, shell mountain, wind mountain, bald mountain, and mt. defiance are the first group. the lowest of the group attains an elevation of nearly two thousand feet, almost perpendicular, while at the summit of the crags rise a thousand feet higher yet long grassy slopes alternating with splendid forests. [illustration: memaloose island, columbia river. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] as we near the cascades we note another curious phenomenon. this is the sunken forest on either side. at low water these old tree trunks become very observable, and their general appearance suggests at once that they are the remains of a former forest submerged by a permanent rise in the river. this explanation is confirmed by the fact that from the dalles to the cascades the river is very deep and sluggish. when we reach the cascades a third fact is revealed and that is that at the chief cataract the river bank is continually sliding into the river. trees are thrown down by this slow sliding process, railroad tracks require frequent adjustment, and on clear, still nights there is sometimes heard a grinding sound, while a tremor from the subterranean regions seems to indicate that the upper stratum is sliding over the lower toward the river. in fact, the mighty force of the stream is all the time eating into the bank and gradually drawing it down. from those and other indications the conclusion has been drawn that some prodigious avalanche of rock at a not long distant time dammed the river at this point, creating the present cascades and raising the water above so as to submerge the forest, whose remains now attract the attention of the observer at the low stage of water. to confirm this theory we have the indian story of the "tomanowas bridge," the quaintest and most interesting of the long list of native myths. the region around the old site of the "bridge of the gods" may be considered as the dividing line between the inland empire and the coast region. above, it is dry, sunny, breezy, and electrical, the land of wheat-field and sheep ranges, cow-boys and horses and mining camps. below, it is cool, cloudy, still, and soft, the region of the clover and the dairy, the salmon cannery, the logging camp, and boats of every sort. above, the rocks look dry and hard, and glitter in the sun. below, the rocks are draped in moss, and from every cañon and ledge there seems to issue a foaming torrent. it is, in truth, the meeting place of mountain and river. on all sides around the cascades there are objects of natural and historic interest. stupendous crags, often streaked with snow, lose themselves in the scud of the ocean which is almost constantly flying eastward to be absorbed in the more fervid sunshine of up-river. perhaps the most impressive of these vast heights is table mountain, on the north side of the river, near the locks, said to have been one of the supports of the "bridge of the gods." its colours of saffron and crimson add to the splendour and grandeur of its appearance. just below the locks on the north side stood the old blockhouse built by a young lieutenant in as a defence against the klickitat indians. the blockhouse is now in ruins, but the name of its builder has been fairly well preserved, for it is--phil sheridan. the total extent of the cataract at the cascades is five miles and the descent is about forty-five feet, of which half is at the upper end at the point passed by the locks. we enter the locks in the wake of one of the steamers, and in a few minutes find our craft emerging from the lower end of the massive structure into the white water which bears us swiftly down the remaining part of the cascades. it looks dangerous to commit an open boat to that sweeping current, but as a matter of fact the course of the river is straight and deep, though swift, and it is entirely feasible for any one of reasonable skill to manage a small boat in the passageway to the tranquil expanses below. [illustration: horseshoe basin, near lake chelan, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] as we speed swiftly down the river, we note the little station of bonneville, named for the historic fur-trader whom the fascinating pages of irving have brought down to this era. a short distance below bonneville our eyes catch sight of a white sign-board bearing the words, "petrified tree." sure enough, there is the tree, and a marvellously fine specimen of silicification it is, too. when the railroad was built along the river bank at this point, the graders ran into a perfect forest of petrified wood. the logs and limbs were piled up by the cord near bonneville, but the larger part has been taken in various directions for cabinets and ornaments. but a short time is needed to fly down the cascades, and at their lower end we reach what may be called the lower river. for here a slight rise and fall of tide betokens the presence of the ocean. no more rapids on the river, but a tranquil, majestic flood, broadening like a sea toward its final destination, a hundred and sixty miles away. if we were to describe in detail all the marvels of beauty and grandeur and physical interest which engage our attention at every stage of the journey, our volume would end with this chapter, for there would be no room for anything more. one class of objects of curious interest to almost all travellers, though of no special charm to scientist or nature lover, is the fish-wheels at the cascades. these are very ingenious contrivances set in the midst of a swift place in the stream and made to revolve by the current. as they revolve, the huge vans dipping the water scoop up almost incredible numbers of the salmon which have made the columbia famous the world over. a weir is built to turn the fish from the outside course into the channel of the wheel, with the result that numbers are taken almost beyond belief, sometimes as high as eight tons a day by a single wheel. another picturesque sight, both at the celilo falls and the cascades, is the indian fishermen perched upon the rocks and with spear and dip-net seeking to fill their larder with the noble salmon. but now to contemplate the works of god and nature rather than those of man. we must, as already seen, by the necessities of space, ask our readers to share with us only the masterpieces of this gallery of wonders. probably all visitors to the river would agree that the following scenes most nearly express the spirit and character of the sublime whole: castle rock, st. peter's dome, oneonta gorge, multnomah falls, cape horn, and rooster rock. to these individual scenes we should add, as the very crown of all, the view at the lower cascades both up and down the great gorge. with the majestic heights, scarred with the tempests and the earthquakes of the ages, swathed in drifting clouds and oftentimes tipped with snow, and the shimmering of the river, and the answering grandeur of sky and forest,--this grouping of the whole is more inspiring than any one scene. [illustration: castle rock, columbia river. (copyright by kiser photograph co., .)] the first special object to fix our attention below the cascades is castle rock. it is an isolated cliff of basalt, nine hundred feet high, covering about seventeen acres, its summit thinly clothed with stunted trees. it stands right on the verge of the river, nearly perpendicular on all sides, marvellous for symmetry from every point of view. at first sight one gets no conception of its magnitude, for it is dwarfed by the stupendous pinnacles, three thousand feet high, which compose the walls of the cañon. it is said that some eastern lady, seeing it from a steamer's deck, exclaimed, "see that fine rock! i wish i had it in my back yard at home." being informed that she would have to find a pretty spacious back yard to accommodate an ornament covering seventeen acres, she was too much astonished to believe it. but to any one viewing it deliberately and from every point of view, and especially landing, as we in our happy method of travel can do, and going about its base, it becomes evident that castle rock might be called a mountain in almost any other place. it was for a long time regarded as an impossible thing to reach the summit. for some years there was a standing offer of one thousand dollars for any one who would place the stars and stripes on the summit. but no one took the dare. at last in , when the rivalry between two steamboat lines was keen, frank smith of the regulator line, with george purser and charles church, accomplished the seemingly impossible, and, by ropes and staples and fingers and teeth and toenails, scaled the almost perpendicular walls, and unfurled the regulator banner to the breeze where no flag ever flew before, nor human foot ever trod. it was probably the most risky climb ever taken in the north-west. a little later, by the aid of the experience of this party, several others attained the summit. among these were george maxwell, who set the oregon railway and navigation flag as high as that of the regulator had gone, and two photographers, w. c. staatz and george m. weister. with them went a young lady, lilian white, who, though she did not reach the summit, went higher than any of her sex have gone. later mr. whitney, manager of the great mcgowan cannery, went up and placed the stars and stripes upon the top. [illustration: the lyman glacier and glacier lake in north star park near lake chelan. photo. by w. d. lyman.] we said that no earlier human steps had trodden that beetling height and that miss white had gone higher than any of her sex. but if we accept the romantic indian tale of wehatpolitan, our statement needs correction. for this story is to the following effect. wehatpolitan was the beautiful child of the principal chieftain in these parts. she loved and was loved by a young chief of a neighbouring tribe. but when she was sought by her lover in marriage, the stern father denied the request and killed the messenger. but the lovers were secretly married and met clandestinely at various times. in course of time the father, thinking the infatuation of the forbidden lovers to be at an end, gave wehatpolitan to a chief whom he had favoured. the latter kept constant watch of the girl, and one night he saw her stealing steathily away, and tracking her he found the secret of her midnight wanderings. as soon as the new lover had imparted to the father these tidings, the latter with deep duplicity sent word to the other chieftain that if he would come to the lodge, all would be forgiven and he and wehatpolitan would be duly wed. rejoicing at the happy outcome to all their troubles, the faithful lover hastened to his own, but no sooner had he arrived than he was seized upon and slain by the revengeful parent. not long after this the heartbroken girl gave birth to a child, but her father at once decreed that the child must share its father's fate. hearing this pitiless word, wehatpolitan caught up her child and disappeared. all that day they searched in vain, and on the next day, the indians heard wailings from the top of castle rock, from which they soon discovered that the poor girl with her child had gone to that apparently inaccessible height. the old chief, repenting of his harsh course, called aloud to his daughter to come down and he would forgive her. but fearing new treachery she paid no heed, and the wailings continued. overcome with grief the remorseful chief offered all kinds of rewards for any one who would climb the rock and save wehatpolitan and her child. but though many tried, none could succeed. on the third day the wailings ceased. then the half-crazed father himself essayed to climb. he seemed to succeed, for at least he disappeared among the crevices of the rock high up toward the summit. but he never returned. the indians thought that he reached the top and that finding the lifeless bodies of his daughter and her child he had probably given up all hope of getting down and had lain down and died with them. but even yet heart-breaking wailings come down from time to time, especially when the chinook blows soft and damp up the river, and these wailings have been thought by indians to be the voice of the spirit of the unhappy wehatpolitan, because it could never descend to the happy hunting grounds of the tribe. another native idea is to the effect that castle rock (which ought to be called wehatpolitan's gravestone) is hollow and is filled with the bodies of former generations now turned to stone. as a matter of fact, the party of found evidence of a great cave, but so far there has been found no practical ingress. so the interior is still an unexplored mystery. immense quantities of spear-heads and arrow-heads are found along the river at this point, and these are apparently of an earlier age than most of those found in this country. loosing from the enchanted shore of wehatpolitan's monument, we see for several miles on the oregon side a cordon of perpendicular cliffs, red and purple in hue, streaked with spray, and touched here and there with the deep green of firs which have rooted themselves with claw-like roots into the crevices. most symmetrical and beautiful, though not the highest of this line of elevations, is st. peter's dome. its summit is over two thousand feet above the river. while in height it is surpassed by certain crags of chelan or yosemite, as well as its brothers on the river, it has no rival in beauty there, or elsewhere, so far as the author has seen, among the wonders of the american continent. every hour of the day, every change of sky or season, reveals some new and unexpected beauty or sublimity in this superb cliff. [illustration: hunters on lake chelan, with their spoils. photo. by w. d. lyman.] [illustration: a morning's catch on the touchet, near dayton, wash. _sunset magazine._] we are almost sated with sublimities by the time we pass on down below st. peter's dome, but one of the most unique scenes of all is close at hand. this is oneonta gorge. a swift stream issuing from the cliffs on the south side of the river attracts our attention, and we moor our boat to the roots of a tall cottonwood and make our way inward. the wall is cleft asunder, its sides almost meeting above. at places the smooth sides of the gorge leave no space except for the passage of the pellucid stream, and we have to wade hip deep to make our way. showers of spray descend from the towering roof above, and in places we are well-nigh in darkness. then there is a widening and through the broken wall the lances of sunshine pierce the gloom with rainbow tints. marvellous oneonta with the sweet-sounding name! it, too, has its wealth of native myth, of which our narrowing limits forbid us to speak. and now leaving oneonta, we can see that we have passed the maximum of the mountains, and are already looking into a broadening valley, with the yet more lordly volume of the river widening toward the sunset. while our eyes are thus drawn toward the river, the diminishing walls of the cañon, and the fair entrance to what may be called the genuine west-of-the-mountains, we perceive on the oregon shore a series of waterfalls, higher and grander than has even been the wont, and in the midst of them, far-famed multnomah. a spacious sweep of circling mountains, a perpendicular wall, indented with a deep recess, and crowned upon its topmost bastions with a row of frightened looking trees, and partially visible through intercepting cottonwoods at the river's margin a moving whiteness,--such is the first vision of this matchless waterfall. a short space farther carries us past the screen of cottonwoods, and the whole majestic scene lies before us. like st. peter's dome or castle rock or niagara or yosemite or chelan or mt. "takhoma," this scene of multnomah falls with its surroundings wears that aspect of eternity, that look of final perfectness, which marks the great works of nature and of art. the cliff almost overhangs, so that except when deflected by the wind against a projecting ledge the water leaps sheer through the air its eight hundred feet of fall. it is mainly spray when it reaches the deep pool within the recess of the mountain, and from that recess the regathered waters pour in a final plunge, from which the stream takes its way through the cottonwoods to the river. we disembark and climb to the pool which receives the great fall. we find it sunless and almost black in hue from the intensity of the shadows. the maidenhair fern which grows at the edge of the pool is nearly white in its cool dark abode. the water falls into the pool with a weird, uncanny "chug," rather than a splash, so great is the sheer fall and so largely does the water consist of spray alternating with "chunks"--if we may so express it--of water. the pool is large enough to hold a steamboat and of considerable depth. a pretty rustic bridge spans the gorge through which the stream passes on its way from the pool, and below the bridge is the final fall of seventy-five feet. on account of its proximity to portland and the frequent steamboat excursions, multnomah has become quite a resort. while the creek is only of moderate size in summer, and the fall is notable rather for beauty than energy, yet when swollen by the rains and melting snows of winter and spring it takes on the dimensions of a river. then the fall hurling its great volume over the eight hundred feet of open space assumes an appalling sublimity. [illustration: oneonta gorge--looking in. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] and now with the sounds of the fall ringing in our ears and our eyes turned back for a final reluctant gaze, we make our way across the river and a short distance down to the next wonder on the washington side. this is cape horn. it is a long palisade of basalt, not high compared to most of the river walls, being only about two hundred feet high, but it is the most complete example of continuous basaltic formation on the river. the beauty and symmetry of the formation, the deeps of the river reflecting the escarpment of rock, the wide-opening vista of hazy islands and extending plains down-stream;--all these together compose a scene unique in itself and, though so different, placing cape horn in the same gallery of royal pictures which we have been gathering. a few miles below cape horn it becomes apparent that we are about to issue from the mountain pass. the heights have fallen away. deep valleys appear and many habitations attest the cultivable character of the region. but as if to show that she has not exhausted her resources, wonder-working nature has set one more masterpiece in the long line, and this is rooster rock, with a mighty rampart of rock adjoining and closing the southern horizon. together they mark the western limit of the mountains. that rampart, which was once well named cape eternity, though the name does not seem to have been preserved, is a sheer massive precipice of a thousand feet. though not nearly so high as some of the cliffs above, it is not surpassed by any for the appearance of solid and massive power. rooster rock is distinguished by a singular and exquisite beauty, rather than magnitude or grandeur. it is only three hundred and fifty feet high, but in form and colour and alternation of rock and trees it is the most beautiful object on the river. with a farewell to cape eternity and rooster rock we are out of the mountains, and this stage of our long journey is at an end. if we were to compare the section of the river which we have described in this chapter with other great scenes in our country, we would say that this section of the columbia from paha cliffs to rooster rock possesses a greater variety than any other. chelan has loftier cliffs, clearer and deeper water, and a certain chaotic and elemental energy beyond comparison. the yellowstone has a greater richness of colouring and larger waterfalls, together with the unique features of the geysers. yosemite has loftier waterfalls and has cliffs that in some respects are even more imposing. puget sound has finer distant scenes, with lagoons and channels and archipelagoes. each of these grand exhibitions of nature's works is equal or even superior to the columbia gorge in some special feature. but the river has every feature. it has cliffs and mountains and waterfalls and cataracts, valleys and forests, broad marine views near and distant, colour and form, shore and sky, earth and air and water, a commingling of all elements of beauty, grandeur, and physical interest. add to this, that, up or down, the broad waters of the river are accessible to every form of floating craft, and that portland, one of the most beautiful and progressive cities of the west, destined to become one of the great cities of the world, sits at the very gates of admission to this symposium of grandeurs and wonders, and we have such an aggregation of charms that we may well suppose that all the other great scenic regions would bow before our great river and acknowledge him as the king of all. [illustration: cape horn, columbia river--looking up. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] chapter v a side trip to some of the great snow-peaks attractions of our mountain peaks--relations to the rivers--locations of the greatest and their positions with regard to the cities and the routes of travel--the mountain clubs--the peaks, especially belonging to the river: hood, adams, and st. helens--a journey to hood--beauty of the approach through hood river valley--lost lake--cloud-cap inn and elliot glacier--extreme steepness of the ascent--magnificence of the view--mt. adams--the hunting and fishing--the glaciers--the vegetation about the snow-line--the night storm--morning and the ascent--views around, up, down--ascent by the mazama club in and the transformation scene--general similarity of ascent of our peaks--zones of a snow-peak. "_nesika klatawa sahale_" most countries have rivers of beauty and grandeur; many have lakes of scenic charm; many have hills and mountain chains; but there is only one country in the united states that has all of these features, and, in addition, a number of isolated giant peaks, clad in permanent ice and snow. that country is the pacific north-west. throughout oregon and washington and extending partly through california is a series of volcanic peaks which gather within themselves every feature of natural beauty, sublimity, and wonder. the fifteen most conspicuous of these peaks, beginning with baker or kulshan on the north, and ending with pitt on the south, are spaced at nearly regular intervals of from thirty to fifty miles, except for the one group of the three sisters, which, though distinct peaks, are separated only by narrow valleys. most of these great peaks are somewhat remote from the cities or the great routes of public travel, and hence are not easily accessible to ordinary tourists. none of them, except hood and rainier or tacoma, possesses hotel accommodations. the natives are more accustomed to "roughing it," and braving the wilderness than most eastern people are, and hence many parties go annually from the chief cities of oregon and washington to the great peaks. some of them, as glacier peak and shuksan, are so environed with mountain ramparts and almost impassable cañons as to be practically unknown. the most approachable and the most visited are hood, rainier, and adams. [illustration: looking up the columbia river from the cliff above multnomah falls, ore. (copyright, kiser photograph co., .)] the greatest influence in organising visits to these mountains, and in cultivating an appreciation of them among the people of the region, as well as in informing the world regarding them, has existed in the mountain clubs. the chief of these are the mazama (wild goat) club of portland and the mountaineers of seattle. membership is not confined to those two cities, though mainly located there. the mazama club may be called the historic mountain climber's club, and it has done incalculable good in fostering a love of mountains and in arranging expeditions to them. the three peaks which may be considered as especially belonging to the columbia river are hood, adams, and st. helens. as the traveller on the river views the unsullied spires and domes of these great temples of nature, he longs to worship in their more immediate presence. as a logical consequence of this sentiment, after having floated down the columbia from the dalles to rooster rock, we feel that life would be at least partly in vain if we should fail to plant feet on the topmost snows of at least two of these great heights. we will first visit hood. though not the highest, this is the boldest and most picturesque of all. moreover by reason of its location, seen conspicuously as it is from portland and the willamette valley, and because of its nearness to the old immigrant road into oregon, hood was the first noticed, and the most often described, painted, and berhymed of any of the wintry brotherhood. as the puget sound region became settled, and great cities began to grow up there, mt. rainier ("takhoma") began to be a rival in popular estimation. when measurements showed that rainier was three thousand feet higher, and adams over one thousand feet higher than the idolised hood, a wail of grief arose from the oregonians, and for a time they could hardly be reconciled. but as they became adjusted to the situation, they planted themselves upon the proposition that, though hood was not the highest, it was the most beautiful, and that its surroundings were superior to those of any other. for this proposition there is much to be said, though, in truth, we must accept the dictum of dogberry that "comparisons are odorous" the usual approach to mt. hood by the hood river route is indeed of striking attractiveness. this picturesque orchard valley is like an avenue of flowers leading to a marble temple. one of the finest points in the vicinity of hood river, seldom visited because it is off the road and buried in forests, is lost lake. perhaps the grandest view of mt. hood is from this lake. the bold pinnacle, rising out of the broad fields of snow, they in turn most wondrously encircled in forests of rich hue, is mirrored in the clear water with a perfectness that scarcely can be matched among the many lakes of its kind in all the land. in these days of swift transit, hood river keeps up with the procession, for there is a regular automobile line from the town to cloud-cap inn at the snow-line of the great peak, twenty-four miles distant. the distance, though it represents a rise of seven thousand feet, is traversed all too quickly to fully enjoy the valley, filled with its orchards, and rising in regular gradation from the heat of the lower end to the bracing cold of the upper air. in cloud-cap inn the traveller may find the daintiest, most unique specimen of a mountain resort in our mountains. the inn is owned by a wealthy portland man, and is maintained rather as an attraction to visitors than with the expectation of making money. [illustration: spokane falls and city, . photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] [illustration: spokane falls and city, . photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] from the inn one can climb in a few minutes to photographer's point, from which he can look right down on the elliot glacier, not a large, but an exceedingly fine specimen of that most interesting of all features of a great peak. hood, though so steep, can be ascended from several points. it was for a long time supposed to be unscalable from the north side. but william langille, one of the most daring and successful mountain climbers of oregon, soon found his way up the sharp ascent, and, once marked out, that route has been followed by the great majority of climbers. though very steep, there has never been an accident on this route except in one case, when a stranger undertook the climb alone and never returned. he probably lost his footing and fell into a crevasse. with the usual precautions of ropes and ice hatchets and caulks, a party can make their way over the steep slope, and its very steepness makes the ascent quicker and less exhaustive than to overcome the longer and more gradual ascents of adams or "takhoma." while it takes but about four or five hours for an average party to go from snow-line to summit of hood, either of the other mountains named demands from seven to ten hours. and having reached the summit, what a view! if the day be entirely clear--a rare occurrence--you will behold a domain for an empire. on the south, the long line of the cascades, with the occasional great heights, jefferson, three sisters, thielson, diamond, scott, and, if it be very clear, even pitt. to the north, the giant bulk of adams, the airy symmetry of st. helens, and the lordly majesty of rainier, rule sky and earth, while in mazy undulations the great range, alternately purple and white, stretches on and on until it blends into the clouds. seemingly almost at the feet of the observer, a dark green sinuosity amid the timbered hills, now strangely flattened, as we stand so high above them, marks the course of the river on its march oceanward. if the day be very clear, a whitish blur far westward shows where the "rose city" on the willamette reigns over her fair domains, while a dim stretch of varied hues denotes the willamette valley. some climbers have even asserted that late in the afternoon of extremely clear days the glint of the western sun can be seen upon the pacific, a hundred and fifty miles distant. toward the east lie the vast plains of the inland empire, marked at their farther limit by the soft curves and lazy swells of the range of the blue mountains. while it is an ungracious and even a fruitless undertaking to compare such objects as the great mountains or the views from the respective summits, it may be said that hood has one conspicuous feature of the view, and that is that it is nearest the centre of the great mountain peaks, as well as systems, and also best commands the outlook over the great valley systems and river systems of this part of the columbia basin. and therefore, though the view is not equal in breadth to that from the summit of adams or rainier, it is unsurpassed for variety and interest. it may be said to cover more history than the view from any other peak. across the southern flank lies the old barlow road, over which came the greater part of the immigration in the days of the ox-team conquest of oregon in the forties and fifties. thirty miles east is the dalles with its old fur-trader's station, its old united states fort, its mission station, its indian wars, its early settlement, the most historic place in eastern oregon. from the old town, during all the years from the opening of the century, there descended the river the trappers, missionaries, immigrants, miners, soldiers, hunters, home-seekers, of a later day, adventurers and promoters of every species, to say nothing of the generations of indians who lived and died along the banks. to the west of our icy eyrie, portland and vancouver, with the rich valleys around them, represent the earliest explorations and developments of the fur-traders, as well as the earliest days of the era of permanent settlement. there in the westward haze is the little town of champoeg where the provisional government of oregon was established. in fact, in whatsoever direction we may look, we see illustrations of the heroic age of old oregon, the drama of native races, rival powers of europe and america, the march of empire, a section of humanity and the world in the making. when our visit to hood is ended we must cross the river and traverse another paradise, the white salmon valley, leading to mt. adams, the old indian klickitat. adams is in such a position that its true elevation and magnitude cannot be understood from portland or the dalles or most of the routes of travel. therefore until comparatively recent times it was generally supposed that adams was an insignificant mountain in comparison with hood, which looms up with such imposing grandeur from every point along the chief highways of commerce. it was discovered by the mazama club in that adams carried his regal crown at a height of twelve thousand four hundred and seventy feet above the level of the sea, while the previously established height of hood was only eleven thousand two hundred and twenty-five. since then adams has been held in much greater respect by mountain lovers, and many journeys have been made to and on it. around mt. adams is a region of caves. as one rides through the open glades he may often hear the ground rumble beneath his horse's hoofs. mouths of avernus yawn on every side. some caverns have sunken in, leaving serpentine ravines. one cave has been traced three miles without finding the end. some of these caves are partially filled with ice. there is one in particular, fifteen miles south-west of the mountain, which is known as ice cave. this is very small, not over four hundred feet long, but it is a marvel of unique beauty. its external appearance is that of a huge well, at whose edge are bunches of nodding flowers, and from whose dark depths issue sudden chilly gusts. descending by means of a knotty young tree which previous visitors have let down, we find ourselves on a floor of ice. the glare of pitch-pine torches reveals a weird and beautiful scene. a perfect forest of icicles of both the stalactite and stalagmite forms fills the cave. they are from ten to fifteen feet in length and from one to three in diameter. from some points of view they look like silvered organ-pipes. these caves have been formed in some cases by chambers of steam or bubbles in the yet pasty rock which hardened enough to maintain their form upon the condensation of the vapour. others were doubtless produced by a tongue of lava as it collected slag and hardened rock upon its moving edge, rising up and curling over like a breaker on the sand. only the "cave of flint" instead of turning into a "retreating cloud" had enough solid matter to sustain the arch and so became permanent. others were no doubt formed by pyroducts. a tongue of flowing lava hardens on the surface. the interior remains fluid. it may continue running until the tongue is all emptied, leaving a cavern. such a cavern, whose upper end reaches the cold air of the mountains, might be like a chimney, down which freezing air would descend, turning into ice the water that trickled into the cave, even at the lower end. for sport, the region about mt. adams is unsurpassed. the elk, three kinds of deer, the magnificent mule deer, the black-tail, and the graceful little white-tail, two species of bear, the cinnamon and black, the daring and ubiquitous mountain goat, quail, grouse, pheasants, ducks, and cranes, are among the attractions to the hunter. of late years great bands of sheep have driven the game somewhat from the south and east sides. in the grassy glades that encircle the snowy pile of adams no vexatious undergrowth impedes the gallop of our fleet cayuse pony or obscures our vision. on the background of fragrant greenery the "dun deer's hide" is thrown with statuesque distinctness, and among the low trees the whirring grouse is easily discerned. nor is the disciple of nimrod alone considered. after our hunt we may move to trout lake, and here the very ghost of the lamented walton might come as to a paradise. trout lake is a shallow pool half a mile in length, encircled with pleasant groves and grassy glades, marred now, however, by the encroachment of ranches. into it there come at intervals from the ice-cold mountain inlet perfect shoals of the most gamey and delicious trout. on rafts, or the two or three rude skiffs that have been placed there, one may find all piscatorial joys and may abundantly supply his larder free of cost. a few ranches here and there furnish accommodations for those who are too delicate to rest on the bosom of mother earth. but no extended trip can be taken without committing oneself to the wilderness delights of sleeping with star-dials for roof and flickering camp-fire for hearth. and what healthy human being would exchange those for the feverish, pampered life of the modern house? let us have the barbarism, and with it the bounding pulses and exuberant life of the wilderness. [illustration: in the heart of the cascade mountains, above lake chelan, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] but now, with stomachs and knapsacks filled, and with that pervasive sense of contentment which characterises the successful hunter and angler, we must get up our cayuse ponies from their pastures on the rich grass of the open woods, saddle up, and then off for the mountain, whose giant form now overtops the very clouds. about two miles from trout lake the trail crosses the white salmon, and we find ourselves at the foot of the mountain. for eight miles we follow a trail through open woods, park-like, with huge pines at irregular intervals, and vivid grass and flowers between, a fair scene, the native home of every kind of game. as we journey on delightedly through these glades, rising, terrace after terrace, we can read the history of the mountain in the rock beneath our feet and the expanding plains and hills below. all within the ancient amphitheatre is volcanic. there are four main summits, a central dome, vast, symmetrical, majestic, pure-white against the blue-black sky of its unsullied height. the three other peaks are broken crags of basalt, leaning as for support against the mighty mass at the centre. around the snow-line of the mountain many minor cones have been blown up. these have the most gaudy and brilliant colouring, mainly yellow and vermilion. one on the south-east is especially noticeable. from a deep cañon it rises two thousand feet as steep as broken scoriæ can lie. the main part is bright red, surmounted by a circular cliff of black rock. probably the old funnel of the crater became filled with black rock, which, cooling, formed a solid core. the older material around it having crumbled away, it remains a solid shaft. but fire has not wrought all the wonders of the mighty peak. ice has been most active. the mountain was once completely girdled with glaciers. rocks are scratched and grooved five miles below the present snow-line. the ridges are strewn with planed rocks and glacial shavings and coarse sand. some of the monticules on the flanks of the mountain have been partially cut away. many have been entirely obliterated. but the ice has now greatly receded. instead of a complete enswathement of ice there are some six or seven distinct glaciers, separated by sharp ridges, while the region formerly the chief home of the ice is now a series of alpine meadows. like most of the snow peaks, mt. adams is rudely terraced, and the terraces are separated into compartments by ridges, forming scores and hundreds of glades and meads. in some of these are circular ponds, from a few square rods to several acres in area. these lakes are found by the hundred around the mountain and in the region north of it. they are one of the charms and wonders of the country. about most of them tall grass crowds to the very edge of the water. scattered trees diversify the scene. throughout these glades flow innumerable streams, descending from level to level in picturesque cascades, and composed of water so cold and sparkling that the very memory of it cools the after thirst. sometimes the tough turf grows clear over, making a verdant tunnel through which "the tinkling waters slip." here and there streams spout full-grown from frowning precipices. [illustration: birch-tree channel; upper columbia, near golden, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates, golden.] but we are not content to stand below and gaze "upward to that height." we must needs ascend. in climbing a snow peak a great deal depends on making camp at a good height and getting a very early start. by a little searching one may find good camping places at an elevation of seven thousand or even eight thousand feet altitude. this leaves only four thousand or five thousand feet to climb on the great day, and by starting at about four o'clock a party may have sixteen hours of daylight. this is enough, if there be no accidents, to enable any sound man of average muscle,--or woman either, if she be properly dressed for it,--to gain the mighty dome of adams. at the time of our last ascent we camped high on a great ridge on the south side of the mountain, having for shelter a thick copse of dwarf firs. so fiercely had the winds of centuries swept this exposed point that the trees did not stand erect, but lay horizontal from west to east. with pulses bounding from the exhilarating air, and our whole systems glowing with the exercise and the wild game of the preceding week, we stretch ourselves out for sleep, while the stars blaze from infinite heights, and our uneasy camp-fire strives fitfully with the icy air which at nightfall always slides down the mountain side. sweet sleep till midnight, and then we found ourselves awake all at once with a unanimity which at first we scarcely understood, but which a moment's observation made clear enough. a regular mountain gale had suddenly broken upon us. it had waked us up by nearly blowing us out of bed. our camp-fire was aroused to newness of life by the gale, and the huge fire-brands flew down the mountain side, igniting pitchy thickets, until a fitful glare illuminated the lonely and savage grandeur of the scene. the whole sky seemed in motion. then a cloud struck us. night, glittering as she was a moment before with her tiaras of stars, was suddenly transformed into a dull, whitish blur. the vapour formed at once into thick drops on the trees and was precipitated in turn on us. occasional sleet and snowflakes struck us with almost the sting of flying sand when we ventured to peep out. covering ourselves up, heads and all, we crowded against each other and grimly went to sleep. we woke again, chattering with cold, to find it perfectly calm. the morning star was blazing over the spot where day was about to break. the sky was absolutely clear, not a mote on its whole concavity. the wind had swept and burnished it. the mountain towered above us cold and sharp as a crystal. there was a still, solemn majesty about it in the keen air and early light which struck us with a thrill of fear. the light just before daybreak is far more exact than the scarlet splendour of morning or the blinding blaze of noon. the world below us was a level sea of clouds. we seemed to be on an island of snow and rock, or on a small planetoid winging its own way in space. yet beyond the puncturing top of a few of the simcoe peaks a wavering line that just touched the glowing eastern sky, told of clear weather a hundred leagues up the basin of the columbia. out of the ocean of cloud, the great peaks of hood and st. helens rose, cold and white, like icebergs on an arctic sea. [illustration: a typical mountain meadow, stehekin valley, wash. photo. by t. w. tolman, spokane.] coffee, ham, and hardtack, and then out on the ice and snow, just as the first warm flush of morning is gilding the mighty mass above us. the snow, hardened by the freezing morning, affords excellent footing, and in the sharp, bracing air we feel capable of any effort. we gain the summit of a bright red knob, one of the secondary volcanoes that girdle the mountain. at its peak are purple stones piled up like an altar, as indeed it is, though the incense from it is not of human kindling. the sun is not fairly up, but from below the horizon it splits the hemisphere of the sky into a hundred segments by its auroral flashes. and now we begin to climb a volcanic ridge, rising like a huge stairway, with blocks of stone as large as a piano. this is a tongue of lava, very recent, insomuch that it shows no glacial markings, and yet enough soil has accumulated upon it to support vegetation. it can be seen, a dull red river, three hundred yards wide, extending far down the mountain side. how well the old greek poet described the process that must have taken place here: "Ætna, pillar of heaven, nurse of snow, with fountains of fire; a river of fire, bearing down rocks with a crashing sound to the deep sea." the ridge becomes very steep, at an angle of probably thirty-five or forty degrees, and we climb on all fours from one rock to another. at last we draw ourselves up a huge wedge of phonolite and find ourselves at the summit of the first peak. six hundred yards beyond, muffled in white silence, rises the great dome. it is probably five hundred feet higher than the first peak. to reach it we climb a bare, steep ridge of shaly, frost-shattered rock, in which we sink ankle deep, a difficult and even painful task with the laboured breathing of twelve thousand feet altitude. but patience conquers, and at about noon, seven hours and a half from the time of starting, we stand on the very tip of the mountain. ten minutes panting in the cold wind and then we are ready to look around. within the circle of our vision is an area for an empire. northward is a wilderness of mountains. high above all, mt. rainier lifts his white crown unbroken to the only majesty above him, the sky. the western horizon, more hazy than the eastern, is punctuated by the smooth dome and steely glitter of mt. st. helens. far southward, across a wilderness of broken heights, rises the sharp pinnacle of mt. hood, and far beyond that, its younger brother, jefferson. still beyond, are the alpine peaks of the three sisters, nearly two hundred miles distant. our vision sweeps a circle whose diameter is probably five hundred miles. far westward the white haze betokens the presence of the sea. a deep blue line north-eastward, far beyond the smooth dome of st. helens, stands for puget sound. numerous lakes gleam in woody solitudes. having looked around, let us now look down. on the eastern side the mountain breaks off in a monstrous chasm of probably four thousand feet, most of it perpendicular. we crawl as we draw near it. lying down in turn, secured by ropes held behind, fearful as much of the mystic attraction of the abyss as of the slippery snow, we peep over the awful verge. take your turn, gentle reader, if you would know what it seems to gaze down almost a mile of nearly perpendicular distance. points of rock jut out from the pile and eye us darkly. that icy floor nearly a mile below us is the klickitat glacier. from beneath it a milk-white stream issues and crawls off amid the rocky desolation. at the very edge of the great precipice stands a cone of ice a hundred feet high. green, blue, yellow, red, and golden, the colours play with the circling sunbeams on its slippery surface, until one is ready to believe that here is where rainbows are made. we roll some rocks from a wind-swept point, and then shudder to see them go. they are lost to the eye as their noise to the ear, long before they cease to roll. silence reigns. there is no echo. the thin air makes the voice sound weak. our loudest shouts are brief bubbles of noise in the infinite space. a pistol shot is only a puff of powder. even the rocks we set off are swallowed up and we get no response but the first reluctant clank as they grind the lip of the precipice. nor do we care much for boisterous sounds. we are impelled rather to silence and worship. [illustration: high school, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman, walla walla.] but now once more to earth and camp! for pure exhilaration, commend me to descending a snow peak. for a good part of mt. adams one may descend in huge jumps through the loose scoriæ and volcanic ashes. some of the way one may slide on the crusty snow, a perfect whiz of descent. how the thin wind cuts past us, and how our frames glow with the dizzy speed! such a manner of descent is not altogether safe. as we are going in one place with flying jumps on the softening snow, a chasm suddenly appears before us. it looks ten feet wide, and how deep, no one could guess. to stop is out of the question. we make a wild bound and clear it, catching a momentary glance into the bluish-green crack as we fly across. we make the descent in an incredibly short time, only a little more than an hour, whereas it took us over seven hours to ascend. and then the rest and mighty feasts of camp, and the abundant and mountainous yarns, and the roaring camp-fire, whose shadows flicker on the solemn snow-fields, until the stars claim the heavens, and, while the wailing cry of the cougars rises from a jungle far below us, we sleep and perform again in dreams the day's exploits. of all scenes in connection with mt. adams, the most remarkable in all the experience of those who witnessed it, and one of those rare combinations which the sublimest aspects of nature afford, was at the time of the outing of the mazama club in . the party had reached the summit in a dense fog, cold, bitter, forbidding, and nothing whatever to be seen. all was a dull, whitish blur. in the bitter chill the enthusiasm of some of the climbers evaporated and they turned away down the snowy waste. others remained in the hope of a vanishing of the cloud-cap. and suddenly their hopes were realised. a marvellous transformation scene was unveiled like the lifting of a vast curtain. the cloud-cap was split asunder. the great red and black pinnacles of the summit sprung forth from the mist like the first lines in a developing photographic plate. then the glistening tiaras and thrones of ice and snow caught the gleams of the unveiled sun, and lo, there we stood in mid-heaven, seemingly upon an island in space, with no earth about us, just the sun and the sky above and a great swaying ocean of fog below. but now suddenly that ocean of fog was rent and split. the ardent sun burned and banished it away. mountain peak after peak caught the glory. range after range seemed to rise and stand in battle array. the transformation was complete. a moment before we were swathed in the densest cloud-cap, blinded with the fog. now we were standing on a mount of transfiguration, with a new world below us. every vestige of smoke or fog was gone. we could see the shimmer of the ocean to the west, the glistening bands of puget sound and the columbia. far eastward the plains of the inland empire lay palpitating in the july sun. the whole long line of the great snow-peaks of the cascades were there revealed, the farthest a mere speck, yet distinctly discernible, two hundred miles distant. one unaccustomed to the mountains would not believe it possible that such an area could be caught within the vision from a single point. [illustration: lake chelan. photo. by f. n. kneeland.] it may be understood that the description of one of our great snow-peaks is, in general terms, a description of all. with every one there are the same azure skies, the same snow-caps, the same crevassed and glistening rivers of ice, the same long ridges with their intervening grassy and flowery meads, purling streams, and reflecting lakes. with the name of each there rises before mazama or mountaineer the remembrance of the camp of clouds or stars upon the edge of snow-bank, the sound of the bugle at two o'clock in the morning of the great climb, the hastily swallowed breakfast of coffee and ham, while climbers stand shivering around the flickering morning fire, the approaching day with its banners of crimson behind the heights, the daubing of faces with grease-paint and the putting on of goggles, amid shouts of laughter from each at the grotesque and picturesque ugliness of all the others, then the hastily grasped alpenstocks, the forming in line, and at about four o'clock, while the first rays of the sun are gilding the summit, the word of command and the beginning of the march. each great peak has its zones, so significant that each seems a world in itself. there is first the zone of summer with its fir and cedar forests at the base of the peak, from a thousand feet to twenty-five hundred above sea-level. in the case of most of our great peaks this zone consists of long gentle slopes and dense forests, with much undergrowth, though on the eastern sides there are frequently wide-open spaces of grassy prairie. then comes the zone of pine forest and summer strawberry, with its fragrant air and long glades of grass and open aisles of columned trees, "god's first temples," pellucid streams babbling over pebbles and white sands, and occasionally falling in cascades over ledges of volcanic rock. this zone rises in terraces which attest the ancient lava flow, at an increasing grade over the first, though at most points one might still drive a carriage through the open pine forests. then comes the third zone, a zone of parks. the large pine trees now give way to the belts of subalpine fir and mountain pine and larch, exquisite for beauty, enclosing the parks and grouped here and there in clumps like those in some old baronial estate of feudal times. this is the zone of rhododendron, shushula, phlox, and painted brush. through the open glades the ptarmigan and deer wander, formerly unafraid of man, but now, alas, under the ban of civilisation. the upward slope has now increased to twenty or twenty-five degrees, and to a party of climbers a frequent rest and the quaffing of the ice-cold stream that dashes through the woods afford a happy feature of the ascent. at the upper edge of this zone, at an elevation of probably seven thousand feet, beside some dashing stream or some clear pool, fed from the snows above, is the place for the camp. and such a camp! oh, the beauty of such an unspoiled spot! [illustration: on the banks of the columbia river, near hood river. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] it is from such a camp at the upper edge of the paradise zone that a party sets forth at the four o'clock hour to attain the highest. so the march on the great day of a final climb carries us at once into a fourth zone. this is the zone of avalanche and glacier, the zone of elemental fury and warfare, a zone of ever-steepening ascent, thirty degrees, a zone of almost winter cold at night, but with such a dazzling brightness and fervour in the day as turns the snow-banks to slush and sends the fountains tearing and cutting across the glaciers and triturating the moraines. vegetation has now almost ceased, though the heather still drapes the ledges on the eastern or southern exposures, and occasionally one of the tenacious mountain pines upholds the banner of spring in some sheltered nook. this wind-swept and storm-lashed zone is also the zone of the wild goats and mountain sheep. on the precipitous ridges and along the narrow ledges at the margin of glaciers they can be seen bounding away at the approach of the party, sure-footed and swift at points where the nerve of the best human climber might fail. this zone carries the climbers to ten or eleven thousand feet of elevation on the highest peaks. and here is the place for the mountaineers and mazamas to take the half-hour rest on their arduous march. a sweet rest it is. we pick out some sheltered place on the eastern slope, and stretch ourselves at full length on the warm rocks, while the icy wind from the summit goes hurtling above us. and how good the chocolate and the malted milk and the prunes and raisins of the scanty lunch taste, while we rest and feel the might of elemental nature again fill our veins and lungs and hearts. but then comes a fifth zone, the last, the zone of the arctic. this is the zone of the snow-cap. the glaciers are now below. all life has ceased. the grade has ever steepened, till now it is forty degrees or more. the snow is hummocked and granulated. here is where part of the climbers begin to stop. legs and lungs fail. camp looks exceedingly good down there at the verge of the forests. they feel as though they had lost nothing on the summit worth going up for. a nausea, mountain sickness, attacks some. nosebleed attacks others. things look serious. icy mists sometimes begin to swirl around the presumptous climbers. frost gathers on hair and mustache and eyebrows. the unaccustomed or the less ambitious or weaker lose heart and bid the rest go on, for they will turn toward a more summer-like clime. generally about half an ordinary party drop out at this beginning of the arctic zone. but the rest shout "excelsior," take a firmer grasp of alpenstock, stamp feet more vehemently into the snow, and with dogged perseverance move step by step up the final height. inch by inch, usually in the teeth of a biting gale, leaning forward, and panting heavily, they force the upward way. and victory at last! there comes a time when we are on the topmost pinnacle, and there is nothing above us but the storms and sun. and then what elation! nothing seems quite to equal the pure delight of such a triumph of lungs and legs and heart and will. [illustration: rooster rock, columbia river--looking up. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] chapter vi the lower river and the ocean tides remarkable change in climate and topography--farms and villages--first view of mt. hood on west side--vancouver and its historic interest--the north bank railroad--view at the mouth of the willamette--sauvie's or wapatoo island--beauty of the willamette and its tributaries--simpson's poem--approach to portland--site of portland--transportation facilities--portland's commerce--homes and public buildings--art in portland--the historical society museum--the _oregonian_ and its editor--once more on the river--the fishing and lumbering villages--scenery of the lower river--astoria and the outlook to the ocean--industries of astoria--the fisheries--the fleet of fishing boats on the bar--the ocean beaches and the tourist travel--through the outer headlands to the pacific. having returned from our side trip to the mountain peaks of hood and adams and having resumed our station on the bank of the river just below rooster rock, we see that we are now in a new world. we are at sea-level. dense forests clothe the shores, except for the places where the axe of the settler or the saws of the lumberman have made inroads. moss drapes the rocks. ferns and vines take possession wherever the trees have been removed. even in summer a feeling of humidity usually pervades the air. a certain softness and roundness seems to characterise both the vegetable and animal world. the smell of the sea is in the atmosphere, even though the sea is yet distant. no longer do our eyes wander over boundless expanses of rolling prairie, crowned to the highest knolls with wheat-fields, as on the other side of the mountains. the mountains fall away, and low bottoms, sometimes oozy with the inflowing river or the creeks from the forests, stretch away in the lazy, hazy distance. the river no longer flows tumultuously and with that militant energy which is so characteristic of the long stretches from kettle falls to the dalles. it has a calm and stately majesty, the repose of accomplished warfare and victory. it has hewn its way down to the level of the ocean and no longer needs to fret and storm. it has conquered a peace. [illustration: band of elk on w. p. reser's ranch, walla walla, wash. photo. by w. d. chapman.] below rooster rock, the shores are flats with low hills in the background, and the river expands to a width of from one to two miles. if we still imagine ourselves in a small boat, we find the most delightful of sensations in gliding past the grassy islands and shores thick with fir or cottonwood. or if we choose to take our way to one of the elegant steamers, _spencer_ or _bailey gatzert_, we shall still partake of the same life and feel the same sense of repose and contentment which belong by natural right to this portion of the river. soon after leaving rooster rock, we begin to pass frequent pleasant farms on either bank. on the washington side we see two pretty villages, washougal and la camas. the first has the historical distinction of being at or nearly at the highest spot reached by the english explorer broughton in , and named by him point vancouver. la camas is the location of the most extensive paper mills in the north-west. if, while we are in this section of the river and our eyes are bent eagerly forward to catch the ever-changing shore and river lines, we happen to glance backward, our gaze is fastened as with a magnet, and for a moment utterance fails. for what do we see? glistening white, ethereal, mt. hood rises before us, a vision which, of the many mountain visions that we have seen, seems the most beautiful. mt. hood indeed is the background of many a noble scene upon the river, but there is none quite equal in amplitude, in variety, to this,--river, forest, shore, foreground of timbered hills, cascade gorge, distant white and purple chain of cascade mountains, and the volcanic cone overtopping and overawing all. this view of mt. hood from the vicinity of la camas has perhaps been oftener the subject of painting than any other. a few miles below la camas we reach the most historic and perhaps the most beautiful spot upon the columbia, vancouver. as the capital for twenty years of the hudson's bay company's fur empire, associated with the name of dr. john mcloughlin, the centre of almost every event of importance in the early history, connected with both american and british occupation, and later as the location of the united states military post and preserving the names of grant, sheridan, mcclellan, hooker, and others of our famous generals, vancouver has indeed a rich historic setting. but aside from such associations with the past, every tourist must note the location of vancouver as one of rare beauty. in fact, the spot is almost ideal for a great city. the splendid river, a mile and a half in width, offers limitless facilities for shipping, while, beginning at the water's edge, a gradually rising slope of land extends in a superb swell several miles to the north. every feature of scenery that could delight the eye--mt. hood with the cascades to the east, the willamette valley to the south, the portland and scappoose hills to the west, the river blending all--seems to have been lavished on vancouver. it has been a surprise to many that the great city had not grown here rather than at portland, which, though on an equally fine location, is on the tributary and much smaller willamette. the chief reasons of this were the nearer proximity of portland to the rich farming country of the tualatin and the presence in the columbia a mile below vancouver of a sand-bar which embarrassed shipping. this is now removed. [illustration: oregon city in . from an old print.] [illustration: fort vancouver in .] at vancouver the newly-built "north bank" railroad (spokane, portland, and seattle) has constructed across the columbia a bridge a mile and three quarters in length, said to be the largest and costliest of its kind in the world. this same railroad has also bridged the willamette a few miles west of vancouver, thus effecting an entrance to portland. this railroad is one of the most interesting and remarkable undertakings of the age. it is said that its cost from spokane to portland exceeded forty million dollars. vancouver expects much from this road, even anticipating that much of the shipping hitherto centring in portland will be diverted to the larger river. however that may prove, it is plain that vancouver has the promise as well as the memory of great things. six miles west of vancouver is one of those imposing scenes in which our river so abounds. this is the junction of the willamette with the columbia. this spot was noted by broughton in as one of exceptional beauty, and to it he attached the name belle vue point. it is indeed a combination of both historical and scenic interest. the willamette steals shyly and coquettishly through green islands to fall into the strong arms of the stately columbia. the western arm of the willamette, commonly called the "slough," joins the columbia eighteen miles below at the picturesque little town of st. helens. between the columbia and the slough lies sauvie's island, named from a hudson's bay man, and famous throughout hudson's bay times as well as indian times. the island was the seat of power of the multnomah tribe. the scene of the book known as the _bridge of the gods_ by frederick balch is mainly upon this island, and in that book will be found some glowing descriptions of this beauty spot. to the indians it was known as wapatoo island. in the ponds grew the plant called the wapatoo, an onion-like root, very nutritious and palatable, and, with salmon, constituting the chief food of the natives. not only so, but the multnomah indians used the wapatoo as a commercial stock, carrying on regular trade with both the coast and the up-river tribes. according to the early explorers there were great annual fairs on wapatoo island, when indians from ocean beach, from valley, from mountains, and from river, both up and down, would gather to exchange products, to gamble, race horses and boats, and have a general period of hilarity and good fellowship. the gathering of the wapatoos developed upon the patient "klootchmen" (women) of the tribe. they would go out in canoes to the shallow water where the roots grew and then, stripping naked, would hang over the side of the boat and dislodge the wapatoos with their toes from the soft mud. soon the surface would be covered with the floating roots. the squaws would gather these into the canoes. then they would move to another place for another load. sometimes they would spend almost the whole day in the water. the wapatoo still grows in the ponds and lagoons of the island. these ponds formerly abounded in ducks and geese and cranes and swans. even yet there is fine hunting. during the damp soft days of the oregon winter, the nimrods of portland betake themselves thither in great numbers. [illustration: lone rock, columbia river, about fifty miles east of portland. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] from the steamer, as we enter the mouth of the willamette, or from the greater elevation of the lighthouse, one may command one of the lordliest views that even this land of lordly views affords. five snow-peaks, hood, rainier-tacoma, st. helens, adams, and jefferson, rise snow white from the purple forests of the cascade range. up the columbia the great gorge through which we have passed stands open to view, while down-river the sinuous and hazy lines of low-lying shore betoken the nearer proximity of the ocean. up the willamette, enchanting islands, with low watery shores, occupy the foreground, while a short distance back from the western bank, a chain of picturesque hills, heavily timbered, encloses the vista. on the east side a low bench with bluffy promontories, crowned with the beautiful smooth-barked madrona tree, rises from the green meadows. if we could, from so fair an entrance, ascend the willamette to its source in the cascade mountains two hundred miles away, and if we could turn into the tualatin, the yamhill, the clackamas, the molalla, the la creole, the santiam, the calapooia, affluents worthy of union with the willamette, and if we could tarry among the vales and meadows and oak-crowned hills and distant coast and cascade ranges of mountains, all across that superb valley, fifty miles wide by a hundred and fifty long, as beautiful as greece or italy,--we would then all agree that the willamette deserves a volume by itself and that it is almost a crime to introduce it so briefly here. every old oregonian, in thinking of the willamette, at once associates it with the apostrophe to it by s. l. simpson, the gifted and unfortunate poet of oregon, whose genius deserved a wider recognition than it ever received. the first stanza of his poem is this: from the cascades' frozen gorges, leaping like a child at play, winding, widening through the valley, bright willamette glides away. onward ever, lovely river, softly calling to the sea, time that scars us, maims and mars us, leaves no track or trench on thee. and now that we have fairly entered the willamette, it becomes speedily evident that we are in the near vicinity of a large and prosperous city. steamboats, an occasional steamship, sailing ships, sometimes huge four-masted steel ships towed by coughing tugs, long booms of logs in tow of some spluttering stern-wheeler, scows of every description, gasoline launches, rowboats,--a motley fleet, they seem to be making they way with all possible haste upon the stream. [illustration: willamette falls, oregon city, ore. photo. by e. h. moorehouse.] we are indeed approaching portland, the metropolis of the columbia, the "rose city," in many respects the most interesting and attractive of western cities. the approach to portland is one hard to match for stately beauty. the city occupies both sides of the willamette, the main business part on the west side, but the larger residence part on the east. the first settler on the original site of portland was a man named overton. lownsdale, chapman, and lovejoy bought him out. then captain john h. couch in located a donation land claim on what is now the northern part of the west side city. at that time the site was somewhat cut up with gulches and clothed in the densest of dense forests, with perfect jungles of every species of undergrowth. but duller eyes than those of the gallant mariners, couch, flanders, ainsworth, pettygrove, and lovejoy, could have seen beneath the tangled thickets the making of a city, though it may well be questioned whether even they, in their wildest flights of fancy, ever pictured the scene of to-day, where the city of these sixty years' building now sits, a queen upon her circling throne of hills. the location of portland is almost ideal. the hills to the west rise to a height of about eight hundred feet, but many fine homes are located there, and car lines cross the hills in many directions. above the fogs and smoke these high-line homes have every possible charm. on the east side of the willamette the land is a level bench with limitless room for expansion. there are a few picturesque elevations on the east side, as mt. tabor and mt. scott, and these have been used for homes with the taste which characterises the entire city. portland is the centre of every species of transportation facility. it has one of the most extensive and well-equipped electric railway systems in the united states. in addition to the urban lines, there are interurban lines in every direction, to vancouver, troutdale, oregon city, milwaukee, hillsboro, and salem, the last named the capital of the state and fifty miles distant. we find also that four transcontinental railroads have a terminus in portland, the southern pacific, the northern pacific, the union pacific, and the great northern. steamship lines run to alaska, puget sound, san francisco and other california ports, to all the coastwise ports of oregon, to the hawaiian islands and the orient, and to mexico and south america. sailing ships convey the products of the north-west to all the ports of the world. as a result of these facilities for commerce we find such figures as the following: during the year there entered and cleared at portland twelve hundred and twenty ocean-going vessels, registering more than , , tons, net, and with a carrying capacity of , , tons. in the cargoes of this total, were , , feet of lumber and , , bushels of wheat, flour included. portland has in fact reached the front rank as a wheat and flour shipping port, being in the class with galveston and new york, some of the time having led both of them. in december, , portland's record of wheat shipments, exclusive of flour, was , , bushels. the bureau of statistics of the department of commerce and labor gave the value of all breadstuffs shipped from portland for the eleven months ending november , , at $ , , . during the same period the shipments of the same commodities from san francisco totalled $ , , , while from the three puget sound ports of seattle, tacoma, and everett, the aggregate was $ , , . during november, , there were shipped , bushels of wheat, , barrels of flour, , bushels of barley, and , , feet of lumber. during the year the value of wheat and flour reached a total of $ , , , while the lumber exports aggregated , , feet. [illustration: among the big spruce trees, near astoria, oregon. photo. by woodfield, astoria.] perhaps the most gratifying feature of the shipping trade to portland people has been the increase in the size of ships entering the river. in the average wheat cargo exported was , bushels, while now it is four times as much. the record cargo was that of the british bark _andorinha_, in the fall of , , bushels. the channel from portland to the columbia bar and that across the bar have so much improved that no lightering was necessary during the year , and ships of twenty-five and twenty-six feet draft have gone from portland to the ocean without difficulty. in connection with this fact we are told that in june, , the international sailing-ship owners' union abolished the differential of thirty cents per ton which had stood for some years against portland. these conditions, together with the completion of the north bank railroad, by which a greatly added traffic from the inland empire will be turned to portland, seem to indicate that portland is on the direct road to a greater commercial leadership than she has yet known. the lumber industry centring in portland is as remarkable as that of grain. oregon's available forests, according to government estimates, reach a total of three hundred billion feet, board measure. it is estimated that during the years - the lumber cut in oregon reached about two billion feet each year, of which about one fifth was sawed in portland. it is asserted, in fact, that portland is the largest lumber producing city in the world. lumbermen believe that it is only a question of a few years when portland will cut a billion feet of lumber a year. while grain and lumber are the great articles of export from portland, there are vast totals of fruit, hay, live-stock, dairy and poultry products, fish, and manufactured articles of many kinds. but to the thoughtful traveller it is of more interest to see the use made of wealth than the wealth itself. portland now contains about two hundred thousand people, said to have more per capita wealth than any other city, with two exceptions, in the united states. what are these people doing with their accumulations? for answer the traveller visits the schools, the public buildings, the churches, the stores, the places of amusement, the homes, and he finds every evidence of taste, good judgment, refinement, and artistic skill. the portland hotel, the _oregonian_ building, the marquam grand theatre, the marquam building, the chamber of commerce building, the corbett block, the wells-fargo building, the first congregational, presbyterian, catholic, and baptist churches and jewish synagogue, the union depot, the city hall, the city library,--these and many other structures challenge the admiration of travellers from even the best-built cities of the east. during the year , building permits were issued to an amount exceeding nine million dollars, of which nearly half was expended for dwelling houses. portland is indeed a city of homes, and workingmen own their own houses to an unusual degree. [illustration: portland in . mt. st. helens, sixty-five miles distant.] as the visitor traverses portland's streets, he sees amply demonstrated the propriety of the cognomen, the "rose city." almost every yard boasts its roses, and on almost every porch the scarlet rambler or some other climber casts its rich colouring. soil and climate are said to produce an ideal combination for the finest grades of roses, as well as of many other species of flowers. the portland fair of was the means of beautifying a section of the city near macley park. while most of the structures were of a temporary nature, the unique and interesting forestry building has been left, and this is a rare attraction to the eastern visitor. the two tasteful and significant groups of statuary, _the coming of the white men_ and _sacajawea_, still grace the spot where they were dedicated. portland contains many other attractive works of art at available points. among these is the skidmore fountain, on one of the most crowded thoroughfares of the city, a real gem of art. no visitor to portland should fail to visit the city hall and the valuable and interesting historical collection of the oregon historical society. mr. george h. himes, the secretary of the society, has devoted years to the gathering of this museum of pioneer relics. some of them are priceless. here is the first printing press in oregon, used for some years by rev. h. m. spalding at the nez percé mission. here is mrs. whitman's writing desk. here is captain robert gray's sea-chest. the ages of discovery, of the fur-traders, of the missionaries, of the pioneers, are all lived over again in the inspection of these relics. probably most people who have followed the course of public thought and action in the west, if asked what agency and what man would first come into their minds at the mention of the name of portland, would answer at once,--"the _oregonian_ and its editor, harvey scott." this great journal and its great editor, associated together most of the time for over forty years, have indeed constituted one of the most potent forces in framing the thoughts and the institutions of the columbia river people. it is frequently said that harvey scott and henry watterson are the only great american editors yet remaining of the old type, the type of a personal intellectual force and a public teacher. the present type of editor is rather an advertising manager than a political and social leader, a business man rather than a generator of ideas. there are many additional features of interest in and around portland. whether viewed artistically, commercially, financially, socially, or historically, this fair metropolis of the columbia river empire is in a class by herself. only by personal acquaintance can the student of the west satisfy himself as to portland. but once more we must address ourselves to the river. one may go to astoria by rail down the southern bank, or he may, if he prefer, as we certainly do, go by water. he can go by almost every species of boat known to man, from an ocean steamship to one of the lateen-sailed fishing boats which abound on the lower river. when we have retraced our course to the mouth of the willamette and have again committed ourselves to the oceanward flow of the columbia, we find a continuance of the same low, oozy, and verdant banks, the same timbered hills on either side in the middle distance, and the same dominant snow-peaks and unbroken cascade range in the farthest background. we pass many little towns, whose leading occupations are manifestly lumbering and fishing. we try to live over again the sensations which we think must have been felt by lewis and clark or broughton, as they, first of civilised men, lifted the veil from this solitude. [illustration: portland harbour, oregon. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] in this section of the river there are no stupendous pinnacles as in the gorge of the cascades. yet the scenery is infinitely varied, and although less bold, it is, in its way, equally attractive with the loftier scene. one unique spot attracts the eye, and almost recalls the beauty of rooster rock. this is mt. coffin, on the washington side, near the mouth of the cowlitz river. this was one of the "memaloose" or sepulture places of the indians. there in early times their dead, in great numbers, were deposited upon platforms after the usual indian fashion. after passing the ingress of the cowlitz, we find the river widening to yet grander proportions. islands become numerous. among these islands not a few desperate affrays and even tragedies have occurred among warring fishermen, union against non-union. lurking among these islands, too, are numerous unlicensed vendors of spirits. in the uncertainty as to which of the states may have jurisdiction at places, these illicit traffickers move from island to island and cove to cove and one overhanging forest to another, evading officers of both states and of federal government alike. sometime a novelist will be inspired with the poetry and humour and tragedy and pathos of this fisher life on the lower river, with its mingling of the life of law-breaker and desperado, and this section of our river will blossom into literature and find a place with the moonshiners of the south and the cowboys of the rockies. all the material is ready. the river waits only for its owen wister or hamlin garland or jack london to introduce it to the world of readers. but the river moves and we must move with it. many signs indicate to us that we are approaching the ocean. if we are moving in a small boat, we may pause to camp under some one of the thick-topped spruce trees whose stiff spicules pierce our unwary hands like pins. if we should spend a night we would find the water heaving and falling two, four, or five feet, with the ocean tides. broader and broader grows the river. numerous salmon canneries and seining stations appear. passing a fishing village on the north bank called brookfield, we notice a very curious rock, pillar rock, in the river a quarter of a mile from shore. it rises forty feet directly out of the water. we are told by one versed in indian lore that this is the transformed body of a chief who tried to imitate the god speelyei by wading across the river. for his presumption he was turned into a rock. soon after passing pillar rock we see the curious spectacle of a house on piles apparently right in the middle of the river. more curious still, we see horses seemingly engaged in drawing a load through the very water itself. the mystery is soon solved. the house is built on a sand-bar. it is a seining station. the horses are pulling a seine from its moorings at the point of the sand-bar to the point where its load may be discharged. lumber, salmon, and water,--this is the world in which we now live and move and have our being. [illustration: fish river road, in upper columbia region, b. c. photo. by trueman, victoria.] we next enter a broad expanse of the river, nine miles wide, on the north side of which is a deep cove. there is the historic spot in which robert gray on may , , paused at his highest point to fill his water casks and to float the stars and stripes over oregon, claimed for the united states of america. as we look westward, the headlands seem to part in front of us, and between them sky and water join. the greatest ocean is before us, though still twenty miles away. the river has reached the end of his fourteen-hundred-mile journey. soon we pass, on the oregon side, the bold promontory of tongue point, and astoria, the second largest city on the navigable waters of the columbia, is before us. to the history of this oldest american town west of the rocky mountains we have already referred many times. interesting in so many features of the past, astoria is full of problems and suggestions, commercial and otherwise, for the present and the future. the city has grown slowly, always wondering why portland should have so outstripped her. she certainly has such a location that it seems a crime not to utilise it for a great city. the river is here five miles wide. upon its ample flood all the navies of the world might ride at anchor, sheltered from the sea by the long low sand-ridge of point adams. the site of the city, though somewhat rugged and broken, is entirely capable of reduction to a convenient grade, and is singularly noble and commanding. from the plateau three hundred feet high upon which the splendid waterworks are located, is a view of imposing grandeur;--river in front, dense forest to rear, with the blue saddle and pinnacled horn of saddle mountain,--swallalochost in indian speech, with its thunder-bird of native myth,--and the ocean to the west. we find astoria to be a well-built city of about fifteen thousand permanent inhabitants, with perhaps five or six thousand more during the height of the fishing season. almost every resource of industry offers itself in this favoured region about the mouth of the river. though the country is densely timbered in its native state, the soil is such that when cleared it is of the finest for dairy and vegetable purposes. the mildness of the climate keeps the clover and grass green and the flowers in bloom the long year through. as might be expected the chief industries as yet developed are lumbering and fishing. there are magnificent forests of fir, spruce, cedar, and hemlock, in all directions, while in and around astoria there are six immense establishments for transforming the timber into merchantable lumber. this lumber aggregates something like a hundred and twenty million feet annually, and it goes to all the ports of the world. there is occasionally floated to the bar and thence to san francisco, a log-boom chained in substantial fashion and containing several million feet of logs. such a great boom is one of the most curious sights of the river-mouth. but transcending all else in importance at astoria is the business of canning and drying salmon. what silver is to the coeur d'alene, what wheat is to walla walla, what apples are to hood river, that salmon are to astoria. the people think, act, and reason in terms of salmon. and well they may. he who has not seen chinook salmon from the columbia river has not seen fish. nay, he cannot even be said to have really lived in the larger sense of the term. take a genuine chinook salmon of fifty or sixty pounds, caught in june, fat, rich, glistening,--but words are a mockery. nothing but the actual experience will convey the impression. the salmon output on the river has for some years run from two hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred thousand cases per year, twenty-four cans to the case. the amount dried and smoked represents something like an equal amount. this is for the river from astoria to the dalles. the great bulk of this, however, is put up at astoria or in its immediate vicinity. it is estimated that from thirty million to forty million salmon are caught yearly on the oregon side of the lower river. this represents a value of four or five million dollars, about half of this going to the fishermen and half to the cannerymen. some ten thousand men are engaged in fishing about the mouth of the river. these men are largely finns, russians, norsemen, italians, sicilians, and greeks. they have various co-operative associations and are independent of the cannerymen, to whom they furnish the fish at some stipulated price, usually five cents a pound. [illustration: multnomah falls, feet high, on south side of columbia river about sixty miles above portland. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] there are many tragedies at the mouth of the river. the best fishing is just off the bar and the best time to draw the nets is at the turn of the tide. in a fishing boat in the chill of the early morning, the fishermen will frequently become benumbed and drowsy, and will neglect the critical moment. when the tide fairly turns on the bar it runs out like a mill race, and woe to the boat that waits too long. it goes out to sea, reappearing perhaps, bottom-up, in the course of the day, with owners and cargo gone. some experienced men have asserted that not less than a hundred fishermen are lost every summer. many boats are now fitted with gasoline power, and loss of life is lessened thereby. to the visitor at the river's mouth the fairest sight of all in connection with the fishing industry is the incoming fleet of boats in the early morning, or the outgoing fleet of evening. on a june night it scarcely grows really dark at all, and as the faint glow of the north turns at two or three o'clock into the morning flush, the lateen sails can be seen like a flock of gulls on the rim of the ocean. when the full radiance of the dawn, with its bars of carmine and saffron, has "turned to yellow gold the salt-green streams," the fleet is within the outer headlands. hundreds, sometimes thousands of them, a regular cloud of them, converge from all parts of the offing to the wharves of lower astoria. with all its benefits the fishing industry brings almost infinite trouble. the two states of oregon and washington never agree on laws governing the periods of lawful fishing. sometimes federal authorities bear a part in the imbroglio. gill-net men, seiners, fish-trap men, union men, non-union men, local, state, and federal officials, all combine in one great general mix-up. in the midst of the confusion the countless salmon pursue their course up the river and its tributaries in summer, back to the ocean again in autumn. the federal government maintains fish hatcheries on a number of streams, and from them young salmon to the number of millions are turned out each year to replenish the diminishing supply. [illustration: chinook salmon, weight pounds. photo. by woodfield, astoria.] a great and constantly growing tide of tourists from all parts of the willamette valley and the upper columbia region go to astoria during the summer. the fine steamers, _t. j. potter_, _hassalo_, _charles d. spencer_, and others of less size, convey these thousands of tourists to astoria, while the railroad from portland brings yet other thousands. from astoria, the north beach is reached by steamer to ilwaco, and thence by rail to all points of the fishhook of land which extends from the northern headland of the river to the mouth of willapa harbour. during the season this beach is almost a continuous city from cape hancock to leadbetter point, twenty miles distant. clatsop beach on the south side of the river is reached by rail from astoria. every charm that an ocean resort can possess has been lavished on these two beaches on either side of the river. the bathing, boating, climbing, fishing, hunting, clamming, crabbing,--they are all there. to the population of that part of the river country east of the cascades, the transition from the dust and heat of the summer to the cool and rest and freshness of the beach, with its breath from six thousand miles of unbroken sea, is almost like a change of scenes in a play. both these beaches, especially clatsop beach, are the location of a rich store of indian legend and romance. "cheatcos" and "skookums" haunt the forests, and the spirits of tallapus and nekahni and quootshoi have been enthroned on every peak and cape. * * * * * all rivers must reach the sea, and all journeys must end. and so both our river and our journey find their end in the ocean. from astoria we can see the outer headlands and the ocean space between. as we survey this merging of the great river with the greater deep, our eyes turn in fancy to that clear, bright lake, fourteen hundred miles away in the snowy peaks of british columbia, from which the river flows. and in imagination we view again the vistas of lagoons and islands, cliffs and glaciers, lakes and cañons, plains and forests, through which the columbia takes its course, while once more the changing scenes of the historical drama associated with that splendid waterway are enacted before our eyes. [illustration: lake adela, near head of columbia river, b. c. photo. by c. f. yates.] but now all these scenes and vistas must be left behind, and we must pass between the capes. the long sandspit of point adams lies on the south, and the bold rock-promontory of cape hancock on the north, seven miles apart, each crowned with a lighthouse. between them we secure a view of the great jetty in course of construction by the federal government. this is one of the most important improvements in connection with the river. when this work, together with the canal and locks at celilo, is completed, the river may be regarded as really navigable on a large scale. the work on the jetty was inaugurated soon after the jetty-building by captain eads at the mouth of the mississippi river had drawn the favourable attention of people and government to this method of deepening river mouths. the jetty consists of a double line of piling, filled with rock and mattresses of woven willows. this constitutes a solid core against which the current of the river on one side piles the silt, while on the other the ocean waves pound the sand into a permanent barrier-reef. the philosophy of it is so to narrow the entrance that the accelerated current of the river will scour out the channel to an increased depth. piles have been set in place by an ingenious system of pneumatic pipes by which compressed air bores a hole in the sand. into this hole the pile is dropped, and the sea-waves in a moment fill in and tamp the sand around it. thus the ocean is made to fence itself out. upon the jetty a railroad has been built, and a train, loaded with rock and willows, runs out on this every eleven minutes for dumping material into the space between the piles. very gratifying results have already been secured. there is now a depth of twenty-six feet on the bar at low water. the crest of the bar has been cut much deeper at several narrow points, and this indicates the progress that may be expected. it is hoped that the completed jetty will maintain a permanent channel of forty feet at low water. in stormy weather the work on the jetty is difficult and dangerous. the impact of the pacific waves when lashed by a sixty-mile "sou'-wester" is something terrific. large sections of piling have been torn out, and much loss has resulted. but patience and money triumph over all obstacles, and the work goes steadily on. some conception of the magnitude of the commerce to be accommodated by this great work may be formed from the fact that in the year the freight handled on the lower river by both river and ocean vessels amounted to , , tons, valued at $ , , . this is but a fraction of what will come with the full development of the columbia valley and with the needed improvements to navigation. the federal government maintains life-saving stations on both sides of the river. many a tale of daring could these heroes of the beach tell, should we stop to question them. we are at the point of the jetty. the buoys rise and fall behind us. the horrible blare of the fog-horn sounds across the thunder of the surf, as we cross the imaginary line from headland to headland. sea-captains tell us that ten miles from the river's mouth--so powerfully does the mighty current cleave the sea--they can dip up fresh water. but now, to west and north and south, the deep blue, though crossed by the pale green of the river water, assures us that we are fairly upon the bar. the river of the west is all behind us. if it be very clear, we can just discern upon the horizon's verge, cameo-like and glistening white, mt. hood, monarch of the oregon cascades, for ever standing guard over the disappearing river. [illustration: bridal veil bluff, columbia river, ore. photo. by e. h. moorehouse, portland.] as the shore line grows vague, it would not be difficult for the imagination to conjure up the navigators of the old world who sailed these seas, then unknown seas of mystery and romance. looming up through the ocean mists we may see strange ships and stranger crews emerge,--junks with oriental castaways swept hither by storms and ocean currents; caravels with the dauntless sailors of the sixteenth century; buccaneers and pirates, a motley flotilla. then the stout crafts of drake, behring, heceta, cook, malaspina, valdez, bodega, vancouver, la pérouse; ships of discovery, of trade, of war, of adventure, of science; flags of spain, of russia, of portugal, of france, of england;--on they throng from the hazy pacific rim toward the oregon shore. and soon we seem to see, circling around them, canoes with their red-skinned paddlers from the river's mouth. but ships and flags, explorers and natives, fade like a dissolving view. in their place appears a gallant bark, with banner streaming free. what ship? what banner? the _columbia rediviva_, and the stars and stripes--the flag that still waves over the land of the oregon. * * * * * and now our vessel rises and falls upon the long swell of the pacific. our journey on the columbia river is ended, and we are upon the open sea. [illustration: band of kootenai indians, b. c. photo. by allan lean, nelson.] index a abernethy, clark & co., builders of steamers on columbia, abernethy, george, first provisional governor, adams, mount, origin of, in indian myth, - ; elevation of, ; caves of, ; sport in vicinity, ; structure of, - ; storm on, ; ascent of, - ; views from, - aguilar, martin, spanish explorer, - ainsworth, j. c., first captain of steamer _lot whitcomb_, ; joins new company, ; skill in running rapids, _albatross_, ship connected with winship enterprise, - american board of foreign missions undertakes work for oregon indians, applegate, jesse, disasters of family on columbia river, ; extract from pioneer address, armstrong, capt. f. p., trip on kootenai river, - arrow lakes, steamboat journey on, ; scenery of, _et seq._ arteaga, voyage on the alaskan coast, astor, john jacob, founder of pacific fur co., ; establishes company at astoria, ; his plans and mistakes, - astoria, founding of, ; restored to united states, , ; amplitude of harbour, ; scenery of surroundings, ; industries of, - ; fishing fleets, ; resorts adjoining, astoria and columbia river railroad, b baker, dr. d. s., railroad builder, - _baker, d. s._, the steamer, running the dalles, _bailey gatzert_, steamer on columbia river, balch, frederick, his story, _the bridge of the gods_, bancroft, h. h., discussion of loss of _tonquin_, banff, attraction as a resort, bannock indian war, barlow, s. k., building road across cascade mountains, barrell, joseph, originator of fur company at boston, bassett, w. f., first gold discovery in idaho, bateaux, description of, baughman, capt., pilot on columbia and snake rivers, _beaver_, vessel of the pacific fur company, - _beaver_, first steamship on columbia river, beers, alanson, members of executive committee of provisional government, "beeswax ship," story of, - behring, vitus, explorations on pacific coast, - belcher, sir edward, expedition to columbia river, _belle_, steamer on columbia river, benton, thomas h., expressions in regard to oregon, ; special advocate for oregon, bishop, b. b., steamboat builder on columbia river, blakeney, capt., in charge of steamer _isabel_ on upper columbia, blalock, dr. n. g., connection with large enterprises, blanchet, rev. f. n., book on catholic missions, ; journey to oregon, ; locates in willamette valley, blanchet, rev. magloire, catholic mission at walla walla, boas, dr. franz, investigator of indian legends, bodega, first voyage, ; later voyage, bonneville, capt. e. l. e., organises trading company, ; makes explorations on columbia river, ; meets washington irving, bradford, daniel, steamboat building on columbia river, bradford & co., steamboat line on columbia river, broughton, lieut. w. r., in command of the _chatham_, ; entrance of columbia river and exploration, - ; erroneous statements, - buchanan, james, course in regard to boundary of oregon, bullfinch, account of american fur-trade, burnett, peter, speech to immigrants, ; governor of california, ; opinion in regard to provisional government, c cabinet rapids, cabrillo, navigator on coast of california, calhoun, john c., attitude on oregon question, ; peculiar situation of, - cameahwait, chief of shoshone indians, meeting with lewis and clark party, ; finding sacajawea, canadian boatmen, their skill and gayety, - canadian pacific railroad, route of, over rocky mts., ; over selkirks, - ; excellence of management, ; steamboats on lakes, canadian rockies, character of, and steepness of descent, canoes, cape horn, _carolina_, steamer crossing columbia bar, cascades, a dividing line, ; historic and physical interest of, ; locks, ; first notice of tide, ; fish-wheels and spearmen, cascade mountains, general description, - ; the great peaks, - ; valleys on east side, ; valleys on west side, - ; cleft by columbia river, cass, senator, speech in regard to oregon, castle rock, unique appearance, ; ascents of, ; cave and arrowheads, catlin, george, account of indians who sought "book of life," cayuse war, beginning, ; ending, celiast, indian woman, champoeg, meetings for provisional government, - chelan lake, type of columbian lakes, ; first appearance, ; glacial origin, ; depth of cañon, ; comparison with other scenes, - ; storms on, - ; sunset on, chemeketa, the indian council ground, chinook wind, legend of, - chittenden, major h. m., book on american fur-trade, choteau, pierre and auguste, founding of st. louis, _christian advocate_, account of indians looking for "book of life," clark, william, lieutenant of exploring party, ; indians think him "medicine man," ; indians looking for "book of life," - clarke, gen. n. s., in command of columbia, clatsop plains, favourite resort of indians, clay, henry, attitude on oregon question, coe, capt. lawrence, building steamer _colonel wright_, ; account of first trip on upper columbia and snake rivers, - coeur d'alene, lake, as a resort, ; its mines, colleges founded as result of missions, _colonel wright_, the steamer, on upper columbia, ; makes first trip on upper rivers, - columbia basin, forces that wrought it, - ; general description, - ; climate, - columbia river, many names, ; early attracts attention, ; connection with kootenai river, ; tomanowas bridge, ; damming at cascades, - ; discovery by heceta, ; discovered and named by robert gray, ; results of discovery, ; first navigation by lewis and clark party, ; falls passed by party, ; submerged forests, ; descent by lewis and clark, - ; first sight by hunt's party, ; _tonquin_ on bar, ; forts on, - ; crossing of bar by the ship, _l'indefatigable_, ; descent by immigrants of , - ; description of bar by provost, ; massacres upon, by indians, ; steamboat business, _et seq._; first steamboats on lower part, ; on upper part, ; railroads along, - ; navigability of, ; prospective traffic of, - ; character above golden, _et seq._; character below golden, ; lakes of, _et seq._; from robson to kettle falls, ; from kettle falls to wenatchee, ; rapids and shores from wenatchee to pasco, ; irrigating enterprises, - ; between pasco and the dalles, - ; canal, ; section beginning at the dalles, - ; peculiar character at cascades, ; tomanowas bridge, ; compared with other scenes, ; appearance below rooster rock, ; between portland and the ocean, - ; farewell to, columbia river navigation co., _columbia_, the steamer, on river, condon, professor thomas, geological theories, cook, capt. james, journey on oregon coast, ; death, cortereal, gaspar, straits of anian, coxe, account of fur-trade, coyote god, fight with kamiah monster, - coyote head, crooks, ramsay, partner of pacific fur co., ; hard experience with indians, culliby lake, cultee, charley, indian story teller, curry, governor, calling for volunteers, d dalles, the, historical interest of, ; varied resources of, - ; scenery, day, john, treatment by indians and death, - dayton, congressman, expressions about oregon, dawson, professor, explanation of sources of columbia, de haro at nootka, de may in battle of pine creek, demers, rev. modest, missionary to indians, de smet, rev. pierre j., books on catholic missions, ; in northern idaho, ; in europe for reinforcements, ; crossing bar, disoway, g. p., account of indians who sought "book of life," dixson, figures on profits of fur-trade, donation land law attracts immigration, dorion, madame, desperate situation in blue mountains, drake, francis, explorations, e _eagle_, steamer above cascades, ; rescuing victims of indian war, edwards, rev. p. l., associate missionary, eells, rev. cushing, missionary to oregon indians, ; locating at tshimakain, elliott, s. g., first railroad surveys, england, difficulty with spain over nootka sound, f farnham, t. j., in command of peoria party, ; history of oregon and california, ferrelo, explorations on the coast, field, mountain resort, fiske, wilbur, leading missionary movements, florida treaty with spain, fonte, extravagant stories, fort clatsop built by lewis and clark, france, assistance to american colonies, franchère, gabriel, history of pacific fur co., ; founding of astoria, ; account of destruction of _tonquin_, fuca, juan de, fur-trade, beginnings, - ; on oregon coast, - ; connection with discoveries, ; historical importance, ; financial profits of, g gale, joseph, building of _star of oregon_, ; sails to california, ; on executive committee of provisional government, gale, william, on ship _albatross_, ; extract from journal, galiano, voyage around vancouver island, garnett, major, in yakima war, gaston, lieutenant, in battle of pine creek, gervais, joseph, location in oregon, ghent, treaty of, gilliam, cornelius, in cayuse war, glacier, canadian resort, - glacier lake, glacier peak, golden on columbia river, grande ronde valley, first view by hunt party, grant, captain, attempting to keep back american immigration, gray, capt. robert, in command of _lady washington_, ; as a fur-trader, ; discovers columbia river, gray, w. h., history of oregon, ; characteristics, ; four sons, ; estimate of population, ; in provisional government, - ; steamboat enterprises, ; adventure on snake river gray, capt. wm. p., story of ascent of snake river, ; trip down snake river, great britain, claims to oregon, - h halhaltlossot, or lawyer, hallakallakeen (joseph), summer camp, hard winter of , _hassalo_, the steamer, - _hassalo, no. _, hathaway, felix, building schooner, _star of oregon_, heceta, first voyage, ; discovery of columbia river, - henry, andrew, trading post on snake river, - hickey, capt. f., at restoration of astoria, hill, david, on executive committee of provisional government, hill, j. j., railroad builder, holladay, ben, president of oregon central railroad, holmes, oliver w., quotation, hood, mount, origin of, in indian myth, - ; first appearance of, ; elevation, ; approach to, ; cloud cap inn, ; view from, ; historic character of view, ; appearance from la camas, hood river and valley, appearance and productions of, howard, general o. o., in nez percé war of , ; description of joseph, hudson's bay company, organisation of, ; joined with north-western fur co., ; forts, _et seq._; boats and boatmen, - ; policy toward americans, - ; attitude toward provisional government, , ; treatment of dr. mcloughlin, hunt, wilson p., forms land division of pacific fur co., ; leader in journey, _et seq._ i idaho, name of, ; reached by lewis and clark, - ; first steamboat, ; gold discoveries, _et seq._; university, ; irrigation systems, illecillewaet river, immigration of , beginnings, ; at fort hall, ; constructing flatboats on columbia, ; disasters on river, - ; succoured by dr. mcloughlin, ; settlement in willamette valley, indians, sad history, ; myths, _et seq._; names, - ; traders in furs, indians', the three nez percé, quest for the "book of life," indian war of , beginning, ; battle at walla walla, ; unsatisfactory end, indian war of , _et seq._ inland empire, origin, ; general description, _intelligencer, national_, expressions in regard to oregon, irving, washington, author of _astoria_, j _jason p. flint_, steamer on columbia, jefferson, thomas, connection with pacific coast, - ; organisation of lewis and clark expedition, - ; instructions to party, _jenny clark_, steamer on willamette, jetty, at mouth of river, construction, ; prospective results, joint occupation treaty, joseph, indian chief, in walla walla council, - joseph (hallakallakeen), in great war of , ; captured, ; later life and character, joseph war of , _et seq._ k kamiah monster, myth of, - kamiakin, yakima chief, ; at walla walla council, ; conspiracy to kill governor stevens, ; description of by stevens, ; breaking up of treaties, ; new force of warriors, ; apparent success, kamm, jacob, engineer on steamer _lot whitcomb_, keith, j., at restoration of astoria, kelley, hall j., home and character, ; expedition to california and oregon, ; return to new england, kelley, col. j. k., in battle of the walla walla, kendrick, capt. john, in command of the _columbia rediviva_, ; in fur-trade, kettle falls, historic interest, kennewick, kicking horse river (wapta), origin of name, kilbourne, ralph, builder of _star of oregon_, kimooenim river, or snake river, first view by lewis and clark party, kip, lieutenant, account of walla walla council, - klickitat indians, legends, - ; atrocities of, at cascades, kobaiway, indian chief, konapee, story of, - kooskooskie river, discovered by the lewis and clark party, ; navigation on, by lewis and clark party, kootenai river, character of navigation, - ; bonnington falls of, kootenai lake, description of, - ; sporting on, l la camas, paper mill, _ladd, carrie_, steamer on willamette, lamazee, or lamazu, brings news of destruction of _tonquin_, _lark_, wreck of, _lausanne_, methodist mission ship, lawyer, indian chief favourable to whites, - le breton, g. w., part in founding provisional government, ledyard, john, connection with jefferson, ; comprehension of fur-trade, lee, rev. daniel, missionary to indians, ; mission at the dalles, lee, rev. jason, missionary to indians, ; locating mission at chemawa, ; in the east for reinforcements, ; death, ; connection with ewing young, ; memorial to congress, ; influence, ; lecture at peoria, ; chairman of meeting of settlers, lewis and clark expedition, its inception by jefferson, ; summary by captain lewis, ; mention of, by jefferson, lewis, jo, part in whitman massacre, lewis, meriwether, selection by jefferson for leader of party, ; description of crossing divide, lewiston, founding of, linn senator, presenting memorials to congress, ; his death, lisa, manuel, organises the missouri fur company, looking glass, famous speech, _lot whitcomb_, the steamer, on columbia river, louise, lake, beauties of, louisiana purchase, significance, m macbeth, miss kate, opinion about indians who looked for "book of life," - mackenzie, alexander, expedition to pacific coast, ; journey to the arctic ocean, ; reaches pacific ocean, mcbean, wm., account of walla walla council, mccellan, robert, partner of pacific fur company, mcclellan, geo. b., assists stevens in reconnaissance for pacific railroad, mcdougall, duncan, smallpox bottle, ; marries daughter of comcomly, ; sells out company, mckay, dr. w. c., physician at pendleton, mckenzie, donald, partner of pacific fur company, ; leads division of party, ; sells out company, mckinley, allen, building of steamer on columbia, mcloughlin, dr. john, as factor of hudson's bay company, ; reception of methodist missionaries, ; meets the whitman party of missionaries, ; connection with building _star of oregon_, ; sees approaching success of americans, ; stories connecting him with americans, ; account of provisional government, ; becomes an american citizen, ; land troubles, ; sadness of old age, ; summary of character, maldonado, extravagant stories, ; map, maquinna, indian chief, martinez, voyage on coast of oregon, _mary_, steamer on upper columbia, ; rescues victims of indian war, ; on her regular route, mazama club, influence of, meares, capt. john, english explorer, ; voyages to oregon coast, ; at mouth of columbia, - meek, jo, part in founding provisional government, memaloose island, miller, joseph, partner of pacific fur company, minto, john, account of founding of provisional government, montcachabe, indian who first crossed the continent, _moody, mary_, steamer, first steamer on pend oreille lake, moody, z. f., builds steamer, moorehouse, major lee, indian photographer, morigeau, baptiste, pioneer on lake windermere, moscow, site of university of idaho, moses, indian chief, _mountain buck_, steamer on columbia, mountaineers' club, purpose and location, mowry, wm., report of speech by nez percé indian, _multnomah_, steamer on columbia, multnomah falls, n nekahni, mt., location of, ; beauty of, ; the "treasure ship," - nelson, metropolis of the kootenai, ; fruit industries of, ; mines of, ; transportation of, nesmith, j. w., extract on immigration of , ; account of indian guide, sticcus, ; in indian war of , nez percé indians, origin of, ; first meeting with lewis and clark party, ; looking for "book of life," nootka sound, discovery of, ; important centre, ; as a cause of dispute between england and spain, north bank railroad, ; cost of, ; bridge, north-west fur company, organisation, ; unites with hudson's bay company, , ; in possession of columbia basin, o oak point founded by winship brothers, ogden, peter skeen, ransoms survivors of whitman massacre, _okanogan_, the steamer, first to run tumwater falls, okanogan indians, story of, - oneonta gorge, oregon, name of, oregon question, its complicated and momentous character, oregon railroad and navigation co. organised, oregon short line railroad, oregon steam navigation co. organised, ; development of business, ; its portages, ; sells out, oregon transportation co. organised, _oregonian_, newspaper, influence of, osborne, mr., escape from whitman massacre, p pacific fur co., organisation of, ; its dissolution, paha cliffs, pakenham, british envoy, and his course in regard to oregon, - pambrun, pierre, instructed indians in catholic faith, parker, rev. samuel, in oregon to investigate condition of indians, ; his traits, ; book, pasco, lands around, ; prospects of, _patriot, illinois_, report of the indians looking for "book of life," _peacock_, ship of wilkes expedition lost on columbia bar, pearce, e. d., connection with discovery of gold in idaho, pearson, express rider, rides to notify stevens of great yakima war, - pendleton, its industries and some of its citizens, - peoria party of immigrants, perez, voyage of, perkins, rev. h. k. w., mission at the dalles, peupeumoxmox, indian chief in war of , ; leads force to walla walla, ; killed, polk, president, management of oregon question, - poppleton, irene lincoln, article in _oregon historical quarterly_, portland developed by discovery of gold in california, ; location, ; transportation facilities, ; commerce, - ; buildings, ; artistic character of, ; historical society, - _potter, t. j._, steamer on columbia, priest rapids, character of, ; origin of name, ; power for pumping, provisional government, origin of, - ; organisation of, ; officers of, ; state house for, provost, j. b., at restoration of astoria, ; agent of united states for receiving astoria from great britain, ; describes columbia bar, - pullman, site of state college, r _raccoon_, british man-of-war at astoria, railroad creek, scenery about, - rainier, mt., origin of name, rector, wm., road across cascade mountains, revelstoke, character as a junction, rock island rapids, roosevelt, theodore, view of calhoun's policy in regard to oregon, ; reference to columbia river, rooster rock, appearance of, - ; river below, rosalia, monument of steptoe, ross, alexander, adventure in yakima country, - ; narration of profits in fur-trade, ; on blowing up of _tonquin_, ruckle and olmstead put steamer on columbia, russia, entrance upon american exploration, - s sacajawea, with lewis and clark party, ; sees the whale, ; finds her brother, cameahwait, st. helens, mt., origin of, in indian myth, - st. joe river, its beauties, st. peter's dome, salmon river, lewis and clark party at the head of, saltese, coeur d'alene chief, _san josé_, ship connected with indian story, scott, harvey, character and influence as an editor, sea-otter, importance in the fur-trade, _señorita_, steamer on columbia, shakspere, his location of caliban and ariel in the far west, shaw, col. b. f., battle of grande ronde, shepard, rev. cyrus, missionary to indians, sheridan, battle at cascades, shoshone indians, meeting with lewis and clark party, - shuswap indians, story of, - _sierra nevada_, the steamship, its cargo of treasure, simpson, s. l., extract from poem of, smith, rev. a. b., minister to oregon indians, ; at kamiah, smith, j. c., connection with gold mines in idaho, smith, jedediah, american trapper thought to have taught religion to indians, smith, william, mate on _albatross_, snake river, orchards of, ; heat, ; irrigation systems of, ; shoshone falls of, snow-peaks, general group of, ; zones of, - snickster, adventure in steptoe expedition, sowles, capt. cornelius, character of, spain, connection with oregon exploration, ; downfall, - ; settlement of california, ; favouring conditions for exploration, ; conflict with england over nootka, ; character of claims to oregon, spalding, rev. h. h., in oregon as missionary, ; his traits of character, ; among nez percés, ; first printing press west of rocky mountains, spalding, mrs. h. h., characteristics, speelyei, indian god, struggle with wishpoosh, - ; creates indian tribes, _spencer chas. d._, steamer on columbia, spokane, remarkable character as a city, ; water power of falls, ; grandeur as spectacle, ; railway system, spokane house, location of, spotted eagle, remarkable speech, _star of oregon_, schooner built on willamette river, ; trip to san francisco, stark, benjamin, in steamboat business, _statesman, washington_, extracts in regard to idaho mines, - stehekin river, cañon of, ; rainbow falls of, ; horseshoe basin of, steptoe, col. e. j., dissension with stevens, ; fort at walla walla, ; disastrous expedition to spokane, _et seq._ stevens, hazard, account of walla walla council, stevens, i. i., appointed governor of washington, ; makes treatise, ; council at walla walla, ; goes to northern country to make treaties, ; describes kamiakin, ; makes treaty with flatheads, ; returns to olympia, ; organises volunteers, ; second council at walla walla, ; trouble with steptoe, ; trouble with wool, ; battle at walla walla, ; reconnaissance for railroad in , sticcus, indian guide of immigrants, ; tries to save the whitman mission, stuart, david, founding of fort okanogan, stump, capt. t. j., on first steamer down tumwater falls, sturgis, profits of fur-trade, sutter, captain, connection with discovery of gold, swan, data on income of furs, swift, jonathan, placing of gulliver near the coast of oregon, t "takhoma, mt.," origin of name, tallapus, indian deity, tamahas, part in whitman massacre, , tamsaky, in whitman massacre, ; killed, taylor, captain, part in battle of pine creek, telaukait, part in whitman massacre, _tenino_, the steamer, value of its business, tetons, three, first seen by hunt party, thompson, david, crossing the continent, ; at astoria, ; remains of his fort on lake windermere, thompson, r. r., builds steamer _colonel wright_, thorn, jonathan, disposition as captain of _tonquin_, ; tyrannical course in entering columbia river, - thornton, j. quinn, description of oregon state house, timothy, nez percé indian guide to steptoe's command, save command, - _tonquin_, fitting out for astoria, ; entrance of columbia river, - ; destroyed by indians, ; account of capture, touchet valley, adaptability to orchards, trappers, two general classes of, treaty with england in regard to oregon, trevett, vic, tomb of, troup, capt. james, skill in running rapids, ; on _d. s. baker_ over the dalles, u umatilla plains first seen by the hunt expedition, umatilla rapids, singular character of, union transportation co. organised, united states, character of claims to oregon, ; notifies great britain to regain astoria, v valdez, circumnavigation of vancouver island, vancouver, capt. george, as english commissioner, ; equipment for exploration, ; at mouth of columbia river, ; meets gray, ; at columbia bar, vancouver island, location of important explorations, - vancouver, fort, its condition as a hudson's bay post, - vancouver, city of historic interest, ; scenery, _venture_, the steamer, carried over cascades, verendrye, first european to enter rocky mountains, villard, henry, first arrival in oregon, ; railroad on columbia river, ; financial disasters, vizcaino, commander of spanish fleet of exploration, von holst, opinion in regard to calhoun's management of the oregon matter, w walker, rev. elkanah, missionary to oregon indians, ; at tshimakain, walker's prairie, location of first church, walker, wm., account of indians who sought the "book of life," walla walla, fort, arrival at, by immigrants of , walla walla city, historic nature of, ; appearance and surroundings, ; whitman mission, walla walla council of stevens with indians, _et seq._ wallowa lake, beauty and historic interest of, wallula, wapatoo island, first seen by lewis and clark party, ; description of, wapta river, _wasco_, steamer built on columbia, ; rescues victims of indian war, ; under new management, washington, state, evidences of development, _et seq._; views of, from mt. adams, _et seq._ washington territory, created by congress, ; volunteers for indian war, washougal, historic interest of, webster, daniel, attitude on oregon question, - ; inclined to yield to england, wehatpolitan, story of, wenatchee, interest as an irrigated region, whitcomb, lot, builds steamer of same name, white, dr. elijah, in oregon in as indian agent, white, capt. lew, commands steamer _colonel wright_ on trip up columbia, - ; launches steamer _forty-nine_ on columbia, whitman, dr. marcus, entrance upon work for oregon indians, ; popularity with trappers, ; return to new york, ; marriage and return to oregon, ; his appearance and character, ; getting waggon across continent, ; among cayuses, ; conception of value of oregon, ; journey in midwinter to st. louis, ; helps organise immigration of , ; guides immigrants, ; doctors indians for measles, ; assassinated, ; connection with dr. mcloughlin, whitman, mrs. narcissa, appearance and qualities, ; her death, whitman massacre, - whitman college, whitman county, agricultural resources of, white salmon river and valley, wilkes, lieut. chas., commands expedition to columbia river, ; establishes idea of unity of pacific coast, ; assists in equipping schooner _star of oregon_, ; advice to settlers about a government, willamette river, scenery around mouth, ; tributaries and valley, ; apostrophe to, by s. l. simpson, willamette valley, general view, willamette university grows out of mission to indians, williams in the steptoe retreat, windermere lake, winship brothers, project for trading company on columbia river, - wishpoosh, the beaver, indian legend, wool, gen. j. e., discord with stevens, , wright, colonel, campaign against spokane indians, , wyeth, nathaniel, takes methodist missionary party across continent in , ; commendation by lowell, ; plans great enterprise on columbia, ; builds fort at mouth of willamette, ; attracts attention to oregon, y yakima valley, productive capacity of, yaktana, indian chief in adventure with ross, young, ewing, in california, ; drives cattle to oregon, ; death of, z zaltieri, map of america, [illustration: columbia river entrance] [illustration: the columbia river and surrounding country] _american waterways_ the romance of the colorado river the story of its discovery in , with an account of the later explorations, and with special reference to the voyages of powell through the line of the great canyons. by frederick s. dellenbaugh member of the united states colorado river expedition of and _ pages, with illustrations, and frontispiece in color. $ . net_ "his scientific training, his long experience in this region, and his eye for natural scenery enable him to make this account of the colorado river most graphic and interesting. no other book equally good can be written for many years to come--not until our knowledge of the river is greatly enlarged."--_the boston herald._ "mr. dellenbaugh writes with enthusiasm and balance about his chief, and of the canyon with a fascination that make him disinclined to leave it, and brings him thirty years later to its description with undiminished interest."--_new york tribune._ the ohio river a course of empire by archer b. hulbert associate professor of american history, marietta college, author of "historic highways of america," etc. _ pages, with illustrations and a map. $ . net_ an interesting description from a fresh point of view of the international struggle which ended with the english conquest of the ohio basin, and includes many interesting details of the pioneer movement on the ohio. the most widely read students of the ohio valley will find a unique and unexpected interest in mr. hulbert's chapters dealing with the ohio river in the revolution, the rise of the cities of pittsburg, cincinnati, and louisville, the fighting virginians, the old-time methods of navigation, etc. "a wonderfully comprehensive and entirely fascinating book."--_chicago inter-ocean._ narragansett bay _its historic and romantic associations and picturesque setting_ by edgar mayhew bacon author of "the hudson river," "chronicles of tarrytown," etc. _ pages, with drawings by the author, and with numerous photographs and a map. $ . net_ impressed by the important and singular part played by the settlers of narragansett in the development of american ideas and ideals, and strongly attracted by the romantic tales that are inwoven with the warp of history, as well as by the incomparable setting the great bay affords for such a subject, the author offers this result of his labor as a contribution to the story of great american waterways, with the hope that his readers may be imbued with somewhat of his own enthusiasm. "an attractive description of the picturesque part of rhode island. mr. bacon dwells on the natural beauties, the legendary and historical associations, rather than the present appearance of the shores."--_n. y. sun._ the great lakes _vessels that plough them, their owners, their sailors, and their cargoes; together with a brief history of our inland seas_ by james oliver curwood _with about full-page illustrations, $ . net_ this profusely illustrated book, as entertaining as it is informing, has the twofold advantage of being written by a man who knows the lakes and their shores as well as what has been written about them. the general reader will enjoy the romance attaching to the past history of the lakes and not less the romance of the present--the story of the great commercial fleets that plough our inland seas, created to transport the fruits of the earth and the metals that are dug from the bowels of the earth. to the business man who has interests in or about the lakes, or to the prospective investor in great lakes enterprises, the book will be found suggestive. comparatively little has been written of these fresh-water seas, and many of his readers will be amazed at the wonderful story which this volume tells. the st. lawrence river _historical--legendary--picturesque_ by george waldo browne author of "japan--the place and the people," "paradise of the pacific," etc. _ pages, with illustrations and a map. $ . net_ while the st. lawrence river has been the scene of many important events connected with the discovery and development of a large portion of north america, no attempt has heretofore been made to collect and embody in one volume a complete and comprehensive narrative of this great waterway. this is not denying that considerable has been written relating to it, but the various offerings have been scattered through many volumes, and most of these have become inaccessible to the general reader. this work presents in a consecutive narrative the most important historic incidents connected with the river, combined with descriptions of some of its most picturesque scenery and delightful excursions into to its legendary lore. in selecting the hundred illustrations care has been taken to give as wide a scope as possible to the views belonging to the river. the niagara river by archer butler hulbert professor of american history, marietta college; author of "the ohio river," "historic highways of america," etc. _ pages, with illustrations and maps. $ , net_ professor hulbert tells all that is best worth recording of the history of the river which gives the book its title, and of its commercial present and its great commercial future. an immense amount of carefully ordered information is here brought together into a most entertaining and informing book. no mention of this volume can be quite adequate that fails to take into account the extraordinary chapter which is given to chronicling the mad achievements of that company of dare-devil bipeds of both sexes who for decades have been sweeping over the falls in barrels and other receptacles, or who have gone dancing their dizzy way on ropes or wires stretched from shore to shore above the boiling, leaping water beneath. the hudson river from ocean to source _historical--legendary--picturesque_ by edgar mayhew bacon author of "chronicles of tarrytown," "narragansett bay," etc. _ pages, with illustrations, including a sectional map of the hudson river. $ . net_ "the value of this handsome quarto does not depend solely on the attractiveness with which mr. bacon has invested the whole subject, it is a kind of footnote to the more conventional histories, because it throws light upon the life and habits of the earliest settlers. it is a study of dutch civilization in the new world, severe enough in intentions to be accurate, but easy enough in temper to make a great deal of humor, and to comment upon those characteristic customs and habits which, while they escape the attention of the formal historian, are full of significance."--_outlook._ the connecticut river and the valley of the connecticut three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea _historical and descriptive_ by edwin munroe bacon author of "walks and rides in the country round about boston," etc. _ pages, with illustrations and a map. $ . net_ from ocean to source every mile of the connecticut is crowded with reminders of the early explorers, of the indian wars, of the struggle of the colonies, and of the quaint, peaceful village existence of the early days of the republic. beginning with the dutch discovery, mr. bacon traces the interesting movements and events which are associated with this chief river of new england. the columbia river _its history--its myths--its scenery--its commerce_ by william denison lyman professor of history in whitman college, walla walla, washington _fully illustrated_ this is the first effort to present a book distinctively on the columbia river. it is the intention of the author to give some special prominence to nelson and the magnificent lake district by which it is surrounded. as the joint possession of the united states and british columbia, and as the grandest scenic river of the continent, the columbia is worthy of special attention. _in preparation:_ _each will be fully illustrated and will probably be published at $ . net_ .--inland waterways by herbert quick .--the mississippi river by julius chambers .--the story of the chesapeake by ruthella mory bibbins .--lake george and lake champlain by w. max reid author of "the mohawk valley," "the story of old fort johnson," etc. oregon and eldorado. oregon and eldorado; or, romance of the rivers. by thomas bulfinch, author of "the age of fable," "the age of chivalry," etc. boston: j. e. tilton and company. . entered, according to act of congress, in the year , by thomas bulfinch, in the clerk's office of the district court of the district of massachusetts. stereotyped by c. j. peters and son. printed by george c. rand and avery. preface. when one observes attentively the maps of south and north america, no feature appears more striking than the provision which nature seems to have made, in both continents, for water-communication across the breadth of each. in the northern continent, this channel of communication is formed by the missouri and columbia rivers, which stretch over an extent of three thousand miles, interrupted only by the ridge of the rocky mountains. in the southern continent, the river amazon, in its path from the andes to the sea, traverses a course of thirty-three hundred miles. in both cases, a few hundred miles of land-carriage will complete the transit from ocean to ocean. the analogy presented in the length and direction of these magnificent water-pathways is preserved in their history. a series of romantic adventures attaches to each. i indulge the hope, that young readers who have so favorably received my former attempts to amuse and instruct them, in my several works reviving the fabulous legends of remote ages, will find equally attractive these true narratives of bold adventure, whose date is comparatively recent. moreover, their scenes are laid, in the one instance, in our own country; and, in the other, in that great and rising empire of brazil to which our distinguished naturalist, prof. agassiz, has gone on a pilgrimage of science. it will enable us better to appreciate the discoveries and observations which the professor will lay before us on his return, to know something beforehand of the history and peculiarities of the region which is the scene of his labors; and, on the other hand, the route across the north-american continent, to which the first part of the volume relates, deprives increased interest, at this time, from the fact that it nearly corresponds to the route of the contemplated northern pacific railroad. boston, june, . t. b. contents. oregon. chapter i. discovery of columbia river chapter ii. lewis and clarke chapter iii. the sioux chapter iv. summary of travel to winter-quarters chapter v. indian tribes chapter vi. the march resumed chapter vii. the journey continued chapter viii. the sources of the missouri and columbia chapter ix. the party in the boats chapter x. the descent of the columbia chapter xi. clarke's river chapter xii. kooskooskee river chapter xiii. winter-quarters chapter xiv. a new year chapter xv. winter life chapter xvi. the return chapter xvii. the rocky mountains chapter xviii. capt. clarke's route down the yellowstone eldorado. chapter i. the discovery chapter ii. orellana descends the river chapter iii. orellana's adventure continued chapter iv. sir walter raleigh chapter v. raleigh's first expedition chapter vi. raleigh's adventures continued chapter vii. raleigh's second expedition chapter viii. the french philosophers chapter ix. madame godin's voyage down the amazon chapter x. madame godin's voyage continued chapter xi. herndon's expedition chapter xii. herndon's expedition continued chapter xiii. herndon's expedition continued chapter xiv. herndon's expedition concluded chapter xv. latest explorations chapter xvi. the naturalist on the amazon chapter xvii. animated nature oregon. oregon. chapter i. discovery of columbia river. a few years ago, there was still standing in bowdoin square, boston, opposite the revere house, an ancient mansion, since removed to make room for the granite range called the coolidge building. in that mansion, then neither old nor inelegant, but, on the contrary, having good pretensions to rank among the principal residences of the place, was assembled, in the year , a group, consisting of the master of the mansion, dr. bulfinch, his only son charles, and joseph barrell, their neighbor, an eminent merchant of boston. the conversation turned upon the topic of the day,--the voyages and discoveries of capt. cook, the account of which had lately been published. the brilliant achievements of capt. cook, his admirable qualities, and his sad fate (slain by the chance stroke of a sandwich-islander, in a sudden brawl which arose between the sailors and the natives),--these formed the current of the conversation; till at last it changed, and turned more upon the commercial aspects of the subject. mr. barrell was particularly struck with what cook relates of the abundance of valuable furs offered by the natives of the country in exchange for beads, knives, and other trifling commodities valued by them. the remark of capt. cook respecting the sea-otter was cited:-- "this animal abounds here: the fur is softer and finer than that of any other we know of; and therefore the discovery of this part of the continent, where so valuable an article of commerce may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference." he adds in a note, "the sea-otter skins are sold by the russians to the chinese at from sixteen to twenty pounds each." mr. barrell remarked, "there is a rich harvest to be reaped there by those who shall first go in." the idea thus suggested was followed out in future conversations at the doctor's fireside, admitting other congenial spirits to the discussion, and resulted in the equipping of an expedition consisting of two vessels, the ship "columbia" and sloop "washington," to make the proposed adventure. the partners in the enterprise were joseph barrell, samuel brown, charles bulfinch, john derby, crowell hatch, and j. m. pintard. so important was the expedition deemed by the adventurers themselves, that they caused a medal to be struck, bearing on one side a representation of the two vessels under sail, and on the other the names of the parties to the enterprise. several copies of this medal were made both in bronze and silver, and distributed to public bodies and distinguished individuals. one of these medals lies before the writer as he pens these lines. a representation is subjoined:-- [illustration] the expedition was also provided with sea-letters, issued by the federal government agreeably to a resolution of congress, and with passports from the state of massachusetts; and they received letters from the spanish minister plenipotentiary in the united states, recommending them to the attention of the authorities of his nation on the pacific coast. the "columbia" was commanded by john kendrick, to whom was intrusted the general control of the expedition. the master of the "washington" was robert gray. the two vessels sailed together from boston on the th of september, : thence they proceeded to the cape verde islands, and thence to the falkland islands, in each of which groups they procured refreshments. in january, , they doubled cape horn; immediately after which they were separated during a violent gale. the "washington," continuing her course through the pacific, made the north-west coast in august, near the th degree of latitude. here capt. gray thought he perceived indications of the mouth of a river; but he was unable to ascertain the fact, in consequence of his vessel having grounded, and been attacked by the savages, who killed one of his men, and wounded the mate. but she escaped without further injury, and, on the th of september, reached nootka sound, which had been agreed upon as the port of re-union in case of separation. the "columbia" did not enter the sound until some days afterward. the two vessels spent their winter in the sound; where the "columbia" also lay during the following summer, collecting furs, while capt. gray, in the "washington," explored the adjacent waters. on his return to nootka, it was agreed upon between the two captains that kendrick should take command of the sloop, and remain on the coast, while gray, in the "columbia," should carry to canton all the furs which had been collected by both vessels. this was accordingly done; and gray arrived on the th of december at canton, where he sold his furs, and took in a cargo of tea, with which he entered boston on the th of august, , having carried the flag of the united states for the first time round the world. kendrick, immediately on parting with the "columbia," proceeded with the "washington" to the strait of fuca, through which he sailed, in its whole length, to its issue in the pacific, in lat. . to him belongs the credit of ascertaining that nootka and the parts adjacent are an island, to which the name of vancouver's island has since been given, which it now retains. vancouver was a british commander who followed in the track of the americans a year later. the injustice done to kendrick by thus robbing him of the credit of his discovery is but one of many similar instances; the greatest of all being that by which our continent itself bears the name, not of columbus, but of a subsequent navigator. capt. kendrick, during the time occupied by gray in his return voyage, besides collecting furs, engaged in various speculations; one of which was the collection, and transportation to china, of the odoriferous wood called "sandal," which grows in many of the tropical islands of the pacific, and is in great demand throughout the celestial empire, for ornamental fabrics, and also for medicinal purposes. vancouver pronounced this scheme chimerical; but experience has shown that it was founded on just calculations, and the business has ever since been prosecuted with advantage, especially by americans. another of kendrick's speculations has not hitherto produced any fruit. in the summer of , he purchased from maquinna, wicanish, and other indian chiefs, several large tracts of land near nootka sound, for which he obtained deeds, duly _marked_ by those personages, and witnessed by the officers and men of the "washington." attempts were afterwards made by the owners of the vessel to sell these lands in london, but no purchasers were found; and applications have since been addressed by the legal representatives of the owners to the government of the united states for a confirmation of the title, but hitherto without success. capt. kendrick lost his life by a singular accident. in exchanging salutes with a spanish vessel which they met at the sandwich islands, the wad of the gun of the spaniard struck capt. kendrick as he stood on the deck of his vessel, conspicuous in his dress-coat and cocked hat as commander of the expedition. it was instantly fatal. the ship "columbia" returned to boston from canton under the command of gray, as already stated, arriving on the th of august, ; but the cargo of chinese articles brought by her was insufficient to cover the expenses of her voyage: nevertheless her owners determined to persevere in the enterprise, and refitted the ship for a new voyage of the same kind. the "columbia," under her former captain, gray, left boston, on her second voyage, on the th of september, , and, without the occurrence of any thing worthy of note, arrived at clyoquot, near the entrance of fuca's strait, on the th of june, . there, and in the neighboring waters, she remained through the summer and winter following, engaged in trading and exploring. in the spring of , gray took his departure in the ship, on a cruise southward, along the coast, bent on ascertaining the truth of appearances which had led him in the former voyage to suspect the existence of a river discharging its waters at or about the latitude of degrees. during his cruise, he met the english vessels commanded by commodore vancouver. "on the th of april," vancouver writes in his journal, "at four o'clock, a sail was discovered to the westward, standing in shore. this was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel but our consort during the last eight months. she soon hoisted american colors, and fired a gun to leeward. at six, we spoke her. she proved to be the ship 'columbia,' commanded by capt. robert gray, belonging to boston, whence she had been absent nineteen months. i sent two of my officers on board to acquire such information as might be serviceable in our future operations. capt. gray informed them of his having been off the mouth of a river, in the latitude of degrees minutes, for nine days; but the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent his entering." to this statement of capt. gray, vancouver gave little credit. he remarks, "i was thoroughly persuaded, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not have passed any safe navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shipping, from cape mendocino to fuca's strait." after parting with the english ships, gray sailed along the coast of the continent southward; and on the th of may, , he "saw an entrance which had a very good appearance of a harbor." passing through this entrance, he found himself in a bay, "well sheltered from the sea by long sand-bars and spits," where he remained three days trading with the natives, and then resumed his voyage, bestowing on the place thus discovered the name of bulfinch's harbor, in honor of one of the owners of his ship. this is now known as gray's harbor. at daybreak on the th, after leaving bulfinch's harbor, gray observed the entrance of his desired port, bearing east-south-east, distant six leagues; and running into it with all sails set, between the breakers, he anchored at one o'clock in a large river of fresh water, ten miles above its mouth. at this spot he remained three days, engaged in trading with the natives, and filling his casks with water; and then sailed up the river about twelve miles along its northern shore, where, finding that he could proceed no farther from having taken the wrong channel, he again came to anchor. on the th, he recrossed the bar at the mouth of the river, and regained the pacific. on leaving the river, gray gave it the name of his ship, the columbia, which it still bears. he called the southern point of land, at the entrance, cape adams; and the northern, cape hancock. the former of these names retains its place in the maps, the latter does not; the promontory being known as cape disappointment,--a name it received from lieut. meares, an english navigator, who, like capt. gray, judged from appearances that there was the outlet of a river at that point, but failed to find it, and recorded his failure in the name he assigned to the conspicuous headland which marked the place of his fruitless search. note. as the discovery of columbia river was an event of historical importance, the reader will perhaps be gratified to see it as recorded in the words of capt. gray himself, copied from his logbook as follows:-- "may ( ), at eight, p.m., the entrance of bulfinch's harbor bore north, distance four miles. sent up the main-top-gallant yard, and set all sail. at four, a.m., saw the entrance of our desired port, bearing east-south-east, distance six leagues; in steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore. at eight, a.m., being a little to windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran in east-north-east between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. when we were over the bar, we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered. many canoes came alongside. at one, p.m., came to, with the small bower in ten fathoms black and white sand. the entrance between the bars bore west-south-west, distant ten miles; the north side of the river a half-mile distant from the ship, the south side of the same two and a half miles distance; a village on the north side of the river, west by north, distant three-quarters of a mile. vast numbers of natives came alongside. people employed in pumping the salt water out of our water-casks, in order to fill with fresh, while the ship floated in. so ends." from the mouth of columbia river, gray sailed to nootka sound, where he communicated his recent discoveries to the spanish commandant, quadra; to whom he also gave charts and descriptions of bulfinch's harbor, and of the mouth of the columbia. he departed for canton in september, and thence sailed to the united states. the voyages of kendrick and gray were not profitable to the adventurers, yet not fruitless of benefit to their country. they opened the way to subsequent enterprises in the same region, which were eminently successful. and, in another point of view, these expeditions were fraught with consequences of the utmost importance. gray's discovery of columbia river was the point most relied upon by our negotiators in a subsequent era for establishing the claim of the united states to the part of the continent through which that river flows; and it is in a great measure owing to that discovery that the growing state of oregon is now a part of the american republic. from the date of the discovery of columbia river to the war of , the direct trade between the american coast and china was almost entirely in the hands of the citizens of the united states. the british merchants were restrained from pursuing it by the opposition of their east-india company; the russians were not admitted into chinese ports; and few ships of any other nation were seen in that part of the ocean. the trade was prosecuted by men whose names are still distinguished among us as those of the master-spirits of american commerce,--the thorndikes, the perkinses, lambs, sturgis, cushing, and others of boston, astor and others of new york. the greater number of the vessels sent from the united states were fine ships or brigs laden with valuable cargoes of west-india productions, british manufactured articles, and french, italian, and spanish wines and spirits; and the owners were men of large capital and high reputation in the commercial world, some of whom were able to compete with the british companies, and even to control their movements. during all this period, though constant accessions were made to the knowledge of the coast by means of commercial adventure, the interior of the continent, from the mississippi to the ocean, remained unknown. the intercourse of the people of the united states with the native tribes was restricted by several causes. one was the possession of louisiana by the spaniards; another, the retention by the british of several important posts south of the great lakes, within the acknowledged territory of the union. at length, by the treaty of between great britain and the united states, those posts were given up to the americans; and by treaty with france, in , louisiana, which had come into possession of that power in , was ceded to the united states. from this period, the government and people of the united states ceased to be indifferent to the immense and important region whose destinies were committed to them; and the ensuing narrative will relate the first attempt made by national authority to occupy and explore the country. chapter ii. lewis and clarke. in the year , john ledyard of connecticut, who had been with capt. cook in his voyage of discovery to the north-west coast of america in - , was in paris, endeavoring to engage a mercantile company in the fur-trade of that coast. he had seen, as he thought, unequalled opportunities for lucrative traffic in the exchange of the furs of that country for the silks and teas of china. but his representations were listened to with incredulity by the cautious merchants of europe, and he found it impossible to interest any so far as to induce them to fit out an expedition for the object proposed. disappointed and needy, he applied for advice and assistance to mr. jefferson, at that time the american minister at the court of france. ledyard had no views of pecuniary gain in the contemplated enterprise: he sought only an opportunity of indulging his love of adventure by exploring regions at that time unknown. mr. jefferson, as the guardian of his country's interests and the friend of science, was warmly interested in any scheme which contemplated the opening of the vast interior regions of the american continent to the occupancy of civilized man. since it was impossible to engage mercantile adventurers to fit out an expedition by sea, mr. jefferson proposed to ledyard that he should go as a traveller, by land, through the russian territories, as far as the eastern coast of the continent of asia, and from thence get such conveyance as he could to the neighboring coast of america, and thus reach the spot where his main journey was to begin. ledyard eagerly embraced the proposal. permission was obtained from the empress catharine of russia, and the enterprising traveller, in december, , set forth. he traversed denmark and sweden; passed round the head of the gulf of bothnia, after an unsuccessful attempt to cross it on the ice; and reached st. petersburg in march, , without money, shoes, or stockings, having gone this immense journey on foot in an arctic winter. at st. petersburg he obtained notice, money to the amount of twenty guineas, and permission to accompany a convoy of stores to yakoutsk, in siberia. but, for some unexplained reason, he was arrested at that place by order of the empress, and conveyed back to europe; being cautioned, on his release, not again to set foot within the russian territories, under penalty of death. this harsh treatment is supposed to have arisen from the jealousy of the russian fur-traders, who feared that ledyard's proceedings would rouse up rivals in their trade. mr. jefferson did not, upon this disappointment, abandon the idea of an exploration of the interior of the american continent. at his suggestion, the american philosophical society of philadelphia took measures, in , to send suitable persons to make a similar transit of the continent in the opposite direction; that is, by ascending the missouri, and descending the columbia. nothing was effected, however, at that time, except awakening the attention of capt. meriwether lewis, a young officer in the american army, a neighbor and relative of gen. washington. he eagerly sought to be employed to make the contemplated journey. in , mr. jefferson, being then president of the united states, proposed to congress to send an exploring party to trace the missouri to its source; to cross the highlands, and follow the best water communication which might offer itself, to the pacific ocean. congress approved the proposal, and voted a sum of money to carry it into execution. capt. lewis, who had then been two years with mr. jefferson as his private secretary, immediately renewed his solicitations to have the direction of the expedition. mr. jefferson had now had opportunity of knowing him intimately, and believed him to be brave, persevering, familiar with the indian character and customs, habituated to the hunting life, honest, and of sound judgment. he trusted that he would be careful of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of discipline. on receiving his appointment, capt. lewis repaired to philadelphia, and placed himself under its distinguished professors, with a view to acquire familiarity with the nomenclature of the natural sciences. he selected, as his companion in the proposed expedition, william clarke, a brother-officer, known and esteemed by him. while these things were going on, the treaty with france was concluded, by which the country of louisiana was ceded to the united states. this event, which took place in , greatly increased the interest felt by the people of the united states in the proposed expedition. in the spring of , the preparations being completed, the explorers commenced their route. the party consisted of nine young men from kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the united-states army who volunteered their services, two french watermen, an interpreter, a hunter, and a black servant of capt. clarke. in addition to these, a further force of fifteen men attended on the commencement of the expedition to secure safety during the transit through some indian tribes whose hostility was apprehended. the necessary stores were divided into seven bales and one box, the latter containing a small portion of each article in case of a loss of any one of the bales. the stores consisted of clothing, working tools, ammunition, and other articles of prime necessity. to these were added fourteen bales and one box of indian presents, composed of richly laced coats and other articles of dress, medals, flags, knives, and tomahawks for the chiefs; ornaments of different kinds, particularly beads, looking-glasses, handkerchiefs, paints, and generally such articles as were deemed best calculated for the taste of the indians. the company embarked on board of three boats. the first was a keel-boat, fifty-five feet long, carrying one large square sail and twenty-two oars. a deck of ten feet, at each end, formed a forecastle and cabin. this was accompanied by two open boats of six oars. two horses were to be led along the banks of the river, for bringing home game, or hunting in case of scarcity. the narrative of the expedition was written by the commanders from day to day, and published after their return. we shall tell the story of their adventures nearly in the language of their own journal, with such abridgments as our plan renders necessary. may , .--all the preparations being completed, they left their encampment this day. the character of the river itself was the most interesting object of examination for the first part of their voyage. having advanced, in two months, about four hundred and fifty miles, they write as follows: "the ranges of hills on opposite sides of the river are twelve or fifteen miles apart, rich plains and prairies, with the river, occupying the intermediate space, partially covered near the river with cotton-wood or balm-of-gilead poplar. the whole lowland between the parallel ranges of hills seems to have been formed of mud of the river, mixed with sand and clay. the sand of the neighboring banks, added to that brought down by the stream, forms sand-bars, projecting into the river. these drive the stream to the opposite bank, the loose texture of which it undermines, and at length deserts its ancient bed for a new passage. it is thus that the banks of the missouri are constantly falling in, and the river changing its bed. "on one occasion, the party encamped on a sand-bar in the river. shortly after midnight, the sleepers were startled by the sergeant on guard crying out that the sand-bar was sinking: and the alarm was timely given; for scarcely had they got off with the boats before the bank under which they had been lying fell in; and, by the time the opposite shore was reached, the ground on which they had been encamped sunk also. "we had occasion here to observe the process of the undermining of these hills by the missouri. the first attacks seem to be made on the hills which overhang the river. as soon as the violence of the current destroys the grass at the foot of them, the whole texture appears loosened, and the ground dissolves, and mixes with the water. at one point, a part of the cliff, nearly three-quarters of a mile in length, and about two hundred feet in height, had fallen into the river. as the banks are washed away, the trees fall in, and the channel becomes filled with buried logs." river scenery. "july .--we remained to-day for the purpose of making lunar observations. capt. clarke sailed a few miles up the namaha river, and landed on a spot where he found numerous artificial mounds. note. a late traveller, rev. samuel parker, speaks thus of these mounds: "the mounds, which some have called the work of unknown generations of men, were scattered here in all varieties of form and magnitude, thousands in number. some of them were conical, some elliptical, some square, and some parallelograms. one group attracted my attention particularly. they were twelve in number, of conical form, with their bases joined, and twenty or thirty feet high. they formed two-thirds of a circle, with an area of two hundred feet in diameter. if these were isolated, who would not say they were artificial? but, when they are only a group among a thousand others, who will presume to say they all are the work of man?... "it is said by those who advocate the belief that they are the work of ancient nations; that they present plain evidence of this in the fact that they contain human bones, articles of pottery, and the like. that some of them have been used for burying-places, is undoubtedly true; but may it not be questioned whether they were _made_, or only _selected_, for burying-places? no one who has ever seen the thousands and ten thousands scattered through the valley of the mississippi will be so credulous as to believe that a hundredth part of them were the work of man." "from the top of the highest mound, a delightful prospect presented itself,--the lowland of the missouri covered with an undulating grass nearly five feet high, gradually rising into a second plain, where rich weeds and flowers were interspersed with copses of the osage plum. farther back from the river were seen small groves of trees, an abundance of grapes, the wild cherry of the missouri,--resembling our own, but larger, and growing on a small bush. the plums are of three kinds,--two of a yellow color, and distinguished by one of the species being larger than the other; a third species of red color. all have an excellent flavor, particularly the yellow kind." pipe-clay rock. "aug. .--we passed the mouth of the great sioux river. our indian interpreter tells us that on the head waters of this river is the quarry of red rock of which the indians make their pipes; and the necessity of procuring that article has introduced a law of nations, by which the banks of the stream are sacred; and even tribes at war meet without hostility at these quarries, which possess a right of asylum. thus we find, even among savages, certain principles deemed sacred, by which the rigors of their merciless system of warfare are mitigated." chapter iii. the sioux. the indian tribes which our adventurers had thus far encountered had been friendly, or at least inoffensive; but they were feeble bands, and all of them lived in terror of their powerful neighbors, the sioux. on the d of september, the party reached a region inhabited by the tetons, a tribe of sioux. the journal gives an account of their intercourse with these new acquaintances as follows:-- "the morning was fine; and we raised a flag-staff, and spread an awning, under which we assembled, with all the party under arms. the chiefs and warriors from the indian camp, about fifty in number, met us; and capt. lewis made a speech to them. after this, we went through the ceremony of acknowledging the chiefs by giving to the grand chief a medal, a flag of the united states, a laced uniform coat, a cocked hat and feather; to the two other chiefs, a medal and some small presents; and to two warriors of consideration, certificates. we then invited the chiefs on board, and showed them the boat, the air-gun, and such curiosities as we thought might amuse them. in this we succeeded too well; for after giving them a quarter of a glass of whiskey, which they seemed to like very much, it was with much difficulty we could get rid of them. they at last accompanied capt. clarke back to shore in a boat with five men; but no sooner had the party landed than three of the indians seized the cable of the boat, and one of the soldiers of the chief put his arms round the mast. the second chief, who affected intoxication, then said that we should not go on; that they had not received presents enough from us. capt. clarke told him that we would not be prevented from going on; that we were not squaws, but warriors; that we were sent by our great father, who could in a moment exterminate them. the chief replied that he, too, had warriors; and was proceeding to lay hands on capt. clarke, who immediately drew his sword, and made a signal to the boat to prepare for action. the indians who surrounded him drew their arrows from their quivers, and were bending their bows, when the swivel in the large boat was pointed towards them, and twelve of our most determined men jumped into the small boat, and joined capt. clarke. this movement made an impression on them; for the grand chief ordered the young men away from the boat, and the chiefs withdrew, and held a short council with the warriors. being unwilling to irritate them, capt. clarke then went forward, and offered his hand to the first and second chiefs, who refused to take it. he then turned from them, and got into the boat, but had not gone more than a stone's-throw, when the two chiefs and two of the warriors waded in after him; and he took them on board. "sept. .--our conduct yesterday seemed to have inspired the indians with respect; and, as we were desirous of cultivating their acquaintance, we complied with their wish that we should give them an opportunity of treating us well, and also suffer their squaws and children to see us and our boat, which would be perfectly new to them. accordingly, after passing a small island and several sand-bars, we came to on the south shore, where a crowd of men, women, and children, were waiting to receive us. capt. lewis went on shore, and, observing that their disposition seemed friendly, resolved to remain during the night to a dance which they were preparing for us. the captains, who went on shore one after the other, were met on the landing by ten well-dressed young men, who took them up in a robe highly decorated, and carried them to a large council-house, where they were placed on a dressed buffalo-skin by the side of the grand chief. the hall, or council-room, was in the shape of three-quarters of a circle, covered at the top and sides with skins well dressed, and sewed together. under this shelter sat about seventy men, forming a circle round the chief, before whom were placed a spanish flag and the one we had given them yesterday. in the vacant space in the centre, the pipe of peace was raised on two forked sticks about six or eight inches from the ground, and under it the down of the swan was scattered. a large fire, at which they were cooking, stood near, and a pile of about four hundred pounds of buffalo-meat, as a present for us. "as soon as we were seated, an old man rose, and, after approving what we had done, begged us to take pity upon their unfortunate situation. to this we replied with assurances of protection. after he had ceased, the great chief rose, and delivered an harangue to the same effect. then, with great solemnity, he took some of the more delicate parts of the dog, which was cooked for the festival, and held it to the flag by way of sacrifice: this done, he held up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it towards the heavens, then to the four quarters of the globe, and then to the earth; made a short speech; lighted the pipe, and presented it to us. we smoked, and he again harangued his people; after which the repast was served up to us. it consisted of the dog, which they had just been cooking; this being a great dish among the sioux, and used at all festivals. to this was added _pemitigon_, a dish made of buffalo-meat, dried, and then pounded, and mixed raw with fat; and a root like the potato, dressed like the preparation of indian-corn called hominy. of all these luxuries, which were placed before us in platters, with horn spoons, we took the pemitigon and the potato, which we found good; but we could as yet partake but sparingly of the dog. we ate and smoked for an hour, when it became dark. every thing was then cleared away for the dance; a large fire being made in the centre of the house, giving at once light and warmth to the ball-room. the orchestra was composed of about ten men, who played on a sort of tambourine formed of skin stretched across a hoop, and made a jingling noise with a long stick, to which the hoofs of deer and goats were hung. the third instrument was a small skin bag, with pebbles in it. these, with five or six young men for the vocal part, made up the band. "the women then came forward highly decorated; some with poles in their hands, on which were hung the scalps of their enemies; others with guns, spears, or different trophies, taken in war by their husbands, brothers, or connections. having arranged themselves in two columns, as soon as the music began they danced towards each other till they met in the centre; when the rattles were shaken, and they all shouted, and returned back to their places. they have no steps, but shuffle along the ground; nor does the music appear to be any thing more than a confusion of noises, distinguished only by hard or gentle blows upon the buffalo-skin. the song is perfectly extemporaneous. in the pauses of the dance, any man of the company comes forward, and recites, in a low, guttural tone, some little story or incident, which is either martial or ludicrous. this is taken up by the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat it in a higher strain, and dance to it. sometimes they alternate, the orchestra first performing; and, when it ceases, the women raise their voices, and make a music more agreeable, that is, less intolerable, than that of the musicians. "the harmony of the entertainment had nearly been disturbed by one of the musicians, who, thinking he had not received a due share of the tobacco we had distributed during the evening, put himself into a passion, broke one of the drums, threw two of them into the fire, and left the band. they were taken out of the fire: a buffalo-robe, held in one hand, and beaten with the other, supplied the place of the lost drum or tambourine; and no notice was taken of the offensive conduct of the man. we staid till twelve o'clock at night, when we informed the chiefs that they must be fatigued with all these attempts to amuse us, and retired, accompanied by four chiefs, two of whom spent the night with us on board." the sioux. "the tribe which we this day saw are a part of the great sioux nation, and are known by the name of the _teton okandandas_: they are about two hundred men in number, and their chief residence is on both sides of the missouri, between the cheyenne and teton rivers. "the men shave the hair off their heads, except a small tuft on the top, which they suffer to grow, and wear in plaits over the shoulders. to this they seem much attached, as the loss of it is the usual sacrifice at the death of near relations. in full dress, the men of consideration wear a hawk's feather or calumet feather, worked with porcupine-quills, and fastened to the top of the head, from which it falls back. the face and body are generally painted with a mixture of grease and coal. over the shoulders is a loose robe or mantle of buffalo-skin, adorned with porcupine-quills, which are loosely fixed so as to make a jingling noise when in motion, and painted with various uncouth figures unintelligible to us, but to them emblematic of military exploits or any other incident. the hair of the robe is worn next the skin in fair weather; but, when it rains, the hair is put outside. under this robe they wear in winter a kind of shirt, made either of skin or cloth, covering the arms and body. round the middle is fixed a girdle of cloth or elk-skin, about an inch in width, and closely tied to the body. to this is attached a piece of cloth or blanket or skin about a foot wide, which passes between the legs, and is tucked under the girdle both before and behind. from the hip to the ankle, the man is covered with leggings of dressed antelope-skins, with seams at the sides two inches in width, and ornamented by little tufts of hair, the product of the scalps they have taken in war, which are scattered down the leg. "the moccasons are of dressed buffalo-skin, the hair being worn inwards. on great occasions, or whenever they are in full dress, the young men drag after them the entire skin of a polecat, fixed to the heel of the moccason. "the hair of the women is suffered to grow long, and is parted from the forehead across the head; at the back of which it is either collected into a kind of bag, or hangs down over the shoulders. their moccasons are like those of the men, as are also the leggings, which do not reach beyond the knee, where they are met by a long, loose mantle of skin, which reaches nearly to the ankles. this is fastened over the shoulders by a string, and has no sleeves; but a few pieces of the skin hang a short distance down the arm. sometimes a girdle fastens this skin round the waist, and over all is thrown a robe like that worn by the men. "their lodges are very neatly constructed. they consist of about one hundred cabins, made of white buffalo-hide, with a larger cabin in the centre for holding councils and dances. they are built round with poles about fifteen or twenty feet high, covered with white skins. these lodges may be taken to pieces, packed up, and carried with the nation, wherever they go, by dogs, which bear great burdens. the women are chiefly employed in dressing buffalo-skins. these people seem well-disposed, but are addicted to stealing any thing which they can take without being observed." chapter iv. summary of travel to winter-quarters. sept. , .--the daily progress of the expedition from this date is marked by no incidents of more importance than the varying fortunes of travel, as they found the river more or less favorable to navigation, and the game more or less abundant on the banks. their progress was from twelve to twenty miles a day. in general, their sails served them; but they were sometimes obliged to resort to the use of tow-lines, which, being attached to a tree or other firm object on the shore, enabled the men to pull the boat along. this seems but a slow method of voyaging; yet they found it by no means the slowest, and were sorry when the nature of the banks, being either too lofty or too low, precluded their use of it. their narrative is, however, varied by accounts of the scenery and natural productions of the country through which they passed, and by anecdotes of the indians. while they are making their toilsome advance up the river, let us see what they have to tell us of the strange people and remarkable objects which they found on their way. prairie-dogs. "we arrived at a spot on the gradual descent of the hill, nearly four acres in extent, and covered with small holes. these are the residences of little animals called prairie-dogs, who sit erect near the mouth of the hole, and make a whistling noise, but, when alarmed, take refuge in their holes. in order to bring them out, we poured into one of the holes five barrels of water, without filling it; but we dislodged and caught the owner. after digging down another of the holes for six feet, we found, on running a pole into it, that we had not yet dug half-way to the bottom. we discovered two frogs in the hole; and near it we killed a rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small prairie-dog. we have been told, though we never witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard and a snake live habitually with these animals. "the prairie-dog is well named, as it resembles a dog in most particulars, though it has also some points of similarity to the squirrel. the head resembles the squirrel in every respect, except that the ear is shorter. the tail is like that of the ground-squirrel; the toe-nails are long, the fur is fine, and the long hair is gray." antelopes. "of all the animals we have seen, the antelope possesses the most wonderful fleetness. shy and timorous, they generally repose only on the ridges, which command a view in all directions. their sight distinguishes the most distant danger; their power of smell defeats the attempt at concealment; and, when alarmed, their swiftness seems more like the flight of birds than the movement of an animal over the ground. capt. lewis, after many unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in approaching, undiscovered, a party of seven, which were on an eminence. the only male of the party frequently encircled the summit of the hill, as if to discover if any danger threatened the party. when capt. lewis was at the distance of two hundred yards, they became alarmed, and fled. he immediately ran to the spot they had left. a ravine concealed them from him; but the next moment they appeared on a second ridge, at the distance of three miles. he doubted whether they could be the same; but their number, and the direction in which they fled, satisfied him that it was the same party: yet the distance they had made in the time was such as would hardly have been possible to the swiftest racehorse." pelican island. " .--this name we gave to a long island, from the numbers of pelicans which were feeding on it. one of them being killed, we poured into his bag five gallons of water." note. "the antelopes are becoming very numerous. their speed exceeds that of any animal i have ever seen. our hounds can do nothing in giving them the chase: so soon are they left far in the rear, that they do not follow them more than ten or twenty rods before they return, looking ashamed of their defeat. our hunters occasionally take the antelope by coming upon them by stealth. when they are surprised, they start forward a very small space, then turn, and, with high-lifted heads, stare for a few seconds at the object which has alarmed them, and then, with a half-whistling snuff, bound off, seeming to be as much upon wings as upon feet. they resemble the goat, but are far more beautiful. though they are of different colors, yet they are generally red, and have a large, fine, prominent eye. their flesh is good for food, and about equals venison."--_parker's tour._ indian villages and agriculture. "we halted for dinner at a deserted village, which we suppose to have belonged to the ricaras. it is situated in a low plain on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagon form, neatly covered with earth, placed as close to each other as possible, and picketed round. the skin-canoes, mats, buckets, and articles of furniture, found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it was left in the spring. we found three different kinds of squashes growing in the village. "another village, which we reached two days later, was situated on an island, which is three miles long, and covered with fields, in which the indians raise corn, beans, and potatoes. we found here several frenchmen living among the indians, as interpreters or traders. the indians gave us some corn, beans, and dried squashes; and we gave them a steel mill, with which they were much pleased. we sat conversing with the chiefs some time, during which they treated us to a bread made of corn and beans, also corn and beans boiled, and a large rich bean which they take from the mice of the prairie, who discover and collect it. we gave them some sugar, salt, and a sun-glass." york, the negro. "the object which seemed to astonish the indians most was capt. clarke's servant, york,--a sturdy negro. they had never seen a human being of that color, and therefore flocked round him to examine the monster. by way of amusement, he told them that he had once been a wild animal, and been caught and tamed by his master, and, to convince them, showed them feats of strength, which, added to his looks, made him more terrible than we wished him to be. at all the villages he was an object of astonishment. the children would follow him constantly, and, if he chanced to turn towards them, would run with great terror." stone-idol creek. "we reached the mouth of a creek, to which we gave the name of stone-idol creek; for, on passing up, we discovered, that, a few miles back from the missouri, there are two stones resembling human figures, and a third like a dog; all which are objects of great veneration among the ricaras. their history would adorn the "metamorphoses" of ovid. a young man was in love with a girl whose parents refused their consent to the marriage. the youth went out into the fields to mourn his misfortunes: a sympathy of feeling led the girl to the same spot; and the faithful dog would not fail to follow his master. after wandering together, and having nothing but grapes to subsist on, they were at last converted into stone, which, beginning at the feet, gradually invaded the nobler parts, leaving nothing unchanged but a bunch of grapes, which the female holds in her hands to this day. such is the account given by the ricara chief, which we had no means of testing, except that we found one part of the story very agreeably confirmed; for on the banks of the creek we found a greater abundance of fine grapes than we had seen elsewhere." goats. "great numbers of goats are crossing the river, and directing their course to the westward. we are told that they spend the summer in the plains east of the missouri, and at this season (october) are returning to the black mountains, where they subsist on leaves and shrubbery during the winter, and resume their migrations in the spring. at one place, we saw large flocks of them in the water. they had been gradually driven into the river by the indians, who now lined the shore so as to prevent their escape, and were firing on them; while boys went into the river, and killed them with sticks. they seemed to have been very successful; for we counted fifty-eight which they had killed. in the evening they made a feast, that lasted till late at night, and caused much noise and merriment. "the country through which we passed has wider river-bottoms and more timber than those we have been accustomed to see; the hills rising at a distance, and by gradual ascents. we have seen great numbers of elk, deer, goats, and buffaloes, and the usual attendants of these last,--the wolves, which follow their movements, and feed upon those who die by accident, or are too feeble to keep pace with the herd. we also wounded a white bear, and saw some fresh tracks of those animals, which are twice as large as the tracks of a man." the prairie on fire. "in the evening, the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and burned with great fury; the whole plain being enveloped in flames. so rapid was its progress, that a man and a woman were burned to death before they could reach a place of safety. another man, with his wife and child, were much burned, and several other persons narrowly escaped destruction. among the rest, a boy of the half-breed escaped unhurt in the midst of the flames. his safety was ascribed by the indians to the great spirit, who had saved him on account of his being white. but a much more natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who, seeing no hopes of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground, and, covering him with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaped herself from the flames. as soon as the fire had passed, she returned, and found him untouched; the skin having prevented the flame from reaching the grass where he lay." a council. "after making eleven miles, we reached an old field, where the mandans had cultivated grain last summer. we encamped for the night about half a mile below the first village of the mandans. as soon as we arrived, a crowd of men, women, and children, came down to see us. capt. lewis returned with the principal chiefs to the village, while the others remained with us during the evening. the object which seemed to surprise them most was a corn-mill, fixed to the boat, which we had occasion to use; while they looked on, and were delighted at observing the ease with which it reduced the grain to powder. "among others who visited us was the son of the grand chief of the mandans, who had both his little fingers cut off at the second joint. on inquiring into this injury, we found that the custom was to express grief for the death of relations by some corporeal suffering, and that the usual mode was to lose a joint of the little finger, or sometimes of other fingers. "oct. , .--the morning was fine, and we prepared our presents and speech for the council. at ten o'clock, the chiefs were all assembled under an awning of our sails. that the impression might be the more forcible, the men were all paraded; and the council opened by a discharge from the swivel of the boat. capt. lewis then delivered a speech, which, like those we had already made, intermingled advice with assurances of friendship and trade. while he was speaking, the ahnahaway chief grew very restless, and observed that he could not wait long, as his camp was exposed to the hostilities of the shoshonees. he was instantly rebuked with great dignity, by one of the chiefs, for this violation of decorum at such a moment, and remained quiet during the rest of the council. this being over, we proceeded to distribute the presents with great ceremony. one chief of each town was acknowledged by the gift of a flag, a medal with the likeness of the president of the united states, a uniform coat, hat, and feather. to the second chiefs we gave a medal representing some domestic animals, and a loom for weaving; to the third chiefs, medals with the impression of a farmer sowing grain. a variety of other products were distributed; but none seemed to give more satisfaction than an iron corn-mill which we gave them. "in the evening, our men danced among themselves to the music of the violin, to the great amusement of the indians." they encamp for the winter. "friday, nov. , .--capt. clarke having examined the shores, and found a position where there was plenty of timber, we encamped, and began to fell trees to build our huts. the timber which we employ is cotton-wood (poplar) and elm, with some ash of inferior size. by the th, our huts were advanced very well; on the th, we unloaded the boat, and stowed away the contents in a storehouse which we had built. "nov. .--this day we moved into our huts, which are now completed. we call our place fort mandan. it is situated on a point of low ground on the north side of the missouri, covered with tall and heavy cotton-wood. the works consist of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an angle where they join each other; each row containing four rooms of fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling, and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of which is eighteen feet from the ground. the backs of the huts formed a wall of that height; and, opposite the angle, the place of the wall was supplied by picketing. in the area were two rooms for stores and provisions. the latitude, by observation, is ° ´, long. °; and the computed distance from the mouth of the missouri, sixteen hundred miles. "nov. .--we are now settled in our winter habitation, and shall wait with much impatience the first return of spring to continue our journey." chapter v. indian tribes. "the villages near which we are established are the residence of three distinct nations,--the mandans, the ahnahaways, and the minnetarees. the mandans say, that, many years ago, their tribe was settled in nine villages, the ruins of which we passed about eighty miles below. finding themselves wasting away before the small-pox and the sioux, they moved up the river, and planted themselves opposite the ricaras. their numbers are very much reduced, and they now constitute but two villages,--one on each side of the river, and at a distance of three miles from each other. both villages together may raise about three hundred and fifty men." ahnahaways. "four miles from the lower mandan village is one inhabited by the ahnahaways. this nation formerly dwelt on the missouri, about thirty miles below where they now live. the assinaboins and sioux forced them to a spot five miles higher, and thence, by a second emigration, to their present situation, in order to obtain an asylum near the minnetarees. their whole force is about fifty men." minnetarees. "about half a mile from this village, and in the same open plain with it, is a village of minnetarees, who are about one hundred and fifty men in number. one and a half miles above this village is a second of the same tribe, who may be considered the proper minnetaree nation. it is situated in a beautiful plain, and contains four hundred and fifty warriors. the mandans say that this people came out of the water to the east, and settled near them. the minnetarees, however, assert that they grew where they now live, and will never emigrate from the spot; the great spirit having declared, that, if they move, they will all perish. "the inhabitants of these villages, all of which are within the compass of six miles, live in harmony with each other. their languages differ to some extent; but their long residence together has enabled them to understand one another's speech as to objects of daily occurrence, and obvious to the senses. "all these tribes are at deadly feud with the sioux, who are much more powerful, and are consequently objects of continual apprehension. the presence of our force kept the peace for the present. "almost the whole of that vast tract of country comprised between the mississippi, the red river of lake winnipeg, the saskatchawan, and the missouri, is loosely occupied by a great nation whose primitive name is dahcotas, but who are called sioux by the french, sues by the english. they are divided into numerous tribes, named yanktons, tetons, assinaboins, &c. these tribes are sometimes at war with one another, but still acknowledge relationship, and are recognized by similarity of language and by tradition." religion. "the religion of the mandans consists in the belief of one great spirit presiding over their destinies. this being must be in the nature of a good genius, since it is associated with the healing art; and the great spirit is synonymous with great medicine,--a name also applied to every thing they do not comprehend. they also believe in a multiplicity of inferior spirits. each individual selects for himself the particular object of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either an invisible being, or more commonly some animal, which thenceforward becomes his protector, or his intercessor with the great spirit. to propitiate the medicine, every attention is lavished, and every personal consideration is sacrificed. 'i was lately owner of seventeen horses,' said a mandan; 'but i have offered them all up to my medicine, and am now poor.' he had in reality taken them into the plain, and, turning them loose, committed them to the care of his medicine, and abandoned them. "their belief in a future state is connected with a tradition of their origin. the whole nation, they say, once dwelt in one large village underground. a grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation; and the earth, being broken round its stem, gave them a view of the light. some of the more adventurous climbed up the vine, and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found covered with buffaloes, and rich with every kind of fruit. returning with the grapes they had gathered, their countrymen were so pleased with the taste, that the whole nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the upper region. men, women, and children ascended by means of the vine; but, when about half the nation had reached the surface, a corpulent woman, who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her weight, and, falling, closed up the cavity. those who had reached the surface, thus excluded from their original seats, cherish the hopes of returning there when they die." indian manners. the following extract imparts some traits of indian manners:-- "nov. .--this morning, the sentinel informed us that an indian was about to kill his wife near the fort. we went to the house of our interpreter, where we found the parties, and, after forbidding any violence, inquired into the cause of his intending to commit such an atrocity. it appeared that, some days ago, a quarrel had taken place between him and his wife, in consequence of which she had taken refuge in the house where the wives of our interpreter lived. by running away, she forfeited her life, which might be lawfully taken by the husband. he was now come for the purpose of completing his revenge. we gave him a few presents, and tried to persuade him to take his wife home. the grand chief, too, happened to arrive at the same moment, and reproached him with his violence; till at length husband and wife went off together, but by no means in a state of much apparent connubial felicity." the weather. "dec. , .--the thermometer at sunrise was thirty-eight degrees below zero; on the th, twenty-two below; on the th, forty-five below. on the th, it moderated a little. notwithstanding the cold, we observed the indians at the village engaged, out in the open air, at a game which resembles billiards. the platform, which answered for a table, was formed with timber, smoothed and joined so as to be as level as the floor of one of our houses. instead of balls, they had circular disks made of clay-stone, and flat like checkers." the argali. "dec. .--a number of squaws brought corn to trade for small articles with the men. among other things, we procured two horns of the animal called by the hunters the rocky-mountain sheep, and by naturalists the argali. the animal is about the size of a small elk or large deer; the horns winding like those of a ram, which they resemble also in texture, though larger and thicker. "dec. .--the weather was fine and warm. we were visited by crowds of indians of all description, who came either to trade, or from mere curiosity. among the rest, kagohami, the little raven, brought his wife and son, loaded with corn; and she entertained us with a favorite mandan dish,--a mixture of pumpkins, beans, corn, and choke-cherries, all boiled together in a kettle, and forming a composition by no means unpalatable. "dec. .--christmas day. we were awakened before day by a discharge of fire-arms from the party. we had told the indians not to visit us, as it was one of our great medicine-days; so that the men remained at home, and amused themselves in various ways, particularly with dancing, in which they take great pleasure. the american flag was hoisted for the first time in the fort; the best provisions we had were brought out; and this, with a little brandy, enabled them to pass the day in great festivity." the blacksmith. "dec. .--we were fortunate enough to have among our men a good blacksmith, whom we set to work to make a variety of articles. his operations seemed to surprise the indians who came to see us; but nothing could equal their astonishment at the bellows, which they considered a _very great medicine_." the dying chief. "kagohami came to see us early. his village was afflicted by the death of one of their aged chiefs, who, from his account, must have been more than a hundred years old. just as he was dying, he requested his grand-children to dress him in his best robe, and carry him up to a hill, and seat him on a stone, with his face down the river, towards their old village, that he might go straight to his brother, who had passed before him to the ancient village underground." the medicine-stone. "oheenaw and shahaka came down to see us, and mentioned that several of their countrymen had gone to consult their _medicine-stone_ as to the prospects of the following year. this medicine-stone is the great oracle of the mandans, and whatever it announces is believed with implicit confidence. every spring, and on some occasions during the summer, a deputation visits the sacred spot, where there is a thick, porous stone twenty feet in circumference, with a smooth surface. having reached the place, the ceremony of smoking to it is performed by the deputies, who alternately take a whiff themselves, and then present the pipe to the stone. after this, they retire to an adjoining wood for the night, during which it may be safely presumed all the embassy do not sleep; and, in the morning, they read the destinies of the nation in the white marks on the stone, which those who made them are at no loss to decipher. the minnetarees have a stone of a similar kind, which has the same qualities, and the same influence over the nation." the indians' endurance of cold. "jan. , .--the weather now exhibited the intensity of cold. this morning, at sunrise, the mercury stood at forty degrees below zero. one of the men, separated from the rest in hunting, was out all night. in the morning he returned, and told us that he had made a fire, and kept himself tolerably warm. a young indian, about thirteen years of age, came in soon after. he had been overtaken by the night, and had slept in the snow, with no covering but a pair of deer-skin moccasons and leggings, and a buffalo-robe. his feet were frozen; but we restored them by putting them in cold water, rendering him every attention in our power. another indian, who had been missing, returned about the same time. although his dress was very thin, and he had slept in the snow, without a fire, he had not suffered any inconvenience. these indians support the rigors of the season in a way which we had hitherto thought impossible." supplies of food. "our supplies are chiefly procured by hunting; but occasional additions are made by the indians, sometimes in the way of gifts, and sometimes in exchange for the services of the blacksmith, who is a most important member of the party. "feb. .--our stock of meat is exhausted, so that we must confine ourselves to vegetable diet till the return of our hunters. for this, however, we are at no loss, since yesterday and to-day our blacksmith got large quantities of corn from the indians who came to the fort. "sunday, march .--the men are all employed in preparing the boats. we are visited by a party of indians with corn. a flock of ducks passed up the river to-day. "wednesday, .--we had a fine day, and a south-west wind. many indians came to see us, who are so anxious for battle-axes, that our smiths have not a moment's leisure, and procure us an abundance of corn." hunting buffaloes on the ice. "march , .--a fine day, the wind south-west. the river rose nine inches, and the ice began breaking away. our canoes are now nearly ready, and we expect to set out as soon as the river is sufficiently clear of ice to permit us to pass. "march .--the ice came down this morning in great quantities. we have had few indians at the fort for the last three or four days, as they are now busy in catching the floating buffaloes. every spring, as the river is breaking up, the surrounding plains are set on fire, and the buffaloes tempted to cross the river in search of the fresh grass which immediately succeeds to the burning. on their way, they are often insulated on a large cake or mass of ice which floats down the river. the indians now select the most favorable points for attack, and, as the buffalo approaches, run with astonishing agility across the trembling ice, sometimes pressing lightly a cake of not more than two feet square. the animal is, of course, unsteady, and his footsteps insecure, on this new element, so that he can make but little resistance; and the hunter who has given him his death-wound paddles his icy boat to the shore, and secures his prey." chapter vi. the march resumed. from the st of november, , to the st of april, , the expedition remained stationary at their fort. some of their number had been sent back to the states with despatches to the government, and with specimens of the natural productions of the country. on resuming their march on the th of april, the party consisted of thirty-two persons. besides the commanders, there were three sergeants,--ordway, prior, and gass; twenty-three privates, besides capt. clark's black servant york; two interpreters,--george drewyer and toussaint chaboneau. the wife of chaboneau, an indian woman, with her young child, accompanied her husband. all this party, with the luggage, was stored in six small canoes and two pirogues. they left the fort with fair weather, and, after making four miles, encamped on the north side of the river, nearly opposite the first mandan village. we continue their journal. the river-shore. "april .--the river-banks exhibit indications of volcanic agency. the bluffs which we passed to-day are upwards of one hundred feet high, composed of yellow clay and sand, with horizontal strata of carbonated wood resembling pit-coal, from one to five feet in thickness, scattered through the bluff at different elevations. great quantities of pumice-stone and lava are seen in many parts of the hills, where they are broken and washed into gullies by the rain. we passed a bluff which is on fire, and throws out quantities of smoke, which has a strong, sulphurous smell. on the sides of the hills is a white substance, which appears in considerable quantities on the surface, and tastes like a mixture of common salt with glauber salts. many of the springs which come from the foot of the hills are so impregnated with this substance, that the water has an unpleasant taste, and a purgative effect." the prairie-mice. "april, .--we saw, but could not procure, an animal that burrows in the ground, similar to the burrowing-squirrel, except that it is only one-third of its size. this may be the animal whose works we have often seen in the plains and prairies. they consist of a little hillock of ten or twelve pounds of loose earth, which would seem to have been reversed from a flower-pot; and no aperture is seen in the ground from which it could have been brought. on removing gently the earth, you discover that the soil has been broken in a circle of about an inch and a half in diameter, where the ground is looser, though still no opening is perceptible. when we stopped for dinner, the indian woman went out, and, penetrating with a sharp stick the holes of the mice, brought a quantity of wild artichokes, which the mice collect, and hoard in large quantities. the root is white, of an ovate form, from one to three inches long, and generally of the size of a man's finger; and two, four, and sometimes six roots are attached to a single stalk. its flavor, as well as the stalk that issues from it, resemble those of the jerusalem artichoke, except that the latter is much larger." the yellow-stone river. "certain signs, known to the hunters, induced them to believe that we were at no great distance from the yellow-stone river. in order to prevent delay, capt. lewis determined to go on by land in search of that river, and make the necessary observations, so as to enable us to proceed immediately after the boats should join him. "on leaving the party, he pursued his route along the foot of the hills; ascending which, the wide plains watered by the missouri and the yellow-stone spread themselves before his eye, occasionally varied with the wood of the banks, enlivened by the windings of the two rivers, and animated by vast herds of buffaloes, deer, elk, and antelope." natural history. "may, .--we reached the mouth of a river flowing from the north, which, from the unusual number of porcupines near it, we called porcupine river. these animals are so careless and clumsy, that we can approach very near without disturbing them as they are feeding on the young willows. the porcupine is common in all parts of the territory, and for its quills is held in high estimation by the indians. it is interesting to see with how much ingenuity, and in how many various forms, the indians manufacture these quills into ornamental work, such as moccasons, belts, and various other articles." wolves. "the wolves are very numerous, and of two species. first, the small wolf, or burrowing dog of the prairies, which is found in almost all the open plains. it is of an intermediate size, between the fox and dog, very delicately formed, fleet and active. the ears are large, erect, and pointed; the head long and pointed, like that of a fox; the tail long and bushy; the hair and fur of a pale reddish-brown, and much coarser than that of the fox. these animals usually associate in bands of ten or twelve, and are rarely, if ever, seen alone; not being able singly to attack a deer or antelope. they live, and rear their young, in burrows, which they fix near some pass much frequented by game, and sally out in a body against any animal which they think they can overpower, but, on the slightest alarm, retreat to their burrows, making a noise exactly like that of a small dog. "the second species is lower, shorter in the legs, and thicker, than the atlantic wolf. they do not burrow, nor do they bark, but howl; and they frequent the woods and plains, and skulk along the herds of buffaloes, in order to attack the weary or wounded." elk. "among the animals of the deer kind, the elk is the largest and most majestic. it combines beauty with magnitude and strength; and its large, towering horns give it an imposing appearance. its senses are so keen in apprehension, that it is difficult to be approached; and its speed in flight is so great, that it mocks the chase. its flesh resembles beef, but is less highly flavored, and is much sought for by the indians and hunters. its skin is esteemed, and much used in articles of clothing and for moccasons." beavers. "we saw many beavers to-day. the beaver seems to contribute very much to the widening of the river and the formation of islands. they begin by damming up the channels of about twenty yards width between the islands. this obliges the river to seek another outlet; and, as soon as this is effected, the channel stopped by the beaver becomes filled with mud and sand. the industrious animal is thus driven to another channel, which soon shares the same fate; till the river spreads on all sides, and cuts the projecting points of land into islands. "the beaver dams differ in shape, according to the nature of the place in which they are built. if the water in the river or creek have but little motion, the dam is almost straight; but, when the current is more rapid, it is always made with a considerable curve, convex toward the stream. the materials made use of are drift-wood, green willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got; also mud and stones, intermixed in such a manner as must evidently contribute to the strength of the dam. in places which have been long frequented by beavers undisturbed, their dams, by frequent repairing, become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great force both of water and ice; and as the willow, poplar, and birch generally take root, and shoot up, they, by degrees, form a kind of regular planted hedge, in some places so tall that birds build their nests among the branches. the beaver-houses are constructed of the same materials as their dams, and are always proportioned in size to the number of inhabitants, which seldom exceeds four old and six or eight young ones. the houses are of a much ruder construction than their dams: for, notwithstanding the sagacity of these animals, it has never been observed that they aim at any other convenience in their house than to have a dry place to lie on; and there they usually eat their victuals, such as they take out of the water. their food consists of roots of plants, like the pond-lily, which grows at the bottom of the lakes and rivers. they also eat the bark of trees, particularly those of the poplar, birch, and willow. "the instinct of the beavers leading them to live in associations, they are in an unnatural position, when, in any locality, their numbers are so much reduced as to prevent their following this instinct. the beaver near the settlement is sad and solitary: his works have been swept away, his association broken up, and he is reduced to the necessity of burrowing in the river-bank, instead of building a house for himself. such beavers are called 'terriers.' one traveller says that these solitaries are also called 'old bachelors.'" the white, brown, or grisly bear. "april .--all these names are given to the same species, which probably changes in color with the season, or with the time of life. of the strength and ferocity of this animal, the indians give dreadful accounts. they never attack him but in parties of six or eight persons, and, even then, are often defeated with the loss of some of the party. "may .--one of our men who had been suffered to go ashore came running to the boats with cries and every symptom of terror. as soon as he could command his breath, he told us, that, about a mile below, he had shot a white bear, which immediately turned and ran towards him, but, being wounded, had not been able to overtake him. capt. lewis, with seven men, went in search of the bear, and, having found his track, followed him by the blood for a mile, came up with him, and shot him with two balls through the skull. he was a monstrous animal, and a most formidable enemy. our man had shot him through the centre of the lungs: yet the bear had pursued him furiously for half a mile; then returned more than twice that distance, and, with his talons, dug himself a bed in the earth, two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when they found him, which was at least two hours after he received the wound. the fleece and skin of the bear were a heavy burden for two men; and the oil amounted to eight gallons. "the wonderful power of life of these animals, added to their great strength, renders them very formidable. their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found eleven inches long and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming; and we had rather encounter two indians than a single brown bear. there is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball is sent through the brain; and this is very difficult to be done, on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead, and the sharp projection of the frontal bone, which is very thick." note. their strength is astonishingly great. lieut. stein of the dragoons, a man of undoubted veracity, told me he saw some buffaloes passing near some bushes where a grisly bear lay concealed: the bear, with one stroke, tore three ribs from a buffalo, and left it dead.--_parker._ although endowed with such strength, and powers of destruction, the grisly bear is not disposed to begin the attack. mr. drummond, a later traveller, states, that, in his excursions over the rocky mountains, he had frequent opportunity of observing the manners of these animals; and it often happened, that in turning the point of a rock, or sharp angle of a valley, he came suddenly upon one or more of them. on such occasions they reared on their hind-legs, and made a loud noise like a person breathing quick, but much harsher. he kept his ground, without attempting to molest them; and they on their part, after attentively regarding him for some time, generally wheeled round, and galloped off: though, from their known disposition, there is little doubt but he would have been torn in pieces, had he lost his presence of mind and attempted to fly. when he discovered them at a distance, he often frightened them away by beating on a large tin box in which he carried his specimens of plants. the black bear. "the black bear, common in the united states, is scarcely more than half the size of the grisly bear. its favorite food is berries of various kinds; but, when these are not to be procured, it lives upon roots, insects, fish, eggs, and such birds and quadrupeds as it can surprise. it passes the winter in a torpid state, selecting a spot for its den under a fallen tree, and, having scratched away a portion of the soil, retires to the place at the commencement of a snow storm, when the snow soon furnishes it with a close, warm covering. its breath makes a small opening in the den, and the quantity of hoar-frost which gathers round the hole serves to betray its retreat to the hunter. in more southern districts, where the timber is of larger size, bears often shelter themselves in hollow trees." buffaloes. "the buffalo is about as large as our domestic cattle; and their long, shaggy, woolly hair, which covers their head, neck, and shoulders, gives them a formidable appearance, and, at a distance, something like that of the lion. in many respects, they resemble our horned cattle; are cloven-footed, chew the cud, and select the same kind of food. their flesh is in appearance and taste much like beef, but of superior flavor. their heads are formed like the ox, perhaps a little more round and broad; and, when they run, they carry them rather low. their horns, ears, and eyes, as seen through their shaggy hair, appear small, and, cleared from their covering, are not large. their legs and feet are small and trim; the fore-legs covered with the long hair of the shoulders, as low down as the knee. though their figure is clumsy in appearance, they run swiftly, and for a long time without much slackening their speed; and, up steep hills or mountains, they more than equal the best horses. they unite in herds, and, when feeding, scatter over a large space; but, when fleeing from danger, they collect into dense columns: and, having once laid their course, they are not easily diverted from it, whatever may oppose. so far are they from being a fierce or revengeful animal, that they are very shy and timid; and in no case did we see them offer to make an attack but in self-defence, and then they always sought the first opportunity to escape. when they run, they lean alternately from side to side. they are fond of rolling upon the ground like horses, which is not practised by our domestic cattle. this is so much their diversion, that large places are found without grass, and considerably excavated by them." note. rev. mr. parker thus describes a buffalo-hunt:-- "to-day we unexpectedly saw before us a large herd of buffaloes. all halted to make preparation for the chase. the young men, and all the good hunters, prepared themselves, selected the swiftest horses, examined the few guns they had, and also took a supply of arrows with their bows. they advanced towards the herd of buffaloes with great caution, lest they should frighten them before they should make a near approach, and also to reserve the power of their horses for the chase, when it should be necessary to bring it into full requisition. when the buffaloes took the alarm, and fled, the rush was made, each indian selecting for himself the one to which he happened to come nearest. all were in swift motion, scouring the valley. a cloud of dust began to rise; firing of guns, and shooting of arrows, followed in close succession. soon, here and there, buffaloes were seen prostrated; and the women, who followed close in the rear, began the work of securing the acquisition, and the men were away again in pursuit of the flying herd. those in the chase, when as near as two rods, shoot and wheel, expecting the wounded animal to turn upon them. the horses seemed to understand the way to avoid danger. as soon as the wounded animal flies again, the chase is renewed; and such is the alternate wheeling and chasing, until the buffalo sinks beneath his wounds." indian method of hunting the buffalo. "may , .--we passed a precipice about one hundred and twenty feet high, under which lay scattered the fragments of at least a hundred carcasses of buffaloes. these buffaloes had been chased down the precipice in a way very common on the missouri, and by which vast herds are destroyed in a moment. the mode of hunting is to select one of the most active and fleet young men, who is disguised by a buffalo-skin round his body; the skin of the head, with the ears and horns, fastened on his own head in such a way as to deceive the buffaloes. thus dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient distance between a herd of buffaloes and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for some miles. his companions, in the mean time, get in the rear and side of the herd, and, at a given signal, show themselves, and advance towards the buffaloes. they instantly take the alarm; and, finding the hunters beside them, they run toward the disguised indian, or decoy, who leads them on, at full speed, toward the river; when, suddenly securing himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left on the brink of the precipice. it is then in vain for the foremost to retreat, or even to stop. they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who, seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them, till the whole are precipitated over the cliff, and the shore is covered with their dead bodies. sometimes, in this perilous adventure, the indian decoy is either trodden under foot, or, missing his footing in the cliff, is urged down the precipice by the falling herd." which is the true river? "june , .--we came to for the night, for the purpose of examining in the morning a large river which enters opposite to us. it now became an interesting question, which of those two streams is what the indians call ahmateahza, or the missouri, which, they tell us, has its head waters very near to the columbia. on our right decision much of the fate of the expedition depends; since, if, after ascending to the rocky mountains or beyond them, we should find that the river we have been tracing does not come near the columbia, and be obliged to turn back, we shall have lost the travelling season, and seriously disheartened our men. we determined, therefore, to examine well before deciding on our course, and, for this purpose, despatched two canoes with three men up each of the streams, with orders to ascertain the width, depth, and rapidity of the currents, so as to judge of their comparative bodies of water. parties were also sent out by land to penetrate the country, and discover from the rising grounds, if possible, the distant bearings of the two rivers. while they were gone, the two commanders ascended together the high grounds in the fork of the two rivers, whence they had an extensive prospect of the surrounding country. on every side, it was spread into one vast plain covered with verdure, in which innumerable herds of buffaloes were roaming, attended by their enemies the wolves. some flocks of elk also were seen; and the solitary antelopes were scattered, with their young, over the plain. the direction of the rivers could not be long distinguished, as they were soon lost in the extent of the plain. "on our return, we continued our examination. the width of the north branch is two hundred yards; that of the south is three hundred and seventy-two. the north, though narrower, is deeper than the south: its waters also are of the same whitish-brown color, thickness, and turbidness as the missouri. they run in the same boiling and roaring manner which has uniformly characterized the missouri; and its bed is composed of some gravel, but principally mud. the south fork is broader, and its waters are perfectly transparent. the current is rapid, but the surface smooth and unruffled; and its bed is composed of round and flat smooth stones, like those of rivers issuing from a mountainous country. "in the evening, the exploring parties returned, after ascending the rivers in canoes for some distance, then continuing on foot, just leaving themselves time to return by night. their accounts were far from deciding the important question of our future route; and we therefore determined each of us to ascend one of the rivers during a day and a half's march, or farther, if necessary for our satisfaction. "tuesday, june , .--this morning, capt. lewis and capt. clarke set out, each with a small party, by land, to explore the two rivers. capt. lewis traced the course of the north fork for fifty-nine miles, and found, that, for all that distance, its direction was northward; and, as the latitude we were now in was ° ´, it was highly improbable, that, by going farther north, we should find between this and the saskatchawan any stream which can, as the indians assure us the missouri does, possess a navigable current for some distance within the rocky mountains. "these considerations, with others drawn from the observations of capt. clarke upon the south branch, satisfied the chiefs that the south river was the true missouri; but the men generally were of a contrary opinion, and much of their belief depended upon crusatte, an experienced waterman on the missouri, who gave it as his opinion that the north fork was the main river. in order that nothing might be omitted which could prevent our falling into error, it was agreed that one of us should ascend the southern branch by land until he reached either the falls or the mountains. in the mean time, in order to lighten our burdens as much as possible, we determined to deposit here all the heavy baggage which we could possibly spare, as well as some provisions, salt, powder, and tools. the weather being fair, we dried all our baggage and merchandise, and made our deposit, or cache. our cache is made in this manner: in the high plain on the side of the river, we choose a dry situation, and, drawing a small circle of about twenty inches diameter, remove the sod as carefully as possible. the hole is then sunk perpendicularly a foot deep, or more if the ground be not firm. it is now worked gradually wider as it deepens, till at length it becomes six or seven feet deep, shaped nearly like a kettle, or the lower part of a large still, with the bottom somewhat sunk at the centre. as the earth is dug, it is carefully laid on a skin or cloth, in which it is carried away, and thrown into the river, so as to leave no trace of it. a floor to the cache is then made of dry sticks, on which is thrown hay, or a hide perfectly dry. the goods, being well aired and dried, are laid on this floor, and prevented from touching the sides by other dried sticks, as the baggage is stowed away. when the hole is nearly full, a skin is laid over the goods; and, on this, earth is thrown, and beaten down, until, with the addition of the sod, the whole is on a level with the ground, and there remains no appearance of an excavation. careful measurements are taken to secure the ready recovery of the cache on the return; and the deposit is left in perfect confidence of finding every thing safe and sound after the lapse of months, or even years." the falls of the missouri. "june .--this morning, capt. lewis set out with four men on an exploration, to ascend the southern branch, agreeably to our plan. he left the bank of the river in order to avoid the deep ravines, which generally extend from the shore to a distance of two or three miles in the plain. on the second day, having travelled about sixty miles from the point of departure, on a sudden their ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of falling water; and, as they advanced, a spray which seemed driven by the wind rose above the plain like a column of smoke, and vanished in an instant. towards this point, capt. lewis directed his steps; and the noise, increasing as he approached, soon became too powerful to be ascribed to any thing but the great falls of the missouri. having travelled seven miles after first hearing the sound, he reached the falls. the hills, as he approached the river, were difficult of transit, and two hundred feet high. down these he hurried, and, seating himself on a rock, enjoyed the spectacle of this stupendous object, which, ever since the creation, had been lavishing its magnificence upon the desert, unseen by civilized man. "the river, immediately at its cascade, is three hundred yards wide, and is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff, which rises to about one hundred feet, and extends up the stream for a mile. on the other side, the bluff is also perpendicular for three hundred yards above the falls. for ninety or a hundred yards from the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth, even sheet, over a precipice eighty feet in height. the remaining part of the river rushes with an accelerated current, but, being received as it falls by irregular rocks below, forms a brilliant spectacle of perfectly white foam, two hundred yards in length, and eighty in height. the spray is dissipated into a thousand shapes, on all of which the sun impresses the brightest colors of the rainbow. the principal cascade is succeeded by others of less grandeur, but of exceeding beauty and great variety, for about twenty miles in extent."[ ] a portage. "june .--having reached the falls, we found ourselves obliged to get past them by transporting our boats overland by what is called a _portage_. the distance was eighteen miles. it was necessary to construct a truck or carriage to transport the boats; and the making of the wheels and the necessary framework took ten days. the axle-trees, made of an old mast, broke repeatedly, and the cottonwood tongues gave way; so that the men were forced to carry as much baggage as they could on their backs. the prickly pear annoyed them much by sticking through their moccasons. it required several trips to transport all the canoes and baggage; and, though the men put double soles to their moccasons, the prickly pear, and the sharp points of earth formed by the trampling of the buffaloes during the late rains, wounded their feet; and, as the men were laden as heavily as their strength would permit, the crossing was very painful. they were obliged to halt and rest frequently; and, at almost every stopping-place, they would throw themselves down, and fall asleep in an instant. yet no one complained, and they went on with cheerfulness. "having decided to leave here one of the pirogues, we set to work to fit up a boat of skins, upon a frame of iron which had been prepared at the armory at harper's ferry. it was thirty-six feet long, four feet and a half wide at top, and twenty-six inches wide at bottom. it was with difficulty we found the necessary timber to complete it, even tolerably straight sticks, four and a half feet long. the sides were formed of willow-bark, and, over this, elk and buffalo skins." a narrow escape. "june .--capt. clarke, having lost some notes and remarks which he had made on first ascending the river, determined to go up along its banks in order to supply the deficiency. he had reached the falls, accompanied by his negro-servant york, and by chaboneau, the half-breed indian interpreter, and his wife with her young child. on his arrival there, he observed a dark cloud in the west, which threatened rain; and looked around for some shelter. about a quarter of a mile above the falls he found a deep ravine, where there were some shelving rocks, under which they took refuge. they were perfectly sheltered from the rain, and therefore laid down their guns, compass, and other articles which they carried with them. the shower was at first moderate; it then increased to a heavy rain, the effects of which they did not feel. soon after, a torrent of rain and hail descended. the rain seemed to fall in a solid mass, and, instantly collecting in the ravine, came rolling down in a dreadful torrent, carrying the mud and rocks, and every thing that opposed it. capt. clarke fortunately saw it a moment before it reached them, and springing up, with his gun in his left hand, with his right he clambered up the steep bluff, pushing on the indian woman with her child in her arms. her husband, too, had seized her hand, and was pulling her up the hill, but was so terrified at the danger, that, but for capt. clarke, he would have been lost, with his wife and child. so instantaneous was the rise of the water, that, before capt. clarke had secured his gun and begun to ascend the bank, the water was up to his waist; and he could scarce get up faster than it rose, till it reached the height of fifteen feet, with a furious current, which, had they waited a moment longer, would have swept them into the river, just above the falls, down which they must inevitably have been carried. as it was, capt. clarke lost his compass, chaboneau his gun, shot-pouch, and tomahawk; and the indian woman had just time to grasp her child before the net in which it lay was carried down the current." progress resumed. "july .--the boat was now completed, except what was in fact the most difficult part,--the making her seams secure. having been unsuccessful in all our attempts to procure tar, we have formed a composition of pounded charcoal with beeswax and buffalo-tallow to supply its place. if this resource fail us, it will be very unfortunate, as, in every other respect, the boat answers our purpose completely. although not quite dry, she can be carried with ease by five men: she is very strong, and will carry a load of eight thousand pounds, with her complement of men. "july .--the boat having now become sufficiently dry, we gave it a coat of the composition, then a second, and launched it into the water. she swam perfectly well. the seats were then fixed, and the oars fitted. but after a few hours' exposure to the wind, which blew with violence, we discovered that nearly all the composition had separated from the skins, so that she leaked very much. to repair this misfortune without pitch was impossible; and, as none of that article was to be procured, we were obliged to abandon her, after having had so much labor in the construction. "it now becomes necessary to provide other means for transporting the baggage which we had intended to stow in her. for this purpose, we shall want two canoes; but for many miles we have not seen a single tree fit to be used for that purpose. the hunters, however, report that there is a low ground about eight miles above us by land, and more than twice that distance by water, in which we may probably find trees large enough. capt. clarke has therefore determined to set out by land for that place, with ten of the best workmen, who will be occupied in building the canoes, till the rest of the party, after taking the boat to pieces and making the necessary deposits, shall transport the baggage, and join them with the other six canoes. "capt. clarke accordingly proceeded on eight miles by land; the distance by water being twenty-three miles. here he found two cottonwood-trees, and proceeded to convert them into boats. the rest of the party took the iron boat to pieces, and deposited it in a _cache_, or hole, with some other articles of less importance. "july .--sergeant ordway, with four canoes and eight men, set sail in the morning to the place where capt. clarke had fixed his camp. the canoes were unloaded and sent back, and the remainder of the baggage in a second trip was despatched to the upper camp. "july .--we rose early, embarked all our baggage on board the canoes, which, though eight in number, were heavily laden, and at ten o'clock set out on our journey. "july .--we had now arrived at the point where the missouri emerges from the rocky mountains. the current of the river becomes stronger as we advance, and the spurs of the mountain approach towards the river, which is deep, and not more than seventy yards wide. the low grounds are now but a few yards in width; yet they furnish room for an indian road, which winds under the hills on the north side of the river. the general range of these hills is from south-east to north-west; and the cliffs themselves are about eight hundred feet above the water, formed almost entirely of a hard black rock, on which are scattered a few dwarf pine and cedar trees. "as the canoes were heavily laden, all the men not employed in working them walked on shore. the navigation is now very laborious. the river is deep, but with little current; the low grounds are very narrow; the cliffs are steep, and hang over the river so much, that, in places, we could not pass them, but were obliged to cross and recross from one side of the river to the other in order to make our way." footnote: [ ] dimensions of niagara falls,--american, feet wide, feet high; english, feet wide, feet high. chapter vii. journey continued. july .--since our arrival at the falls, we have repeatedly heard a strange noise coming from the mountains, in a direction a little to the north of west. it is heard at different periods of the day and night, sometimes when the air is perfectly still and without a cloud; and consists of one stroke only, or of five or six discharges in quick succession. it is loud, and resembles precisely the sound of a six-pound piece of ordnance, at the distance of three miles. the minnetarees frequently mentioned this noise, like thunder, which they said the mountains made; but we had paid no attention to them, believing it to be some superstition, or else a falsehood. the watermen also of the party say that the pawnees and ricaras give the same account of a noise heard in the black mountains, to the westward of them. the solution of the mystery, given by the philosophy of the watermen, is, that it is occasioned by the bursting of the rich mines of silver confined within the bosom of the mountain.[ ] "an elk and a beaver are all that were killed to-day: the buffaloes seem to have withdrawn from our neighborhood. we contrived, however, to spread a comfortable table in honor of the day; and in the evening gave the men a drink of spirits, which was the last of our stock." vegetation. "july .--we find the prickly-pear--one of the greatest beauties, as well as one of the greatest inconveniences, of the plains--now in full bloom. the sunflower too, a plant common to every part of the missouri, is here very abundant, and in bloom. the indians of the missouri, and more especially those who do not cultivate maize, make great use of this plant for bread, and in thickening their soup. they first parch, and then pound it between two stones until it is reduced to a fine meal. sometimes they add a portion of water, and drink it thus diluted; at other times they add a sufficient proportion of marmow-fat to reduce it to the consistency of common dough, and eat it in that manner. this last composition we preferred to the rest, and thought it at that time very palatable. "there are also great quantities of red, purple, yellow, and black currants. the currants are very pleasant to the taste, and much preferable to those of our gardens. the fruit is not so acid, and has a more agreeable flavor." the big-horned or mountain ram. "july .--this morning we saw a large herd of the big-horned animals, who were bounding among the rocks in the opposite cliff with great agility. these inaccessible spots secure them from all their enemies; and the only danger they encounter is in wandering among these precipices, where we should suppose it scarcely possible for any animal to stand. a single false step would precipitate them at least five hundred feet into the river. "the game continues abundant. we killed to-day the largest male elk we have yet seen. on placing it in its natural, erect position, we found that it measured five feet three inches from the point of the hoof to the top of the shoulder. "the antelopes are yet lean. this fleet and quick-sighted animal is generally the victim of its curiosity. when they first see the hunters, they run with great velocity. if the hunter lies down on the ground, and lifts up his arm, his hat, or his foot, the antelope returns on a light trot to look at the object, and sometimes goes and returns two or three times, till at last he approaches within reach of the rifle. so, too, they sometimes leave their flock to go and look at the wolves, who crouch down, and, if the antelope be frightened at first, repeat the same manoeuvre, and sometimes relieve each other, till they decoy the antelope from his party near enough to seize it." the gates of the rocky mountains. "july .--during the day, in the confined valley through which we are passing, the heat is almost insupportable; yet, whenever we obtain a glimpse of the lofty tops of the mountains, we are tantalized with a view of the snow. a mile and a half farther on, the rocks approach the river on both sides, forming a most sublime and extraordinary spectacle. for six miles, these rocks rise perpendicularly from the water's edge to the height of nearly twelve hundred feet. they are composed of a black granite near the base; but judging from its lighter color above, and from fragments that have fallen from it, we suppose the upper part to be flint, of a yellowish-brown and cream color. nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks, which project over the river, and menace us with destruction. the river, one hundred and fifty yards in width, seems to have forced its channel down this solid mass: but so reluctantly has it given way, that, during the whole distance, the water is very deep even at the edges; and, for the first three miles, there is not a spot, except one of a few yards in extent, on which a man could stand between the water and the towering perpendicular of the mountain. the convulsion of the passage must have been terrible; since, at its outlet, there are vast columns of rock torn from the mountain, which are strewed on both sides of the river, the trophies, as it were, of victory. we were obliged to go on some time after dark, not being able to find a spot large enough to encamp on. this extraordinary range of rocks we called the gates of the rocky mountains." natural productions. "july .--this morning the hunters brought in some fat deer of the long-tailed red kind, which are the only kind we have found at this place. there are numbers of the sandhill-cranes feeding in the meadows. we caught a young one, which, though it had nearly attained its full growth, could not fly. it is very fierce, and strikes a severe blow with its beak. the kingfisher has become quite common this side of the falls; but we have seen none of the summer duck since leaving that place. small birds are also abundant in the plains. here, too, are great quantities of grasshoppers, or crickets; and, among other animals, large ants, with a reddish-brown body and legs, and a black head, which build little cones of gravel ten or twelve inches high, without a mixture of sticks, and with but little earth. in the river we see a great abundance of fish, but cannot tempt them to bite by any thing on our hooks." the forks of the missouri. "july , .--from the height of a limestone cliff, capt. lewis observed the three forks of the missouri, of which this river is one. the middle and south-west forks unite at half a mile above the entrance of the south-east fork. the country watered by these rivers, as far as the eye could command, was a beautiful combination of meadow and elevated plain, covered with a rich grass, and possessing more timber than is usual on the missouri. a range of high mountains, partially covered with snow, is seen at a considerable distance, running from south to west. "to the south-east fork the name of gallatin was assigned, in honor of the secretary of the treasury. on examining the other two streams, it was difficult to decide which was the larger or real missouri: they are each ninety yards wide, and similar in character and appearance. we were therefore induced to discontinue the name of missouri, and to give to the south-west branch the name of jefferson, in honor of the president of the united states and the projector of the enterprise; and called the middle branch madison, after james madison, secretary of state. "july .--we reloaded our canoes, and began to ascend jefferson river. the river soon became very crooked; the current, too, is rapid, impeded with shoals, which consist of coarse gravel. the islands are numerous. on the th of august, we had, with much fatigue, ascended the river sixty miles, when we reached the junction of a stream from the north-west, which we named wisdom river. we continued, however, to ascend the south-east branch, which we were satisfied was the true continuation of the jefferson." the shoshonees, or snake indians. "july .--we are now very anxious to see the snake indians. after advancing for several hundred miles into this wild and mountainous country, we may soon expect that the game will abandon us. with no information of the route, we may be unable to find a passage across the mountains when we reach the head of the river, at least such an one as will lead us to the columbia. and, even were we so fortunate as to find a branch of that river, the timber which we have hitherto seen in these mountains does not promise us any wood fit to make canoes; so that our chief dependence is on meeting some tribe from whom we may procure horses. "sacajawea, our indian woman, informs us that we are encamped on the precise spot where her countrymen, the snake indians, had their huts five years ago, when the minnetarees came upon them, killed most of the party, and carried her away prisoner. she does not, however, show any distress at these recollections, nor any joy at the prospect of being restored to her country; for she seems to possess the folly, or the philosophy, of not suffering her feelings to extend beyond the anxiety of having plenty to eat, and trinkets to wear. "aug. .--persuaded of the absolute necessity of procuring horses to cross the mountains, it was determined that one of us should proceed in the morning to the head of the river, and penetrate the mountains till he found the shoshonees, or some other nation, who could assist us in transporting our baggage. immediately after breakfast, capt. lewis took drewyer, shields, and mcneal; and, slinging their knapsacks, they set out, with a resolution to meet some nation of indians before they returned, however long it might be. "aug. .--it was not till the third day after commencing their search that they met with any success. capt. lewis perceived with the greatest delight, at the distance of two miles, a man on horseback coming towards them. on examining him with the glass, capt. lewis saw that he was of a different nation from any we had hitherto met. he was armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows, and mounted on an elegant horse without a saddle; while a small string, attached to the under-jaw, answered as a bridle. convinced that he was a shoshonee, and knowing how much our success depended upon the friendly offices of that nation, capt. lewis was anxious to approach without alarming him. he therefore advanced towards the indian at his usual pace. when they were within a mile of each other, the indian suddenly stopped. capt. lewis immediately followed his example; took his blanket from his knapsack, and, holding it with both hands at the two corners, threw it above his head, and unfolded it as he brought it to the ground, as if in the act of spreading it. this signal, which originates in the practice of spreading a robe or a skin as a seat for guests to whom they wish to show kindness, is the universal sign of friendship among the indians. as usual, capt. lewis repeated this signal three times. still the indian kept his position, and looked with an air of suspicion on drewyer and shields, who were now advancing on each side. capt. lewis was afraid to make any signal for them to halt, lest he should increase the suspicions of the indian, who began to be uneasy; and they were too distant to hear his voice. he therefore took from his pack some beads, a looking-glass, and a few trinkets, which he had brought for the purpose; and, leaving his gun, advanced unarmed towards the indian, who remained in the same position till capt. lewis came within two hundred yards of him, when he turned his horse, and began to move off slowly. capt. lewis then called out to him, as loud as he could, 'tabba bone,'--which, in the shoshonee language, means _white man_; but, looking over his shoulder, the indian kept his eyes on drewyer and shields, who were still advancing, till capt. lewis made a signal to them to halt. this, drewyer obeyed; but shields did not observe it, and still went forward. the indian, seeing drewyer halt, turned his horse about, as if to wait for capt. lewis, who had now reached within one hundred and fifty paces, repeating the words, 'tabba bone,' and holding up the trinkets in his hand; at the same time stripping up his sleeve to show that he was white. the indian suffered him to advance within one hundred paces, then suddenly turned his horse, and, giving him the whip, leaped across the creek, and disappeared in an instant among the willows. they followed his track four miles, but could not get sight of him again, nor find any encampment to which he belonged. "meanwhile the party in the canoes advanced slowly up the river till they came to a large island, to which they gave the name of three-thousand-mile island, on account of its being at that distance from the mouth of the missouri." footnote: [ ] there are many stories, from other sources, confirmatory of these noises in mountainous districts. one solution, suggested by humboldt,--who does not, however, record the fact as of his own observation,--is, that "this curious phenomenon announces a disengagement of hydrogen, produced by a bed of coal in a state of combustion." this solution is applicable only to mountains which contain coal, unless chemical changes in other minerals might be supposed capable of producing a similar effect. chapter viii. the sources of the missouri and columbia. aug. , .--capt. lewis decided to advance along the foot of the mountains, hoping to find a road leading across them. at the distance of four miles from his camp, he found a large, plain, indian road, which entered the valley from the north-east. following this road towards the south-west, the valley, for the first five miles, continued in the same direction; then the main stream turned abruptly to the west, through a narrow bottom between the mountains. we traced the stream, which gradually became smaller, till, two miles farther up, it had so diminished, that one of the men, in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the rivulet, thanked god that he had lived to bestride the missouri. four miles from thence, we came to the spot where, from the foot of a mountain, issues the remotest water of the mighty river. "we had now traced the missouri to its source, which had never before been seen by civilized man; and as we quenched our thirst at the pure and icy fountain, and stretched ourselves by the brink of the little rivulet which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean, we felt rewarded for all our labors. "we left reluctantly this interesting spot, and, pursuing the indian road, arrived at the top of a ridge, from whence we saw high mountains, partially covered with snow, still to the west of us. the ridge on which we stood formed, apparently, the dividing-line between the waters of the pacific and atlantic oceans. we followed a descent much steeper than that on the eastern side, and, at the distance of three-quarters of a mile, reached a handsome, bold creek of cold, clear water, running to the westward. we stopped for a moment, to taste, for the first time, the waters of the columbia; and then followed the road across hills and valleys, till we found a spring, and a sufficient quantity of dry willow-brush for fuel; and there halted for the night." they meet with indians. "aug. .--very early in the morning, capt. lewis resumed the indian road, which led him in a western direction, through an open, broken country. at five miles' distance, he reached a creek about ten yards wide, and, on rising the hill beyond it, had a view of a handsome little valley about a mile in width, through which they judged, from the appearance of the timber, that a stream probably flowed. on a sudden, they discovered two women, a man, and some dogs, on an eminence about a mile before them. the strangers viewed them apparently with much attention; and then two of them sat down, as if to await capt. lewis's arrival. he went on till he had reached within about half a mile; then ordered his party to stop, put down his knapsack and rifle, and, unfurling the flag, advanced alone towards the indians. "the women soon retreated behind the hill; but the man remained till capt. lewis came within a hundred yards of him, when he, too, went off, though capt. lewis called out 'tabba bone' ('white man'), loud enough to be heard distinctly. the dogs, however, were less shy, and came close to him. he therefore thought of tying a handkerchief with some beads round their necks, and then to let them loose, to convince the fugitives of his friendly intentions; but the dogs would not suffer him to take hold of them, and soon left him. "he now made a signal to the men, who joined him; and then all followed the track of the indians, which led along a continuation of the same road they had been travelling. it was dusty, and seemed to have been much used lately both by foot-passengers and horsemen. "they had not gone along it more than a mile, when, on a sudden, they saw three female indians, from whom they had been concealed by the deep ravines which intersected the road, till they were now within thirty paces of them. one of them, a young woman, immediately took to flight: the other two, an old woman and little girl, seeing we were too near for them to escape, sat on the ground, and, holding down their heads, seemed as if reconciled to the death which they supposed awaited them. capt. lewis instantly put down his rifle, and, advancing towards them, took the woman by the hand, raised her up, and repeated the words, 'tabba bone,' at the same time stripping up his sleeve to show that he was a white man; for his hands and face had become by exposure quite as dark as their own. "she appeared immediately relieved from her alarm; and, drewyer and shields now coming up, capt. lewis gave her some beads, a few awls, pewter mirrors, and a little paint, and told drewyer to request the woman to recall her companion, who had escaped to some distance, and, by alarming the indians, might cause them to attack him, without any time for explanation. she did as she was desired, and the young woman returned readily. capt. lewis gave her an equal portion of trinkets, and painted the tawny cheeks of all three of them with vermilion, which, besides its ornamental effect, has the advantage of being held among the indians as emblematic of peace. "after they had become composed, he informed them by signs of his wish to go to their camp in order to see their chiefs and warriors. they readily complied, and conducted the party along the same road down the river. in this way they marched two miles, when they met a troop of nearly sixty warriors, mounted on excellent horses, riding at full speed towards them. as they advanced, capt. lewis put down his gun, and went with the flag about fifty paces in advance. the chief, who, with two men, was riding in front of the main body, spoke to the women, who now explained that the party was composed of white men, and showed exultingly the presents they had received. the three men immediately leaped from their horses, came up to capt. lewis, and embraced him with great cordiality,--putting their left arm over his right shoulder, and clasping his back,--applying at the same time their left cheek to his, and frequently vociferating, 'ah-hi-e!'--'_i am glad! i am glad!_' "the whole body of warriors now came forward, and our men received the caresses, and no small share of the grease and paint, of their new friends. after this fraternal embrace, capt. lewis lighted a pipe, and offered it to the indians, who had now seated themselves in a circle around our party. but, before they would receive this mark of friendship, they pulled off their moccasons; a custom which, we afterwards learned, indicates their sincerity when they smoke with a stranger. "after smoking a few pipes, some trifling presents were distributed among them, with which they seemed very much pleased, particularly with the blue beads and the vermilion. "capt. lewis then informed the chief that the object of his visit was friendly, and should be explained as soon as he reached their camp; but that in the mean time, as the sun was oppressive, and no water near, he wished to go there as soon as possible. they now put on their moccasons; and their chief, whose name was cameahwait, made a short speech to the warriors. capt. lewis then gave him the flag, which he informed him was the emblem of peace, and that now and for the future it was to be the pledge of union between us and them. the chief then moved on, our party followed, and the rest of the warriors brought up the rear. "at the distance of four miles from where they had first met the indians, they reached the camp, which was in a handsome, level meadow on the bank of the river. here they were introduced into a leathern lodge which was assigned for their reception. after being seated on green boughs and antelope-skins, one of the warriors pulled up the grass in the centre of the lodge, so as to form a vacant circle of two feet in diameter, in which he kindled a fire. the chief then produced his pipe and tobacco; the warriors all pulled off their moccasons, and our party were requested to take off their own. this being done, the chief lighted his pipe at the fire, and then, retreating from it, began a speech several minutes long; at the end of which he pointed the stem of his pipe towards the four cardinal points of the heavens, beginning with the east, and concluding with the north. after this ceremony, he presented the stem in the same way to capt. lewis, who, supposing it an invitation to smoke, put out his hand to receive the pipe; but the chief drew it back, and continued to repeat the same offer three times; after which he pointed the stem to the heavens, then took three whiffs himself, and presented it again to capt. lewis. finding that this last offer was in good earnest, he smoked a little, and returned it. the pipe was then held to each of the white men, and, after they had taken a few whiffs, was given to the warriors. "the bowl of the pipe was made of a dense, transparent, green stone, very highly polished, about two and a half inches long, and of an oval figure; the bowl being in the same direction with the stem. the tobacco is of the same kind with that used by the minnetarees and mandans of the missouri. the shoshonees do not cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the bands who live farther south. "the ceremony of smoking being concluded, capt. lewis explained to the chief the purposes of his visit; and, as by this time all the women and children of the camp had gathered around the lodge to indulge in a view of the first white men they had ever seen, he distributed among them the remainder of the small articles he had brought with him. "it was now late in the afternoon, and our party had tasted no food since the night before. on apprising the chief of this fact, he said that he had nothing but berries to eat, and presented some cakes made of service-berries and choke-cherries which had been dried in the sun. of these, capt. lewis and his companions made as good a meal as they were able. "the chief informed him that the stream which flowed by them discharged itself, at the distance of half a day's march, into another of twice its size; but added that there was no timber there suitable for building canoes, and that the river was rocky and rapid. the prospect of going on by land was more pleasant; for there were great numbers of horses feeding round the camp, which would serve to transport our stores over the mountains. "an indian invited capt. lewis into his lodge, and gave him a small morsel of boiled antelope, and a piece of fresh salmon, roasted. this was the first salmon he had seen, and perfectly satisfied him that he was now on the waters of the pacific. "on returning to the lodge, he resumed his conversation with the chief; after which he was entertained with a dance by the indians. the music and dancing--which were in no respect different from those of the missouri indians--continued nearly all night; but capt. lewis retired to rest about twelve o'clock, when the fatigues of the day enabled him to sleep, though he was awaked several times by the yells of the dancers." chapter ix. the party in the boats. august, .--while these things were occurring to capt. lewis, the party in the boats were slowly and laboriously ascending the river. it was very crooked, the bends short and abrupt, and obstructed by so many shoals, over which the canoes had to be dragged, that the men were in the water three-fourths of the day. they saw numbers of otters, some beavers, antelopes, ducks, geese, and cranes; but they killed nothing except a single deer. they caught, however, some very fine trout. the weather was cloudy and cool; and at eight o'clock a shower of rain fell. next day, as the morning was cold, and the men stiff and sore from the fatigues of yesterday, they did not set out till seven o'clock. the river was shallow, and, as it approached the mountains, formed one continued rapid, over which they were obliged to drag the boats with great labor and difficulty. by these means, they succeeded in making fourteen miles; but this distance did not exceed more than six and a half in a straight line. several successive days were passed in this manner (the daily progress seldom exceeding a dozen miles), while the party anxiously expected to be rejoined by capt. lewis and his men, with intelligence of some relief by the aid of friendly indians. in the mean time, capt. lewis was as anxiously expecting their arrival, to confirm the good impressions he had made on the indians, as well as to remove some lurking doubts they still felt as to his intentions. capt. lewis among the shoshonees. aug. .--in order to give time for the boats to reach the forks of jefferson river, capt. lewis determined to remain where he was, and obtain all the information he could with regard to the country. having nothing to eat but a little flour and parched meal, with the berries of the indians, he sent out drewyer and shields, who borrowed horses of the natives, to hunt. at the same time, the young warriors set out for the same purpose. there are but few elk or black-tailed deer in this region; and, as the common red deer secrete themselves in the bushes when alarmed, they are soon safe from the arrows of the indian hunters, which are but feeble weapons against any animal which the huntsmen cannot previously run down. the chief game of the shoshonees, therefore, is the antelope, which, when pursued, runs to the open plains, where the horses have full room for the chase. but such is this animal's extraordinary fleetness and wind, that a single horse has no chance of outrunning it, or tiring it down; and the hunters are therefore obliged to resort to stratagem. about twenty indians, mounted on fine horses, and armed with bows and arrows, left the camp. in a short time, they descried a herd of ten antelopes. they immediately separated into little squads of two or three, and formed a scattered circle round the herd for five or six miles, keeping at a wary distance, so as not to alarm them till they were perfectly enclosed. having gained their positions, a small party rode towards the herd; the huntsman preserving his seat with wonderful tenacity, and the horse his footing, as he ran at full speed over the hills, and down the ravines, and along the edges of precipices. they were soon outstripped by the antelopes, which, on gaining the other limit of the circle, were driven back, and pursued by fresh hunters. they turned, and flew, rather than ran, in another direction; but there, too, they found new enemies. in this way they were alternately driven backwards and forwards, till at length, notwithstanding the skill of the hunters, they all escaped; and the party, after running two hours, returned without having caught any thing, and their horses foaming with sweat. this chase, the greater part of which was seen from the camp, formed a beautiful scene; but to the hunters it is exceedingly laborious, and so unproductive, even when they are able to worry the animal down and shoot him, that forty or fifty hunters will sometimes be engaged for half a day without obtaining more than two or three antelopes. soon after they returned, our two huntsmen came in with no better success. capt. lewis therefore made a little paste with the flour, and the addition of some berries formed a tolerable repast. having now secured the good-will of cameahwait, capt. lewis informed him of his wish,--that he would speak to the warriors, and endeavor to engage them to accompany him to the forks of jefferson river, where, by this time, another chief, with a large party of white men, were waiting his return. he added, that it would be necessary to take about thirty horses to transport the merchandise; that they should be well rewarded for their trouble; and that, when all the party should have reached the shoshonee camp, they would remain some time among them, and trade for horses, as well as concert plans for furnishing them in future with regular supplies of merchandise. cameahwait readily consented to do as requested; and, after collecting the tribe together, he made a long harangue, and in about an hour and a half returned, and told capt. lewis that they would be ready to accompany him next morning. capt. lewis rose early, and, having eaten nothing yesterday except his scanty meal of flour and berries, felt the pain of extreme hunger. on inquiry, he found that his whole stock of provisions consisted of two pounds of flour. this he ordered to be divided into two equal parts, and one-half of it boiled with the berries into a sort of pudding; and, after presenting a large share to the chief, he and his three men breakfasted on the remainder. cameahwait was delighted with this new dish. he took a little of the flour in his hand, tasted it, and examined it very carefully, asking if it was made of roots. capt. lewis explained how it was produced, and the chief said it was the best thing he had eaten for a long time. breakfast being finished, capt. lewis endeavored to hasten the departure of the indians, who seemed reluctant to move, although the chief addressed them twice for the purpose of urging them. on inquiring the reason, capt. lewis learned that the indians were suspicious that they were to be led into an ambuscade, and betrayed to their enemies. he exerted himself to dispel this suspicion, and succeeded so far as to induce eight of the warriors, with cameahwait, to accompany him. it was about twelve o'clock when his small party left the camp, attended by cameahwait and the eight warriors. at sunset they reached the river, and encamped about four miles above the narrow pass between the hills, which they had noticed in their progress some days before. drewyer had been sent forward to hunt; but he returned in the evening unsuccessful; and their only supply, therefore, was the remaining pound of flour, stirred in a little boiling water, and divided between the four white men and two of the indians. next morning, as neither our party nor the indians had any thing to eat, capt. lewis sent two of his hunters out to procure some provision. at the same time, he requested cameahwait to prevent his young men from going out, lest, by their noise, they might alarm the game. this measure immediately revived their suspicions, and some of them followed our two men to watch them. after the hunters had been gone about an hour, capt. lewis mounted, with one of the indians behind him, and the whole party set out. just then, they saw one of the spies coming back at full speed across the plain. the chief stopped, and seemed uneasy: the whole band were moved with fresh suspicions; and capt. lewis himself was anxious, lest, by some unfortunate accident, some hostile tribe might have wandered that way. the young indian had hardly breath to say a few words as he came up, when the whole troop dashed forward as fast as their horses could carry them; and capt. lewis, astonished at this movement, was borne along for nearly a mile, before he learned, with great satisfaction, that it was all caused by the spy's having come to announce that one of the white men had killed a deer. when they reached the place where drewyer, in cutting up the deer, had thrown out the intestines, the indians dismounted in confusion, and ran, tumbling over each other, like famished dogs: each tore away whatever part he could, and instantly began to devour it. some had the liver, some the kidneys: in short, no part on which we are accustomed to look with disgust escaped them. it was, indeed, impossible to see these wretches ravenously feeding on the refuse of animals, and the blood streaming from their mouths, without deploring how nearly the condition of savages approaches that of the brute creation. yet, though suffering with hunger, they did not attempt to take (as they might have done) by force the whole deer, but contented themselves with what had been thrown away by the hunter. capt. lewis had the deer skinned, and, after reserving a quarter of it, gave the rest of the animal to the chief, to be divided among the indians, who immediately devoured the whole without cooking. they meet the boat party. as they were now approaching the place where they had been told they should see the white men, capt. lewis, to guard against any disappointment, explained the possibility of our men not having reached the forks, in consequence of the difficulty of the navigation; so that, if they should not find us at that spot, they might be assured of our being not far below. after stopping two hours to let the horses graze, they remounted, and rode on rapidly, making one of the indians carry the flag, so that the party in the boats might recognize them as they approached. to their great mortification, on coming within sight of the forks, no canoes were to be seen. uneasy, lest at this moment he should be abandoned, and all his hopes of obtaining aid from the indians be destroyed, capt. lewis gave the chief his gun, telling him, if the enemies of his nation were in the bushes, he might defend himself with it; and that the chief might shoot him as soon as they discovered themselves betrayed. the other three men at the same time gave their guns to the indians, who now seemed more easy, but still suspicious. luckily, he had a hold on them by other ties than their generosity. he had promised liberal exchanges for their horses; but, what was still more attractive, he had told them that one of their country-women, who had been taken by the minnetarees, accompanied the party below: and one of the men had spread the report of our having with us a man perfectly black, whose hair was short and curled. this last account had excited a great degree of curiosity; and they seemed more desirous of seeing this monster than of obtaining the most favorable barter for their horses. in the mean time, the boat party under capt. clarke, struggling against rapids and shallows, had made their way to a point only four miles by land, though ten by water, from where capt. lewis and the indians were. capt. clarke had seen from an eminence the forks of the river, and sent the hunters up. they must have left it only a short time before capt. lewis's arrival. aug. .--capt. lewis rose early, and despatched drewyer and the indian down the river in quest of the boats. they had been gone about two hours, and the indians were all anxiously waiting for some news, when an indian who had straggled a short distance down the river returned, with a report that he had seen the white men, who were not far below, and were coming on. the indians were all delighted; and the chief, in the warmth of his affection, renewed his embrace to capt. lewis, who, though quite as much gratified, would willingly have spared that manifestation of it. the report proved true. on commencing the day's progress, capt. clarke, with chaboneau and his wife, walked by the river-side; but they had not gone more than a mile, when capt. clarke saw sacajawea, the indian woman, who was some distance in advance, begin to dance, and show every mark of extravagant joy, pointing to several indians, whom he now saw advancing on horseback. as they approached, capt. clarke discovered drewyer among them, from whom he learned the situation of capt. lewis and his party. while the boats were performing the circuit, capt. clarke went towards the forks with the indians, who, as they went along, sang aloud with the greatest appearance of delight. they soon drew near the camp; and, as they approached it, a woman made her way through the crowd towards sacajawea, when, recognizing each other, they embraced with the most tender affection. the meeting of these two young women had in it something peculiarly touching. they had been companions in childhood, and, in the war with the minnetarees, had both been taken prisoners in the same battle. they had shared the same captivity, till one had escaped, leaving her friend with scarce a hope of ever seeing her again. while sacajawea was renewing among the women the friendships of former days, capt. clarke went on, and was received by capt. lewis and the chief, who, after the first embraces and salutations, conducted him to a sort of circular tent constructed of willow-branches. here he was seated on a white robe; and the chief tied in his hair six small shells resembling pearls,--an ornament highly valued by these people. after smoking, a conference was held, sacajawea acting as interpreter. capt. lewis told them he had been sent to discover the best route by which merchandise could be conveyed to them, and, since no trade would be begun before our return, it was naturally desirable that we should proceed with as little delay as possible; that we were under the necessity of requesting them to furnish us with horses to transport our baggage across the mountains, and a guide to show us the route; but that they should be amply remunerated for their horses, as well as for any other service they should render us. in the mean time, our first wish was that they should immediately collect as many horses as were necessary to transport our baggage to their village, where, at our leisure, we would trade with them for as many horses as they could spare. the speech made a favorable impression. the chief thanked us for our friendly intentions, and declared their willingness to render us every service. he promised to return to the village next day, and to bring all his own horses, and to encourage his people to bring theirs. we then distributed our presents. to cameahwait we gave a medal of the small size, with the likeness of president jefferson, and on the reverse a figure of hands clasped, with a pipe and tomahawk. to this were added a uniform-coat, a shirt, a pair of scarlet leggings, a lump of tobacco, and some small articles. each of the other chiefs received similar presents, excepting the dress-coat. these honorary gifts were followed by presents of paint, moccasons, awls, knives, beads, and looking-glasses. they had abundant sources of surprise in all they saw. the appearance of the men, their arms, their clothing, the canoes, the strange looks of the negro, and the sagacity of our dog, all in turn shared their admiration, which was raised to astonishment by a shot from the air-gun. this was immediately pronounced a _great medicine_, by which they mean something produced by the great spirit himself in some incomprehensible way. chapter x. the descent of the columbia. august, .--our indian information as to the navigation of the columbia was of a very discouraging character. it was therefore agreed that capt. clarke should set off in the morning with eleven men, furnished, besides their arms, with tools for making canoes; that he should take chaboneau and his wife to the camp of the shoshonees, where he was to leave them to hasten the collection of horses; that he was then to lead his men down to the columbia; and if he found it navigable, and the timber in sufficient quantity, should begin to build canoes. as soon as he should have decided on the question of proceeding, whether down the river or across the mountains, he was to send back one of the men, with information of his decision, to capt. lewis, who would tarry meanwhile at the shoshonee village. aug. .--capt. clarke set out at six o'clock. passing through a continuation of hilly, broken country, he met several parties of indians. an old man among them was pointed out, who was said to know more of the nature of the country north than any other person; and capt. clarke engaged him as a guide. the first point to ascertain was the truth of the indian information as to the difficulty of descending the river. for this purpose, capt. clarke and his men set out at three o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by his indian guide. at the distance of four miles he crossed the river, and, eight miles from the camp, halted for the night. as capt. lewis was the first white man who had visited its waters, capt. clarke gave the stream the name of lewis's river. aug. .--capt. clarke set out very early; but as his route lay along the steep side of a mountain, over irregular and broken masses of rocks, which wounded the horses' feet, he was obliged to proceed slowly. at the distance of four miles, he reached the river; but the rocks here became so steep, and projected so far into the stream, that there was no mode of passing except through the water. this he did for some distance, though the current was very rapid, and so deep, that they were forced to swim their horses. after following the edge of the stream for about a mile, he reached a small meadow, below which the whole current of the river beat against the shore on which he was, and which was formed of a solid rock, perfectly inaccessible to horses. he therefore resolved to leave the horses and the greater part of the men at this place, and continue his examination of the river on foot, in order to determine if there were any possibility of descending it in canoes. with his guide and three men he proceeded, clambering over immense rocks, and along the sides of precipices which bordered the stream. the river presented a succession of shoals, neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes; and the baggage must therefore be transported for considerable distances over the steep mountains, where it would be impossible to employ horses. even the empty boats must be let down the rapids by means of cords, and not even in this way without great risk both to the canoes and the men. disappointed in finding a route by way of the river, capt. clarke now questioned his guide more particularly respecting an indian road which came in from the north. the guide, who seemed intelligent, drew a map on the sand, and represented this road as leading to a great river where resided a nation called tushepaws, who, having no salmon on their river, came by this road to the fish-wears on lewis's river. after a great deal of conversation, or rather signs, capt. clarke felt persuaded that his guide knew of a road from the shoshonee village they had left, to the great river toward the north, without coming so low down as this, on a road impracticable for horses. he therefore hastened to return thither, sending forward a man on horseback with a note to capt. lewis, apprising him of the result of his inquiries. from the th to the th of august, capt. clarke and his men were occupied in their return to the shoshonee village, where capt. lewis and party were awaiting them. during their march, the want of provisions was such, that if it had not been for the liberality of the indians, who gave them a share of their own scanty supplies, they must have perished. the main dependence for food was upon salmon and berries. it was seldom they could get enough of these for a full meal; and abstinence and the strange diet caused some sickness. capt. lewis, on the contrary, had found the game sufficiently abundant to supply their own party, and to spare some to the indians; so that, when their friends rejoined them, they had it in their power to immediately relieve their wants. the shoshonees. the shoshonees are a small tribe of the nation called snake indians,--a vague denomination, which embraces at once the inhabitants of the southern parts of the rocky mountains, and of the plains on each side. the shoshonees, with whom we now are, amount to about a hundred warriors, and three times that number of women and children. within their own recollection, they formerly lived in the plains; but they have been driven into the mountains by the roving indians of the saskatchawan country, and are now obliged to visit only occasionally and by stealth the country of their ancestors. from the middle of may to the beginning of september, they reside on the waters of the columbia. during this time, they subsist chiefly on salmon; and, as that fish disappears on the approach of autumn, they are obliged to seek subsistence elsewhere. they then cross the ridge to the waters of the missouri, down which they proceed cautiously till they are joined by other bands of their own nation, or of the flatheads, with whom they associate against the common enemy. being now strong in numbers, they venture to hunt buffaloes in the plains eastward of the mountains, near which they spend the winter, till the return of the salmon invites them to the columbia. in this loose and wandering existence, they suffer the extremes of want: for two-thirds of the year they are forced to live in the mountains, passing whole weeks without meat, and with nothing to eat but a few fish and roots. yet the shoshonees are not only cheerful, but gay; and their character is more interesting than that of any other indians we have seen. they are frank and communicative; fair in their dealings; and we have had no reason to suspect that the display of our new and valuable wealth has tempted them into a single act of theft. while they have shared with us the little they possess, they have always abstained from begging any thing of us. their wealth is in horses. of these they have at least seven hundred, among which are about forty colts, and half that number of mules. the original stock was procured from the spaniards; but now they raise their own, which are generally of good size, vigorous, and patient of fatigue as well as of hunger. every warrior has one or two tied to a stake near his hut day and night, so as to be always prepared for action. the mules are obtained in the course of trade from the spaniards of california. they are highly valued. the worst are considered as worth the price of two horses. the shoshonee warrior always fights on horseback. he possesses a few bad guns, which are reserved for war; but his common arms are the bow and arrow, a shield, a lance, and a weapon called _pogamogon_, which consists of a handle of wood, with a stone weighing about two pounds, and held in a cover of leather, attached to the handle by a leather thong. at the other end is a loop, which is passed round the wrist, so as to secure the hold of the instrument, with which they strike a very severe blow. the bow is made of cedar or pine, covered on the outer side with sinews and glue. sometimes it is made of the horn of an elk, covered on the back like those of wood. the arrows are more slender than those of other indians we have seen. they are kept, with the implements for striking fire, in a narrow quiver formed of different kinds of skin. it is just long enough to protect the arrows from the weather, and is fastened upon the back of the wearer by means of a strap passing over the right shoulder, and under the left arm. the shield is a circular piece of buffalo-skin, about two feet four inches in diameter, ornamented with feathers, with a fringe round it of dressed leather, and adorned with paintings of strange figures. besides these, they have a kind of armor, something like a coat of mail, which is formed by a great many folds of antelope-skins, united by a mixture of glue and sand. with this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses, and find it impervious to the arrow. the caparison of their horses is a halter and saddle. the halter is made of strands of buffalo-hair platted together; or is merely a thong of raw hide, made pliant by pounding and rubbing. the halter is very long, and is never taken from the neck of the horse when in constant use. one end of it is first tied round the neck in a knot, and then brought down to the under-jaw, round which it is formed into a simple noose, passing through the mouth. it is then drawn up on the right side, and held by the rider in his left hand, while the rest trails after him to some distance. with these cords dangling alongside of them, the horse is put to his full speed, without fear of falling; and, when he is turned to graze, the noose is merely taken from his mouth. the saddle is formed, like the pack-saddles used by the french and spaniards, of two flat, thin boards, which fit the sides of the horse, and are kept together by two cross-pieces, one before and the other behind, which rise to a considerable height, making the saddle deep and narrow. under this, a piece of buffalo-skin, with the hair on, is placed, so as to prevent the rubbing of the board; and, when the rider mounts, he throws a piece of skin or robe over the saddle, which has no permanent cover. when stirrups are used, they consist of wood covered with leather; but stirrups and saddles are conveniences reserved for women and old men. the young warriors rarely use any thing except a small, leather pad stuffed with hair, and secured by a girth made of a leathern thong. in this way, they ride with great expertness; and they have particular dexterity in catching the horse when he is running at large. they make a noose in the rope, and although the horse may be at some distance, or even running, rarely fail to fix it on his neck; and such is the docility of the animal, that, however unruly he may seem, he surrenders as soon as he feels the rope on him. the horse becomes an object of attachment. a favorite is frequently painted, and his ears cut into various shapes. the mane and tail, which are never drawn nor trimmed, are decorated with feathers of birds; and sometimes a warrior suspends at the breast of his horse the finest ornaments he possesses. thus armed and mounted, the shoshonee is a formidable enemy, even with the feeble weapons which he is still obliged to use. when they attack at full speed, they bend forward, and cover their bodies with the shield, while with the right hand they shoot under the horse's neck. indian horses and riders. they are so well supplied with horses, that every man, woman, and child is mounted; and all they have is packed upon horses. small children, not more than three years old, are mounted alone, and generally upon colts. they are tied upon the saddle to keep them from falling, especially when they go to sleep, which they often do when they become fatigued. then they lie down upon the horse's shoulders; and, when they awake, they lay hold of their whip, which is fastened to the wrist of their right hand, and apply it smartly to their horses: and it is astonishing to see how these little creatures will guide and run them. children that are still younger are put into an incasement made with a board at the back, and a wicker-work around the other parts, covered with cloth inside and without, or, more generally, with dressed skins; and they are carried upon the mother's back, or suspended from a high knob upon the fore part of their saddles. chapter xi. clarke's river. aug. .--capt. lewis, during the absence of his brother-officer, had succeeded in procuring from the indians, by barter, twenty-nine horses,--not quite one for each man. capt. clarke having now rejoined us, and the weather being fine, we loaded our horses, and prepared to start. we took our leave of the shoshonees, and accompanied by the old guide, his four sons, and another indian, began the descent of the river, which capt. clarke had named lewis's river. after riding twelve miles, we encamped on the bank; and, as the hunters had brought in three deer early in the morning, we did not feel in want of provisions. on the st of august, we made eighteen miles. here we left the track of capt. clarke, and began to explore the new route recommended by the indian guide, and which was our last hope of getting out of the mountains. during all day, we rode over hills, from which are many drains and small streams, and, at the distance of eighteen miles, came to a large creek, called fish creek, emptying into the main river, which is about six miles from us. sept. .--this morning, all the indians left us, except the old guide, who now conducted us up fish creek. we arrived shortly after at the forks of the creek. the road we were following now turned in a contrary direction to our course, and we were left without any track; but, as no time was to be lost, we began to cut our road up the west branch of the creek. this we effected with much difficulty. the thickets of trees and brush through which we were obliged to cut our way required great labor. our course was over the steep and rocky sides of the hills, where the horses could not move without danger of slipping down, while their feet were bruised by the rocks, and stumps of trees. accustomed as these animals were to this kind of life, they suffered severely. several of them fell to some distance down the sides of the hills, some turned over with the baggage, one was crippled, and two gave out exhausted with fatigue. after crossing the creek several times, we had made five miles with great labor, and encamped in a small, stony, low ground. it was not, however, till after dark that the whole party was collected; and then, as it rained, and we killed nothing, we passed an uncomfortable night. we had been too busily occupied with the horses to make any hunting excursion; and, though we saw many beaver-dams in the creek, we saw none of the animals. next day, our experiences were much the same, with the addition of a fall of snow at evening. the day following, we reached the head of a stream which directed its course more to the westward, and followed it till we discovered a large encampment of indians. when we reached them, and alighted from our horses, we were received with great cordiality. a council was immediately assembled, white robes were thrown over our shoulders, and the pipe of peace introduced. after this ceremony, as it was too late to go any farther, we encamped, and continued smoking and conversing with the chiefs till a late hour. next morning, we assembled the chiefs and warriors, and informed them who we were, and the purpose for which we visited their country. all this was, however, conveyed to them in so many different languages, that it was not comprehended without difficulty. we therefore proceeded to the more intelligible language of presents, and made four chiefs by giving a medal and a small quantity of tobacco to each. we received in turn, from the principal chiefs, a present, consisting of the skins of an otter and two antelopes; and were treated by the women to some dried roots and berries. we then began to traffic for horses, and succeeded in exchanging seven, and purchasing eleven. these indians are a band of the tushepaws, a numerous people of four hundred and fifty tents, residing on the head waters of the missouri and columbia rivers, and some of them lower down the latter river. they seemed kind and friendly, and willingly shared with us berries and roots, which formed their only stock of provisions. their only wealth is their horses, which are very fine, and so numerous that this band had with them at least five hundred. we proceeded next day, and, taking a north-west direction, crossed, within a distance of a mile and a half, a small river from the right. this river is the main stream; and, when it reaches the end of the valley, it is joined by two other streams. to the river thus formed we gave the name of clarke's river; he being the first white man who ever visited its waters. we followed the course of the river, which is from twenty-five to thirty yards wide, shallow, and stony, with the low grounds on its borders narrow; and encamped on its right bank, after making ten miles. our stock of flour was now exhausted, and we had but little corn; and, as our hunters had killed nothing except two pheasants, our supper consisted chiefly of berries. the next day, and the next, we followed the river, which widened to fifty yards, with a valley four or five miles broad. at ten miles from our camp was a creek, which emptied itself on the west side of the river. it was a fine bold creek of clear water, about twenty yards wide; and we called it traveller's rest: for, as our guide told us we should here leave the river, we determined to make some stay for the purpose of collecting food, as the country through which we were to pass has no game for a great distance. toward evening, one of the hunters returned with three indians whom he had met. we found that they were tushepaw flatheads in pursuit of strayed horses. we gave them some boiled venison and a few presents, such as a fish hook, a steel to strike fire, and a little powder; but they seemed better pleased with a piece of ribbon which we tied in the hair of each of them. their people, they said, were numerous, and resided on the great river in the plain below the mountains. from that place, they added, the river was navigable to the ocean. the distance from this place is five "sleeps," or days' journeys. on resuming our route, we proceeded up the right side of the creek (thus leaving clarke's river), over a country, which, at first plain and good, became afterwards as difficult as any we had yet traversed. we had now reached the sources of traveller's-rest creek, and followed the road, which became less rugged. at our encampment this night, the game having entirely failed us, we killed a colt, on which we made a hearty supper. we reached the river, which is here eighty yards wide, with a swift current and a rocky channel. its indian name is kooskooskee. kooskooskee river. sept. .--this morning, snow fell, and continued all day; so that by evening it was six or eight inches deep. it covered the track so completely, that we were obliged constantly to halt and examine, lest we should lose the route. the road is, like that of yesterday, along steep hillsides, obstructed with fallen timber, and a growth of eight different species of pine, so thickly strewed, that the snow falls from them upon us as we pass, keeping us continually wet to the skin. we encamped in a piece of low ground, thickly timbered, but scarcely large enough to permit us to lie level. we had made thirteen miles. we were wet, cold, and hungry; yet we could not procure any game, and were obliged to kill another horse for our supper. this want of provisions, the extreme fatigue to which we were subjected, and the dreary prospect before us, began to dispirit the men. they are growing weak, and losing their flesh very fast. after three days more of the same kind of experience, on friday, th september, an agreeable change occurred. capt. clarke, who had gone forward in hopes of finding game, came suddenly upon a beautiful open plain partially stocked with pine. shortly after, he discovered three indian boys, who, observing the party, ran off, and hid themselves in the grass. capt. clarke immediately alighted, and, giving his horse and gun to one of the men, went after the boys. he soon relieved their apprehensions, and sent them forward to the village, about a mile off, with presents of small pieces of ribbon. soon after the boys had reached home, a man came out to meet the party, with great caution; but he conducted them to a large tent in the village, and all the inhabitants gathered round to view with a mixture of fear and pleasure the wonderful strangers. the conductor now informed capt. clarke, by signs, that the spacious tent was the residence of the great chief, who had set out three days ago, with all the warriors, to attack some of their enemies towards the south-west; that, in the mean time, there were only a few men left to guard the women and children. they now set before them a small piece of buffalo-meat, some dried salmon, berries, and several kinds of roots. among these last was one which is round, much like an onion in appearance, and sweet to the taste. it is called _quamash_, and is eaten either in its natural state, or boiled into a kind of soup, or made into a cake, which is called _pasheco_. after our long abstinence, this was a sumptuous repast. we returned the kindness of the people with a few small presents, and then went on, in company with one of the chiefs, to a second village in the same plain, at a distance of two miles. here the party was treated with great kindness, and passed the night. the two villages consist of about thirty double tents; and the people call themselves chopunnish, or pierced-nose. the chief drew a chart of the river on the sand, and explained that a greater chief than himself, who governed this village, and was called the twisted-hair, was now fishing at the distance of half a day's ride down the river. his chart made the kooskooskee to fork a little below his camp, below which the river passed the mountains. here was a great fall of water, near which lived white people, from whom they procured the white beads and brass ornaments worn by the women. capt. clarke engaged an indian to guide him to the twisted-hair's camp. for twelve miles, they proceeded through the plain before they reached the river-hills, which are very high and steep. the whole valley from these hills to the rocky mountains is a beautiful level country, with a rich soil covered with grass. there is, however, but little timber, and the ground is badly watered. the plain is so much sheltered by the surrounding hills, that the weather is quite warm (sept. ), while the cold of the mountains was extreme. from the top of the river-hills we descended for three miles till we reached the water-side, between eleven and twelve o'clock at night. here we found a small camp of five women and three children; the chief himself being encamped, with two others, on a small island in the river. the guide called to him, and he came over. capt. clarke gave him a medal, and they smoked together till one o'clock. next day, capt. clarke passed over to the island with the twisted-hair, who seemed to be cheerful and sincere. the hunters brought in three deer; after which capt. clarke left his party, and, accompanied by the twisted-hair and his son, rode back to the village, where he found capt. lewis and his party just arrived. the plains were now crowded with indians, who came to see the white men and the strange things they brought with them; but, as our guide was a perfect stranger to their language, we could converse by signs only. our inquiries were chiefly directed to the situation of the country. the twisted-hair drew a chart of the river on a white elk-skin. according to this, the kooskooskee forks a few miles from this place: two days' journey towards the south is another and larger fork, on which the shoshonee indians fish; five days' journey farther is a large river from the north-west, into which clarke's river empties itself. from the junction with that river to the falls is five days' journey farther. on all the forks, as well as on the main river, great numbers of indians reside; and at the falls are establishments of whites. this was the story of the twisted-hair. provision here was abundant. we purchased a quantity of fish, berries, and roots; and in the afternoon went on to the second village. we continued our purchases, and obtained as much provision as our horses could carry in their present weak condition. great crowds of the natives are round us all night; but we have not yet missed any thing, except a knife and a few other small articles. sept. .--the weather is fair. all round the village the women are busily employed in gathering and dressing the pasheco-root, large quantities of which are heaped up in piles all over the plain. we feel severely the consequence of eating heartily after our late privations. capt. lewis and two of his men were taken very ill last evening, and to-day he can hardly sit on his horse. others could not mount without help; and some were forced to lie down by the side of the road for some time. our situation rendered it necessary to husband our remaining strength; and it was determined to proceed down the river in canoes. capt. clarke therefore set out with twisted-hair and two young men in quest of timber for canoes. sept. , , and .--sickness continued. few of the men were able to work; yet preparations were made for making five canoes. a number of indians collect about us in the course of the day to gaze at the strange appearance of every thing belonging to us. oct. .--the men were now much better, and capt. lewis so far recovered as to walk about a little. the canoes being nearly finished, it became necessary to dispose of the horses. they were therefore collected to the number of thirty-eight, and, being branded and marked, were delivered to three indians,--the two brothers and the son of a chief; the chief having promised to accompany us down the river. to each of these men we gave a knife and some small articles; and they agreed to take good care of the horses till our return. we had all our saddles buried in a _cache_ near the river, about half a mile below, and deposited at the same time a canister of powder and a bag of balls. the voyage down the kooskooskee river. oct. .--this morning, all the canoes were put in the water, and loaded, the oars fitted, and every preparation made for setting out. when we were all ready, the chief who had promised to accompany us was not to be found: we therefore proceeded without him. the kooskooskee is a clear, rapid stream, with a number of shoals and difficult places. this day and the next, we made a distance of fifty miles. we passed several encampments of indians on the islands and near the rapids, which situations are chosen as the most convenient for taking salmon. at one of these camps we found the chief, who, after promising to descend the river with us, had left us. he, however, willingly came on board, after we had gone through the ceremony of smoking. oct. .--a fine morning. we loaded the canoes, and set off at seven o'clock. after passing twenty miles, we landed below the junction of a large fork of the river, from the south. our arrival soon attracted the attention of the indians, who flocked from all directions to see us. being again reduced to fish and roots, we made an experiment to vary our food by purchasing a few dogs; and, after having been accustomed to horse-flesh, felt no disrelish to this new dish. the chopunnish have great numbers of dogs, but never use them for food; and our feeding on the flesh of that animal brought us into ridicule as dog-eaters. this southern branch is, in fact, the main stream of lewis's river, on whose upper waters we encamped when among the shoshonees. at its mouth, lewis's river is about two hundred and fifty yards wide, and its water is of a greenish-blue color. the kooskooskee, whose waters are clear as crystal, is one hundred and fifty yards in width; and, after the union, the joint-stream extends to the width of three hundred yards. the chopunnish, or pierced-nose indians, who reside on the kooskooskee and lewis's rivers, are in person stout, portly, well-looking men. the women are small, with good features, and generally handsome, though the complexion of both sexes is darker than that of the tushepaws. in dress, they resemble that nation, being fond of displaying their ornaments. the buffalo or elk-skin robe, decorated with beads, sea-shells (chiefly mother-of-pearl), attached to an otter-skin collar, is the dress of the men. the same ornaments are hung in the hair, which falls in front in two cues: they add feathers, paints of different colors (principally white, green, and blue), which they find in their own country. in winter, they wear a shirt of dressed skins; long, painted leggings, and moccasons; and a plait of twisted grass round the neck. the dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long shirt of the mountain-sheep skin, reaching down to the ankles, without a girdle. to this are tied little pieces of brass and shells, and other small articles; but the head is not at all ornamented. the chopunnish have few amusements; for their life is painful and laborious, and all their exertions are necessary to earn a precarious subsistence. during the summer and autumn, they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. in winter, they hunt the deer on snow-shoes over the plains; and, towards spring, cross the mountains to the missouri in pursuit of the buffalo. the soil of these prairies is a light-yellow clay. it is barren, and produces little more than a bearded grass about three inches high, and the prickly-pear, of which we found three species. the first is the broad-leaved kind, common to this river with the missouri; the second has a leaf of a globular form, and is also frequent on the upper part of the missouri; the third is peculiar to this country. it consists of small, thick leaves of a circular form, which grow from the margin of each other. these leaves are armed with a great number of thorns, which are strong, and appear to be barbed. as the leaf itself is very slightly attached to the stem, as soon as one thorn touches the moccason, it adheres, and brings with it the leaf, which is accompanied with a re-enforcement of thorns. this species was a greater annoyance on our march than either of the others. chapter xii. from the junction of the kooskooskee with lewis's river to the columbia. from the mouth of the kooskooskee to that of the lewis is about a hundred miles; which distance they descended in seven days. the navigation was greatly impeded by rapids, which they passed with more or less danger and difficulty; being greatly indebted to the assistance of the indians, as they thankfully acknowledge. sometimes they were obliged to unload their boats, and to carry them round by land. all these rapids are fishing-places, greatly resorted to in the season. on the th of october ( ), having reached the junction of lewis's river with the columbia, they found by observation that they were in latitude ° ´, and longitude °. they measured the two rivers by angles, and found, that, at the junction, the columbia is yards wide; and lewis's river, : but, below their junction, the joint river is from one to three miles in width, including the islands. from the point of junction, the country is a continued plain, rising gradually from the water. there is through this plain no tree, and scarcely any shrub, except a few willow-bushes; and, even of smaller plants, there is not much besides the prickly-pear, which is abundant. in the course of the day, capt. clarke, in a small canoe, with two men, ascended the columbia. at the distance of five miles, he came to a small but not dangerous rapid. on the bank of the river opposite to this is a fishing-place, consisting of three neat houses. here were great quantities of salmon drying on scaffolds; and, from the mouth of the river upwards, he saw immense numbers of dead salmon strewed along the shore, or floating on the water. the indians, who had collected on the banks to view him, now joined him in eighteen canoes, and accompanied him up the river. a mile above the rapids, he observed three houses of mats, and landed to visit them. on entering one of the houses, he found it crowded with men, women, and children, who immediately provided a mat for him to sit on; and one of the party undertook to prepare something to eat. he began by bringing in a piece of pine-wood that had drifted down the river, which he split into small pieces with a wedge made of the elk's horn, by means of a mallet of stone curiously carved. the pieces were then laid on the fire, and several round stones placed upon them. one of the squaws now brought a bucket of water, in which was a large salmon about half dried; and, as the stones became heated, they were put into the bucket till the salmon was sufficiently boiled. it was then taken out, put on a platter of rushes neatly made, and laid before capt. clarke. another was boiled for each of his men. capt. clarke found the fish excellent. at another island, four miles distant, the inhabitants were occupied in splitting and drying salmon. the multitudes of this fish are almost inconceivable. the water is so clear, that they can readily be seen at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet; but at this season they float in such quantities down the stream, and are drifted ashore, that the indians have nothing to do but collect, split, and dry them. the indians assured him by signs that they often used dry fish as fuel for the common occasions of cooking. the evening coming on, he returned to camp. capt. clarke, in the course of his excursion, shot several grouse and ducks; also a prairie-cock,--a bird of the pheasant kind, about the size of a small turkey. it measured, from the beak to the end of the toe, two feet six inches; from the extremity of the wings, three feet six inches; and the feathers of the tail were thirteen inches long. this bird we have seen nowhere except upon this river. its chief food is the grasshopper, and the seeds of wild plants peculiar to this river and the upper missouri. adventure of capt. clarke. oct. .--having resumed their descent of the columbia, they came to a very dangerous rapid. in order to lighten the boats, capt. clarke landed, and walked to the foot of the rapid. arriving there before either of the boats, except a canoe, he sat down on a rock to wait for them; and, seeing a crane fly across the river, shot it, and it fell near him. several indians had been, before this, passing on the opposite side; and some of them, alarmed at his appearance or the report of the gun, fled to their houses. capt. clarke was afraid that these people might not have heard that white men were coming: therefore, in order to allay their uneasiness before the whole party should arrive, he got into the canoe with three men, and rowed over towards the houses, and, while crossing, shot a duck, which fell into the water. as he approached, no person was to be seen, except three men; and they also fled as he came near the shore. he landed before five houses close to each other; but no person appeared: and the doors, which were of mat, were closed. he went towards one of them with a pipe in his hand, and, pushing aside the mat, entered the lodge, where he found thirty-two persons, men and women, with a few children, all in the greatest consternation; some hanging down their heads; others crying, and wringing their hands. he went up to them all, and shook hands with them in the most friendly manner. their apprehensions gradually subsided, but revived on his taking out a burning-glass (there being no roof to the lodge), and lighting his pipe. having at length restored some confidence by the gift of some small presents, he visited some other houses, where he found the inhabitants similarly affected. confidence was not completely attained until the boats arrived, and then the two chiefs who accompanied the party explained the friendly intentions of the expedition. the sight of chaboneau's wife also dissipated any remaining doubts, as it is not the practice among the indians to allow women to accompany a war-party. to account for their fears, they told the two chiefs that they had seen the white men fall from the sky. having heard the report of capt. clarke's rifle, and seen the birds fall, and not having seen him till after the shot, they fancied that he had himself dropped from the clouds. this belief was strengthened, when, on entering the lodge, he brought down fire from heaven by means of his burning-glass. we soon convinced them that we were only mortals; and, after one of our chiefs had explained our history and objects, we all smoked together in great harmony. our encampment that night was on the river-bank opposite an island, on which were twenty-four houses of indians, all of whom were engaged in drying fish. we had scarcely landed when about a hundred of them came over to visit us, bringing with them a present of some wood, which was very acceptable. we received them in as kind a manner as we could, smoked with them, and gave the principal chief a string of wampum; but the highest satisfaction they enjoyed was in the music of our two violins, with which they seemed much delighted. they remained all night at our fires. an indian burying-place. we walked to the head of the island for the purpose of examining a vault, or burying-place, which we had remarked in coming along. the place in which the dead are deposited is a building about sixty feet long and twelve feet wide, formed by placing in the ground poles, or forks, six feet high, across which a long pole is extended the whole length of the structure. against this ridge-pole are placed broad boards, and pieces of wood, in a slanting direction, so as to form a shed. the structure stands east and west, open at both ends. on entering the western end, we observed a number of bodies wrapped carefully in leather robes, and arranged in rows on boards, which were then covered with a mat. this part of the building was destined for those who had recently died. a little farther on, limbs, half decayed, were scattered about; and in the centre of the building was a large pile of them heaped promiscuously. at the eastern extremity was a mat, on which twenty-one skulls were arranged in a circular form: the mode of interment being first to wrap the body in robes; and, as it decays, the bones are thrown into the heap, and the skulls placed together in order. from the different boards and pieces of wood which form the vault were suspended on the inside fishing-nets, baskets, wooden bowls, robes, skins, trenchers, and trinkets of various kinds, intended as offerings of affection to deceased relatives. on the outside of the vault were the skeletons of several horses, and great quantities of bones in the neighborhood, which induced us to believe that these animals were sacrificed at the funeral-rites of their masters. in other parts of the route, the travellers found a different species of cemetery. the dead were placed in canoes, and these canoes were raised above the ground by a scaffolding of poles. the motive was supposed to be to protect them from wild beasts. falls of the columbia. about a hundred and fifty miles below the junction of lewis's river, we reached the great falls. at the commencement of the pitch, which includes the falls, we landed, and walked down to examine them, and ascertain on which side we could make a portage most easily. from the lower end of the island, where the rapids begin, to the perpendicular fall, is about two miles. here the river contracts, when the water is low, to a very narrow space; and, with only a short distance of swift water, it makes its plunge twenty feet perpendicularly; after which it rushes on, among volcanic rocks, through a channel four miles in length, and then spreads out into a gentle, broad current. we will interrupt the narrative here to introduce from later travellers some pictures of the remarkable region to which our explorers had now arrived. it was not to be expected that capts. lewis and clarke should have taxed themselves, in their anxious and troubled march, to describe natural wonders, however striking. lieut. frémont thus describes this remarkable spot:-- the dalles.--"in a few miles we descended to the river, which we reached at one of its highly interesting features, known as the dalles of the columbia. the whole volume of the river at this place passes between the walls of a chasm, which has the appearance of having been rent through the basaltic strata which form the valley-rock of the region. at the narrowest place, we found the breadth, by measurement, fifty-eight yards, and the average height of the walls above the water twenty-five feet, forming a trough between the rocks; whence the name, probably applied by a canadian voyageur." the same scene is described by theodore winthrop in his "canoe and saddle:"-- "the dalles of the columbia, upon which i was now looking, must be studied by the american dante, whenever he comes, for imagery to construct his purgatory, if not his inferno. at walla-walla, two great rivers, clarke's and lewis's, drainers of the continent north and south, unite to form the columbia. it flows furiously for a hundred and twenty miles westward. when it reaches the dreary region where the outlying ridges of the cascade chain commence, it finds a great, low surface, paved with enormous polished sheets of basaltic rock. these plates, in french, _dalles_, give the spot its name. the great river, a mile wide not far above, finds but a narrow rift in this pavement for its passage. the rift gradually draws its sides closer, and, at the spot now called the dalles, subdivides into three mere slits in the sharp-edged rock. at the highest water, there are other minor channels; but generally this continental flood is cribbed and compressed within its three chasms suddenly opening in the level floor, each chasm hardly wider than a leap a hunted fiend might take." it is not easy to picture to one's self, from these descriptions, the peculiar scenery of the dalles. frémont understands the name as signifying a _trough_; while winthrop interprets it as _plates_, or _slabs_, of rock. the following description by lieut. (now gen.) henry l. abbot, in his "report of explorations for a railroad route," &c., will show that the term, in each of its meanings, is applicable to different parts of the channel:-- "at the dalles of the columbia, the river rushes through a chasm only about two hundred feet wide, with vertical, basaltic sides, rising from twenty to thirty feet above the water. steep hills closely border the chasm, leaving in some places scarcely room on the terrace to pass on horseback. the water rushes through this basaltic trough with such violence, that it is always dangerous, and in some stages of the water impossible, for a boat to pass down. the contraction of the river-bed extends for about three miles. near the lower end of it, the channel divides into several sluices, and then gradually becomes broader, until, where it makes a great bend to the south, it is over a quarter of a mile in width." after this interruption, the journal is resumed:-- "we soon discovered that the nearest route was on the right side, and therefore dropped down to the head of the rapid, unloaded the canoes, and took all the baggage over by land to the foot of the rapid. the distance is twelve hundred yards, part of it over loose sands, disagreeable to pass. the labor of crossing was lightened by the indians, who carried some of the heavy articles for us on their horses. having ascertained the best mode of bringing down the canoes, the operation was conducted by capt. clarke, by hauling the canoes over a point of land four hundred and fifty-seven yards to the water. one mile farther down, we reached a pitch of the river, which, being divided by two large rocks, descends with great rapidity over a fall eight feet in height. as the boats could not be navigated down this steep descent, we were obliged to land, and let them down as gently as possible by strong ropes of elk-skin, which we had prepared for the purpose. they all passed in safety, except one, which, being loosed by the breaking of the ropes, was driven down, but was recovered by the indians below." our travellers had now reached what have since been called the cascade mountains; and we must interrupt their narrative to give some notices of this remarkable scenery from later explorers. we quote from abbot's report:-- "there is great similarity in the general topographical features of the whole pacific slope. the sierra nevada in california, and the cascade range in oregon, form a continuous wall of mountains nearly parallel to the coast, and from one hundred to two hundred miles distant from it. the main crest of this range is rarely elevated less than six thousand feet above the level of the sea, and many of its peaks tower into the region of eternal snow." lieut. abbot thus describes a view of these peaks and of the columbia river:-- "at an elevation of five thousand feet above the sea, we stood upon the summit of the pass. for days we had been struggling blindly through dense forests; but now the surrounding country lay spread out before us for more than a hundred miles. the five grand snow-peaks, mount st. helens, mount ranier, mount adams, mount hood, and mount jefferson, rose majestically above a rolling sea of dark fir-covered ridges, some of which the approaching winter had already begun to mark with white. on every side, as far as the eye could reach, terrific convulsions of nature had recorded their fury; and not even a thread of blue smoke from the camp-fire of a wandering savage disturbed the solitude of the scene." the columbia river.--"the columbia river forces its way through the cascade range by a pass, which, for wild and sublime natural scenery, equals the celebrated passage of the hudson through the highlands. for a distance of about fifty miles, mountains covered with clinging spruces, firs, and pines, where not too precipitous to afford even these a foothold, rise abruptly from the water's edge to heights varying from one thousand to three thousand feet. vertical precipices of columnar basalt are occasionally seen, rising from fifty to a hundred feet above the river level. in other places, the long mountain-walls of the river are divided by lateral cañons (pronounced _canyons_), containing small tributaries, and occasionally little open spots of good land, liable to be overflowed at high water." caÃ�ons.--the plains east of the cascade mountains, through the whole extent of oregon and california, are covered with a volcanic deposit composed of trap, basalt, and other rocks of the same class. this deposit is cleft by chasms often more than a thousand feet deep, at the bottom of which there usually flows a stream of clear, cold water. this is sometimes the only water to be procured for the distance of many miles; and the traveller may be perishing with thirst while he sees far below him a sparkling stream, from which he is separated by precipices of enormous height and perpendicular descent. to chasms of this nature the name of _cañons_ has been applied, borrowed from the spaniards of mexico. we quote lieut. abbot's description of the cañon of des chutes river, a tributary of the columbia:-- "sept. .--as it was highly desirable to determine accurately the position and character of the cañon of des chutes river, i started this morning with one man to follow down the creek to its mouth, leaving the rest of the party in camp. having yesterday experienced the inconveniences of travelling in the bottom of a cañon, i concluded to try to-day the northern bluff. it was a dry, barren plain, gravelly, and sometimes sandy, with a few bunches of grass scattered here and there. tracks of antelopes or deer were numerous. after crossing one small ravine, and riding about five miles from camp, we found ourselves on the edge of the vast cañon of the river, which, far below us, was rushing through a narrow trough of basalt, resembling the dalles of the columbia. we estimated the depth of the cañon at a thousand feet. on each side, the precipices were very steep, and marked in many places by horizontal lines of vertical, basaltic columns, fifty or sixty feet in height. the man who was with me rolled a large rock, shaped like a grindstone, and weighing about two hundred pounds, from the summit. it thundered down for at least a quarter of a mile,--now over a vertical precipice, now over a steep mass of detritus, until at length it plunged into the river with a hollow roar, which echoed and re-echoed through the gorge for miles. by ascending a slight hill, i obtained a fine view of the surrounding country. the generally level character of the great basaltic table-land around us was very manifest from this point. bounded on the west by the cascade mountains, the plain extends far towards the south,--a sterile, treeless waste." the cascades.--"about forty miles below the dalles, all navigation is suspended by a series of rapids called the cascades. the wild grandeur of this place surpasses description. the river rushes furiously over a narrow bed filled with bowlders, and bordered by mountains which echo back the roar of the waters. the descent at the principal rapids is thirty-four feet; and the total fall at the cascades, sixty-one feet. salmon pass up the river in great numbers; and the cascades, at certain seasons of the year, are a favorite fishing resort with the indians, who build slight stagings over the water's edge, and spear the fish, or catch them in rude dip-nets, as they slowly force their way up against the current." we now return to our travellers. indian mode of packing salmon. near our camp are five large huts of indians engaged in drying fish, and preparing it for market. the manner of doing this is by first opening the fish, and exposing it to the sun on scaffolds. when it is sufficiently dried, it is pounded between two stones till it is pulverized, and is then placed in a basket, about two feet long and one in diameter, neatly made of grass and rushes, and lined with the skin of the salmon, stretched and dried for the purpose. here they are pressed down as hard as possible, and the top covered with skins of fish, which are secured by cords through the holes of the basket. these baskets are then placed in some dry situation, the corded part upwards; seven being usually placed as close as they can be together, and five on the top of them. the whole is then wrapped up in mats, and made fast by cords. twelve of these baskets, each of which contains from ninety to a hundred pounds, form a stack, which is now left exposed till it is sent to market. the fish thus preserved are kept sound and sweet for several years; and great quantities of it, they inform us, are sent to the indians who live lower down the river, whence it finds its way to the whites who visit the mouth of the columbia. we observe, both near the lodges and on the rocks in the river, great numbers of stacks of these pounded fish. beside the salmon, there are great quantities of salmon-trout, and another smaller species of trout, which they save in another way. a hole of any size being dug, the sides and bottom are lined with straw, over which skins are laid. on these the fish, after being well dried, is laid, covered with other skins, and the hole closed with a layer of earth, twelve or fifteen inches deep. these supplies are for their winter food. the stock of fish, dried and pounded, was so abundant, that capt. clarke counted one hundred and seven stacks of them, making more than ten thousand pounds. the indian boatmen. the canoes used by these people are built of white cedar or pine, very light, wide in the middle, and tapering towards the ends; the bow being raised, and ornamented with carvings of the heads of animals. as the canoe is the vehicle of transportation, the indians have acquired great dexterity in the management of it, and guide it safely over the roughest waves. we had an opportunity to-day of seeing the boldness of the indians. one of our men shot a goose, which fell into the river, and was floating rapidly towards the great shoot, when an indian, observing it, plunged in after it. the whole mass of the waters of the columbia, just preparing to descend its narrow channel, carried the bird down with great rapidity. the indian followed it fearlessly to within a hundred and fifty feet of the rocks, where, had he arrived, he would inevitably have been dashed to pieces; but, seizing his prey, he turned round, and swam ashore with great composure. we very willingly relinquished our right to the bird in favor of the indian, who had thus secured it at the hazard of his life. he immediately set to work, and picked off about half the feathers, and then, without opening it, ran a stick through it, and carried it off to roast. indian houses. while the canoes were coming on, impeded by the difficulties of the navigation, capt. clarke, with two men, walked down the river-shore, and came to a village belonging to a tribe called echeloots. the village consisted of twenty-one houses, scattered promiscuously over an elevated position. the houses were nearly equal in size, and of similar construction. a large hole, twenty feet wide and thirty in length, is dug to the depth of six feet. the sides are lined with split pieces of timber in an erect position, rising a short distance above the surface of the ground. these timbers are secured in their position by a pole, stretched along the side of the building, near the eaves, supported by a post at each corner. the timbers at the gable-ends rise higher, the middle pieces being the tallest. supported by these, there is a ridge-pole running the whole length of the house, forming the top of the roof. from this ridge-pole to the eaves of the house are placed a number of small poles, or rafters, secured at each end by fibres of the cedar. on these poles is laid a covering of white cedar or arbor-vitæ, kept on by strands of cedar-fibres. a small distance along the whole length of the ridge-pole is left uncovered for the admission of light, and to permit the smoke to escape. the entrance is by a small door at the gable-end, thirty inches high, and fourteen broad. before this hole is hung a mat; and on pushing it aside, and crawling through, the descent is by a wooden ladder, made in the form of those used among us. one-half of the inside is used as a place of deposit for their dried fish, and baskets of berries: the other half, nearest the door, remains for the accommodation of the family. on each side are arranged, near the walls, beds of mats, placed on platforms or bedsteads, raised about two feet from the ground. in the middle of the vacant space is the fire, or sometimes two or three fires, when, as is usually the case, the house contains several families. the inhabitants received us with great kindness, and invited us to their houses. on entering one of them, we saw figures of men, birds, and different animals, cut and painted on the boards which form the sides of the room, the figures uncouth, and the workmanship rough; but doubtless they were as much esteemed by the indians as our finest domestic adornments are by us. the chief had several articles, such as scarlet and blue cloth, a sword, a jacket, and hat, which must have been procured from the whites. on one side of the room were two wide split boards, placed together so as to make space for a rude figure of a man, cut and painted on them. on pointing to this, and asking what it meant, he said something, of which all we understood was "good," and then stepped to the image, and brought out his bow and quiver, which, with some other warlike implements, were kept behind it. the chief then directed his wife to hand him his _medicine-bag_, from which he brought out fourteen fore-fingers, which he told us had once belonged to the same number of his enemies. they were shown with great exultation; and after an harangue, which we were left to presume was in praise of his exploits, the fingers were carefully replaced among the valuable contents of the red medicine-bag. this bag is an object of religious regard, and it is a species of sacrilege for any one but its owner to touch it. in all the houses are images of men, of different shapes, and placed as ornaments in the parts of the house where they are most likely to be seen. a submerged forest. oct. .--the river is now about three-quarters of a mile wide, with a current so gentle, that it does not exceed a mile and a half an hour; but its course is obstructed by large rocks, which seem to have fallen from the mountains. what is, however, most singular, is, that there are stumps of pine-trees scattered to some distance in the river, which has the appearance of having been dammed below, and forced to encroach on the shore. note. rev. s. parker says, "we noticed a remarkable phenomenon,--trees standing in their natural position in the river, where the water is twenty feet deep. in many places, they were so numerous, that we had to pick our way with our canoe as through a forest. the water is so clear, that i had an opportunity of examining their position down to their spreading roots, and found them in the same condition as when standing in their native forest. it is evident that there has been an uncommon subsidence of a tract of land, more than twenty miles in length, and more than a mile in width. that the trees are not wholly decayed down to low-water mark, proves that the subsidence is comparatively of recent date; and their undisturbed natural position proves that it took place in a tranquil manner, not by any tremendous convulsion of nature." the river widens.--they meet the tide. nov. , .--longitude about °. at this point the first tidewater commences, and the river widens to nearly a mile in extent. the low grounds, too, become wider; and they, as well as the mountains on each side, are covered with pine, spruce, cotton-wood, a species of ash, and some alder. after being so long accustomed to the dreary nakedness of the country above, the change is as grateful to the eye as it is useful in supplying us with fuel. the ponds in the low grounds on each side of the river are resorted to by vast quantities of fowls, such as swans, geese, brants, cranes, storks, white gulls, cormorants, and plover. the river is wide, and contains a great number of sea-otters. in the evening, the hunters brought in game for a sumptuous supper, which we shared with the indians, great numbers of whom spent the night with us. during the night, the tide rose eighteen inches near our camp. a large village.--columbia valley. nov. .--next day, we landed on the left bank of the river, at a village of twenty-five houses. all of these were thatched with straw, and built of bark, except one, which was about fifty feet long, built of boards, in the form of those higher up the river; from which it differed, however, in being completely above ground, and covered with broad split boards. this village contains about two hundred men of the skilloot nation, who seem well provided with canoes, of which there were fifty-two (some of them very large) drawn up in front of the village. on landing, we found an indian from up the river, who had been with us some days ago, and now invited us into a house, of which he appeared to own a part. here he treated us with a root, round in shape, about the size of a small irish potato, which they call _wappatoo_. it is the common arrowhead, or sagittifolia, so much esteemed by the chinese, and, when roasted in the embers till it becomes soft, has an agreeable taste, and is a very good substitute for bread. here the ridge of low mountains running north-west and south-east crosses the river, and forms the western boundary of the plain through which we have just passed.[ ] this great plain, or valley, is about sixty miles wide in a straight line; while on the right and left it extends to a great distance. it is a fertile and delightful country, shaded by thick groves of tall timber, watered by small ponds, and lying on both sides of the river. the soil is rich, and capable of any species of culture; but, in the present condition of the indians, its chief production is the wappatoo-root, which grows spontaneously and exclusively in this region. sheltered as it is on both sides, the temperature is much milder than that of the surrounding country. through its whole extent, it is inhabited by numerous tribes of indians, who either reside in it permanently, or visit its waters in quest of fish and wappatoo-roots. we gave it the name of the columbia valley. coffin rock. among some interesting islands of basalt, there is one called coffin rock, situated in the middle of the river, rising ten or fifteen feet above high-freshet water. it is almost entirely covered with canoes, in which the dead are deposited, which gives it its name. in the section of country from wappatoo island to the pacific ocean, the indians, instead of committing their dead to the earth, deposit them in canoes; and these are placed in such situations as are most secure from beasts of prey, upon such precipices as this island, upon branches of trees, or upon scaffolds made for the purpose. the bodies of the dead are covered with mats, and split planks are placed over them. the head of the canoe is a little raised, and at the foot there is a hole made for water to escape. they reach the ocean. next day we passed the mouth of a large river, a hundred and fifty yards wide, called by the indians cowalitz. a beautiful, extensive plain now presented itself; but, at the distance of a few miles, the hills again closed in upon the river, so that we could not for several miles find a place sufficiently level to fix our camp upon for the night. thursday, nov. .--the morning was rainy, and the fog so thick, that we could not see across the river. we proceeded down the river, with an indian for our pilot, till, after making about twenty miles, the fog cleared off, and we enjoyed the delightful prospect of the ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward of all our endurance. this cheering view exhilarated the spirits of all the party, who listened with delight to the distant roar of the breakers. for ten days after our arrival at the coast, we were harassed by almost incessant rain. on the th, a violent gale of wind arose, accompanied with thunder, lightning, and hail. the waves were driven with fury against the rocks and trees, which had till then afforded us a partial defence. cold and wet; our clothes and bedding rotten as well as wet; the canoes, our only means of escape from the place, at the mercy of the waves,--we were, however, fortunate enough to enjoy good health. saturday, nov. .--the morning was clear and beautiful. we put out our baggage to dry, and sent several of the party to hunt. the camp was in full view of the ocean. the wind was strong from the south-west, and the waves very high; yet the indians were passing up and down the bay in canoes, and several of them encamped near us. the hunters brought in two deer, a crane, some geese and ducks, and several brant. the tide rises at this place eight feet six inches, and rolls over the beach in great waves. an excursion down the bay. capt. clarke started on monday, th november, on an excursion by land down the bay, accompanied by eleven men. the country is low, open, and marshy, partially covered with high pine and a thick undergrowth. at the distance of about fifteen miles they reached the cape, which forms the northern boundary of the river's mouth, called cape disappointment, so named by capt. meares, after a fruitless search for the river. it is an elevated circular knob, rising with a steep ascent a hundred and fifty feet or more above the water, covered with thick timber on the inner side, but open and grassy in the exposure next the sea. the opposite point of the bay is a very low ground, about ten miles distant, called, by capt. gray, point adams. the water for a great distance off the mouth of the river appears very shallow; and within the mouth, nearest to point adams, there is a large sand-bar, almost covered at high tide. we could not ascertain the direction of the deepest channel; for the waves break with tremendous force across the bay. mr. parker speaks more fully of this peculiarity of the river:-- "a difficulty of such a nature as is not easily overcome exists in regard to the navigation of this river; which is, the sand-bar at its entrance. it is about five miles, across the bar, from cape disappointment out to sea. in no part of that distance is the water upon the bar over eight fathoms deep, and in one place only five, and the channel only about half a mile in width. so wide and open is the ocean, that there is always a heavy swell: and, when the wind is above a gentle breeze, there are breakers quite across the bar; so that there is no passing it, except when the wind and tide are both favorable. outside the bar, there is no anchorage; and there have been instances, in the winter season, of ships lying off and on thirty days, waiting for an opportunity to pass: and a good pilot is always needed. high, and in most parts perpendicular, basaltic rocks line the shores." the following is theodore winthrop's description of the columbia, taken from his "canoe and saddle:"-- "a wall of terrible breakers marks the mouth of the columbia,--achilles of rivers. "other mighty streams may swim feebly away seaward, may sink into foul marshes, may trickle through the ditches of an oozy delta, may scatter among sand-bars the currents that once moved majestic and united; but to this heroic flood was destined a short life and a glorious one,--a life all one strong, victorious struggle, from the mountains to the sea. it has no infancy: two great branches collect its waters up and down the continent. they join, and the columbia is born--to full manhood. it rushes forward jubilant through its magnificent chasm, and leaps to its death in the pacific." footnote: [ ] since called the coast range. chapter xiii. winter-quarters. november, .--having now examined the coast, it becomes necessary to decide on the spot for our winter-quarters. we must rely chiefly for subsistence upon our arms, and be guided in the choice of our residence by the supply of game which any particular spot may offer. the indians say that the country on the opposite side of the river is better supplied with elk,--an animal much larger, and more easily killed, than the deer, with flesh more nutritive, and a skin better fitted for clothing. the neighborhood of the sea is, moreover, recommended by the facility of supplying ourselves with salt, and the hope of meeting some of the trading-vessels, which are expected about three months hence, from which we may procure a fresh supply of trinkets for our journey homewards. these considerations induced us to determine on visiting the opposite side of the bay; and, if there was an appearance of plenty of game, to establish ourselves there for the winter. monday, th november, we set out; but, as the wind was too high to suffer us to cross the river, we kept near the shore, watching for a favorable change. on leaving our camp, seven clatsops in a canoe accompanied us, but, after going a few miles, left us, and steered straight across through immense, high waves, leaving us in admiration at the dexterity with which they threw aside each wave as it threatened to come over their canoe. next day, with a more favorable wind, we began to cross the river. we passed between some low, marshy islands, and reached the south side of the columbia, and landed at a village of nine large houses. soon after we landed, three indians came down from the village with wappatoo-roots, which we purchased with fish-hooks. we proceeded along the shore till we came to a remarkable knob of land projecting about a mile and a half into the bay, about four miles round, while the neck of land which unites it to the main is not more than fifty yards across. we went round this projection, which we named point william; but the waves then became so high, that we could not venture any farther, and therefore landed on a beautiful shore of pebbles of various colors, and encamped near an old indian hut on the isthmus. discomforts. nov. .--it rained hard all next day, and the next, attended with a high wind from the south-west. it was impossible to proceed on so rough a sea. we therefore sent several men to hunt, and the rest of us remained during the day in a situation the most cheerless and uncomfortable. on this little neck of land, we are exposed, with a miserable covering which does not deserve the name of a shelter, to the violence of the winds. all our bedding and stores are completely wet, our clothes rotting with constant exposure, and no food except the dried fish brought from the falls, to which we are again reduced. the hunters all returned hungry, and drenched with rain; having seen neither deer nor elk, and the swans and brants too shy to be approached. at noon, the wind shifted to the north-west, and blew with such fury, that many trees were blown down near us. the gale lasted with short intervals during the whole night; but towards morning the wind lulled, though the rain continued, and the waves were still high. th.--the hunters met with no better success this day and the next, and the weather continued rainy. but on monday, d december, one of the hunters killed an elk at the distance of six miles from the camp, and a canoe was sent to bring it. this was the first elk we had killed on the west side of the rocky mountains; and, condemned as we have been to the dried fish, it forms a most acceptable food. the rain continued, with brief interruptions, during the whole month of december. there were occasional falls of snow, but no frost or ice. winter-quarters. capt. lewis returned from an excursion down the bay, having left two of his men to guard six elks and five deer which the party had shot. he had examined the coast, and found a river a short distance below, on which we might encamp for the winter, with a sufficiency of elk for our subsistence within reach. this information was very satisfactory, and we decided on going thither as soon as we could move from the point; but it rained all night and the following day. saturday, th december, , was fair. we therefore loaded our canoes, and proceeded: but the tide was against us, and the waves very high; so that we were obliged to proceed slowly and cautiously. we at length turned a point, and found ourselves in a deep bay. here we landed for breakfast, and were joined by a party sent out three days ago to look for the six elk. after breakfast, we coasted round the bay, which is about four miles across, and receives two rivers. we called it meriwether's bay, from the christian name of capt. lewis, who was, no doubt, the first white man who surveyed it. on reaching the south side of the bay, we ascended one of the rivers for three miles to the first point of highland, on its western bank, and formed our camp in a thick grove of lofty pines about two hundred yards from the water, and thirty feet above the level of the high tides. the clatsops at home. capt. clarke started on an expedition to the seashore, to fix upon a place for the salt-works. he took six men with him; but three of them left in pursuit of a herd of elk. he met three indians loaded with fresh salmon, which they had taken, and were returning to their village, whither they invited him to accompany them. he agreed; and they brought out a canoe hid along the bank of a creek. capt. clarke and his party got on board, and in a short time were landed at the village, consisting of twelve houses, inhabited by twelve families of clatsops. these houses were on the south exposure of a hill, and sunk about four feet deep into the ground; the walls, roof, and gable-ends being formed of split-pine boards; the descent through a small door down a ladder. there were two fires in the middle of the room, and the beds disposed round the walls, two or three feet from the floor, so as to leave room under them for their bags, baskets, and household articles. the floor was covered with mats. capt. clarke was received with much attention. as soon as he entered, clean mats were spread, and fish, berries, and roots set before him on small, neat platters of rushes. after he had eaten, the men of the other houses came and smoked with him. they appeared much neater in their persons than indians generally are. towards evening, it began to rain and blow violently; and capt. clarke therefore determined to remain during the night. when they thought his appetite had returned, an old woman presented him, in a bowl made of light-colored horn, a kind of sirup, pleasant to the taste, made from a species of berry common in this country, about the size of a cherry, called by the indians _shelwel_. of these berries a bread is also prepared, which, being boiled with roots, forms a soup, which was served in neat wooden trenchers. this, with some cockles, was his repast. the men of the village now collected, and began to gamble. the most common game was one in which one of the company was banker, and played against all the rest. he had a piece of bone about the size of a large bean; and, having agreed with any one as to the value of the stake, he would pass the bone with great dexterity from one hand to the other, singing at the same time to divert the attention of his adversary. then, holding up his closed hands, his antagonist was challenged to say in which of them the bone was, and lost or won as he pointed to the right or wrong hand. to this game of hazard they abandon themselves with great ardor. sometimes every thing they possess is sacrificed to it; and this evening several of the indians lost all the beads which they had with them. this lasted for three hours; when, capt. clarke appearing disposed to sleep, the man who had been most attentive, and whose name was cuskalah, spread two new mats by the fire; and, ordering his wife to retire to her own bed, the rest of the company dispersed at the same time. capt. clarke then lay down, and slept as well as the fleas would permit him. next morning was cloudy, with some rain. he walked on the seashore, and observed the indians walking up and down, and examining the shore. he was at a loss to understand their object till one of them explained that they were in search of fish, which are thrown on shore by the tide; adding, in english, "sturgeon is good." there is every reason to suppose that these clatsops depend for their subsistence during the winter chiefly on the fish thus casually thrown on the coast. after amusing himself for some time on the beach, capt. clarke returned toward the village. one of the indians asked him to shoot a duck which he pointed out. he did so; and, having accidentally shot off its head, the bird was brought to the village, and all the indians came round in astonishment. they examined the duck, the musket, and the very small bullet (a hundred to the pound); and then exclaimed in their language, "good musket: don't understand this kind of musket." they now placed before him their best roots, fish, and sirup; after which he bought some berry-bread and a few roots in exchange for fish-hooks, and then set out to return by the same route by which he came. he was accompanied by cuskalah and his brother part of the way, and proceeded to the camp through a heavy rain. the party had been occupied during his absence in cutting down trees and in hunting. next day, two of our hunters returned with the pleasing intelligence of their having killed eighteen elk about six miles off. our huts begin to rise; for, though it rains all day, we continue our labors, and are glad to find that the beautiful balsam-pine splits into excellent boards more than two feet in width. dec. .--capt. clarke, with sixteen men, set out in three canoes to get the elk which were killed. after landing as near the spot as possible, the men were despatched in small parties to bring in the game; each man returning with a quarter of an animal. it was accomplished with much labor and suffering; for the rain fell incessantly. the fort completed. we now had the meat-house covered, and all our game carefully hung up in small pieces. two days after, we covered in four huts. five men were sent out to hunt, and five others despatched to the seaside, each with a large kettle, in order to begin the manufacture of salt. the rest of the men were employed in making pickets and gates for our fort. dec. .--as if it were impossible to have twenty-four hours of pleasant weather, the sky last evening clouded up, and the rain began, and continued through the day. in the morning, there came down two canoes,--one from the wahkiacum village; the other contained three men and a squaw of the skilloot nation. they brought wappatoo and shanatac roots, dried fish, mats made of flags and rushes, dressed elk-skins, and tobacco, for which, particularly the skins, they asked an extravagant price. we purchased some wappatoo and a little tobacco, very much like that we had seen among the shoshonees, put up in small, neat bags made of rushes. these we obtained in exchange for a few articles, among which fish-hooks are the most esteemed. one of the skilloots brought a gun which wanted some repair; and, when we had put it in order, we received from him a present of about a peck of wappatoo. we then gave him a piece of sheepskin and blue cloth to cover the lock, and he very thankfully offered a further present of roots. there is an obvious superiority of these skilloots over the wahkiacums, who are intrusive, thievish, and impertinent. our new regulations, however, and the appearance of the sentinel, have improved the behavior of all our indian visitors. they left the fort before sunset, even without being ordered. chapter xiv. a new year. we were awaked at an early hour by the discharge of a volley of small-arms to salute the new year. this is the only way of doing honor to the day which our situation admits; for our only dainties are boiled elk and wappatoo, enlivened by draughts of water. next day, we were visited by the chief, comowool, and six clatsops. besides roots and berries, they brought for sale three dogs. having been so long accustomed to live on the flesh of dogs, the most of us have acquired a fondness for it; and any objection to it is overcome by reflecting, that, while we subsisted on that food, we were fatter, stronger, and in better health, than at any period since leaving the buffalo country, east of the mountains. the indians also brought with them some whale's blubber, which they obtained, they told us, from their neighbors who live on the sea-coast, near one of whose villages a whale has recently been thrown and stranded. it was white, and not unlike the fat of pork, though of a more porous and spongy texture; and, on being cooked, was found to be tender and palatable, in flavor resembling the flesh of the beaver. two of the five men who were despatched to make salt returned. they had formed an establishment about fifteen miles south-west of our fort, near some scattered houses of the clatsops, where they erected a comfortable camp, and had killed a stock of provisions. they brought with them a gallon of the salt of their manufacture, which was white, fine, and very good. it proves to be a most agreeable addition to our food; and, as they can make three or four quarts a day, we have a prospect of a plentiful supply. the whale. the appearance of the whale seemed to be a matter of importance to all the neighboring indians; and in hopes that we might be able to procure some of it for ourselves, or at least purchase some from the indians, a small parcel of merchandise was prepared, and a party of men got in readiness to set out in the morning. as soon as this resolution was known, chaboneau and his wife requested that they might be permitted to accompany us. the poor woman urged very earnestly that she had travelled a great way with us to see the great water, yet she had never been down to the coast; and, now that this monstrous fish also was to be seen, it seemed hard that she should not be permitted to see either the ocean or the whale. so reasonable a request could not be denied: they were therefore suffered to accompany capt. clarke, who next day, after an early breakfast, set out with twelve men in two canoes. he proceeded down the river on which we are encamped into meriwether bay; from whence he passed up a creek three miles to some high, open land, where he found a road. he there left the canoes, and followed the path over deep marshes to a pond about a mile long. here they saw a herd of elk; and the men were divided into small parties, and hunted them till after dark. three of the elk were wounded; but night prevented our taking more than one, which was brought to the camp, and cooked with some sticks of pine which had drifted down the creeks. the weather was beautiful, the sky clear, and the moon shone brightly,--a circumstance the more agreeable, as this is the first fair evening we have enjoyed for two months. thursday, jan. .--there was a frost this morning. we rose early, and taking eight pounds of flesh, which was all that remained of the elk, proceeded up the south fork of the creek. at the distance of two miles we found a pine-tree, which had been felled by one of our salt-makers, on which we crossed the deepest part of the creek, and waded through the rest. we then went over an open, ridgy prairie, three-quarters of a mile to the sea-beach; after following which for three miles, we came to the mouth of a beautiful river, with a bold, rapid current, eighty-five yards wide, and three feet deep in its shallowest crossings. on its north-east side are the remains of an old village of clatsops, inhabited by only a single family, who appeared miserably poor and dirty. we gave the man two fish-hooks to ferry the party over the river, which, from the tribe on its banks, we called clatsop river. the creek which we had passed on a tree approaches this river within about a hundred yards, and, by means of a portage, supplies a communication with the villages near point adams. after going on for two miles, we found the salt-makers encamped near four houses of clatsops and killimucks, who, though poor and dirty, seemed kind and well-disposed. we persuaded a young indian, by the present of a file and a promise of some other articles, to guide us to the spot where the whale lay. he led us for two and a half miles over the round, slippery stones at the foot of a high hill projecting into the sea, and then, suddenly stopping, and uttering the word "peshack," or bad, explained by signs that we could no longer follow the coast, but must cross the mountain. this threatened to be a most laborious undertaking; for the side was nearly perpendicular, and the top lost in clouds. he, however, followed an indian path, which wound along, and favored the ascent as much as possible; but it was so steep, that, at one place, we were forced to draw ourselves up for about a hundred feet by means of bushes and roots. clarke's point of view. at length, after two hours' labor, we reached the top of the mountain, where we looked down with astonishment on the height of ten or twelve hundred feet which we had ascended. we were here met by fourteen indians loaded with oil and blubber, the spoils of the whale, which they were carrying in very heavy burdens over this rough mountain. on leaving them, we proceeded over a bad road till night, when we encamped on a small run. we were all much fatigued: but the weather was pleasant; and, for the first time since our arrival here, an entire day has passed without rain. in the morning we set out early, and proceeded to the top of the mountain, the highest point of which is an open spot facing the ocean. it is situated about thirty miles south-east of cape disappointment, and projects nearly two and a half miles into the sea. here one of the most delightful views imaginable presents itself. immediately in front is the ocean, which breaks with fury on the coast, from the rocks of cape disappointment as far as the eye can discern to the north-west, and against the highlands and irregular piles of rock which diversify the shore to the south-east. to this boisterous scene, the columbia, with its tributary waters, widening into bays as it approaches the ocean, and studded on both sides with the chinook and clatsop villages, forms a charming contrast; while immediately beneath our feet are stretched rich prairies, enlivened by three beautiful streams, which conduct the eye to small lakes at the foot of the hills. we stopped to enjoy the romantic view from this place, which we distinguished by the name of clarke's point of view, and then followed our guide down the mountain. the whale. the descent was steep and dangerous. in many places, the hillsides, which are formed principally of yellow clay, have been loosened by the late rains, and are slipping into the sea in large masses of fifty and a hundred acres. in other parts, the path crosses the rugged, perpendicular, basaltic rocks which overhang the sea, into which a false step would have precipitated us. the mountains are covered with a very thick growth of timber, chiefly pine and fir; some trees of which, perfectly sound and solid, rise to the height of two hundred and ten feet, and are from eight to twelve in diameter. intermixed is the white cedar, or arbor-vitæ, and some trees of black alder, two or three feet thick, and sixty or seventy in height. at length we reached the sea-level, and continued for two miles along the sand-beach, and soon after reached the place where the waves had thrown the whale on shore. the animal had been placed between two villages of killimucks; and such had been their industry, that there now remained nothing but the skeleton, which we found to be a hundred and five feet in length. capt. clarke named the place ecola, or whale creek. the natives were busied in boiling the blubber in a large square trough of wood by means of heated stones, preserving the oil thus extracted in bladders and the entrails of the whale. the refuse pieces of the blubber, which still contained a portion of oil, were hung up in large flitches, and, when wanted for use, were warmed on a wooden spit before the fire, and eaten, either alone, or with roots of the rush and shanatac. the indians, though they had great quantities, parted with it very reluctantly, at such high prices, that our whole stock of merchandise was exhausted in the purchase of about three hundred pounds of blubber and a few gallons of oil. next morning was fine, the wind from the north-east; and, having divided our stock of the blubber, we began at sunrise to retrace our steps in order to reach our encampment, which we called fort clatsop, thirty-five miles distant, with as little delay as possible. we met several parties of indians on their way to trade for blubber and oil with the killimucks: we also overtook a party returning from the village, and could not but regard with astonishment the heavy loads which the women carry over these fatiguing and dangerous paths. as one of the women was descending a steep part of the mountain, her load slipped from her back; and she stood holding it by a strap with one hand, and with the other supporting herself by a bush. capt. clarke, being near her, undertook to replace the load, and found it almost as much as he could lift, and above one hundred pounds in weight. loaded as they were, they kept pace with us till we reached the salt-makers' camp, where we passed the night, while they continued their route. next day, we proceeded across clatsop river to the place where we had left our canoes, and, as the tide was coming in, immediately embarked for the fort, at which place we arrived about ten o'clock at night. drewyer, the hunter. jan. , .--two hunters had been despatched in the morning; and one of them, drewyer, had, before evening, killed seven elks. we should scarcely be able to subsist, were it not for the exertions of this excellent hunter. the game is scarce; and none is now to be seen except elk, which, to almost all the men, are very difficult to be procured. but drewyer, who is the offspring of a canadian frenchman and an indian woman, has passed his life in the woods, and unites in a wonderful degree the dexterous aim of the frontier huntsman with the sagacity of the indian in pursuing the faintest tracks through the forest. all our men have indeed become so expert with the rifle, that, when there is game of any kind, we are almost certain of procuring it. monday, jan. .--capt. lewis took all the men who could be spared, and brought in the seven elk, which they found untouched by the wolves. the last of the candles which we brought with us being exhausted, we now began to make others of elk-tallow. we also employed ourselves in jerking the meat of the elk. we have three of the canoes drawn up out of the reach of the water, and the other secured by a strong cord, so as to be ready for use if wanted. jan. .--to-day we finished curing our meat; and having now a plentiful supply of elk and salt, and our houses dry and comfortable, we wait patiently for the moment of resuming our journey. chapter xv. winter life. jan. , .--we are all occupied in dressing skins, and preparing clothes for our journey homewards. this morning, we sent out two parties of hunters in different directions. we were visited by three clatsops, who came merely for the purpose of smoking and conversing with us. jan. .--two of the hunters came back with three elks, which form a timely addition to our stock of provision. the indian visitors left us at twelve o'clock. the clatsops and other nations have visited us with great freedom. having acquired much of their language, we are enabled, with the assistance of gestures, to hold conversations with great ease. we find them inquisitive and loquacious; by no means deficient in acuteness. they are generally cheerful, but seldom gay. every thing they see excites their attention and inquiries. their treatment of women and old men depends very much on the usefulness of these classes. thus, among the clatsops and chinooks, who live upon fish and roots, which the women are equally expert with the men in procuring, the women have a rank and influence far greater than they have among the hunting tribes. on many subjects their judgments and opinions are respected; and, in matters of trade, their advice is generally asked and followed. so with the old men: when one is unable to pursue the chase, his counsels may compensate for his want of activity; but in the next state of infirmity, when he can no longer travel from camp to camp as the tribe roams about for subsistence, he is found to be a burden. in this condition they are abandoned among the sioux and other hunting-tribes of the missouri. as the tribe are setting out for some new excursion where the old man is unable to follow, his children or nearest relations place before him a piece of meat and some water; and telling him that he has lived long enough, that it is now time for him to go home to his relations, who can take better care of him than his friends on earth, they leave him without remorse to perish, when his little supply is exhausted. though this is doubtless true as a general rule, yet, in the villages of the minnetarees and ricaras, we saw no want of kindness to old men: on the contrary, probably because in villages the more abundant means of subsistence renders such cruelty unnecessary, the old people appeared to be treated with attention; and some of their feasts, particularly the buffalo-dances, were intended chiefly as an occasion of contribution for the old and infirm. flathead indians. the custom of flattening the head by artificial pressure during infancy prevails among all the nations we have seen west of the rocky mountains. to the east of that barrier the fashion is so perfectly unused, that they designate the western indians, of whatever tribe, by the common name of flatheads. the practice is universal among the killimucks, clatsops, chinooks, and cathlamahs,--the four nations with whom we have had most intercourse. soon after the birth of her child, the mother places it in the compressing-frame, where it is kept for ten or twelve months. the operation is so gradual, that it is not attended with pain. the heads of the children, when they are released from the bandage, are not more than two inches thick about the upper edge of the forehead: nor, with all its efforts, can nature ever restore their shape; the heads of grown persons being often in a straight line from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead. temperance.--gambling. their houses usually contain several families, consisting of parents, sons and daughters, daughters-in-law and grand-children, among whom the provisions are in common, and harmony seldom interrupted. as these families gradually expand into tribes, or nations, the paternal authority is represented by the chief of each association. the chieftainship is not hereditary: the chief's ability to render service to his neighbors, and the popularity which follows it, is the foundation of his authority, which does not extend beyond the measure of his personal influence. the harmony of their private life is protected by their ignorance of spirituous liquors. although the tribes near the coast have had so much intercourse with the whites, they do not appear to possess any knowledge of those dangerous luxuries; at least, they have never inquired of us for them. indeed, we have not observed any liquor of an intoxicating quality used among any indians west of the rocky mountains; the universal beverage being pure water. they, however, almost intoxicate themselves by smoking tobacco, of which they are excessively fond. but the common vice of all these people is an attachment to games of chance, which they pursue with a ruinous avidity. the game of the pebble has already been described. another game is something like the play of ninepins. two pins are placed on the floor, about the distance of a foot from each other, and a small hole made in the earth behind them. the players then go about ten feet from the hole, into which they try to roll a small piece resembling the men used at checkers. if they succeed in putting it into the hole, they win the stake. if the piece rolls between the pins, but does not go into the hole, nothing is won or lost; but the wager is lost if the checker rolls outside the pins. entire days are wasted at these games, which are often continued through the night round the blaze of their fires, till the last article of clothing or the last blue bead is lost and won. trees. the whole neighborhood of the coast is supplied with great quantities of excellent timber. the predominant growth is the fir, of which we have seen several species. the first species grows to an immense size, and is very commonly twenty-seven feet in circumference, six feet above the earth's surface. they rise to the height of two hundred and thirty feet, and one hundred and twenty of that height without a limb. we have often found them thirty-six feet in circumference. one of our party measured one, and found it to be forty-two feet in circumference at a point beyond the reach of an ordinary man. this tree was perfectly sound; and, at a moderate calculation, its height may be estimated at three hundred feet. the second is a much more common species, and constitutes at least one-half of the timber in this neighborhood. it resembles the spruce, rising from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty feet; and is from four to six feet in diameter, straight, round, and regularly tapering. the stem of the black alder arrives at a great size. it is sometimes found growing to the height of sixty or seventy feet, and is from two to four in diameter. there is a tree, common on the columbia river, much resembling the ash, and another resembling the white maple, though much smaller. the undergrowth consists of honeysuckle, alder, whortleberry, a plant like the mountain-holly, green brier, and fern. animals. the beaver of this country is large and fat: the flesh is very palatable, and, at our table, was a real luxury. on the th of january, our hunter found a beaver in his trap, of which he made a bait for taking others. this bait will entice the beaver to the trap as far as he can smell it; and this may be fairly stated to be at the distance of a mile, as their sense of smelling is very acute. the sea-otter resides only on the sea-coast or in the neighborhood of the salt water. when fully grown, he attains to the size of a large mastiff dog. the ears, which are not an inch in length, are thick, pointed, fleshy, and covered with short hair; the tail is ten inches long, thick at the point of insertion, and partially covered with a deep fur on the upper side; the legs are very short, covered with fur, and the feet with short hair. the body of this animal is long, and of the same thickness throughout. from the extremity of the tail to the nose, they measure five feet. the color is a uniform dark brown, and when in good condition, and in season, perfectly black. this animal is unrivalled for the beauty, richness, and softness of his fur. the inner part of the fur, when opened, is lighter than the surface in its natural position. there are some black and shining hairs intermixed with the fur, which are rather longer, and add much to its beauty. horses and dogs. the horse is confined chiefly to the nations inhabiting the great plains of the columbia, extending from latitude forty to fifty north, and occupying the tract of country lying between the rocky mountains and a range of mountains which crosses the columbia river about the great falls. in this region they are very numerous. they appear to be of an excellent race, lofty, well formed, active, and enduring. many of them appear like fine english coursers. some of them are pied, with large spots of white irregularly scattered, and intermixed with a dark-brown bay. the greater part, however, are of a uniform color, marked with stars, and white feet. the natives suffer them to run at large in the plains, the grass of which affords them their only winter subsistence; their masters taking no trouble to lay in a winter's store for them. they will, nevertheless, unless much exercised, fatten on the dry grass afforded by the plains during the winter. the plains are rarely moistened by rain, and the grass is consequently short and thin. whether the horse was originally a native of this country or not, the soil and climate appear to be perfectly well adapted to his nature. horses are said to be found wild in many parts of this country. the dog is small, about the size of an ordinary cur. he is usually party-colored; black, white, brown, and brindle being the colors most predominant. the head is long, the nose pointed, the eyes small, the ears erect and pointed like those of the wolf. the hair is short and smooth, excepting on the tail, where it is long and straight, like that of the ordinary cur-dog. the natives never eat the flesh of this animal, and he appears to be in no other way serviceable to them but in hunting the elk. to us, on the contrary, it has now become a favorite food; for it is found to be a strong, healthy diet, preferable to lean deer or elk, and much superior to horse-flesh in any state. burrowing squirrel. there are several species of squirrels not different from those found in the atlantic states. there is also a species of squirrel, evidently distinct, which we denominate the burrowing squirrel. he measures one foot five inches in length, of which the tail comprises two and a half inches only. the neck and legs are short; the ears are likewise short, obtusely pointed, and lie close to the head. the eyes are of a moderate size, the pupil black, and the iris of a dark, sooty brown. the teeth, and indeed the whole contour, resemble those of the squirrel. these animals associate in large companies, occupying with their burrows sometimes two hundred acres of land. the burrows are separate, and each contains ten or twelve of these inhabitants. there is a little mound in front of the hole, formed of the earth thrown out of the burrow; and frequently there are three or four distinct holes, forming one burrow, with their entrances around the base of a mound. these mounds, about two feet in height and four in diameter, are occupied as watch-towers by the inhabitants of these little communities. the squirrels are irregularly distributed about the tract they thus occupy,--ten, twenty, or thirty yards apart. when any person approaches, they make a shrill whistling sound, somewhat resembling "tweet, tweet, tweet;" the signal for their party to take the alarm, and to retire into their intrenchments. they feed on the grass of their village, the limits of which they never venture to exceed. as soon as the frost commences, they shut themselves up in their caverns, and continue until the spring opens. birds. the grouse, or prairie-hen.--this is peculiarly the inhabitant of the great plains of the columbia, but does not differ from those of the upper portion of the missouri. in the winter season, this bird is booted to the first joint of the toes. the toes are curiously bordered on their lower edges with narrow, hard scales, which are placed very close to each other, and extend horizontally about one-eighth of an inch on each side of the toes, adding much to the broadness of the feet,--a security which nature has furnished them for passing over the snow with more ease,--and, what is very remarkable, in the summer season these scales drop from the feet. the color of this bird is a mixture of dark brown, reddish, and yellowish brown, with white confusedly mixed. the reddish-brown prevails most on the upper parts of the body, wings, and tail; and the white, under the belly and the lower parts of the breast and tail. they associate in large flocks in autumn and winter; and, even in summer, are seen in companies of five or six. they feed on grass, insects, leaves of various shrubs in the plains, and the seeds of several species of plants which grow in richer soils. in winter, their food consists of the buds of the willow and cottonwood, and native berries. the cock of the plains is found on the plains of the columbia in great abundance. the beak is large, short, covered, and convex; the upper exceeding the lower chap. the nostrils are large, and the back black. the color is a uniform mixture of a dark-brown, resembling the dove, and a reddish or yellowish brown, with some small black specks. the habits of this bird resemble those of the grouse, excepting that his food is the leaf and buds of the pulpy-leaved thorn. the flesh is dark, and only tolerable in point of flavor. horned frog. the horned lizard, or horned frog, called, for what reason we never could learn, the prairie buffalo, is a native of these plains as well as of those of the missouri. the color is generally brown, intermixed with yellowish spots. the animal is covered with minute scales, interspersed with small horny points, or prickles, on the upper surface of the body. the belly and throat resemble those of the frog, and are of a light yellowish-brown. the edge of the belly is likewise beset with small horny projections. the eye is small and dark. above and behind the eyes there are several bony projections, which resemble horns sprouting from the head. these animals are found in greatest numbers in the sandy, open plains, and appear most abundant after a shower of rain. they are sometimes found basking in the sunshine, but generally conceal themselves in little holes of the earth. this may account for their appearance in such numbers after rain, as their holes may thus be rendered untenantable. chapter xvi. the return. march, .--many reasons had inclined us to remain at fort clatsop till the st of april. besides the want of fuel in the columbian plains, and the impracticability of crossing the mountains before the beginning of june, we were anxious to see some of the foreign traders, from whom, by our ample letters of credit, we might recruit our exhausted stores of merchandise. about the middle of march, however, we became seriously alarmed for the want of food. the elk, our chief dependence, had at length deserted its usual haunts in our neighborhood, and retreated to the mountains. we were too poor to purchase food from the indians; so that we were sometimes reduced, notwithstanding all the exertions of our hunters, to a single day's provision in advance. the men too, whom the constant rains and confinement had rendered unhealthy, might, we hoped, be benefited by leaving the coast, and resuming the exercise of travelling. we therefore determined to leave fort clatsop, ascend the river slowly, consume the month of march in the woody country, where we hoped to find subsistence, and in this way reach the plains about the st of april, before which time it will be impossible to cross them. during the winter, we have been very industrious in dressing skins; so that we now have a sufficient quantity of clothing, besides between three and four hundred pairs of moccasons. but the whole stock of goods on which we are to depend for the purchase of horses or of food, during the long journey of four thousand miles, is so much diminished, that it might all be tied in two handkerchiefs. we therefore feel that our chief dependence must be on our guns, which, fortunately, are all in good order, as we took the precaution of bringing a number of extra locks, and one of our men proved to be an excellent gunsmith. the powder had been secured in leaden canisters; and, though on many occasions they had been under water, it remained perfectly dry: and we now found ourselves in possession of one hundred and forty pounds of powder, and twice that weight of lead,--a stock quite sufficient for the route homewards. we were now ready to leave fort clatsop; but the rain prevented us for several days from calking the canoes, and we were forced to wait for calm weather before we could attempt to pass point william, which projects about a mile and a half into the sea, forming, as it were, the dividing-line between the river and the ocean; for the water below is salt, while that above is fresh. on march , at one o'clock in the afternoon, we took a final leave of fort clatsop. we doubled point william without any injury, and at six o'clock reached the mouth of a small creek, where we found our hunters. they had been fortunate enough to kill two elks, which were brought in, and served for breakfast next morning. next day, we were overtaken by two wahkiacums, who brought two dogs, for which they wanted us to give them some tobacco; but, as we had very little of that article left, they were obliged to go away disappointed. we received at the same time an agreeable supply of three eagles and a large goose, brought in by the hunters. we passed the entrance of cowalitz river, seventy miles from our winter camp. this stream enters the columbia from the north; is one hundred and fifty yards wide; deep and navigable, as the indians assert, for a considerable distance; and probably waters the country west and north of the cascade mountains, which cross the columbia between the great falls and rapids. during the day, we passed a number of fishing-camps on both sides of the river, and were constantly attended by small parties of skilloots, who behaved in the most orderly manner, and from whom we purchased as much fish and roots as we wanted, on moderate terms. the night continued as the day had been,--cold, wet, and disagreeable; which is the general character of the weather in this region at this season. march .--at an early hour, we resumed our route, and halted for breakfast at the upper end of an island where is properly the commencement of the great columbian valley. we landed at a village of fourteen large wooden houses. the people received us kindly, and spread before us wappatoo and anchovies; but, as soon as we had finished enjoying this hospitality (if it deserves that name), they began to ask us for presents. they were, however, perfectly satisfied with the small articles which we distributed according to custom, and equally pleased with our purchasing some wappatoo, twelve dogs, and two sea-otter skins. we also gave the chief a small medal, which he soon transferred to his wife. april .--we met a number of canoes filled with families descending the river. these people told us that they lived at the great rapids, but that a scarcity of provisions there had induced them to come down in hopes of finding subsistence in this fertile valley. all those who lived at the rapids, as well as the nations above them, they said, were in much distress for want of food, having consumed their winter store of dried fish, and not expecting the return of the salmon before the next full moon, which will be on the d of may. this intelligence was disagreeable and embarrassing. from the falls to the chopunnish nation, the plains afford no deer, elk, or antelope, on which we can rely for subsistence. the horses are very poor at this season; and the dogs must be in the same condition, if their food, the fish, have failed. on the other hand, it is obviously inexpedient to wait for the return of the salmon, since, in that case, we may not reach the missouri before the ice will prevent our navigating it. we therefore decided to remain here only till we collect meat enough to last us till we reach the chopunnish nation, with whom we left our horses on our downward journey, trusting that we shall find the animals safe, and have them faithfully returned to us; for, without them, the passage of the mountains will be almost impracticable. april , .--several canoes arrived to visit us; and among the party were two young men who belonged to a nation, which, they said, resides at the falls of a large river which empties itself into the south side of the columbia, a few miles below us; and they drew a map of the country with a coal on a mat. in order to verify this information, capt. clarke persuaded one of the young men, by the present of a burning-glass, to accompany him to the river, in search of which he immediately set out with a canoe and seven of our men. in the evening, capt. clarke returned from his excursion. after descending about twenty miles, he entered the mouth of a large river, which was concealed, by three small islands opposite its entrance, from those who pass up or down the columbia. this river, which the indians call multnomah, from a nation of the same name residing near it on wappatoo island, enters the columbia one hundred and forty miles above the mouth of the latter river. the current of the multnomah, which is also called willamett, is as gentle as that of the columbia; and it appears to possess water enough for the largest ship, since, on sounding with a line of five fathoms, they could find no bottom. capt. clarke ascended the river to the village of his guide. he found here a building two hundred and twenty-six feet in front, entirely above ground, and all under one roof; otherwise it would seem more like a range of buildings, as it is divided into seven distinct apartments, each thirty feet square. the roof is formed of rafters, with round poles laid on them longitudinally. the whole is covered with a double row of the bark of the white cedar, secured by splinters of dried fir, inserted through it at regular distances. in this manner, the roof is made light, strong, and durable. in the house were several old people of both sexes, who were treated with much respect, and still seemed healthy, though most of them were perfectly blind. on inquiring the cause of the decline of their village, which was shown pretty clearly by the remains of several deserted buildings, an old man, father of the guide, and a person of some distinction, brought forward a woman very much marked with the small-pox, and said, that, when a girl, she was near dying with the disorder which had left those marks, and that the inhabitants of the houses now in ruins had fallen victims to the same disease. wappatoo island and root. wappatoo island is a large extent of country lying between the multnomah river and an arm of the columbia. the island is about twenty miles long, and varies in breadth from five to ten miles. the land is high, and extremely fertile, and on most parts is supplied with a heavy growth of cottonwood, ash, and willow. but the chief wealth of this island consists of the numerous ponds in the interior, abounding with the common arrowhead (_sagittaria sagittifolia_), to the root of which is attached a bulb growing beneath it, in the mud. this bulb, to which the indians give the name of _wappatoo_, is the great article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce, on the columbia. it is never out of season; so that, at all times of the year, the valley is frequented by the neighboring indians who come to gather it. it is collected chiefly by the women, who employ for the purpose canoes from ten to fourteen feet in length, about two feet wide, and nine inches deep, tapering from the middle, where they are about twenty inches wide. they are sufficient to contain a single person and several bushels of roots; yet so light, that a woman can carry one with ease. she takes one of these canoes into a pond where the water is as high as the breast, and, by means of her toes, separates from the root this bulb, which, on being freed from the mud, rises immediately to the surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe. in this manner, these patient females remain in the water for several hours, even in the depth of winter. this plant is found through the whole extent of the valley in which we now are, but does not grow on the columbia farther eastward. scenery of the river and shores. above the junction of the multnomah river, we passed along under high, steep, and rocky sides of the mountains, which here close in on each side of the river, forming stupendous precipices, covered with the fir and white cedar. down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades,--one of which, a large stream, throws itself over a perpendicular rock, three hundred feet above the water; while other smaller streams precipitate themselves from a still greater elevation, and, separating into a mist, again collect, and form a second cascade before they reach the bottom of the rocks. the hills on both sides of the river are about two hundred and fifty feet high, generally abrupt and craggy, and in many places presenting a perpendicular face of black, hard, basaltic rock. from the top of these hills, the country extends itself, in level plains, to a very great distance. to one remarkable elevation we gave the name of beacon rock. it stands on the north side of the river, insulated from the hills. the northern side has a partial growth of fir or pine. to the south, it rises in an unbroken precipice to the height of seven hundred feet, where it terminates in a sharp point, and may be seen at the distance of twenty miles. this rock may be considered as the point where tidewater commences. april .--we formed our camp at the foot of the long narrows, a little above a settlement of skilloots. their dwellings were formed by sticks set in the ground, and covered with mats and straw, and so large, that each was the residence of several families. the whole village was filled with rejoicing at having caught a salmon, which was considered as the harbinger of vast quantities that would arrive in a few days. in the belief that it would hasten their coming, the indians, according to their custom, dressed the fish, and cut it into small pieces, one of which was given to every child in the village; and, in the good humor excited by this occurrence, they parted, though reluctantly, with four horses, for which we gave them two kettles, reserving to ourselves only one. we resumed our route, and soon after halted on a hill, from the top of which we had a commanding view of the range of mountains in which mount hood stands, and which continued south as far as the eye could reach; their summits being covered with snow. mount hood bore south thirty degrees west; and another snowy summit, which we have called mount jefferson, south ten degrees west. capt. clarke crossed the river, with nine men and a large part of the merchandise, to purchase, if possible, twelve horses to transport our baggage, and some pounded fish, as a reserve, on the passage across the mountains. he succeeded in purchasing only four horses, and those at double the price that had been paid to the shoshonees. april .--as it was much for our interest to preserve the good will of these people, we passed over several small thefts which they had committed; but this morning we learned that six tomahawks and a knife had been stolen during the night. we addressed ourselves to the chief, who seemed angry with his people; but we did not recover the articles: and soon afterwards two of our spoons were missing. we therefore ordered them all from the camp. they left us in ill-humor, and we therefore kept on our guard against any insult. april .--we began our march at seven o'clock. we had just reached the top of a hill near the village, when the load of one of the horses turned; and the animal, taking fright at a robe which still adhered to him, ran furiously toward the village. just as he came there, the robe fell, and an indian made way with it. the horse was soon caught; but the robe was missing, and the indians denied having seen it. these repeated acts of knavery had quite exhausted our patience; and capt. lewis set out for the village, determined to make them deliver up the robe, or to burn their houses to the ground. this retaliation was happily rendered unnecessary; for on his way he met two of our men, who had found the robe in one of the huts, hid behind some baggage. april .--the indians had promised to take our canoes in exchange for horses; but, when they found that we were resolved on travelling by land, they refused giving us any thing for them, in hopes that we would be forced to leave them. disgusted at this conduct, we determined rather to cut them in pieces than suffer these people to possess them; and actually began to do so, when they consented to give us several strands of beads for each canoe. we had now a sufficient number of horses to carry our baggage, and therefore proceeded wholly by land. passing between the hills and the northern shore of the river, we had a difficult and fatiguing march over a road alternately sandy and rocky. the country through which we have passed for several days is of uniform character. the hills on both sides of the river are about two hundred and fifty feet high, in many places presenting a perpendicular face of black, solid rock. from the top of these hills, the country extends, in level plains, to a very great distance, and, though not as fertile as land near the falls, produces an abundant supply of low grass, which is an excellent food for horses. the grass must indeed be unusually nutritious: for even at this season of the year, after wintering on the dry grass of the plains, and being used with greater severity than is usual among the whites, many of the horses were perfectly fat; nor had we seen a single one that was really poor. having proceeded thirty-one miles, we halted for the night not far from some houses of the walla-wallas. soon after stopping, we were joined by seven of that tribe, among whom we recognized a chief by the name of yellept, who had visited us in october last, when we gave him a medal. he appeared very much pleased at seeing us again, and invited us to remain at his village three or four days, during which he would supply us with such food as they had, and furnish us with horses for our journey. after the cold, inhospitable treatment we had lately received, this kind offer was peculiarly acceptable. after having made a hasty meal, we accompanied him to his village. immediately on our arrival, yellept, who proved to be a man of much influence, collected the inhabitants, and after having made an harangue to them, the object of which was to induce them to treat us hospitably, set them an example by bringing himself an armful of wood, and a platter containing three roasted mullets. they immediately followed the example by furnishing us with an abundance of the only sort of fuel they use,--the stems of shrubs growing in the plains. we then purchased four dogs, on which we supped heartily, having been on short allowance for two days previously. we learned from these people, that, opposite to their village, there was a route which led to the mouth of the kooskooskee; that the road was good, and passed over a level country well supplied with water and grass; and that we should meet with plenty of deer and antelope. we knew that a road in that direction would shorten our route eighty miles; and we concluded to adopt this route. fortunately there was among these walla-wallas a prisoner belonging to a tribe of the shoshonee indians. our shoshonee woman, sacajawea, though she belonged to another tribe, spoke the same language as this prisoner; and by their means we were enabled to explain ourselves to the indians, and to answer all their inquiries with respect to ourselves and the object of our journey. our conversation inspired them with such confidence, that they soon brought several sick persons for whom they requested our assistance. we splintered the broken arm of one, gave some relief to another whose knee was contracted by rheumatism, and administered what we thought would be useful for ulcers and eruptions of the skin on various parts of the body, which are very common disorders among them. but our most valuable medicine was eye-water, which we distributed, and which, indeed, they very much required; for complaints of the eyes, occasioned by living so much on the water, and aggravated by the fine sand of the plains, were universal among them. we were by no means dissatisfied at this new resource for obtaining subsistence, as the indians would give us no provisions without merchandise, and our stock was very much reduced. we carefully abstained from giving them any thing but harmless medicines; and our prescriptions might be useful, and were therefore entitled to some remuneration. may .--almost the only instance of rudeness we encountered in our whole trip occurred here. we made our dinner on two dogs and a small quantity of roots. while we were eating, an indian standing by, and looking with great derision at our eating dog's-flesh, threw a half-starved puppy almost into capt. lewis's plate, laughing heartily at the humor of it. capt. lewis took up the animal, and flung it back with great force into the fellow's face, and, seizing his tomahawk, threatened to cut him down if he dared to repeat such insolence. he went off, apparently much mortified; and we continued our dog-repast very quietly. here we met our old chopunnish guide and his family; and soon afterward one of our horses, which had been separated from the others in the charge of twisted-hair, was caught, and restored to us. the walla-walla. we reached (may ) a branch of the walla-walla river. the hills of this creek are generally abrupt and rocky; but the narrow bottom bordering the stream is very fertile, and both possess twenty times as much timber as the columbia itself. indeed, we now find, for the first time since leaving fort clatsop, an abundance of firewood. the growth consists of cotton-wood, birch, the crimson haw, willow, choke-cherry, yellow currants, gooseberry, honeysuckle, rose-bushes, sumac, together with some corn-grass and rushes. the advantage of a comfortable fire induced us, as the night was come, to halt at this place. we were soon supplied by drewyer with a beaver and an otter; of which we took only a part of the beaver, and gave the rest to the indians. the otter is a favorite food, though much inferior, in our estimation, to the dog, which they will not eat. the horse, too, is seldom eaten, and never except when absolute necessity compels. this fastidiousness does not, however, seem to proceed so much from any dislike to the food as from attachment to the animal; for many of them eat very freely of the horse-beef we give them. there is very little difference in the general face of the country here from that of the plains on the missouri, except that the latter are enlivened by vast herds of buffaloes, elks, and other animals, which are wanting here. over these wide bottoms we continued, till, at the distance of twenty-six miles from our last encampment, we halted for the night. we had scarcely encamped, when three young men from the walla-walla village came in with a steel-trap, which we had inadvertently left behind, and which they had come a whole day's journey on purpose to restore. this act of integrity was the more pleasing because it corresponds perfectly with the general behavior of the walla-wallas, among whom we had lost carelessly several knives, which were always returned as soon as found. we may, indeed, justly affirm, that, of all the indians whom we have met, the walla-wallas were the most hospitable, honest, and sincere. twisted-hair. on wednesday, the th of may, we reached the kooskooskee, and found it much more navigable than when we descended it last year. the water was risen, and covered the rocks and shoals. here we found the chief, named twisted-hair, in whose charge we had left our horses in our outward journey. we had suspicions that our horses, and especially our saddles, might not be easily recoverable after our long absence. the twisted-hair was invited to come, and smoke with us. he accepted the invitation, and, as we smoked our pipes over the fire, informed us, that, according to his promise, he had collected the horses, and taken charge of them; but another chief, the broken-arm, becoming jealous of him because the horses were confided to his care, was constantly quarrelling with him. at length, being an old man, and unwilling to live in perpetual disputes, he had given up the care of the horses, which had consequently become scattered. the greater part of them were, however, still in this neighborhood. he added, that on the rise of the river, in the spring, the earth had fallen from the door of the _cache_, and exposed the saddles, some of which had probably been lost; but, as soon as he was acquainted with the situation of them, he had had them buried in another place, where they were now. he promised that he would, on the morrow, send his young men, and collect such of the horses as were in the neighborhood. he kept his word. next day, the indians brought in twenty-one of the horses, the greater part of which were in excellent order; and the twisted-hair restored about half the saddles we had left in the _cache_, and some powder and lead which were buried at the same place. chapter xvii. the rocky mountains. may .--the country along the rocky mountains, for several hundred miles in length and fifty in width, is a high level plain; in all its parts extremely fertile, and in many places covered with a growth of tall, long-leaved pine. nearly the whole of this wide tract is covered with a profusion of grass and plants, which are at this time as high as the knee. among these are a variety of esculent plants and roots, yielding a nutritious and agreeable food. the air is pure and dry; the climate as mild as that of the same latitudes in the atlantic states, and must be equally healthy, since all the disorders which we have witnessed may fairly be imputed to other causes than the climate. of course, the degrees of heat and cold obey the influence of situation. thus the rains of the low grounds are snows in the high plains; and, while the sun shines with intense heat in the confined river-bottoms, the plains enjoy a much cooler air; and, at the foot of the mountains, the snows are even now many feet in depth. crossing the mountains. an attempt to cross the mountains in the early part of june failed on account of the snow, which still covered the track. it was plain we should have no chance of finding either grass or underwood for our horses. to proceed, therefore, would be to hazard the loss of our horses; in which case, if we should be so fortunate as to escape with our lives, we should be obliged to abandon our papers and collections. it was accordingly decided not to venture farther; to deposit here all the baggage and provisions for which we had no immediate use, and to return to some spot where we might live by hunting till the snow should have melted, or a guide be procured to conduct us. we submitted, june , to the mortification of retracing our steps three days' march. on the th june, having been so fortunate as to engage three indians to go with us to the falls of the missouri for the compensation of two guns, we set out on our second attempt to cross the mountains. on reaching the place where we had left our baggage, we found our deposit perfectly safe. it required two hours to arrange our baggage, and prepare a hasty meal; after which the guides urged us to set off, as we had a long ride to make before we could reach a spot where there was grass for our horses. we mounted, and followed their steps; sometimes crossed abruptly steep hills, and then wound along their sides, near tremendous precipices, where, had our horses slipped, we should have been irrecoverably lost. our route lay along the ridges which separate the waters of the kooskooskee and chopunnish, and above the heads of all the streams; so that we met no running water. late in the evening, we reached a spot where we encamped near a good spring of water. it was on the steep side of a mountain, with no wood, and a fair southern aspect, from which the snow seemed to have disappeared for about ten days, and an abundant growth of young grass, like greensward, had sprung up. there was also a species of grass not unlike flag, with a broad succulent leaf, which is confined to the upper parts of the mountains. it is a favorite food with the horses; but it was then either covered with snow, or just making its appearance. june .--we continued our route over the high and steep hills of the same great ridge. at eight miles' distance, we reached an eminence where the indians have raised a conical mound of stone six or eight feet high. from this spot we have a commanding view of the surrounding mountains, which so completely enclose us, that, although we have once passed them, we should despair of ever escaping from them without the assistance of the indians; but our guides traverse this trackless region with a kind of instinctive sagacity. they never hesitate; they are never embarrassed; yet so undeviating is their step, that, wherever the snow has disappeared for even a hundred paces, we find the summer road. with their aid, the snow is scarcely a disadvantage; for although we are often obliged to slide down, yet the fallen timber and the rocks, which are now covered up, were much more troublesome when we passed in the autumn. note. a later traveller through this region writes, "the mountains are indeed _rocky_. they are rocks heaped upon rocks, with no vegetation, excepting a few cedars growing out of the crevices near their base. their tops are covered with perpetual snow. the main ridge of the mountains is of _gneiss_ rock; yet, to-day, parallel ridges of a rock, nearly allied to _basalt_, have abounded. these ridges appear to be volcanic, forced up in _dikes_ at different distances from each other, running from east-north-east to west-south-west. the strata are mostly vertical; but some are a little dipped to the south. "our encampment was near a small stream which runs through a volcanic chasm, which is more than a hundred feet deep, with perpendicular sides. here was a passage made for the _water_ by _fire_." the party agree to separate. july , .--it was agreed here that the expedition should be divided, to unite again at the confluence of the missouri and the yellowstone. the separation took place near the point where clarke's river is crossed by the forty-seventh parallel of latitude. capt. lewis, with nine men, was to cross the mountains in a direction as nearly due east as possible, expecting to find some tributary of the missouri, by following which he might reach that river, and by it retrace his way homeward. capt. clarke, with the remainder of the party, was to seek the head waters of the yellowstone, and follow that stream to the proposed place of re-union. in conformity with this arrangement, capt. lewis, under the guidance of friendly indians, crossed the mountains by a route which led him, after travelling one hundred and four miles, to medicine river, and by that river to the missouri. he reached the falls of the missouri on the th of july, and leaving there a portion of his party, under sergt. gass, to make preparations for transporting their baggage and canoes round the falls, set out, accompanied by drewyer and the two brothers fields, with six horses, to explore maria's river, to ascertain its extent toward the north. from the th to the th, they were engaged in this exploration. on the eve of their return, an event occurred, which, being the only instance in which the expedition was engaged in any conflict with the indians with loss of life, requires to be particularly related. conflict with the indians. we were passing through a region frequented by the minnetarees, a band of indians noted for their thievish propensities and unfriendly dispositions. capt. lewis was therefore desirous to avoid meeting with them. drewyer had been sent out for game, and capt. lewis ascended a hill to look over the country. scarcely had he reached the top, when he saw, about a mile on his left, a collection of about thirty horses. by the aid of his spy-glass, he discovered that one-half of the horses were saddled, and that, on the eminence above the horses, several indians were looking down towards the river, probably at drewyer. this was a most unwelcome sight. their probable numbers rendered any contest with them of doubtful issue. to attempt to escape would only invite pursuit; and our horses were so bad, that we must certainly be overtaken: besides which, drewyer could not yet be aware that indians were near; and, if we ran, he would most probably be sacrificed. we therefore determined to make the best of our situation, and advance towards them in a friendly manner. the flag which we had brought in case of such an emergency was therefore displayed, and we continued slowly our march towards them. their whole attention was so engaged by drewyer, that they did not immediately discover us. as soon as they did so, they appeared to be much alarmed, and ran about in confusion. when we came within a quarter of a mile, one of the indians mounted, and rode towards us. when within a hundred paces of us, he halted; and capt. lewis, who had alighted to receive him, held out his hand, and beckoned him to approach: but he only looked at us, and then, without saying a word, returned to his companions. the whole party now descended the hill, and rode towards us. as yet we saw only eight, but presumed that there must be more behind, as there were several more horses saddled. capt. lewis had with him but two men; and he told them his fears that these were indians of the minnetaree tribe, and that they would attempt to rob us, and advised them to be on the alert, should there appear any disposition to attack us. when the two parties came within a hundred yards of each other, all the indians, except one, halted. capt. lewis therefore ordered his two men to halt, while he advanced, and, after shaking hands with the indian, went on and did the same with the others in the rear, while the indian himself shook hands with our two men. they all now came up; and, after alighting, the indians asked to smoke with us. capt. lewis, who was very anxious for drewyer's safety, told them that the man who had gone down the river had the pipe, and requested, that, as they had seen him, one of them would accompany r. fields to bring him back. to this they assented; and fields went with a young man in search of drewyer, who returned with them. as it was growing late, capt. lewis proposed that they should encamp with us; for he was glad to see them, and had a great deal to say to them. they assented; and, being soon joined by drewyer, the evening was spent in conversation with the indians, in which capt. lewis endeavored to persuade them to cultivate peace with their neighbors. finding them very fond of the pipe, capt. lewis, who was desirous of keeping a constant watch during the night, smoked with them to a late hour; and, as soon as they were all asleep, he woke r. fields, and ordering him to rouse us all in case any indian left the camp, as he feared they would attempt to steal our horses, he lay down by the side of drewyer in the tent with the indians, while the brothers fields were stretched near the fire at the mouth of the tent. at sunrise, the indians got up, and crowded round the fire, near which j. fields, who was then on watch, had carelessly left his rifle, near the head of his brother, who was asleep. one of the indians slipped behind him, and, unperceived, took his brother's and his own rifle; while at the same time two others seized those of drewyer and capt. lewis. as soon as fields turned round, he saw the indian running off with the rifles; and, instantly calling his brother, they pursued him for fifty or sixty yards; and just as they overtook him, in the scuffle for the rifles, r. fields stabbed him through the heart with his knife. the indian ran a few steps, and fell dead. they recovered their rifles, and ran back to the camp. the moment the fellow touched his gun, drewyer, who was awake, jumped up, and wrested it from him. the noise awoke capt. lewis, who instantly started from the ground, and reached to seize his gun, but found it gone, and, turning about, saw the indian running off with it. he followed, and called to him to lay down the gun; which he did. by this time, the rest of the indians were endeavoring to drive off our horses; and capt. lewis ordered his men to follow them, and fire upon the thieves if they did not release our horses. the result was, that we recovered four of our horses, and as many of theirs which they had left behind; so that we were rather gainers by the contest. besides the indian killed by fields, one other was badly wounded. we had no doubt but that we should be immediately pursued by a much larger party. our only chance of safety was in rejoining our friends, who were many miles distant. we therefore pushed our horses as fast as we could; and, fortunately for us, the indian horses proved very good. the plains were level, free from stones and prickly-pears, and in fine order for travelling over from the late rains. we commenced our ride in the early morning. at three o'clock, we had ridden, by estimate, sixty-three miles. we halted for an hour and a half to refresh our horses; then pursued our journey seventeen miles farther, when, as night came on, we killed a buffalo, and again stopped for two hours. the sky was now overclouded; but, as the moon gave light enough to show us the route, we continued for twenty miles farther, and then, exhausted with fatigue, halted at two in the morning. next day, we rejoined the main body of our party in safety. capt. lewis with his companions pursued their way down the missouri, passing those points already noticed in their ascent. our narrative, therefore, will leave them here, and attend the course of capt. clarke and his party down the yellowstone. chapter xviii. capt. clarke's route down the yellowstone. july , .--the party under capt. clarke, consisting of fifteen men, with fifty horses, set out through the valley of clarke's river, along the western side of which they rode in a southern direction. the valley is from ten to fifteen miles in width, and is diversified by a number of small open plains, abounding with grass and a variety of sweet-scented plants, and watered by numerous streams rushing from the western mountains. these mountains were covered with snow about one-fifth of the way from the top; and some snow was still to be seen in the hollows of the mountains to the eastward. july .--they reached wisdom river, and stopped for dinner at a hot spring situated in the open plain. the bed of the spring is about fifteen yards in circumference, and composed of loose, hard, gritty stones, through which the water boils in large quantities. it is slightly impregnated with sulphur, and so hot, that a piece of meat, about the size of three fingers, was completely cooked in twenty-five minutes. july .--they arrived at jefferson's river, where they had deposited their goods in the month of august the year before. they found every thing safe, though some of the goods were a little damp, and one of the canoes had a hole in it. they had now crossed from traveller's-rest creek to the head of jefferson's river, which seems to form the best and shortest route over the mountains during almost the whole distance of one hundred and sixty-four miles. it is, in fact, an excellent road; and, by cutting down a few trees, it might be rendered a good route for wagons, with the exception of about four miles over one of the mountains, which would require a little levelling. july .--the boats were now loaded, and capt. clarke divided his men into two bands. sergt. ordway, with nine men, in six canoes, was to descend the river; while capt. clarke, with the remaining ten, the wife and child of chaboneau, and fifty horses, were to proceed by land to the yellowstone. the latter party set out at five in the afternoon from the forks of the missouri, in a direction nearly east. the plain was intersected by several great roads leading to a gap in the mountain about twenty miles distant, in a direction east-north-east; but the indian woman, who was acquainted with the country, recommended another gap more to the south, through which capt. clarke determined to proceed. they started early the next morning, and, pursuing the route recommended by the squaw, encamped in the evening at the entrance of the gap mentioned by her. through this gap they passed next day, and, at the distance of six miles, reached the top of the dividing ridge which separates the waters of the missouri from those of the yellowstone. nine miles from the summit, they reached the yellowstone itself, about a mile and a half below where it issues from the rocky mountains. the distance from the head of the missouri to this place is forty-eight miles, the greater part of which is through a level plain. they halted for three hours to rest their horses, and then pursued the buffalo road along the banks of the river. although but just emerging from a high, snowy mountain, the yellowstone is here a bold, rapid, and deep stream, one hundred and twenty yards in width. they continued their course along the river till the d, when the party embarked on board of two canoes, each of which was twenty-eight feet long, sixteen or eighteen inches deep, and from sixteen to twenty-four inches wide. sergt. prior, with two men, was directed to take the horses to the mandans for safe keeping until the re-union of the expedition. july .--at eight o'clock, capt. clarke and the remainder of his party embarked, and proceeded very steadily down the river. they passed the mouths of several large rivers emptying into the yellowstone; one of which was called the big-horn, from the numbers of that remarkable species of sheep seen in its neighborhood. next day, capt. clarke landed to examine a curious rock, situated in an extensive bottom on the right, about two hundred and fifty paces from the shore. it is nearly two hundred paces in circumference, two hundred feet high, and accessible only from the north-east; the other sides consisting of perpendicular cliffs, of a light-colored, gritty stone. the soil on the summit is five or six feet deep, of a good quality, and covered with short grass. from this height, the eye ranges over a wide extent of variegated country. on the south-west are the rocky mountains, covered with snow; on the north, a lower range, called the little wolf mountains. the low grounds of the river extend nearly six miles to the southward, when they rise into plains, reaching to the mountains. the north side of the river is bounded by jutting, romantic cliffs, beyond which the plains are open and extensive, and the whole country enlivened by herds of buffaloes, elks, and wolves. after enjoying the prospect from this rock, to which capt. clarke gave the name of pompey's pillar, he descended, and continued his route. at the distance of six or seven miles, he stopped to secure two bighorns, which had been shot from the boat, and, while on shore, saw in the face of the cliff, about twenty feet above the water, a fragment of the rib of a fish, three feet long, and nearly three inches round, embedded in the rock itself. beavers, buffaloes, mosquitoes. the beavers were in great numbers along the banks of the river, and through the night were flapping their tails in the water round the boats. aug. .--the buffaloes appeared in vast numbers. a herd happened to be on their way across the river. such was the multitude of these animals, that although the river, including an island over which they passed, was a mile in width, the herd stretched, as thick as they could swim, completely from one side to the other. our party, descending the river, was obliged to stop for an hour to let the procession pass. we consoled ourselves for the delay by killing four of the herd, and then proceeded, till, at the distance of forty-five miles, two other herds of buffaloes, as numerous as the first, crossed the river in like manner. aug. .--the camp became absolutely uninhabitable, in consequence of the multitude of mosquitoes. the men could not work in preparing skins for clothing, nor hunt in the low grounds: in short, there was no mode of escape, except by going on the sand bars in the river, where, if the wind should blow, the insects do not venture. but when there is no wind, and particularly at night, when the men have no covering except their worn-out blankets, the pain they inflict is scarcely to be endured. on one occasion, capt. clarke went on shore, and ascended a hill after one of the bighorns; but the mosquitoes were in such multitudes, that he could not keep them from the barrel of his rifle long enough to take aim. this annoyance continued, till, on the th of september, they write, "we are no longer troubled with mosquitoes, which do not seem to frequent this part of the river; and, after having been persecuted with them during the whole route from the falls, it is a most happy exemption. their noise was very agreeably exchanged for that of the wolves, which were howling in various directions all round us." aug. , .--the party continued to descend the river. one of their canoes had, by accident, a small hole made in it; and they halted for the purpose of covering it with a piece of elk-skin. while there, about noon, they were overjoyed at seeing the boats of capt. lewis's party heave in sight. the whole expedition being now happily re-united, at about three o'clock all embarked on board the boats; but as the wind was high, accompanied with rain, we did not proceed far before we halted for the night. they part with some of their companions. on the th august, having now reached a part of the river where we occasionally met the boats of adventurous traders ascending the river, capt. lewis was applied to by one of the men, colter, who was desirous of joining two trappers, who proposed to him to accompany them, and share their profits. the offer was an advantageous one; and as he had always performed his duty, and his services might be dispensed with, capt. lewis consented to his going, provided none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. to this they cheerfully answered, that they wished colter every success, and would not apply for a discharge before we reached st. louis. we therefore supplied him, as did his comrades also, with powder and lead, and a variety of articles which might be useful to him; and he left us the next day. the example of this man shows how easily men may be weaned from the habits of civilized life, and brought to relish the manners of the woods. this hunter had now been absent many years from his country, and might naturally be presumed to have some desire to return to his native seats; yet, just at the moment when he is approaching the frontiers, he is tempted by a hunting-scheme to go back to the solitude of the woods. a few days after this, chaboneau, with his wife and child, concluded to follow us no longer, as he could be no longer useful to us. we offered to take him with us to the united states; but he said that he had there no acquaintance, and preferred remaining among the indians. this man has been very serviceable to us, and his wife particularly so, among the shoshonees. she has borne with a patience truly admirable the fatigues of our long journey, encumbered with the charge of an infant, which is now only nineteen months old. we paid him his wages, amounting to five hundred dollars and thirty-three cents, including the price of a horse and a lodge purchased of him, and pursued our journey without him. they reach home. sept. , .--we reached council bluffs, and stopped for a short time to examine the situation of the place, and were confirmed in our belief that it would be a very eligible spot for a trading establishment.[ ] being anxious to reach the junction of the platte river, we plied our oars so well, that by night we had made seventy-eight miles, and landed at our old encampment, on the ascent, twelve miles above that river. we had here occasion to remark the wonderful evaporation from the missouri. the river does not appear to contain more water, nor is its channel wider, than at the distance of one thousand miles nearer its source, although within that space it receives about twenty rivers (some of them of considerable width), and a great number of smaller streams. a few days more brought us to the mouth of the kansas river. about a mile below it, we landed to view the country. the low grounds are delightful, the whole country exhibiting a rich appearance; but the weather was oppressively warm. descending as we had done from a high, open country, between the latitudes of forty-six and forty-nine degrees, to the wooded plains in thirty-eight and thirty-nine degrees, the heat would have been intolerable, had it not been for the constant winds from the south and the south-west. on the th september, we reached the mouth of osage river. a few miles lower down, we saw on the banks some cows feeding; and the whole party involuntarily raised a shout of joy at the sight of this evidence of civilization and domestic life. we soon after reached the little french village of la charette, which we saluted with a discharge of four guns and three hearty cheers. we landed, and were received with kindness by the inhabitants, as well as by some traders who were on their way to traffic with the osages. they were all surprised and pleased at our arrival; for they had long since abandoned all hopes of ever seeing us return. the third day after this,--viz., on tuesday, the d of september, ,--we arrived at st. louis, and, having fired a salute, went on shore, and received the heartiest and most hospitable welcome from the whole village. conclusion. the successful termination of the expedition was a source of surprise and delight to the whole country. the humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impatience for the information it would furnish. their anxieties, too, for the safety of the party, had been kept in a state of excitement by lugubrious rumors, circulated from time to time on uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters or other direct information, from the time when the party left the mandan towns, on their ascent up the river, in , until their actual return to st. louis. the courage, perseverance, and discretion displayed by the commanders, and the fidelity and obedience of the men, were the theme of general approbation, and received the favorable notice of government. a donation of lands was made to each member of the party; capt. lewis was appointed governor of louisiana, which, at that time, embraced the whole country west of the mississippi, within the boundaries of the united states; and capt. clarke was made superintendent of indian affairs. it was not until some years after, however, that the world was put in possession of the detailed history of the expedition. capt. lewis, in the midst of other cares, devoted what time he could to the preparation of his journals for publication, and, in , was on his way to philadelphia for that purpose, but, at a village in tennessee, was taken ill, and prevented from proceeding. here the energetic mind, which had encountered so unfalteringly the perils and sufferings of the desert, gave way. constitutional despondency overcame him: it is probable he lost his reason; for, in a rash moment, he applied a pistol to his head, and destroyed his life. his journals were published under the charge of paul allen of philadelphia. footnote: [ ] now the site of omaha city. eldorado. eldorado chapter i. the discovery. what is meant by eldorado? is there such a country? and, if there be, where is it? the name literally means "the golden country," and was given to an unknown region in south america by the spaniards, who had heard from the indians marvellous tales of such a land lying in the interior of the continent, where gold and precious stones were as common as rocks and pebbles in other countries, and to be had for the trouble of picking them up. it was also a land of spices and aromatic gums. the first notion of this favored region was communicated by an indian chief to gonzalo pizarro, brother of the conqueror of peru, whose imagination was captivated by the account, and his ambition fired with a desire to add this, which promised to be the most brilliant of all, to the discoveries and conquests of his countrymen. he found no difficulty in awakening a kindred enthusiasm in the bosoms of his followers. in a short time, he mustered three hundred and fifty spaniards, and four thousand indians. one hundred and fifty of his company were mounted. the indians were to carry the baggage and provisions, and perform the labors of the expedition. a glance at the map of south america will give us a clear idea of the scene of the expedition. the river amazon, the largest river of the globe, rises in the highest ranges of the andes, and flows from west to east through nearly the whole breadth of the continent. pizarro's expedition started in the year from quito, near the sources of the great river, and, marching east, soon became entangled in the deep and intricate passes of the mountains. as they rose into the more elevated regions, the icy winds that swept down the sides of the cordilleras benumbed their limbs, and many of the natives found a wintry grave in the wilderness. on descending the eastern slope, the climate changed; and, as they came to a lower level, the fierce cold was succeeded by a suffocating heat, while tempests of thunder and lightning poured on them with scarcely any intermission day or night. for more than six weeks, the deluge continued unabated; and the forlorn wanderers, wet, and weary with incessant toil, were scarcely able to drag their limbs along the soil, broken up as it was, and saturated with the moisture. after months of toilsome travel, they reached the region where grew the spice-trees. their produce resembled the cinnamon of the east in taste, but was of inferior quality. they saw the trees bearing the precious bark spreading out into broad forests; yet, however valuable it might be for future commerce, it was of but little worth to them. but, from the savages whom they occasionally met, they learned, that at ten days' distance was a rich and fruitful land, abounding with gold, and inhabited by populous nations. the spaniards were so convinced of the existence of such a country, that if the natives, on being questioned, professed their ignorance of it, they were supposed to be desirous of concealing the fact, and were put to the most horrible tortures, and even burnt alive, to compel them to confess. it is no wonder, therefore, if they told, in many instances, such stories as the spaniards wished to hear, which would also have the effect of ridding their own territories of their troublesome guests by inducing them to advance farther. pizarro had already reached the limit originally proposed for the expedition; but these accounts induced him to continue on. as they advanced, the country spread out into broad plains, terminated by forests, which seemed to stretch on every side as far as the eye could reach. the wood was thickly matted with creepers and climbing plants, and at every step of the way they had to hew open a passage with their axes; while their garments, rotting from the effects of the drenching rains, caught in every bush, and hung about them in shreds. their provisions failed, and they had only for sustenance such herbs and roots as they could gather in the forest, and such wild animals as, with their inadequate means, they could capture. at length they came to a broad expanse of water, from whence flowed a stream,--one of those which discharge their waters into the great river amazon. the sight gladdened their hearts, as they hoped to find a safer and more practicable route by keeping along its banks. after following the stream a considerable distance, the party came within hearing of a rushing noise, that seemed like thunder issuing from the bowels of the earth. the river tumbled along over rapids with frightful velocity, and then discharged itself in a magnificent cataract, which they describe as twelve hundred feet high. doubtless this estimate must be taken with some allowance for the excited feelings of the spaniards, keenly alive to impressions of the sublime and the terrible. for some distance above and below the falls, the bed of the river contracted; so that its width did not exceed twenty feet. they determined to cross, in hopes of finding a country that might afford them better sustenance. a frail bridge was constructed by throwing trunks of trees across the chasm, where the cliffs, as if split asunder by some convulsion of nature, descended sheer down a perpendicular depth of several hundred feet. over this airy causeway, the men and horses succeeded in effecting their passage; though one spaniard, made giddy by heedlessly looking down, lost his footing, and fell into the boiling surges below. they gained little by the exchange. the country wore the same unpromising aspect: the indians whom they occasionally met in the pathless wilderness were fierce and unfriendly, and the spaniards were engaged in perpetual conflict with them. from these they learned that a fruitful country was to be found down the river, at the distance of only a few days' journey; and the spaniards held on their weary way, still hoping, and still deceived, as the promised land flitted before them, like the rainbow, receding as they advanced. at length, spent with toil and suffering, pizarro resolved to construct a bark large enough to transport the weaker part of his company and his baggage. the forests furnished him with timber; the shoes of the horses, which had died on the road, or been slaughtered for food, were converted into nails; gum, distilled from the trees, took the place of pitch; and the tattered garments of the soldiers served for oakum. at the end of two months, the vessel was ready, and the command given to francisco orellana. the troops now moved forward through the wilderness, following the course of the river; the vessel carrying the feebler soldiers. every scrap of provisions had long since been consumed. the last of their horses had been devoured; and they greedily fed upon toads, serpents, and even insects, which that country, teeming with the lower forms of animal life, abundantly supplied. the natives still told of a rich district, inhabited by a populous nation. it was, as usual, at the distance of several days' journey; and pizarro resolved to halt where he was, and send orellana down in his brigantine to procure a stock of provisions, with which he might return, and put the main body in condition to resume their march. orellana, with fifty of the adventurers, pushed off into the middle of the river, where the stream ran swiftly; and his bark, taken by the current, shot forward as with the speed of an arrow, and was soon out of sight. days and weeks passed away, yet the vessel did not return; and no speck was to be seen on the waters as the spaniards strained their eyes to the farthest point, till the banks closed in, and shut the view. detachments were sent out, and, though absent several days, came back without intelligence of their comrades. weary of suspense, pizarro determined to continue their march down the river, which they did, with incredible suffering, for two months longer, till their doubts were dispelled by the appearance of a white man, wandering, half naked, in the woods, in whose famine-stricken countenance they recognized the features of one of their countrymen. orellana had passed swiftly down the river to the point of its confluence with the amazon, where he had been led to expect that he should find supplies for the wants of himself and his companions, but found none. nor was it possible to return as he had come, and make head against the current of the river. in this dilemma, a thought flashed across his mind: it was, to leave the party under pizarro to their fate, and to pursue his course down the great river on which he had entered; to explore eldorado for himself, and make the best of his way home to spain to claim the glory and reward of discovery. his reckless companions readily consented to this course, with the exception of the individual whom pizarro found; and him, when he remonstrated, they put ashore, and left to shift for himself. pizarro and his party, deserted in the wilderness, unable to advance farther, had no alternative but to remain, or retrace their miserable way to quito, the place they had started from more than a year before. they chose the latter, and commenced their return march with heavy hearts. they took a more northerly route than that by which they had approached the amazon; and, though it was attended with fewer difficulties, they experienced yet greater distresses, from their greater inability to overcome them. their only food was such scanty fare as they could pick up in the forest, or happily meet with in some forsaken indian settlement, or wring by violence from the natives. some sickened and sank down by the way, and perished where they fell; for there was none to help them. intense misery had made them selfish; and many a poor wretch was abandoned to his fate, to die alone in the wilderness, or, more probably, to be devoured, while living, by the wild animals which roamed over it. it took them a year to measure back their way to quito; and the miseries they had endured were testified to by their appearance when they arrived, in sadly reduced numbers, at the place of their starting. their horses gone, their arms broken and rusted, the skins of wild animals their only clothes, their long and matted locks streaming wildly down their shoulders, their faces blackened by the tropical sun, their bodies wasted by famine and disfigured by scars, it seemed as if the charnel-house had given up its dead, as, with unsteady step, they crept slowly onwards. more than half of the four thousand indians who had accompanied the expedition had perished; and of the spaniards, only eighty, and many of these irretrievably broken in constitution, found their way back to quito. meanwhile, orellana glided down the stream, which then was nameless and unknown, but which has since been called by his name, though it is more generally known by a name derived from a story which orellana told, in his account of his voyage, of a nation of amazons inhabiting its banks. but an account of orellana's adventures must be reserved for our next chapter. chapter ii. orellana descends the river. when orellana, in his ill-appointed bark, and with his crew enfeebled by famine, had reached the junction of the river napo with the amazon, and found no sources of supply which he had been led to expect, he had no difficulty in satisfying his companions that their only chance of preservation was in continuing their descent of the river, and leaving the party under pizarro to their fate. he then formally renounced the commission which pizarro had given him, and received the command anew from the election of his men, that so he might make discoveries for himself, and not, holding a deputed authority, in the name of another. it was upon the last day of december, , that this voyage was begun,--one of the most adventurous that has ever been undertaken. the little stock of provisions with which they had parted from the army was already exhausted, and they boiled their leathern girdles and the leather of their shoes with such herbs as seemed most likely to be nourishing and harmless; for it was only by experiment that they were able to distinguish the wholesome from the poisonous. on the th of january, being reduced almost to the last extremity with hunger, they heard before daylight an indian drum,--a joyful sound; for be the natives what they would, friendly or hostile, this they knew, that it must be their own fault now if they should die of hunger. at daybreak, being eagerly upon the lookout, they perceived four canoes, which put back upon seeing the brigantine; and presently they saw a village where a great body of the natives were assembled, and appeared ready to defend it. the spaniards were too hungry to negotiate. orellana bade them land in good order, and stand by each other. they attacked the indians like men who were famishing, and fought for food, put them speedily to the rout, and found an immediate supply. while they were enjoying the fruits of their victory, the indians came near them, more to gratify curiosity than resentment. orellana spoke to them in some indian language which they partly understood. some of them took courage, and approached him. he gave them a few european trifles, and asked for their chief, who came without hesitation, was well pleased with the presents which were given him, and offered them any thing which it was in his power to supply. provisions were requested; and presently peacocks, partridges, fish, and other things, were brought in great abundance. the next day, thirteen chiefs came to see the strangers. they were gayly adorned with feathers and gold, and had plates of gold upon the breast. orellana received them courteously, required them to acknowledge obedience to the crown of castile, took advantage as usual of their ignorance to affirm that they consented, and took possession of their country in the emperor's name. such is orellana's own account of this first interview. it was his object to create a high idea of the riches of the provinces which he had discovered. it is not probable that these tribes had any gold; for later discoveries showed that none of the tribes on the amazon were so far advanced as to use it. it was here that they heard the first accounts of the rich and powerful nation composed wholly of women, whom, in recollection of the female warriors of classic antiquity, they called the amazons. here the spaniards built a better brigantine than the frail one in which they were embarked. all fell to work, orellana being the first at any exertion that was required. they calked it with cotton; the natives supplied pitch; and in thirty-five days the vessel was launched. on the th of april, they once more embarked. for eighty leagues, the banks were peopled with friendly tribes; then the course of the river lay between desert mountains, and they were fain to feed upon herbs and parched corn, not even finding a place where they could fish. thus far they seem to have found the natives friendly, or not actively hostile; but, as they descended, they came to a populous province, belonging to a chief called omagua, if, as is conjectured, that is not rather the name of the tribe itself than of their chief. one morning, a fleet of canoes was seen advancing with hostile demonstrations. the indians carried shields made of the skins of the alligator. they came on with beat of tambour and with war-cries, threatening to devour the strangers. the spaniards brought their two vessels close together, that they might aid one another in the defence. but, when they came to use their powder, it was damp, and they had nothing but their cross-bows to trust to; and, plying these as well as they could, they continued to fall down the stream, fighting as they went. presently they came to an indian town. half the spaniards landed to attack it, leaving their companions to maintain the fight upon the water. they won the town, and loaded themselves with provisions; but eighteen of the party were wounded, and one killed. they had neither surgeon nor any remedy for the wounded. nothing could be done for them except "psalming;" that is, repeating some verses of the psalms over the wound. this mode of treatment was not unusual; and, as it was less absurd than the methods which were ordinarily in use at that day, it is no wonder if it proved more successful. for two days and two nights after this, they were constantly annoyed by the canoes of the natives following, and endeavoring to board them. but the spaniards had now dried some powder; and one of them, getting a steady mark at the chief of the indians, shot him in the breast. his people gathered round him; and, while they were thus occupied, the brigantines shot ahead. thus they proceeded with alternate good and evil fortune, now finding the indians friendly, and supplies of provisions abundant; and then encountering hostile tribes which assailed them with all their power, or long regions of unpeopled country, where they were reduced to the utmost straits for want of food. six months had now been consumed on their voyage, and as yet no appearance of eldorado; though, if their accounts may be trusted, they several times came upon populous places, which had many streets, all opening upon the river, and apparently leading to some greater city in the interior. on the d of june, on turning an angle of the river, they saw the country far before them, and great numbers of people collected, seemingly with hostile intentions. orellana offered them trinkets, at which they scoffed; but he persisted in making towards the shore to get food, either by persuasion or force. a shower of arrows was discharged from the shore, which wounded five of the crew. they nevertheless landed, and, after a hot contest, repulsed the natives, killing some seven or eight of them. the historian of the voyage, who was one of the adventurers, affirms that ten or twelve amazons fought at the head of these people, who were their subjects, and fought desperately; because any one who fled in battle would be beaten to death by these female tyrants. he describes the women as very tall and large-limbed, white of complexion, the hair long, platted, and banded round the head. it is amusing to observe how this story was magnified by later narrators, who learned it only by tradition. it is stated in these late accounts that orellana fought on this occasion with a great army of women. of a prisoner whom they took, orellana asked questions about eldorado and the amazons, and got, as usual, such answers as he expected. this may partly be set down to the score of self-deception, and partly to the fact that they conversed with these people by signs, and by means of the few words of their language which the spaniards knew, or supposed they knew, the meaning of. he learned from the prisoner that the country was subject to women, who lived after the manner of the amazons of the ancients, and who possessed gold and silver in abundance. there were in their dominions fine temples of the sun, all covered with plates of gold. their houses were of stone, and their cities walled. we can hardly doubt that the desire to tempt adventurers to join him in his subsequent expedition to conquer and colonize those countries had its effect in magnifying these marvels. shortly after this, the spaniards thought they perceived the _tide_. after another day's voyage, they came to some inhabited islands, and, to their infinite joy, saw that they had not been mistaken; for the marks of the tide here were certain. here they lost another of their party in a skirmish with the natives. from this place the country was low; and they could never venture to land, except upon the islands, among which they sailed, as they supposed, about two hundred leagues; the tide coming up with great force. one day the smaller vessel struck upon a snag, which stove in one of her planks, and she filled. they, however, landed to seek for provisions; but the inhabitants attacked them with such force, that they were forced to retire; and, when they came to their vessels, they found that the tide had left the only serviceable one dry. orellana ordered half his men to fight, and the other half to thrust the vessel into the water: that done, they righted the old brigantine, and fastened in a new plank, all which was completed in three hours, by which time the indians were weary of fighting, and left them in peace. the next day they found a desert place, where orellana halted to repair both vessels. this took them eighteen days, during which they suffered much from hunger. as they drew near the sea, they halted again for fourteen days, to prepare for their sea-voyage; made cordage of herbs; and sewed the cloaks, on which they slept, into sails. on the th of august, they proceeded again, anchoring with stones when the tide turned, though it sometimes came in such strength as to drag these miserable anchors. here the natives were happily of a milder mood than those whom they had lately dealt with. from them they procured roots and indian corn; and, having laid in what store they could, they made ready to enter upon the sea in these frail vessels, with their miserable tackling, and with insufficient food, without pilot, compass, or any knowledge of the coast. it was on the th of august that they sailed out of the river, passing between two islands, which were about four leagues asunder. the whole length of the voyage from the place where they had embarked to the sea they computed at eighteen hundred leagues. thus far their weather had been always favorable, and it did not fail them now. they kept along the coast to the northward, just at safe distance. the two brigantines parted company in the night. they in the larger one got into the gulf of paria, from whence all their labor at the oar for seven days could not extricate them. during this time, they lived upon a sort of plum called "nogos," being the only food they could find. at length they were whirled through those tremendous channels which columbus called the "dragon's mouths," and, september the th, not knowing where they were, reached the island of cubagua, where they found a colony of their countrymen. the old brigantine had arrived at the same place two days before them. here they were received with the welcome which their wonderful adventure deserved; and from hence orellana proceeded to spain, to give the king an account of his discoveries in person. chapter iii. orellana's adventure continued. orellana arrived safe in spain, and was favorably received. his act of insubordination in leaving his commander was forgotten in the success of his achievement; for it had been successful, even if the naked facts only had been told, inasmuch as it was the first event which led to any certain knowledge of the immense regions that stretch eastward from the andes to the ocean, besides being in itself one of the most brilliant adventures of that remarkable age. but orellana's accounts went far beyond these limits, and confirming all previous tales of the wonderful eldorado, with its temples roofed with gold, and its mountains composed of precious stones, drew to his standard numerous followers. every thing promised fairly. the king granted him a commission to conquer the countries which he had explored. he raised funds for the expedition, and even found a wife who was willing to accompany him in may, , he set sail with four ships and four hundred men. but the tide of orellana's fortune had turned. he stopped three months at teneriffe, and two at the cape de verde, where ninety-eight of his people died, and fifty were invalided. the expedition proceeded with three ships, and met with contrary winds, which detained them till their water was exhausted; and, had it not been for heavy rains, all must have perished. one ship put back in this distress, with seventy men and eleven horses on board, and was never heard of after. the remaining two reached the river. having ascended about a hundred leagues, they stopped to build a brigantine. provisions were scarce here, and fifty-seven more of his party died. these men were not, like his former comrades, seasoned to the climate, and habituated to the difficulties of the new world. one ship was broken up here for the materials: the other met with an accident, and became unserviceable; and they cut her up, and made a bark of the timbers. orellana meanwhile, in the brigantine, was endeavoring to discover the main branch of the river, which it had been easy to keep when carried down by the stream, but which he now sought in vain for thirty days among a labyrinth of channels. when he returned from this fruitless search, he was ill, and told his people that he would go back to point st. juan; and there he ordered them to seek him when they had got the bark ready. but he found his sickness increase upon him, and determined to abandon the expedition, and return to europe. while he was seeking provisions for the voyage, the indians killed seventeen of his men. what with vexation and disorder, he died in the river. this sealed the fate of the expedition. the survivors made no further exertions to reach eldorado, but returned to their own country as they could. such was the fate of orellana, who, as a discoverer, surpassed all his countrymen; and though, as a conqueror, he was unfortunate, yet neither is he chargeable with any of those atrocities toward the unhappy natives which have left such a stain on the glories of cortes and pizarro. the next attempt we read of to discover eldorado was made a few years after, under hernando de ribera, by ascending the la plata, or river of paraguay. he sailed in a brigantine with eighty men, and encountered no hostility from the natives. they confirmed the stories of the amazons with their golden city. "how could they get at them?" was the next question: "by land, or by water?"--"only by land," was the reply. "but it was a two-months' journey; and to reach them now would be impossible, because the country was inundated." the spaniards made light of this obstacle, but asked for indians to carry their baggage. the chief gave ribera twenty for himself, and five for each of his men; and these desperate adventurers set off on their march over a flooded country. eight days they travelled through water up to their knees, and sometimes up to their middle. by slinging their hammocks to trees, and by this means only, could they find dry positions for the night. before they could make a fire to dress their food, they were obliged to raise a rude scaffolding; and this was unavoidably so insecure, that frequently the fire burned through, and food and all fell into the water. they reached another tribe, and were told that the amazons' country was still nine days farther on; and then still another tribe, who told them it would take a month to reach them. perhaps they would still have advanced; but here an insuperable obstacle met them. the locusts for two successive years had devoured every thing before them, and no food was to be had. the spaniards had no alternative but to march back. on their way, they were reduced to great distress for want of food; and from this cause, and travelling so long half under water, the greater number fell sick, and many died. of eighty men who accompanied ribera upon this dreadful march, only thirty recovered from its effects. this expedition added a few items to the story of eldorado. ribera declares under oath that the natives told him of a nation of women, governed by a woman, and so warlike as to be dreaded by all their neighbors. they possessed plenty of white and yellow metal: their seats, and all the utensils in their houses, were made of them. they lived on a large island, which was in a huge lake, which they called the "mansion of the sun," because the sun sank into it. the only way of accounting for these stories is, that the spaniards furnished, in the shape of questions, the information which they fancied they received in reply; the indians assenting to what they understood but imperfectly, or not at all. martinez. another expedition, not long after orellana's, was that conducted by don diego ordaz, of which sir walter raleigh, in his "history of guiana," gives an account. the expedition failed; ordaz being slain in a mutiny of his men, and those who went with him being scattered. the only noticeable result was in the adventures of one martinez, an officer of ordaz, who had charge of the ammunition. we tell the story in the language of sir walter, slightly modernized:-- "it chanced, that while ordaz, with his army, rested at the port of morequito, by some negligence the whole store of powder provided for the service was set on fire; and martinez, having the chief charge thereof, was condemned by the general to be executed forthwith. martinez, being much favored by the soldiers, had all means possible employed to save his life; but it could not be obtained in other way but this,--that he should be set into a canoe alone, without any food, and so turned loose into the great river. but it pleased god that the canoe was carried down the stream, and that certain of the guianians met it the same evening: and, not having at any time seen any european, they carried martinez into the land to be wondered at; and so from town to town until he came to the great city of manoa, the seat and residence of inga, the emperor. the emperor, when he beheld him, knew him to be a christian of those who had conquered the neighboring country of peru, and caused him to be lodged in his palace, and well entertained. he lived seven months in manoa, but was not suffered to wander into the country anywhere. he was also brought thither all the way blindfolded by the indians, until he came to the entrance of manoa itself. he avowed at his death that he entered the city at noon, and then they uncovered his face; and that he travelled all that day till night through the city, ere he came to the palace of inga. "after martinez had lived seven months in manoa, and began to understand the language of the country, inga asked him whether he desired to return to his own country, or would willingly abide with him. martinez, not desirous to stay, obtained permission of inga to depart, who sent with him some guianians to conduct him to the river of orinoco, with as much gold as they could carry, which he gave to martinez at his departure. but, when he arrived at the river's side, the natives, being at that time at war with inga, robbed him and his guianians of all his treasure, save only two bottles made of gourds, which were filled with beads of gold, which those people thought to contain his drink or food, with which he was at liberty to depart. so, in a canoe, he passed down by the river to trinidad, and from thence to porto rico, where he died. in the time of his extreme sickness, and when he was without hope of life, receiving the sacrament at the hands of his confessor, he delivered this relation of his travels, and also called for his calabazas, or gourds of gold beads, which he gave to the church and the friars, to be prayed for. "this martinez was the one who christened the city of manoa by the name 'eldorado,' and upon this occasion. at the times of their solemn feasts, when the emperor carouses with his captains, tributaries, and governors, the manner is thus: all those that pledge him are first stripped naked, and their bodies anointed all over with a kind of white balsam very precious. when they are anointed all over, certain servants of the emperor, having prepared gold made into fine powder, blow it through hollow canes upon their naked bodies until they be all shining from the head to the foot. upon this sight, and for the abundance of gold which he saw in the city, the images of gold in their temples, the plates, armors, and shields of gold which they use in the wars, he called it eldorado." such is sir walter's narrative of one of the traditions which fired his enthusiasm to undertake the conquest of eldorado. he asserts that he read it in "the chancery of saint juan de porto rico," of which berrio had a copy. it is pretty plainly tinctured with fable, but probably had an historical foundation. after this, a good many years elapsed before any other expedition of note was fitted out in search of eldorado. but the story grew, notwithstanding. an imaginary kingdom was shaped out. it was governed by a potentate who was called the great paytiti, sometimes the great moxu, sometimes the enim, or great pará. an impostor at lima affirmed that he had been in his capital, the city of manoa, where not fewer than three thousand workmen were employed in the silversmiths' street. he even produced a map of the country, in which he had marked a hill of gold, another of silver, and a third of salt. the columns of the palace were described as of porphyry and alabaster, the galleries of ebony and cedar: the throne was of ivory, and the ascent to it by steps of gold. the palace was built of white stone. at the entrance were two towers, and between them a column twenty-five feet in height. on its top was a large silver moon; and two living lions were fastened to its base with chains of gold. having passed by these keepers, you came into a quadrangle planted with trees, and watered by a silver fountain, which spouted through four golden pipes. the gate of the palace was of copper, and its bolt was received in the solid rock. within, a golden sun was placed upon an altar of silver; and four lamps were kept burning before it day and night. it may surprise us that tales so palpably false as these should have deceived any, to such an extent as to lead them to get up costly and hazardous expeditions to go in search of the wonder; but we must remember, that what the spaniards had already realized and demonstrated to the world in their conquests of mexico and peru was hardly less astonishing than these accounts. it is therefore no wonder that multitudes should be found willing to admit so much of the marvels of eldorado as to see in them a sufficient inducement to justify the search; and others less credulous were perhaps willing to avail themselves of the credulity of the multitude to accomplish plans of conquest and ambition for themselves. of the latter class, we may imagine the celebrated sir walter raleigh to be one, who, at this time, undertook an expedition for the discovery and conquest of eldorado. chapter iv. sir walter raleigh. walter raleigh was born in the year in devonshire, england, and received a good education, completed by a residence of two years at the university of oxford. at the age of seventeen, he joined a volunteer corps of english to serve in france in aid of the protestant cause. afterwards he served five years in the netherlands. in , he accompanied his half-brother, sir humphrey gilbert, on an expedition to colonize some part of north america; which expedition was unsuccessful. we next find him commanding a company of the royal troops in ireland during the rebellion raised by the earl of desmond. in consequence of some serious differences which arose between him and his superior officer, he found it necessary to repair to court to justify himself. it was at this time that an incident occurred which recommended him to the notice of queen elizabeth, and was the foundation of his fortunes. raleigh stood in the crowd one day where the queen passed on foot; and when she came to a spot of muddy ground, and hesitated for a moment where to step, he sprang forward, and, throwing from his shoulders his handsome cloak ("his clothes being then," says a quaint old writer, "a considerable part of his estate"), he spread it over the mud, so that the queen passed over dry-shod, doubtless giving an approving look to the handsome and quick-witted young officer. there is another story which is not less probable, because it is not less in character with both the parties. finding some hopes of the queen's favor glancing on him, he wrote, on a window where it was likely to meet her eye,-- "fain would i climb, but that i fear to fall." and her majesty, espying it, wrote underneath,-- "if thy heart fail thee, wherefore climb at all?" his progress in the queen's favor was enhanced by his demeanor when the matter in dispute between him and his superior officer was brought before the privy council, and each party was called upon to plead his own cause. "what advantage he had in the case in controversy," says a contemporary writer, "i know not; but he had much the better in the manner of telling his tale." the result was, that he became a man of "no slight mark;" "he had gotten the queen's ear in a trice;" "she took him for a kind of oracle," and "loved to hear his reasons to her demands," or, in more modern phrase, "his replies to her questions." the reign of queen elizabeth has been called the heroic age of england. and, let us remember, the england of that day is ours as much as theirs who still bear the name of englishmen. the men whose gallant deeds we now record were our ancestors, and their glory is our inheritance. the reformation in religion had awakened all the energies of the human mind. it had roused against england formidable enemies, among which spain was the most powerful and the most intensely hostile. she fitted out the famous armada to invade england; and england, on her part, sent various expeditions to annoy the spaniards in their lately acquired possessions in south america. these expeditions were generally got up by private adventurers; the queen and her great nobles often taking a share in them. when there was nominal peace with spain, such enterprises were professedly for discovery and colonization, though the adventurers could not always keep their hands off a rich prize of spanish property that fell in their way; but, for the last fifteen years of elizabeth's reign, there was open war between the two powers: and then these expeditions had for their first object the annoyance of spain, and discovery and colonization for their second. we find raleigh, after fortune began to smile upon him, engaged in a second expedition, with sir humphrey gilbert, for discovery and colonization in america. he furnished, from his own means, a ship called "the raleigh," on board of which he embarked; but when a few days out, a contagious disease breaking out among the crew, he put back into port, and relinquished the expedition. sir humphrey, with the rest of the squadron, consisting of five vessels, reached newfoundland without accident, took possession of the island, and left a colony there. he then set out exploring along the american coast to the south, he himself doing all the work in his little ten-ton cutter; the service being too dangerous for the larger vessels to venture on. he spent the summer in this labor till toward the end of august, when, in a violent storm, one of the larger vessels, "the delight," was lost with all her crew. "the golden hind" and "squirrel" were now left alone of the five ships. their provisions were running short, and the season far advanced; and sir humphrey reluctantly concluded to lay his course for home. he still continued in the small vessel, though vehemently urged by his friends to remove to the larger one. "i will not forsake my little company, going homeward," said he, "with whom i have passed so many storms and perils." on the th of september, the weather was rough, and the cutter was with difficulty kept afloat, struggling with the violence of the waves. when the vessels came within hearing distance, sir humphrey cried out to his companions in "the hind," "be of good courage: we are as near to heaven by sea as by land." "that night, at about twelve o'clock," writes the historian of the voyage, who was himself one of the adventurers, "the cutter being ahead of us in 'the golden hind,' suddenly her lights were out, and the watch cried, 'the general is cast away!' which was too true." so perished a christian hero. it was a fine end for a mortal man. let us not call it sad or tragic, but heroic and sublime. raleigh, not discouraged by the ill success of this expedition, shortly after obtained letters-patent for another enterprise of the same kind, on the same terms as had been granted to sir humphrey. two barks were sent to explore some undiscovered part of america north of florida, and look out for a favorable situation for the proposed colony. this expedition landed on roanoke island, near the mouth of albemarle sound. having taken formal possession of the country for the queen of england and her servant sir walter raleigh, they returned, and gave so favorable an account of the country, that her majesty allowed it to be called virginia, after herself, a virgin queen. the next year, raleigh sent out a second expedition, and left a colony of a hundred men, which was the first colony planted by englishmen on the continent of america. soon after, raleigh sent a third expedition with a hundred and fifty colonists; but having now expended forty thousand pounds upon these attempts, and being unable to persist further, or weary of waiting so long for profitable returns, he assigned over his patent to a company of merchants, and withdrew from further prosecution of the enterprise. the years which followed were the busiest of raleigh's adventurous life. he bore a distinguished part in the defeat of the spanish armada; and, in the triumphant procession to return thanks at st. paul's for that great deliverance, he was conspicuous as commander of the queen's guard. he was a member of parliament, yet engaged personally in two naval expeditions against the spaniards, from which he reaped honor, but no profit; and was at the height of favor with the queen. but, during his absence at sea, the queen discovered that an intrigue existed between raleigh and one of the maids of honor, which was an offence particularly displeasing to elizabeth, who loved to fancy that all her handsome young courtiers were too much attached to herself to be capable of loving any other object. raleigh, on his return, was committed a prisoner to the tower, and, on being released after a short confinement, retired to his estate in dorsetshire. it was during this retirement that he formed his scheme for the discovery and conquest of eldorado. it had long been a subject of meditation to raleigh, who declares in the dedication of his "history of guiana," published after his return, that "many years since, he had knowledge, by relation, of that mighty, rich, and beautiful empire of guiana, and of that great and golden city which the spaniards call eldorado, and the naturals manoa."--"it is not possible," says one of the historians of these events, "that raleigh could have believed the existence of such a kingdom. credulity was not the vice of his nature; but, having formed the project of colonizing guiana, he employed these fables as baits for vulgar cupidity." other writers judge him more favorably. it is probably true that he believed in the existence of such a country as eldorado; but we can hardly suppose that he put faith in all the marvellous details which accompanied the main fact in popular narration. chapter v. raleigh's first expedition. as the attempts of pizarro and orellana were made by the route of the river of the amazons, and that of ribera by the river of paraguay, raleigh's approach was by the orinoco, a river second in size only to the amazons, and which flows in a course somewhat parallel to that, and some five or ten degrees farther to the north. the region of country where this river discharges itself into the atlantic was nominally in possession of the spaniards, though they had but one settlement in what was called the province of guiana,--the town of st. joseph, then recently founded; and another on the island of trinidad, which lies nearly opposite the mouth of the river. raleigh, arriving at trinidad, stopped some days to procure such intelligence as the spaniards resident there could afford him respecting guiana. he then proceeded to the main land, destroyed the town which the spaniards had lately built there, and took the governor, berrio, on board his own ship. he used his prisoner well, and "gathered from him," he says, "as much of guiana as he knew." berrio seems to have conversed willingly upon his own adventures in exploring the country, having no suspicion of raleigh's views. he discouraged raleigh's attempts to penetrate into the country, telling him that he would find the river unnavigable for his ships, and the nations hostile. these representations had little weight with raleigh, as he attributed them to a very natural wish on berrio's part to keep off foreigners from his province; but, on trying to find the entrance to the river, he discovered berrio's account to be true, so far as related to the difficulties of the navigation. after a thorough search for a practicable entrance, he gave up all hopes of passing in any large vessel, and resolved to go with the boats. he took in his largest boat, with himself, sixty men, including his cousin, his nephew, and principal officers. another boat carried twenty, and two others ten each. "we had no other means," he says in his account afterward published, "but to carry victual for a month in the same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to boil and dress our meat." the orinoco, at nearly forty leagues from the sea, forms, like the nile, a kind of fan, strewed over with a multitude of little islands, that divide it into numerous branches and channels, and force it to discharge itself through this labyrinth into the sea by an infinity of mouths, occupying an extent of more than sixty leagues. "the indians who inhabit those islands," says raleigh, "in the summer, have houses upon the ground, as in other places; in the winter they dwell upon the trees, where they build very artificial towns and villages: for, between may and september, the river rises to thirty feet upright, and then are those islands overflowed twenty feet high above the level of the ground; and for this cause they are enforced to live in this manner. they use the tops of palmitos for bread; and kill deer, fish, and porks for the rest of their sustenance." raleigh's account is confirmed by later travellers. humboldt says, "the navigator, in proceeding along the channels of the delta of the orinoco at night, sees with surprise the summits of the palm-trees illuminated by large fires. these are the habitations of the guaraons, which are suspended from the trees. these tribes hang up mats in the air, which they fill with earth, and kindle, on a layer of moist clay, the fire necessary for their household wants." passing up with the flood, and anchoring during the ebb, raleigh and his companions went on, till on the third day their galley grounded, and stuck so fast, that they feared their discovery must end there, and they be left to inhabit, like rooks upon trees, with these nations; but on the morrow, after casting out all her ballast, with tugging and hauling to and fro, they got her afloat. after four days more, they got beyond the influence of the tide, and were forced to row against a violent current, till they began to despair; the weather being excessively hot, and the river bordered with high trees, that kept away the air. their provisions began to fail them; but some relief they found by shooting birds of all colors,--carnation, crimson, orange, purple, and of all other sorts, both simple and mixed. an old indian whom they had pressed into their service was a faithful guide to them, and brought them to an indian village, where they got a supply of bread, fish, and fowl. they were thus encouraged to persevere, and next day captured two canoes laden with bread, "and divers baskets of roots, which were excellent meat." probably these roots were no other than potatoes; for the mountains of quito, to which sir walter was now approaching, were the native country of the potato, and the region from whence it was first introduced into europe. the spaniards and portuguese introduced it earlier than the english; but to raleigh belongs the credit of making it known to his countrymen. the story is, that sir walter, on his return home, had some of the roots planted in his garden at youghal, in ireland, and that his gardener was sadly disappointed in autumn on tasting the apples of the "fine american fruit," and proceeded to root up the "useless weeds," when he discovered the tubers. raleigh treated the natives with humanity, and, in turn, received friendly treatment from them. the chiefs told him fine stories about the gold-mines; but, unfortunately, the gold was not to be had without labor, and the adventurers were in no condition to undertake mining operations. what they wanted was to find a region like mexico or peru, only richer, where gold might be found, not in the rocks or the bowels of the earth, but in possession of the natives, in the form of barbaric ornaments that they would freely barter for european articles, or images of their gods, such as christians might seize and carry away with an approving conscience. thus far, their search for such a region had been unsuccessful, and their only hope was of reaching it by farther explorations. but the river was rising daily, and the current flowed with such rapidity, that they saw clearly, if it went on to increase as it had done for some time past, it must soon debar all farther progress. raleigh found by talking with the chiefs that they were all hostile to the spaniards, and willing enough to promise him their aid in driving them out of the country. he accordingly told them that he was sent by a great and virtuous queen to deliver them from the tyranny of the spaniards. he also learned that the indians with whom he was conversing were an oppressed race, having been conquered by a nation who dwelt beyond the mountains,--a nation who wore large coats, and hats of crimson color, and whose houses had many rooms, one over the other. they were called the eperumei; and against them all the other tribes would gladly combine, for they were the general oppressors. moreover, the country of these eperumei abounded in gold and all other good things. he continued to make daily efforts to ascend the river, and to explore the tributary streams, but found his progress debarred in some quarters by the rapid current of the swollen streams, and in others by falls in the rivers. the falls of one of the tributaries of the orinoco, the caroli, he describes as "a wonderful breach of waters, running in three parts; and there appeared some ten or twelve over-falls in sight, every one as high over the other as a church-tower." he was informed that the lake from which the river issued was above a day's journey for one of their canoes to cross, which he computed at about forty miles; that many rivers fall into it, and great store of grains of gold was found in those rivers. on one of these rivers, he was told, a nation of people dwell "whose heads appear not above their shoulders;" which, he says, "though it may be thought a mere fable, yet, for my own part, i am resolved it is true, because every child in those provinces affirm the same. they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and that a long train of hair growth backward between their shoulders." raleigh adds, "it was not my chance to hear of them till i was come away. if i had but spoken one word of it while i was there, i might have brought one of them with me to put the matter out of doubt." it might have been more satisfactory for the philosophers if he had done so; but his word was quite enough for the poets. one of that class, and the greatest of all, william shakspeare, was, at that very time, writing plays for the gratification of raleigh's gracious mistress and her subjects, and eagerly availed himself of this new-discovered tribe to introduce one of them in his play of "the tempest," under the name of caliban. he also makes othello tell the gentle desdemona "of most disastrous chances, and of the cannibals that each other eat; the anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." nor are these the only instances in which we think we trace the influence of the romantic adventurer on the susceptible poet. the name of the divinity whom caliban calls "my dam's god setebos" occurs in raleigh's narrative as the name of an indian tribe; and trinculo's plan of taking caliban to england to make a show of him seems borrowed from this hint of raleigh's. in his days of prosperity, raleigh instituted a meeting of intellectual men at "the mermaid," a celebrated tavern. to this club, shakspeare, beaumont, fletcher, jonson, selden, donne, and other distinguished literary men, were accustomed to repair; and here doubtless the adventures and discoveries of sir walter, set forth with that talent of which his writings furnish abundant proof, often engaged the listening group. raleigh was then forty-eight, and shakspeare thirty-six, years old. but, in justice to raleigh, it should be added, that he did not invent these stories, and that later travellers and missionaries testify that such tales were current among the indians, though as yet no specimen of the tribe has been seen by trustworthy narrators. raleigh now found that he must bring his westward progress to a conclusion: "for no half-day passed but the river began to rage and overflow very fearfully; and the rains came down in terrible showers, and gusts in great abundance, and men began to cry out for want of shift; for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that which he wore on his back, and that was thoroughly washed on his body for the most part ten times a day; and we had now been near a month, every day passing to the westward, farther from our ships." they turned back, therefore, and, passing down the stream, went, without labor and against the wind, little less than one hundred miles a day. they stopped occasionally, both for provisions, and for conference with the natives. in particular, one old chief, with whom he had conferred formerly on his ascent, gave him the confidential communication, that the attempt to attack the city of manoa, at that time, was desperate; for neither the time of the year was favorable, nor had he nearly a sufficient force. he advised, that, forbearing any further attempts at that time, raleigh should rest satisfied with the information he had gained, and return to his own country for a larger force, with which to come again the next year, and unite all the tribes which were hostile to the eperumei, or people of manoa, and by their aid make an easy conquest of them. the old chief added, that, for his part and his people's, they wanted no share of the spoils of gold or precious stones: they only wanted to be avenged on their enemies, and to rescue from them their women whom the eperumei had carried away in their frequent incursions; "so that, whereas they were wont to have ten or twelve wives apiece, they were now enforced to content themselves with three or four." raleigh met with no material misadventure in his way down the river; and, though a storm attacked them the same night, they anchored in the mouth of the river; so that, in spite of every shelter they could derive from the shores, the galley "had as much to do to live as could be, and there wanted little of her sinking, and all those in her:" yet next day they arrived safe at the island of trinidad, and found the ships at anchor, "than which," says raleigh, "there was never to us a more joyful sight." raleigh was not favorably received by the queen on his return, nor was he welcomed with any popular applause; for he had brought home no booty, and his account of the riches of the land into which he had led the way was received with suspicion. he published it under this boastful title: "the discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of guiana; with a relation of the great and golden city of manoa, which the spaniards call eldorado. performed by sir walter raleigh." in spite of all the great promises which he held out, the acknowledgment that he had made a losing voyage tended to abate that spirit of cupidity and enterprise which he wished to excite. sir walter's history of his expedition contains, besides the marvels already cited, numerous others, some of which have a basis of fact, others not. of the former kind is his account of oysters growing on trees. he says, "we arrived at trinidado the d of march, casting anchor at port curiapan. i left the ships, and kept by the shore in my barge, the better to understand the rivers, watering-places, and ports of the island. in the way, i passed divers little brooks of fresh water, and one salt river, that had store of oysters upon the branches of the trees. all their oysters grow upon those boughs and sprays, and not on the ground. the like is commonly seen in the west indies and elsewhere." upon this narrative, sir robert schomburgh, a late explorer, has the following remark: "the first accounts brought to europe, of oysters growing on trees, raised as great astonishment as the relation of eldorado itself; and to those who were unacquainted with the fact that these mollusks select the branches of the tree, on which they fix themselves during high water, when the branches are immersed, it may certainly sound strange, that shells, which we know live in europe on banks in the depths of the sea, should be found in the west indies on the branches of trees. they attach themselves chiefly to the mangrove-tree, which grows along the shore of the sea, and rivers of brackish water, and covers immense tracts of coast; rooting and vegetating in a manner peculiar to itself, even as far as low-water mark. the water flowing off during ebb leaves the branches, with the oysters attached to them, high and dry." respecting the republic of amazons, sir walter says, "i made inquiry among the most ancient and best travelled of the orenoqueponi; and i was very desirous to understand the truth of those warlike women, because of some it is believed, of others not. i will set down what hath been delivered me for truth of those women; and i spake with a cacique, or lord of people, who said that he had been in the river, and beyond it also. the nations of those women are on the south side of the river, in the province of topago; and their chiefest strengths and retreats are in the islands of said river. they accompany with men but once in a year, and for the time of one month, which, i gather from their relation, to be in april. at that time, all the kings of the borders assemble, and the queens of the amazons; and, after the queens have chosen, the rest cast lots for their valentines. this one month they feast, dance, and drink of their wines in abundance; and, the moon being done, they all depart to their own provinces. if a son be born, they return him to the father; if a daughter, they nourish it and retain it, all being desirous to increase their own sex and kind. they carry on wars, and are very blood-thirsty and cruel." sir robert schomburgh, who explored these regions extensively between the years and , says, in reference to this subject, "the result of this fatiguing and perilous journey has only strengthened our conviction that this republic of women was one of those inventions, designed merely to enhance the wonders, of which the new world was regarded as the seat." it would, however, be unjust to condemn raleigh's proneness to a belief in their existence, when we find that condamine believed in them; that humboldt hesitated to decide against them; and that even southey, the learned historian of brazil, makes this remark, "had we never heard of the amazons of antiquity, i should, without hesitation, believe in those of america. their existence is not the less likely for that reason; and yet it must be admitted, that the probable truth is made to appear suspicious by its resemblance to a known fable." chapter vi. raleigh's adventures continued. when raleigh, on his first arrival, broke up the spanish settlement in trinidad, he took berrio, the governor, prisoner, and carried him with him in his voyage up the river. berrio seems to have borne his fate with good temper, and conciliated the good will of raleigh; so that, when the expedition returned to the mouth of the river, he was set at liberty, and collected his little colony again. berrio probably shared the same belief as raleigh in the existence of the kingdom of eldorado within the limits of his province, and was naturally desirous to avail himself of the respite which he gained by the termination of raleigh's expedition, until it should return in greater force to penetrate to eldorado, and take possession for himself and his countrymen. with these views, he sent an officer of his, domingo de vera, to spain, to levy men; sending, according to raleigh's account, "divers images, as well of men as of beasts, birds, and fishes, cunningly wrought in gold," in hopes to persuade the king to yield him some further help. this agent was more successful than raleigh in obtaining belief. he is described as a man of great ability, and little scrupulous as to truth. having been favorably received by the government, he attracted notice by appearing in a singular dress, which, as he was of great stature, and rode always a great horse, drew all eyes, and made him generally known as the indian chief of eldorado and the rich lands. some trinkets in gold he displayed, of indian workmanship, and some emeralds, which he had brought from america, and promised stores of both; and, by the aid of influential persons, he obtained seventy thousand dollars at madrid, and five thousand afterwards at seville, authority to raise any number of adventurers (though berrio had asked only for three hundred men), and five good ships to carry them out. adventurers flocked to him in toledo, la mancha, and estremadura. the expedition was beyond example popular. twenty captains of infantry, who had served in italy and flanders, joined it. not only those who had their fortunes to seek were deluded: men of good birth and expectations left all to engage in the conquest of eldorado; and fathers of families gave up their employments, and sold their goods, and embarked with their wives and children. solicitations and bribes were made use of by eager volunteers. the whole expedition consisted of more than two thousand persons. they reached trinidad after a prosperous voyage, and took possession of the town. the little mischief which raleigh had done had been easily repaired; for indeed there was little that he could do. the place did not contain thirty families, and the strangers were to find shelter as they could. rations of biscuit and salt meat, pulse, or rice, were served out to them; but, to diminish the consumption as much as possible, detachments were sent off in canoes to the main land, where berrio had founded the town of st. thomas. some flotillas effected their progress safely; but one, which consisted of six canoes, met with bad weather, and only three succeeded in entering the river, after throwing their cargoes overboard. the others made the nearest shore, where they were descried by the caribs, a fierce tribe of natives, who slew them all, except a few women whom they carried away, and one soldier, who escaped to relate the fate of his companions. the city of st. thomas contained at that time four hundred men, besides women and children. berrio, to prepare the way for the discovery and conquest of eldorado, sent out small parties of the new-comers under experienced persons, that they might be seasoned to the difficulties which they would have to undergo, and learn how to conduct themselves in their intercourse with the indians. they were to spread the news that the king had sent out many spaniards, and a large supply of axes, caps, hawk-bells, looking-glasses, combs, and such other articles of traffic as were in most request. they saw no appearance of those riches which raleigh had heard of, nor of that plenty which he had found. the people with whom they met had but a scanty subsistence for themselves, and so little of gold or silver or any thing else to barter for the hatchets and trinkets of the spaniards, that they were glad of the chance to labor as boatmen, or give their children, in exchange for them. berrio was not discouraged by the result of these journeys. like raleigh, he was persuaded that the great and golden city stood on the banks of a great lake, from which the river caroli issued, about twelve leagues east of the mouth whereof his town was placed. a force of eight hundred men was now ordered on the discovery. the command was given to correa, an officer accustomed to indian warfare. three franciscan monks, and a lay brother of the same order, accompanied the expedition. having reached a spot where the country was somewhat elevated, and the temperature cooler than in the region they had passed, they hutted themselves on a sort of prairie, and halted there in the hope that rest might restore those who began to feel the effect of an unwholesome climate. the natives not only abstained from any acts of hostility, but supplied them with fruits, and a sort of cassava (tapioca). this they did in sure knowledge that disease would soon subdue these new-come spaniards to their hands. it was not long before a malignant fever broke out among the adventurers, which carried off a third part of their number. one comfort only was left them: the friars continued every day to perform mass in a place where all the sufferers could hear it; and no person died without performing and receiving all the offices which the romish church has enjoined. correa himself sank under the disease. he might possibly have escaped it, acclimated as he was, if he had not overtasked himself when food was to be sought from a distance, and carried heavy loads to spare those who were less equal to the labor: for now the crafty indians no longer brought supplies, but left the weakened spaniards to provide for themselves as they could; and when correa was dead, of whom, as a man accustomed to indian war, they stood in fear, they collected their forces, and fell upon the spaniards, who apprehended no danger, and were most of them incapable of making any defence. the plan appears to have been concerted with a young indian chief who accompanied the spaniards under pretence of friendship; and the women whom the indians brought with them to carry home the spoils of their enemies bore their part with stones and stakes in the easy slaughter. the spaniards who escaped the first attack fled with all speed, some without weapons, and some without strength to use them. the friars were the last to fly. with the soldiers to protect them, they brought off their portable altar, two crosses, and a crucifix. no attempt at resistance was made, except when a fugitive fell by the way. the word then passed for one of the fathers: some soldiers stood with their muskets to protect him while he hastily confessed and absolved the poor wretch, whom his countrymen then commended to god, and left to the mercy of the indians. in some places, the enemy set fire to the grass and shrubbery, which in that climate grow with extreme luxuriance; by which means many of this miserable expedition perished. not quite thirty out of the whole number got safe back to the town of st. thomas. that place was in a deplorable state, suffering at once from a contagious disease and from a scarcity of provisions. to add to the distress, about a hundred persons more had just arrived from trinidad. they came of necessity; for there were no longer supplies of food at trinidad to sustain them. but they came with high-raised hopes, only repining at their ill luck in not having been in the first expedition, by which they supposed the first spoils of eldorado had already been shared. they arrived like skeletons at a city of death. not only were provisions scarce, but the supply of salt had altogether failed; and, without it, health in that climate cannot be preserved. to add to their misery, the shoes had all been consumed, and the country was infested by that insect (the chigua) which burrows in the feet, and attacks the flesh wherever the slightest wound gives it access. the torment occasioned by these insects was such, that the men willingly submitted to the only remedy they knew of, and had the sores cauterized with hot iron. among those who had come from spain to enter upon this land of promise, there was a "beata," or pious woman, who had been attached to a convent in madrid, and accompanied a married daughter and her husband on this unhappy adventure, and devoted herself to the service of the sick. some of the women, and she among them, looking upon the governor, berrio, as the cause of their miseries, and thinking, that, as long as he lived, there was no hope of their escaping from this fatal place, resolved to murder him, and provided themselves with knives for the purpose. the indignation against him was so general, that they hesitated not to impart their design to one of the friars; and, luckily for berrio, he interposed his influence to prevent it. one of the women who had sold her possessions in spain to join the expedition made her way to the governor when the officers and friars were with him, and, emptying upon the ground before him a bag which contained one hundred and fifty doubloons, said, "tyrant, take what is left, since you have brought us here to die." berrio replied, with less of anger than of distress in his countenance, "i gave no orders to domingo de vera that he should bring more than three hundred men." he offered no opposition to the departure of such as would. many who had strength or resolution enough trusted themselves to the river in such canoes as they could find, without boatmen or pilot, and endeavored to make their way back to trinidad; some perishing by the hands of the natives, others by drowning, others by hunger, on the marshy shores which they reached. vera soon died of a painful disease in trinidad; and berrio did not long survive him. such was the issue of this great attempt for the conquest of the golden empire; "of which," says an old spanish historian, "it may be said, that it was like nebuchadnezzar's image, beginning in gold, but continuing through baser metal, till it ended in rude iron and base clay." chapter vii. raleigh's second expedition. raleigh's first voyage disappointed every one but himself. he pretended to have obtained satisfactory evidence of the existence of eldorado, and information of the place where it was; also proof of the existence of mines of gold; and to have conciliated the good will of the natives, and secured their co-operation with him in any future attempt. but he had brought home no gold; the shining stones which his followers had abundantly supplied themselves with were found to be worthless: and there was no evidence of the existence of a native sovereignty as far advanced in civilization and refinement as the mexicans and peruvians, the conquest of which would reflect as much glory upon the english name as the achievements of cortez and pizarro had reflected upon that of spain. raleigh's boastful representations, therefore, failed of effect. none of his countrymen were inclined to join with him in a further prosecution of the enterprise; and the subject was dropped for the time. raleigh was soon restored to favor, and employed in the naval expeditions against spain which took place at this time. he greatly distinguished himself on several occasions, and was in high favor with queen elizabeth till her death; but, with the accession of james, his fortunes fell. he was accused (whether justly or not is still doubtful) of being concerned in treasonable plots against the king, and was brought to trial, found guilty, condemned to death, and committed prisoner to the tower to await the execution of his sentence. raleigh, withdrawn from active labors by his imprisonment, was not idle. he turned to intellectual pursuits, and, with many minor pieces in prose and verse, executed his greatest work, "the history of the world,"--a project of such vast extent, that the bare idea of his undertaking it excites our admiration. as an author, he stands on an eminence as high as that which he obtained in other paths. hume says, "he is the best model of our ancient style;" and hallam confirms the judgment. his imprisonment lasted thirteen years. at the expiration of that time, he had influence to have his sentence so far remitted as to allow him to go on a second expedition in search of eldorado. twenty years had elapsed since the former expedition; and the present was of a magnitude more like a national enterprise than a private one. sir walter's own ship, "the destiny," carried thirty-six guns and two hundred men. there were six other vessels, carrying from twenty-five guns to three each. raleigh embarked all his means in this expedition. his eldest son commanded one of the ships; and eighty of his companions were gentlemen volunteers and adventurers, many of them his relations. those who have thoughtfully considered raleigh's career have seen reason to doubt whether he really believed the stories which he was so anxious to impress upon others. they have thought it more likely that his real object was to emulate the fame of cortez and pizarro; to dispossess spain of some portion of her conquests in south america, and transfer them to his own country. this latter object was admissible at the time of his first expedition, because spain and england were then at war; but was not so on the second, as the two nations were then at peace. but raleigh had reason to think, that, if he could succeed in his object, there was no danger of his being called to very strict account respecting his measures. he arrived off the coast of guiana on the th of november, ; having had a long and disastrous voyage. one ship had left him, and returned home; another had foundered; forty-two of his men had died; many were suffering from sickness, and himself among the number. but he found the indians friendly, and not forgetful of his former visit. he writes to his wife, "to tell you that i might be here king of the country were a vanity; but my name hath still lived among them here. they feed me with fresh meat, and all that the country yields. all offer to obey me." being too feeble from sickness to go himself, he sent forward an expedition, under capt. keymis, to enter the orinoco, and take possession of the mines. five companies of fifty men each, in five shallops, composed the expedition; raleigh, with the remainder of his vessels, repairing to trinidad to await the result. since raleigh's former expedition, the spaniards had made a settlement upon the main land, and founded a town to which they gave the name of st. thomas. the governor resided there, and there were in all about five hundred inhabitants. on the th of january, the english flotilla reached a part of the river twelve leagues from st. thomas; and an indian fisherman carried the alarm to that place. the governor, palameque, mustered immediately the little force which he had at hand. this consisted of fifty-seven men only. messengers were sent to summon those men who were at their farms, and two horsemen were sent out to watch the invaders' movements. at eleven in the forenoon, the vessels anchored about a league from the town. the men landed, and the scouts hastened back with the intelligence. a spanish officer, with ten men, was placed in ambush near the city. as soon as he was informed of the direction which the english were taking, he cut a match-cord in pieces, which he lighted at dark, and placed at intervals, where they might deceive the invaders by presenting the appearance of a greater force. the first discharge was from two pieces of cannon against the boats. the spaniard, with his little band, then opened his fire upon the troops, and kept it up from the bushes as he retired before them. this skirmishing continued about an hour and a half, till he had fallen back to the place where the governor and his people were drawn up, at the entrance of the city, to make a stand. it was now nine at night. raleigh says, in his account of the action, that some of the english, at the first charge, began to pause and recoil shamefully; whereupon his son, not tarrying for any musketeers, ran up at the head of a company of pikemen, and received a shot wound. pressing then upon a spanish captain with his sword, the spaniard, taking the small end of his musket in his hand, struck him on the head with the stock, and felled him. his last words were, "lord, have mercy upon me, and prosper the enterprise!" and his death was instantly avenged by his sergeant, who thrust the spaniard through with his halberd. in the heat of the fight, and in the confusion which the darkness occasioned, the spanish commander was separated from his people, and slain. the spaniards, however, had the advantage of knowing the ground; and, betaking themselves to the houses, they fired from them on the english, and killed many, till the assailants set fire to the houses; thus depriving themselves of that booty which was their main object. the english were now masters of the place; the remainder of the defendants, with the women and children, under the command of grados, the officer who had deported himself so well in the first ambush, effecting their escape across the river. grados stationed them at a place about ten miles distant from the town, where a few slight huts were erected for the women and children. the captors searched in vain for gold in the city; but they had an idea that there was a rich gold-mine a short distance up the river. accordingly, two launches, with twenty or thirty men in each, were despatched up the orinoco. they came to the mouth of the creek, which led to the place where grados had hutted the women and children; and the largest of the launches was about to enter, when grados, who had posted nine of the invalids in ambush there, with about as many indian bowmen, fired upon them so unexpectedly, and with such good aim, that only one of the crew is said to have escaped unhurt. the other launch also suffered some loss. three days after, three launches were sent to take vengeance for this defeat; but grados had removed his charge some two leagues into the country, and these vessels went up the river about a hundred leagues, treating with the indians, to whom they made presents and larger promises, and after eighteen or twenty days returned, having effected nothing of importance. the english had now been four weeks in the city, annoyed by the spaniards and indians, and losing many of their men, cut off in their foraging excursions by ambushes. after the unsuccessful attempt to discover the mine, no further effort was made for that purpose; keymis alleging in his excuse, that "the spaniards, being gone off in a whole body, lay in the woods between the mine and us, and it was impossible, except they had been beaten out of the country, to pass up the woods and craggy hills without the loss of the commanders, without whom the rest would easily be cut to pieces." the english, accordingly, retreated from the city, setting fire to the few houses that remained, and promising the indians, as they went, that they would return next year, and complete the destruction of the spaniards. raleigh was by no means satisfied with keymis's excuses for his failure to discover the mine, and reproached him with so much severity, that keymis, after the interview, retired to his cabin, and shot himself through the heart. when raleigh arrived in england, he found that the tidings of his attack on the spaniards, and the utter failure of his expedition, had reached there before him. the spanish ambassador was clamorous for punishment on what he called a piratical proceeding; and the king and the nation, who might have pardoned a successful adventurer, had no indulgence to extend to one so much the reverse. finding a proclamation had been issued for his arrest, raleigh endeavored to escape to france, but was taken in the attempt, and committed close prisoner to the tower. he was made a victim to court intrigue. the weak king, james, was then negotiating a spanish match for his son, and, to gratify the king of spain and his court, sacrificed one of the noblest of his subjects. without being put on trial for his late transactions, raleigh's old sentence, which had been suspended sixteen years, was revived against him; and on the th of october, , four months after his arrival, he was beheaded on the scaffold. the fate of raleigh caused a great sensation at the time, and has not yet ceased to excite emotion. the poet thomson, in his "summer," finely alludes to the various circumstances of his history, which we have briefly recorded:-- "but who can speak the numerous worthies of the 'maiden reign'? in raleigh mark their every glory mixed,-- raleigh, the scourge of spain, whose breast with all the sage, the patriot, and the hero, burned. nor sunk his vigor when a coward reign the warrior fettered, and at last resigned to glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe: then, active still and unrestrained, his mind explored the vast extent of ages past, and with his prison-hours enriched the world; yet found no times in all the long research so glorious or so base as those he proved in which he conquered and in which he bled." chapter viii. the french philosophers. after so many abortive attempts to reach the golden empire, the ardor of research greatly abated. no expeditions, composed of considerable numbers, have since embarked in the enterprise; but from time to time, for the century succeeding raleigh's last attempt, private expeditions were undertaken and encouraged by provincial governors; and several hundred persons perished miserably in those fruitless endeavors. the adventure we are now about to record was of an entirely different character in respect to its objects and the means employed; but it occupied the same field of action, and called into exercise the same qualities of courage and endurance. in , the french academy of science made arrangements for sending out two commissions of learned men to different and distant parts of the world to make measurements, with a view to determining the dimensions and figure of the earth. the great astronomer, sir isaac newton, had deduced from theory, and ventured to maintain, that the earth was not a perfect globe, but a spheroid; that is, a globe flattened at the poles. for a long time after newton's splendid discoveries in astronomy, a degree of national jealousy prevented the french philosophers from accepting his conclusions; and they were not displeased to find, when they could, facts opposed to them. now, there were some supposed facts which were incompatible with this idea of newton's, that the earth was flattened at the poles. the point was capable of being demonstrated by measurements, with instruments, on the surface; for, if his theory was true, a degree of latitude would be longer in the northern parts of the globe than in the regions about the equator. we must not allow our story to become a scientific essay; and yet we should like to give our readers, if we could, some idea of the principle on which this process, which is called the measurement of an arc of the meridian, was expected to show the magnitude and form of the earth. we all know that geographical latitude means the position of places north or south of the equator, and is determined by reference to the north or pole star. a person south of the equator would not see the pole-star at all. one at the equator, looking at the pole-star, would see it, if no intervening object prevented, in the horizon. advancing northward, he would see it apparently rise, and advance toward him. as he proceeded, it would continue to rise. when he had traversed half the distance to the pole, he would see the pole-star about as we see it in boston; that is, nearly midway between the horizon and the zenith: and, when he had reached the pole, he would see the pole-star directly over his head. dividing the quarter circle which the star has moved through into ninety parts, we say, when the star has ascended one-ninetieth part, that the observer has travelled over one degree of latitude. when the observer has reached boston, he has passed over somewhat more than forty-two degrees, and, when he has reached the north-pole, ninety degrees, of latitude. thus we measure our latitude over the earth's surface by reference to a circle in the heavens; and, because the portions into which we divide that circle are equal, we infer that the portions of the earth's surface which correspond to them are equal. this would be true if the earth were a perfect globe: but if the earth be a spheroid, as newton's theory requires it to be, it would _not_ be true; for that portion of the earth's surface which is flattened will have less curvature than that which is not so, and less still than that portion which is protuberant. the degrees of least curvature will be longest, and those of greatest curvature shortest; that is, one would have to travel farther on the flattened part of the earth to see any difference in the position of the north-star than in those parts where the curvature is greater. so a degree of latitude near the pole, if determined by the position of the north-star, would be found, by actual measurement, to be longer than one similarly determined at the equator. it was to ascertain whether the fact was so that the two scientific expeditions were sent out. the party which was sent to the northern regions travelled over snow and ice, swamps and morasses, to the arctic circle, and fixed their station at tornea, in lapland. the frozen surface of the river afforded them a convenient level for fixing what is called by surveyors the base line. the cold was so intense, that the glass froze to the mouth when they drank, and the metallic measuring rod to the hand. in spite, however, of perils and discomforts, they persevered in their task, and brought back careful measurements of a degree in latitude ° north, to be compared with those made by the other party at the equator, whose movements we propose more particularly to follow. before we take leave of the northern commissioners, however, we will mention another method they took of demonstrating the same fact. if the earth be depressed at the poles, it must follow that bodies will weigh heavier there, because they are nearer the centre of the earth. but how could they test this fact, when all weights would be increased alike,--the pound of feathers and the pound of lead? the question was settled by observing the oscillation of a pendulum. the observers near the pole found that the pendulum vibrated faster than usual, because, being nearer the centre of the earth, the attracting power was increased. to balance this, they had to lengthen the pendulum; and the extent to which they had to do this measured the difference between the earth's diameter at the poles, and that in the latitude from which they came. the commissioners who were sent to the equatorial regions were messrs. bouguer, la condamine, and godin, the last of whom was accompanied by his wife. two spanish officers, messrs. juan and de ulloa, joined the commission. the party arrived at quito in june, , about two hundred years after gonzalo pizarro started from the same place in his search for eldorado. in the interval, the country had become nominally christian. the city was the seat of a bishopric, an audience royal, and other courts of justice; contained many churches and convents, and two colleges. but the population was almost entirely composed of indians, who lived in a manner but very little different from that of their ancestors at the time of the conquest. cuença was the place next in importance to the capital; and there, or in its neighborhood, the chief labors of the commission were transacted. they were conducted under difficulties as great as those of their colleagues in the frozen regions of the north, but of a different sort. the inhabitants of the country were jealous of the french commissioners, and supposed them to be either heretics or sorcerers, and to have come in search of gold-mines. even persons connected with the administration employed themselves in stirring up the minds of the people, till at last, in a riotous assemblage at a bullfight, the surgeon of the french commissioners was killed. after tedious and troublesome legal proceedings, the perpetrators were let off with a nominal punishment. notwithstanding every difficulty, the commissioners completed their work in a satisfactory manner, spending in all eight years in the task, including the voyages out and home. the commissioners who had made the northern measurements reported the length of the degree at ° north latitude to be . toises; messrs. bouguer and la condamine, the equatorial degree, . toises; showing a difference of toises, or , -¾ feet. the difference, as corrected by later measurements, is stated by recent authorities at , english feet; by which amount the polar degree exceeds the equatorial. thus newton's theory was confirmed. his scientific labors having been finished, la condamine conceived the idea of returning home by way of the amazon river; though difficulties attended the project, which we who live in a land of mighty rivers, traversed by steamboats, can hardly imagine. the only means of navigating the upper waters of the river was by rafts or canoes; the latter capable of containing but one or two persons, besides a crew of seven or eight boatmen. the only persons who were in the habit of passing up and down the river were the jesuit missionaries, who made their periodical visits to their stations along its banks. a young spanish gentleman, don pedro maldonado, who at first eagerly caught at the idea of accompanying the french philosopher on his homeward route by way of the river, was almost discouraged by the dissuasives urged by his family and friends, and seemed inclined to withdraw from the enterprise; so dangerous was the untried route esteemed. it was, however, at length resolved that they should hazard the adventure; and a place of rendezvous was appointed at a village on the river. on the th of july, , la condamine commenced his descent of one of the streams which flow into the great river of the amazons. the stream was too precipitous in its descent to be navigated by boats of any kind, and the only method used was by rafts. these are made of a light kind of wood, or rather cane, similar to the bamboo, the single pieces of which are fastened together by rushes, in such a manner, that they yield to every shock of moderate violence, and consequently are not subject to be separated even by the strongest. on such a conveyance, the french philosopher glided down the stream of the chuchunga, occasionally stopping on its banks for a day or two at a time to allow the waters to abate, and admit of passing a dangerous rapid more safely; and sometimes getting fast on the shallows, and requiring to be drawn off by ropes by the indian boatmen. it was not till the th of july that he entered the main river at laguna, where he found his friend maldonado, who had been waiting for him some weeks. on the d of july, , they embarked in two canoes of forty-two and forty-four feet long, each formed out of one single trunk of a tree, and each provided with a crew of eight rowers. they continued their course night and day, in hopes to reach, before their departure, the brigantines of the missionaries, in which they used to send once a year, to pará, the cacao which they collected in their missions, and for which they got, in return, supplies of european articles of necessity. on the th of july, la condamine and his companion passed the village of a tribe of indians lately brought under subjection, and in all the wildness of savage life: on the th, they reached another more advanced in civilization, yet not so far as to have abandoned their savage practices of artificially flattening their heads, and elongating their ears. the st of august, they landed at a missionary station, where they found numerous indians assembled, and some tribes so entirely barbarous as to be destitute of clothing for either sex. "there are in the interior," the narration goes on to say, "some tribes which devour the prisoners taken in war; but there are none such on the banks of the river." after leaving this station, they sailed day and night, equal to seven or eight days' journey, without seeing any habitation. on the th of august, they arrived at the first of the portuguese missionary stations, where they procured larger and more commodious boats than those in which they had advanced hitherto. here they began to see the first signs of the benefits of access to european sources of supply, by means of the vessel which went every year from pará to lisbon. they tarried six days at the last of the missionary stations, and again made a change of boats and of indian crews. on the th august, being yet six hundred miles from the sea, they perceived the ebb and flow of the tide. on the th september, they arrived at pará, which la condamine describes as a great and beautiful city, built of stone, and enjoying a commerce with lisbon, which made it flourishing and increasing. he observes, "it is, perhaps, the only european settlement where silver does not pass for money; the whole currency being cocoa." he adds in a note, "specie currency has been since introduced." the portuguese authorities received the philosophers with all the civilities and hospitalities due to persons honored with the special protection and countenance of two great nations,--france and spain. the cannon were fired; and the soldiers of the garrison, with the governor of the province at their head, turned out to receive them. the governor had received orders from the home government to pay all their expenses, and to furnish them every thing requisite for their comfort and assistance in their researches. la condamine remained three months at pará; and then, declining the urgent request of the governor to embark in a portuguese vessel for home by way of lisbon, he embarked in a boat rowed by twenty-two indians, under the command of a portuguese officer, to coast along the shores of the continent to the french colony of cayenne. the city of pará from whence he embarked is not situated upon the amazon river, but upon what is called the river of pará, which branches off from the amazon near its mouth, and discharges itself into the sea at a distance of more than a hundred miles east of the amazon. the intervening land is an island called marajo, along the coast of which la condamine and his party steered till they came to the place where the amazon river discharges into the sea that vast bulk of waters which has been swelled by the contributions of numerous tributaries throughout a course of more than three thousand miles in length. it here meets the current which runs along the north-eastern coast of brazil, and gives rise to that phenomenon which is called by the indians pororoca. the river and the current, having both great rapidity, and meeting nearly at right angles, come into contact with great violence, and raise a mountain of water to the height of one hundred and eighty feet. the shock is so dreadful, that it makes all the neighboring islands tremble; and fishermen and navigators fly from it in the utmost terror. the river and the ocean appear to contend for the empire of the waves: but they seem to come to a compromise; for the sea-current continues its way along the coast of guiana to the island of trinidad, while the current of the river is still observable in the ocean at a distance of five hundred miles from the shore. la condamine passed this place of meeting in safety by waiting for a favorable course of tides, crossing the amazon at its mouth, steering north; and after many delays, caused by the timidity and bad seamanship of his indian crew, arrived at last safe at cayenne on the th february, , having been eight months on his voyage, two of which were spent in his passage from pará, a passage which he avers a french officer and crew, two years after him, accomplished in six days. la condamine was received with all possible distinction at cayenne, and in due time found passage home to france, where he arrived th february, . chapter ix. madame godin's voyage down the amazon. one of the french commissioners, m. godin, had taken with him on his scientific errand to peru his wife; a lady for whom we bespeak the kind interest of our readers, for her name deserves honorable mention among the early navigators of the amazon. the labors of the commission occupied several years; and when, in the year , those labors were happily brought to a conclusion, m. godin was prevented, by circumstances relating to himself individually, from accompanying his colleagues in their return to france. his detention was protracted from year to year, till at last, in , he repaired alone to the island of cayenne to prepare every thing necessary for the homeward voyage of himself and his wife. from cayenne he wrote to paris to the minister of marine, and requested that his government would procure for him the favorable interposition of the court of portugal to supply him with the means of ascending the river amazon to bring away his wife from peru, and descend the stream with her to the island of cayenne. thirteen years had rolled by since their arrival in the country, when at last madame godin saw her earnest wish to return home likely to be gratified. all that time, she had lived apart from her husband; she in peru, he in the french colony of cayenne. at last, m. godin had the pleasure to see the arrival of a galoot (a small vessel having from sixteen to twenty oars on a side, and well adapted for rapid progress), which had been fitted out by the order of the king of portugal, and despatched to cayenne for the purpose of taking him on his long-wished-for journey. he immediately embarked; but, before he could reach the mouth of the amazon river, he was attacked by so severe an illness, that he saw himself compelled to stop at oyapoc, a station between cayenne and the mouth of the river, and there to remain, and to send one tristan, whom he thought his friend, in lieu of himself, up the river to seek madame godin, and escort her to him. he intrusted to him also, besides the needful money, various articles of merchandise to dispose of to the best advantage. the instructions which he gave him were as follows:-- the galiot had orders to convey him to loreto about half-way up the amazon river, the first spanish settlement. from there he was to go to laguna, another spanish town about twelve miles farther up, and to give mr. godin's letter, addressed to his wife, in charge to a certain ecclesiastic of that place, to be forwarded to the place of her residence. he himself was to wait at laguna the arrival of madame godin. the galiot sailed, and arrived safe at loreto. but the faithless tristan, instead of going himself to laguna, or sending the letter there, contented himself with delivering the packet to a spanish jesuit, who was going to quite another region on some occasional purpose. tristan himself, in the mean while, went round among the portuguese settlements to sell his commodities. the result was, that m. godin's letter, passing from hand to hand, failed to reach the place of its destination. meanwhile, by what means we know not, a blind rumor of the purpose and object of the portuguese vessel lying at loreto reached peru, and came at last, but without any distinctness, to the ears of madame godin. she learned through this rumor that a letter from her husband was on the way to her; but all her efforts to get possession of it were fruitless. at last, she resolved to send a faithful negro servant, in company with an indian, to the amazon, to procure, if possible, more certain tidings. this faithful servant made his way boldly through all hinderances and difficulties which beset his journey, reached loreto, talked with tristan, and brought back intelligence that he, with the portuguese vessel and all its equipments, were for her accommodation, and waited her orders. now, then, madame godin determined to undertake this most perilous and difficult journey. she was staying at the time at riobamba, about one hundred and twenty miles south of quito, where she had a house of her own with garden and grounds. these, with all other things that she could not take with her, she sold on the best terms she could. her father, m. grandmaison, and her two brothers, who had been living with her in peru, were ready to accompany her. the former set out beforehand to a place the other side of the cordilleras to make arrangements for his daughter's journey on her way to the ship. madame godin received about this time a visit from a certain mr. r., who gave himself out for a french physician, and asked permission to accompany her. he promised, moreover, to watch over her health, and to do all in his power to lighten the fatigues and discomforts of the arduous journey. she replied, that she had no authority over the vessel which was to carry her, and therefore could not answer for it that he could have a place in it. mr. r., thereupon, applied to the brothers of madame godin; and they, thinking it very desirable that she should have a physician with her, persuaded their sister to consent to take him in her company. so, then, she started from riobamba, which had been her home till this time, the st of october, , in company of the above-named persons, her black man, and three indian women. thirty indians, to carry her baggage, completed her company. had the luckless lady known what calamities, sufferings, and disappointments awaited her, she would have trembled at the prospect, and doubted of the possibility of living through it all, and reaching the wished-for goal of her journey. the party went first across the mountains to canelos, an indian village, where they thought to embark on a little stream which discharges itself into the amazon. the way thither was so wild and unbroken, that it was not even passable for mules, and must be travelled entirely on foot. m. grandmaison, who had set out a whole month earlier, had stopped at canelos no longer than was necessary to make needful preparations for his daughter and her attendants. then he had immediately pushed on toward the vessel, to still keep in advance, and arrange matters for her convenience at the next station to which she would arrive. hardly had he left canelos, when the small-pox, a disease which in those regions is particularly fatal, broke out, and in one week swept off one-half of the inhabitants, and so alarmed the rest, that they deserted the place, and plunged into the wilderness. consequently, when madame godin reached the place with her party, she found, to her dismay, only two indians remaining, whom the fury of the plague had spared; and, moreover, not the slightest preparation either for her reception, or her furtherance on her journey. this was the first considerable mishap which befell her, and which might have served to forewarn her of the greater sufferings which she was to encounter. a second followed shortly after. the thirty indians who thus far had carried the baggage, and had received their pay in advance, suddenly absconded, whether from fear of the epidemic, or that they fancied, having never seen a vessel except at a distance, that they were to be compelled to go on board one, and be carried away. there stood, then, the deserted and disappointed company, overwhelmed, and knowing not what course to take, or how to help themselves. the safest course would have been to leave all their baggage to its fate, and return back the way they came; but the longing of madame godin for her beloved husband, from whom she had now been separated so many years, gave her courage to bid defiance to all the hinderances which lay in her way, and even to attempt impossibilities. she set herself, therefore, to persuade the two indians above mentioned to construct a boat, and, by means of it, to take her and her company to andoas, another place about twelve days' journey distant. they willingly complied, receiving their pay in advance. the boat was got ready; and all the party embarked in it under the management of the two indians. after they had run safely two days' journey down the stream, they drew up to the bank to pass the night on shore. here the treacherous indians took the opportunity, while the weary company slept, to run away; and, when the travellers awoke next morning, they were nowhere to be found. this was a new and unforeseen calamity, by which their future progress was rendered greatly more hazardous. without a knowledge of the stream or the country, and without a guide, they again got on board their boat, and pushed on. the first day went by without any misadventure. the second, they came up with a boat which lay near the shore, alongside of an indian hut built of branches of trees. they found there an indian, just recovered from the sickness, and prevailed on him, by presents, to embark with them to take the helm. but fate envied them this relief: for, the next day, mr. r.'s hat fell into the water; and the indian, in endeavoring to recover it, fell overboard, and was drowned, not having strength to swim to the shore. now was the vessel again without a pilot, and steered by persons, not one of whom had the least knowledge of the course. ere long, the vessel sprung a leak; and the unhappy company found themselves compelled to land, and build a hut to shelter them. they were yet five or six days' journey from andoas, the nearest place of destination. mr. r. offered, for himself and another frenchman his companion, to go thither, and make arrangements, that, within fourteen days, a boat from there should arrive and bring them off. his proposal was approved of. madame godin gave him her faithful black man to accompany him. he himself took good care that nothing of his property should be left behind. fourteen days were now elapsed; but in vain they strained their eyes to catch sight of the bark which mr. r. had promised to send to their relief. they waited twelve days longer, but in vain. their situation grew more painful every day. at last, when all hope in this quarter was lost, they hewed trees, and fastened them together as well as they could, and made in this way a raft. when they had finished it, they put on their baggage, and seated themselves upon it, and suffered it to float down the stream. but even this frail bark required a steersman acquainted with navigation; but they had none such. in no long time, it struck against a sunken log, and broke to pieces. the people and their baggage were cast into the river. great, however, as was the danger, no one was lost. madame godin sunk twice to the bottom, but was at last rescued by her brothers. wet through and through, exhausted, and half dead with fright, they at last all gained the shore. but only imagine their lamentable, almost desperate, condition! all their supplies lost; to make another raft impossible; even their stock of provisions gone! and where were they when all these difficulties overwhelmed them? in a horrid wilderness, so thick grown up with trees and bushes, that one could make a passage through it no other way than by axe and knife; inhabited only by fiercest tigers, and by the most formidable of serpents,--the rattlesnake. moreover, they were without tools, without weapons! could their situation be more deplorable? chapter x. madame godin's voyage continued. the unfortunate travellers had now but the choice of two desperate expedients,--either to wait where they were the termination of their wretched existence, or try the almost impossible task of penetrating along the banks of the river, through the unbroken forest, till they might reach andoas. they chose the latter, but first made their way back to their lately forsaken hut to take what little provisions they had there left. having accomplished this, they set out on their most painful and dangerous journey. they observed, when they followed the shore of the river, that its windings lengthened their way. to avoid this, they endeavored, without leaving the course of the river, to keep a straight course. by this means, they lost themselves in the entangled forest; and every exertion to find their way was ineffectual. their clothes were torn to shreds, and hung dangling from their limbs; their bodies were sadly wounded by thorns and briers; and, as their scanty provision of food was almost gone, nothing seemed left to them but to sustain their wretched existence with wild fruit, seeds and buds of the palm-trees. at last, they sank under their unremitted labor. wearied with the hardships of such travel, torn and bleeding in every part of their bodies, and distracted with hunger, terror, and apprehensions, they lost the small remnant of their energy, and could do no more. they sat down, and had no power to rise again. in three or four days, one after another died at this stage of their journey. madame godin lay for the space of twenty-four hours by the side of her exhausted and helpless brothers and companions: she felt herself benumbed, stupefied, senseless, yet at the same time tormented by burning thirst. at last, providence, on whom she relied, gave her courage and strength to rouse herself and seek for a rescue, which was in store for her, though she knew not where to look for it. around lay the dead bodies of her brothers and her other companions,--a sight which at another time would have broken her heart. she was almost naked. the scanty remnants of her clothing were so torn by the thorns as to be almost useless. she cut the shoes from her dead brothers' feet, bound the soles under her own, and plunged again into the thicket in search of something to allay her raging hunger and thirst. terror at seeing herself so left alone in such a fearful wilderness, deserted by all the world, and apprehension of a dreadful death constantly hovering before her eyes, made such an impression upon her, that her hair turned gray. it was not till the second day after she had resumed her wandering that she found water, and, a little while after, some wild fruit, and a few eggs of birds. but her throat was so contracted by long fasting, that she could hardly swallow. these served to keep life in her frame. eight long days she wandered in this manner hopelessly, and strove to sustain her wretched existence. if one should read in a work of fiction any thing equal to it, he would charge the author with exaggeration, and violation of probability. but it is history; and, however incredible her story may sound, it is rigidly conformed to the truth in all its circumstances, as it was afterwards taken down from the mouth of madame godin herself. on the eighth day of her hopeless wandering, the hapless lady reached the banks of the bobonosa, a stream which flows into the amazon. at the break of day, she heard at a little distance a noise, and was alarmed at it. she would have fled, but at once reflected that nothing worse than her present circumstances could happen to her. she took courage, and went towards the place whence the sound proceeded; and here she found two indians, who were occupied in shoving their boat into the water. madame godin approached, and was kindly received by them. she told to them her desire to be conveyed to andoas; and the good savages consented to carry her thither in their boat. they did so; and now behold her arrived at that place which the mean and infamous treachery of mr. r. was the only cause of her not having reached long ago. this base fellow had, with unfeeling cruelty, thrown to the winds his promise to procure them a boat, and had gone on business of his own to omaguas, a spanish mission station, without in the least troubling himself about his pledged word, and the rescue of the unfortunates left behind. the honest negro was more true to duty, though he was born and bred a heathen, and the other a christian. while the civilized and polished frenchman unfeelingly went away, and left his benefactress and her companions to languish in the depths of misery, the sable heathen ceased not his exertions till he had procured two indians to go up the river with him, and bring away his deserted mistress and her companions. but, most unfortunately, he did not reach the hut where he had left them before they had carried into execution the unlucky determination to leave the hut, and seek their way through the wilderness. so he had the pain of failing to find her on his arrival. even then, the faithful creature did not feel as if all was done. he, with his indian companions, followed the traces of the party till he came to the place where the bodies of the perished adventurers lay, which were already so decayed, that he could not distinguish one from the other. this pitiable sight led him to conclude that none of the company could have escaped death. he returned to the hut to take away some things of madame godin's which were left there, and carried them not only back with him to andoas, but from thence (another touching proof of his fidelity) to omaguas, that he might deposit the articles, some of which were of considerable value, in the hands of the unworthy mr. r., to be by him delivered to the father of his lamented mistress. and how did this unworthy mr. r. behave when he was apprised by the negro of the lamentable death of those whom he had so unscrupulously given over to destitution? did he shudder at the magnitude and baseness of his crime? oh, no! like a heartless knave, he added dishonesty to cruelty, took the things into his keeping, and, to secure himself in the possession of them, sent the generous negro back to quito. joachim--for that was the name of this honest and noble black man--had unluckily set out on his journey back before madame godin arrived at andoas. thus he was lost to her; and her affliction at the loss of such a tried friend showed that the greatness of her past misfortunes had not made her incapable of feeling new distresses. in andoas she found a christian priest, a spanish missionary; and the behavior of this unchristian christian contrasts with the conduct of her two indian preservers, as that of the treacherous r. with that of the generous negro. for instance, when madame godin was in embarrassment how to show her gratitude to the good indians who had saved her life, she remembered, that, according to the custom of the country, she wore around her neck a pair of gold chains, weighing about four ounces. these were her whole remaining property; but she hesitated not a moment, but took them off, and gave one to each of her benefactors. they were delighted beyond measure at such a gift; but the avaricious and dishonest priest took them away from them before the face of the generous giver, and gave them instead some yards of coarse cotton cloth, which they call, in that country, tukujo. and this man was one of those who were sent to spread christianity among the heathen, and one from whom those same indians whom he had treated so dishonestly would hear the lesson, "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods"! madame godin felt, at seeing such unchristian and unmanly behavior, such deep disgust, that, as soon as she was somewhat recruited from the effects of so many sufferings, she longed for a sight of some boat to enable her to escape from the companionship of this unjust priest, and get to laguna, one of the aforementioned spanish mission stations. a kind indian woman made her a petticoat of cotton cloth, though madame godin had nothing to give her in payment for it. but this petticoat was to her, afterwards, a sacred thing, that she would not have parted with for any price. she laid it carefully away with the slippers which she made of her brothers' shoes, and never could, in after-times, look at the two without experiencing a rush of sad and tender recollections. at laguna she had the good fortune to find a missionary of better disposition. this one received her with kindness and sympathy, and exerted himself every way he could to restore her health, shattered by so much suffering. he wrote also on her behalf to the governor of omaguas, to beg him to aid in expediting her journey. by this means, the elegant mr. r. learned that she was still alive; and as she was not likely in future to be burdensome to him, while he might, through her means, get a passage in the portuguese vessel, he failed not to call upon her at laguna. he delivered to her there some few of the things which joachim had left in his charge; but to the question, "what had become of the rest?" he had no other answer to make but "they were spoilt." the knave forgot, when he said this, that gold bracelets, snuff-boxes, ear-rings, and pearls, of which this property consisted, are not apt to spoil. madame godin could not forbear making to him the well-merited reproach that he was the cause of her late sufferings, and guilty of the mournful death of her brothers and her other companions. she desired to know, moreover, why he had sent away her faithful servant, the good joachim; and his unworthy reply was, he had apprehensions that he would murder him. to the question, how he could have such a suspicion against a man whose tried fidelity and honest disposition were known to him, he knew not what to answer. the good missionary explained to madame godin, after she was somewhat recruited from her late sufferings, the frightful length of the way, and the labors and dangers of her journey yet to come, and tried hard to induce her to alter her intention, and return to rio bambas, her former residence, instead of setting forth to encounter a new series of disappointments and perils. he promised, in that case, to convey her safely and with comfort. but the heroic woman rejected the proposal with immovable firmness. "god, who had so wonderfully protected her so far," she said, "would have her in his keeping for the remainder of her way. she had but one wish remaining, and that was to be re-united to her husband; and she knew no danger terrible enough to induce her to give up this one ruling desire of her heart." the missionary, therefore, had a boat got ready to carry her to the portuguese vessel. the governor of omaguas furnished the boat, and supplied it well with provisions: and, that the commander of the portuguese galiot might be informed of her approach, he sent a smaller boat with provisions, and two soldiers by land, along the banks of the river, and betook himself to loreto, where the galiot had been so long lying; and there he waited till madame godin arrived. she still suffered severely from the consequences of the injuries which she had sustained during her wanderings in the wilderness. particularly, the thumb of one hand, in which she had thrust a thorn, which they had not been able to get out, was in a bad condition. the bone itself was become carious, and she found it necessary to have the flesh cut open to allow fragments of the bone to come out. as for the rest, she experienced from the commander of the portuguese vessel all possible kindness, and reached the mouth of the amazon river without any further misadventure. mr. godin, who still continued at oyapoc (the same place where on account of sickness he had been obliged to stop), was no sooner informed of the approach of his wife than he went on board a vessel, and coasted along the shore till he met the galiot. the joy of again meeting, after a separation of so many years, and after such calamities undergone, was, as may well be supposed, on both sides, indescribably great. their re-union seemed like a resurrection from the dead, since both of them had more than once given up all hope of ever seeing the other in this life. the happy husband now conveyed his wife to oyapoc, and thence to cayenne; whence they departed on their return to france, in company with the venerable mr. de grandmaison. madame godin remained, however, constantly sad, notwithstanding her present ample cause for joy; and every endeavor to raise her spirits was fruitless, so deep and inextinguishable an impression had the terrible sufferings she had undergone made upon her mind. she spoke unwillingly of all that she had suffered; and even her husband found out with difficulty, and by little and little, the circumstances which we have narrated, taken from accounts under his own hand. he thought he could thereby infer that she had kept to herself, to spare his feelings, many circumstances of a distressing nature, which she herself preferred to forget. her heart, too, was, by reason of her sufferings, so attuned to pity and forbearance, that her compassion even extended to the base and wicked men who had treated her with such injustice. she would therefore add nothing to induce her husband to invoke the vengeance of the law against the faithless tristan, the first cause of all her misfortunes, who had converted to his own use many thousand dollars' worth of property which had been intrusted to him. she had even allowed herself to be persuaded to take on board the boat from omaguas down, for a second time, the mean-souled mr. r. so true is it that adversity and suffering do fulfil the useful purpose of rendering the human heart tender, placable, and indulgent. chapter xi. herndon's expedition. in the month of august, , lieut. herndon, of the united-states navy, being on board the frigate "vandalia," then lying at anchor in the harbor of valparaiso, received information that he was designated by the secretary of the navy to explore the valley of the amazon. on the th of april, being then at lima, he received his orders, and, on the st of may, commenced his land journey to the highest point on the amazon navigable for boats, which is about three hundred miles from its source; in which distance there are twenty-seven rapids, the last of which is called the pongo (or falls) de manseriche. over these the water rushes with frightful rapidity; but they are passed, with great peril and difficulty, by means of rafts. from the pongo de manseriche, lieut. herndon states that an unbroken channel of eighteen feet in depth may be found to the atlantic ocean,--a distance of three thousand miles. the party consisted of lieut. herndon, commander; passed-midshipman gibbon; a young master's mate named richards; a young peruvian, who had made the voyage down the amazon a few years before, who was employed as interpreter to the indians; and mauricio, an indian servant. they were mounted on mules; and their baggage of all kinds, including looking-glasses, beads, and other trinkets for the indians, and some supplies of provisions, were carried also on muleback, under the charge of an _arriero_, or muleteer, who was an indian. the party were furnished with a tent, which often came in use for nightly shelter, as the roadside inns furnished none, and the haciendas, or farm-houses, which they sometimes availed themselves of, afforded but poor accommodation. the following picture of the lieutenant's first night's lodgings, not more than ten miles from lima, is a specimen: "the house was built of _adobe_, or sun-dried bricks, and roofed with tiles. it had but one room, which was the general receptacle for all comers. a mud projection, of two feet high and three wide, stood out from the walls of the room all around, and served as a permanent bedplace for numbers. others laid their blankets and cloaks, and stretched themselves, on the floor; so that, with whites, indians, negroes, trunks, packages, horse-furniture, game-cocks, and guinea-pigs, we had quite a caravansera appearance." the lieutenant found the general answer to his inquiry for provisions for his party, and of fodder for their animals, was, "no hay" (there is none). the refusal of the people to sell supplies of these indispensable articles was a source of continued inconvenience. it arose probably from their fear to have it known that they had possessions, lest the hand of authority should be laid upon them, and their property be taken without payment. the cultivators, it must be remembered, are native indians, under the absolute control of their spanish masters, and have no recognized rights protected by law. while this state of things continues, civilization is effectually debarred progress. the usual day's travel was twelve to fifteen miles. the route ascended rapidly; and the river rimac, along whose banks their road lay, was soon reduced to a mountain torrent, raging in foam over the fragments of the rocky cliffs which overhung its bed. the road occasionally widened out, and gave room for a little cultivation. may .--they had now reached a height of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. here the traveller feels that he is lifted above the impurities of the lower regions of the atmosphere, and is breathing air free from taint. the stars sparkled with intense brilliancy. the temperature at night was getting cool, and the travellers found they required all their blankets. but by day the heat was oppressive until tempered by the sea-breeze, which set in about eleven o'clock in the morning. the productions of the country are indian corn, alfalfa (a species of lucern), and potatoes. the potato, in this its native country, is small, but very fine. they saw here a vegetable of the potato kind called _oca_. boiled or roasted, it is very agreeable to the taste, in flavor resembling green corn. here they entered upon the mining region. "the earth here shows her giant skeleton bare: mountains, rather than rocks, rear their gray heads to the skies; and proximity made the scene more striking and sublime." lieut. herndon had brought letters to the superintendent of the mines, who received the travellers kindly and hospitably. this establishment is managed by a superintendent and three assistants, and about forty working hands. the laborers are indians,--strong, hardy-looking fellows, though low in stature, and stupid in expression. the manner of getting the silver from the ore is this: the ore is broken into pieces of the size of an english walnut, and then ground to a fine powder. the ground ore is then mixed with salt, at the rate of fifty pounds of salt to every six hundred of ore, and taken to the ovens to be toasted. after being toasted, the ore is laid in piles of about six hundred pounds upon the stone floor. the piles are then moistened with water, and quicksilver is sprinkled on them through a woollen cloth. the mass is well mixed by treading with the feet, and working with hoes. a little calcined iron pyrites, called _magistral_, is also added. the pile is often examined to see if the amalgamation is going on well. it is left to stand for eight or nine days until the amalgamation is complete; then carried to an elevated platform, and thrown into a well, or cavity: a stream of water is turned on, and four or five men trample and wash it with their feet. the amalgam sinks to the bottom, and the mud and water are let off by an aperture in the lower part of the well. the amalgam is then put into conical bags of coarse linen, which are hung up; and the weight of the mass presses out a quantity of quicksilver, which oozes through the linen, and is caught in vessels below. the mass, now dry, and somewhat harder than putty, is carried to the ovens, where the remainder of the quicksilver is driven off by heat, and the residue is _plata pina_, or pure silver. the proportion of pure silver in the amalgam is about twenty-two per cent. this is an unusually rich mine. returning from the mine, the party met a drove of llamas on their way from the hacienda. this is quite an imposing sight, especially when the drove is encountered suddenly at a turn of the road. the leader, who is always selected on account of his superior height, has his head decorated with tufts of woollen fringe, hung with little bells; and his great height (often six feet), gallant and graceful carriage, pointed ear, restless eye, and quivering lip, as he faces you for a moment, make him as striking an object as one can well conceive. upon pressing on him, he bounds aside either up or down the cliff, and is followed by the herd, scrambling over places that would be impassable for the mule or the ass. the llama travels not more than nine or ten miles a day, his load being about one hundred and thirty pounds. he will not carry more, and will be beaten to death rather than move when he is overloaded or tired. the males only are worked: they appear gentle and docile, but, when irritated, have a very savage look, and spit at the object of their resentment. the guanaco, or alpaca, is another species of this animal, and the vicunia a third. the guanaco is as large as the llama, and bears a fleece of long and coarse wool. the vicunia is much smaller, and its wool is short and fine: so valuable is it, that it brings at the port of shipment a dollar a pound. our travellers saw no guanacos, but now and then, in crossing the mountains, caught a glimpse of the wild and shy vicunia. they go in herds of ten or fifteen females, accompanied by one male, who is ever on the alert. on the approach of danger, he gives warning by a shrill whistle; and his charge make off with the speed of the wind. on the st of may, the thermometer stood at thirty-six degrees at five, a.m. this, it must be remembered, was in the torrid zone, in the same latitude as congo in africa, and sumatra in asia; yet how different the climate! this is owing to the elevation, which at this water-shed of the continent, which separates the rivers of the atlantic from those of the pacific, was about sixteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. the peaks of the cordillera presented the appearance of a hilly country at home on a winter's day; while the lower ranges were dressed in bright green, with placid little lakes interspersed, giving an air of quiet beauty to the scene. the travellers next arrived at morococha, where they found copper-mining to be the prevailing occupation. the copper ore is calcined in the open air, in piles consisting of ore and coal, which burn for a month. the ore thus calcined is taken to the ovens; and sufficient heat is employed to melt the copper, which runs off into moulds below. the copper, in this state, is impure, containing fifty per cent of foreign matter; and is worth fifteen cents the pound in england, where it is refined. there is a mine of fine coal near the hacienda, which yields an abundant supply. the travellers passed other mining districts, rich in silver and copper. a large portion of the silver which forms the circulation of the world is dug from the range of mountains which they were now crossing, and chiefly from that slope of them which is drained off into the amazon. their descent, after leaving the mining country, was rapid. on june , we find them at the head of a ravine leading down to the valley of tarma. the height of this spot above the level of the sea was , feet. as they rode down the steep descent, the plants and flowers that they had left on the other side began to re-appear. first the short grass and small clover, then barley, lucern, indian corn, beans, turnips, shrubs, bushes, trees, flowers, growing larger and gayer in their colors, till the pretty little city of tarma, imbosomed among the hills, and enveloped in its covering of willows and fruit-trees, with its long lawns of _alfalfa_ (the greenest of grasses) stretching out in front, broke upon their view. it is a place of seven thousand inhabitants, beautifully situated in an amphitheatre of mountains, which are clothed nearly to the top with waving fields of barley. the lieutenant gives an attractive description of this mountain city, whose natural productions extend from the apples and peaches of the temperate zone to the oranges and pine-apples of the tropics; and whose air is so temperate and pure, that there was but one physician to a district of twenty thousand people, and he was obliged to depend upon government for a part of his support. the party left tarma on the th of june, and resumed their descent of the mountains. the ride was the wildest they had yet had. the ascents and descents were nearly precipitous; and the scene was rugged, wild, and grand beyond description. at certain parts of the road, it is utterly impossible for two beasts to pass abreast, or for one to turn and retreat; and the only remedy, when they meet, is to tumble one off the precipice, or to drag him back by the tail until he reaches a place where the other can pass. they met with a considerable fright in this way one day. they were riding in single file along one of those narrow ascents where the road is cut out of the mountain-side, and the traveller has a perpendicular wall on one hand, and a sheer precipice of many hundreds of feet upon the other. mr. gibbon was riding ahead. just as he was about to turn a sharp bend of the road, the head of a bull peered round it, on the descent. when the bull came in full view, he stopped; and the travellers could see the heads of other cattle clustering over his quarters, and hear the shouts of the cattle-drivers far behind, urging on their herd. the bull, with lowered crest, and savage, sullen look, came slowly on, and actually got his head between the perpendicular rock and the neck of gibbon's mule. but the sagacious beast on which he was mounted, pressing her haunches hard against the wall, gathered her feet close under her, and turned as upon a pivot. this placed the bull on the outside (there was room to pass, though no one would have thought it); and he rushed by at the gallop, followed in single file by the rest of the herd. the lieutenant owns that he and his friend "felt frightened." on the th of june, they arrived at the first hacienda, where they saw sugar-cane, yucca, pine-apples, and plantains. besides these, cotton and coffee were soon after found in cultivation. the laborers are native indians, nominally free, but, by the customs of the country, pretty closely held in subjection to their employers. their nominal wages are half a dollar a day; but this is paid in articles necessary for their support, which are charged to them at such prices as to keep them always in debt. as debtors, the law will enforce the master's claim on them; and it is almost hopeless for them to desert; for, unless they get some distance off before they are recognized, they will be returned as debtors to their employers. freedom, under such circumstances, is little better than slavery; but it _is_ better, for this reason,--that it only requires some improvement in the intelligence and habits of the laborers to convert it into a system of free labor worthy of the name. the _yucca_ (cassava-root) is a plant of fifteen or twenty feet in height. it is difficult to distinguish this plant from the _mandioc_, which is called "wild yucca;" and this, "sweet yucca." this may be eaten raw; but the other is poisonous until subjected to heat in cooking, and then is perfectly wholesome. the yucca answers the same purpose in peru that the mandioc does in brazil. it is the general substitute for bread, and, roasted or boiled, is very pleasant to the taste. the indians also make from it an intoxicating drink. each plant will give from twenty to twenty-five pounds of the eatable root, which grows in clusters like the potato, and some tubers of which are as long and thick as a man's arm. chapter xii. herndon's expedition continued. on the th of july, the travellers arrived at the great mining station of cerro pasco. the weather was so cold, that the lieutenant, not being quite well, sat by the fire all day, trying to keep himself warm. the town is a most curious-looking place, entirely honey-combed, and having the mouths of mines, some of them two or three yards in diameter, gaping everywhere. from the top of a hill, the best view is obtained of the whole. vast pits, called tajos, surround this hill, from which many millions of silver have been taken; and the miners are still burrowing, like so many rabbits, in their bottoms and sides. the hill is penetrated in every direction; and it would not be surprising if it should cave in, any day, and bury many in its ruins. the falling-in of mines is of frequent occurrence: one caved in, some years ago, and buried three hundred persons. an english company undertook mining here in , and failed. vast sums have been spent in constructing tunnels, and employing steam machinery to drain the mines; and the parties still persevere, encouraged by discovering, that, the lower they penetrate, the richer are the ores. the yield of these mines is about two million dollars' worth a year, which is equal to the yield of all the other mines of peru together. the lieutenant found the leading people here, as well as at tarma, enthusiastic on the subject of opening the amazon to foreign commerce. it will be a great day for them, they say, when the americans get near them with a steamer. on the th of july, they arrived at a spot of marshy ground, from which trickled in tiny streams the waters, which, uniting with others, swell till they form the broad river huallaga, one of the head tributaries of the amazon. their descent was now rapid; and the next day they found themselves on a sudden among fruit-trees, with a patch of sugar-cane, on the banks of the stream. the sudden transition from rugged mountain-peaks, where there was no cultivation, to a tropical vegetation, was marvellous. two miles farther on, they came in sight of a pretty village, almost hidden in the luxuriant vegetation. the whole valley here becomes very beautiful. the land, which is a rich river-bottom, is laid off into alternate fields of sugar-cane and alfalfa. the blended green and yellow of this growth, divided by willows, interspersed with fruit-trees, and broken into wavy lines by the serpentine course of the river, presented a scene which filled them with pleasurable emotions, and indicated that they had exchanged a semi-barbarous for a civilized society. the party had had no occasion to complain of want of hospitality in any part of their route; but here they seemed to have entered upon a country where that virtue flourished most vigorously, having at its command the means of gratifying it. the owner of the hacienda of quicacan, an english gentleman named dyer, received the lieutenant and his large party exactly as if it were a matter of course, and as if they had quite as much right to occupy his house as they had to enter an inn. the next day they had an opportunity to compare with the englishman a fine specimen of the peruvian country gentleman. col. lucar is thus described: "he is probably the richest and most influential man in the province. he seems to have been the father of husbandry in these parts, and is the very type of the old landed proprietor of virginia, who has always lived upon his estates, and attended personally to their cultivation. seated at the head of his table, with his hat on to keep the draught from his head, and which he would insist upon removing unless i would wear mine; his chair surrounded by two or three little negro children, whom he fed with bits from his plate; and attending with patience and kindness to the clamorous wants of a pair of splendid peacocks, a couple of small parrots of brilliant and variegated plumage, and a beautiful and delicate monkey,--i thought i had never seen a more perfect pattern of the patriarch. his kindly and affectionate manner to his domestics, and to his little grand-children, a pair of sprightly boys, who came in the evening from the college, was also very pleasing." the mention of a college in a region in some respects so barbarous may surprise our readers; but such there is. it has a hundred pupils, an income of seventy-five thousand dollars yearly, chemical and philosophical apparatus, and one thousand specimens of european minerals. ijurra, our lieutenant's peruvian companion, had written to the governor of the village of tingo maria, the head of canoe navigation on the huallaga, to send indians to meet the travellers here, and take their luggage on to the place of embarkation. july .--the indians came shouting into the farm-yard, thirteen in number. they were young, slight, but muscular-looking fellows, and wanted to shoulder the trunks, and be off at once. the lieutenant, however, gave them some breakfast; and then the party set forward, and, after a walk of six miles, reached the river, and embarked in the canoe. two indian laborers, called _peons_, paddled the canoe, and managed it very well. the peons cooked their dinner of cheese and rice, and made them a good cup of coffee. they are lively, good-tempered fellows, and, properly treated, make good and serviceable travelling companions. the canoe was available only in parts of the river where the stream was free from rapids. where these occur, the cargo must be landed, and carried round. lieut. herndon and his party were compelled to walk a good part of the distance to tingo maria, which was thirty-six miles from where they first took the canoe. "i saw here," says our traveller, "the _lucernago_, or fire-fly of this country. it is a species of beetle, carrying two white lights in its eyes, or rather in the places where the eyes of insects generally are, and a red light between the scales of the belly; so that it reminded me somewhat of the ocean steamers. they are sometimes carried to lima (enclosed in an apartment cut into a sugar-cane), where the ladies at balls or theatres put them in their hair for ornament." at tingo maria, their arrival was celebrated with much festivity. the governor got up a ball for them, where there was more hilarity than ceremony. the next morning, the governor and his wife accompanied our friends to the port. the governor made a short address to the canoe-men, telling them that their passengers were "no common persons; that they were to have a special care of them; to be very obedient," &c. they then embarked, and stood off; the boatmen blowing their horns, and the party on shore waving their hats, and shouting their adieus. the party had two canoes, about forty feet long by two and a half broad, each hollowed out of a single log. the rowers stand up to paddle, having one foot in the bottom of the boat, and the other on the gunwale. there is a man at the bow of the boat to look out for rocks or sunken trees ahead; and a steersman, who stands on a little platform at the stern of the boat, and guides her motions. when the river was smooth, and free from obstruction, they drifted with the current, the men sitting on the trunks and boxes, chatting and laughing with each other; but, when they approached a "bad place," their serious looks, and the firm position in which each one planted himself at his post, showed that work was to be done. when the bark had fairly entered the pass, the rapid gestures of the bow-man, indicating the channel; the graceful position of the steersman, holding his long paddle; and the desperate exertions of the rowers, the railroad rush of the canoes, and the wild screaming laugh of the indians as the boat shot past the danger,--made a scene so exciting as to banish the sense of danger. after this specimen of their travel, let us take a glimpse of their lodging. "at half-past five, we camped on the beach. the first business of the boatmen, when the canoe is secured, is to go off to the woods, and cut stakes and palm-branches to make a house for the 'commander.' by sticking long poles in the sand, chopping them half-way in two about five feet above the ground, and bending the upper parts together, they make in a few minutes the frame of a little shanty, which, thickly thatched with palm-leaves, will keep off the dew or an ordinary rain. some bring the drift-wood that is lying about the beach, and make a fire. the provisions are cooked and eaten, the bedding laid down upon the leaves that cover the floor of the shanty, the mosquito nettings spread; and after a cup of coffee, a glass of grog, and a cigar (if they are to be had), everybody retires for the night by eight o'clock. the indians sleep round the hut, each under his narrow mosquito curtain, which glisten in the moonlight like so many tombstones." the indians have very keen senses, and see and hear things that would escape more civilized travellers. one morning, they commenced paddling with great vigor; for they said they heard monkeys ahead. it was not till after paddling a mile that they reached the place. "when we came up to them," says the lieutenant, "we found a gang of large red monkeys in some tall trees by the river-side, making a noise like the grunting of a herd of hogs. we landed; and, in a few moments, i found myself beating my way through the thick undergrowth, and hunting monkeys with as much excitement as i had ever felt in hunting squirrels when a boy." they found the game hard to kill, and only got three,--the lieutenant, with his rifle, one; and the indians, with their blow-guns, two. the indians roasted and ate theirs, and lieut. herndon tried to eat a piece; but it was so tough, that his teeth would make no impression upon it. aug. .--the party arrived at tarapoto. it is a town of three thousand five hundred inhabitants, and the district of which it is the capital numbers six thousand. the principal productions are rice, cotton, and tobacco; and cotton-cloth, spun and woven by the women, with about as little aid from machinery as the women in solomon's time, of whom we are told, "she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." the little balls of cotton thread which the women spin in this way are used as currency (and this in a land of silver-mines), and pass for twenty-five cents apiece in exchange for other goods, or twelve and a half cents in money. most of the trade is done by barter. a cow is sold for one hundred yards of cotton cloth; a fat hog, for sixty; a large sheep, twelve; twenty-five pounds of salt fish, for twelve; twenty-five pounds of coffee, six; a head of plantains, which will weigh from forty to fifty pounds, for three needles; and so forth. all transportation of merchandise by land is made upon the backs of indians, for want of roads suitable for beasts of burden. the customary weight of a load is seventy-five pounds: the cost of transportation to moyobamba, seventy miles, is six yards of cloth. it is easy to obtain, in the term of six or eight days, fifty or sixty peons, or indian laborers, for the transportation of cargoes, getting the order of the governor, and paying the above price, and supporting the peons on the way. the town is the most important in the province of mainas. the inhabitants are called civilized, but have no idea of what we call comfort in their domestic arrangements. the houses are of mud, thatched with palm, and have uneven earth floors. the furniture consists of a grass hammock, a standing bedplace, a coarse table, and a stool or two. the governor of this populous district wore no shoes, and appeared to live pretty much like the rest of them. vessels of five feet draught of water may ascend the river, at the lowest stage of the water, to within eighteen miles of tarapoto. our travellers accompanied a large fishing-party. they had four or five canoes, and a large quantity of barbasco; a root which has the property of stupefying, or intoxicating, the fish. the manner of fishing is to close up the mouth of an inlet of the river with a network made of reeds; and then, mashing the barbasco-root to a pulp, throw it into the water. this turns the water white, and poisons it; so that the fish soon begin rising to the surface, dead, and are taken into the canoes with small tridents, or pronged sticks. almost at the moment of throwing the barbasco into the water, the smaller fish rise to the surface, and die in one or two minutes; the larger fish survive longer. the salt fish, which constitutes an important article of food and also of barter trade, is brought from down the river in large pieces of about eight pounds each, cut from the _vaca marina_, or sea-cow, also found in our florida streams, and there called _manatee_. it is found in great numbers in the amazon and its principal tributaries. it is not, strictly speaking, a fish, but an animal of the whale kind, which nourishes its young at the breast. it is not able to leave the water; but, in feeding, it gets near the shore, and raises its head out. it is most often taken when feeding. our travellers met a canoe of indians, one man and two women, going up the river for salt. they bought, with beads, some turtle-eggs, and proposed to buy a monkey they had; but one of the women clasped the little beast in her arms, and set up a great outcry, lest the man should sell it. the man wore a long cotton gown, with a hole in the neck for the head to come through, and short, wide sleeves. he had on his arm a bracelet of monkeys' teeth, and the women had nose-rings of white beads. their dress was a cotton petticoat, tied round the waist; and all were filthy. sept. .--they arrived at laguna. here they found two travelling merchants, a portuguese and a brazilian. they had four large boats, of about eight tons each, and two or three canoes. their cargo consisted of iron and iron implements, crockery-ware, wine, brandy, copper kettles, coarse short swords (a very common implement of the indians), guns, ammunition, salt, fish, &c., which they expected to exchange for straw hats, cotton cloth, sugar, coffee, and money. they were also buying up all the sarsaparilla they could find, and despatching it back in canoes. they invited our travellers to breakfast; and the lieutenant says, "i thought that i never tasted any thing better than the _farinha_, which i saw now for the first time." farinha is a general substitute for bread in all the course of the amazon below the brazilian frontier. it is used by all classes; and the boatmen seemed always contented with plenty of salt fish and farinha. the women make it in this way: they soak the root of the _mandioc_ in water till it is softened a little, when they scrape off the skin, and grate the root upon a board, which is made into a rude grater by being smeared with some of the adhesive gums of the forest, and then sprinkled with pebbles. the white grated pulp is put into a conical-shaped bag made of the coarse fibres of the palm. the bag is hung up to a peg driven into a post of the hut; a lever is put through a loop at the bottom of the bag; the short end of the lever is placed under a chock nailed to the post below; and the woman hangs her weight on the long end. this elongates the bag, and brings a heavy pressure upon the mass within, causing the juice to ooze out through the wicker-work of the bag. when sufficiently pressed, the mass is put on the floor of a mud oven; heat is applied, and it is stirred with a stick till it granulates into very irregular grains, and is sufficiently toasted to drive off all the poisonous qualities which it has in a crude state. it is then packed in baskets (lined and covered with palm-leaves) of about sixty-four pounds' weight, which are generally sold all along the river at from seventy-five cents to one dollar. the sediment of the juice is tapioca, and is used to make custards, puddings, starch, &c. it will surprise some of our readers to be told that the juice extracted in the preparation of these wholesome and nutritive substances is a powerful poison, and used by the indians for poisoning the points of their arrows. chapter xiii. herndon's expedition continued. the huallaga is navigable, for vessels drawing five feet depth of water, miles; and forty miles farther for canoes. our travellers had now arrived at its junction with the amazon; and their first sight of its waters is thus described: "the march of the great river in its silent grandeur was sublime; but in the untamed might of its turbid waters, as they cut away its banks, tore down the gigantic denizens of the forest, and built up islands, it was awful. i was reminded of our mississippi at its topmost flood; but this stream lacked the charm which the plantation upon the bank, the city upon the bluff, and the steamboat upon the waters, lend to its fellow of the north. but its capacities for trade and commerce are inconceivably great; and to the touch of steam, settlement, and cultivation, this majestic stream and its magnificent water-shed would start up in a display of industrial results that would make the valley of the amazon one of the most enchanting regions on the face of the earth." lieut. herndon speaks of the valley of the amazon in language almost as enthusiastic as that of sir walter raleigh: "from its mountains you may dig silver, iron, coal, copper, zinc, quicksilver, and tin; from the sands of its tributaries you may wash gold, diamonds, and precious stones; from its forests you may gather drugs of virtues the most rare, spices of aroma the most exquisite, gums and resins of the most varied and useful properties, dyes of hue the most brilliant, with cabinet and building woods of the finest polish and the most enduring texture. its climate is an everlasting summer, and its harvest perennial." sept. .--the party encamped at night on an island near the middle of the river. "the indians, cooking their big monkeys over a large fire on the beach, presented a savage and most picturesque scene. they looked more like devils roasting human beings, than any thing mortal." we ask ourselves, on reading this, whether some such scene may not have given rise to the stories of cannibalism which raleigh and others record. they arrived at nauta, a village of a thousand inhabitants, mostly indians. the governor of the district received them hospitably. each district has its governor, and each town its lieutenant-governor. these are of european descent. the other authorities of a town are _curacas_, captains, alcades, and constables. all these are indians. the office of curaca is hereditary, and is not generally interfered with by the white governor. the indians treat their curaca with great respect, and submit to corporal punishment at his mandate. sarsaparilla is one of the chief articles of produce collected here. it is a vine of sufficient size to shoot up fifteen or twenty feet from the root without support. it thus embraces the surrounding trees, and spreads to a great distance. the main root sends out many tendrils, generally about the thickness of a straw, and five feet long. these are gathered, and tied up in bundles of about an _arroba_, or thirty-two pounds' weight. it is found on the banks of almost every river of the region; but many of these are not worked, on account of the savages living on them, who attack the parties that come to gather it. the price in nauta is two dollars the arroba, and in europe from forty to sixty dollars. from nauta, lieut. herndon ascended the ucayali, a branch of the amazon, stretching to the north-west in a direction somewhat parallel to the huallaga. there is the essential difference between the two rivers, as avenues for commerce, that the ucayali is still in the occupation of savage tribes, unchristianized except where under the immediate influence of the mission stations planted among them; while the population of the huallaga is tolerably advanced in civilization. the following sentences will give a picture of the indians of the ucayali: "these people cannot count, and i can never get from them any accurate idea of numbers. they are very little removed above 'the beasts that perish.' they are filthy, and covered with sores. the houses are very large, between thirty and forty feet in length, and ten or fifteen in breadth. they consist of immense roofs of small poles and canes, thatched with palm, and supported by short stakes, four feet high, planted in the ground three or four feet apart, and having the spaces, except between two in front, filled in with cane. they have no idea of a future state, and worship nothing. but they can make bows and canoes; and their women weave a coarse cloth from cotton, and dye it. their dress is a long cotton gown. they paint the face, and wear ornaments suspended from the nose and lower lip." next let us take a view of the means in operation to elevate these people to civilization and christianity. sarayacu is a missionary station, governed by four franciscan friars, who are thus described: "father calvo, meek and humble in personal concerns, yet full of zeal and spirit for his office, clad in his long serge gown, belted with a cord, with bare feet and accurate tonsure, habitual stoop, and generally bearing upon his shoulder a beautiful and saucy bird of the parrot kind, was my beau-ideal of a missionary monk. bregati is a young and handsome italian, whom father calvo sometimes calls st. john. lorente is a tall, grave, and cold-looking catalan. a lay-brother named maguin, who did the cooking, and who was unwearied in his attentions to us, made up the establishment. i was sick here, and think that i shall ever remember with gratitude the affectionate kindness of these pious and devoted friars of st. francis." the government is paternal. the indians recognize in the "padre" the power to appoint and remove curacas, captains, and other officers; to inflict stripes, and to confine in the stocks. they obey the priests' orders readily, and seem tractable and docile. the indian men are drunken and lazy: the women do most of the work; and their reward is to be maltreated by their husbands, and, in their drunken frolics, to be cruelly beaten, and sometimes badly wounded. our party returned to the amazon; and we find occurring in their narrative names which are familiar to us in the history of our previous adventurers. they touched at omaguas, the port where madame godin found kind friends in the good missionary and the governor, and where she embarked on her way to the galiot at loreto; and they passed the mouth of the napo, which enters the amazon from the north,--the river down which orellana passed in the first adventure. the lieutenant says, "we spoke two canoes that had come from near quito by the napo. there are few christianized towns on the napo; and the rowers of the boats were a more savage-looking set than i had seen,"--so slow has been the progress of civilization in three hundred years. the amazon seems to be the land of monkeys. our traveller says, "i bought a young monkey of an indian woman to-day. it had coarse gray and white hair; and that on the top of its head was stiff, like the quills of the porcupine, and smoothed down in front as if it had been combed. i offered the little fellow some plantain; but, finding he would not eat, the woman took him, and put him to her breast, when he sucked away manfully and with great gusto. she weaned him in a week, so that he would eat plantain mashed up, and put into his mouth in small bits; but the little beast died of mortification because i would not let him sleep with his arms around my neck." they got from the indians some of the milk from the cow-tree. this the indians drink, when fresh; and, brought in a calabash, it had a foamy appearance, as if just drawn from the cow. it, however, coagulates very soon, and becomes as hard and tenacious as glue. it does not appear to be as important an article of subsistence as one would expect from the name. dec. .--they arrived at loreto, the frontier town of the peruvian territory, and which reminds us again of madame godin, who there joined the portuguese galiot. loreto is situated on an eminence on the left bank of the river, which is here three-fourths of a mile wide, and one hundred feet deep. there are three mercantile houses in loreto, which do a business of about ten thousand dollars a year. the houses at loreto are better built and better furnished than those of the towns on the river above. the population of the place is two hundred and fifty, made up of brazilians, mulattoes, negroes, and a few indians. at the next town, tabatinga, the lieutenant entered the territory of brazil. when his boat, bearing the american flag, was descried at that place, the brazilian flag was hoisted; and when the lieutenant landed, dressed in uniform, he was received by the commandant, also in uniform, to whom he presented his passport from the brazilian minister at washington. as soon as this document was perused, and the lieutenant's rank ascertained, a salute of seven guns was fired from the fort; and the commandant treated him with great civility, and entertained him at his table, giving him roast beef, which was a great treat. it was quite pleasant, after coming from the peruvian villages, which are all nearly hidden in the woods, to see that tabatinga had the forest cleared away from about it; so that a space of forty or fifty acres was covered with green grass, and had a grove of orange-trees in its midst. the commandant told him that the trade of the river was increasing very fast; that, in , scarce one thousand dollars' worth of goods passed up; in , two thousand five hundred dollars; and this year, six thousand dollars. the sarsaparilla seems thus far to have been the principal article of commerce; but here they find another becoming of importance,--_manteca_, or oil made of turtle-eggs. the season for making manteca generally ends by the st of november. a commandant is appointed every year to take care of the beaches, prevent disorder, and administer justice. sentinels are placed at the beginning of august, when the turtles commence depositing their eggs. they see that no one wantonly interferes with the turtles, or destroys the eggs. the process of making the oil is very disgusting. the eggs are collected, thrown into a canoe, and trodden into a mass with the feet. water is poured on, and the mass is left to stand in the sun for several days. the oil rises to the top, is skimmed off, and boiled in large copper boilers. it is then put in earthen pots of about forty-five pounds' weight. each pot is worth, on the beach, one dollar and thirty cents; and at pará, from two and a half to three dollars. the beaches of the amazon and its tributaries yield from five to six thousand pots annually. it is used for the same purposes as lard with us. chapter xiv. herndon's expedition concluded. on jan. , at about the point of the junction of the purus river with the amazon, lieut. herndon remarks, "the banks of the river are now losing the character of savage and desolate solitude that characterizes them above, and begin to show signs of habitation and cultivation. we passed to-day several farms, with neatly framed and plastered houses, and a schooner-rigged vessel lying off several of them." they arrived at the junction of the river negro. this is one of the largest of the tributaries of the amazon, and derives its name from the blackness of its waters. when taken up in a tumbler, the water is a light-red color, like a pale juniper-water, and is probably colored by some such berry. this river, opposite the town of barra, is about a mile and a half wide, and very beautiful. it is navigable for almost any draughts to the masaya, a distance of about four hundred miles: there the rapids commence, and the farther ascent must be made in boats. by this river, a communication exists with the orinoco, by means of a remarkable stream, the cassaquiare, which seems to have been formed for the sole purpose of connecting these two majestic rivers, and the future dwellers upon them, in the bonds of perpetual union. humboldt, the great traveller and philosopher, thus speaks of it, "the cassaquiare, as broad as the rhine, and whose course is one hundred and eighty miles in length, will not much longer form in vain a navigable canal between two basins of rivers which have a surface of one hundred and ninety thousand square leagues. the grain of new grenada will be carried to the banks of the rio negro; boats will descend from the sources of the napo and the ucayali, from the andes of quito and upper peru, to the mouths of the orinoco. a country nine or ten times larger than spain, and enriched with the most varied productions, is accessible in every direction by the medium of the natural canal of the cassaquiare and the bifurcation of the rivers." the greatest of all the tributaries of the amazon is the madeira, whose junction our travellers next reached. for four hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, there is good navigation: then occur cascades, which are navigable only for boats, and occupy three hundred and fifty miles, above which the river is navigable for large vessels, by its great tributaries, into bolivia and brazil. they next entered the country where the cocoa is regularly cultivated; and the banks of the river present a much less desolate and savage appearance than they do above. the cocoa-trees have a yellow-colored leaf; and this, together with their regularity of size, distinguishes them from the surrounding forest. lieut. herndon says, "i do not know a prettier place than one of these plantations. the trees interlock their branches, and, with their large leaves, make a shade impenetrable to any ray of the sun; and the large, golden-colored fruits, hanging from branch and trunk, shine through the green with a most beautiful effect. this is the time of the harvest; and we found the people of every plantation engaged in the open space before the house in breaking open the shells of the fruit, and spreading the seed to dry in the sun. they make a pleasant drink for a hot day by pressing out the juice of the gelatinous pulp that envelops the seeds. it is called cocoa-wine: it is a white, viscid liquor, has an agreeable, acid taste, and is very refreshing." we must hasten on, and pass without notice many spots of interest on the river; but, as we have now reached a comparatively civilized and known region, it is less necessary to be particular. the tapajos river stretches its branches to the town of diamantino, situated at the foot of the mountains, where diamonds are found. lieut. herndon saw some of the diamonds and gold-sand in the possession of a resident of santarem, who had traded much on the river. the gold-dust appeared to him equal in quality to that he had seen from california. gold and diamonds, which are always united in this region as in many others, are found especially in the numerous water-courses, and also throughout the whole country. after the rains, the children of diamantino hunt for the gold contained in the earth even of the streets, and in the bed of the river ouro, which passes through the city; and they often collect considerable quantities. it is stated that diamonds are sometimes found in the stomachs of the fowls. the quantity of diamonds found in a year varies from two hundred and fifty to five hundred _oitavas_; the oitava being about seventeen carats. the value depends upon the quality and size of the specimen, and can hardly be reduced to an estimate. it is seldom that a stone of over half an oitava is found; and such a one is worth from two to three hundred dollars. as an offset to the gold and diamonds, we have this picture of the climate: "from the rising to the setting of the sun, clouds of stinging insects blind the traveller, and render him frantic by the torments they cause. take a handful of the finest sand, and throw it above your head, and you would then have but a faint idea of the number of these demons who tear the skin to pieces. it is true, these insects disappear at night, but only to give place to others yet more formidable. large bats (true, thirsty vampires) literally throng the forests, cling to the hammocks, and, finding a part of the body exposed, rest lightly there, and drain it of blood. the alligators are so numerous, and the noise they make so frightful, that it is impossible to sleep." at santarem they were told the tide was perceptible, but did not perceive it. at gurupa it was very apparent. this point is about five hundred miles from the sea. about thirty-five miles below gurupa commences the great estuary of the amazon. the river suddenly flows out into an immense bay, which might appropriately be called the "bay of a thousand islands;" for it is cut up into innumerable channels. the travellers ran for days through channels varying from fifty to five hundred yards in width, between numberless islands. this is the india-rubber country. the shores are low: indeed, one seldom sees the land at all; the trees on the banks generally standing in the water. the party stopped at one of the establishments for making india-rubber. the house was built of light poles, and on piles, to keep it out of the water, which flowed under and around it. this was the store, and, rude as it was, was a palace compared to the hut of the laborer who gathers the india-rubber. the process is as follows: a longitudinal gash is made in the bark of the tree with a hatchet. a wedge of wood is inserted to keep the gash open; and a small clay cup is stuck to the tree, beneath the gash. the cups may be stuck as close together as possible around the tree. in four or five hours, the milk has ceased to run, and each wound has given from three to five table-spoonfuls. the gatherer then collects it from the cups, pours it into an earthen vessel, and commences the operation of forming it into shapes, and smoking it. this must be done at once, as the juice soon coagulates. a fire is made on the ground, and a rude funnel placed over it to collect the smoke. the maker of the rubber now takes his last, if he is making shoes, or his mould, which is fastened to the end of a stick, pours the milk over it with a cup, and passes it slowly several times through the smoke until it is dry. he then pours on the other coats until he has the required thickness, smoking each coating till it is dry. from twenty to forty coats make a shoe. the soles and heels are, of course, given more coats than the body of the shoe. the figures on the shoes are made by tracing them on the rubber, while soft, with a coarse needle, or bit of wire. this is done two days after the coating. in a week, the shoes are taken from the last. the coating occupies about twenty-five minutes. the tree is tall, straight, and has a smooth bark. it sometimes reaches a diameter of thirteen inches or more. each incision makes a rough wound on the tree, which, although it does not kill it, renders it useless, because a smooth place is wanted to which to attach the cups. the milk is white and tasteless, and may be taken into the stomach with impunity. our travellers arrived at pará on the th of april, , and were most hospitably and kindly received by mr. norris, the american consul. the journey of our travellers ends here. lieut. herndon's book is full of instruction, conveyed in a pleasant style. he seems to have manifested throughout good judgment, good temper, energy, and industry. he had no collisions with the authorities or with individuals, and, on his part, seems to have met friendly feelings and good offices throughout his whole route. william lewis herndon was born in fredericksburg, va., on the th of october, . he entered the navy at the age of fifteen; served in the mexican war; and was afterwards engaged for three years, with his brother-in-law, lieut. maury, in the national observatory at washington. in - , he explored the amazon river, under commission of the united-states government. in , he was commander of the steamer "central america," which left havana for new york on sept. , having on board four hundred and seventy-four passengers and a crew of one hundred and five men, and about two million dollars of gold. on sept. , during a violent gale from the north-east and a heavy sea, she sprung a leak, and sunk, on the evening of sept. , near the outer edge of the gulf stream, in lat. ° ´ n. only one hundred and fifty of the persons on board were saved, including the women and children. the gallant commander of the steamer was seen standing upon the wheel-house at the time of her sinking. in a former chapter, we have told the fate of sir humphrey gilbert. how fair a counterpart of that heroic death is this of the gallant herndon! chapter xv. latest explorations. in the year , an english gentleman, henry walter bates, visited the region of the amazon for the purpose of scientific exploration. he went prepared to spend years in the country, in order to study diligently its natural productions. his stay was protracted until , during which time he resided successively at pará, santarem, ega, barra, and other places; making his abode for months, or even years, in each. his account of his observations and discoveries was published after his return, and affords us the best information we possess respecting the country, its inhabitants, and its productions, brought down almost to the present time. our extracts relate to the cities, the river and its shores, the inhabitants civilized and savage, the great tributary rivers, the vegetation, and the animals of various kinds. before proceeding with our extracts, we will remark the various names of the river. it is sometimes called, from the name of its discoverer, "orellana." this name is appropriate and well-sounding, but is not in general use. the name of "marañon," pronounced maranyon, is still often used. it is probably derived from the natives. it is called "the river of the amazons," from the fable of its former inhabitants. this name is shortened into "the amazons," and, without the plural sign, "the amazon," in common use. above the junction of the river negro, the river is designated as "the upper amazon," or "solimoens." parÃ�. "on the morning of the th of may, , we arrived at our destination. the appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest degree. it is built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky elevation at its southern extremity: it therefore affords no amphitheatral view from the river; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the crowns of palm-trees reared above the buildings, all sharply defined against the clear blue sky, give an appearance of lightness and cheerfulness which is most exhilarating. the perpetual forest hems the city in on all sides landwards; and, towards the suburbs, picturesque country-houses are seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. "the impressions received during our first walk can never wholly fade from my mind. after traversing the few streets of tall, gloomy, convent-looking buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers; along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms, carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms; priests; negresses with red water-jars on their heads; sad-looking indian women, carrying their naked children astride on their hips; and other samples of the motley life of the place,--were seen; we passed down a long, narrow street leading to the suburbs. beyond this, our road lay across a grassy common, into a picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. the long street was inhabited by the poorer class of the population. the houses were mostly in a dilapidated condition; and signs of indolence and neglect were everywhere visible. but amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. the massive dark crowns of shady mangoes were seen everywhere among the dwellings, amidst fragrant, blossoming orange, lemon, and other tropical fruit-trees,--some in flower, others in fruit at various stages of ripeness. here and there, shooting above the more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent crowns of finely-cut fronds. on the boughs of the taller and more ordinary-looking trees sat tufts of curiously leaved parasites. slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the branches, or were suspended in the form of cords and ribbons; while luxuriant creeping plants overran alike tree-trunks, roofs, and walls, or toppled over palings in copious profusion of foliage. "as we continued our walk, the brief twilight commenced; and the sounds of multifarious life came from the vegetation around,--the whirring of cicadas; the shrill stridulation of a vast number of crickets and grasshoppers, each species sounding its peculiar note; the plaintive hooting of tree-frogs, all blended together in one continuous ringing sound,--the audible expression of the teeming profusion of nature. this uproar of life, i afterwards found, never wholly ceased, night or day: in course of time, i became, like other residents, accustomed to it. after my return to england, the death-like stillness of summer days in the country appeared to me as strange as the ringing uproar did on my first arrival at pará." cametÃ�. "i staid at cametá five weeks, and made a considerable collection of the natural productions of the neighborhood. the town, in , was estimated to contain about five thousand inhabitants. the productions of the district are cacao, india-rubber, and brazil nuts. the most remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place is the mixed nature of the population,--the amalgamation of the white and indian races being here complete. the aborigines were originally very numerous on the western bank of the tocantins; the principal tribe being the cametás, from which the city takes its name. they were a superior nation, settled, and attached to agriculture, and received with open arms the white immigrants who were attracted to the district by its fertility, natural beauty, and the healthfulness of the climate. the portuguese settlers were nearly all males. the indian women were good-looking, and made excellent wives; so the natural result has been, in the course of two centuries, a complete blending of the two races. "the town consists of three long streets running parallel to the river, with a few shorter ones crossing them at right angles. the houses are very plain; being built, as usual in this country, simply of a strong framework, filled up with mud, and coated with white plaster. a few of them are of two or three stories. there are three churches, and also a small theatre, where a company of native actors, at the time of my visit, were representing light portuguese plays with considerable taste and ability. the people have a reputation all over the province for energy and perseverance; and it is often said that they are as keen in trade as the portuguese. the lower classes are as indolent and sensual here as in other parts of the province,--a moral condition not to be wondered at, where perpetual summer reigns, and where the necessaries of life are so easily obtained. but they are light-hearted, quick-witted, communicative, and hospitable. i found here a native poet, who had written some pretty verses, showing an appreciation of the natural beauties of the country; and was told that the archbishop of bahia, the primate of brazil, was a native of cametá. it is interesting to find the mamelucos (half-breeds) displaying talent and enterprise; for it shows that degeneracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of white and indian blood. "the forest behind cametá is traversed by several broad roads, which lead over undulating ground many miles into the interior. they pass generally under shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee and orange trees, fragrant plantations of cacao, and tracts of second-growth woods. the narrow, broad-watered valleys, with which the land is intersected, alone have remained clothed with primeval forest, at least near the town. the houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly to mameluco, mulatto, and indian families, each of which has its own small plantation. there are only a few planters with large establishments; and these have seldom more than a dozen slaves. besides the main roads, there are endless by-paths, which thread the forest, and communicate with isolated houses. along these the traveller may wander day after day, without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful, simple, and hospitable people." rivers and creeks. "we made many excursions down the irritiri, and saw much of these creeks. the magoary is a magnificent channel: the different branches form quite a labyrinth, and the land is everywhere of little elevation. all these smaller rivers throughout the pará estuary are of the nature of creeks. the land is so level, that the short local rivers have no sources and downward currents, like rivers, as we understand them. they serve the purpose of draining the land; but, instead of having a constant current one way, they have a regular ebb and flow with the tide. the natives call them _igarapés_, or canoe-paths. they are characteristic of the country. the land is everywhere covered with impenetrable forests: the houses and villages are all on the water-side, and nearly all communication is by water. this semi-aquatic life of the people is one of the most interesting features of the country. for short excursions, and for fishing in still waters, a small boat, called _montaria_, is universally used. it is made of five planks,--a broad one for the bottom, bent into the proper shape by the action of heat, two narrow ones for the sides, and two triangular pieces for stem and stern. it has no rudder: the paddle serves for both steering and propelling. the montaria takes here the place of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions. besides one or more montarias, almost every family has a larger canoe, called _igarité_. this is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and has an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a framework of tough _lianas_, thatched with palm-leaves. in the igarité, they will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty miles broad. the natives are all boat-builders. it is often remarked by white residents, that the indian is a carpenter and shipwright by intuition. it is astonishing to see in what crazy vessels these people will risk themselves. i have seen indians cross rivers in a leaky montaria when it required the nicest equilibrium to keep the leak just above water: a movement of a hair's-breadth would send all to the bottom; but they manage to cross in safety. if a squall overtakes them as they are crossing in a heavily-laden canoe, they all jump overboard, and swim about until the heavy sea subsides, when they re-embark." junction of the madeira. "our course lay through narrow channels between islands. we passed the last of these, and then beheld to the south a sea-like expanse of water, where the madeira, the greatest tributary of the amazons, after two thousand miles of course, blends its waters with those of the king of rivers. i was hardly prepared for a junction of waters on so vast a scale as this, now nearly nine hundred miles from the sea. while travelling week after week along the somewhat monotonous stream, often hemmed in between islands, and becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my sense of the magnitude of this vast water-system had become gradually deadened; but this noble sight renewed the first feelings of wonder. one is inclined, in such places as these, to think the paraenses do not exaggerate much when they call the amazons the mediterranean of south america. beyond the mouth of the madeira, the amazons sweeps down in a majestic reach, to all appearance not a whit less in breadth before than after this enormous addition to its waters. the madeira does not ebb and flow simultaneously with the amazons; it rises and sinks about two months earlier: so that it was now fuller than the main river. its current, therefore, poured forth freely from its mouth, carrying with it a long line of floating trees, and patches of grass, which had been torn from its crumbly banks in the lower part of its course. the current, however, did not reach the middle of the main stream, but swept along nearer to the southern shore. "the madeira is navigable miles from its mouth: a series of cataracts and rapids then commences, which extends, with some intervals of quiet water, about miles, beyond which is another long stretch of navigable stream." junction of the rio negro. "a brisk wind from the east sprung up early in the morning of the d: we then hoisted all sail, and made for the mouth of the rio negro. this noble stream, at its junction with the amazons, seems, from its position, to be a direct continuation of the main river; while the solimoens, which joins it at an angle, and is somewhat narrower than its tributary, appears to be a branch, instead of the main trunk, of the vast water-system. "the rio negro broadens considerably from its mouth upward, and presents the appearance of a great lake; its black-dyed waters having no current, and seeming to be dammed up by the impetuous flow of the yellow, turbid solimoens, which here belches forth a continuous line of uprooted trees, and patches of grass, and forms a striking contrast with its tributary. in crossing, we passed the line a little more than half-way over, where the waters of the two rivers meet, and are sharply demarcated from each other. on reaching the opposite shore, we found a remarkable change. all our insect pests had disappeared, as if by magic, even from the hold of the canoe: the turmoil of an agitated, swiftly-flowing river, and its torn, perpendicular, earthy banks, had given place to tranquil water, and a coast indented with snug little bays, fringed with sloping, sandy beaches. the low shore, and vivid, light-green, endlessly varied foliage, which prevailed on the south side of the amazons, were exchanged for a hilly country, clothed with a sombre, rounded, and monotonous forest. a light wind carried us gently along the coast to the city of barra, which lies about seven or eight miles within the mouth of the river. "the town of barra is built on a tract of elevated but very uneven land, on the left bank of the rio negro, and contained, in , about three thousand inhabitants. it is now the principal station for the lines of steamers which were established in ; and passengers and goods are trans-shipped here for the solimoens and peru. a steamer runs once a fortnight between pará and barra; and another as often between this place and nauta, in the peruvian territory." mamelucos, or half-breeds. "we landed at one of the cacao-plantations. the house was substantially built; the walls formed of strong, upright posts, lathed across, plastered with mud, and whitewashed; and the roof tiled. the family were mamelucos, or offspring of the european and the indian. they seemed to be an average sample of the poorer class of cacao-growers. all were loosely dressed, and barefooted. a broad veranda extended along one side of the house, the floor of which was simply the well-trodden earth; and here hammocks were slung between the bare upright supports, a large rush-mat being spread on the ground, upon which the stout, matron-like mistress, with a tame parrot perched upon her shoulder, sat sewing with two pretty-looking mulatto-girls. the master, coolly clad in shirt and drawers, the former loose about his neck, lay in his hammock, smoking a long gaudily painted wooden pipe. the household utensils--earthenware jars, water-pots, and sauce-pans--lay at one end, near which was a wood-fire, with the ever-ready coffee-pot simmering on the top of a clay tripod. a large shed stood a short distance off, embowered in a grove of banana, papaw, and mango trees; and under it were the troughs, ovens, sieves, and other apparatus, for the preparation of mandioc. the cleared space around the house was only a few yards in extent: beyond it lay the cacao-plantations, which stretched on each side parallel to the banks of the river. there was a path through the forest, which led to the mandioc-fields, and, several miles beyond, to other houses on the banks of an interior channel. we were kindly received, as is always the case when a stranger visits these out-of-the-way habitations; the people being invariably civil and hospitable. we had a long chat, took coffee; and, on departing, one of the daughters sent a basketful of oranges, for our use, down to the canoe." mÃ�ra indians. "on the th of january, we arrived at matari, a miserable little settlement of múra indians. here we again anchored, and went ashore. the place consisted of about twenty slightly built mud-hovels, and had a most forlorn appearance, notwithstanding the luxuriant forest in its rear. the absence of the usual cultivated trees and plants gave the place a naked and poverty-stricken aspect. i entered one of the hovels, where several women were employed cooking a meal. portions of a large fish were roasting over a fire made in the middle of the low chamber; and the entrails were scattered about the floor, on which the women, with their children, were squatted. these had a timid, distrustful expression of countenance; and their bodies were begrimed with black mud, which is smeared over the skin as a protection against musquitoes. the children were naked: the women wore petticoats of coarse cloth, stained in blotches with _murixi_, a dye made from the bark of a tree. one of them wore a necklace of monkey's teeth. there were scarcely any household utensils: the place was bare, with the exception of two dirty grass hammocks hung in the corners. i missed the usual mandioc-sheds behind the house, with their surrounding cotton, cacao, coffee, and lemon trees. two or three young men of the tribe were lounging about the low, open doorway. they were stoutly-built fellows, but less well-proportioned than the semi-civilized indians of the lower amazons generally are. the gloomy savagery, filth, and poverty of the people in this place made me feel quite melancholy; and i was glad to return to the canoe." marauÃ� tribe. a pleasanter picture is presented by the indians of the marauá tribe. our traveller thus describes a visit to them:-- "our longest trip was to some indian houses, a distance of fifteen or eighteen miles up the sapó; a journey made with one indian paddler, and occupying a whole day. the stream is not more than forty or fifty yards broad: its waters are dark in color, and flow, as in all these small rivers, partly under shade, between two lofty walls of forest. we passed, in ascending, seven habitations, most of them hidden in the luxuriant foliage of the banks; their sites being known only by small openings in the compact wall of forest, and the presence of a canoe or two tied up in little shady ports. the inhabitants are chiefly indians of the marauá tribe, whose original territory comprises all the by-streams lying between the jutahí and the juruá, near the mouths of both these great tributaries. they live in separate families, or small hordes; have no common chief; and are considered as a tribe little disposed to adopt civilized customs, or be friendly with the whites. one of the houses belonged to a jurí family; and we saw the owner, an erect, noble-looking old fellow, tattooed, as customary with his tribe, in a large patch over the middle of his face, fishing, under the shade of a colossal tree, with hook and line. he saluted us in the usual grave and courteous manner of the better sort of indians as we passed by. "we reached the last house, or rather two houses, about ten o'clock, and spent there several hours during the heat of the day. the houses, which stood on a high, clayey bank, were of quadrangular shape, partly open, like sheds, and partly enclosed with rude, mud walls, forming one or two chambers. the inhabitants, a few families of marauás, received us in a frank, smiling manner. none of them were tattooed: but the men had great holes pierced in their ear-lobes, in which they insert plugs of wood; and their lips were drilled with smaller holes. one of the younger men, a fine, strapping fellow, nearly six feet high, with a large aquiline nose, who seemed to wish to be particularly friendly to me, showed me the use of these lip-holes, by fixing a number of little sticks in them, and then twisting his mouth about, and going through a pantomime to represent defiance in the presence of an enemy. "we left these friendly people about four o'clock in the afternoon, and, in descending the umbrageous river, stopped, about half-way down, at another house, built in one of the most charming situations i had yet seen in this country. a clean, narrow, sandy pathway led from the shady port to the house, through a tract of forest of indescribable luxuriance. the buildings stood on an eminence in the middle of a level, cleared space; the firm, sandy soil, smooth as a floor, forming a broad terrace round them. the owner was a semi-civilized indian, named manoel; a dull, taciturn fellow, who, together with his wife and children, seemed by no means pleased at being intruded on in their solitude. the family must have been very industrious; for the plantations were very extensive, and included a little of almost all kinds of cultivated tropical productions,--fruit-trees, vegetables, and even flowers for ornament. the silent old man had surely a fine appreciation of the beauties of nature; for the site he had chosen commanded a view of surprising magnificence over the summits of the forest; and, to give a finish to the prospect, he had planted a large number of banana-trees in the foreground, thus concealing the charred and dead stumps which would otherwise have marred the effect of the rolling sea of greenery. the sun set over the tree-tops before we left this little eden; and the remainder of our journey was made slowly and pleasantly, under the checkered shade of the river banks, by the light of the moon." the forest. the following passage describes the scenery of one of the peculiar channels by which the waters of the amazon communicate with those of the pará river:-- "the forest wall under which we are now moving consists, besides palms, of a great variety of ordinary forest-trees. from the highest branches of these, down to the water, sweep ribbons of climbing-plants of the most diverse and ornamental foliage possible. creeping convolvuli and others have made use of the slender lianas and hanging air-roots as ladders to climb by. now and then appears a mimosa or other tree, having similar fine pinnate foliage; and thick masses of ingá border the water, from whose branches hang long bean-pods, of different shape and size according to the species, some of them a yard in length. flowers there are very few. i see now and then a gorgeous crimson blossom on long spikes, ornamenting the sombre foliage towards the summits of the forest. i suppose it to belong to a climber of the combretaceous order. there are also a few yellow and violet trumpet-flowers. the blossoms of the ingás, although not conspicuous, are delicately beautiful. the forest all along offers so dense a front, that one never obtains a glimpse into the interior of the wilderness." the liana. "the plant which seems to the traveller most curious and singular is the liana, a kind of osier, which serves for cordage, and which is very abundant in all the hot parts of america. all the species of this genus have this in common, that they twine around the trees and shrubs in their way, and after progressively extending to the branches, sometimes to a prodigious height, throw out shoots, which, declining perpendicularly, strike root in the ground beneath, and rise again to repeat the same course of uncommon growth. other filaments, again, driven obliquely by the winds, frequently attach themselves to contiguous trees, and form a confused spectacle of cord, some in suspension, and others stretched in every direction, not unfrequently resembling the rigging of a ship. some of these lianas are as thick as the arm of a man; and some strangle and destroy the tree round which they twine, as the boa-constrictor does its victims. at times it happens that the tree dies at the root, and the trunk rots, and falls in powder, leaving nothing but the spirals of liana, in form of a tortuous column, insulated and open to the day. thus nature laughs to scorn and defies the imitations of art." cacao. "the amazons region is the original home of the principal species of chocolate-tree,--the theobroma cacao; and it grows in abundance in the forests of the upper river. the forest here is cleared before planting, and the trees are grown in rows. the smaller cultivators are all very poor. labor is scarce: one family generally manages its own small plantation of ten to fifteen thousand trees; but, at harvest-time, neighbors assist each other. it appeared to me to be an easy, pleasant life: the work is all done under shade, and occupies only a few weeks in the year. "the cultivated crop appears to be a precarious one. little or no care, however, is bestowed on the trees; and weeding is done very inefficiently. the plantations are generally old, and have been made on the low ground near the river, which renders them liable to inundation when this rises a few inches more than the average. there is plenty of higher land quite suitable to the tree; but it is uncleared: and the want of labor and enterprise prevents the establishment of new plantations." the cow-tree. "we had heard a good deal about this tree, and about its producing from its bark a copious supply of milk as pleasant to drink as that of the cow. we had also eaten of its fruit at pará, where it is sold in the streets by negro market-women: we were glad, therefore, to see this wonderful tree growing in its native wilds. it is one of the largest of the forest-monarchs, and is peculiar in appearance, on account of its deeply-scored, reddish, and ragged bark. a decoction of the bark, i was told, is used as a red dye for cloth. a few days afterward, we tasted its milk, which was drawn from dry logs that had been standing many days in the hot sun at the saw-mills. it was pleasant with coffee, but had a slight rankness when drunk pure. it soon thickens to a glue, which is very tenacious, and is often used to cement broken crockery. i was told that it was not safe to drink much of it; for a slave had recently lost his life through taking it too freely. "to our great disappointment, we saw no flowers, or only such as were insignificant in appearance. i believe it is now tolerably well ascertained that the majority of forest-trees in equatorial brazil have small and inconspicuous flowers. flower-frequenting insects are also rare in the forest. of course, they would not be found where their favorite food was wanting. in the open country, on the lower amazons, flowering trees and bushes are more abundant; and there a large number of floral insects are attracted. the forest-bees in south america are more frequently seen feeding on the sweet sap which exudes from the trees than on flowers." chapter xvi. the naturalist on the amazon. on the th of january, the dry season came abruptly to an end. the sea-breezes, which had been increasing in force for some days, suddenly ceased, and the atmosphere became misty: at length, heavy clouds collected where a uniform blue sky had for many weeks prevailed, and down came a succession of heavy showers, the first of which lasted a whole day and night. this seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life. on the first night, there was a tremendous uproar,--tree-frogs, crickets, goat-suckers, and owls, all joining to perform a deafening concert. one kind of goat-sucker kept repeating at intervals, throughout the night, a phrase similar to the portuguese words, 'joao corta pao,'--'john, cut wood;' a phrase which forms the brazilian name of the bird. an owl in one of the trees muttered now and then a succession of syllables resembling the word 'murucututu.' sometimes the croaking and hooting of frogs and toads were so loud, that we could not hear one another's voices within doors. swarms of dragon-flies appeared in the day-time about the pools of water created by the rain; and ants and termites came forth in great numbers." ants. this region is the very headquarters and metropolis of ants. there are numerous species, differing in character and habits, but all of them at war with man, and the different species with one another. our author thus relates his observations of the saüba-ant:-- "in our first walks, we were puzzled to account for large mounds of earth, of a different color from the surrounding soil, which were thrown up in the plantations and woods. some of them were very extensive, being forty yards in circumference, but not more than two feet in height. we soon ascertained that these were the work of the saübas, being the outworks, or domes, which overlie and protect the entrances to their vast subterranean galleries. on close examination, i found the earth of which they are composed to consist of very minute granules, agglomerated without cement, and forming many rows of little ridges and turrets. the difference of color from the superficial soil is owing to their being formed of the undersoil brought up from a considerable depth. it is very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these mounds. the entrances seem to be generally closed: only now and then, when some particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. in the larger hillocks, it would require a great amount of excavation to get at the main galleries; but i succeeded in removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and then i found that the minor entrances converged, at the depth of about two feet, to one broad, elaborately worked gallery, or mine, which was four or five inches in diameter. "the habit of the saüba-ant, of clipping and carrying away immense quantities of leaves, has long been recorded in books of natural history; but it has not hitherto been shown satisfactorily to what use it applies the leaves. i discovered this only after much time spent in investigation. the leaves are used to thatch the domes which cover the entrances to their subterranean dwellings, thereby protecting from the deluging rains the young broods in the nests beneath. small hillocks, covering entrances to the underground chambers, may be found in sheltered places; and these are always thatched with leaves, mingled with granules of earth. the heavily-laden workers, each carrying its segment of leaf vertically, the lower end secured by its mandibles, troop up, and cast their burthens on the hillock; another relay of laborers place the leaves in position, covering them with a layer of earthy granules, which are brought one by one from the soil beneath. "it is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy, diminutive workers occupied on this work. unfortunately, they choose cultivated trees for their purpose, such as the coffee and orange trees." the fire-ant. "aveyros may be called the headquarters of the fire-ant, which might be fittingly termed the scourge of this fine river. it is found only on sandy soils, in open places, and seems to thrive most in the neighborhood of houses and weedy villages, such as aveyros: it does not occur at all in the shades of the forest. aveyros was deserted a few years before my visit, on account of this little tormentor; and the inhabitants had only recently returned to their houses, thinking its numbers had decreased. it is a small species, of a shining reddish color. the soil of the whole village is undermined by it. the houses are overrun with them: they dispute every fragment of food with the inhabitants, and destroy clothing for the sake of the starch. all eatables are obliged to be suspended in baskets from the rafters, and the cords well soaked with copaiba-balsam, which is the only thing known to prevent them from climbing. they seem to attack persons from sheer malice. if we stood for a few moments in the street, even at a distance from their nests, we were sure to be overrun, and severely punished; for, the moment an ant touched the flesh, he secured himself with his jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung with all his might. the sting is likened, by the brazilians, to the puncture of a red-hot needle. when we were seated on chairs in the evenings, in front of the house, to enjoy a chat with our neighbors, we had stools to support our feet, the legs of which, as well as those of the chairs, were well anointed with the balsam. the cords of hammocks are obliged to be smeared in the same way, to prevent the ants from paying sleepers a visit." butterflies. "at villa nova, i found a few species of butterflies which occurred nowhere else on the amazons. in the broad alleys of the forest, several species of morpho were common. one of these is a sister-form to the morpho hecuba, and has been described under the name of morpho cisseis. it is a grand sight to see these colossal butterflies by twos and threes floating at a great height in the still air of a tropical morning. they flap their wings only at long intervals; for i have noticed them to sail a very considerable distance without a stroke. their wing-muscles, and the thorax to which they are attached, are very feeble in comparison with the wide extent and weight of the wings; but the large expanse of these members doubtless assists the insects in maintaining their aerial course. the largest specimens of morpho cisseis measure seven inches and a half in expanse. another smaller kind, which i could not capture, was of a pale, silvery-blue color; and the polished surface of its wings flashed like a silver speculum, as the insect flapped its wings at a great elevation in the sunlight." the bird-catching spider. "at cametá, i chanced to verify a fact relating to the habits of a large, hairy spider of the genus mygale, in a manner worth recording. the individual was nearly two inches in length of body; but the legs expanded seven inches, and the entire body and legs were covered with coarse gray and reddish hairs. i was attracted by a movement of the monster on a tree-trunk: it was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. the lower part of the web was broken; and two small birds, finches, were entangled in the pieces. they were about the size of the english siskin; and i judged the two to be male and female. one of them was quite dead; the other lay under the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was smeared with the filthy liquor, or saliva, exuded by the monster. i drove away the spider, and took the birds; but the second one soon died. the fact of a species of mygale sallying forth at night, mounting trees, and sucking the eggs and young of hummingbirds, has been recorded long ago by madame merian and palisot de beauvois; but, in the absence of any confirmation, it has come to be discredited. from the way the fact has been related, it would appear that it had been derived from the report of natives, and had not been witnessed by the narrators. i found the circumstance to be quite a novelty to the residents hereabouts. "the mygales are quite common insects. some species make their cells under stones; others form artificial tunnels in the earth; and some build their dens in the thatch of houses. the natives call them crab-spiders. the hairs with which they are clothed come off when touched, and cause a peculiar and almost maddening irritation. the first specimen that i killed and prepared was handled incautiously; and i suffered terribly for three days afterward. i think this is not owing to any poisonous quality residing in the hairs, but to their being short and hard, and thus getting into the fine creases of the skin. some mygales are of immense size. one day, i saw the children belonging to an indian family who collected for me with one of these monsters, secured by a cord round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house as they would a dog." bats. "at caripí, near pará, i was much troubled by bats. the room where i slept had not been used for many months, and the roof was open to the tiles and rafters. i was aroused about midnight by the rushing noise made by vast hosts of bats sweeping about the room. the air was alive with them. they had put out the lamp; and, when i relighted it, the place appeared blackened with the impish multitudes that were whirling round and round. after i had laid about well with a stick for a few minutes, they disappeared among the tiles; but, when all was still again, they returned, and once more extinguished the light. i took no further notice of them, and went to sleep. the next night, several of them got into my hammock. i seized them as they were crawling over me, and dashed them against the wall. the next morning, i found a wound, evidently caused by a bat, on my hip. this was rather unpleasant: so i set to work with the negroes, and tried to exterminate them. i shot a great many as they hung from the rafters; and the negroes, having mounted with ladders to the roof outside, routed out from beneath the eaves many hundreds of them, including young broods. there were altogether four species. by far the greater number belonged to the dysopes perotis, a species having very large ears, and measuring two feet from tip to tip of the wings. i was never attacked by bats, except on this occasion. the fact of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping, from wounds which they make in the toes, is now well established; but it is only a few persons who are subject to this blood-letting." parrots. "on recrossing the river in the evening, a pretty little parrot fell from a great height headlong into the water near the boat, having dropped from a flock which seemed to be fighting in the air. one of the indians secured it for me; and i was surprised to find the bird uninjured. there had probably been a quarrel about mates, resulting in our little stranger being temporarily stunned by a blow on the head from the beak of a jealous comrade. it was of the species called by the natives maracaná; the plumage green, with a patch of scarlet under the wings. i wished to keep the bird alive, and tame it; but all our efforts to reconcile it to captivity were vain: it refused food, bit every one who went near it, and damaged its plumage in its exertions to free itself. my friends in aveyros said that this kind of parrot never became domesticated. after trying nearly a week, i was recommended to lend the intractable creature to an old indian woman living in the village, who was said to be a skilful bird-tamer. in two days, she brought it back almost as tame as the familiar love-birds of our aviaries. i kept my little pet for upward of two years. it learned to talk pretty well, and was considered quite a wonder, as being a bird usually so difficult of domestication. i do not know what arts the old woman used. capt. antonio said she fed it with her saliva. "our maracaná used to accompany us sometimes in our rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. one day, in the middle of a long forest-road, it was missed, having clung probably to an overhanging bough, and escaped into the thicket without the boy perceiving it. three hours afterwards, on our return by the same path, a voice greeted us in a colloquial tone as we passed, 'maracaná!' we looked about for some time, but could not see any thing, until the word was repeated with emphasis, 'maracaná!' when we espied the little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. he came down, and delivered himself up, evidently as much rejoiced at the meeting as we were." turtle-eggs and oil. "i accompanied cardozo in many wanderings on the solimoens, or upper amazons, during which we visited the _praias_ (sand-islands), the turtle-pools in the forests, and the by-streams and lakes in the great desert river. his object was mainly to superintend the business of digging up turtle-eggs on the sand-banks; having been elected _commandante_ for the year of the _praia-real_ (royal sand-island) of shimuni, the one lying nearest to ega. there are four of these royal praias within the district, all of which are visited annually by the ega people, for the purpose of collecting eggs, and extracting oil from their yolks. each has its commander, whose business is to make arrangements for securing to every inhabitant an equal chance in the egg-harvest, by placing sentinels to protect the turtles while laying. the turtles descend from the interior pools to the main river in july and august, before the outlets dry up, and then seek, in countless swarms, their favorite sand-islands; for it is only a few praias that are selected by them out of the great number existing. "we left ega, on our first trip to visit the sentinels while the turtles were yet laying, on the th of september. we found the two sentinels lodged in a corner of the praia, or sand-bank, where it commences, at the foot of the towering forest-wall of the island; having built for themselves a little rancho with poles and palm-leaves. great preparations are obliged to be taken to avoid disturbing the sensitive turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to lay, assemble in great shoals off the sand-bank. the men, during this time, take care not to show themselves, and warn off any fisherman who wishes to pass near the place. their fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders of the forest, so that the smoke may not be visible. the passage of a boat through the shallow waters where the animals are congregated, or the sight of a man, or a fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles from leaving the water that night to lay their eggs; and, if the causes of alarm were repeated once or twice, they would forsake the praia for some quieter place. soon after we arrived, our men were sent with the net to catch a supply of fish for supper. in half an hour, four or five large basketsful were brought in. the sun set soon after our meal was cooked: we were then obliged to extinguish the fire, and remove our supper-materials to the sleeping-ground, a spit of land about a mile off; this course being necessary on account of the musquitoes, which swarm at night on the borders of the forest. "i rose from my hammock at daylight, and found cardozo and the men already up, watching the turtles. the sentinels had erected for this purpose a stage about fifty feet high, on a tall tree near their station, the ascent to which was by a roughly-made ladder of woody lianas. the turtles lay their eggs by night, leaving the water in vast crowds, and crawling to the central and highest part of the praia. these places are, of course, the last to go under water, when, in unusually wet seasons, the river rises before the eggs are hatched by the heat of the sand. one would almost believe from this that the animals used forethought in choosing a place; but it is simply one of those many instances in animals where unconscious habit has the same result as conscious prevision. the hours between midnight and dawn are the busiest. the turtles excavate, with their broad-webbed paws, deep holes in the fine sand; the first-comer, in each case, making a pit about three feet deep, laying, its eggs (about a hundred and twenty in number), and covering them with sand; the next making its deposit at the top of that of its predecessor; and so on, until every pit is full. the whole body of turtles frequenting a praia does not finish laying in less than fourteen or fifteen days, even when there is no interruption. when all have done, the area over which they have excavated is distinguishable from the rest of the praia only by signs of the sand having been a little disturbed. "on arriving at the edge of the forest, i mounted the sentinels' stage just in time to see the turtles retreating to the water on the opposite side of the sand-bank after having laid their eggs. the sight was well worth the trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. they were about a mile off; but the surface of the sand was blackened with the multitudes which were waddling towards the river. the margin of the praia was rather steep; and they all seemed to tumble, head-first, down the declivity, into the water." * * * * * when the turtles have finished depositing their eggs, the process of collecting them takes place, of which our author gives an account as follows:-- the egg-harvest. "my next excursion was made in company of senior cardozo, in the season when all the population of the villages turns out to dig up turtle-eggs, and to revel on the praias. placards were posted on the church-doors at ega, announcing that the excavation on shimuni would commence on the th october. we set out on the th, and passed on the way, in our well-manned igarité (or two-masted boat), a large number of people, men, women, and children, in canoes of all sizes, wending their way as if to a great holiday gathering. by the morning of the th, some four hundred persons were assembled on the borders of the sand-bank; each family having erected a rude temporary shed of poles and palm-leaves to protect themselves from the sun and rain. large copper kettles to prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthenware jars, were scattered about on the sand. "the excavation of the _taboleiro_, collecting the eggs, and preparing the oil, occupied four days. the commandante first took down the names of all the masters of households, with the number of persons each intended to employ in digging. he then exacted a payment of about fourpence a head towards defraying the expense of sentinels. the whole were then allowed to go to the taboleiro. they ranged themselves round the circle, each person armed with a paddle, to be used as a spade; and then all began simultaneously to dig, on a signal being given--the roll of drums--by order of the commandante. it was an animating sight to behold the wide circle of rival diggers throwing up clouds of sand in their energetic labors, and working gradually toward the centre of the ring. a little rest was taken during the great heat of mid-day; and, in the evening, the eggs were carried to the huts in baskets. by the end of the second day, the taboleiro was exhausted: large mounds of eggs, some of them four or five feet in height, were then seen by the side of each hut, the produce of the labors of the family. "when no more eggs are to be found, the mashing process begins. the egg, it may be mentioned, has a flexible or leathery shell: it is quite round, and somewhat larger than a hen's egg. the whole heap is thrown into an empty canoe, and mashed with wooden prongs; but sometimes naked indians and children jump into the mass, and tread it down, besmearing themselves with the yolk, and making about as filthy a scene as can well be imagined. this being finished, water is poured into the canoe, and the fatty mass then left for a few hours to be heated by the sun, on which the oil separates, and rises to the surface. the floating oil is afterwards skimmed off with long spoons, made by tying large mussel-shells to the end of rods, and purified over the fire in copper-kettles. at least six thousand jars, holding each three gallons of the oil, are exported annually from the upper amazons and the madeira to pará, where it is used for lighting, frying fish, and other purposes." electric eels. "we walked over moderately elevated and dry ground for about a mile, and then descended three or four feet to the dry bed of another creek. this was pierced in the same way as the former water-course, with round holes full of muddy water. they occurred at intervals of a few yards, and had the appearance of having been made by the hands of man. as we approached, i was startled at seeing a number of large serpent-like heads bobbing above the surface. they proved to be those of electric eels; and it now occurred to me that the round holes were made by these animals working constantly round and round in the moist, muddy soil. their depth (some of them were at least eight feet deep) was doubtless due also to the movements of the eels in the soft soil, and accounted for their not drying up, in the fine season, with the rest of the creek. thus, while alligators and turtles in this great inundated forest region retire to the larger pools during the dry season, the electric eels make for themselves little ponds in which to pass the season of drought. "my companions now cut each a stout pole, and proceeded to eject the eels in order to get at the other fishes, with which they had discovered the ponds to abound. i amused them all very much by showing how the electric shock from the eels could pass from one person to another. we joined hands in a line, while i touched the biggest and freshest of the animals on the head with my hunting-knife. we found that this experiment did not succeed more than three times with the same eel, when out of the water; for, the fourth time, the shock was hardly perceptible." chapter xvii. animated nature. "the number and variety of climbing trees in the amazons forests are interesting, taken in connection with the fact of the very general tendency of the animals also to become climbers. all the amazonian, and in fact all south-american monkeys, are climbers. there is no group answering to the baboons of the old world, which live on the ground. the gallinaceous birds of the country, the representatives of the fowls and pheasants of asia and africa, are all adapted, by the position of the toes, to perch on trees; and it is only on trees, at a great height, that they are to be seen. many other similar instances could be enumerated." monkeys. "on the upper amazons, i once saw a tame individual of the midas leoninus, a species first described by humboldt, which was still more playful and intelligent than the more common m. ursulus. this rare and beautiful monkey is only seven inches in length, exclusive of the tail. it is named leoninus on account of the long, brown mane which hangs from the neck, and which gives it very much the appearance of a diminutive lion. in the house where it was kept, it was familiar with every one: its greatest pleasure seemed to be to climb about the bodies of different persons who entered. the first time i went in, it ran across the room straightway to the chair on which i had sat down, and climbed up to my shoulder: arrived there, it turned round, and looked into my face, showing its little teeth, and chattering, as though it would say, "well, and how do _you_ do?" m. de st. hilaire relates of a species of this genus, that it distinguished between different objects depicted on an engraving. m. ardouin showed it the portraits of a cat and a wasp: at these it became much terrified; whereas, at the sight of a figure of a grasshopper or beetle, it precipitated itself on the picture, as if to seize the objects there represented." the caiarÃ�ra. "the light-brown caiarára is pretty generally distributed over the forests of the level country. i saw it frequently on the banks of the upper amazons, where it was always a treat to watch a flock leaping amongst the trees; for it is the most wonderful performer in this line of the whole tribe. the troops consist of thirty or more individuals, which travel in single file. when the foremost of the flock reaches the outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree, he springs forth into the air without a moment's hesitation, and alights on the dome of yielding foliage belonging to the neighboring tree, maybe fifty feet beneath; all the rest following his example. they grasp, on falling, with hands and tail, right themselves in a moment, and then away they go, along branch and bough, to the next tree. "the caiarára is very frequently kept as a pet in the houses of natives. i kept one myself for about a year, which accompanied me in my voyages, and became very familiar, coming to me always on wet nights to share my blanket. it keeps the house where it is kept in a perpetual uproar. when alarmed or hungry, or excited by envy, it screams piteously. it is always making some noise or other, often screwing up its mouth, and uttering a succession of loud notes resembling a whistle. mine lost my favor at last by killing, in one of his jealous fits, another and much choicer pet,--the nocturnal, owl-faced monkey. some one had given this a fruit which the other coveted: so the two got to quarrelling. the owl-faced fought only with his paws, clawing out, and hissing, like a cat: the other soon obtained the mastery, and, before i could interfere, finished his rival by cracking its skull with its teeth. upon this i got rid of him." the coaita. "the coaita is a large, black monkey, covered with coarse hair, and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny, flesh-colored hue. the coaitas are called by some french zoölogists spider-monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness of their body and limbs. in these apes, the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection; and, on this account, it would perhaps be correct to consider the coaita as the extreme development of the american type of apes. "the tail of the coaita is endowed with a wonderful degree of flexibility. it is always in motion, coiling and uncoiling like the trunk of an elephant, and grasping whatever comes within reach. "the flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by the natives in this part of the country; and the military commandant every week sends a negro hunter to shoot one for his table. one day i went on a coaita-hunt, with a negro-slave to show me the way. when in the deepest part of the ravine, we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead; and manoel soon pointed out a coaita to me. there was something human-like in its appearance, as the lean, shaggy creature moved deliberately among the branches at a great height. i fired, but, unfortunately, only wounded it. it fell, with a crash, headlong, about twenty or thirty feet, and then caught a bough with its tail, which grasped it instantaneously; and there the animal remained suspended in mid-air. before i could reload, it recovered itself, and mounted nimbly to the topmost branches, out of the reach of a fowling-piece, where we could perceive the poor thing apparently probing the wound with its fingers." the tame coaita. "i once saw a most ridiculously tame coaita. it was an old female, which accompanied its owner, a trader on the river, in all his voyages. by way of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feeling, its master set to, and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. the poor monkey, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this display of anger. it began by looking earnestly at him; then it whined, and lastly rocked its body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and passing its long, gaunt arms continually over its forehead; for this was its habit when excited, and the front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence. at length, its master altered his tone. 'it's all a lie,' my old woman. 'you're an angel, a flower, a good, affectionate old creature,' and so forth. immediately the poor monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came over to where the man sat." scarlet-faced monkey. the most singular of the simian family in brazil are the scarlet-faced monkeys, called by the indians uakari, of which there are two varieties, the white and red-haired. mr. bates first met with the white-haired variety under the following circumstances:-- "early one sunny morning, in the year , i saw in the streets of ega a number of indians carrying on their shoulders down to the port, to be embarked on the upper amazons steamer, a large cage made of strong lianas, some twelve feet in length, and five in height, containing a dozen monkeys of the most grotesque appearance. their bodies (about eighteen inches in height, exclusive of limbs) were clothed from neck to tail with very long, straight, and shining whitish hair; their heads were nearly bald, owing to the very short crop of thin gray hairs; and their faces glowed with the most vivid scarlet hue. as a finish to their striking physiognomy, they had bushy whiskers of a sandy color, meeting under the chin, and reddish yellow eyes. they sat gravely and silently in a group, and altogether presented a strange spectacle." another interesting creature is the owl-faced night ape. these monkeys are not only owl-faced, but their habits are those of the moping bird. "they sleep all day long in hollow trees, and come forth to prey on insects, and eat fruits, only in the night. they are of small size, the body being about a foot long, and the tail fourteen inches; and are clothed with soft gray and brown fur, similar in substance to that of the rabbit. their physiognomy reminds one of an owl or tiger-cat. the face is round, and encircled by a ruff of whitish fur; the muzzle is not at all prominent; the mouth and chin are small; the ears are very short, scarcely appearing above the hair of the head; and the eyes are large, and yellowish in color, imparting the staring expression of nocturnal animals of prey. the forehead is whitish, and decorated with three black stripes, which, in one of the species, continue to the crown, and in the other meet on the top of the forehead. "these monkeys, although sleeping by day, are aroused by the least noise; so that, when a person passes by a tree in which a number of them are concealed, he is startled by the sudden apparition of a group of little striped faces crowding a hole in a trunk." mr. bates had one of the nyctipithæci for a pet, which was kept in a box containing a broad-mouthed glass jar, into which it would dive, head foremost, when any one entered the room, turning round inside, and thrusting forth its inquisitive face an instant afterward to stare at the intruder. the nyctipithecus, when tamed, renders one very essential service to its owner: it clears the house of bats as well as of insect vermin. the most diminutive of the brazilian monkeys is the "hapale pygmæus," only seven inches long in the body, with its little face adorned with long, brown whiskers, which are naturally brushed back over the ears. the general color of the animal is brownish-tawny; but the tail is elegantly barred with black. mr. bates closes his account by stating that the total number of species of monkeys which he found inhabiting the margins of the upper and lower amazons was thirty-eight, belonging to twelve different genera, forming two distinct families. the sloth. "i once had an opportunity, in one of my excursions, of watching the movements of a sloth. some travellers in south america have described the sloth as very nimble in its native woods, and have disputed the justness of the name which has been bestowed upon it. the inhabitants of the amazons region, however, both indians and descendants of the portuguese, hold to the common opinion, and consider the sloth as the type of laziness. it is very common for one native to call to another, in reproaching him for idleness, 'bicho do embaüba' (beast of the cecropia-tree); the leaves of the cecropia being the food of the sloth. it is a strange sight to see the uncouth creature, fit production of these silent woods, lazily moving from branch to branch. every movement betrays, not indolence exactly, but extreme caution. he never looses his hold from one branch without first securing himself to the next; and, when he does not immediately find a bough to grasp with the rigid hooks into which his paws are so curiously transformed, he raises his body, supported on his hind legs, and claws around in search of a fresh foothold. after watching the animal for about half an hour, i gave him a charge of shot: he fell with a terrific crash, but caught a bough in his descent with his powerful claws, and remained suspended. two days afterward, i found the body of the sloth on the ground; the animal having dropped, on the relaxation of the muscles, a few hours after death. in one of our voyages, i saw a sloth swimming across a river at a place where it was probably three hundred yards broad. our men caught the beast, and cooked and ate him." the anaconda. "we had an unwelcome visitor while at anchor in the port. i was awakened a little after midnight, as i lay in my little cabin, by a heavy blow struck at the sides of the canoe close to my head, succeeded by the sound of a weighty body plunging in the water. i got up; but all was quiet again, except the cackle of fowls in our hen-coop, which hung over the side of the vessel, about three feet from the cabin-door. next morning i found my poultry loose about the canoe, and a large rent in the bottom of the hen-coop, which was about two feet from the surface of the water. a couple of fowls were missing. "antonio said the depredator was the sucumjú, the indian name for the anaconda, or great water-serpent, which had for months past been haunting this part of the river, and had carried off many ducks and fowls from the ports of various houses. i was inclined to doubt the fact of a serpent striking at its prey from the water, and thought an alligator more likely to be the culprit, although we had not yet met with alligators in the river. some days afterward, the young men belonging to the different settlements agreed together to go in search of the serpents. they began in a systematic manner, forming two parties, each embarked in three or four canoes, and starting from points several miles apart, whence they gradually approximated, searching all the little inlets on both sides of the river. the reptile was found at last, sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy rivulet, and despatched with harpoons. i saw it the day after it was killed. it was not a very large specimen, measuring only eighteen feet nine inches in length, and sixteen inches in circumference at the widest part of the body." alligators. "our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line with the others, near the edge of the sand-bank, which sloped rather abruptly to the water. during the first week, the people were all more or less troubled by alligators. some half-dozen full-grown ones were in attendance off the praia, floating about on the lazily flowing, muddy water. the dryness of the weather had increased since we left shimuni, the currents had slackened, and the heat in the middle of the day was almost insupportable. but no one could descend to bathe without being advanced upon by one or other of these hungry monsters. there was much offal cast into the river; and this, of course, attracted them to the place. every day, these visitors became bolder: at length, they reached a pitch of impudence that was quite intolerable. cardozo had a poodle-dog named carlito, which some grateful traveller whom he had befriended had sent him from rio janeiro. he took great pride in this dog, keeping it well sheared, and preserving his coat as white as soap and water could make it. we slept in our rancho, in hammocks slung between the outer posts; a large wood fire (fed with a kind of wood abundant on the banks of the river, which keeps alight all night) being made in the middle, by the side of which slept carlito on a little mat. one night, i was awoke by a great uproar. it was caused by cardozo hurling burning firewood with loud curses at a huge cayman, which had crawled up the bank, and passed beneath my hammock (being nearest the water) towards the place where carlito lay. the dog raised the alarm in time. the reptile backed out, and tumbled down the bank into the river; the sparks from the brands hurled at him flying from his bony hide. cardozo threw a harpoon at him, but without doing him any harm." the puma. "one day, i was searching for insects in the bark of a fallen tree, when i saw a large, cat-like animal advancing towards the spot. it came within a dozen yards before perceiving me. i had no weapon with me but an old chisel, and was getting ready to defend myself if it should make a spring; when it turned round hastily, and trotted off. i did not obtain a very distinct view of it; but i could see its color was that of the puma, or american lion, although it was rather too small for that species. "the puma is not a common animal in the amazons forests. i did not see altogether more than a dozen skins in the possession of the natives. the fur is of a fawn-color. the hunters are not at all afraid of it, and speak in disparaging terms of its courage. of the jaguar they give a very different account." the great ant-eater. "the great ant-eater, _tamandua_ of the natives, was not uncommon here. after the first few weeks of residence, i was short of fresh provisions. the people of the neighborhood had sold me all the fowls they could spare. i had not yet learned to eat the stale and stringy salt fish which is the staple food of these places; and for several days i had lived on rice-porridge, roasted bananas, and farinha. florinda asked me whether i could eat tamandua. i told her almost any thing in the shape of flesh would be acceptable: so she went the next day with an old negro named antonio, and the dogs, and, in the evening, brought one of the animals. the meat was stewed, and turned out very good, something like goose in flavor. the people of caripí would not touch a morsel, saying it was not considered fit to eat in those parts. i had read, however, that it was an article of food in other countries of south america. during the next two or three weeks, whenever we were short of fresh meat, antonio was always ready, for a small reward, to get me a tamandua. "the habits of the animal are now pretty well known. it has an excessively long, slender muzzle, and a worm-like, extensile tongue. its jaws are destitute of teeth. the claws are much elongated, and its gait is very awkward. it lives on the ground, and feeds on termites, or white ants; the long claws being employed to pull in pieces the solid hillocks made by the insects, and the long flexible tongue to lick them up from the crevices." the jaguar. our traveller, though he resided long and in various parts of the amazon country, never saw there a jaguar. how near he came to seeing one appears in the following extract. this animal is the nearest approach which america presents to the leopards and tigers of the old world. "after walking about half a mile, we came upon a dry water-course, where we observed on the margin of a pond the fresh tracks of a jaguar. this discovery was hardly made, when a rush was heard amidst the bushes on the top of a sloping bank, on the opposite side of the dried creek. we bounded forward: it was, however, too late; for the animal had sped in a few minutes far out of our reach. it was clear we had disturbed on our approach the jaguar while quenching his thirst at the water-hole. a few steps farther on, we saw the mangled remains of an alligator. the head, fore-quarters, and bony shell, were all that remained: but the meat was quite fresh, and there were many footmarks of the jaguar around the carcass; so that there was no doubt this had formed the solid part of the animal's breakfast." parÃ�. "i arrived at pará on the th of march, , after an absence in the interior of seven years and a half. my old friends, english, american, and brazilian, scarcely knew me again, but all gave me a very warm welcome. i found pará greatly changed and improved. it was no longer the weedy, ruinous, village-looking place that it had appeared when i first knew it in . the population had been increased to twenty thousand by an influx of portuguese, madeiran, and german immigrants; and, for many years past, the provincial government had spent their considerable surplus revenue in beautifying the city. the streets, formerly unpaved, or strewed with stones and sand, were now laid with concrete in a most complete manner: all the projecting masonry of the irregularly-built houses had been cleared away, and the buildings made more uniform. most of the dilapidated houses were replaced by handsome new edifices, having long and elegant balconies fronting the first floors, at an elevation of several feet above the roadway. the large swampy squares had been drained, weeded, and planted with rows of almond and other trees; so that they were now a great ornament to the city, instead of an eye-sore as they formerly were. sixty public vehicles, light cabriolets, some of them built in pará, now plied in the streets, increasing much the animation of the beautified squares, streets, and avenues. i was glad to see several new book-sellers' shops; also a fine edifice devoted to a reading-room, supplied with periodicals, globes, and maps; and a circulating library. there were now many printing-offices, and four daily newspapers. the health of the place had greatly improved since ,--the year of the yellow-fever; and pará was now considered no longer dangerous to new-comers. "so much for the improvements visible in the place; and now for the dark side of the picture. the expenses of living had increased about fourfold; a natural consequence of the demand for labor and for native products of all kinds having augmented in greater ratio than the supply, in consequence of large arrivals of non-productive residents, and considerable importations of money, on account of the steamboat-company and foreign merchants. "at length, on the d of june, i left pará,--probably forever. i took a last view of the glorious forest for which i had so much love, and to explore which i had devoted so many years. the saddest hours i recollect ever to have spent were those of the succeeding night, when, the pilot having left us out of sight of land, though within the mouth of the river, waiting for a wind, i felt that the last link which connected me with the land of so many pleasing recollections was broken." the end. press of geo. c. rand & avery, no. , cornhill, boston. +------------------------------------------------+ | transcriber's note: | | | | inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | | original document have been preserved. | | | | typographical errors corrected in the text: | | | | page sascatchawan changed to saskatchawan | | page cameawait changed to cameahwait | | page chinnook changed to chinook | | page chinnooks changed to chinooks | | page chinnooks changed to chinooks | | page killamucks changed to killimucks | | page wakiacums changed to wahkiacums | | page kooskooskie changed to kooskooskee | | page sacajaweah chanaged to sacajawea | | page kooskooskie changed to kooskooskee | | page palmitoes changed to palmitos | | page groweth changed to growth | | page pursuaded changed to persuaded | +------------------------------------------------+ down the columbia [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff mt. sir donald, which drains from all sides to the columbia] down the columbia by lewis r. freeman author of "in the tracks of the trades," "hell's hatches," etc. with illustrations from photographs [illustration: publisher's logo] new york dodd, mead and company copyright by dodd, mead and company, inc. the quinn & boden company book manufacturers rahway new jersey to c. l. chester hoping he will find in these pages some compensation for the fun he missed in not being along. introduction the day on which i first conceived the idea of a boat trip down the columbia hangs in a frame all its own in the corridors of my memory. it was a number of years ago--more than a dozen, i should say. just previously i had contrived somehow to induce the superintendent of the yellowstone national park to grant me permission to attempt a winter journey on ski around this most beautiful of america's great playgrounds. he had even sent a government scout along to keep, or help, me out of trouble. we were a week out from the post at mammoth hot springs. putting the rainbow revel of the incomparable canyon behind, we had crossed yellowstone lake on the ice and fared onward and upward until we came at last to the long climb where the road under its ten feet of snow wound up to the crest of the continental divide. it was so dry and cold that the powdery snow overlying the crust rustled under our ski like autumn leaves. the air was diamond clear, so transparent that distant mountain peaks, juggled in the wizardry of the lens of the light, seemed fairly to float upon the eyeball. at the summit, where we paused for breath, an old sergeant of the game patrol, letting down a tin can on a string, brought up drinks from an air-hole which he claimed was teetering giddily upon the very ridge-pole of north america. "if i dip to the left," he said, suiting the action to the word, "it's the pacific i'll be robbing of a pint of rocky mountain dew; while if i dip to the right it's the atlantic that'll have to settle back a notch. and if i had a string long enough, and a wing strong enough, to cast my can over there beyond jackson's hole," he went on, pointing southeasterly to the serrated peaks of the wind river mountains, "i could dip from the fount of the green river and keep it from feeding the colorado and the gulf of california by so much." that led me to raise the question of boating by river from the great divide to the sea, and the scout, who knew something of the madison, jefferson and gallatin to the east, and of the salmon, clearwater and snake to the west, said he reckoned the thing could be done in either direction provided a man had lots of time and no dependent family to think of and shake his nerve in the pinches. the old sergeant agreed heartily. river boating was good, he said, because it was not opposed to nature, like climbing mountains, for instance, where you were bucking the law of gravity from start to finish. with a river it was all easy and natural. you just got into your boat and let it go. sooner or later, without any especial effort on your part, you reached your objective. you might not be in a condition to appreciate the fact, of course, but just the same you got there, and with a minimum of hard work. some rivers were better for boating than others for the reason that you got there quicker. the snake and the missouri were all very well in their way, but for him, he'd take the columbia. there was a river that started in mountains and finished in mountains. it ran in mountains all the way to the sea. no slack water in all its course. it was going somewhere all the time. he had lived as a kid on the lower columbia and had trapped as a man on the upper columbia; so he ought to know. _there_ was a "he" river if there ever was one. if a man really wanted to travel from snowflake to brine and not be troubled with "on-wee" on the way, there was no stream that ran one-two-three with the columbia as a means of doing it. that night, where we steamed in the black depths of a snow-submerged government "emergency" cabin, the sergeant's old columbia memories thawed with the hunk of frosted beef he was toasting over the sheet-iron stove. he told of climbing for sheep and goat in the high kootenay, of trailing moose and caribou in the valleys of the rockies, and finally of his years of trapping on the creeks and in the canyons that run down to the big bend of the columbia; of how he used to go down to kinbasket lake in the fall, portaging or lining the three miles of tumbling cascades at surprise rapids, trap all winter on sullivan creek or middle river, and then come out in the spring to revelstoke, playing ducks-and-drakes with his life and his scarcely less valuable catch of marten, mink and beaver running the riffles at rock slide, twelve mile and the terrible _dalles des morts_. he declared that there were a hundred miles of the big bend of the columbia that had buffaloed to a fare-ye-well any equal stretch on any of the great rivers of north america for fall, rocks and wild rip-rarin' water generally. but the dread rapids of death and the treacherous swirls and eddies of revelstoke canyon were not the last of swift water by a long shot. just below the defile of the arrow lakes the white caps began to rear their heads again, and from there right on down through the seven hundred miles and more to tide-water below the cascade locks in oregon there was hardly a stretch of ten miles without its tumble of rapids, and mostly they averaged not more than three or four miles apart. "she's sure some 'he' river," the old chap concluded as he began to unroll his blankets, "going somewhere all the time, tumbling over itself all the way trying to beat itself to the finish." confusing as the sergeant was with his "he" and "she" and "it" as to the gender of the mighty oregon, there was no question of the fascination of the pictures conjured up by his descriptions of that so-well-called "achilles of rivers." before i closed my eyes that night i had promised myself that i should take the first opportunity to boat the length of the columbia, to follow its tumultuous course from its glacial founts to the salt sea brine, to share with it, to jostle it in its "tumble to get there first." i held by that resolve for more than a dozen years, although, by a strange run of chance, i was destined to have some experience of almost every one of the great rivers of the world before i launched a boat upon the columbia. my appetite for swift water boating had grown by what it fed on. i had come more and more to the way of thinking of my yellowstone companion who held that boating down rivers was good because it was not opposed to nature, "like mountain climbing, for instance, where you bucked the law of gravity all the way." in odd craft and various, and of diverse degree of water worthiness, i had trusted to luck and the law of gravity to land me somewhere to seaward of numerous up-river points of vantage to which i had attained by means of travel that ranged all the way from foot and donkey-back to elephant and auto. the ichang gorges of the yangtze i had run in a _sampan_ manned by a yelling crew of szechuan coolies, and the salween and irawadi below the yunnan boundary in weird burmese canoes whose crews used their legs as well as their arms in plying their carved paddles. i had floated down the tigris from diarbekir to mosul on a _kalek_ of inflated sheepskins, and the nile below the nyanzas in a cranky craft of zebra hide, whose striped sides might have suggested the idea of modern marine camouflage. on the middle niger i had used a condemned gunboat's life-raft, and on the zambesi a dugout of saffron-tinted wood so heavy that it sank like iron when capsized. and it had been in native dugouts of various crude types that i had boated greater or lesser lengths of the swifter upper stretches of the orinoco, amazon and parana. but through it all--whether i was floating in a reed-wrapped _balsa_ on titacaca or floundering in a pitch-smeared _gufa_ on the euphrates--pictures conjured up by remembered phrases of the old ex-trapper keep rising at the back of my brain. "the big eddy at the bend of surprise rapids, where you go to look for busted boats and dead bodies;" "the twenty-one mile of white water rolling all the way from kinbasket lake to canoe river;" "the double googly intake at the head of gordon rapid;" "the black-mouthed whirlpool waiting like a wild cat at the foot of _dalles des morts_"--how many times had i seen all these in fancy! and at last the time came when those pictures were to be made real--galvanized into life. it was well along toward the end of last summer that my friend c. l. chester, whose work in filming the scenic beauties of out-of-the-way parts of the world has made the name chester-outing pictures a byword on both sides of the atlantic, mentioned that he was sending one of his cameramen to photograph the sources of the columbia in the selkirks and rockies of western canada. also that he was thinking of taking his own holiday in that incomparably beautiful region. he supposed i knew that there were considerable areas here that had barely been explored, to saying nothing of photographed. this was notably so of the big bend country, where the columbia had torn its channel between the rockies and selkirks and found a way down to the arrow lakes. he was especially anxious to take some kind of a boat round the hundred and fifty miles of canyon between beavermouth and revelstoke and bring out the first movies of what he had been assured was the roughest stretch of swift water on any of the important rivers of the world. was there, by any chance, a possibility that my plans and commitments were such that i would be free to join him in the event that he made the trip personally? as a matter of fact there were several things that should have prevented my breaking away for a trip to the upper columbia in september, not the least among which was a somewhat similar trip i had already planned for the grand canyon of the colorado that very month. but the mention of the big bend was decisive. "i'll go," i said promptly. "when do you start?" it was finally arranged that i should go on ahead and engage men and boats for the big bend part of the trip, while chester would endeavour to disentangle himself from business in los angeles and new york in time to join his cameraman and myself for a jaunt by packtrain to the lake of the hanging glaciers. the latter is one of the high glacial sources of the columbia in the selkirks, and chester, learning that it had never been photographed, desired especially to visit it in person. returning from our visit to the source of the river, we planned to embark on the boating voyage around the big bend. it was not until business finally intervened to make it impossible for chester to get away for even a portion of the trip which he had been at such trouble to plan, that i decided to attempt the voyage down the columbia as i had always dreamed of it--all the way from the eternal snows to tide-water. at chester's suggestion, it was arranged that his cameraman should accompany me during such portion of the journey as the weather was favourable to moving picture work. our preliminary work and exploration among the sources of the river over (this was carried on either on foot or by packtrain, or in runs by canoe over short navigable stretches of the upper river), we pushed off from beavermouth, at the head of the big bend. for this most arduous part of the voyage there were four in the party, with a big double-ended boat specially built for rough water. further down, for a considerable stretch, we were three, in a skiff. then, for a couple of hundred miles, there were four of us again, manning a raft and a towing launch. after that we were two--just the cameraman and myself, with the skiff. him i finally dropped at the foot of priest rapids, fifty miles above pasco, and the last two hundred and fifty miles down to portland i rode alone. this "solo" run--though a one-man boat crew is kept rather too busy in swift water to have much time for enjoying the scenery--was far from proving the least interesting period of the journey. so far as i have been able to learn, my arrival in portland marked the end of the first complete journey that has been made from the glacial sources of the columbia to tide-water. david thompson, scientist and explorer for the northwest company, racing against the astor sea expedition to be first to establish a post at the mouth of the columbia, boated down a very large part of the navigable part of the river over a hundred years ago. i have found no evidence, however, that he penetrated to the glacial fields in the selkirks above windermere and columbia lake from which spring the main feeders of the upper river. thompson's, and all of the other voyages of the early days of which there is authentic record, started from boat encampment, where the road from the plains and montreal led down to the columbia by the icy waters of portage river, or, as it is now called, wood river. thus all of the old hudson bay and northwest voyageurs ran only the lower seventy-five miles of the big bend, and avoided what is by far its worst water--surprise rapids and the twenty-one miles of cascades below kinbasket lake. ross cox, alexander ross and franchiere, whose diaries are the best commentaries extant upon early columbia history, had no experience of the river above boat encampment. lewis and clark, and hunt, with the remnants of the astor transcontinental party, boated the river only below the snake, and this was also true of whitman and the other early missionaries and settlers. frémont made only a few days' journey down the river from the dalles. of recent down-river passages, i have been able to learn of no voyageur who, having rounded the big bend, continued his trip down to the lower columbia. the most notable voyage of the last three or four decades was that of captain f. p. armstrong and j. p. forde, district engineer of the department of public works of nelson, british columbia, who, starting at the foot of the lower arrow lake in a peterboro canoe, made the run to pasco, just above the mouth of the snake, in ten days. as captain armstrong already knew the upper columbia above the arrow lakes from many years of steamboating and prospecting, and as both he and mr. forde, after leaving their canoe at pasco, continued on to astoria by steamer, i am fully convinced that his knowledge of that river from source to mouth is more comprehensive than that of any one else of the present generation. this will be, perhaps, a fitting place to acknowledge my obligation to captain armstrong (who accompanied me in person from the mouth of the kootenay to the mouth of the spokane) for advice and encouragement which were very considerable factors in the ultimate success of my venture. to mr. forde i am scarcely less indebted for his courtesy in putting at my disposal a copy of his invaluable report to the canadian government on the proposal to open the columbia to through navigation to the pacific ocean. compared to the arduous journeys of the old astorian and hudson bay voyageurs on the columbia, my own trip--even though a considerably greater length of river was covered than by any of my predecessors--was negligible as an achievement. only in rounding the big bend in canada does the voyageur of to-day encounter conditions comparable to those faced by those of a hundred, or even fifty years ago who set out to travel on any part of the columbia. for a hundred miles or more of the bend, now just as much as in years long gone by, an upset with the loss of an outfit is more likely than not to spell disaster and probably tragedy. but in my own passage of the big bend i can claim no personal credit that those miles of tumbling water were run successfully. i was entirely in the hands of a pair of seasoned old river hands, and merely pulled an oar in the boat and did a few other things when i was told. but it is on the thousand miles of swiftly flowing water between the lower end of the big bend and the pacific that conditions have changed the most in favour of the latter day voyageur. the rapids are, to be sure, much as they must have appeared to thompson, ross, franchiere and their indian contemporaries. the few rocks blasted here and there on the lower river in an attempt to improve steamer navigation have not greatly simplified the problems of the man in a rowboat or canoe. nor is an upset in any part of the columbia an experience lightly to be courted even to-day. even below the big bend there are a score of places i could name offhand where the coolest kind of an old river hand, once in the water, would not have one chance in ten of swimming out. in half a hundred others he might reckon on an even break of crawling out alive. but if luck were with him and he _did_ reach the bank with the breath in his body, then his troubles would be pretty well behind him. below the canadian border there is hardly ten miles of the river without a farm, a village, or even a town of fair size. food, shelter and even medical attention are not, therefore, ever more than a few hours away, so that the man who survives the loss of his boat and outfit is rarely in serious straits. but in the case of the pioneers, their troubles in like instance were only begun. what between hostile indians and the loss of their only means of travel, the chances were all against their ever pulling out with their lives. the story of how the vicious cascade of the _dalles des morts_ won its grisly name, which i will set down in its proper place, furnishes a telling instance in point. it is a callous traveller who, in strange lands and seas, does not render heart homage to the better men that have gone before him. just as you cannot sail the pacific for long without fancying that cook and drake and anson are sharing your night watches, so on the columbia it is thompson and cox and lewis and clark who come to be your guiding spirits. at the head of every one of the major rapids you land just as you know they must have landed, and it is as through their eyes that you survey the work ahead. and when, rather against your better judgment, you decide to attempt to run a winding gorge where the sides are too steep to permit lining and where a portage would mean the loss of a day--you know that the best of the men who preceded you must have experienced the same hollowness under the belt when they were forced to the same decision, for were they not always gambling at longer odds than you are? and when, elate with the thrill of satisfaction and relief that come from knowing that what had been a menacing roar ahead has changed to a receding growl astern, you are inclined to credit yourself with smartness for having run a rapid where thompson lined or ross cox portaged, that feeling will not persist for long. sooner or later--and usually sooner--something or somebody will put you right. a broken oar and all but a mess-up in an inconsiderable riffle was all that was needed to quench the glow of pride that i felt over having won through the roughly tumbling left-hand channel of rock island rapids with only a short length of lining. and it was a steady-eyed old river captain who brought me back to earth the night i told him--somewhat boastfully, i fear--that i had slashed my skiff straight down the middle of the final pitch of umatilla rapids, where lewis and clark had felt they had to portage. "but you must not forget," he said gently, with just the shadow of a smile softening the line of his firm lips, "that lewis and clark had something to lose besides their lives--that they had irreplaceable records in their care, and much work still to do. it was their duty to take as few chances as possible. but they never let the risk stop them when there wasn't any safer way. when you are pulling through celilo canal a few days from now, and being eased down a hundred feet in the locks, just remember that lewis and clark put their whole outfit down the tumwater and five-mile rapids of the dalles, in either of which that skiff of yours would be sucked under in half a minute." bulking insignificantly as an achievement as does my trip in comparison with the many columbia voyages, recorded and unrecorded, of early days, it still seems to me that the opportunity i had for a comprehensive survey of this grandest scenically of all the world's great rivers gives me warrant for attempting to set down something of what i saw and experienced during those stirring weeks that intervened between that breathless moment when i let the whole stream of the columbia trickle down my back in a glacial ice-cave in the high selkirks, and that showery end-of-the-afternoon when i pushed out into tide-water at the foot of the cascades. it is scant enough justice that the most gifted of pens can do to nature in endeavouring to picture in words the grandest of her manifestations, and my own quill, albeit it glides not untrippingly in writing of lighter things, is never so inclined to halt and sputter as when i try to drive it to its task of registering in black scrawls on white paper something of what the sight of a soaring mountain peak, the depth of a black gorge with a white stream roaring at the bottom, or the morning mists rising from a silently flowing river have registered on the sensitized sheets of my memory. superlative in grandeur to the last degree as are the mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, cascades and cliffs of the columbia, it is to my photographs rather than my pen that i trust to convey something of their real message. if i can, however, pass on to my readers some suggestion of the keenness of my own enjoyment of what i experienced on the columbia--of the sheer _joie de vivre_ that is the lot of the man who rides the running road; it will have not been in vain that i have cramped my fingers and bent my back above a desk during several weeks of the best part of the california year. robert service has written something about "doing things just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story...." shall i need to confess to my readers that the one cloud on the seaward horizon during all of my voyage down the columbia was brooding there as a consequence of the presentiment that, sooner or later, i should have to do my own babbling? pasadena, july, . contents chapter page introduction vi i preparing for the big bend ii up horse thief creek iii at the glacier iv the lake of the hanging glaciers v canal flats to beavermouth vi through surprise rapids vii kinbasket lake and rapids viii boat encampment to revelstoke ix revelstoke to the spokane x rafting through hell gate xi by launch through box canyon xii chelan to pasco xiii pasco to the dalles xiv the home stretch illustrations mt. sir donald, which drains from all sides to the columbia _frontispiece_ facing page mt. assiniboine, near the headwaters of the columbia twin falls, takakaw falls, two great cataracts of the columbia watershed the "turning-in" scene shot in silhouette "reverse" of the "going-to-bed" shot on the horse thief trail a dead-fall on the trail looking toward the entrance of the ice cave where the hanging glacier is about to fall my shower bath in an ice cave warming up after my glacial shower bath ross and harmon. dragon moraine in distance the horses in the mouth of the ice cave looking across the lake of the hanging glaciers the lake of the hanging glaciers, taken from the ice walls, looking north the face of the hanging glacier where my party foregathered with harmon's on the shore of the lake of the hanging glacier old hudson bay cart at beavermouth my first push-off at the head of canoe navigation on the columbia opening scene of the "farmer" picture old stern wheelers at golden a quiet stretch of the columbia near golden arrival of our boat at beavermouth our first camp at beavermouth the remains of a sunken forest trapper's cabin where we found shelter for the night where we landed above surprise rapids where we tied up at "eight mile" "shooting" the first bit of lining at surprise rapids the camp where the roar of the rapids deafened us where steinhof was drowned where andy just missed drowning in surprise rapids looking through the pines at surprise rapids head of second fall of surprise rapids blackmore and the ling that refused to "register" the winter, with pike-pole just before lining death rapids andy and i pulling down kinbasket lake our wettest camp, at kinbasket lake the old ferry tower above canoe river where we tied up at kinbasket lake the bridge which the columbia carried a hundred miles and placed across another stream lining down to the head of death rapids trapper's cabin being undermined by stream the camp above twelve-mile landing at sunset above canoe river andy and blackmore swinging the boat into the head of rock slide rapids the big rollers, from to feet from hollow to crest, at head of death rapids looking across to boat encampment "wood smoke at twilight" above twelve-mile lining down rock slide rapids when the columbia took half of my riding breeches bonnington falls of the kootenay plastered log cabin in the doukhobor village trucking the skiff through kettle falls twilight in the gorge at kettle falls waiting for the fog to lift above bishop's rapids ross and armstrong registering "gloom" the "intake" at the little dalles where we started to line the little dalles map of the upper columbia a "close-up" of ike building his raft my fifty pound salmon ike riding a log ike on the mooring line of the raft raft in tow of launch near mouth of san poil ike at the sweep below hell gate the suspension bridge at chelan falls old river veterans on the landing at potaris. (capt. mcdermid on left, ike emerson on right) night was falling as we headed into box canyon the columbia above box canyon a rocky cliff near head of lake chelan rainbow falls, feet high, above head of lake chelan wenatchee under the dust cloud of its speeding autos head of rock island rapids the picture that cost me a wetting the wreck of the "douglas" we cooked our breakfast in the galley of the wreck of the "douglas" a rocky cliff above beverly lifted drawbridge on celilo canal tumwater gorge of the grand dalles "imshallah" in the lock at five-mile "imshallah" half way through the celilo canal palisade rock, lower columbia river multnomah falls, columbia river highway, near portland city of portland with mt. hood in the distance bridge on columbia highway near portland, oregon down the columbia down the columbia chapter i preparing for the big bend the itinerary of our columbia trip as originally planned in los angeles called, first, for an expedition to the source of the river, next, a voyage by boat around the big bend from beavermouth to revelstoke, and, finally, if there was time and good weather held, a voyage of indefinite length on toward the sea. as the trip to the glaciers was largely a matter of engaging a good packer well in advance, while there was no certainty of getting any one who would undertake the passage of the big bend, it was to the latter that we first directed our attention. chester wired the publicity department of the canadian pacific and i wrote friends in various parts of british columbia. the c. p. r. replied that they had requested their sub-divisional superintendent at revelstoke to institute inquiries for boatmen in our behalf. the only one of my friends who contributed anything tangible stated that "while the columbia above golden and below revelstoke was admirably suited to pleasure boating, any attempt to run the big bend between those points would result in almost certain disaster." as this appeared to be about the extent of what we were likely to learn from a distance, i decided to start north at once to see what could be arranged on the ground. victoria yielded little save some large scale maps, and even these, they assured me in the geographic department of the b. c. government where i secured them, were very inaccurate as to detail. the big bend region, it appeared, had never been surveyed north of the comparatively narrow zone of the c. p. r. grant. several old hunting friends whom i met at the club, although they had ranged the wildernesses of the northwest from the barren lands to alaska, spoke of the big bend as a veritable _terra incognita_. "it's said to be a great country for grizzly," one of them volunteered, "but too hard to get at. only way to get in and out is the columbia, and that is more likely to land you in kingdom come than back in civilization. best forget about the big bend and go after sheep and goat and moose in the kootenays." at kamloops i was told of an indian who had gone round the big bend the previous may, before the spring rise, and come out not only with his own skin, but with those of seven grizzlies. i was unable to locate the indian, but did find a white man who had made the trip with him. this chap spent half an hour apparently endeavouring to persuade me to give up the trip on account of the prohibitive risk (my experience on other rivers, he declared, would be worse than useless in such water as was to be encountered at surprise, kinbasket and death rapids) and about an equal amount of time trying to convince me that my life would be perfectly safe if only i would engage him and his indian and confide it to their care. as the consideration suggested in return for this immunity figured out at between two and three times the rate we had been expecting to pay for boatmen, i had to decline to take advantage of it. finally, in revelstoke, through the efforts of t. c. mcnab of the canadian pacific, who had been at considerable trouble to line up possible candidates for a big bend trip, i met bob blackmore. after that things began moving toward a definite end. "you won't find old bob blackmore an active church-worker," i was told in revelstoke, "and at one time he had the reputation of being the smoothest thing in the way of a boot-legger in this part of b. c. but he drinks little himself, is a past-master of woodcraft, a dead shot, and has twice the experience of swift-water boating of any man on the upper columbia. in spite of the fact that he has undergone no end of hardship in his thirty years of packing, hunting, prospecting, trapping and boating all over the west, he's as hard to-day at fifty odd as most men are at thirty. because he dished a boatload of freight last year somewhere up river, there are a few who are saying that old bob blackmore is losing his grip. don't believe it. he was never better in his life than he is right now, and if you can persuade him to run your show round the big bend you're in luck. once you start, you'll come right on round to revelstoke all right. no fear on that score. but if you have old bob blackmore you'll stand a jolly lot better chance of arriving on top of the water." i found bob blackmore at his river-side home in the old town--what had been the metropolitan centre of revelstoke in the days when it was the head of navigation of steamers from below the arrow lakes, and before the railway had come to drag settlement a mile northeastward and away from the columbia. he was picking apples with one hand and slapping mosquitoes with the other--a grey-haired, grey-eyed man of middle height, with a muscular torso, a steady stare, and a grip that i had to meet half way to save my fingers. he might have passed for a well-to-do middle western farmer except for his iron-grey moustaches, which were long and drooping, like those affected by cowboy-town sheriffs in the movies. i knew at once that this was the man i wanted, and my only doubt was as to whether or not he felt the same way about me. they had told me in town that blackmore, having some means and being more or less independent, never went out with a man or an outfit he did not like. i felt that it was i who was on approval, not he. i need not have worried, however. in this instance, at least, bob blackmore's mind was made up in advance. it was the movies that had done it. "the c. p. r. people wrote me that you might be wanting me for the bend," he said genially after i had introduced myself, "and on the chance that we would be hitching up i have put my big boat in the water to give her a good soaking. i've figured that she's the only boat on the upper river that will do for what you want. i reckon i know them all. she'll carry three or four times as much as the biggest peterboro. besides, if you tried to go round in canoes, you'd be portaging or lining in a dozen places where i would drive this one straight through. with any luck, and if the water doesn't go down too fast, i'd figure on going the whole way without taking her out of the river at more'n one place, and maybe not there." "so you're willing to go ahead and see us through," i exclaimed delightedly. "they told me in the town that you'd probably need a lot of persuading, especially as you've been saying for the last two or three years that you were through with the bend for good and all." blackmore grinned broadly and somewhat sheepishly. "so i have," he said. "fact is, i've never yet been round the bend that i didn't tell myself and everybody else that i'd never try it again. i really meant it the last time, which was three or four years ago. and i've really meant it every time i said it right up to a few days back, when i heard that you wanted to take a movie machine in there and try and get some pictures. if that was so, i said to myself, it was sure up to me to do what i could to help, for there's scenery in there that is more worth picturing than any i've come across in thirty years of knocking around all over the mountain country of the west. so i'm your man if you want me. of course you know something of what you're going up against in bucking the bend?" "yes," i replied a bit wearily. "i've been hearing very little else for the last week. let's talk about the scenery." "so they've been trying to frighten you out of it," he said with a sympathetic smile. "they always do that with strangers who come here to tackle the bend. and mostly they succeed. there was one chap they couldn't stop, though. he was a professor of some kind from philadelphia. fact is, he wasn't enough frightened. that's a bad thing with the columbia, which isn't to be taken liberties with. i buried him near the head of kinbasket lake. we'll see his grave when we come down from surprise rapids. i'll want to stop off for a bit and see if the cross i put up is still standing. he was...." "_et tu brute_," i muttered under my breath. then, aloud: "let's look at the boat." already this penchant of the natives for turning the pages of the big bend's gruesome record of death and disaster was getting onto my nerves, and it was rather a shock to find even the quiet-spoken, steady-eyed blackmore addicted to the habit. afterwards, when i got used to it, i ceased to mind. as a matter of fact, the good souls could no more help expatiating on what the big bend had done to people who had taken liberties with it than an aviator who is about to take you for a flight can help leading you round back of the hangar and showing you the wreckage of his latest crash. it seems to be one of the inevitable promptings of the human animal to warn his brother animal of troubles ahead. this is doubtless the outgrowth of the bogies and the "don'ts" which are calculated to check the child's explorative and investigative instincts in his nursery days. from the source to the mouth of the columbia it was never (according to the solicitous volunteer advisers along the way) the really dangerous rapids that i had put behind me. these were always somewhere ahead--usually just around the next bend, where i would run into them the first thing in the morning. luckily, i learned to discount these warnings very early in the game, and so saved much sleep which it would have been a real loss to be deprived of. blackmore led the way back through his apple orchard and down a stairway that descended the steeply-sloping river bank to his boat-house. the columbia, a quarter of a mile wide and with just a shade of grey clouding its lucent greenness to reveal its glacial origin, slid swiftly but smoothly by with a purposeful current of six or seven miles an hour. a wing-dam of concrete, evidently built to protect the works of a sawmill a bit farther down stream, jutted out into the current just above, and the boat-house, set on a raft of huge logs, floated in the eddy below. there were two boats in sight, both in the water. blackmore indicated the larger one of the pair--a double-ender of about thirty feet in length and generous beam--as the craft recommended for the big bend trip. "i built her for the bend more than fifteen years ago," he said, tapping the heavy gunwale with the toe of his boot. "she's the only boat i know that has been all the way round more than once, so you might say she knows the road. she's had many a hard bump, but--with any luck--she ought to stand one or two more. not that i'm asking for any more than can be helped, though. there's no boat ever built that will stand a head-on crash 'gainst a rock in any such current as is driving it down surprise or kinbasket or death rapids, or a dozen other runs of swift water on the bend. of course, you're going to hit once in a while, spite of all you can do; but, if you're lucky, you'll probably kiss off without staving in a side. if you're not--well, if you're not lucky, you have no business fooling with the bend at all. "now what i like about this big boat of mine," he continued, taking up the scope of the painter to bring her in out of the tug of the current, "is that she's a lucky boat. never lost a man out of her--that is, directly--and only one load of freight. now with that one (indicating the smaller craft, a canoe-like double-ender of about twenty feet) it's just the other way. if there's trouble around she'll have her nose into it. she's as good a built boat as any on the river, easy to handle up stream and down--but unlucky. why, only a few weeks ago a lad from the town borrowed her to have a bit of a lark running the ripple over that dam there. it's covered at high water, and just enough of a pitch to give the youngsters a little excitement in dropping over. safe enough stunt with any luck at all. but that boat's not lucky. she drifted on sidewise, caught her keel and capsized. the lad and the two girls with him were all drowned. they found his body a week or two later. all his pockets were turned wrong-side-out and empty. the columbia current most always plays that trick on a man--picks his pockets clean. the bodies of the girls never did show up. probably the sand got into their clothes and held them down. that's another little trick of the columbia. she's as full of tricks as a box of monkeys, that old stream there, and you've got to keep an eye lifting for 'em all the time if you're going to steer clear of trouble." "it won't be the first time i've had my pockets picked," i broke in somewhat testily. "besides, if you're going to charge me at the rate that indian i heard of in kamloops demanded, there won't be anything left for the columbia to extract." that brought us down to business, and i had no complaint to make of the terms blackmore suggested--twelve dollars a day for himself and boat, i to buy the provisions and make my own arrangements with any additional boatmen. i already had sensed enough of the character of the work ahead to know that a good boatman would be cheap at any price, and a poor one dear if working only for his grub. blackmore was to get the big boat in shape and have it ready to ship by rail to beavermouth (at the head of the bend and the most convenient point to get a craft into the river) when i returned from the source of the columbia above windermere. going on to golden by train from revelstoke, i looked up captain f. p. armstrong, with whom i had already been in communication by wire. the captain had navigated steamers between golden and windermere for many years, they told me at c. p. r. headquarters in revelstoke, and had also some experience of the bend. he would be unable to join me for the trip himself, but had spoken to one or two men who might be induced to do so. in any event his advice would be invaluable. i shall have so much to say of captain armstrong in the account of a later part of my down-river voyage that the briefest introduction to a man who has been one of the most picturesque personalities in the pioneering history of british columbia will suffice here. short, compactly but cleanly built, with iron-grey hair, square, determined jaw and piercing black eyes, he has been well characterized as "the biggest little man on the upper columbia." although he confessed to sixty-three years, he might well have passed for fifty, a circumstance which doubtless had much to do with the fact that he saw three years of active service in the transport service on the tigris and nile during the late war. indeed, as became apparent later, he generally had as much reserve energy at the end of a long day's paddling as another man i could mention who is rather loath to admit forty. [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff mt. assiniboine, near the headwaters of the columbia] [illustration: twin falls] [illustration: takakaw falls two great cataracts of the columbia watershed] captain armstrong explained that he was about to close the sale of one of his mines on a tributary of the upper columbia, and for that reason would be unable to join us for the big bend trip, as much as he would have enjoyed doing so. in the event that i decided to continue on down the columbia after circling the bend, it was just possible he would be clear to go along for a way. he spoke highly of blackmore's ability as a river man, and mentioned one or two others in golden whom he thought might be secured. ten dollars a day was the customary pay for a boatman going all the way round the bend. that was about twice the ordinary wage prevailing at the time in the sawmills and lumber camps. the extra five was partly insurance, and partly because the work was hard and really good river men very scarce. it was fair pay for an experienced hand. a poor boatman was worse than none at all, that is, in a pinch, while a good one might easily mean the difference between success and disaster. and of course i knew that disaster on the bend--with perhaps fifty miles of trackless mountains between a wet man on the bank and the nearest human habitation--was spelt with a big d. so far as i can remember, captain armstrong was the only one with whom i talked in golden who did not try to dramatize the dangers and difficulties of the big bend. seemingly taking it for granted that i knew all about them, or in any case would hear enough of them from the others, he turned his attention to forwarding practical plans for the trip. he even contributed a touch of romance to a venture that the rest seemed a unit in trying to make me believe was a sort of a cross between going over niagara in barrel and a flight to one of the poles. "there was a deal of boot-legging on the river between golden and boat encampment during the years the grand trunk was being built," he said as we pored over an outspread map of the big bend, "for that was the first leg of the run into the western construction camps, where the sale of liquor was forbidden by law. many and many a boatload of the stuff went wrong in the rapids. this would have been inevitable in any case, just in the ordinary course of working in such difficult water. but what made the losses worse was the fact that a good many of the bootleggers always started off with a load under their belts as well as in their boats. few of the bodies were ever found, but with the casks of whisky it was different, doubtless because the latter would float longer and resist buffeting better. cask after cask has kept turning up through the years, even down to the present, when b. c. is a comparative desert. they are found in the most unexpected places, and it's very rare for a party to go all the way round the bend without stumbling onto one. so bear well in mind you are not to go by anything that looks like a small barrel without looking to see if it has a head in both ends. if you have time, it will pay you to clamber for a few hours over the great patch of drift just below middle river on kinbasket lake. that's the one great catch-all for everything floatable that gets into the river below golden. i've found just about everything there from a canary bird cage to a railway bridge. failing there (which will only be because you don't search long enough), dig sixteen paces northwest by compass from the foundation of the west tower of the abandoned cable ferry just above boat encampment." "how's that again!" i exclaimed incredulously. "sure you aren't confusing the big bend with the spanish main?" "if you follow my directions," replied the captain with a grin, "you'll uncover more treasure for five minutes' scratching than you'd be likely to find in turning over the dry tortugas for five years. you see, it was this way," he went on, smiling the smile of a man who speaks of something which has strongly stirred his imagination. "it was only a few weeks after walter steinhoff was lost in surprise rapids that i made the trip round the bend in a peterboro to examine some silver-lead prospects i had word of. i had with me pete bergenham (a first-class river man; one you will do well to get yourself if you can) and another chap. this fellow was good enough with the paddle, but--though i didn't know it when i engaged him--badly addicted to drink. that's a fatal weakness for a man who is going to work in swift water, and especially such water as you strike at surprise and the long run of kinbasket rapids. the wreckage of steinhoff's disaster (blackmore will spin you the straightest yarn about that) was scattered all the way from the big whirlpool in surprise rapids down to middle river, where they finally found his body. we might easily have picked up more than the one ten-gallon cask we bumped into, floating just submerged, in the shallows of the mud island at the head of kinbasket lake. "i didn't feel quite right about having so much whisky along; but the stuff had its value even in those days, and i would have felt still worse about leaving it to fall into the hands of some one who would be less moderate in its use than would i. i knew pete bergenham was all right, and counted on being able to keep an eye on the other man. that was just where i fell down. i should have taken the cask to bed with me instead of leaving it in the canoe. "when the fellow got to the whisky i never knew, but it was probably well along toward morning. he was already up when i awoke, and displayed unwonted energy in getting breakfast and breaking camp. if i had known how heavily he had been tippling i would have given him another drink before pushing off to steady his nerve. that might have held him all right. as it was, reaction in mind and body set in just as we headed into that first sharp dip below the lake--the beginning of the twenty-one miles of kinbasket rapids. at the place where the bottom has dropped out from under and left the channel blocked by jagged rocks with no place to run through, he collapsed as if kicked in the stomach, and slithered down into the bottom of the canoe, blubbering like a baby. we just did manage to make our landing above the cascade. with a less skilful man than bergenham at the stern paddle we would have failed, and that would have meant that we should probably not have stopped for good before we settled into the mud at the bottom of the arrow lakes. "even after that i could not find it in my heart to dish for good and all so much prime whisky. so i compromised by burying it that night, after we had come through the rapids without further mishap, at the spot i have told you of. that it was the best thing to do under the circumstances i am quite convinced. the mere thought that it was still in the world has cheered me in many a thirsty interval--yes, even out on the tigris and the nile, when there was no certainty i would ever come back to get it again. "and now i'm going to tell you how to find it, for there's no knowing if i shall ever have a chance to go for it myself. if you bring it out to revelstoke safely, we'll split it fifty-fifty, as they say on your side of the line. all i shall want to know is who your other boatmen are going to be. blackmore is all right, but if any one of the men whom he takes with him is a real drinker, you'd best forget the whole thing. if it's an 'all-sober' crew, i'll give you a map, marked so plainly that you can't go wrong. it will be a grand haul, for it was number one scotch even when we planted it there, and since then it has been ageing in wood for something like ten years. i suppose you'll be keen to smuggle your dividend right on down into the 'the great american desert'?" he concluded with a grin. "trust me for that," i replied with a knowing shake of my head. "i didn't spend six months writing up opium smuggling on the china coast for nothing." then i told him the story of the eurasian lady who was fat in amoy and thin in hongkong, and who finally confessed to having smuggled forty pounds of opium, three times a week for five years, in oiled silk hip- and bust-pads. "you must have a lot of prime ideas," said the captain admiringly. "you ought to make it easy, especially if you cross the line by boat. how would a false bottom ... but perhaps it would be safer to float it down submerged, with an old shingle-bolt for a buoy, and pick it up afterwards." "or inside my pneumatic mattress," i suggested. "but perhaps it would taste from the rubber." by midnight we had evolved a plan which could not fail, and which was almost without risk. "the stuff's as good as in california," i told myself before i went to sleep--"and enough to pay all the expenses of my trip in case i should care to bootleg it, which i won't." captain armstrong's mention of the steinhoff disaster was not the first i had heard of it. the chap with whom i had talked in kamloops had shown me a photograph of a rude cross that he and his indian companion had erected over steinhoff's grave, and in revelstoke nearly every one who spoke of the bend made some reference to the tragic affair. but here in golden, which had been his home, the spectacularity of his passing seemed to have had an even more profound effect. as with everything else connected with the big bend, however, there was a very evident tendency to dramatize, to "play up," the incident. i heard many different versions of the story, but there was one part, the tragic finale, in which they all were in practical agreement. when his canoe broke loose from its line, they said, and shot down toward the big whirlpool at the foot of the second cataract of surprise rapids, steinhoff, realizing that there was no chance of the light craft surviving the maelstrom, coolly turned round, waved farewell to his companions on the bank, and, folding his arms, went down to his death. canoe and man were sucked completely out of sight, never to be seen again until the fragments of the one and the battered body of the other were cast up, weeks later, many miles below. it was an extremely effective story, especially as told by the local member in the b. c. provincial assembly, who had real histrionic talent. but somehow i couldn't quite reconcile the nirvanic resignation implied by the farewell wave and the folded arms with the never-say-die, cat-with-nine-lives spirit i had come to associate with your true swift-water boatman the world over. i was quite ready to grant that the big sockdolager of a whirlpool below the second pitch of surprise rapids was a real all-day and all-night sucker, but the old river hand who gave up to it like the kentucky coons at the sight of davy crockett's squirrel-gun wasn't quite convincing. that, and the iterated statement that steinhoff's canoe-mate, who was thrown into the water at the same time, won his way to the bank by walking along the bottom _beneath_ the surface, had a decidedly steadying effect on the erratic flights to which my fancy had been launched by big bend yarns generally. there had been something strangely familiar in them all, and finally it came to me--chinese _feng-shui_ generally, and particularly the legends of the sampan men of the portage villages along the ichang gorges of the yangtze. the things the giant dragon lurking in the whirlpools at the foot of the rapids would do to the luckless ones he got his back-curving teeth into were just a slightly different way of telling what the good folk of golden claimed the big bend would do to the hapless wights who ventured down its darksome depths. now that i thought of it in this clarifying light, there had been "dragon stuff" bobbing up about almost every stretch of rough water i had boated. mostly it was native superstition, but partly it was small town pride--pride in the things their "dragon" had done, and would do. human nature--yes, and river rapids, too--are very much the same the world over, whether on the yangtze, brahmaputra or upper columbia. that brought the big bend into its proper perspective. i realized that it was only water running down hill after all. possibly it was faster than anything i had boated previously, and certainly--excepting the yukon perhaps--colder. a great many men had been drowned in trying to run it; but so had men been drowned in duck-ponds. but many men had gone round without disaster, and that would i do, _imshallah_. i always liked that pious arab qualification when speaking of futurities. later i applied the name--in fancy--to the skiff in which i made the voyage down the lower river. yes, undoubtedly the most of the yarns and the warnings were "dragon stuff" pure and simple, but romance remained. a hundred miles of river with possible treasure lurking in every eddy, and one place where it _had_ to be! i felt as i did the first time i read "treasure island," only more so. for that i had only _read_, and now i was going to search for myself--yes, and i was going to find, too. it was a golden sunset in more ways than one the evening before i was to leave for the upper river. barred and spangled and fluted with liquid, lucent gold was the sky above hills that were themselves golden with the tints of early autumn. and in the northwest there was a flush of rose, old rose that deepened and glowed in lambent crimson where a notch between the selkirks and rockies marked the approximate location of historic boat encampment. "great things have happened at boat encampment," i told myself, "and its history is not all written." then: "sixteen paces northwest by compass from the foundation of the west tower of the abandoned cable ferry...." several times during dinner that evening i had to check myself from humming an ancient song. "what's that about, '_yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum_'?" queried the mackinaw drummer from winnipeg who sat next me. "i thought you were from the states. i don't quite see the point." "it's just as well you don't," i replied, and was content to let it go at that. chapter ii up horse thief creek when i started north from los angeles toward the end of august chester, held up for the moment by business, was hoping to be able to shake free so as to arrive on the upper columbia by the time i had arrangements for the big bend voyage complete. we would then go together to the lake of the hanging glaciers before embarking on the bend venture. luck was not with him, however. the day i was ready to start on up river from golden i received a wire stating that he was still indefinitely delayed, and that the best that there was now any chance of his doing would be to join me for the bend. he had ordered his cameraman to windermere, where full directions for the trip to the glaciers awaited him. he hoped i would see fit to go along and help with the picture, as some "central figure" besides the guides and packers would be needed to give the "story" continuity. i replied that i would be glad to do the best i could, and left for lake windermere by the next train. few movie stars have ever been called to twinkle upon shorter notice. one is usually told that the source of the columbia is in canal flats, a hundred and fifty miles above golden, and immediately south of a wonderfully lovely mountain-begirt lake that bears the same name as the river. this is true in a sense, although, strictly speaking, the real source of the river--the one rising at the point the greatest distance from its mouth--would be the longest of the many mountain creeks which converge upon columbia lake from the encompassing amphitheatre of the rockies and selkirks. this is probably dutch creek, which rises in the perpetual snow of the selkirks and sends down a roaring torrent of grey-green glacier water into the western side of columbia lake. scarcely less distant from the mouth of the columbia are the heads of toby and horse thief creeks, both of which bring splendid volumes of water to the mother river just below lake windermere. it was the presence of the almost totally unknown lake of the hanging glaciers near the head of the horse thief creek watershed that was responsible for chester's determination to carry his preliminary explorations up to the latter source of the columbia rather than to one slightly more remote above the upper lake. we had assurance that a trail, upon which work had been in progress all summer, would be completed by the middle of september, so that it would then be possible for the first time to take pack-horses and a full moving-picture outfit to one of the rarest scenic gems on the north american continent, the lake of the hanging glaciers. to get the first movies of what is claimed to be the only lake in the world outside of the polar regions that has icebergs perpetually floating upon its surface was the principal object of chester in directing his outfit up horse thief creek. my own object was to reach one of the several points where the columbia took its rise in the glacial ice, there to do a right-about and start upon my long-dreamed-of journey from snowflake to brine. it is a dozen years or more since one could travel the hundred miles of the columbia between golden and lake windermere by steamer. the comparatively sparse population in this rich but thinly settled region was not sufficient to support both rail and river transport, and with the coming of the former the latter could not long be maintained. two or three rotting hulks on the mud by the old landing at golden are all that remain of one of the most picturesque steamer services ever run, for those old stern-wheelers used to flounder up the columbia to windermere, on through mud and columbia lakes to canal flats, through a log-built lock to the kootenay watershed, and then down the winding canyons and tumbling rapids of that tempestuous stream to jennings, montana. those were the bonanza days of the upper columbia and kootenay--such days as they have never seen since nor will ever see again. i was to hear much of them later from captain armstrong when we voyaged a stretch of the lower river together. there is a train between golden and windermere only three times a week. it is an amiable, ambling "jerk-water," whose conductor does everything from dandling babies to unloading lumber. at one station he held over for five minutes to let me run down to a point where i could get the best light on a "reflection" picture in the river, and at another he ran the whole train back to pick up a basket of eggs which had been overlooked in the rush of departure. the canadian pacific has the happy faculty of being all things to all men. its main line has always impressed me as being the best-run road i have ever travelled on in any part of the world, including the united states. one would hardly characterize its little country feeders in the same words, but even these latter, as the instances i have noted will bear out, come about as near to being run for the accommodation of the travelling public as anything one will ever find. there is not the least need of hurrying this golden-windermere express. it stops over night at invermere anyway, before continuing its leisurely progress southward the next morning. chester's cameraman met me with a car at the station, and we rode a mile to the hotel at invermere, on the heights above the lake. his name was roos, he said--len h. roos of n. y. c. it was his misfortune to have been born in canada, he explained, but he had always had a great admiration for americans, and had taken out his first papers for citizenship. he could manage to get on with canadians in a pinch, he averred further; but as for britishers--no "lime-juicers" for him, with their "g'bly'me's" and afternoon teas. i saw that this was going to be a difficult companion, and took the occasion to point out that, since he was going to be in canada for some weeks, it might be just as well to bottle up his rancour against the land of his birth until he was back on the other side of the line and had completed the honour he intended to do uncle sam by becoming an american citizen. maybe i was right, he admitted thoughtfully; but it would be a hard thing for him to do, as he was naturally very frank and outspoken and a great believer in saying just what he thought of people and things. he was right about being outspoken. he had also rather a glittering line of dogma on the finer things of life. jazz was the highest form of music (he ought to know, for had he not played both jazz and grand opera when he was head drummer of the galt, ontario, town band?); the mack sennett bathing comedy was his _belle ideal_ of kinematic art; and the newspapers of william hearst were the supreme development of journalism. this latter he knew, because he had done camera work for a hearst syndicate himself. i could manage to make a few degrees of allowance for jazz and the mack sennett knockabouts under the circumstances, but the deification of hearst created an unbridgeable gulf. i foresaw that "director" and "star" were going to have bumpy sledding, but also perceived the possibility of comedy elements which promised to go a long way toward redeeming the enforced partnership from irksomeness, that is, if the latter were not too prolonged. that it could run to six or seven weeks and the passage of near to a thousand miles of the columbia without turning both "director" and "star" into actual assassins, i would never have believed. indeed, i am not able to figure out even now how it could have worked out that way. i can't explain it. i merely state the fact. walter nixon, the packer who was to take us "up horse thief," had been engaged by wire a week previously. his outfit had been ready for several days, and he called at the hotel the evening of my arrival to go over the grub list and make definite plans. as there were only two of us, he reckoned that ten horses and two packers would be sufficient to see us through. the horses would cost us two dollars a day a head, and the packers five dollars apiece. the provisions he would buy himself and endeavour to board us at a dollar and a half apiece a man. this footed up to between thirty-five and forty dollars a day for the outfit, exclusive of the movie end. it seemed a bit stiff offhand, but was really very reasonable considering present costs of doing that kind of a thing and the thoroughly first-class service nixon gave us from beginning to end. nixon himself i was extremely well impressed with. he was a fine up-standing fellow of six feet or more, black-haired, black-eyed, broad-shouldered and a swell of biceps and thigh that even his loose-fitting mackinaws could not entirely conceal. i liked particularly his simple rig-out, in its pleasing contrast to the cross-between-a-movie-cowboy-and-a-tyrolean-yodeler garb that has come to be so much affected by the so-called guides at banff and lake louise. like the best of his kind, nixon was quiet-spoken and leisurely of movement, but with a suggestion of powerful reserves of both vocabulary and activity. i felt sure at first sight that he was the sort of a man who could be depended upon to see a thing through whatever the difficulties, and i never had reason to change my opinion on that score. it was arranged that night that nixon should get away with the pack outfit by noon of the next day, and make an easy stage of it to the starbird ranch, at the end of the wagon-road, nineteen miles out from invermere. the following morning roos and i would come out by motor and be ready to start by the time the horses were up and the packs on. that gave us an extra day for exploring windermere and the more imminent sources of the columbia. roos' instructions from chester called for a "windermere picture," in which should be shown the scenic, camping, fishing and hunting life of that region. the scenic and camping shots he had already made; the fish and the game had eluded him. i arrived just in time to take part in the final scurry to complete the picture. the fish to be shown were trout, and the game mountain sheep and goat, or at least that was the way roos planned it at breakfast time. when inquiry revealed that it would take a day to reach a trout stream, and three days to penetrate to the haunts of the sheep and goats, he modified the campaign somewhat to conform with the limited time at our disposal. close at hand in the lake there was a fish called the squaw-fish, which, floundering at the end of a line, would photograph almost like a trout, or so the hotel proprietor thought. and the best of it was that any one could catch them. indeed, at times one had to manoeuvre to keep them from taking the bait that was meant for the more gamy and edible, but also far more elusive, ling or fresh-water cod. as for the game picture, said roos, he would save time by having a deer rounded up and driven into the lake, where he would pursue it with a motor boat and shoot the required hunting pictures. he would like to have me dress like a tourist and do the hunting and fishing. that would break me in to adopting an easy and pleasing manner before the camera, so that a minimum of film would be spoiled when he got down to our regular work on the hanging glacier picture. it wouldn't take long. that was the advantage of "news" training for a cameraman. you could do things in a rush when you had to. mr. clelland, secretary of the windermere company, courteously found us tackle and drove us down to the outlet of the lake to catch the squaw-fish. three hours later he drove us back to the hotel for lunch without one single fragment of our succulent salt-pork bait having been nuzzled on its hook. i lost my "easy and pleasing manner" at the end of the first hour, and roos--who was under rather greater tension in standing by to crank--somewhat sooner. he said many unkind things about fish in general and squaw-fish in particular before we gave up the fight at noon, and i didn't improve matters at all by suggesting that i cut out the picture on a salmon can label, fasten it to my hook, and have him shoot me catching that. there was no sense whatever in the idea, he said. you had to have studio lighting to get away with that sort of thing. he couldn't see how i could advance such a thing seriously. as i had some doubts on that score myself, i didn't start an argument. in the afternoon no better success attended our effort to make the hunting picture,--this because no one seemed to know where a deer could be rounded up and driven into the lake. again i discovered a way to save this situation. on the veranda of the country club there was a fine mounted specimen of _ovis canadensis_, the canadian mountain sheep. by proper ballasting, i pointed out to roos, this fine animal could be made to submerge to a natural swimming depth--say with the head and shoulders just above the water. then a little evinrude engine could be clamped to its hind quarters and set going. forthwith the whole thing must start off ploughing across the lake just like a live mountain sheep. by a little manoeuvring it ought to be possible to shoot at an angle that would interpose the body of the sheep between the eye and the pushing engine. if this proved to be impossible, perhaps it could be explained in a sub-title that the extraneous machinery was a fragment of mowing-machine or something of the kind that the sheep had collided with and picked up in his flight. roos, while admitting that this showed a considerable advance over my salmon-label suggestion of the morning, said that there were a number of limiting considerations which would render it impracticable. i forget what all of these were, but one of them was that our quarry couldn't be made to roll his eyes and register "consternation" and "mute reproach" in the close-ups. i began to see that there was a lot more to the movie game than i had ever dreamed. but what a stimulator of the imagination it was! as there was nothing more to be done about the hunting and fishing shots for the present, we turned our attention to final preparations for what we had begun to call the "hanging glacier picture." roos said it would be necessary to sketch a rough sort of scenario in advance--nothing elaborate like "broken blossoms" or "the perils of pauline" (we hadn't the company for that kind of thing), but just the thread of a story to make the "continuity" ripple continuously. it would be enough, he thought, if i would enact the rôle of a gentleman-sportsman and allow the guides and packers to be just their normal selves. then with these circulating in the foreground, he would film the various scenic features of the trip as they unrolled. all the lot of us would have to do would be to act naturally and stand or lounge gracefully in those parts of the picture where the presence of human beings would be best calculated to balance effectively and harmoniously the composition. i agreed cheerfully to the sportsman part of my rôle, but demurred as to "gentleman." i might manage it for a scene, but for a sustained effort it was out of the question. a compromise along this line was finally effected. i engaged to act as much like a gentleman as i could for the opening shot, after which i was to be allowed to lapse into the seeming of a simple sportsman who loved scenery-gazing more than the pursuit and slaying of goat, sheep and bear. roos observed shrewdly that it would be better to have the sportsman be more interested in scenery than game because, judging from our experience at windermere, we would find more of the former than the latter. he was also encouragingly sympathetic about my transient appearance as a gentleman. "i only want about fifty feet of that," he said as he gave me a propitiating pat on the back; "besides, it's all a matter of clothes anyhow." before we turned in that night it transpired that chester's hope of being the first to show moving pictures of the lake of the hanging glaciers to the world was probably doomed to disappointment, or, at the best, that this honour would have to be shared with an equally ambitious rival. byron harmon, of banff, formerly official photographer for the canadian pacific, arrived at invermere and announced that he was planning to go "up horse thief" and endeavour to film a number of the remarkable scenic features which he had hitherto tried to picture in vain. his schedule was temporarily upset by the fact that we had already engaged the best packtrain and guides available. seasoned mountaineer that he was, however, this was of small moment. a few hours' scurrying about had provided him with a light but ample outfit, consisting of four horses and two men, with which he planned to get away in the morning. he was not in the least perturbed by the fact that roos had practically a day's start of him. "there's room for a hundred cameramen to work up there," he told me genially; "and the more the world is shown of the wonders of the rockies and the selkirks, the more it will want to see. it will be good to have your company, and each of us ought to be of help to the other." i had some difficulty in bringing roos to a similarly philosophical viewpoint. his "hearst" training impelled him to brook no rivalry, to beat out the other man by any means that offered. he had the better packtrain, he said, to say nothing of a day's start. also, he had the only dynamite and caps available that side of golden, so that he would have the inside track for starting avalanches and creating artificial icebergs in the lake of the hanging glaciers. i would like to think that it was my argument that, since it was not a "news" picture he was after, the man who took the most time to his work would be the one to get the best results, was what brought him round finally. i greatly fear, however, it was the knowledge that the generous harmon had a number of flares that did the trick. he had neglected to provide flares himself, and without them work in the ice caves--second only in interest to the lake of the hanging glaciers itself--would be greatly circumscribed. at any rate, he finally agreed to a truce, and we took harmon out to the end of the road in our car the following morning. of the latter's really notable work in picturing the mountains of western canada i shall write later. the horses were waiting, saddled and packed, as we drove up to the rendezvous. the packer was a powerfully built fellow, with his straight black hair and high cheek bones betokening a considerable mixture of indian blood. his name was buckman--jim buckman. he was the village blacksmith of athalmere, nixon explained. he was making plenty of money in his trade, but was willing to come along at a packer's wage for the sake of the experience as an actor. the lure of the movies was also responsible for the presence of nixon's fourteen-year-old son, gordon, who had threatened to run away from home if he wasn't allowed to come along. he proved a useful acquisition--more than sufficiently so, it seemed to me, to compensate for what he did to the jam and honey. roos called us around him and gave instructions for the "business" of the opening shot. nixon and jim were to be "picked up" taking the last of the slack out of a "diamond hitch," gordon frolicking in the background with his dog. when the car drove up, nixon was to take my saddle horse by the bridle, walk up and shake hands with me. then, to make the transition from civilization to the primitive (movie people never miss a chance to use that word) with a click, i was to step directly from the car into my stirrups. "get me!" admonished roos; "straight from the running board to the saddle. don't touch the ground at all. make it snappy, all of you. i don't want any of you to grow into 'foot-lice.'" my saddle horse turned out to be a stockily-built grey of over pounds. he looked hard as nails and to have no end of endurance. but his shifty eye and back-laid ears indicated temperamentality, so that nixon's warning that he "warn't exactly a lady's hawss" was a bit superfluous. "when you told me you tipped the beam at two-forty," he said, "i know'd 'grayback' was the only hawss that'd carry you up these trails. so i brung him in, and stuffed him up with oats, and here he is. he may dance a leetle on his toes jest now, but he'll gentle down a lot by the end of a week." whether "grayback" mastered all of the "business" of that shot or not is probably open to doubt, but that he took the "make it snappy!" part to heart there was no question. he came alongside like a lamb, but the instant i started to make my transition from "civilization to the primitive with a click" he started climbing into the car. the only click i heard was when my ear hit the ground. roos couldn't have spoiled any more film than i did cuticle, but, being a "director," he made a good deal more noise about it. after barking his hocks on the fender, "grayback" refused to be enticed within mounting distance of the car again, so finally, with a comparatively un-clicky transition from civilization to the primitive, i got aboard by the usual route from the ground. the next shot was a quarter of a mile farther up the trail. here roos found a natural sylvan frame through which to shoot the whole outfit as it came stringing along. unfortunately, the "director" failed to tell the actors not to look at the camera--that, once and for all, the clicking box must be reckoned as a thing non-existent--and it all had to be done over again. the next time it was better, but the actors still had a wooden expression on their faces. they didn't look at the camera, but the expression on their faces showed that they were conscious of it. roos then instructed me to talk to my companions, or sing, or do anything that would take their minds off the camera and make them appear relaxed and natural. that time we did it famously. as each, in turn, cantered by the sylvan bower with its clicking camera he was up to his neck "doing something." nixon was declaiming lincoln's gettysburg speech as he had learned it from his phonograph, gordon was calling his dog, jim was larruping a straggling pinto and cursing it in fluent local idiom, and i was singing "onward, christian soldiers!" we never had any trouble about "being natural" after that; but i hope no lip reader ever sees the pictures. after picking up roos and his camera we made our real start. one pack-horse was reserved for the camera and tripod, and to prevent him from ranging from the trail and bumping the valuable apparatus against trees or rocks, his halter was tied to the tail of nixon's saddle animal. except that the latter's spinal column must have suffered some pretty severe snakings when the camera-carrier went through corduroy bridges or lost his footings in fords, the arrangement worked most successfully. the delicate instrument was not in the least injured in all of the many miles it was jogged over some of the roughest trails i have ever travelled. the sunshine by which the last of the trail shots was made proved the parting glimmer of what had been a month or more of practically unbroken fair weather. indeed, the weather had been rather too fine, for, toward the end of the summer, lack of rain in western canada invariably means forest fires. as these had been raging intermittently for several weeks all over british columbia, the air had become thick with smoke, and at many places it was impossible to see for more than a mile or two in any direction. both roos and harmon had been greatly hampered in their work about banff and lake louise by the smoke, and both were, therefore, exceedingly anxious for early and copious rains to clear the air. otherwise, they said, there was no hope of a picture of the lake of the hanging glaciers that would be worth the film it was printed on. they must have rain. their prayer was about to be answered, in full measure, pressed down and running over--and then some. we had been encountering contending currents of hot and cold air all the way up the wagon-road from invermere and the lower valley. now, as we entered the mountains, these became more pronounced, taking the form of scurrying "dust-devils" that attacked from flank and van without method or premonitory signal. the narrowing gorge ahead was packed solid with a sullen phalanx of augmenting clouds, sombre-hued and sagging with moisture, and frequently illumined with forked lightning flashes discharged from their murky depths. nixon, anxious to make camp before the storm broke, jogged the horses steadily all through the darkening afternoon. it was a point called "sixteen-mile" he was driving for, the first place we would reach where there was room for the tent and feed for the horses. we were still four miles short of our destination when the first spatter of ranging drops opened up, and from there on the batteries of the storm concentrated on us all the way. we made camp in a rain driving solidly enough to deflect the stroke of an axe. i shall not enlarge upon the acute discomfort of it. those who have done it will understand; those who have not would never be able to. it was especially trying on the first day out, before the outfit had become shaken down and one had learned where to look for things. nixon's consummate woodcraftsmanship was put to a severe test, but emerged triumphant. so, too, jim, who proved himself as impervious to rain as to ill-temper. the fir boughs for the tent floor came in dripping, of course, but there were enough dry tarpaulins and blankets to blot up the heaviest of the moisture, and the glowing little sheet-iron stove licked up the rest. a piping hot dinner drove out the last of the chill, and we spent a snug, comfy evening listening to nixon yarn about his mountaineering exploits and of the queer birds from new york and london whom he had nursed through strange and various intervals of moose and sheep-hunting in the kootenays and rockies. we slept dry but rather cold, especially roos, who ended up by curling round the stove and stoking between shivers. nixon and jim drew generously on their own blanket rolls to help the both of us confine our ebbing animal heat, and yet appeared to find not the least difficulty in sleeping comfortably under half the weight of cover that left us shaking. it was all a matter of what one was used to, of course, and in a few days we began to harden. it was september tenth that we had started from invermere, hoping at the time to be able to accomplish what we had set out to do in from four to six days. the rain which had come to break the long dry spell put a very different face on things, however. the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth we were held in our first camp by an almost continuous downpour, which turned the mountain streams into torrents and raised horse thief till it lapped over the rim of the flat upon which our tent was pitched. the night of the thirteenth, with a sharp drop of the temperature, the rain turned to snow, and we crawled out on the fourteenth to find the valley under a light blanket of white. then the clouds broke away and the sunshine and shadows began playing tag over the scarps and buttresses of the encompassing amphitheatre of mountains. for the first time there was a chance for a glimpse of the new world into which we had come. the transition from the cultivation and the gentle wooded slopes of windermere was startling. under the mask of the storm clouds we had penetrated from a smooth, rounded, pleasant country to one that was cliffy and pinnacled and bare--a country that was all on end, a land whose bones showed through. a towering matterhorn reared its head six or eight thousand feet above us, and so near that slabs of rock cracked away from its scarred summit were lying just across the trail from the tent. the peaks walling in horse thief to the north were not so high but no less precipitous and barren, while to the west a jumble of splintered pinnacles whose bases barred the way were still lost in the witch-dance of the clouds. a tourist folder would have called it a "land of titans," but jim, leaning on his axe after nicking off a fresh back-log for the camp fire, merely opined it was "some skookum goat country. but not a patch," he added, "to what we'll be hittin' to-night if we get them _geesly_ hawsses rounded up in time fer a start 'fore noon." it appeared that the horses, with their grazing spoiled by the snow, had become restless, broken through the barrier nixon had erected at a bridge just below camp, and started on the back trail for invermere. as their tracks showed that they had broken into a trot immediately beyond the bridge, it looked like a long stern-chase, and nixon did not reckon on being able to hit the trail for several hours. roos grasped the occasion to make a couple of "camp life" shots his fertile brain had conceived the idea of during the long storm-bound days of enforced inaction. in one of these the "sportsman" was to go to bed in silhouette by candlelight. ostensibly this was to be the shadow of a man crawling into his blankets _inside_ of the tent, and taken from the outside. in reality, however, roos set up his camera _inside_ of the tent and shot the antics of the shadow the sunlight threw on the canvas when i went through the motions of turning in close against the _outside_ of the wall. this went off smartly and snappily; but i would have given much for a translation of the voluble comments of a passing indian who pulled up to watch the agile action of the retiring "sportsman." it was while roos was rehearsing me for this shot that gordon must have heard him iterating his invariable injunction that i should not be a "foot-hog," meaning, i shall hardly need to explain, that i should be quick in my movements so as not to force him to use an undue footage of film. a little later i overheard the boy asking jim what a "foot-hog" was. "i don't quite _kumtrux_ myself," the sturdy blacksmith-packer replied, scratching his head. "it sounds as if it might be suthin like pig's feet, but they want actin' as if they wuz ready to eat anythin', 'less it was each other." now that i think of it, i can see how the clash of the artistic temperaments of "director" and "star" over just about every one of the shots they made might have given jim that impression. [illustration: the "turning-in" scene shot in silhouette (_above_)] [illustration: "reverse" of the "going-to-bed" shot (_below_)] [illustration: on the horse thief trail] [illustration: a dead-fall on the trail] the other shot we made that morning was one which roos had labelled as "berry picking and eating" in his tentative scenario. the "sportsman" was to fare forth, gather a bowlful of raspberries, bring them back to camp, put sugar and condensed milk on them, and finally eat them, all before the camera. i objected to appearing in this for two reasons: for one, because berry-picking was not a recognized out-door sport, and, for another, because i didn't like raspberries. roos admitted that berry-picking was not a sport, but insisted he had to have the scene to preserve his continuity. "gathering and eating these products of nature," he explained, "shows how far the gentleman you were in the first scene has descended toward the primitive. you will be getting more and more primitive right along, but we must register each step on the film, see?" as for my distaste for raspberries, roos was quite willing that, after displaying the berries heaped in the bowl in a close-up, i should do the real eating with strawberry jam. it was that last which overcame my spell of "temperament." both roos and gordon already had me several pots down in the matter of jam consumption, and i was glad of the chance to climb back a notch. we found raspberry bushes by the acre but, thanks to the late storm, almost no berries. this didn't matter seriously in the picking shot, for which i managed to convey a very realistic effect in pantomime, but for the heaped-high close-up of the bowl it was another matter. one scant handful was the best that the four of us, foraging for half an hour, could bring in. but i soon figured a way to make these do. opening a couple of tins of strawberry jam into the bowl, i rounded over smoothly the bright succulent mass and then made a close-set raspberry mosaic of one side of it. that did famously for the close-up. as i settled back for the berry-eating shot roos cut in sharply with his usual: "snappy now! don't be a foot-hog!" gordon, who had been digging his toe into the mud for some minutes, evidently under considerable mental stress, lifted his head at the word. "hadn't you better say 'jam-hog', mr. roos?" he queried plaintively. "i'm afraid it wouldn't be any use," was the dejected reply. roos was right. at the word "action!" i dug in with my spoon on the unpaved side of the bowl of jam, and several turns before the crank ceased revolving there was nothing left but a few daubed raspberries and several broad red smears radiating from my mouth. roos tossed the two empty jam tins into the murky torrent of horse thief creek and watched them bob away down stream. "you're getting too darn primitive," he said peevishly. it was nearly eleven o'clock before nixon came with the horses; but we had camp struck and the packs made, so there was little delay in taking the trail. the bottom of the valley continued fairly open for a few miles, with the swollen stream serpentining across it, turned hither and thither by huge logjams and fortress-like rock islands. where the north fork came tumbling into the main creek in a fine run of cascades there was a flat several acres in extent and good camping ground. immediately above the valley narrowed to a steep-sided canyon, and continued so all the way up to the snow and glacier-line. the trail from now on was badly torn and washed and frequently blocked with dead-falls. or rather it had been so blocked up to a day or two previously. now i understood the reason for nixon's complaisance when harmon's outfit, travelling in the rain, had passed our camp a couple of days before. "don't worry, sonny," he had said in comforting the impetuous roos; "we won't lose any time, and we will save a lot of chopping." and so it had worked out. harmon's men had cut the dead-falls out of the whole twelve miles of trail between north fork and the dragon-tail glacier. even so it was a beastly stretch of trail. the stream, completely filling the bottom of the gorge, kept the path always far up the side of the mountain. there were few dangerous precipices, but one had always to be on the lookout to keep his head from banging on dead-falls just high enough to clear a pack, and which, therefore, no one would take the trouble to cut away. the close-growing shrubbery was dripping with moisture, and even riding second to nixon, who must have got all the worst of it, i found myself drenched at the end of the first half mile. riding through wet underbrush can wet a man as no rain ever could. no waterproof ever devised offers the least protection against it; nothing less than a safe deposit vault on wheels could do so. streams, swollen by the now rapidly melting snow, came tumbling down--half cataract, half cascade--all along the way. at the worst crossings these had been roughly bridged, as little footing for men or horses was afforded by the clean-swept rock. only one crossing of the main stream was necessary. it was a good natural ford at low water, but quite out of the question to attempt at high. we found it about medium--a little more than belly deep and something like an eight-mile current. with a foot more water it would have commenced to get troublesome; with another two feet, really dangerous. that prospect, with the rapidly rising water, was reserved for our return trip. such a road was, of course, wonderfully picturesque and colourful, and roos, with a quick eye for an effective composition, made the most of his opportunities for "trail shots." a picture of this kind, simple enough to look at on the screen, often took half an hour or more to make. the finding of a picturesque spot on the trail was only the beginning. this was useless unless the light was right and a satisfactory place to set up the tripod was available. when this latter was found, more often than not a tree or two had to be felled to open up the view to the trail. then--as the party photographed had to be complete each time, and with nothing to suggest the presence of the movie camera or its operator--roos' saddle horse and the animal carrying his outfit had to be shuttled along out of line and tied up where they would not get in the picture. this was always a ticklish operation on the narrow trails, and once or twice the sheer impossibility of segregating the superfluous animals caused roos to forego extremely effective shots. the mountains became higher and higher, and steeper and steeper, the farther we fared. and the greater the inclines, the more and more precarious was the hold of the winter's snow upon the mountainsides. at last we climbed into a veritable zone of avalanches--a stretch where, for a number of miles, the deep-gouged troughs of the snow-slides followed each other like the gullies in a rain-washed mudbank. slide-time was in the spring, of course, so the only trouble we encountered was in passing over the terribly violated mountainsides. if the trail came to the track of an avalanche far up on the mountainside, it meant descending a cut-bank to the scoured bedrock, click-clacking along over this with the shod hooves of the horses striking sparks at every step for a hundred yards or more, and then climbing out again. if the path of the destroyer was encountered low down, near the river, the way onward led over a fifty-feet-high pile of upended trees, boulders and sand. in nearly every instance one could see where the slides had dammed the stream a hundred feet high or more, and here and there were visible swaths cut in the timber of the further side, where the buffer of the opposite mountain had served to check the onrush. the going for the horses was hard at all times, but worst perhaps where the dam of a slide had checked the natural drainage and formed a bottomless bog too large for the trail to avoid. here the hard-blown animals floundered belly deep in mud and rotten wood, as did also their riders when they had to slide from the saddles to give their mounts a chance to reach a solid footing. the polished granite of the runways of the slide was almost as bad, for here the horses were repeatedly down from slipping. my air-treading, toe-dancing "grayback" of the morning was gone in the back and legs long before we reached the end. my weight and the pace (nixon was driving hard to reach a camping place before a fresh gathering of storm clouds were ready to break) had proved too much for him. the fighting light was gone from his eye, his head was between his legs, and his breath was expelled with a force that seemed to be scouring the lining from his bleeding nostrils. dropping back to slacken his girths and breathe him a moment before leading him up the last long run of zigzags, i heard the sobbing _diminuendo_ of the packtrain die out in the sombre depths above. it was like the shudder of sounds that rise through a blow-hole where the sea waves are pounding hard on the mouth of a subterranean grotto. i had developed a warm and inclusive sympathy for "grayback" before i reached the crest of that final shoulder of mountain we had to surmount, but lost most of it on the slide back to the valley when, in lieu of anything else to hand as he found himself slipping, he started to canter up my spine. i found nixon and jim throwing off packs on a narrow strip of moss-covered bottom between the drop-curtain of the fir-covered mountainside and the bank of the creek. it was practically the only place for a camp anywhere in the closely-walled valley. slide-wreckage claimed all the rest of it. an upward trickle of lilac smoke a half mile above told where harmon's outfit had effected some sort of lodgment, but it was on a _geesly_ slither of wet side-hill, nixon said, and badly exposed to the wind that was always sucking down from the glacier. the moss underfoot was saturated with water, but with an hour of daylight and pines close at hand this was a matter of small moment. we were well under cover by the time the snuffer of the darkness clapped sharply down, and with a good day's supply of wood for stove and camp-fire piled up outside the tent. not having stopped for lunch on the trail, we were all rather "peckish" (to use nixon's expression) by the time dinner was ready. after that there was nothing much to bother about. nixon told goat hunting stories all evening, putting a fresh edge on his axe the while with a little round pocket whetstone. a canadian guide is as cranky about his private and personal axe as a chicago clothing drummer is about his razors. so it was only to be expected that nixon took it a bit hard when roos had employed his keenly whetted implement to crack open a hunk of quartz with. that was the reason, doubtless, why most of his stories had to do with the fool escapades of various of the _geesly_ (that was nixon's favourite term of contempt, and a very expressive one it was) tenderfeet he had guided. but one of his yarns (and i think a true one) was of a time that he was caught by a storm at ten thousand feet in the rockies and had to spend the night on the rocks a mile above the timber-line. lightly dressed and without a blanket, the only protection he had from a temperature many degrees below freezing was from the carcasses of the two freshly-shot goats that had lured him there. splitting these down the middle with his hunting knife, he had covered himself with them, entrails and all, in the hope that the remaining animal heat would keep him alive till daylight. man and goat were frozen to one stiff mass by morning, but the man had still enough vitality to crack himself loose and descend to his camp. the exposure and hardship some of these northwest mountaineers have survived is almost beyond belief. i went to sleep with the sizzle of snowflakes on the dying embers of the camp-fire in my ears, and awoke to find the tent roof sagging down on my ear under the weight of a heavy night's fall. the storm was over for the moment, but the clouds were still lurking ominously above the glacier, and there was little light for pictures. harmon, crossing the several channels of the creek on fallen logs, came over later in the day. he had been storm-bound ever since his arrival, he said, and had done nothing at all in taking either stills or movies yet. but fires and smoke were finished for the year now, he added philosophically, and it was his intention to remain until he got what he was after. before he left he told me something of his work. "stills," it appeared, were the main thing with him; his movie work was carried on merely as a side-line to pay the expenses of trips he could not otherwise afford. he had been photographing in the selkirks and rockies for a dozen years, and he would not be content to rest until the sets of negatives--as nearly perfect as they could be made--of every notable peak and valley of western canada. then he was going to hold a grand exhibition of mountain photographs at banff and retire. the lake of the hanging glaciers was one of the very few great scenic features he had never photographed, and he only hoped he would be able to do it justice. the fine reverence of harmon's attitude toward the mountains that he loved was completely beyond roos' ken. "i never worries about not doing 'em justice--not for a minute. what does worry me is whether or not these cracked up lakes and glaciers are going to turn out worth my coming in to do justice to. get me?" "yes, i think so," replied the veteran with a very patient smile. chapter iii at the glacier snow flurries kept us close to camp all that day. the next one, the sixteenth, was better, though still quite hopeless for movie work. after lunch we set out on foot for the big glacier, a mile above, from which the creek took its life. the clouds still hung too low to allow anything of the mountains to be seen, but one had the feeling of moving in a long narrow tunnel through which a cold jet of air was constantly being forced. a few hundred yards above our camp was a frightful zone of riven trees mixed with gravel and boulders. it was one of the strangest, one of the savagest spots i ever saw. it was the battle ground of two rival avalanches, nixon explained, two great slides which, with the impetus of six or eight thousand feet of run driving uncounted millions of tons of snow and earth, met there every spring in primeval combat. no man had ever seen the fantastic onslaught (for no man could reach that point in the springtime), but it was certain that the remains of it made a mighty dam all the way across the valley. then the creek would be backed up half way to the glacier, when it would accumulate enough power to sweep the obstruction away and scatter it down to the columbia. straight down the respective paths of the rival slides, and almost exactly opposite each other, tumbled two splendid cascades. the hovering storm clouds cut off further view of them a few hundred feet above the valley, but nixon said that they came plunging like that for thousands of feet, from far up into the belt of perpetual snow. the one to the east (which at the moment seemed to be leaping straight out of the heart of a sinister slaty-purple patch of cumulonimbus) drained the lake of the hanging glaciers; that to the west a desolate rock and ice-walled valley which was rimmed by some of the highest summits in the selkirks. our road to the lake would be wet with the spray of the former for a good part of the distance. we were scrambling through a land of snow-slides all the way to the glacier. for the first half mile patches of stunted fir survived here and there, due to being located in the lee of some cliff or other rocky outcrop which served to deflect the springtime onslaughts from above; then all vegetation ceased and nothing but snow-churned and ice-ground rock fragments remained. all along the last quarter of a mile the successive stages of the glacier's retreat were marked by great heaps of pulverized rock, like the tailings at the mouth of a mine. only the face of the glacier and the yawning ice caves were visible under the cloud-pall. the queerly humped uplift of the "dragon" moraine could be dimly guessed in the shifting mists that whirled and eddied in the icy draughts from the caves. our principal object in going up to the grottoes on so inclement a day was to experiment with our dynamite on the ice, with a view to turning our knowledge to practical use in making artificial icebergs for the movies in the lake of the hanging glaciers. selecting what looked like a favourable spot at the base of what seemed a "fracturable" pinnacle of grey-green ice, we dug a three-feet-deep hole with a long-handled chisel, pushed in two sticks of sixty per cent. dynamite, tamped it hard with snow after attaching a lengthy fuse, touched a match to the latter and retired to a safe distance. the result, to put it in roos' latest imported slang, was an "oil can," which connotes about the same thing as fizzle, i took it. there's a deal of kick in two sticks of "sixty per" set off in rock, but here it was simply an exuberant "whouf" after the manner of a blowing porpoise. a jet of soft snow and ice shot up some distance, but the pinnacle never trembled. and the hole opened up was smooth-sided and clean, as if melted out with hot water. not the beginning of a crack radiated from it. jim opined that a slower burning powder might crack ice, but there was certainly no hope of "sixty per" doing the trick. it was evident that we would have to find some other way of making artificial icebergs. we did. we made them of rock. but i won't anticipate. it snowed again in the night, snowed itself out for a while. the following morning it was warm and brilliantly clear, and for the first time there was a chance to see what sort of a place it was to which we had entered. for a space the height and abruptness of the encompassing walls seemed almost appalling; it was more like looking up out of an immeasurably vast crater than from a valley. all around there were thousands of feet of sheer rocky cliff upon which no snow could effect a lodgment; and above these more thousands of feet solid with the glittering green of glacial ice and the polished marble of eternal snow. the jagged patch of sky was a vivid imperial blue, bright and solid-looking like a fragment of rich old porcelain. the morning sun, cutting through the sharp notches between the southeastern peaks, was dappling the snow fields of the western walls in gay splashes of flaming rose and saffron, interspersed with mottled shadows of indigo and deep purple. reflected back to the still shadowed slopes of the eastern walls, these bolder colours became a blended iridescence of amethyst, lemon and pale misty lavender. the creek flowed steely cold, with fluffs of grey-wool on the riffles. the tree patches were black, dead funereal black, throwing back no ray of light from their down-swooping branches. the air was so clear that it seemed almost to have assumed a palpability of its own. one imagined things floating in it; even that it might tinkle to the snip of a finger nail, like a crystal rim. in movies as in hay-making, one has to step lively while the sun shines. this was the first good shooting light we had had, and no time was lost in taking advantage of it. long before the sun had reached the bottom of the valley we were picking our way up toward the foot of the glacier, this time on horseback. early as we had started, the enterprising harmon had been still earlier. he was finishing his shots of the face of the glacier and the mouth of the ice caves as we came up. he would now leave the field clear for roos for an hour, he said, while he climbed to the cliffs above the glacier to make a goat-hunting picture. that finished, he would return and, by the light of his flares both parties could shoot the interior of the ice caves. before starting on his long climb, harmon briefly outlined the scenario of his "goat" picture, part of which had already been shot. two prospectors--impersonated by his guide and packer--having been in the mountains for many weeks without a change of diet, had become terribly sick of bacon. finally, when one of them had disgustedly thrown his plate of it on the ground, even the camp dog, after a contemptuous sniff, had turned his back. he had had no trouble in getting the men to register "disgust," harmon explained, but that "contemptuous sniff" business with the dog was more difficult. after their voracious airedale pup had wolfed three plates of bacon without paying the least heed to the director's attempts to frighten him off at the psychological moment, they had tried thin strips of birch-bark, trimmed to represent curling rashers. even these the hungry canine had persisted in licking, probably because they came from a greasy plate. finally harmon hit upon the expedient of anointing the birch-bark rashers with some of the iodine carried as an antiseptic in the event of cuts and scratches. "if the pup ate it, of course it would die," he explained; "but that would be no more than he deserved in such a case." but the plan worked perfectly. after his first eager lick, the outraged canine had "sniffed contemptuously" at the pungent fumes of the iodine, and then backed out of the picture with a wolfish snarl on his lifted lip. [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff looking toward the entrance of the ice cave] [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff where the hanging glacier is about to fall] then the packer registered "fresh meat hunger" ("cut-in" of a butcher shop to be made later), immediately after which the guide pointed to the cliffs above the camp where some wild goats were frisking. by the aid of his long-distance lens, harmon had shot the goats as they would appear through the binoculars the guide and packers excitedly passed back and forth between them. and now they were going forth to shoot the goats. or rather they were going forth to "shoot" the goats, for these had already been shot with a rifle. in order to avoid loss of time in packing his cumbersome apparatus about over the cliffs, harmon had sent out conrad, his swiss guide, the previous afternoon, with orders to shoot a goat--as fine a specimen as possible--and leave it in some picturesque spot where a re-shooting could be "shot" with the camera when the clouds lifted. the keen-eyed tyrolese had experienced little difficulty in bringing down two goats. one of these--a huge "billy"--he had left at the brink of a cliff a couple of thousand feet above the big glacier, and the other--a half-grown kid--he had brought into camp to cut up for the "meat-guzzling" shots with which guide, packer and canine were to indulge in as a finale. it was a cleverly conceived "nature" picture, one with a distinct "educational" value; or at least it was such when viewed from "behind the camera." roos was plainly jealous over it, but, as he had no goats of his own, and as harmon's goat was hardly likely to be "borrowable" after bouncing on rock pinnacles for a thousand feet, there was nothing to do about it. he would have to make up by putting it over harmon on his "glacier stuff," he said philosophically. and he did; though it was only through the virtuosity of his chief actor. harmon had confined his glacier shots to one of his party riding up over the rocks, and another of it grouped at the entrance of the largest cave and looking in. being an old mountaineer, he was disinclined to take any unnecessary chances in stirring up a racket under hanging ice. roos was new to the mountains, so didn't labour under any such handicap. his idea was to bring the whole outfit right up the middle of the stream and on into the cave. the approach and the entrance into the mouth of the cave were to be shot first from the outside, and then, in silhouette, from the inside. nixon, pointing out that the roof of the cave had settled two or three feet since we were there yesterday and that the heat seemed to be honeycombing all the lower end of the glacier pretty badly, said that he didn't like the idea of taking horses inside, but would do so if it would make a better picture that way. he was quite willing to take chances if there was any reason for it. but what he did object to was trying to take the horses up the middle of the stream over big boulders when it would be perfectly plain to any one who saw the picture that there was comparatively smooth going on either side. "you can easy break a hawss' leg in one of them _geesly_ holes," he complained; "but the loss of a hawss isn't a patch to what i'd feel to have some guy that i've worked with see the pictur' and think i picked that sluiceway as the best way up." roos replied with a rush of technical argument in which there was much about "continuity" and "back-lighting," and something about using the "trick crank so that the action can be speeded up when it's run." not knowing the answer to any of this, nixon finally shrugged his shoulders helplessly and signalled for jim to bring up the horses. there was no need of a "trick crank" to speed up the action in the stream, for that glacial torrent, a veritable cascade, had carried away everything in its course save boulders four or five feet high. nixon, in a bit of a temper, hit the ditch as though he were riding a steeplechase. so did jim and gordon. all three of them floundered through without mishap. "grayback" tried to climb up on the tip of a submerged boulder, slipped with all four feet at once and went over sidewise. i kicked out my stirrups, but hit the water head first, getting considerably rolled and more than considerably wet. to roos' great indignation, this occurred just outside the picture, but he had the delicacy not to ask me to do it over again. taking the horses inside the cave was a distinctly ticklish performance, though there could be no question of its effectiveness as a picture. roos set up a hundred feet in from the fifty-feet-wide, twenty-feet-high mouth and directed us to ride forward until a broad splashing jet of water from the roof blocked our way, and then swing round and beat it out. "beat it out snappy!" he repeated. "get me?" "yep, _i_ got you," muttered nixon; "you're in luck if nothin' else does." the ice that arched above the entrance looked to me like the salt-eaten packing round an ice-cream can as we pushed up and under it. the horses could hardly have noticed this, and it must have been their instincts--their good sound horse-sense--that warned them that a dark hole full of hollow crackings and groanings and the roar of falling water was no place for self-respecting equines to venture. it took a deal of spurring and swearing to force them inside, and most of the linear distance gained was covered in circles on their hind legs. it was old "grayback" whose nerves gave way first; he that started the stampede back to light and sunshine. there was no question but what we "beat it snappy." roos came out rubbing his hands gleefully. "that photographed like a million dollars," he cried with enthusiasm. "now just one thing more...." and forthwith he revealed what had been in his heart ever since he chanced onto that "natural shower bath" in the cave the previous afternoon. no one could deny that it was a natural shower bath. and since it _was_ a natural shower bath, what could be more natural than for some one to take a shower under it? how would nixon feel about trying it? or jim? he admitted that it might be something of a shock, but he was willing to make that all right. would ten dollars be fair? or say twenty? or why not twenty-five? he knew mr. chester didn't reckon cost when it was a question of getting a high class, he might say a unique, picture. now which should it be? nixon, a bit snappily, said his rheumatism put him out of the running, and jim was equally decided. money wouldn't tempt him to go even into the columbia at windermere, let alone a liquid icicle under a glacier. and right then and there i did a thing which roos maintained to the end of our partnership repaid him for all the grief and worry i had caused him to date, and much that was still to accrue. "since i've got to take a bath and dry these wet togs out sooner or later," i said with a great assumption of nonchalance, "perhaps the ice cave will do as well as anywhere else. just promise me you won't spring a flare on the scene, and build a fire to dry my clothes by...." roos was gathering wood for a fire before i finished speaking. as for the flares, harmon had not given him any yet. it was only a silhouette he wanted--but that would show up like a million dollars in the spray and ice. there never had been such a picture; perhaps would never be again. i wasn't joking, was i? and primitive.... "go on and set up," i cut in with. "i'll be there by the time you're ready to shoot. and don't ever let me hear you say primitive again. oh, yes--and you needn't remind me to 'be snappy!' there won't be any trouble on that score. just make sure your lens is fast enough to catch the action." i've had many a plunge overboard off the california coast that shocked me more than that "natural shower bath" did, but never a one with so exhilarant a reaction. stripping off my wet clothes by the fire, i slipped into my big hooded "lammy" coat and hippity-hopped into the cave. roos, set up ten yards inside the splashing jet from the roof, was already standing by to shoot. at his call of "action!" i jumped out of my coat and into the black, unsparkling column of water. there was a sharp sting to the impact, but it imparted nothing of the numbing ache that accompanies immersion in water a number of degrees less cold than this--a feeling which i came later to know only too well on the columbia. nixon had warned me against tempting providence again by making any unnecessary racket in the cave, but it was no use. no one could have the fun that i was having and not holler. it was against nature. whooping like a comanche, i continued my hydro-terpsichorean revel until a muffled "nuff" from roos called a halt. he had come to the end of his roll. i have been in more of a shiver coming out of the adriatic at the lido in august than i was when i ambled back to dry off by the fire and the sunshine. glowing with warmth, i even loafed along with my dressing, as one does at waikiki. "you'd make a fortune pulling the rough stuff in the movies," roos exclaimed, patting me on the back. "you've got everything the real gripping cave-man _has_ to have--size, beef, a suggestion of brutal, elemental force, primitive...." i chucked a burning brand at him and went over to borrow nixon's glass. a shot from far up the cliffs told that harmon's "goat-hunt" was in full cry. the real thrill of the day was about to come off; rather more of a thrill, indeed, than any one was prepared for, harmon included. [illustration: my shower bath in an ice cave] [illustration: warming up after my glacial shower bath] [illustration: ross and harmon. dragon moraine in distance (_above_)] [illustration: the horses in the mouth of the ice cave (_below_)] while we had been filming our "cave stuff" harmon had finished setting the stage for his picture. he had two shots to make--one of his packers firing at the goat at the top of the cliff, and the other of the body of the goat falling to the glacier. conrad, the tyrolean, climbing like a fly, had scaled the face of the cliff and was standing by for the signal to start the goat "falling." the shot which had attracted my attention had been the packer discharging his rifle at the goat, which had been propped up in a life-like position, as though peering down onto the glacier. harmon was still cranking when i got him in focus, while the packer had jumped to his feet and was executing a _pas seul_ evidently intended to convey the impression he had made a hit. a curl of blue smoke from his rifle was still floating in the air. they had contrived that effective little touch by dribbling a bit of melted butter down the barrel before firing. smokeless powder is hardly "tell-tale" enough for movie work. harmon now moved over and set up at the foot of the cliff, apparently to get as near as possible to the point where the goat was going to hit. as the sequel proves, he judged his position to a hair. now he made his signal. i saw the flutter of his handkerchief. the goat gave a convulsive leap, and then shot straight out over the brink of the cliff. from where we stood i could plainly see the useful conrad "pulling the strings," but from where harmon was set up this would hardly show. he was too careful to overlook a point like that in a "nature picture." the white body caromed sharply off a couple of projecting ledges, and then, gathering momentum, began to describe a great parabola which promised to carry it right to the foot of the cliff. i had kept my eyes glued to the glass from the start, but it was nixon's unaided vision which was first to catch the drift of what was impending. "you couldn't drive a six-hawss team 'tween the side o' mista ha'mon's head and the trail in the air that _geesly_ goat's going to make passing by," he said with a calculating drawl. "not so su' you could squeeze a pack-hawss through." then, a couple of seconds later: "no' ev'n a big dawg." and almost immediately: "by gawd, it's going to get him!" and that surely was what it looked like, to every one at least but the calmly cranking harmon. he went on humping his back above the finder, and i could see the even rise and fall of his elbow against the snow. the dot of white had become a streak of grey, and it was the swift augmentation of this in his finder which finally (as he told me later) caused harmon suddenly to duck. to me it looked as if the flying streak had passed right through him, but he was still there at the foot of his tripod after the bolt of wrath, striking the surface of the glacier with a resounding impact, threw up a fountain of pulverized snow and laid still. he was never quite sure whether it was the almost solid cushion of air or a side-swipe from a hoof or horn that joggled the tripod out of true. it was a near squeeze, for the flying body, which must have weighed all of two hundred pounds, was frozen hard as a rock. conrad came staggering down with the remnants of the battered trunk over his shoulders. only the heart and liver were fit to eat. the rest was a sausage of churned meat and bone splinters. there was no question about its fall having limbered it up. the illumination of the cave by the calcium flares was beautiful beyond words to describe, or at least so i was told. the first one was a failure, through the outward draught of air carrying the smoke back onto the cameras. i had set this off in a side gallery, about a hundred yards in from the mouth, with the idea of throwing a sort of concealed back light. foolishly opening my eyes while the calcium was burning, i was completely blinded by the intense glare and did not regain my sight for several minutes. harmon's packer, who held the next flare set off--this time to the leeward of the cameras--had still worse luck. a flake of the sputtering calcium kicked back up his sleeve and inflicted a raw, round burn with half the colours of the spectrum showing in its concentric rings of singed cuticle. the chap displayed astonishing nerve in refusing to relinquish his grip on the handle of the flare and thus ruin the picture. i most certainly would never have done so myself. roos described the glittering ice walls as a "veritable aladdin's cave of jewels," and only regretted that he couldn't have had that lighting on my shower-bath. that night we tried a camp-fire scene by flare. roos set up on the further bank of the side channel of the creek which flowed past the tent. between the door of the tent and the water a hole was dug in such a way that light from it would shine on a group in front of the tent but not on the lens of the camera. the glow from a flare burning in this hole represented the camp-fire. i was supposed to stroll up and tell a jovial story to nixon, jim and gordon, who were to be "picked up" already seated around the fire. i made my entrance very snappily, but, unluckily, the blanket roll upon which i sat down spread out and let me back against the corner of the glowing sheet-iron stove, which was set up just inside the tent opening. seeing i had not rolled out of the picture, roos shouted for me to carry on, as it was the last flare. so, with the reek of burning wool rising behind me, i did carry on, making plausible gestures intended to convey the idea that the bit of comedy was just a humorous piece of by-play of my own. i carried on for something over half a minute. the only circumstance that prevented my carrying on my back the print of the corner of the stove for the rest of my days was the fact that the combined thicknesses of my duffle coat, lumberman's shirt, sweater and heavy woollen undershirt were interposed to absorb the heat. the duffle coat was the worst sufferer, coming out with a bar-sinister branded most of the way through its half inch of pressed brown wool. chapter iv the lake of the hanging glaciers it was now neck-or-nothing with the lake of the hanging glaciers picture. having already been out much longer than we had expected to be, there were left only provisions for two days. nixon had suggested making a hurried trip out and bringing in fresh supplies, but as the time set by chester for his arrival for the big bend trip was already past, i did not feel warranted in prolonging the present jaunt any further. if the morrow was fair all would be well; if not, the main object of our trip would be defeated. by great good luck the clear weather held. there was not a cloud hovering above the mountains at daybreak the following morning, and we got away for an early start to make the most of our opportunity. nixon himself had run and cut out the trail to the lake earlier in the summer, but horses had never been taken over it. though it was extremely steep in pitches, our maiden passage was marked with few difficulties. much to nixon's surprise and satisfaction, only one big dead-fall had been thrown down to block the way, and our enforced halt here gave roos the opportunity for a very effective "trail shot." he also got some striking "back-lighting stuff" at spots along the interminable cascade that was tumbling and bounding beside the trail. the elevation of our camp on the creek was something like six thousand feet, and that of the lake of the hanging glaciers a bit under eight thousand. the trail is between three and four miles long, and we were rather over two hours in making the climb. there were several halts out of this; steady plugging would do it much quicker. timber-line was passed half a mile below the lake, the last of the trees being left behind in a wonderful little mountain park studded with gnarled pines and still bright with late wild flowers. the autumn colouring here was a marvellous chromatic revel in dull golds and soft, subdued browns--the shedding tamaracks and the dying meadow grasses. clambering on foot up a steep-sided hillock that appeared to be an ancient glacial moraine augmented by many slides, we suddenly found ourselves on the edge of the high-water level of the lake. the transition from the flower-strewn meadow to a region of almost arctic frigidity was practically instantaneous--the matter of a half dozen steps. one moment we were climbing in a cliff-walled valley, with rocky buttresses and pinnacles soaring for thousands of feet on either side, and with brown-black gravel and thinning brown-grey bunch grass under foot and ahead; the next, as we gained the crest of the old terminal moraine, the landscape opened up with a blinding flash and we were gazing at a sparkling emerald lake clipped in the embrace of an amphitheatre of glaciers and eternal snow, and floating full of icebergs and marble-mottled shadows. the "hanging glacier"--perhaps a mile wide across its face, and rearing a solid wall of ice a couple of hundred feet in the sheer--closed the further or southeastern end of the lake. behind the glacier was a cliff of two thousand feet or more in height. it appeared to be almost solid ice and snow, but must have been heavily underlaid with native rock to maintain its abruptness as it did. higher still a snow-cap, bright and smooth as polished marble, extended to the crest of the range and formed a glittering line against the cobalt of the sky. of all the scenic gems of the north american continent, i recall none which is so well entitled to the characterization of "unique" as this white-flaming little jewel of the high selkirks. the lake was now rapidly receding to its winter low-water level, and to reach its brink we had to press on across three hundred yards of black boulders which were evidently covered in the time of the late spring floods. ordinarily one would have expected the worst kind of rough and slippery walking here, but, to my great surprise, the great rocks were set as solid and as level as a pavement of mosaic. the reason for this became plain when we approached the water, where a flotilla of small icebergs, rising and falling to the waves kicked up by the brisk breeze drawing down the lake, were steadily thump-thumping the bottom with dull heavy blows which could be felt underfoot a hundred yards away. this natural tamping, going on incessantly during the months of high-water, was responsible for the surprising smoothness of the rocky waste uncovered by the winter recession. the great boulders had literally been hammered flat. the icebergs, which were formed by the cracking off of the face of the great glacier filled half of the lake. they varied in size from almost totally submerged chunks a few feet in diameter to huge floating islands of several hundred. they were of the most fantastic shapes, especially those which had been longest adrift and therefore most exposed to the capricious action of the sun. by and large, the effect was that of a gargantuan bowl sprinkled with puffy white popcorn. but if one took his time and searched carefully enough there were very few things of heaven or earth that were not represented in the amazing collection. one berg, floating on another, had been reduced by the sun to the seeming of a gigantic view camera--box, bellows and lens. a number of famous groups of statuary were there, but of course very much in the rough. "the thinker" was perhaps the best of these, but even rodin would have wanted to do a bit more "finishing" on the glacial cave-man humped up on his icy green pedestal. roos, who had never heard of rodin, said it reminded him of me drying out after my shower-bath in the ice-cave. his facile imagination also discovered something else. he had once seen a picture of "lohengrin's farewell" in a victrola record price-list, and there was a much sun-licked hunk of ice, very near the shore, which suggested the barge to him, swans and all. i saw the barge all right, but the pegasus of my imagination had to have some spurring before he would take the "swan" hurdle. [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff looking across the lake of the hanging glaciers] [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff the lake of the hanging glaciers, taken from the ice walls, looking north] it was roos' idea that i should swim off, clamber over the side of the barge, lassoo the "near" swan with a piece of pack-rope to represent reins, and let him shoot me as "lohengrin." it wouldn't exactly run into the "continuity" of the "sportsman" picture, he admitted; but he thought that chester might use it, with a lot of other odds and ends, under some such title as "queer people in queer places." the idea appealed to me strongly. "lohengrin's farewell" had always moved me strangely; and here was a chance actually to appear in the classic rôle! "you bet i'll do it," i assented readily. "what shall i wear?" the "shining armour," which we both seemed to connect with "lohengrin," happened to be one of the things not brought up in our saddle-bags that morning. we were in a hot discussion as to the best manner of improvising a helmet and cuirass out of condensed milk and sardine tins, when nixon, asking if we knew that the sun only shone about three hours a day in that "_geesly_ crack in the hills," dryly opined that we should take our pictures of the lake while there was plenty of light. that sounded sensible, and we started feverishly to hurry through with the routine grind so as to be free to do proper justice to "lohengrin." as fate would have it, however, that which was presently revealed to me of the ways of fresh-water icebergs quenched effectually my desire to swim off and take liberties with the capricious things at close quarters. after making a number of scenic shots, roos announced that he was ready to go ahead with the "falling iceberg" stuff. as it was quite out of the question making our way along the base of the cliffs on either side of the lake to the face of the glacier in the limited time at our disposal, and, moreover, as we had already demonstrated the impossibility of making artificial icebergs with "sixty per" dynamite, it became necessary to improvise something closer at hand. it was roos' idea that a piece of cliff cracked off into the lake might produce the effect desired, especially if "cut" with discrimination. "here's the way it goes," he explained. "the cracked off rock plunks down into the lake right into the middle of a bunch of floating icebergs. i starts cranking at the splash, and with the bergs all rolling about and bumping into each other no one can tell but what it was one of them that really started it. then i'll pick you up hopping up and down on the bank and registering 'surprise' and 'consternation'; and then follow with a close-up of you standing on that high rock, looking down on the quieting waves with folded arms. now you register 'relief' and finally a sort of 'awed wonder.' then you take a big breath and raise your eyes to the face of the glacier. you keep right on registering 'awed wonder' (only more intense) and as i fade you out you shake your head slowly as if the mighty mysteries of nature were beyond your understanding. get me? they ought to colour the film for that dark blue in the laboratory (i could tell 'em just the solution to make that ice look cold), and the sub-title ought to be 'the birth of an iceberg,' and...." "jim's the midwife, is he?" i cut in. "yes, i get you. tell him to uncork some of that 'sixty per' 'twilight sleep' of his and i'll stand by for the christening." after a careful technical examination of the terrain, jim, chief "powder monkey," located what he thought was a favourable spot for operations and started to enlarge a thin crack in the cliff to make it take five sticks of dynamite. that was more than half of our remaining stock; but roos was insisting on a big iceberg, and plenty of powder was the best way to insure success. it must have been the tamping that was at the bottom of the trouble, for moss and damp earth are hardly solid enough to deflect the kick of the dynamite in the desired direction. at any rate, although there was a roaring detonation, the mighty force released was expended outward rather than inward. the face of the cliff hardly shivered, and only an inconsiderable trickle of broken rocks and sand slid down into the lake. too sore to take more than hostile notice of nixon's somewhat rough and ready little _mot_ about the "'birth o' the iceberg' turning out a _geesly_ miscarriage," roos clapped the cap over his lens, unscrewed the crank and began taking his camera off its tripod. that rather hasty action was responsible for his missing by a hair what i am certain was the greatest opportunity ever presented to a moving picture operator to film one of the most stupendous of nature's manifestations. the roar of the detonating dynamite reverberated for half a minute or more among the cliffs and peaks, and it was just after the last roll had died out that a renewed rumble caused me to direct a searching gaze to the great wall of ice and snow that towered above the farther end of the lake. for an instant i could not believe my eyes. it could not be possible that the whole mountainside was toppling over! and yet that was decidedly the effect at a first glance. from the rim of the snow-cap down to the back of the glacier--a mile wide and two thousand feet high--there was one solid, unbroken niagara of glittering, coruscant ice and snow. like a curtain strung with diamonds and pearls and opals it streamed, while the shower of flaming colours was reflected in the quivering waters of the lake in fluttering scarves of sun-shot scarlet, in tenuous ribbons of lavender, jade and primrose. it was only when the last shreds of this marvellous banner had ceased to stream (at the end of thirty or forty seconds perhaps) that i saw what it was that had caused it. the whole hair-poised brink of the great snow-cap--sharply jolted, doubtless, by the explosion of the dynamite--had cracked away and precipitated itself to the glacier level, nearly half a mile below. the shock to the latter appeared to have had the effect of jarring it sufficiently to crack down great blocks all along its face. the glacier had, in fact, been shocked into giving birth to a whole litter of real icebergs where, nearer at hand, we had failed dismally in our efforts to incubate even an artificial one. as glacial obstetricians it appeared that we still had much to learn. roos made a great effort to get his camera set up again in time to make it record something of the wonderful spectacle. he was just too late, however. only a few thin trickles of snow were streaking the face of the cliff when he finally swung his powerful tele-photo lens upon it, and even these had ceased before he had found his focus. it was no end of a pity. i saw several of the great _valangas_ started by the austrian and italian artillery in the dolomites, and, previous to that, what i had thought were very considerable slides on aconcagua and chimborazi, in the andes, and on kinchinjunga and among the hanging ice-fields above the zoji-la in the himalayas. but any half dozen of the greatest of these would have been lost in that mighty avalanche of ice and snow that we saw descend above the lake of the hanging glaciers. nixon, with a lifetime spent in the selkirks and rockies, said he had never seen anything to compare with it. jim, reporting that he still had three sticks of dynamite in hand, said he reckoned there might be a better chance of starting an "iceberg" on the southern side of the lake than on the northern one, where we had failed to accomplish anything. the southern slope was even more precipitous than the northern, he pointed out, and he had his eye on a rock which looked as if a charge might turn it over and start it rolling. "you never can tell what you may be startin' among a bunch o' tiltin' rocks like them 'uns," he said hopefully. nixon's muttered "that ain't no _geesly_ hooch dream" might have meant several things; but i took it that he intended to imply that there was too much "unstable equilibrium" along that southern shore to make it the sort of a place that a neurasthenic would seek out for a rest cure. i felt the same way about it, only more so; but roos' disappointment over what he had already missed was so keen that neither of us had the heart to interpose any objections when he told jim to go ahead and see what he could do. as two sticks of dynamite were already promised to harmon, the trick, if it came off, would have to be pulled with one. spitting tobacco juice on the taffy-like cylinder for luck, jim clambered off up the cliff and planted it under his "likely rock," roos meantime setting up in a favourable position below. [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff the face of the hanging glacier] [illustration: courtesy of byron harmon, banff where my party foregathered with harmon's on the shore of the lake of the hanging glacier] whether jim's "tobaccanalian libation" had anything to do with it or not, this time luck was with us. the sharp blast kicked jim's rock up on one ear, where it teetered for a second or two indecisively before rolling over sidewise and coming down kerplump on a huge twenty-ton cube of basalt that no one would have thought of moving with a barrel of giant. it wasn't so much what the little rock did as the way it did it. the big block gave a sort of a quiver, much as a man awakening from a doze would stretch his arms and yawn, and when it quivered a lot of loose stuff slipped away from beneath and just let it go. it lumbered along at an easy roll for a bit, and then increased its speed and started jumping. its first jump was no more than a nervous little hop that served to hurdle it clear of a length of flat ledge that reached out to stop its downward progress. a second later it had hit its stride, so that when it struck the water there had been nothing but rarefied air trying to stop it for two hundred feet. down it went, pushing a column of compressed _aqua pura_ ahead of it and sucking a big black hole along in its wake. it was when that column of compressed water spouted up again and tried to chase its tail down the hole it had come out of that things began to happen, for it found something like a dozen fat icebergs crowding in and trying to insinuate their translucent bulks into the same opening. and of course they made a tremendous fuss about it. when an iceberg found that it couldn't get in standing up, it forthwith lay down on its side, or even rolled over on its back; which didn't help it in the least after all, for the very good reason that all the other icebergs were adopting the same tactics. and so roos, who was cranking steadily all the time, got his "birth of an iceberg" picture after all. when the bergs ceased butting their heads off against each other roos shot me in the scenes where i registered "consternation," "relief" and "awed wonder," and our hard-striven-for lake of the hanging glaciers picture was complete. there was just a bit of a hitch at the "awed wonder" fade-out, though, but that was roos' fault in trying to introduce a "human touch" by trying to make gordon's dog perch up beside me on the crest of a hatchet-edged rock. the pup sat quietly wagging his tail until the moment came for me to lift up mine eyes unto the hills and increase the tenseness of my "awed wonder" registration. then the altitude began to affect his nerves and he started doing figure " 's" back and forth between my precariously planted feet. as a natural consequence, when roos started in on his "fade-out" i was seesawing my arms wildly to maintain my balance, talking volubly, and registering--well, what would a temperamental movie star be registering while in the act of telling a dog and a man what he thought of them for their joint responsibility in all but pitching him off a twenty-foot-high rock into a vortex of tumbling icebergs? again (unless this part of the film has been discreetly cut in the studio before exhibition) i beg the indulgence of lip-readers. the lake was deeply shadowed before we were finally at liberty to take up again the sartorics of "lohengrin"; but it was not that fact, nor yet the not entirely prohibitive difficulty of making shining armour out of tin cans, that nipped that classic conception in the bud. rather it was the astonishing unstable-mindedness displayed by the bergs when impinged upon from without. of the hundred or more hunks of floating ice within a five-hundred-yard radius of the point where our artificial berg had hit the water, only a half dozen or so of the broadest and flattest continued to expose the same profiles they had presented before the big splash. most of the others had turned over and over repeatedly, and one, which seemed to "hang" in almost perfect balance, continued slowly revolving like a patent churn. "lohengrin's barge," half a mile distant from the heart of the "birth splash" and lapped by but the lightest of expiring waves, was rolling drunkenly to port and starboard as though in the trough of the seas of a typhoon. it looked ready to turn turtle at a touch, and there were too many angular projections on it--especially about the "swans"--to make even a man who aspired to grand opera care to court lightly the experience of tangling himself up in the wreck. descending to the timber-line meadow where the horses had been left, we found harmon had brought up his outfit and pitched his tent midway of an enchanting vista framed in green-black pines and golden tamaracks, and with a wonderful background for "camp shots" both up and down the valley. there he was going to make his base, he said, until he found just the light he wanted on the lake of the hanging glaciers. then he hoped to get at least a negative or two that would do something approaching justice to so inspiring a subject. and there, working and waiting patiently through an almost unbroken succession of storms that raged in the high selkirks for many days, he held on until he got what he wanted. it was in that quiet persistent way that he had been photographing the mountains of the canadian west for many years, and it will be in that way that he will continue until he shall have attained somewhere near to the high goal he has set for his life's work--a complete photographic record of the rockies and selkirks. it is a privilege to have met an artist who works with so fine a spirit, who has set himself so high an ideal. a number of harmon's scenic pictures of the mountains where the columbia takes its rise are so much better than the best of my own of the same subjects, that i am giving them place in a work which it was my original intention to illustrate entirely myself. we returned to our camp at the head of horse thief creek that night, and set out on our return to windermere the following morning. save for a rather sloppy passage of the main ford, the journey was without incident. with light packs, we pushed right through to the head of the wagon-road--something over thirty miles--the first day. the seventeen miles to invermere we covered in a leisurely fashion, reaching the hotel at three in the afternoon of the following day, sunday, the twentieth of september. here i found a wire from chester, stating that it had finally proved impossible for him to get away from business, and asking me to go ahead and see the big bend trip through without him. in the event i decided to continue on down the river he would be glad to have his cameraman accompany me as long as the weather and light were favourable for his work. a letter with full instructions covering the two pictures he desired made had already been dispatched. chapter v canal flats to beavermouth chester's instructions respecting the two new pictures he wanted us to work on came through to roos the day following our return to windermere. one of these was to be confined entirely to the big bend voyage. essaying again my role of "gentleman-cum-sportsman," i was to get off the train at beavermouth, meet my boatman, launch the boat and start off down the river. the various things seen and done _en voyage_ were to make up the picture. in the other picture i was to play the part of a young rancher who was farming his hard-won clearing on the banks of the columbia near its source. with the last of his crops in, he is assailed one day with a great longing to see the ocean. suddenly it occurs to him that the river flowing right by his door runs all the way to the sea, and the sight of a prospector friend, about to push off with a sack of samples for the smelter many hundreds of miles below, suggests a means of making the journey. and so the two of them start off down the columbia. what happened to them on their way was to be told in the picture. the introductory scenes of this picture were to be made somewhere in the vicinity of windermere, but the thread of the story was to be picked up below the arrow lakes after the big bend voyage was over. hunting "location" and rainy weather kept us four or five days in windermere and vicinity, giving an opportunity we otherwise would have missed to meet and become acquainted with the always kindly and hospitable and often highly distinguished people of this beautiful and interesting community. from the time of david thompson, the great astronomer and explorer of the northwest company who wintered there in , down to the present windermere seems always to have attracted the right sort of people. the predominant class is what one might call the gentleman-farmer, with the stress perhaps on "gentleman." i mean to say, that is, that while a number of them have failed of outstanding achievement as farmers, there was none that i met who would not have qualified as a gentleman, and in the very best sense of the word. sportsmen and lovers of the out-of-doors, there was this fine bond of fellowship between all of them. nowhere have i encountered a fresher, more wholesome social atmosphere than that of this fine community of the upper columbia. that genial and big-hearted old scot, randolph bruce, i recall with especial affection, as must every one of the many who has known the hospitality of his great log lodge on a bay of the lake below invermere. an edinburgh engineer, bruce was one of the builders of the canadian pacific, and as such an associate and intimate of van horne, o'shaughnessy and the rest of those sturdy pioneers who pushed to accomplishment the most notable piece of railway construction the world has ever known. in love with the west by the time the railway was finished, he built him a home in the most beautiful spot he knew--such a spot as few even among the scottish lochs could rival--and associated himself with various projects for the advancement of the country. at the present time he is the owner of the paradise mine, one of the richest silver-lead properties in british columbia, and the head of an enterprise which purposes to bring the windermere region to its own among the grandest of the playgrounds of north america. we made the preliminary scenes for the "farmer" picture at a gem of a little mountain ranch in a clearing to the west of lake windermere. shooting through one of his favourite "sylvan frames," roos picked me up violently shocking hay at the end of a long narrow field which the labour of a young scotch immigrant had reclaimed from the encompassing forest. (as a matter of fact the hay was already in shocks when we arrived, and i had to unshock a few shocks so as to shock them up again before the camera and thus give the impression that this was the last of my season's crop.) then i threw up a couple of shocks for him set up at closer range, with more attention to "technique." (this latter came easy for me, as i had been pitching hay for a fortnight on my california ranch earlier in the summer.) finally i stopped work, leaned on my fork and gazed into the distance with visioning eyes. (i was supposed to be thinking of the sea, roos explained, and in the finished picture there would be a "cut-in" of breakers at this point.) then i registered "impatience" and "restlessness," hardening to "firm resolve." at this juncture i threw down my fork and strode purposefully out of the right side of the picture. (the cabin to which i was supposed to be striding was really on my left, but roos explained that some sort of a movie median law made it imperative always to exit to right.) then we went over to make the cabin shots. [illustration: old hudson bay cart at beavermouth (_above_)] [illustration: my first push-off at the head of canoe navigation on the columbia (_below_)] [illustration: opening scene of the "farmer" picture] [illustration: old stern wheelers at golden (_above_)] [illustration: a quiet stretch of the columbia near golden (_below_)] the owner of the cabin was away at the moment, but his young scotch wife--a bonnie bit of a lass who might have been the inspiration for "annie laurie"--was on hand and mightily interested. she asked if i was bill hart, and roos made the tactical error of guffawing, as though the idea was absurd. she was a good deal disappointed at that, but still very ready to help with anything calculated to immortalize her wee home by emblazoning it on the imperishable celluloid. first i strode into the cabin, but almost immediately to emerge unfolding a map. going over to a convenient stump, i sat down and disposed of a considerable footage of "intent study." then we made a close-up of the map--the pacific northwest--with my index finger starting at windermere and tracing the course of the columbia on its long winding way to the sea. that proved that there was water transit all the way to that previous cut-in of breakers which my visioning eyes had conjured up just before i threw down my fork. i stood up and gazed at the nearby river (which was really lake windermere, a mile distant), and presently stiffened to my full height, registering "discovery." what i was supposed to see was a prospector tinkering with his boat. as this latter scene could not be made until we had bought a boat and signed up a "prospector," all that was left to do here was to shoot me striding away from the cabin on the way to discuss ways and means with my mythical companion, and then striding back, getting my roll of blankets and exiting in a final fade-out. as we had neglected to provide a roll of blankets for this shot, we had to improvise one from such material as was available. i forget all that went to make up that fearful and wonderful package; but it is just as well the precariously-roped bundle didn't resolve into its component parts until the fade-out was pretty nearly complete. roos tried hard to introduce "human interest" and "heart appeal" by staging a farewell scene with "wife and child," both of which were ready to hand. i was adamant, however, even when he agreed to compromise by leaving out the child. he was rather stubborn about it, refusing to admit the validity of my argument to the effect that a would-be screen hero who deserted so fair a wife would alienate the sympathies of the crowd at the outset. finally it was decided for us. "it's too late noo," cooed a wee voice in which i thought i detected both reproach and relief; "while ye're talkin', yon cooms jock." it _was_ too late all right; even roos was ready to grant that. jock was about six-feet-three, and built in proportion. also a wee bitty dour, i thought. at least he glowered redly under his bushy brows when he discovered that i had wrapped up his own and another _nicht-goon_ in my hastily assembled blanket-roll. if that bothered him, i hate to think what might have happened had he surprised that farewell scene, especially as roos--with his mack sennett training and d. w. griffith ideals--would have tried to stage it. roos was young and inexperienced, and lacking in both finesse and subtlety. i granted that this wouldn't have cramped his style much in doing "old home town stuff;" but farther afield it was electric with dangerous possibilities. driving back to the hotel i quoted to him what kipling's hero in "the man who would be king" said on the subject, paraphrasing it slightly so he would understand. "a man has no business shooting farewell scenes with borrowed brides in foreign parts be he three times a crowned movie director," was the way i put it. it was my original intention to start the boating part of my columbia trip from golden, at the head of the big bend, the point at which the calm open reaches of the upper river give way to really swift water. the decision to make the push-off from beavermouth, twenty-nine miles farther down, was come to merely because it was much easier to get the boat into the water at the latter point. there was little swift-water boating worthy of the name above beavermouth. donald canyon was about the only rough water, and even that, i was assured, was not to be mentioned in the same breath with scores of rapids farther down the bend. in the ninety miles between the foot of lake windermere and golden there were but twenty-five feet of fall, so that the winding river was hardly more than a series of lagoon-like reaches, with a current of from one to four miles an hour. between columbia lake--practically the head of the main channel of the river--and mud lake, and between the latter and the head of lake windermere, there was a stream of fairly swift current, but at this time of year not carrying enough water to permit the passage of even a canoe without much lining and portaging. from the practical aspect, therefore, i was quite content with the plan to start my voyage from beavermouth. for the sake of sentiment, however, i _did_ want to make some kind of a push-off from the very highest point that offered sufficient water to float a boat at the end of september. this, i was assured in invermere, would be canal flats, just above the head of columbia lake and immediately below the abandoned locks which at one time made navigation possible between the kootenay and the columbia. although these crude log-built locks have never been restored since they were damaged by a great freshet in the nineties, and although the traffic they passed in the few years of their operation was almost negligible, it may be of interest to give a brief description of the remarkable terrain that made their construction possible by the simplest of engineering work, and to tell how the removal of a few shovelfuls of earth effected the practical insulation of the whole great range of the selkirks. as a consequence of recent geological study, it has been definitely established that the divide between the columbia and kootenay rivers, now at canal flats, was originally a hundred and fifty miles farther north, or approximately where donald canyon occurs. that is to say, a great wall of rock at the latter point backed up a long, narrow lake between the rockies on the east and the selkirks on the west. this lake, unable to find outlet to the north, had risen until its waters were sufficiently above the lower southern barriers to give it drainage in that direction. at that time it was doubtless the main source of the kootenay river, and its waters did not reach the columbia until after a long and devious southerly course into what is now montana, thence northward into kootenay lake, and finally, by a dizzy westerly plunge, into a much-extended arrow lake. an upheaval which carried away the dyke at donald provided a northward drainage for the lake, and the divide was ultimately established at what is now called canal flats. it was a shifting and precarious division, however, for the kootenay--which rises some distance to the northward in the rockies and is here a sizable stream--discharged a considerable overflow to the columbia basin at high water. it was this latter fact which called attention to the comparative ease with which navigation could be established between the two rivers by means of a canal. for an account of how this canal came to be built i am indebted to e. m. sandilands, esq., mining recorder for the british columbia government at wilmer, who has the distinction of being, to use his own language, "the person who made the selkirk mts. an island by connecting the columbia and kootenay rivers." mr. sandilands, in a recent letter, tells how an ex-big-game hunter by the name of baillie-grohman obtained, in , a concession from the provincial government of british columbia for , acres of land along the kootenay river. in return for this he was to construct at his own expense a canal connecting the columbia and kootenay. this cut was for the ostensible purpose of opening up navigation between the two streams, but as nothing was stipulated in respect of dredging approaches the obligation of the concessionaire was limited to the construction of the canal and locks. "for this reason," writes mr. sandilands, who was working on the job at the time, "our 'grand canal' was practically useless. nevertheless, in , it was opened with due form and pomp, engineer, contractor and concessionaire paddling up to the lock in a canoe well laden with the 'good cheer' demanded by such an occasion. i was driving a team attached to a 'slush-scraper,' and together with a jovial irish spirit who rejoiced in the name of thomas haggerty, was ordered by the foreman to scrape out the false dam holding the kootenay back from the canal. this we did as long as we dared. then i was deputed, with gum-boots and shovel, to dig a hole through what was left of the false dam, and allow the kootenay into the canal and the columbia. this being done, the fact was wired to the provincial government at victoria ..., and the promised concession of land was asked for and granted. i little thought at the time," mr. sandilands concludes, "how distinguished a part i was playing, that i was making the selkirk mountains an 'island,' a fact which few people realize to this day." later a little dredging was done, so that finally, by dint of much "capstaning," a shallow-draught stern-wheeler was worked up to and through the lock and canal, and on down the kootenay to jennings, montana. it was captain f. p. armstrong who performed this remarkable feat, only to lose the historic little craft later in one of the treacherous canyons of the kootenay. his also was the distinction, after maintaining an intermittent service between the columbia and kootenay for a number of years, of being the captain and owner of the last boat to make that amazing passage. we reached canal flats at the end of a forty-mile auto-ride from invermere. traces of the old dredged channel were still visible running up from the head of columbia lake and coming to an abrupt end against a caving wall of logs which must at one time have been a gate of the inter-river lock. out of the tangle of maiden hair fern which draped the rotting logs came a clear trickle of water, seeping through from the other side of the divide. this was what was popularly called the source of the columbia. i could just manage to scoop the river dry with a quick sweep of my cupped palm. a hundred yards below the source the old channel opened out into a quiet currentless pool, and here i found a half-filled peterboro belonging to a neighbouring farmer, which i had engaged for the first leg of my voyage down the columbia. it leaked rather faster than i could bail, but even at that it floated as long as there was water to float it. fifty yards farther down a broad mudbank blocked the channel all the way across, and in attempting to drag the old canoe out for the portage, i pulled it in two amidships. i had made my start from almost chock-a-block against the source, however. sentiment was satisfied. i was now ready for the bend. groping my way back to the car through an almost impenetrable pall of mosquitoes, i rejoined roos and we returned to invermere. a wire from blackmore stating that it would still be several days before his boat was ready for the bend offered us a chance to make the journey to golden by river if we so desired. there was nothing in it on the boating side, but roos thought there might be a chance for some effective scenic shots. i, also, was rather inclined to favour the trip, for the chance it would give of hardening up my hands and pulling muscles before tackling the bend. an unpropitious coincidence in the matter of an indian name defeated the plan. roos and i were trying out on lake windermere a sweet little skiff which randolph bruce had kindly volunteered to let us have for the quiet run down to golden. "by hard pulling," i said, "we ought just about to make spillimacheen at the end of the first day." "spill a what?" ejaculated roos anxiously; "you didn't say 'machine,' did you?" "yes; spillimacheen," i replied. "it's the name of a river that flows down to the columbia from the selkirks." "then that settles it for me," he said decisively. "i don't want to spill my machine. it cost fifteen hundred dollars. i'm not superstitious; but, just the same, starting out for a place with a name like that is too much like asking for trouble to suit yours truly." and so we went down to golden by train and put in the extra time outfitting for the bend. golden, superbly situated where the kicking horse comes tumbling down to join the columbia, is a typical western mining and lumbering town. save for their penchant for dramatizing the perils of the big bend, the people are delightful. it is true that the hospitable spirit of one goldenite _did_ get me in rather bad; but perhaps the fault was more mine than his. meeting him on the railway platform just as he was about to leave for vancouver, he spoke with great enthusiasm of his garden, and said that he feared some of his fine strawberries might be going to waste in his absence for lack of some one to eat them. i gulped with eagerness at that, and then told him bluntly--and truthfully--that i would willingly steal to get strawberries and cream, provided, of course, that they couldn't be acquired in some more conventional way. he hastened to reassure me, saying that it wouldn't be necessary to go outside the law in this case. "the first chance you get," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "just slip over and make love to my housekeeper, and tell her i said to give you your fill of berries and cream, and i have no doubt she'll provide for you." if his vancouver-bound train had not started to pull out just then, perhaps he would have explained that that accursed "love stuff" formula was a figure of speech. or perhaps he felt sure that i would understand it that way, if not at once, at least when the time came. and i would have, ordinarily. but my strawberry-and-cream appetite is so overpowering that, like the lions at feeding time, my finer psychological instincts are blunted where satiation is in sight. that was why i blurted out my hospitable friend's directions almost verbatim when i saw that the door of his home (to which i had rushed at my first opportunity) had been opened by a female. it was only after i had spoken that i saw that she was lean, angular, gimlet-eyed, and had hatred of all malekind indelibly stamped upon her dour visage. she drew in her breath whistlingly; then controlled herself with an effort. "i suppose i must give you the berries and cream," she said slowly and deliberately, the clearly enunciated words falling icily like the drip from the glacial grottoes at the head of the columbia; "but the--the other matter you would find a little difficult." "ye-es, ma'am," i quavered shiveringly, "i would. if you'll please send the strawberries and cream to the hotel i am quite content to have it a cash transaction." considering the way that rapier-thrust punctured me through and through, i felt that i deserved no little credit for sticking to my guns in the matter of the strawberries and cream. for the rest, i was floored. the next time any one tries to send me into the hesperides after free fruit i am going to know who is guarding the apples; and i am _not_ going to approach the delectable garden by the love-path. i had taken especial pains to warn roos what he would have to expect from golden in the matter of warnings about the big bend, but in spite of all, that garrulous social centre, the town pool-room, did manage to slip one rather good one over on him before we got away. "how long does it take to go round the bend?" he had asked of a circle of trappers and lumber-jacks who were busily engaged in their favourite winter indoor-sport of decorating the pool-room stove with a frieze of tobacco juice. "figger it fer yerself, sonny," replied a corpulent woodsman with a bandaged jaw. "if yer gets inter yer boat an' lets it go in that ten-twent'-thirt' mile current, it's a simpl' problum of 'rithmatick. if yer ain't dished in a souse-hole, yer _has_ ter make revelstoke insider one day. as yer has ter do sum linin' to keep right side up, it's sum slower. best time any of us makes it in is two days. but we never rushes it even like that 'nless we're hurryin' the cor'ner down ter sit on sum drownded body." as the whole court had nodded solemn acquiescence to this, and as none had cracked anything remotely resembling a smile, roos was considerably impressed--not to say depressed. (so had i been the first time i heard that coroner yarn.) nor did he find great comfort in the hotel proprietor's really well-meant attempt at reassurance. "don't let that story bother you, my boy," the genial mcconnell had said; "they _never_ did take the coroner round the big bend. fact is, there _never_ was a coroner here that had the guts to tackle it!" we met blackmore at beavermouth the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of september. he reported that his boat had been shipped from revelstoke by that morning's way freight, and should arrive the following day. as i had been unable to engage a boatman in golden, and as blackmore had found only one in revelstoke to suit him, it was decided to give me an oar and a pike-pole and make out the best we could without another man. i had brought provisions for a fortnight with me from golden, and blackmore had tents and canvases. through the efforts of influential friends in golden i had also been able to secure two bottles of prime demerara rum. knowing that i was going to pick up at least one cask of scotch on the way, and perhaps two or three, i had not been very keen about bothering with the rum. but on the assurance that it might well be two or three days before any whisky was found, and that getting wet in the columbia without something to restore the circulation was as good as suicide, i allowed myself to be persuaded. it was wonderful stuff--thirty per cent. over-proof; which means that it could be diluted with four parts of water and still retain enough potency to make an ordinary man blink if he tried to bolt it. we did find one man--but he was not ordinary by any means; far from it. i will tell about "wild bill" in the proper place. there was a wonderful _aurora borealis_ that night--quite the finest display of the kind i recall ever having seen in either the northern or southern hemispheres. blackmore--weather-wise from long experience--regarded the marvellous display of lambently licking light streamers with mixed feelings. "yes, it's a fine show," he said, following the opalescent glimmer of the fluttering pennants with a dubious eye; "but i'm afraid we'll have to pay through the nose for it. it means that in a couple of days more the rain will be streaming down as fast as those lights are streaming up. just about the time we get well into surprise rapids there will be about as much water in the air as in the river. however, it won't matter much," he concluded philosophically, "for we'll be soaked anyway, whether we're running or lining, and rain water's ten degrees warmer than river water." chapter vi i. running the bend _through surprise rapids_ we pushed off from beavermouth at three o'clock of the afternoon of september twenty-ninth. we had hoped for an early start, but the erratically running local freight, six or eight hours behind time, did not arrive with our boat until noon. the introductory shots had already been made. made up momentarily as a gentleman--wearing an ankle length polished waterproof and a clean cap, that is,--i jumped the westbound limited as it slowed down on entering the yard, dropping off presently at the platform with a "here-i-am" expression when roos signalled that the focus was right. then i shook hands with the waiting blackmore, and together we strode to the door of the station and met the previously-rehearsed agent. (roos had wanted me to shake hands with the agent as well as with blackmore, but i overruled him by pointing out that i was a "gentleman-sportsman" not a "gentleman-politician," and served notice on him that pump-handling must henceforth be reduced to a minimum.) we tried to perfect the agent in a sweeping gesture that would say as plainly as words "the train with your boat is just around that next bend, sir," but somehow we couldn't prevent his trying to elevate his lowly part. his lips mumbled the words we had put on them all right, but the gesture was a grandiose thing such as a chesterfieldian footman might have employed in announcing "my lord, the carriage waits." roos, in all innocence, narrowly missed provoking a fight with a hot-tempered half-breed while he was setting up to shoot the incoming freight. he had an ingenious method of determining, without bending over his finder, just what his lens was going to "pick-up." this consisted of holding his arms at full length, with his thumbs placed tip to tip and the forefingers standing straight up. the right-angling digits then framed for his eye an approximation of his picture. to one not used to it this esoteric performance looked distinctly queer, especially if he chanced to be standing somewhere near the arch priest's line of vision. and that, as it happened, was exactly the place from which it was revealed to the choleric near-shuswap section hand. i didn't need the breed's subsequent contrite explanation to know that, from where he had been standing, those twiddling thumbs and fingers, through the great fore-shortening of the arms, looked to be right on the end of the nose of the grimacing little man by the camera. not even a self-respecting white man would have stood for what that twiddling connoted, let alone a man in whose veins flowed blood that must have been something like fifteen-sixteenths of the proudest of canadian strains. luckily, both blackmore and his burly boatman were men of action. even so, it was a near squeeze for both camera and cameraman. roos emerged unscarred in anything but temperament. and, of course, as every one even on the fringes of the movies knows, the temperaments of both stars and directors are things that require frequent harrowing to keep them in good working order. roos' filming of the unloading of the boat was the best thing he did on the trip. every available man in beavermouth was requisitioned. this must have been something like twenty-five or thirty. a half dozen, with skids and rollers, could have taken the boat off without exerting themselves seriously, but could hardly have "made it snappy." and action was what the scene demanded. there was no time for a rehearsal. the agent simply told us where the car would be shunted to, blackmore figured out the best line from there over the embankment and through the woods to the river, and roos undertook to keep up with the procession with his camera. blackmore was to superintend the technical operation and i was ordered to see that the men "acted natural." and thus we went to it. the big boat, which must have weighed close to half a ton, came off its flat car like a paper shallop, but the resounding thwack with which her bows hit a switch-frog awakened blackmore's concern. "easy! easy! don't bust her bottom," he began shouting; while i, on the other side, took up my refrain of "don't look at the camera!--make it snappy." the consequence of these diametrically opposed orders was that the dozen or more men on my side did most of the work. but even so it was "snappy"--very. down the embankment we rushed like a speeding centipede, straight at the fine hog-proof wire fence of the c. p. r. right-of-way. that fence may have been hog-proof, but it was certainly not proof against the charge of a thirty-foot boat coming down a fifty per cent. grade pushed by twenty-five men. we had intended lifting over it, but our momentum was too great, especially after i had failed to desist from shouting "make it snappy!" soon enough. the barrier gave way in two or three places, so that we were shedding trailing lengths of wire all the way to the river. on through the woods we juggernauted, roos following in full cry. his city "news stuff" training was standing him in good stead, and he showed no less cleverness than agility in making successive "set-ups" without staying our progress. only in the last fifty yards, where the going over the moss and pine needles was (comparatively speaking) lightning fast, did we distance him. here, as there was plenty of time, he cut a hole in the trees and shot the launching through one of his favourite "sylvan frames." for the push-off shot he provided his customary heart throb by bringing down the station agent's three-year-old infant to wave farewell. that he didn't try to feature the mother prominently seemed to indicate that what i had said at windermere on the subject had had some effect. after the "farewell" had been filmed, we landed at the fire ranger's cabin to pick up roos and his camera. the ranger told us that a couple of trappers who had been for some weeks engaged in portaging their winter supplies round surprise rapids would be waiting for us at the head of the first fall in the expectation of getting the job of packing our stuff down to the foot. "nothing doing," blackmore replied decisively; "going straight through." the ranger grinned and shook his grizzled head. "you're the man to do it," he said; "but jest the same, i'm glad it's you and not me that has the job." the station agent came down with roos, evidently with the cheering purpose of showing us the place where his predecessor and a couple of other men had been drowned in attempting to cross the river some months previously. "only man in the boat to be picked up alive was a one-armed chap," he concluded impressively. "too late now for operations on any of this crew," laughed blackmore, pushing off with a pike-pole. "besides, every man jack of us is going to have a two-arm job all the way." to the parting cheers of the mackinawed mob on the bank, he eased out into the current and headed her down the bend. [illustration: arrival of our boat at beavermouth (_above_)] [illustration: our first camp at beavermouth (_centre_)] [illustration: the remains of a sunken forest (_below_)] [illustration: trapper's cabin where we found shelter for the night (_above_)] [illustration: where we landed above surprise rapids (_centre_)] [illustration: where we tied up at "eight mile" (_below_)] roos stationed himself in the bow, with camera set up on its shortened tripod, waiting to surprise any scenery caught lurking along the way. blackmore steered from the stern with his seven-feet-long birch paddle. andy kitson and i, pulling starboard and port oars respectively, rubbed shoulders on the broad 'midship's thwart. our outfit--a comparatively light load for so large a boat--was stowed pretty well aft. i saw blackmore lean out to "con ship" as we got under way. "good trim," he pronounced finally, with an approving nod. "just load enough to steady her, and yet leave plenty of freeboard for the sloppy water. this ought to be a dryer run than some the old girl's had." i chuckled to myself over that "dryer." i hadn't told blackmore yet what was hidden down canoe river way. i had promised captain armstrong not to do so until i had ascertained that we had a teetotal crew--or one comparatively so. andy kitson was a big husky north-of-irelander, who had spent twenty years trapping, packing, hunting, lumbering and boating in western canada. like the best of his kind, he was deliberate and sparing of speech most of the time, but with a fine reserve vocabulary for emergency use. he was careful and cautious, as all good river boatmen should be, but decidedly "all there" in a pinch. he pulled a good round-armed thumping stroke with his big oar, and took to the water (as has to be done so frequently on a bad stretch of "lining down") like a beaver. best of all, he had a temper which nothing from a leak in the tent dribbling down his neck to a half hour up to his waist in ice-cold water seemed equal to ruffling. i liked andy the moment i set eyes on his shining red gill, and i liked him better and better every day i worked and camped with him. as it was three-thirty when we finally pushed off, blackmore announced that he would not try to make farther than "eight-mile" that afternoon. with comparatively good water all the way to the head of surprise rapids, we could have run right on through, he said; but that would force us to make camp after dark, and he disliked doing that unless he had to. in a current varying from three to eight miles an hour, we slid along down stream between banks golden-gay with the turning leaves of poplar, cottonwood and birch, the bright colours of which were strikingly accentuated by the sombre background of thick-growing spruce, hemlock, balsam and fir. yellow, in a score of shades, was the prevailing colour, but here and there was a splash of glowing crimson from a patch of _chin-chinick_ or indian tobacco, or a mass of dull maroon where a wild rose clambered over the thicket. closely confined between the rockies to the right and the selkirks to the west, the river held undeviatingly to its general northwesterly course, with only the patchiest of flats on either side. and this was the openest part of the bend, blackmore volunteered; from the head of surprise rapids to the foot of priest rapids the columbia was so steeply walled that we would not find room for a clearing large enough to support a single cow. "it's a dismal hole, and no mistake," he said. we took about an hour to run to "eight mile," andy and i pulling steadily all the way in the deep, smoothly-running current. we tied up in a quiet lagoon opening out to the west--evidently the mouth of a high-water channel. there was a magnificent stand of fir and spruce on a low bench running back from the river, not of great size on account of growing so thickly, but amazing lofty and straight. we camped in the shelter of the timber without pitching a tent, andy and blackmore sleeping in the open and roos and i in a tumble-down trapper's cabin. or rather we spread our blankets in the infernal hole. as the place was both damp and rat-infested, we did not sleep. roos spent the night chopping wood and feeding the rust-eaten--and therefore smoky--sheet-iron stove. i divided my time between growling at roos for enticing me into keeping him company in the cabin against blackmore's advice, and throwing things at the prowling rodents. it did not make for increased cheerfulness when i hit him on the ear with a hob-nailed boot that i had intended for a pair of eyes gleaming vitreously on a line about six inches back of his gloomily bowed head. he argued--and with some reason i must admit--that i had no call to draw so fine a bead until i was surer of my aim. largely as a point of repartee, i told him not to be too certain i was not sure of my aim. but i really had been trying to hit the rat.... i took the temperature of the air and the river water in the morning, finding the former to register thirty-eight degrees and the latter forty-one. there was a heavy mist resting on the river for a couple of hours after daybreak, but it was lifting by the time we were ready to push off. in running swift water good visibility is even more imperative than at sea, but as there was nothing immediately ahead to bother blackmore did not wait for it to clear completely. the sun was shining brightly by nine-thirty, and roos made several shots from the boat and one or two from the bank. one of the most remarkable sights unfolded to us was that of "snag town." just what was responsible for this queer maze of upended trees it would be hard to say. it seems probable, however, that a series of heavy spring floods undermined a considerable flat at the bend of the river, carrying away the earth and leaving the trees still partially rooted. the broadening of the channel must have slowed down the current a good deal, and it appears never to have been strong enough to scour out below the tenaciously clinging roots. the former lords of the forest are all dead, of course, but still they keep their places, inclining down-stream perhaps twenty-degrees from their former proud perpendicular, and firmly anchored. it takes careful steering to thread the maze even in a small boat, but the current is hardly fast enough to make a collision of serious moment. the current quickened for a while beyond "snag town" and then began slowing again, the river broadening and deepening meanwhile. i thought i read the signs aright and asked blackmore. "yes," he replied with a confirmatory nod; "it's the river backing up for its big jump. stop pulling a minute and you can probably hear the rapid growling even here." andy and i lay on our oars and listened. there it was surely enough, deep and distant but unmistakable--the old familiar drum-roll of a big river beating for the charge. it was tremendous music--heavy, air-quivering, earth-shaking; more the diapason of a great cataract than an ordinary rapid, it seemed to me. i was right. surprise is anything but an ordinary rapid. we pulled for a half hour or more down a broad stretch of slackening water that was more like a lake than a river. out of the looming shadows of the banks for a space, mountain heights that had been cut off leaped boldly into view, and to left and right lifted a lofty sky-line notched with snowy peaks rising from corrugated fields of bottle-green glacier ice. mt. sanford, loftiest of the selkirks, closed the end of the bosky perspective of gold creek, and the coldly chiselled pyramids of lyell, bryce and columbia pricked out the high points on the continental divide of the rockies. we held the vivid double panorama--or quadruple, really, for both ranges were reflected in the quiet water--for as long as it took us to pull to a beach at the narrowing lower end of the long lake-like stretch above the rapids, finally to lose it as suddenly as it had been opened to us behind the imminently-rearing river walls. the two trappers of whom the fire-ranger at beavermouth had spoken were waiting for us on the bank. they had permits for trapping on a couple of the creeks below kinbasket lake, and were getting down early in order to lay out their lines by the time the season opened a month or so hence. they had been packing their stuff over the three-mile portage to the foot of the rapids during the last three weeks, and now, with nothing left to go but their canoes, were free to give us a hand if we wanted them. blackmore replied that he could save time and labour by running and lining the rapids. "besides," he added with a grin, "i take it these movie people have come out to get pictures of a river trip, not an overland journey." the trappers took the dig in good part, but one of them riposted neatly. since he was out for furs, he said, and was not taking pictures or boot-legging, time was not much of an object. the main thing with him was to reach his destination with his winter's outfit. if all the river was like surprise rapids he would be quite content to go overland all the way. neither of them made any comments on the stage of the water or offered any suggestions in connection with the job we had ahead. that was one comfort of travelling with blackmore. in all matters pertaining to river work his judgment appeared to be beyond criticism. if he was tackling a stunt with a considerable element of risk in it, that was his own business. no one else knew the dangers, and how to avoid them, so well as he. blackmore looked to the trim of the boat carefully before shoving off, putting her down a bit more by the stern it seemed to me. he cautioned me on only one point as we pulled across the quarter of mile to where the banks ran close together and the quiet water ended. "don't never dip deep in the white water, and 'specially in the swirls," he said, stressing each word. "if you do, a whirlpool is more'n likely to carry your oar-blade under the boat and tear out half the side 'fore you can clear your oar-lock. that's the way that patched gunnel next you came to get smashed." as we were about at the point where it is well to confine all the talking done in the boat to one man, i refrained from replying that i had been told the same thing in a dozen or so languages, on four different continents, and by "skippers" with black, yellow and copper as well as white skins, at fairly frequent intervals during the last fifteen years. there were enough slips i might make, but that of dipping deep in rough water was hardly likely to be one of them. the rumble of the rapid grew heavier as we proceeded, but only a single flickering white "eyelash" revealed the imminent ambush lurking beyond the black rocks. the current accelerated rapidly as the walls closed in, but ran easily, effortlessly, unripplingly, and with an almost uncanny absence of swirls and eddies. "have plenty way on her 'fore she hits the suds," cautioned blackmore, and andy and i grunted in unison as we leaned a few more pounds of beef onto our bending spruces. that started our inside elbows to bumping, but without a word each of us sidled along an inch or two toward his gunwale to get well set while yet there was time. with an easy bob--quick like a rowboat rides the bow wave of a steamer, but smoother, easier in its lift--we ran into the head of the rapid. there was a swift v-shaped chute of smooth jade-green water; then we slapped right into the "suds." high-headed waves slammed against the bows and threw spray all over the boat and far astern of it. but they lacked jolt. they had too much froth and not enough green water to make them really formidable. we were in rough but not really bad water. i tried to grin at blackmore to show him i understood the situation and was enjoying it highly; but his eyes, pin-points of concentration under bent brows, were directed over my head and far in advance. plainly, he was thinking as well as looking well ahead. reassured by the smart way we were slashing through that first riffle, i ventured to steal a look over my shoulder. in the immediate foreground roos, with his waterproof buttoned close around his neck, was shaking the spray out of his hair and watching for a chance to snap with his kodak. ahead there was perhaps another hundred yards of about the same sort of water as that in which we were running; then a yeasty welter of white where the river disappeared round a black cliff into what seemed a narrow gorge. opposite the cliff the river wall sloped slightly and was thickly covered with a dense growth of evergreen. the heavy roar we had been hearing for hours was still muffled. evidently the main disturbance was somewhere beyond the bend at the cliff. the thunder of falling water grew louder as we headed down toward the white smother in the embrasure of the bend, and it was from blackmore's lips rather than from any words i heard that i gathered that he was calling for "more way!" still keeping fairly good stroke, andy and i quickly had her going enough faster than the current to give the big paddle all the steerage "grip" blackmore could ask for. swinging her sharply to the right, he headed her past the out-reaching rock claws at the foot of the cliff, and, with a sudden blaze of light and an ear-shattering rush of sound we were into the first and worst fall of surprise rapids. that dual onslaught of light and sound had something of the paralyzing suddenness of that which occurs when a furnace door is thrown wide and eye and ear are assailed at the same instant with the glare and the roar from within. one moment we were running in a shadowed gorge with a heavy but deadened and apparently distant rumble sounding somewhere ahead; the next we were in the heart of a roar that fairly scoured our ear-drums, and blinking in a fluttering white light that seemed to sear the eyeballs. the one hurried glance that i threw behind me as i began floundering on the end of my kicking oar photographed an intensely vivid picture on my memory. what had been merely a swiftly-flowing river with a streak of silver riffles down the middle had changed to a tumultuous tumble of cascades that gleamed in solid white from bank to bank like the churned snow of a freshly descended avalanche. there was no green water whatever; not even a streak that was tinged with green. all that relieved the coruscating, sun-silvered tumble of whiteness were the black tips of jutting bedrock, sticking up through the foam they had churned. the deeply shadowed western wall, hanging above the river like a dusky pall, served only to accentuate by contrast the intense white light that danced above the cascade. it was as though the golden yellow had been filtered out of the sunlight in the depths, and only the pure blue-white of calcium reflected back into the atmosphere. heavy as was the fall of the river over the stretch we had now entered, i could just make out a point perhaps a half mile farther down where it dropped out of sight entirely. that, i told myself, must be the place where there was an unbroken reef of bedrock all the way across the stream, and where there was an abrupt drop of eight or ten feet. a great throbbing rumble cutting into the slightly higher-keyed roar that already engulfed us also seemed to indicate that the steepest pitch had not yet been reached. i had, of course, seen worse water than this, but certainly had never (as appeared to be the case now) been irretrievably committed to running it. i had heard that it was quite unrunnable in any kind of a boat, it certainly looked unrunnable, and i seemed to have the impression that blackmore had said he was not intending to run it. yet here we were into it, and without (so far as i could see) anything to do but drive ahead. however, that was blackmore's affair.... the rather smart team-work which andy and i had maintained for a while dissolved like the morning mists as we banged in among the walloping rollers at the head of the real cascade. both of us were in difficulties, but his round-armed thumping stroke seemed rather more true to form than the shattered remnants of my fine straight-armed slide-and-recover, with its dainty surface-skimming "feather." nothing but the sharpest of dabs with the tip of an oar can get any hold in a current of fifteen to twenty miles an hour, and the short, wristy pull (which is all there is time for) doesn't impart a lot of impulse to a thirty-foot boat. that, and the staggering buffets on the bows, for it was solid, lumpy water that was coming over us now, quickly reduced our headway. (headway _through_ the current, i mean; our headway floating _in_ the current was terrific.) this was, of course, a serious handicap to blackmore, as it deprived him of much of the steerage-way upon which he was dependent for quick handling of the boat. the difficulty of maintaining steerage-way in rough water with oars makes a bow as well as a stern paddle very desirable in running bad rapids. the bow paddler can keep a very sharp lookout for rocks immediately ahead, and, in a pinch, can jerk the boat bodily to one side or the other, where oarsmen have to _swing_ it. however, blackmore knew just what he was going up against, and had made the best disposition possible of his available crew. i was too busy keeping myself from being bucked off the thwart by my floundering oar to steal more than that first hurried look over my shoulder. it was not my concern what was ahead anyway. all i had to do was to take a slap at the top of a wave every time i saw a chance, and be ready to back, or throw my weight into a heavy stroke, when blackmore needed help to turn her this way or that. my signal--a jerk of the steersman's head to the left--came sooner than i expected. it looked a sheer impossibility to drive through the maze of rocks to the bank, yet that--after a long, anxious look ahead--was evidently what he had decided to attempt. as it was my oar he called on, i knew it was the right or east bank, a sharply sloping reach of black bedrock littered with water-scoured boulders. by the way blackmore was leaning onto his paddle i knew that he needed all the pull i could give him to bring her round. swinging back hard, i threw every pound i had onto my oar. for an instant the lack of resistance as the blade tore through foam nearly sent me reeling backwards; then it bit into solid water, and, under impulse of oar and paddle, the boat pivoted through more than half a quadrant and shot straight for the bank. right in where the black rock tips were scattered like the raisins in a pudding he headed her. there was no room to use the oars now, but she still carried more than enough way to send her to the bank. or rather, it would have carried her through if the course had been clear. missing two or three rocks by inches, she rasped half her length along another, and onto a fourth--lurking submerged by a foot--she jammed full tilt. it was her port bow that struck, and from the crash it seemed impossible that she could have escaped holing. andy went over the side so suddenly that, until i saw him balancing on a rock and trying to keep the boat from backing off into the current, i thought he had been thrown overboard by the impact. thumping her bow with his boot, he reported her leaking slightly but not much damaged. then, swinging her round into an eddy, he jumped off into the waist-deep water and led her unresistingly up against the bank. it was astonishing to see so wild a creature so suddenly become tame. we would have to "line down" from here to the foot of the first fall, blackmore said. while roos was setting up his camera the veteran explained that he could have run four or five hundred yards farther down, right to the brink of the "tip off," but that he preferred getting in out of the wet where he had a good landing. i agreed with him heartily--without putting it in words. but if that was his idea of a "good landing place," i hoped he would continue to avoid bad ones. the basic principles of "lining down" are the same on all rivers. where water is too rough to run, it is the last resort before portaging. as generally practised, one man, walking along the bank, lets the boat down with a line, while another--or as many others as are available--keeps it off the rocks with poles. "lining" can be effected more rapidly and with much less effort if one man remains in the boat and fends off with his pole from there. this is much the better method where the fall is not too great and the water comparatively warm. on the upper columbia, where the breaking away of a boat from a line means its almost inevitable loss with all on board, it is resorted to only when absolutely necessary, and when a man of great experience is handling the line. it takes a natural aptitude and years of experience for a man to master all the intricacies of "lining." i shall not endeavour to enumerate even the few that i am familiar with; but the one thing beyond all others to avoid is letting the bow of the boat swing outwards when the stern is held up by a rock. this brings the full current of the river against its up-stream side, exerting a force that a dozen men could not hold against, let alone one or two. as blackmore was noted for his mastery of the "lining" game, however, we had no apprehension of trouble in this department. nothing of the outfit save the moving picture camera was removed from the boat at this juncture. coiling his line--something over a hundred feet of half-inch manila hemp--over his left arm, blackmore signalled andy to shove off. paying out the line through his right hand, he let the eddy carry the boat out into the drag of the current. armed with long pike-poles, andy and i ran on ahead to keep it clear of the banks as it swung in. this was easy enough as long as we had only the bank to contend with. but almost immediately the trouble which makes surprise rapids one of the nastiest stretches on any river in the world to line began to develop. this came from the submerged rocks which crop up all along between the banks and the deeper water of mid-channel. pulling her up and releasing her with a hand that reminded me of that of a consummate natural horseman, blackmore nursed the boat along and managed to avoid most of these obstructions. but every now and then she would wedge between a close-set pair of boulders and resist the force of the current to drive her on. at such times it was up to andy and me to wade in and try to dislodge her with our poles. failing this, we had to wade out still farther and lift her through. andy always took the lead in this lifting business, claiming that it required a lot of experience to know just the instant to stop shoving at the boat as she began to move, and start bracing against the current to keep from getting carried away. i have no doubt he was right. in any event he would never let me come out until he had tugged and hauled for several minutes trying to budge her alone, and even then--notwithstanding his four or five inches less of height--he always took his station in the deepest hole. two or three times, shaking himself like a newfoundland, he came out wet to the armpits with the icy water. as the sun was beating hotly upon the rocks, however, neither of us felt the cold much that afternoon. a few days later it was another story. we made something like eight or nine hundred yards before we stopped--right to the head of the roaring chute that ran down to the sheer drop-off. roos--always at his best when there was plenty of unpremeditated action going on, so that "directorial" worries sat lightly on him--followed us closely all the way. it was hard enough keeping one's footing on those ice-slippery boulders at all; how he managed it with something like a hundred pounds of camera and tripod over his shoulder and a bulky case in one hand is more than i can figure. but he did it, keeping close enough so that he got just about everything without having to ask us to do it over again. this latter was a good deal of a comfort, especially in those waist-deep-in-the-columbia lifting stunts. i had always hated "lining down," even in the tropics, and i already saw that what we had ahead wasn't going to modify my feelings for the better. at the head of that rough-and-tumble cascade leading to the fall, blackmore decided that we would have to unload the boat completely before trying to let her down. it was always bad business there at the best, he said, and the present stage of water made the rocks quite a bit worse than when either higher or lower. if we hustled, there ought to be time to get through before dark, and then a half mile run would take us to a good camping place near the head of the second fall. here roos intervened to point out that the sun was already behind the western wall, and asking if it wouldn't be possible to camp where we were. he wanted to keep the "continuity" of this particular piece of "lining" unbroken, and would need good light to finish it in. blackmore said he could manage the camp if we thought our ear-drums would stand the roar. so we unloaded the boat, and blackmore leading her into the quietest pool he could find, moored her for the night. as there was a couple of feet of "lop" even there, this was rather a nice operation. with lines to stern and bow, and held off from the rocks on either side by lashed pike-poles, she looked for all the world like some fractious horse that had been secured to prevent its banging itself up against the sides of its stall. it was a beastly job, carrying the fifteen or twenty heavy parcels of the outfit a hundred yards over those huge polished boulders to the bit of sand-bar where camp was to be pitched. my old ankles--endlessly sprained during my football days--protested every step of my several round trips, and i congratulated myself that i had had the foresight to bring leather braces to stiffen them. reeking with perspiration after i had thrown down my last load, i decided to use the river for a bath that i would have to take anyway on shifting from my wet clothes. the half-glacial water was not a lot above freezing, of course; but that is of small moment when one has plenty of animal heat stored up to react against it. my worst difficulty was from the bumpiness of my rocky bathing pool, which also had a rather troublesome undercurrent pulling out toward the racing chute of the main channel. blackmore, pop-eyed with astonishment, came down to watch the show. it was the first time he had ever seen a man take a voluntary bath in surprise rapids, he said. and all the others--the involuntary bathers--they had picked up later in kinbasket lake. that was about the most restricted space i can recall ever having camped in. the great boulders of the high-water channel extended right up to the foot of the mountain wall and neither the one nor the other afforded enough level space to set a doll's house. a four-by-six patch of sand was the most extensive area that seemed to offer, and, doubling this in size by cutting away a rotting spruce stump and a section of fallen birch, there was just enough room for the little shed-tent. it was a snug and comfortable camp, though, and highly picturesque, perched as it was almost in the spray of the cascade. the noise was the worst thing, and we would have had to stay there even longer than we did to become quite used to it. all of us were shouting in each other's ears for days afterwards, and even trying to converse in signs in the idyllic quietude of kinbasket lake. the storm which blackmore's seer-like vision had descried in the blue-green auroral flutters of a couple of nights previously arrived quite on schedule. although the western sky had glowed for half an hour after sunset with that supposedly optimistic tinge of primrose and terra-cotta, it was pouring before midnight, and the next morning there was truly almost as much water in the air as in the river. pictures were out of the question, so there was nothing to do but hang on until the weather cleared. leaving roos whittling and andy struggling to divert a swelling young river that was trying to sluice away the sand on which the tent was pitched, blackmore and i pulled on our waterproofs and clambered a mile through the woods to a camp of c. p. r. engineers. blackmore wanted to get an extra axe; i to get some further data on the fall of the river. we found a crude cable-ferry thrown across just below the foot of the big fall, and a rough, boggy path from the eastern end of it took us to the camp of three or four comfortable cabins. the canadian pacific, i learned--both on account of the high and increasing cost of its oil fuel and because of the trouble experienced in clearing their tunnels from smoke--was contemplating the electrification of all of its mountain divisions. there were numerous high falls along the line where power could be economically developed, but it was not considered desirable that the scenic beauty of these should be marred by diversion. besides the columbia, in a hundred miles of the big bend, offered the opportunity for developing more hydro-electric energy than all the west of canada could use in the next twenty years. the surprise rapids project alone would provide far more power than the canadian pacific could use for traction, and it was expected that there would be a large surplus for municipal and industrial uses along the line. "all this, of course," the engineer at the camp explained, "in the event the company decides to go ahead with the development. raising the money will probably be the greatest difficulty, and in the present state of the financial market it is hard to see how much can be done for two or three years. in the meantime we are measuring the flow of the river every day, and will have accurate data to go by when the time for construction comes." i learned that the total length of surprise rapids was three and a third miles, in which distance there was a fall of nearly one hundred feet. the greatest drop was in that stretch which we were waiting to "line," where there was a fall of twenty-one feet in seven hundred and fifty. at the second cascade there was a fall of fifteen feet in twelve hundred, and at the third, twenty-five feet in twenty-five hundred. it was planned to build the dam across the very narrow canyon near the foot of the lower fall, making it of such a height that a lake would be backed up as far as beavermouth, incidentally, of course, wiping out the whole of surprise rapids. "they can't wipe it out any too soon to suit me," blackmore commented on hearing this. "it'd have saved me a lot of work and many a wetting if they'd wiped it out twenty year ago. and that's saying nothing of the men drownded there. it was that big whirlpool down through the trees there that did for walter steinhoff." we had left the camp now and were picking our way down the narrow trail to the foot of the second fall. i had been waiting to hear blackmore speak of steinhoff for two reasons: first, because i was curious to know how much truth there was in those dramatic versions of his death i had heard in golden, and also because the subject would lead up naturally to that of the buried whisky. this latter was rather too delicate a matter to broach offhand, and i had therefore been carefully watching for a favourable opening. now that it had come, i was quick to take advantage of it. "tell me about steinhoff," i said. "he was on some kind of a boot-legging stunt, wasn't he?" i was just a bit diffident about bringing up that drink-running business, for although i had been told that blackmore was a smooth hand at the game himself, i had a sort of sneaking idea that it was the kind of a thing a man ought to be sensitive about, like having had smallpox or a sister in the movies. i need not have worried, however. "you bet he was boot-legging," blackmore replied; "and so was i. both outfits heading for _tete jaune cache_ on the grand trunk, and racing to get there first. that was what got him into trouble--trying to catch up with me after i had passed him by running and lining the first fall (the one we are doing the same way now) while he had portaged. i reckon it was his first intention to portage all the way to the foot of the second fall, but when he saw me slip by in the water he put in his canoes at the foot of the first fall and came after me." we had come out above the river now, and i saw a savage stretch of foam-white water falling in a roaring cascade to a mighty whirlpool that filled all of the bottom of the steeply-walled amphitheatre formed by a right-angling bend of the columbia. thirty feet or more above the present level of the whirlpool were the marks of its swirling scour at mid-summer high-water. awesome enough now (and it was not any the less so to me since we still had to take the boat through it), i could see at once that, with the power of the floods driving it round and round at turbine speed, it must indeed be a veritable thing of terror. it was into this whirlpool, as well as others at revelstoke canyon and death rapids, that whole uprooted pines were said to be sucked in flood-time, to reappear only as battered logs many miles below. there seemed hardly enough water there at the present to make this possible; but the story was at least credible to me now, which was more than it had been previously. "so this is your 'all day sucker,'" i remarked carelessly, in a studied attempt to keep blackmore from noting how greatly the savage maelstrom had impressed me. seeing through the bluff, he grinned indulgently and resumed his story of steinhoff as soon as we had moved far enough round the whirlpool to make his voice comfortably heard above the roar of the cascade. a line had parted--sawed through in working round a rocky point a few hundred yards above--and steinhoff's big peterboro was swept out into the current. striking a rock, it turned over and threw him into the water. he made a brave effort to swim out, keeping his head above water most of the way down the cascade. the whirlpool had been too much for him, however. he was fighting hard to keep up when he was carried into the vortex and sucked under. blackmore took no stock in the story of the dramatic gesture of farewell. "a man don't pull that grand opry stuff with the cold of the columbia biting into his spine," was the way he put it. then i told him about the whisky--spoke to him as a son to his father. and he, meeting me point for point in all seriousness of spirit, answered as father to son. he thought there was little chance of finding anything along the river. he had not done so himself for a number of years--and he hadn't been overlooking any bets, either. there was, of course, still much good stuff buried in the drift below middle river, but it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack trying to find it. but the cache above canoe river--ah, that was another matter! captain armstrong could be absolutely depended upon in a matter of that kind, and the directions sounded right as rain. yes, he quite understood that i should want to take it all to california with me. he would want to do the same thing if he were in my place. it would be easy as picking pippins getting it over the line. he could tell me three different ways, all of them dead sure. he would not think of taking any of it for himself. the rum we had would be ample for the trip, except in extreme emergency. that "thirty over-proof" went a long way. and i need not worry in the least about andy. he wasn't a teetotaler exactly, but he never took too much under any provocation. yes, i could depend upon the both of them to nose out that stuff at the old ferry. put it there! we looked each other square in the eye, and shook hands solemnly there above the big whirlpool which was originally responsible for the good fortune that had come to us--or rather to me. men have clasped hands and sworn to stand by each other in lesser things. at least that was the way it seemed to me at the moment. i could have embraced the fine old woodsman for his loyalty and generosity of spirit. i always called him bob after that. the rain thinned down and became a light scotch mist as we picked our way back to camp. that struck me as being a good omen--it's being "scotch," i mean. later it cleared up entirely, and there was a glorious fairweather sunset of glowing saffron and flaming poppy red. to the northwest--canoe river-ward--there poured a wonderful light of pale liquescent amber. i had never seen such a light on land or sea, i told myself; or anywhere else, for that matter--except when holding a glass of scotch up against the sun. that was another good omen. funny thing, but i can still recall the date offhand, so indelibly had the promise of that day impressed itself on my mind. it was the first of october. although it snowed an inch or two during the night, the following morning fulfilled the promise of the sunset by breaking bright and cloudless. we were to line the boat down empty for a couple of hundred yards, and then load up again and line about an equal distance of slightly better water. this would take us to the brink of the abrupt fall, where both outfit and boat had to be portaged over the rocks for a short distance. that would leave us clear for the short, swift run to the head of the second fall. cutting himself a "sylvan frame" through the pines on a point a hundred yards below the camp, roos set up to shoot the first piece of lining. it was a mean looking job, for the river was tumbling in a half-cataract all the way, turning and squirming like a wounded dragon. i could see blackmore was a bit worried over it, and, as the sequel proved, with good reason. i never quite understood his explanation of the cause of what happened, but i believe he claimed it was due to his obeying (against his better judgment) roos' signal to keep the boat in fairly close to the bank so that she would not pass "out of the picture"--beyond the range of his lens, that is. at any rate, the boat had hardly started before she swung broadside to the current and, clapping like a limpet upon a big round boulder, hung there immovable. heeled till her starboard side showed like the belly of a sharply sheering shark, her port gunwale dipped deep into the swirling current. in a wink she had taken all the water she would hold with the half-heel that was on her--enough, perhaps, to fill her half full when on an even keel. it was a case for instant action--a case where the nearest available man had to follow his first hunch without thinking it over or counting the cost. a few seconds more on that rock, and one of two things must happen to the boat: either she would settle a few inches farther, fill completely and sink, or else the force of the current would tear her to pieces where she was. blackmore was tugging at his line and shouting directions, but the roar stopped the words at his lips. andy did not need to be told what was needed, however. for myself, i was not quite sure of what to do, and less so of how to do it. also, i doubted my ability to keep my footing in the current. in short, i found myself thinking and weighing chances in one of those emergencies where a man to be worth his salt has no business to do either. there was only one place where a man could get at the boat, and andy beat me to it by a mile. (i would have seen to that even had he moved a lot slower than he did.) he was rather more than waist deep, but quite safe as long as the boat stuck where she was. unfortunately, getting her off was the very thing he was there for. it was a good deal like a man's having to saw off the branch on which he sat. but andy never hesitated--probably because there was not time to think and reckon the consequences. setting his heavy shoulders under her bilge, he gave a mighty upward heave. she shuddered through her long red length, and then, as the kick of the current got under her submerged gunwale, shot up and off as though discharged from a catapult. the job had been well done, too, for she came off with her stern down stream, which made it comparatively easy for blackmore to check her way with his line, even half-filled as she was. whether he failed to recover as the boat was swept away, or whether he lost his balance in avoiding entanglement in the line, andy was not quite sure. his first recollection after releasing the boat, he said, was of floundering in the water and of finding that his first kick or two did not strike bottom. the thing that is always possible when a man has lifted off a boat in a swift current had happened: he had lost his footing, and in just about the one worst place in the whole columbia. blackmore, dragged down the bank after his floundering boat, was not in a position where he could throw the end of his line to any purpose. i waded in and reached out my pike-pole, but andy's back was to it the only time he came within grabbing distance. the only thing that saved him was luck--the fact that the current at the point he lost his footing did not swirl directly into the main chute, but did a little double-shuffle of its own along the side of an eddy before taking the big leap. hooking into the solid green water of that eddy, andy found himself a toehold, and presently clambered out. he had not swallowed any water, and did not seem much chilled or winded. a violent sickness of the stomach, where the cold had arrested digestive operations, was about the only ill effect. what seemed to annoy him most was the fact that all of his pockets were turned wrong-side-out, with all of their contents--save only his watch, which had been secured by a thong--missing. blackmore nodded grimly to me as he came up after securing the boat. "_now_ perhaps you'll believe what i told you about the old columbia picking pockets," he said dryly. roos came down complaining that he had been too far away to pick up any details of the show even with his "six-inch" lens and cursing his luck for not having been set up closer at hand. considering what he had missed, i thought he showed unwonted delicacy in not asking blackmore and andy to stage it over again for him. bailing out the boat, we found one oar missing, but this we subsequently recovered from an eddy below. that left our net loss for the mishap only the contents of andy's pockets and the picture roos did not get. some might have figured in the extra ration of rum andy drew to straighten out the kinks of his outraged stomach; but that seemed hardly the sporting way to look at it, especially with our prospects in the drink line being what they were. [illustration: "shooting" the first bit of lining at surprise rapids (_above_)] [illustration: the camp where the roar of the rapids deafened us (_centre_)] [illustration: where steinhof was drowned (_below_)] [illustration: where andy just missed drowning in surprise rapids (_above_)] [illustration: looking through the pines at surprise rapids (_centre_)] [illustration: head of second fall of surprise rapids (_below_)] the portage at the fall proved a mighty stiff bit of hard labour. it was one thing to skid the boat along on the pine needles at beavermouth with a couple of dozen men pushing it, and quite another for three men to take it out of the water, lift it over forty or fifty feet of boulders, and put it back into the river again. by the free use of rollers--cut from young firs--we managed, however, roos cranking his camera through all of the operation and telling us to "make it snappy!" and not to be "foot-hogs." almost worse than portaging the boat was the unspeakably toil-some task of packing the outfit over the boulders for a couple of hundred yards to where there was a quiet spot to load again. every step had to be balanced for, and even then one was down on his knees half the time. with my numerous bad joints--there are but three from shoulder to heel that had not been sprained or dislocated from two to a dozen times--this boulder clambering work was the only thing in connection with the whole voyage that i failed to enjoy. a half mile run with an eight-mile current took us to the head of the second fall, all but the first hundred yards of which had to be lined. landing this time on the west bank, we worked the boat down without much difficulty past the jutting point where the line of steinhoff's boat had parted. blackmore had hoped to line her all the way down without unloading, but the last fifty yards before the cascade tumbled into the big whirlpool were so thickly studded with rocks along the bank that he finally decided not to risk it. as there were thirty or forty feet of deep pools and eddies between the rocks on which she was stuck and the nearest stretch of unsubmerged boulders, unloading was a particularly awkward piece of work. finally everything was shifted out onto a flat-topped rock, and roos and i were left to get this ashore while andy and blackmore completed lining down. it was an especially nice job, taking the boat down that last steep pitch into the big whirlpool and then working her round a huge square-faced rock to a quiet eddy, and i should greatly like to have seen it. unluckily, what with stumbling over hidden boulders and being down with my nose in the water half of the time, and the thin blue mist that hovered round me the rest of the time from what i said as a consequence of stumbling, i could only guess at the finesse and highly technical skill with which the difficult operation was accomplished. the worst part appeared to be getting her down the fall. once clear of the submerged rocks, blackmore seemed to make the whirlpool do his work for him. poised on a projecting log of the jam packed on top of the jutting rock, he paid out a hundred feet of line and let the racing swirl of the spinning pool carry the boat far out beyond all obstructions. then, gently and delicately as if playing a salmon on a trout rod, he nursed her into an eddy and simply coiled his line and let the back-setting current carry her in to the bit of sandy beach where he wanted to tie her up for the night. it takes a lifetime of swift-water experience to master the intricacies of an operation like that. it was still early in the afternoon, but with a thick mist falling blackmore thought best to stop where we were. the next available camping place was below the half-mile-long third cascade, and no old river man likes to go into a rapid when the visibility is poor. we pitched the tent in a hole cut out of the thick-growing woods on a low bench at the inner angle of the bend. everything was soaking wet, but it was well back from the falls, and for the first time in two days we were able to talk to each other without shouting. not that we did so, however; from sheer force of habit we continued roaring into each other's ears for a week or more yet. the great pile of logs on top of the flat-topped rock above the whirlpool had fascinated me from the first. over a hundred feet square, forty feet high, and packed as though by a titanic hydraulic press, it must have contained thousands and thousands of cords of wood. on blackmore's positive assurance as a timberman that there was nothing in the pile of any value for lumber, even in the improbable contingency that a flood would ever carry it beyond the big drifts of kinbasket lake, i decided to make a bonfire of it. never had i had such an opportunity, both on the score of the sheer quantity of combustible and the spectacular setting for illumination. the whirlpool was _whouf-whoufing_ greedily as it wolfed the whole cascade when i clambered up just before dark to touch off my beacon. it was fairly dry at the base, and a pile of crisp shavings off a slab from some distant up-river sawmill caught quickly. from a spark of red flickering dimly through the mist when we sat down to supper, this had grown to a roaring furnace by the time we had relaxed to pipes and cigarettes. an hour later the flames had eaten a clear chimney up through the jam and the red light from their leaping tips was beginning to drive back the encompassing darkness. roos, who had read about india, thought it would have been fine if we only had a few widows to cast themselves on the flaming pyre and commit _suttee_. andy and blackmore, both sentimental bachelors, were a unit in maintaining that it would be a shame to waste good widows that way, especially on the practically widowless big bend. all three were arguing the point rather heatedly when they crawled into their blankets. for myself, with a vision of the wonder about to unroll impinging on my brain, i could not think of turning in for hours yet. by ten o'clock the pile was well alight underneath, but it was not until nearly midnight, when the mist had turned to snow and a strong wind had sprung up, that it was blazing full strength. i hardly know what would have been the direction of the wind in the upper air, but, cupped in the embrasure of the bend, it was sucking round and round, like the big whirlpool, only more fitfully and with an upward rather than a downward pull. now it would drag the leaping flame-column a hundred feet in the air, twisting it into lambent coils and fining the tip down to a sharp point, like that of the avenging angel's sword of fire in the old biblical prints, now sweep it out in a shivering sheet above the whirlpool, now swing it evenly round and round as though the flame, arrow-pointed and attenuated, were the radium-coated hand of a gargantuan clock being swiftly revolved in the dark. but the wonder of wonders was less the fire itself than the marvellous transformations wrought by the light it threw. and the staggering contrasts! the illuminated snow clouds drifting along the frosted-pink curtain of the tree-clad mountain walls made a roseate fairyland; even the foam covered sweep of the cascade, its roar drowned in the sharp crackle of the flames, was softened and smoothened until it seemed to billow like the sunset-flushed canvas of a ship becalmed: but the whirlpool, its sinister character only accentuated by the conflict of cross-shadows and reflections, was a veritable pit of damnation, choking and coughing as it swirled and rolled in streaky coils of ox-blood, in fire-stabbed welters of fluid coal-tar. wrapped in my hooded duffle coat, i paced the snow-covered moss and exulted in the awesome spectacle until long after midnight. i have never envied nero very poignantly since. given a fiddle and a few christians, i would have had all that was his on the greatest night of his life--and then some. father tiber never had a whirlpool like mine, even on the day horatius swam it "heavy with his armour and spent with changing blows." the next morning, though too heavily overcast for pictures, was still clear enough to travel. the head riffles of the third fall of surprise rapids began a little below our camp, so that we started lining almost immediately. three or four times we pulled across the river, running short stretches and lining now down one side and now the other. there was not so great a rate of drop as at the first and second falls, but the whole stream was choked with barely submerged rocks and lining was difficult on account of the frequent cliffs. it was about half way down that i all but messed things up by failing to get into action quickly enough at a crossing. the fault, in a way, was blackmore's, because of his failure to tell me in advance what was expected, and then--when the order had to be passed instantly--for standing rather too much on ceremony in the manner of passing it. we were about to pull to the opposite side to line down past a riffle which blackmore reckoned too rough to risk running. there was about a ten-mile current, and it would have required the smartest kind of a get-away and the hardest kind of pulling to make the other bank without being carried down onto the riffle. the boat was headed up-stream, and, as blackmore had not told me he intended to cross, i took it for granted he was going to run. so, when roos shoved off and jumped in, i rested on my oar in order that andy could bring the boat sharply round and head it down stream. blackmore's excited yell was the first intimation i had that anything was wrong. "pull like hell! you!... mister freeman!" that "mister," and his momentary pause before uttering it, defeated the purpose of the order. i pulled all right, and so hard that my oar-blade picked up a very sizable hunk of river and flung it in blackmore's face. that upset my balance, and i could not recover quickly enough to keep the boat's head to the current. with characteristic presence of mind, blackmore changed tactics instantly. "got to chance it now!" he shouted, and threw such a pull onto his steering paddle that the handle bent to more than half a right angle where he laid it over the gunwale. there was one jutting rock at the head of the riffle that _had_ to be missed; the rest was all a matter of whether or not the next couple of hundred yards of submerged boulders were deeply enough covered to let us pass _over_ them. there was no way of avoiding them, no chance to lay a course _between_ them. blackmore was a bit wilder about the eyes than i had seen him before; but he had stopped swearing and his mouth was set in a hard, determined line. andy, with chesty grunts, was fairly flailing the water with swift, short-arm strokes. i did not need to be told to refrain from pulling in order that the others could swing her head as far toward the west bank as possible before the rock was reached. instead, i held ready for the one quick backing stroke that would be called for in the event a collision seemed imminent at the last moment. it was the wave thrown off by the rock itself that helped us most when the showdown came. shooting by the jagged barrier so close that andy could have fended with his hand, the boat plunged over a short, sharp pitch and hit the white water with a bang. that was by long odds the roughest stuff we had been into so far. the waves were curling up well above our heads, and every one we hit left a foot or two of its top with us--solid green water, most of it, that began accumulating rather alarmingly in the bottom of the boat. there was no regularity in the way they ran, either. one would come mushrooming fairly over the bows, another would flop aboard over the beam, and every now and then a wild side-winder, missing its spring at the forward part of the boat, would dash a shower of spray over the quarter. from the bank she must have been pretty well out of sight most of the time, for i often saw spray thrown ten or fifteen feet to either side and twice as far astern. all hands were drenched from the moment we struck the first comber, of course, which was doubtless why a wail from roos that the water was going down his neck seemed to strike blackmore as a bit superfluous. "inside or outside your neck?" he roared back, adding that if it was the former the flow could be checked by the simple and natural expedient of keeping the mouth shut. very properly, our "skipper" had the feeling that, in a really tight place, all the talking necessary for navigation should be done from the "bridge," and that "extraneous" comment should be held over to smooth water. before we had run a hundred yards the anxious look on blackmore's face had given way to one of relief and exultation. "there's more water over the rocks than i reckoned," he shouted. "going to run right through." and run we did, all of the last mile or more of surprise rapids and right on through the still swift but comparatively quiet water below. here we drifted with the current for a ways, while all hands turned to and bailed. i took this, the first occasion that had offered, to assure blackmore that he needn't go to the length of calling me "mister" in the future when he had urgent orders to give, and incidentally apologized for getting off on the wrong foot at the head of the first rapid. "since that worked out to save us half a mile of darn dirty lining and two or three hours of time," he replied with a grin, "i guess we won't worry about it this crack, mister--i mean, freeman. mebbe i better get used to saying it that way 'gainst when i'll need to spit it out quick." it was a pleasant run from the foot of surprise rapids down to kinbasket lake, or at least it was pleasant until the rain set in again. there is a fall of sixty-four feet in the sixteen miles--most of it in the first ten. it was a fine swift current, with a number of riffles but no bad water at any point. it was good to be free for a while from the tension which is never absent when working in really rough water, and i have no doubt that blackmore felt better about it than any of the rest of us. surprise was his especial _bete noir_, and he assured me that he had never come safely through it without swearing never to tackle it again. roos, drying out in the bow like a tabby licking her wet coat smooth after being rained on, sang "green river" all the way, and i tried to train andy to pull in time to the rhythm and join in the chorus. as the chorus had much about drink in it, it seemed only fitting--considering what was waiting for us at canoe river--that we _should_ sing it. and we did. "floating down the old green river" became the "official song" of that particular part of the voyage. later ... but why anticipate? we landed for lunch about where the water began to slacken above the lake. the water of the little stream at the mouth of which we tied up the boat was of a bright transparent amber in colour. andy, sapient of the woods, thought it must flow from a lake impounded behind a beaver-dam in the high mountains, and that the stain was that of rotting wood. beaver signs were certainly much in evidence all over the little bench where we lunched. several large cottonwood trunks--one of them all of two feet in diameter--had been felled by the tireless little engineers, and we found a pile of tooth-torn chips large enough to kindle our fire with. while tea was boiling blackmore pulled a couple of three-pound dolly varden out of the mouth of the creek, only to lose his hooks and line when a still larger one connected up with them. roos, who was under orders to get an effective fishing picture, was unable to go into action with his camera on account of the poor light. it had begun to rain hard by the time we had shoved back into the river after lunch. there were still five miles to go to reach the camping ground blackmore had decided upon, half way down the east side of kinbasket lake, just below middle river--slack water all the way. andy and i pulled it in a slushy half-snow-half-rain that was a lot wetter and unpleasanter than the straight article of either variety. of a lake which is one of the loveliest in all the world in the sunlight, nothing was to be seen save a stretch of grey-white, wind-whipped waters beating upon grey-brown rocky shores. that the wind and waves headed us did not make the pulling any lighter, for the boat's considerable freeboard gave both a lot of surface to play upon. the exertion of rowing kept andy and me warm, however, which gave us at least that advantage over roos and blackmore. the latter had to face it out at his paddle, but roos, a bedraggled lump of sodden despair, finally gave up and crawled under the tarpaulin with the bags of beans and bacon, remaining there until we reached port. all in all, i think that was the most miserable camp i ever helped to pitch. the snow, refusing persistently either to harden or to soften, adhered clingingly to everything it touched. we were two hours clearing a space for the tent, setting it up and collecting enough boughs to cushion the floor. by that time pretty nearly everything not hermetically sealed was wet, including the blankets and the "dry" clothes. no one but andy could have started a camp-fire under such conditions, and no one but blackmore could have cooked a piping hot dinner on it. i forget whether it was roos or myself who contributed further to save the day. anyhow, it was one of the two of us that suggested cooking a can of plum-pudding in about its own bulk of "thirty per over-proof" rum. that lent the saving touch. in spite of a leaking tent and wet blankets, the whole four of us turned in singing "end of a perfect day" and "old green river." the latter was prophetic. a miniature one--coming through the roof of the tent--had the range of the back of my neck for most of the night. chapter vii ii. running the bend _kinbasket lake and rapids_ it continued slushing all night and most of the next day, keeping us pretty close to camp. andy, like the good housewife he was, kept snugging up every time he got a chance, so that things assumed a homelier and cheerier aspect as the day wore on. i clambered for a couple of miles down the rocky eastern bank of the lake in the forenoon. the low-hanging clouds still obscured the mountains, but underfoot i found unending interest in the astonishing variety of drift corralled by this remarkable catch-all of the upper columbia. the main accumulation of flotsam and jetsam was above our camp, but even among the rocks i chanced onto almost everything one can imagine, from a steel rail--with the ties that had served to float it down still spiked to it--to a fragment of a vacuum-cleaner. what roos called "the human touch" was furnished by an enormous uprooted spruce, on which some amorous lumber-jack had been pouring out his love through the blade of his axe. this had taken the form of a two-feet-in-diameter "bleeding heart" pierced by an arrow. inside the roughly hewn "pericardium" were the initials "k. n." and "p. r.," with the date "july , ." one couldn't be quite sure whether the arrow stood for a heart quake or a heart break. andy, who was sentimental and inclined to put woman in the abstract on a pedestal, thought it was merely a heart quake; but blackmore, who had been something of a gallant in his day, and therefore inclined to cynicism as he neared the sear and yellow leaf, was sure it was heart break--that the honest lumber-jack had hacked in the arrow and the drops of blood after he had been jilted by some jade. roos wanted to make a movie of this simple fragment of rustic art, with me standing by and registering "pensive memories," or something of the kind; but i managed to discourage him by the highly technical argument that it would impair the "continuity" of the "sportsmanship" which was the prime _motif_ of the present picture. blackmore piloted me up to the main area of drift in the afternoon. it occupied a hundred acres or more of sand and mud flats which constituted the lower part of the extensive delta deposited on the edge of the lake by the waters of the good-sized stream of middle river. at a first glance it seemed nothing more than a great wilderness of tree trunks--prostrate, upended, woven and packed together--extending for hundreds of yards below high-water-mark. it was between these logs that the smaller things had lodged. there were a number of boats, not greatly damaged, and fragments enough to have reconstructed a dozen more. i am convinced that a half day's search would have discovered the material for building and furnishing a house, though carpets and wall paper would hardly have been all one could desire. i even found a curling iron--closely clasped by the bent nail upon which it had been hung on the log of a cabin--and a corset. the latter seemed hardly worth salving, as it appeared--according to blackmore--to be a "military model" of a decade or so back, and the steel-work was badly rusted. however, it was not gewgaws or house-furnishing we were after. one could hardly be expected to slither about in soft slush for second-hand things of that kind. i gave a great glad whoop at my first sight of a silt-submerged cask, only to find the head missing and nothing but mud in it. so, too, my second and third. then it was blackmore who gave the "view halloo," and my heart gave a mighty leap. _his_ treasure trove had the head intact, and even the bung _in situ_. but alas! the latter had become slightly started, and although the contents had both smell and colour they were so heavily impregnated with river mud that they would hardly have been deemed fit for consumption except in new york and california, and not worth the risk of smuggling even there. that cask was the high-water-mark of our luck. several others had the old familiar smell, and that was all. but there is no doubt in the world that there is whisky in that drift pile--hundreds of gallons of it, and some very old. blackmore swears to that, and i never knew him to lie--about serious matters, i mean. in hunting and trapping yarns a man is expected to draw a long bead. i pass on this undeniably valuable information to any one that cares to profit by it. there are no strings attached. but of course ... in the event of success ... pasadena always finds me!... we did have one find, though, that was so remarkable as to be worth all the trouble and disappointment of our otherwise futile search. this was a road-bridge, with _instinct_. the manner in which this had been displayed was so astonishing as to be almost beyond belief; indeed, i would hesitate about setting down the facts had i not a photograph to prove them. this bridge was perhaps sixty feet in length, and had doubtless been carried away by a freshet from some tributary of the upper river which it had spanned. this was probably somewhere between golden and windermere, so that it had run a hundred miles or more of swift water, including the falls of surprise rapids, without losing more than a few planks. this in itself was remarkable enough, but nothing at all to the fact that, when it finally decided it had come far enough, the sagacious structure had gone and planked itself down squarely across another stream. it was still a bridge in fact as well as in form. it had actually saved my feet from getting wet when i rushed to blackmore's aid in up-ending the cask of mud-diluted whisky. my photograph plainly shows blackmore standing on the bridge, with the water flowing directly beneath him. it would have been a more comprehensive and convincing picture if there had been light enough for a snapshot. as it was, i had to set up on a stump, and in a position which showed less of both stream and bridge than i might have had from a better place. i swear (and so does blackmore) that we didn't place the bridge where it was. it was much too large for that. roos wanted to shoot the whole three of us standing on it and registering "unbounded wonderment," but the light was never right for it up to the morning of our departure, and then there wasn't time. it rained and snowed all that night and most of the following day. during the afternoon of the latter the clouds broke up twice or thrice, and through rifts in the drifting wracks we had transient glimpses of the peaks and glaciers of the selkirks gleaming above the precipitous western walls of the lake. the most conspicuous feature of the sky-line was the three-peaked "trident," rising almost perpendicularly from a glittering field of glacial ice and impaling great masses of pendant _cumulo-nimbi_ on its splintered prongs. strings of lofty glacier-set summits marked the line of the back-bone of the selkirks to southeast and northwest, each of them sending down rain-swollen torrents to tumble into the lake in cataracts and cascades. behind, or east of us, we knew the rockies reared a similar barrier of snow and ice, but this was cut off from our vision by the more imminent lake-wall under which we were camped. if kinbasket lake is ever made accessible to the tourist its fame will reach to the end of the earth. this is a consummation which may be effected in the event the canadian pacific wipes out surprise rapids with its hydro-electric project dam and backs up a lake to beavermouth. the journey to this spot of incomparable beauty could then be made soft enough to suit all but the most effete. a torrential rain, following a warm southerly breeze which sprang up in the middle of the afternoon, lowered the dense cloud-curtain again, and shortly, from somewhere behind the scenes, came the raucous rumble and roar of a great avalanche. blackmore's practised ear led him to pronounce it a slide of both earth and snow, and to locate it somewhere on trident creek, straight across the lake from our camp. he proved to be right on both counts. when the clouds lifted again at sunset, a long yellow scar gashed the shoulder of the mountain half way up trident creek to the glacier, and the clear stream from the latter had completely disappeared. blackmore said it had been dammed up by the slide, and that there would be all hell popping when it broke through. scouting around for more boughs to soften his bed, roos, just before supper, chanced upon steinhoff's grave. it was under a small pine, not fifty feet from our tent, but so hidden by the dense undergrowth that it had escaped our notice for two days. it was marked only by a fragment split from the stern of a white-painted boat nailed horizontally on the pine trunk and with the single word "steinhoff" carved in rude capitals. at one corner, in pencil, was an inscription stating that the board had been put up in may, , by joe french and leo tennis. with the golden sunset light streaming through the trees, roos, always strong for "pathetic human touches" to serve as a sombre background for his mack sennett stuff, could not resist the opportunity for a picture. andy and blackmore and i were to come climbing up to the grave from the lake, read the inscription, and then look at each other and shake our heads ominously, as though it was simply a matter of time until we, too, should fall prey to the implacable river. i refused straightaway, on the ground that i had signed up to act the part of a light comedy sportsman and not a heavy mourner. blackmore and andy were more amenable. in rehearsal, however, the expressions on their honest faces were so wooden and embarrassed that roos finally called me up to stand out of range and "say something to make 'em look natural." i refrain from recording what i said; but i still maintain that shot was an interruption of the "continuity" of my "gentleman-sportsman" picture. i have not yet heard if it survived the studio surgery. shortly before dark, andy, going down to look at his set-line, found a three-foot ling or fresh-water cod floundering on the end of it. roos persuaded him to keep it over night so that the elusive "fishing picture" might be made the following morning in case the light was good. as there were five or six inches of water in the bottom of the boat, andy threw the ling in there for the night in preference to picketing him out on a line. there was plenty of water to have given the husky shovel-nose ample room to circulate with comfort if only he had been content to take it easy and not wax temperamental. doubtless it was his imminent movie engagement that brought on his attack of flightiness. at any rate, he tried to burrow under a collapsible sheet-iron stove (which, preferring to do with a camp-fire, we had left in the boat) and got stuck. the forward five pounds of him had water enough to keep alive in, but in the night--when it cleared off and turned cold--his tail, which was bent up sharply under a thwart, froze stiff at almost right angles. but i am getting ahead of my story. the next morning, the sixth of october, broke brilliantly clear, with the sun gilding the prongs of the "trident" and throwing the whole snowy line of the selkirks in dazzling relief against a deep turquoise sky. blackmore, keen for an early start, so as not to be rushed in working down through the dreaded "twenty-one-mile" rapids to canoe river, rooted us out at daybreak and began breaking camp before breakfast. he had reckoned without the "fishing picture," however. roos wanted bright sunlight for it, claiming he was under special instructions to make something sparkling and snappy. all through breakfast he coached me on the intricate details of the action. "make him put up a stiff fight," he admonished through a mouthful of flapjack. "of course he won't fight, 'cause he ain't that kind; but if you jerk and wiggle your pole just right it'll make it look like he was. that's what a real actor's for--making things look like they is when they ain't. got me?" then we went down and discovered that poor half-frozen fish with the eight-point alteration of the continuity of his back-bone. the ling or fresh-water cod has an underhung, somewhat shark-like mouth, not unsuggestive of the new moon with its points turned downward. roos' mouth took on a similarly dejected droop when he found the condition the principal animal actor in his fish picture was in. but it was too late to give up now. never might we have so husky a fighting fish ready to hand, and with a bright sun shining on it. roos tried osteopathy, applied chiropractics and christian science without much effect. our "lead" continued as rigid and unrelaxing as the bushman's boomerang, whose shape he so nearly approximated. then andy wrought the miracle with a simple "laying on of hands." what he really did was to thaw out the frozen rear end of the fish by holding it between his big, warm red celtic paws; but the effect was as magical as a cure at lourdes. the big ling was shortly flopping vigorously, and when andy dropped him into a bit of a boulder-locked pool he went charging back and forth at the rocky barriers like a bull at a gate. roos almost wept in his thankfulness, and forthwith promised the restorer an extra rum ration that night. andy grinned his thanks, but reminded him that we ought to be at the old ferry by night, where something even better than "thirty per over-proof" rum would be on tap. it was indeed the morning of our great day. stimulated by that inspiring thought, i prepared to outdo myself in the "fish picture," the "set" for which was now ready. [illustration: blackmore and the ling that refused to "register"] [illustration: the writer, with pike-pole just before lining death rapids] [illustration: andy and i pulling down kinbasket lake] standing on the stern of the beached boat, i made a long cast, registering "concentrated eagerness." then roos stopped cranking, and andy brought the ling out and fastened it to the end of my line with a snug but comfortable hitch through the gills. (we were careful not to hurt him, for chester's directions had admonished especially against "showing brutality".) when i had nursed him out to about where my opening cast had landed, roos called "action!" and started cranking again. back and forth in wide sweeps he dashed, while i registered blended "eagerness" and "determination," with frequent interpolations of "consternation" as carefully timed tugs (by myself) bent my shivering pole down to the water. when roos had enough footage of "fighting," i brought my catch in close to the boat and leered down at him, registering "near triumph." then i towed him ashore and andy and blackmore rushed in to help me land him. after much struggling (by ourselves) we brought him out on the beach. at this juncture i was supposed to grab the ling by the gills and hold him proudly aloft, registering "full triumph" the while. andy and blackmore were to crowd in, pat me on the back and beam congratulations. blackmore was then to assume an expression intended to convey the impression that this was the hardest fighting ling he had ever seen caught. all three of us were action perfect in our parts; but that miserable turn-tail of a ling--who had nothing to do but flop and register "indignant protest"--spoiled it all at the last. as i flung my prize on high, a shrill scream of "rotten!" from roos froze the action where it was. then i noticed that what was supposed to be a gamy denizen of the swift-flowing columbia was hanging from my hand as rigid as a coupling-pin--a bent coupling-pin at that, for he had resumed his former cold-storage curl. "rotten!" shrieked roos in a frenzy; "do it again!" but that was not to be. for the "chief actor" the curtain had rung down for good. "you must have played him too fierce," said andy sympathetically. blackmore was inclined to be frivolous. "p'raps he was trying to register 'big bend,'" said he. just after we had pushed off there came a heavy and increasing roar from across the lake. presently the cascade of trident creek sprang into life again, but now a squirt of yellow ochre where before it was a flutter of white satin. rapidly augmenting, it spread from wall to wall of the rocky gorge, discharging to the bosky depths of the delta with a prodigious rumbling that reverberated up and down the lake like heavy thunder. a moment later the flood had reached the shore, and out across the lucent green waters of the lake spread a broadening fan of yellow-brown. "i told you hell would be popping after that big slide," said blackmore, resting on his paddle. "that's the backed-up stream breaking through." kinbasket lake is a broadening and slackening of the columbia, backed up behind the obstructions which cause the long series of rapids between its outlet and the mouth of canoe river. it is six or seven miles long, according to the stage of water, and from one to two miles wide. its downward set of current is slight but perceptible. the outlet, as we approached it after a three-mile pull from our camp at middle river, appeared strikingly similar to the head of surprise rapids. here, however, the transition from quiet to swift water was even more abrupt. the surface of the lake was a-dance with the ripples kicked up by the crisp morning breeze, and blindingly bright where the facets of the tiny wavelets reflected the sunlight like shaken diamonds. the shadowed depths of the narrow gorge ahead was stygian by contrast. blackmore called my attention to the way the crests of the pines rimming the river a few hundred yards inside the gorge appeared just about on the level with the surface of the lake. "when you see the tree-tops fall away like that," he said, standing up to take his final bearings for the opening run, "look out. it means there's water running down hill right ahead faster'n any boat wants to put its nose in." the roar rolling up to us was not quite so deep-toned or thunderous as the challenging bellow of the first fall of surprise; but it was more "permeative," as though the sources from which it came ran on without end. and that was just about the situation. we were sliding down to the intake of kinbasket or "the twenty-one-mile" rapids, one of the longest, if not _the_ longest, succession of practically unbroken riffles on any of the great rivers of the world. from the outlet of kinbasket lake to the mouth of canoe river is twenty-one miles. for the sixteen miles the tail of one rapid generally runs right into the head of the next, and there is a fall of two hundred and sixty feet, or more than sixteen feet to the mile. for the last five miles there is less white water, but the current runs from eight to twelve miles an hour, with many swirls and whirlpools. the river is closely canyoned all the way. this compels one to make the whole run through in a single day, as there is no camping place at any point. cliffs and sharply-sloping boulder banks greatly complicate lining down and compel frequent crossings at points where a failure to land just right is pretty likely to leave things in a good deal of a mess. blackmore ran us down through a couple of hundred yards of slap-banging white water, before coming to bank above a steep pitch where the river tore itself to rags and tatters across a patch of rocks that seemed to block the whole channel. from captain armstrong's description, this was the exact point where the trouble with his tipsy bow-paddler had occurred, the little difficulty which had been the cause of his leaving the salvaged cask of scotch at his next camp. like pious pilgrims approaching the gateway of some long-laboured-toward shrine, therefore, we looked at the place with much interest, not to say reverence. blackmore was perhaps the least sentimental of us. "i wouldn't try to run that next fall for all the whisky ever lost in the old columbia," he said decisively, beginning to re-coil his long line. then we turned to on lining down the most accursed stretch of river boulders i ever had to do with. barely submerged rocks crowding the bank compelled us to wade in and lift the boat ahead even oftener than in surprise rapids. andy always took the lead in this, but time after time my help was necessary to throw her clear. for the first time since i had boated in alaska a good many years previously, i began to know the numbing effects of icy water. the heavy exertion did a lot to keep the blood moving, but three or four minutes standing with the water up to mid-thigh sent the chill right in to the marrow of the bones, even when sweat was running off the face in streams. that started a sort of dull ache in the leg bones that kept creeping higher and higher the longer one remained in the water. that ache was the worst part of it; the flesh became dead to sensation very quickly, but that penetrating inward pain had more hurt in it every minute it was prolonged. it was bad enough in the legs, but when, submerged to the waist, as happened every now and then, the chill began to penetrate to the back-bone and stab the digestive organs, it became pretty trying. one realized then what really short shrift a man would have trying to swim for more than four or five minutes even in calm water of this temperature. that was about the limit for heart action to continue with the cold striking in and numbing the veins and arteries, a doctor had told blackmore, and this seemed reasonable. andy was repeatedly sick at the stomach after he had been wet for long above the waist. my own qualms were rather less severe (doubtless because i was exposed rather less), but i found myself very weak and unsteady after every immersion. a liberal use of rum would undoubtedly have been of some help for a while, but blackmore was adamant against starting in on it as long as there was any bad water ahead. and as there was nothing but bad water ahead, this meant that--in one sense at least--we were a "dry ship." i shall not endeavour to trace in detail our painful progress down "twenty-one-mile." indeed, i could not do so even if i wanted, for the very good reason that my hands were so full helping with the boat all the way that i had no time to make notes, and even my mental record--usually fairly dependable--is hopelessly jumbled. even blackmore became considerably mixed at times. at the first four or five riffles below the lake he called the turn correctly, landing, lining, crossing and running just where he should have done so. then his mind-map became less clear. twice he lined riffles which it presently became plain we could have run, and then he all but failed to land above one where a well-masked "souse-hole" would have gulped the boat in one mouthful. it was at this juncture that i asked him why he had never taken the trouble of making a rough chart of this portion of the river, so that he could be quite sure what was ahead. he said that the idea was a good one, and that it had often occurred to him. there were several reasons why he had never carried it out. one was, that he was always so mad when he was going down "twenty-one-mile" that he couldn't see straight, let alone write and draw straight. this meant that the chart would be of no use to him, even if some one else made it--unless, of course, he brought the maker along to interpret it. the main deterrent, however, had been the fact that he had always sworn each passage should be his last, so that (according to his frame of mind of the moment) there would be no use for the chart even if he could have seen straight enough to make it, and to read it after it had been made. the scenery--so far as i recall it--was grand beyond words to describe. cliff fronted cliff, with a jagged ribbon of violet-purple sky between. every few hundred yards creeks broke through the mountain walls and came cascading into the river over their spreading boulder "fans." framed in the narrow notches from which they sprang appeared transient visions of sun-dazzled peaks and glaciers towering above wedge-shaped valleys swimming full of lilac mist. i saw these things, floating by like double strips of movie film, only when we were running in the current; when lining i was aware of little beyond the red line of the gunwale which i grasped, the imminent loom of andy's grey-shirted shoulder next me, and the foam-flecked swirl of liquefied glacier enfolding my legs and swiftly converting them to stumpy icicles. there was one comfort, though. the farther down river we worked away from the lake, the shorter became the stretches of lining and the longer the rapids that were runnable. that accelerated our progress materially, but even so blackmore did not reckon that there was time to stop for pictures, or even for lunch. we were still well up to schedule, but he was anxious to work on a good margin in the event of the always-to-be-expected "unexpected." it was along toward three in the afternoon that, after completing a particularly nasty bit of lining a mile or two above the mouth of yellow creek, he came over and slapped me on the back. "that finishes it for the day, young man," he cried gaily. "we can turn loose and run the rest of it now, and we'll do it hell sizzling fast. it may also rejoice you to know that all the lining left for the whole trip is a couple of hundred yards at 'rock slide' and death rapids. all aboard for the ferry!" all of a sudden life had become a blessed thing again. for the first time i became aware that there were birds singing in the trees, flowers blooming in the protected shelves above high-water-mark, and maiden-hair ferns festooning the dripping grottoes of the cliffs. dumping the water from our boots, andy and i resumed our oars and swung the boat right out into the middle of the current. the first rapid we hit was a vicious side-winder, shaped like a letter "s," with overhanging cliffs playing battledore-and-shuttlecock with the river at the bends. blackmore said he would have lined it if the water had been two feet lower; as it was now we would get wetter trying to worry a boat round the cliffs than in slashing through. we got quite wet enough as it was. the rocks were not hard to avoid, but banging almost side-on into the great back-curving combers thrown off by the cliffs was just a bit terrifying. slammed back and forth at express-train speed, with nothing but those roaring open-faced waves buffeting against the cliffs, was somewhat suggestive of the sensation you get from a quick double-bank in a big biplane. only it was wetter--much wetter. it took blackmore ten minutes of hard bailing to get rid of the splashage. the succeeding rapids, though no less swift, were straighter, and easier--and dryer. roos, perched up in the bow, announced that all was over but the digging, and started to sing "old green river." andy and i joined in lustily, and even blackmore (though a lip-reader would have sworn he was mumbling over a rosary) claimed to be singing. exultant as we all were over the prize so nearly within our grasp, we must have put a world of feeling into that heart-stirring chorus. "i was drifting down the old green river on the good ship _rock-and-rye_-- i drifted too far; i got stuck on the bar; i was out there alone, wishing that i were home-- the captain was lost, with all of the crew, so that there was nothing left to do; and i had to drink the whole green river dry-igh to get back ho-ohm to you-oo-ou!" smoother and smoother became the going, and then--rather unexpectedly, it seemed to me--the water began to slacken its dizzy speed. blackmore appeared considerably puzzled over it, i thought. roos, turning sentimental, had started singing a song that he had learned from a phonograph, and in which, therefore, appeared numerous hiati. "now i know da-da-da-da-da-- now i know the reason why-- da-da-da-da----da-da-da-daah-- now i know, yes, now i know! da-da-da, my heart...." blackmore frowned more deeply as the treble wail floated back to him, and then broke into the next "da-da" with a sudden growl. "i say, young feller," he roared, slapping sharply into the quieting water with his paddle blade; "if you know so _geesly_ much, i'm wondering if you'd mind loosening up on one or two things that have got _me_ buffaloed. first place, do i look like a man that had took a shot of hop?" "not at all, sir," quavered roos, who seemed rather fearful of an impending call-down. "i don't, huh?" went on the growl. "then please tell me why what i knows is a ten-mile-an-hour current looks to me like slack water, and why i think i hear a roar coming round the next bend." "but the water _is_ slack," protested roos, "and i've heard that roar for five minutes _myself_. just another rapid, isn't it? the water always...." "rot!" roared the veteran. "there ain't no fall with a rip-raring thunder like that 'tween yellow creek and death rapids. rot, i tell you! i must ha' been doped after all." nevertheless, when that ground-shaking rumble assailed us in a raw, rough wave of savage sound as we pulled round the bend, blackmore was not sufficiently confident of his "dope theory" to care to get any nearer to it without a preliminary reconnaissance. landing a hundred yards above where a white "eyelash" of up-flipped water showed above a line of big rocks, we clambered down along the right bank on foot. presently all that had occurred was written clear for one who knew the way of a slide with a river, and the way of a river with a slide, to read as on the page of a book. "a new rapid, and a whale at that!" gasped blackmore in astonishment; "the first one that's ever formed on the columbia in my time!" the amazing thing that had happened was this: sometime in the spring, a landslide of enormous size, doubtless started by an avalanche of snow far up in the selkirks, had ripped the whole side of a mountain out and come down all the way across the river. as the pines were hurled _backward_ for a couple of hundred feet above the river on the right or rocky mountain bank, it seemed reasonable to believe that the dam formed had averaged considerably more than that in height. as this would have backed up the river for at least ten or twelve miles, it is probable that the lake formed must have been rising for a number of days before it flowed over the top of the barrier and began to sluice it away. on an incalculably larger scale, it was just the sort of thing we had heard and seen happening on trident creek, opposite our kinbasket lake camp. not the least remarkable thing in connection with the stupendous convulsion was the fact that a large creek was flowing directly down the great gash torn out by the slide and emptying right into the rapid which was left when the dam had been washed away. blackmore was quite positive that there had been no creek at this point the last time he was there. it seemed reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the slide, in removing a considerable section of mountain wall, had opened a new line of drainage for some little valley in the high selkirks. it was the great, rough fragments of cliff and native rock left after the earth had been sluiced out of the dam that remained to form the unexpected rapid which now confronted us. they had not yet been worn smooth like the rest of the river boulders, and it was this fact, doubtless, that gave the cascade tumbling through and over them such a raw, raucous roar. the solution of the mystery of the appearance of the rapid was only an incident compared with the problem of how to pass it. there was a comparatively straight channel, but there was no possibility that the boat could live in the huge rollers that billowed down the middle of it. just to the right of the middle there was a smoother chute which looked better--provided the boat could be kept to it. blackmore said that it looked like too much of a risk, and decided to try to line down the right bank--the one on which we had landed. as the river walls were too steep and broken to allow any of the outfit to be portaged, the boat would have to go through loaded. a big uprooted pine tree, extending out fifty feet over the river and with its under limbs swept by the water, seemed likely to prove our worst difficulty, and i am inclined to believe it would have held us up in the end, even after we reached it. as things turned out, however, it troubled us not a whit, for the boat never got down that far. right at the head of the rapid her bows jammed between two submerged boulders about ten feet from the bank, and there she stuck. as it was quickly evident that it was out of the question to lift her on through, it now became a problem of working her back up-stream out of the jaws that held her. but with the full force of the current driving her tighter between the rocks, she now refused to budge even in the direction from which she had come. as i look back on it now, the fifteen minutes andy and i, mid-waist deep in the icy water, spent trying to work that hulking red boat loose so that blackmore could haul her back into quiet water for a fresh start takes pride of place as the most miserable interval of the whole trip. after andy's experience in surprise rapids, neither of us was inclined to throw his whole weight into a lift that might leave him overbalanced when the boat was swept out of his reach. and so we pulled and hauled and cursed (i should hate to have to record all we said about the ancestry of the river, the boat, and the two rocks that held the boat), while the tentacles of the cold clutched deeper with every passing minute. roos, sitting on a pine stump and whittling, furnished no help but some slight diversion. when he started singing "old green river" just after i had slipped and soused my head in the current, i stopped tugging at the boat for long enough to wade out and shy a stone at him. "green river"[ ] was all right in its place, but its place was swirling against the _inside_ of the ribs, not the _outside_. roos had the cheek to pick the rock up out of his lap and heave it back at me--but with an aim less certain than my own. a few minutes later he called out to blackmore to ask if this new rapid had a name, adding that if it had not, he would like to do his employer, mr. chester, the honour of naming it after him. blackmore relaxed his strain on the line for a moment to roar back that no rapid was ever named after a man unless he had been "drownded" in it. "we'll name this one after you if you'll do the needful," he growled as an afterthought, throwing his weight again onto his line. that tickled andy and me so mightily that we gave a prodigious heave in all recklessness of consequences, and off she came. gaining the bank with little trouble, we joined blackmore and helped him haul her up by line into slower water. [ ] for the benefit of those who have forgotten, or may never have known, i will state that "green river" was the name of a brand of whisky consumed by ancient americans with considerable gusto. l. r. f. "no good lining," the "skipper" announced decidedly, as we sat down to rest for a spell; "i'm going to drive her straight through." chilled, weary and dead-beat generally, i was in a state of mind that would have welcomed jumping into the rapid with a stone tied to my neck rather than go back to the half-submerged wading and lifting. roos said he hated to risk his camera, and so would try to crawl with it over the cliff and rejoin us below the rapid. andy said he was quite game to pull his oar for a run if we had to, but that he would first like to try lining down the opposite bank. he thought we could make it _there_, and he had just a bit of a doubt about what might happen in mid-river. that was reasonable enough, and blackmore readily consented to try the other side. [illustration: our wettest camp at kinbasket lake (_above_)] [illustration: the old ferry tower above canoe river (_below_)] [illustration: where we tied up at kinbasket lake (_above_)] [illustration: the bridge which the columbia carried a hundred miles and placed across another stream (_center_)] [illustration: lining down to the head of death rapids (_below_)] almost at once it appeared that we had landed in the same trouble as on the right bank. directly off the mouth of the stream that came down from the slide the bow of the boat was caught and held between two submerged rocks, defying our every attempt to lift it over. blackmore was becoming impatient again, and was just ready to give up and run, when andy, with the aid of a young tree-trunk used as a lever, rolled one of the boulders aside and cleared the way. five minutes later we had completed lining down and were pushing off for the final run to the ferry. no more "mystery rapids" cropped up to disturb our voyage, and, pulling in deep, swift water, we made the next five miles in twenty-five minutes. a part of the distance was through the rocky-walled red canyon, one of the grandest scenic bits of the bend. at one point blackmore showed us a sheer-sided rock island, on which he said he had once found the graves of two white men, with an inscription so worn as to be indecipherable. he thought they were probably those of miners lost during the cariboo gold-field excitement of the middle of the last century, or perhaps even those of hudson bay _voyageurs_ of a century or more back. there were many unidentified graves all the way round the bend, he said. the river walls fell back a bit on both sides as we neared our destination, and the low-hanging western sun had found a gap in the selkirks through which it was pouring its level rays to flood with a rich amber light the low wooded benches at the abandoned crossing. the old ferry-tower reared itself upward like the statue of liberty, bathing its head in the golden light of the expiring day. steering for it as to a beacon, blackmore beached the boat on a gravel bar flanking an eddy almost directly under the rusting cable. we would cross later to spend the night in a trapper's cabin on the opposite bank, he said; as there was sure to be a shovel or two in the old ferry shacks, he had come there at once so as to get down to business without delay. right then and there, before we left the boat, i did a thing which i have been greatly gratified that i did do--right then and there. i drew my companions close to me and assured them that i had made up my mind to divide the spoils with them. blackmore and andy should have a gallon apiece, and roos a quart. (i scaled down the latter's share sharply, partly because he had thrown that stone back at me, and the nerve of it rankled, and partly--i must confess--out of "professional jealousy." "stars" and "directors" never do hit off.) the rest i would retain and divide with captain armstrong as agreed. i did not tell them that i had high hopes that armstrong would soften in the end and let me keep it all to take home. after all of them (including roos) had wrung my hand with gratitude, we set to work, each in his own way. the spot was readily located the moment we took the compass bearing. pacing off was quite unnecessary. it was in the angle of a v-shaped outcrop of bedrock, where a man who knew about what was there could feel his way and claw up the treasure in the dark. it was an "inevitable" hiding place, just as gibraltar is an inevitable fortress and manhattan an inevitable metropolis. yes, we each went to work in our own way. blackmore and andy found a couple of rusty shovels and went to digging; roos climbed up into the old ferry basket to take a picture of them digging; i climbed up on the old shack to take a picture of roos taking a picture of them digging. nothing was omitted calculated to preserve historical accuracy. i had been in baalbek just before the war when a german archæological mission had inaugurated excavation for phoenician antiquities, and so was sapient in all that an occasion of the kind required. the picture cycle complete, i strolled over to where andy and blackmore were making the dirt fly like a pair of airedales digging out a badger. the ground was soft, they said, leaning on their shovels; it ought to be only the matter of minutes now. the "showings" were good. they had already unearthed a glove, a tin cup and a fragment of barrel iron. "gorgeous stroke of luck for us that chap, k----, hit the stuff so hard up at kinbasket," i murmured ecstatically. blackmore started and straightened up like a man hit with a steel bullet. "what was that name again?" he gasped. "k----," i replied wonderingly; "some kind of a swede, i believe armstrong said. but what difference does his name make as long as...." blackmore tossed his shovel out of the hole and climbed stiffly up after it before he replied. when he spoke it was in a voice thin and trailing, as though draggled by the weariness of the ages. "difference, boy! all the difference between hell and happiness. about two years ago k---- dropped out of sight from revelstoke, and it was only known he had gone somewhere on the bend. a week after he returned he died in the hospital of the 'd. t's.'" roos (perhaps because he had the least to lose by the disaster) was the only one who had the strength to speak. it seemed that he had studied latin in the high school. "_sic transit gloria spiritum frumenti_," was what he said. never in all the voyage did he speak so much to the point. blackmore frowned at him gloomily as the mystic words were solemnly pronounced. "young feller," he growled, "i don't savvy what the last part of that drug-store lingo you're spitting means; but you're dead right about the first part. _sick_ is sure the word." we spent the night in an empty trapper's cabin across the river. charity forbids that i lift the curtain of the house of mourning. chapter viii iii. running the bend _boat encampment to revelstoke_ we were now close to the historic boat encampment, where at last our course would join with that followed by the early _voyageurs_ and explorers. no point in the whole length of the columbia, not even astoria, has associations more calculated to stir the imagination than this tiny patch of silt-covered overflow flat which has been formed by the erosive action of three torrential rivers tearing at the hearts of three great mountain ranges. sand and soil of the rockies, selkirks and the gold range, carried by the columbia, canoe and wood rivers, meet and mingle to form the remarkable halting place, where the east and westbound pioneering traffic of a century stopped to gather breath for the next stage of its journey. before pushing off from the ferry on the morning of october seventh i dug out from my luggage a copy of a report written in by lieutenant thomas w. symons, u. s. a., on the navigation of the upper columbia. this was chiefly concerned with that part of the river between the international boundary and the mouth of the snake, but lieutenant symons had made a long and exhaustive study of the whole columbia basin, and his geographical description of the three rivers which unite at boat encampment is so succinct and yet so comprehensive that i am impelled to make a liberal quotation from it here. of the great assistance i had from lieutenant symons' invaluable report when i came to the passage of that part of the river covered by his remarkable voyage of forty years ago i shall write later. "amid the universal gloom and midnight silence of the north, a little above the fifty-second parallel of latitude, seemingly surrounded on all sides by cloud-piercing snow-clad mountains, and nestled down among the lower and nearer cedar-mantled hills, there lies a narrow valley where three streams meet and blend their waters, one coming from the southeast, one from the northwest, and one from the east. the principal one of these streams is the one from the southeast ... and is the headwater stream, and bears the name of the columbia. "the northwestern stream is the extreme northern branch of the columbia, rising beyond the fifty-third parallel of latitude, and is known among the traders and _voyageurs_ as canoe river, from the excellence of the barks obtained on its banks for canoe building. this is a small river, forty yards wide at its mouth, flowing through a densely timbered valley in which the trees overhang the stream to such an extent as almost to shut it out from the light of heaven.... "portage river, the third of the trio of streams, the smallest and the most remarkable of them, is the one which enters from the east. it has its source in the very heart of the rocky mountains and flows through a tremendous cleft in the main range between two of its loftiest peaks, mounts brown and hooker. just underneath these giant mountains, on the divide known as 'the height of land,' lie two small lakes, each about thirty yards in diameter, and which are only a few yards from each other. one has its outlet to the west, portage river, flowing to the columbia; the other has its outlet to the east, whirlpool river, a branch of the athabaska, which joins the mackenzie and flows to the arctic ocean. "the elevated valley in which these lakes are situated is called 'the committee's punchbowl,' and the nabobs of the fur trade always treated their companions to a bucket of punch when this point was reached, if they had the ingredients from which to make it, and they usually had. "the pass across the mountains by the portage river, 'the committee's punchbowl' and whirlpool river, known as the athabaska pass, was for many years the route of the british fur traders in going from one side of the rocky mountains to the other. this route is far from being an easy one, and a description of the difficulties, dangers and discomforts of a trip over it will certainly deter any one from making the journey for pleasure. a great part of the way the traveller has to wade up to his middle in the icy waters of portage river. the journey had to be made in the spring before the summer thaws and rains set in, or in the autumn after severe cold weather had locked up the mountain drainage. during the summer the stream becomes an impetuous impassable mountain torrent." considering that lieutenant symons had never traversed the big bend nor the athabaska pass, this description (which must have been written from his careful readings of the diaries of the old _voyageurs_) is a remarkable one. it is not only accurate topographically and geographically, but it has an "atmosphere" which one who _does_ know this region at first hand will be quick to appreciate. how and when the stream which he and the men before him called portage river came to have its name changed to wood, i have not been able to learn. a mile below the ferry blackmore called my attention to a sharp wedge of brown-black mountain which appeared to form the left wall of the river a short way ahead. that lofty out-thrust of rock, he said, was the extreme northern end of the selkirk range. the columbia, after receiving the waters of wood and canoe rivers, looped right round this cape and started flowing south, but with the _massif_ of the selkirks still forming its left bank. but the rockies, which had formed its right bank all the way from its source, were now left behind, and their place was taken by the almost equally lofty gold range, which drained east to the columbia and west to the thompson. the columbia doubles back from north to south at an astonishingly sharp angle,--as river bends go, that is. picture mentally madison square, new york. now suppose the columbia to flow north on broadway, bend round the flatiron building (which represents the selkirks), and then flow south down fifth avenue. then east twenty-third street would represent wood river, and north broadway, canoe river. now forget all the other streets and imagine the buildings of madison square as ten to twelve thousand-feet-high mountains. and there you have a model of the apex of the big bend of the columbia. a milky grey-green flood--straight glacier water if there ever was such--staining the clear stream of the columbia marked the mouth of wood river, and we pulled in for a brief glimpse in passing of what had once been boat encampment. i had broken my thermometer at kinbasket lake, so i could not take the temperatures here; but wood river was beyond all doubt the coldest stream i had ever dabbled a finger-tip in. what the ascent to athabaska pass must have been may be judged from this description by alexander ross--one of the original astoria party--written over a hundred years ago. "picture in the mind a dark, narrow defile, skirted on one side by a chain of inaccessible mountains rising to a great height, covered with snow, and slippery with ice from their tops down to the water's edge; and on the other a beach comparatively low, but studded in an irregular manner with standing and fallen trees, rocks and ice, and full of driftwood, over which the torrent everywhere rushes with such irresistible impetuosity that very few would dare to adventure themselves in the stream. let him again imagine a rapid river descending from some great height, filling up the whole channel between the rocky precipices on the south, and the no less dangerous barrier on the north; and, lastly, let him suppose that we were obliged to make our way on foot against such a torrent, by crossing and recrossing it in all its turns and windings, from morning till night, up to the middle in water, and he will understand the difficulties to be overcome in crossing the rocky mountains." i have been able to learn nothing of records which would indicate that any of the early explorers or _voyageurs_ traversed that portion of the columbia down which we had just come. david thompson, who is credited with being the first man to travel the columbia to the sea, although he spent one winter at the foot of lake windermere, appears to have made his down-river push-off from boat encampment. mr. basil g. hamilton, of invermere, sends me an authoritative note on this point, based on thompson's own journal. from this it appears that the great astronomer-explorer crossed the rockies by athabaska pass and came down to what has since been known by the name of boat encampment in march, . having built himself a hut, he made preparation for a trip down the columbia, by which he hoped to reach the mouth in advance of either of the astor parties, and thus be able to lay claim to the whole region traversed in the name of the northwest company. he writes: "we first tried to get birch rind wherewith to make our trip to the pacific ocean, but without finding any even thick enough to make a dish. so we split out thin boards of cedar wood, about six inches in breadth, and built a canoe twenty-five feet in length and fifty inches in breadth, of the same form as a common canoe. as we had no nails we sewed the boards to each other round the timbers, making use of the fine roots of the pine which we split." this ingeniously constructed but precarious craft was finished on the sixteenth of april, and thompson's party embarked in it on the seventeenth. mr. hamilton doubts if this was the same craft in which they finally reached astoria. from my own knowledge of what lies between i am very much inclined to agree with him. certainly no boat of the construction described could have lasted even to the arrow lakes without much patching, and if a boat seeming on the lines of the original really reached the pacific, it must have been many times renewed in the course of the voyage. i shall hardly need to add that thompson's remarkable journey, so far as its original object was concerned, was a failure. he reached the mouth of the columbia well in advance of astor's land party, but only to find the new yorker fur-trader's expedition by way of cape horn and hawaii already in occupation. boat encampment of to-day is neither picturesque nor interesting; indeed, there are several camp-sites at the bend that one would choose in preference to that rather damp patch of brush-covered, treeless clearing. all that i found in the way of relics of the past were some huge cedar stumps, almost covered with silt, and the remains of a demolished _batteau_. i salved a crude oar-lock from the latter to carry as a mascot for my down-river trip. as a mascot it served me very well, everything considered; though it _did_ get me in rather bad once when i tried to use it for an oar-lock. before the sparkling jade-green stream of the columbia had entirely quenched the milky flow of wood river, the chocolate-brown torrent of canoe river came pouring in to mess things up anew. the swift northern affluent, greatly swelled by the recent rains, was in flood, and at the moment appeared to be discharging a flow almost if not quite equal to that of the main river. for a considerable distance the waters of the right side of the augmented river retained their rich cinnamon tint, and it was not until a brisk stretch of rapid a mile below the bend got in its cocktail-shaker action that the two streams became thoroughly blended. then the former crystalline clearness of the columbia was a thing of the past. it was still far from being a muddy river. there was still more of green than of brown in its waters, but they were dully translucent where they had been brilliantly transparent. not until the hundred-mile-long settling-basin of the arrow lakes allowed the sediment to deposit did the old emerald-bright sparkle come back again. a couple of quick rifle shots from the left bank set the echoes ringing just after we had passed canoe river, and blackmore turned in to where a man and dog were standing in front of an extremely picturesquely located log cabin. it proved to be a french-canadian half-breed trapper called alphonse edmunds. his interest in us was purely social, and after a five minutes' yarn we pulled on. blackmore said the chap lived in golden, and that to avoid the dreaded run down through surprise and kinbasket rapids, he was in the habit of going a couple of hundred miles by the c. p. r. to kamloops, thence north for a hundred miles or more by the canadian northern, thence by packtrain a considerable distance over the divide to the head of canoe river, and finally down the latter by boat to the bend, where he did his winter trapping. this was about four times the distance as by the direct route down the columbia, and probably at least quadrupled time and expense. it threw an illuminative side-light on the way some of the natives regarded the upper half of the big bend. the river was deeper now, but still plugged along at near to the ten-miles-an-hour it had averaged from the foot of kinbasket rapids. as the western slopes of the selkirks were considerably more extensive than the eastern, the drainage to the columbia from that side was proportionately greater. cascades and cataracts came tumbling in every few hundred yards, and every mile or two, from one side or the other, a considerable creek would pour down over its spreading boulder "fan." we landed at twelve-thirty and cooked our lunch on the stove of a perfect beauty of a trapper's cabin near the mouth of mica creek. the trapper had already begun getting in his winter grub, but was away at the moment. the whole place was as clean as a dutch kitchen. a recent shift of channel by the fickle-minded mica creek had undermined almost to the door of this snug little home, and andy reckoned it would go down river on the next spring rise. [illustration: trapper's cabin being undermined by stream] [illustration: the camp above twelve-mile] [illustration: landing at sunset above canoe river (_above_)] [illustration: andy and blackmore swinging the boat into the head of rock slide rapids (_centre_)] [illustration: the big rollers, from to feet from hollow to crest, at head of death rapids (_below_)] we ran the next eighteen miles in less than two hours, tying up for the night at a well-built government cabin three miles below big mouth creek. it was occupied for the winter by a swede trapper named johnston. he was out running his trap-lines when we arrived, but came back in time to be our guest for dinner. he made one rather important contribution to the menu--a "mulligan," the _pièce de résistance_ of which, so he claimed, was a mud-hen he had winged with his revolver that morning. there were six or seven ingredients in that confounded irish stew already, and--much to the disgust of roos and myself, who didn't fancy eating mud-hen--andy dumped into it just about everything he had been cooking except the prunes. that's the proper caper with "mulligans," and they are very good, too, unless some one of the makings chances to be out of your line. and such most decidedly was mud-hen--fish-eating mud-hen! as we were sort of company, roos and i put on the best faces we could and filled up on prunes and marmalade. it was only after the other three had cleaned out the "mulligan" can that andy chanced to mention that "mud-hen" was the popularly accepted euphemism for grouse shot out of season! andy and blackmore and johnston talked "trapper stuff" all evening--tricks for tempting marten, how to prevent the pesky wolverine from robbing traps, "stink-baits," prices, and the prospects for beaver when it again became lawful to take them. johnston was a typical swede, with little apparent regard for his physical strength if money could be made by drawing upon it. the previous season he had had to sleep out in his blankets many nights while covering his lines, and he counted himself lucky that this year he had two or three rough cabins for shelter. he was a terrific worker and ate sparingly of the grub that cost him twenty cents a pound to bring in. he was already looking a bit drawn, and blackmore said the next morning that he would be more or less of a physical wreck by spring, just as he had been the previous season. the hardships these trappers endure is something quite beyond the comprehension of any one who has not been with them. a city man, a farmer, even a sailor, knows nothing to compare with it. we were a mile down stream the next morning before blackmore discovered that his rifle had been left in johnston's cabin, and it took him an hour of hard breaking through the wet underbrush to recover it. the river was still rising from the rains, and the current swift with occasional rapids. blackmore approached the head of gordon rapids (named, of course, from a man of that name who had lost his life there) with considerable caution. he intended to run them, he said, but the convergence of currents threw a nasty cross-riffle that was not to be taken liberties with. he appeared considerably relieved when he found that the high water made it possible to avoid the main rapid by a swift but comparatively clear back-channel. we had a good view of the riffle from below when we swung back into the main channel. it was certainly a vicious tumble of wild white water, and even with our considerable freeboard it would have been a sloppy run. i should have been very reluctant to go into it all with a smaller boat. still deeply canyoned between lofty mountains, the scenery in this part of the bend was quite equal to the finest through which we had passed above canoe river. the steady drizzle which had now set in, however, made pictures out of the question. this did not deter roos from looking for "location." he was under special instructions to make some effective camp shots, and had been on the lookout for a suitable place ever since we started. this day he found what he wanted. shooting down a swift, rough rapid shortly after noon, we rounded a sharp bend and shot past the mouth of a deep black gorge with the white shimmer of a big waterfall just discernible in its dusky depths. almost immediately opposite a rocky point jutted out into the eddy. it was thickly carpeted with moss and grass, and bright with the reds and yellows of patches of late flowers. at its base was an almost perfect circle of towering cedars and sugar pines, their dark green foliage standing out in fret-work against the pale purple mists filling the depths of a wedge-shaped bit of mountain valley behind. there were glaciers and peaks hanging giddily above, but these were obscured by the rain clouds. in response to roos' glad "eureka!" blackmore threw the boat's head sharply toward the left bank, and hard pulling just won us the edge of the eddy. missing that, we would have run on into the rough-and-tumble of twelve-mile rapids, where (as we found the next day) there was no landing for another half mile. the place looked even lovelier at close range than from the river, and roos announced decisively that we were not going to stir from there until the sun came to give him light for his camp shots. fortunately, this befell the next morning. after that, to the best of my recollection, we did not see the sun again until we crossed over to the u. s. a. many days later. roos took a lot of trouble with his camp picture, and i have since heard that it was most favourably reported upon from the studio. setting up on the end of the point, he made his opening shot as the boat ran down the rapid (we had had to line back above for this, of course) and floundered through the swirls and whirlpools past the mouth of the gloomy gorge and its half-guessed waterfall. after landing and packing our outfit up the bank, trees were felled, boughs cut and spread and the tent set up. finally, we fried bacon, tossed flapjacks and baked bannocks. i could tell by his expression that roos dearly wanted to lend a mack sennett "custard-pie" touch by having some one smear some one else in the face with a mushy half-baked bannock, but discretion prevailed. qualified "smearers" there were in plenty--andy and blackmore were wood-choppers and i was an ex-pitcher and shot-putter,--but the designation of a "smear-ee" was quite another matter. roos did well to stop where he did. pushing off about noon, we dropped down to near the head of "twelve-mile," and put roos ashore on the right bank for a shot as we ran through. we had expected to land to pick him up at the foot of the rapid, but blackmore, in order to make the picture as spectacular as possible, threw the boat right into the midst of the white stuff. there was a good deal of soft fluff flying in the air, but nothing with much weight in it. we ran through easily, but got so far over toward the left bank that it was impossible to pull into the eddy we had hoped to make. andy and i pulled our heads off for five minutes before we could reach slack water near the left bank, and by then we were a quarter of a mile below the foot of the rapid. andy had to go back to help roos down over the boulders with his machine and tripod. another mile in fast water brought us to the head of rock slide rapids, and we landed on the right bank for our last stretch of lining on the big bend. the rock slide is the narrowest point on the whole columbia between lake windermere and the pacific. an almost perpendicular mountainside has been encroaching on the river here for many years, possibly damming it all the way across at times. from the slide to the precipitous left bank there is an average channel seventy feet in width, through which the river rushes with tremendous velocity over and between enormous sharp-edged boulders. this pours into a cauldron-like eddy at a right-angled bend, and over the lower end of that swirling maelstrom the river spills into another narrow chute to form the _dalles des morts_ of accursed memory. i know of no place on the upper half of the bend where the river is less than a hundred feet wide. the little dalles, just below the american line, are about a hundred and forty feet across in their narrowest part, and the great dalles below celilo falls are slightly wider. kettle falls, hell-gate and rock island rapids have side channels of less than a hundred feet, but the main channels are much broader. save only the _dalles des morts_ (which are really its continuation) the rock slide has no near rival anywhere on the river. it has struck me as quite probable that the rock slide, and the consequent constriction of the river at that point, are of comparatively recent occurrence, almost certainly of the last hundred years. in the diaries of ross, cox and franchiere, on which most of the earlier columbian history is based, i can find no mention of anything of the kind at this point, a location readily identifiable because of its proximity to the _dalles des morts_, which they all mention. but in ross' record i _do_ find this significant passage: "a little after starting (_from the dalles des morts_) we backed our paddles and stood still for some minutes admiring a striking curiosity. the water of a cataract creek, after shooting over the brink of a bold precipice, falls in a white sheet onto a broad, flat rock, smooth as glass, which forms the first step; then upon a second, some ten feet lower down, and lastly, on a third, somewhat lower. it then enters a subterranean vault, formed at the mouth like a funnel, and after passing through this funnel it again issues forth with a noise like distant thunder. after falling over another step it meets the front of a bold rock, which repulses back the water with such violence as to keep it whirling around in a large basin. opposite to this rises the wing of a shelving cliff, which overhangs the basin and forces back the rising spray, refracting in the sunshine all the colours of the rainbow. the creek then enters the columbia." on the left bank, immediately above the _dalles des morts_, an extremely beautiful little waterfall leaps into the river from the cliffs, but neither this (as will readily be seen from my photograph of it) nor any other similar fall i saw in the whole length of the columbia, bears the least suggestion of a resemblance to the remarkable cataract ross so strikingly describes. but i _did_ see a very sizable stream of water cascading right down the middle of the great rock slide, and at a point which might very well coincide with that at which ross saw his "stairway-and-tunnel" phenomenon. does it not seem quite possible that the latter should have undermined the cliff over and through which it was tumbling, precipitating it into the river and forming the rock slide of the present day? the middle of the channel at rock slide was a rough, smashing cascade that looked quite capable of grinding a boat to kindling wood in a hundred feet; but to the right of it the water was considerably better. blackmore said the chances would be all in favour of running it safely, _but_, if anything at all went wrong (such as the unshipping of an oar, for instance), it might make it hard to get into the eddy at the bend; and if we missed the eddy--death rapids! he didn't seem to think any further elucidation was necessary. it would be best to line the whole way down, he said. on account of the considerable depth of water right up to the banks, the boat struck on the rocks rather less than usual; but the clamber over the jagged, fresh-fallen granite was the worst thing of the kind we encountered. i _did_ get a bit of a duck here, though, but it was not near to being anything serious, and the sequel was rather amusing. losing my footing for a moment on the only occasion i had to give andy a lift with the boat, i floundered for a few strokes, kicked into an eddy and climbed out. ever since andy had his souse and came out with empty pockets, i had taken the precaution of buttoning mine securely down before starting in to line. the buttons had resisted the best efforts of the kleptomaniacal river current, and i came out with the contents of my pocket wet but intact. but there was a trifling casualty even thus. a leg of my riding breeches was missing from the knee down. it was an ancient pair of east indian _jodpurs_ i was wearing (without leggings, of course), and age and rough usage had opened a slit at the knee. possibly i caught this somewhere on the boat without noting it in my excitement; or it is even possible the current _did_ tear it off. there was nothing especially remarkable about it in any case. all the same, blackmore and andy always solemnly declared that the _geesly_ river, baulked by my buttons of its designs on the contents of my pockets, had tried to get away with my whole pair of pants! if that was so, it had its way in the end. before i set out on the second leg of my voyage from the foot of the arrow lakes, i threw the river god all that was left of that bedraggled pair of _jodpurs_ as a propitiatory offering. the deeper rumble of death rapids became audible above the higher-keyed grind of rock slide as we worked down toward the head of the intervening eddy. of all the cataracts and cascades with sinister records on the columbia this dalles of the dead has undoubtedly been the one to draw to itself the greatest share of execration. the terrific toll of lives they have claimed is unquestionably traceable to the fact that this swift, narrow chute of round-topped rollers is many times worse than it looks, especially to a comparatively inexperienced river man, and there have been many such numbered among its victims. there are two or three places in surprise rapids, and one or two even in kinbasket, that the veriest greenhorn would know better than to try to run; death rapids it is conceivable that a novice might try, just as many of them have, and to their cost. however, it is probable that the greatest number that have died here were comparatively experienced men who were sucked into the death-chute in spite of themselves. of such was made up the party whose tragic fate gave the rapid its sinister name. ross cox, of the original astorians, tells the story, and the account of it i am setting down here is slightly abridged from his original narrative. on the sixteenth of april, , ross cox's party of twenty-three left fort george (originally and subsequently astoria) to ascend the columbia and cross the rockies by the athabaska pass, en route montreal. on the twenty-seventh of may they arrived at boat encampment after the most severe labours in dragging their boats up the rapids and making their way along the rocky shores. seven men of the party were so weak, sick and worn out that they were unable to proceed across the mountains, so they were given the best of the canoes and provisions, and were to attempt to return down river to spokane house, a hudson bay post near the mouth of the river of that name. they reached the place which has since borne the name of _dalles des morts_ without trouble. there, in passing their canoe down over the rapids with a light cod line, it was caught in a whirlpool. the line snapped, and the canoe, with all the provisions and blankets, was lost. the men found themselves utterly destitute, and at a time of year when it was impossible to procure any wild fruit or roots. the continual rising of the water completely inundated the beach, which compelled them to force their way through a dense forest, rendered almost impervious by a thick growth of prickly underbrush. their only nourishment was water. on the third day a man named macon died, and his surviving comrades, though unconscious of how soon they might be called on to follow him, divided his remains into equal parts, on which they subsisted for several days. from the sore and swollen state of their feet, their daily progress did not exceed two or three miles. a tailor named holmes was the next to die, and the others subsisted for some days on his emaciated remains. in a little while, of the seven men, only two remained alive--dubois and la pierre. la pierre was subsequently found on the upper arrow lake by two indians who were coasting it in a canoe. they took him to kettle falls, from where he was carried to spokane house. he stated that after the death of the fifth man of the party, dubois and he remained for some days at the spot, living on the remains. when they felt strong enough to continue, they loaded themselves with as much of the flesh as they could carry; that with this they succeeded in reaching the upper lake, around the shores of which they wandered for some time in search of indians; that their food at length became exhausted, and they were again reduced to the prospects of starvation. on the second night after their last meal la pierre observed something suspicious in the conduct of dubois, which induced him to be on his guard; and that shortly after they had lain down for the night, and while he feigned sleep, he observed dubois cautiously opening his clasp-knife, with which he sprang at la pierre, inflicting on the hand the blow evidently intended for the neck. a silent and desperate conflict followed, in which, after severe struggling, la pierre succeeded in wresting the knife from his antagonist, and, having no other resource left, was finally obliged to cut dubois' throat. it was several days after this that he was discovered by the indians. this was one of the earliest, and certainly the most terrible, of all the tragedies originating at the _dalles des morts_. there are a number of graves in the vicinity, but more numerous still are the inscriptions on the cliffs in memory of the victims whose bodies were never recovered for burial. compared to what we had been having, lining down death rapids was comparatively simple. it was only when one got right down beside them that the terrible power of the great rolling waves became evident. from crest to trough they must have been from twelve to fifteen feet high, with the water--on account of the steep declivity and the lack of resistance from rocks--running at race-horse speed. we had become so used to expecting big boulders to underlie heavy waves that it was difficult to realize that there was all of a hundred feet of green water between these giant rollers and the great reefs of bedrock which were responsible for them. for a quarter of a mile below where the rolling waves ceased to comb there was a green-white chaos of whirlpools and the great geyser-like up-boils where the sucked-down water was ejected again to the surface. this was another of the places where the river was said to "eat up" whole pine trees at high water, and it was not hard to believe. even now the voracious vortices were wolfing very considerable pieces of driftwood, and one had to keep a very sharp lookout to see the spewed-forth fragments reappear at all. this was no water for a small boat or canoe. it would, for instance, have engulfed the sixteen-foot skiff which i used on the lower river as an elephant gulps a tossed peanut. but our big double-ended thirty-footer was more of a mouthful. blackmore pushed off without hesitation as soon as we had lined below the rollers, but _not_ without reiterating the old warning about not dipping too deep, and being quick about throwing the oar free from its oar-lock if a whirlpool started to drag down the blade. we had a lively five minutes of it, what with the whirlpools trying to suck her stern under and the geysers trying to toss her bow on high; but they never had us in serious trouble. they did spin her all the way round, though, in spite of all the three of us could do to hold her, and as for our course--a chart of it would make the track of an earthquake on a seismograph look as if drawn with a straight-edge! another mile took us to the head of priest rapids, so named because two french-canadian priests had been drowned there. this was to be our great rapid-running picture. bad light had prevented our getting anything of the kind in surprise and kinbasket rapids, and "twelve-mile," though white and fast, was hardly the real thing. but priest rapids was reputed the fastest on the whole river--certainly over twenty miles an hour, blackmore reckoned. it had almost as much of a pitch as the upper part of the first drop of surprise rapids down to the abrupt fall. but, being straight as a city street and with plenty of water over the rocks, running it was simply a matter of having a large enough boat and being willing to take the soaking. blackmore had the boat, and, for the sake of a real rip-snorting picture, he said he was willing to take the soaking. so were andy and i. [illustration: looking across to boat encampment (_above_)] [illustration: "wood smoke at twilight" above twelve-mile (_below_)] [illustration: lining down rock slide rapids (_above_)] [illustration: when the columbia took half of my riding breeches (_below_)] we dropped roos at the head of the rumbling "intake," and while andy went down to help him set up in a favourable position, blackmore and i lined back up-stream a hundred yards so as to have a good jump on when we started. andy joined us presently, to report that roos appraised the "back-lighting" effect across the white caps as "cheap at a million dollars." he was going to make the shot of his life. pushing off we laid on our oars, floating down until we caught roos' signal to come on. then andy and i swung into it with all of the something like four hundred and fifty pounds of beef we scaled between us. blackmore headed her straight down the "v" into the swiftest and roughest part of the rapid. it was a bit less tempestuous toward the right bank, but a quiet passage was not what he was looking for this trip. the boat must have had half her length out of water when she hurdled off the top of that first wave. i couldn't see, of course, but i judged it must have been that way from the manner in which she slapped down and buried her nose under the next comber. that brought over the water in a solid green flood. andy and i only caught it on our hunched backs, but blackmore, on his feet and facing forward, had to withstand a full frontal attack. my one recollection of him during that mad run is that of a freshly emerged neptune shaking his grizzly locks and trying to blink the water out of his eyes. our team-work, as usual, went to sixes-and-sevens the moment we hit the rough water, but neither andy nor i stopped pulling on that account. yelling like a couple of _locoed_ apaches, we kept slapping out with our oar-blades into every hump of water within reach, and i have an idea that we managed to keep a considerable way even over the speeding current right to the finish. it was quite the wettest river run i ever made. a number of times during the war i was in a destroyer when something turned up to send it driving with all the speed it had--or all its plates would stand, rather--into a head sea. that meant that it made most of the run tunnelling under water. and that was the way it seemed going down priest rapids, only not so bad, of course. we were only about a quarter full of water when we finally pulled up to the bank in an eddy to wait for the movie man. i could see that something had upset roos by the droop of his shoulders, even when he was a long way off; the droop of his mouth confirmed the first impression on closer view. "you couldn't do that again, could you?" he asked blackmore, with a furtive look in his eyes. the "skipper" stopped bailing with a snort. "sure i'll do it again," he growled sarcastically. "just line the boat back where she was and i'll bring her down again--only not to-night. i'll want to get dried out first. but what's the matter anyhow? didn't we run fast enough to suit you?" "guess _you_ ran fast enough," was the reply; "but the film didn't. buckled in camera. oil-can! washout! out of luck!" engulfed in a deep purple aura of gloom, roos climbed back into the boat and asked how far it was to camp and dinner. for a couple of miles we had a fast current with us, but by the time we reached the mouth of downie creek--the centre of a great gold rush half a century ago--the river was broadening and deepening and slowing down. a half hour more of sharp pulling brought us to keystone creek and boyd's ranch, where we tied up for the night. this place had the distinction of being the only ranch on the big bend, but it was really little more than a clearing with a house and barn. boyd had given his name to a rapid at the head of revelstoke canyon--drowned while trying to line by at high water, blackmore said--and the present owner was an american civil war pensioner named wilcox. he was wintering in california for his health, but andy, being a friend of his, knew where to look for the key. hardly had the frying bacon started its sizzling prelude than there came a joyous yowl at the door, and as it was opened an enormous tiger-striped tomcat bounded into the kitchen. straight for andy's shoulder he leaped, and the trapper's happy howl of recognition must have met him somewhere in the air. andy hugged the ecstatically purring bundle to his breast as if it were a long-lost child, telling us between nuzzles into the arched furry back that this was "tommy" (that was his name, of course), with whom he had spent two winters alone in his trapper's cabin. it was hard to tell which was the more delighted over this unexpected reunion, man or cat. he had little difficulty in accounting for "tommy's" presence at boyd's. he had given the cat to wilcox a season or two back, and wilcox, when he left for california, had given him to "wild bill," who had a cabin ten miles farther down the river. "bill" already had a brother of "tommy," but a cat of much less character. as "bill" was much given to periodic sprees, andy was satisfied that "tommy," who was a great sizer-up of personality, had left him in disgust and returned to his former deserted home to shift for himself. as he would pull down rabbits as readily as an ordinary cat caught mice, this was an easy matter as long as the snow did not get too deep. of what might happen after that andy did not like to think. he would have to make some provision for his pet before full winter set in. that evening we sat around the kitchen fire, telling all the cat stories we knew and quarrelling over whose turn it was to hold "tommy" and put him through his tricks. the latter were of considerable variety. there was all the usual "sit-up," "jump-through" and "roll-over" stuff, but with such "variations" as only a trapper, snow-bound for days with nothing else to do, would have the time to conceive and perfect. for instance, if you only waved your hand in an airy spiral, "tommy" would respond with no more than the conventional "once-over;" but a gentle tweak of the tail following the spiral, brought a roll to the left, while two tweaks directed him to the right. similarly with his "front" and "back" somersaults, which took their inspiration from a slightly modified form of aerial spiral. of course only andy could get the fine work out of him, but the ordinary "jump-through" stuff he would do for any of us. i am afraid the cat stories we told awakened, temporarily at least, a good deal of mutual distrust. roos didn't figure greatly, but andy and blackmore and i were glowering back and forth at each other with "i-suppose-you-don't-believe-_that_" expressions all evening. the two woodsmen, "hunting in couples" for the occasion, displayed considerable team-work. one of their best was of a trapper of their acquaintance--name and present address mentioned with scrupulous particularity--who had broken his leg one winter on maloney creek, just as he was at the end of his provisions. dragging himself to his cabin, he lay down to die of starvation. the next morning his cat jumped in through the window with a rabbit in his mouth. then the trapper had his great idea. leaving the cat just enough to keep him alive, he took the rest for himself. that made the cat go on hunting, and each morning he came back with a rabbit. and so it went on until springtime brought in his partner and relief. i asked them why, if the cat was so hungry, he didn't eat the rabbit up in the woods; but they said that wasn't the way of a cat, or at least of this particular cat. then i told them of a night, not long before the war, that i spent with the german archæologists excavating at babylon. hearing a scratching on my door, i got up and found a tabby cat there. entering the room, she nosed about under my mosquito netting for a few moments with ingratiating mewings and purrings, finally to trot out through the open door with an "i'll-see-you-again-in-a-moment" air. presently she returned with a new-born kitten in her mouth. nuzzling under the net and coverlets, she deposited the mewing atom in my bed, and then trotted off after another. when the whole litter of five was there, she crawled in herself and started nursing them. i spent the night on the couch, and without a net. according to the best of my judgment, that story of mine was the only true one told that night. and yet--confound them--they wouldn't believe it--any more than i would theirs! considerable feeling arose along toward bed-time as to who was going to have "tommy" to sleep with. roos--who hadn't cut much ice in the story-telling--came strong at this juncture by adopting cave-man tactics and simply picking "tommy" up and walking off with him. waiting until roos was asleep, i crept over and, gently extricating the furry pillow from under his downy cheek, carried it off to snuggle against my own ear. whether andy adopted the same sabine methods himself, i never quite made sure. anyhow, it was out of his blankets that "tommy" came crawling in the morning. as we made ready to pack off, andy was in considerable doubt as to whether it would be best to leave his pet where he was or to take him down to "wild bill" again. "tommy" cut the gordian knot himself by following us down to the boat like a dog and leaping aboard. he was horribly upset for a while when he saw the bank slide away from him and felt the motion of the boat, but roos, muffling the dismal yowls under his coat, kept him fairly quiet until "wild bill's" landing was reached. here he became his old self again, following us with his quick little canine trot up to the cabin. outside the door he met his twin brother, and the two, after a swift sniff of identification, slipped away across the clearing to stalk rabbits. "wild bill," as andy had anticipated, was still in bed, but got up and welcomed us warmly as soon as he found who it was. he was a small man--much to my surprise, and looked more like a french-canadian gentleman in reduced circumstances than the most tumultuous booze-fighter on the upper columbia. i had heard scores of stories of his escapades in the days when golden and revelstoke were wide-open frontier towns and life was really worth living. but most of them just miss being "drawing-room," however, and i refrain from setting them down. there was one comparatively polite one, though, of the time he started the biggest free-for-all fight revelstoke ever knew by using the white, woolly, cheek-cuddling poodle of a dance-hall girl to wipe the mud off his boots with. and another--but no, that one wouldn't quite pass censor. "bill" had shot a number of bear in the spring, and now asked andy to take the unusually fine skins to revelstoke and sell them for him. he also asked if we could let him have any spare provisions, as he was running very short. he was jubilant when i told him he could take everything we had left for what it had cost in golden. that was like finding money, he said, for packing in his stuff cost him close to ten cents a pound. but it wasn't the few dollars he saved on the grub that etched a silver--nay, a roseate--lining on the sodden rain clouds for "wild bill" that day; rather it was the sequel to the consequences of a kindly thought i had when he came down to the boat to see us off. "'bill,'" i said, as he started to wring our hands in parting, "they tell me you've become a comparative teetotaler these last few years. but we have a little 'thirty per over-proof' left--just a swallow. perhaps--for the sake of the old days...." that quick, chesty cough, rumbling right from the diaphragm, was the one deepest sound of emotion i ever heard--and i've heard a fair amount of "emoting," too. "don't mind--if i do," he mumbled brokenly, with a long intake of breath that was almost a sob. i handed him a mug--a hulking big half-pint coffee mug, it was--and uncorked the bottle. "say when...." "thanks--won't trouble you," he muttered, snatching the bottle from me with a hand whose fingers crooked like claws. then he inhaled another deep breath, took out his handkerchief, brushed off a place on one of the thwarts, sat down, and, pouring very deliberately, emptied the contents of the bottle to the last drop into the big mug. the bottle--a british imperial quart--had been a little less than a quarter full; the mug was just short of brimming. "earzow!" he mumbled, with a sweepingly comprehensive gesture with the mug. then, crooking his elbow, he dumped the whole half pint down his throat. diluted four-to-one, that liquid fire would have made an ordinary man wince; and "wild bill" downed it without a blink. then he wiped his lips with his sleeve, set mug and bottle carefully down on the thwart, bowed low to each of us, and stepped ashore with dignified tread. blackmore, checking roos' hysterical giggle with a prod of his paddle handle, pushed off into the current. "wait!" he admonished, eyeing the still figure on the bank with the fascinated glance of a man watching a short length of fuse sputter down toward the end of a stick of dynamite. we had not long to wait. the detonation of the dynamite was almost instantaneous. the mounting fumes of that "thirty per" fired the slumbering volcano of the old trapper as a dash of kerosene fires a bed of dormant coals. and so "wild bill" went wild. dancing and whooping like an indian, he shouted for us to come back--that he would give us his furs, his cabin, the columbia, the selkirks, canada.... what he was going to offer next we never learned, for just then a very sobering thing occurred--"tommy" and his twin brother, attracted by the noise, came trotting down the path from the cabin to learn what it was all about. andy swore that he had told "bill" that we had brought "tommy" back, and that "bill" had heard him, and replied that he hoped the cat would stay this time. but even if this was true, it no longer signified. "bill" had forgotten all about it, and _knew_ that there ought to be only one tiger-striped tomcat about the place, whereas his eyes told him there were two. so he kept counting them, and stopping every now and then to hold up two fingers at us in pathetic puzzlement. finally he began to chase them--or rather "it"--now one of "it" and now the other. the last we saw of him, as the current swept the boat round a point, he had caught "tommy's" twin brother and was still trying to enumerate "tommy." very likely by that time there were two of him in fancy as well as in fact--possibly mauve and pink ones. blackmore took a last whiff at the neck of the rum bottle and then tossed it gloomily into the river. "the next time you ask a man to take a 'swallow,'" he said, "probably you'll know enough to find out how big his 'swallow' is in advance." we pulled hard against a head wind all morning, and with not much help from the current. the latter began to speed up at rocky point rapids, and from there the going was lively right on through revelstoke canyon. sand slide rapid, a fast-rolling serpentine cascade near the head of the canyon, gave us a good wetting as blackmore slashed down the middle of it, and he was still bailing when we ran in between the sides of the great red-and-black-walled gorge. between cliffs not over a hundred feet apart for a considerable distance, the river rushes with great velocity, throwing itself in a roaring wave now against one side, now against the other. as the depth is very great (blackmore said he had failed to get bottom with a hundred-and-fifty-foot line), the only things to watch out for were the cliffs and the whirlpools. neither was a serious menace to a boat of our size at that stage of water, but the swirls would have made the run very dangerous for a skiff or canoe at any time. unfortunately, the drizzling rain and lowering clouds made pictures of what is one of the very finest scenic stretches of the big bend quite out of the question. if it had been the matter of a day or two, we would gladly have gone into camp and waited for the light; but blackmore was inclined to think the spell of bad weather that had now set in was the beginning of an early winter, in which event we might stand-by for weeks without seeing the sky. it was just as well we did not wait. as i have already mentioned, we did not feel the touch of sunlight again until we were on the american side of the border. from the foot of the canyon to blackmore's boat-house was four miles. pulling down a broadening and slackening river flanked by ever receding mountains, we passed under the big c. p. r. bridge and tied up at four o'clock. in spite of taking it easy all the time, the last twenty miles had been run in quite a bit under two hours. chapter ix revelstoke to the spokane the voyage round the big bend, in spite of the atrocious weather, had gone so well that i had just about made up my mind to continue on down river by the time we reached revelstoke. a letter which awaited me at the hotel there from captain armstrong, stating that he would be free to join me for my first week or ten days south from the foot of the lakes, was all that was needed to bring me to a decision. i wired him that i would pick him up in nelson as soon as i had cleaned up a pile of correspondence which had pursued me in spite of all directions to the contrary, and in the meantime for him to endeavour to find a suitable boat. nelson, as the metropolis of western british columbia, appeared to be the only place where we would have a chance of finding what was needed in the boat line on short notice. while i wrote letters, roos got his exposed film off to los angeles, laid in a new stock, and received additional instructions from chester in connection with the new picture--the one for which the opening shots had already been made at windermere, and which we called "the farmer who would see the sea." as there was no swift water whatever between revelstoke and kootenay rapids, i had no hesitation in deciding to make the voyage down the arrow lakes by steamer. both on the score of water-stage and weather, it was now a good month to six weeks later than the most favourable time for a through down-river voyage. any time saved now, therefore, might be the means of avoiding so many days of winter further along. i was hoping that, with decreasing altitude and a less humid region ahead, i would at least be keeping ahead of the snows nearly if not quite all the way to portland. i may mention here that, all in all, i played in very good luck on the score of weather. there were to be, however, a few _geesly_ cold days on the river along about wenatchee, and two or three mighty blustery blows in the cascades. the arrow lakes are merely enlargements of the columbia, keeping throughout their lengths the same general north-to-south direction of this part of the river. the upper lake is thirty-three miles in length, and has an average width of about three miles. sixteen miles of comparatively swift river runs from the upper to the lower lake. the latter, which is forty-two miles long and two and a half wide, is somewhat less precipitously walled than the upper lake, and there are considerable patches of cultivation here and there along its banks--mostly apple orchards. there is a steamer channel all the way up the columbia to revelstoke, but the present service, maintained by the canadian pacific at its usual high standard, starts at the head of the upper lake and finishes at west robson, some miles down the columbia from the foot of the lower lake. this is one of the very finest lake trips anywhere in the world; i found it an unending source of delight, even after a fortnight of the superlative scenery of the big bend. there is a stock story they tell of the arrow lakes, and which appears intended to convey to the simple tourist a graphic idea of the precipitousness of their rocky walls. the skipper of my steamer told it while we were ploughing down the upper lake. seeing a man struggling in the water near the bank one day, he ran some distance off his course to throw the chap a line. disdaining all aid, the fellow kept right on swimming toward the shore. "don't worry about me," he shouted back; "this is only the third time i've fallen off my ranch to-day." i told the captain that the story sounded all right to me except in one particular--that even my glass failed to reveal any ranches for a man to fall off of. "oh, that's all right," was the unperturbed reply; "there _was_ one when that yarn was started, but i guess it fell into the lake too. but mebbe i _had_ ought to keep it for the lower lake, though," he added; "there is still some un-slid ranches down there." nelson is a fine little city that hangs to a rocky mountainside right at the point where kootenay lake spills over and discharges its surplus water into a wild, white torrent that seems to be trying to atone at the last for its long delay in making up its mind to join the columbia. nelson was made by the rich silver-lead mines of the kootenay district, but it was so well made that, even now with the first fine frenzy of the mining excitement over, it is still able to carry on strongly as a commercial distributing and fruit shipping centre. it is peopled by the same fine, out-door loving folk that one finds through all of western canada, and is especially noted for its aquatic sports. i am only sorry that i was not able to see more of both nelson and its people. as soon as i saw captain armstrong i made a clean breast to him about my failure to unearth the treasure at the bend. he was a good sport and bore up better than one would expect a man to under the circumstances. "i wish that matter of k---- and his d. t.'s had come up before you left," was his only comment. "why?" i asked. "i can't see what difference that would have made. we didn't waste a lot of time digging." "that's just it," said the captain with a wry grin. "wouldn't you have gone right on digging if you had known that the spell of jim-jams that finished k---- came from some stuff he got from a section-hand at beavermouth? now i suppose i'll have to watch my chance and run down and salvage that keg of old scotch myself." it shows the stuff that armstrong was made of when i say that, even after the way i had betrayed the trust he had reposed in me, he was still game to go on with the columbia trip. that's the sort of man he was. boats of anywhere near the design we would need for the river were scarce, the captain reported, but there was one which he thought might do. this proved to be a sixteen-foot, clinker-built skiff that had been constructed especially to carry an out-board motor. she had ample beam, a fair freeboard and a considerable sheer. the principal thing against her was the square stern, and that was of less moment running down river than if we had been working up. it _did_ seem just a bit like asking for trouble, tackling the columbia in a boat built entirely for lake use; but captain armstrong's approval of her was quite good enough for me. save for her amiable weakness of yielding somewhat overreadily to the seductive embraces of whirlpools--a trait common to all square-sterned craft of inconsiderable length--she proved more than equal to the task set for her. we paid fifty-five dollars for her--about half what she had cost--and there was a charge of ten dollars for expressing her to west robson, on the columbia. we left nelson by train for castlegar, on the columbia just below west robson, the afternoon of october nineteenth. the track runs in sight of the kootenay practically all of the way. there is a drop of three hundred and fifty feet in the twenty-eight miles of river between the outlet of the lake and the columbia, with no considerable stretch that it would be safe to run with a boat. a large part of the drop occurs in two fine cataracts called bonnington falls, where there is an important hydro-electric plant, serving nelson and trail with power; but most of the rest of the way the river is one continuous series of foam-white cascades with short quiet stretches between. the last two or three miles to the river the railway runs through the remarkable colony of russian doukobours, with a station at brilliant, where their big co-operative jam factory and administrative offices are located. we had a more intimate glimpse of this interesting colony from the river the following day. we found the express car with the boat on the siding at west robson, and the three of us--armstrong, roos and myself--had little difficulty in sliding her down the quay and launching her in the columbia. pulling a mile down the quiet current, we tied her up for the night at the castlegar ferry. then we cut across the bend through the woods for a look at kootenay rapids, the first stretch of fast water we were to encounter. after the rough-and-rowdy rapids of the big bend, this quarter-mile of white riffle looked like comparatively easy running. it was a very different sort of a craft we had now, however, and armstrong took the occasion to give the channel a careful study. there were a lot of big black rocks cropping up all the way across, but he thought that, by keeping well in toward the right bank, we could make it without much trouble. on the way back to the hotel at castlegar, the captain was hailed from the doorway of a cabin set in the midst of a fresh bit of clearing. it turned out to be a boatman who had accompanied him and mr. forde, of the canadian department of public works, on a part of their voyage down the columbia in . they reminisced for half an hour in the gathering twilight, talking mostly of the occasion when a whirlpool had stood their peterboro on end in the little dalles. i found this just a bit disturbing, for armstrong had already confided to me that he intended running the little dalles. the boat trimmed well when we came to stow the load the next morning, but when the three of us took our places she was rather lower in the water than we had expected she was going to be. she seemed very small after blackmore's big thirty-footer, and the water uncomfortably close at hand. she was buoyant enough out in the current, however, and responded very smartly to paddle and oars when armstrong and i tried a few practice manoeuvres. the captain sat on his bedding roll in the stern, plying his long paddle, and i pulled a pair of oars from the forward thwart. roos sat on the after thwart, facing armstrong, with his tripod, camera and most of the luggage stowed between them. she was loaded to ride high by the head, as it was white water rather than whirlpools that was in immediate prospect. with a small boat and a consequent comparatively small margin of safety, one has to make his trim a sort of a compromise. for rough, sloppy rapids it is well to have the bows just about as high in the air as you can get them. on the other hand, it is likely to be fatal to get into a bad whirlpool with her too much down by the stern. as the one succeeds the other as a general rule, about the best you can do is to strike a comfortable mean based on what you know of the water ahead. [illustration: bonnington falls of the kootenay (_above_)] [illustration: plastered log cabin in the doukhobor village (_below_)] [illustration: trucking the skiff through kettle falls] [illustration: twilight in the gorge at kettle falls] i found it very awkward for a while pulling with two oars after having worked for so long with one, and this difficulty--especially in bad water--i never quite overcame. in a really rough rapid one oar is all a man can handle properly, and he does well if he manages that. your stroke is largely determined by the sort of stuff the blade is going into, and--as on the verge of an eddy--with the water to port running in one direction, and that to starboard running another, it is obviously impossible for a man handling two oars to do full justice to the situation. he simply has to do the best he can and leave the rest to the man with the paddle in the stern. when the latter is an expert with the experience of captain armstrong there is little likelihood of serious trouble. the matter of keeping a lookout is also much more difficult in a small boat. in a craft with only a few inches of freeboard it is obviously out of the question for a steersman to keep his feet through a rapid, as he may do without risk in a _batteau_ or canoe large enough to give him a chance to brace his knees against the sides. armstrong effected the best compromise possible by standing and getting a good "look-see" while he could, and then settling back into a securer position when the boat struck the rough water. the three or four feet less of vantage from which to con the channel imposes a good deal of a handicap, but there is no help for it. we ran both pitches of kootenay rapids easily and smartly. her bows slapped down pretty hard when she tumbled off the tops of some of the bigger rollers, but into not the softest of the souse-holes would she put her high-held head. we took in plenty of spray, but nothing green--nothing that couldn't be bailed without stopping. it was a lot better performance than one was entitled to expect of a lake boat running her maiden rapid. "she'll do!" chuckled the captain with a satisfied grin, resting on his paddle as we slid easily out of the final run of swirls; "you ought to take her right through without a lot of trouble." "_imshallah!_" i interjected piously, anxious not to offend the river god with a display of overmuch confidence. i began to call her "_imshallah_" in my mind from that time on, and "_imshallah_"--"god willing"--she remained until i tied her up for her well-earned rest in a portland boat-house. it was in the course of the next day or two that i made a propitiatory offering to the river god in the form of the remnants of the _jodpurs_ he had tried so hard to snatch from me at rock slide rapids. i've always had a sneaking feeling offerings of that kind are "good medicine;" that the old greeks knew what they were doing when they squared things with the gods in advance on venturing forth into unknown waters. big and little tin cup rapids, which are due to the obstruction caused by boulders washed down by the torrential kootenay river, gave us little trouble. there is a channel of good depth right down the middle of both, and we splashed through this without getting into much besides flying foam. just below we pulled up to the left bank and landed for a look at one of the doukobour villages. the doukobours are a strange russian religious sect, with beliefs and observances quite at variance with those of the greek church. indeed, it was the persecutions of the orthodox russians that were responsible for driving considerable numbers of them to canada. they are best known in america, not for their indefatigable industry and many other good traits, but for their highly original form of protesting when they have fancied that certain of their rights were being restricted by canadian law. on repeated occasions of this kind whole colonies of them--men, women and children--have thrown aside their every rag of clothing and started off marching about the country. perhaps it is not strange that more has been written about these strange pilgrimages than of the fact that the doukobours have cleared and brought to a high state of productivity many square miles of land that, but for their unflagging energy, would still be worthless. in spite of their somewhat unconventional habits, these simple people have been an incalculably valuable economic asset to western canada. on the off chance that there might be an incipient "protest" brewing, roos took his movie outfit ashore with him. he met with no luck. indeed, we found the women of the astonishingly clean little village of plastered and whitewashed cabins extremely shy of even our hand cameras. the captain thought that this was probably due to the fact that they had been a good deal pestered by kodak fiends while godivaing round the country on some of their protest marches. "the people were very indignant about it," he said; "but i never heard of any one pulling down their blinds." coventry was really very "victorian" in its attitude toward lady godiva's "protest." there was good swift water all the way from castlegar to trail, and we averaged close to nine miles an hour during the time we were on the river. at china bar the river was a good deal spread out, running in channels between low gravel islands. any one of these was runnable for a small boat, and we did not need to keep to the main channel that had once been maintained for steamers. sixteen miles below castlegar, and about half a mile below the mouth of sullivan creek, there was a long black reef of basaltic rock stretching a third of the way across the river. we shot past it without difficulty by keeping near the left bank. the sulphurous fumes of the big smelter blotching the southern sky with saffron and coppery red clouds indicated that we were nearing trail. the stacks, with the town below and beyond, came into view just as we hit the head of a fast-running riffle. we ran the last half mile at a swift clip, pulling up into about the only place that looked like an eddy on the trail side of the river. that this proved to be the slack water behind the crumbling city dump could not be helped. he who rides the running road cannot be too particular about his landing places. we reached trail before noon, and, so far as time was concerned, could just as well have run right on across the american line to northport that afternoon. however, october twenty-first turned out to be a date of considerable importance to british columbians, for it was the day of the election to determine whether that province should continue dry or, as the proponents of wetness euphemized it, return to "moderation." as there was a special provision by which voters absent from their place of registration could cast their ballots wherever they chanced to be, captain armstrong was anxious to stop over and do his bit for "moderation." indeed, i was a bit worried at first for fear, by way of compensating in a measure for the injury we had done him in failing to come through with the treasure from the big bend, he would expect roos and me to put in a few absentee ballots for "moderation." there was a rumour about that a vote for "moderation" would be later redeemable--in case "moderation" carried, of course--in the voter's weight of the old familiar juice. i never got further than a pencilled computation on the "temperance" bar of the crown point hotel that two hundred and thirty-five pounds (i was down to that by now) would work out to something like one hundred seventeen and a half quarts. this on the rule that "a pint's a pound, the world round." that was as far as i got, i say, for there seemed rather too much of a chance of international complications sooner or later. but i am still wondering just what _is_ the law covering the case of a man who sells his vote in a foreign country--and for his weight in whisky that he would probably never have delivered to him. i doubt very much if there is any precedent to go by. between votes--or rather before captain armstrong voted--we took the occasion to go over the smelter of the consolidated mining and smelting company. it is one of the most modern plants of its kind in the world, and treats ore from all over western canada. we were greatly interested in the recently installed zinc-leaching plant for the handling of an especially refractory ore from the company's own mine in the kootenays. this ore had resisted for years every attempt to extract its zinc at a profit, and the perfection of the intricate process through which it is now put at trail has made a mine, which would otherwise have remained practically valueless, worth untold millions. the two thousand and more employés of the smelter are the main factor in the prosperity of this live and by no means unattractive little town. we had two very emphatic warnings before leaving trail the next morning--one was on no account to attempt to take any drinkables across the line by the river, and the other was to keep a weather eye lifting in running the rapids at the rock islands, two miles below town. as we reached the latter before we did the international boundary line, we started 'wareing the rapids first. this was by no means as empty a warning as many i was to have later. the islands proved to be two enormous granite rocks, between which the river rushed with great velocity. the captain headed the boat into the deep, swift channel to the right, avoiding by a couple of yards a walloping whale of a whirlpool that came spinning right past the bow. i didn't see it, of course, until it passed astern; but it looked to me then as though its whirling centre was depressed a good three feet below the surface of the river, and with a black, bottomless funnel opening out of that. i was just about to register "nonchalance" by getting off my "all-day-sucker" joke, when i suddenly felt the thwart beneath me begin to push upwards like the floor of a jerkily-started elevator, only with a rotary action. fanning empty air with both oars, i was saved from falling backwards by the forty-five degree up-tilt of the boat. way beneath me--down below the surface of the river--armstrong, pop-eyed, was leaning sharply forward to keep from being dumped out over the stern. roos, with a death-grip on either gunwale, was trying to keep from falling into the captain's lap. round we went like a prancing horse, and just as the boat had completed the hundred and eighty degrees that headed her momentarily up-river, something seemed to drop away beneath her bottom, and as she sunk into the hole there came a great snorting "ku-whouf!" and about a barrel of water came pouring its solid green flood over the stern and, incidentally, the captain. a couple of seconds later the boat had completed her round and settled back on a comparatively even keel as hard-plied oars and paddle wrenched her out of the grip of the thing that had held her in its clutch. i saw it plainly as it did its dervish dance of disappointment as we drew away. it looked to me not over half as large as that first one which the captain had so cleverly avoided. "that was about the way we got caught in the little dalles," observed armstrong when we were in quieter water again. "only it was a worse whirlpool than that one that did it. this square stern gives the water more of a grip than it can get on a canoe. we'll have to watch out for it." save over a broad, shallow bar across the current at the mouth of the salmon, there was deep, swift water all the way to waneta, the canadian customs station. here we landed roos to await the morning train from nelson to spokane and go through to northport to arrange the american customs formalities. at a final conference we decided to heed the warning about not attempting to carry any drinkables openly into the united states. stowing what little there was left where not the most lynx-eyed or ferret-nosed customs officer could ever get at it, we pushed off. there is a fairly fast current all the way to northport, but from the fact that we made the eleven miles in about three-quarters of an hour, it seems likely that, between paddle and oars, the boat was driven somewhat faster than the columbia. just below waneta and immediately above the international boundary line, the pend d'oreille or clark's fork flows, or rather falls into the columbia. this really magnificent stream comes tumbling down a sheer-walled gorge in fall after fall, several of which can be seen in narrowing perspective from the columbia itself. its final leap is over a ten-feet-high ledge which extends all the way across its two-hundred-feet-wide mouth. above this fine cataract it is the pend d'oreille, below it, the columbia. i know of no place where two such rivers come together with such fine spectacular effect, in a way so fitting to the character of each. the pend d'oreille is generally rated as the principal tributary of the upper columbia. although the kootenay--because it flows through a region of considerably greater annual rainfall--carries rather the more water of the two, the pend d'oreille is longer and drains a far more extensive watershed--that lying between the main chain of the rockies and the bitter root and coeur d'alene ranges. great as is the combined discharge of these two fine rivers, their effect on the columbia is not apparent to the eye. if anything, the latter looks a bigger stream where it flows out of the lower arrow lake, above the kootenay, than it does where it crosses the american line below the pend d'oreille. as a matter of fact, its flow must be nearly doubled at the latter point, but the swifter current reduces its apparent volume. nothing but the most careful computations, based on speed of current and area of cross-section, will give anything approximating the real discharge of a river. i was a good deal interested in the pend d'oreille, because it was on one of its upper tributaries, the flathead in montana, that i had made my first timid effort at rapid-running a good many years previously. it hadn't been a brilliant success--for two logs tied together with ropes hardly make the ideal of a raft; but the glamour of the hare-brained stunt had survived the wetting. i should dearly have loved to explore that wonderful black-walled canyon, with its unending succession of cataracts and cascades, but lack of time forbade. the drizzling rain made it impossible even to get a good photograph of the fine frenzy of that final mad leap into the columbia. it was funny the way that rain acted. for something like a month now there had been only two or three days of reasonably fair weather, and for the last fortnight the sun had hardly been glimpsed at all. pulling up to waneta in a clammy drizzle, captain armstrong remarked, as he drew the collar of his waterproof closer to decrease the drainage down the back of his neck, that he reckoned they wouldn't stand for weather of that kind over in "god's country." as there was nothing but sodden clouds to the southward, i didn't feel like giving him any definite assurance on the point at the moment. however, when we crossed the line an hour later the rain had ceased. a couple of miles farther down the clouds were breaking up, and at northport the sun was shining. i did not have another rainy day, nor even one more than slightly overcast, until i was almost at the cascades. i trust my good canadian friend was as deeply impressed as he claimed to be. beyond a sharp riffle between jagged rock islands above deadman's eddy, and one or two shallow boulder bars where the channels were a bit obscure, it was good open-and-above-board water all the way to northport. the "eddy" is a whirling back-sweep of water at a bend of the river, and is supposed to hold up for inspection everything floatable that the columbia brings down from canada. "funny they never thought of calling it 'customs eddy,'" armstrong said. from the condition of its littered banks, it looked to be almost as prolific of "pickings" as the great drift pile of kinbasket lake. being near a town, however, it is doubtless much more thoroughly gone over. we tied up below the ferry at northport, which was the rendezvous to which roos was to bring the customs inspector. the ferry-man, who had once seen captain armstrong run the rapids of the upper kootenay with one of his steamers, was greatly elated over having such a notable walking the quarterdeck of his own humble craft. armstrong, in turn, was scarcely less excited over an automatic pumping contrivance which the ferry-man had rigged up to keep his pontoons dry. after waiting for an hour, we took our bags and walked up to the hotel on the main street at the top of the bluff. we found roos in the office reading a last year's haberdashery catalogue. he said he had not expected us for a couple of hours yet, and that he had arranged for inspection at three o'clock. that gave us time for a bath and lunch ourselves. as our bags were now well beyond the tentacles of the customs, we did a little figuring on the table-cloth between courses. by this we proved that, had we had the nerve to disregard the warnings of well-meaning friends in trail and filled our hand-bags with scotch instead of personal effects, armstrong would now have had fourteen quarts up in his room, and i eighteen quarts. then the waitress gave us current local quotations, and we started to figure values. i shall never know whether or not there would have been room on the corner of that gravy and egg broidered napery for my stupendous total. just as i was beginning to run over the edge, the inspector came in and asked if we would mind letting him see those two suit-cases we had brought to the hotel with us! many and various are the joys of virtue, but none of the others comparable to that one which sets you aglow as you say "search me!" when, by the special intervention of the providence which watches over fools and drunks, you haven't got goods. the inspection, both at the hotel and at the ferry, was _fairly_ perfunctory, though i did notice that the customs man assumed a rather springy step when he trod the light inner bottom of the skiff. roos filmed the operation as a part of the picture, i acting as much as i could like i thought a farmer would act at his first customs inspection. roos, complaining that i didn't "do it natural," wanted to shoot over again. the customs man was willing, but armstrong and i, trudging purposefully off up the road, refused to return. roos followed us to the hotel in considerable dudgeon. "why wouldn't you let me make that shot over?" he asked. "it was an 'oil-can'--rotten!" "because," i replied evenly, looking him straight in the eye, "i was afraid the inspector might try that jig-a-jig step of his on the false bottom in the bow if we put him through the show a second time. i don't believe in tempting providence. we can get a street-car conductor and make that inspection shot again in portland. this isn't...." "you're right," cut in roos, with a dawning grin of comprehension. "i beg your pardon. you're a deeper bird than i gave you credit for. or perhaps it was the captain...." [illustration: waiting for the fog to lift above bishop's rapids] [illustration: ross and armstrong registering "gloom"] [illustration: the "intake" at the little dalles (_above_)] [illustration: where we started to line the little dalles (_below_)] a heavy fog filled the river gorge from bank to bank when we pushed off the following morning, and we had to nose down carefully to avoid the piers of the bridge of the great northern branch line to rossland. a quarter of a mile farther down the river began shoaling over gravel bars, and out of the mist ahead came the rumble of water tumbling over boulders. this was an inconsiderable riffle called bishop's rapid, but the captain was too old a river man to care to go into it without light to choose his channel. a half hour's wait on a gravel bar in mid-stream brought a lifting of the fog, and we ran through by the right hand of the two shallow channels without difficulty. in brilliant sunshine we pulled down a broad stretch of deep and rapidly slackening water to the gleaming white lime-stone barrier at the head of the little dalles. all of northport had been a unit in warning us not to attempt to run the little dalles. nearly every one, as far as i could judge, had lost some relative there, and one man gave a very circumstantial description of how he had seen a big _batteau_, with six swede lumbermen, sucked out of sight there, never to reappear. on cross-questioning, he admitted that this was at high water, and that there was nothing like so much "suck" in the whirlpools at the present stage. the captain, however, having just received telephonic word from nelson that "moderation" had carried in b. c. by a decisive majority, felt that nothing short of running the little dalles would be adequate celebration. he had managed to come through right-side-up in a peterboro once, and he thought our skiff ought to be equal to the stunt. he held that opinion just long enough for him to climb to the top of the cliff that forms the left wall of river at the gorge and take one good, long, comprehensive look into the depths. "nothing doing," he said, with a decisive shake of his broad-brimmed stetson. "the river's four or five feet higher than when we ran through here in 'fifteen, and that makes all the difference. it was touch-and-go for a minute then, and now it's out of the question for a small boat. if we can't line, we'll have to find some way to portage." the little dalles are formed by a great reef of lime-stone which, at one time, probably made a dam all the way across the river. the narrow channel which the columbia has worn through the stone is less than two hundred feet in width for a considerable distance, and has lofty perpendicular walls. the river is divided by a small rock island into two channels at the head, the main one, to the right, being about two hundred feet in width, and the narrow left-hand one not over forty feet. the depth of the main channel is very great--probably much greater than its narrowest width; so that here, as also at tumwater and "five-mile" in the great dalles, it may be truly said that the columbia "has to turn on its side to wriggle through." it is that little rock island at the head of the gorge, extending, as it does, almost longitudinally _across_ the current that makes all the trouble. it starts one set of whirlpools running down the right-hand channel and another set down the left-hand. every one of the vortices in this dual series of spinning "suckers" is more than one would care to take any liberties with if it could be avoided; and either line of whirlpools, taken alone, probably _could_ be avoided. the impassable barrage comes a hundred feet below the point where the left-hand torrent precipitates itself at right-angles into the current of the right-hand one, and the two lines of whirlpools converge in a "v" and form one big walloping sockdolager. him there would still be room to run by if he were "whouf-ing" there alone; but his satellites won't have it. their accursed team-work is such that the spreading "v" above catches everything that comes down stream and feeds it into the maw of the big whirlpool as into a hopper. logs, ties, shingle-bolts, fence-posts--all the refuse of sawmills and the flotsam and jetsam of farms and towns--are gulped with a "whouf!" and when they reappear again, a mile or two down river, they are all scoured smooth and round-cornered by their passage through the monster's alimentary canal. "i'm sorry not to celebrate the victory of 'moderation,'" said the captain finally, with another regretful shake of his head; "but 'moderation' begins at home. it would be immoderately foolish to put the skiff into that line of whirlpools, the way they're running now." roos was the only one who was inclined to dispute that decision, and as his part would have been to stand out on the brink of the cliff and turn the crank, it was only natural that he should take the "artistic" rather than the "humanitarian" view. as a last resort before portaging, we tried lining down, starting at the head of the narrow left-hand channel. we gave it up at the end of a hundred feet. a monkey at one end of the line and a log of wood at the other would have made the only combination calculated to get by that way. it was no job for a shaky-kneed man and a sinkable boat. there was nothing to do but look up a team or truck. what appeared to be the remains of the ancient portage road ran down from an abandoned farm to the river, and it seemed likely some kind of vehicle could be brought over it. as the highway ran along the bench, four or five hundred feet above the river, i set off by the railroad track, which was comparatively close at hand. at the end of a couple of miles i reached a small station called marble, the shipping point for a large apple orchard project financed by the j. g. white company of new york. mr. reed, the resident manager, immediately ordered a powerful team and wagon placed at my disposal, and with that i returned northward over the highway. we had a rough time getting down through brush and dead-falls to the river, but finally made it without an upset. roos having finished what pictures he wanted--including one of the captain standing on the brink of the cliff and registering "surprise-cum-disappointment-cum-disgust,"--we loaded the skiff and our outfit onto the wagon and started the long climb up to the top of the bench. the discovery of an overgrown but still passable road offered a better route than that followed in coming down, and we made the highway, and on to the village, in good time. mr. reed dangled the bait of a french _chef_ and rooms in the company's hotel as an inducement to spend the night with him, but we had not the time to accept the kind invitation. his ready courtesy was of the kind which i learned later i could expect as a matter of course all along the river. never did i have trouble in getting help when i needed it, and when it was charged for, it was almost invariably an under rather than an over-charge. the running road is the one place left where the people have not been spoiled as have those on the highways frequented by motor tourists. launching the boat from the marble ferry at four o'clock, we pulled off in a good current in the hope of reaching bossburg before dark. between the windings of the river and several considerable stretches of slack water, however, our progress was less than anticipated. shut in by high hills on both sides, night descended early upon the river, and at five-thirty i found myself pulling in stygian blackness. knowing there was no really bad water ahead, the captain let her slide through a couple of easy riffles, the white-topped waves barely guessed as they flagged us with ghostly signals. but a deepening growl, borne on the wings of the slight up-river night-breeze, demanded more consideration. no one but a lunatic goes into a strange rapid in a poor light, to say nothing of complete darkness. pulling into an eddy by the left bank, we stopped and listened. the roar, though distant, was unmistakable. water was tumbling among rocks at a fairly good rate, certainly too fast to warrant going into it in the dark. while we were debating what to do, a black figure silhouetted itself against the star-gleams at the top of the low bank. "hello, there!" hailed the captain. "can you tell us how far it is to bossburg?" "_this_ is bossburg," was the surprising but gratifying response. "you're there--that is, you're here." it proved to be the local ferry-man, and columbia ferry-men are always obliging and always intelligent, at least in matters relating to the river. tying up the boat, we left our stuff in his nearby house and sought the hotel with our hand-bags. it was not a promising looking hotel when we found it, for bossburg was that saddest of living things, an all-but-extinguished boom-town; but the very kindly old couple who lived there and catered to the occasional wayfarer bustled about and got us a corking good meal--fried chicken and biscuits as light as the whipped cream we had on the candied peaches--and our beds were clean and comfortable. as we were now but a few miles above kettle falls, the most complete obstruction in the whole length of the columbia, i took the occasion to telephone ahead for a truck with which to make the very considerable portage. there would be two or three miles at the falls in any case, captain armstrong said, and he was also inclined to think it would be advisable to extend the portage to the foot of grand rapids, and thus save a day's hard lining. it was arranged that the truck should meet us at the ruins of the old hudson bay post, on the east bank some distance above the upper fall. we pushed off from bossburg at eight o'clock on the morning of october twenty-third. the water was slack for several hundred yards, which was found to be due to a reef extending all of the way across the river and forming the rapid which we had heard growling in the dark. this was called "six mile," and while it would have been an uncomfortable place to tangle up with in the night, it was simple running with the light of day. "five mile," a bit farther down, was studded with big black rocks, but none of them hard to avoid. as we were running rather ahead of the time of our rendezvous with the truck, we stretched our legs the length and back of the main street of marcus, a growing little town which is the junction point for the boundary branch of the great northern. we passed the mouth of the kettle river shortly after running under the railway bridge, and a pull across a big eddy carried us to the lake-like stretch of water backed up by the rocky obstructions responsible for kettle falls. the roar of the latter filled the air as we headed into a shallow, mud-bottomed lagoon widening riverward from the mouth of a small creek and beached the skiff under a yellowing fringe of willows. the site of the historic post was in an extremely aged apple orchard immediately above. it was one of those "inevitable" spots, where the _voyageurs_ of all time passing up or down the river must have begun or ended their portages. i was trying to conjure up pictures of a few of these in my mind, when the chug-chugging of an engine somewhere among the pines of the distant hillside recalled me to a realization of the fact that it was time to get ready for my own portage. before we had our stuff out of the boat the truck had come to a throbbing standstill beyond the fringe of the willows. it promised to be an easier portage than some of our predecessors had had, in any event. to maintain his "continuity," roos filmed the skiff being taken out of the water and loaded upon the truck, the truck passing down the main street of the town of kettle falls, and a final launching in the river seven miles below. half way into town we passed an old indian mission that must have been about contemporaneous with hudson bay operations. although no nails had been used in its construction, the ancient building, with its high-pitched roof, still survived in a comparatively good state of preservation. the town is some little distance below the falls, and quite out of sight of the river, which flows here between very high banks. we stopped at the hotel for lunch before completing the portage. after talking the situation over with captain armstrong, i decided to fall in with his suggestion to pass grand rapids as well as kettle falls in the portage. there were only about five miles of boatable water between the foot of the latter and the head of the former, and then an arduous three-quarters of a mile of lining that would have entailed the loss of another day. there is a drop of twelve feet in about twelve hundred yards in grand rapids, with nothing approaching a clear channel among the huge black basaltic rocks that have been scattered about through them as from a big pepper shaker. as far as i could learn, there is no record of any kind of a man-propelled craft of whatever size ever having run through and survived, but a small stern-wheeler, the _shoshone_, was run down several years ago at high water. she reached the foot a good deal of a hulk, but still right side up. this is rated as one of the maddest things ever done with a steamer on the columbia, and the fact that it did not end in complete disaster is reckoned by old river men as having been due in about equal parts to the inflexible nerve of her skipper and the intervention of the special providence that makes a point of watching over mortals who do things like that. i met captain mcdermid a fortnight later in potaris. he told me then, what i hadn't heard before, that he took his wife and children with him. "nellie thought a lot of both me and the little old _shoshone_," he said with a wistful smile, "and she reckoned that, if we went, she wouldn't exactly like to be left here alone. and so--i never could refuse nellie anything--i took her along. and now she and the _shoshone_ are both gone." he was a wonderful chap--mcdermid. all old columbia river skippers are. they wouldn't have survived if they hadn't been. there was a low bench on the left bank, about a mile below the foot of grand rapids, which could be reached by a rough road, and from which the boat could be slid down over the rocks to the river. running to this point with the truck, we left our heavier outfit at a road camp and dropped the boat at the water's edge, ready for launching the following morning. returning to the town, we were driven up to the falls by dr. baldwin, a prominent member of this live and attractive little community, where roos made a number of shots. the upper or main fall has a vertical drop of fifteen feet at low water, while the lower fall is really a rough tumbling cascade with a drop of ten feet in a quarter of a mile. the river is divided at the head of the falls by an arrow-shaped rock island, the main channel being the one to the right. the left-hand channel loops in a broad "v" around the island and, running between precipitous walls, accomplishes in a beautiful rapid the same drop that the main channel does by the upper fall. a rocky peninsula, extending squarely across the course of the left-hand channel, forces the rolling current of the latter practically to turn a somersault before accepting the dictum that it must double back northward for five or six hundred feet before uniting with the main river. it was the savage swirling of water in that rock-walled elbow where the "somersault" takes place that prompted the imaginative french-canadian _voyageurs_ to apply the appropriately descriptive name of _chaudière_ to the boiling maelstrom. up to the present the development of the enormous power running to waste over kettle falls has gone little further than the dreams of the brave community of optimists who have been attracted there in the belief that a material asset of such incalculable value cannot always be ignored in a growing country like our own. and they are right, of course, but a few years ahead of time. it is only the children and grandchildren of the living pioneers of the columbia who will see more than the beginning of its untold millions of horse-power broken to harness. and in the meantime the optimists of kettle falls are turning their attention to agriculture and horticulture. never have i seen finer apple orchards than those through which we drove on the way to resume our down-river voyage. the point from which we pushed off at ten o'clock on the morning of october twenty-fourth must have been only a little below that at which lieutenant symons launched the _batteau_ for his historic voyage to the mouth of the snake in . forty years have gone by since that memorable undertaking, yet symons' report is to-day not only the most accurate description of an upper columbia voyage that has ever been written, but also the most readable. during the time i was running the three hundred and fifty miles of river surveyed by lieutenant symons, i found his admirable report only less fascinating on the human side than it was of material assistance on the practical. of his preparations for the voyage lieutenant symons writes: "i was fortunate enough to procure from john rickey, a settler and trader, who lives at the grand rapids, a strongly built _batteau_, and had his assistance in selecting a crew of indians for the journey. the _batteau_ was about thirty feet long, four feet wide at the gunwales, and two feet deep, and is as small a boat as the voyage should ever be attempted in, if it is contemplated to go through all the rapids. my first lookout had been to secure the services of 'old pierre agare' as steersman, and i had to carry on negotiations with him for several days before he finally consented to go. old pierre is the only one of the old hudson bay _voyageurs_ now left who knows the river thoroughly at all stages of water, from colville to its mouth.... the old man is seventy years of age, and hale and hearty, although his eyesight is somewhat defective.... the other indians engaged were pen-waw, big pierre, little pierre, and joseph. they had never made the trip all the way down the river, and their minds were full of the dangers and terrors of the great rapids below, and it was a long time before we could prevail upon them to go, by promising them a high price and stipulating for their return by rail and stage. old pierre and john rickey laboured and talked with them long and faithfully, to gain their consent, and i am sure that they started off with as many misgivings about getting safely through as we did who had to trust our lives to their skill, confidence and obedience." lieutenant symons does not state whether any confusion ever arose as a consequence of the fact that three of his five indians bore the inevitable french-canadian name of "pierre." of the method of work followed by himself and his topographical assistant, downing, throughout the voyage, he writes: "mr. downing and myself worked independently in getting as thorough knowledge of the river as possible, he taking the courses with a prismatic compass, and estimating distances by the eye, and sketching in the topographical features of the surrounding country, while i estimated also the distances to marked points, and paid particular attention to the bed of the river, sounding wherever there were any indications of shallowness. each evening we compared notes as to distances, and we found them to come out very well together, the greatest difference being six and three-fourths miles in a day's run of sixty-four miles. some days they were identical. the total distance from our starting point ... to the mouth of the snake river was estimated by mr. downing to be three hundred and sixty-three miles, and by myself to be three hundred and fifty. his distances were obtained by estimating how far it was to some marked point ahead, and correcting it when the point was reached; mine by the time required to pass over the distances, in which the elements considered were the swiftness of the current and the labour of the oarsmen." i may state that it was only rarely that we found the distances arrived at by lieutenant symons and mr. downing to be greatly at variance with those established by later surveys. in the matter of bars, rapids, currents, channels and similar things, there appeared to have been astonishingly little change in the four decades that had elapsed since he had made his observations. where he advised, for instance, taking the right-hand in preference to the middle or left-hand channels, it was not often that we went far wrong in heeding the direction. bars of gravel, of course, shift from season to season, but reefs and projections of the native rock are rarely altered by more than a negligible erosion. the prominent topographical features--cliffs, headlands, _coulees_, mountains--are immutable, and for mile after mile, bend after bend, we picked them up just as symons reported them. the river is broad and slow for a few miles below grand rapids (they are called rickey's rapids locally), with steep-sided benches rising on either hand, and the green of apple orchards showing in bright fringes along their brinks. there had been the usual warnings in kettle falls of a bad rapid to be encountered "somewhere below," but the data available on this part of the river made us practically certain that nothing worse than minor riffles existed until the swift run of spokane rapids was reached. seven miles below grand rapids several islands of black basalt contracted the river considerably, but any one of two or three channels offered an easy way through them. the highest of them had a driftwood crown that was not less than fifty feet above the present stage of the river, showing graphically the great rise and fall at this point. at the shallow san poil bar we saw some indians from the colville reservation fishing for salmon--the crooked-nosed "dogs" of the final run. if they were of the tribe from which the bar must have been named, civilization had brought them its blessing in the form of hair-restorer. they were as hirsute a lot of ruffians as one could expect to find out of bolshevia--and as dirty. turtle rapid was the worst looking place we found during the day, but the menace was more apparent than real. the riffle took its name from a number of turtle-backed outcroppings of bedrock pushing up all the way across the river. the current was swift and deep, making it just the sort of place one would have expected to encounter bad swirls. these were, indeed, making a good deal of a stir at the foot of several of the narrow side runs, but by the broader middle channel which we followed the going was comparatively smooth. we finished an easy day by tying up at four o'clock where the road to the colville reservation comes down to the boulder-bordered bank at hunter's ferry. columbia river ferry-men are always kindly and hospitable, and this one invited us to sleep on his hay and cook our meals in his kitchen. he was an amiable "cracker" from kentucky, with a delectable drawl, a tired-looking wife and a houseful of children. ferry-men's wives always have many children. this one was still pretty, though, and her droop--for a few years yet--would be rather appealing than otherwise. i couldn't be quite sure--from a remark she made--whether she had a sense of humor, or whether she had not. seeing her sitting by the kitchen stove with a baby crooked into her left arm, a two-year-old on her lap, and a three-year-old riding her foot, the while she was trying to fry eggs, bake biscuit and boil potatoes, i observed, by way of bringing a brighter atmosphere with my presence, that it was a pity that the human race hadn't been crossed with octopi, so that young mothers would have enough arms to do their work with. she nodded approvingly at first, brightening visibly at the emancipative vision conjured up in her tired brain, but after five minutes of serious cogitation relapsed into gloom. "i reckon it wouldn't be any use, mistah," she said finally; "them octupusses would only give the young 'uns mo' ahms to find troubl' with." now _did_ she have a sense of humour, or did she not? we had a distinctly bad night of it hitting the hay. the mow was built with a horseshoe-shaped manger running round three sides of it, into which the hay was supposed to descend by gravity as the cows devoured what was below. as a labour-saving device it had a good deal to recommend it, but as a place to sleep--well, it might not have been so bad if each of the dozen cows had not been belled, and if the weight of our tired bodies on the hay had not kept pressing it into the manger all night, and so made a continuous performance of feeding and that bovine bell-chorus. i dozed off for a spell along toward morning, awakening from a chinese-gong nightmare to find my bed tilted down at an angle of forty-five degrees and a rough tongue lapping my face. with most of my mattress eaten up, i was all but in the manger myself. turning out at daybreak, we pushed off at an early hour. a run of nine miles, made in about an hour, took us to gerome, where another ferry crossed to the west or colville reservation bank. a couple of swift, shallow rapids above and below roger's bar was the only rough water encountered. we were looking for a point from which spokane could be reached by car, as captain armstrong, who had originally planned to go with us only to kettle falls, was now quite at the end of the time he was free to remain away from nelson and business. there were two reasons for our making a temporary halt at gerome ferry. one was the fact that spokane could be reached as readily from there as from any point lower down, and the other was ike emerson. i shall have so much to say of ike a bit further along that i shall no more than introduce him for the moment. as much of the worst water on the american course of the columbia occurs in the two hundred and thirty miles between the head of spokane rapids and the foot of priest rapids,[ ] i was considerably concerned about finding a good river man to take captain armstrong's place and help me with the boat. roos made no pretensions to river usefulness, and i was reluctant to go into some of the rapids that i knew were ahead of us without a dependable man to handle the steering paddle and to help with lining. men of this kind were scarce, it appeared--even more so than on the big bend, in canada, where there was a certain amount of logging and trapping going on. two or three ferry-men had shaken their heads when i brought the matter up. there was nothing they would like better if they were free, they said, but, as ferries couldn't be expected to run by themselves, that was out of the question on such short notice. [ ] not be confused with the rapids of the same name we had run on the big bend in canada. l. r. f. it was that genial "cracker" at hunter's ferry who was the first to mention ike emerson. ike would be just my man, he said, with that unmistakable grin that a man grins when the person he speaks of is some kind of a "character." or, leastways, ike would be just my man--_if i could find him_. "and where shall i be likely to find him?" i asked. he wasn't quite sure about that, but probably "daun rivah sumwhah." there was no telling about ike, it appeared. once he had been seen to sink when his raft had gone to pieces in hell gate, and he had been mourned as dead for a fortnight. at the end of that time he had turned up in kettle falls, but quite unable--or else unwilling--to tell why the river had carried him eighty-five miles _up_ stream instead of down to the pacific. a keg of moonshine which had been ike's fellow passenger on the ill-fated raft _may_ have had something to do both with the wreck and that long up-stream swim after the wreck. at any rate, it had never been explained. however, gerome was ike's headquarters--if any place might be called that for a man who lived on or in the river most of the time--and that would be the place to inquire for him. when i asked the ferry-man at gerome if ike emerson had been seen thereabouts recently, he grinned the same sort of grin his colleague at hunter's had grinned when the same subject was under discussion. yes, he had seen ike only the night before. he was a real old river rat; just the man i wanted--_if i could find him_. he was as hard as a flea to put your hand on when you _did_ want him, though. well, it took us four hours to run our man down, but luck was with us in the end. every lumber-jack, farmer and indian that we asked about ike, grinned that same grin, dropped whatever he was doing and joined in the search. there were a score of us when the "view halloo" was finally sounded, and we looked more like a lynching party on vengeance bent than anything else i can think of. ike, who was digging potatoes (of all the things in the world for a river rat to be doing), glowered suspiciously as we debouched from a _coulee_ and streamed down toward him, but his brow cleared instantly when i hastily told him what we had come for. you bet, he would go with us. but, wait a moment! why should we not go with him? he was overdue with a raft of logs and cordwood he had contracted to take down below hell gate, and was just about to get to work building it. we could just throw our boat aboard, and off we would go together. if he could get enough help, he could have the raft ready in two or three days, and, once started, it would not be a lot slower than the skiff, especially if we took a fast motor-boat he knew of for towing purposes and to "put her into the rapids right." it would make a lot more of a show for the movies, and he had always dreamed of having himself filmed on a big raft running hell gate and box canyon. just let us leave it to him, and he would turn out something that would be the real thing. all of this sounded distinctly good to me, but i turned to roos and captain armstrong for confirmation before venturing a decision. roos said it would be "the cat's ears" (late slang meaning _au fait_, or something like that, in english); that a raft would photograph like a million dollars. armstrong's face was beaming. "it will be the chance of a lifetime," he said warmly. "go by all means. i'm only sorry i can't be with you." so we gave ike _carte blanche_ and told him to go ahead; we would arrange the financial end when he knew more about what he would be spending. i was glad of the wait for one reason; it would give us a chance to speed the captain on his way as far as spokane. running over a spokane paper in the post office and general store at gerome, the program of the chamber of commerce luncheon for the morrow, october the twenty-sixth, recalled to me that i had a conditional engagement to perform at that function. major laird, the publicity secretary of the chamber, had phoned me before we left nelson, asking if i would run up to spokane from some convenient point on the river and give them a bit of a yarn about our voyage at the next tuesday luncheon. i had replied that, as it was quite out of the question keeping to any definite schedule in river travel, i could give him no positive assurance of turning up in time, but suggested that if he would sign up some one else for _pièce de résistance_, he could be free to use me for soup or nuts in the event i put in an appearance. as it now appeared that we had arrived within a few hours of spokane, i phoned major laird, and he said he would start a car off at once to take us there. we spent the afternoon helping roos patch up the continuity of his "farmer" picture. although captain armstrong had appeared in all the scenes shot since we started with the skiff, he had never made his official entry into the picture. properly, this should have been done in one of the introductory scenes shot at the source of the river, near lake windermere. it will be remembered that, when i leaned on my hay-fork and gazed pensively off toward the river, i was supposed to see a prospector tinkering with his boat. i had walked out of two scenes on my way to join that prospector: the first time to ask if he would take me with him, and the second time, with a blanket-roll on my shoulder (the improvised one with the two "nicht-goons" and other foreign knick-knacks in it), to jump into the boat and push off. obviously, as we had neither prospector nor boat at the time, these shots could not be made until later. now, with the "prospector" about to leave us, it was imperative to continuity that we should get him into the picture before we could go ahead getting him out of it. "location" was our first care, and in this fortune favoured us. the mouth of a small creek flowing in just below gerome furnished a "source of the columbia" background that would have defied an expert to tell from an original. in fact, it looked more like the popular idea of a "source" than did the real one; and that is an important point with the movies. here we made the "tinkering" and the "first push-off" shots. of course, i had a different blanket-roll on my shoulder this time, but i took great care to make it as close an imitation as possible of the one i had so hastily flung together out of "jock's" bedding. a close imitation externally, i mean--there were no "frou-frous" in it. now that we had the "prospector" properly into the picture, we were ready for the "farewell" shot--the getting him out of it. for this the captain and i were "picked up" on a picturesque rocky point, regarding with interest something far off down-river. presently he registers "dawning comprehension," and tells me in fluent french-canadian pantomime that it is a raft--a whale of a big one. that will offer a way for me to continue my voyage now that he has to leave me. then we go down to the boat, which he presents to me with a comprehensive "it-is-all-yours" gesture, before shouldering his sack of ore (one of our bags of canned stuff answered very well for this) and climbing off up the bank toward the "smelter." (we had intended to make a real smelter scene at trail or northport, but the light was poor at both places.) finally i pushed off alone, pulling down and across the current to throw in my fortunes with the "raft." that left the thread of "continuity" dangling free, to be spliced up as soon as ike had the raft completed. that worthy was losing no time. all afternoon we heard the rumble of logs rolling over boulders, and every now and then a fan-shaped splash of spray would flash up with a spangle of iridescence in the light of the declining sun. the car arrived for us at seven-thirty that evening. it was driven by commissioner howard, of the spokane county board, who had courteously volunteered to come for us when it appeared there would be some delay in getting a hired car off for the hundred and sixty-mile round trip. he was accompanied by his son, a high-school youngster. as they had eaten lunch on the way, they announced themselves ready to start on the return trip at once. the road turned out to be a rough mountain track, and rather muddy. ten miles out from gerome a suspicious clicking set in somewhere under the rear seat, and at twenty miles the differential had gone. mr. howard finally induced an empty truck to take us in tow, and behind that lumbering vehicle we did the last sixty miles. the tow-chain parted on an average of once a mile while we were still in the mountains, but did better as the roads improved. the temperature fell as the altitude increased, and it must have been well under twenty before daylight--and a mean, marrow-searching cold at that. mr. howard, refusing every offer of relief, stuck it out at the wheel all the way in--a remarkable example of nerve and endurance, considering that he had only recently come out of a hospital. armstrong, as always, was indomitable, singing french-canadian boating songs of blood-stirring _tempo_ most of the way. i shall ever associate his "_rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, en roulant, ma boule roulant!_" rather with the chug-chugging of a motor truck than with the creak of oars from which it derived its inspiration. we struck the paved state highway at davenport about four o'clock, and in the very grey dawn of the morning after came rumbling into spokane. somewhere in the dim shadowy outskirts we stopped rumbling. the truck driver reported he had run out of gas. assiduous milking of the cole's tank yielded just enough to carry us on to the hotel. the davenport of spokane is one of the very finest hotels in all the world, but if it had been just a cabin with a stove, it would still have seemed a rose-sweet paradise after those last two nights we had put in--one on the hay with belled cows eating up the beds beneath our backs, and the other jerked over a frosty road in the wake of a skidding truck. soaking for an hour in a steaming bath, i rolled in between soft sheets, leaving orders not to be called until noon. spokane is one of the finest, cleanest and most beautiful cities of the west, and i have never left it after a visit without regret. this time, brief as our stay had to be, was no exception. it was an unusually keen looking lot of business and professional men that turned out for the chamber luncheon, among whom i found not a few old college friends and others i had not seen for a number of years. notable of these were herbert moore and samuel stern, with whom i had spent six weeks on a commercial mission in china in . i was also greatly interested to meet mr. turner, the field engineer of the great project for reclaiming a million and three-quarters acres of land in the columbia basin of eastern washington by diverting to it water from the pend d'oreille. the incalculable possibilities, as well as the great need of this daring project i was to see much of at firsthand during that part of my voyage on which i was about to embark. captain armstrong left by train for nelson the evening of the th, and the following morning major laird drove roos and me back to gerome. for a considerable part of the distance we followed the highly picturesque route along the spokane river, stopping for lunch at the hydro-electric plant of the washington power company at long lake. this enterprising corporation has power installations already in operation on the spokane which must make that stream pretty nearly the most completely harnessed river of its size in america. the lofty concrete barrier which backs up long lake has the distinction of being the highest spillway dam in the world. the "spokane interval" proved a highly enjoyable spell of relaxation before tackling the rough stretch of river ahead. i knew i was going to miss greatly the guiding hand and mind of captain armstrong, but had high hopes of ike emerson. i was not to be disappointed. chapter x rafting through hell gate ike had been working at high speed during our absence, but his imagination appeared rather to have run ahead of his powers of execution. the hundred-feet-long, thirty-feet-wide raft he had set himself to construct (so as to have something that would "stack up big in the movie") took another two days to complete, and even then was not quite all that critical artist wanted to make it. after filling in the raft proper with solid logs of spruce and cedar, he began heaping cordwood upon it. he was trying to make something that would loom up above the water, he explained; "somethin' tu make a showin' in the pictur'." he had three or four teams hauling, and as many men piling, for two days. we stopped him at fifty cords in order to get under way the second day after our return. there was some division of opinion among the 'long shore loafers as to whether or not this was the _largest_ raft that had ever started down this part of the columbia, but they were a unit in agreeing that it was the _highest_. never was there a raft with so much "freeboard." the trouble was that every foot of that "freeboard" was cordwood, and then some; for the huge stacks of four-foot firewood had weighted down the logs under them until those great lengths of spruce and cedar were completely submerged. when you walked about "on deck" you saw the river flowing right along through the loosely stacked cordwood beneath. roos was exultant over the way that mighty mass of rough wood charging down a rock-walled canyon was going to photograph, and ike was proud as a peacock over the thing he had brought into being. but roos was going to be cranking on the cliff when we went through hell gate, and ike didn't care a fig what happened to him anyhow. and i _did_ care. there were a lot of things that could happen to a crazy contraption of that kind, _if ever it hit anything solid_; and i knew that the walls of hell gate and box canyon must be solid or they wouldn't have stood as long as they had. and as for hitting ... that raft must be pretty nearly as long as hell gate was wide, and if ever it got to swinging.... it's funny the things a man will think of the night before he is going to try out a fool stunt that he doesn't know much about. [illustration: map of the upper columbia] [illustration: a "close-up" of ike building his raft] [illustration: my fifty pound salmon] a fine motherly old girl called mrs. miller had put us up in her big, comfortable farm-house during our wait while ike completed his ship-building operations. she must have known all of seven different ways of frying chicken, and maybe twice that number of putting up apple preserves. we had just about all of them for breakfast the morning we started. jess, the ferry-man, treated us to vanilla extract cordials and told us the story of a raft that had struck and broken up just above his father's ranch near hawk creek. only guy they fished out was always nutty afterward. cracked on the head with a length of cordwood while swimming. good swimmer, too; but a guy had no chance in a swish-swashing bunch of broke-loose logs. thus jess, and thus--or in similar vein--about a dozen others who came down to see us off from the ferry landing. they all told stories of _raft_ disasters, just as they would have enlarged on _boat_ disasters if it had been a boat in which we were starting to run hell gate and box canyon. i pulled across and landed roos at the raft to make an introductory shot or two of ike before picking up the thread of his "continuity" with my (pictorial) advent. a corner of the raft had been left unfinished for this purpose. ike was discovered boring a log with a huge auger, after which he notched and laid a stringer, finishing the operation by pegging the latter down with a twisted hazel withe. the old river rat seemed to know instinctively just what was wanted of him, going through the action so snappily that roos clapped him on the back and pronounced him "the cat's ears" as an actor. ike showed real quality in the next scene; also the single-minded concentration that marks the true artist. looking up from his boring, he sees a boat paddling toward him from up-river. the nearing craft was _imshallah_, with the "farmer" at the oars, just as he had started (for the still unbuilt raft) when the "prospector" gave him the boat before disappearing up the bank to the "smelter" with his sack of "ore" over his shoulder. thus "continuity" was served. the "farmer" pulls smartly alongside, tosses ike the painter and clambers aboard the raft. an animated colloquy ensues, in which the "farmer" asks about the river ahead, and ike tells him, with dramatic gestures, that it will be death to tackle it in so frail a skiff. a raft is the only safe way to make the passage and--here ike spreads out his hands with the manner of a butler announcing that "dinner is served!"--the raft is at the "farmer's" disposal. that suits the "farmer" to a "t;" so the skiff is lifted aboard and they are ready to cast off. where ike displayed the concentration of a true artist was in the skiff-lifting shot. just as the green bow of _imshallah_ came over the side, a boy who had been stacking cordwood, in rushing forward to clear the fouled painter, stepped on an unsecured log and went through into the river. by this time, of course, i knew better than to spoil a shot by suspending or changing action in the middle of it, but that ike should be thus esoterically sapient was rather too much to expect. yet the sequel proved how much more consummate an artist of the two of us that untutored (even by roos) old river rat was. when we had finished "yo-heave-ho-ing" as the skiff settled into place, i (dropping my histrionics like a wet bathing suit) shouted to ike to come and help me fish that kid out. "what kid?" he drawled in a sort of languid surprise. then, after a kind of dazed once-over of the raft, fore-and-aft: "by cripes, the kid _is_ gone!" now has that ever been beaten for artistic concentration? the lad, after bumping down along the bottom to the lower end of the raft, had come to the surface no whit the worse for his ducking. he was clambering up over the logs like a wet cat before either ike or i, teetering across the crooked, wobbly cordwood, had stumbled half the distance to the "stern." "it must be a right sma't betta goin' daun unda than up heah," was ike's only comment. the motor-boat which ike had engaged to tow the raft was already on hand. it had been built by a spokane mining magnate for use at his summer home on lake coeur d'alene, and was one of the prettiest little craft of the kind i ever saw. with its lines streaming gracefully back from its sharp, beautifully-flared bow, it showed speed from every angle. hardwood and brass were in bad shape, but the engines were resplendent; and the engines were the finest thing about it. they had been built to drive it twenty-five miles an hour when she was new, the chap running it said, and were probably good for all of twenty-two yet when he opened up. except that its hull wasn't rugged enough to stand the banging, it was an ideal river boat, though not necessarily for towing rafts. however, it was mighty handy even at that ignominious work. i couldn't quite make up my mind about the engineer of the motor boat--not until he settled down to work, that is. his eye was quite satisfactory, but his habit of hesitating before answering a question, and then usually saying "i dunno," conveyed rather the impression of torpid mentality if not actual dulness. nothing could have been further from the truth, as i realized instantly the moment he started swinging the raft into the current. he merely said "i dunno" because he really didn't know, where an ordinary man would have felt impelled to make half an answer, or at least to say something about the weather or the stage of the river. earl (i never learned his last name) was sparing with his tongue because he was unsparing with his brain. his mind was always ready to act--and to react. there were to arise several situations well calculated to test the mettle of him, and he was always "there." i have never known so thoroughly useful and dependable a man for working a launch in swift water. while ike was completing his final "snugging down" operations, i chanced to observe a long steel-blue and slightly reddish-tinged body working up the bottom toward the stern of the raft. it looked like a salmon, except that it was larger than any member of that family i had ever seen. a blunt-pointed pike-pole is about the last thing one would use for a fish-spear, but, with nothing better ready to hand, i tried it. my first thrust was a bad miss, but, rather strangely, i thought--failed to deflect the loggily nosing monster more than a foot or two from his course. the next thrust went home, but where i was half expecting to have the pole torn from my hands by a wild rush, there was only a sluggish, unresentful sort of a wriggle. as there was no hook or barb to the pike, the best i could do was to worry my prize along the bottom to the bank, where a couple of indians lifted it out for me. it was a salmon after all--a vicious looking "dog," with a wicked mouthful of curving teeth--but of extraordinary size. it must have weighed between fifty and sixty pounds, for the pike-pole all but snapped when i tried to lift the monster with it. indeed, its great bulk was undoubtedly responsible for the fact that it was already half-dead from battering on the rocks before i speared it. as the flesh was too soft even for the indians, i gave it to a german farmer from a nearby clearing to feed to his hogs. or rather, i traded it. the german had a dog which, for the sake of "human interest," roos very much wanted to borrow. (why, seeing it was a dog, he should not have called it "canine interest," i never quite understood; but it was the "heart touch" he wanted, at any rate). so ike proposed to the "dutchman" that we give him fifty pounds of dead "dog" for half that weight of live dog, the latter to be returned when we were through with him. that was ike's _proposition_. as soon as we were under way, however, he confided to me that he never was going to give that good collie back to a dutchman. a people that had done what the "dutchmen" did to belgium had no right to have a collie anyhow. if they must have dogs, let them keep dachshunds--or pigs. and he forthwith began to alienate that particular collie's affection by feeding him milk chocolate. poor old ike! being only a fresh-water sailor, i fear he did not have a wife in every port, so that there was an empty place in his heart that craved affection. we cast off at ten o'clock, earl swung the raft's head out by a steady pull with the launch, and the current completed the operation of turning. once in mid-stream she made good time, the motor-boat maintaining just enough of a tug to keep the towing-line taut and give her a mile an hour or so of way over the current. that gave earl a margin to work with, and, pulling sharply now to one side, now to the other, he kept the great pile of logs headed where the current was swiftest and the channel clearest. it was all in using his power at the right time and in the right way. a hundred-ton tugboat would have been helpless in stopping the raft once it started to go in the wrong direction. the trick was to start it right and not let it go wrong, ike explained--just like raising pups or kids. it was certainly no job for a novice, and i found constant reassurance in the consummate "raftsmanship" our taciturn engineer was displaying. the hills on both sides of the river grew loftier and more rugged as we ran to the south, and the trees became patchier and scrubbier. the bunch grass on the diminishing benches at the bends was withered and brown. it was evident from every sign that we were nearing the arid belt of eastern washington, the great semi-desert plateau that is looped in the bend of the columbia between the mouth of the spokane and the mouth of the snake. the towering split crest of mitre rock marked the approach to the slack stretch of water backed up by the boulder barrage over which tumbles spokane rapids. the run through the latter was to be our real baptism; a short rapid passed a few miles above proving only rough enough to set the raft rolling in fluent undulations and throw a few light gobs of spray over her "bows." we were now going up against something pretty closely approximating the real thing. it wasn't hell gate or box canyon by a long way, ike said, but at the same time it wasn't any place to risk any slip-up. save for two or three of the major riffles on the big bend of canada, spokane rapids has a stretch of water that must go down hill just about as fast as any on all the columbia. the channel--although running between boulders--was narrow in the first place, and the deepest part of it was still further restricted by an attempt to clear a way through for steamer navigation in the years when a through service up and down the columbia was still dreamed of. the channel was deepened considerably, but the effect of this was to divert a still greater flow into it and form a sort of a chute down which the water rushed as through a flume. being straight, this channel is not very risky to run, even with a small boat--provided one keeps to it. a wild tumble of rollers just to the left of the head must be avoided, however, even by a raft. that was why we had the motor-boat--to be sure of "hitting the intake right," as ike put it. and the motor-boat ought to be able to handle the job without help. he had been working hard ever since we started on a gigantic stern-sweep, but that was for hell gate and box canyon. here, with her nose once in right, she should do it on her own. mooring the raft against the right bank in the quiet water a couple of hundred yards above the "intake," earl ran us down to the mouth of the spokane river in the launch. we were purchasing gasoline and provisions in the little village of lincoln, just below the spokane, and ike thought that the lower end of the rapid would be the best place for roos to set up to command the raft coming through. it was indeed terrifically fast water, but--because the launch had the power to pick the very best of the channel--the run down just missed the thrill that would have accompanied it had it been up to one's oars to keep his boat out of trouble. earl shut off almost completely as he slipped into the "v," keeping a bare steerage-way over the current. twenty miles an hour was quite fast enough to be going in the event she _did_ swerve from the channel and hit a rock; there was no point in adding to the potential force of the impact with the engine. as there was a heavy wash from the rapids in even the quietest eddy he could find opposite the town, earl stayed with the launch, keeping her off the rocks with a pole while ike, roos and myself went foraging. ike spilled gasoline over his back in packing a leaking can down over the boulders, causing burns from which he suffered considerable pain and annoyance when he came to man the sweep the following day. after dropping roos on the right bank to set up for the picture, earl drove the launch back up the rapid to the raft. i hardly know which was the more impressive, the power of the wildly racing rapid or the power of the engine of the launch. it was a ding-dong fight all the way. although he nosed at times to within a few inches of the overhanging rocks of the bank in seeking the quietest water, the launch was brought repeatedly to a standstill. there she would hang quivering, until the accelerating engine would impart just the few added revolutions to the propellers that would give her the upper hand again. the final struggle at the "intake" was the bitterest of all, and earl only won out there by sheering to the right across the "v"--at imminent risk of being swung round, it seemed to me--and reaching less impetuous water. throwing off her mooring lines, earl towed the raft out into the sluggish current. there was plenty of time and plenty of room to manoeuvre her into the proper position. all he had to do was to bring her into the "intake" well clear of the rocks and rollers to the left, and then keep towing hard enough to hold her head down-stream. it was a simple operation--compared, for instance, with what he would have on the morrow at hell gate--but still one that had to be carried out just so if an awful mess-up was to be avoided. novice as i was with that sort of a raft, i could readily see what would happen if she once got to swinging and turned broadside to the rapid. that was about the first major rapid i ever recall running when i didn't have something to do, and it was rather a relief to be able to watch the wheels go round and feel that there was nothing to stand-by for. even ike, with no sweep to swing, was foot-loose, or rather hand-free. knowing earl's complete capability, he prepared to cast aside navigational worries for the nonce. he had picked up his axe and was about to turn to hewing at the blade of his big steering-oar, when i reminded him that he was still an actor and that he had been ordered to run up and down the raft and register "great anxiety" while within range of the camera. perhaps the outstanding sensation of that wild run was the feeling of surprise that swept over me at the almost uncanny speed with which that huge unwieldy mass of half submerged wood gathered way. in still water it would have taken a powerful tug many minutes to start it moving; here it picked up and leapt ahead like a motor-boat. one moment it was drifting along at three miles an hour; five seconds later, having slid over the "intake," it was doing more than twenty. the actual slope of that first short pitch must have been all of one-in-ten, so that i found myself bracing against the incline of the raft, as when standing in a wagon that starts over the brow of a hill. then the pitch eased and she hit the rollers, grinding right through them like a floating juggernaut. the very worst of them--haughty-headed combers that would have sent the skiff sky-rocketing--simply dissolved against the logs and died in hissing anguish in the tangle of cordwood. the motion had nothing of the jerkiness of even so large a craft as the launch, and one noticed it less under his feet than when he looked back and saw the wallowing undulations of the "deck." but best of all was the contemptuous might with which the raft stamped out, obliterated, abolished the accursed whirlpools. spokane was not deep and steep-sided enough to be a dangerous whirlpool rapid, like the dalles or hell gate, but there were still a lot of mighty mean-mouthed "suckers" lying in ambush where the rollers began to flatten. there was no question of their arrogance and courage. the raft might have been the dainty _imshallah_, with her annoying feminine weakness for clinging embraces, for all the hesitancy they displayed in attacking it. but, oh, what a difference! where the susceptible _imshallah_ had edged off in coy dalliance and ended by all but surrendering, the raft simply thundered ahead. the siren "whouf!" of the lurking brigand was forced back down its black throat as it was literally effaced, smeared from the face of the water. gad, how i loved to see them die, after all _imshallah_ and i had had to endure at their foul hands! _imshallah_, perched safely aloft on a stack of cordwood, took it all with the rather languid interest one would expect from a lady of her quality; but i--well, i fear very much that i was leaning out over the "bows," at an angle not wholly safe under the circumstances, and registering "ghoulish glee" at the exact point where roos had told me three times that i must be running up and down in the wake of ike and registering "great anxiety." as there was no stopping the raft within a mile or two of the foot of the rapid, it had been arranged that we should launch the skiff as soon as we were through the worst water, and pull in to the first favourable eddy to await roos and his camera. it was ike bellowing to me to come and lend him a hand with the skiff that compelled me to relinquish my position at the "bow," where, "thumbs down" at every clash, i had been egging on the raft to slaughter whirlpools. the current was still very swift, so that ike was carried down a considerable distance before making a landing. as it was slow going for roos, laden with camera and tripod, over the boulders, ten or fifteen minutes elapsed before they pushed off in pursuit of the raft. the latter, in the meantime, had run a couple of miles farther down river before earl found a stretch sufficiently quiet to swing her round and check her way by towing up against the current. in running down to this point the raft had splashed through a slashing bit of riffle, which i afterwards learned was called middle rapid locally. there was a short stretch of good rough white water. offhand, it looked to me rather sloppier than anything we had put the skiff into so far; but, as it appeared there would be no difficulty in steering a course in fairly smooth water to the left of the rollers, i was not greatly concerned over it. presently ike came pulling round the bend at a great rate, and the next thing i knew _imshallah_ was floundering right down the middle of the frosty-headed combers. twice or thrice i saw the "v" of her bow shoot skyward, silhouetting like a black wedge against a fan of sun-shot spray. then she began riding more evenly, and shortly was in smoother water. it was distinctly the kind of thing she did best, and she had come through with flying colours. roos was grinning when he climbed aboard, but still showed a tinge of green about the gills. "why didn't you head her into that smooth stretch on the left?" i asked. "_you_ had the steering paddle." "i tried to hard enough," he replied, still grinning, "but ike wouldn't have it. said he kinda suspected she'd go through that white stuff all right, and wanted to see if his suspicions were correct." and that was old ike emerson to a "t." we wallowed on through french rapids and hawk creek rapids in the next hour, and past the little village of peach, nestling on a broad bench in the autumnal red and gold of its clustering orchards. ike, pacing the "bridge" with me, said that they used to make prime peach brandy at peach, and reckoned that p'raps.... "no," i cut in decisively; "_i_ have no desire to return to kettle falls." i had jumped at the chance to draw ike on that remarkable up-river journey of his after the disaster in hell gate, but he sheered off at once. i have grave doubts as to whether that strange phenomenon ever will be explained. we were now threading a great canyon, the rocky walls of which reared higher and higher in fantastic pinnacles, spires and weird castellations the deeper we penetrated its glooming depths. there had been painters at work, too, and with colourings brighter and more varied than any i had believed to exist outside of the canyons of the colorado and the yellowstone. saffron melting to fawn and dun was there, and vivid streaks that were almost scarlet where fractures were fresh, but had changed to maroon and terra cotta under the action of the weather. a fluted cliff-face, touched by the air-brush of the declining sun, flushed a pink so delicate that one seemed to be looking at it through a rosy mist. there were intenser blocks and masses of colours showing in vivid lumps on a buttressed cliff ahead, but they were quenched before we reached them in a flood of indigo and mauve shadows that drenched the chasm as the sun dropped out of sight. from the heights it must have been a brilliant sunset, flaming with intense reds and yellows as desert sunsets always are; but looking out through the purple mists of the great gorge there was only a flutter of bright pennons--crimson, gold, polished bronze and dusky olive green--streaming across an ever widening and narrowing notch of jagged rock, black and opaque like splintered ebony. for a quarter of an hour we seemed to be steering for those shimmering pennons as for a harbor beacon; then a sudden up-thrust of black wall cut them off like a sliding door. by the time we were headed west again the dark pall of fallen night had smothered all life out of the flame-drenched sky, leaving it a pure transparent black, pricked with the twinkle of kindling stars. only by the absence of stars below could one trace the blank opacity of the blacker black of the towering cliffs. no one had said anything to me about an all-day-and-all-night schedule for the raft, and, as a matter of fact, running in the night had not entered into the original itinerary at all. the reason we were bumping along in the dark now was that ike, who had no more idea of time than an oriental, had pushed off from gerome an hour late, wasted another unnecessary hour in lincoln yarning across the sugar barrel at the general store, and, as a consequence, had been overtaken by night ten miles above the point he wanted to make. as there was no fast water intervening, and as earl had shown no signs of dissent, ike had simply gone right on ahead regardless. when i asked him if it wasn't a bit risky, he said he thought not very; adding comfortingly that he had floated down on rafts a lot of times before, and hadn't "allus bumped." if he could see to tighten up stringer pegs, he reckoned earl ought to be able to see rocks, "'cose rocks was a sight bigger'n pegs." it was not long after ike had nullified the effect of his reassuring philosophy by smearing the end of his thumb with a mallet that earl's night-owl eyes played him false to the extent of overlooking a rock. it may well have been a very small rock, and it was doubtless submerged a foot or more; so there was no use expecting a man to see the ripple above it when there wasn't light enough to indicate the passage of his hand before his eyes. it was no fault of earl's at all, and even the optimistic ike had claimed no more than that he hadn't "allus bumped." nor was it a very serious matter at the worst. the raft merely hesitated a few seconds, swung part way round, slipped free again and, her head brought back at the pull of the launch, resumed her way. the jar of striking was not enough to throw a well-braced man off his feet. (the only reason roos fell and pulped his ear was because he had failed to set himself at the right angle when the shock came.) the worst thing that happened was the loss of a dozen or so cords of wood which, being unsecurely stacked, toppled over when she struck. luckily, the boat was parked on the opposite side, as was also roos. it would have been hard to pick up either before morning, and roos would hardly have lasted. the wood was a total loss to ike, of course; but he was less concerned about that than he was over the fact that it reduced her "freeboard" on that quarter by three feet, so that she wouldn't make so much of a "showin' in the picters." he _did_ raise a howl the next morning, though. that was when he found that his old denim jacket had gone over with the cordwood. it wasn't the "wamus" itself he minded so much, he said, but the fact that in one of that garment's pockets had been stored the milk chocolate which he was using to alienate the affections of the dutchman's collie. "it's all in gettin' a jump on a pup's feelin's at the fust offsta't," he philosophied bitterly; "an' naow i'll be losin' mah jump." rather keen on the psychology of alienation, that observation of old ike, it struck me. it was along toward nine o'clock, and shortly after the abrupt walls of the canyon began to fall away somewhat, that a light appeared on the left bank. making a wide circle just above what had now become a glowing window-square, earl brought the raft's head up-stream and swung her in against the bank. the place was marked creston on the maps, but appeared to be spoken of locally as halberson's ferry. we spent the night with the hospitable halbersons, who ran the ferry across to the colville reservation side and operated a small sawmill when logs were available. earl slept at his ranch, a few miles away on the _mesa_. the night was intensely cold, and i was not surprised to find icicles over a foot long on the flume behind the house in the morning. the frozen ground returned a metallic clank to the tread of my hob-nailed boots as i stepped outside the door. then i gave a gasp of amazement, for what did i see but ike running--with a light, springing step--right along the surface of the river? at my exclamation one of the halbersons left off toweling and came over to join me. "what's wrong?" he asked, swinging his arms to keep warm. "wrong!" i ejaculated; "look at that! i know this isn't galilee; but you don't mean to tell me the columbia has frozen over during the night!" "hardly that," was the laughing answer. "ike's not running on either the ice or the water; he's just riding a water-soaked log to save walking. it's an old trick of his. not many can do it like he can." and that was all there was to it. ike had spotted a drift-log stranded a short distance up-river, and was simply bringing it down the easiest way so as to lash it to the raft and take it to market. but i should have hated to have seen a thing like that "water-walking" effect in those long ago days on the canadian big bend, when we used to prime our breakfast coffee with a couple of fingers of "thirty per over-proof." we cast off at nine-thirty, after ike had laid in some more "component parts" of his mighty sweep at the little sawmill. although less deeply encanyoned than through the stretch down which we passed the previous night, there were still enormously high cliffs on both sides of the river. trees and brush were scarcer and scrubbier than above, and the general aspect was becoming more and more like the semi-arid parts of the colorado desert. the colouring was somewhat less vivid than the riot in the canyon above, but was almost equally varied. the colour-effect was diversified along this part of the river by the appearance of great patches of rock-growing lichen, shading through half a dozen reds and browns to the most delicate amethyst and sage-green. at places it was impossible to tell from the river where the mineral pigments left off and the vegetable coating began. the river was broad and widening, with a comparatively slow current and only occasional stretches of white water. i took the occasion to launch the skiff and paddle about for an hour, trying to get some line on the speed at which the raft was towing. in smooth water i found i had the legs of her about three-to-one, and in rapids of about two-to-one. from this i figured that she did not derive more than from a mile and a half to two miles an hour of her speed from the launch. i only raced her through one bit of rapid, and she was such a poor sport about the course that i refused to repeat the stunt. just as i began to spurt past her down through the jumping white caps she did a sort of a side-slip and crowded me out of the channel and into a rather messy souse-hole. the outraged _imshallah_ gulped a big mouthful, but floundered through right-side up, as she always seemed able to do in that sort of stuff. but i pulled into an eddy and let the hulking old wood-pile have the right-of-way, declining earl's tooted challenge for a brush in the riffle immediately following. a monster that could eat whirlpools alive wasn't anything for a skiff to monkey with the business end of. i boarded her respectfully by the stern and pulled _imshallah_ up after me. the great bald dome of white rock, towering a thousand feet above the left bank of the river, signalled our approach to hell gate. towing across a broad reach of quiet water, earl laid the raft against the left bank about half a mile above where a pair of black rock jaws, froth-flecked and savage, seemed closing together in an attempt to bite the river in two. that was as close as it was safe to stop the raft, earl explained as we made fast the mooring lines, for the current began to accelerate rapidly almost immediately below. there were some shacks and an ancient apple orchard on the bench above, and ike came over to whisper that they used to make some mighty kicky cider there once upon a time, and perhaps.... i did not need the prompting of earl's admonitory head-shake. "get a jump on you with the sweep," i said, "while earl and i go down and help roos set up. there'll be time enough to talk about cider below hell gate." i saw a somewhat (to judge from a distance) bacchantic ciderette picking her way down the bench bank to the raft as the launch sped off down stream, but if ike realized dividends from the visit there was never anything to indicate it. although hell gate is a long ways from being the worst rapid on the columbia, it comes pretty near to qualifying as the _worst looking_ rapid. a long black reef, jutting out from the left bank, chokes the river into a narrow channel and forces it over against the rocky wall on the right. it shoots between these obstructions with great velocity, only to split itself in two against a big rock island a hundred yards farther down. the more direct channel is to the right, but it is too narrow to be of use. the main river, writhing like a wounded snake after being bounced off the sheer wall of the island, zigzags on through the black basaltic barrier in a course shaped a good deal like an elongated letter "z." hell gate is very much like either the great or little dalles would be if a jog were put into it by an earthquake--a rapid shaped like a flash of lightning, and with just as much kick in it. after much climbing and scrambling over rocks, roos found a place about half way down the left side of the jagged gorge from which he could command the raft rounding the first leg of the "z" and running part of the second leg. it would have taken a half dozen machines to cover the whole run through, but the place he had chosen was the one which would show the most one camera could be expected to get. it would miss entirely the main thing--the fight to keep the raft from bumping the rock island and splitting in two like the river did. that could not be helped, however. a set up in a place to catch that would have caught very little else, and we desired to show something of the general character of the gorge and rapid. roos, solacing himself with the remark to the effect that, if the raft _did_ break up, probably the biggest part of the wreck would come down his side, was cutting himself a "sylvan frame" through the branches of a gnarled old screw pine as we left him to go to the launch. [illustration: ike riding a log] [illustration: ike on the mooring line of the raft] [illustration: raft in tow of launch near mouth of san poil (_above_)] [illustration: ike at the sweep below hell gate (_below_)] ike was sitting on the bank talking with a couple of men from the farm-house when we got back to the raft. he had completed the sweep, he said, but as he had forgotten to provide any "pin" to hang it on he didn't quite know what to do. perhaps we had better go up to the farm-house and have dinner first, and then maybe he would think of something. the thought of keeping roos--whom i had seen on the verge of apoplexy over a half minute delay once he was ready for action--standing with crooked elbow at his crank, waiting an hour or more for the raft to shoot round the bend the next second, struck me as so ludicrous that i had to sit down myself to laugh without risk of rolling into the river. when i finally got my breath and sight back, i found earl's ready mind had hit upon the idea of using the hickory adze-handle as a pivot for the sweep and that he and ike were already rigging it. ten minutes later the launch had swung the raft out into the current and we were headed for hell gate. the sweep, clumsy as it looked, was most ingeniously constructed. its handle was a four-inch-in-diameter fir trunk, about twenty feet in length. one end of it had been hewn down to give hand-grip on it, and the other split to receive the blade. the latter was a twelve-foot plank, a foot and a half in width and three inches in thickness, roughly rounded and hewn to the shape of the flat of an oar. it was set at a slight upward tilt from the fir-trunk handle. ike had contrived to centre the weight of the whole sweep so nicely that you could swing it on its adze-handle pivot with one hand. swing it in the air, i mean; submerged, five or six men would have been none too few to force that colossal blade through the water. ike admitted that himself, but reckoned that the two of us ought to be 'better'n nothin' 'tall.' as we swung out into the quickening current, i mentioned to ike that, as i had never even seen a sweep of that kind in operation, much less worked at it myself, it might now be in order for him to give me some idea of what he hoped to do with it, and how. "ye're right," he assented, after ejecting the inevitable squirt of tobacco and parking the residuary quid out of the way of his tongue as a squirrel stows a nut; "ye're right; five minutes fer eloosidashun an' r'h'rsal." as usual, ike overestimated the time at his disposal; nevertheless, his intensive method of training was so much to the point that i picked up a "right smart bit o' sweep dope" before we began to cram into the crooked craw of hell gate. this was the biggest raft he had ever tried to take through, ike explained, but he'd never had so powerful a motor launch; and earl was the best man in his line on the columbia. he reckoned that the launch would be able to swing the head of the raft clear of the rock island where the river split "agin" it; but swinging _out_ the head would have the effect of swinging in the stern. we were to man the sweep for the purpose of keeping the raft from striking amidships. we would only have to stroke one way, but we'd sure have to "jump into it billy hell!" "that being so," i suggested, "perhaps we better try a practice stroke or two to perfect our team-work." that struck ike as reasonable, and so we went at it, he on the extreme end of the handle, i one "grip" farther along. pressing the handle almost to our feet in order to elevate the blade, we dipped the latter with a swinging upward lift and jumped into the stroke. in order to keep the blade well submerged, it was necessary to exert almost as much force upward as forward. the compression on the spine was rather awful--especially as i was two or three inches taller than ike, and on top of that, had the "inside" berth, where the handle was somewhat nearer the deck. but the blade moved through the water when we both straightened into it; slowly at first, and more rapidly toward the end of the stroke. then we lifted the blade out of the water, and ike swung it back through the air alone. i had only to "crab-step" back along the runway--a couple of planks laid over the cordwood--and be ready for the next stroke. twice we went through that operation, without--so far as i could see--having any effect whatever upon the raft; but that was only because i was expecting "skiff-action" from a hundred tons of logs. we really must have altered the course considerably, for presently a howl came back from earl to "do it t'other way," as we were throwing her out of the channel. by the time we had "corrected" with a couple of strokes in the opposite direction the launch was dipping over the crest of the "intake." straightening up but not relinquishing the handle, ike said to "let 'er ride fer a minnit," but to stand-by ready. that swift opening run through the outer portal of hell gate offered about the only chance i had for a "look-see." my recollections of the interval that followed at the sweep are a good deal blurred. i noted that the water of the black-walled chasm down which we were racing was swift and deep, but not--right there at least--too rough for the skiff to ride. i noted how the sharp point of the rock island ahead threw off two unequal back-curving waves, as a battleship will do when turning at full speed. i remember thinking that, if i were in the skiff, i would try to avoid the island by sheering over to the right-hand channel. it looked too hard a pull to make the main one to the left; and the latter would have the worst whirlpools, too. i noted how confoundedly in the way of the river that sharp-nosed island was; and not only of the river, but of anything coming down the river. with that up-stabbing point out of the stream, how easy it would be! but since.... "stan'-by!" came in a growl from ike. "'memba naow--'billy hell' when i says 'jump!'" by the fact that he spat forth the whole of his freshly-bitten quid i had a feeling that the emergency was considerably beyond the ordinary. my last clear recollection was of earl's sharply altering his course just before he nosed into the roaring back-curving wave thrown off by the island and beginning to tow to the left with his line at half of a right-angle to the raft. the staccato of his accelerating engine cut like the rattle of a machine-gun through the heavy rumble of the rapid, and i knew that he had thrown it wide open even before the foam-geyser kicked up by the propellers began to tumble over onto the stern of the launch. on a reduced scale, it was the same sort of in-tumbling jet that a destroyer throws up when, at the appearance of an ominous blur in the fog, she goes from quarter-speed-ahead to full-speed-astern. a jet like that means that the spinning screws are meeting almost solid resistance in the water. ike's shoulder cut off my view ahead now, and i knew that the bow was swinging out only from the way the stern was swinging in. at his grunted "now!" we did our curtsey-and-bow to the sweep-handle, just as we had practised it, then dipped the blade and drove it hard to the right. four or five times we repeated that stroke, and right smartly, too, it seemed to me. the stern stopped swinging just at the right time, shooting by the foam-whitened fang of the black point by a good ten feet. the back-curving wave crashed down in solid green on the starboard quarter--but harmlessly. there was water enough to have swamped a _batteau_, but against a raft the comber had knocked its head off for nothing. under ike's assurance that the battle would all be over but the shouting in half a minute, i had put about everything i had into those half dozen mighty pushes with the sweep. i started to back off leisurely and resume my survey of the scenery as we cleared the point, but ike's mumbled "nother one!" brought me back to the sweep again. evidently there had been some kind of a slip-up. "wha' 'smatter?" i gurgled, as we swayed onto the kicking handle, and "engin's on blink," rumbled the chesty reply. "gotta keep'er off wi' sweep." it had been the motor-boat's rôle, after keeping the head of the raft clear of the point of the island by a strong side pull, to tow out straight ahead again as soon as the menace of collision was past. earl was trying to do this now (i glimpsed as i crab-stepped back), but with two or three cylinders missing was not able to do much more than straighten out the tow-line. as the raft was already angling to the channel, the fact the current was swifter against the side of the island had the tendency to throw her stern in that direction. it was up to the sweep to keep her from striking, just as it had been at the point. what made it worse now was that the possible points of impact were scattered all the way along for two or three hundred yards, while the launch was giving very little help. a man ought to be able to lean onto a sweep all day long without getting more than a good comfortable weariness, and so i _could_ have done had i been properly broken in. but i was in the wrong place on the sweep, and, on top of that, had allowed my infantile enthusiasm to lead me into trying to scoop half the columbia out of its channel at every stroke. and so it was that when we came to a real showdown, i found myself pretty hard put to come through with what was needed. ike's relentless "'nother one!" at the end of each soul-and-body wracking stroke was all that was said, but the 'tween-teethed grimness of its utterance was more potent as a verbal scourge than a steady stream of sulphurous curses. ike was saving his breath, and i didn't have any left to pour out my feelings with. we were close to the ragged black wall all the way, and i have an idea that the back-waves thrown off by the projecting points had about as much to do with keeping us from striking as had the sweep. such waves will often buffer off a canoe or _batteau_, and they must have helped some with the raft. there is no doubt, however, that, if the raft had once been allowed to swing broadside, either she or the rock island would have had to change shape or else hold up the million or so horse-power driving the columbia. that could have only resulted in a one-two-three climax, with the island, columbia and raft finishing in the order named. or, to express it in more accurate race-track vernacular; "island," first; "columbia," second; "raft," nowhere! my spine was a bar of red-hot iron rasping up and down along the exposed ends of all its connecting nerves, when a throaty "aw right!" from ike signalled that the worst was past. hanging over the end of the trailing sweep-handle, i saw that the raft had swung into a big eddy at the foot of the island, and that the launch, with its engine still spraying scattered pops, was trying to help the back-current carry her in to the right bank. middle and lower rapids of hell gate were still below us, but earl had evidently determined not to run them until his engine was hitting on all fours again. it was characteristic of him that he didn't offer any explanation as to what had gone wrong, or why; but the trouble must have been a consequence of the terrific strain put on the engine in towing the head of the raft clear of the upper point of the island. at the end of a quarter hour's tinkering earl reckoned that the engine would go "purty good" now; leastways, he hoped so, for there was nothing more he could do outside of a machine-shop. to save tying up again below, he ran across and picked up roos and the camera before casting off. middle and lower rapids were just straight, fast, white water, and we ran them without trouble. roos set up on the raft and shot a panorama of the reeling rollers and the flying black curtains of the rocky walls as they slid past. then he made a close-up of the weird, undulating chinese-dragon-wiggle of the "deck" of the raft, and finally, when we had recovered a bit of breath, of ike and me toiling at the sweep. to save time, we had lunch on the raft, taking earl's portion up to him in the skiff. ike, announcing that he would need a crew of four or five men to handle the raft in box canyon, was scouting for hands all afternoon. whenever a farm or a ferry appeared in the distance, we would pull ahead in the skiff and he would dash ashore and pursue intensive recruiting until the raft had come up and gone on down river. then we would push off and chase it, repeating the performance as soon as another apple orchard or ferry tower crept out beyond a bend. for all our zeal, there was not a man to show when we finally pulled the skiff aboard as darkness was falling on the river. most of the men ike talked to took one look at the nearing raft and cut him off with a "good-night" gesture, the significance of which was not lost on me even in the distant skiff. the nearest we came to landing any one was at plum, where the half-breed ferry-man said he would have gone if it hadn't been for the fact that his wife was about to become a mother. it wasn't that he was worried on the woman's account (she did that sort of thing quite regularly without trouble), but he had bet a horse with the blacksmith that it was going to be a boy, and he kind of wanted to be on hand to be sure they didn't put anything over on him. at clark's ferry an old pal of ike's, whom he had confidently counted on getting, not only refused to go when he saw the raft, but even took the old river rat aside and talked to him long and earnestly, after the manner of a brother. ike was rather depressed after that, and spent the next hour slouching back and forth across the stern runway, nursing the handle of the gently-swung sweep against his cheek like a pet kitten. he was deeply introspective, and seemed to be brooding over something. it was not until the next morning that he admitted that the raft had not proved quite as handy as he had calculated. again we ran well into the dark, but this time in a somewhat opener canyon than the black gorge we had threaded the night before. it was spring canyon we were making for, where ike had left his last raft. no one was living there, he said, but it was a convenient place for the ranchers from up on the plateau to come and get the wood. earl found the place and made the landing with not even a window-light to guide. we moored to the lower logs of the cedar raft, most of which was now lying high and dry on the rocks, left by the falling river. we cooked supper on the bank and--after roos had deftly picked the lock with a bent wire--slept on the floor of an abandoned farm-house on the bench above. ike had complained a good deal of his gasoline-burned back during the day, and was evidently suffering not a little discomfort from the chafing of his woollen undershirt. he was restless during the night, and when he got up at daybreak i saw him pick up and shake out an old white table-cloth that had been thrown in one corner. when i went down to the raft a little later, i found the old rat stripped to the waist and earl engaged in swathing the burned back in the folds of the white table-cloth. as the resultant bundle was rather too bulky to allow a shirt to be drawn over it, ike went around for a couple of hours just as he was, for all the world like "the noblest roman of them all"--from neck to the waist, that is. the long, drooping, tobacco-stained moustaches, no less than the sagging overalls, would have had rather a "foreign" look on the _forum romanum_. chapter xi by launch through box canyon there was plainly something on ike's mind all through breakfast, but what it was didn't transpire until i asked him what time he would be ready to push off. then, like a man who blurts out an unpalatable truth, he gave the free end of his "toga" a fling back over his shoulder and announced that he had come to the conclusion that the raft was too big and too loosely constructed to run box canyon; in fact, we could count ourselves lucky that we got through hell gate without smashing up. what he proposed to do was to take the biggest and straightest logs from both the rafts and make a small, solid one that would stand any amount of banging from the rocks. he never gave a thought to his life when working on the river, he declared, but it would be a shame to run an almost certain risk of losing so big a lot of logs and cordwood. the wreckage would be sure to be salvaged by farmers who would otherwise have to buy wood from him, so he would be a double loser in case the raft went to pieces. i told him that i quite appreciated his feelings (about the wood and logs, i mean), and asked how long he figured it would take to get the logs out of the old rafts and build a new one. he reckoned it could be done in two or three days, if we hustled. as i had already learned that any of ike's estimates of time had to be multiplied by at least two to approximate accuracy, i realized at once that our rafting voyage was at an end. we already had some very good raft pictures, and as a few hundred yards of the run through box canyon would be all that could be added to these, it did not seem worth anything like the delay building the new raft would impose. as far as the sale of the wood and logs was concerned, ike said he would rather have the stuff where it was than in bridgeport. so, quite unexpectedly but in all good feeling, we prepared to abandon the raft and have the motor-boat take the skiff in tow as far as chelan. this would make up a part of the time we had lost in waiting for the raft in the first place, and also save the portage round box canyon. it was quite out of the question venturing into that gorge in our small boat, earl said, but he had made it before with his launch, and reckoned he could do it again. we settled with ike on a basis of twenty dollars a day for his time, out of which he would pay for the launch. as his big raft of logs and firewood was brought to its destination for nothing by this arrangement, he was that much ahead. for the further use of the launch, we were to pay earl ten dollars a day and buy the gasoline. we helped ike get the raft securely moored, had an early lunch on the rocks, and pushed off at a little after noon, the skiff in tow of the launch on a short painter. a few miles along ike pointed out a depression, high above the river on the left side, which he said was the mouth of the grand coulee, the ancient bed of the columbia. i have already mentioned a project which contemplates bringing water from the pend d'oreille to irrigate nearly two million acres of semi-arid land of the columbia basin. a project that some engineers consider will bring water to the same land more directly and at a much less cost per acre is to build a dam all the way across the columbia below the mouth of the grand coulee, and use the power thus available to pump sixteen thousand second-feet into the old channel of that river. mr. james o'sullivan, a contractor of port huron, michigan, who has made an exhaustive study of this latter project, writes me as follows: "a dam at this point could be built feet high above low water, and it would form a lake miles long all the way to the canadian boundary. it is estimated that one million dollars would pay all the flooding damages. a dam feet high would be , feet long on the crest, and would require about , , cubic yards of concrete. it would cost, assuming bedrock not to exceed feet below water, about forty million dollars. it is estimated that the power-house, direct connected pumps, turbines and discharge pipes would cost fifteen million dollars.... from the columbia river to the arid lands, a distance of less than forty miles, there is a natural channel less than one mile wide, flanked by rock walls on both sides, so that the cost of getting water to the land would be primarily confined to the dam and power. such a dam would require about five years to build, and it would create out of a worthless desert a national estate of four hundred and fifty million dollars, and the land would produce annually in crops two hundred and seventy-five million.... an irrigation district is now being formed in central washington, and it is proposed to proceed at once with the core drilling of the dam-site, to determine the nature and depth of bedrock, which seems to be the only question left unsettled which affects the feasibility of the project. the northwestern states are all in a league for securing the reclamation of this vast area, and there is no doubt that, if bedrock conditions prove to be favourable, that in the near future the money will be raised to construct this great project, which will reclaim an area equal to the combined irrigation projects undertaken by the u. s. government to-day.... it is considered now that where power is free, a pumping lift as high as feet is perfectly feasible." which of these two great projects for the reclamation of the desert of the columbia basin has the most to recommend is not a question upon which a mere river _voyageur_, who is not an engineer, can offer an intelligent opinion. that the possibilities of such reclamation, if it can be economically effected, are incalculably immense, however, has been amply demonstrated. from source to mouth, the columbia to-day is almost useless for power, irrigation and even transportation. the experience of those who, lured on by abnormal rainfalls of a decade or more ago, tried dry farming in this region border closely on the tragic. and the tragedy has been all the more poignant from the fact that the disaster of drought has overtaken them year after year with the columbia running half a million second-feet of water to waste right before their eyes. i subsequently met a rancher in wenatchee who said the only good the columbia ever was to a man who tried to farm along it in the dry belt was as a place to drown himself in when he went broke. [illustration: the suspension bridge at chelan falls (_above_)] [illustration: old river veterans on the landing at potaris. (capt. mcdermid on left, ike emerson on right) (_below_)] [illustration: night was falling as we headed into box canyon (_above_)] [illustration: the columbia above box canyon (_below_)] the rock-littered channel of moneghan's or buckley's rapids was easily threaded by the launch, and equilibrium or "jumbo" rapids, three miles lower down, did not prove a serious obstruction. the official name is the former, and was given the riffle by symons on account of a round-topped rock which rolled back and forth in the current because of its unstable equilibrium. the local name of "jumbo" derives from the fact that this same rolling rock has something of the appearance of an elephant, when viewed from a certain angle. ten miles more of deep, evenly-flowing water brought us to mah-kin rapids and the head of nespilem canyon. the next twenty-four miles, terminating at the foot of what is officially called kalichen falls and whirlpool (box canyon in local nomenclature), is the fastest stretch of equal length on the columbia except on the big bend in canada. it is one continuous succession of rapids, eddies and whirlpools all the way, and the much feared box canyon is a fitting finale. i was distinctly glad to be running through in a motor-boat rather than the skiff. as to the raft, i never have been able to make up my mind as to just how she would have fared. the roar of the savage half-mile tumble of mah-kin rapids was a fitting overture to the main performance. the river narrows down sharply between precipitous banks, and most of the rocks from the surrounding hills seem to have rolled into the middle of the channel. there was an awful mess of churned water even where the river was deepest, and i wouldn't have been quite comfortable heading into it even in the launch. earl seemed rather of the same mind, too, for he kept edging out to the right every time one of the big combers lurched over at him. with the engine running like a top, he kept her in comparatively good water all the way through. it was a striking lesson in the value of power in running a rapid--as long as the power doesn't fail you. rock-peppered rapids followed each other every mile or two from the foot of mah-kin, but--thanks to earl's nose for the best channel--we were not taking more than an occasional shower of spray over the bows where the water was whitest. it was not too rough for reading, and, anxious to prepare roos for what he was about to experience at kalichen falls and collision rock, i dug out symons' report and ran rapidly through the dramatic description of how his party fared in running the sinister gorge ahead. it seems to me rather a classic of its kind, and i am setting it down in full, just as i read it to roos and ike that afternoon in the cockpit of the launch. i only wish i could complete the effect with the diorama of the flying canyon walls, the swirling waters of the river, and the obligato in duet by the roaring rapids and the sharply hitting engine. "the shores of nespilem canyon are strewn with huge masses of black basaltic rock of all sizes and shapes, and this continues for several miles, forming a characteristic picture of columbia river scenery. the complete ... lifelessness of the scene makes it seem exceedingly wild, almost unearthly. and so we plunge along swiftly through the rolling water, with huge rocks looming up, now on one side and now on the other. every stroke of the oar is bearing us onward, nearer and nearer, to that portion of our voyage most dreaded, the terrible kalichen falls and whirlpool rapids. we hear the low rumbling of the water, and see the tops of the huge half-sunken rocks and the white foam of the tumbling waters. for a few moments the rowing ceases, while brave old pierre gives his orders to the indians in their own tongue. he knows that everything depends upon his steering and their rowing or backing at the right moment, with all the strength they possess. years ago he was in a hudson bay company _batteau_ which capsized in these very rapids, and out of a crew of sixteen men eight perished in the water or on the rocks. "the indians make their preparations for the struggle by stripping off all their superfluous clothing, removing their gloves, and each ties a bright-coloured handkerchief tightly about his head; poles and extra oars are laid ready in convenient places to reach should they become necessary, and then with a shout the indians seize their oars and commence laying to them with all their strength. we are rushing forward at a fearful rate, owing to the combined exertions of the indians and the racing current, and we shudder at the thought of striking any of the huge black rocks near which we glide. now we are fairly in the rapids, and our boat is rushing madly through the foam and billows; the indians are shouting at every stroke in their wild, savage glee; it is infectious; we shout too, and feel the wild exultation which comes to men in moments of great excitement and danger. ugly masses of rocks show their heads above the troubled waters on every side, and sunken rocks are discernible by the action of the surf. great billows strike us fore and aft, some falling squarely over the bows and drenching us to the waist. this is bad enough, but the worst is yet to come as we draw near with great velocity to a huge rock which appears dead ahead. "has old pierre seen it? the water looks terribly cold as we think of his failing eyesight. then an order, a shout, backing on one side and pulling on the other, and a quick stroke of the steering oar, and the rock appears on our right hand. another command, and answering shout, and the oars bend like willows as the indians struggle to get the boat out of the strong eddy into which pierre had thrown her. finally she shoots ahead and passes the rock like a flash, within less than an oar's length of it, and we shout for joy and breathe freely again.... "for half a mile the river is comparatively good, and our staunch crew rest on their oars preparatory to the next struggle, which soon comes, as some more rocky, foamy rapids are reached. here the swells are very high and grand, and our boat at one time seems to stand almost perpendicularly." ("them's eagle rapids," ike interrupted; "sloppier 'n 'ell, but straight.") "for about nine miles further the river continues studded with rocks and swift, with ripples every mile or so, until we reach foster creek rapids. here the rocks become thicker ... and the water fierce and wild. for a mile more we plunge and toss through the foaming, roaring water, amid wild yells from our indian friends, and we emerge from foster creek rapids, which appear to be as rough and dangerous a place as any we have yet encountered. we are now out of nespilem canyon and through all the nespilem rapids, and we certainly feel greatly relieved...." ike, renewing his quid, observed that they didn't call it nespilem canyon any more, for the reason that that sounded too much like "let's spill 'em!" and there was enough chance of that without asking for it. roos, in bravado, asked ike if he was going to strip down like symons' indians did. the old roman replied by pulling on a heavy mackinaw over his "toga," saying that he'd rather have warmth than action once he was out in the "columby." that led me to ask him--with a touch of bravado on my own account--how long it would take him to "submarine" from box canyon to kettle falls. he grinned a bit sourly at that, and started slacking the lashings on the sweeps and pike-poles. roos was just tying a red handkerchief round his head when earl beckoned him forward to take the wheel while he gave the engine a final hurried tuning. ike, saying that we would be hitting "white cap" just round the next bend, gave me brief but pointed instructions in the use of sweep and pike-pole in case the engine went wrong. he had spat forth his quid again, just as at hell gate, and his unmuffled voice had a strange and penetrating _timbre_. white cap rapids are well named. two rocky points converge at the head and force all the conflicting currents of the river into a straight, steep channel, heavily littered with boulders and fanged with outcropping bedrock. in that currents from opposite sides of the river are thrown together in one mad tumble of wallowing waters, it is much like gordon rapids, on the big bend. if anything, it is the rougher of the two, making up in volume what it lacks in drop. it is a rapid that would be particularly mean for a small boat, from the fact that there would be no way of keeping out of the middle of it, and that is a wet place--very. the launch had the power to hold a course just on the outer right edge of the rough water, and so made a fairly comfortable passage of it. with the "intake" above kalichen falls full in view a half mile distant, earl went back to his engine as we shot out at the foot of "white cap" and gave it a few little "jiggering" caresses--much as a rider pats the neck of his hunter as he comes to a jump--before the final test. then he covered it carefully with a double canvas and went back to the wheel. roos he kept forward, standing-by to take the wheel or tinker the engine in case of emergency. the lad, though quite without "river sense," was a first-class mechanic and fairly dependable at the steering wheel providing he was told what to do. the sounding board of the rocky walls gave a deep pulsating resonance to the heavy roar ahead, but it was not until we dipped over the "intake" that the full volume of it assailed us. then it came with a rush, a palpable avalanche of sound that impacted on the ear-drums with the raw, grinding roar of a passing freight train. it was not from the huge rollers the launch was skirting so smartly that this tearing, rending roar came, but from an enormous black rock almost dead ahead. it was trying to do the same thing that big island in the middle of hell gate had tried to do, and was succeeding rather better. the latter had been able to do no more than split the river down the middle; this one was forcing the whole stream to do a side-step, and pretty nearly a somersault--hence kalichen falls and whirlpool. collision rock was distinctly impressive, even from a launch. the sun was just dipping behind the southern wall of box canyon (how funky i became later, when i was alone, about going into a rapid in that slanting, deceptive evening light!) as the launch hit the rough water. there was dancing iridescence in the flung foam-spurts above the combers, and at the right of collision bock the beginning of a rainbow which i knew would grow almost to a full circle when we looked back from below the fall. i snapped once with my kodak into the reeling tops of the waves that raced beside us, and then started to wind up to have a fresh film for the rock and the crowning rainbow. that highly artistic exposure was never made. earl, instead of shutting off his engine as he did in running spokane rapids, opened up all the wider as he neared the barrier and its refluent wave. this was because the danger of striking submerged rocks was less than that of butting into that one outcrop of ragged reef that was coming so near to throwing the river over on its back. if the launch was to avoid telescoping on collision rock as the columbia was doing, it must get enough way on to shoot across the current into the eddy on the left. that was what earl was preparing for when he opened up the engine. with both boat and current doing well over twenty miles an hour, we were literally rushing down at the rocky barrier with the speed of an express train when earl spun the wheel hard over and drove her sharply to the left. that was when i stopped kodaking. in spite of the rough water, the launch had been remarkably dry until her course was altered. then she made up for lost time. the next ten or fifteen seconds was an unbroken deluge. with a great up-toss of wake, she heeled all of forty-five degrees to starboard at the turn, seeing which, the river forthwith began piling over her port or up-stream side and making an astonishingly single-minded attempt to push her on the rest of the way under. failing in that (for her draught was too great and her engine set too low to make her easily capsizable), the river tried to accomplish the same end by swamping her. fore and aft the water came pouring over in a solid green flood, and kept right on pouring until earl, having driven through to the point he wanted, turned her head down stream again and let her right herself. the water was swishing about my knees for a few moments in the cockpit, and it must have been worse than that forward. then it drained down into the bilge without, apparently, greatly affecting her buoyancy. the higher-keyed staccato of the engine cut sharply through the heavier roar of the falls. it was still popping like a machine-gun, without a break. reassured by that welcome sound, earl orientated quickly as he shook the water from his eyes, and then put her full at the head of the falls. just how much of a pitch there was at this stage of water i couldn't quite make out. nothing in comparison with the cataract there at high water (when the river rushes right over the top of collision rock) certainly; and yet it was a dizzy bit of a drop, with rather too deliberate a recovery to leave one quite comfortable. for a few seconds the launch's head was deeply buried in the soft stuff of the souse-hole into which she took her header; the next her bows were high in the air as the up-boil caught her. then her propellers began striking into something solider than air-charged suds, and she shot jerkily away in a current so torn with swirls that it looked like a great length of twisted green-and-white rope. we had missed collision rock by thirty feet, and given the dreaded whirlpool behind it an even wider berth. the next thirteen miles we did at a rate that ike figured must have been about the fastest travelling ever done on the columbia. the current runs at from ten to twenty miles an hour all the way from the head of box canyon to bridgeport, and earl, racing to reach foster creek rapids before it was dark, ran just about wide open nearly the whole distance. it was real train speed at which we sped down the darkening gorge--possibly over forty miles an hour at times. earl knew the channel like a book, and said there was nothing to bother about in the way of rocks as long as he could see. we were out of the closely-walled part of the canyon at eagle rapids, and the sunset glow was bright upon the water ahead. there is a series of short, steep riffles here, extending for a mile and a half, and earl slammed right down the lot of them on the high. ike was right about their being sloppy, but the beacon of the afterglow gave the bearing straight through. two miles further on the river appeared suddenly to be filled with swimming hippos--round-topped black rocks just showing above the water; but each one was silhouetted against a surface that glinted rose and gold, and so was as easy to miss as in broad daylight. it was all but full night as the roar of foster creek rapids began to drown the rattle of the engine, with only a luminous lilac mist floating above the south-western mountains to mark where the sun had set; but it was enough--just enough--to throw a glow of pale amethyst on the frothy tops of the white-caps, leaving the untorn water to roll on in fluid anthracite. earl barely eased her at the head, and then plunged her down a path of polished ebony, with the blank blur of rocks looming close on the right and an apparitional line of half-guessed rollers booming boisterously to the left. for three-quarters of a mile we raced that ghostly ku-klux-klan procession, and roos, who was timing with his radium-faced watch, announced that we had made the distance in something like seventy seconds. then there was quieter water, and presently the lights of bridgeport. earl put us off opposite the town, and ran down a quarter of a mile farther to get out of the still swiftly-running current and berth the launch in a quiet eddy below the sawmill. bridgeport, for a town a score of miles from the railway, proved unexpectedly metropolitan, with electric lights, banks, movie theatres, and a sign at the main crossing prohibiting "left hand turns." the people, for a country town, showed very diverting evidences of sophistication. at the movies that night (where we went to get the election returns), they continually laughed at the villain and snickered at the heroine's platitudinous sub-titles; and finally, when word came that it was harding beyond all doubt, they forgot the picture completely and gave their undivided attention to joshing the town's only avowed democrat. the victim bore up fairly well as long as his baiters stuck to "straight politics," but when they accused him of wearing an imitation leather coat made of brown oil-cloth, the shaft got under his armour. with a ruddy blush that was the plainest kind of a confession of guilt, he pushed out to the aisle and beat a disorderly retreat. a prosperous apple farmer sitting next me (he had been telling me what his crop would bring the while the naturally vamp-faced heroine was trying to register pup-innocence and "gold-cannot-buy-me" as the villain was choking her) sniffed contemptuously as the discomfited democrat disappeared through the swinging doors. "seems to feel worse about being caught with an imitation coat than about being an imitation politician. better send him to congress!" now _wasn't_ that good for a small town that didn't even have a railroad? i've known men of cities of all of a hundred thousand, with street cars, municipal baths, carnegie libraries and women's clubs, who hadn't the measure of congress as accurately as that. i wish there had been time to see more of bridgeport. it was down to twelve above when we turned out in the morning, with the clear air tingling with frost particles and incipient ice-fringes around the eddies. fortunately, earl had bailed both boats the night before and drained his engine. just below bridgeport the river, which had been running almost due west from the mouth of the spokane river, turned off to the north. in a slackening current we approached the small patch of open country at the mouth of the okinagan. the latter, which heads above the lake of the same name in british columbia, appears an insignificant stream as viewed from the columbia, and one would never suspect that it is navigable for good-sized stern-wheelers for a considerable distance above its mouth. on the right bank of the columbia, just above the mouth of the okinagan, is the site of what was perhaps the most important of the original astor posts of the interior. as a sequel to the war of it was turned over to the northwest company, and ultimately passed under the control of hudson bay. i could see nothing but a barren flat at this point where so much history was made, but a splendid apple orchard occupies most of the fertile bench in the loop of the bend on the opposite bank. the mouth of the okinagan marks the most northerly point of the washington big bend of the columbia. from there it flows southwesterly for a few miles to the mouth of the methow, before turning almost directly south. we passed brewster without landing, but pulled up alongside a big stern-wheeler moored against the bank at potaris, just above the swift-running methow rapids. it was the _bridgeport_, and ike had spoken of her skipper, whom he called "old cap," many times and with the greatest affection. "old cap" proved to be the captain mcdermid, who had run the _shoshone_ down through grand rapids, and who was rated as the nerviest steamer skipper left on the columbia. captain mcdermid was waiting on the bow of his steamer to give us a hand aboard. he had read of our voyage in the spokane papers, he said, and had been on the lookout for several days. at first he had watched for a skiff, but later, when he had heard that we had pushed off with ike on a raft, it was logs he had been keeping a weather eye lifting for. when ike described the raft to him, he wagged his head significantly, and said he reckoned it was just as well we had changed to the launch for box canyon. "it isn't everybody that can navigate under water like this old rat here," he added, giving ike a playful prod in the ribs. as we were planning to go on through to the mouth of the chelan river, in the hope of getting up to the lake that afternoon, an hour was the most i could stop over on the _bridgeport_ for a yarn with captain mcdermid, where i would have been glad of a week. he told me, very simply but graphically, of the run down grand rapids, and a little of his work with stern or side-wheelers in other parts of the world, which included a year on the upper amazon and about the same time as skipper of a ferry running from the battery to staten island. then he spoke, with a shade of sadness, of the _bridgeport_ and his plans for the future. in all the thousand miles of the columbia between the dalles and its source, she had been the last steamer to maintain a regular service. (this was not reckoning the arrow lakes, of course). but the close of the present apple season had marked the end. between the increasing competition of railways and trucks, the game was no longer worth the candle. he, and his partners in the _bridgeport_, had decided to try to take her to portland and offer her for sale. she was very powerfully engined and would undoubtedly bring a good price--once they got her there. but getting her to portland was the rub. there were locks at the cascades and the dalles, but rock island, cabinet, priest and umatilla, to say nothing of a number of lesser rapids would have to be run. it was a big gamble, insurance, of course, being out of the question on any terms. the _douglas_, half the size of the _bridgeport_, had tried it a couple of months ago, and--well, we would see the consequences on the rocks below cabinet rapids. got through rock island all right, and then went wrong in cabinet, which wasn't half as bad. overconfidence, probably, "old cap" thought. but he felt sure that _he_ would have better luck, especially if he went down first and made a good study of rock island and priest; and that was one of the things that he had wanted to see me about. if there was room for him in the skiff, he would like to run through with us as far as pasco, and brush up on the channel as we went along. if things were so he could get away, he would join us at wenatchee on our return from chelan. i jumped at the chance without hesitation, for it would give us the benefit of the experience and help of the very best man on that part of the columbia in getting through the worst of the rapids that remained to be run. i had been a good deal concerned about how the sinister cascade of rock island was to be negotiated, to say nothing of the long series of riffles called priest rapids, which had even a worse record. i parted with captain mcdermid with the understanding that we would get in touch by phone a day or two later, when i knew definitely when we would return to the river from chelan, and make the final arrangements. leaving ike on the _bridgeport_ for a yarn with his old friend, we pushed off in the launch for chelan. methow rapids, just below the river of that name, was the only fast water encountered, and that was a good, straight run in a fairly clear channel. we landed half a mile below the mouth of the chelan river, where the remains of a road led down through the boulders to the tower of an abandoned ferry. earl put about at once and headed back up-stream, expecting to pick up ike at potaris and push on through to bridgeport that evening. we parted from both earl and ike in all good feeling and with much regret. each in his line was one of the best men i have ever had to do with. ike--in spite of the extent to which his movements were dominated by the maxim that "time is made for slaves," or, more likely, for that very reason--was a most priceless character. i only hope i shall be able to recruit him for another river voyage in the not-too-distant future. chapter xii chelan to pasco for two reasons i am writing but briefly of our visit to lake chelan: first, because it was entirely incidental to the columbia voyage, and, second, because one who has only made the run up and down this loveliest of mountain lakes has no call to write of it. chelan is well named "beautiful water." sixty miles long and from one to four miles wide, cliff-walled and backed by snowy mountains and glaciers, it has much in common with the arrow lakes of the upper columbia, and, by the same tokens, kootenay lake. among the large mountain lakes of the world it has few peers. the chelan river falls three hundred and eighty-five feet in the four miles from the outlet of the lake to where it tumbles into the columbia. it is a foam-white torrent all the way, with a wonderful "horse-shoe" gorge near the lower end which has few rivals for savage grandeur. one may reach the lake from the columbia by roads starting either north or south of the draining river. we went by the latter, as it was the more conveniently reached from the ferry-man's house where we had left our outfit after landing. the town of chelan, at the lower end of the lake, is a lovely little village, with clean streets, bright shops, and a very comfortable hotel. i have forgotten the name of the hotel, but not the fact that it serves a big pitcher of thick, yellow cream with every breakfast. so far as my own experience goes, it is the only hotel in america or europe which has perpetuated that now all but extinct ante-bellum custom. in case there may be any interested to know--even actually to enjoy--what our forefathers had with their coffee and mush, i will state that three transcontinental railways pass within a hundred miles to the southward of chelan. it will prove well worth the stop-over; and there is the lake besides. the lower end of lake chelan is surrounded by rolling hills, whose fertile soil is admirably adapted to apples, now an important industry in that region; the upper end is closely walled with mountains and high cliffs--really an extremely deep gorge half filled with water. indeed, the distinction of being the "deepest furrow time has wrought on the face of the western hemisphere" is claimed for upper chelan lake--this because there are cliffs which rise almost vertically for six thousand feet from the water's edge, and at a point where the sounding lead has needed nearly a third of that length of line to bring it back from a rocky bottom which is indented far below the level of the sea. the head of chelan is far back in the heart of the cascades, in the glaciers of which its feeding streams take their rise. the main tributaries are railroad creek, which flows in from the south about two-thirds of the way up, and stehekin river, which comes in at the head. these two streams are credited with some of the finest waterfalls, gorges and cliff and glacier-begirt mountain valleys to be found in north america, and it is possible to see the best of both in the course of a single "circular" trip by packtrain. to my great regret, it was not practicable to get an outfit together in the limited time at our disposal. the best we could do so late in the season was a hurried run up to rainbow falls, a most striking cataract, three hundred and fifty feet in height, descending over the cliffs of the stehekin river four miles above the head of the lake. roos made a number of scenic shots here, but on a roll which--whether in the camera or the laboratory it was impossible to determine--was badly light-struck. similar misfortune attended a number of other shots he made (through the courtesy of the captain of the mail launch in running near the cliffs) of waterfalls tumbling directly into the lake. there are many slips between the cup and the lip--the camera and the screen, i should say--in scenic movie work. [illustration: a rocky cliff near head of lake chelan] [illustration: rainbow falls, feet high, above head of lake chelan] [illustration: wenatchee under the dust cloud of its speeding autos (_above_)] [illustration: head of rock island rapids (_below_)] we arrived back at the town of chelan in time for lunch on the sixth of november, and a couple of hours later were down at the columbia ready to push off again. i had been unable to get in touch with captain mcdermid by phone, but was confident that he would turn up in good time at wenatchee. as there was nothing between that point and the mouth of the chelan in the way of really bad water, i had no hesitation in making the run without a "pilot." launching _imshallah_ below the old ferry-tower at two o'clock, we reached the little town of entiat, just above the river and rapids of that name, at five. the skiff rode higher with captain armstrong and his luggage out, her increased buoyancy compensating in a measure for the less intelligent handling she had. roos took the steering paddle in the stern, and i continued rowing from the forward thwart. all of the luggage was shifted well aft. the current was fairly swift all the way, but the two or three rapids encountered were not difficult to pass. ribbon cliff, two thousand feet high and streaked with strata of yellow, grey and black clays, was the most striking physical feature seen in the course of this easy afternoon's run. entiat is a prosperous little apple-growing centre, and, with the packing season at its height, was jammed to the roof with workers. rooms at the hotel were out of the question. roos slept on a couch in the parlour, which room was also occupied by three drummers and two truck drivers. i had a shakedown on a canvased-in porch, on which were six beds and four cots. my room-mates kept me awake a good part of the night growling because their wages had just been cut to seven dollars a day, now that the rush was over. i would have been the more surprised that any one should complain about a wage like that had not a trio of farmettes--or rather packettes--at the big family dinner table been comparing notes of their takings. one twinkling-fingered blonde confessed to having averaged thirteen dollars a day for the last week packing apples, while a brown-bloomered brunette had done a bit better than twelve. the third one--attenuated, stoop-shouldered and spectacled--was in the dumps because sore fingers had scaled her average down to ten-fifty--"hardly worth coming out from spokane for," she sniffed. roos tried to engage them in conversation, and started out auspiciously with a description of running box canyon. but the gimlet-eyed thin one asked him what he got for doing a thing like that, and promptly their interest faded. and why _should_ they have cared to waste time over a mere seventy-five-dollar-a-week cameraman? but it was something even to have eaten pumpkin pie with the plutocracy. the swift-flowing entiat river has dumped a good many thousand tons of boulders into the columbia, and most of these have lodged to form a broad, shallow bar a short distance below the mouth of the former. the columbia hasn't been able quite to make up its mind the best way to go here, and so has hit on a sort of a compromise by using three or four channels. roos found himself in a good deal the same sort of dilemma when we came rolling along there on the morning of the seventh, but as a boat--if it is going to preserve its entity as such--cannot run down more than one channel at a time, _imshallah_ found the attempt at a compromise to which she was committed only ended in butting her head against a low gravel island. it was impossible to make the main middle channel from there, but we poled off without much difficulty and went bumping off down a shallow channel to the extreme right. she kissed off a boulder once or twice before winning through to deeper water, but not hard enough to do her much harm. it was a distinctly messy piece of work, though, and i was glad that ike or captain armstrong was not there to see their teachings put into practice. the river cliffs became lower as we ran south, and after passing a commanding point on the right bank we came suddenly upon the open valley of the wenatchee, the nearest thing to a plain we had seen in all the hundreds of miles from the source of the columbia. there are not over twenty to thirty square miles of land that is even comparatively level here, but to eyes which had been wont for two months to seek sky-line with a forty-five degree upward slant of gaze it was like coming out of an andean pass upon the boundless pampas of argentina. wenatchee was in sight for several miles before we reached it, an impressive water-front of mills, warehouses and tall buildings. over all floated a dark pall, such as one sees above pittsburgh, birmingham, essen or any other great factory city, but we looked in vain for the forest of chimneys it would have taken to produce that bituminous blanket. as we drew nearer we discovered that what we had taken to be smoke was a mighty dust-cloud. it was a sunday at the height of the apple-packing season, and all the plutocratic packettes were joy-riding. there were, it is true, more fords than rolls-royces in the solid double procession of cars that jammed the main street for a mile, but that was doubtless because the supply of the former had held out better. i can't believe that the consideration of price had anything to do with it. the hotel, of course, was full, even with the dining-room set thick with cots, but by admiring a haberdashery drummer's line of neck-ties for an hour, i managed to get him to "will" me his room and bath when he departed that afternoon. roos employed similar strategy with a jazz movie orchestra fiddler, but his train didn't pull out until four-thirty in the morning. a young reporter from the local paper called for an interview in the afternoon, and told us the story of the _douglas_, the steamer which captain mcdermid had mentioned as having been lost in trying to take her to portland. selig had gone along to write the story of the run through rock island rapids, the first to be reached and the place which was reckoned as the most dangerous she would have to pass. when she had come out of that sinister gorge without mishap, he had them land him at the first convenient place in the quiet water below, from where he made his way to the railway and hurried back to wenatchee with his story. that he had seen all the best of the excitement, he had no doubt. a quarter of an hour after selig left her, the _douglas_ was a total wreck on the rocks below cabinet rapids. he didn't know just how it had happened, but said we would find what was left of her still where she had struck. wenatchee is the liveliest kind of a town, and claims to be the largest apple-shipping point in the united states. it also has a daily paper which claims to be the largest in the world in a city of under ten thousand population. i can easily believe this is true. i have seen many papers in cities of fifty or a hundred thousand that were not to be compared with it for both telegraphic and local news. banks are on almost every corner for a half dozen blocks of the main street of wenatchee, and every one seems to have a bank account. i saw stacks of check-books by the cashiers' desks in restaurants and shops, and in one of the ice cream parlours i saw a young packette paying for her nut sundae with a check. no word came from captain mcdermid during the day, and after endeavouring to reach him by phone all of the following forenoon, i reluctantly decided to push on without him. this was a good deal of a disappointment, not only because i felt that i was going to need his help mighty badly, but also because i was anxious to see more of him personally. a man who will take a steamer containing his wife and children down rickey's rapids of the columbia isn't to be met with every day. roos was anxious to get a picture of the "farmer who would see the sea" working his way down rock island rapids, and as his machine was about the most valuable thing there was to lose in getting down there, it seemed up to me to do what i could. but for the first time since we pushed off to run the big bend, i unpacked and kept out my inflatable "gieve" life-preserver waistcoat, which i had worn in the north sea during the war, and which i had brought along on the "off chance." selig came down with his graflex to get a photo of our departure for the _world_, but declined an invitation for another run through rock island rapids. there is a long and lofty highway bridge spanning the columbia half a mile below wenatchee, which fine structure also appears to be used on occasion as a city dump. that it was functioning in this capacity at the very moment we were about to pass under it between the two mid-stream piers did not become apparent until the swift current had carried us so close that it was not safe to try to alter course either to left or right. there was nothing to do but run the gauntlet of the swervily swooping dust-tailed comets whose heads appeared to run the whole gamut of discard of a rather extravagant town of eight thousand people, all disdainful of "used" things. it would have been a rare chance to renew our outfit, only most of the contributions were speeding too rapidly at the end of their hundred-foot drop to make them entirely acceptable. "low bridge!" i shouted to roos, and swung hard onto my oars, yelling a lung-full at every stroke in the hope that the busy dumpers might stay their murderous hands at the last moment. vain hope! my final frightened upward glance told me that the nauseous cataclysm was augmenting rather than lessening. i put _imshallah_ into some mighty nasty looking rapids with a lot less apprehension than i drove her into that reeking second-hand barrage, that niagara of things that people didn't want. doubtless it was the fact that _i_ wanted the stuff still less than they did that lent power to my arms and gave me a strength far transcending that of ordinary endeavour. roos swore afterward that i lifted her right out of the water, just as a speeding hydroplane lifts at the top of its jump. this may have been so; but if it was, roos sensed it rather than saw it, for his humped shoulders were folded tightly over his ducked head, like the wings of a newly hatched chicken. anyhow, the little lady drove through safely, just as she always had. but where she had always emerged dewy-fresh and dancing jauntily on the tips of her toes from the roughest of rapids, here she oozed out upon an oil-slicked stream with the "mark of the beast" on her fore and aft. i mean that literally. that accursed little "white wings" that sat up aloft to take toll of the life of poor jack, must have had some kind of a slaughter-house dumping contract--and _imshallah_ got a smothering smear of the proceeds. also a trailing length of burlap and a bag of cinders. as the latter burst when it kissed off my shoulder, roos' joke about my wearing sack-cloth-and-ashes was not entirely without point. the only article of value accruing was the shaving-brush which fell in roos' lap. he felt sure it must have been thrown away by mistake, for it had real camel's-hair bristles, and he liked it better than his own--after the ashes had worked out of it. and yet it might have been a lot worse. i only _heard_ the splash of the wash-boiler that must have hit just ahead of her, but the sewing machine that grazed her stern jazzed right across my line of vision. up to that time surprise rapids of the big bend of canada had stood as the superlative in the way of a really nasty hole to go through; from then on "surprise rapids of wenatchee bridge" claimed pride of place in this respect. swabbing down decks as best we could without landing, we pushed ahead. i was anxious to get down to rock island rapids in time to look over the channels, if not to start through, before dark. we should have known better than to treat a dainty lady like _imshallah_ in that way. it was bad enough to have subjected her to the indignity of running the garbage barrage; not to give her a proper bath after it was unpardonable. at least that was the way she seemed to look at it, and so i never felt inclined to blame her for taking matters into her own hands. wallowing through a sharp bit of rapid a mile below the bridge washed the outside of her bright and clean as ever, but it was the stain of that slaughter-house stuff on the inside that rankled. she was restive and cranky in the swirls and eddies all down a long stretch of slack water running between black basalt islands, and as the river narrowed and began to tumble over a boisterous rapid above the great northern railway bridge, she began jumping about nervously, like a spirited horse watching his chance for a bolt. it was roos' business, of course, to watch where she was going, but he made no claim of being a qualified steersman; so that there was really no excuse for my failing to watch our capricious lady's symptoms and keep a steadying hand on her. probably i _should_ have done so had not a freight train run out on the bridge just as we neared the head of the rapid, throwing out so striking a smoke-smudge against a background of sun-silvered clouds that i needs must try for a hurried snapshot. that done, we were close to the "v" of the drop-off, and i had just time to see that there were three or four rather terrifying rollers tumbling right in the heart of the riffle, evidently thrown up by a jagged outcrop of bedrock very close to the surface. i would never have chanced putting even a big _batteau_ directly into so wild a welter, but, with fairly good water to the left, there was no need of our passing within ten feet of the centre of disturbance. the course was so plain that i do not recall even calling any warning to roos as i sat down and resumed my oars. each of us claimed the other was responsible for what followed, but i think the real truth of it was that _imshallah_ had made up her mind to have a bath without further delay, and couldn't have been stopped anyhow. i never did see just what hit us, nor how we were hit; for it all came with the suddenness of a sand-bagging. roos was stroking away confidently, and appeared to be singing, from the movement of his lips. the words, if any, were drowned in the roar. all at once his eyes became wild and he lashed out with a frenzied paddle-pull that was evidently intended to throw her head to the left. the next instant the crash came--sudden, shattering, savage. i remember distinctly wondering why roos' eyes were shifted apprehensively upward, like those of a man who fancies he is backing away from a bombing airplane. and i think i recall spray dashing two or three lengths astern of us, before the solid battering ram of the water hit me on the back, and roos in the face. and all _imshallah_ did was to stand straight up on her hind legs and let little demi-semi-quivers run up and down her back like a real lady exulting in the tickle of a shower-bath. then she lay down and let the river run over her; then reared up on her hind legs again. twice or thrice she repeated that routine, when, apparently satisfied that her ablutions were complete, she settled down and ran the rest of the rapid sedately and soberly, and, i am afraid, without much help from either oars or paddle. i have always thought roos was particularly happy in his description of how it looked for'ard just after that first big wave hit us. "the top of that comber was ten feet above your head," he said, "and it came curving over you just like the 'canopy' of a 'jack-in-the-pulpit.'" with _imshallah_ rather more than half full of water, and consequently not a lot more freeboard for the moment than a good thick plank, it was just as well that no more rapids appeared before we found a patch of bank flat enough to allow us to land and dump her. fresh as a daisy inside and out, she was as sweet and reasonable when we launched her again as any other lady of quality after she has had her own way. not far below the bridge we tied up near the supply-pipe of a railway pumping station on the left bank. with the black gorge of rock island rapids three-quarters of a mile below sending up an ominous growl, this appeared to be the proper place to stop and ask the way. the engineer of the pumping-station said that he knew very little about the big rapid, as he had only been on his present job for a week. he had only seen the left-hand channel, and, as an old sailor, he was dead certain no open boat ever launched could live to run the lower end of it. he said he thought the safest way would be to put the skiff on his push-car, run it down the tracks a couple of miles, and launch it below the worst of the rapids. i told him we might be very glad to do this as a last resort, but, as it would involve a lot of time and labour, i would like to look at the rapid first. he told us to make free of his bunk-house in case we spent the night there, and suggested we call in at a farm house a couple of hundred yards down the track and talk with an old man there, who would probably know all about the rapid. that proved to be a good tip. the farmer turned out to be an old-time stern-wheeler captain, who had navigated the upper columbia for many years in the early days. he was greatly interested in our trip, and said that we ought to have no great trouble with the rapids ahead, that is, as long as we didn't try to take undue liberties with them. the safest way to get through would be to land at the head of the big island that divided the channels and line right down the left side of it. it would be pretty hard work, but we ought not to get in wrong if we took our time. he was sorry he couldn't go down and look the place over with us, but it happened that his youngest daughter was being married that evening, and things were sort of crowding for the rest of the day. _that_ explained why the yard was full of flivvers, and the numerous dressed-up men lounging around the porches. we decided that the groom was the lad, with an aggressively fresh-shaven gill, who was being made the butt of a joke every time he sauntered up to a new group, and that the bride was the buxom miss having her chestnut hair combed at a window, with at least half a dozen other girls looking on. roos was very keen to have the wedding postponed to the following morning, and changed to an _al fresco_ affair which he could shoot with good light. with a little study, he said, he was sure he could work it into his "continuity." perhaps, for instance, the "farmer-who-would-see-the-sea" might start them off on their honeymoon by taking them a few miles down river in his boat. that would lend "heart interest and...." i throttled that scheme in the bud before my impetuous companion could broach it to the principals. i wasn't going to tempt the providence that had saved me whole from the wrath of jock o' windermere by taking a chance with any more "bride stuff." the black-walled gorge of rock island is one of the grimmest-looking holes on the columbia, and of all hours of the day sunset, when the deep shadows are banking thick above the roaring waters, is the least cheery time to pay it a visit. somewhat as at hell gate, the river splits upon a long, rocky island, the broader, shallower channel being to the right, and the narrower, deeper one to the left. the upper end of the right-hand channel was quiet and straight; indeed, it was the one i would have been prompted to take had not the old river captain at the farm-house inclined to the opinion that the lining on the other would be easier. the former had been the course symons had taken, and he mentioned that the lower end was very crooked and rocky. i decided, therefore, to brave the difficulties that i could see something of in advance rather than to blunder into those i knew not of. although the left channel began to speed up right from the head, i saw enough of it to be sure that we could run at least the upper two-thirds of it without much risk, and that there was then a good eddy from which to land on the side next to the railroad. this was the head of the main fall--an extremely rough cascade having a drop of ten feet in four hundred yards. down that we would have to line. i was quite in agreement with the pump-station man that no open boat would live in those wildly rolling waters. fearful of complications, i restrained roos from accepting an invitation to the wedding, and we turned in early for a good night's sleep at the pump-station bunk-house. the game old octogenarian had asked me especially to hail him from the river in the morning, so that he could go down and help us through the rapids. i should have been glad indeed of his advice in what i knew would be a mighty awkward operation, but had not the heart to disturb him when i saw there was no curl of smoke from the kitchen chimney when we drifted by at eight o'clock. the roar of fast and furious revelry had vied with the roar of the rapids pretty well all night, culminating with a crescendo leading up to the old shoe barrage at about daybreak. it didn't seem quite human to keep the old boy lining down river all morning after lining up against that big barrel of "sweet cider" all night.... (no, i hadn't missed that little detail; that was one of the reasons i had kept roos away). so we drifted on down toward the big noise alone. the pump-man promised he would come down to help as soon as his tank was filled, but that wouldn't be for an hour or more. rock island rapids are in a gorge within a gorge. the black water-scoured canyon with the foam-white river at the bottom of it is not over fifty feet deep in the sheer. back of high-water mark there is a narrow strip of bench on either side, above which rises a thousand feet or more of brown bluff. the eastern wall still cast its shadow on the river, but the reflection of the straw-yellow band of broadening light creeping down the western bluff filled the gorge with a diffused golden glow that threw every rock and riffle into sharp relief. it was a dozen times better to see by than the blinding brilliance of direct light, and, knowing just what to expect for the next quarter-mile, i ran confidently into the head of the rapid. early morning is the hour of confidence and optimism on the flowing road; evening the hour of doubt, indecision and apprehension. a submerged rock at the entrance to the left channel, which i had marked mentally from the high bank the night before as an obstacle to be avoided, proved rather harder to locate from water level; but roos spotted it in time to give it a comfortable berth in shooting by. then the abrupt black walls closed in, and we ran for three hundred yards in fast but not dangerous water. the current took us straight into the eddy i had picked for a landing place, and the skiff slid quietly into a gentle swirling loop of back-water, with nothing but a huge jutting rock intervening between that secure haven and the brink of the fall. so far all had gone exactly as planned. now we were to see how it looked for lining. roos set up on a shelf and cranked while i lined round the projecting rock, an operation which proved unexpectedly simple once it was started right. at my first attempt i failed to swing the boat out of the eddy, and as a consequence she was brought back against the rock and given rather a stiff bump. the next time i launched her higher up, and paying out plenty of scope, let her go right out into the main current and over the "intake" of the fall. it took brisk following up to keep the line from fouling, and after that was cleared i didn't have quite as much time as i needed to take in slack and brace myself for the coming jerk. the result was _imshallah_ got such a way on in her hundred feet of run that, like a _locoed_ broncho pulling up and galloping off with its picket-pin, she took me right along over and off the big rock and into the water below. to my great surprise, where i was expecting to go straight into the whirlpool one usually finds behind a projecting rock, i landed in water that was both slack and comparatively shallow. recovering quickly from my stumble, i braced against the easy current and checked the runaway with little trouble. roos, who had missed the last part of the action, wanted me to do that jump and stumble over again, but the ten foot flop down onto the not very deeply submerged boulders was a bit too much a shake-up to sustain for art's sake. now that it was too late to line back, i saw why it was the old captain had advised working down the side of the island. the left bank of the cascade (which latter was tumbling close beside me now), was all but sheer. only here and there were there footings close to the water, so that the man with the line would have to make his way for the most part along the top of the rocky wall. _he_ could get along all right, but there was no place where a man could follow the boat and keep it off with a pole. it might have been managed with a man poling-off from the boat itself, but i hardly felt like urging roos to take the chance. it was out of the question trying to line back up the "intake" of the fall, but there _was_ one loop-hole which looked worth exploring before risking an almost certain mess-up in trying to work down the side of the cascade. i have mentioned that i had expected to find a whirlpool under the big jutting rock. the only reason there wasn't one was because what at high water must have been a very considerable back channel took out at this point and acted as a sort of safety-valve. there was still a stream a few inches deep flowing out here, running off to the left into a dark cavernous-looking crack in the bedrock. that water had to come back to the river somewhere below, and there was just a chance that the boat could be squeezed through the same way. at any rate, there was not enough of a weight of water to do any harm, and it ought not to be hard to "back up" in the event it proved impossible to push on through. leaving roos to set up and shoot a particularly villainous whirlpool he had discovered, i dragged the skiff through the shallow opening and launched it into a deep black pool beyond. poling from pool to pool, i entered a miniature gorge where i was presently so walled in by the rock that the raw roar of the cascade was muffled to a heavy, earth-shaking rumble. this tiny canyonette opened up at the end of a hundred yards to a sheer-walled rock-bound pool, evidently scoured out by the action of a high-water whirlpool. this turned out to be an enormous "pot-hole," for i had to avoid the water-spun boulder, which had been the tool of the sculpturing river god, in pushing into the outlet crack. the latter was so narrow and overhanging that i had to lie down and work the skiff along with my up-raised hands. twenty yards of that brought me out to a winding little lake, less steeply walled than the gorge above, but apparently closed all the way round, even at the lower end. i was in a complete _cul de sac_. a gurgling whirlpool showed where the water escaped by a subterranean passage, but that was plainly no place to take a lady, especially a lady of quality like _imshallah_. tying _imshallah_ up to a boulder to prevent her amiable weakness for rushing to the embraces of whirlpools getting the better of her, i climbed up a steeply-sloping pitch of bedrock and looked down to the head of a long narrow arm of quiet water. the gay little waterfall breaking forth from the rock beneath my feet was leaping directly into the main stream of the columbia--and below the cascade. a stiff thirty or forty-foot portage, and we were through. we might have to wait for the pump-man to help us lift the boat up that first pitch, but he ought to be along almost any time now. taking a short-cut back across the water-washed rock, i found roos just completing his shots of the cascade. the sun was on the latter now, and its dazzling whiteness threw it into striking relief against the sinister walls between which it tumbled. save the first two falls of surprise rapids, there is not a savager rush of water on the upper columbia than this final three hundred yards of the left-hand channel of rock island. roos was delighted with the way it showed up in his finder, and even more pleased when he learned that we were not going to have to line the boat down it. then he had one of his confounded inspirations. that portage over the reef of bedrock, with the little waterfall in the background, would photograph like a million dollars, he declared; but to get the full effect of it, and to preserve "continuity," the "farmer" ought to do it alone. it wouldn't do to include the pump-man in the picture, now that the "farmer" was supposed to be travelling alone. if i _had_ to have his help, all right; only it wouldn't do to shoot while the other man was in the picture. but it _would_ really be the "cat's ears" if the "farmer" could make it on his own. he wouldn't have to make that big pull-up without stopping; he could jerk the boat along a foot or two at a time, and then get his breath like the pursued villain did in the processional finales of knockabout comedies. then he showed me how, by resuming the same grip on the boat and the same facial expression at each renewed attack, the action could be made to appear practically continuous. well, i fell for it. tom sawyer was not more adroit in getting out of white-washing his fence than was roos in getting out of that portage job. he wanted to preserve "continuity" by starting back at the head of the cascade, but we compromised by making it the "pot-hole." emerging to the lakelet, i registered "extreme dejection" at finding my progress blocked, and "dull gloom" as i landed and climbed up for a look-see. but when i reached the top of the reef and discovered the quiet water below, like sunlight breaking through a cloud, i assumed as nearly as i knew how an exact imitation of an expression i had seen on the face of balboa in a picture called "first sight of the pacific." "that's the 'cat's ears,'" encouraged roos; "now snake the boat over--and make it snappy!" i made it snappy, all right; but it was my spine that did most of the snapping. and it wasn't a foot at a time that i snaked the boat over. (roos had been too optimistic on that score); it was by inches. roos took infinite pains in coaching me as to "resuming grip and expression;" but even so, i am afraid the finished film will display considerable jerkiness in its "continuous action." i gained some solace by calling roos names all the time, and so must again beg "lip-readers" who see the picture to consider the provocation and not judge too harshly. once tilted over the crest of the reef, the boat took more holding than hauling. being pretty well gone in the back and knees, she got away from me and slid the last ten feet, giving her bottom a bumping that it never did entirely recover from. i was caulking incipient leaks all the way to portland as a consequence of that confounded "one man" portage. just as we had loaded up and were ready to push off, the pump-man breezed along and asked us to give him a passage as far as columbia river station, two or three miles below. he wanted to take an oar, but as the distance was short and the current swift, i told him it was not worth bothering with. so he laid the oar he had taken out along the starboard gunwale, and knelt just aft the after thwart, facing forward. roos always claimed that it was the loom of the pump-man's back cutting off his view ahead that was responsible for the little diversion that followed. a good part of the blame was doubtless my own for not keeping a sharper watch over my shoulder, as i certainly should have done had i been alone. in any event, _imshallah's alibi_ was complete. she behaved through it all like a real thoroughbred. there was a sinuous tangle of swirls where the right-hand and left-hand cascades flew at each other's throats at the lower end of the rock island, and then a gay stretch of sun-dazzled froth where the teeth of a long reef menaced all the way across the channel; then a stretch of lazily-coiling green-black water, flowing between lofty brown cliffs and broken here and there with the loom of house-like rocks of shattered basalt. the roar of rock island died down in muffled _diminuendo_, and it seemed mighty good to have that diapason muttering in bafflement astern rather than growling in anticipation ahead. there was only one little rapid between here and the siding, the pump-man said, and it wouldn't bother us much as there was plenty of room to get by. he was right--for the most part. i took a good look at the riffle as we headed down to it. it was a short stretch of rough, noisy water, but nothing that would have had to be avoided except for a single big roller in the middle of it. as this was throwing a great dash of spray high in the air every now and then, i felt sure the rock responsible for it was very slightly submerged--perhaps not more than a few inches. as this was so obviously an obstacle to steer well clear of, it never occurred to me to give roos any especial warning about it, especially as he continued standing and sizing up the situation for half a minute after i had resumed my oars. the main current ran straight across the riffle, but with fifty feet of clear water to the left there was no need of getting into any of the worst of it, let alone trying to hurdle that foam-throwing rock. leaning hard on my oars, i had good steerage-way on the skiff by the time she dipped over into the fast-running water. roos was cuffing jauntily at the wave crests, and singing. because of the sequel, i remember particularly it was "dardanella" that was claiming his attention. two or three times he had maintained that he was a "lucky fella" before i saw what seemed to me to be mingled dissent and perturbation gathering in the pump-man's steel-grey eyes. then, all of a sudden, he gave vocal expression to his doubts. "you won't think you're a 'lucky fella' if you put her onta that rock," he yelled over his shoulder. turning at the finish of my stroke, i saw that big spray-flipping comber about two lengths away, and _dead ahead_, looking savager than ever. trailing my right oar, i pulled every ounce i could bring to bear upon my left, trying to throw her head toward the better water. the next instant i was all but falling over backwards as the oar snapped cleanly off in the oar-lock. i recall perfectly the gleam of the long copper nails which had weakened it, and the fresh fracture of the broken spruce. the weight i put onto my right oar in saving myself from tumbling backward had the effect of throwing her head in just the opposite direction i had intended. since she could hardly have avoided hitting the big roller anyhow, once she was so near, it is probably better that she hit it squarely than sidling. the crash was solid, almost shattering in its intensity, and yet i am not sure that she hit the rock at all. if she did, it was a glancing blow, for she could not possibly have survived anything heavier. the pump-man, true to his sailor instincts, kept his head perfectly in the face of the deluge that had engulfed him. the spare oar was lying ready to hand, and he had it waiting for me in the oar-lock by the time i was on an even keel again. the second wave, which she rode on her own, threw _imshallah's_ head off a bit, but by the time she was rising to the third i was helping her again with the oars. seeing how well she was taking it, i did not try to pull out of the riffle now, but let her run right down through it to the end. only the first wave put much green water into her, but even that had not filled her anywhere nearly so deep as she had been the evening before. when we beached her below columbia river station we found her starboard bow heavily dented, but even that did not convince me that we had hit the big rock. i am rather inclined to think that denting was done when i did my lone-hand portage at rock island. i was dead sorry i couldn't persuade that pump-man to throw up his job and come along with us. he had the real stuff in him. [illustration: the picture that cost me a wetting (_above_)] [illustration: the wreck of the "douglas" (_below_)] [illustration: we cooked our breakfast in the galley of the wreck of the "douglas"] [illustration: a rocky cliff above beverly] after having lunch in the railway men's eating house at columbia river, we went down to push off again. finding the local ferry-man examining the skiff, i asked him if he thought she would do to run cabinet rapids, which we could hear rumbling a mile below. "not if you try to push them out of the river the way you did that riffle above here a while ago," he replied with a grin. he said he had been watching us through his glass, and that the boat had disappeared from sight for three or four seconds when she hit the big roller. he offered to bet his ferry-boat against the skiff that we couldn't do it again and come through right-side-up. no takers. speaking seriously, he said that, by keeping well to the left, we could run cabinet all right--if nothing went wrong. "but better not make a practice of breaking an oar just where you're going to need it most," he added with another grin; "there's nothing on the river that would live through the big riffle over against the right bank. you'll see what she did to the _douglas_." landing from the slack water above a rocky point which juts out into the river at the head of cabinet rapids, we climbed a couple of hundred yards over water-scoured boulders to the brink of the gorge. it was a decidedly rough-looking rapid, but by no means so hopeless for running with a small boat as rock island. in that the main riffle was thrown against a sheer bank of the river, it reminded me a good deal of death rapids on the big bend. but this riffle, while appearing fully as rough as that of the dreaded _dalles des morts_, was not, like the latter, unavoidable. the chance of passing it in only fairly broken water to the left looked quite good enough to try. the wreck of the _douglas_, standing out white and stark against the black boulders a mile below, was a good warning against taking any unnecessary chances. i looked well to the oars and the trim of the boat before shoving off. once out into the river, i could see that the rapid was white from bank to bank, but still nothing that ought to trouble us seriously. i stood for a minute or two looking ahead from the vantage of one of the thwarts, and it was just as i was taking up my oars again in the quickening current that the corner of my eye glimpsed the narrow opening of a deep back-channel winding off between splintered walls of columnar basalt to the left. i wasn't looking for any more one-man portages, but this opening looked good enough to explore. it might lead through by an easy way, and there was hardly enough water to do much harm if it didn't. it took hard pulling to sheer off from the "intake" now we had drifted so close, but we finally made it and entered the dark back-channel. narrowing and broadening, just as the other had done, it led on for a couple of hundred yards, finally to discharge over a six-foot fall into a deeply indented pool that opened out to the river about half way down the rapid. the wedge-shaped crack at the head of the little fall was narrower than the skiff at water-line, but by dint of a little lifting and tugging we worked her through and lowered her into the pool below. pulling out through the opening, we headed her confidently into the current. there was a quarter-mile of white water yet, but we were far enough down now so that the loss of an oar or any other mishap wouldn't leave the skiff to run into those wallowing rollers over against the further cliff. a sharp, slashing run carried us through to the foot of cabinet rapids, and a few minutes later we had hauled up into an eddy under the left bank opposite the wreck of the _douglas_. the little stern-wheeler had come to grief at high-water, so that we had to clamber all of three hundred yards over big, smooth, round boulders to reach the point where the wreck was lying. the latter was by no means in so bad a shape as i had expected to find it. the principal damage appeared to have been done to the wheel, which was clamped down tight over a huge boulder, and to the starboard bow, which was stove in. the rest of her hull and her upper works were intact; also the engines, though terribly rusty. there was not much from which one could reconstruct the story of the disaster; in fact, i have not learned to this day any authentic details. the chances are, however, that the wheel struck a rock somewhere in cabinet rapids, and, after that, drifting out of control, she had come in for the rest of the mauling. if her captain is like the rest of the columbia river skippers i met, i have no doubt that she will be patched up again before next high-water and started off for portland. with towering cliffs on both sides and the great black boulders scattered all around, roos felt that both subject and setting were highly favourable for an effective movie, and started to think out a way to work the wreck of the _douglas_ into his "continuity." after some minutes of brown study, he declared that the best way to work it would be for the "farmer" to land, come clambering across the boulders registering "puzzled wonderment," and then to stand in silent contemplation of the wreck, registering "thankfulness." "thankfulness for what?" i demanded; "it doesn't strike me as christian to gloat over the wreck of a ship." "you don't get me at all," he expostulated. "i don't mean for him to show thankfulness because of the wreck of the steamer, but because his own boat has so far escaped a similar fate. he just stands here with his arms folded, casts his eyes upward, moves his lips as if...." "nothing doing," i cut in decisively. "if you'd been raising beans and hay and apricots as long as i have, you'd know that a farmer never registers thankfulness about anything but a rise in the market, and there ain't no such thing any more." while we were arguing that moot point, the sun dipped behind the loftily looming wall of brown-black cliff across the river and the trouble settled itself automatically. because there was no longer light, roos thought it would be a good stunt to camp where we were until morning, and as a camp was always "continuity"--there we were! there was plenty of cordwood left, and the galley stove was in good condition. as we had no candles, dinner was cooked by the mingled red and green gleams of the port and starboard lights, transferred to the galley for that purpose. i slept in the cook's cabin and roos--with his bed made up on the wire springs from the captain's cabin--on the deck of the galley. with water freezing half an inch thick in the coffee-pot on the galley stove, we had an insufferably cold night of it--one of the worst we spent on the river. in the morning roos made his "camp shots," which consisted principally of the farmer chopping cordwood on the main deck, building a fire in the galley stove and cooking breakfast. out of deference to my esoteric knowledge of the way farmers feel about things, he consented to omit the "thankfulness stuff." shoving off into a steady six-mile current at nine-thirty, a few minutes brought us in sight of a striking basaltic island, which symons had characterized as "one of the most perfect profile rocks in existence." "approaching it from the north," he wrote, "it presents a striking likeness to the profile of queen victoria.... coming nearer to it and passing it on the west, the profile changes and merges into a more grecian and sphinx-like face, whose placid immobility takes one's mind involuntarily to far-off egypt. it rises from the surface of the water about a hundred feet, and a pair of eagles have selected it as their home, and upon its extreme top have built a nest, giving, as it were, a crown to this goddess of the columbia." roos declared himself strong for that "sphinx stuff," and had his camera set up in the bow ready for a close-up of every change of expression. he was doomed to disappointment. the first thing we discovered missing was the crowning eagles' nest, and then victoria's nose, mouth and chin. her brow and hair were there, but both considerably eroded and inroad-ed by the weather. the "grecian-and-sphinx-like face" we never did locate, although i pulled around the island twice in search of them. roos declared her an "oil can," and packed up his camera in supreme disgust. that was, i believe, the last time he had it set up on the columbia. as lieutenant symons had proved so invariably accurate in all of his topographical descriptions, i am strongly inclined to the belief that floods and the elements had conspired to wreak much havoc with "victoria's" features in the forty years that had elapsed since he limned them so strikingly with pen and pencil. i have known fairly stonily-featured ladies to change almost as much in a good deal less than forty years. cabinet rapids is the beginning of a somewhat irregular series of columnar basaltic cliffs which wall in the columbia closely for the next thirty miles. they range in height from fifteen hundred to three thousand feet, and in colour from a rich blend of saffron-cinnamon, through all the shades of brown, to a dull black. the prevailing formation is that of upended cordwood, but there are endless weird stratifications and lamiations, with here and there queer nuclei that suggest sulphur crystallizations. imbedded in the face of one of these cliffs not far from the tumultuous run of gualquil rapids, is a landmark that has been famous among columbia _voyageurs_ for over a hundred years. this is huge log, barkless and weather-whitened, standing on end in the native basalt. over a thousand feet above the river and almost an equal distance from the brink of the sheer wall of rock, there is no possible question of its having been set there by man. the descriptions written of it a hundred years ago might have been written to-day. whether it is petrified or not, there is no way of knowing. the only possible explanation of its presence is that it was lodged where it is at a time when the columbia flowed a thousand feet higher than it does to-day, probably before it tore its great gorge through the cascades and much of what is now eastern washington was a vast lake. on the suggestion of the ferry-man at trinidad, we avoided the upper half of gualquil rapids by taking a straight, narrow channel to the right, which would probably have been dry in another week. there is a half mile of fast, white water here, ending with some heavy swirls against a sheer cliff, but nothing seriously to menace any well-handled open boat. the water was slack for a number of miles from the foot of gualquil, but began quickening where the river spread out between long gravel bars below vantage ferry. they were shunting sheep across at the latter point, and the portuguese herders crowded eagerly round our boat, making strange "high signs" and voicing cryptic utterances, evidently having something to do with a local bootleggers' code. at our failure to respond in kind, they became suspicious (doubtless the fact that roos was wearing a second-hand canadian officer's uniform he had bought in revelstoke had something to do with it) that we were prohibition enforcement officials, and they were muttering darkly to each other and shaking their heads as we pushed off again. the cliffs ran out not long after we left vantage ferry, and as we neared the chicago, milwaukee and st. paul bridge at beverly rough patches of sandy desert began opening up on either side. deprived of the shelter of the high river walls, we were at once exposed to a heavy easterly wind that had evidently been blowing all day on the desert. the sun dulled to a luminous blur behind the pall of the sand-filled air, and the wind, which headed us every now and then, about neutralized the impulse of the accelerating current. there was a forty-miles-an-hour sand-storm blowing when we beached the boat under the railway bridge at four-thirty. the brilliantly golden-yellow cars of the c. m. & st. p. limited rumbling across above behind their electric locomotive seemed strangely out-of-place in the desolate landscape. the one sidewalk of the town's fragment of street was ankle-deep in sand as we buffetted our way to the hotel. "have you ever been in beverly before?" asked the sandy-haired (literally) girl who responded to the jangle of the cowbell on the counter. "but i should know better than that," she apologized with a blush as she blew off the grit on the register; "'cause if you had been here once, you'd sure never be here again. what's the game, anyhow? you haven't...?" a knowing twitch of a dusty eyelash finished the question. "no, we haven't," growled roos irritably. somehow he was never able to extract half the amusement that i did over being taken for a boot-legger. it was the sand-storm that broke roos' heart, i think. he was non-committal at supper that night when i started to talk about priest rapids, and the next morning, after describing his shave as like rubbing his face with a brick, he announced that he was through with the columbia for good. as there was a good deal to be said for his contention that, between the shortening days and the high cliffs walling in the river, there were only two or three hours of good shooting light even when the sun was out, i did not feel justified in urging him to go on unless he wanted to. in any event, light for filming the running and lining of priest rapids, now that the sand-storm was at its height, was out of the question for a day or two at least. and below priest rapids there would be nothing worth filming until the mouth of the snake was passed. i suggested, therefore, that he should go on to pasco by train and await me there, finding out in the meantime by wire whether chester cared to have him continue the "farmer" picture in the face of the adverse light conditions. by this time i had fairly complete data on priest rapids. these, beginning at the end of a stretch of slack water several miles below beverly, continue for eleven miles. in this distance there are seven major riffles, with considerable intervals of fairly quiet water between. it seemed probable that all of these, with the exception of the second and seventh, and possibly the sixth, could be run. the lining of the others, while not difficult, would require the help of another man. all that morning i inhaled sand as i went over beverly with a fine-toothed comb in a very earnest effort to find some one willing to give me a hand through priest rapids. the nearest i came to success was an ex-brakeman, who said he would go with me after the storm was over, provided a job hadn't turned up in the meantime. the only real river-man i found was an old chap who opined that the middle of november was too late in the year to be getting his feet--if nothing else--wet in the "columby." he offered to haul the boat to the foot of the rapids by the road for twenty dollars, but as the down-river branch of the milwaukee presented an opportunity to accomplish the same end in less time and discomfort, i decided to portage by the latter. as there was an auto-stage service from hanford to pasco, roos accompanied me to the former point by train, and helped get the boat down to the river and into the water in the morning. hanford was not the point on the line closest to the foot of priest rapids, but i took the boat through to there because the station was nearer the river than at white bluffs, and launching, therefore, a simpler matter. the stretch of seventy miles between the foot of priest rapids and the mouth of the snake has the slowest current of any part of the columbia above the dalles. mindful of the time we had been losing by stops for lunch, i now began putting into practice a plan which i followed right on to the end of my voyage. taking a package of biscuit and a couple of bars of milk chocolate in my pocket, i kept the river right straight on through to my destination. munching and resting for an hour at noon, i at least had the benefit of the current for this period. eating a much lighter lunch, i also gained the advantage of no longer being troubled with that comfortable _siesta_-time drowsiness that inevitably follows a hearty meal and disinclines one strongly to heavy exertion for an hour or more. for a dozen miles or more below hanford the river, flanked on either side by rolling desert sand-dunes, winds in broad shallow reaches through a region desolate in the extreme. the only signs of life i saw for many miles were coyotes slinking through the hungry sage-brush and occasional flocks of geese, the latter forerunners of the countless myriads that were to keep me company below the snake. at richfield the results of irrigation became evident in young apple orchards and green fields of alfalfa, and these multiplied all the way down to pasco. the country seemed very flat and monotonous after so many weeks among cliffs and mountains, but there was no question of its richness and productivity once water was brought to it. the low overflow flats about the mouth of the yakima, which flows into the columbia from the west a few miles above pasco, gave little indication of the beauty of the famous apple country which owes so much to the waters diverted from that little river. after pulling for an hour with the long northern pacific bridge in view, i landed just below the pasco-kennewick ferry at three o'clock. as i was beaching the boat and getting out the luggage to leave in the ferry-man's house-boat, a hail from the river attracted my attention. it was from roos, in the front seat of an auto, on the approaching ferry-boat. his stage had been behind time in leaving hanford, and as a consequence i had beaten him to the pasco landing by ten minutes. after the speed with which we had moved on the upper river, however, mine had been rather a slow run. in spite of my steady pulling, it had taken me just under six hours to do the thirty-five miles. after the exchange of a wire or two, roos obtained permission from chester to suspend the "farmer" picture, and was ordered on to new york to report. we were both a good deal disappointed not to have a pictorial record of the "farmer" actually seeing the sea; in fact, we did some hours of "location" scouting in the hope of finding a substitute pacific in the vicinity of pasco. if that beverly sand-storm had only made itself felt seventy-five miles farther down river i honestly believe we would have accomplished our worthy end. there was a pretty bit of white beach below the n. p. bridge. _if_ the sand had been blowing thick enough to obscure the farther shore, and _if_ the wind had blown in the right direction to throw up a line or two of surf, i could have stood with one foot on that beach, the other on _imshallah's_ bow, elbow on knee, chin in hand, and registered "fulfilment," and none could have told it from the real pacific. indeed, that bit of backwash from pasco's outfall sewer, with the sand-barrage and surf i have postulated, would have "shot" _more_ like the pacific than many spots i can think of looking off to the columbia bar. chapter xiii pasco to the dalles the only lone-hand river voyage i had ever taken previous to the one on which i was about to embark was down the lower colorado river, from needles to the head of the gulf of california. this had been in comparatively quiet water all the way, with nothing much to look out for save the tidal bore at the lower end. as i had never been above the dalles on the lower columbia, i had very little idea of what i would encounter in the way of rapids. i knew that there were locks by which the dalles and cascades could be passed, but as the combined fall at these points accounted for only about a quarter of that between the snake and tide-water, it was certain there must still be some very swift rapids to run. that there had at times been a steamer service maintained from the snake down meant that there must be some sort of a rock-free channel through all of the riffles; but it did not necessarily mean that these were runnable in a small boat. a properly handled stern-wheeler can be drifted down and (by means of line and capstan) hauled up rapids where not even a high-powered launch can live. i had a list of about a score of the principal rapids between the snake and celilo falls, with their distances from the canadian boundary by river. this would enable me to know approximately _where_ i was going to find them. that was all. information on fall, channel and the best means of running them i would have to pick up as i went along. i shoved off from pasco ferry at nine o'clock in the morning of sunday, november fourteenth. with roos and his blanket-roll, camera and tripod out of the stern, i found that the skiff trimmed better when i rowed from the after thwart. she pulled easier and handled a lot more smartly now. it was evident, however, that her increased freeboard was going to make her harder to hold to her course with head winds, but these i hoped to have little trouble with until i reached the gorge of the cascades. the ferry-man assured me that i would encounter no really bad water until i came to the last pitch of umatilla rapids, about thirty-five miles below. he advised me to take a good look at that before putting into it, as an unbroken reef ran almost directly across the current and the channel was not easy to locate. it was the most troublesome bar to navigation on the lower columbia, and steamers were repeatedly getting in trouble there. i would see the latest wreck a couple of miles below the foot of the rapids. i passed the mouth of the snake about three miles below the ferry. here was no such spectacular meeting of waters as occurs when the pend d'oreille and columbia spring together, for the country is low and level, and the mouth of the snake broad and shallow. the discharge was through two channels, and the water greenish-grey in colour; but where that blend in the swift tributaries of the upper river suggests the intense coldness of glacial origin, here the picture conjured up was of desert and alkali plains. its mouth is the least interesting part of the snake. it has some magnificent canyons in its upper and middle waters--as have also its two fine tributaries, the salmon and clearwater,--and its shoshone falls are second only to niagara on the north american continent. lieutenant symons, who concluded his exploration of the upper columbia at the snake, characterizes the region as a "bleak, dreary waste, in which for many miles around sage-brush and sand predominate ... one of the most abominable places in the country to live in." alexander ross, on the other hand, writing seventy years earlier, describes it as one of the loveliest lands imaginable. the fact that the one reached the snake in the fall and the other in the spring may have had something to do with these diametrically opposed impressions. irrigation and cultivation have gone far to redeem this land from the desert symons found it, but it is still far from being quite the paradise ross seemed to think it was. as the only considerable plain touching the columbia at any point in its course, this region of the snake can never make the scenic appeal of the hundreds of miles of cliff-walled gorges above and below; but it is a land of great potential richness. with water and power available from the two greatest rivers of the west, there can be no question of its future, both agriculturally and industrially. pasco will yet more than fulfil the promises made for that mushroom town in its early boom days. "keep your eye on pasco!" was a byword from one end of the country to the other in the nineties, and this hustling rail and agricultural centre at the junction of the columbia and the snake should not be lost sight of even to-day. the lighter-hued water of the snake was pretty well churned into the flood of the columbia at the end of a mile, leaving a faint suggestion of cloudiness in the transparent green that the latter had preserved all the way from the arrow lakes. the long bridge of the spokane, portland and seattle railway spanned the columbia just below the snake, and from there on paralleled the river closely right down to the willamette. after the oregon-washington railway and navigation company tracks appeared on the south bank below the walla walla, it was only at rare intervals that i was out of sight of a grade, or out of sound of a train, for the remainder of my voyage. in a day or two the trainmen, running back and forth between divisional points, came to recognize the bright green skiff plugging on down the dark green river (mighty small she must have looked to them from the banks) and never failed to give her a hail or a wave in passing. on a certain memorable occasion one of them (doubtless in direct defiance of rules) ventured even further in the way of a warning ... but i will tell of that in its place. homley rapids, seven miles below pasco ferry, are formed by a rough reef of bedrock running half way across the river from the right bank. approached from the right side of the long gravel island that divides the river just above them, one might get badly tangled up before he got through; by the left-hand channel the going is easy if one keeps an eye on the shallowing water at the bars. a sky-line of brown mountains, with a double-turreted butte as their most conspicuous feature, marks the point where the columbia finally turns west for its assault on the cascades and its plunge to the pacific. that bend is the boundary of the fertile plains extending from the yakima to the walla walla, and the beginning of a new series of gorges, in some respects the grandest of all. the matchless panorama of the cascade gorges is a fitting finale to the stupendous scenic pageant that has been staged all the way from the glacial sources of the columbia. a low sandy beach just above the mouth of the rather insignificant walla walla comes pretty near to being the most historically important point on the columbia. here lewis and clark first came to the waters of the long-struggled-toward oregon; here came frémont, the "pathfinder;" here thompson planted his pious proclamation claiming all of the valley of the columbia for the northwest company; and by here, sooner or later, passed and repassed practically every one of the trappers, missionaries, settlers and other pioneers who were finally to bring oregon permanently under the stars and stripes. the double-topped butte, an outstanding landmark for _voyageurs_ for a hundred years, has long been called "the two virgins." the story is told locally of a catholic priest who saved his life by taking refuge in a cave between the castellated turrets during an indian massacre, but who got in rather serious trouble with the church afterwards as a consequence of sending words of his deliverance by a french-canadian half-breed _voyageur_. the latter got the salient details of the story straight, but neglected to explain that the two virgins were mountains. the result was that the unlucky priest narrowly missed excommunication for saving his life at the expense of breaking his vows. i got no affidavit with the story; but local "stock" yarns are always worth preserving on account of their colour. there were a number of big black rocks where the river began its bend to the west, but the channel to the right was not hard to follow. neither did bull run rapids, a few miles farther down, offer any difficulties. i followed the steamer channel as having the swiftest current, but could have passed without trouble on either side of it in much quieter water. brown and terra-cotta-tinged cliffs reared higher and higher to left and right, encroaching closely on the river. there was little room for cultivation at any point, and often the railways had had to resort to heavy cutting and tunnelling to find a way through some jutting rock buttress. there were no trees, and the general aspect of the country was desolate in the extreme. it was toward the end of a grey afternoon that i headed _imshallah_ into the first pitch of umatilla rapids. the sun had dissolved into a slowly thickening mist about three o'clock, and from then on the whole landscape had been gradually neutralizing itself by taking on shade after shade of dull, inconspicuous grey. from the grey-white mistiness of the sky to the grey-green murkiness of the river there was nothing that contrasted with anything else; every object was blended, dissolved, all but quenched. the foam-ruffles above even the sharpest of the riffles blurred like the streaking of clouded marble at a hundred feet, and it took the livest kind of a lookout to avoid the ones with teeth in them. neither the first nor the second riffle had any very bad water, but my neck was stiff from watching over my shoulder even as they were. i had rather intended avoiding this trouble by drifting down anything that looked very threatening stern first, but that would have involved retrimming the boat and greatly reducing her speed. if i was going to make umatilla by dark, there was no time to lose. from the head of the first riffle of umatilla rapids to the head of the third or main one is a mile and a half. there was a slight up-river breeze blowing in the mist, and the heavy rumble of the big fall came to my ears some distance above the opening riffle. the distant roar augmented steadily after that, and the sharper grind of the more imminent riffles was never loud enough to drown it out entirely. the fact that it had a certain "all pervasive" quality, seeming to fill the whole of the gorge with its heavy beat, told me that it was an unusually long rapid, as well as an unusually rough one. that, it seemed, was about all i was going to be able to find out. no one was in sight on the left bank, which i was skirting, and the right bank was masked with mist. with none to seek information from, and with not enough light to see for myself, the alternatives were very simple: i could either land, line as far as i could while light lasted and then seek umatilla on foot for the night, or i could take my chance at running through. it was the delay and uncertainty sure to be attendant upon lining that was the principal factor in deciding me to try the latter course. also, i knew that there was an open channel all the way through, and that the rapid was a comparatively broad and shallow one, rather than constricted and deep. this meant that it would be straight white water--a succession of broken waves--i was going into, rather than heavy swirls and whirlpools; just the water in which the skiff had already proved she was at her best. these points seemed to minimize the risk of going wrong to a point where the chance of running was worth taking for the time and trouble it would save. if i had not known these things in advance, i should never, of course, have risked going into so strong a rapid under such conditions of light. i shall always have a very grateful feeling toward that pasco ferry-man for those few words he dropped about the run of the reef and the set of the current at umatilla rapid. this is one of the few great rapids i have ever known on any river where the main drift of the current will not carry a boat to the deepest channel. this is due to the fact that the great reef of native rock which causes the rapid is sufficiently submerged even at middle water to permit a considerable flow directly across it. the consequence of this is that a boat, large or small, which follows the current and does not start soon enough working over toward the point where a channel has been blasted through the reef, is almost certain to be carried directly upon the latter. this has happened to a good many steamers, the latest having been wrecked not long before my voyage. with a rough idea of the lay of things in my mind, i had edged a good deal farther out across the current than would have been the case had i been trusting to my own judgment of the way the rapid _ought_ to develop in the light of my past experience. the smooth but swiftly-flowing water to the left looked almost empty of threat, and it was not until i was within a hundred feet of the barrier that i saw it was flowing directly over the latter and went tumbling down the farther side in an almost straight fall. at the same instant i saw that i was still heading forty or fifty feet to the left of where the "intake" dipped through the break in the reef. realizing that i could never make it by heading straight, i swung the skiff round and pulled quartering to the current with her head up-stream. even then it was a nearer squeak than i like to think of. i missed the middle of the "v" by ten feet as i swung her head down-stream again, and as the racing current carried her up against the back-wave thrown off the end of the break in the reef she heeled heavily to starboard, like an auto turning on a steeply-banked track. then she shot out into the big white combers in mid-channel and started slap-banging down through them. it looked beastly rough ahead, but in any event it was better than hanging up on the reef at the outset. we were going to have a run for our money whatever happened. the only precautions there had been time to take were slipping into my "gieve" and throwing all my luggage aft. half-inflated, the rubber-lined jacket was no handicap in rowing, and the tube hung ready to receive more air if necessity arose. as for the trim, it had been my snap judgment at the last moment that it would be better to give the skiff her head in the rollers that i _knew_ were coming, and let her take her chance in being down by the stern in whirlpools that might never materialize. i still think that was the best thing to have done under the circumstances. not until i was right down into that wild wallow of rock-churned foam was there a chance to get an idea of the rather remarkable bedrock formation which is responsible for making umatilla rapids the worrisome problem they have always been for river skippers. after piercing the black basaltic barrier of the reef, the channel shoots to the left and runs for a quarter of a mile or more (i was too busy to judge distances accurately) right along the foot of it. with a considerable stream of water cascading over the reef at almost right angles to the channel, a queer sort of side-kick is thrown into the waves of the latter which make it one of the most "unrhythmic" rapids i ever ran. _imshallah_ pounded horribly, but gave not the savagest of the twisting combers a chance to put anything solid over her high held head. my erratic pecking strokes did not find green water often enough to give her much way over the current, but she responded instantly every time i dug deep to throw her head back after she had been buffeted sideways by an arrogant ruffian of a roller. as soon as i saw the way she was riding the roughest of the water, i realized that the only chance of a bad mess-up would come through my failure to keep her head to the enemy. knowing this wasn't likely to happen unless i broke an oar, i eased a bit on my pulling and gave just a quick short-arm jerk now and then to hold her steady. she was never near to broaching-to, and i'm mighty glad she wasn't. umatilla is the sort of a rapid that hasn't quite the teeth to get the best of a carefully handled boat that is running in good luck, but which has the power, with a mile to spare, to grind to match-wood any craft that gets into trouble on its own account. it was an eerie run that--with the snarling cascade of the reef on one side, the ghostly dance of the rollers on the other, and the impenetrable grey curtain of the mist blanking everything beyond a radius of a hundred feet; but _imshallah_ went through it with her head in the air and came waltzing out into the swirls below as cocky as a partridge. indeed, that was just the trouble. the pair of us were just a bit _too_ cocky over the way we had gone it blind and come through so smartly. it remained for a couple of lesser rapids to reduce both of us to a proper humility of spirit. i had been prepared to make a quick shift to the forward thwart in case there was a bad run of whirlpools following the rapid, and so bring her up by the stern. this did not prove necessary, however, as the rapidly broadening river was too shallow for dangerous under-currents. a short run in slackening water brought me to the town of umatilla just as the lights were beginning to twinkle in the windows. landing in the quiet water below a short stone jetty, i left my stuff in a nearby shack and sought the hotel. the pool-room "stove-decorators" refused to believe i had come through the rapid until i described it to them. then they said it was better to be a lucky darnfool on the columbia than an unlucky school-teacher. "school-teacher," it appeared, was the local apotheosis of wisdom, and stood at the opposite pole from "darnfool." it seems that there had been two male school-teachers drowned in umatilla that summer and only one darnfool, and they were rather put out at me for having failed to even up the score. then they tried to spoil my evening by telling me all the things that had happened to people in devil's run rapids, which i would go into just below the mouth of the river the first thing in the morning. they had me rather fussed for a while, too--until they told one about a farmer who, after having had his launch upset on his way home from his wedding, swam out with his bride in his arms. i told them i'd try to get that lusty swimmer to tow me through devil's run in the morning, and turned in for a good sleep. umatilla is a decrepit little old town that knew its best days away back in the last century, when it was the head of steamer navigation on the columbia and the terminus of the freighting route to idaho and eastern washington. there are rich irrigated lands farther up the umatilla river, but the development of these seems to have done little for the stagnating old settlement by the columbia, which has little left but its historic memories. it was by the umatilla that the rugged hunt and the remnants of the astor overland party came to the columbia, after what was perhaps the most terrible journey ever made across the continent. and all through the time of the _voyageurs_, the trappers and the pioneers, umatilla was only less important as a halting and portage point than the cascades and the dalles. i pulled away from the jetty of umatilla at eight o'clock in the morning of november fifteenth. the sky was clear and there was no trace of the mist of the previous evening. there was brilliant, diamond-bright visibility on the river, with the usual early morning mirage effects, due to the chill stratum of air lying close to the water. this exaggerated considerably the height of distant riffles, lifting them up into eye-scope much sooner than they would have been picked up ordinarily. i put on my "gieve" and blew it up in anticipation of a stiff fight at devil's run, only to find just enough rocks and riffles there to make me certain of locating them. i could see, however, that the formation was such that there might have been very troublesome water there at higher, and possibly lower, stages. out of charity for the tellers of a good many awesome tales i had to listen to in respect of rapids i subsequently found to be comparatively innocuous, i am inclined to believe that a number of them were substantially straight accounts of disasters which had actually occurred in flood season, or at times when other water levels than those i encountered made the riffles in question much more troublesome. i had an easy day of it for rapids, but, as a consequence of the comparatively slow water, rather a hard one for pulling. canoe encampment rapids, twenty miles below devil's run, gave me a good lift for a mile or more, but not enough to make much of a respite from the oars if i was going to make the fifty miles i had set for my day's run. i was still ten miles short of that at four o'clock when a drizzling rain setting in from the south-west decided me to land for shelter at hepburn junction, on the left bank. that was the first rain i had encountered since passing the canadian boundary, after a month of practically continuous storms. there was nothing but a railway station at the junction, but a nearby road-camp offered the chance of food and shelter. the young contractor--he was doing the concrete work on a state highway bridge at that point--eyed my bedraggled figure somewhat disapprovingly at first, at a loss, apparently, as to whether i was a straight hobo or merely a disguised boot-legger. an instant later we had recognized each other as football opponents of los angeles-pasadena school-days. his name was walter rees, of a family prominent among early southern california pioneers. with the rain pattering on the tent roof, we talked each other to sleep lamenting the good old days of the "flying wedge" and massed play in football. it was clear again the following morning, but with a mistiness to the west masking mount hood and the cascades, to which i was now coming very near. the cliffs had been rearing up higher and higher at every mile, great walls of red-brown and black rock strongly suggestive, in their rugged barrenness, of the buttressed, turreted and columned formation through which the river runs below the mouth of the spokane. owyhee, blalock and four o'clock rapids were easy running, but the sustained roar which the slight up-river breeze brought to my ears as the black, right-angling gorge of rock creek came in sight was fair warning that there was really rough water ahead. although i had been able to gather very little information along the way, the fact that i had so far descended but a small part of the two hundred feet of drop between umatilla and celilo falls meant that the several rapids immediately ahead would have to make up for the loafing the columbia had been guilty of for the last sixty miles. taking advantage of the quiet stretch of water below four o'clock rapids, i went all over the skiff as she drifted in the easy current, tuning her up for the slap-banging she could not fail to receive in the long succession of sharp riffles which began at rock creek. in tightening up the brass screws along the gunwale, i removed and threw into the bottom of the boat both of my oar-locks. when i started to restore them to place as the roar of the nearing rapid grew louder, i found that one of them--the left--had been kicked out of reach under the bottom-boards. rather than go to the trouble of tearing up the latter just then, i replaced the missing lock with one from my duffle-bag, a roughly-smithed piece of iron that i had carried away as a mascot from an old _batteau_ at boat encampment. it proved quite a bit too snug for its socket, besides being a deal wider than it should have been for the shaft of my light oar. there was a spoon oar, with a ring lock, under the thwarts, but i was somewhat chary of using it since its mate had snapped with me below rock island rapids. the river narrowed sharply above rock creek, and, standing on a thwart as the skiff drifted down, i saw that the rapid dropped away in a solid stretch of white foam tumbling between black basaltic walls. there was a good, stiff fall, but it was reassuring that i could see right away to the end of the white water, which did not appear to continue around the ninety-degree bend at the foot. it was just the sort of water _imshallah_ was at her best in running, so i decided it was simply a matter of choosing the clearest channel and letting her go. a white cross-barred post on the mountainside at the angle of the bend gave me the bearing for the channel a minute or two before i made out the dip of the "intake." stowing everything well aft, as i had done at umatilla, i took up my oars and put her straight over the jade-green tip of the "v." that was rough-and-rowdy water, and no mistake. every roller meant a slam, and every slam meant a shower-bath; but withal, it was mostly spray that came over her bows--nothing really to bother about. and so _imshallah_ would have run it right through--had not a sharp dig i gave with my left oar jerked the latter out of that "open-faced" boat encampment mascot lock and sent me keeling over backwards. the next moment she was wallowing, beam-on, into the troughs and over the crests of the combers, dipping green water at every roll. recovering my seat as quickly as possible, i tried to bring her head up again by backing with the right oar. she swung obediently enough, but i could not hold her bow down-stream once she was headed right. rather than chance that "mascot" oar-lock again, i tumbled aft and did what i could with the paddle. down as she was by the stern, that brought her head right out of the water and made it rather hopeless getting any way on her. she tumbled on through to the foot of the rapid without putting a gunwale under again, however, a circumstance for which i was highly thankful. she already had five or six inches of water in her, as i found as soon as i began to bail. it is just as well the trouble didn't occur at the head of the rapid. we were half way down when i ceased to function, and _imshallah_ had about all she wanted to navigate the remainder. i was also duly thankful that there was nothing more than a few bad swirls at the foot of the rapid. standing on her tail as she was after i plumped down in the stern with the paddle, a good strong whirlpool, such as must form at that sharp bend at high-water, would have made not more than one comfortable mouthful of her. from the foot of rock creek rapids to the head of squally hook rapids is something less than four miles of not very swift water. it took me about all the time the boat was drifting that distance to get her bailed out enough to retrieve my lost oar-lock from under the bottom-boards. squally hook, i could see, was much the same sort of a short, sharp, savage rapid as rock creek. there was the same restricted "intake," and the same abrupt bend just beyond the foot; only below squally hook the river turned to the left, where at rock creek it had turned to the right. the sheer two-thousand-foot cliff on the inside of the bend that gives its name to the rapid is well called squally hook. what had been a gentle ten-miles-an-hour breeze on the river above began resolving itself into a succession of fitful gusts of twenty or thirty as i approached the rock-walled bend. even a steady head-wind makes steering awkward in going into a rapid; a gusty one is a distinct nuisance. to avoid the necessity of any sharp change of course after i was once among the white-caps, i resolved to use every care in heading into the rapid at exactly the right place. that was why, when i became aware that two girls from a farm-house on a bench above the right bank were motioning me imperiously in that direction, i swerved sharply from the course i had decided upon in an endeavour to locate the channel into which i was sure they were trying to tell me to head. just what those confounded half-breed loreli were _really_ driving at i never did learn. perhaps they had apples to sell, or some sweet cider; or perhaps they thought i had some cider that was not sweet. perhaps it was pure sociability--the desire of a bit of a "talky-talk" with the green-boated _voyageur_. at any rate, they were certainly _not_ trying to pilot me into a clear channel. that fact walloped me right between the eyes the instant i discovered that i had pulled beyond the entrance of a perfectly straight channel and that there was a barely submerged barrier of rock blocking the river all the way on to the right bank. that, of course, left me no alternative but to pull back for all that was in me to wait the "intake." it was a very similar predicament to the one in which the mist had tricked me at the head of umatilla; only there i had room to make the channel and here i didn't. the current, running now like a mill-race, carried me onto the reef sixty feet to the right of the smooth green chute of the "fairway." if it had taken half an hour instead of half a second to shoot out across the shoaling shelf of that froth-hidden reef there might have been time for a goodly bit of worrying anent the outcome. as it was, there was just the sudden thrill of seeing the bottom of the river leaping up to hit the bottom of the boat, the instant of suspense as she touched and dragged at the brink, and then the dizzy nose-dive of two or three feet down into deeper water. it was done so quickly that a stroke checked by the rock of the reef was finished in the up-boil below the little cascade. with an inch or two less of water she might have hung at the brink and swung beam-on to the current, which, of course, would have meant an instant capsize. the way it was, she made a straight clean jump of it, and only buried her nose in the souse-hole for the briefest part of a second when she struck. the rest was merely the matter of three hundred yards of rough running down a rock-clear channel. the authors of my near-mess-up came capering down the bank in pursuit as i swung out into the smoothening swirls, but i only shook my fist at them and resumed my oars. darn women, anyway!--when a man's running rapids, i mean. now one would have thought that those two performances were enough for one afternoon, especially as both were very largely due to my own carelessness; but i suppose the "trilogy of trouble" had to be rounded out complete. from the foot of squally hook rapids to the head of indian rapids is about three miles. the water became ominously slack as i neared what appeared to be a number of great rock islands almost completely barring the river. it was not until i was almost even with the first of them that a channel, very narrow and very straight, opened up along the left bank. various other channels led off among the islands, but with nothing to indicate how or where they emerged. that flume-like chute down the left bank was plainly the way the steamers went, and certainly the quickest and most direct course on down the river. peering through the rocky vista, i could see a rain storm racing up the columbia, with the grey face of it just blotting out a wedge-shaped gorge through the southern cliffs which i knew must be the mouth of the john day. that storm was another reason why i should choose the shortest and swiftest channel. there ought to be some kind of shelter where this important southern tributary met the columbia. of course, i knew all about still water running deep (which was of no concern to me) and "twisty" (which was of considerable concern). i should certainly have given more thought to the matter of trimming for what was sure to be waiting to snap up _imshallah_ at the foot of that speeding chute of green-black water had not an old friend of mine breezed along just then. he was the engineer of the way freight on the "south-bank" line. we had been exchanging signals in passing for three days now--twice on his down run and once on his up. this was the first opportunity i had had to show him how a rapid should be run, and i noted with gratification that he appeared to be slowing down so as to miss none of the fine points. on my part, dispensing with my wonted preliminary "look-see," i swung hard on the oars in an effort to get into the swiftest water before the spectators were out of sight. as the engine drew up even with me, i balanced my oars with my right hand for a moment and waved the engineer greetings with my left; he, in turn, ran the locomotive with his left hand and waved with his right. then i saw that the fireman was also waving, and, farther back, the brakeman, from the top of a car, and the conductor from the "lookout" of the caboose. the occupants of the "dirigible grandstand" at the poughkeepsie regattas had nothing on the crew of that way freight. and the latter, moreover, were treated to a burst of speed such as no man-propelled boat in still water ever came close to. i was not pulling over four or five miles an hour myself, but that smooth, steep, unobstructed chute must have been spilling through its current at close to twenty. in a couple of hundred yards i pulled up three or four car-lengths on the comparatively slow-moving train, and i was still gaining when a sudden "_toot-a-too-toot!_" made me stop rowing and look around. i had recognized instantly the familiar danger signal, and was rather expecting to see a cow grazing with true bovine nonchalance on the weeds between the ties. instead, it was the engineer's wildly gesticulating arm that caught my back-cast eye. he was pointing just ahead of me, and down--evidently at something in the water. then i saw it too--a big black funnel-shaped hole down which a wide ribbon of river seemed to be taking a sort of a spiral tumble. it was that entirely well-meant _toot-a-toot_, which was intended to prod me, not a cow, into activity, that was primarily responsible for what followed. had i not ceased rowing on hearing it, it is probable that the skiff would have had enough way when she did strike that whirlpool to carry her right on through. as it was _imshallah_ simply did an undulant glide into the watery tentacles of the lurking octopus, snuggled into his breast and prepared to spend the night reeling in a dervish dance with him. i must do the jade the justice of admitting that she had no intention of outraging the proprieties by going any further than a nocturnal terpsichorean revel. going home for the night with him never entered her mind; so that when he tried to pull the "cave-man stuff" and drag her down to his under-water grottoes, she put up the most virtuous kind of resistance. the trouble was that i didn't want to go even as far as she did. dancing was the last thing i cared for, with that rain-storm and night coming on. yet--at least as far as my friends on the way freight ever knew--an all-night _danse d'apache_ looked very much like what we were up against; for i recall distinctly that when the train was disappearing round the next bend _imshallah_, her head thrown ecstatically skyward, was still spinning in circles, while i continued to fan the air with my oars like an animated dutch windmill. it was a mighty sizeable whirlpool, that black-mouthed maelstrom into which _imshallah's_ susceptibility had betrayed both of us. i should say that it was twice the diameter of the one which had given us such a severe shaking just above the canadian boundary, and with a "suck" in proportion. what helped the situation now, however, was the fact that the skiff carried rather less than half the weight she did then. at the rate she was taking water over the stern during that first attack, she could not have survived for more than half a minute; now she was riding so much more buoyantly that she was only dipping half a bucket or so once in every two or three rounds. when i saw that she could probably go on dancing for an hour or two without taking in enough water to put her under, something of the ludicrousness of the situation began to dawn on me. missing the water completely with half of my strokes, and only dealing it futile slaps with the rest, i was making no more linear progress than if i had been riding a merry-go-round. i didn't dare to put the stern any lower by sliding down there and trying to paddle where there was water to be reached. crowding her head down by working my weight forward finally struck me as the only thing to do. with the forward thwart almost above my head this was not an easy consummation to effect, especially with an oar in either hand. luckily, i was now using the "ring" oar-locks, so that they came along on the oars when i unshipped the latter. standing up was, of course, out of the question. i simply slid off backwards on to the bottom and wriggled forward in a sitting position until i felt my spine against the thwart. that brought her nose out of the clouds, and she settled down still farther when, after getting my elbows over the seat behind me, i worked up into a rowing position. the whirlpool was spinning from right to left, and one quick stroke with my left oar--against the current of the "spin," that is--was enough to shoot her clear. bad swirls and two or three smaller "twisters" made her course a devious one for the next hundred yards, but she never swung in a complete revolution again. i pulled into smooth water just as the first drops of the storm began to patter on the back of my neck. the first riffle of john day rapids sent its warning growl on the up-river wind before i was a quarter of a mile below the whirlpool, and ahead loomed a barrier of rock islands, rising out of the white foam churned up as the columbia raced between them. i had to run the first riffle--an easy one--to make the mouth of the john day, but that was as far as i went. i reckoned there had been quite enough excitement for one afternoon without poking into any more rough water against a rain and head wind. dropping below the gravel bar off the mouth of the day, i pulled fifty yards up-stream in a quiet current and moored _imshallah_ under the railway bridge. i camped for the night with a couple of motor tourists in a shack near the upper end of the bridge. my hosts were two genial souls, father and son, enjoying an indefinite spell of fishing, hunting and trapping on a stake the former had made in the sale of one of his "prospects" in southern oregon. they were bluff, big-hearted, genuine chaps, both of them, and we had a highly delightful evening of yarning. it was clear again the next morning, but with the barometer of my confidence jolted down several notches by what had occurred the previous afternoon. i pulled across the river and sought a quieter way through the second riffle of john day rapids than that promised by the boisterous steamer channel. by devious ways and sinuous, i wound this way and that among the black rock islands, until a shallow channel along the right bank let me out of the maze at the lower end. this waste of time and effort was largely due to funkiness on my part, and there was no necessity for it. the steamer channel is white and rough, with something of a whirlpool on the left side at the lower end, but nothing that there is any real excuse for avoiding. the third riffle was nothing to bother about; nor did schofield's rapids, two miles below, offer any difficulties. as a matter of fact, adventure, having had its innings, was taking a day off, leaving me to follow the golden trail of romance. to-day was "ladies' day" on the columbia. romance first showed her bright eyes at a little farm on the right bank, three miles below schofield's rapids. landing here to ask about the channel through a rather noisy rapid beginning to boom ahead, i found a delectable apple-cheeked miss of about twelve in charge, her father and mother having gone across to biggs for the day. she was in sore trouble at the moment of my advent because her newly-born brindle bull calf--her really-truly very own--wouldn't take nourishment properly. now as luck would have it, teaching a calf table-manners chanced to be one of the few things i knew about stock-farming. so i showed her how to start in by letting _cultus_ (that was merely a temporary name, she said, because he was so bad) munch her own finger for a spell, from which, by slow degrees, the lacteal liaison with "old mooley" was established. it took us half an hour to get _cultus_ functioning on all fours, and rather longer than that to teach her collie, tabby cat, and the latter's three kittens to sit in a row and have their mouths milked into. it didn't take us long to exhaust "old mooley's" milk supply at that game, and when i finally climbed over the barnyard fence on the way down to my boat, poor _cultus_ was left butting captiously at an empty udder. "apple cheek" rather wanted me to stay until her father came back, saying that he had gone to biggs to get a 'breed for a hired man, and that, if he didn't get the 'breed, maybe i would do. she almost burst into tears with shame when i told her i was a moving picture actor seeking rest and local colour on the columbia. "you a actor, and i made you milk 'old mooley!'" she sobbed; and it took all my lunch ration of milk chocolate to bring back her smile. then, like the scotch bride at windermere, she asked me if i was bill hart. somehow, i wasn't quite base enough to tell her a concrete lie like that; so i compromised with a comparative abstraction. i was a rising star in the movie firmament, i said; an eclectic, taking the best of all the risen stars, of whom much would be heard later. she was still pondering "_eclectic_" when i pushed off into the current. bless your heart, little "apple cheek," i hope you didn't get a spanking for wasting all of _cultus'_ dinner on the dogs and cats and the side of the barn! you were about the first person i met on the columbia who didn't accuse me of being a boot-legger, and the only one who believed me hot off the bat when i said i was a movie star. the rapid ahead became noisier as i drew nearer, and when i saw it came from a reef which reached four-fifths of the way across the river from the left bank, i pulled in and landed at biggs to inquire about the channel. the first man i spoke to called a second, and the latter a third, and so on _ad infinitum_. pretty near to half the town must have been gathered at the railway station giving me advice at the end of a quarter of an hour. each of them had a different suggestion to make, ranging from dragging through a half-empty back channel just below the town to taking the boat out and running it down the track on a push-cart. as they all were agreed that the steamers used to go down the opposite side, i finally decided that would be the best way through. not to run too much risk of being carried down onto the reef in pulling across, i lined and poled a half mile up-stream before pushing off. once over near the right bank, i found a channel broad and deep enough to have run at night. a couple of miles below biggs the columbia is divided by a long narrow rocky island. the deep, direct channel is that to the right, and is called hell gate--the third gorge of that hackneyed name i had encountered since pushing off from beavermouth. possibly it was because i was fed-up with the name and all it connoted that i avoided this channel; more likely it was because romance was at the tow-line. at any rate, i headed into the broad shallow channel that flows by the mouth of the river des chutes. it was up this tumultuous stream that frémont, after camping at the dalles and making a short boat voyage below, started south over the mountains in search of the mythical river that was supposed to drain from the utah basin to the pacific in the vicinity of san francisco--one of the indomitable "pathfinder's" hardest journeys. just beyond where the river of the falls, true to name to the last, came cascading into the columbia, romance again raised her golden head--this time out of the steam rising above an indian "turkish-bath." the first time i had found her in the guise of a twelve-year-old; this time it was more like a hundred and twelve. one can't make certain within a year or two about a lady in a turkish-bath; it wouldn't be seemly even to _try_ to do so. pulling in close to the left bank to look at some queer mud-plastered indian wickiups, a rush of steam suddenly burst from the side of the nearest one, and out of that spreading white cloud, rising like aphrodite from the sea-foam, emerged the head and shoulders of an ancient squaw. she was horribly old--literally at the sans eyes, sans hair, sans teeth, sans everything (including clothes) stage. cackling and gesticulating in the rolling steam, she was the _belle ideal_ of the witch of one's fancy, muttering incantations above her boiling cauldron. frémont, in somewhat humorous vein, tells of visiting an indian camp in this vicinity on the columbia, and of how one of the squaws who had rushed forth in complete _déshabille_ on hearing the voices of strangers, "properized" herself at the last moment by using her papoose--as far as it would go--as a shield. but this old "aphrodite" i had flushed from cover was so old that, if her youngest child had been ready to hand, and that latter had had one of her own children within reach, and this third one had had a child available, i am certain that still another generation or two would have had to be descended before a papoose sufficiently young enough to make "properization" proper would have been found. i trust i make that clear. and when you _have_ visualized it, isn't it a funny pyramid? with two or three more "aphrodites" beginning to bubble up through the steam, it is just possible that some such an ocular barrage actually was in process of formation; but i think not. my hard-plied oars had hardly lengthened my interval to much over fifty yards, when the whole lot of them trooped down to the river--steaming amazingly they were at the touch of the sharp early winter air--and plunged into the icy water. i learned later that this "sweat-bath" treatment is the favourite cure-all with the indians of that part of the columbia basin. where the left-hand channel returned to the main columbia a mile or more below the mouth of the river des chutes i encountered an extensive series of rock-reefs which, until i drew near them, seemed to block the way completely. it was a sinuous course i wound in threading my way through the ugly basaltic outcroppings, but the comparatively slow water robbed it of any menace. once clear of the rocks, i found myself at the head of the long, lake-like stretch of water backed up above celilo falls. the low rumble of the greatest cataract of the lower columbia was already pulsing in the air, while a floating cloud of "water-smoke," white against the encroaching cliffs, marked its approximate location. i was at last approaching the famous "long portage" of the old _voyageurs_, a place noted (in those days) for the worst water and the most treacherous indians on the river. now, however, the indians no longer blocked the way and exacted toll, while the portage had been bridged by a government canal. i caught the loom of the head-gate of the latter about the same time that the bridge of the "north-bank" branch line, which spans the gorge below the falls, began rearing its blurred fret-work above the mists. then, once again, romance. "ladies' day" was not yet over. as i pulled in toward the entrance to the canal, at the left of the head of the falls, i observed a very gaily-blanketed dame dancing up and down on the bank and gesticulating toward the opposite side of the river. as i landed and started to pull the skiff up on the gravelly beach, she came trotting down to entreat, in her best "anglo-chinook," that i ferry her to the opposite bank, where her home was, and, where, apparently, she was long overdue. she wasn't a beggar, she assured me, but--jingling her beaded bag under my nose--was quite willing to pay me "_hiyu chickamon_" for my services. nor was she unduly persistent. no sooner had i told her that i was in a "_hiyu rush_" and hadn't the time just then to be a squire of dames, than she bowed her head in stoical acquiescence and went back to her waving and croaking. it was that futile old croak (with not enough power behind it to send it a hundred yards across a mile-wide river) that caved my resolution. shoving _imshallah_ back into the water, i told her to pile in. and so romance drew near to me again, this time perched up in the long-empty stern-sheets of my boat. this one was neither an infant nor a centurienne, but rather a fair compromise between the two. nor was she especially fair nor especially compromising (one couldn't expect that of a sixty-year-old squaw); but she was the most trusting soul i ever met, and that's something. the falls were thundering not fifty yards below--near enough to wet us with their up-blown spray,--and yet not one word of warning did she utter about giving the brink a wide birth in pulling across. not that i needed such a warning, for the first thing i did was to start pulling up-stream in the slack water; but, all the same, it was a distinct compliment to have it omitted. as it turned out, there was nothing to bother about, for the current was scarcely swifter in mid-stream than along the banks. it was an easy pull. romance beamed on me all the way, and once, when one of her stubby old toes came afoul of my hob-nailed boot, she bent over and gave a few propitiary rubs to--the boot ... as if _that_ had lost any cuticle. and at parting, when i waved her money-bag aside and told her to keep her _chickamon_ to spend on the movies, she came and patted me affectionately on the shoulder, repeating over and over "_close tum-tum mika!_" and that, in chinook, means: "you're very much all right!" as far as i can remember, that is the only unqualified praise i ever had from a lady--one of that age, i mean. squiring squaws--especially dear old souls like that one--is a lot better fun than a man would think. [illustration: lifted drawbridge on celilo canal (_above_)] [illustration: tumwater gorge of the grand dalles (_below_)] [illustration: "imshallah" in the lock at five-mile] [illustration: "imshallah" half way through the celilo canal] it was four o'clock when i turned up at the lock-master's house at celilo, and then to find that that worthy had just taken his gun and gone off up on the cliffs to try and bag a goose. as it would probably be dark before he returned, his wife reckoned i had better put up with them for the night and make an early start through the canal the following morning. the lock-master, a genial texan, came down with his goose too late it get it ready for supper, but not to get it picked that night. indeed, we made rather a gala occasion of it. "mistah" sides got out his fiddle and played "the arkansaw traveller" and "turkey in the straw," the while his very comely young wife accompanied on the piano and their two children, the village school-marm and myself collaborated on the goose. it was a large bird, but many hands make light work; that is, as far as getting the feathers off the goose was concerned. cleaning up the kitchen was another matter. as it was the giddy young school-teacher who _started_ the trouble by putting feathers down my neck, i hope "missus" sides made that demure-eyed minx swab down decks in the morning before she went to teach the young idea how to shoot. there is no lock at the head of the celilo canal, but a gate is maintained for the purpose of regulating flow and keeping out drift. sides, silhouetted against the early morning clouds, worked the gates and let me through into the narrow, concrete-walled canal, down which i pulled with the thunder of the falls on one side and on the other the roar of a passing freight. the earth-shaking rumbles died down presently, and beyond the bend below the railway bridge i found myself rowing quietly through the shadow of the great wall of red-black cliffs that dominate the dalles from the south. celilo falls is a replica on a reduced scale of the horse-shoe cataract at niagara. at middle and low-water there is a drop of twenty feet here, but at the flood-stage of early summer the fall is almost wiped out in the lake backed up from the head of the tumwater gorge of the dalles. the dalles then form one practically continuous rapid, eight or nine miles in length, with many terrific swirls and whirlpools, but with all rocks so deeply submerged that it is _possible_ for a well-handled steamer to run through in safety--provided she is lucky. with the completion of the canal this wildest of all steamer runs was no longer necessary, but in the old days it was attempted a number of times when it was desired to take some craft that had been constructed on the upper river down to portland. the first steamer was run through successfully in may, , by captain t. j. stump, but the man who became famous for his success in getting away with this dare-devil stunt was captain james troup, perhaps the greatest of all columbia skippers. professor w. d. lyman gives the following graphic account of a run through the dalles with captain troup, on the _d. s. baker_, in . "at that strange point in the river, the whole vast volume is compressed into a channel but one hundred and sixty feet wide at low water and much deeper than wide. like a huge mill-race the current continues nearly straight for two miles, when it is hurled with frightful force against a massive bluff. deflected from the bluff, it turns at a sharp angle to be split asunder by a low reef of rock. when the _baker_ was drawn into the suck of the current at the head of the 'chute' she swept down the channel, which was almost black, with streaks of foam, to the bluff, two miles in four minutes. there feeling the tremendous refluent wave, she went careening over toward the sunken reef. the skilled captain had her perfectly in hand, and precisely at the right moment rang the signal bell, 'ahead, full speed,' and ahead she went, just barely scratching her side on the rock. thus close was it necessary to calculate distance. if the steamer had struck the tooth-like point of the reef broadside on, she would have been broken in two and carried in fragments on either side. having passed this danger point, she glided into the beautiful calm bay below and the feat was accomplished." there is a fall of eighty-one feet in the twelve miles from the head of celilo falls to the foot of the dalles. this is the most considerable rate of descent in the whole course of the columbia in the united states, though hardly more than a third of that over stretches of the big bend in canada. it appeared to be customary for the old _voyageurs_ to make an eight or ten miles portage here, whether going up or down stream, though there were doubtless times when their big _batteaux_ were equal to running the dalles below celilo. i climbed out and took hurried surveys of both tumwater and five-mile (sometimes called "the big chute") in passing, and while they appeared to be such that i would never have considered taking a chance with a skiff in either of them, it did look as though a big double-ender, with an experienced crew of oarsmen and paddlers, would have been able to make the run. that was a snap judgment, formed after the briefest kind of a "look-see," and it may well be that i was over optimistic. the celilo canal, which was completed by the government about five years ago, is eight and a half miles long, has a bottom width of sixty-five feet, and a depth of eight feet. it has a total lift of eighty feet, of which seventy are taken by two locks in flight at the lower end. that this canal has failed of its object--that of opening up through navigation between tide-water and the upper columbia--is due to no defect of its own from an engineering standpoint, but rather to the fact that, first the railway, and now the truck, have made it impossible for river steamers to pay adequate returns in the face of costly operation and the almost prohibitive risks of running day after day through rock-beset rapids. there is not a steamer running regularly on the columbia above the dalles to-day. the best service, perhaps, which the celilo canal rendered was the indirect one of forcing a very considerable reduction of railway freight rates. that alone is said to have saved the shippers of eastern oregon and washington many times the cost of this highly expensive undertaking. i pulled at a leisurely gait down the canal, stopping, as i have said, at tumwater and five-mile, and at the latter giving the lock-master a hand in dropping _imshallah_ down a step to the next level. rowing past a weird "fleet" of laid-up salmon-wheels in the big eddy basin, i sheered over to the left bank in response to a jovial hail, and found myself shaking hands with captain stewart winslow, in command of the government dredge, _umatilla_, and one of the most experienced skippers on the upper river. he said that he had been following the progress of my voyage by the papers with a good deal of interest, and had been on the lookout to hold me over for a yarn. as i was anxious to make the dalles that night, so as to get away for an early start on the following morning, he readily agreed to join me for the run and dinner at the hotel. while captain winslow was making a hurried shift of togs for the river, i had a brief but highly interesting visit with captain and mrs. saunders. captain saunders, who is of the engineering branch of the army, has been in charge of the celilo canal for a number of years. mrs. saunders has a very large and valuable collection of indian relics and curios, and at the moment of my arrival was following with great interest the progress of a state highway cut immediately in front of her door, which was uncovering, evidently in an old graveyard, some stone mortars of unusual size and considerable antiquity. when captain winslow was ready, we went down to the skiff, and pulled along to the first lock. with captain saunders and a single helper working the machinery, passing us down to the second lock and on out into the river was but the matter of a few minutes. big eddy must be rather a fearsome hole at high water, but below middle stage there is not enough power behind its slow-heaving swirls to make them troublesome. it was a great relief to have a competent river-man at the paddle again, and my rather over-craned neck was not the least beneficiary by the change. the narrows at two-mile were interesting rather for what they might be than what they were. beyond a lively snaking about in the conflicting currents, it was an easy passage through to the smooth water of the broadening river below. one or two late salmon-wheels plashed eerily in the twilight as we ran past the black cliffs, but fishing for the season was practically over weeks before. we landed just above the steamer dock well before dark, beached the skiff, stowed my outfit in the warehouse, and reached the hotel in time to avoid an early evening shower. captain winslow had to dine early in order to catch his train back to big eddy, but we had a mighty good yarn withal. chapter xiv the home stretch the dalles was the largest town i touched on the columbia, and one of the most attractive. long one of the largest wool-shipping centres of the united states, it has recently attained to considerable importance as a fruit market. it will not, however, enter into anything approaching the full enjoyment of its birthright until the incalculably enormous power possibilities of celilo falls and the dalles have been developed. so far, as at every other point along the columbia with the exception of a small plant at priest rapids, nothing has been done along this line. when it is, the dalles will be in the way of becoming one of the most important industrial centres of the west. in the days of the _voyageurs_ the dalles was notorious for the unspeakably treacherous indians who congregated there to intimidate and plunder all who passed that unavoidable portage. they were lying, thieving scoundrels for the most part, easily intimidated by a show of force and far less prone to stage a real fight than their more warlike brethren who disputed the passage at the cascades. that this "plunderbund" tradition is one which the present-day dalles is making a great point of living down, i had conclusive evidence of through an incident that arose in connection with my hotel bill. i had found my room extremely comfortable and well appointed, so that the bill presented for it at my departure, far from striking me as unduly high, seemed extremely reasonable. i think i may even have said something to that effect; yet, two days later in portland, i received a letter containing an express order for one dollar, and a note saying that this was the amount of an unintentional over-charge for my room. that was characteristic of the treatment i received from first to last in connection with my small financial transactions along the way. i never dreamed that there were still so many people in the world above profiteering at the expense of the passing tourist until i made my columbia voyage. i had intended, by making an early start from the dalles, to endeavour to cover the forty odd miles to the head of the cascades before dark of the same day. two things conspired to defeat this ambitious plan: first, some unexpected mail which had to be answered, and, second, my equally unexpected booking of a passenger--a way passenger who had to be landed well short of the cascades. just as i was cleaning up the last of my letters, the hotel clerk introduced me to the "society editor" of the dalles _chronicle_, who wanted an interview. i told her that i was already two hours behind schedule, but that if she cared to ride the running road with me for a while, she could have the interview, with lunch thrown in, on the river. she accepted with alacrity, but begged for half an hour to clean up her desk at the _chronicle_ office and change to out-door togs. well within that limit, she was back again at the hotel, flushed, pant-ing and pant-ed, and announced that she was ready. picking up a few odds and ends of food at the nearest grocery, we went down to the dock, where i launched and loaded up _imshallah_ in time to push off at ten o'clock. i had, of course, given up all idea of making the cascades that day, and reckoned that hood river, about twenty-five miles, would be a comfortable and convenient halting place for the night. and so it would have been.... [illustration: palisade rock, lower columbia river] [illustration: multnomah falls columbia river highway, near portland] i don't remember whether or not we ever got very far with the "interview," but i do recall that miss s---- talked very interestingly of johan bojer and his work, and that she was in the midst of a keenly analytical review of "the great hunger" when a sudden darkening of what up to then had been only a slightly overcast sky reminded me that i had been extremely remiss in the matter of keeping an eye on the weather. indeed, up to that moment the menace of storms on the river had been of such small moment as compared to that of rapids that i had come to rate it as no more than negligible. now, however, heading into the heart of the cascades, i was approaching a series of gorges long notorious among river _voyageurs_ as a veritable "wind factory"--a "storm-breeder" of the worst description. after all that i had read of the way in which the early pioneers had been held up for weeks by head winds between the dalles and the cascades, there was no excuse for my failure to keep a weather eye lifting at so treacherous a point. the only _alibi_ i can think of is adam's: "the woman did it." nor is there any ungallantry in that plea. quite the contrary, in fact; for i am quite ready to confess that i should probably fail to watch the clouds again under similar circumstances. there were a few stray mavericks of sunshine shafts trying to struggle down to the inky pit of the river as i turned to give the weather a once-over, but they were quenched by the sinister cloud-pall even as i looked. the whole gorge of the river-riven cascades was heaped full of wallowing nimbus which, driven by a fierce wind, was rolling up over the water like an advancing smoke-barrage. the forefront of the wind was marked by a wild welter of foam-white water, while a half mile behind a streaming curtain of gray-black indicated the position of the advancing wall of the rain. it would have been a vile-looking squall even in the open sea; here the sinister threat of it was considerably accentuated by the towering cliffs and the imminent outcrops of black rock studding the surface of the river. i had no serious doubt that _imshallah_, after all the experience she had had in rough water, would find any great difficulty in riding out the blow where she was, but since it hardly seemed hospitable to subject my lady guest to any more of a wetting than could be avoided, i turned and headed for the lee shore. miss s---- was only about half muffled in the rubber saddle _poncho_ and the light "shed" tent i tossed to her before resuming my oars when the wall of the wind--hard and solid as the side of a flying barn--struck us full on the starboard beam. it was rather careless of me, not heading up to meet that squall before it struck; but the fact was that i simply couldn't take seriously anything that it seemed possible _could_ happen on such a deep, quiet stretch of river. the consequence of taking that buffet on the beam was quite a merry bit of a mix-up. the shower-bath of blown spray and the dipping under of the lee rail were rather the least of my troubles. what did have me guessing for a minute, though, was the result of the fact that that confounded fifty-miles-an-hour zephyr got under the corners of the tent and, billowing it monstrously, carried about half of it overboard; also a somewhat lesser amount of miss s----, who was just wrapping herself in it. i had to drop my oars to effect adequate salvage operations, and so leave the skiff with her port gunwale pretty nearly hove under. as soon as i got around to swing her head up into the teeth of the wind things eased off a bit. the river was about a mile wide at this point--ten miles below the dalles and about opposite the station of rowena--and, save for occasional outcroppings of black bedrock, fairly deep. the north shore was rocky all the way along, but that to the south (which was also the more protected on account of a jutting point ahead) was a broad sandy beach. that beach seemed to offer a comparatively good landing, and, as it extended up-stream for half a mile, it appeared that i ought to have no great difficulty in fetching it. the first intimation i had that this might not be as easy as i had reckoned came when, in spite of the fact that i was pulling down-stream in a three or four-mile current, the wind backed the skiff up-stream past a long rock island at a rate of five or six miles an hour. that was one of the queerest sensations i experienced on the whole voyage--having to avoid bumping the _lower_ end of a rock the while i could see the riffle where a strong current was flowing around the _upper_ end. i settled down to pulling in good earnest after that rather startling revelation, trying to hold the head of the skiff just enough to the left of the eye of the wind to give her a good shoot across the current. luckily, i had been pretty well over toward the south bank when the wind struck. there was only about a quarter of a mile to go, but i was blown back just about the whole length of that half mile of sandy beach in making it. the last hundred yards i was rowing "all out," and it was touch-and-go as to whether the skiff was going to nose into soft sand or the lower end of a long stretch of half-submerged rocks. i was a good deal relieved when it proved to be the beach--by about twenty feet. we would have made some kind of a landing on the rocks without doubt, but hardly without giving the bottom of the boat an awful banging. the sand proved unexpectedly soft when i jumped out upon it, but i struck firm bottom before i had sunk more than an inch or two above my boot tops and managed to drag the skiff up far enough to escape the heaviest of the wash of the waves. it was rather a sodden bundle of wet canvas that i carried out and deposited under a pine tree beyond high-water mark, but the core of it displayed considerable life after it had been extracted and set up to dry before the fire of pitchy cones that i finally succeeded in teasing into a blaze. to show miss s---- that the storm hadn't affected my equanimity, i asked her to go on with her review of "the great hunger;" but she replied her own was more insistent, and reminded me that i hadn't served lunch yet. well, rain-soaked biscuit and milk chocolate are rather difficult to take without a spoon; but a pound of california seedless raisins, if munched slowly, go quite a way with two people. the worst of the squall was over in half an hour, and, anxious to make hay while the sun shone, i pushed off again in an endeavor to get on as far as i could before the next broadside opened up. miss s---- and i landed at the rowena ferry, to catch the afternoon train back to the dalles. she was a good ship-mate, and i greatly regret she had the bad luck to be my passenger on the only day i encountered a really hard blow in all of my voyage. there was another threatening turret of black cloud beginning to train its guns as i pulled out into the stream beyond rowena, and it opened with all the big stuff it had before i had gone a mile. while it lasted, the bombardment was as fierce as the first one. fortunately, its ammunition ran out sooner. i kept the middle of the current this time, pulling as hard as i could against the wind. i got a thorough raking, fore-and-aft, for my temerity, but, except at the height of the wind, i managed to avoid the ignominy of being forced back against the stream. the third squall, which opened up about three-thirty, was a better organized assault, and gave me a pretty splashy session of it. when that blow got the range of me i was just pulling along to the left of a desolate tongue of black basalt called memaloose island. for many centuries this rocky isle was used by the klickatats as a burial place, which fact induced a certain indian-loving pioneer of the dalles, victor trevett by name, to order his own grave dug there. a tall marble shaft near the lower end of the island marks the spot. now i have no objection to marble shafts in general, nor even to this one in particular--as a shaft. i just got tired of seeing it, that was all. if any skipper on the columbia ever passed vic trevett's monument as many times in a year as i did in an hour, i should like to know what run he was on. swathed in oilskins, my potential speed was cut down both by the resistance my augmented bulk offered to the wind and the increased difficulty of pulling with so much on. down past the monument i would go in the lulls, and up past the monument i would go before the gusts. there, relentless as the _flying dutchman_, that white shaft hung for the best part of an hour. i only hope what i said to the wind didn't disturb old vic trevett's sleep. finally, a quarter of an hour's easing of the blow let me double the next point; and then it turned loose with all its guns again. quite gone in the back and legs, i gave up the unequal fight and started to shoot off quartering toward the shore. glancing over my shoulder in an endeavour to get some kind of an idea of where, and against what, i might count on striking, an astounding sight met my eyes, a picture so weird and infernal that i had to pause (mentally) and assure myself that those raisins i had for lunch had not been "processed." of all the sinister landscapes i ever saw--including the lava fields of a good many volcanoes and a number of the world's most repulsive "bad lands"--that which opened up to me as i tried to head in beyond that hard-striven-for point stands alone in my memory for sheer awesomeness. the early winter twilight had already begun to settle upon the gloomy gorge, the duskiness greatly accentuating the all-pervading murk cast upon the river by the pall of the sooty clouds. all round loomed walls of black basalt, reflecting darkly in water whose green had been completely quenched by the brooding purple shadows. the very pines on the cliffs merged in the solid opacity behind their scraggly forms, and even the fringe of willows above high-water-mark looped round the crescent of beach below like a fragment of mourning band. and that stretch of silver sand--the one thing in the whole infernal landscape whose whiteness the gloom alone could not drown: how shall i describe the jolt it gave me when i discovered that six or seven black devils were engaged in systematically spraying it with an inky liquid that left it as dark and dead to the eye as a stygian strand of anthracite? it was a lucky thing those raisins had _not_ been "processed;" else i might not have remembered readily what i had heard of the way the "south-bank" railway had been keeping the sand from drifting over its tracks by spraying with crude oil the bars uncovered at low water. with that infernal mystery cleared up, my mind was free to note and take advantage of a rather remarkable incidental phenomenon. the effect of oil on troubled waters was no new thing to me, for on a number of occasions i had helped to rig a bag of kerosene-soaked oakum over the bows of a schooner hove-to in a gale; but to find a stretch of water already oiled for me at just the time and place i was in the sorest need of it--well, i couldn't see where those manna-fed children of israel wandering in the desert found their advance arrangements looked to any better than that. the savage wind-whipped white-caps that were buffeting me in mid-stream dissolved into foam-streaked ripples the moment they impinged upon the broadening oil-sleeked belt where the petroleum had seeped riverward from the sprayed beach. a solid jetty of stone could not have broken the rollers more effectually. on one side was a wild wallow of tossing water; on the other--as far as the surface of the river was concerned--an almost complete calm. it was a horrible indignity to heap upon _imshallah_ (and, after the way she had displayed her resentment following her garbage shower under the wenatchee bridge, i knew that spirited lady would make me pay dear for it if ever she had the chance); still--dead beat as i was--there was nothing else to do but to head into that oleaginous belt of calm and make the best of it. the wind still took a deal of bucking, but with the banging of the waves at an end my progress was greatly accelerated. hailing the black devils on the bank, i asked where the nearest village was concealed, to learn that moosier was a couple of miles below, but well back from the river. they rather doubted that i could find my way to the town across the mudflats, but thought it might be worth trying in preference to pushing on in the dark to hood river. those imps of darkness were right about the difficulty of reaching moosier after nightfall. a small river coming in at that point seemed to have deposited a huge bar of quicksand all along the left bank, and i would never have been able to make a landing at all had not a belated duck-hunter given me a hand. after tying up to an oar, he very courteously undertook to pilot me to the town through the half-overflowed willow and alder flats. as a consequence of taking the lead, it was the native rather than the visitor who went off the caving path into the waist-deep little river. coming out of the woods, a hundred-yards of slushing across a flooded potato-patch brought us to the railway embankment, and from there it was comparatively good going to the hotel. luckily, the latter had a new porcelain tub and running hot water, luxuries one cannot always be sure of in the smaller columbia river towns. [illustration: city of portland with mt. hood in the distance] it was just at the close of the local apple season, and i found the hotel brimming over with departing packers. most of the latter were girls from southern california orange-packing houses, imported for the season. several of them came from anaheim, and assured me that they had packed valencias from a small grove of mine in that district. they were a good deal puzzled to account for the fact that a man with a valencia grove should be "hobo-ing" round the country like i was, and seemed hardly to take me seriously when i assured them it was only a matter of a year or two before all farmers would be hobos. it's funny how apple-packing seems to bring out all the innate snobbery in a lady engaging in that lucrative calling; they didn't seem to think tramping was quite respectable. i slept on the parlour couch until three in the morning, when i "inherited" the room occupied by a couple of packettes departing by the portland train. as they seem to have been addicted to "_attar of edelweiss_," or something of the kind, and there hadn't been time for fumigation, i rather regretted making the shift. [illustration: bridge on columbia highway near portland, oregon] when i had splashed back to the river in the morning, i found that _imshallah_ anxious to hide the shame of that oil-bath, had spent the night trying to bury herself in the quicksand. dumping her was out of the question, and i sank mid-thigh deep two or three times myself before i could persuade the sulking minx even to take the water. i knew she would take the first chance that offered to rid herself of the filth, just as she had before; but, with no swift water above the cascades, there seemed small likelihood of her getting out-of-hand. knowing that she was quite equal to making a bolt over the top of that terrible cataract if she hadn't managed to effect some sort of purification before reaching there, i made an honest attempt at conciliation by landing at the first solid beach i came to and giving her oily sides a good swabbing down with a piece of carpet. that seemed to mollify the temperamental lady a good deal, but just the same i knew her too well to take any chances. of all the great rivers in the world, there are only two that have had the audacity to gouge a course straight through a major range of mountains. these are the brahmaputra, which clove a way through the himalaya in reaching the bay of bengal from tibet, and the columbia, which tore the cascades asunder in making its way to the pacific. but the slow process of the ages by which the great asian river won its way to the sea broke its heart and left it a lifeless thing. it emerges from the mountains with barely strength enough to crawl across the most dismal of deltas to lose its identity in the brackish estuaries at its many insignificant mouths. the swift stroke by which the cascades were parted for the columbia left "the achilles of rivers" unimpaired in vigour. it rolls out of the mountains with a force which endless æons have not weakened to a point where it was incapable of carrying the silt torn down by its erosive actions far out into the sea. it is the one great river that does not run for scores, perhaps hundreds, of miles through a flat, monotonous delta; the one great stream that meets the ocean strength for strength. the nile, the niger, the amazon, the yangtse, the mississippi--all of the other great rivers--find their way to the sea through miasmic swamps; only the columbia finishes in a setting worthy of that in which it takes its rise. nay, more than that. superlative to the last degree as is the scenery along the columbia, from its highest glacial sources in the rockies and selkirks right down to the cascades, there is not a gorge, a vista, a panorama, a cascade of which i cannot truthfully say: "that reminds me of something i have seen before." the list would include the names of most of the scenic wonders that the world has come to know as the ultimate expression of the grand and the sublime; but in time my record of comparisons would be complete. but for the distinctive grandeur of that fifty miles of cliff-walled gorge where the columbia rolls through its titan-torn rift in the cascades, i fail completely to find a comparison. it is unique; without a near-rival of its kind. because so many attempts--all of them more or less futile--have been made to describe the cascade gorge of the columbia, i shall not rush in here with word pictures where even railway pamphleteers have failed. the fact that several of the points i attained in the high selkirks are scarcely more than explored, and that many stretches i traversed of the upper river are very rarely visited, must be the excuse for such essays at descriptions as i have now and then been tempted into in the foregoing chapters. that excuse is not valid in connection with the cascade gorge, and, frankly, i am mighty glad of the chance to side-step the job. i must beg leave, however, to make brief record of an interesting "scenic coincidence" that was impressed on my mind the afternoon that i pulled through the great chasm of the cascades. it was a day of sunshine and showers, with the clouds now revealing, now concealing the towering mountain walls on either hand. the almost continuous rains of the last four days had greatly augmented the flow of the streams, and there was one time, along toward evening, that i counted seven distinct waterfalls tumbling over a stretch of tapestried cliff on the oregon side not over two miles in length. and while these shimmering ribbons of fluttering satin were still within eye-scope, a sudden shifting of the clouds uncovered in quick succession three wonderful old volcanic cones--hood, to the south, adams, to the north, and a peak which i think must have been st. helens to the west. instantly the lines of tennyson's _lotos eaters_ came to my mind. "a land of streams! some, like a downward smoke, slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go; and some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke, rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below. they saw the gleaming river seaward flow from the inner land: far off, three mountain-tops, three silent pinnacles of aged snow, stood sunset-flushed; and, dew'd with showery drops, up-clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse." tennyson, of course, was writing of some tropic land thirty or forty degrees south of oregon, for in the next verse he speaks of palms and brings the "mild-eyed melancholy lotos-eaters" swimming about the keel; and yet there is his description, perfect to the last, least word, of what any one may see in a not-too-cloudy day from the right point on the lower columbia. the hood and the white salmon flow into the columbia almost opposite each other, the former from mount hood, to the south, and the latter from mount adams, to the north. white salmon, perched on the mountains of the washington side, is, so far as i can recall, the "swiss-iest" looking village in america. at close range it would doubtless lose much of its picturesqueness, but from the river it is a perfect bit of the tyrol or the bernese-oberland. the hood river valley is one of the very richest in all the west, running neck-and-neck with yakima and wenatchee for the blue ribbon honours of northwestern apple production. it is also becoming a dairying centre of considerable importance. i was genuinely sorry that my "through" schedule made it impossible to visit a valley of which i had heard so much and so favourably. nearing the cascades, i headed over close to the oregon bank for a glimpse of the famous "sunken forest." this is one of the strangest sights on the lower river. for a considerable distance i pulled along the stumps of what had once been large forest trees, the stubby boles showing plainly through the clear water to a very considerable depth. there is some division of opinion as to whether these trees were submerged following the damming up of the river by the slide which formed the cascades, or whether they have slid in from the mountainside at a later date. as there is still enough of a riverward earth-movement to necessitate a realignment of the rails on the south bank of the cascades, it is probable that the latter is the correct theory. the self-preservative character of oregon pine is proverbial, but it hardly seems reasonable to believe that it would last through the very considerable geologic epoch that must have elapsed since the cascades were formed. hugging the oregon shore closely, i pulled down toward the head of the cascades canal. the water continued almost lake-like in its slackness even after the heavy rumble of the fall began to beat upon the air. i was taking no chances of a last-minute bolt from the still restive _imshallah_, however, and skirted the sandy bank so closely that twice i found myself mixed up in the remains of the past season's salmon-traps. passing a big sawmill, i entered the canal and kept rowing until i came plump up against the lofty red gates. an astonishingly pretty girl who peered down from above said she didn't know what a lock-master was (being only a passenger waiting for the steamer herself), but thought a man hammering on the other side of the gate looked like he might be something of that kind. she was right. the lock-master said he would gladly put me through, but would be greatly obliged if i would wait until he locked down the steamer, as he was pretty busy at the moment. that would give me half an hour to go down and size up the tail of the cascades, which i would have to run immediately on coming out at the foot of the lock. there is a fall of twenty-five feet at the cascades, most of it in the short, sharp pitch at the head. it is this latter stretch that is avoided by the canal and locks, the total length of which is about half a mile. the two lock chambers are identical in dimensions, each being ninety feet by four hundred and sixty-five in the clear. they were opened to navigation in , and were much used during the early years of the present century. with the extension of the railways, (especially with the building of the "north-bank" line), and the improvement of the roads, with the incidental increase of truck-freighting, it became more and more difficult for the steamers to operate profitably even on the lower river. one after another they had been taken off their runs, until the _j. n. teal_, for which i was now waiting, was the last steamer operating in a regular service on the columbia above portland. opening the great curving gates a crack, the lock-master admitted _imshallah_ to the chamber, from where--in the absence of a ladder--i climbed up fifty feet to the top on the beams of the steel-work. that was a pretty stiff job for a fat man, or rather one who had so recently been fat. i was down to a fairly compact two hundred and twenty by now, but even that required the expenditure of several foot-tons of energy to lift it out of that confounded hole. the main fall of the cascades was roaring immediately on my right, just beyond the narrow island that had been formed when the locks and canal were constructed. it was indeed a viciously-running chute, suggesting to me the final pitch of the left-hand channel of rock island rapids rather than grand rapids, to which it is often compared. i had heard that on rare occasions steamers had been run down here at high water; at the present stage it looked to me that neither a large nor a small boat would have one chance in a hundred of avoiding disaster. the canal and locks avoided that first heavy fall of the cascades completely, but the swift tumble of waters below was quite rough enough to make a preliminary survey well worth while. the steamer channel was on the washington side, so that it was necessary for a boat to head directly across the current immediately on emerging from the lower lock chamber. the oregon side of the river was thick with rocks right away round the bend, with not enough clear water to permit the passage of even a skiff. my course, therefore, would have to be the same as that of the steamer--just as sharply across to the opposite side as oars would take me. i had put _imshallah_ through worse water than that a score of times, and, while it wasn't the sort of a place where one would want to break an oar or even catch a "crab," there was no reason to believe that we should have the least trouble in pulling across the hard-running swirls. of course, if _imshallah_ really was still smarting under the indignity of that oil-bath.... but no--i honestly think there was nothing of distrust of my well-tried little skiff behind my sudden change of plans. rather, i should say, it was due to the fact that a remark of the lock-master had brought me to a sudden realization that i now arrived at what i had always reckoned as my ultimate objective--tide-water. i had been planning to run on four miles farther to bonneville that afternoon, in the hope of being able to pull through the forty miles of slackening water to vancouver the following day. there i would get a tug to take the skiff up the willamette to portland, where i intended to leave her. as some of the finest scenery on the columbia is passed in the twenty miles below the cascades, this promised me another memorable day on the river--provided that there was only an occasional decent interval between showers. it was the lock-master's forecast of another rainy day, together with his assurance that the foot of the locks was generally rated as the head of tide-water, that prompted me to change my mind a few moments before i was due to pull out again to the river, and book through to portland on the _teal_. with the idea of avoiding the wash of the steamer, i pulled down to the extreme lower end of the locks before she entered, taking advantage of the interval of waiting to trim carefully and look to my oars for the pull across the foot of the cascades. i was intending to let the _teal_ lock out ahead of me, and then pull as closely as possible in her wake, so as to have her below me to pick up the pieces in case anything went wrong. it was close to twilight now, with the sodden west darkening early under the blank grey cloud-mass of another storm blowing up-river from the sea. if that impetuous squall could have curbed its impatience and held off a couple of minutes longer, it might have had the satisfaction of treating me to a good soaking, if nothing more. as it was, i flung up my hands and _kamerad-ed_ at the opening pelt of the big rain-drops. speaking as one columbia river skipper to another, i hailed the captain of the _j. n. teal_ and asked him if he would take me and my boat aboard. "where bound?" he bawled back. "portland," i replied. "aw right. pull up sta'bo'd bow lively--'fore gate open!" a dozen husky roustabouts, urged on by an impatient mate, scrambled to catch the painter and give us a hand-up. i swung over the side all right, but _imshallah_, hanging back a bit, came in for some pretty rough pulling and hauling before they got her on deck. the two or three of her planks that were started in the melée constituted about the worst injury the little lady received on the whole voyage. and so _imshallah_ and i came aboard the _j. n. teal_ to make the last leg of our voyage as passengers. the gates were turning back before i had reached the upper deck, and a few minutes later the powerfully-engined old stern-wheeler went floundering across the foam-streaked tail of the cascades and off down the river. castle rock--nine hundred feet high and sheer-walled all around--was no more than a ghostly blur in the darkness as we slipped by in the still rapidly moving current. multnomah's majesty was blanked behind the curtain of night and a driving rain, and only a distant roar on the port beam told where one of the loveliest of american waterfalls took its six-hundred-foot leap from the brink of the southern wall of the river. cape horn and rooster rock were swathed to their foundations in streaming clouds. once the _teal_ was out on the comparatively open waters of the lower river, the captain came down for a yarn with me--as one columbia skipper to another. he had spent most of his life on the snake and lower columbia, but he seemed to know the rapids and canyons below the canadian line almost reef by reef, and all of the old skippers i had met by reputation. he said that he had never heard of any one's ever having deliberately attempted to run the cascades in anything smaller than a steamer, although an endless lot of craft had come to grief by getting in there by accident. the only time a man ever went through in a small boat and came out alive was about ten years ago. that lucky navigator, after drinking most of a saturday night in the town, came down to the river in the dim grey dawn of a sunday, got into his boat and pushed off. it was along toward church-time that a ferry-man, thirty miles or more down river, picked up a half filled skiff. quietly sleeping in the stern-sheets, with nothing but his nose above water, was the only man that ever came through the cascades in a small boat. the captain looked at me with a queer smile after he told that story. "i don't suppose you were heeled to tackle the cascades just like that?" he asked finally. and so, for the last time, i was taken for a boot-legger. but no--not quite the last. i believe it was the porter at hotel portland who asked me if--ahem!--if i had got away with anything from canada. and for all of that incessant trail of smoke, no fire--or practically none. the day of my arrival in portland i delivered _imshallah_ up to the kindest-faced boat-house proprietor on the willamette and told him to take his time about finding her a home with some sport-loving oregonian who knew how to treat a lady right and wouldn't give her any kind of menial work to do. i told him i didn't want to have her work for a living under any conditions, as i felt she had earned a rest; and to impress upon whoever bought her that she was high-spirited and not to be taken liberties with, such as subjecting her to garbage shower-baths and similar indignities. he asked me if she had a name, and i told him that she hadn't--any more; that the one she had been carrying had ceased to be in point now her voyage was over. it had been a very appropriate name for a boat on the columbia, though, i assured him, and i was going to keep it to use if i ever made the voyage again. portland, although it is not directly upon the columbia, has always made that river distinctively its own. i had realized that in a vague way for many years, but it came home to me again with renewed force now that i had arrived in portland after having had some glimpse of every town and village from the selkirks to the sea. (astoria and the lower river i had known from many steamer voyages in the past.) of all the thousands living on or near the columbia, those of portland still struck me as being the ones who held this most strikingly individual of all the world's rivers at most nearly its true value. with portlanders, i should perhaps include all of those living on the river from astoria to the dalles. these, too, take a mighty pride in their great river, and regard it with little of that distrustful reproach one remarks so often on the upper columbia, where the settlers see it bearing past their parched fields the water and the power that would mean the difference to them between success and disaster. when this stigma has been wiped out by reclamation (as it soon will be), without a doubt the plucky pioneers of the upper columbia will see in their river many beauties that escape their troubled eyes to-day. the early romans made some attempt to give expression to their love of the tiber in monuments and bridges. it would be hard indeed to conceive of anything in marble or bronze, or yet in soaring spans of steel, that would give adequate expression to the pride of the people of the lower columbia in their river; and so it is a matter of felicitation that they have sought to pay their tribute in another way. there was inspiration behind the conception of the idea of the columbia highway, just as there was genius and rare imagination in the carrying out of that idea. i have said that the cascade gorge of the columbia is a scenic wonder apart from all others; that it stands without a rival of its kind. perhaps the greatest compliment that i can pay to the columbia highway is to say that it is worthy of the river by which it runs. (the end) * * * * * transcriber notes: alternate spellings and archaic words have been retained. page : "experienced" changed to "inexperienced" (roos was young and inexperienced). page : added closing quotation mark which was missing in the original ("... than some the old girl's had."). page : "rifflles" changed to "riffles" (four or five riffles below). page : "lientenant" changed to "lieutenant" (lieutenant thomas w. symons). page : "avenue" changed to "avenue" (fifth avenue). page : "spilts" changed to "splits" (the river splits upon). page : "goddes" changed to "goddess" (this goddess of the columbia). page : "staight" changed to "straight" (straight on through to). page : "a" added to sentence for continuity (we were going to have a run for our money). page : added "and" (miss s---- and i). page : "of" changed to "or" (the two or three of her planks). page : "mélee" changed to "melée" (that were started in the melée). generously made available by internet archive (https://archive.org) note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the more than original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h.zip) images of the original pages are available through internet archive. see https://archive.org/details/guardiansofcolu willrich transcriber's note: text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). the guardians of the columbia * * * * * the mountain i hold above a careless land the menace of the skies; within the hollow of my hand the sleeping tempest lies. mine are the promise of the morn, the triumph of the day; and parting sunset's beams forlorn upon my heights delay. --edward sydney tylee * * * * * [illustration: copyright dr. u. m. lauman dawn on spirit lake, north side of mt. st. helens. "night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." shakespeare.] the guardians of the columbia mount hood, mount adams and mount st. helens by john h. williams author of "the mountain that was 'god'" _and mountains that like giants stand to sentinel enchanted land._ scott: "the lady of the lake." with more than two hundred illustrations including eight in colors tacoma john h. williams [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister climbing the last steep slope on mount hood, from cooper's spur, with ropes anchored on summit.] copyright, , by john h. williams [illustration: willamette river at portland, with ships loading wheat and lumber for foreign ports.] foreword in offering this second volume of a proposed series on western mountain scenery, i am fortunate in having a subject as unhackneyed as was that of "the mountain that was 'god.'" the columbia river has been described in many publications about the northwest, but the three fine snow-peaks guarding its great canyon have received scant attention, and that mainly from periodicals of local circulation. these peaks are vitally a part of the vast cascade-columbia scene to which they give a climax. hence the story here told by text and picture has necessarily included the stage upon which they were built up. and since the great forests of this mountain and river district are a factor of its beauty as well as its wealth, i am glad to be able to present a brief chapter about them from the competent hand of mr. h. d. langille, formerly of the united states forest service. a short bibliography, with notes on transportation routes, hotels, guides and other matters of interest to travelers and students, will be found at the end. accuracy has been my first aim. i have tried to avoid the exaggeration employed in much current writing for the supposed edification of tourists. it has seemed to me that simply and briefly to tell the truth about the fascinating columbia country would be the best service i could render to those who love its splendid mountains and its noble river. a mass of books, government documents and scientific essays has been examined. this literature is more or less contradictory, and as i cannot hope to have avoided all errors, i shall be grateful for any correction of my text. in choosing the illustrations, i have sought to show the individuality of each peak. mountains, like men, wear their history on their faces,--none more so than hood's sharp and finely scarred pyramid; or adams, with its wide, truncated dome and deeply carved slopes; or st. helens, newest of all our extinct volcanoes--if, indeed, it be extinct,--and least marred by the ice, its cone as perfect as fujiyama's. each has its own wonderful story to tell of ancient and often recent vulcanism. let me again suggest that readers who would get the full value of the more comprehensive illustrations will find a reading glass very useful. thanks are due to many helpers. more than fifty photographers, professional and amateur, are named in the table of illustrations. without their co-operation the book would have been impossible. i am also indebted for valued information and assistance to the librarians at the portland and tacoma public libraries, the officers and members of the several mountaineering clubs in portland, and the passenger departments of the railways reaching that city; to prof. harry fielding reid, the eminent geologist of johns hopkins university; fred g. plummer, geographer of the united states forest service; dr. george otis smith, director of the united states geological survey; judge harrington putnam, of new york, president of the american alpine club; messrs. rodney l. glisan, william m. ladd, h. o. stabler, t. h. sherrard, judge w. b. gilbert, h. l. pittock, george h. himes, john gill, c. e. rusk, and others in portland and elsewhere. the west has much besides magnificent scenery to give those who visit it. here have been played, upon a grander stage, the closing acts in the great drama of state-building which opened three hundred years ago on the atlantic coast. the setting has powerfully moulded the history, and we must know one if we would understand the other. europe, of course, offers to the american student of culture and the arts something which travel here at home cannot supply. but every influence that brings the different sections of the united states into closer touch and fuller sympathy makes for patriotism and increased national strength. this, rather than regret for the two hundred millions of dollars which our tourists spend abroad each year, is the true basis of the "see america first" movement. according to his capacity, the tourist commonly gets value for his money, whether traveling in europe or america. but eastern ignorance of the west is costing the country more than the drain of tourist money. this volume is presented, therefore, as a call to better appreciation of the splendor and worth of our own land. its publication will be justified if it is found to merit in some degree the commendation given its predecessor by prof. w. d. lyman, of whitman college, whose delightful book on the columbia has been consulted and whose personal advice has been of great value throughout my work. "i wish to express the conviction," writes prof. lyman, "that you have done an inestimable service to all who love beauty, and who stand for those higher things among our possessions that cannot be measured in money, but which have an untold bearing upon the finer sensibilities of a nation." tacoma, june , . [illustration: mount adams, seen from south slope of mount st. helens, near the summit, showing the cascade ranges below. note the great burn in the forest cover of the ridges. "steamboat mountain" is seen in the distance beyond. elevation of camera, nearly , feet.] [illustration: looking up the columbia at lyle, washington.] contents i. the river. dawn at cloud cap inn--the geological dawn--cascade-sierra uptilt--rise of the snow-peaks--an age of vulcanism--origin of the great columbia gorge--dawn in indian legend--the "bridge of the gods"--victory of young chinook--dawn of modern history--the pioneers and the state builders ii. the mountains. portland's snowy sentinels--ruskin on the mountains--cascades vs. alps--mount hood and its retreating glaciers--the mazamas--a shattered crater--mount adams--lava and ice caves--mount st. helens--the struggle of the forest on the lava beds--adventures of the climbers--the mazamas in peril--an heroic rescue iii. the forests, by harold douglas langille. outposts at timber line--the alpine parks--zone of the great trees--douglas fir--from snow-line to ocean beach--conservation and reforestation notes illustrations the * indicates engravings from copyrighted photographs. see notice under the illustration. three-color halftones. title photographer page *dawn on spirit lake, north side of mount st. helens dr. u. m. lauman frontispiece *st. peter's dome, with the columbia and mount adams g. m. weister *nightfall on the columbia kiser photo co. *columbia river and mount hood, from white salmon, washington kiser photo co. *mount hood, with crevasses of eliot glacier g. m. weister *ice castle and crevasse, eliot glacier g. m. weister *columbia river and mount adams, from hood river, oregon benj. a. gifford an island of color--rhododendrons and squaw grass asahel curtis one-color halftones. title photographer page *climbing to summit of mount hood from cooper spur g. m. weister willamette river and portland harbor g. m. weister mount adams, from south slope of mount st. helens g. m. weister columbia river at lyle william r. king mount hood, seen from the columbia at vancouver l. c. henrichsen trout lake and mount adams prof. harry fielding reid mount st. helens, seen from the columbia, with railway bridge c. s. reeves *view up the columbia, opposite astoria g. m. weister astoria in from an old print *view north from eliot glacier g. m. weister columbia slough, near mouth of the willamette george f. holman *cape horn kiser photo co. mount hood, seen from columbia slough l. c. henrichsen *campfire of yakima indians at astoria centennial frank woodfield sunset at mouth of the columbia frank woodfield portland, the willamette, and mounts hood, adams and st. helens angelus photo co. "the coming of the white man" l. c. henrichsen "sacajawea" g. m. weister sunset on vancouver lake jas. waggener, jr. fort vancouver in from an old lithograph *rooster rock g. m. weister seining for salmon on the lower columbia frank woodfield *the columbia near butler, looking across to multnomah falls kiser photo co. captain som-kin, chief of indian police lee moorehouse *multnomah falls in summer and winter ( ) kiser photo co. *view from the cliffs at multnomah falls kiser photo co. *the broad columbia, seen from lone rock kiser photo co. castle rock, seen from mosquito island kiser photo co. *the columbia opposite oneonta gorge and horsetail falls kiser photo co. an original american c. c. hutchins *view from elevation west of st. peter's dome kiser photo co. *oneonta gorge g. m. weister looking up the columbia, near bonneville h. j. thorne salmon trying to jump the falls of the willamette jas. waggener, jr. *in the columbia canyon at cascade kiser photo co. *the cascades of the columbia g. m. weister *fishwheel below the cascades, with table mountain g. m. weister *sunrise on the columbia, from top of table mountain kiser photo co. looking down the columbia below the cascades l. j. hicks *wind mountain and submerged forest g. m. weister steamboat entering cascades locks g. m. weister moonlight on the columbia, with clouds on wind mountain c. s. reeves *white salmon river and its gorge ( ) kiser photo co. looking down the columbia canyon from white salmon, washington s. c. reeves an oregon trout stream l. c. henrichsen looking up the columbia from hood river, oregon f. c. howell *hood river, fed by the glaciers of mount hood benj. a. gifford a late winter afternoon; the columbia from white salmon c. c. hutchins *memaloose island g. m. weister "gateway to the inland empire;" the columbia at lyle kiser photo co. "grant castle" and palisades of the columbia below the dalles g. m. weister *the dalles of the columbia, lower channel g. m. weister cabbage rock lee moorehouse a true fish story of the columbia frank woodfield the zigzag river in winter t. brook white *the dalles, below celilo g. m. weister the "witch's head," an indian picture rock lee moorehouse village of indian tepees, umatilla reservation lee moorehouse mount adams, seen from eagle peak asahel curtis a clearing in the forest; mount hood from sandy, oregon l. c. henrichsen an indian madonna and child lee moorehouse finished portion of canal at celilo ed. ledgerwood *sentinels of "the wallula gateway" g. m. weister *tumwater, the falls of the columbia at celilo kiser photo co. *summit of mount hood, from west end of ridge g. m. weister north side of mount hood, from ridge west of cloud cap inn george r. miller winter on mount hood rodney l. glisan *watching the climbers, from cloud cap inn g. m. weister lower end of eliot glacier, seen from cooper spur e. d. jorgensen snout of eliot glacier prof. w. d. lyman cone of mount hood, seen from cooper spur f. w. freeborn cloud cap inn george r. miller *portland's white sentinel, mount hood g. m. weister *ice cascade on eliot glacier, mount hood g. m. weister portland snow-shoe club members on eliot glacier in winter rodney l. glisan *snow-bridge over great crevasse, eliot glacier g. m. weister *coasting down east side of mount hood, above cooper spur. g. m. weister *mount hood, from hills south of the dalles g. m. weister *mount hood, from larch mountain l. j. hicks butterfly on summit of mount hood shoji endow portland snow-shoe club and club house ( ) rodney l. glisan fumarole, or gas vent, near crater rock l. j. hicks looking across the head of eliot glacier shoji endow mount hood at night, from cloud cap inn william m. ladd climbing mount hood; the rope anchor ( ) george r. miller and shoji endow north side of mount hood, from moraine of coe glacier prof. harry fielding reid *looking west on summit, with mazama rock below g. m. weister summit of mount hood, from mazama rock f. w. freeborn mount hood, from sandy canyon l. j. hicks crevasses of coe glacier ( ) mary c. voorhees *crevasse and ice pinnacles on eliot glacier g. m. weister mount hood, seen from the top of barret spur prof. harry fielding reid ice cascade, south side of mount hood prof. j. n. leconte little sandy or reid glacier, west side of mount hood elisha coalman portland y. m. c. a. party starting for the summit a. m. grilley crater of mount hood, seen from south side l. j. hicks south side of mount hood, from tom-dick-and-harry ridge l. e. anderson crag on which above view was taken h. j. thorne part of the "bergschrund" above crater rock g. m. weister prof. reid and party exploring zigzag glacier asahel curtis mazamas near crater rock ( ) asahel curtis portland ski club on south side of mount hood e. d. jorgensen mount hood lily william l. finley mazama party exploring white river glacier ( ) asahel curtis newton clark glacier, seen from cooper spur shoji endow looking from mount jefferson to mount hood l. j. hicks *shadow of mount hood g. m. weister snout of newton clark glacier prof. harry fielding reid *mount hood and hood river benj. a. gifford lava flume near trout lake ray m. filloon y. m. c. a. party from north yakima at red butte eugene bradbury ice cave in lava bed near trout lake ray m. filloon *mount adams, from northeast side of mount st. helens g. m. weister mount adams, from trout creek at guler l. j. hicks climbers on south butte ray m. filloon dawn on mount adams, telephotographed from guler at a.m. l. j. hicks foraging in the snow crissie cameron *steel's cliff, southeast side of mount hood g. m. weister mazamas climbing mount adams asahel curtis mount adams from lake, with hotel site above ed. hess climbing from south peak to middle peak l. j. hicks mount adams, seen from happy valley asahel curtis mount adams, from snow-plow mountain ed. hess *wind-whittled ice near summit of mount adams s. c. smith mazama glacier and hellroaring canyon ( ) william r. king nearing the summit of mount adams, south side shoji endow ice cascade, above klickitat glacier ray m. filloon an upland park h. o. stabler mount adams and klickitat glacier prof. harry fielding reid storm on klickitat glacier, seen from the ridge of wonders prof. w. d. lyman snow cornice and crevasse, head of klickitat glacier ( ) h. v. abel and ray m. filloon mount adams, from the northeast prof. harry fielding reid *mount adams, from sunnyside, washington asahel curtis crevasse in lava glacier eugene bradbury north peak, with the mountaineers starting for the summit w. m. gorham snow-bridge over killing creek w. h. gorham route up the cleaver, north side of mount adams eugene bradbury looking across adams glacier carlyle ellis "the mountain that was 'god'" seen from mount adams asahel curtis northwest slope of mount adams prof. harry fielding reid mount adams from the southwest prof. w. d. lyman scenes in the lewis river canyon ( ) jas. waggener, jr. *mount adams from trout lake kiser photo co. scenes on lava bed, south of mount st. helens ( ) jas. waggener, jr. lava flume, south of mount st. helens jas. waggener, jr. entrance to lava flume rodney l. glisan mount st. helens, seen from portland l. c. henrichsen *mount st. helens, from chelatchie prairie jas. waggener, jr. mount st. helens, seen from twin buttes ray m. filloon canyons of south toutle river u. s. forest service lower toutle canyon jas. waggener, jr. northeast side of mount st. helens dr. u. m. lauman mazamas on summit of mt. st. helens shortly before sunset marion randall parsons mount st. helens in winter dr. u. m. lauman mount st. helens, north side, from near the snow line dr. u. m. lauman glacier scenes, east of the "lizard." ( ) dr. u. m. lauman *finest of the st. helens glaciers g. m. weister *road among the douglas firs asahel curtis ships loading lumber at one of portland's mills the timberman outposts of the forest shoji endow alpine hemlocks at the timber line ray m. filloon mazamas at the foot of mount st. helens e. s. curtis a lowland ravine e. s. curtis *the noble fir kiser photo co. dense hemlock forest g. m. weister mount hood, from ghost-tree ridge george r. miller *a group of red cedars asahel curtis road to government camp a. m. grilley firs and hemlocks, in clarke county, washington jas. waggener, jr. *where man is a pigmy g. m. weister hemlock growing on cedar log asahel curtis tideland spruce frank woodfield sugar pine, douglas fir and yellow pine jas. waggener, jr. yellow cedar, with young silver fir h. d. norton *one of the kings of treeland benj. a. gifford *firs and vine maples jas. waggener, jr. log raft benj. a. gifford a "burn" on mount hood, overgrown with squaw grass asahel curtis *a noble fir benj. a. gifford western white pine unknown a clatsop forest h. d. langille carpet of firs j. e. ford winter in the forest, near mount hood e. d. jorgensen rangers' pony trail a. p. cronk forest fire on east fork of hood river william m. ladd reforestation; three generations of young growth h. d. langille klickitat river canyon william r. king maps. the scenic northwest mount hood mount adams mount st. helens [illustration: the scenic northwest relief map to accompany "the guardians _of the_ columbia" by john h. williams designed by g. h. mulldorfer.--portland.] [illustration: a gray day on the columbia. telephotograph of mount hood from the river opposite vancouver barracks.] [illustration: trout lake and mount adams.] the guardians of the columbia i. the river the columbia, viewed as one from the sea to the mountains, is like a rugged, broad-topped picturesque old oak, about six hundred miles long, and nearly a thousand miles wide, measured across the spread of its upper branches, the main limbs gnarled and swollen with lakes and lake-like expansions, while innumerable smaller lakes shine like fruit among the smaller branches.--_john muir._ on a frosty morning of last july, before sunrise, i stood upon the belvedere of the delightful cloud cap inn, which a public-spirited man of portland has provided for visitors to the north side of mount hood; and from that superb viewpoint, six thousand feet above sea level, watched the day come up out of the delicate saffron east. behind us lay eliot glacier, sloping to the summit of the kindling peak. before us rose--an ocean! [illustration: mount st. helens, seen from the columbia at vancouver, with railway bridge in foreground.] never was a marine picture of greater stress. no watcher from the crags, none who go down to the sea in ships, ever beheld a scene more awful. ceaselessly the mighty surges piled up against the ridge at our feet, as if to tear away the solid foundations of the mountain. towers and castles of foam were built up, huge and white, against the sullen sky, only to hurl themselves into the gulf. far to the north, dimly above this gray and heaving surface were seen the crests of three snow-mantled mountains, paler even than the undulating expanse from which they emerged. all between was a wild sea that rolled across sixty miles of space to assail those ghostly islands. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister view up the columbia on north side, opposite astoria. noon rest of the night fishermen. much of the fishing on the lower columbia is done at night with gill-nets from small boats. the river is here six miles wide.] yet the tossing breakers gave forth no roar. it was a spectral and pantomimic ocean. we "had sight of proteus rising from the sea," but no triton of the upper air blew his "wreathed horn." cold and uncanny, all that seething ocean was silent as a windless lake under summer stars. it was a sea of clouds. [illustration: astoria in , showing the trading post established by john jacob astor.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister looking north from lower end of eliot glacier on mount hood, across the cascade ranges and the columbia river canyon, twenty-five miles away, to mount adams (right), mount rainier-tacoma (center), and mount st. helens (left). these snow-peaks are respectively , , and miles distant.] swiftly the dawn marched westward. the sun, breaking across the eastern ridges, sent long level beams to sprinkle the cloud-sea with silver. its touch was magical. the billows broke and parted. the mists fled in panic. cloud after cloud arose and was caught away into space. the tops of the cascade ranges below came, one by one, into view. lower and lower, with the shortening shadows, the wooded slopes were revealed in the morning light. here and there some deep vale was still white and hidden. scattered cloud-fleeces clung to pinnacles on the cliffs. northward, the snow-peaks in washington towered higher. great banks of fog embraced their forested abutments, and surged up to their glaciers. but the icy summits smiled in the gladness of a new day. the reign of darkness and mist was broken. never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendor valley, rock or hill. clearer and wider the picture grew. below us, the orchards of hood river caught the fresh breezes and laughed in the first sunshine. the day reached down into the nearer canyons, and saluted the busy, leaping brooks. noisy waterfalls filled the glens with spray, and built rainbows from bank to bank, then hurried and tumbled on, in conceited haste, as if the ocean must run dry unless replenished by their wetness ere the sun should set again. rippling lakes, in little mountain pockets, signaled their joy as blankets of dense vapor were folded up and quickly whisked away. [illustration: columbia slough in winter, near the mouth of the willamette.] [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. cape horn, tall basaltic cliffs that rise, terrace upon terrace, on the north side of the columbia, twenty-five miles east of portland. lone rock is seen in the distance.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister st. peter's dome, an -foot crag on the south bank of the columbia; mt. adams in the distance "uplift against the blue walls of the sky your mighty shapes, and let the sunshine weave its golden network in your belting woods; smile down in rainbows from your falling floods, and on your kingly brows at morn and eve set crowns of fire."--whittier.] [illustration: mount hood, seen from columbia slough.] [illustration: copyright, frank woodfield campfire of yakima indians gathered at the astoria centennial, , to take part in "the bridge of the gods," a dramatization of balch's famous story. the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the astor trading post at the mouth of the columbia was made noteworthy by a revival of indian folk lore, in which the myth of the great tamahnawas bridge held first place.] thirty miles northeast, a ribbon of gold flashed the story of a mighty stream at the dalles. far beyond, even to the uplands of the umatilla and the snake, to the blue mountains of eastern washington and oregon, stretched the wheat fields and stock ranges of that vast "inland empire" which the great river watered; while westward, cut deep through a dozen folds of the cascades, the chasm it had torn on its way to the sea was traced in the faint blue that distance paints upon evergreen hills. out on our left, beyond the mountains, the willamette slipped down its famous valley to join the larger river; and still farther, a hundred and fifty miles away, our glasses caught the vague gray line of the pacific. within these limits of vision lay a noble and historic country, the lower watershed of the columbia. earth has not anything to show more fair. [illustration: sunset at the mouth of the columbia. cape hancock on right, point adams on left. view from river off astoria.] [illustration: northern part of portland, showing the willamette river flowing through it, and indicating relative position of the three snow-peaks. mount hood (right) and mount st. helens (left) are each about fifty miles away, while mount adams, seen between, is twenty miles farther.] [illustration: "the coming of the white man" and "sacajawea," statues in portland city park which commemorate the aboriginal americans.] wide as was the prospect, however, it called the imagination to a still broader view; to look back, indeed,--how many millions of years?--to an earlier dawn, bounded by the horizons of geological time. let us try to realize the panorama thus unfolded. as we look down from some aerial viewpoint, behold! there is no mount hood and no cascade range. the volcanic snow-peaks of oregon and washington are still embryo in the womb of earth. we stand face to face with the beginnings of the northwest. far south and east of our castle-in-the-air, islands rise slowly out of a pacific that has long rolled, unbroken, to the rocky mountains. we see the ocean bed pushed above the tide in what men of later ages will call the siskiyou and the blue mountains, one range in southwestern, the other in eastern, oregon. a third uptilt, the great okanogan, in northern washington, soon appears. all else is sea. upon these primitive uplands, the date is written in the fossil archives of their ancient sea beaches, raised thousands of feet above the former shore-line level. at a time when all western europe was still ocean, and busy foraminifers were strewing its floor with shells to form the chalk beds of france and england, these first lands of our northwest emerged from the great deep. it is but a glimpse we get into the immeasurable distance of the paleozoic. its time-units are centuries instead of minutes. [illustration: sunset on vancouver lake, near vancouver, washington.] [illustration: fort vancouver in .] another glance, as the next long geological age passes, and we perceive a second step in the making of the west. it is the gradual uplift of a thin sea-dike, separating the two islands first disclosed, and stretching from the present lower california to our alaska. it is a folding of the earth's crust that will, for innumerable ages, exercise a controlling influence upon the whole western slope of north america. at first merely a sea-dike, we see it slowly become a far-reaching range of hills, and then a vast continental mountain system, covering a broad region with its spurs and interlying plateaus. "the highest mountains," our school geographies used to tell us, "parallel the deepest oceans." so here, bordering its profound depths, the pacific ocean, through centuries of centuries, thrust upward, fold on fold, the lofty ridges of this colossal sierra-cascade barrier, to be itself a guide of further land building, a governor of climate, and a reservoir of water for valleys and river basins as yet unborn. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister rooster rock, south bank of the columbia.] [illustration: seining for salmon on the lower columbia.] behind this barrier, what revolutions are recorded! the inland sea, at first a huge body of ocean waters, becomes in time a fresh-water lake. in its three thousand feet of sediment, it buries the fossils of a strange reptilian life, covering hundreds of thousands of years. cycle follows cycle, altering the face of all that interior basin. its vast lake is lessened in area as it is cut off from the utah lake on the south and hemmed in by upfolds on the north. then its bed is lifted up and broken by forces of which our present-day experiences give us no example. instead of one great lake, as drainage proceeds, we behold at last a wide country of many lakes and rivers. their shores are clothed in tropical vegetation. under the palms, flourish a race of giant mammals. the broad-faced ox, the mylodon, mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, and mastodon, and with them the camel and the three-toed horse, roam the forests that are building the coal deposits for a later age. this story of the eocene and miocene time is also told in the fossils of the period, and we may read it in the strata deposited by the lakes. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. the columbia near butler, looking across to multnomah falls.] [illustration: captain som-kin, chief of indian police, umatilla reservation.] [illustration: multnomah falls in summer and winter. this fascinating cascade, the most famous in the northwest, falls feet into a basin, and then feet to the bank of the columbia below. photos copyright, kiser] age succeeds age, not always distinct, but often overlapping one another, and all changing the face of nature. the coast range rises, shutting in vast gulfs to fill later, and form the valleys of the sacramento and san joaquin in california and the willamette in oregon, with the partly filled basin of puget sound in washington. centering along the cascade barrier, an era of terrific violence shakes the very foundation of the northwest. elevations and contours are changed. new lake beds are created. watersheds and stream courses are remodeled. dry "coulees" are left where formerly rivers flowed. strata are uptilted and riven, to be cross-sectioned again by the new rivers as they cut new canyons in draining the new lakes. most important of all, outflows of melted rock, pouring from fissures in the changing earth-folds, spread vast sheets of basalt, trap and andesite over most of the interior. innumerable craters build cones of lava and scoriæ along the cascade uptilt, and scatter clouds of volcanic ashes upon the steady sea winds, to blanket the country for hundreds of miles with deep layers of future soil. a reign of ice follows the era of tropic heat. stupendous glaciers grind the volcanic rocks, and carving new valleys, endow them with fertility for new forests that will rise where once the palm forests stood. with advancing age, the earth grows cold and quiet, awakening only to an occasional volcanic eruption or earthquake as a reminder of former violence. the dawn of history approaches. the country slowly takes on its present shape. landscape changes are henceforth the work of milder forces, erosion by streams and remnant glaciers. man appears. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. view from the cliffs at multnomah falls (seen on right). castle rock is in distance on north side.] [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. the broad columbia, seen from lone rock, a small island east of cape horn. shows successive ranges of the cascades cut by the river, with archer and arrowhead mountains and castle rock in distance on north side.] [illustration: castle rock, a huge tower of columnar basalt, feet high, on north bank of the columbia, forty miles east of portland. view from mosquito island.] throughout the cycles of convulsion and revolution which we have witnessed from our eyrie in the clouds, the vital and increasing influence in the building of the northwest has been the cascade upfold. first, it merely shuts in a piece of the pacific. rising higher, its condensation of the moist ocean wind feeds the thousand streams that convert the inland seas thus enclosed from salt to fresh water, and furnish the silt deposited over their floors. the fractures and faults resulting from its uptilting spread an empire with some of the largest lava flows in geological history. it pushes its snow-covered volcanoes upward, to scatter ashes far to the east. finally, its increasing height converts a realm of tropical verdure into semi-arid land, which only its rivers, impounded by man, will again make fertile. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. the columbia, opposite oneonta bluffs and gorge, and horsetail falls.] [illustration: an original american--"jake" hunt, former klickitat chief, years old. he is said to be the oldest indian on the columbia.] in all this great continental barrier, throughout the changes which we have witnessed, there has been only one sea-level pass. for nearly a thousand miles northward from the gulf of california, the single outlet for the waters of the interior is the remarkable canyon which we first saw from the distant roof of cloud cap inn. here the columbia, greatest of western rivers, has cut its way through ranges rising more than , feet on either hand. this erosion, let us remember, has been continuous and gradual, rather than the work of any single epoch. it doubtless began when the cascade mountains were in their infancy, a gap in the prolonged but low sea-dike. the drainage, first of the vast salt lake shut off from the ocean, and then of the succeeding fresh-water lakes, has preserved this channel to the sea, cutting it deeper and deeper as the earth-folds rose higher, until at last the canyon became one of the most important river gorges in the world. thus nature prepared a vast and fruitful section of the continent for human use, and provided it with a worthy highway to the ocean. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. view from , foot elevation, west of st. peter's dome. the columbia here hurries down from the cascades with a speed varying in different seasons from six to ten miles per hour. mosquito island lies below, with castle rock opposite. beyond, the beautiful wooded ridges rise to , feet in arrowhead and table mountains, and the snowy dome of mount adams closes the scene, fifty miles away.] over this beautiful region we may descry yet another dawn, the beginnings of the northwestern world according to indian legend. the columbia river indian, like his brothers in other parts of the country, was curious about the origin of the things he beheld around him, and oppressed by things he could not see. the mysteries both of creation and of human destiny weighed heavily upon his blindness; and his mind, pathetically groping in the dark, was ever seeking to penetrate the distant past and the dim future. so far as he had any religion, it was connected with the symbols of power in nature, the forces which he saw at work about him. these forces were often terrible and ruinous, so his gods were as often his enemies as his benefactors. feeling his powerlessness against their cunning, he borrowed a cue from the "animal people," watetash, who used craft to circumvent the malevolent gods. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister oneonta gorge, south side of the columbia, thirty-three miles east of portland.] these animal people, the indian believed, had inhabited the world before the time of the first grandfather, when the sun was as yet only a star, and the earth, too, had grown but little, and was only a small island. the chief of the animal people was speelyei, the coyote, not the mightiest but the shrewdest of them all. speelyei was the friend of "people". he had bidden people to appear, and they "came out." [illustration: looking up the columbia, near bonneville. the main channel of the river is on right of the shoal in foreground.] [illustration: salmon trying to jump the falls of the willamette at oregon city.] one of the most interesting attempts to account for the existence of the red man in the northwest is the okanogan legend that tells of an island far out at sea inhabited by a race of giant whites, whose chief was a tall and powerful woman, scomalt. when her giants warred among themselves, scomalt grew angry and drove all the fighters to the end of the island. then she broke off the end of the island, and pushing with her foot sent it floating away over the sea. the new island drifted far. all the people on it died save one man and one woman. they caught a whale, and its blubber saved them from starving. at last they escaped from the island by making a canoe. in this they paddled many days. then they came to the mainland, but it was small. it had not yet grown much. here they landed. but while they had been in the canoe, the sun had turned them from white to red. all the okanogans were their children. hence they all are red. many years from now the whole of the mainland will be cut loose from its foundations, and become an island. it will float about on the sea. that will be the end of the world. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. in the columbia canyon at cascade, with train on the "north bank" road.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister the cascades of the columbia. the narrow, rock-filled channel has a fall of thirty-seven feet in four miles. here the river meets the tides from the ocean, miles away. on the opposite bank, at right, is seen table mountain, , feet, the north abutment of the legendary "bridge of the gods."] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister fishwheel below the cascades, with table mountain on north side of river.] to the aboriginal americans in the northwest the great river, "wauna" in their vocabulary, was inevitably a subject of deep interest. it not only furnished them a highway, but it supplied them with food. their most fascinating myths are woven about its history. one of these told of the mighty struggle between speelyei and wishpoosh, the greedy king beaver, which resulted in breaking down the walls of the great lakes of the interior and creating a passage for their waters through the mountains. thus the indians accounted for the columbia and its canyon. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. sunrise on the columbia; view at a. m. from top of table mountain.] [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. nightfall on the columbia. "o love, they die in yon rich sky, they faint on hill or field or river: our echoes roll from soul to soul, and grow forever and forever."--tennyson.] but first among the river myths must always be the klickitat legend of the famous natural bridge, fabled to have stood where the cascades of the columbia now are. this is one of the most beautiful legends connected with the source of fire, a problem of life in all the northern lands. further, it tells the origin of the three snow-peaks that are the subject of this book. [illustration: looking down the columbia below the cascades, showing many ranges cut by the river. on the left of the scene is "sliding mountain," its name a reminder that the hillsides on both banks are slowly moving toward the stream and compelling the railways occasionally to readjust their tracks.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister wind mountain and remnant of submerged forest, above the cascades, at low water.] [illustration: steamboat entering cascade locks.] in the time of their remote grandfathers, said the klickitats, tyhee saghalie, chief of the gods, had two sons. they made a trip together down the river to where the dalles are now. the sons saw that the country was beautiful, and quarrelled as to its possession. then saghalie shot an arrow to the north and an arrow to the west. the sons were bidden to find the arrows, and settle where they had fallen. thus one son settled in the fair country between the great river and the yakima, and became the grandfather of the klickitats. the other son settled in the willamette valley and became the ancestor of the large multnomah tribe. to keep peace between the two tribes, saghalie raised the great mountains that separate those regions. but there were not yet any snow-peaks. the great river also flowed very deep between the country of the klickitats and the country of the multnomahs. that the tribes might always be friendly, saghalie built a huge bridge of stone over the river. the indians called it the tamahnawas bridge, or bridge of the gods. the great river flowed under it, and a witch-woman, loowit, lived on it. loowit had charge of the only fire in the world. [illustration: moonlight upon the columbia, with clouds on wind mountain. looking up the river from the cascades.] [illustration: white salmon river and its gorge, south of mount adams. photos copyright, kiser] loowit saw how miserable the tribes were without fire. therefore she besought saghalie to permit her to give them fire. saghalie granted her request. thus a fire was kindled on the bridge. the indians came there and obtained fire, which greatly improved their condition. saghalie was so much pleased with loowit's faithfulness that he promised the witch-woman anything she might ask. loowit asked for youth and beauty. so saghalie transformed her into a beautiful maiden. [illustration: looking down the columbia canyon from the cliffs at white salmon, washington.] [illustration: an oregon trout stream.] many chiefs fell in love with loowit because of her beauty. but she paid heed to none till there came two other chiefs, klickitat from the north, wiyeast from the west. as she could not decide which of them to accept as her husband, they and their people went to war. great distress came upon the people because of this fighting. saghalie grew angry at their evil doing, and determined to punish them. he broke down the tamahnawas bridge, and put loowit, wiyeast and klickitat to death. but they had been beautiful in life, therefore saghalie would have them beautiful in death. so he made of them the three famous snow-peaks. wiyeast became the mountain which white men call mount hood; klickitat became mount adams; loowit was changed into mount st. helens. always, said saghalie, they should be clothed in garments of snow. [illustration: looking up the columbia from hood river, oregon.] thus was the wonderful tamahnawas bridge destroyed, and the great river dammed by the huge rocks that fell into it. that caused the cascade rapids. above the rapids, when the river is low, you can still see the forests that were buried when the bridge fell down and dammed the waters. [illustration: copyright, b. a. gifford hood river, fed by the glaciers of mount hood.] this noteworthy myth, fit to rank with the folk-lore masterpieces of any primitive people, greek or gothic, is of course only a legend. the indian was not a geologist. true, we see the submerged forests to-day, at low water. but their slowly decaying trunks were killed, perhaps not much more than a century ago, by a rise in the river that was not caused by the fall of a natural bridge, but by a landslide from the mountains. [illustration: a late winter afternoon. view across the columbia from white salmon to the mouth of hood river, showing the hood river valley with mount hood wrapped in clouds.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister memaloose island, or island of the dead, last resting place of thousands of indians. the lone monument is that of maj. victor trevitt, a celebrated pioneer, who asked to be buried here among "honest men."] there is a slow and glacier-like motion of the hillsides here which from time to time compels the railways on either bank to readjust their tracks. the rapids at the cascades, with their fall of nearly forty feet, are doubtless the result of comparatively recent volcanic action. shaking down vast masses of rock, this dammed the river, and caused it to overflow its wooded shores above. but to the traveler on a steamboat breasting the terrific current below the government locks, as he looks up to the towering heights on either side of the narrowed channel, the invention of poor lo's untutored mind seems almost as easy to believe as the simpler explanation of the scientist. [illustration: "gateway to the inland empire." towering cliffs of stratified lava that guard the columbia on each bank at lyle, washington.] remarkable as is this fire myth of the tamahnawas bridge, the legend inspired by the peculiarities of northwestern climate is no less beautiful. this climate differs materially, it is well known, from that of eastern america in the same latitude. the japan current warms the coast of oregon and washington just as the gulf stream warms the coast of ireland. east of the cascade mountains, the severe cold of a northern winter is tempered by the "chinook" winds from the pacific. a period of freezing weather is shortly followed by the melting of the snow upon the distant mountains; by night the warm chinook sweeps up the columbia canyon and across the passes, and in a few hours the mildness of spring covers the land. [illustration: "grant castle" and palisades of the columbia, on north side of the river below the dalles.] such a phenomenon inevitably stirred the indian to an attempt to interpret it. like the ancients of other races, he personified the winds. the yakima account of the struggle between the warm winds from the coast and the icy blasts out of the northeast will bear comparison with the homeric tale of ulysses, buffeted by the breezes from the bag given him by the wind-god aeolus. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister the dalles of the columbia, lower channel, east of dalles city. the river, crowded into a narrow flume, flows here at a speed often exceeding ten miles an hour.] five chinook brothers, said the yakima tradition, lived on the great river. they caused the warm winds to blow. five other brothers lived at walla walla, the meeting place of the waters. they caused the cold winds. the grandparents of them all lived at umatilla, home of the wind-blown sands. always there was war between them. they swept over the country, destroying the forests, covering the rivers with ice, or melting the snows and causing floods. the people suffered much because of their violence. [illustration: cabbage rock, a huge freak of nature standing in the open plain four miles north of the dalles. apparently, the lava core of a small extinct crater.] then walla walla brothers challenged chinook brothers to wrestle. speelyei, the coyote god, should judge the contest. he should cut off the heads of those who fell. [illustration: a true fish story of the columbia, where four- and even five-foot salmon are not uncommon.] the crafty speelyei secretly advised the grandparents of chinook brothers that if they would throw oil on the ground, their sons would not fall. this they did. but speelyei also told the grandparents of walla walla brothers that if they would throw ice on the ground, their sons would not fall. this they did. so the chinook brothers were thrown one after another, and speelyei cut off their heads, according to the bargain. so the five chinook brothers were dead. but the oldest of them left an infant son. the child's mother brought him up to avenge the killing of his kinsmen. so the son grew very strong, until he could pull up great fir trees as if they were weeds. then walla walla brothers challenged young chinook to wrestle. speelyei should judge the contest. he should cut off the heads of those who fell. secretly speelyei advised young chinook's grandparents to throw oil on the ground last. this they did. so walla walla brothers were thrown one after another by young chinook, until four of them had fallen. only the youngest of them was left. his heart failed him, and he refused to wrestle. speelyei pronounced this sentence upon him: "you shall live, but you shall no longer have power to freeze people." to young chinook, he said: "you must blow only lightly, and you must blow first upon the mountains, to warn people of your coming." [illustration: the zigzag river in winter, south side of mount hood.] [illustration: copyright g. m. weister the dalles. this name, meaning literally flat stones, was given by the early french-canadian voyageurs to the twelve-mile section below celilo, where, the columbia has cut through the level lava strata, forming a channel in some places less than feet wide and nearly feet deep at low water. at higher stages the river fills many lateral channels and roars past many islands of its own carving.] the last dawn of all opens upon the white man's era. on the columbia, recorded history is recent, but already epic. its story is outside the purpose of this volume. but it is worth while, in closing our brief glance at the field, to note that this story has been true to its setting. rich in heroism and romance, it is perhaps the most typical, as it is the latest, chapter in the development of the west. for this land of the river, its quarter-million square miles stretching far northward to canada, and far eastward to the yellowstone, built about with colossal mountains, laced with splendid waterways, jeweled with beautiful lakes, where upheaval and eruption, earthquake and glacier have prepared a home for a great and happy population, has already been the scene of a drama of curious political contradictions and remarkable popular achievement. [illustration: the "witch's head," an indian picture rock at the old native village of wishram, north side of the columbia near celilo falls. the indians believe that if an unfaithful wife passes this rock, its eyes follow her with mute accusation.] [illustration: village of indian tepees, umatilla reservation, near pendleton, oregon. many of these indians are rich landowners, but they prefer tents to houses.] the columbia river basin, alone of all the territories which the united states has added to its original area, was neither bought with money nor annexed by war. its acquisition was a triumph of the american pioneer. many nations looked with longing to this northwest, but it fell a prize to the nation that neglected it. spain and russia wished to own it. great britain claimed and practically held it. the united states ignored it. for nearly half a century after the discovery of the river by a yankee ship captain, robert gray, in , and its exploration by jefferson's expedition under lewis and clark, in , its ownership was in question. for several decades after an american merchant, john jacob astor, had established the first unsuccessful trading post, in , the country was actually ruled by the british through a private corporation. the magic circle drawn about it by the hudson's bay company seemed impenetrable. held nominally by the american and british governments in joint occupancy, it was in fact left to the halfbreed servants of a foreign monopoly that sought to hold an empire for its fur trade, and to exclude settlers because their farms would interfere with its beaver traps. congress deemed the region worthless. [illustration: mount adams, seen from eagle peak in the rainier national park. view shows some of the largest earth-folds in the cascade range, with the great canyon of the cowlitz, one of the tributaries of the columbia river. elevation of camera , feet.] [illustration: a clearing in the forest. mount hood from sandy, twenty-five miles west of the peak.] but while sleepy diplomacy played its game of chess between washington and london, the issue was joined, the title cleared and possession taken by a breed of men to whom the united states owes more than it can ever pay. from far east came the thin vanguard of civilization which, for a century after the old french and indian war, pushed our boundaries resistlessly westward. it had seized the "dark and bloody ground" of kentucky. it had held the ohio valley for the young republic during the revolution. it had built states from the alleghanies to the mississippi. and now, dragging its wagons across the plains and mountains, it burst, sun-browned and half-starved, into oregon. missionaries and traders, farmers, politicians and speculators, it was part of that army of restless spirits who, always seeing visions of more fertile lands and rising cities beyond, stayed and long in no place, until at last they found their way barred by the pacific, and therefore stayed to build the commonwealths of oregon, washington and idaho. [illustration: an indian madonna and child. umatilla reservation.] [illustration: finished portion of canal at celilo, which the government is building around tumwater falls and the dalles.] the arena of their peaceful contest was worthy of their daring. "'a land of old upheaven from the abyss,' a land of deepest deeps and highest heights, of richest verdure here, and barest desolation there, of dense forest on one side, and wide extended prairies on the other; a land of contrasts, contrasts in contour, hues, productions, and history,"--thus professor lyman describes the stage which the pioneers found set for them. the tremendous problems of its development, due to its topography, its remoteness, its magnificent distances, and its lack of transportation, demanded men of sturdiest fiber and intrepid leading. no pages of our history tell a finer story of action and initiative than those which enroll the names of mcloughlin, the great company's autocratic governor, not unfitly called "the father of oregon," and whitman, the martyr, with the frontier leaders who fashioned the first ship of state launched in the northwest, and their contemporaries, the men who built the first towns, roads, schools, mills, steamboats and railways. [illustration: copyright g. m. weister the grim sentinels of "the wallula gateway," huge basaltic pillars that rise on the south bank of the river, where it crosses the washington-oregon line. view looking south.] [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. tumwater, the falls of the columbia at celilo; total drop, twenty feet at low water. in summer, when the snow on the bitter root and rocky mountains is melting, the river rises often more than sixty feet. steamboats have then passed safely down. wishram, an ancient indian fishing village, was on the north bank below the falls, and indians may often still be seen spearing salmon from the shores and islands here.] macaulay tells us that a people who are not proud of their forebears will never deserve the pride of their descendants. the makers of old oregon included as fair a proportion of patriots and heroes as the immigrants of the mayflower. we who journey up or down the columbia in a luxurious steamer, or ride in a train _de luxe_ along its banks, are the heirs of their achievement. honor to the dirt-tanned ox-drivers who seized for themselves and us this empire of the river and its guardian snow-peaks! a lordly river, broad and deep, with mountains for its neighbors, and in view of distant mountains and their snowy tops. [illustration: copyright. g. m. weister summit of mount hood, viewed from western end of the ridge, showing north side of the peak in july.] [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. columbia river and mt. hood, seen from white salmon, washington. "beloved mountain, i thy worshiper, as thou the sun's, each morn my dawn, before the dawn, receive from thee; and think, as thy rose-tinted peak i see, that thou wert great when homer was not born, and ere thou change all human song shall die."--helen hunt jackson.] [illustration: north side of mount hood, from ridge several miles west of cloud cap inn. view shows gorges cut by the glacier-fed streams. cooper spur is on left sky line. barret spur is the great ridge on right, with ladd glacier canyon beyond. coe glacier is in center.] ii. the mountains. silent and calm, have you e'er scaled the height of some lone mountain peak, in heaven's sight? --_victor hugo._ there stood mount hood in all the glory of the alpen glow, looming immensely high, beaming with intelligence. it seemed neither near nor far.... the whole mountain appeared as one glorious manifestation of divine power, enthusiastic and benevolent, glowing like a countenance with ineffable repose and beauty, before which we could only gaze with devout and lowly admiration.--_john muir._ [illustration: winter on mount hood. the roof of the club house of the portland snow-shoe club is seen over the ridge.] from the heights which back the city of portland on the west, one may have a view that is justly famous among the fairest prospects in america. below him lies the restless city, busy with its commerce. winding up from the south comes the willamette, its fine valley narrowed here by the hills, where the river forms portland's harbor, and is lined on either side with mills and shipping. ten miles beyond, the columbia flows down from its canyon on the east, and turns northward, an expanding waterway for great vessels, to its broad pass through the coast range. in every direction, city and country, farm and forest, valley and mountain, stretches a noble perspective. from the wide rivers and their shining borders, almost at sea level, the scene arises, terrace upon terrace, to the encircling hills, and spreads across range after range to the summits of the great cascades. [illustration: copyright g. m. weister watching the climbers from the plaza at cloud cap inn, northeast side of mount hood. immediately in front, eliot glacier is seen, dropping into its canyon on the right. on the left is cooper spur, from which a sharp ascent leads to the summit of the peak.] dominating all are the snow-peaks, august sentinels upon the horizon. on a clear day, the long line of them begins far down in central oregon, and numbers six snowy domes. but any average day includes in its glory the three nearest, hood, adams, and st. helens. spirit-like, they loom above the soft oregon haze, their glaciers signaling from peak to peak, and their shining summits bidding the sordid world below to look upward. [illustration: mount hood, elevation , feet] nature has painted canvases more colorful, but none more perfect in its strength and rest. here is no flare of the desert, none of the flamboyant, terrible beauty of the grand canyon. it is a land of warm ocean winds and cherishing sunshine, where the emeralds and jades of the valleys quickly give place to the bluer greens of evergreen forests that cover the hill country; and these, in turn, as distance grows, shade into the lavenders and grays of the successive ranges. the white peaks complete the picture with its most characteristic note. they give it distinction. [illustration: lower end of eliot glacier, seen from cooper spur, and showing the lateral moraines which this receding glacier has built in recent years.] [illustration: snout of eliot glacier, its v-shaped ice front heavily covered with morainal debris.] such a panorama justifies ruskin's bold assertion: "mountains are the beginning and end of all natural scenery." without its mountains, the view from council crest would be as uninteresting as that from any tower in any prairie city. but all mountains are not alike. in beginning our journey to the three great snow-peaks which we have viewed from portland heights, it is well to define, if we may, the special character of our northwestern scene. we sometimes hear the cascade district praised as "the american switzerland." such a comparison does injustice alike to our mountains and to the alps. as a wild, magnificent sea of ice-covered mountain tops, the alps have no parallel in america. as a far-reaching system of splendid lofty ranges clothed in the green of dense forests and surmounted by towering, isolated summits of snowy volcanoes, the cascades are wholly without their equal in europe. this is the testimony of famous travelers and alpinists, among them ambassador bryce, who has written of our northwestern mountain scenery: we have nothing more beautiful in switzerland or tyrol, in norway or in the pyrenees. the combination of ice scenery with woodland scenery of the grandest type is to be found nowhere in the old world, unless it be in the himalayas, and, so far as we know, nowhere else on the american continent. [illustration: cone of mount hood, seen from cooper spur on northwest side. a popular route to the summit leads along this ridge of volcanic scoriæ and up the steep snow slope above.] [illustration: cloud cap inn, north side of mount hood. elevation , feet.] in his celebrated chapter of the "modern painters" which describes the sculpture of the mountains, ruskin draws a picture of the alps that at once sets them apart from the cascades: the longer i stayed among the alps, the more i was struck by their being a vast plateau, upon which nearly all the highest peaks stood like children set upon a table, removed far back from the edge, as if for fear of their falling. the most majestic scenes are produced by one of the great peaks having apparently walked to the edge of the table to look over, and thus showing itself suddenly above the valley in its full height. but the raised table is always intelligibly in existence, even in these exceptional cases; and for the most part, the great peaks are not allowed to come to the edge of it, but remain far withdrawn, surrounded by comparatively level fields of mountain, over which the lapping sheets of glacier writhe and flow. the result is the division of switzerland into an upper and lower mountain world; the lower world consisting of rich valleys, the upper world, reached after the first steep banks of , to , feet have been surmounted, consisting of comparatively level but most desolate tracts, half covered by glacier, and stretching to the feet of the true pinnacles of the chain. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister portland's white sentinel, mount hood. telephoto view from city park, showing a portion of the city, with modern buildings and smoke of factories.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister ice cascade on eliot glacier, mount hood.] nothing of this in the cascades! instead, we have fold upon fold of the earth-crust, separated by valleys of great depth. the ranges rise from levels but little above the sea. for example, between portland and umatilla, although they are separated by the mountains of greatest actual elevation in the united states, there is a difference of less than two hundred and fifty feet, umatilla, east of the cascades, being only two hundred and ninety-four feet above tide. trout lake, lying below mount adams, at the head of one of the great intermountain valleys, has an elevation of less than two thousand feet. [illustration: portland snow-shoe club members on eliot glacier in winter.] thus, instead of the northwestern snow-peaks being set far back upon a general upland and hidden away behind lesser mountains, to be seen only after one has reached the plateau, thousands of feet above sea level, they actually rise either from comparatively low peneplanes on one side of the cascades, as in the case of st. helens, or from the summit of one of the narrow, lofty ridges, as do hood and adams. but in either case, the full elevation is seen near at hand and from many directions--an elevation, therefore, greater and more impressive than that of most of the celebrated alpine summits. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister snow-bridge over great crevasse, near head of eliot glacier.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister coasting down east side of mount hood, above cooper spur. mount adams in distance.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister mount hood from the hills south of the dalles, showing the comparatively timberless country east of the cascades. compare this treeless region, as well as the profile of mount hood here shown, with the view from larch mountain.] famous as is the valley of chamonix, and noteworthy as are the glaciers to which it gives close access, its views of mont blanc are disappointing. not until the visitor has scaled one of the neighboring _aiguilles_, can he command a satisfactory outlook toward the monarch of the alps. and nowhere in switzerland do i recall a picture of such memorable splendor as greets the traveler from the columbia, journeying either southward, up the hood river valley toward mount hood, or northward, up the white salmon valley toward trout lake and mount adams. here is unrolled a wealth of fertile lowlands, surrounded by lofty ranges made beautiful by their deep forests and rising to grandeur in their snow-peaks. [illustration: copyright, l. j. hicks mount hood, seen from larch mountain, on the columbia river. view looking southeast across the heavily forested ranges of the cascades to the deep canyons below ladd and sandy glaciers.] [illustration: butterfly on the summit of mount hood.] leaving the canyon of the columbia, in either direction the road follows swift torrents of white glacial water that tell of a source far above. it crosses a famous valley, among its orchards and hayfields, but always in view of the dark blue mountains and of the snow-covered volcanoes that rise before and behind, their glaciers shining like polished steel in the sunlight. so the visitor reaches the foot of his mountain. losing sight of it for a time, he follows long avenues of stately trees as he climbs the benches. in a few hours he stands upon a barren shoulder of the peak, at timber line. a new world confronts him. the glaciers reach their icy arms to him from the summit, and he breathes the winds that sweep down from their fields of perennial snow. [illustration: members of portland snow-shoe club on way to mount hood in winter, and at their club house, near cloud cap inn.] [illustration: fumarole, or gas vent, near crater rock.] it is all very different from switzerland, this quick ascent from bending orchards and forested hills to a mighty peak standing white and beautiful in its loneliness. but it is so wonderful that americans who love the heights can no longer neglect it, and each year increasing numbers are discovering that here in the northwest is mountain scenery worth traveling far to see, with very noble mountains to climb, true glaciers to explore, and the widest views of grandeur and interest to enjoy. such sport combines recreation and inspiration. [illustration: looking across the head of eliot glacier from near the summit of mount hood.] the traveler from portland to either mount hood or mount adams may go by rail or steamer to hood river, oregon, or white salmon, washington. these towns are on opposite banks of the columbia at its point of greatest beauty. thence he will journey by automobile or stage up the corresponding valley to the snow-peak at its head. if he is bound for mount hood his thirty-mile ride will bring him to a charming mountain hotel, cloud cap inn, placed six thousand feet above the sea, on a ridge overlooking eliot glacier, hood's finest ice stream. [illustration: mount hood at night, seen from cloud cap inn. this view is from a negative exposed from nine o'clock until midnight.] if mount adams be his destination, a ride of similar length from white salmon will bring him merely to the foot of the mountain. the stages run only to guler, on trout lake, and to glenwood. each of these villages has a comfortable country hotel which may be made the base for fishing and hunting in the neighborhood. each is about twelve miles from the snow-line. at either place, guides, horses and supplies may be had for the trip to the mountain. glenwood is nearer to the famous hellroaring canyon and the glaciers of the southeast side. guler is a favorite point of departure for the south slope and for the usual route to the summit. another popular starting point for mount adams is goldendale, reached by a branch of the north bank railway from lyle on the columbia. this route also leads to the fine park district on the southeastern slope, and it has a special attraction, as it skirts the remarkable canyon of the klickitat river. many parties also journey to the mountain from north yakima and other towns on the northern pacific railway. hitherto, all such travel from either north or south has meant a trip on foot or horseback over interesting mountain trails, and has involved the necessity of packing in camp equipment and supplies. during the present summer, a hotel is to be erected a short distance from the end of mazama glacier, at an altitude of about sixty-five hundred feet, overlooking hellroaring canyon on one side, and on the other a delightful region of mountain tarns, waterfalls and alpine flower meadows. its verandas will command the mazama and klickitat glaciers, and an easy route will lead to the summit. with practicable roads from goldendale and glenwood, it should draw hosts of lovers of scenery and climbing, and aid in making this great mountain as well known as it deserves to be. [illustration: climbing mount hood, with ropes anchored on the summit and extending down on east and south faces of the peak.] [illustration: north side of mount hood, seen from moraine of coe glacier. this glacier flows down from the summit, where its snow-field adjoins that of eliot glacier (left). west of the coe, the ladd glacier is seen, separated from the former by pulpit rock, the big crag in the middle distance, and barrett spur, the high ridge on the right.] visitors going to mount hood from portland have choice of a second very attractive hotel base in government camp, on the south slope at an altitude of thirty-nine hundred feet. this is reached by automobiles from the city, over a fair road that will soon be a good road, thanks to the portland automobile club. the mountain portion of this highway is the historic barlow road, opened in , the first wagon road constructed across the cascades. as the motor climbs out of the sandy river valley, and grapples the steep moraines built by ancient icefields, the traveler gets a very feeling reminder of the pluck of captain barlow and his company of oregon "immigrants" in forcing a way across these rugged heights. but the beauty of the trip makes it well worth while, and government camp gives access to a side of the peak that should be visited by all who would know how the sun can shatter a big mountain with his mighty tools of ice. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister looking west on summit of mount hood, with mazama rock below.] [illustration: summit of mount hood, from mazama rock, showing the sun-cupped ice of midsummer.] [illustration: mount hood, seen from sandy river canyon, six miles west of snow line. this important picture begins with barrett spur and ladd glacier on the north sky line (left). on the northwest face of the peak is the main sandy glacier, its end divided by a ridge into two parts. the forested "plowshare" projecting into the canyon is yocum ridge. south of it the south branch of the sandy river flows down from a smaller glacier called the little sandy, or reid. the broad bottom of this canyon and the scored cliffs on its sides show that it was formerly occupied by the glacier.] the hotel here was erected in by o. c. yocum, under whose competent guidance many hundreds of climbers reached the summit of mount hood. the hotel is now owned by elisha coalman, who has also succeeded to his predecessor's office as guide. during the last year he has enlarged his inn, and he is now also building comfortable quarters for climbers at a camp four miles nearer the snow line, on the ridge separating white river glacier from zigzag glacier. mount hood. mount hood is the highest mountain in oregon, and because of a general symmetry in its pyramidal shape and its clear-cut, far-seen features of rock and glacier, it has long been recognized as one of the most beautiful of all american snow peaks. rising from the crest of the cascades, it presents its different profiles and variously sculptured faces to the entire valley of the columbia, east and west, above which it towers in stately magnificence, a very king of the mountains, ruling over a domain of ranges, valleys and cities proud of their allegiance. [illustration: crevasses on coe glacier.] on october , , lieutenant broughton, of vancouver's exploring expedition in quest of new territories for his majesty george iii., discovered from the columbia near the mouth of the willamette, "a very distant high snowy mountain, rising beautifully conspicuous," which he strangely mistook to be the source of the great river. forthwith he named it in honor of rear admiral samuel hood, of the british admiralty who had distinguished himself in divers naval battles during the american and french revolutions. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister mount hood, with crevasses of eliot glacier in foreground. "evermore the wind is thy august companion; yea, thy peers are cloud and thunder, and the face sublime of the blue mid-heaven."--henry clarence kendall.] the mountain has been climbed more often than any other american snow-peak. the first ascent was made on august , , from the south side, by a party under captain barlow, builder of the "immigrant road." one of the climbers, editor dryer of _the oregonian_, published an account of the trip in which, with more exactness than accuracy, he placed the height of the mountain at , feet! the most notable ascent by a large party took place forty years later, when nearly two hundred men and women met on the summit, and there, with parliamentary dispatch bred of a bitter wind, organized a mountain club which has since become famous. for its title they took the name "mazama," mexican for the mountain goat, close kin to the alpine chamois. membership was opened to those who have scaled a snow-peak on foot. by their publications and their annual climbs, the mazamas have done more than any other agency to promote interest in our northwestern mountains. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister crevasses and ice pinnacles on eliot glacier, mount hood.] [illustration: mount hood, seen from the top of barrett spur. on the left, cascading down from the summit, is coe glacier; on the right, ladd glacier. the high cliff separating them is "pulpit rock."] [illustration: ice cascade, south side of mount hood, near head of white river glacier.] mount hood stands, as i have said, upon the summit of the cascades. the broad and comparatively level back of the range is here about four thousand feet above the sea. upon this plane the volcano erected its cone, chiefly by the expulsion of scoriæ rather than by extensive lava flows, to a farther height of nearly a mile and a half. there is no reason to suppose that it ever greatly exceeded its present altitude, which government observations have fixed at , feet. its diameter at its base is approximately seven miles from east to west. [illustration: little sandy or reid glacier, west side of mount hood.] compared with mount adams, its broken and decapitated northern neighbor, mount hood, although probably dating from miocene time, is still young enough to have retained in a remarkable degree the general shape of its original cone. but as we approach it from any direction, we find abundant proof that powerful destructive agents have been busy during the later geological ages. already the summit plateau upon which the peak was built up has been largely dissected by the glaciers and their streams. the whole neighborhood of the mountain is a vastly rugged district of glacial canyons and eroded water channels, trenched deep in the soft volcanic ashes and the underlying ancient rock of the range. the mountain itself, although still a pyramid, also has its story of age and loss. its eight glaciers have cut away much of its mass. on three sides they have burrowed so deeply into the cone that its original angle, which surviving ridges show to have been about thirty degrees, has on the upper glacial slopes been doubled. this is well illustrated by the views shown on pages , , and . [illustration: portland y. m. c. a. party starting for the summit at daybreak. south side of mount hood.] [illustration: crater of mount hood, seen from south side. its north rim is the distant summit ridge. steel's cliff (right) and illumination rock (left) are parts of east and west rims. the south wall has been torn away, but the hard lava core remains in crater rock, the cone rising in center. note the climbers ascending the "hog-back" or ridge leading from crater rock up to the "bergschrund," a great crevasse which stretches across the crater at head of the glaciers. the ridge in foreground is triangle moraine. on its right is white river glacier; on left, the fan-shaped zigzag glacier.] this cutting back into the mountain has greatly lessened the area of the upper snow-fields. the reservoirs feeding the glaciers, are therefore much smaller than of old, but, by way of compensation, present a series of most interesting ice formations on the steeper slopes. in this respect, mount hood is especially noteworthy among our northwestern snow-peaks. while larger glaciers are found on other mountains, none are more typical. the glaciers of hood especially repay study because of their wonderful variety of ice-falls, terraces, seracs, towers, castles, pinnacles and crevasses. winter has fashioned a colossal architecture of wild forms. ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow adown enormous ravines slope amain,-- torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, and stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! motionless torrents! silent cataracts! [illustration: south side of mount hood, seen from crag on tom-dick-and-harry ridge, five miles from the snow-line. a thousand feet below is the hotel called "government camp," with the barlow road, the first across the cascades. on left are zigzag and sand canyons, cut by streams from zigzag glacier above.] [illustration: crag on which above view was taken.] the visitor who begins his acquaintance with mount hood on the north side has, from cloud cap inn, four interesting glaciers within a radius of a few miles. immediately before the inn, eliot glacier displays its entire length of two miles, its snout being only a few rods away. west of this, coe and ladd glaciers divide the north face with the eliot. all three have their source in neighboring reservoirs near the summit, which have been greatly reduced in area. this, with the resulting shrinkage in the glaciers, is shown by the high lateral moraines left as the width of the ice streams has lessened. on the east slope is a fine cliff glacier, the newton clark, separated from the eliot by cooper spur, a long ridge that furnishes the only feasible north-side route for climbers to the summit. [illustration: part of the "bergschrund" above crater rock. a bergschrund is a crevasse of which the lower side lies much below its upper side. it is caused by a sharp fall in the slope, or by the ice at the head of a glacier pulling away from the packed snow above.] climbing cooper spur is a tedious struggle up a long cinder slope, but it has its reward in fine views of the near-by glaciers and a wide outlook over the surrounding country. a tramp of three miles from the inn covers the easier grade, and brings the climber to a height of eight thousand feet. a narrow, snow-covered chine now offers a windy path to the foot of the steeper slope (see p. ). the climb ends with the conquest of a half-mile of vertical elevation over a grade that tests muscle, wind and nerve. this is real mountaineering, and as the novice clutches the rocks, or carefully follows in the steps cut by the guide, he recalls a command well adapted to such trying situations: "prove all things; hold fast that which is good." but the danger is more apparent than real, and the goal is soon reached. [illustration: prof. harry fielding reid and party exploring zigzag glacier, south side of mount hood. illumination rock is seen beyond.] the south-side route, followed by the barlow party of , was long deemed the only practicable trail to the summit. many years later, william a. langille discovered the route up from cooper spur. the only accident charged against this path befell a stranger who was killed in trying to climb it without a guide. its steepness is, indeed, an advantage, as it requires less time than the other route. climbers frequently ascend by one trail and descend by the other, thus making the trip between cloud cap inn and government camp in a day. [illustration: mazamas climbing the "hog-back," above crater rock, and passing this rock on the descent.] the actual summit of mount hood is a narrow but fairly level platform, a quarter of a mile long, which is quickly seen to be part of the rim of the ancient crater. below it, on the north, are the heads of three glaciers already mentioned, the eliot, coe and ladd; and looking down upon them, the climber perceives that here the mountain has been so much cut away as to be less a slope than a series of precipices, with very limited benches which serve as gathering grounds of snow. (see pp. , and .) these shelves feed the lower ice-streams with a diet of avalanches that is year by year becoming less bountiful as this front becomes more steep. soon, indeed, geologically speaking, the present summit, undermined by the ice, must fall, and the mountain take on a new aspect, with a lower, broader top. thus while the beautiful verse which i have quoted under the view of mount hood from white salmon (p. ) is admirable poetry, its last line is very poor geology. this, however, need not deter any present-day climbers! on the south side of the summit ridge a vastly different scene is presented. looking down over its easy slope, one recognizes even more clearly than from the north-side view that mount hood is merely a wreck of its former graceful cone, a torn and disintegrating remnant, with very modest pretensions to symmetry, after all, but still a fascinating exhibit of the work of such gargantuan forces as hew and whittle such peaks. [illustration: portland ski club on south side of mount hood, above government camp.] the crater had a diameter of about half a mile. its north rim remains in the ridge on which our climber stands. all the rest of its circumference has been torn away, but huge fragments of its wall are seen far below, on the right and left, in "cleavers" named respectively illumination rock and steel's cliff. one of these recalls several displays of red fire on the mountain by the mazamas. the other great abutment was christened in honor of the first president of that organization. apart from these ridges, the entire rim is missing; but below the spectator, at what must have been the center of its circle, towers a great cone of lava, harder than the andesitic rocks and the scoriæ which compose the bulk of the mountain. this is known as crater rock. it is the core of the crater, formed when the molten lava filling its neck cooled and hardened. around it the softer mass has worn down to the general grade of the south slope, which extends five miles from just below the remaining north rim at the head of the glaciers to the neighborhood of government camp, far down on the cascade plateau. the grade is much less than thirty degrees. over the slope flow down two glaciers, the zigzag on the west, and the white river glacier on the east, of crater rock. [illustration: mount hood lily. (_l. washingtonianum_)] it is sometimes said that the south side of the old summit was blown away by a terrific explosion. that is improbable, in view of crater rock, which indicates a dormant volcano when the south side was destroyed. the mountain was doubtless rent by ice rather than by fire. the mass of ice and snow in and upon the crater broke apart the comparatively loose wall, and pushed its shattered tuffs and cinders far down the slopes. forests were buried, old canyons were filled, and the whole southwest side of the mountain was covered with the fan-shaped outwash from the breach. through this debris of the ancient crater the streams at the feet of the glaciers below are cutting vast ravines which can be seen from the heights above. (see illustrations, pp. - .) [illustration: mazama party exploring white river glacier, mount hood.] the central situation of mount hood makes the view from its summit especially worth seeking. from the pacific to the blue mountains, south almost to the california line, and north as far, it embraces an area equal to a great state, with four hundred miles of the undulating cascade summits and a dozen calm and radiant snow-peaks. the columbia winds almost at its foot, and a multitude of lakes, dammed by glacial moraines and lava dikes, nestle in its shadow. this view "covers more history," as lyman points out, than that from any other of our peaks. about its base the indians hunted, fished and warred. across its flank rolled the great tide of oregon immigration, in the days of the ox-team and settler's wagon. it has seen the building of two states. it now looks benignly down upon the prosperous agriculture and growing cities of the modern columbia basin, and no doubt contemplates with serenity the time when its empire shall be one of the most populous as it is one of the most beautiful and fertile regions in america. no wonder the shapely mountain lifts its head with pride! [illustration: newton clark glacier, east side of mt. hood, seen from cooper spur, with mt. jefferson fifty miles south.] returning to the glaciers of the north side, we note that all three end at an altitude close to six thousand feet. none of them has cut a deep, broad bed for itself like the great radiating canyons which dissect the rainier national park and protect its glaciers down to a level averaging four thousand feet. instead, these glaciers lie up on the side of mount hood, in shallow beds which they no longer fill; and are banked between double and even triple border moraines, showing successive advances and retreats of the glaciers. (see illustration, top of p. .) the larger moraines stand fifty to a hundred feet above the present ice-streams, thus indicating the former glacier levels. no vegetation appears on these desolate rock and gravel dikes. the retreat of the glaciers was therefore comparatively recent. [illustration: looking from mount jefferson, along the summits of the cascades, to mount hood.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister shadow of mount hood, seen from newton clark glacier shortly before sunset. view shows two branches of east fork of hood river, fed by the glacier, and the canyon of the east fork, turning north. beyond it (left) are tygh hills and wheat fields of the dufur country. on the right is juniper flat, with the deschutes canyon far beyond.] [illustration: snout of newton clark glacier.] [illustration: copyright, b. a. gifford mount hood and hood river, seen from a point twenty miles north of the mountain.] eliot glacier has been found by measurement near its end, to have a movement of about fifty feet a year. on the steeper slope above, it is doubtless much greater. all the three glaciers are heavily covered, for their last half mile, with rocks and dirt which they have freighted down from the cliffs above, or dug up from their own beds in transit. none of the lateral moraines extends more than two or three hundred yards below the snout of its glacier. each glacier, at its end, drops its remnant of ice into a deep v-shaped ravine, in which, not far below, trees of good size are growing. hence it would not seem that these north-side glaciers have ever extended much farther than they do at present. the ravine below eliot glacier, however, half a mile from the snout, is said to show glacial markings on its rocky sides. it is evident, in any case, that the deep v cuttings now found below the glaciers are work of the streams. if these glaciers extended farther, it was at higher levels than their present stream channels. as the glaciers receded, their streams have cut the deep gorges in the soft conglomerates. between eliot and coe glaciers are large snow-fields, ending much farther up than do the glaciers; and below these, too, the streams have trenched the slope. (see illustration, p. .) [illustration: lava flume near trout lake, about thirty feet wide and forty feet high.] [illustration: y. m. c. a. party from north yakima at red butte, an extinct volcano on north side of mount adams.] between coe and ladd glaciers is a high rocky ridge known as barrett spur, from which, at nearly , feet, one may obtain glorious views of the peak above, the two glaciers sweeping down its steep face and the sea of ranges stretching westward. (see illustrations, pp. and .) barrett spur may have been part of the original surface of the mountain, but is more likely the remnant of a secondary cone, ice and weathering having destroyed its conical shape. from its top, the climber looks over into the broad-bottomed canyon of sandy river, fed by the large and small sandy glaciers of the west slope. (see pp. and .) this canyon and that of the zigzag river, south of it, from zigzag glacier, are "plainly glacier-sculptured," as sylvester declares. the same is true of the canyon lying below the white river glacier, on the southeast slope. in journeying to government camp, one may see abundant evidence of the glacial origin of the sandy and zigzag canyons. the white river canyon has been thoroughly explored and described by prof. reid. all three of these wide u-shaped canyons were once occupied by great glaciers, which left their record in the scorings upon the sides of the gorges; in the mesas of finely ground moraine which they spread over the bottoms and through which the modern rivers have cut deep ravines; in trees broken and buried by the glaciers in this drift; in the fossil ice lying beneath it, and in huge angular boulders left standing on the valley floors, several miles from the mountain. [illustration: ice cave in lava beds near trout lake.] sandy glacier extends three hundred feet farther down the slope than do the north-side glaciers, but the zigzag and white river glaciers, flowing out of the crater, end a thousand feet higher. this is due not only to the smaller reservoirs which feed them and to their southern exposure, but also doubtless to the easier grade, which holds the ice longer on the slope. on the east side of the peak is a broad ice-stream, the newton clark glacier, which also ends at a high altitude, dropping its ice over a cliff into deep ravines at the head of east fork of hood river. this glacier, well seen from cooper spur, completes the circuit of the mountain. (see pp. and .) [illustration: mount adams, elevation , feet.] sylvester suggests that mount hood may not be extinct but sleeping. for this, however, there is little more evidence that may be discovered on other northwestern peaks. about crater rock, steam jets are found, gas escapes, and the rocks are warm in many places. "fumaroles" exist, where the residuary heat causes openings in the snow bed. sylvester reports dense smoke and steam issuing from crater rock by day and a brilliant illumination there at night, in august, . but volcanoes sometimes contradict prophecy, and no further intimations of trouble having since been offered, this display may be deemed the last gasp of a dying monster rather than an awakening toward new life. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister telephoto view of mount adams, from the northeast side of mount st. helens, at elevation of , feet, overlooking the densely timbered ranges of the cascades.] mount adams. [illustration: mount adams from trout creek, at guler, near trout lake; distance twelve miles.] [illustration: climbers on south butte, the hard lava neck of a crater on south slope, left by weathering of the softer materials of its cone. elevation, , feet. the usual route to summit leads up the talus on right.] going up the white salmon valley toward mount adams, the visitor quickly realizes that he is in a different geological district from that around mount hood. the oregon peak is mainly a pile of volcanic rocks and cinders ejected from its crater. little hard basalt is found, and in all its circumference i know of only one large surface area of new lava. this is a few miles north of cloud cap, and so recent that no trees grow on it. but north of the columbia, one meets evidences of comparatively recent lava sheets in many parts of the valley. some obviously have no connection with mount adams; they flowed out of fissures on the ridges. but these beds of volcanic rock become more apparent, and are less covered with soil, as we approach the mountain, until, long before timber line is reached, dikes and streams of basalt, as yet hardly beginning to disintegrate, are found on all sides of the peak. [illustration: dawn on mount adams, telephotographed from guler, at a. m., showing the three summit peaks, of which the middle one is the highest. the route of the climbers is up the south slope, seen on right.] [illustration: foraging in the snow. the mount adams country supports hundreds of large flocks of sheep.] [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister steel's cliff, southeast side of mount hood. in the distance is seen juniper flat, in eastern oregon.] the form and slope of mount adams tell of an age far greater than mount hood's, but its story is not, like that of hood, the legible record of a simple volcanic cone. it wholly lacks the symmetry of such a pile. viewed from a distance, it sits very majestically upon the summit of one of the eastern ranges of the cascades. as we approach, however, it is seen to have little of the conical shape of hood, still less that of graceful st. helens, which is young and as yet practically unbroken. its summit has been much worn down by ice or perhaps by explosions. some of its sides are deeply indented, and all are vastly irregular in angle and markings--here a face now too steeply cut to hold a glacier, but showing old glacial scorings far down its slope; there another terraced and ribbed with waves and dikes of lava. the mountain is a long ridge rather than a round peak, and close inspection shows it to be a composite of several great cones, leaning one upon another,--the product of many craters acting in successive ages. on its ancient, scarred slopes, a hundred modern vents have added to the ruggedness and interest of the peak. many of these blowholes built parasitic cones, from which the snows of later centuries have eroded the loose external mass, leaving only the hard lava cores upstanding like obelisks. other vents belched out vast sheets of rock that will require a century more of weathering to make hospitable even to the sub-alpine trees most humble in their demands for soil. [illustration: copyright, g. m. weister. ice castle and great crevasse, near the head of eliot glacier, mt. hood. "touched by a light that hath no name, a glory never sung, aloft on sky and mountain wall are god's great pictures hung."--whittier.] [illustration: mazamas climbing a ° stairway of shattered basalt, north side of mount adams.] [illustration: mount adams from one of the many lakes on its southeast slope. on ridge above, near the end of mazama glacier, a hotel is to be erected.] mount adams therefore presents a greater variety of history, a more complex and fascinating problem for the student to unravel, than any of its neighbors. this interest extends to the district about it, a country of new lava flows covering much of the older surface. the same conditions mark the region surrounding the newer peak, st. helens, thirty miles west. in each district, sheets of molten rock have been poured across an ancient and heavily forested land. thus as we travel up the rich valleys leading from the columbia to either peak, we meet everywhere the phenomena of vulcanism. [illustration: climbers ascending from south peak to middle peak on mount adams, with the "bergschrund" above klickitat glacier on right. this central dome is about feet higher than south peak.] [illustration: mount adams, seen from happy valley, south side. elevation about , feet. mazama glacier is on right.] the lava sheet flowing around or over a standing or fallen tree took a perfect impression of its trunk and bark. thousands of these old tree casts are found near both adams and st. helens. where the lava reached a watercourse, it flowed down in a deeper stream, a river of liquid rock. lava is a poor conductor of heat; hence the stream cooled more quickly on the surface than below. soon a crust was formed, like the ice over a creek in winter. under it the lava flowed on and out, as the flood stopped, leaving a gallery or flume. later flows filled the great drain again and again, adding new strata to its roof, floor and sides, and lessening its bore. long after the outflows ceased, weathering by heat and frost broke openings here and there. many of the flumes were choked with drift. but others, in the newer lava beds, may be explored for miles. it was from the lava caves of northern california that the modoc indians waged their famous war in the seventies. [illustration: mount adams, from snow-plow mountain, three miles southeast of the snow line; elevation , feet, overlooking the broad "park" country west of hellroaring canyon.] [illustration: copyright, s. c. smith wind-whittled ice near the summit of mount adams.] the disintegration of the lava galleries in the mount adams field has of course produced caves of all sorts and sizes. where one of these is closed at one end with debris, so that the summer air cannot circulate to displace the heavier cold remaining from winter, the cave, if it has a water supply, becomes an ice factory. the trout lake district has several interesting examples of such _glacieres_, as they have been named, where one may take refuge from july or august heat above ground, and, forty feet below, in a cave well protected from sun and summer breeze, find great masses of ice, with more perhaps still forming as water filters in from a surface lake or an underground spring. the columbia river towns as far away as portland and the dalles formerly obtained ice from the trout lake caves, but at present they supply only some near-by farmers. [illustration: mazama glacier, at head of hellroaring canyon. upper view shows floor of canyon, a mile below the glacier, with the "ridge of wonders" on right. lower view is from ridge west of the canyon, near end of mazama glacier, elevation nearly , feet. note great lateral moraine which the glacier has built on left.] mount adams is ascended without difficulty by either its north or south slope. on the east and west faces, the cliffs and ice cascades appall even the expert alpinist. as yet, so far as i can learn, no ascents have been made over these slopes. the southern route is the more popular one. it leads by well-marked trails up from guler or glenwood, over a succession of terraces clad in fine, open forest; ascends mcdonald ridge, amid increasing barriers of lava; passes south butte, a decaying pillar of red silhouetted against the black rocks and white snow-fields; crosses many a caldron of twisted and broken basalt,--"devil's half acres" that once were the hot, vomiting mouths of drains from the fiery heart of the peak; scales a giants' stairway tilted to forty degrees, overlooking the west branch of mazama glacier on one side and a small unnamed glacier on the other; and at last gains the broad shoulder which projects far on the south slope. (see illustrations, pp. and .) [illustration: nearing the summit, south side.] [illustration: upper ice cascade of klickitat glacier.] here, from a height of nine thousand feet, we look down on the low, wide reservoir of mazama glacier on the east, and up to the ice-falls above klickitat glacier on the higher slopes beyond. the great platform on which we stand was built up by a crater, three thousand feet below the summit. the climb to it has disclosed the fact that the mountain is composed mostly of lava. some of the ravine cuttings have shown lapilli and cinders, but these are rarer than on the other northwestern peaks. the harder structure has resisted the erosion which is cutting so deeply into the lower slopes of hood. on mount adams, not only do the glaciers, with one or two notable exceptions, lie up on the general surface of the mountain, banked by their moraines; but their streams have cut few deep ravines. [illustration: an upland "park," west of hellroaring canyon.] [illustration: mount adams, from the ridge of wonders, showing the great amphitheater or "cirque" of klickitat glacier, fed by avalanches from the summit plateau. this is the most important example of glacial sculpture on the mountain. beyond, on the right, is seen the head of rusk glacier, while on the left is mazama glacier. note the stunted sub-alpine trees scattered thinly over this ridge, even up to an altitude of , feet.] [illustration: storm on klickitat glacier, seen from the ridge of wonders.] from this point, the route becomes steeper, but is still over talus, until the first of the three summit elevations, known as south peak, is reached. this is only five hundred feet below the actual summit, middle peak, which is gained by a short, hard pull, generally over snow. (see p. .) the north-side route is up a long, sharp ridge between lava and adams glaciers (p. ). like the other path, its grade is at first easy; but its last half mile of elevation is achieved over a slope even steeper, and ending in a longer climb over the snow. neither route, however, offers so hard a finish as that which ends the mount hood climb. from the timber-line on either side, the ascent requires six or seven hours. [illustration: snow cornice above the bergschrund at head of klickitat glacier, with another part of the same crevasse.] the summit ridge is nearly a mile long and two-thirds as wide. it is the gathering ground of the snows that feed klickitat, lyman, adams and white salmon glaciers. (see map, p. .) mazama, rusk, lava, pinnacle and avalanche glaciers lie beneath cliffs too steep to carry ice-streams. their income is mainly collected from the slopes, and if they receive snow from the broad summit at all, it is chiefly in the avalanches of early summer. nearly all the glaciers, however, are thus fed in part, the steep east and west faces making mount adams famous for its avalanches. [illustration: mount adams, seen from the northeast, with the lyman glaciers in center, rusk glacier on extreme left, and lava glacier, right. the ridge beyond lava glacier is the north-side route to the summit. the lyman glaciers, like adams glacier on the northwest side, are noteworthy for their cascades of ice.] from the summit on either side, the climber may look down sheer for half a mile to the reservoirs and great ice cascades of the glaciers below. it is seen that with the exception of the rusk and klickitat, which are deeply embedded in canyons, the glaciers spread out, fan-like, on the lower slopes, and are held up by their moraines. most of them end at elevations considerably above six thousand five hundred feet. the difference in this respect between adams and hood is due, no doubt, to lighter rainfall. [illustration: copyright, asahel curtis mount adams from sunnyside, washington, with irrigation "ditch" in foreground.] [illustration: crevasse in lava glacier, north side of mount adams.] of the two glaciers just mentioned the klickitat is the larger and more typical. the rusk, however, is of interest because it flows, greatly crevassed, down a narrow flume or couloir on the east slope. its bed, reid suggests, may have been the channel of "a former lava flow, which, hardening on the surface, allowed the liquid lava inside to flow out; and later the top broke in." the klickitat glacier lies in a much larger canyon, which it has evidently cut for itself. this is one of the most characteristic glacial amphitheaters in america, resembling, though on a smaller scale, the vast carbon glacier _cirque_ which is the crowning glory of the rainier national park. the klickitat basin is a mile wide. into it two steep ice-streams cascade from the summit, and avalanches fall from a cliff which rises two thousand feet between them. (see pp. and .) [illustration: north peak of mount adams, with the mountaineers beginning their ascent, in . their route led up the ridge seen here, which divides lava glacier, on the left, from adams glacier, on extreme right.] the glacier is more than two miles long. it ends at an elevation of less than six thousand feet, covered with debris from a large medial moraine formed by the junction of the two tributary glaciers. like the other mount adams glaciers, and indeed nearly all glaciers in the northern hemisphere, it is shrinking, and has built several moraines on each side. these extend half a mile below its present snout, and the inner moraines are underlaid with ice, showing the retreat has been recent. south of the klickitat glacier, a part of the original surface of the peak remains in the great ridge of wonders. rising a thousand feet above the floor of hellroaring canyon, which was formerly occupied by mazama glacier, now withdrawn to the slope above, this is the finest observation point on the mountain. "the wonderful views of the eastern precipices and glaciers," says reid, "the numerous dikes, the well preserved parasitic cone of little mount adams, and the curious forms of volcanic bombs scattered over its surface entirely justify the name mr. rusk has given to this ridge." [illustration: snow bridge over killing creek, north of mount adams.] adams glacier, upon the northwest slope, with a length of three miles, is the largest on the mountain. this and the two beautiful ice streams on the northeast, named after prof. w. d. lyman, are notable for their ice-falls, half-mile drops of tumbling, frozen rivers. the naming of the mountain was a result of the movement started by hall j. kelley, the oregon enthusiast, in . the northwestern snow-peaks, so far as shown in maps of the period, bore the names given by vancouver as part of his annexation for george iii. the utility, beauty and historic fitness of the significant indian place names did not occur to a generation busy in ousting the indian from his land; but our grandfathers remembered george iii. kelley and other patriotic men of the time proposed to call the cascades the "presidents' range," and to christen the several snow-peaks for individual ex-presidents of the united states. but the second quarter of the last century knew little about oregon, and cared less. the well-meant but premature effort failed, and the only names of the presidents which have stuck are adams and jefferson. lewis and clark mistook mount adams for st. helens, and estimated it "perhaps the highest pinnacle in america." the geological survey has found its height to be , feet. mount adams was first climbed in by a party in which were col. b. f. shaw, glenn aiken and edward j. allen. [illustration: north-side cleaver, with lava glacier on left. this sharp spine was climbed by the mountaineers and the north yakima y. m. c. a. party in .] mount st. helens. the world was indebted for its first knowledge of mount st. helens to vancouver. its name is one of the batch which he fastened in upon our northwestern landmarks. these honored a variety of persons, ranging from lord st. helens, the diplomat, and pudgy peter rainier, of the british admiralty, down to members of the explorer's crew. [illustration: looking across adams glacier, northwest side of mount adams, from ridge shown above.] [illustration: "the mountain that was 'god'," the great peak which the indians reverenced and named "tacoma," seen above the clouds of a rainy day, from the summit of mount adams, distant forty miles. "this," said a well-known lecturer, as the picture was thrown upon his screen, "is the scene the angels look down upon!"] the youngest of the cascade snow-peaks, st. helens is also the most symmetrical in its form, and to many of its admirers the most beautiful. unlike hood and adams, it does not stand upon the narrow summit of one of the cascade ranges, but rises west of the main ridges of that system from valley levels about one thousand feet above the sea. surrounded by comparatively low ridges, it thus presents its perfect and impressive cone for almost its entire height of ten thousand feet. [illustration: northwest slope of mount adams, with adams glacier, three miles long, the largest on the mountain. it has an ice-fall of two thousand feet. the low-lying reservoir of pinnacle glacier is on extreme right, and the head of lava glacier on left.] the mountain is set well back from the main traveled roads, in the great forest of southwestern washington. it is the center of a fine lake and river district which attracts sportsmen as well as mountain climbers. a large company visiting it must carry in supplies and camp equipment, but small parties may find accommodation at spirit lake on the north, and peterson's ranch on lewis river, south of the peak. the first is four, the second is eight, miles from the snow line. visitors from portland, tacoma or seattle, bound for the north side, leave the railway at castle rock, whence a good automobile road (forty-eight miles) leads to the south side of spirit lake. peterson's may be reached by road from woodland (forty-five miles) or from yacolt (thirty miles). well-marked trails lead from either base to camping grounds at timber line. the mountain is climbed by a long, easy slope on the south, or by a much steeper path on the north. like mount adams, st. helens is largely built of lava, but the outflows have been more recent here than upon or near the greater peak. the volcano was in eruption several times between and . the sky at vancouver was often darkened, and ashes were carried as far as the dalles. to these disturbances, probably, are due the great outflows of new lava covering the south and west sides of the mountain, and much of the country between it and the north fork of lewis river. the molten stream flowed westward to goat mountain and the "buttes," of which it made islands; threw a dike across a watercourse and created lake merrill; and turning southward, filled valleys and overwhelmed good forest with sheets of basalt. upon the slope just north of peterson's, a great synclinal thus buried presents one of the latest pages in the volcanic history of the columbia basin. [illustration: mount adams from the southwest, with white salmon glacier (left) and avalanche glacier (right) flowing from a common source, the cleft between north and middle peaks. the latter, however, derives most of its support from slopes farther to right. note the huge terminal moraines built by these glaciers in their retreat. pinnacle glacier is on extreme left.] [illustration: mount st. helens, elevation , feet.] many hours may be spent with interest upon this lava bed. it is an area of the wildest violence, cast in stone. swift, ropy streams, cascades, whirling eddies, all have been caught in their course. "devil's punch bowl," "hell's kitchen," "satan's stairway" are suggestive phrases of local description. the underground galleries here are well worth visiting. tree tunnels and wells abound. most important of all, the struggle seen everywhere of the forest to gain a foothold on this iron surface illustrates nature's method of hiding so vast and terrible a callus upon her face. it is evident that the healing of the wound began as soon as the lava cooled, and that, while still incomplete, it is unceasingly prosecuted. (see p. .) [illustration: scenes in the canyon of the north fork of lewis river, fed by the glaciers of mount adams and mount st. helens.] [illustration: copyright, b. a. gifford columbia river and mount adams, seen from hood river, oregon. "and forests ranged like armies, round and round at feet of mountains of eternal snow; and valleys all alive with happy sound,-- the song of birds; swift streams' delicious flow; the mystic hum of million things that grow."--helen hunt jackson.] the first volcanic dust from the uneasy crater of st. helens had no sooner lodged in some cleft opened by the contraction of cooling than a spore or seed carried by the wind or dropped by a bird made a start toward vegetation. failing moisture, and checked by lack of soil, the lichen or grass or tiny shrub quickly yielded its feeble existence in preparation for its successor. the procession of rain and sun encouraged other futile efforts to find rootage. each of these growths lengthened by its decay the life of the next. with winter came frost, scaling flakes from the hard surface, or penetrating the joints and opening fissures in the basalt. further refuge was thus made ready for the dust and seeds and moisture of another season. the moss and plants were promoters as well as beneficiaries of this disintegration. their smallest rootlets found the water in the heart of the rocks, and growing strong upon it, shattered their benefactors. [illustration: copyright, kiser photo co. southwest side of mount adams, reflected in trout lake, twelve miles south of the mountain.] [illustration: scenes on great lava field south of mount st. helens. the lodgepole pine thicket above shows struggle of forest to gain a foothold on the rich soil slowly forming over new volcanic rock. the peak itself, with stunted forest at its base, is seen next; and below, one of many "tree tunnels," formed when the lava flowed over or around a tree, taking a perfect cast of its bark.] soon more ambitious enterprises were undertaken. huckleberry bushes, fearless even of so unfriendly a surface, started from every depression among the rocks. the first small trees appeared. weakling pines, dwarf firs and alders, shot up for a few feet of hurried growth in the spring moisture, taking the unlikely chance of surviving the later drought. here and there a seedling outlasted the long, dry summer, and began to be a real tree. quickly exhausting its little handful of new earth, the daring upstart must have perished had not the melting snows brought help. they filled the hollows with wash from the higher slopes. the treelets found that their day had come, and seizing upon these rich but shallow soil beds, soon covered them with thickets of spindling lodgepole pines and deciduous brush. such pygmy forests are at length common upon this great field of torn and decaying rock, and all are making their contributions of humus year by year to the support of future tree giants. these will rise by survival of the fittest as the forest floor deepens and spreads. [illustration: lava flume south of mount st. helens, a tunnel several miles in length, about twenty feet high and fifteen feet wide.] [illustration: entrance to lava cave shown above. note strata in roof, showing successive lava flows; also ferns growing from roof.] [illustration: telephotograph of mount st. helens, from the lower part of portland, with the summit peaks of mount rainier-tacoma in distance on left, and the willamette river in foreground.] st. helens, although much visited, has not yet been officially surveyed or mapped. its glaciers are not named, nor has the number of true ice-streams been determined. those on the south and southwest are insignificant. elsewhere, the glaciers are short and broad, and with one exception, occupy shallow beds. on the southeast, there is a remarkable cleft, shown on page , which is doubtless due to volcanic causes rather than erosion, and from which the largest glacier issues. another typical glacier, distinguished by the finest crevasses and ice-falls on the peak, tumbles down a steep, shallow depression on the north slope, west of the battered parasitic cone of "black butte." west of this glacier, in turn, ridges known as the "lizard" and the "boot" mark the customary north-side path to the summit. (see p. .) beyond these landmarks, on the west side of the peak, a third considerable glacier feeds south toutle river. the ravines cut by this stream will repay a visit. (see p. .) [illustration: copyright, jas. waggener, jr. mount st. helens, from chelatchie prairie on lewis river, distance twenty miles. shows a typical farm clearing in the forest.] [illustration: mount st. helens, seen from twin buttes, twenty miles away, across the cascades. view shows the remarkable cleft or canyon on the southeast face of the peak.] the slopes not covered with new lava sheets and dikes exhibit, below the snow-line, countless bombs hurled up from the crater, with great fields of pumice embedding huge angular rocks that tell a story not written on our other peaks. these hard boulders, curiously different from the soft materials in which they lie, were fragments of the tertiary platform on which the cone was erected. torn off by the volcano, as it enlarged its bore, they were shot out without melting or change in substance. on every hand is proof that this now peaceful snow-mountain, which resembles nothing else so much as a well-filled saucer of ice cream, had a hot temper in its youth, and has passed some bad days even since the coming of the white man. the mountain was first climbed in august, , by a party which included the same t. j. dryer who, a year later, took part in the first ascent of mount hood. in a letter to _the oregonian_ he said the party consisted of "messrs. wilson, smith, drew and myself." they ascended the south side. the other slopes were long thought too steep to climb, but in fred g. plummer, of tacoma, now geographer of the united states forest service, ascended the north side. his party included leschi, a klickitat indian, probably the first of his superstitious race to scale a snow-peak. the climbers found evidence of recent activity in two craters on the north slope, and photographed a curious "diagonal moraine," as regular in shape as a railway embankment, which connected the border moraines of a small glacier. the north side has since seen frequent ascents. [illustration: canyons of south toutle river, west side of st. helens. these vast trenches in the soft pumice show by their v shape that they have been cut by streams from the glaciers above, rather than by the glaciers themselves, which, on this young peak, have probably never had a much greater extension.] the mazamas, who had climbed st. helens from the south in , again ascended it in , climbing by the lizard and boot. this outing furnished the most stirring chapter in the annals of american mountaineering. [illustration: lower toutle canyon, seen on left above. note shattered volcanic bomb.] [illustration: northeast side of mount st. helens, from elevation of , feet, with black butte on the right.] [illustration: the mazamas on summit of st. helens shortly before sunset. the rocks showing above the snow are parts of the rim of the extinct crater. mount adams is seen, thirty-five miles away, on the right, while rainier-tacoma is forty-five miles north. photograph taken at : p. m. the party did not get back to their camp till long after midnight.] the north-side route proved unexpectedly hard. after an all-day climb, the party reached the summit only at seven o'clock. the descent after nightfall required seven hours. the risk was great. over the collar of ice near the summit, at a grade of more than sixty degrees, the twenty-five men and women slowly crept in steps cut by the leaders, and clutching a single fifty-foot rope. later came the bombardment of loose rocks, as the party scattered down the slope. i quote from an account by frank b. riley, secretary of the club, who was one of the leaders: the safety of the entire party was in the keeping of each member. one touch of hysteria, one slip of the foot, one instant's loss of self-control, would have precipitated the line, like a row of bricks, on the long plunge down the ice cliff. eight times the party stood poised on its scanty foothold while the rope was lowered. when, after an hour and a half, its last member stepped in safety upon the rocks, there yet lay before it five hours of work ere the little red eyes below should widen into welcoming campfires. over great ridges, down into vast snowfields, for hours they plunged and slid, while scouts ahead shouted back warning of the crevasses. on, out of the icy clutch of the silent mountain, they plodded. and then, at last, the timber, and the fires and the hot drinks and the warm blankets and the springy hemlock boughs! [illustration: north side of st. helens in winter, seen from coldwater ridge, overlooking spirit lake. shows the long ridge called "the lizard," because of its shape, with "the boot" above it. on the northeast slope is "black butte," probably a secondary crater.] [illustration: st. helens, north side, seen from one mile below snow line. note the slight progress made by the forest upon the scant soil of the pumice ridges; also, how greatly the angle of the sides, as viewed here at the foot of the peak, differs from that shown in dr. lauman's fine picture taken on coldwater ridge, five miles north. both show the mountain from the same direction, but the near view gives no true idea of its steepness. black butte is on the left.] [illustration: glacier scenes, north side of mount st. helens, east of the "lizard."] even this was not the most noteworthy adventure of the outing. one evening, while the mazamas gathered about their campfire at spirit lake, a haggard man dragged himself out of the forest, and told of an injured comrade lying helpless on the other side of the peak. the messenger and two companions--swedish loggers, all three--had crossed the mountain the morning before. after they gained the summit and began the descent, a plunging rock had struck one of the men, breaking his leg. his friends had dragged him down to the first timber, and while one kept watch, the other had encircled the mountain, in search of aid from the mazamas. immediately a relief party of seven strong men, led by c. e. forsyth of castle rock, washington, started back over the trailless route by which the messenger had come. all night they scaled ridges, climbed into and out of canyons, waded icy streams. before dawn they reached the wounded laborer. mr. riley says: it was impossible to carry the man back through the wild country around the peak. below, the first cabin on the lewis river lay beyond a moat of forbidding canyons. above slanted the smooth slopes of st. helens. placing the injured man upon a litter of canvas and alpine stocks, they began the ascent of the mountain with their burden. the day dawned and grew old, and still these men crawled upward in frightful, body-breaking struggle. twelve hours passed, and they had no food and no sleep, save as they fell unconscious downward in the snow, as they did many times, from fatigue and lack of nourishment. at four o'clock, anderson was again on the summit. then, without rest, came the descent to the north. down precipitous cliffs of ice they lowered him, as tenderly as might be; down snow-slopes seared with crevasses, shielding him from the falling rocks; over ridges of ragged lava, until in the deepening darkness of the second night they found themselves again at timber. but in the net-work of canyons they had selected the wrong one, and were lost. here, at three o'clock, they were found by a second relief party, and guided over a painful five-mile journey home. [illustration: finest of the st. helens glaciers, north side, with black butte on left. it is proposed to call this "forsyth glacier," in honor of c. e. forsyth, leader in a memorable rescue.] it was day when camp was reached. in an improvised hospital, a young surgeon, aided by a trained nurse, both mazamas, quickly set the broken bones. then they sent their patient comfortably away to the railroad and a portland hospital. before the wagon started, anderson, who had uttered no groan in his two days of agony, struggled to a sitting posture, and searched the faces of all in the crowd about him. "ay don't want ever to forget how you look," he said simply; "you who have done all this yust for me." it is fitting that such an event should be commemorated. with the approval of mr. riley and other mazamas who were present at the time, i would propose that the north-side glacier already described, the most beautiful of the st. helens ice-streams, be named "forsyth glacier," in honor of the leader of this heroic rescue. [illustration: copyright, asahel curtis road among the douglas firs.] [illustration: ships loading lumber at one of portland's large mills.] iii. the forests by harold douglas langille as the lowlander cannot be said to have truly seen the element of water at all, so even in his richest parks and avenues he cannot be said to have truly seen trees. for the resources of trees are not developed until they have difficulty to contend with; neither their tenderness of brotherly love and harmony, till they are forced to choose their ways of life where there is contracted room. the various action of trees, rooting themselves in inhospitable rocks, stooping to look into ravines, hiding from the search of glacial winds, reaching forth to the rays of rare sunshine, crowding down together to drink at sweetest streams, climbing hand in hand the difficult slopes, gliding in grave procession over the heavenward ridges--nothing of this can be conceived among the unvexed and unvaried felicities of the lowland forest.--_ruskin: "modern painters."_ [illustration: outposts of the forest. storm-swept white-bark pines on mount hood.] stand upon the icy summit of any one of the columbia's snow-peaks, and look north or west or south across the expanse of blue-green mountains and valleys reaching to the sea; your eyes will rest upon the greatest forest the temperate zone has produced within the knowledge of man. save where axe and fire have turned woodland into field or ghostly "burn," the mantle is spread. along the broad crests of the cascades, down the long spurs that lead to the valleys, and across the coast range, lies a wealth of timber equaled in no other region. the outposts of this great army of trees will meet you far below. [illustration: alpine hemlocks at the timber-line on mt. adams. mt. hood in distance.] rimming about your peak, braving winds and the snows that drift in the lee of old moraines, and struggling to break through the timber-line, six thousand feet above the sea, somber mountain hemlocks (_tsuga mertensiana_) and lighter white-bark pines (_pinus albicaulis_) form the thin vanguard of the forest. they meet the glaciers. they border the snow-fields. they hide beneath their stunted, twisted forms the first deep gashes carved in the mountain slopes by eroding streams. valiant protectors of less sturdy trees and plants, their whitened weather-sides bear witness to a fierce struggle for life on the bleak shoulders of the peaks. [illustration: mazama party resting among the sub-alpine firs in a flower-carpeted "park" at the foot of mount st. helens] make your way, as the streamlets do, down to the alpine glades, on the high plateaus, where anemone, erythronium and calochortus push their buds through lingering snow-crusts. the scattered trees gather in their first groups. just within their shelter pause for a moment. vague distance is narrowed to a diminutive circle. the mystery of vastness passes. sharp indeed is the division between storm-swept barren and forest shelter. [illustration: a lowland ravine. cedars, vine maples, devil's club and ferns, near mount st. helens.] here ravines, decked with heather, hold streams from the snowdrifts--streams that hunt the steepest descents, and glory in their leaps from rock to rock and from cliff to pool. if it be the spring-time of the mountains--late july--the mossy rills will be half concealed beneath fragrant white azaleas that nod in the breezes blowing up with the ascending sun and down with the turn of day. trailing over the rocks, or banked in the shelter of larger trees, creeping juniper (_juniperus communis_), least of our evergreens, stays the drifting sands against the drive of winds or the wash of melting snows. [illustration: copyright, kiser the "noble" fir.] along the streams and on sunny slopes and benches are the homes of the pointed firs. seeking protection from the storm, the spire-like trees cluster in tiny groves, among which, like little bays of a lake, the grassy flowered meadows run in and out, sun-lit, and sweet with rivulets from the snows above. if you do not know these upland "parks," there is rare pleasure awaiting you. a hundred mountain blossoms work figures of white and red and orange and blue in the soft tapestry of green. in such glades the hush is deep. only the voice of a waterfall comes up from the canyon, or the whistle of a marmot, the call of the white-winged crows and the drone of insects break the stillness. [illustration: dense hemlock forest, lower west slope of mount hood.] [illustration: mount hood from ghost-tree ridge. whitened trunks of trees killed by forest fires.] [illustration: an island of color in the forest. rhododendrons and squaw grass on the west slope of mount hood. "the common growth of mother-earth suffices me,--her tears, her mirth, her humblest mirth and tears."--wordsworth.] the outer rank of hemlock and fir droops its branches to the ground to break the tempest's attack. within, silver or lovely fir (_abies amabilis_) mingles with hardier forms. its gray, mottled trunks are flecked with the yellow-green of lichen or festooned with wisps of moss down to the level of the big snows. and here, a vertical mile above the sea, you meet the daring western hemlock (_tsuga heterophylla_), which braves the gale of ocean and mountain alike, indifferent to all but fire. it is of gentle birth yet humble spirit. it accepts all trees as neighbors. you meet it everywhere as you journey to the sea. but on the uplands only, in a narrow belt like a scarf thrown across the shoulders of the mountain, sub-alpine fir (_abies lasiocarpa_) sends up its dark, attenuated spires, in striking contrast with the rounded crowns of its companions. [illustration: copyright, asahel curtis group of red cedars, five to eight feet in diameter.] [illustration: on the road to government camp, west of mount hood. broadleaf maple on extreme right; douglas firs arching the roadway, and white fir on left.] a little lower, the transition zone offers a noteworthy intermingling of species. down from the stormy heights come alpine trees to lock branches with types from warmer levels. here you see lodgepole pine (_pinus murrayana_), that wonderful restorer of waste places which sends forth countless tiny seedlings to cover fire-swept areas and lava fields with forerunners of a forest. here, too, you will find western white pine (_pinus monticola_), the fair lady of the genus, whose soft, delicate foliage, finely chiseled trunk, and golden brown cones denote its gentleness; and engelmann spruce (_picea engelmannii_) of greener blue than any other, and hung with pendants of soft seed cones, saved from pilfering rodents by pungent, bristling needles. here also are western larch or tamarack (_larix occidentalis_); or, rarely, on our northern peaks, lyall's larch (_larix lyallii_), whose naked branches send out tiny fascicles of soft pale leaves; and noble fir (_abies nobilis_), stately, magnificent, proud of its supremacy over all. and you may come upon a rare cluster of alaska cedar (_chamæcyparis nootkatensis_), here at its southern limit, reaching down from the coast range of british columbia almost to meet the great sugar pines (_pinus lambertiana_) which come up from the granite heights of the california sierra to play an important role in the southern oregon forests. [illustration: copyright, weister where man's a pygmy. a noble fir, feet to first limb.] across the roll of ridge and canyon, you see them all; and when you come to know them well, each form, each shade of green, though far away, will claim your recognition. yonder, in a hollow of the hills, a cluster of blue-green heads is raised above the familiar color of the hemlocks. cross to it, and stand amidst the crowning glory of nature's art in building trees. about you rise columns of noble firs, faultless in symmetry, straight as the line of sight, clean as granite shafts. carry the picture with you; nowhere away from the forests of the columbia can you look upon such perfect trees. [illustration: firs and hemlocks, in clarke county, washington.] westward of the cascade summits the commercial forest of to-day extends down from an elevation of about , feet. intercepted by these heights, the moisture-laden clouds are emptied on the crest of the range. eastward, the effects of decreasing precipitation are shown both in species and in density. tamarack, white fir and pines climb higher on these warmer slopes. along the base of the mountains, and beyond low passes where strong west winds drive saturated clouds out over level reaches, western yellow pine (_pinus ponderosa_) becomes almost the only tree. over miles of level lava flow, along the upper deschutes, this species forms a great forest bounded on the east by rolling sage-brush plains that stretch southward to the nevada deserts. beyond the deschutes drainage, where spurs of the blue mountains rise to the levels of clouds and moisture, the forest again covers the hills, spreading far to the east until it disappears again in the broad, treeless valley of snake river. north of the columbia the story is the same. from the lower slopes of mt. adams great rolling bunch-grass downs and prairies reach far eastward. here and there, over these drier stretches, stand single trees or clusters of western juniper (_juniperus occidentalis_). [illustration: fifty-year-old hemlock growing on cedar log. the latter, which was centuries old before it matured and fell, was still sound enough to yield many thousand shingles.] but on the west slope of the cascades, and over the coast range, the great forests spread in unbroken array, save where wide valleys have been cleared by man or hillsides stripped by fire. here, in the land of warm sea winds and abundant moisture, the famous douglas fir (_pseudotsuga taxifolia_), pacific red cedar (_thuja plicata_) and tideland spruce (_picea sitchensis_) attain their greatest development. these are the monarchs of the matchless northwestern forests, to which the markets of the world are looking more and more as the lines of exhausted supply draw closer. [illustration: sawyers preparing to "fall" a large tideland spruce.] douglas fir recalls by its name one of the heroes of science, david douglas, a scotch naturalist who explored these forests nearly ninety years ago, and discovered not only this particular giant of the woods, but also the great sugar pine and many other fine trees and plants. as a pioneer botanist, searching the forest, douglas presented a surprising spectacle to the indians. "the man of grass" they called him, when they came to understand that he was not bent on killing the fur-bearing animals for the profit to be had from their pelts. [illustration: sugar pine, douglas fir, and yellow pine.] the splendid conifer which woodsmen have called after him is one of the kings of all treeland. the most abundant species of the northwest, it is also, commercially, the most important. sometimes reaching a height of more than feet, it grows in remarkably close stands, and covers vast areas with valuable timber that will keep the multiplying mills of oregon and washington sawing for generations. in the dense shade of the forests, it raises a straight and stalwart trunk, clear of limb for a hundred feet or more. on the older trees, its deeply furrowed bark is often a foot thick. trees of eight feet diameter are at least three hundred years old, and rare ones, much larger, have been cut showing an age of more than five centuries. to these areas of the greatest trees must come all who would know the real spirit of the forest, at once beneficent and ruthless. here nature selects the fittest. the struggle for soil below and light above is relentless. the weakling, crowded and overshadowed, inevitably deepens the forest floor with its fallen trunk, adding to the humus that covers the lavas, and nourishing in its decay the more fortunate rival that has robbed it of life. here, too, with the architectural splendor of the trees, one feels the truth of bryant's familiar line: the groves were god's first temples. the stately evergreens raise their rugged crowns far toward the sky, arching gothic naves that vault high over the thick undergrowth of ferns and vine maples. in such scenes, it is easy to understand the woodsman's solace, of which herbert bashford tells in his "song of the forest ranger:" i would hear the wild rejoicing of the wind-blown cedar tree, hear the sturdy hemlock voicing ancient epics of the sea. forest aisles would i be winding, out beyond the gates of care; and in dim cathedrals finding silence at the shrine of prayer. * * * * * come and learn the joy of living! come and you will understand how the sun his gold is giving with a great, impartial hand! how the patient pine is climbing, year by year to gain the sky; how the rill makes sweetest rhyming where the deepest shadows lie! [illustration: yellow cedar, with young silver fir.] [illustration: copyright, gifford one of the kings of treeland--a douglas fir.] fir, spruce and cedar you will see along the slopes of the cascades in varying density and grandeur, from thickets of slender trees reclaiming fire-swept lands to broken ranks of patriarchs whose crowns have swayed before the storms of centuries. among the foot hills, the pale gray "grand" or white firs (_abies grandis_) rear their domes above the common plane in quest of light, occasionally attaining a height of feet, while the lowly yew (_taxus brevifolia_), of which the warrior of an earlier time fashioned his bow, overhangs the noisy streams. in the same habitat, where the little rivers debouch into the valleys, you may see the broad-leaf maple, oregon ash, cottonwood, and a score of lesser deciduous trees on which the filtered rays of sunshine play in softer tones. [illustration: copyright, jas. waggener, jr. firs and vine maples in washington forest.] here and there in the willamette valley you meet foothill yellow pine (_pinus ponderosa var. benthamiana_), near relative of the western yellow pine. oregon oak (_quercus garryana_) occurs sparingly throughout the valleys, or reaches up the western foothills of the willamette, until it meets the great unbroken forest of the coast range. [illustration: towing a log raft out to sea, bound for the california markets.] the dense lower forests are never gaily decked, so little sunlight enters. but in early summer, back among the mountains, you may find tangles of half-prostrate rhododendron, from which, far as the eye can reach, the rose-pink gorgeous flowers give back the tints of sunshine and the iridescent hues of raindrops. mingled with the flush of "laurel" blossoms are nodding plumes of creamy squaw grass, the beautiful xerophyllum. often this queenly upland flower covers great areas, hiding the desolation wrought by forest fires. its sheaves of fibrous rootstocks furnish the indian women material for their basket-making; hence the most familiar of its many names. the varied green of huckleberry bushes is everywhere. they are the common ground cover. [illustration: a "burn" on the slopes of mount hood, overgrown with squaw grass. such fire-swept areas are quickly covered with mountain flowers, of which this beautiful cream-colored plume is one of the most familiar. its roots yield a fiber used by the indians in making baskets.] [illustration: copyright, gifford a noble fir.] in valley woodlands, the dogwood, here a tree of fair proportions, lights up the somber forest with round, white eyes that peer out through bursting leafbuds, early harbingers of summer. the first blush of color comes with the unfolding of the pink and red racemes of flowering wild currant. later, sweet syringa fills the air with the breath of orange blossoms; and spirea, the indian arrowwood, hangs its tassels among the forest trees or on the bushy hills. but the presence of deciduous trees and shrubs, as well as their beauty, is best known in autumn, when maples brighten the woods with yellow rays; when dogwood and vine maple paint the fire-scarred slopes a flaming red, and a host of other color-bearers stain the cliffs with rich tints of saffron and russet and brown. coming at last to the rim of the forest, you look out over the sea, where go lumber-laden ships to all the world. close by the beach, dwarfed and distorted by winds of the ocean, and nourished by its fogs, north-coast pine (_pinus contorta_) extends its prostrate forms over the cliffs and dunes of the shore, just as your first acquaintance, the white-bark pine, spreads over the dunes and ridges of the mountain. they are brothers of a noble race. [illustration: western white pine.] you have traversed the wonder-forest of the world, and on your journey with the stream you may have come to know twenty-three species of cone-bearers, all indigenous to the columbia country. of these, one is douglas fir, nowise a true fir but a combination of spruce and hemlock; seven are pines, four true firs, two spruces, two hemlocks, two tamaracks or larches, two cedars, two junipers, and the yew. [illustration: a clatsop forest. on extreme right is a silver fir, covered with moss; next are two fine hemlocks, with tideland spruce on left.] so many large and valuable trees of so many varieties can be found nowhere else. a douglas fir growing within the watershed of the columbia is twelve feet and seven inches in diameter. a single stick feet long and inches in diameter at its base has been cut for a flagpole in clatsop county. a spruce twenty feet in diameter has been measured. such immense types are rare, yet in a day's tramp through the columbia forests one may see many trees upwards of eight feet in diameter. one acre in the cowlitz river watershed is said to bear twenty-two trees, each eight feet or more at its base. though no exact measurements can be cited, it is likely that upon different single acres , feet, board measure, of standing timber may be found. and back among the cascades, upon one forty-acre tract, are , , feet--enough to build a town. manufactured, this body of timber would be worth $ , , of which about $ , would be paid to labor. [illustration: a carpet of firs; , feet, cut on one acre in a columbia forest.] along the columbia you will hear shrill signals of the straining engines that haul these gigantic trees to the rafting grounds. up and down the broad river ply steamboats trailing huge log-rafts to the mills. each year the logging railroads push farther back among the mountains, to bring forth lumber for australia, the orient, south america, europe and africa. many of our own states, which a few years ago boasted "inexhaustible" forests, now draw from this supply. [illustration: winter in the forest. mount hood seen from government camp road. twenty feet of snow.] since washington has been the leading lumber-producing state of the union, and oregon has advanced, in one year, from ninth to fourth place. the production of lumber in these states was , , , feet, or . per cent. of the total output of the united states. the same states, it is estimated, have , , , feet of standing merchantable timber, or a third of the country's total. [illustration: rangers' pony trail in forest of douglas and silver firs.] this is the heritage which the centuries of forest life have bequeathed. only the usufruct of it is rightfully ours. even as legal owners, we are nevertheless but trustees of that which was here before the coming of our race, and which should be here in great quantity when our trails have led beyond the range. our duty is plain. let us uphold every effort to give meaning and power to the civil laws which say: "thou shalt not burn;" to the moral laws which say: "thou shalt not waste." let us understand and support that spirit of conservation which demands for coming generations the fullest measure of the riches we enjoy. for although the region of the columbia is the home of the greatest trees, centuries must pass ere the seedlings of to-day will stand matured. [illustration: forest fire on east fork of hood river. from a photograph taken at cloud cap inn five minutes after the fire started.] reforestation is indispensable as insurance. let us see to it that the untillable hills shall ever bear these matchless forests, emerald settings for our snow-peaks. on their future depends, in great degree, the future of the northwest. as protectors of the streams that nourish our valleys, and perennial treasuries of power for our industries, they are guarantors of life and well-being to the millions that will soon people the vast columbia basin. [illustration: reforestation--three generations of young growth; lodgepole pine in foreground; lodgepole and tamarack thicket on ridge at right; tamarack on skyline.] notes =transportation routes, hotels, guides, etc.=--the trip from portland to north side of mount hood is made by rail (oregon-washington ry. & nay. co. from union station) or boat (the dalles, portland & astoria nav. co. from foot of alder street) to hood river, ore. ( miles), where automobiles are taken for cloud cap inn. fare, to hood river, by rail, $ . ; by boat, $ . . auto fare, hood river to the inn, $ . . round trip, portland to inn and return, by rail, $ . ; by boat, $ . . board and room at cloud cap inn, $ . a day, or $ . a week. accommodations may be reserved at travel bureau, fifth street. to government camp, south side of mount hood ( miles), the trip is made by electric cars to boring, oregon, and thence by automobile. cars of the portland railway, light & power co., leave first and alder streets for boring (fare cents), where they connect with automobiles (fare to government camp, $ . ). board and room at coalman's government camp hotel, $ . a day, or $ . a week. guides for the ascent of mt. hood, as well as for a variety of side trips, may be engaged at cloud cap inn and government camp. for climbing parties, the charge is $ . per member. the trip to mount adams is by spokane, portland & seattle ("north bank") railway from north bank station or by boat (as above) to white salmon, wash., connecting with automobile or stage for guler or glenwood. fare to white salmon by rail, $ . ; round trip, $ . ; fare by boat, $ . . white salmon to guler, $ . . board and room at chris. guler's hotel at guler p. o., near trout lake, $ . a day, or $ . a week. similar rates to and at glenwood. at either place, guides and horses may be engaged for the mountain trails ( miles to the snow-line). bargain in advance. the south side of mount st. helens is reached by rail from union station, portland, to yacolt (fare $ . ) or woodland ($ . ), where conveyances may be had for peterson's ranch on lewis river. to the north side, the best route is by rail to castle rock (fare, $ . ), and by vehicle thence to spirit lake. regular guides for the mountain are not to be had, but the trails are well marked. =automobile roads.=--portland has many excellent roads leading out of the city, along the columbia and the willamette. one of the most attractive follows the south bank of the columbia to rooster rock and latourelle falls ( miles). as it is on the high bluffs for much of the distance, it commands extended views of the river in each direction, and of the snow-peaks east and north of the city. return may be made via the sandy river valley. this road is now being extended eastward from latourelle falls to connect with the road which is building westward from hood river. when completed the highway will be one of the great scenic roads of the world. from portland, several roads through the near-by villages lead to a junction with the highway to government camp on the south side of mount hood ( miles). the mountain portion of this is the old barlow road of the "immigrant" days in early oregon, and is now a toll road. (toll for vehicles, round trip, $ . .) supervisor t. h. sherrard, of the oregon national forest service, is now building a road from the west boundary of the national forest, at the junction of zigzag and sandy rivers, crossing sandy canyon (see p. ), following the clear fork of the sandy to the summit of the cascades, crossing the range by the lowest pass in the state (elevation, , feet), and continuing down elk creek and west fork of hood river to a junction with the road from lost lake into hood river valley. the completion of this road through the forest reserve will open a return route from hood river to the government camp road, through a mountain district of the greatest interest. southward from portland, inviting roads along the willamette lead to oregon city, salem, eugene and albany. from portland westward, several good roads are available, leading along the columbia or through banks, buxton and mist to astoria and the beach resorts south of that city. north of the columbia (ferry to vancouver), a route of great interest leads eastward along the columbia to washougal and the canyon of washougal river ( miles). from vancouver northward a popular road follows the columbia to woodland and kalama, and thence along the cowlitz river to castle rock. the tour book of the portland automobile club, giving details of these and many other roads, may be had for $ . in paper covers, or $ . in leather. =bibliography.=--the geological story of the cascade uptilt and the formation of the columbia gorge is graphically told in _condon: oregon geology_ (portland, j. k. gill co., ). for the columbia from its sources to the sea, _lyman: the columbia river_ (new york, g. p. putnam's sons, ) not only gives the best account of the river itself and its great basin but tells the indian legends and outlines the period of discovery and settlement. _irving: astoria_ and _winthrop: the canoe and the saddle_ are classics of the early northwest. _balch: bridge of the gods_, weaves the indian myth of a natural bridge into a story of love and war. the literature of the mountains described in this volume is mainly to be found in the publications of the mountain clubs, especially _mazama_ (portland), _the sierra club bulletin_ (san francisco) and _the mountaineer_ (seattle). many of their papers have scientific value as well as popular interest. it is to be hoped that the mazamas will resume the publication of their annual. _russell: glaciers of n. am._ p. ; _emmons: volcanoes of the u. s. pacific coast_, in _bulletin of am. geog. soc._, v. , p. ; _sylvester: is mt. hood awakening?_ in _nat'l geog. mag._, v. , p. , describe the glaciers of mt. hood. prof. reid has published valuable accounts of both hood and adams, with especial reference to their glaciers, in _science_, n. s., v. , p. ; _bul. geol. soc. of am._, v. , p. , and _zeitschrift fur gletscherkunde_, v. , p. . an account of the volcanic activities of st. helens by lieut. c. p. elliott, u. s. a., may be found in _u. s. geog. mag._, v. , pp. , and by j. s. diller in _science_, v. , p. . the ice caves of the mt. adams district are described in _balch_: _glacieres, or freezing caverns_, which covers similar phenomena in many countries; by l. h. wells, in _pacific monthly_, v. , p. ; by r. w. raymond, in _overland monthly_, v. , p. ; by h. t. finck in _nation_, v. , p. . dryer's account of the first ascent of mt. st. helens may be found in _the oregonian_ of september , , and his story of the first ascent of mt. hood in _the oregonian_, august , , and _littell's living age_, v. , p. . =the mountain clubs.=--for the following list of presidents and ascents of the mazamas, i am indebted to miss gertrude metcalfe, historian of the club: presidents. official ascents. will g. steel mt. hood, oregon. will g. steel--l. l. hawkins mt. adams, washington. c. h. sholes mt. mazama (named for the mazamas, ), mt. mcloughlin (pitt), crater lake, oregon. henry l. pittock mt. rainier, washington. hon. m. c. george mt. st. helens, washington. will g. steel mt. sahale (named by the mazamas, ), lake chelan, wash. t. brook white mt. jefferson, oregon. mark o'neill mt. hood, oregon. mark o'neill mt. adams, washington. r. l. glisan three sisters, oregon. c. h. sholes mt. shasta, california. judge h. h. northup mt. rainier, washington. c. h. sholes mt. baker (northeast side), wash. c. h. sholes mt. jefferson, oregon. c. h. sholes mt. st. helens, washington. m. w. gorman mt. baker (southwest side), and shuksan, washington. john a. lee three sisters, oregon. h. h. riddell glacier peak, lake chelan, wash. edmund p. sheldon mt. hood, oregon. the organization and success of the portland snow shoe club are mainly due to the enthusiastic labors of its president, j. wesley ladd. between and , mr. ladd took a private party of his friends each winter for snow shoeing and other winter sports to cloud cap inn or government camp. three years ago it was determined to form a club and erect a house near cloud cap inn. the club was duly incorporated and a permit obtained from the united states forest service. mr. ladd, who has been president of the club since its formation, writes me: "our club house was started in july, , and was erected by mr. mark weygandt, the worthy mountain guide who has conducted so many parties to the top of mt. hood. it is built of white fir logs, all selected there in the forest. i have been told in a letter from the montreal amateur athletic club of montreal, canada, that we have the most unique and up-to-date snow shoe club building in the world. the site for the house was selected by mr. horace mecklem and myself, who made a special trip up there. the building was finished in september, . it is forty feet long and twenty four feet wide, with a six-foot fireplace and a large up-to-date cooking range. the organizers of the club are as follows: harry l. corbett, elliott r. corbett, david t. honeyman, walter b. honeyman, rodney l. glisan, dr. herbert s. nichols, horace mecklem, brandt wickersham, jordan v. zan, and myself." the portland ski club was organized six years ago, and has since made a trip to government camp in january or february of each year. the journey is made by vehicle until snow is gained on the foothills, at rhododendron; the remaining ten miles are covered on skis. the presidents of the club have been: , james a. ambrose; , george s. luders; , howard h. haskell; , e. d. jorgensen; , g. r. knight; , john c. cahalin. the mountaineers, a club organized in seattle in , made a noteworthy ascent of mount adams in . =climate.=--the weather conditions in the lower columbia river region are a standing invitation to outdoor life during a long and delightful summer. western oregon and washington know no extremes of heat or cold at any time of the year. the statistics here given are from tables of the u. s. weather bureau, averaged for the period of government record: mean annual rainfall: portland, . inches; the dalles, inches. portland averages days with . of an inch precipitation during the year, and the dalles days; but the long and comparatively dry summer is indicated by the fact that only of these days at portland and at the dalles fell in the summer months, june to september inclusive. mean annual temperature varies little between the east and west sides of the cascades, portland having a -year average of . ° as compared with . ° at the dalles. but the range of temperature is greater in the interior. thus the mean monthly temperature for january, the coldest month, is . ° at portland and . ° at the dalles, while for july, the hottest month, it is . ° at portland and . ° at the dalles. while mountain weather must always be an uncertain quantity, that of the northwestern snow-peaks is comparatively steady, owing to the dry summer of the lowlands. during july and august, the snow-storms of the alps are almost unknown here. after the middle of september, however, when the rains have begun, a visitor to the snow-line is liable to encounter weather very like that recorded by a belated tourist at zermatt: first it rained and then it blew, and then it friz and then it snew, and then it fogged and then it thew; and very shortly after then it blew and friz and snew again. =erratum.=--on page , i have been misled by dryer's statement into crediting the first ascent of mount hood to captain samuel k. barlow, the road builder. the mountain climber was his son, william barlow, as i am informed by mr. george h. himes, of the oregon historical society. index figures in light face type refer to the text, those in heavier type to illustrations. adams, mt., indian legend of its origin, ; routes to, , ; structure and glaciers, - ; lava flows, - ; tree casts, ; caves, - ; routes to summit, - ; name, ; height, ; first ascent, ; views of, = =, = =, = =, = =, = =, = - = adams glacier, mt. adams, , = =, , = = alps, character and scenery, archer mountain, = = arrowhead mountain, = =, = = astoria, , = =, = = automobile roads, avalanche glacier, mt. adams, , barlow, william, ascent of mt. hood, , , barlow road, , , = = barrett spur, , = =, = =, = = bibliography, blue mountains, , "bridge of the gods," indian legend, - ; = =, = = bryce, james, on northwestern mountains, cabbage rock, = = cape horn, = = carbon glacier, cascade locks, = = cascade mountains, , , , , , - castle rock (columbia river), = =, = =, = = castle rock, wash., cedars, group of red, = = celilo falls (tumwater), = =, = = chelatchie prairie, = = chinook wind, indian legend of its origin, - climate, cloud cap inn, , , , = =, = =, = =, = = coast range, coe glacier, mt. hood, , , - , = =, = =, = = columbia river, john muir's description, ; dawn on, - ; its gorge, ; indian legends of its origin, - ; its discovery by capt. gray, ; struggle for its ownership, - ; its settlement, ; views of, = =, = =, = - =, = =, = = columbia slough, = =, = = "coming of the white man," statue, = = cooper spur, mt. hood, , , , = - = crater rock, , , = =, = = dalles, the, , , , , = =, = =, = = douglas, david, douglas firs, , , = =, = =, = =, = = dryer, t. j., , eliot glacier, mt. hood, , , , - , = =, = - =, = =, = = forest, on lava beds, , - , = = "forests, the," chapter by harold douglas langille, - , = - = forsyth, c. e., leader in rescue on mt. st. helens, glacieres, freezing caves, , , = = glenwood, wash., , goldendale, wash., government camp, , , , , = =, = = "grant castle," on the columbia, = = gray, capt. robert, guler, wash., , , = =, = = hellroaring canyon, , = =, = =, = = hood, mt., dawn on, ; indian legend of its origin, ; john muir on, ; routes to, - ; first ascent, , ; height, , ; the mazamas organized on summit, ; structure and glaciers, - ; summit, , = =, = =, = =; crater, , , = =; lava bed, ; views of, = =, = =, = =, = =, = - =, = =, = =, = = hood river, = =, = = hood river (city), ore., , , = =, = = hood river valley, , , , , = = hudson's bay company, ice caves, , , = = illumination rock, , = =, indians, legend of the creation, ; "bridge of the gods," - ; origin of the chinook wind, - ; value of their place names, ; leschi, first indian to scale a snow-peak, ; = =, = =, = =, = =, = =, = =, = = japan current, jefferson, mt., , = = kelley, hall j., klickitat glacier, mt. adams, - ; = =, = - = klickitat river, , = = ladd glacier, mt. hood, , , - , = =, = = langille, harold douglas, "the forests," - langille, william a., lava beds, tree casts, caves, etc., near mt. adams, - , = =, = =; near mt. st. helens, - , = =, = =; struggle of the forest to cover, - , = = lava glacier, mt. adams, , = - = lewis and clark, exploration, lewis river, , , = = lily, the mt. hood, = = lone rock, = =, = = loowit, the witch woman, - lyle, wash, , = =, = = lyman glaciers, mt. adams, , = = lyman, prof. w. d., , , mazama glacier, mt. adams, , , = =, = = mazama rock, mt. hood, = = mazamas, mountain club, organization, ; ascents of mt. st. helens, ; an heroic rescue, , ; presidents, ; ascents, ; = =, = =, = =, = =, = = memaloose island, = = mountains, importance in scenery, "mountain that was 'god,'" = = mountaineers, the, , = = multnomah falls, = =, = =, = = newton clark glacier, mt. hood, , , = =, = = noble fir, , , = =, = =, = = north yakima, wash., oneonta gorge, = =, = = oregon, its geological story, - ; its settlement, - peterson's, near mt. st. helens, , plummer, fred g., pinnacle glacier, mt. adams, , = =, = = portland, ore., , , = =, = =, = =, = = portland automobile club, , portland ski club, , = = portland snow-shoe club, , = =, = =, = = "presidents' range," puget sound, rainier, mt. or mt. tacoma, and rainier national park, , , = =, = =, = =, = = red butte, mt. adams, = = reforestation, = = reid, prof. harry fielding, , , = = rhododendrons, , = = ridge of wonders, mt. adams, , = =, = =, = = riley, frank b., , rocky mountains, rooster rock, = = rusk, c. e., rusk glacier, mt. adams, , , = =, = = ruskin, john, quoted, , , "sacajawea," statue, = = sacramento valley, origin, salmon fishing, = =, = =, = =, = =, = = sandy glaciers and canyon, mt. hood, , , = =, = = sandy, ore., = = san joaquin valley, origin, shaw, col. b. f., siskiyou mountains, south butte, mt. adams, , = = speelyei, the coyote god, , spirit lake, , = = squaw grass, , = = steel's cliff, , = = st. helens, mt., indian legend of its origin, ; compared with mt. adams, , ; discovery and name, ; structure, - ; height, ; routes to, ; recent eruptions, , ; lava beds, - ; glaciers, - ; routes to summit, - ; volcanic phenomena, ; first ascent, ; the mazamas on, , , ; an heroic rescue, , ; views of, = =, = =, = =, = =, = - = st. peter's dome, = =, = = sylvester, a. h., , table mountain, = =, = =, = = toutle river canyons, mt. st. helens, , = = tree casts, , , = = trout lake, , , , , = =, = = umatilla, ore., umatilla indian village, = = vancouver, capt. george, , vancouver, wash., , = =, = = volcanoes, , white river glacier, mt. hood, , = =, = =, = = white salmon, wash., , , = =, = = white salmon glacier, mt. adams, , = = white salmon river, = = white salmon valley, , willamette river, , , = =, = = wind mountain, = =, = = woodland, wash., , yacolt, wash., , yakima indians, , = = y. m. c. a., party on mt. hood, = =; on mt. adams, = = yocum, o. c., zigzag glacier, mt. hood, , , = =, = = zigzag river and canyon, , , = =, = = [illustration: klickitat river canyon, near mount adams.] engravings by the hicks-chatten co. color printing by the kilham stationery and printing co. portland, oregon * * * * * transcriber's note: obvious punctuation errors were corrected. page , "moorhouse" changed to "moorehouse" (lee moorehouse ) page , "monoply" changed to "monopoly" (a foreign monopoly that) page , "descendents" changed to "descendants" (pride of their descendants) page , illustration with caption beginning "cone of mount hood", "scoriae" changed to "scoriæ" (ridge of volcanic scoriæ) page , "pretentions" changed to "pretensions" (with very modest pretensions) page , "scoriae" changed to "scoriæ" (rocks and the scoriæ which) page , "tripple" changed to "triple" (and even triple border) page , double word "to" removed from test. original read (stairway tilted to to forty) page , italics added to "u. s. geog. mag." and "science" to follow rest of usage (in _u. s. geog. mag._, v. , pp. , and by j. s. diller in _science_) page , erratum, "captin" changed to "captain" (to captain samuel k. barlow) page , indians, leschi, only the first illustration is of leschi, the rest of the bolded page numbers are of other people. page , zigzag river and canyon, bold text added to " " as it is an illustration (canyon, , , = =, = =) [transcriber's note: bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.] the pioneer boys of the columbia [illustration] or: in the wilderness of the great northwest the young pioneer series by harrison adams illustrated [illustration] the pioneer boys of the ohio, or: clearing the wilderness $ . the pioneer boys on the great lakes, or: on the trail of the iroquois . the pioneer boys of the mississippi, or: the homestead in the wilderness . the pioneer boys of the missouri, or: in the country of the sioux . the pioneer boys of the yellowstone, or: lost in the land of wonders . the pioneer boys of the columbia, or: in the wilderness of the great northwest . [illustration] the page company beacon street boston, mass. [illustration: "the two boys had to . . . start upon the long journey into the northwest" (_see page _)] the young pioneer series the pioneer boys of the columbia or: in the wilderness of the great northwest by harrison adams author of "the pioneer boys of the ohio," "the pioneer boys of the missouri," "the pioneer boys of the yellowstone," etc. [illustration] illustrated by walter s. rogers the page company boston [illustration] mdccccxvi [illustration] _copyright, , by_ the page company _all rights reserved_ first impression, may, [illustration] preface dear boys:-- the time has at last arrived when we must say good-bye to our pioneer friends, the armstrongs. you will remember how we have followed their adventurous careers down the ohio, along the mississippi, then up the great missouri to the wonder country of the yellowstone; and now, between the covers of the present volume, are narrated the concluding incidents in the story of "westward ho!" our country is deeply indebted to the class of pioneers typified by the armstrong boys. restless spirits many of them were, always yearning for richer lands where game would be more plentiful. it was undoubtedly this desire that led them further and further into the "country of the setting sun," constantly seeking that which many of them never found; until at length the pacific barred their further progress. bob and sandy armstrong, together with their sturdy sons, dick and roger, are but types of the settlers who opened up the rich territory of the mississippi valley, as well as the great west. their kind is not so numerous now, at least in our own country, since the need for such adventurous souls has become less acute. in many places, however, like the canadian northwest, they can still be met with, forging the links that will bind the wilderness to civilization. if you boys have found one half the enjoyment in reading of the exploits of our young pioneers that the task has afforded the author in writing of them, his aim, which has been to instruct as well as to entertain, will have been accomplished. harrison adams. may , . [illustration] [illustration] contents chapter page preface v i the lure of the setting sun ii wrecked in the rapids iii wolves in the timber iv the birch bark message v what the picture writing told vi stalking the buffalo vii hunters, all viii charged by a bull ix planning a surprise x springing the trap xi banished from camp xii on fishing bent xiii glorious sport with the trout xiv prisoners of the dacotahs xv when stout hearts were necessary xvi the escape xvii shelter in a hollow tree xviii the storm xix under the fallen forest monarch xx the return from captivity xxi at the foot of the rockies xxii the death of the bull moose xxiii hunting the mountain sheep xxiv on the burning desert xxv the oasis xxvi among the nez perces xxvii from saddle to canoe again xxviii at the falls of the columbia xxix nearing the salty sea xxx a moment of peril xxxi the end of the long trail xxxii to the rising sun--conclusion notes [illustration] [illustration] list of illustrations page "the two boys had to . . . start upon the long journey into the northwest" (_see page _) _frontispiece_ "'he tries to strike them as they jump at him'" "'run for the trees, roger!' shouted dick" "they pushed forward, and were soon at the fallen tree" "'there! you can see him move'" "fully half of the flat head indians went with the landslide" [illustration] the pioneer boys of the columbia chapter i the lure of the setting sun "it strikes me, dick, the rapids are noisier to-day than ever before." "we have time enough yet, roger, to paddle ashore, and give up our plan of running them." "but that would be too much like showing the white feather, cousin; and you must know that we armstrongs never like to do that." "then we are to try our luck in the midst of the snarling, white-capped water-wolves, are we, roger?" "i say, 'yes.' we started to make the run, and a little extra noise isn't going to frighten us off. besides, we may not have another chance to try it." "you're right there, roger, for i heard captain lewis say we'd have to start up the river again in a few days, heading into the great west, the land of the setting sun." "i am ready, dick. my paddle can be depended on to see us through. we'll soon be at the head of the rapids, too." "already the canoe feels the pull, and races to meet it. steady now, roger, and let us remember what the indians told us about the only safe passage through the big trouble water, as they call it. a little more to the left--now straight ahead, and both together!" the two sturdy, well-grown lads who crouched in the frail indian craft, made of tanned buffalo skins, need no introduction to those who have read any of the preceding volumes of this series. there may be those, however, who, in these pages, are making the acquaintance of dick and roger, the young pioneers, for the first time; and for their benefit a little explanation may be necessary. while the pair are shooting downward, on the rapidly increasing current of the yellowstone river, toward the roaring rapids, on this spring day in the year , let us take a brief look backward. who were these daring lads of the old frontier days, and how came they so far from the westernmost settlements of the english-speaking race along the mississippi, and about the mouth of the missouri? dick armstrong and his cousin, roger, were the sons of two brothers whose adventures along the ohio in the days of daniel boone occupied our attention in the earlier stories of border life. they were worthy of their fathers, for dick had inherited the thoughtful character of bob armstrong, while roger at times displayed the same bold disposition that had always marked sandy, his parent, in the perilous days when they founded their homes in the then untrodden wilderness. the families were now located at that spot which had first been taken up by the french, and called st. louis in honor of the king of france. their grandfather, david armstrong, still lived, as did also his wife, hale and hearty, enjoying the increasing households of their children. bob and sandy had both married, and besides dick there was a smaller son, named sam in the cabin of the former. roger had a little sister, called mary, in honor of her grandmother. the two cousins had grown up, as did most lads of those early days, accustomed to think for themselves, and to meet danger bravely. both of them were accomplished in all the arts known to successful woodsmen. they learned from experience, as well as from the lips of old borderers who visited in their homes, and were able to hold their own with any boys of their age in the community. a sudden calamity threatened to disturb the peace of the armstrong circle, when it was learned that there was a flaw in the deed by which their property was held. an important signature was required in order to perfect this title, and, unless this could be obtained, and shown by the succeeding spring, everything would pass into the possession of a rich and unscrupulous french indian trader, françois lascelles by name. inquiry developed the fact that jasper williams, the man whose signature was so important to the happiness of all the armstrongs, had gone with the expedition undertaken by captain lewis and captain clark, which was headed into the unknown country of the setting sun, with the hope of finding a way to the far distant pacific ocean. no white man had as yet crossed the vast stretches of country that lay west of the rolling mississippi, and it was the boldest undertaking ever known when president jefferson influenced congress to stand back of his proposition to learn the extent of the possessions that had recently come to the united states. (note .)[ ] the president's private secretary, captain lewis, headed the small party of adventurous spirits, assisted by an army officer, captain clark. they left st. louis in the spring of , and had been long on the way when the armstrongs discovered that the one man whom they could depend on to save their homes was with the expedition. ordinarily bob and sandy armstrong would have been quick to take upon themselves the duty of overtaking the expedition, and securing the necessary signature; but a recent injury prevented one of the brothers from going. in the end the proposition of dick and roger to undertake the stupendous task was agreed to, and the boys started, mounted on two horses and equipped as well as the times permitted. the adventures they met with were thrilling in the extreme, and have been described at length in earlier volumes.[ ] the youths overtook the expedition after it had gone far up the "great muddy," as the missouri had already become known, and the coveted signature was obtained. then the lads were tempted to continue with the party, since captain lewis was sending back one of his most trusted scouts with an account of what had already happened to the expedition, for the perusal of president jefferson; and he could be trusted to see that the precious document reached the armstrongs. during the winter just passed the two boys were kept busy in the rôle of scouts and providers of fresh meat for the camp, a duty which their early training made them peculiarly fitted to assume. the expedition had laid out a comfortable camp near the indian village of the mandan tribe, with whom peaceful relations had been established at the time of their first arrival in the neighborhood. some of the bolder spirits had ventured into the realm of natural wonders now known as yellowstone park, and had viewed with amazement and awe the strange geysers that spouted hot water hundreds of feet in the air at stated periods, as well as many other singular mysteries. dick and roger had been among the fortunate few to view these marvels; but, as a rule, the soldiers and bordermen associated with the two captains were almost as superstitious as the ignorant red men, and actually feared to set eyes on these strange freaks of nature which they could not understand. the indians called the place the bad lands, and believed an evil manitou dwelt there, who was ever ready to seize upon and enchain those reckless warriors who should invade his territory. slowly the long winter had passed away, and all seemed to be going well. there had been occasional signs of trouble, when hostile hunting parties of indians were encountered; but, thus far, none of the expedition had been more than wounded in these frays. spring was at last at hand, and every one in the party looked forward with eagerness to the fresh start that was soon to be made. they had gathered much information concerning the vast stretch of plains and mountains that still lay between them and their goal; but, since only indians had ever penetrated that wilderness, these stories were invariably untrustworthy, for the mind of the red man was very much like that of a child, and could see things only from an imaginative standpoint. about all that the adventurers really knew was that there was a tremendous barrier of mountains which they must climb before they could hope to attain their ambitious aim and gaze upon the pacific ocean, seen at that time only by those, following balboa, who had crossed the narrow isthmus where the panama canal now joins the rival oceans. every evening, when the sun was setting in a maze of glowing colors, dick and roger were accustomed to stand and watch until the last fiery finger had finally faded from the skies. to them that mysterious west held out beckoning arms. they never tired of talking about the fresh wonders they might gaze upon once they started into the trackless wilds; and their young souls were aflame with eagerness as the days crept along, each one bringing them closer to the hour of departure. for some time they had intended to take a canoe through the big rapids of the river, which they had passed in ascending the stream, before making the winter camp. from the indians they had secured all possible information, and finally, knowing that their time here was now short, they had set forth with the canoe that had been their property for months, bent upon undertaking the rather risky voyage. if the daring canoe-man knows his course, the passing through a rapid, amidst all the foam and rush of hungry waters, is not the perilous thing it seems. besides a knowledge of the way, all that is required is a bold heart, a quick eye, a stout paddle, and muscular arms to wield it. the two lads soon entered the upper stretches of the white-capped water. they quickly picked out their course, and found themselves shooting downward with almost incredible speed. around them on every hand was boiling, tumultuous water, curling and rushing and leaping as though eager to seize upon its prey. dick and his cousin were not at all dismayed. they had rubbed up against perils so often in their young lives that they could keep cool in the face of almost any danger. roger crouched in the bow and fended off from the rocks, so that the glancing blows the boat received would not damage the tough skins of which the craft was made. dick occupied the stern, and his was the crafty hand that really guided the canoe, for roger always acknowledged that his cousin could handle a paddle better than he could. they had passed more than two-thirds of the way down the rapids, and the worst seemed to be behind them, when something strange happened. the canoe struck a partly submerged, but perfectly smooth, rock. it was only a slight blow, and glancing at that, but nevertheless the results were startling. no sooner had the accident occurred than the bottom of the boat gaped open and the water rushed in with terrible speed. one look convinced dick that it was quite hopeless to try to keep the craft afloat with their weight to force this flood through the hole. "quick! snatch up your gun, and jump overboard, roger!" he shouted. "and hold on to the boat, remember, like grim death!" roger was nothing if not catlike in his actions when an emergency arose; and the two lads leaped over into the swirling water as one, ready to battle for their lives with the rapids, where the superstitious red men said the evil spirits dwelt amidst continual strife and warring. footnotes: [ ] the notes will be found at the end of the book. [ ] "the pioneer boys of the missouri" and "the pioneer boys of the yellowstone." chapter ii wrecked in the rapids when they made this sudden plunge, the two boys were careful to maintain their grip upon the sides of the boat, one being on the right and the other on the left. relieved of their weight, the buoyant canoe would probably float, and might yet prove of considerable help to them in navigating the remainder of the boisterous rapids. all pioneer boys early learned to swim like fishes. it was as much a part of their education as handling a gun, or acquiring a knowledge of woodcraft. the lad who was not proficient in all these things would have been hard to find, and had he been discovered, the chances were he would have been deemed a true mollycoddle, and fit only to wear the dresses of his sister, or, as the indians would have described it, be a "squaw." no sooner had dick and roger found themselves in the swift flowing waters than they struck out most manfully to keep themselves and the boat afloat. it was no new experience in their adventurous career, for before now they had more than once found themselves battling with a flood. for a brief time it promised to be a most exciting experience, and one that would require their best endeavors if they hoped to come out alive at the foot of the rapids. to be hurled against some of the jutting spurs of rock with all the force of that speeding current would mean blows that would weaken their powers of resistance, and cause them to lose their grip on the side of the canoe. there were times when they were almost overwhelmed by the dashing, foamy waters. in every instance, however, their pluck and good judgment served to carry them through the difficulty. all the while they had the satisfaction of knowing that they must be drawing closer to the end of the rapids. already dick believed he could notice a little slackening of the fury with which they were beaten on all sides by the lashing waters. he managed to give a shout to encourage his cousin. "keep holding on, roger; we are nearly at the bottom! another minute will take us into smoother water! tighten your grip, and we shall win out yet!" "i'm game to the finish!" was all roger could say in reply, for every time he opened his mouth it seemed as though some of the riotous water would swoop over his head and almost choke him by forcing itself down his throat. before another minute was half over they had come to the foot of the rapids, and, still holding to the waterlogged canoe, floated out upon comparatively smooth water. here amidst the foam and eddies they managed to push the boat toward the shore. roger was already laughing, a little hysterically it is true, for he had been tremendously worked up over the exciting affair. it might have ended in a tragedy for them; but, now that the peril was past, roger could afford to act as if he saw only the humorous side of the accident. "that was a very close call, dick!" he ventured, as they continued to swim as best they could, holding their guns in the hands that at the same time clutched the gunwales of the boat. "we rather expected it," replied dick, "and laid our plans to meet an upset; but it came with a rush, after all. who'd ever believe such a little knock against a rock would have burst the tough skin of our hide boat?" "yes, and a perfectly _smooth_ rock at that," added roger, as though he knew this to a certainty, and it added to the mystery in his eyes. "i believed these boats were tough enough to stand ten times that amount of pounding. i believe after all i prefer our old style of dugout." "yes, they may be clumsy, but you can depend on them all the time; and after this i think i'll be suspicious about a hide boat," dick continued. the shore was now close at hand, and they found little difficulty in making a landing. at the same time the half sunken indian boat was dragged up on the bank, and tipped over to relieve it of the water, though that began to pour out through the rent in the bottom as soon as it left the river. it was only natural that the two boys should first throw themselves down on the soft bank to regain some of their breath after such an exciting time. then, having been brought up in the school of preparedness, their next act was to examine their guns, and to renew the priming of powder in the pan, so that the weapons, on which, they always depended to defend themselves against sudden perils, would be in condition for immediate use in case of necessity. in those days old heads were to be found on young shoulders. responsibility caused lads, hardly entering their teens, to become the defenders of their families, as well as hunters and trappers. and the armstrong cousins had long filled a position of trust of this description in the home circles. "well, we shot the rapids, all right," remarked roger, presently, with a whimsical smile; "but not exactly as we had planned. now we can have the pleasure of walking back to camp. at least it saves us the bother of paddling all the way, after making a carry around the rapids. and we meant to give our boat to one of the mandan boys, you remember, dick." "i'm puzzled about that boat," remarked the other, frowning. "i suppose you mean you wonder what made it play such a treacherous trick on us, after standing the wear and tear of the winter," roger observed. "yes, for you remember we examined it closely only yesterday, and made sure it was in perfect condition. suppose we take a look at that break, and see how it happened to come." "oh! the chances are," said roger, carelessly, "the old hide became worn or weak through age, and gave way. still," he added, "that was only a little bump, dick, and i'm as bothered as you are how to explain it." in another minute they were bending over the upturned canoe. immediately both boys uttered exclamations of astonishment, as though they had made a discovery that gave them an unexpected thrill. "why, it looks as if a sharp knife blade had been drawn straight down along here, and cut nearly through the skin, so that even a little blow would finish it!" exclaimed roger, turning his troubled eyes upon his cousin as if to ascertain whether the other agreed with him. "that is exactly what has been done," added dick, soberly. "see, you can even notice where the slit extends further than the break. this was not as much an accident as we thought, roger. some rascal, who knew what we expected to do, tried to bring about our destruction in the rapids!" "but it must have been done since yesterday," declared the other angrily, "for we looked over every inch of the skin of the boat then, and surely would have noticed the deep scoring of a knife blade." "there can be no doubt about that," agreed dick. "and the work was skillfully done in the bargain. whoever made that cut expected that the boat would strike against rocks many times during the run of the rapids, and took chances that one of the blows would tear open the weak place. and that is what happened." "it would have gone much harder with us if we had not been most of the way down the descent," said roger, with a frown on his face. "but, dick, who could the treacherous rascal be? as far as we know, we have not made a single enemy among the members of the party. would one of our indian friends have played such a mean trick on us, do you think?" "no one but an enemy could have done it, roger, because there was nothing to gain; for while some indians might envy us our rifles these would surely be lost with us in the rapids and never recovered." "that makes the mystery worse than ever, then," fretted the other lad, who was so constituted that among his boy friends down along the missouri he had often gone under the name of "headstrong roger." "i have a suspicion, although there is really nothing to back it up, that i can see," remarked dick, reflectively, as though at some time in the past winter he had allowed himself to speculate concerning certain things which were now again taking possession of his mind. "dick, tell me what it is about, please," urged his cousin, "because i'm groping in the dark, myself." "there is only one man that i know of who hates us bitterly," commenced dick, and instantly a flash of intelligence overspread the face of the other. "do you mean that french trader, françois lascelles?" he demanded. "i was thinking of him, and his equally unscrupulous son, alexis," dick admitted. "but, when we captured them last fall, they were held prisoners in the camp until mayhew, the scout, was well on his way down the river and could not possibly be overtaken. then the party of frenchmen was let go, with the solemn warning from captain lewis that if any of them loitered around this region they would be shot on sight. and dick, all winter long you remember we have seen nothing of lascelles, or indeed for that matter any other white man." "still," urged the other, "he may have come back here again when he found he could not overtake mayhew and secure that paper. a man like françois lascelles hates bitterly, and never forgives. to be beaten in his game by a couple of mere boys would make him gnash his teeth every time he remembered it. yes, something seems to tell me, roger, that our old enemy has returned, and is even now in communication with some treacherous member of the expedition." "you mean his money has hired some one to play this terrible trick that might have cost us our lives; is that it, dick?" "it is only a guess with me," replied the other, soberly; "but i can see no other explanation of this mystery." "but who could be the guilty man in the camp?" asked roger. "we believed every one was our friend, from the two captains down to the lowest in line. it is terrible to suspect any one of a crime like this. how will we ever be able to find out about it, do you think?" "we must begin to keep our eyes about us and watch," advised dick. "one by one we can cross the names off our list until it narrows down to two or three. sooner or later we shall find out the truth." "do you mean to tell captain lewis about the knife-slit along the bottom of our boat?" demanded roger. "it is our duty to tell him," dick declared. "the man who could stoop to such a trick as that, just for love of money, is not fit to stay in the ranks of honest explorers. once we can show him the proof, i am sure captain lewis will kick the rascal out of camp. but i can see that you are beginning to shiver, roger; so the first thing we ought to do now is to make a fire, and dry our clothes as best we may." "i was just going to say that myself, dick, because this spring air is sharp, with little heat in the sun. to tell you the honest truth my teeth are beginning to rattle like those bones the mandan medicine man shakes, when he dances to frighten off the evil spirit that has entered the body of a sick man. so let's gather some wood and make a blaze." with that, both boys began to bestir themselves, first of all slapping their arms back and forth to induce circulation; after which they started to collect dry wood in a heap. at no time, however, did they let their precious guns leave their possession, for they knew that when fire-arms were needed it was usually in a hurry, and to save life. chapter iii wolves in the timber "let me light the pile, dick," roger pleaded, after they had made sufficient preparation. they had selected only dry wood for various reasons. in the first place, this would burn more readily, and thus throw off the heat they wanted in order to dry their clothes. at the same time it was likely to make little smoke that could be seen by the eyes of any hostile indians who might be within a mile or so of the spot. boys who lived in those pioneer days always carried flint and steel along with them, in order to kindle a blaze when necessary. had these been lacking, roger, no doubt, would have been equal to the occasion, for he could have flashed some powder in the pan of his gun, and thus accomplished his purpose. (note .) in a short time roger, being expert in these lines, succeeded, by the use of flint and steel, as well as some fine tinder, which he always carried along with him in his ditty bag, in starting a fire. the wood blazed up and sent out a most gratifying heat, so that both boys, by standing as close as they could bear it, began to steam, very much after the manner of some of the warm geysers, during the stated periods when they were not spouting, that the lads had looked upon in the land of wonders. "what shall we do about the boat?" asked roger, when they found that they were by degrees getting dry, though it took a long time to accomplish this desired end. "i was thinking about that," his cousin told him. "it is not worth while for us to try to patch the hole, because we expect to abandon it very soon. captain lewis asked us to be with him in his boat. we had better leave it here, and perhaps they may send a couple of indians down to fetch it to camp." "you mean, dick, if the captain wishes to see for himself the mark of the treacherous knife blade?" "which i think he will want to do, so as to settle it in his own mind," returned the other. "this is, after all, the most terrifying thing that has as yet happened to us on our long journey up here into the heart of the wilderness." "that is just it, dick. open foes i can stand, because you know what to expect; but it gives me a creep to think of some unknown person standing ready to stab us in the dark, or when our backs are turned. perhaps, after all, we did wrong to decide on staying with captain lewis and captain clark, when we might have gone on home with mayhew, carrying that precious paper." "oh! i wouldn't look at it that way, roger," said the other, striving to cheer him up, for roger was subject to sudden fits of depression. "just think of all the wonderful things we have seen while here; and then remember that there are still other strange sights awaiting us in the land of the setting sun." "yes, that's so, dick, and both of us decided that the chance to look upon the great ocean was one not to be lightly cast aside." "we've been lucky so far," dick told his chum, "and succeeded in everything we have undertaken; so even this new trouble mustn't upset us. by keeping a sharp lookout we can expect to learn who the traitor is, and after that he will be forced to leave the party. and if that lascelles is around here again he will have to look out for himself. anyhow," he added after a pause, "we have gone too far now to turn back, no matter whether we made a mistake or not." "yes, and as my father used to say," continued roger, "'what can't be cured must be endured.' we have made our bed, and must lie in it, no matter how hard it may seem. i'm going to believe just as you do, dick--that the same kind fate that has always watched over us in times past is still on duty." he glanced upward toward the blue sky as he said this, and dick knew what he intended to imply; for boys in those days were reared in a religious atmosphere in their humble homes, and early learned to "trust in the lord; but keep their powder dry," as the puritan fathers used to do. "our fathers often had to meet situations just as dangerous as any that can come to us," continued dick, "and they grappled them boldly and came off victorious. so, from now on, we'll devote ourselves to finding out whose was the unseen hand that held the knife with which our hide boat was slashed so cleverly." "how far are we from camp, do you think, dick?" "as the crow flies it may be five miles, though we came further than that on the river," the other boy replied without any hesitation, showing how completely he kept all these things in his mind, to be utilized on short notice. "we came down with a swift current," roger admitted, "and it hardly seemed as if we could have been an hour on the way. it will take us some time to tramp back to camp, even if we take a short-cut to avoid the bends in the river." "what of that," asked dick, "since we expected to spend a good part of the day in paddling up the stream, after shooting the rapids? but, if you are dry enough now, i think we had better make a start." "suppose we drag the boat into these bushes first, dick," suggested roger. "not a bad idea either, for some passing indian might think it worth while to mend the hole and carry the boat off. we would like to have captain lewis take a look at that knife mark, so as to prove our story. he trusts all his men, and it is going to make him feel badly to know that one among them has sold himself to an enemy." between them they carried the hide canoe in among the bushes, where it was easily hidden away. of course any one seeking it would readily find its hiding-place; but at least it could not be seen by the ordinary passer-by. having accomplished this, the two lads set forth to cover the ground lying between their landing place on the shore of the river, below the rapids, and the camp of the explorers. they anticipated no trouble in finding their goal, because of their familiarity with woods life. besides, in their numerous hunting trips during the past winter they had covered nearly all the territory around that region, so that the chances of their getting lost were small indeed. "we may run across game on the way back, don't you think, dick?" suggested roger, just after they had left the ashes of their late fire, which had been dashed with water before they quitted the scene. "you never can tell," came the reply; "there is always a chance to sight a deer in this country. we got a number, you remember, within three miles of camp while the snow was deep on the ground. and already i have noticed signs telling that they use this section for feeding on the early shoots of grass." "yes," added roger, "tracks there have been in plenty. and as i live! see here, where this tuft of reddish hair has caught on a pointed piece of bark. i warrant you some buck rubbed himself against this tree good and hard. i would like to have been within gunshot of the rascal just then, for the marks are fresh, and i think they were made this very morning." this gave the two boys hope that they might at any minute run across the deer and bring him down with a lucky shot. as fresh venison was always welcome in the camp, such a possibility as this always spurred them on to do their best. they liked to hear the cheery voice of captain lewis telling them frankly that it had been a fortunate thing for the whole expedition when he tempted dick and roger to remain and see the enterprise through. "listen! what is all that noise ahead of us?" asked roger, as a sudden burst of snarling and half-suppressed howling was borne to their ears. "wolves, as sure as you live!" exclaimed dick, frowning, for if there was one animal upon which he disliked to waste any of his precious ammunition, that beast was a wolf. ordinarily these animals are not to be feared when met singly, or even in pairs; but, during the winter and early spring, they gather in packs, in order to hunt the better for food, and at such times even the boldest hunter dislikes running across them. "they are certainly on the track of something," suggested roger, as he listened, and then, shrugging his broad shoulders, he continued. "like as not, it is that buck we were hoping to run across. a plague on the pests! if i had my way, and could spare the ammunition, i'd shoot every one of the lot!" "little good that would do," dick told him; "because they run to thousands upon thousands out on the plains and in the mountains where we are heading. a dozen or two would be no more than a grain of sand on that seashore we hope to set eyes on before snow flies again." "but listen to them carrying on, dick," continued the other, with growing excitement. "come to think of it, i never heard wolves make those queer sounds when chasing a deer. you know they yap like dogs, and almost bark. these beasts are acting like those creatures did when they had me caught up in a tree, with my gun on the ground." "yes, i remember the time well enough," chuckled dick. "you were mighty glad to see a fellow of my heft, too, when i came along. twenty hours up a tree is no joke, when you've got a healthy appetite in the bargain. but, just as you say, roger, there is something queer about the way they are carrying on." "they're not chasing anything now, that's certain," asserted the other positively; "because the sounds keep coming from the same place all the time. dick, perhaps the beasts may have some one treed for all we know. they are savage with hunger, and would just as soon make a meal off a hunter, red or white, as off a deer or a wounded buffalo." "it happens to be right on our way to camp," remarked dick, tightening his grip on his long-barreled rifle, "so we can find out what's up without going far out of our path." this, of course, pleased headstrong roger, always in readiness for adventure, it mattered little of what nature. he always maintained that he had a long-standing debt against the tribe of _lupus_ on account of that terrible fast mentioned by his cousin, and, although powder and ball were not too plentiful, he seldom failed to take a shot at his four-footed enemies when the chance came to him. so now he fancied that he would end the prowling of at least one red-tongued woods rover. certainly he could spare a single charge, and it would give him more satisfaction than almost anything else. you see, roger had rubbed the old sore when he spoke of that bitter experience in the past, and it smarted again venomously. as they pushed steadily on, the sounds increased in volume. they could even hear the thud of heavy bodies falling back to the ground after frantic leaps aloft, as though endeavoring to reach some tempting object among the branches of a tree. then roger, who had the keenest eyesight of the pair, muttered: "there, i can just begin to see them through the trees and brush yonder, dick; and, as we believed, they have some human being treed, or else are trying to force conclusions with a panther, which would be a strange thing, to be sure." "we'll soon know," the other whispered, "for it's only a little way. yes, i can see them jumping up, just as you say. roger, fasten your eyes on the tree above, and tell me what that dark object is." a minute later, as they still kept pushing forward, roger uttered a low cry. "well, after all, it's an indian brave up there. and he's already shot a number of the brutes with his arrows; but i reckon his stock has given out. he tries to strike them as they jump at him, using his knife. and, dick, i can see now that he isn't a mandan indian at all, but more likely one of those sioux who, under their sub-chief, beaver tail, did us such a good turn last fall, when we saved jasper williams from the french traders. but what can a sioux warrior be doing here, in the land of his foes, the mandans?" [illustration: "'he tries to strike them as they jump at him'"] chapter iv the birch bark message "there, i could see him reach down then and strike at a leaping wolf!" exclaimed dick, showing signs of excitement, something he seldom did, since he had wonderful control over his emotions for a boy of his age. "just as i told you," continued roger, trembling all over with eagerness, "he has used up his arrows, and is trying to cut down the number of his four-footed enemies by other means." "there, listen to that howl!" "oh! he made a splendid strike that time, dick!" "yes, and you can see what that clever brave is up to, if you notice the wild scuffle at the foot of the tree," the other replied. "why, the wolves seem to be fighting among themselves, dick. what makes them act that way, do you know?" "i can give a guess. these mad animals are almost starving, though just how that should be, at this season of the year, i am not able to say. the scent of blood makes them wild, you see, and, every time the brave's knife wounds one of the pack, the rest set upon the wretched beast to finish him." "in that way the indian could clean them up in time, i should say, without any help from us," roger suggested, though he showed no sign that his intention of giving aid had changed in the least. "but they might take warning, and stop jumping up at him," dick explained; "then his knife would be useless. and, too, other wolves hearing the noise are apt to hasten to the spot, so that there might be an increasing pack, a new one for every beast he helped to kill." "dick, he is a brave fellow, even if his skin is red!" "i agree with you there," said the other, softly. "then are we not going to bring about his rescue, even if it does cost us some of our precious powder and shot?" roger demanded. "yes, but i hope it will not be more than one load," replied his cousin; for all their lives this question of a wastage of ammunition had been impressed on their minds as the utmost folly, and on that account they seldom used their guns except to make sure of worthy game. "come, let us rush forward with loud yells, waving our arms, and doing everything we can to scare the animals off before we begin to fire. after we get close up, and they are hesitating what to do, that is the time for us to blaze away." "a good plan, roger, and worthy of our fathers' old friend, pat o'mara. only as a last resort will we use our fire-arms." "and you be the one to say when, dick, remember!" "depend on me for that," roger was told quickly. "just as soon as i see that something is needed to force the ugly beasts to make up their minds, i'll call out to you to give it to them." "give me one last word of advice before we rush them, dick." "yes, what is it, roger?" "if, instead of taking to their heels, the pack turns on us, and starts to fight, what must we do?" "there isn't one chance in ten it will happen that way," said dick, "for wolves are too cowardly. when they see us rushing boldly forward you'll notice how every beast's head will droop, and that he'll begin to skulk away, showing his teeth, perhaps, but cowed and whipped." "but suppose it should?" urged roger, as they paused, just before bursting out upon the strange scene. "if it comes to the worst we may have to take to a tree just as the indian brave has done," dick told him, "and then start to work killing them off as fast as we can load and fire. now, are you ready to do a lot of yelling?" "just try me, that's all, dick!" "come on, then, with me!" with the words dick sprang boldly forth from his concealment, with his cousin alongside. both of them started to make the woods ring with their strong young voices, and when two healthy boys yell and whoop they can produce a tremendous volume of sound! some of those predatory wolves must have conceived the idea that a whole company of the strange two-legged foes was rushing toward them, judging from the hasty manner of their exit from the scene. others, however, either more bold or hungry, half crouched and, snarling, showed their white teeth in a vicious manner. evidently these leaders of the pack were not as yet quite convinced that the game had gone against them, despite all the noise made by the oncoming boys. on seeing this, dick and roger tried to shout louder than ever, while they waved their arms in the most frantic manner. it devolved upon dick to decide whether or not they should keep on in this fashion until they came to close quarters with the wolves that lingered, loth to give up their chance of a dinner. rushing forward at this rate, they would be on the scene in half a dozen seconds, and might find the ugly beasts springing up at their throats. never before had the boys seen wolves acting in this manner, for as a rule their nature is cowardly. there was nothing for it but to fall back upon their guns for the finishing stroke, and so dick gave the word. "we must shoot, roger--take that big fellow in front!" he gasped, for he was by this time fairly out of breath after all those strenuous exertions of running, thrashing his arms, and shouting at the top of his voice. accordingly both of them halted just long enough to throw their long-barreled rifles to their shoulders, and glance along the sights. they could actually hear the savage snarls of the defiant pack. roger, always a bit faster than his companion, was the first to fire, and with the crash of his gun the big leader of the pack sprang upward, only to fall back again with his legs kicking. dick's gun spoke fast on the heels of the first report, and he, too, succeeded in knocking over the beast his quick eye had selected. then with renewed shouts, dick and roger once more started forward, but there was a hasty scurrying of gray bodies, and presently not a wolf remained in sight save the pair that had gone down before the deadly fire of the guns. the indian up in the tree dropped to the ground, and the boys saw immediately from his manner of dress that he was, just as roger had surmised, a sioux warrior. from the fact that he was bleeding in various places the boys understood that he must have put up a valiant fight at close quarters against his four-footed enemies, before finally seeking refuge among the branches of the friendly tree. naturally both lads immediately began to wonder why a sioux brave should thus venture into the neighborhood of the mandan village, since the two tribes had been at knives' points for many years. indeed, the preceding fall, when the boys had been aided by beaver tail and some of his sioux warriors, who accompanied them later to their camp, it had required all the tact and diplomacy of which captain lewis was capable to prevent an open rupture between the old-time rivals. "first we must make him let us look at his wounds," suggested dick, "because it is no child's play to have the teeth of wolves draw blood. some of his wounds look bad to me." "i think you are right, dick," agreed the other, always accustomed to leaving the decision to his cousin. "see if you can make him understand what we want to do. i'll get some water in my hat, so you can wash the wounds." the boys always made it a practice to carry certain homely remedies with them, for in those pioneer days the family medicine chest consisted in the main of dried herbs, and lotions made from them, all put up by the wise housewife. those who lived this simple life, and were most of the time in the open air, seldom found themselves in need of a doctor, and most of their troubles sprang either from accidents, or injuries received in combats with wild beasts of the forest. so it was that they had with them a salve they always used to soothe the pain, as well as neutralize the poison injected by bites or scratches received in struggles at close quarters with carnivorous beasts. the indian was looking at them as though puzzled. whites were rarely seen by the dwellers in these far regions beyond the mississippi; indeed, most of the natives had never as yet set eyes on a paleface. this brave, however, may have been in company with beaver tail, the friendly chief, at the time he aided the two boys, and, if so, he undoubtedly recognized dick and roger. unable to speak the sioux tongue, of which they knew but a few words, it would be necessary for dick to make use of gestures in conducting a brief conversation with the other. still, the smile on his face, as well as the fact of his recent acts, would readily tell the red wanderer that he was a friend. "ugh! ugh!" was all the indian could say, but he accepted the hand that was extended, though possibly this method of greeting was strange to him. dick pressed him to sit down, and the brave did so, though with increasing wonder. he speedily realized, however, what the white boys meant to do, and without offering any remonstrance continued silently to watch their labor, as they proceeded to look after his injuries. roger fetched his hat full of cool water from a running brook close by, and one by one dick washed the numerous scratches and ugly furrows where those wolfish fangs had torn the flesh of the stoical brave's lower limbs. he gave no sign of flinching, though the pain must have been more than a trifle. the boys knew enough of indian character to feel sure that, if it had been ten times as severe, he would have calmly endured it, otherwise he could not have claimed the right to wear the feather they could see in his scalplock, and which signified that he was a warrior, or brave. finally the task was completed. there had been nothing further heard from the remnant of the baffled wolf pack all this while, proving that the loss of their powerful leaders must have taken the last bit of courage from the animals, known never to be very brave. all the while the sioux continued to keep those black eyes of his glued on dick armstrong. it was as though he was in search of some one and had made up his mind that, since there could be no other paleface boys within a thousand miles of the spot, these must be the ones he had been commissioned to find. just about the time dick, with another of his rare smiles, indicated that the work of looking after his injuries had been completed, the sioux fumbled in his snake-skin ditty bag, where he kept his little stock of pemmican, and numerous other necessary articles, perhaps his war paint as well. to the astonishment of the boys he drew out a small roll of birch bark, secured far to the north, and handed it to dick. filled with curiosity, the boy opened it with trembling fingers, to find, just as he had anticipated, that it was covered with a series of queer characters, painted after the indian fashion and representing men and animals. "it's indian picture writing, you see, roger!" dick declared, "and must be meant for us, or else this brave would not give it over. he has been sent here from the far-away sioux village to find us, and deliver a message." "yes," added roger, excitedly. "and look, dick, there is what seems to be the awkward but plain picture of a beaver at the end of the message. it must have been sent by our good friend, the chief of the sioux." "you are right that far, roger, for it is meant to be the signature of beaver tail, himself. now to see if we can make out what it says!" chapter v what the picture writing told it was with the utmost eagerness that the two boys studied the strange characters depicted on the strip of bark. the hand that had drawn them there must have been accustomed to the task, and doubtless the story the message was meant to tell could have been easily read by the eyes of any indian. dick and his cousin had seen samples of this queer picture writing before that time, and understood how the indians depend on the natural sagacity of a woodsman, whether red or white, to decipher the meaning of the various characters. (note .) "what can it all stand for?" demanded roger, as he gazed blankly at the several lines of characters. "perhaps we may have to call on some of the mandans in the village to explain it to us." "we will do that in the end, anyway," dick said, "in order to make certain; but, if we look this over closely, right now, we may get an idea of what beaver tail meant by sending it." "you don't think then, dick, it was intended just as a greeting to us, so as to let us know the chief has not forgotten his young paleface brothers?" "no, i feel sure it has a more serious meaning than that," the other declared. "in fact, roger, something tells me it may be in the nature of a warning." "a warning, dick! do you mean the sioux chief wants us to tell captain lewis it will be all his life is worth to keep heading into the land of the west, now that spring has come?" "i was thinking only of ourselves when i said that, roger." "and that the warning would be for our benefit, you mean? but, dick! how could beaver tail, so far away from here, know of any danger that hung over our heads?" "let us examine the bark message, and perhaps we shall learn something that may explain the mystery. the first thing we see is what looks to be a man facing the sun that is half hidden by the horizon." "yes, that hedgehog-looking half circle is meant for the sun, i can see that. and, further along, we find it again, only on the left side of the man who is now creeping toward it. what do you make that out to be?" "it is plain that one represents the rising, and the other the setting sun," dick explained, with lines of deep thought marked across his forehead. "now, an indian always faces the north when he wants to represent the points of the compass, so it is plain that the first sun lies in the east." "and he wanted us to know that this man was heading into the east first of all; is that what you mean, dick?" "yes, and look closer at the figure, roger. it is not intended to be an indian, you can see, for he has a hat on his head. it strikes me we ought to know that hat, cleverly imitated here; what do you say about it?" "oh! it must be the odd-looking hat that french trader, françois lascelles, always wore, dick. he means that it was toward the rising sun françois started last fall, just as we know happened. and now here he is, again, the same hat and all, creeping straight toward the _setting_ sun. does that mean the trader came back again, in spite of the warning captain lewis gave him?" "i am sure it means that, and nothing else," replied the other, calmly. "stop and think, roger. only a little while ago, we were wondering whether such a thing had come about, because we found reason to believe some member of the expedition had been hired to do us an injury. yes, that bitter frenchman has dared to return, believing that he can keep out of the reach of our protectors, and manage in some way to get his revenge." "if that is what beaver tail is trying to tell us in this picture writing, dick, the rest of the screed must simply go on to explain it a little further." "you notice that the same figure with the hat occurs always," continued dick, as he examined the message again. "here is what must stand for a fire, and two persons are sitting beside it, as if cooking. in what seems to be a clump of bushes close by he has drawn that man again, this time lying flat." "that must mean that françois is spying on the pair by the fire," suggested roger, "and as he has made both of them wear caps with 'coon or squirrel tails dangling down behind, i think they are meant to represent us." "there can be no question about it," admitted the other, deeply interested. "and, going further, we see the snake in the grass creeping up as if he meant to surprise the two, who are now sleeping, for they lie flat on the ground." "yes, even the fire burns low, for there is hardly any blaze," added roger, "which indicates that the hour is late. why, dick, we can read the story as easily as any sign in the woods we ever tackled." "then comes another scene," continued dick, "where the creeper has evidently sprung with uplifted knife, upon his intended prey, taken unawares. after that, we can see him crawling away, and there are two figures lying stretched out on the ground close to the now dead fire. that needs no explanation, roger; françois lascelles seeks our lives, because we baffled him in his scheme to win a fortune at the expense of our folks at home!" the two boys looked at each other. their eyes may have seemed troubled, but there was no sign of flinching about them. the lads had met too many perils in times past to shrink, now that they were face to face with another source of danger. "shall we keep on now for the camp, and show this message on the bark to captain lewis?" asked roger. "it would be the best thing to do, for he can advise us," his companion admitted. "besides, he will surely order every one in the camp to keep an eye out for françois lascelles." "we ought to take this brave with us, dick, because he has come a long way, and is hardly fit to return without rest and food." once again did dick endeavor to make the sioux warrior comprehend what he wished him to do. he urged him to get upon his feet, then thrust an arm through that of the brave, after which he nodded his head, pointed to the north, made gestures as though feeding himself, and then started to walk away, still holding on to the other. of course it was easy for the indian to understand that they wished him to accompany them to their camp, where he would receive food and attention. he simply gave a guttural grunt, nodded his head, and fell in behind dick, after the customary indian method of traveling in single file. then they moved along, roger bringing up the rear. little was said while they tramped onward, heading for the camp. dick occupied himself with making sure that he held to the right direction. he also found much food for thought in the startling information that beaver tail had taken the pains to send all these miles to his young friends. in due time they came in sight of the camp where the expedition had passed the preceding winter. rude cabins had sheltered them from the cold and the snow, both of which had been quite severe in this northern latitude. some distance beyond lay the mandan village, always a source of deepest interest to the two boys. it contained so many strange things, and the lads had never become weary of trying to understand the ways of these "white indians." (note .) upon seeing the boys come in with a strange indian in their company, many curious glances were cast in their direction. going straight to the cabin where the two leaders of the expedition lived, the boys were fortunate enough to find captain lewis busily engaged in making up his log for the preceding day, though of course there was little that was new to record. to the surprise of the boys the sioux indian produced another bark scroll from his ditty bag, which he handed to captain lewis. this fact convinced dick that the brave must have been with the party in the fall, for he seemed to know that the white man he faced was the "big chief." "what does all this mean, my boys?" asked the captain, looking puzzled. "we met with an accident in the rapids, and had to swim out," replied dick. "then, on the way back to camp, we came upon this sioux brave in a tree with a dozen hungry wolves jumping up at him. we chased the wolves off, and looked after his wounds, when to our surprise he handed us this message from his chief, beaver tail." the captain examined the picture writing with considerable interest. he had been taking considerable pains since mingling with the mandans to understand their ways, and this crude but effective method of communication had aroused his curiosity on numerous occasions. "read it to me, if you managed to make it out, dick," he told the boy, who only too willingly complied. the captain frowned upon learning that, despite his solemn warning, the french trader had returned to the neighborhood. that look boded ill for françois lascelles, should he ever have the hard luck to be caught in the vicinity of the camp. the captain's own communication from the sioux chief was merely meant for an expression of goodwill. two figures, one plainly a sioux chieftain, and the other a soldier, were seen to be grasping hands as though in greeting. beaver tail by this crude method of picture writing evidently intended to convey the meaning that he had not forgotten his friend, the white chief, and, also, that he had kept his word that the sioux should remain on peaceful terms with the travelers. "but you spoke of meeting with an accident in the rapids," captain lewis presently remarked. "that is something strange for clever boys like you to experience. did you miscalculate the danger, or was it something that could not be helped?" "we closely examined our buffalo hide canoe yesterday, and it was in perfect condition, captain," said dick. "yet, with only a slight blow against a perfectly smooth rock, it split open, and we had to jump overboard. we managed to get through the rough water safely, and drew the damaged boat ashore. imagine our surprise and consternation, sir, when we found that a sharp-pointed knife blade had been run along the bottom of the canoe, making a deep cut that had easily given way when we struck the rock." "you startle me when you say that, dick," remarked the captain, looking uneasy, though almost immediately afterward his jaws became set in a determined fashion, while his eyes gleamed angrily. "it must mean that we have a traitor in the camp; some one who has been bought by the gold of françois lascelles." "that was what we began to fear, captain," dick continued, "and we believed it only right to let you know what happened to us. we hope you will send some of the indians, and one of our men, for the canoe. it could be brought secretly to the camp and examined, without the guilty one knowing about it." "a good idea, my boy, and one i shall act upon at once. say nothing to a single soul concerning this outrage. if we expect to catch the traitor napping, he must not be put on his guard. but none of us could feel safe, knowing we had a snake in our midst. depend upon it, the truth is bound to come out, and, when once we learn his identity, the traitor will be kicked out of the camp, if nothing worse happens to him." with this assurance the two boys rested content. they knew captain lewis was a man of his word, and felt sure that the man who had sold his loyalty for a sum of money offered by the french trader would before long rue the evil day he allowed himself to be thus tempted. soon afterward they saw captain clark and his companion officer in conference, after which the former went over to the mandan village, and, later on, vanished in the dense forest accompanied by two stalwart braves. they had gone, the boys knew to secure the hide canoe that told the story of treachery in the camp. chapter vi stalking the buffalo on the following day orders were given to prepare to start once more in the direction of the beckoning west. there was not much to be done, for, knowing that their departure would soon be ordered, the men had for some time past been getting things in readiness. dick and roger had looked their few possessions over, and were ready to move on short notice. it gave the boys a little feeling of distress to realize that they would be thus placing additional ground between themselves and those dear ones left at home near the mouth of the missouri. "but we have embarked on the trip," said dick, when his chum was speaking of this as something he did not like very much, "and must see it through now. when we do get back home again, if we are so fortunate, think of all the wonderful things we shall be able to describe." the coming of captain lewis just then interrupted their confidential talk. dick expected that their leader had something of importance to communicate, and he could give a pretty accurate guess concerning its nature. sure enough, the first words spoken by the president's private secretary explained the nature of his visit to the cabin of the armstrong boys. "i had an opportunity to examine your canoe, and there can be no reason to doubt that some unknown miscreant planned to have you lose your lives in the rapids. it was cleverly done, and at night-time doubtless, when no one would be apt to notice him working with your boat. the knife went in just deep enough to weaken the whole skin of the bottom, and only a slight blow was needed to finish the treacherous work." "of course you have not been able to place your hand on the guilty party, captain, have you?" asked roger, eagerly. "nothing has been found out so far," came the reply. "one of my reasons for joining you just now is to ask if either of you have any suspicions. although of course we could not accuse any one on such grounds alone, at the same time it might narrow our search, and focus attention on the guilty one, so that he could be watched, and caught in the act." "we do not feel able to say positively, captain lewis," said dick, "but when we came to look over the entire membership of the company we finally figured it out that it must lie between three men. all the others seemed to be above suspicion in our eyes." "tell me who they are, so that i can have them watched," demanded the commander. "there is, first of all, drewyer, the canadian scout. he never seemed to be very friendly with us, for some reason or other, though we have had no quarrel. you are surprised to hear me mention his name, because you have always trusted him fully. and the chances are, captain, that drewyer is as faithful as the needle to the pole. i only include him because we know so little about him." "who is the next one you have on your list?" asked captain lewis. "i count considerably on your natural sagacity to help in running this traitor to earth. you boys have learned pretty well how to judge men from their actions and looks, rather than from their fair speech. tell me the other names, please, dick." "fields is the second man. i base my right to include him in the group from the fact that there was a time when my cousin, here, and fields had hot words over something the trapper had been doing in the village, and which roger took him to task for. since that time they have been on speaking terms, but i do not think fields likes us over much." "i should regret very much to learn that fields had turned traitor, for i have in the past been ready to trust him to any extent," remarked captain lewis. "the third and last man is andrew waller," continued dick. "now, we have never had a word with andrew except in the best of ways. we have always looked on him as a loyal friend, and faithful to the trust you put in him. it has only been of late that both of us noticed that andrew seems to try to avoid us, and when we do meet face to face he lets his eyes drop." "that is indeed a suspicious fact," commented the other, quickly. "if money has tempted him to play the part of a traitor it is easy to understand how he cannot look you squarely in the eye. conscience flays him every time he sees you near by. i shall certainly bear in mind what you have told me, and in due time results may spring from keeping a close watch on the movements of these three men." with that captain lewis left the boys, but they felt sure he would not allow the matter to drop. the man whom president jefferson had personally selected to manage this big enterprise, and who had been his own private secretary, was accustomed to getting results whenever he attempted anything. it was on the following morning that camp was broken, and the expedition once more started forward--down the yellowstone to the missouri, and up that muddy stream again. that was an event of vast importance in the lives of those daring souls who were thus venturing to plunge deeper into the mysteries of the country that up to then had never known the imprint of a white man's foot. although filled with exultation, as were the rest of the travelers, dick and his cousin looked back to see the last of the weird mandan village which had long been a source of delight to their eyes. it was with considerable regret that they took their farewell view of the painted lodges, as well as the indian cemetery on the side of the hill, where all those platforms, bearing their mummy-like burdens wrapped in buffalo hides, told of superstitions that were a part of the mandan nature. during that day they made considerable progress, and the first camp of the new trail was pitched on a ridge close to the river. here the horses were put out to graze, and the boats drawn up on the shore, though a guard was constantly kept to insure against treachery. despite the apparent friendship shown by many of the indian tribes they encountered on their long journey of thousands of miles, the two captains never fully put their trust in the red men. they believed them as a rule to be treacherous, and unable to resist pilfering if the opportunity offered. especially was this true when the coveted object was a horse or a "stick that spat fire," as the wonderful "shooting-irons" of the explorers were generally called. several days passed with nothing to break the monotony of the journey. of course they often met with minor difficulties, but these were speedily overcome by a display of that generalship which had so far made the trip a success. all this while the boys had not forgotten about the spy in the camp. without appearing to do so, they kept a watch upon the three men upon whom suspicion had fallen. had any one of them offered to leave camp after nightfall, he would have been trailed by dick and roger, bent on learning what could be the object of his wandering, and whether he had an appointment with françois lascelles, the indian trader. but, as the days drifted along, and nothing happened, they began to cherish hopes that perhaps the accident to their canoe had been rather an act of vandalism and malice than part of a deep plan to bring about their death. a week after leaving the winter camp the party found itself on the border of a wide plain. dick and roger were mounted and were on a slight elevation down which they expected to pass to the level ground near the river, and await the coming of the boats. from here they could see for a considerable distance around. "look at the herds of buffaloes feeding here and there, dick!" exclaimed roger, whose hunting instincts were easily aroused. "it strikes me we heard captain clark say the fresh meat was getting low again. what do you say to trying to knock over one or two of those fine fellows?" "we would have to go a considerable distance to do it, then," the other told him, "and leave our horses in the bargain, because they are not used to approaching such fierce-looking animals as buffalo bulls." "but we might be lucky enough to get one or two yearlings," persisted roger, who dearly loved the excitement of the hunt, as well as the taste of the well-cooked meat when meal time came. "i think we could manage to load our animals down with the spoils, and easily reach the place where our friends mean to camp for the night." dick looked around him before replying to this tempting proposal. he remembered that they had need to use particular care while away from the main body of explorers; but so far as indications went he could not discover the slightest sign of danger. certainly there was nothing to be feared from françois lascelles out there on that wide stretch of plains, where in various places they could see timid antelopes and clumsy buffaloes feeding amidst the isolated stands of timber which dotted the landscape. "i see nothing to hinder our making the attempt, roger," he finally remarked. "then you agree, do you, dick?" eagerly demanded the other young explorer, as he caressed his gun, and cast a happy look over the panorama that was spread in front of them. "let's figure out just where our best chance lies, before we make a start," he was told. "we have to keep in mind that it's necessary to hide our mounts, so we can creep up on the herd close to some motte of timber." the boys had more than once shot the great, shaggy animals that in those early days abounded in countless thousands on the prairies of the far west. their fathers had hunted buffaloes while on the trail from virginia to the banks of the ohio when boys no older than dick and roger. hence they were familiar with the habits of the animals which they now meant to stalk. choosing their course so as to keep a patch of cottonwoods between themselves and the small herd they had picked out as their prey, the two boys urged their horses on at a smart pace. in several quarters they could see the swift-footed antelopes vanishing at a surprising pace, frightened by the approach of these strange animals, bearing riders on their backs, the like of which they possibly had never beheld before that day. the buffaloes, however, were not so easily alarmed. unless they saw an enemy for themselves, or scented something that caused them uneasiness, they were likely to hold their ground where they chanced to be feeding. (note .) finally the boys decided it was no longer safe to take their horses with them. the animals were accordingly secured in a patch of timber, and the lads, still screened by the other motte, set forth on foot. they had possibly a quarter of a mile to walk before reaching their intended shelter, from the other side of which they hoped to be able to fire upon some of the nearest of the herd. the old grass still lay on the ground, dead and brown; but shoots of the new spring crop had begun to thrust their heads up between. it was on this tender green stuff that the buffaloes were browsing, and, as it grew more freely in certain places, such a fact would account for their presence near the timber. the one thing dick and roger had to be careful about was the chance of any straggler from the herd discovering them, and with a bellow giving the alarm. in order to avoid this if possible, dick and his chum bent low as they advanced, and kept a wary lookout on either side of the timber. the breeze blew from the trees toward them. this fact they had made sure of before starting, because, otherwise, such is the sense of smell in the buffaloes they would not have had the least chance of getting within shooting distance of the wary animals, who generally feed facing the wind. when finally the boys arrived at the edge of the timber they believed everything was working as well as they could wish. as yet no sound had come to their ears that would indicate alarm on the part of their intended quarry; and roger allowed himself to indulge in high hopes of a hunters' feast that night, with buffalo meat in plenty as the main dish. chapter vii hunters, all "look, dick, we are not the only hunters," whispered roger, as he tugged at the sleeve of his cousin's tunic, and pointed with his rifle. there was a slight movement in the undergrowth just ahead of them. dick, looking in that direction, was surprised to see a crouching animal slink away. he instantly recognized it as a gray timber wolf, and knew the animal must have been hiding there in hopes of seizing upon some sort of game. as a single wolf, however daring, would never attempt to attack a buffalo, dick could not understand at first what the animal meant to do. he judged, however, that, as this was the spring of the year, possibly there were calves in the herd, which would be just the tender sort of food that the sleek prowler would delight to secure. the animal drew back his lips at the boys, disclosing the cruel white fangs; but he knew better than to attack such enemies and slunk swiftly away. after he slid into a thicker part of the brush the boys lost sight of him, for the time at least. bent upon finding a place where they could get a fair shot at such animals as seemed best suited to their needs, the boys crept along. the patch of timber was not of any great size, and already they could see the open prairie between the standing trees. again did the keen-eyed roger make a sudden discovery that caused him to grip once more the arm of his companion and point. this time, however, he did not speak even in a whisper, for they were very close to the edge of the motte, and for all they knew some buffalo might be lying within twenty feet of them. what dick saw, as he turned his eyes in the direction indicated, surprised him very much. apparently the tempting bait had drawn another savage hunter to the spot in hopes of securing a meal. it was no indian brave who sprawled upon the lowermost limb of that tree, but the lithe figure of a gray animal which dick instantly recognized as a panther, and an unusually big one at that. the beast was staring hard at them. it did not move, or offer to attack them, but, just as the wolf had done, it bared its teeth. the boys were not looking for trouble with a brute of this type just then. food alone held their thoughts and governed their movements. on that account dick did a very wise thing when, drawing his companion aside, he made a little detour. the boys crept as softly as though born spies. hardly a leaf fluttered as they moved along, and certainly no stick cracked under their weight, for these lads had long ago learned all that woodcraft could teach them. both cast many a curious glance to the right and to the left, as though wondering what next they would come upon in the way of hungry, envious beasts. after a little while dick turned again toward the front, and began to make his way to the edge of the timber. he had noticed that, at a certain point, the dead grass extended some thirty feet away from the trees, and offered splendid shelter to any one who knew how to utilize it. taking an observation after he had crawled forward to the very edge of the timber, dick found that the nearest animals were some little distance away. he could count a dozen of them in sight, and there were two small calves frisking about their mothers. although the grass might be exceptionally fine close up to the trees, the temptation to feed in closer was resisted by the buffaloes. they seemed to know by some intuition that danger was apt to lurk where timber grew, especially for the tender calves. in order to make sure of their shots, it was desirable for the boys to crawl out amidst that dead grass. dick could see that it offered the finest kind of shelter, and, once they reached its furthermost limit, the chances of making sure shots would be just that much enhanced. flattening themselves out upon the ground they crept along on their hands and knees. an inexperienced hunter could never have performed the task without attracting the attention of the feeding buffaloes, and causing a stampede; but the armstrong boys had learned how to accomplish the feat. now and then a cautious observation was taken, and these glances painted the scene vividly on the minds of the creeping boys. they could see the coveted yearling cows that it was their object to secure, the other, older members of the herds, and, towering above all, the old bull who ruled the herd. this last was a terrible object, with the shaggiest mane the boys had ever seen on a buffalo. he showed the scars of numerous fierce battles, and one of his short black horns had been twisted out of shape in some former combat, so that it gave him a peculiarly wicked appearance. of course, when picking out their game, neither of the hunters had the slightest idea of aiming for the patriarch of the herd. he would be much too tough a morsel for any one to chew, unless reduced to the point of actual starvation, when he might be preferable to slicing up one's moccasins for soup. the old fellow seemed to understand his business as acknowledged guardian of the herd. he moved hither and thither, and, every once in so often, stopped to look around him, as though in search of signs of trouble. then he would shake his great head, give a proud snort of conscious power, strike at the ground several times with one of his forefeet, and finally go on with his feeding. by this time the hunters had arrived at the point where to proceed further would be to accept unnecessary risk of detection. they knew well that, once the alarm was given, the whole herd would quickly be in motion. while they might possibly succeed in a shot taken at a moving target, the chances of a miss were much greater than they cared to take. so dick concluded the time had come for them to pick out their quarry, take deliberate aim, and then fire as close together as possible. a moving form attracted their attention close to the trees. it was the hungry wolf, possibly seeking some new shelter. if the feeding animals noticed the gray form at all they paid little heed to his presence, having contempt for a single wolf. it would have been at the risk of his life for the wolf to make a dash out toward the herd. hungry though he probably was, the slinking beast must have known this, for, after giving a stretch to his head, as though longingly sniffing the air, he crept once more back into the shelter of the timber. roger chuckled to himself, though deep down in his boyish heart he felt sorry for that hunger-tempted wolf. he was also thinking that, if their plans turned out well, they would leave a feast behind sufficient to satisfy the appetites of both panther and wolf. one last survey dick took of the open stretch before them. he noticed that the old bull was sniffing the air suspiciously just then. whether he had caught traces of their presence, or it was the fact of the prowling wolf that began to bother the bull, dick could not say. in fact, things had by now reached a stage where he did not think it mattered. directly before them, and in plain sight, were two of the yearlings, one of them a fine, sturdy-looking young bull. dick, as soon as he clapped his eye on this animal, selected him as his intended victim. he knew that such a prize would be a choice morsel for the camp; and, for that reason, he meant that his aim should be particularly sure when the moment arrived to shoot. "leave the young bull to me, roger," he whispered under his breath. "just as you say, dick," came the equally cautious reply, as both rifles were brought slowly up to the boys' shoulders. the leader of the herd stamped his forefoot angrily on the ground and made the turf fly. plainly his suspicions had been aroused. dick knew they must delay no longer. the bull acted as though about to give the alarm that would cause the whole herd to scamper wildly off. now the guns were leveled, and the cheek of each hunter lay alongside the stock. "ready?" asked dick, softly. "yes," came the immediate reply. "then let go!" crash! both guns let go almost as one, and the feeding herd was thrown into a wild panic. chapter viii charged by a bull the first thing the boys noticed was the fact that two of the great beasts had gone down in answer to their shots. the camp was likely to have an abundance of fresh meat that night at least. [illustration: "'run for the trees, roger!' shouted dick"] then another thing drew their attention. "look at the bull!" cried roger suddenly, as he noticed that the guardian of the herd was plunging in their direction as though bent on seeking a prompt revenge for the loss of his charges. the predicament of the boys was not at all to their liking. without a bullet in their guns, and with a maddened bull bearing down upon them at full speed, unless they made a rapid retreat to the timber they were in danger of being gored and trampled by the horns and hoofs of the beast. "run for the trees, roger!" shouted dick, as he himself turned and made for the timber. fortunately they were not far from shelter. roger had before been, inclined to lament the fact that the mass of dead grass did not allow them to creep closer to the game, but he changed his mind now, when every yard counted against them. once roger caught his foot somehow, and fell flat. dick seemed to know it, although his back was turned to his chum at the time, for he instantly stopped in his headlong rush and whirled around. it was his intention to stand by his comrade, come what would, to divert, if necessary, the attention of the charging animal until such time as roger could gain his feet. it turned out that the sacrifice was not needed, for, nimble as a cat, roger gained his feet like a flash, and, putting on a fresh spurt, succeeded in reaching the outermost trees as soon as dick. they were none too soon. the galloping buffalo was close at their heels. had the friendly timber been ten paces further off there might have been a different story to tell. each boy chose a tree behind which he tried to shield himself. the bull rushed past, but immediately came to a halt, turned and started to chase roger around the tree which he had taken for a guard. "faster, roger, faster!" called dick, alarmed lest the animal overtake the boy. this shout caused the bull to take notice of his other enemy, and he plunged directly toward dick, who was compelled to make circles around his shelter at a lively pace, in order to keep from being impaled on those wicked-looking short black horns. having the inside track the boy of course was given an advantage, but it seemed as though that tough old monster would never tire. he kept on circling the tree, making savage prods at the legs of his intended quarry whenever dick lagged a little, or, slipping, fell back a step or so. roger started just then to give tongue at the top of his voice, thinking that it was not altogether fair to have the game so one-sided. his generous intention was to attract the animal once more toward himself; and in this he fully succeeded. now it was roger who danced a tune that was far from being a stately minuet. lively boy that he was, that old rascal of a buffalo bull put him to his best paces in order to keep out of danger. roger was hard to subdue even at such a time as this. it would have seemed to be the part of wisdom to conserve every atom of his breath for the work before him, yet he was continually bursting out with shouts to his comrade. "did you ever see anything so mad as he is, dick?" he called. "be careful, roger; he almost got you that time, when he drove his head against the tree. it may seem like a frolic to you, but the danger is there all the same!" "it's the greatest race i ever had, barring none!" gasped the other, as he continued to dodge the horns that were forever trying to catch him off his guard. "better throw your gun away, for it's likely to trip you!" advised dick; and hardly had the words escaped his lips than there came another sudden change of tactics on the part of the charging bull, with dick again doing the dodging. roger took this occasion to change his tree, selecting one that offered a little better chance for making a speedy circuit, for of course he anticipated soon coaxing the infuriated animal to turn back on him. there had been another reason for his change of base which was made apparent a little later on. dick was making splendid time around that trunk. he also managed to keep a close watch upon his shaggy antagonist, and was thus able to anticipate the latter when, with a sudden stop and a whirl the bull sought to catch him napping and come up in the rear. "dick, i've got a plan!" cried roger. "tell me what it is then," panted the other, plainly distressed for want of breath, for the constant struggle to avoid the horns of the bull was telling on him. "i must get him started after me again, you see," roger commenced to explain. "yes, of course!" dick managed to say as he found a few seconds of relief while the animal stood pawing the ground, and apparently debating within his mind what course he should take next. "i'm a little the more agile, you see," continued roger, "and likely to tire him out in the end, if put to it." "all very well," dick told him, "but where do i come in?" "oh! i figured on your loading your gun, and fixing him in a hurry!" said roger, with a laugh. dick even joined in that expression of merriment. strange that up to then neither of them seemed to have given the first thought to the fact that he gripped a fire-arm in his hand, which it would take only a short time to put in serviceable condition. "well said, roger! and, if you can coax the old fellow to make a change in his program, i'll look after the gun part of the affair, i promise you." "look out, he's after you again, dick!" dick knew that long before roger could get the words of warning framed, and he was speedily making his rapid circuits around the tree with the snorting animal hot on his heels. with the intention of carrying out his part of the arrangement roger now started to shout and make all manner of derisive gestures by which he hoped to attract the attention, and excite the ire, of the raging animal. it was some time before this maneuver met with the success roger hoped for, but in the end he managed to coax the bull into making a dash toward his tree. thereupon roger exerted himself to keep the animal busy, so that dick should not be interrupted in his task. in order to do this the better he kept up his jeering cries, and, when he found the chance, even made thrusts at the beast with his long gun, once striking him smartly on the head. the pace was beginning to tell on the buffalo. his powers of endurance had diminished since that eventful day when in mortal combat he had slain the old guardian of the herd, and usurped his position of trust. meanwhile dick was far from being idle. he had, as soon as the attention of the bull was diverted, swung his powder horn around, after removing the wooden stopper, and carefully measured out a charge. this he managed to pour down the barrel of his rifle, after which, from the cavity in the stock of the weapon, he took a greased patch in which the bullet was to be enclosed. after that the ramrod was used to punch the bullet down into the interior of the long barrel until it finally lodged snugly upon the powder charge. nothing remained but the priming, which was a brief matter at the most; and dick was gladdened by the thought that now he held in his hand the means for terminating that ridiculous dance which the old bull was leading roger. a tree interfered somewhat with his view, and dick ran a little closer, in order to make certain of his aim. dropping on one knee after the fashion of expert marksmen of the day, he waited until there came a little lull in the mad chase. "now you can get him, dick!" called roger, between his gasps for breath, as the bull stopped short to strike again his hoof violently against the ground. it was the opening the pioneer boy had been waiting for, and immediately the long gun shot out a puff of smoke as the report sounded. the buffalo had been hit in a vital spot, for he fell to the ground without even one jump. roger started to give a triumphant shout, when he cut it short, for something had leaped through the air; and, upon looking at the still-quivering body of the stricken bull, what was the boy's surprise to see a crouching figure fastened upon it, and to hear the vicious snarl of the savage panther as, with ears pressed back against his head, he glared defiantly at the young hunter. chapter ix planning a surprise "more trouble ahead!" cried roger, starting back, for he did not fancy a hand-to-hand conflict with that furious beast, intent on claiming the game that had fallen to dick's gun. "do nothing rash!" admonished the other, who knew the headstrong ways of his cousin, and wished to prevent any action that might precipitate a struggle. "but see how the beast acts! as if he owned the earth, dick!" "well, what of it?" came the steady reply, for dick was hastening his reloading operations while talking, something roger did not seem to have thought of. "but you shot the bull, dick," urged the other. "then i make of him a present to our friend, the big cat," dick told him. "we have quite enough meat out on the open, all we can manage. besides, i pity your teeth if you ever try to bite into the flesh of that tough old rascal. move around, and let the cat be. that's all he asks of us." "but, dick, i don't like to let it seem as though the two of us were afraid of just a hungry panther," remonstrated roger, who was proud of his valor. "oh! for that matter, there's the poor old wolf, you remember. and in a short time the air will be black with buzzards coming to the feast from a distance of miles around. let good enough alone, as i've heard your mother tell you, many's the time." grumbling a little, and sending more than one aggressive look backward toward the audacious panther, roger finally agreed to accompany his chum out to where the other victims lay. the rest of the herd had galloped away, and were far distant by this time, though now lacking a gallant protector. and, lying where they had fallen, were the yearling bull and another, for both boys had made capital shots. "what shall we do first?" asked roger. "i want to see you charge that rifle of yours before we start a single thing," he was told bluntly by his companion. "oh! i had forgotten that part of the game, but you know i generally do reload without any loss of time, dick. i learned that long years ago, and many a time, as i can distinctly remember, it saved me a heap of trouble." this duty having been accomplished, roger waited to hear what they were to attempt next; for as a rule he was content to let dick do the planning. "while you go and fetch the horses, roger, i'll start to cutting up this fine young bull. you've got your bearings, of course, and know just where we left our mounts?" "i surely do know," the other replied, "and i'll have them here before long. if i were you, dick, i'd keep one eye out for that slippery beast of a panther. for all any one can say, he may take a notion that he prefers tender meat to tough. and that i'd call carrying the joke too far." "depend on it, roger, i'll keep my gun handy all the while, and, if mr. panther gives me any trouble, i'll be tempted to waste a bullet on him. get back as soon as you can, that's all." with that advice ringing in his ears roger hurried off, while dick, drawing his hunting knife with the buckhorn handle, proceeded to first remove most of the skin of the young bull, so that it could be used to wrap around the meat. after this he started to cut away such choice portions as he meant to keep. every now and then as was his habit, he raised his head to take a quick glance around; but neither the panther nor the wolf came into sight. evidently the hungry animals were not excessively particular about the tenderness of their meat, if only the supply proved sufficient. roger came galloping up after a bit, leading the second horse. the animal did considerable snorting, as horses always will when they scent freshly spilled blood; but roger knew how to stake them out so that they could not wander away. after that he commenced dressing the second buffalo, also a yearling. since both boys had had considerable experience in this, they made fair work, and the two piles of fresh meat mounted up by degrees. it was just as well, for evening was not far away now, the day having drawn on toward its close. off yonder, in the glowing west, the sun was sinking, and beginning to paint the fleecy white clouds a vivid red that had strange fluted columns running up and down. to the imagination of the two boys these were the beckoning fingers that tempted them always, just as the rainbow for ages past has promised a pot of gold to him who could find the spot where its foot rested on the earth. the two bundles of meat were tied securely, and fastened to the backs of the prancing horses. then the boys set off, expecting to strike the camp of the expedition along the bank of the river. as they passed the timber they could see something of a commotion in the place where they had had their adventure with the savage old buffalo bull. dozens of big bald-headed birds were sitting on dead limbs of the trees, now dropping awkwardly down to the ground, and anon flapping back to their perches. "the buzzards came, just as i thought they would," remarked dick; "but they'll have to wait for the second table, because that cat and the wolf must first be served. when they can hold no more they may go away and let the poor buzzards have a chance." dick did not have any particular trouble in finding his bearings. it had been indelibly impressed on his mind that the river lay to the north, and, with the setting sun on their left, it would be no difficult task to find the water. he had also figured out about where the boats and the horses would bring up when the day's toll had been taken, so that he was now making what he would have called a bee-line for that particular place. the sun was down behind the level horizon at last, and shadows had begun to creep out of their hiding-places. roger began to feel a little anxiety concerning their hoped-for arrival at the river. "it seems to be further than i thought," he ventured to say presently. "meaning the river, i suppose," remarked dick, calmly. "yes, i expected that it would take us some little time to get there, because there was a big bend just at the place we left the water, on sighting that hill which we climbed to look around for game." "dick, i believe i see something that flickers ahead of us!" exclaimed roger just then. "it must be the light of the fires, which as usual have been built below the river-bank, so that their glow may not betray the camp to hostile eyes. yes, just as you say, roger, we are getting there, and will be in on time." "oh! as to that, dick," said the other with a laugh, "even if supper is started they will be sure to switch off and give this fresh buffalo meat the first showing. but, for one, i shall be glad to rest. after all that prancing around my tree every muscle in my legs cries out in pain, i do believe." they were not long in arriving at the camp, and, when the campers found what the packages that the horses carried contained, they greeted the newcomers with cheery words of welcome and of thanks. it was a lively scene, with the boats drawn up on the sandy beach under the river-bank; the horses picketed out to graze; the tents that had been erected to serve as sleeping quarters for the company; and the blazing fires about which the cooks were starting to cook the evening meal. for a background to the picture there was the ever-murmuring river, and the boys, many a time, wished they were able to send a loving message down those hundreds of miles to the little settlement of st. louis, where their loved ones dwelt. they knew that a monumental task still lay before them, since the terrible, rocky mountains, of which they had heard vague stories from the indians, had to be scaled, as well as trackless wastes of desert land crossed, before they could hope to feast their eyes on the blue sea which was their goal. still, the whole summer lay before them, and they had already surmounted so many obstacles that nothing seemed to daunt those bold spirits. each day's journey they counted another link in the chain, and, having virtually burned their bridges behind them, it became a necessity that they succeed. the supper was finally cooked, and those who were not on duty as guards settled down to enjoy what had been prepared. as usual dick and roger found places close together, for they were chums in everything, and liked to chat while eating. "this pays me for all my trouble with that old bull," remarked roger as he munched away. "sweeter meat i never tasted, if i do say it myself." "oh! i agree with you there," dick told him. "but i find myself wondering why captain lewis keeps looking over this way so often. and then, too, it strikes me he is unusually solemn to-night. what do you say, roger?" "i hadn't noticed it before," came the reply presently, "but, now that you call my attention to the fact, i really believe you are right. he does look as if something had gone wrong. i wonder what could have happened while we were away this afternoon." "we may have to take it out in guessing," dick observed, "unless the captain decides to tell us about it, which is hardly likely. but the rest of the men seem to be noisier and in better humor than usual. there's andrew waller keeping a lot of them roaring with laughter as he tells some comical story. i never saw him so lively, come to think of it." about the time all of them were through eating, dick discovered that captain meriwether lewis was walking directly toward the spot where he and his chum still sat. a couple of convenient stones had afforded them resting places; but, as the commander of the expedition paused beside them, both lads immediately sprang to their feet, courteously offering the captain a seat. "i will accept if one of you can sit tailor-fashion on the ground," remarked captain lewis, but without any sign of merriment in his voice, for he was still looking very grave. "i want to speak with both of you lads, and it is concerning a subject in which you are deeply interested." of course that aroused their curiosity at once, and roger lost no time in dropping upon the sand, where he could make himself fairly comfortable. as soon as they were all seated again the captain began: "while you two boys were away on your hunt this afternoon, something happened which deepened my suspicion that we have a traitor among us. by a mere accident i picked up a bit of paper that some one must have drawn from his pocket unknown to himself. glancing idly at it i was startled at what i read." he looked around him as though to make certain that no eye watched his action, and then placed a small piece of paper, very much wrinkled and soiled, in dick's hand. together the boys fastened their eyes on the writing and made out the fragment of a sentence: "if you think it unsafe to stay longer in the camp, join us; but be sure and bring plenty of guns and ammunition along, for we need them." there was no signature, but the boys did not doubt in the least that the one whose hand had penned this note of instructions was françois lascelles or his equally rascally son, alexis. the question was, who could the recipient be, and how were they to find out. "after you found this paper, captain, you watched to see if any one seemed to be searching for anything, i suppose?" dick asked eagerly. "all the afternoon i have kept on the alert, but, whoever the villain is, he has either not discovered his loss, or else has assumed an appearance of indifference in order to blind hostile eyes." "but how do you suppose he could have received the message?" continued dick. "that, too, may always remain a mystery," continued the other, reflectively, "but an arrangement could have been made whereby certain stones that were laid down in a peculiar manner would direct him to search in a hollow stump or under a log for a letter. all we know is that this traitor did receive his message, and started to tear it to pieces, but on second thought kept part of the letter." "it will be his undoing yet, sir, i think," roger ventured to suggest. "too bad there was no name mentioned, so we could charge him with the deed, and punish him as he deserves. i am wild to know who he is, for i shall long remember how he tried to put an end to us in the rapids of the yellowstone." "perhaps you may, and that before another dawn comes," remarked the captain, as he smiled indulgently at the headstrong boy, whom he had come to like very much, as, indeed, he did dick, also. "that sounds as though you had made a plan of campaign, captain," dick observed, with a pleased look that was only exceeded by the smile on the face of his companion. "i have laid out a little scheme which i think may work well, and trap the guilty wretch in the toils," explained the captain. "you remember the special mention made of guns and ammunition, which he was told to take with him, if he really believed his usefulness in the camp had come to an end? that gave me my clew." "the bait will be a stock of powder and ball, and perhaps several guns, unless i fail to catch your meaning, sir?" dick continued. "before we go to sleep, to-night, i shall have three men, whose names i need not mention, know that there are several good guns, and quite a quantity of ammunition for them, in the supply tent where we keep our extra provisions. it is not guarded beyond the fact that sentries are posted outside the camp to watch for enemies. but to-night both of you boys, together with myself and captain clark, will be in hiding, ready to capture any one who ventures to enter that supply tent." "thank you for thinking of us, sir," exclaimed roger, warmly. "why should i not do so, when the first intimation i received that there was a traitor in the camp came through you two boys? and, besides, you are more deeply interested in his capture and punishment than any of the others, because this unknown spy is working hand and glove with françois lascelles, who hates you most bitterly." "tell us what to do, captain, and you can rely on our working with you to the best of our ability," dick assured the commander, who smiled at him and went on to explain further. "understand then, that, later on, both of you, when not observed, are to take your guns and disappear. i will look to find you in that bunch of brush yonder to the right, and from that point we can watch the supply tent until something happens. i think the bait will be sufficiently attractive to tempt the man to make his move, meaning to steal the guns and ammunition, after which he hopes to leave us in the lurch. after we make sure that he is inside the tent, we can creep up and face him as he comes out laden with his booty. that is enough, since you understand," with which the captain laughingly arose to his feet and sauntered away, leaving the boys thrilled through and through. chapter x springing the trap "i wonder if the plan will work?" remarked roger, when he and dick once more found themselves alone, the captain having sauntered over to where some of the men were joking, andrew waller being the life of the company. "if that torn part of a message meant anything," dick told him, "and captain lewis is able to bait the trap in the right way, i believe this night will see the answer to the question that has been bothering us so long." "meaning that we will learn who the traitor is?" continued the other. "yes. right now we are no nearer the truth than a week ago, you know, roger. it may be any one of the three men we had in mind; or some one else, for that matter." "look at andrew waller, dick. he seems to be in high spirits! do you think that is all put on for effect? from the way he acts no one could ever dream he had an evil thought in his heart for his comrades of the long trail." "as we exhausted that subject a long time ago, roger, and have learned nothing new since, there's no use trying to figure things out. better wait, and, as my father says, 'hold our horses' until the trap is sprung--if it ever is." "but, if we do trip him up," continued roger, reflectively, "what do you believe captain lewis will do to the wretch?" "he has not given us even a hint on that score," dick replied. "if the man is a traitor, and really tried to take our lives for pay, it seems to me it would be a shame if he were only drummed out of camp for such things. i know what captain clark would do if it rested in his hands." "yes, and i can guess the answer there, too, roger; because he is a soldier, with stern ideas of what treachery means. but captain lewis has a tender heart, for all he can be so firm. he is very fond of the men who have clung to his fortunes in this great journey into the unknown country of the west." "do you really mean to say, dick, he would forgive the rascal on that account?" demanded roger, with a frown of displeasure on his face. "not exactly that," hastily replied the other lad. "i am sure that he would not want to trust such a man again, but, at the same time, captain lewis would not believe it necessary to have the traitor shot, as a soldier would." "in that case there would be only one other thing to do," observed roger, disconsolately; "which would be to kick him out of camp, and warn him, just as he did lascelles, that if he ever allowed himself to be seen near the camp again it would be at his peril." "mark my words, roger, if we are lucky enough to catch the man in the act, that is what will happen to him. but, before he goes, he will listen to a ringing talk from captain lewis that will make his cheeks burn." "yes, and not for all the money lascelles ever owned would i want to have such a fine man as captain lewis tell me that, as a traitor to my trust, i had sunk down until i was beneath contempt. but i wonder, dick, how he will manage to let them know about the rifles and ammunition in the supply tent?" "depend on it the captain has that arranged cleverly enough," dick declared, "and he will accomplish it without awakening any suspicion that it has been done for a purpose." "what shall we do next?" asked roger. "wait for his signal as arranged with us," explained dick. "when we get that, it is our duty to slip out of camp without being noticed, and settle down in that patch of brush, just as he said. later on, he will join us there, and bring captain clark with him." they sat there and exchanged words for quite a long time, while the evening waned, and some of the tired men, who had been poling or rowing all day, began to creep into the tents, or, it might be, under rude bough shelters, where they expected to sleep through the remainder of the night. "the time has come at last," said dick, in a low tone. "did you see captain lewis make the gesture he explained to us?" asked his chum. "yes, and now let us see how smartly we can carry out our part of the game, as we laid it out in advance." after surveying the field, the boys concluded that, by pretending to settle down in a certain place, they could withdraw by degrees without being noticed, and come up in the rear of the patch of bushes marked by the commander as the meeting spot. this maneuver was accomplished with considerable skill, because both lads were well drilled in indian ways, and could snake their way along the ground as well as any painted brave on the warpath, seeking to spy on the enemy's camp. in due time, therefore, they crept into the bushes, and settled down to await the coming of the two captains. just as they expected, from their place of hiding it was possible to keep a close watch upon the supply tent, though the latter stood in the shadows, with the firelight playing on one side of it only. slowly the minutes crept along. the boys rarely exchanged words, and then only in the lowest of whispers; nor did they make any sort of move, lest in some way keen eyes discover their presence amidst the bushes. it seemed ages before roger pressed the arm of his cousin, and spoke in his ear. "something moving behind us, dick!" the other had also caught a faint rustling sound, and knew that in all probability the two captains must be about to join them. surely enough, in a short time the men reached the side of the boys, exercising all the skill possible to avoid making their presence known to others. few words passed between them, for the plan of campaign had been laid out, and each one knew what lay before them. the firelight flickered upon the side of the supply tent, and it was in this quarter mostly that their gaze was fastened. in fact, captain lewis and his fellow officer depended wholly on the wide-awake boys to let them know when anything happened, for they themselves lay stretched out at full length upon the ground. one by one the men sitting by the fire began to vanish, some yawning, and others simply stretching themselves with the air of weariness natural after a strenuous day at the oars. finally an atmosphere of desertion seemed to have come upon the camp. the fire died down slowly, and not a movement could be seen. somewhere, near by, the appointed sentries stood guard, but their duty was wholly in the line of making sure that an enemy did not surprise the adventurous company from without. those in the camp were supposed to be above suspicion. roger was beginning to grow impatient. the minutes were dragging along, so far as he was concerned, and he began to fear that, after all, the scheme, so cleverly planned by captain lewis, would fail to be a success. what if the fellow had become suspicious, and determined not to allow himself to be attracted by the bait? they would have their long night vigil for nothing, and be no nearer to learning the truth than before. roger lacked the patience and perseverance of his chum, though he had many good qualities of his own. it must have been almost midnight when dick caught sight of a shadowy figure moving just beyond the supply tent. at first he thought it might be a wolf that had boldly crept into the camp, though such a thing seemed absurd; then he became satisfied that it must be a man on his hands and knees, crawling along slowly, and heading for the isolated tent. when satisfied in this respect he whispered in the ear of roger, and touched both the recumbent captains on the arm. this had been a signal agreed on in case of necessity, and, as they were on the alert, they lost no time in making good use of their eyes. the creeper was now close to the tent. every few feet he would sink down flat to the ground, and remain perfectly still for a time. no doubt at such intervals the man was listening intently to discover the slightest movement in the camp that might mean danger to him. both boys fairly held their breath when they saw the shadowy figure reach the tent and hastily creep under the flap. just how long it would take him to find what he was after no one could say, but the time had arrived for those who were watching the tent to make a forward move. fortunately the breeze started up just then, and rustled the leaves of the trees overhead. it came from a quarter that also bore the sounds of the fretting river, where rocky reefs impeded the progress of the current; so that a combination of sounds helped to deaden any little rustling noise the four watchers might make in rising to their feet and moving forward. every detail had been arranged, and they made immediately for the darker side of the tent. this was to avoid having their shadows appear on the canvas, and arousing the suspicions of the thief. having taken up their positions here, they waited for what was to follow, confident that the guilty one could not possibly escape them. he could be heard moving around inside the tent. once he upset some object that fell to the ground with a soft thud, and they even heard his low muttered exclamation of annoyance. after that all was still for an interval, as doubtless he strained his hearing to learn whether the sound had aroused any curiosity in the mind of a sentry. then the movements started again, proving that renewed confidence was making the marauder bolder. dick and roger had their guns ready, according to orders. if the man attempted to escape after being ordered to surrender their duty would be to shoot, although the endeavor would be to wound instead of to kill. the movements within the tent had now ceased, and it was probable that the man had secured all he sought to acquire. that meant his next act would be to make his exit. dick had not overlooked the chance of his creeping under the canvas at the rear of the tent, and, if they failed to see anything of him by the time another minute passed, he meant to creep around and ascertain whether this had been attempted. roger, giving a faint gasp, warned his chum that some one was coming. then all of them caught sight of a dusky figure bending low as it crept out of the tent. "stand still and surrender, or you are a dead man!" suddenly exclaimed captain lewis, as, with his three companions, he stepped forward. the thief made no attempt to run, for he knew what the result must be when he saw those rifles in the hands of the two boys. so they pushed up until they could make sure of his identity; and somehow neither roger nor dick felt any great surprise when they discovered that the man they had captured was andrew waller. chapter xi banished from camp the man held a couple of guns in his hands and was apparently loaded down with the ammunition that had been left as a most attractive bait. he hung his head as if at first overcome with a sense of shame; nor could the boys blame him for giving way to this feeling. some of the other men, awakened by the loud command of captain lewis, now came hurrying toward the spot. they were undoubtedly greatly astonished to discover what was taking place. and among the first to arrive were drewyer and fields, the two who in turn had been unjustly suspected of being the guilty person. "take those guns away from him," ordered captain lewis, "and then search him for ammunition! he was carrying off a good part of our visible supply, and meant to join forces with those rascally frenchmen we let go last fall, fellows who are once more hanging about our trail for evil purposes." waller made no attempt to resist. indeed, it would have been a foolish thing on his part, and could only have resulted in his being roughly treated. so presently they had stripped him of all his stolen goods, and even his own gun had been taken away. after that he had to listen to the stinging words of reproach which captain lewis heaped upon him. "the man who betrays his trust as you have done, waller," said the other in conclusion, "deserves to be stood up before a file of soldiers and shot. that fate, indeed, would be your portion if you were an enlisted man, and had taken the oath of fidelity to the country. as it is i intend simply to send you out of this camp with the scorn of all honest men ringing in your ears. you can find those french friends of yours and make your bed with them." "but you will not think of turning me out into the wilderness without some weapon with which to secure food, or to protect myself against the wild beasts?" the man found his tongue to say, with anxiety in his voice. "gun you shall have none, in punishment for your offense," he was sternly told. "your hunting knife and a hatchet will be given to you, also a certain amount of provisions, sufficient to last you several days. for the rest, look you to those friends whose gold you accepted to betray these lads; for we can now understand who it was knifed their skin boat so that it might sink with them in the rapids!" the man at bay opened his mouth as though tempted to declare that he had had nothing to do with such a base affair; but, on second thought, he stifled his intended denial. he must have decided that, since exposure had come, the less he had to say the better it would be for him in the end. under the orders of captain lewis his knife and hatchet were returned to him. then a package of food was made ready and also given into his charge. some of the men were grumbling to themselves, as though they did not approve of such leniency, for, according to their way of thinking, a traitor deserved but one punishment, and one that would place it out of his power to repeat his fault. the man did not attempt to plead for mercy. he had a certain amount of pride; and, besides, he feared lest he be turned over to the soldiers for punishment, and he knew what to expect in that case. "now go forth," captain lewis told him, "and seek your new friends, or join the indians whose treacherous ways you have even shamed by your acts. we warn you not to be seen again by any in this camp. such is your reward for turning against those who trusted you. that is all." waller drew a long breath. he knew what it meant for him, should he fail to find the frenchmen. hundreds of miles lay between that spot and the nearest white settlement; and, unless he could get in touch with some of the indian tribes along the missouri, he would starve by the time another winter came around. being a woodsman, waller of course knew many of the secrets of nature, and could prolong his life by means of clever snares in which to catch small animals; but, with the coming of cold weather, his case would be pitiful unless he had help. dick felt sorry for the man at first. he believed waller had simply yielded to temptation when he accepted the frenchman's gold and agreed to work in his interest. that feeling, however, did not last long, for, as the man started to leave the camp, he looked at the staring men contemptuously, and, on passing the two boys, scowled blackly, as the light of the resurrected fire disclosed. "we may meet again!" he told roger as he passed him; and there was a deep significance back of the words. perhaps it was fortunate for andrew waller that captain clark did not happen to hear what he muttered; for the soldier might have insisted that some more drastic punishment, than mere dismissal from the camp, be visited upon the culprit. but the threat was not heard by those in authority, and waller went out into the darkness, and they saw no more of him for the time. during the remainder of the night the boys slept peacefully. it was a great satisfaction to them both to feel that the mystery had now been solved, and that they need no longer fear treachery in the camp. then again it pleased dick to know that neither drewyer nor fields had been connected with the plot against them, for he was very fond of both men, in a way, and had always believed them to be as honest as they were capable. history has written their names on the scroll of honor whereby the heroes of this remarkable enterprise are ever to be remembered. on the following morning the journey was resumed. day succeeded day, and in many particulars they were very much alike. the travelers had difficulties to surmount, and often met with delays that were exasperating; but through it all shone that indomitable spirit that would not admit defeat. "we have come too far to quit now," captain lewis would say when they were facing some new difficulty, "and the only thing to do is to push ahead despite temporary checks. the goal will soon be in sight, and the victory won. then will come the reward when all men honor our names, and give us our meed of praise. it will be worth all it costs to win the thanks of the whole nation." in this manner he cheered them when their spirits drooped. there never could have been a finer leader for such a tremendous undertaking than the former private secretary of president jefferson. every man in all that company felt that he would willingly go through fire and flood for captain lewis. from time to time they met with indians on the river, or came to some village on the bank. these natives had never as yet seen white men, and were, as a rule, disposed to be friendly. they seemed to have learned about a great father far away toward the rising sun, who was very rich and powerful, and whose favor it might pay them to seek. among the trappers connected with the party there were always those who could communicate with the indians, partly by signs, but also with the aid of other and allied indian tongues. in this way, then, it was possible to learn much concerning the nature of the country toward the west. strange, indeed, were many of the stories that came to the ears of the travelers. they heard of burning deserts, where for ten days they would find nothing but wastes of sand, except for a few cacti, or prickly pears. here they were likely to leave their bones to the vultures and the prowling coyotes--the latter a small species of the wolf tribe, which the men of the expedition had begun to notice collecting about their camp at nights. these animals kept up a miserable chant in chorus, but they possessed a very cowardly nature, quite unlike the gray timber wolf. if captain lewis and his followers had not possessed stout hearts they would have been dismayed by all they heard of the country lying beyond. the mountains reached above the clouds, rearing themselves in a most forbidding way, and were exceedingly rocky and devoid of vegetation. besides, there were tribes of fierce indians living in the deep canyons who would lie in wait to overwhelm the pilgrims in hopes of obtaining their horses and those wonderful sticks that spat out fire. the beasts inhabiting those elevations were also awe inspiring, especially the bears, which, as the travelers already knew, were of the ferocious variety known as grizzlies. in spite of all these thrilling stories there was no disposition manifested on the part of the explorers to back down. they had already met many perils without flinching, and it was too late now to show the white feather. the summer was now well along, and, before a great while, they could expect to arrive at the headwaters of the big muddy. the two captains had decided that, when it was no longer possible to continue with the boats, they would make a permanent camp, where a portion of the expedition could spend the coming winter, while a certain number pushed on, to cross the rocky barrier and reach the sea, if such an accomplishment could be carried out. every day began to see changes in the flowing current upon which they had been voyaging for so many months. remembering its extreme width, down where their homes were located, it was hard indeed for the boys to believe that this narrow ribbon of clear water was the same stream. "all that its banks hold these days," dick had explained to roger when the other was expressing these ideas, "comes from the melting snows away up in those mountains whose tops we sometimes think we can see far, far away to the west. that is why it is so clear and cold, and the fish we catch now are not like the ones we have often brought in to our mothers at home." "the beautiful one, with the specks that were all the colors of the rainbow, must have been some kind of trout," roger continued, his face lighting up eagerly, for he was a born angler, "and i only hope we are able to catch many more of the same kind. i never tasted such a fine fish, and the meat was of the true trout color, too." "i think we can depend on taking many a fine mess of them from now on," dick continued, "though we must try to find out from the indians just where they lurk in the river. perhaps one of these smaller creeks, that empty into the missouri, may turn out to be a good place." "to-morrow will be our chance then," roger announced, "because i heard captain clark tell some of the men we would likely hold over for a day, so as to mend one of the boats that has been leaking badly and needs attention." "let us consider it settled that way, then, roger; and we shall see what sort of luck the best of bait will fetch us. in some of the old stumps and dead wood we can find big, fat grubs, which i am sure the fish will take to savagely." "i mean to start looking for bait this very evening when we make camp," declared roger, evincing the greatest interest, for the memory of the feast they had enjoyed when that splendid speckled fish was broiled over the red coals had haunted him ever since. that afternoon the air was unusually clear, and every one was able to see, off in the distance, the lofty peaks of the mountain barrier which must be scaled by the adventurous travelers before they could hope to reach the slopes, on the west, leading down to the blue waters of the pacific. somehow the knowledge that on this summer day they had almost arrived at another positive stage of their great undertaking inspired their hearts with fresh hope. and in that cheering atmosphere camp was made when the shadows began to fall. chapter xii on fishing bent "if you think you can get on without me, dick, i'd like to slip away for a little time," roger was saying, after the boats had been run ashore, the horses tethered among the trees, and preparations for supper, with an attendant air of bustle, were well underway. of course dick knew what was in the wind. he had not forgotten the remark made by his comrade that, if the chances were favorable, he meant to spend half an hour or so that evening collecting worms and grubs to be used as bait when they tried their luck at fishing on the next day. "to be sure i can," he told roger, with a smile. "all you have to do is to trot along with your hatchet, and something to put the grubs in--if you find any." "oh! i'm not afraid of being left in the lurch there," asserted roger, stoutly. "i can see plenty of signs of dead wood around here. a fierce storm must have swept across this section many years ago, that leveled plenty of big trees, which are now rotting on the ground. grubs like to hide in that sort of decayed stuff. look for me by the time it gets dusk." "keep your gun near you, and it would be better not to stray too far away from the camp," warned cautious dick, speaking on general principles. "you don't believe there's any danger lurking near by, do you?" asked roger, though failing to show much concern, for his nature was daring and fearless. "nothing more than we always count on," the other told him. "but white men who are in a strange country must always figure on finding an enemy hiding back of some tree or rock, so keep your eyes about you, roger. if i should hear your gun sound, or catch a hullo, depend on me to come in a hurry." roger only laughed, for he did not believe any peril could lurk so close to the camp. still, accustomed to being on his guard, he made it a point to see that the powder was in the pan as he tucked his gun under his arm and strode forth. he found to his relief that there were plenty of old stumps and rotting logs close to where the fires had been started, so that he need not go any great distance away in order to begin his search. his hatchet was soon brought into play, as he smashed some of the likely looking remnants of once proud forest monarchs. it required little muscular effort, scattering the soft punk-like wood, and, hardly had the boy obtained a fair start, than with a satisfied little cry he reached down and seized an enormous white grub whose home in the heart of the decayed stump he had broken open. just as roger had anticipated, a rich harvest awaited him. sometimes he came upon half a dozen prizes in one stump, and it was not long before he knew that, before the darkness became too dense for him to see how to work, he would have secured all the bait they could possibly use on the following morning. at any rate, they would always have their hatchets with them, and, should their supply run low, there would be plenty of other opportunities to replenish their store. so it was that he returned to camp much sooner than dick in his most sanguine moments had imagined possible. there was hardly any need to ask roger how his quest had turned out, for the broad smile on his tanned face told the story. "a noble lot of fish lure," assented dick, when he had examined the contents of the small box into which roger had also cast a handful of powdered dead wood, in which his prisoners could conceal themselves. "i must say you struck it rich this time." "and, unless the weather goes against us when morning comes," continued roger, as he fastened up the box so that nothing could get at the bait during the night, "we ought to do some tall fishing, it strikes me. i'd just like to give the whole camp a splendid treat to those beauties of speckled rainbow fish which we believe to be a species of trout." all evening long the subject was frequently in his mind, for roger was one of those persistent persons who, once they have planned anything, can think of little else. "i tell you what i mean to do after we've had our breakfast," he said at one time during the evening. "all right," remarked dick, who knew how useless it was to try to keep roger's mind off his fishing, "suppose you do then, and i'll jot it down in my notebook, for i'm making up my day's log, you see. go on and tell me." "if you look over there, dick, you can see that friendly indian who has insisted on sticking to us for two days now, walking along the shore, squatting close to our fires, and watching everything we do as though he was head over heels in love with the ways of the palefaces." "yes, i've often wondered what he could be thinking about," admitted dick. "i've seen captain lewis trying to talk with him by signs, and often calling one of the men up to help out. from that i judged the indian might be giving him some valuable information, which was why they allow him to tag after us so long, and even see that he gets his share of food at meal times." "well," continued roger, "my idea is to go over to him now, and see if he can understand that we'd like to have him tell us about a good place for fishing in the morning; for, after all, what's the use of waiting until breakfast time; he might be gone in the night. what do you say to it, dick?" "not a bad scheme," his chum assented. "and, do you know, i think the brave has taken some little interest in both of us, because a number of times it seemed to me he was watching us closely. there's your chance now, for that matter, roger; and, if you find it too hard to make him understand, get jasper williams, our good friend, to act as interpreter for you." upon that the impulsive roger scrambled to his feet and presently he could be seen sitting close to the friendly indian brave, engaging him in a strange conversation in which hands and smiles took the place of words. apparently, roger finally found the task greater than he could manage, for he called to genial jasper williams, who joined them. then the business of explaining to the dusky son of the wilderness was taken up anew; and with fair success, if the look on roger's boyish face meant anything. when he once more rejoined his chum he was fairly bubbling over with enthusiasm, so that dick was not at all surprised to hear him exclaim: "the finest of luck ever, dick! would you believe it? that brave tells us there is a small stream emptying into the missouri a couple of miles above the camp, and that it is reckoned the best place for those big fat trout around this section of the country." "that is good news, indeed," remarked dick, also pleased. "so we can look forward to supplying the camp with a mess of fish, if all goes well." "not only did he tell us that," continued the eager lad, "but he agreed to go along with us, and show where the best holes lie; for in hot weather, you know, all trout leave the shallows and gather in the deep, dark pools. if we didn't know just where those places were we might waste a lot of time trying." at the time dick thought they were very fortunate to be able to command the services of the friendly indian, and he mentioned this belief to roger. "he seems to have taken a great fancy to the whites, and, no matter if he does eat like a hungry dog, we must not complain. he will hardly wish to go much further from his own people, and we may expect to wake up some fine morning to find that the brave has slipped off during the night." "so long as he does not steal one of our horses or guns nobody will complain, i guess," chuckled roger. "these indians are a light-fingered set, take them all in all, and jasper williams says he never would trust one out of his sight." having made all their fishing arrangements the boys soon afterwards sought their shelter made from branches, and wrapped in their blankets tried to find sleep. the camp was governed with military strictness, and there were sentries on duty all through the night, for captain clark had this part of the arrangements in charge. not once up to this time had they been taken by surprise, though on several occasions roving bands of blackfeet or dacotahs had tried to steal their horses, only to meet with failure. securely guarded in this manner, they passed the night in peace, and so another dawn found them. as usual the travelers were early astir, for there were no laggards among them. every man had his duties to perform, and strict discipline kept them to their various tasks. roger of course was about the first one up, though he knew that dick could not be coaxed to make a start until he had performed every one of his duties as was his custom. if the fish were as plentiful as the friendly indian had declared, they would have abundance of time to take heavy toll of their number long before noon came around. "we decided to take one of the smaller boats if it could be spared, you remember, dick," roger was saying as they ate breakfast. "yes," the other replied, "and i've already mentioned that to captain clark, who gave me full permission to do so. this is certainly one of the times we would enjoy having that buffalo-hide indian boat we shot the rapids in. i was beginning to think we ought to change our minds about giving it away, when that accident happened, and ruined it for hard work." "accident!" echoed roger. "we knew different after we found where that sharp knife-blade had been run along the bottom almost through the tough hide. but that sly dog of an andrew waller paid dearly for his work. i wonder what became of him; whether he joined the french trader and his son, or went over to the indians." "we may never know," his chum admitted. "for my part, i hope and trust that neither of us will ever set eyes on waller again. i did not like the look he gave us when he went out of camp that day; and, like all guilty wretches caught in the act of doing wrong, he blames us for his troubles." in good time dick announced that he was ready to make the start. roger saw to it that they had the bait. stout poles had also been secured, to the end of which the fishing lines were fastened. such things as reels those pioneer lads never knew. when a prize was hooked it was their business to land the captive in the speediest way possible; and, as a rule, this consisted in swinging the struggling trout over their heads on to the land. the indian was hovering nearby. dick fancied that he looked very eager, as though he quite enjoyed the idea of accompanying the pair on their fishing trip, and making himself useful. perhaps, the boy thought, the poor fellow wished to attach himself to the expedition, on account of the charm it had for his untutored mind; for indians could feel the desire for adventure such as urged these bold white men to penetrate farther day by day into the unknown country. the boys picked out the boat best adapted to their needs, and which could be most easily spared. beckoning to the indian, the boys prepared to push out on the river. two paddles were to be the means of urging the light craft against the strong current of the river, and an hour's time would be ample to see them to their destination, roger thought, as he commenced to wield the spruce blade vigorously. jasper williams called out a last word of caution as they passed away, up the stream, for he felt a strong interest in these boys with whose fortunes he had been so intimately connected. "keep your eyes about you, lads," was what he told them, "and don't trust everything you see, just because it looks innocent. there's a difference between red and white, remember. good luck to you both!" others also called out, begging the boys to remember that they too liked a mess of fresh fish; and, with these friendly voices ringing in their ears, dick and roger paddled swiftly up the river, soon losing sight of the explorer's camp. chapter xiii glorious sport with the trout with lusty strokes the two boys urged the boat up-stream. the indian sat amidship and seemed to be scanning the shore as though deeply interested in everything he saw; though, from what he told jasper williams, the locality must have been familiar to him, since he knew all about the fishing to be had in the smaller stream. now and then the boys exchanged a few words, though as a rule they kept most of their "wind," as roger called it, for their arduous work. "i wonder what jasper williams meant," remarked roger, after they had gone possibly a full mile. "of course you mean when he said there was a difference between red and white," dick suggested. "i was thinking of the same thing myself, and came to the conclusion it must have been jasper's way of telling us to keep an eye on our dusky pilot here. in plain words, he warned us to look out for our guns." "which we will certainly be sure to do!" commented roger. "though, after all, we may be wronging the poor indian by our suspicions." "if he never knows it there can be no harm done, don't you see?" dick told him. various things about the shore attracted their attention just then, and for the time being they forgot all about the red man, and the warning given by their old frontiersman friend, jasper williams. "the farther we go up the river," dick was saying, "the greater the forests seem to become. from all i've been able to learn, we will pass through many a stretch of wood before we reach the foot of the big mountains." "yes," added roger, "and, as the river is getting more and more shallow every day, captain lewis seems to believe we must soon abandon our boats, and take to the horses for the rest of the journey." "look up ahead and on the left, you will see signs of a stream coming into the missouri. that must be where we are to stop." at that dick made gestures to the indian, who, quickly comprehending what was wanted, nodded his head in the affirmative. "yes, he says that is the place," roger observed, as he started to put still a little more vim into his strokes with the paddle, so, as dick was compelled to follow suit, or have the boat headed in toward the shore, their progress increased to a wonderful degree. in good time they reached the mouth of the tributary stream. it was found to be as clear and cold as any one could wish on a warm day. no wonder, roger thought, the trout loved to frequent its waters, and lie in the deep, dark pools that doubtless existed here and there, though without a guide they could have been found only after much patient searching. obeying the gestures of the indian, they made for the shore and left the boat, first making sure that it was pulled well up. of course, besides their poles and the little box of bait, they carried their faithful guns along with them. so far as they could see, the friendly indian seemed to be almost as deeply interested in the outcome of the fishing trip as the boys themselves were. he immediately led them to a certain spot on the bank, holding up a hand to impress upon them the need of caution and silence when attempting to catch the wary fish of many colors. roger was already prepared, for he had fastened one of the largest and most attractive grubs to his hook. creeping up close to the edge of the bank he thrust his long pole carefully forward, and allowed the baited hook, with a small lead sinker attached to the line a foot above, to sink into the depths. as it slowly descended roger's heart was beating tumultuously, for he had been entertaining high hopes. these were not doomed to disappointment, for, even before he found bottom, there was a sudden vicious tug, and the end of the stout pole began to move up and down vigorously. immediately roger, who had laid his gun down at his feet so as to have the free use of both hands, hunched his shoulders in the effort to lift his prize. as it came struggling out of the water, he switched it high in the air and it fell with a thud some little distance behind the excited fisherman. at this good luck roger could hardly contain himself. a warning "hist" from dick told him to repress the shout of triumph that was bubbling to his lips, and he realized the necessity for silence if they expected to continue the sport, as the trout are easily alarmed. the capture proved to be a magnificent specimen of the lovely variety of trout that differed from anything either of the boys had ever seen before. in later years this vigorous species of fighter was classified, and given the deserved name of "rainbow trout," and for a very good reason, as any one who has ever seen one fresh drawn from the water will admit. meanwhile dick started in to try his luck, and it certainly began to look as though the indian had told only the truth when he said the fish lay in countless numbers in those deep shadowy pools, for, just as had happened in roger's case, there was a fierce pull on his pole, and dick found himself struggling with a captive that it required all his powers to land successfully. so the sport progressed, the friendly indian hovering near them and often, when the bites came less frequently, leading the way to some new spot on the bank, where another pool would be found. always did they find these places inhabited by a hungry family of trout, eager to snap at the attractive lure which was dangled in front of them. the indian gathered up the spoils as they went along. he knew just how to fashion a tether out of tough but yielding willow, and, when half a dozen of the trout had been strung in this manner, he saw to it that they were placed in the water to keep fresh, while the sport continued as before. roger was enjoying himself as he had hardly ever done before. such royal fishing, and such game fighters made a combination that ought to have been sufficient to fill any boy's heart with supreme joy, especially one so devoted to the sport as roger had always been. dick did not lose his head over the wonderful success that was coming their way. because roger gave himself up so wholly to the excitement was a very good reason why dick himself should do the watching for both of them. and yet it seemed almost absurd to suspect that anything evil could be threatening them on that bright summer morning. the very insects seemed to hum more noisily than usual, as though with the pleasure of living on such a perfect day. dick often cast a side glance toward the indian, but so far he had seen absolutely nothing suspicious in his manner. he seemed to be as happy as roger, and kept close to the heels of the boy as he worked his long rod, and added constantly to the number of fish he was taking. it seemed as though each one of the grubs was good for a fat trout, and so savagely did the fish snap at them that they were securely hooked in nearly every instance, so that the losses were next to nothing. if things continued to go on as they were doing, they would soon be in possession of all the fish the camp could use. roger even told his chum in a whisper that, unless they looked out, they would be unable to carry the whole of their taking back in one trip of the boat, though possibly that was only meant in the light of a boast. dick's arms were beginning to ache on account of the strain on the muscles caused by raising so many heavy prizes over his head. he would have suggested that they had quite a large mess now, and perhaps had better go back to camp, allowing some of the others the pleasure of coming up later and trying their luck; but he knew roger well enough to feel sure that the other would decline to quit fishing as long as a single grub remained. at any rate, when the supply was really exhausted, dick meant to decline to linger any longer, or to look for a new lot of bait. for the moment the fish seemed to have stopped biting. "we have only about six more grubs left, dick," said roger, after examining the contents of the bait box, "and that ought to mean as many fish, if the indian guide knows of still another good hole. i'm going to try to ask him. and, dick, i promise you on my word of honor that i'll agree to quit when we use up the last bait. i can see that you're getting tired. you never were as crazy over the sport as i have always been." "it's a bargain then, roger," assented the other, pleased to know that his comrade meant to be reasonable about it, for he had half-expected trouble in trying to tear the other away from such a fascinating game. roger accordingly began to make motions to the indian, and the other must have understood what he wanted, for he nodded his head, and beckoned to them to follow where he led. dick would rather have remained where he stood, but he did not wish to have roger go off alone with the indian brave, so he went along. he thought the copper-colored visitor at the camp showed even more eagerness than at any previous time in the immediate past, as though he had been keeping the finest place of all to the last, in order to further astonish them. indeed, when dick saw roger drag out a trout that exceeded all the rest in size and fierceness he decided that he had guessed the true reason for that look he had detected on the usually emotionless face of the brave. again did roger drop his baited hook in, and with a similar result. he was fairly trembling with the excitement, and, too, a little weariness; but according to his count there still remained four more grubs, and the work must proceed. as dick seemed bent on letting him finish the tale, roger, nothing averse, set to work to get his hook in readiness once more. the spot was a picturesque one. several large trees grew close to the edge of the stream, casting their shadows upon the water just where the deep pool lay. in the dusky depth the trout were lying, and hungry at that. dick could not remember of ever having seen such a combination of scenery and splendid fishing grounds, and he believed the memory of that day would always be marked with a white stone in their lives. it certainly was destined to be remembered, but not on these accounts alone. there were other reasons why the pioneer boys would look back to that sunny day and conjure up ghosts of the past. roger was making good his boast that he meant to take six fish with those half dozen grubs, for already a third one had been pulled in. the indian, apparently just as deeply interested in the sport as roger himself, was hanging at the boy's elbow, and every now and then making gestures as though showing him where to drop his hook the next time. it seemed as though his wonderful eyes were able to pierce those dark depths and discover where the largest fish was lazily working his fins, as he faced the current, waiting for something suited to his taste to come within striking distance. there was nothing at all suspicious about this, and dick was beginning to believe the vague fears that had oppressed him must have been the result of too much imagination, when without the slightest warning something happened. he saw a dark object drop from the branches of the tree directly upon the back and shoulders of poor roger, who was instantly carried to the ground. dick's first inclination was to give a shout, and raise his gun, for he had seen their dusky guide pounce upon the weapon which roger had laid on the grass at his feet. before dick could make a move, however, he too felt a heavy weight strike him on the shoulders so that he was knocked to his back; and, as he lay there gasping for breath, he looked up into the painted faces of several indian warriors who came dropping from the trees as though they were over-ripe plums in a gale of wind. after all, the supposed friendly indian had played them false, and had actually led the two boys into a cleverly arranged ambuscade. chapter xiv prisoners of the dacotahs dick knew the folly of resistance when he saw that, besides the two warriors who held him down, there were half a dozen others nearby. roger, always impulsive and headstrong, was struggling desperately, though without the slightest chance of breaking away from his captors. understanding what was taking place close by, dick called out: "give up, roger; it is foolish to fight against such odds. you will only be hurt for your pains, and nothing gained. leave it all to me!" not only did roger hear these words, but his own good sense told him the wisdom of yielding to overwhelming numbers. but it was always a difficult thing for roger to believe in the old saying to the effect that "he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day." after being disarmed the two boys were allowed to get upon their feet. they discovered that their dusky captors undoubtedly belonged to the same tribe as their treacherous guide, and, therefore, must be dacotahs. that guide was clutching roger's gun as though he expected to retain it as the price of his labors in thus entering the camp of the strange "palefaces," and luring the two boys into the trap so cunningly contrived. dick was far from downcast. it took considerable to make him feel as though everything were dark around him. and, in order to cheer roger up, as well as to arouse his interest in planning an escape, the first remark dick made was in the line of an attempt to guess how it had all been planned. "look, they are marking a smoke now," he told his companion, as several of their captors struck flint and steel together, and with the spark thus generated started a fire in a little pile of greenish-looking wood. "that must be meant for a signal to some one who is away from here," roger commented, on observing what was going on. "dick, what does all this mean? you are always good at hitting on the truth while i grope in the dark. why do you think these indians want to make us prisoners?" "it was a trap, you understand, roger?" "oh! yes, that's as plain as can be," replied the other, readily enough; "for they were all hiding up in these trees while we kept on fishing so merrily, without dreaming that we were being watched every minute of the time." "and, roger, the guide led us into the mess; now we can understand why he was so eager to fetch us up here." "then you believe, do you, dick, he planned this thing; that perhaps he even entered our camp with such a game in his mind?" "it begins to look that way, i am sorry to say," dick replied. "but can he be in the pay of that revengeful frenchman, françois lascelles?" demanded roger, rather appalled by the thought. "we will soon know, because, unless i am mistaken, that smoke they are sending up yonder is meant to call him here. and it would not surprise me very much, roger, if that brave who has been eating at our campfire for two days, crept out last night and told how he had been engaged to take us to this stream to-day. that would account for the indians being concealed here." the boys were without weapons, and could do nothing toward the making of their escape; so they waited with what patience they could command to see what was about to happen. shortly afterwards some one was seen approaching, at sight of whom roger gave utterance to an exclamation of disgust. "why, after all, it's that skunk, andrew waller!" he exclaimed. "yes, he must have found some way to get in with these indians, and they have been working for his interests," dick suggested. "perhaps he has lied to them, and made them believe we are two very important persons. he may take the trouble to explain the thing to us, thinking it will add to his glory." "i can see the look of satisfaction on his face from here," said roger, in a surly tone, as though it cut him to the quick to have the traitor triumph over them in that way. waller soon arrived on the scene, and his first act was to look insolently into the faces of the two boys. "so, you fell to the bait, did you, boys? when i told you we would meet again you didn't believe it would be so soon. and let me say that you are going to be in a pretty pickle after this. these indians will make sure that you do not slip through their hands." "what have you been telling them about us?" demanded roger, impetuously. "some big lie i am sure, for it would be just like you." the man frowned as though angry, and dick feared he was about to strike the bold boy a blow in the face, which would have precipitated a fight in which roger would have gone down to defeat. however, waller managed to keep his temper in control, and sneering again, went on to say: "oh! to make sure that you would be held a close prisoner, i merely told them that you boys were the sons of the big white father away off in the land of the rising sun; and that if they held you safe they could demand a great ransom in wampum, sticks-that-shoot-fire, and everything that the heart of an indian could wish. in other words i have cooked your goose for you. you may be sure you will never be allowed to go free." he turned his back on them and commenced talking with one of the dacotahs, who, from the feathers in his black hair, seemed to be some sort of sub-chief. much of the conversation was carried on by gestures, in which waller seemed to be unusually expert. dick watched closely in the hope that he might be able to catch the drift of what was passing between the two. that he and roger were the objects under consideration he had not the slightest doubt, for several times one or the other pointed toward the spot where they stood. "can you make it out at all, dick?" roger asked. "i am sorry to say it's more than i've been able to understand, roger; but i think he's telling the chief again how valuable we are as prizes. and to think we have no way of proving to him that we are only ordinary boys, without rich fathers to pay a big ransom. it is just the sort of game we might have expected andrew waller to play." the man who had been sent out of the camp of the explorers now approached them again. he was rubbing his hands as though in great glee. "now, i shall not only have my pick of two good guns, but plenty of ammunition for them, in spite of captain lewis. i am going to say good-by to you here, for i have to meet m'sieu lascelles at an appointed rendezvous. oh! he will be very much pleased when he learns how the dacotahs prize the boys he hates so bitterly, and mean to carry them off to their villages, far to the north, there to keep them until the big ransom arrives. it tickles me to know how soon my debt to you has been so nicely cancelled." roger gritted his teeth, but he managed to keep from saying anything. "just as you told us when you were leaving camp, we may meet again, andrew waller," dick said, with an unmistakable meaning in his voice. "oh! that is possible," the other jauntily added, purposely misunderstanding what the boy meant; "for it may be m'sieu lascelles, he would wish to see for himself that you are comfortable, so for that reason we might journey into the dacotah country ourselves." with that thrust he waved his hand to them, and, turning, walked away as he had come. none of the indians paid the least heed to his movements; but roger almost choked in his indignation. "just to think, dick," he muttered in a quivering voice, "the beast is carrying my dear old gun which he took from our red guide, on his shoulder. how much i will miss it, because, ever since i've been able to look along the sights of a rifle, that gun has been my companion day and night." "we shall hope that in some way or other you will see it again," dick told him. "even if not, there are others just as sure shooters at the camp. the one he used to own, and which they refused to let him carry off, is even a better-made weapon than yours." "yes, but that gun has associations away above its value in money," said roger, heaving a sigh; "and at the best the chances of my ever handling it again are three against one." "well, we must try to think of other things now," dick told him. "you mean about escaping from our captors, don't you, dick? what if we can convince them that waller is a man with a double tongue, and that what he told them about our being the sons of the great white father at washington is only a package of lies?" "of course we can try, but i'm afraid it will be useless, because the indians want to believe that wonderful story. see how all of them are examining my gun now. i suppose every one of them is picturing himself as owning just such a marvelous weapon that 'spits out fire,' and kills the game just as thunder and lightning do in the storm." "what do you think they expect to do with us now?" asked roger. "they will not want to stay here much longer," affirmed dick, "because they are afraid of the 'palefaces with their thunder sticks.' consequently, they will start off toward their village, which we understand lies several days' journey away from here toward the northwest." "but, when we fail to come back to-day, captain lewis is bound to send some of his best trackers up here to learn what happened to us. and, dick, surely they will try to follow our captors, and effect our rescue." "listen, roger. we must not leave it all to them. these cunning red men know how to cover a trail so that the keenest eye cannot find a trace. depend on it, they will leave no stone unturned to hide the tracks we make. and then, besides, do we not know that the summer is already beginning to wane?" "yes, yes, all that is only too true, dick. captain lewis understands there is no time to spare, with those terrible mountains yet to be scaled, and also black deserts to cross, and all before snow flies. i am much afraid he will decide that the success of the whole undertaking would be put in peril should he detach any of his men to engage in a wild goose hunt for us." "we two have before this been in positions of peril," said dick, firmly, with a flash in his eyes that aroused new hope in the breast of his chum; "and always, in times that are past, have we succeeded in saving ourselves. so let us keep up our spirits and watch constantly for a chance to give these indians the slip." "if we should find the opportunity," said roger, immediately, "i hope we manage to get hold of your gun, and our hatchets and knives. to lose my good shooting-iron is bad enough, but that knife, you know, has served me since i was knee-high to a grasshopper. promise me you will do your level best to save our side-arms if we find a way to escape, dick!" to this entreaty dick assented. indeed, he knew well enough that it was their only policy to go away armed rather than in a helpless condition. shortly afterwards they were given to understand, through grunts and gestures, that the march was about to be taken up. with several indians stalking along in single file ahead, and others bringing up the rear the two boys had to turn their backs upon the "big muddy" and start upon the long journey into the northwest, at the end of which lay the dacotah village. chapter xv when stout hearts were necessary "we have covered a good many miles since starting, dick, and i hope they soon show signs of stopping for the night." the afternoon was getting well along when roger made this remark to his cousin. his tone had a vein of complaint in it, for, although roger could tramp through the woods all day and feel it but little, he did not like being forced to do the walking against his will. another thing that fretted the boy was the fact that every furlong passed over carried them further away from their friends of the expedition, the only whites, saving the french traders, within hundreds of miles. dick had begun to notice this growing feeling of irritation on the part of his comrade. he himself could look trouble in the face without flinching, and he now concluded it was time to cheer up roger's drooping spirits. "no question but that they intend to pull up pretty soon, roger," he said, as he trudged along close to the other's elbow. "in fact, i've noticed some of them looking about as if they expected to reach a good camp-ground at any minute. they were tired at the time they lay in wait for us, and must have come a long way." "of course you noticed, dick, that two of the braves stayed behind when we left the river, though they did catch up with us several hours afterwards?" "yes, and it is not difficult to guess what their part in the retreat was," replied dick. "they remained to conceal every trace of moccasined feet, so that it would have to be a mighty good tracker who could tell what had happened there on the bank of the small stream." "yes, and of course they've blinded our trail in the bargain every now and then on the way," continued roger, ruefully. "three separate times did we walk for half a mile in shallow water, and leave the creek on the stones, so there would be no sign left after the sun and wind dried the wet marks. it was the old indian trick that we know so well." "i tried my best to leave a plain track," added dick, "but the braves coming behind must have seen me do it, and made sure to cover it." "what do you believe captain lewis will do about it?" asked roger, he himself having pondered on this subject without coming to a conclusion. "when we fail to return to the camp of course they will send some of the men up to look the ground over," dick answered, thoughtfully. "the disappearance of the friendly indian will give them a clew. then they are apt to find some of the trout that were left behind fastened to the willow withes." "i hope they enjoy them," muttered roger, with a grimace, for he could not help remembering how his mouth had fairly watered with anticipation of the treat he had expected to have that evening. "i've been wondering, myself, how it came that the indians overlooked taking the fish," continued dick, "and the only thing i can see is that they were so anxious to get on the move before any of the white men came along with those terrible 'fire-shooting-sticks,' that they forgot about it." "yes," roger added, "and that treacherous chap who guided us into the trap was so taken up looking over your gun, which waller had turned over to him, that he forgot all about the fish, too. well, i hope they are found, and will make a fine supper for the men." "it has clouded up, and looks a little as if we might have a storm of some kind before morning breaks," went on dick. "more trouble if that happens," grumbled the other, glancing up at the heavens to verify his comrade's statement. "don't be too sure of that," dick told him. "it may turn out to be a great help to us, for all we know, and give us a chance to make our escape." "what, do you think that, after all, some of the trailers among our friends will be able to follow us, and take these indians by surprise?" asked roger. dick, however, shook his head at this. "to tell you the truth, roger," he observed, "i'm afraid we can count on no such help from our friends, even if they could discover our trail, which is much in doubt." "but why not?" demanded the other. "captain lewis thinks a lot of us, and he is hardly the man to desert a friend, dick." "every word of that is true," his chum assured him. "there never could be a finer man than captain lewis; but stop and think, roger; he is not on business of his own now, but bent on carrying out a great exploring expedition that was sanctioned by congress, and backed by president jefferson himself. every day counts in the spelling of success; a delay here might ruin all their plans." roger nodded his head, as though he grasped the idea. "yes, i can see what you mean, dick," he admitted, slowly and regretfully, "and i guess you are right. much as captain lewis himself might want to lay over and send a party of his men out in search of us, his duty binds him the other way. he will have to go on, and leave us to our fate." "well, we have been able to take care of ourselves lots of times before now, roger, and why not again?" somehow his last words seemed to arouse the dormant spirit of confidence in the other. roger gritted his teeth, while his eyes flashed defiantly. "you're right, dick, we have done plenty of things before, and can again," he declared with a ring in his voice that dick liked to hear. "our fathers never showed the white feather when they faced troubles just as bad, and why should we? how many times have we listened to them tell how they followed that band of iroquois indians ever so far into the north, and rescued their sister kate, who had been carried away.[ ] i'm done with repining, dick; from now on you'll find me different." "then to-night, when we are in camp, we must try to outwit these red rascals. even now i have something of a plan in my mind. and you may be sure that every mile we covered i kept tally of the direction, so i know just how to go in order to reach the missouri again." "you shame me, dick," frankly admitted the other boy; "to know that, while i've been fretting and complaining, thinking only of our troubles, you were keeping track of such things as would help us get back to our friends." a little later on, dick, who seemed to keep his eyes constantly on the alert, once more spoke to his comrade. "there's something brewing, as sure as you live, roger," he said; "for the indians are consulting together in hushed tones, and examining the ground as if they had run across some tracks there that excited them." "can it be game, and they are being tempted to start on a hunt?" asked roger. "two-footed game, then," replied the other boy, "for i can see there are moccasin tracks all around. of course, as the different tribes make moccasins after their tribal way, it's easy for these dacotahs to know the others are not of their kind." "they certainly do act as if they suspected there might be a breath of danger hanging around, dick. do you know whether the sioux and the dacotahs are enemies or not?" "they have been in the past," acknowledged dick; "but i know the print of a sioux moccasin, and these are different, roger." "perhaps shoshones. you remember captain lewis told us we were likely to run upon some of that warlike tribe at any time now. yes, and he remarked that, as a rule, they were enemies to the blackfeet, crows, flat heads, dacotahs, and nearly every other tribe up in the northwest." "i shouldn't be surprised if you have hit on the truth, roger, and that this war party turns out to be fierce shoshones. our good friend, captain lewis, said he hoped to make friends of them, since we must pass through their country before striking the great mountains." "there, we are going on again, dick, but notice how the braves keep looking to the right and to the left, as if they feared an ambush. the shoshones must be a fierce lot of fighters, or else be in overpowering numbers." "i think, if i can read an indian's mind," said dick presently, "these braves will make an early camp. if they start a fire at all it will be only a small one without smoke, and hidden in a hole, so that its light will not betray them." "then there's a poor chance for supper, i take it," grumbled roger, who, having a splendid appetite, did not fancy going hungry, or chewing on a tough piece of pemmican, or jerked venison. "you often complain of things being dull, roger; but i am sure you must admit there's no lack of excitement for us now. we are prisoners in the hands of the hostile indians; there is a storm threatening; and now comes a chance that, before morning, the camp may be attacked by these shoshones who are out looking for plunder and scalps." "if they should come, dick, what do you suppose would happen to us?" roger felt rather anxious, for he had heard it said that among indians it was the custom to kill their prisoners rather than have them rescued, or taken away by a rival tribe. "if i can carry out my plans," dick assured him, "i don't mean to wait until the camp is attacked. i'd like to be miles on the way back to the river before that comes to pass, if it really does." "there, i think we are going to pull up at last," ventured roger, as he saw the leading indians halt, and begin to look around as though to make sure that no enemy lurked in the neighboring woods. it was a well-chosen spot for a concealed camp. a shallow depression, very like a large bowl, offered them a chance to build a small fire without any risk of the blaze being seen; and, so far as smoke was concerned, those dusky sons of the forest could be counted on to select such wood that there would not be sent up the slightest column of vapor to betray them. roger, still watching, soon uttered a low cry of satisfaction. "see, dick, they do mean to have a little cooking-fire!" he exclaimed; "and that means we may get some supper after all. so far they have shown us no particular ill will, and treated us half-way decently." "that comes of being taken for the sons of the great white father at washington," remarked dick, with a chuckle that told that his spirits had not been crushed even though the future looked so dark and forbidding. "it is a high honor that has come to us, roger, to be reckoned president jefferson's own boys!" roger, however, was more interested in what was going on about the little fire than anything else. he observed just how the expert braves formed a small pyramid, and then used the flint and steel to start a tiny blaze. "yes, one of them is unwrapping that bundle he carries, dick," the boy went on to say, "and, just as i expected, it contains some freshly killed venison. oh! it's going to be all right, and we are due for some supper, i reckon." but dick was thinking of other things than eating just then. he surveyed with a critical eye the lowering sky, and wondered if a storm was about to break upon them before morning came. footnote: [ ] see "the pioneer boys on the great lakes." chapter xvi the escape the two prisoners had been made to sit down, and were under constant surveillance. it would not have been possible for them to make any move looking to escape without being immediately detected. dick realized the foolishness of such an attempt, and made no effort for the time being. those eyes of his noted everything that was going on around him, for he knew the time was approaching when utter darkness would come, and, if they expected to make a move, memory must take the place of sight. just as roger had been hoping, the indians cooked some of the venison, though in a primitive fashion. numerous pieces, as they were sliced from the haunch, were impaled on the ends of long slivers of wood, and the latter thrust into the earth in such fashion that the meat received the full heat of the little fire. of course, when cooked it was also partly burned, but this made no difference to any one who was really hungry. the two boys were glad to receive their share of the venison, and devoured it eagerly. "of course they'll tie us up, as indians always do their prisoners, dick?" suggested roger, while they were still munching at the food provided by their captors. "there's no doubt about that," the other told him. "already i have noticed one of the warriors looking over some long deerskin thongs, and then glancing in our direction. i think they are only waiting until we get through eating." "then for one i mean to keep at it as long as i can," affirmed roger; "because i never did like the idea of being tied to a tree. i suppose that is what they mean to do with us, dick." "we'll soon know, roger, and, now that i have the chance, i want to tell you about the little scheme i have in my mind." "i wish you would!" hastily exclaimed the other; "and i hope it will turn out to be a success." "you may remember," began dick, "that i have hands that somehow i can double up into a very small compass. many a time you've tried to fasten my wrists together to see if i could get my hands free, and in nearly every case i did the trick by stretching the thongs a little, and then slipping a hand out." "oh! now i begin to see what you hope to do, dick; and, let me tell you, the skies look brighter already. i'm sure you can set your hands free, if only it doesn't stop at that." "one step at a time, roger; we mustn't expect to run before we can walk. once my hands are loose, it will be a queer thing if in some way i fail to set both of us free. but here comes several of the indians this way, as though they mean to trice us up. better hurry and eat that last bit of meat, if you wouldn't lose it." "i suppose i'd better," grumbled roger, "but i don't see why they want to be in such a dreadful hurry about tying us up. ugh! a whole night of standing against a tree is something i don't like at all." it turned out just as dick had said, for the indians indicated by signs that they wished the two boys to stand up and back against a couple of trees that happened to grow close together. from the way in which the deerskin thongs were used to tie the captives to the trees it was evident that the braves had had long practice at this art. when they had used up all the hide rope, dick and roger were indeed in a helpless position, being bound hand and foot. "this is about as hard as anything we ever went through, dick," remarked roger, after the indians had finished their task and left them there. "yes, that is very true, roger, but i want to tell you that i can move one of my hands, and i'm starting to stretch this buckskin thong. after a short time i believe i can get my hands free." "that's good news; and what next, dick?" "if only that brave doesn't happen to remember that he stuck his knife into my tree right here, and return to possess himself of it, why, don't you see how fortunate that is going to turn out for us?" "a knife so close to your hands once you get them free--that would be simply glorious, dick. and i'm going to keep hoping that warrior has no need for his blade during the whole night." "i believe i can reach it," continued dick, twisting his head around to take another look at the coveted weapon; "and if i do, one slash will cut this buckskin rope. after that, you can depend on me to jump over to your side. but keep on working your hands all you can, roger, for the looser your bonds are the better in the end." the night was by now closing in around them. some time before the fire had been carefully extinguished, water being thrown on the burning embers to hasten its end. dick, still watching the actions of the indians, soon saw they were taking extra precautions against a surprise. from all of the signs the boys concluded that these dacotahs had good reason to fear the coming of the hostile war party. "i've got an idea," he told roger in following out this train of thought, "that not so very long back the dacotahs must have made a raid on the lodges of the shoshone tribe, and done more or less damage. somehow they act to me as if guilty." "and, dick, if ever the two parties do clash, there will be a lively time of it, we can be sure," roger in turn remarked. "these braves seem to be a picked lot, as far as i can tell, and ought to put up a good fight, even if outnumbered." "while i've never watched a real battle between two war parties of indians," observed dick, "i must say i'm not dying with curiosity to see one. i only hope we have a chance to get away from here before it happens. and, roger, another thing--i'm keeping an eye on that fellow who is carrying my gun. he has placed it, together with the powder-horn and bullet-pouch, on that log yonder, you notice." "now it is queer that i hadn't noticed such a thing, dick!" "simply because you waste so much time bothering about our hard luck, when you might just as well be using eyes and ears to learn something worth while," the other boy told him. "now, if only i can manage to snatch up my gun and other fixings when we leave here, it will make me happy, i can tell you." the minutes dragged along slowly to the two boys. when an hour, and then two, had passed, roger was beginning to complain again, for it was weary work being forced to stand in this way upon their feet. by this time the indians had ceased their low droning talk. only one of them was still sitting there cross-legged, smoking his red clay pipe. dick did not doubt that somewhere in the gloom one or two sentries, or videttes, had been posted, in order to guard against a surprise in every way possible, though of course he could not see the first sign of their presence. only the customary sounds of a summer night in the wilderness came to the ears of the captive pioneer boys. most of these were very familiar to them, on account of their habit for years of spending nights out of doors. still, somehow, things did not seem quite the same as usual. it was different listening to the hoot of the owl, the croak of the night heron, the complaint of the tree-frog calling for more rain, or even the barking of a red fox somewhere in the forest, when tied up in this way, and facing such a gloomy outlook. "dick," whispered roger, "isn't it nearly time?" "not yet," replied the other in the same cautious manner, "hold your horses, and have patience, roger. another hour or two must go by before i dare start in." poor impatient roger groaned, and relapsed into silence again. oh! how time did drag along. it seemed to the boy he would go fairly wild, waiting for something to break that terrible monotony. there were no stars overhead by means of which they could tell how the night was wearing on. dick had to resort to other means by which to mark the passage of time; still he knew fairly well when the hour of midnight approached. meanwhile roger had finally fallen asleep, uncomfortable as his position was. dick could just manage to see, by straining his eyes, that his chum's head had fallen forward upon his chest, as though tired nature had overcome him. dick concluded that there was no use waiting any longer to put his plan into operation. everything about the camp seemed silent, and, although he took a desperate chance, the boy believed he would gain nothing by further delay. his initial act was to draw first one hand and then the other from the stretched buckskin thongs. then turning as best he could he reached out toward the knife the indian who had helped tie them to the tree had left sticking there, even with the boy's head. what a thrill passed through dick's whole frame as his eager hand touched that welcome blade. its buckhorn handle, too, felt very familiar, and he was almost sure it would turn out to be the hunting-knife roger valued so highly because of the associations connected with it. as it possessed a keen edge, he found no difficulty in bending down and severing his bonds. after that he stopped and listened, but there was nothing to indicate that his actions had been discovered. the owl had commenced his mournful hooting again; and the tree-frog piped up louder than ever, dick noticed with considerable satisfaction, for he hoped the sounds would muffle any slight noise he would chance to make. now he turned to set roger free. he hoped in his heart that, upon being aroused, roger would not utter an exclamation. with this possibility in mind dick very cautiously crept over to the other tree. he could hear roger's heavy breathing, showing that the boy still slept. with great care dick raised himself until he could put his lips close to the other's ear, when he whispered: "roger, wake up, but keep very still! i am going to cut your bonds now!" the boy gave a great start, but fortunately he did not attempt to answer. he comprehended instantly what the situation was, and knew the necessity for silence. already dick's hands were seeking for the deerskin thongs that bound the wrists of his comrade to the tree. as soon as he had made certain, the pressure of the sharp blade instantly severed the restraining cords and set roger's hands free. all that remained now was to do the same service with regard to the hide rope that went around roger's waist, and then around his ankles further down. after that they could listen for a minute, to make sure they had not been heard, and then depart from the hostile camp on hands and knees, creeping stealthily along like a couple of snakes. so far dick's cleverly arranged plan had worked admirably. if the rest proved to be as easy of accomplishment they could congratulate themselves on having done a big thing, with credit to their education in the line of border cunning. dick had just finished severing the last of the bonds, and roger was in the act of stepping forward, when something suddenly occurred that thrilled both boys to the heart, as well as put a different aspect on their method of hasty departure. from some place back in the woods a little way a loud and singular whoop rang forth. dick believed that it must be intended as a signal announcing an attack; for, hardly had it ceased to ring through the aisles of the forest, than a deafening chorus of wild yells rang forth, together with the rush of many bodies crashing through the underwood and advancing from every direction toward the camp of the dacotahs. chapter xvii shelter in a hollow tree "it is the shoshone war-cry!" exclaimed roger, instinctively, as he heard the piercing, bubbling sound that must have been uttered with a hand to the mouth. dick seized hold of his chum. he realized that any delay now might prove very costly for them both. "we must get away from here!" he cried, thinking of what roger had said concerning the savage ways of the indians, and how they often preferred killing their prisoners to letting them be set free, or taken by a hostile tribe. "your gun, dick?" asked roger, breathlessly. "i mean to make a grab for it," replied the other, who was already moving off. then it was that his careful survey of the surroundings came into play, for dick had made a mental map upon which he could depend when utter darkness lay upon the earth. roger, still hearkening to the dreadful sounds that were bursting out all about them, felt his companion duck down, and he judged that they must be alongside the log on which the gun with the ammunition had been placed by the indian who had led them into the trap. and, somehow, roger guessed that success had come to his chum, even though he himself could not see anything of the gun. again he was being half dragged along, as though dick had chosen his course, and was trying to follow it. their one idea now was to get away from the camp, and let the hostile red men have their fight out to the bitter end. small affair it was of the boys whether the dacotahs whipped the shoshones, or the latter overwhelmed the braves who had been the captors of the young pioneers. skillful maneuvering was necessary in order to avoid contact with any of the furious warriors. the boys heard the sound of blows being struck, and their lively imaginations could picture what was occurring nearby, as they slipped along through the darkness. fortune was kind to them, after all, for they did not strike against a single dusky figure, although several times they had to sink close to the ground when they heard the rush of moccasined feet close at hand. now the noise of the desperate hand-to-hand conflict was behind them, roger noticed with a feeling of great relief. he could hear not only the war cries of those who fought, but occasionally there also came sounds of darker import, such as were probably the death chants of those who were bound for the "happy hunting grounds" of the red men. as they gradually put all this horrible clamor further and further behind them, the two boys felt their own spirits rise higher. the attack of the shoshones had come just in the nick of time to help the young pioneers. it had served to cover their escape as nothing else could have done. roger was panting for breath, because of the excitement as well as his strenuous actions. he had knocked into more than one tree, but without so far seriously hurting himself; and as usual the boy felt that he must give tongue to the feelings of wild delight that were rioting through his veins. "we did it, dick, for a fact; gave them the slip!" he burst forth. "it looks that way, roger." "and now all we have to do is to get our bearings, and make a fresh start for the river; isn't it?" continued roger, anxiously. "that's all, roger," he was assured. "and already i feel that we are on the right course, so we'll keep along as we're going now." "but the fight seems to be over with," added roger. "at any rate all the yells have stopped. i wonder whether the dacotahs whipped, or were overpowered by their foes? though for that matter we care mighty little how it turned out." "since neither of them were our friends," dick admitted, "we had no interest in the outcome of the forest battle. it was a case of dog eat dog with us; and i only hope we'll run across no more of the red rascals until we rejoin our party." "how far do you mean to go before stopping, dick?" roger was getting a little tired when he asked this question. they had both had a hard day of it, beside the standing for several hours in a cramped position tied to the trees. "i think we ought to keep on for at least an hour more," dick told him, "even if it does pull hard. by then we'll have reached a point where the indians who turn out to be victors can hardly find us in the morning, even if they happen to bother making the search. so keep up your spirits, roger, for we've got a heap to be thankful for." "i'm sure of that, dick, and i hope you didn't think i was complaining just now. you'll find me good for an hour's tramp in the dark, or two of them, for that matter. then for a few hours' sleep before day breaks." "it may be the storm will swoop down on us before then, and force us to change our plans. so, after a while, we must keep a lookout for some sort of shelter, such as a hollow tree. it wouldn't be the first time we have lain in such a snug nook when the rain was coming down in bucketfuls." "i should say it wasn't!" declared roger, and from that time on he seemed to have picked up a new supply of energy, for he uttered no further complaint as he struggled on at the side of his companion. no matter how slowly the minutes passed, roger realized that the conditions were vastly different from what they seemed earlier in the night; when tied to that tree the gloom around him was no thicker than the state of his feelings. dick finally came to a halt. perhaps the hour had not fully passed, but he believed they had put enough ground behind them to feel safe. besides, he had made a discovery that he fancied ought to be utilized. either the night had grown lighter, as though the moon might have arisen, and was shining back of the heavy clouds, or else the eyes of the boys, in growing accustomed to the darkness, allowed them to see things better. "i've noticed several trees of good size as we came along, roger," he told his chum; "and if only we can find one that is hollow, we need go no further until morning." at that the other laughed as though pleased. "if that's all we need, dick, how would this one over here do for our purposes?" and, speaking in this way, he directed the attention of his chum to a tree not far away. it was an unusually big tree, and both of them could see, though a bit uncertainly, that it had some sort of cavity at its base. a hasty examination convinced them they had found just what they were looking for. "we can creep in through that hole easily enough," said roger, "because it's big enough for a giant to pass through. i hope though, dick, it doesn't turn out to be the den of any wild beast." "we can soon settle that!" declared dick, as he took up a long stick, over which he had just tripped, and thrust it in through the opening. as no sound of surly remonstrance followed this action on his part, it became evident that the hollow tree was not occupied by any animal. "if it is a den there's nobody at home right now," announced roger; "so we can crawl through the doorway and settle down." after his customary impetuous fashion he insisted on being the one to lead the way, and was quickly inside the hollow tree. "how do you find it?" asked dick, thrusting his head through the opening. "there seems to be plenty of room for two in here," was the quick reply; "and, although i don't just fancy the odor, still i think we could do worse, especially if it comes on to rain hard." upon hearing this dick hastened to creep through the hole, carrying his gun with him of course. he had something on his mind, apparently, for hardly had he reached the side of the other boy than dick thrust his gun into roger's hands, remarking: "i noticed an old stump just outside there, and i'd better go and roll it up, so as to cover this opening, more or less." "then you must be thinking that some animal may come in here, and you mean to block the passage so we will not be taken by surprise; is that it?" "nothing less, roger," dick replied, as he started to crawl out again. "if i can help you, let me know," called out roger. the stump did not prove to be very weighty, and dick rolled it deftly so that it covered all but a small fraction of the opening. then he crept inside, and the two of them had little trouble in closing most of the remainder of the aperture. "well, to tell you the honest truth," admitted roger, when this undertaking had been completed, though plenty of air could still find ingress, "i do feel a whole lot better, now that we've shut the door. it can't be very pleasant to lie down to sleep in a hollow tree that may be a panther's lair, and to wake up to find the savage beast coming in on you." dick was as satisfied as his companion, even if less vociferous about it. "i guess that stump will make a good enough door," he went on to say, chuckling, "and if we wake up to hear some one knocking, we can ask who it is before we open up. just as you say, it makes us feel more secure." satisfied with the way things were going roger soon settled down to make himself as comfortable as the conditions allowed. "perhaps this isn't as sweet and easy a bed as my own at home," he remarked, after yawning several times; "but then, as my mother always says, 'beggars mustn't be choosers.' and i can remember many a time when i've slept in worse places than a hollow tree." "remember before you go to sleep, roger, it's understood that the one who happens to hear anything suspicious is to wake the other up. if you feel me touch you on the arm and hear me whisper, keep as still as a church mouse. it may mean that indians are outside, and looking for us." "i'll recollect, dick, you can depend on it; and, if the tables should be turned, so that i am the one to get wind of the danger first, i'll do the same to you. so now, let's go to sleep." roger found very little trouble in putting his words into practice, and in a few minutes dick heard him breathing heavily. as he felt very much inclined that way himself, dick made no effort to hold back sleep, and in a short time both lads were fast locked in slumber. some time passed, just how long neither of them really knew, when dick felt a violent tug at his arm. he was wide-awake instantly, and understood just where he was, as well as what the jerk signified. "what is it?" he whispered, as he felt for his gun the first thing, as though its touch would give him renewed confidence. "something or somebody is moving around outside, dick," whispered roger. "hist! listen!" remarked dick, softly. there was a slight scuffling sound, and the stump at the opening moved violently. then came the loud sniffing of some animal that was trying to thrust its nose through a very small crevice and, apparently, could not understand why the door was closed. "it must be a bear," said dick, no longer keeping his voice confined to a whisper, but speaking aloud, "and this is his den. he wonders what has happened, and it may be he scents us, for he's trying to push his way in!" chapter xviii the storm roger was considerably relieved when he heard his chum say this with so much confidence. a bear might be troublesome, but it was not to be compared with an indian, for the latter was likely to have allies close at hand who could be summoned by a signal whoop. "do you think the beast can move the stump?" he asked dick, at the same time feeling for his knife, which the other had turned over to roger on discovering that it was really his property. "he is trying hard to do so," replied dick. "just listen how he keeps on sniffing at that crack," continued the other boy. "he knows that somebody has taken to his hollow tree, and he doesn't seem to like it at all. how about giving him a shot, dick? at such close range you could easily knock him over." dick, however, had his own ideas about that. at least, he did not make any preparations for the shot. "to tell you the truth, roger," he finally explained, "i'd rather not waste my powder and ball on the old fellow. he'd be too tough for us to use as food, and besides, the sound of the report might bring some of the indians down on us." "i suppose you are right, dick," commented roger; "but it looks as if we might have to do something to frighten the bear away. there he starts again, trying to thrust the stump aside, and as sure as anything, dick, the breach is getting a little wider every time he works at it." "it seems so," agreed dick, "and, as you say, we ought to do something to put a stop to his scratching and dragging. wait a minute, i've an idea i can fix it!" with these words he put his long rifle behind him so that it was safe in roger's hands. in case of actual necessity the latter would know what to do with the fire-arm; but just then he was very curious to learn what dick had arranged. he could hear him moving, and he seemed to lean forward until his hands were perilously near the small opening at which the nose of the bear was working just as the snout of a hog might be used to move an obstacle. the champing of teeth, along with the loud sniffing, continued. "what are you doing, dick?" asked roger, finally, unable to stand the suspense any longer. "oh!" came the cheery reply, "i have wasted a charge or two of powder, placing it as near the opening as i can, and running a thread this way. now i have my flint and steel ready, and, as soon as he starts to poking his nose in at the hole again, i'll strike fire, and explode the powder in his face!" roger saw the object of this, and was considerably interested in the outcome. "i hope he gets the full benefit of the flash," he observed. dick saw his chance just then, and he could be heard striking the flint and steel rapidly together after the manner of one whom long experience in this line had made almost perfect. there came a little shower of descending sparks, and then a sudden brilliant flash that lit up the interior of the hollow tree as though the sun had found a means of ingress. "hurrah!" cried roger, clapping his hands in glee, "that was the time you gave old eph the scare of his life! hear him plunging off, will you, dick? it seems as if he'd lost all desire to make the acquaintance of his new lodgers. and i don't think we'll be bothered any more by mr. bear, do you?" dick also laughed softly as he replied: "he must have had his nose singed that time, and got a bad fright in the bargain, so i reckon we'll not be annoyed again." "this powder smoke is choking me, dick." "but it's slowly rising in the tree, and things are getting better right along," roger was told. "we'll wait awhile until the air is purer, and after that we'll drag the old stump back to where it was before the bear moved it." "and then?" queried roger. "go to sleep again, if you feel like it, because we have some hours of the night still ahead of us," dick calmly told him. before they could settle down they noticed that the wind was soughing through the trees with a louder note than before. "that storm is coming closer all the while," remarked dick, "and we needn't be surprised to hear thunder at any time now." "if it does come," added roger, sleepily, "we'll be glad to have such a fine shelter in the rain. but it may fool us after all, and for one i don't mean to lie awake waiting for it." dick, too, managed to get to sleep before a great while. both of them were presently aroused by a loud crash of thunder. "why, it did get here after all, dick!" exclaimed roger, the first thing. "listen and you can hear the rain further along beating down on the forest trees. one good thing about it is that the storm will probably not be a long one." dick's words were immediately followed by a vivid flash of lightning, and then came another loud detonation that seemed to shake the earth. in these present days two wide-awake boys who had picked up some knowledge of woodcraft would be very much alarmed to find themselves in a hollow tree during an electrical storm, knowing that there was always a chance of the lightning's striking such an object and bringing about their destruction. dick and roger were not worried on that point. perhaps it was because they were accustomed to taking hazards; or it may have sprung from ignorance of the danger. however, the hollow tree had lost its top long years ago, and was surrounded by loftier trees so the chances of its being struck were not serious. then the rain came, and, from the sounds that reached their ears, the boys decided that it was almost a tropical downpour. roger was on the alert to discover whether their shelter was going to prove its worth, or begin to leak. after some time had passed he voiced his conviction in his usual fashion. "not a drop so far, dick, and i believe we're going to keep dry jackets through the whole downpour. why, this is better than being in one of the tents, for they nearly always let a stream of water trickle down your neck when you're not expecting it. i think we're mighty lucky to have such good shelter." "and i agree with every word you say, roger," his companion added. "how is the night going, do you know?" continued the other. "i'm sure i can hardly say, roger. at a guess i might venture to say that we may have something like two hours more of darkness." "then all i hope is the storm will peter out before dawn, so we can start for the river right away. we ought to come upon the expedition by evening, unless we get lost, and that is something not likely to happen to boys like us, who have lived in the woods since they were knee-high to grasshoppers." "one thing sure, we have had all the sleep we're going to get to-night," dick remarked. "it seems to me the rain has slackened some. at least, it doesn't make such a terrible noise when it strikes the trees. but there was a pretty lively wind blowing, dick, and i think i heard more than one tree crash down before the gale." "yes," added the other. "and this old wreck did some groaning, too. once i was in a sweat thinking it might go toppling over; but the other trees must have protected it some, for it stood through the wild storm." when roger hazarded the opinion that the gale was abating he spoke the truth, for in a short time it became manifest that the thunder came from a more distant point, the lightning was not so brilliant, and the rain itself began to fall more lightly. in fact, things took on such a different tone that roger actually settled himself down to try for a little more sleep. dick had been too thoroughly aroused to think of doing this. he continued to sit there, keeping a vigil on the crack, through which he knew he would catch the first glimpse of breaking day. he amused himself while sitting thus by letting his thought go back to the happy home far down the "big muddy," where his father and his mother, his little brother sam, and his grandparents besides, occupied the big cabin in the clearing, close to the one where roger's parents lived. finally, dick discovered that it was no longer pitch dark outside. the moon had broken out from the scattering storm clouds, and was giving a fair amount of light. dick, always in touch with the positions of the heavenly bodies, knew, after he had located the fragment of a moon, that morning was indeed close at hand. indeed, he believed that in less than half an hour the dawn would break. he allowed roger to sleep until it was broad daylight, and then, acting under the belief that they had better be on their way, he laid a hand on the other's arm. "morning has come, and we ought to be getting out of here," dick told his comrade, as he felt the other move under his touch. "why, i did go to sleep after all, it seems," muttered roger, as though he considered this the queerest thing of all; but dick only smiled, for he knew of old some of the little weaknesses of his chum. they succeeded in pushing the old stump away from the opening, leaving a gap big enough for them to crawl through. "if mr. bear ever takes the trouble to come back to his den," remarked roger, as he surveyed the big tree with its hollow butt, "he's welcome to his old quarters. i'd like to tell him that his hole is all right, too, when a fellow is caught in a storm; but we have other fish to fry just now." his words reminded him of the fine mess of trout they had caught on the preceding day, just before the trap set by the cunning indians had been sprung, and shortly afterwards he remarked: "i do hope our friends found all the strings of trout we left along the bank of that stream; and that there were more than they could use at one time. it would be fine if we got a taste of the same, dick, after all this fuss." "i was just thinking," remarked practical dick, who certainly was not bothering his head about trout, or any other kind of food, "that, after all, that storm may have done us one kindness." "tell me how, then?" demanded roger, who failed to agree with him until he could be shown the facts. "the rain must have washed all our tracks out, so not even the sharpest-eyed indian brave could follow our trail," explained the other, and of course roger found himself in full accord with the theory advanced, for, like the story of columbus and the envious spanish courtiers, things looked very different after the explanation. with a last backward look toward the friendly old tree that had afforded them shelter in the storm, the two lads tightened their belts and set off on their long tramp, expecting to strike the bank of the missouri by the time the sun was ready to set. chapter xix under the fallen forest monarch "there! that makes the fourth tree i've seen blown down in the storm," remarked roger, after they had been walking through the forest for some time. "yes, and in every case if you went to the trouble to examine those trees," he was told by dick, "you would find that they were rotten at the heart. they may keep on standing up with the rest, and seem to be perfect, but when the wind sweeps through the forest it searches out the weak and imperfect trees, and topples them over." "that must be what grandfather means when he talks about the 'survival of the fittest,'" roger mused. "he says that nature knows what is best for everything, and keeps thinning out the weak ones along every line." "then there must have been a lot of poor trash over yonder," chuckled dick, "for i can see a number of trees down." "oh! what was that!" suddenly asked roger. "it sounded to me like a groan," his companion admitted, as both of them stood still in order to listen. "there it comes again, dick, and, just as you said, it must be a groan. i wonder if any one could have been caught under a tree when it fell?" "we must be cautious how we move forward," as dick's advice, "because we know the treacherous nature of these indians." "do you mean it might turn out to be a trap?" demanded roger. "there is always a chance of that, so, while we make our way in that direction, we must be ready to run if we discover any lurking reds about." dick also kept his rifle in readiness in case of a sudden emergency. it might be a shot would check a rush on the part of their enemies, and thus enable the boys to get a fair start. guided by the groans, which now came louder and more frequently, they were not long in making a discovery. "dick, i see him!" exclaimed roger, in fresh excitement; "and, sure enough, he is caught in the branches of that big tree over there. it isn't a trap after all, but some one in trouble." [illustration: "they pushed forward, and were soon at the fallen tree"] "and an indian at that, roger," added the other, as he, too, managed to catch a glimpse of the unfortunate one. "will that make any difference; or do you think he may be just shamming?" asked roger, hesitating. "there is no mistake about his being in a bad fix," ventured dick. "he may not be terribly hurt, but the tree has pinned him down, you can see; and if we left the poor fellow there he would either starve to death or else be devoured by the wild beasts." "oh! we never could have the heart to do that," asserted roger, who possessed a generous nature, like all his headstrong class. they pushed forward, and were soon at the fallen tree. the indian must have discovered their presence, for he had ceased groaning, as though too proud to show any sign of cowardice. a brave would sooner have his hand cut off than be reckoned timid or weak. "how are we going to get him out of that trap?" roger remarked, after they had looked the situation over. "we have no hatchet for cutting the limb, and my knife would never do the job in a day." "he's held down as if in a vise," dick observed thoughtfully, "and i can see only one way of getting him loose. let me have your knife and i'll hack my way in close to him. there seems to be just one avenue open for that." roger, filled with curiosity, watched his cousin set to work. he could readily understand how the other intended to reach the side of the imprisoned brave, but just what means he expected to use in order to free the warrior roger was unable to guess. a short time afterwards dick had gained the side of the brave, to whom he spoke a few words; and, doubtful whether he was understood, these were supplemented by various reassuring gestures. then, to the astonishment of roger, dick started to dig furiously in the ground. at first his intentions were a mystery to roger, who wrinkled his brow as he looked on. all at once, however, he grasped the idea. "now i can see what you're up to, dick," he called out; "and i must say it looks like a winning scheme. all you have to do is to dig under the brave, and let him sink down a little. then, when the pressure of those limbs grows less, he can either squirm out himself, or be dragged forth." that, in fact, was the idea dick had conceived in his fertile brain. he continued to delve away with a steady purpose in view, and presently it could be seen that he was making an impression on the earth. the trapped indian brave began to sink downward by slow degrees until finally the pressure had relaxed to such an extent that by making a great effort, and assisted by dick, he managed to wriggle out from under the limbs of the fallen tree. he had been hurt in various places, though dick did not believe any of his wounds were really serious. accustomed, as they were, to treating injuries, it was only natural for the boys to make up their minds that they would do something for the poor fellow. when dick made motions to this effect, the indian allowed them to do what they willed, although he watched every movement with eyes that were filled with curiosity. "i wonder whether he's more surprised at seeing us have this soothing ointment mother made along with us, or that 'palefaces' should go to such trouble just for an indian?" roger remarked, as he assisted in the work. (note .) "it doesn't matter much which affects him most," said dick, calmly, "we are doing just what our parents have taught us to do. besides, how can we tell whether this brave is an enemy or a friend?" "they say an indian never forgets an injury, or an act of kindness," ventured roger; "and, if that is true, we can count on one friend among the dacotahs, for i'm sure he belongs to that tribe." "yes, he is a dacotah, but they all look alike to me, so i couldn't say whether he was among those who captured us or not. he seems to be listening to what we are saying, and i really believe he half understands our talk. perhaps he knows a little english, for there have been white trappers who have penetrated this far." "suppose you try him, and see if he can understand, dick?" "i mean to do that," was the reply, "because i'd like to put a spoke in the wheel of that revengeful andrew waller. he has told these foolish indians we are the sons of the great white father at washington, and that if we were held as prisoners a mighty ransom would be paid for our release. we must convince the reds that it is false, and that we are only ordinary white boys." this idea held some weight with dick, and after completing his work in connection with the brave's wounds he commenced the attempt to talk with him. at first it looked as though there would be little chance of success; but after a little he succeeded in getting the painted brave to understand what he was trying to explain. this was done by means of single words, accompanied by much gesturing and pointing. if the indian had not already known about the boys, and what was said about their being the sons of the white father he could never have understood matters at all. gradually dick began to believe he was hammering the facts into the head of the other. he saw a light as of comprehension dawning on his painted face. "i do believe you've managed to pound it into his brain, dick," said roger, who had been an earnest witness of all this. "he looks as if he knew what you wanted him to do. see, he even nods his head when you speak." dick felt that he had reason to be proud of what he had done. to get an indian, who could not talk english, beyond a few words, to understand that they were only ordinary, every-day boys instead of the important personages andrew waller had pictured, was a triumph indeed. "i am asking him to pass the news along, and spread it far and wide," explained dick, as he continued his gestures and forceful words; "and i think he knows. here, let me do a little picture writing for him; perhaps that may help." he picked up a piece of smooth bark, and, using the point of roger's hunting knife, managed to scratch several crude designs upon it. two of these represented the rising and the setting sun. then a figure with a dacotah head-dress stood half way between with arms outstretched. showing this to the brave, dick once more began to speak and make gestures. while he could not of course be certain, still he had every reason to believe that the other understood what he was driving at, for he nodded, touched each of the boys on the chest, then shook his head in the negative, and said something in the dacotah tongue which dick fancied meant white father. "that's the best i can do with him, roger; and now we must be on our way again. whether it works or not, at least we can feel that we have done the right thing." chapter xx the return from captivity they parted from the dacotah brave with what was doubtless intended to be grateful gestures on his part. "he seems to understand that we have played the part of friends," said roger, "and i think if the chance ever comes up he will stand by us." "i am of the same opinion," declared dick, "though for that matter i hope we may never need his help. after all, we did not lose much time, and it was worth while to save a life." they pushed on diligently for a long time. dick was not in doubt as to his course, for he had taken particular pains to notice as they came along on the preceding day, in the company of the indians. when roger happened to ask once if he were quite sure the river lay directly ahead of them, dick answered confidently. "unless it makes a great sweep to the north somewhere above us we will run upon the river by nightfall, take my word for it;" and roger, accustomed to depending fully on his comrade, never doubted after that moment. something else was soon upon his mind, however, and he voiced his thoughts by appealing to dick. "do you think it would be dangerous if you shot your gun off just once, in case we sighted some game? i feel very hungry, for that supper the indians gave us didn't seem to do me much good. and breakfast is one of my best meals, you know." dick laughed at seeing the appealing look on his chum's face. "i don't think the danger of the shot's being heard is one-half as great as you think you are of starving to death," he told roger. "then you agree, do you?" demanded the other, eagerly. "i'll keep my eyes peeled for sight of a deer, and i do hope it isn't going to be long before we get a chance at one." as luck would have it, before another ten minutes had passed the opportunity he was hoping for came their way. dick was ready, and with the report of his gun a yearling doe fell in a heap, just when in the act of plunging into the dense thicket. of course roger would not think of any delay in getting a fire going and some of the tender meat broiling before the flames. while he looked after the fire dick cut up the game, and it was not long before an appetizing odor began to make both boys wishful for the feast to begin. "we can make up for this stop," said roger as he sat there devouring piece after piece of the half-cooked venison, "by not halting at noon for a rest. then again, we can hurry our steps at times and so get along faster." "no trouble about that," dick assured him, "for i figure that we have plenty of time to get there by dark. you remember that we were only on the move some six hours yesterday, and we have the whole of to-day for tramping." "do you know, dick, this reminds me of how we chased after the expedition for weeks and weeks when determined to find jasper williams, and get that paper signed for our parents. hundreds of miles we followed the trail as it ascended the missouri river, until at last we overtook them."[ ] "what we did once we can do again, this time on a small scale," dick assured him. "i was just watching those crows over there in that tree-top. they seem to be holding a regular caucus, and keep on scolding like everything." "yes," added the other boy, "and sometimes crows turn out to be a pest in lots of ways besides eating the settler's corn. old hunters have told me they hide from crows whenever they find themselves in hostile territory, because through their cawing the birds tell the indians strangers are in the woods." "there, the whole lot has flown away, and making all sorts of noises in the bargain," dick went on to say. "i don't like crows myself any too much. they are too noisy, and seem to think every one is trying to creep up on them for a shot." "when we do strike the river, dick, can we easily tell whether the expedition has passed or not?" "all we have to do is to examine the ground, for their horses would leave a plain trail, you know, roger." "and if, after searching, we do not find any sign, we will know they haven't come along yet. in that case all we have to do will be to sit down, and take things easy until they show up." roger seemed to have left most of his troubles behind, after making a good breakfast on the deer meat. with the intention of chiding him for displaying any eagerness for food when there was none to be had, dick took up the subject again as they trudged manfully onward. "it's very plain to be seen that you'd never make a good indian brave, roger," was what he told the other, and this excited the boy's curiosity just as dick knew would be the case. "tell me why," he demanded. "i always thought i could stand pain without flinching as well as any indian boy; and i've learned a lot about wild life in the bargain. where do i fall short, dick?" "it's just this way," his cousin told him. "an indian boy is taught never to display his feelings, no matter what he suffers inwardly. if he were struck by a poisonous rattlesnake, and could feel his body swelling, not a whimper would come from his lips." "well, what has that to do with me, dick? so far i have never been attacked by a rattlesnake, though i've killed plenty of the ugly varmints, i wager." "but you did put on a long face, and you complained because for once you missed your breakfast. now, an indian boy would never have said a word, but held in grimly to the end. not that i blame you, remember, for i was hungry myself, and ready to use my gun, even before you mentioned it." they both laughed at that. "we were born 'paleface' boys," said roger, "and it's hard for the leopard to change its spots, they say. when we're hungry we know it, yes, and we don't mind letting other people know it, too, if that will help things along." noon came and went. they kept persistently moving forward. occasionally they came to open places in the forest where the grass grew green, and often did they glimpse deer feeding in these glades. once they even saw a small herd of buffaloes trooping off, having apparently winded the boys. but dick made no motion to use his gun again. they had all the fresh meat they required, and powder and balls were too precious to be needlessly wasted. so the afternoon came and found them keeping up that determined pace. if either of them felt tired they failed to mention the fact, which in itself was pretty positive evidence that they possessed many of the best traits of the indian character, after all. from long habit they were accustomed to such exercise as this, and would not have complained had the tramp kept up far into the coming night. it was about the middle of the afternoon when roger gave a low exclamation of delight. "i can see the river ahead of us, dick!" he cried, with a vein of deep satisfaction in his voice. "yes, i have been waiting to hear you say that, roger, for i glimpsed it five minutes back. so you see after all we have made good time. we shall be there long before sunset." "i must say i am glad to know it," roger admitted; and then hastily added: "not that i doubted your word a bit, but then, 'seeing is believing,' you know, dick." "yes, and, confident as i was myself, i am relieved to see the river glimmering in the sunlight before us," dick frankly admitted. "it can hardly be more than two miles or so away from here, wouldn't you say?" questioned roger, always ready to have any assertion he might make backed up by the word of his chum, in whom he had such positive faith. "about that," the other told him, as they once more started ahead. when finally they stood on the high bank of the river, no longer the mighty stream they knew it down near their home, and looked at the opposite shore, the sun was still more than an hour high. "now to find out if they have passed by, and whether we will have to keep on up the river," said dick, as he began to look about him. a brief search convinced them that no horses had passed that point. they saw the marks of deer, and buffaloes, as well as some very large imprints made by cloven hoofs, that startled the boys, for they did not know what sort of strange animal had made them; but it was sure that horses had not been present. "that settles it then," said roger, with a sigh of relief, for he would much rather just sit there and wait for the expedition to come along, than be compelled to follow for miles after it. "we will make camp here to-night if they fail to show up," asserted dick, which piece of information pleased roger, his pleasure showing in the broad smile of contentment that broke over his face. with plenty of good venison to last them through many days, what need had they to worry? they knew the exploring party bound for the other side of the mountains was sure to come along, sooner or later; when they could once more join their good friends, and take their accustomed places as though nothing unusual had happened. dick selected a certain spot on which to settle and wait for the exploring party. in doing this he had in mind the fact that it afforded them a clear view down the river. a bend lay just a quarter of a mile below their position, around which they could expect the boats to appear, sooner or later. lying at their ease the boys talked of many things as they awaited the coming of the expedition. their recent experience of course came in for a good share of attention, for it still thrilled them to compare notes of the night attack, when those hideous whoops were ringing in their ears, together with the heavy percussion of blows as the fierce shoshones invaded the camp of the dacotahs and struggled hand-to-hand for the supremacy. the sun was sinking lower and lower, so that it really began to look as though, after all, the boys would have to make camp where they were. apparently the expedition had spent some little time looking for the lost ones, and dick had struck the river further up than they had as yet penetrated. suddenly roger discovered a moving object down the river. then, around the bend, a boat came in sight, in which they could see white men, some of them soldiers. at the same time voices from the shore reached their ears, and they caught fugitive glimpses of moving figures advancing along a buffalo trail close to the edge of the bank. these latter they realized must be the party mounted on the horses, and who always kept near the boats for mutual protection and company. "that settles it then, dick. we will not have to camp by ourselves to-night; and, after all, i'm glad of it. not that i don't enjoy being off with you alone, but up here, so far away from the settlements, it makes me feel better to know i am in company with some dozens of other whites." "i think there's still another reason why you are glad they are coming," ventured dick, shrewdly; "you keep on hoping they may not have devoured all of those fine trout we caught yesterday, and that you can still have a chance to taste some of them." roger would neither admit nor deny the accusation, but only laughed and prepared to wave his cap toward the men in the leading boat a minute later. it could be seen that quite some excitement followed the discovery that the two missing boys were above, waiting for the boats to arrive. voices were heard conveying the intelligence to the other boats, and loud shouts attested to the fact that the men rejoiced over the safe return of the lost ones. the spot offered very good accommodations for stopping over night, and so, upon arriving opposite the lads, the boats made for the shore. dick and roger soon found themselves being heartily greeted by all their good friends. most of the men had really given them up for lost when they learned the fact that they had been carried off by the dacotahs, after being so treacherously led into a trap by the seemingly friendly brave who had loitered so long about the camp. the two captains were among the first to shake the hands of the pioneer boys, and assure them of their deep satisfaction at seeing them again. of course every one was anxious to know what had happened to them, and the boys were compelled to tell their story again and again as the tents were being pitched and preparations made for the night camp. it was admitted by all that they had been exceedingly lucky. at the same time, every one knew that the boys deserved great credit for their clever escape from the hands of the dacotahs. dick had planned it all very cleverly so as to make their escape possible even though there had been no midnight attack on the part of the shoshones, though, of course, they might have been followed and had further trouble. as darkness set in, the bustling scene gave the two lads much pleasure and contentment. they could not but compare this night with the one that had gone just before, when they had sat in the midst of their dusky captors, not knowing what lay in store for them in the near future. no sooner was supper set before them than roger turned a beaming face toward dick, as he voiced his feelings of delight. "you see, they didn't make way with those fish after all, dick, because they were not found until late in the evening. so they just cleaned and salted them down, and we're to have the greatest treat you ever tasted to-night. it sometimes pays to wait patiently for things to come along," and, seeing dick smiling, he winked knowingly, after which he bustled off to watch the process by means of which the fish were to be prepared for the coming meal. footnote: [ ] see "the pioneer boys of the missouri." chapter xxi at the foot of the rockies "the time is coming, and very soon at that, i guess, dick, when we must expect a great change in our going." roger made this remark some two weeks after their adventure with the rascally dacotahs, who had been misled by the false words of andrew waller. all this while the whites had been steadfastly pushing farther and farther up the narrowing missouri, until navigation had become very difficult. "yes, i know what you mean by that," remarked dick. "every day now we are having more and more trouble with the batteaux. they get aground so often that much valuable time is wasted in freeing them." "it looks as if we might be nearly at the headwaters of the missouri, the river is getting so shallow," roger observed. "that is probably partly due to the time of year," explained dick. "we are well along in august, you must remember, and the snow doesn't melt as easily up in the mountain canyons now as it did earlier in the season. besides, we have had little heavy rain, if you stop to think." "what do you expect captain lewis will do, dick?" "i heard him saying only to-day, when they were working at the boat which stuck on the shoal, that it looked as though the limit had been reached. you understand what that means, of course, roger?" "i believe i do," was the reply. "from what i've picked up here and there it appears to be the plan to leave part of the expedition in camp somewhere along the upper reaches of the missouri until next year, while the rest make a dash for the coast on the horses." "it was fixed," continued dick, "that captain clark should lead the party headed for the sea; but i have heard since that captain lewis has changed his mind. he doesn't feel like being cheated out of that glorious sight after all he has passed through." "and who can blame him?" burst out the impetuous roger. "i only hope they let us keep along with them. we have a horse apiece, you know, and could easily hold our own when it came to hunting for game." "captain lewis promised that we should set eyes on the sea if any one in the party did, and he is a man of his word, you know." "i should never get over the disappointment," declared roger, "if anything prevented us from keeping on to the end. we have made great sacrifices in order to be in the company. besides, i am fairly burning to set eyes on some of the many wonders we expect to meet with in crossing the big mountains of rock. the indians have kept telling us about strange animals to be encountered there." "those mountains," dick went on to say, "are the home of the terrible brown bear which captain lewis has called the grizzly. we know how they can fight, because we had an experience in a cave with one that we're not likely ever to forget."[ ] "yes," added roger, "and according to the indians' way of doing, we're entitled to wear those dreadful claws around our necks, after slaying the monster at close quarters. whenever you run across an indian with the claws of a grizzly bear worn as a necklace you can count on it that he's proved his right to the name of warrior. "then we've also heard of a beast living among the crags of these mountains that has immense curved horns, upon which he alights after throwing himself from some lofty height. that may be only a fairy story, but i'd like to see for myself if there's any truth in it. "as for me, dick, i've already made up my mind that i'll shoot one of those queer beasts, and get a sample of the curved horns, if ever the chance comes my way. just yesterday i was thinking of the wonderful tracks we saw when we were having that adventure with the dacotahs, and hoping that some of these fine days we might come upon the animal that made them." "i have tried my best, roger, to learn what the beast looks like, and the nearest any indian has been able to tell is that once in a while a monster of the deer tribe is seen in these regions. none of the trappers in our party have an idea what it can be, save batiste, who declares he has shot just such a great beast up in canada." "then he must mean a moose!" exclaimed roger, looking intensely interested. "come to think of it now, i don't see why a moose might not wander over here. they live only in cold countries, i am told, but in the winter it must be bitter enough up here to please any one." just as the boys had said, when talking matters over between themselves, the river had become so shallow that it was folly to try to push the heavy batteaux any further up the current. accordingly, a permanent camp was to be established on the river bank, where a part of the men would be left in as comfortable circumstances as the conditions permitted. here they were to stay until they were rejoined the following summer by the returning explorers, after they had been to the coast. those who were to be left behind were to establish relations and make friends with the neighboring indian tribes, serve them as physicians, and do what hunting was necessary. of course the scene in the camp that night was an unusual one. the men who were to accompany the two captains had been advised of their good fortune, and, while they showed signs of pleasure, at the same time they knew that the final stages of the big journey would be filled with peril, so, in one way, they really envied those who could stay behind in comfort and peace. there was an air of half-suppressed excitement throughout the camp as the men conferred together, exchanged some of their possessions, and in numerous ways made ready for the parting that was coming so soon. captain lewis did not have many preparations to make, for all along he and his able ally had seen that everything was kept at the highest notch of efficiency. "i really do believe," said roger, as he and his chum sat watching the many sights of the camp that evening, "that captain lewis has planned for every little thing that could happen; and whoever is left in charge here will know what he is to do from day to day, just as if he got his orders fresh from headquarters." "that is partly the result of having a man like captain clark along," explained dick. "he believes in method, and carries his ideas out as a military man should. captain lewis could not have found a better companion for his venture than he did." "it is settled that we are to go along with them, of course?" fretted roger, who knew perfectly well that this matter had been arranged, but wanted to hear his comrade say so. "we have the word of the commander for it, and that ought to be enough, roger." one whole day they spent in the camp by the river so that nothing should be neglected. then, on the following morning, bright and early the good-bys were said, and the little party, mounted on the horses, set out to plunge still deeper into the unknown wilderness toward the glittering prize that tempted them--the sun-kissed sea that lay far away over mountains and across burning deserts. it was only natural that every one should be more or less affected over the parting. none of them could tell what the future held. surrounded by a trackless wilderness, many hundreds of miles from a single white man's village, and with treacherous savages to deal with, the chances of their ever coming together again seemed very remote. during that day both the boys were inclined to be unusually quiet and thoughtful. indeed, for that matter, every one of the riders seemed to have lost his ordinary spirits, although, of course, this feeling of depression would soon wear away, and by degrees the men would learn to face the situation bravely. it was evident to every one that the party was now approaching the foothills of those great mountains of which so much had been heard. captain lewis knew that, in order to cross them with as little hard work as possible, they must head for a pass of which they had been told by some of the indians. unless they could find this, their efforts would be in vain, and they must turn back, defeated in their daring plans. three days after leaving their comrades the advancing party came to a good camping ground early in the afternoon, and, as the horses were really in need of a rest, it was concluded to stop here for the night. this was an opportunity the two boys had been waiting for, and they had little difficulty in getting permission from the commander to indulge themselves in a short hunt. the camp was in need of fresh meat, though not desperately so; and if only a deer could be taken it would afford them a few good meals. captain lewis, knowing roger's headstrong ways, took particular pains to caution them before they set out. "see that you take no unnecessary chances, my boys," was what he had said. "we would be very sorry, indeed, to have to bear your parents bad news when next we see st. louis. but i feel that, so long as dick is along, you will be careful. and, if you can bring the carcass of a young deer back with you, so much the better." it was a fine afternoon in late summer. there did not seem to be any sign of stormy weather in prospect, from which fact the boys felt sure they would not be compelled to look for a hollow tree as before. first of all they were wise enough to take their bearings, for they certainly did not want to lose themselves in the vast wilderness, since they could no longer depend on finding their friends by simply hunting for the river. then the next thing was to hunt up into the wind. this was, of course, done so that if they were approaching some keen-nosed game the animal might not scent their presence, and depart before they could get a chance to fire a single shot. it was a wild section of country. they could see, beyond, the mighty barrier of mountains that stood between them and their goal. the woods were composed of scrub trees, with openings here and there; though in most sections, east of the chain of mountains, prairie land existed. from where they looked up to the dizzy heights, the sides of the mountains seemed bleak and rocky. they had been told, however, that on the western slope vegetation grew plentifully, as the winds from the ocean brought much rain, though little of this crossed the divide. the boys pursued their hunt for nearly an hour without coming upon any game, although they saw plenty of signs of it, and were always counting on making a discovery. versed in forest lore, they knew how to creep along without making any sound likely to give warning of their approach. all conversation had been tabooed long since, for even roger knew that an incautious word might spoil their plans, and give the unseen deer notice of their presence in the vicinity. it was while they were thus moving along that dick suddenly thrust out a hand and drew his companion to a standstill. roger turned his head quickly, as though he did not comprehend what this meant, only to see dick's finger pressed on his lips to indicate silence. at the same moment roger himself caught the low thud of hoofs. some animal was certainly approaching them, and the singular "clicking" that accompanied each thud told them the beast must have cloven hoofs like those of a deer. a few seconds passed during which the strange sounds grew louder, and then, as the bushes parted, the two boys gazed upon a sight such as had never before greeted their astonished eyes. footnote: [ ] see "the pioneer boys of the yellowstone." chapter xxii the death of the bull moose seen for the first time in all their experience as hunters of big game, the animal that stood there facing the two boys was remarkable enough to arouse their interest to fever pitch. tawny of hue, and possessing an enormous muzzle, together with towering horns, the giant moose filled roger with a sense of exaltation. the hunter instinct within the boy set his heart to beating like a trip-hammer, and his fingers involuntarily gripped his gun, his first instinct being to make use of the weapon. the moose evidently did not suspect their presence nearby. so far as appearances went, the big, awkward animal was showing no signs of alarm. roger hastily threw his rifle up to his shoulder, and, without bothering to take exact aim, pulled the trigger. he never really knew why he did not drop the beast as he expected to do. it might be because this weapon did not compare with his own, which had been carried off by the treacherous andrew waller at the time the two boys were prisoners of the dacotahs. dick, however, believed that the moose bull must have made an involuntary movement just about that time. roger's hasty action, or the glint of the sun on the gun barrel, would be enough to bring such a thing about. the one important fact was that, instead of killing his intended quarry on the spot, roger had the chagrin of seeing the animal stumble and fall, to scramble immediately to his feet again, and make a vicious plunge forward in their direction. dick of course knew that it was his duty to get in the fatal shot. he thrust his rifle forward, and had it not been for an unfortunate movement on the part of his companion his bullet would have finished the monster. in jumping back, however, roger happened to knock against the leveled rifle just as his chum pressed the trigger. the result was a wasted bullet, and, with both their weapons empty and useless, a serious outlook faced the two young hunters. "jump to one side!" shouted dick, realizing that the enraged moose was charging them, with lowered head, and threatening horns. both boys threw themselves back, and in this manner successfully avoided the passing danger. they knew that a wounded stag is often a peril from which even veteran hunters shrink; and it stood to reason that this enormous animal, feeling the pain of his injury, would not run away in a hurry after having made one unsuccessful charge. both boys glanced hastily around, seeking a tree behind which to ward off an attack. dick was fortunate enough to find one close at hand, but roger met with his usual ill luck to start with. the moose, as though sensing which one of his enemies had given him that burning injury, took after roger, and the boy, hearing the trampling of his hoofs as he came rushing on, became a little confused. "run, roger, run faster!" shrilled dick, who began to fear for the safety of his cousin. there were surely grounds for his alarm, for, just at that moment, roger caught his foot in some trailing vine and plunged forward. with wonderful adroitness, however, the border boy managed to regain his feet, and face the oncoming moose bull. it was too late for him to continue his flight, and there did not seem to be even time enough for the boy to scramble out of harm's way. dick's heart burned within him with fear. he would have given everything he possessed in the wide world if just then his gun were only loaded and primed, ready for use. roger, however, saw that there was immediate need for action, and he took a strange way of meeting the occasion. dick, staring at the scene, saw his chum suddenly leap toward the oncoming moose bull. he actually flung himself upon that great, lowered head, falling between the towering horns, and hastened to clasp his arms about the animal's thick neck. this act plainly greatly astonished the beast, and he stood stock still for a brief interval. dick's one fear was that the moose should set off at a lumbering pace through the woods, and bring up against some tree with such force as to break the sprawling legs of the clinging boy. he himself was trying in a confused fashion to get a charge of powder down the barrel of his gun, instinct telling him that, once he managed to reload the weapon, the game would be in his hands. now the moose was trying to dislodge roger by tossing up his head. each time he made the effort dick held his breath in suspense, for the boy's hold was precarious, and might give way at any moment. it was apparently the intention of the bull to shake him loose in this way, and, after the boy dropped back to the ground, to trample him underfoot before he could recover sufficiently to get out of the way. sometimes strange things happen in cases like this. the moose must have put an additional amount of energy into one of his tosses, for dick suddenly saw roger's form rising several yards in the air, and crash amidst the leaves of the tree under which this performance was taking place. the moose waited for the fall of his enemy in order to use those cruel hoofs of his in the final attack. but, remarkable to say, roger did not come down, and dick suddenly realized that his nimble chum had taken advantage of his lofty flight to lay hold of the branches of the tree, and to cling there as best he could. dick felt like giving vent to a shout when he realized that, so far as roger was concerned, the danger could be considered over. he was now reaching for a patched bullet, and hoped with his ramrod to push it quickly home on the powder, when he would be ready, all but the priming, to make good use of his rifle. roger saw what was going on so close by, and commenced kicking with his feet, and letting out a few derisive shouts, aimed at the waiting moose below. he intended to hold the attention of the bulky animal so dick could have all the time he needed to get the gun loaded. the plan worked splendidly, for the stupid animal below kept steady vigil under the limb where all that thrashing was going on. he snorted with rage, and pawed the earth with one of his hoofs, as if giving an earnest example of what he meant to do when the strange enemy dropped to the ground. there was nothing to hinder dick from completing his loading, and, as he shook the priming powder into the pan and prepared to fire, he felt sorry only for one thing. this was the fact that roger could not be the one to bring about the death of the kingly moose, since his heart seemed to have been so set on accomplishing such a valorous deed. it was more because he must save the life of his chum than through a desire for the death of the monster moose that caused dick finally to pull trigger, after he had found a chance to aim back of the animal's foreleg. the shot was instantly fatal, for those long-barreled rifles of pioneer days were capable of sending a bullet with tremendous force. the big beast fell with a crash, and immediately afterwards a loud hurrah from roger announced that he gloried in the successful outcome of their adventure. it was easy enough for the nimble boy to drop from his perch. he limped a little, and had a few minor bruises to show for his close contact with those horns of the bull moose. on the whole, however, roger considered that he had been very lucky. dick told him that he felt the same, as they stood beside the fallen monarch of the forest, and noted his powerful frame and muscles. it was impossible to think of taking those towering horns back with them, since they would have no way of carrying the trophy save on one of their horses; and that was utterly out of the question. "i feel a little sorry we had to kill the poor beast," admitted dick, "much as any hunter might be proud of bringing down such big game. but his flesh is far too tough for food, and we can never dream of taking those horns with us." "well, he looked as if he wanted to fight as soon as he saw us there," said roger. "that was one reason i shot as quickly as i did. but, while i had most of the fun, the glory remained for you, dick." "if you call that sort of thing fun, roger, i don't admire your taste, that's all i can say! when i saw him rushing at you with his head lowered i felt a cold chill run up and down my back, for i thought you were gone." "i don't know just what made me fasten to his horns the way i did," explained roger, with a broad grin; "but something seemed to tell me that was my only chance, and i guess it was, too." "how did you feel when going through the air?" questioned the other, able to smile now at the odd spectacle roger had presented, although at the time it had seemed a serious thing indeed. "about as near like flying as i ever expect to know," admitted roger. "and, just as soon as i found myself in the midst of the branches of that tree, why something made me take hold and stick there. i seemed to know the old fellow was waiting down below to trample me into bits if i dropped back, and i wasn't meaning to oblige him if i could help it." "we might manage to chop off one of his hoofs with our knives to show when we get back to camp, and prove that we really killed a moose," suggested dick. "that is a good idea," agreed his cousin; and it did not take them long to carry the plan out. after this they left the spot, and resumed their hunt, roger having recovered and loaded his rifle. they were a little afraid lest the sound of the gunshots might have caused any deer happening to be in the vicinity to take the alarm and flee. this would be too bad, after setting their hearts on procuring a supply of fresh meat. it turned out, however, that the deer did not know the deadly significance of the firing of a gun, for within twenty minutes after leaving the dead bull moose, the boys started a deer, and roger this time managed to do himself justice when he pulled trigger, for the young stag bounded high in the air to fall in a quivering heap. there was ample time to cut the game up and make their way back to camp with their prize. nor did they have the slightest difficulty in gaining the spot where the expedition had planned to spend the coming night, thanks to dick's way of keeping his bearings when on a hunt. these little side excursions were always in great favor with the two boys. in carrying them out they were really killing two birds with one stone; for they not only saw considerable of the country, and met with adventures that pleased their love of action, but at the same time they were able to keep the camp well supplied with fresh meat. when they got back on this particular afternoon they found that there was an indian in the camp with whom captain lewis was making terms looking to his serving them as guide until the lofty mountain range had been crossed. it was of prime importance that they find that pass, and cross over at the lowest possible level. once the lower ground on the other side was reached, they could congratulate themselves that the worst was over. at the ending of the next day they found themselves at the actual foot of the mountains, of which they hoped to commence the ascent with the advent of another morning. chapter xxiii hunting the mountain sheep "how terribly big they seem, towering so high above us," roger remarked to his cousin, as they stood just outside the camp that evening, looking upward at the lofty heights that shut out the sinking sun. "we have never seen anything like them before," admitted dick, "and i don't believe there are mountains back in old virginia, that our fathers talk about so much, that can hold a candle to these rocky heights." "i know for one i'll be glad when we've crossed the backbone of the ridge, and can see the sun in the late afternoon again," roger went on to say. "and after that we have the deserts to cross, if those indian tales turn out to be true." "i feel more anxious about that stage of our journey than i do over the dangers we may encounter in crossing the mountains," admitted dick. "they say men and horses die of thirst on those burning sands. i heard captain lewis explaining how we would make skin bags in order to carry an extra supply of water with us when we strike the sandy wastes." so the talk, as was quite natural, was mostly of the possible terrors of the journey ahead of them. their imagination was given full swing to picture many of the strange things mentioned by the roving indians, though in some cases these stories turned out to be untrue. when men had gazed upon such remarkable wonders as the spouting hot water geysers of the yellowstone, they could be easily pardoned for believing almost anything they heard. this vast country had never been explored, and it seemed to be a veritable storehouse of strange things. (note .) the eventful morning came, and seemed to be favorable for beginning the ascent of the trail leading over the mountains by way of the pass. indian tribes had doubtless made it in crossing from one part of the country to another. wild animals, such as the vast herds of buffaloes, also had occasion to cross the divide according to the stages of the weather, and their hoofs had helped to make the overland trail. it was a crisp morning in early september. in that high altitude the air seemed wonderfully refreshing, and every one felt capable of the task that now engaged their attention. the indian guide assured them that they need have no apprehensions regarding the passage of the mountains, for he would lead them across as his people had come on many an occasion. by the time noon came they had mounted far enough to have a splendid view of the plateau over which their journey for the last few days had been made. it was well worth seeing, and many times did the travelers glance backward over that extended vista, with longing thoughts concerning the loved ones who, far away toward the east, awaited word of their homecoming. roger had not forgotten what he had heard about those strange sheep of the mountains, with their great curved horns. he was very eager to discover whether the tales the indians told could be true or not, and many a look did he bend on the crags above them in hope of discovering a herd of the bighorns. it was about the middle of the afternoon, and in company with dick he was riding at some little distance ahead of the main company, when roger actually discovered the object he sought. [illustration: "'there! you can see him move'"] "oh, look, dick! tell me! is that one of those sheep of the mountains up there on that little patch of grass? there! you can see him move. he sees us, but believes himself so secure that he doesn't bother to run away." "it must be what you say, roger, for i can see the horns they told us about, which curve backward from his head. there, another has come around that spur of rock. i think there must be a small flock of them up there." "but just look at the horns on that buck, dick; how i would like to be able to get that pair to carry back with me." "i'm afraid you'd find it a hard job to get within shooting distance of them," dick observed, "for you can see that they seem to be on a little shelf where that grass grows, and from here i can discover no way of reaching it, except to jump a chasm." "still, there must be some connection above us, dick, and i've got a good notion to try it, if only you'll take charge of my horse." "well, i can plainly see you will never be happy until you have made your attempt," dick told him, "and so i suppose i'll have to do as you ask. but promise me to be careful where you trust yourself, roger. remember, that you are no mountain goat, and that a fall from such a height would mean your finish." "oh! i promise you to be as cautious as though my name were dick instead of roger. all i want to find out is whether i can get to a place where my gun will send a bullet fair and square. the moose fell to you, dick, and i think i ought to have my chance at these wonderful jumpers of the mountains." "while you're gone, roger, i can stop here and watch what happens. if you do shoot, and frighten the herd, it may be i can see them do some of those wonderful things we've heard about, and not half believed. but watch your steps, roger." eager to discover if there was any way for him to get a shot at the feeding sheep, roger hastened away. the last dick saw of him, he was climbing the side of the mountain, stooping over as he went so that he might not be seen by the game he intended to stalk. for some reason the party had halted below, and did not come along when dick expected them. this might be fortunate for roger, since it would keep the sheep from being startled by the appearance of numerous mounted men. watching the feeding animals, dick could now count five in all. the one with the largest horns he imagined to be the patriarch of the flock; and he could easily guess that, if roger found a chance to shoot, his eyes would fasten upon this prize beast, for the amazing curved horns had evidently fascinated the young hunter. as time crept past dick wondered how his cousin was progressing. surely, by now, he must have been able to get within easy range of the unsuspicious sheep, and could pick out his quarry, if he really meant to shoot. a good deal would depend on whether roger believed he could retrieve his game in case he shot it. if the poor beast had to lie on the little, grass-covered, slanting plateau dick did not believe his chum would waste a load, merely for the sake of killing. once or twice he could see the owner of those massive horns raise his head and sniff the air suspiciously. he even ran a few steps, as though tempted to give the note of alarm that would send them all plunging downward from the exposed point of pasturage; but, on second thought, resisted the temptation. it may have been sheer pride in his ability to shield his flock from all harm that caused the buck to refrain from flight. undoubtedly he felt secure upon that plateau, and, even should any peril suddenly threaten, no animal dared follow where he and his family could plunge headlong. it cost him dearly to indulge in any such proud boast. the two-legged creature that was crawling up the face of the rocks possessed a reach far in excess of any mountain lion or panther that ever tried to make a meal of a tender ewe--that stick he carried could bridge a chasm when it spat out flame and smoke, and carry death in its wake. dick was getting impatient for something to happen. if roger had learned that it was useless for him to try to get a shot, he should be coming back by now, and not taking any chances. just then there came the report of a rifle. the echoes were flung back and forth among the spurs of the mountains in a weird manner, but dick paid no attention to this fact, being too busy watching what took place up on that elevated plateau. he saw the patriarch of the flock give a leap into the air, and then fall over, roll several times, and finally vanish from sight, possibly falling into some crevice that was not visible to dick's eyes. but an even more remarkable thing was happening than the death of the guardian of the flock. the remainder of the sheep showed symptoms of alarm. a veritable panic seemed to have struck them, as, rushing pell mell down the slope, they, one after another, sprang boldly out into space. holding his very breath with awe, dick saw them strike upon their horns on the rocks below, and, apparently uninjured, continue their headlong flight. then, after all, the amazing stories they had heard from the indians were true. dick felt well repaid for having stood so long, holding the horses and watching. he believed he had heard roger's shrill cry of triumph, though he saw nothing of his chum, look as he might. when a little time had passed dick began to grow somewhat anxious. he wondered if any harm could have come to roger, or was the other trying to get to the fallen sheep that had slipped into a crevice among the rocks? finally dick could stand it no longer. he decided to secure the two horses somewhere and follow the route roger had taken. once up above, he ought to be able to get some news of the missing one. he was soon climbing up the face of the rocky mountain. it was no easy task, and that roger had accomplished it without alarming the quarry was greatly to his credit. still, there was no sign of him whom dick wanted to see. dick, with the eye of a born hunter, found it easy to figure out just how roger had proceeded. he did this by putting himself in the place of the other, and arranging his own plan of campaign. now and then he came across signs that told him he was on the right track. once it was a bruised weed, which roger must have crushed under his foot; then again it would turn out to be a piece of loose stone that he could see had only recently been cast adrift from its former anchorage. little things like this, that might pass unnoticed by any one not a woodsman, were to this pioneer boy as the printed words on a page to one who attends school. they told him the story just as positively as though with his own eyes he saw roger creeping along over that very spot, taking advantage of this protruding knob to place his foot upon it, and using that stubby bush to draw himself up to some new hold above. by degrees dick pushed on. he knew he must be getting very close to where the other had been when he fired the fatal shot, and still he saw no signs of roger. when he finally arrived at a place where further progress was impossible, without disclosing himself to the eyes of the sheep, provided they still grazed there on the grassy slope beyond, dick knew he had reached the spot where his chum must have lain as he took careful aim and pressed the trigger. then afterwards he must have pressed on, seeking to reach the bighorn, fallen into the crevice. dick crept on. he was beginning to feel a strange sense of impending evil. he feared that something terrible had happened to roger, and the possibility of losing the chum whom he loved so well was enough to frighten him. a minute later he came upon the gun. it had been carefully laid aside, he could see, which, at least, was evidence that up to then roger had not found himself in any difficulty. looking beyond, dick shuddered, for he had glimpsed what appeared to be a terrible gulf, at the end of the slope down which roger must have made his way. if he had in some manner lost his footing, and taken that plunge, there was almost a certainty that it was all over with him. when dick discovered from the signs that some one had been scrambling wildly over that smooth rock his heart misgave him; and it was with a great fear that he carefully pressed on until he reached the brink of the chasm. chapter xxiv on the burning desert no sooner had dick gained this point than he gave a whoop. it was a sound that roger would recognize if he were living, and capable of giving back any sort of reply. dick's heart seemed to cease beating for the moment, such was the agony of suspense that gripped his whole being. then, when he caught a return whoop, he knew his chum was at least alive. "where are you, roger?" he called, unable to see anything of the boy, although a little way down the sheer slope he caught sight of the dead sheep, just where it had fallen, after slipping over the edge of the opposite grassy plateau. "down below here, making my way to the game," came the reassuring answer. "are you badly hurt?" demanded dick. "nothing that counts for much; and i'm bound to get my sheep, now i'm in the hole. you can't really blame me, dick." "never mind about that now," the one above told him; "but do you know how you are ever going to get up out of that place again?" "there's only one way that i can see, dick--you must go back, and, when the men come along, borrow that rope jasper williams always carries with him. perhaps he will come back with you, and help drag me up--after i've saved the horns." knowing how determined roger could be, once he had set his mind on a thing, dick did not attempt to argue with him, though he believed the other was taking advantage of his position. "now i can see you, roger, and, by the way you are advancing along the bottom of the crevice, i reckon you must be all right. yes, i will go back and get the rope. perhaps some of the men may want to try mutton for their supper to-night, and, if so, they can haul the carcass of your sheep up out of the hole." "i'll try to be ready for you when you come back," called roger, waving his hunting-knife toward his chum; for by that time he had reached the spot where his quarry lay, and was evidently in a big hurry to set to work upon the pair of wonderful, massive horns. dick went back over the rocky trail until he reached the pass, where he found the two horses just as he had left them. voices close at hand gave the welcome news that the other members of the exploring party were approaching; and, even as he looked, the foremost came in sight around a bend in the pass. the men were greatly interested when they learned that roger had actually shot a specimen of the mountain sheep of which they had heard the indians talk. there was no lack of willing recruits when dick once more climbed the bank, and started toward the place where he had left his chum. jasper williams was one of the three men who insisted on accompanying dick, and of course he carried with him the long, tough rope which had more than once on the journey proved to be worth its weight in silver, as for instance, when it came to hauling the batteaux up some rapids in the river. when they reached the abrupt slope, down which roger had managed to slip, one of the men came very near doing the same thing. only for the timely assistance given by jasper williams, they might have had two comrades to haul up from the depths; and the man, being heavier, might not have escaped so luckily as the boy. roger had worked fast, and succeeded in cutting loose the curving horns that had given the old ram such a majestic appearance. he insisted on sending these up the first time the rope came down. then, at the suggestion of williams, he next attached the carcass of the sheep, which was also safely hauled up. last of all roger himself came up. he had some minor bruises as the result of his fall, but he bravely stood the pain, and was proud of his recent feat. great was the wonder and admiration of captain lewis and captain clark when they set eyes on their first rocky mountain sheep. it was extremely doubtful if any white man had, up to that time, ever beheld a specimen of the _genus_. they could hardly blame roger for wanting to carry the weighty horns along with him, though doubting the wisdom of such a course. dick, after considerable argument, finally convinced his cousin that it would be very foolish to burden his horse after that fashion, when, in crossing those desert lands, they had heard so much about, he would be compelled to carry a supply of water. "the captain assures me the chances are three to one we will come back by this same pass over the mountains, and why not cache the horns somewhere? nothing is apt to hurt them, and, once on the way toward the river, it will be easy to carry them with you. then, when we again get aboard the boats, your troubles will be over." roger was not altogether unreasonable. this sort of logic convinced him that most of the others in the party would consider him foolish if he persisted. in the end the horns were placed securely in a niche in the rocks where they were not likely to be disturbed by any prowling wild beast. the spot was marked so it could be easily found again; and after this had been done roger felt relieved. when they came to cook some of the sheep and test its worth as food no one was wildly enthusiastic over it. in fact they pronounced it tough; though admitting that a young specimen might prove altogether different. roger was even instructed to remember this in case he ever had another opportunity to procure fresh mutton; and, having already secured the desired horns, he readily promised to keep the advice in mind. it happened, however, that another chance at the mountain sheep never came his way. in two more days the expedition had crossed the great divide, and found that, when the sun went down, they could see far away toward a level horizon. remembering all the dismal tales related by the superstitious indians of sandy wastes where only a sparse vegetation grew, the men began to feel a new anxiety. just how far away the goal they were seeking still lay not even the astute leader, captain lewis, could more than guess. it might be a hundred miles, and perhaps many times that; for they had by this time reached a point where they had nothing to depend on, save the vague stories told by wandering indians whom they happened to meet. some of these, however, mentioned a great body of salty water, the end of which no human eye could reach, as lying far beyond the hot deserts. there were also rivers spoken of, where the great fish swarmed in countless millions, like the stars in the milky way overhead, or the sands on the shore of the "big water." roger hugged these stories to his heart. he fancied that, once they struck that river of the mighty game fish, he would be in his glory; for, if there was one thing above all others roger loved to do, it was to fish. the time finally came when they found themselves on the verge of the desert of which they had heard so much. there could be no such thing done as pass around the sandy waste, and their only course was to head straight into the setting sun. at the time they had with them an indian whom captain lewis had succored on the way. the fellow had fallen and injured his leg so that he walked with the greatest difficulty, limping badly. he had lost his bow, and being unable to provide himself with food, and far from his home, he stood a good chance of starving to death. they had fed him and looked after his injuries. the indian professed to be very grateful for such help, and for several days had clung to the expedition, though able by then to walk fairly well. he had assured them, through signs mostly, that he could serve them as guide across the hot waste of sand, as he had himself crossed it on many occasions. captain lewis considered this a fair return for what he had done. dick, however, did not altogether like the indian's looks. he thought he had a crafty way of watching everything, and that his admiration for some of the horses might lead him to attempting a theft, unless he were diligently watched. still, since the captain seemed to trust him, dick did not think it was his duty to say anything. it might look as though he were inclined to be bold. at the same time, he made up his mind that, whenever it was possible, he would keep an eye on the red man. that night they filled with water the skin bags they had by degrees provided for the purpose. a spring that gurgled close by the camp gave them an unlimited supply of the necessary fluid; and they were warned by the guide that it would be the last waterhole they would expect to come across for many days. in the morning the start was made, not without misgivings. no one could say what terrible things lay before them, and the men cast wistful glances back toward that cooling spring, as though they disliked to say good-by to it. that day was one which served to give them a new experience, for, up to then, few of the explorers had ever known what it was to travel over a sandy waste where the sun beat down with blistering effect, and the air seemed fairly to quiver with the heat. no living thing had they seen all day long, save perhaps a skulking small animal, which the men at first thought to be a dog, though it must have been a coyote; a few sage hens; and some gophers, that burrowed in holes in the ground, from the entrances of which they timidly watched the horses file slowly past. in every direction lay cacti of various species and heights, while thorny plants belonging to the same family, and bearing a small pear-like fruit which the indian told them was edible, lay upon the ground. they were glad when night came with its refreshing air. the camp was made in the open desert, for there was not a tree of any size in sight. and it seemed to the boys that, when the sun went down that evening, it was several times as large as usual, as well as fiery red. it beckoned them on just as before, since they knew well that _somewhere_, beyond the desert, the sun must be setting behind the vast ocean which they all aspired to see. another like day followed, and all of them began to suffer more or less on account of the heat, and the sand glare, which affected their eyes. on account of this, it was suggested that hereafter they rest during the hottest part of each day, and continue their journey as far into the night as the horses could stand it. they seemed to be thirsty most of the time, and the horses, too, needed many a refreshing drink in order to continue their labors. more than one uneasy glance was cast toward the supply of the precious fluid. if the skin sacks should spring a leak the wanderers must face a desperate condition, indeed. so they settled down for the second night upon the open desert. each day would be very much like another, unless they were unfortunate enough to experience one of those dreaded sand storms they had heard about, the terrors of which they could now easily imagine. the guide, however, had spoken cheering words in his own tongue, and, by holding up two fingers of his hand, gave them to understand they were by this time half-way across the desert. if they could stand this for two more days there was hope that the worst would be over. all of them were very tired after that long day's traveling, and, since no danger could come upon them out on the arid waste, sentries were dispensed with. dick sat up longer than the rest, thinking he ought to keep an eye on the dusky guide; but the indian appeared to be soundly sleeping, and weariness finally compelled the boy to succumb. the morning came and brought with it a very disagreeable surprise. at some time during the night the sorely tempted indian guide, forgetting his obligations to captain lewis, had taken an extra horse they had along and started on the back trail; not only that, but he had also carried off considerable of their supply of water, leaving the adventurers face to face with a terrible calamity. chapter xxv the oasis "i'm sorry now i allowed myself to go to sleep at all," said dick, as he heard what had happened. this was the first roger knew of his suspicions, for dick had felt that it was hardly worth while taking his chum into his confidence. "do you mean you didn't like the way that indian acted, and that you meant to stay awake to keep an eye on him?" demanded roger. "i did at first, but i was very tired, and he seemed to be sound asleep; so i gave it up. perhaps, if i had kept awake for just another half hour, i might have caught him in the act." all of them were feeling depressed over the incident. it was not so much the horse they regretted, though the animal might prove valuable to them later on; but having their supply of drinking water cut short told heavily. they started on with heavy hearts, and the future looked dismal, indeed. still, it was not the nature of such a man as captain lewis to despair when, after all, there might be no occasion for trouble. his good nature presently infected the remainder of the party, and hope again found lodgment in their hearts. by being careful, the water could easily be made to cover two days, and by that time it was believed they would have found a fresh supply. it had been only recently that the two boys had learned certain facts that gave them considerable cause for worry. one of the trappers, who had been out hunting just before the caravan reached the foot of the mountains, had discovered two men who wore the garb of whites. they were armed with guns and had horses in the bargain. he had not been able to creep close enough to hear anything they said, but, from the description which he gave of the strangers, both dick and roger felt sure they knew who they must be. the one with the black hair and beard was the vindictive french trader, françois lascelles; while his companion could be no other than the treacherous andrew waller, who had been kicked out of the camp when his duplicity became known. the two rascals had evidently joined forces, and continued to follow after the explorers, bent on having a sweet revenge for the indignities that had been visited upon their heads, though rightly, by captain lewis. alexis, the grown son of lascelles, must have returned to civilization, since he had not been seen with his father. the knowledge that these evil men were bent on following them across mountain and plain, and determined on punishing the boys because their plans had been ruined, was something calculated to take away much of the pleasure dick and roger would otherwise have enjoyed. from time to time their thoughts naturally went out toward lascelles and his unscrupulous ally. they often wondered whether the two men had actually crossed the mountain range, and if they would even attempt the passage of this burning desert. roger in particular was indignant over the prospect of such a thing. "it would serve them right," he declared, as he talked matters over with dick, "if they lost their way out here on the desert, and paid the penalty with their miserable lives. i wish that would happen to them, even if it does sound wicked; but of what use are they in the world, except to bring trouble to others who never tried to harm them in the beginning?" "and the chances are," pursued dick, frowning, "that, after we do get across this sandy stretch, if they follow us, it will be to spread some of the same lies about our being the sons of the great white father at washington. they plan to have the indians seize us, and hold us for the ransom that would never come. it might mean we would be kept all our lives among the indians, and never see our families any more." "all i can say, dick, is that i'll be a happy boy when we get across this terrible desert. when we happen on the white bones of animals that have perished here, sticking out of the sand, they make me think of finger posts pointing to our finish. to tell you the honest truth, i don't think i have ever shivered before when burning up with fever; but it's the prospect that does it." "oh! there's no use feeling that way," dick assured him, seeing that really the other was very much depressed in his spirits; "we are going to pull out of this scrape, just as we always do. before a great while things will look cheery again, take my word for it." "if only there was any chance to find game i wouldn't feel so bad," complained roger, touching his gun, which was fastened behind his saddle. "well, there is a little patch of scrub trees beyond us right now," his comrade told him. "suppose we ride ahead and see if we are lucky enough to find a stray antelope there. sometimes there is moisture in one of those oasis, and some grass manages to grow. it can do no harm, and will serve to take our minds off a disagreeable subject." roger began to show a little animation at that. anything touching on hunting was apt to engage his attention, and raise his spirits. "i'm with you, dick, every time!" he hastened to exclaim; "and, if we could only strike a deer, even one of those little antelopes you spoke of, it would be worth while. our fresh meat has given out, but we could find plenty of wood to make a fire if we needed it. that sun, though, is hot enough to cook meat by itself, i think." after mentioning their plan to captain clark, who was nearby, the two lads urged their horses to increase their slow pace. this the jaded animals were not much inclined to do, but the will of their masters prevailed, and they left the plodding caravan behind. dick suggested that they divide their forces, in order to approach the patch of scrubby-looking dwarf trees from two sides. this was the policy of an experienced hunter. in case there happened to be anything worth shooting among the trees, the hunters stood a double chance of getting a shot, no matter which way the deer ran. dick did not entertain much hope of meeting with success. from the look of the miserable timber he felt it was hardly probable that grass was growing in its midst, or that a deer should have been attracted by the promise of food. still, it would not do to neglect any precaution; and, as he rode forward, he held his gun ready in his hand, meaning to jump to the ground before firing, so as to be more certain in his aim. when he had reason to believe that roger must have come up on the opposite side of the patch of trees, dick felt that it was time to turn his horse's head, and ride directly toward his goal. just then he caught some sort of movement amidst the trees, though he could not tell the nature of it. some living creature must have sought refuge there, though it might after all prove to be only a lone buzzard, pecking at a bone, or perhaps one of those larger birds which captain lewis had told them were vultures. he kept watching the spot as his horse advanced. the animal snorted once or twice, which dick considered a sign worth noticing, for it might mean that some ferocious beast lay concealed on the border of the oasis. a moment afterwards dick gave vent to a grunt of disgust. after all, it turned out to be a sneaking wolf of that small species which they had found to be as cowardly as it was ugly. yes, now he had a good glimpse of the animal, running along the edge of the timber, and evidently expecting to make off in the other direction. dick hoped roger would not be tempted to waste a shot on the cowardly beast, for its death could not be of the least advantage to them. it's presence there settled the last lingering hope he had felt concerning the finding of game. no antelope was apt to stay long when one of those hungry coyotes came around, dick imagined. he rode slowly on. the patch of trees was really larger than he had imagined, and, while about it, dick felt he should make doubly sure. perhaps they might run on a small spring there in the oasis, though the appearance of things did not inspire him with much confidence. "it would be even better than finding game, if we did come across a water hole," he was telling himself as he pushed on. he heard roger give a loud yell on the other side of the oasis. evidently he had just discovered the skulking animal and was shouting to start him in full flight across the sandy waste. but he did not shoot, for which dick was glad. now, having arrived at the border of the scrubby trees, dick jumped down and fastened his horse to a convenient branch. it was his intention to enter the patch of timber on foot, as roger was doubtless doing from the other side. they could scour the whole of it in a brief time, and find out whether so much as a cup of water was to be obtained. he could hear roger advancing opposite to him, and knew they would soon meet. even then he caught sight of the other moving along, though evidently hopeless of finding anything in the shape of game. dick had just opened his mouth to say something when he was thrilled to hear a dreadful, rattling sound that he knew only too well. at the same time roger sprang hastily back, and uttered a loud cry of alarm. chapter xxvi among the nez perces "look out, dick, there are rattlesnakes all around here. i can see three of them right in front of you! get back, dick, get back, i tell you!" dick hastened to comply, for by that time he also had detected the presence of the venomous reptiles. they seemed to be of a small species, such as can be found on the plains of the entire west, but their stroke carries just as sure death as though the snakes were twice the size. the boys had often come across them of late, mostly near the colonies of gophers, for the two seemed to be able to dwell together in harmony, though possibly the snakes made an occasional meal from some of the puppies. roger had already laid aside his gun, and picking up a long stick, he commenced to belabor some of the coiled snakes. "think you own the earth do you?" roger was saying, as he plied his stick with vigor, and knocked first one snake and then another into a wriggling mass. "well, i want to show you that others besides you have a right to breathe, and walk where they please. that makes the fifth one i've smashed, dick. did you ever see such a nest of the 'varmints,' as jasper williams would call them?" roger evidently meant to keep on just as long as there was a single one of the ugly, scaly creatures in sight. he certainly had more than his share of antipathy toward all reptiles, for he never let an opportunity to kill one escape him. when he could no longer find anything to hit, roger consented to drop the stick, secure his rifle, and prepare to leave the scrubby timber. they could find nothing in the way of water, though there must have been something of the sort underground to have allowed those ugly dwarf trees to grow in the first place. "there goes the silly, little wolf scurrying off," said roger as they mounted once more, dick having brought his horse through the patch of woods. "he must think we set great store by his dingy hide, and would take after him. but i'm disappointed because we failed to get an antelope." "better luck next time, roger," his comrade told him; for nothing seemed to crush the spirits of this sanguine lad. the third day passed, and, as the blazing sun sank again beyond the glittering horizon, none of them, even by shading his eyes with his hands, could see any sign to proclaim that they were drawing near the end of the desert. it was not a very cheerful party that sat around on blankets that night and exchanged ideas concerning their prospects of pulling through these difficulties. the horses were showing signs of the hard usage to which they had been put. lack of forage made them hungry all the time, since the small amount of hay that could be carried was almost gone. with the morning they were again on the way, the sun at their backs. noon found them resting, though the journey was resumed later on. when once more the sun went down its glow showed them trees in the near distance, the presence of which they had not been able to detect before, on account of the shimmer of the sun's torrid rays on the shining sand. it was the consensus of opinion among the men that they were now close to the western extremity of the desert, and they decided to keep on moving far into that night if necessary, in order to reach the timber that promised them water, and shelter from the terrible sun. before midnight they arrived at the trees and had hardly made their way among them when some of the weary men sank to the ground, unable to continue further. camp was made on the spot, and the remainder of the night was spent in refreshing slumber. while the desert had been left behind, they now had a new source of trouble. water they could obtain as often as they needed it, but their food supplies had fallen very low, nor were the hunters able to find game, though they searched early and late for signs of deer or bear; anything, in fact, that could be eaten. "if this sort of thing keeps on," roger grumbled, when he and dick were returning from an unsuccessful search for game, "there's only one resort left to us, and that is to feed on horse flesh. i'd hate to come to it; but, rather than starve to death, i believe i'd try it." dick laughed at hearing this confession. "and yet, when we were among the sioux," he remarked merrily, "you threw up your hands in horror at the thought of eating baked dog, which the indians esteem a great delicacy, so that they seldom have it except when they want to make a great feast. how do you feel about that now, roger?" "to be honest with you, dick, i've changed my mind somehow. those were days when we always had plenty to eat; but now the rations have become so scanty that we feel half starved most of the time. yes, i believe that if i was asked to sit down to a feast of baked dog, i'd accept, and with thanks." "well, there's nothing like hunger to serve as sauce at a meal," laughed dick. "and, when i tell them at home how you were cured of some of your nice notions about the kind of food you long for, they will think it quite a joke." "we're in a bad fix as it goes," resumed roger; "with some of the men half sick from their sufferings on this long trip, little to eat in camp, and a slim prospect of getting anything from now on. perhaps, after coming so far, none of us will live to see that wonderful ocean." "oh! yes we shall, never fear," dick assured him. "but stop and look ahead. what have we run up against now, i wonder. it looks like an indian family on the move." "you are right, dick," cried roger. "they have a horse, and two poles fastened so that the other ends drag on the ground. on that they have hides, and i can see a squaw and a papoose. suppose we try and see if we can make ourselves understood?" "i mean to," replied the other, quickly. "the warrior may be able to direct us to the river we are seeking, down which we hope to float until we come to the sea itself." they walked nearer the indians, who by this time had discovered their presence, and were undoubtedly amazed to see people with white skins in that part of the country. "we have never, up to now, come in contact with any indians dressed as that fellow is," remarked dick, as he held up his hand with the palm toward the woman, to indicate that their intentions were friendly; for that seems to be a sign universally understood among all the savage peoples of the world. "it may be they belong to the nez perces tribe, and the man is a brave, because he wears the bear claws about his neck," (note ) suggested roger; "i heard captain clark speaking about them only yesterday, and saying we must soon strike their hunting grounds, for he had learned about them from other tribes." as the two boys joined the indians they saw that the fat squaw had a small papoose in her arms. dick instantly discovered that the child was suffering in some way, possibly from cramps in its little stomach. according to the native custom nothing would be done to relieve the pain, that is in the way of medicine. when they reached their village the old medicine man would doubtless be called in to conduct his eccentric dances around the writhing child, to rattle his hollow gourds that contained small stones, and to do everything in his power to frighten off the evil spirit that was believed to be tormenting the papoose. dick tried to begin a conversation with the brave. as he could depend only on gestures it was rather difficult; but, by this time, both boys were becoming more or less expert in this sort of thing. presently he managed to convince the brave that he was a medicine man after a fashion, and would be glad to try to relieve the sufferings of the papoose. when the squaw understood this from what her man told her, she looked dubious. evidently her faith had made her believe that the more fantastic the costume of the healer, the better chance there would be of success; and how then could this boy with the white skin frighten away the evil spirit when he made no attempt to disguise himself? both brave and squaw looked anxiously on as dick took out a little case from his pocket and extracted a tiny bottle. it was only camphor that the phial contained, but dick felt positive it would work wonders, if only he could get the child to swallow a dose. this was finally managed with the help of the squaw. since they had consented to allow the "paleface wizard" to try to charm the evil spirit out of the papoose, she meant that the experiment should be carried out regardless of the child's whims; and so with her finger she thrust the medicine down the little one's throat. dick then went on to talk with his fingers. he was trying to find out whether the village of the brave was nearby, and finally succeeded in learning they would come upon it in one day's walk, or the sweep of the sun from the east to the west. from what the other said in his native fashion dick was not quite sure about its position. he cut a piece of bark from a tree and held it out to the nez perces brave, together with a nail, showing him how to mark upon the smooth surface. apparently the indian was shrewd enough to grasp his meaning, for he immediately commenced to make crude figures. roger watched his efforts with growing eagerness. "i do believe he's caught what you've been trying to say to him, dick!" he exclaimed in glee. "see there now! he's gone and made a lot of cone-shaped things that i'm sure must stand for wigwams. that's meant for his village; and now he's making a wriggly line past it. do you think that can stand for a river?" "no question but that it does, roger. there, now he makes a broader line of the same kind, which must mean a big river that the first one flows into." "watch him now, dick; what does he mean by all that curly stuff? to me it looks like waves rolling up onto the beach, just as we've seen them at that lake near which we passed the winter on the yellowstone." "i really believe he means that the broad river empties into the sea!" announced dick, at which roger could hardly repress his feelings of exultation. "hurrah!" he cried, "we have struck something worth while at last, if only we can coax this brave to go to camp with us. and dick, your medicine has worked wonders already, for the papoose seems to be kicking no longer. i guess the cramps have been settled." the squaw beamed on them now. she was evidently awed by the wonderful success of the "paleface medicine man," who found no necessity for indulging in fantastic dances and such things, but chased the evil spirit out by simply sending a message down the child's throat that he must vacate! again dick endeavored to tell the brave that, if they would accompany the boys to where they had companions, all of them on the following day would go to the nez perces village with the indians, and enjoy the hospitality of the red men. it ended in the others accepting, so that, half an hour later, they reached the camp, where their coming created no end of excitement; for every one expected it would soon lead to great things. if the boys had failed to secure any game in this, their last hunt, at least they had accomplished what was better; for, with the new prospects ahead of them, it began to look as though their troubles might all be in the past. captain lewis spent almost two hours in sign talk with the indian that evening, after they had smoked the peace pipe between them. together with what he was able to pick up, and the crude map fashioned by the brave on the smooth bark, he felt convinced that they would soon arrive at a river that eventually emptied into the great ocean which they had traveled thousands of miles to gaze upon. no longer were the weary explorers given over to hopelessness, as had begun to be the case of late. the future began to assume a rosy hue, and both boys felt certain the success that had been dangling before them as a tempting bait all these long months was about to become a certainty. when morning came they once more set forth, but now laughter was the rule instead of silence and long faces. the brave and his squaw had by degrees overcome their feeling of awe, and were quite friendly with the men. "i think," said dick to roger, as they rode slowly on, "i heard him trying to explain to the captain that his chief and most of the men in the village would be away at this time, for they expected to start on a big hunt, to lay in a store of jerked meat for the winter season. but that will not make any difference. he says his people will welcome us, especially after they know what a great medicine man is coming." at that both boys laughed aloud. "if you are wise," said roger, "you will get ready to do a big business, because every old squaw that has an aching tooth will call upon you to chase the demon of pain away." "oh! very well," replied dick, carrying his honors easily, "i'll draw out the aching molars, and in that way bring freedom from pain. but all of us will be glad to rest for a while in the nez perces village." "yes," added roger. "and, moreover, we hope they will be free with their food, because our stock has by this time got down to nearly nothing. for once i think i could enjoy some indian cooking." "even if it has to be a feast of baked dog!" added dick, at which the other made a grimace, though he immediately replied: "yes, even that, if the rest of you try it. i don't hold myself to be any better than my comrades, and what they can stand i ought to. perhaps, who knows, all of us may yet take a great liking for the dish. the first man who ever swallowed a raw oyster must have had a strong stomach, i should say." late that afternoon they came upon the nez perces village, which they found located upon quite a noble river. this stream the explorers immediately called the lewis river in honor of their intrepid leader. sad to say in later years this well-earned name was changed to that of snake river, showing what short memories those who came after must have had, in forgetting how much they were indebted to captain meriwether lewis. chapter xxvii from saddle to canoe again it was soon planned that a short stop should be made here, in order to recuperate to some extent after their recent strenuous experiences. a number of the men had become ill through long exposure to the burning sun, and the lack of proper food. captain lewis hoped to have them in good shape presently, so that they could start forth upon the last dash for the pacific coast. besides, the chief being absent, there was really no one of authority in the nez perces village with whom to deal; and just then the explorers wished to make a covenant, or bargain. from now on they could make much better use of boats than of horses, and it was hoped to effect an arrangement with the nez perces chieftain to care for the animals they owned through the coming winter. then, the adventurers hoped to borrow canoes and to finish the long journey by the water. when, in the spring, they returned that way, they could change back, and reward the friendly indians for taking care of the horses, which would, of course, be needed again in crossing to the mountains. several pleasant days in september passed away, while the members of the expedition waxed hale and hearty again. they had plenty to eat, and even made out to secure an amount of food from the indians to last them for some time ahead, in case game proved to be scarce. no one anticipated such a thing, however, because from all reports they judged there was great hunting along the lower river that emptied into the sea; then there was the multitude of splendid fishes, the flesh of which they were told resembled that of the mountain trout. these the travelers had already classified as salmon, because captain lewis had seen that noble game fish caught in maine and canada, where it came in fresh from the ocean to spawn in the headwaters of the rivers. many were the stories the nez perces told, in their sign language mostly, about the indians who frequented the lower reaches of this broad river, where the "shining fish" swarmed at times so that no man could count their number, which was like the grains of sand on the beach. as near as the boys could make out these natives, from some peculiarity connected with their person, were known far and wide as the flat heads. they seemed to be of an exceedingly warlike disposition, and great hunters, as well as persistent fishermen. their method of taking the salmon was with a spear, and in the season an adept could daily throw up on the bank a glittering pile of the big fish calculated, when dried after a manner in vogue among them, to last his lodge all winter. many were the interesting things the boys learned when they found a means of talking with the peaceful nez perces. the days passed almost too quickly for even roger, impatient as he was to set eyes on the goal of their hopes. and, just as had been anticipated, the fame of dick as a "big medicine" spread through all the skin lodges of the tribe. people even came from other settlements to consult the "wonder boy," who could chase the evil spirits out of a suffering body by simply sending down a pill to wrestle with the monster. dick had his hands full, much to the amusement of his cousin. he did not shirk his duty, though careful not to utterly exhaust his precious store of drugs, compounded for the most part by his mother's own hands. the head chief finally returned, and with him the band of warriors who had been on the grand hunt. they brought back with them a large store of fresh meat, which the squaws immediately set to work to dry after their crude fashion, thus converting it into "pemmican," black, tough stuff which made the boys shudder to look at, but which could sustain the human frame wonderfully. success having attended the annual hunt, the chief was in a particularly good humor. he felt that the coming of these "palefaces" must have had something to do with the bountiful supply of game he and his warriors had come across. besides, the whites intended going down into the country of the dreaded flat heads, and their influence might be exerted to make peace between those indians and the nez perces. so a feast was spread, at which all of the whites had the pleasure of tasting baked dog, which they agreed was fair eating, though none of them came back for a second helping. the chief readily entered into a covenant whereby, for a certain consideration, he agreed to care for the horses of the whites until they came up the river in the spring, upon which the animals were to be returned to their owners. besides this, canoes were loaned to the "palefaces," boats made of skin, and a little insecure, but nevertheless serviceable for the purposes of the explorers. "do you think the chief will keep his word about the horses, dick?" asked roger, after they had heard of the arrangement between the two captains and the head men of the tribe, after passing the pipe solemnly around the circle at the council fire. "yes, i feel sure he will," dick replied. "i like his looks, and in nearly every case the word of an indian, once given, is better than the bond of many white men." "but you remember how that false guide deceived us in the desert, and ran away with one of our horses?" objected roger. "there never was a rule that did not have an exception," roger was told. "now and then you may find a red man who dishonors his word, but in the main they would sooner be torn to pieces than betray a trust. we shall see our horses when we come back this way, roger, if we are so lucky as to be able to return." "then there was that news we had about those two white men who were seen by a nez perces hunter far down the river," said roger, uneasily. "they were in a canoe, and had evidently passed the village in the nighttime, unseen. at the time the nez perces saw them they were dickering with some of the flat heads, as though meaning to make allies of those fighters." "it sounds as if we might be in for another lot of trouble, before we reach the end of our voyage," admitted dick. "then you agree with me, dick, that those two men must be our bitter foes, françois lascelles and andrew waller?" "yes, i'm sorry to say they must be those men and no others. but, roger, something seems to tell me that we may not be bothered much longer by their dark plotting. they are apt to overdo the matter, and perhaps be slain by the very power they set in motion to destroy us." "you mean the fighting flat heads may turn on them, sooner or later; is that it, dick?" asked roger, eagerly. "that is a fate which has overtaken many such schemers," came the answer. "unscrupulous men often start fires that, in the end, consume them. my father has told me that many a time. we have been preserved through all our adventures, and for one i can face the future without flinching. i do not believe it will be our fate to die at the hands of such rascals as those men are." it was on the following day after this talk between the two chums that, all preparations having been completed, the little party embarked for the last lap of their long trip, which in the case of captain lewis meant from coast to coast. the friendly nez perces gave them a good send-off. there were even some whoops, and waving of hands, after the whites had pushed off from the shore. perhaps of all the party dick would be most missed. his numerous patients would mourn the absence of the "big medicine," should there be a return of their maladies later on. perhaps they feared that the evil spirit might venture to take double toll on account of the serious setback received during the presence in their midst of the "wonder doctor." "and one thing sure," roger told his cousin, as they worked their paddles industriously to keep ahead of the other boats, "you will have to get to work and make up a new stock of medicine after the manner you've seen your mother do it; for, when we come back this way in the spring, if we ever do, there'll be a crop of ailments waiting for you to take care of." dick only laughed good-naturedly. "i was thinking about that myself," he stated; "and i believe i could do it, provided we can find the same kind of herbs growing out here. but it certainly feels good to me to be in a boat again, after all that hard work riding a horse across a hot desert." roger felt the same way, for the boys were much more at home with a paddle in their hands than in the saddle. brought up on the bank of the missouri, they had early become adepts on and in the water, and they spent much of their time fishing, in order to supply the families with the food that was needed. that night they made camp on the bank of the lewis. they were surrounded by the great trees that have since then made oregon and washington forests famous; and all this was so vastly different from their recent experiences amidst desert sands that it was no wonder every one's spirits were buoyant. of course the boys wanted to take a little turn around the camp before night set in, hoping to come across some game. this they could easily do because, at the time, they had nothing to do with getting supper ready, as it was not their turn to serve as cooks. once again success came their way, for they succeeded in starting a buck, and, although it took a double shot to bring the fleet animal down, dick proved equal to the occasion, after roger's bullet seemed to be wasted. this circumstance seemed to annoy the latter very much, for he was jealous of his well-earned reputation as a marksman. it did not surprise dick, then, when the other's first move upon reaching the fallen buck was to examine eagerly the quarry. "i thought it was queer if i missed him entirely," declared roger, with a ring of triumph in his voice; "you can see where my bullet passed through his body, but, as luck would have it, no vital part was touched. i'm glad you managed to finish him, dick." "yes, so am i for several reasons," remarked the other; "in the first place we need the meat. then again, it would be too bad for him to run for miles and in the end drop, and that wound you gave him would have proved fatal finally." of course the party rejoiced to see a supply of meat come in. they knew they could depend on the boys to procure it if there chanced to be any game in the vicinity; and when they heard the double shot more than one of the men licked his lips in full expectation of a treat. it is a good thing to have a reputation for accomplishing things, for there are times when it spurs the possessor on, in order that he may not lose caste with his admirers. roger was not fully satisfied with the shooting of the buck. his fishing instinct had been aroused by the tales he had heard concerning the great finny prizes to be had in these rivers that ran down to the sea, and he longed to be able to capture his first prize in the shape of a salmon. so, immediately after supper, he got his line in readiness, and set it in hope of a strike. many times during the evening he left the vicinity of the campfire, where the men were sitting at their ease and exchanging stories, to make an eager investigation of his line. roger was, however, doomed to disappointment that night. either the salmon did not run so far from the sea at this time of the year, or else his bait had not proven satisfactory. in time, no doubt, he would learn better; or he could possibly find a chance to make use of the spear he had secured from a nez perces brave, and which was used for striking the great fish as they passed through some narrow estuary of the river, running between the rocks. chapter xxviii at the falls of the columbia "i hope you don't think i'm discouraged, dick, because so far no fish has come near my hook?" remarked roger, when the time came to wrap their blankets around them and seek rest. "oh! i know you too well to believe that," replied the other. "from now on i expect to see you doing your best to land a prize. sooner or later success is bound to come, roger." "i know it," was the confident way the other spoke; "because i've always made it my business to stick to the old motto, 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.' and even if the fish refuse to look at my bait i've got that spear, you remember. one of these days i'll find a chance to launch it, and bring up a salmon worth looking at." dick always liked to hear roger talk that way. it was his constancy that in the past had won him many a battle; for roger had a stubborn streak in his nature and would come back again and again to make new attempts. as the water by everlasting dripping will wear away a stone, so this "never-say-die" spirit often won out in the end. nothing disturbed the slumbers of the travelers during that first night upon the bank of the lewis river. they started again early in the morning, for, now that the end of their journey was almost in sight, a fever began to possess them to cover the ground as rapidly as possible. new sights opened up to their gaze with every mile of progress made. the paddles dipped into the clear water, and the sunlight, falling on the drops dripping from the blades, made each one resemble a glittering diamond. after their life spent on the muddy missouri it was a great pleasure to dick and roger to find themselves upon a stream where they could in places look down for many feet, and see the stones on the bottom, so transparent was the water. as they floated along, waiting for the others to catch up with them, the boys' favorite amusement was to lie still, and, looking over the gunnel of their hide canoe, watch the small fishes darting to and fro; or thrust a paddle at some clumsy turtle that had come up to see what sort of object this floating log could be. it was not always as pleasant as this, however, for one day they had a downpour of rain that caused them to make hurriedly for the shore, and get their tents up with as little delay as possible. the storm continued all of the following day, and an unusual amount of rain for that time of year descended. after that the water was not so clear as before, the boys noticed. there were also places where they discovered landslides had occurred, sections of the bank having slipped into the rising river. "it's a good thing we picked out a camp site where the ground was firm," roger observed, as they passed such a slide on the next day, and saw what a terrible thing it had been. dick was ready to agree with what his companion said. he shrugged his broad shoulders and shook his head. "it would have proved a bad job for us, i take it, roger, if we had been camping on this spot. think of having the ground slip from under you while you sleep; and of awaking to find yourself struggling in the river. yes, we were lucky to be on firm ground while the rain lasted." "the days keep passing along," mused roger, "and so far i haven't been able to take a single salmon. and only this morning i'm sure i saw one jump out of the water after some sort of insect. if only i knew what kind of fly it was i might be able to coax one of the big fish to come to time." "it is near the end of october, too," dick remarked, "and any day now captain lewis says he expects that we must reach the lower river." "and, after that, all we have to do is to let the swift current carry us along to the sea; eh, dick?" "our only remaining danger will come from the flat head indians who live along the banks of the broad river. then we must remember, you know, roger, that there is a great fall somewhere below us. the nez perces indians told us they make a noise like thunder when the water is high, as it is after so much rain." "of course we must keep on the watch for the fall, dick; i give you my word for it, i have no desire to be carried over the brink in one of these frail little hide canoes. it would be smashed on the rocks below, and, as for us, we might not know what had happened." "just watch that fish hawk hovering over that place in the river, meaning to snatch up his dinner when he gets ready. there's the champion fisher for you, roger. if that bird could only talk he could tell you all about the habits of these wary salmon that so far you haven't succeeded in catching." "there he goes!" cried roger, excitedly. "oh! what a splash he made! and, dick, look at him trying to get up again! it's all he can do to rise, beating his wings like a crazy thing. see the fish the fellow has fastened his claws on, dick. there goes a salmon, i do believe, the very first we've seen!" the big fish hawk was indeed having a hard battle trying to fly with such a large fish in its talons. it fluttered its wings, and still could not manage to get more than twenty feet above the water. as it turned toward the bank, doubtless meaning that, if compelled to release its hold on the glittering prize, the fish should fall upon land where it could be eaten at leisure, roger gave vent to another exclamation. "when it gets off the river i'm going to shout, and see if i can frighten the hawk into letting that fish drop," he observed, eagerly. "i'll join with you, then," agreed his chum. a few seconds later, roger made a signal with his paddle at which both of them gave forth a startling yell. surely enough, the sudden discordant sound startled the fish hawk, and it immediately let its prize go. "there, it landed on the bank!" cried roger. "quick! let's paddle ashore before it flops back into the river again. oh! my first salmon seems to be coming to me from the air after all!" reaching the bank, roger sprang ashore, and presently came back, carrying his capture by inserting a finger in the gill. it was indeed a salmon, though only of a comparatively few pounds weight, and nothing compared to myriads they were fated to see later on. "enough to make a supper for both the captains, and ourselves in the bargain!" explained the triumphant roger. "and i want to say that never before did i pull in a fish from the air. that's a new way of doing it, dick. i'll never see an industrious fish hawk after this but that i'll think of what happened to-day." "if you hadn't secured the fish some robber eagle might," declared dick. "many a time have i sat and watched one of those bald-headed pirates, perched on a dead limb of a tree, too lazy to pounce down and get a dinner for himself, and only waiting until a hawk flew off with its prize, when, after the other bird, would start the eagle, and ten times out of eleven he was bound to play the robber game." "yes," added roger, "i've seen the poor hawk mount high in the air, trying to escape; but with the eagle in hot pursuit. in the end the fish would drop, and the eagle follow after it, snatching his dinner from the air long before it could strike the earth; just as i can let a stone fall, and then overtake it with my hand before it lands." it was on the second day after this incident that the boys, who were ahead of the others, were heard giving glad yells. the secret of all this joy was soon made manifest, for they had really arrived at the junction of the lewis with the columbia, as they immediately called the majestic stream that, with a swift current, ran to the west, and flowed out into the sea. all their hopes, so long delayed, seemed now on the eve of realization; and there were no despondent hearts in the camp when night again found them. it was with satisfaction that they looked out upon the noble stream, in the belief that the confidence which president jefferson had felt in their ability to overcome all difficulties on the road had now been justified. it was just a day afterward that roger found a chance to strike his first salmon with the indian spear. he and dick had gone ashore at a likely-looking spot where a small tributary entered the river. the character of the ground emboldened roger to believe he might run across some of the places such as the indians loved to frequent when fishing after their peculiar style. he found that he could creep along and look down upon the water five or six feet below, where the shadows were dense, and the passage of a silvery salmon would seem like a ray of sunlight. here the boy waited, crouching silently, just as he imagined the expert indian fish-spearers were wont to hang. and presently dick, who was watching close by, saw him make a furious jab with his spear. following this, roger struggled desperately, and then dragged up a magnificent fish, floundering at the end of the spear. this he repeated twice more, when they had enough for the whole party. that was certainly a red letter day in the life of roger, and one he was not likely soon to forget. more days passed, and they were constantly descending the majestic river, now unusually high on account of the recent heavy rains. twice they were compelled to cut short their day's trip in order to seek shelter from a downpour; and, after such a recent experience of the dry and arid strip of country stretching out toward the foot of the rocky mountains, they hardly knew what to make of such weather. there came a day when, ahead of them, they heard a dull sound that thrilled every heart. the falls of the columbia must be at hand, where they would be compelled to make a portage with the canoes and their cargoes. roger would have liked to strike out and be the first to get within seeing distance of this natural wonder, but dick curbed his impatience. "better hold back and keep near the rest," he advised. "we none of us know anything about the falls, and from the indians we've heard they are very dangerous. they even claim that a bad spirit is chained under the water, and always ready to overturn the canoe of any venturesome brave who ventures too near." the current was becoming furiously swift, and captain lewis, like the wise leader he was, advised that all the boats make for the shore. it required considerable sturdy work to effect this, for they had already gone further down than discretion fully warranted. all would have gone well except for an unfortunate accident. the paddle which roger was using had been cracked a little recently; indeed he had just that morning discovered the flaw, and declared he must lose no time in making a new one. when roger worked he did it with all his vim and energy; consequently there was a greater strain on his paddle than would have been the case had dick, for instance, been handling it. feeling the savage pull of the fierce current the boy even put a little extra strength into his labor, which was a hazardous thing to do, considering the circumstances. dick, methodically handling his own blade, was suddenly thrilled to hear his comrade give vent to a cry of dismay. as he looked up he saw roger holding the fragment of a paddle in his hands. the treacherous blade had broken just at the most critical time possible. they were held fast in the grip of a current which dick, with his single paddle, could never succeed in combatting; and just below them the roar of the falls sounded, while they could see the foam-capped waves, that announced the beginning of the rapids, just ahead of their drifting canoe! chapter xxix nearing the salty sea fortunately the others were close at hand when this catastrophe happened. dick, of course, plied his paddle with the utmost vigor, but, in spite of his endeavors, their canoe was dragged perilously close to the verge of the fall, and, if left to themselves, the boys would have had a serious time of it. the nearest boat chanced to contain jasper williams and another. williams had always been known as a quick-witted man when trouble came suddenly from a clear sky. loud cries arose. then this boat was seen speeding straight toward the one that had been crippled by the breaking of the paddle. "here, take hold of this rope!" jasper williams was heard calling, and roger, who had been watching the approach of the other canoe in a sort of dumb anxiety, not knowing how their arrival would help, managed to secure the line that came flying through the air. he saw what the trapper had in mind. dick, too, bent all his energies to his own paddle, while the blades in the other canoe flashed fast and furiously as the two paddlers bent their broad backs to the task. the current was loath to give up its expected prey, and it fought furiously before admitting defeat; but brain triumphed in the end. one thing that helped materially was the fact that with every yard they gained in the direction of the bank the grip of the current grew less severe. in the end they reached land, much to the relief of both boys. roger looked a little white under the eyes, although he stoutly protested that he had not been much alarmed. when later on they had a chance to see from what they had escaped through the happy circumstance of jasper williams' possession of the rope, the boys were very grateful things had turned out as they did. dick realized that there was not much hope for any one unfortunate enough to be swept over those falls, and carried through the rapids, where cruel rocks waited on every hand to bruise the victim. the party went into camp on the spot, and expected to be lulled to sleep that night by the incessant roar as the water took the plunge. roger meant to busy himself below the falls as soon as he could get there, armed with his spear, of which he had by this time become very proud. they soon learned that this spot was a favorite fishing place for the indians. indeed, there did not seem to be a minute of the day that one or more dusky sons of the wilderness could not be seen prowling around, armed with spears with which they would adroitly stab any fish that came within reach. (note .) the salmon on reaching a waterfall exhibits a wonderful agility in lofty leaping, in the endeavor to gain the upper reaches of the stream. this, of course, is more frequent in the spring when the fish wish to reach their spawning beds far up in the rivers. still, the boys saw many fish make the leap while they were at the falls, some reaching projecting ledges, and resting for another frantic attempt; others falling back, doubtless to make a more successful effort later. these indians the boys found were of a different tribe from any they had thus far encountered, and they soon decided they must belong to the fighting tribe of whom they had heard so many contradictory accounts, the flat heads. very naturally, since they had probably never before seen a white man, the indians displayed considerable curiosity. they were at first inclined to flee, showing all the signs of alarm and enmity; but captain lewis made friendly signs, and in the end succeeded in soothing their fears. "i don't like their looks, though," roger said to dick, as they watched several of the flat head braves accepting little trinkets, such as colored beads and minute mirrors, which had been carried along for the purpose of trading with the natives. "i agree with you there," admitted dick. "they have a different appearance from the friendly nez perces, the mandans, or any other tribe we have met so far." "i believe they must be more treacherous than the others," continued roger, uneasily. "you know we have heard not a single good word about them from any source." "well, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it,' as we've heard many the time at home, roger; and we shouldn't judge people wholly by their looks. captain lewis seems to be willing to trust them. if any person can make friends with these flat heads, he will." "unless they've already determined to hate, and try to exterminate us," grumbled the other, of course referring to the underhand measures which they believed lascelles and his companion meant to put into practice. it was not long before roger found a good use for his spear. he watched how the red fishermen plied their weapons and copied their method. although he could hardly expect to be an expert in the beginning the boy soon learned to handle his new tool with considerable skill; and dick commended his work when he saw him strike a splendid silvery fish that had shown itself near the surface. it was not a very difficult task getting the canoes around the portage, or carry. there was a regular path which doubtless had been worn by the moccasined feet of countless red indians for ages past, since this spot must always have been a favorite one for laying in stores of fish food. the second night was passed some distance below the falls, though their musical roar could still be plainly heard. always eager to learn facts in connection with what lay ahead, captain lewis questioned some of the indians once more with regard to how many days journey they still had to expect before arriving at the ocean. thanks to his mastery of the sign language, the commander was able to discover what he sought; and it was pleasing intelligence that he communicated to the rest of the company that same night. november was at hand, and before the month had gone far they should arrive at the termination of their great adventure, with the ocean stretching before them. from the present time they could count on an easy voyage, unless something entirely unexpected cropped up to dismay them. the current of the columbia was swift, and could be counted on to carry them along without a paddle being dipped, if they felt like avoiding the labor. already were the men beginning to count on the glorious experience they expected to have while the winter lasted, hunting and fishing as the weather permitted, and with the wonderful sea to gaze upon. it was planned to go into winter quarters as soon as they arrived at their destination. this would permit of their gathering a great store of food, after the indian custom. only one fly remained in the ointment of the boys. they could not forget that, as long as the revengeful frenchman, françois lascelles, hovered about that part of the country, they could never feel safe. no matter if he were unseen, they knew him well enough to believe that he would be plotting in some underhand way to injure them, as he had done so many times in the past. "we will never know a minute's peace as long as that man is alive," said roger, when the subject came up to cast a shadow on their happiness. the weather did not improve as they descended the columbia. rain fell frequently, and twice they saw where serious landslides had occurred. it made them more careful as to where they camped when night came, for, should they be so unfortunate as to be caught in one of these slips, the result was apt to be exceedingly serious. they saw indians daily. sometimes these were ashore, and again they met them in canoes made of hide, or, it might be, dugouts formed from logs. in most cases the natives avoided them, for the sight of white faces and beards filled them with wonder and fear. some of them must have believed the explorers had come from one of the stars, and were people of another world, for never had they dreamed there could be any but copper-colored inhabitants on this sphere. nor were the adventurers always free from peril from this source. on several occasions an arrow had been known to hurtle into camp; and one of the men even received a flesh wound. for a short time it was feared the shaft might have had a poisoned tip, and every expedient to neutralize the venom was immediately applied. as the man did not suffer any great disability on account of his injury, they finally concluded that the flat heads, at least, did not dip the heads of their war arrows in the poison of the rattlesnake, as some tribes were known to do. (note .) captain lewis did not like the menacing manner in which some of these indians acted when on the bank of the river, while the little flotilla of canoes was passing. "i feel certain there is some malign influence at work, behind the scenes," dick heard him telling captain clark, after they had seen a manifestation of this ill humor one day, when several half-naked red skins brandished their spears toward them as the boats drifted past, at the same time uttering angry cries; "and, since we happen to know that lascelles slipped past us down the river, there can be no doubt it is his work." "a few days more and we shall be there, the captain says," announced roger, as he made his way back a short distance up the river in company with his chum, they having noticed signs of game. the boys had gone about half a mile from the camp, having caught sight of a feeding deer. "we are getting close to the spot where we glimpsed that deer feeding on the green grass, so let us stop talking, and be on the watch," dick suggested, thinking the animal might have moved from its place. three minutes afterwards roger gave a low "hist." "i can see him right now," he whispered, and, following the direction of the extended finger, dick also caught sight of the dun-colored figure. really it must have been a very hungry deer. as a rule such an animal, when feeding, is so nervous and suspicious that every minute or so its tail will whisk, and the hunters know from this that the deer will immediately raise its head to take a look around. but although the boys as they advanced kept their eyes fastened closely on their intended quarry, they could not see even the slightest movement. roger had begged the privilege of having first shot, and, when they had crept as close as seemed wise, his gun-stock came up against his cheek, his eye ran along the sights, and then his finger pressed the hair trigger of the long-barreled rifle. strange to say, the deer never moved even then. roger was more than amazed. "give him a shot, dick!" he cried, "or he may get away from us yet, thanks to my poor aim!" dick was about to comply, when suddenly the deer toppled over. there was something decidedly suspicious in the way the animal collapsed, and dick had a flash of intelligence sweep over him. he believed the deer was being used for a stalking animal, and had been dead all the while, its body propped up to deceive them. and even as this dreadful truth struck him, he heard loud indian whoops ring out. chapter xxx a moment of peril "we are done for!" cried roger, as vociferous yells from various quarters told of the sudden peril that had burst upon them. the pioneer boys had often, when sitting at the knees of their fathers, heard how the crafty indians along the ohio river, wishing to coax the settlers ashore when they drifted down the stream in their shanty boats, would resort to a ruse. there were white renegades among the natives, men like simon girty, who had been chased out of the settlements for wrong-doing, and who, hating their kind, had joined fortunes with the red tribes. one of these turncoats would disguise himself, and set up a plaintive appeal for help, claiming to be an honest man, who had just escaped from the torture post of the indians, and begging the newcomers not to forsake him. in a few instances his appeals would touch the hearts of the whites, so that, even against their good judgment, they were known to work the flatboat near the bank. of course an attack always followed, the indians springing up from their places of concealment. dick remembered those thrilling stories now, when he and roger were victims of a ruse along similar lines. that dummy deer had been placed so it could be seen by those in the canoes. the master mind capable of conceiving this trick knew well that the two lads were born hunters, and, in the need of fresh meat for the camp, could hardly resist the temptation. the game had worked only too well. so cleverly had the dead deer been arranged that even their sharp eyes had failed to detect anything wrong, except that the animal seemed to remain persistently in one spot, and never raised his head. almost immediately, flitting forms were seen among the trees. the boys did not stop to count them, but there must certainly have been a full dozen of the enemy. two figures they glimpsed that were not copper-colored, and nearly destitute of clothing, as was the case with the flat head braves. there was no need to call out and announce their discovery, for both boys realized in a flash that they were once again face to face with the evil genius of their lives, the french trader, françois lascelles, together with his equally unscrupulous ally, andrew waller. roger, with his customary impulsiveness, felt a wave of hot indignation sweep over him. this man, whom they had never sought to harm, had followed them ever since they set out from their homes on the lower missouri, bent on saving the armstrong property. many times had they suffered from his persecution, and no one could really blame roger for feeling bitterly toward the trader. influenced by his impulsive and headstrong nature, he hastily threw his gun up to his shoulder, and, covering the advancing frenchman, pulled the trigger. no report followed, which at the moment was a bitter disappointment to roger, with his mind so set on settling the score then and there. of course, it flashed upon him that he could not expect his gun to load itself, since he had just fired the one bullet it contained into the deer that had been used as a decoy. with a cry of anger he turned, and, almost before dick knew what was up, had snatched the loaded rifle from his hands, thrusting his own useless weapon into his chum's grasp. but the two renegades saw him do this, and realized their danger, for, though the exchange took but a couple of seconds, they had had sufficient warning to put stout trees between themselves and the angry boy. when roger whirled around, bent on carrying out his design, he was just in time to see waller vanish behind a tree. it was a foregone conclusion that the quick-witted lascelles had been even faster in his movements, since he knew well that he must be the object of the lad's blind anger. indians there were in sight, running toward them, and brandishing their tomahawks and spears threateningly, at the same time dodging behind various trees as if to confuse the "palefaces." evidently they feared those wonderful sticks that spat out fire, and made a sound like unto the near-by thunder, as well as mysteriously slew whatever they were pointed at. "we must run for it, roger!" cried dick, seeing that it was folly to think of trying to stand off a dozen savages with but one loaded gun between them. "all right!" gasped roger, as he swung around and put himself in motion, for it was plain to be seen that not a second should be lost if they hoped to outwit the enemy. no sooner was their intention evident than a new burst of wild yells told that the indians were in hot pursuit. high above the fiendish cries dick could hear the heavier voices of the two treacherous white men, and he knew that lascelles and waller must be keeping in the van of their pursuers. the boys might have turned and tried to frighten the indians off by a second shot, but it would be losing precious time, and every second must count when their lives hung in the balance. the boys were clever runners, and under ordinary conditions might have been able to keep well ahead of the fleet-footed indians. there was one unfortunate thing, however, that promised to hamper them sadly, and it concerned roger's ability to keep up the pace. several days before, almost a week in fact, he had turned his ankle, and had ever since complained of feeling it pain him from time to time, especially if he gave that foot any sort of a wrench. he had not taken a score of leaps when his toe chanced to catch in a root, and, while the boy did not measure his length on the ground, he did feel a sharp pain shoot through that weak ankle. it made his heart sink to realize that he was bound to feel it worse with every bound he took, and that in the end it might be the means of their downfall. dick had kept close to the river-bank in his flight. he did this for several good reasons. in the first place, they had come that way, and knew the ground more or less. then, again, the camp lay up the river, and, if help was to meet them part way, they must head straight for the boats. he was inclined at first to try to shout, in the expectation that those in camp would come to their assistance the faster; but, on second thought, he realized it would only be wasting his breath. surely they must have heard the sound of roger's rifle, and those wild whoops bursting on their ears soon afterwards would tell their friends what had happened. he fully believed captain clark would sally forth with some of the men, bent on attempting their rescue. it was only a question of keeping ahead of their persistent pursuers long enough to allow the others to come up. "faster, roger, faster!" roger heard his comrade say this and he strove his utmost to obey, but the injured ankle was giving him more trouble every second and, despite his efforts, he failed to keep up to his usual standard of speed. "my ankle--i've hurt it again!" he called out, between his set teeth. dick heard this with a thrill of horror. it seemed to seal their fate, for, if they could not increase their speed, the indians were bound to overtake them long before any help might arrive. he tried to catch hold of roger's arm, as though his first thought was to render assistance; but that was impossible when running as they were. roger indeed shook himself free. "save yourself, dick! i'm nearly done for!" he exclaimed. dick did not try to answer. he needed all his breath to carry him along; but, if he had spoken, it would have been to scorn indignantly the suggestion that he leave his chum behind, and look out for himself. dick was not that kind of boy; and if need be he would stand by roger, fighting to the end. there was the swift-running river just beside them. dick wished from the bottom of his heart that they could in some way make use of it in order to give their pursuers the slip; yet he could not decide how it could be accomplished. if they jumped in, and attempted to swim across, there were undoubtedly among the half-naked braves many who could make faster progress, unhampered as they would be with clothes. oh! if only one of the boats would shoot into view, manned by a couple of the brave fellows whose guns would soon work havoc among the natives and put them to flight! dick saw no chance of obtaining help from that quarter. the ground underfoot was now slippery, and he remembered that they had passed over a place where the earth seemed spongy. he could only see one hope left. this was for them to seek refuge behind trees, and try to hold the enemy at bay long enough to enable their friends to arrive on the spot. and, since the indians might rush them despite their threatening guns, this seemed almost like a forlorn hope. chapter xxxi the end of the long trail it was just at that critical moment that something wholly unexpected happened. as long as they lived dick and roger believed that the providence that had so long watched over their fortunes, seeing their terrible distress, had come to the rescue. they heard a sudden sound that bewildered them at first. it was a horrible sucking noise, and both lads actually felt the ground quivering under their feet. instinctively they came to a pause, as the yells back of them changed to cries of great fear, some of which seemed to be half-muffled. there was, accompanying these sounds, a strange splashing, and the crash of trees going down. as the boys whirled around, stunned by all these remarkable sounds, they looked upon one of the most terrifying spectacles that had ever come before them. a large section of the bank of the river, where they had found it so wet in passing, had suddenly let go while the indians were crossing it, and, together with a number of trees, had slipped into the deep river. fully half of the flat head indians went with the landslide, together with both of the renegades. [illustration: "fully half of the flat head indians went with the landslide"] dick plainly discovered lascelles throwing up his arms in an agony of fear, as he found himself being dragged along, with those tons and tons of earth, into a watery grave. then a great tree smashed down directly over him and that was the last that human eyes ever saw of the french trader. the rest of the indians stood there spellbound, just as the two boys did. superstitious to the core, those who were left must have believed this calamity could only be looked on as a manifestation of anger on the part of the great manitou, who doubtless held the strange boys, with the white skins, under his protection. they made not the slightest attempt to rescue their unfortunate comrades, but, uttering cries of terror, vanished in the depths of the forest, doubtless carrying to their village a terrible story of what had occurred, to cause weeping and wailing among the lodges of the flat heads. still watching, the boys saw several figures climb up out of the agitated waters. they were in every instance the copper-colored natives, who went limping away, looking back in abject terror. though they watched closely, the boys could discover not the slightest trace of either of the renegades. the trees floated off, or remained there sunk in the water; but a close examination of the scene of the landslide convinced dick and roger they had surely seen the last of their bitter enemies. the two boys could not express their emotion except by clasping each other's hands and squeezing them fiercely. their safety had been brought about through no mortal agency; and it was not singular that they always looked upon the landslide as a miracle wrought in their interest. shortly afterwards, when dick had taken his own gun, and roger managed to get a load in his weapon, they heard the sound of voices, and some of the men from the camp appeared. just as the boys had anticipated, they were led by brave captain clark. great was their amazement when they heard the wonderful story the lads had to tell. it seemed almost unbelievable, and yet there was the evidence before their very eyes, the gap in the river bank, the fallen trees, and even some of the indian tomahawks on the ground where they had been cast when the remainder of the band fled in dismay from the fatal spot. when captain lewis was told about it, he declared it to be the judgment of heaven upon the heads of those two wicked men. they had sought to stir up the resentment of the flat heads against the little party, and, had their plans succeeded, the members of the expedition would be in constant danger of their lives during the whole of the coming winter. as it was, the indians must believe the white wanderers were under the protection of manitou, and should not be harmed. captain lewis could see how a peace could be made with their leading chiefs, so that, for the months that were to come, the red men and their "paleface" brothers should live together as friends. after all their trials and tribulations things seemed to be working in the boys' favor at last. with the disappearance of the scheming trader their greatest source of uneasiness had vanished. the future looked bright once more, and the boys felt they could sleep without fearing that something terrible hung over their heads. that night was really the happiest they had all known for many months. the fact that they were close to the goal that had tempted them across the continent did much to bring smiles to the careworn faces of the voyagers. "if all the accounts we've been able to pick up are correct," dick told roger that night, while they sat near the fire, the camp being well guarded every minute of the time, "we ought to reach our destination by the end of the second day, perhaps sooner." "which means we will be able to look out into the west and see nothing but the vast ocean," roger added, with a contented sigh. "well, i feel glad--yes, doubly glad, for captain lewis and captain clark." "i understand why you say that, roger. to us it means only that our curiosity will be satisfied; but think what they have risked to carry out the plan of the president! it will be the greatest day in their lives when they reach that ocean they have come thousands of miles to look upon." "and think of all they have braved to win their end," added the other boy, his whole expression speaking his deepest admiration for the bold leaders of the exploring expedition. well might the boys say what they did. a thousand perils had waylaid those daring spirits, yet never once had they dreamed of giving up their plan. over unknown trails, through dark canyons, across trackless plains and burning deserts, up mighty rivers with their strong currents and swirling rapids--all these and uncounted other dangers had spread out before them, but without daunting their souls. no wonder then that the boy of to-day, who reads of this most wonderful journey ever undertaken in our great country, reveres the names of those two bold spirits who conducted the expedition to a successful finish. with the coming of another day the journey was resumed. even the weather seemed to have undergone a fit of repentance, for the skies were now as clear as crystal, and the rainy spell had evidently passed. early in the morning several of the men hastened to the place where the boys had been deceived by the decoy deer. they brought back the game, since none of the thoroughly alarmed flat heads had dared return for the carcass. it was easily seen just how cleverly the animal's head had been fixed by means of stout sticks and deerskin thongs. the men also judged that it had been made to stand erect by the aid of other sticks skillfully concealed. on the whole, the boys concluded they had a story to relate that would arouse the greatest interest among the home folks, if ever they were fortunate enough to rejoin the family circle again. roger was glad that the remainder of the journey was to be made in the canoes, for his ankle pained him exceedingly, and he would have been unable to walk any distance without feeling much distress. "you will have to take things easy for a while, after we get to our journey's end," dick told him. "a sprained ankle is a bad job, and you may feel it for many weeks. i can look back and remember how long it took me to get over a wrenched ankle some years ago." at that roger laughed aloud. "i haven't forgotten that time, either, let me tell you, dick. we were off on a hunt when you tripped. how your ankle did swell up; it frightened me, i tell you! but that cold spring water helped a lot to take the swelling down." "yes, and i can see you now, staggering along with me on your back," continued dick, bending a look of sincere affection upon his cousin. "that was the heaviest load you ever undertook to tote, i wager." "but i got there, didn't i?" demanded the other, proudly, "winded though i was. and i made you a pretty fine crutch which you hobbled around on for weeks, not being able to put your foot on the ground." many times, as they talked, did these fond memories of the past arise to haunt them. the further they went from their well-loved homes the sharper the pictures seemed to become in their minds. their dreams were mostly of those dear ones whose faces were forever before them, in the clear waters, while threading the mazes of the forest, or even looking out upon the glittering sands of the burning desert. when, that afternoon, a halt was made, captain lewis cheered them with the announcement that there could be little doubt they would reach the mouth of the big river by the following night at the latest. indeed, as the men had already discovered that the water was strongly impregnated with salt, they hardly needed this assurance to convince them that their long journey was on the eve of termination. they gave the commander a hearty cheer, however, when he told them this welcome fact, then set about making what was certainly one of the happiest camps of the entire trip. as usual the two boys talked things over while they sat resting after supper had been dispatched. roger had sniffed the air several times, and he finally broke out with a declaration. "there seems to be something queer in the air, dick; something i've never before noticed in all my life. and to tell you the truth, i can make nothing of it." "i may be wrong," dick told him; "but, from all i've heard grandfather say, i think that must be the salty taste they say one can notice when the air comes straight off the sea. if that is so, it proves we are close to the mouth of the river right now." after that roger amused himself by sniffing the air many times. it seemed to give him fresh encouragement to have a silent but powerful proof carried by the night breeze to their river camp. taken in all, it was a rather restless night for some of the adventurers, and the boys in particular awoke many times, to sit up and listen. once dick even fancied he could hear a far-off, dull, booming sound that could hardly be thunder, since the stars were out, and not a cloud as big as his hand in sight. "i wonder," the boy said softly to himself, with a feeling almost of awe, "if that can be the sea pounding on the shore. grandfather has often told us how it makes a great noise when the tide is coming in, each wave running along and turning over as it breaks on the sand." he even sat there for a long while listening, though thinking it best not to arouse roger, who chanced to be sleeping at the time. only when the strange sound died out, owing to a change of wind, or the turn of the tide, dick consented once more to drop back in his blanket. but, when he did get to sleep again, his dreams were of the glorious triumph that awaited them close at hand. the last day dawned, and the camp was early astir. breakfast was hastily eaten, the small amount of boat packing attended to, and after that a start was made. to-day the paddles were seldom idle. spurred on by the hope of reaching their goal before darkness again intervened, the men were only too willing to work their passage. the swift current might be very well under ordinary conditions, but on this particular day it proved all too slow for their eager hearts. they glimpsed indians several times, but, strange to say, none of them manifested the antagonistic manner of those they had seen earlier in their trip down the lewis and the columbia rivers. roger, who had noticed the change in the demeanor of the natives, wondered what was the cause of it, and as usual applied to dick for his opinion. "they are of the same tribe," he remarked, "for by now i know the flat head way of wearing feathers in their scalp-locks. but they seem now to be afraid of us, for those in that dugout paddled frantically for the shore; and never an arrow comes our way now. can you make it out, dick?" "the only thing i can think of," dick replied, "is that word has been sent out everywhere that the 'paleface people' in the hide canoes are under the protection of manitou, and that no harm must be done to them." "well," observed roger, with a happy smile, "if we're going to be guarded by the indian manitou all winter, we needn't be afraid of anything. when you come to think of it, dick, that landslide was the greatest thing that ever happened to us. it held back just long enough to let us pass, and then swallowed our enemies up." noon came and went. the men were so eager now they hardly wished to land to have something to eat, though captain lewis insisted on it, for he knew they needed a rest. slowly the long afternoon passed, and, constantly on the move, the canoes swept along the current, urged by the muscles that seemed never to tire. hope fought with a growing disappointment. were they then, after all, to be cheated out of the anticipated triumph they had arranged for that night? perish the thought! and, with that, the paddlers would dip deeper, and run a race to see which could hold the van. the sun sank lower and lower, and every eye watched its race with almost the same anxiety as was shown when, centuries back, joshua commanded the heavenly luminary to stand still in order that his army might wholly destroy the philistines. dick and roger concluded that, unless something happened inside of another hour, they would have to give up all hope of seeing the glad sight that day. "we are about to turn a bend in the bank right below," dick told roger, "and, if all is well, perhaps we may see what we are yearning to look upon." all possible speed was made in order to turn the point of land covered with trees, that jutted out into the river. then from every throat arose a joyous shout that made the echoes ring. it was the very first white man's hurrah that was ever heard on the western side of the great american continent, north of the isthmus, since time began. there lay the mouth of the columbia river, and, looking beyond, they could see the boundless expanse of the pacific, with the sun, that had beckoned them on all these thousands of miles, setting in a red blaze of glory. chapter xxxii to the rising sun--conclusion on the following day the flag of the united states floated from the green hills of columbia bay. and, when the adventurers had become thoroughly rested, they began to discuss the matter as to where they would stay during the coming winter. just what sort of severe weather they might expect none of them, of course, knew. in those early days nothing was understood with reference to the famous warm japan ocean current, which does for the pacific coast what the gulf stream accomplishes for much of our eastern shore, as well as for europe. so cabins were finally built, in which they hoped to keep fairly comfortable, and by degrees a supply of meat was laid, in for consumption during the winter, if the cold should be prolonged like a canadian season. they soon found that the indians meant to be friendly, and all fear of trouble from this source was laid to rest. as the days and weeks crept on they explored some of the surrounding country, and even tried to make rude maps of it to show when they returned east. dick and roger did their full share in everything that went on. much of the meat that was dried that winter, in order to provide a supply on the return trip over the mountains and down the missouri, fell before their guns. they were also instrumental in helping to tan some of the skins to be used in making necessary clothing for the men. having been almost two years on the trail, some of the members of the expedition were sadly in need of garments; and this well-tanned buckskin supplied the deficiency admirably, for in those pioneer days every man was his own tailor. it would hardly be fitting here to try to tell the many things that occupied their attention as the winter months passed; but they were busy most of the time. to the surprise of all the weather never became severe. snow they saw on the sides of the mountains, but, taken in all, they suffered very little from cold, a fact that astonished them very much. finally the spring came, and all eyes were eagerly turned toward the rising sun; for it was known that the time was now near at hand when they must start upon the return trip. the ties that drew them all, men and boys, to the east were many and strong. their hearts often swelled with emotion as they thought of those from whom they had been separated so many months. "why," roger was accustomed to saying, when he and his chum discussed the time of their departure, now close at hand, "i feel sure i will never know my little sister, mary, when i see her again; she must be such a big girl by now. and as for your brother, sam, you may find him able to give you a good tussle in a wrestle." thus they often talked of their loved ones, but neither of the boys ever dared express the one dread fear that sometimes tugged at their heartstrings, which was that they might find some face missing in the family circle when they reached home again. toward the end of march, everything being favorable, they once more started up the broad columbia, saying farewell to the place where they had passed such a contented winter. no serious illness had visited them, and all were very anxious to get started. reaching the village of the nez perces, they had no difficulty in claiming their horses, which had survived the winter. and, having made many presents to their red friends, the adventurers again set forth. they had a faithful guide this time who showed them how to avoid some of the worst of the burning desert. the changed season of the year also aided them, so that, in the end, they reached in safety the lofty barrier that divided the continent. crossing the rocky mountains they proceeded to where they had left their companions, and were fortunate enough to find them safe and sound. it was a joyous reunion all around. they had troubles with the indians, though as a rule they found the red men inclined to be friendly; and, in return for medicine and services rendered, received many favors at the hands of the natives, including much-needed meat. once, among the blackfeet, they were forced to make a hasty flight, when some of the thievish indians tried to steal their horses; and in the mêlée a brave was shot, though the animals were saved. when finally the missouri was reached the party set to work to make new canoes, having by degrees lost their horses or traded them with the indians for necessities. captain lewis knew that for the hundreds of miles they now had to traverse, boats would be far more preferable to horses, because the going was all downstream, with a swift current, the river being in its spring flood. some of the canoes they made themselves, others were purchased from the indians; in this way enough were provided to carry the entire party. day after day they kept pushing resolutely down the great river, camping by night on the bank. the summer was already well along, and they knew it would be close to october before they could expect to make the village of st. louis, the first settlement on their course. it was just about the end of september when they did arrive, and the event created the most intense excitement ever known in that border post. most people, who had seen the expedition set forth nearly two and a half years back, believed the brave captains and all with them had perished. when mayhew, the scout, had shown up, bearing the precious paper which meant so much to the armstrongs, he had, of course, brought news; and it was known that the expedition had reached a place near the far distant headwaters of the missouri; but since then weary months of waiting had ensued, with never a word, and hope beat but faintly in those fond hearts at home. it was a joyous meeting. roger could hardly believe the tall girl who threw her arms about his neck was his little sister, mary; and as for sam, he bade fair to soon look down on dick, he was growing so fast. grandfather and grandmother armstrong were both there, hale and hearty, and mighty proud of their two sturdy grandsons, who had made that wonderful trip to the western sea in company with the president's private secretary. the whole country applauded the hardy men who had done this great feat, and with reason, for, as one account says: "they were world conquerors in the best sense, in that they had blazed the way for thousands of sturdy homeseekers who soon followed in their wake, building homes, cities, manufacturing plants, railroads and telegraph lines where once had roamed the lordly bison, the herds of dun-colored antelope, the vast bodies of stately elk; and where, in the silence of the mountains and the forest the grizzly bear--monarch of the plains and the valleys--had moved in the peace and seclusion of the vast wilderness." in later years, after the original pioneers of the armstrong family had been gathered to their fathers, the families scattered, as new things arose to lure some of the younger members further into the wide west. they have settled, the newer generations of them, some in oregon, along the mighty columbia which dick and roger were among the first whites to see; others on wheat growing farms in dakota, or else on cattle ranches in montana; though there can still be found armstrongs in st. louis, proud to trace their ancestry back to those bold pioneers whose early history we have attempted to narrate in these volumes. jasper williams often visited his young friends when he came to the growing settlement at the junction of the missouri with the mississippi. he lived to dandle the children of dick and roger on his knee, and tell them many of the exciting adventures which those two hold lads encountered when crossing the great divide with lewis and clark. nothing was ever heard of either lascelles or andrew waller, and the boys never entertained a doubt but that the renegades met their fate in that strange landslide by which they had been precipitated into the columbia. and, since we have seen the safe return of the wanderers, and watched the happy ending of their great adventure, it is but right that we bring our story of early pioneer days to a close. the end notes note (page ) when the vast territory then known as louisiana was purchased from the french nation for fifteen million dollars, in the nineteenth century, no one knew what its extent was. it took in the country west of the mississippi, from the gulf below new orleans; but what really lay to the far northwest was merely a conjecture. president jefferson was determined to know just what was included in this louisiana purchase, and it was mainly through his individual efforts that an expedition was organized with the purpose of exploring the country as far as the pacific; for, of course, it was understood that the ocean bounded the land on the west. his private secretary, meriwether lewis, was put in command of the party, with a military second, captain clark. what wonderful things they accomplished history has recorded. it was in the spring of that the expedition left st. louis, and two years and a half expired before they returned to that border post, having successfully carried out their undertaking. note (page ) in those early pioneer days flint and steel were commonly brought into service when a fire was needed. so expert did the settlers and borderers become in the use of these that they thought little more of accomplishing the end they had in view than a boy scout of to-day does with the match. all they asked was a handful of dry tinder, and the ready spark quickly had a blaze going. it was not so easy when the question of firing their guns was concerned. the flint was fastened to the heavy hammer, and, in falling, was supposed to strike the steel plate provided for this purpose, when a spark might be looked for. this, falling into the powder placed in the little cavity known as the "pan," brought about the explosion. but, frequently, this small amount of powder would be jostled from its receptacle, and this would cause a failure at perhaps a most critical time. many a settler in those days lost his life by just this accident; and frequent disappointments during a hunt for game could be traced to the same cause. note (page ) contact with the natives made the early settlers quite proficient in deciphering indian picture writing, so they were able to read fairly well many communications passing between parties of those who possibly might be reckoned their deadly enemies. this method of using crude designs to convey the sense of a communication, or even the history of a tribe or family, was often carried out by fanciful pictures decorating the skin of which the teepee was made. in such fashion many of the gallant deeds of the chief or warrior to whom the wigwam belonged were perpetuated. really, little common sense alone is needed to decipher most of these picture writings. once the key had been found, they become as plain as print. smoke stands for fires; the sun is easily seen on the horizon, or high above it, though toward the west, it may be; horses; deer with antlers; men walking, running, or crawling; and similar designs become plainly decipherable; and in this manner the story that is intended to be conveyed can be traced out. it is an interesting study, and many who belong to boy scout troops have found considerable entertainment in pursuing the fascinating work. note (page ) among all the indian tribes found upon the north american continent when the pioneers surged toward the setting sun, none has interested the historian so much as the mandans, sometimes called the "white indians," because their skins differed so much from that of other tribes. all sorts of wild theories have been offered as an explanation of the wide difference existing between this tribe and others. it is true that they buried their dead as did the rest of the tribes west of the mississippi, using scaffolds that the wolves might not get to the bodies; and there were many other habits that stamped them true indians. at the same time historians, who had lived among them, find a similarity in many of their words and customs to the welsh people; and it has always been believed by many that, long ago, a boat containing welsh sailors was wrecked in the gulf of mexico after a tropical hurricane, and that, ascending the mighty river, the whites married into some indian tribe, so that eventually the mandans came into existence. there have been other speculations, and it is very interesting to read about these various theories, and try to guess which one of them can be the true explanation; for that there must have been something remarkable about the origin of this tribe no one can deny. they were not as warlike as some of the tribes with whom they came in contact, such as the fierce sioux; but at the same time it appears that they held their own in the numerous wars which followed an invasion by one tribe upon the hunting grounds of another. unfortunately the mandans were utterly wiped out in later years by the great scourge of smallpox, which possibly may have been one of the unwelcome gifts brought to them by the palefaces. note (page ) in crossing the great plains that lie between the valley of the mississippi and the foothills of the rocky mountains, it is in these days difficult to realize the tremendous changes that have taken place there during the last fifty or sixty years. especially is this true with regard to animal life. where to-day herds of long-horned cattle graze, or vast fields of nodding grain tell of the prosperous farmer, in those times uncounted numbers of great shaggy bison roamed. according to many of the accounts that have come down to us from authentic sources, the sight of such a herd rolling past, as far as the eye could see, and for hour after hour, must have been a most impressive spectacle. where have they all gone? up to then the needs of the indians and the depredations of wild animals had made no impression on the incredible number of the herds; although the red men often drove hundreds of the big animals over some precipice, and took nothing but the tongues, to be dried as a delicacy. the first serious inroad among the buffaloes occurred when the railroad was being pushed across the plains, and men like cody, afterwards known as buffalo bill, were employed to slaughter the beasts in order to provide sufficient food for the thousands of workers. then it began to be the thing for parties to set out and kill for the sake of the slaughter. the robes were also brought into use for sleighing and other purposes. but the advent of the repeating rifle signed the real death warrant for the bison of the plains. then they rapidly dwindled to almost nothing. in place of the millions that once galloped north and south in the seasons there are to-day but one or two small herds, in the national yellowstone park or in private preserves. like the once numerous wild pigeons called the passenger pigeons which existed in untold numbers, the buffaloes have had their day. note (page ) in the cabin of every pioneer family could always be seen rows of dried herbs fastened to the rafters. these as a rule were intended for medicinal purposes, most of them being brewed into tea, when sickness invaded the household, which was not often, since the active outdoor life, and the primitive food of the early settlers, made them an exceedingly hardy race. most housewives knew how to make ointments for sprains and healing by a clever admixture of these strong decoctions with bear's fat, or, if they chanced to have it, pork lard, though in most cases pigs were unknown to frontier life, while a bear was always a possibility. many of those old remedies were fully as satisfactory as those of the modern druggist. they were pure, to begin with, and calculated not to serve as "cure-alls," but each intended for a specific purpose. indeed, it would seem as if in those days they counted on nature's taking hold and lending a helping hand. a simple remedy to break a fever was resorted to, and then careful nursing, as well as a good constitution, did the rest. before the armstrong boys set out upon their trip it was only natural for their mothers to see that in their ditty bags they carried a supply of several of these standard remedies. note (page ) from the accounts that have been handed down to us, written by captain lewis himself, it appears that the explorers were awed and inspired by the wonderful scenery that lay before them on their way to the great divide. rugged mountains were there, brown, steep, hemlock-clad. deep game trails led through the tangled meshes of the forest, and in the sparkling rivulets the trout jumped at the floating gnats and other insects. gorges and canyons had to be passed, where the howling waters raced in an apparent agony, and flute-like came the sound of the snow-cold water against the pebbly bottoms. at night the scream of the mountain lion echoed across the silent valleys, while the bleat of the antelope could be heard upon the vast plains near the river-bed. eagles soared above, peering disdainfully at the black specks of men beneath; and sage hens craned their necks at them, when they tramped from the river in search of game. over all was the clear, pure air of that vast mountain plateau, which invigorates, stimulates, and makes one feel as if he had the strength of ten. inspired and stimulated by the thought that they were making history, it is no wonder those men pressed steadily on, determined to view the gray waters of the fog-sheeted pacific in the end. note (page ) one of the first things noticed by the members of the expedition, when they began to encounter the tribes living near the rockies, was the fact that every warrior or chief who was looked up to as a brave man wore a necklace of terrible bears' claws. this proved that the possessor had by his own individual prowess, and usually in an encounter at close quarters, succeeded in slaying one of those monster denizens of the wilds, afterwards known as grizzly bears. there can be no doubt that this beast is by all odds the most savage and dreaded wild animal of the western world. indeed, there are those who say they would much rather meet a lion or a tiger in its native country than the grizzly bear. when an indian, with his primitive weapons, and at the risk of his life, was able to take those claws, and string them about his neck, none could dispute his right to the title of a valiant man. those who have hunted big game under every sun are frank enough to say that if a grizzly bear could climb a tree like a panther, and get over ground as fast as a lion, he would stand without a peer as the most feared game to be found. in these modern days of the repeating rifle of large bore, and the exploding bullet, it is not very difficult to kill the monster; but every one who has seen a grizzly bear in his native haunts is willing to hold in honor those red hunters of the early times, who, armed only with hatchet and knife, deliberately sought an encounter, bent on proving their right to the name of warrior. note (page ) the indians took toll of the big silver-sided salmon as they made their way up the columbia to spawn. they used as a rule a primitive fish spear with which they were very expert. there were always salmon to be found at the foot of the fall, or in shallow creeks that emptied into the big river, but, when the spring finally came, the fish would pass in from the sea in multitudes beyond reckoning, all eager to get up to the shallow waters where they could spawn. eye witnesses of undoubted veracity have described the scene where, in places, the multitude of these big fish was so great that they filled the stream with a solid mass. of course those days are past. in these times, when numerous canneries are operating along the river, and millions of tins of fish are put up every season, it could hardly be expected that the supply would continue in unlimited quantities. though as yet there has been no serious inroad made, thanks to the action of the federal government, and the work of the active fish commissioners, who see to it that the fish wheels, by means of which catches are made, are regulated according to law. still the sight of the untold numbers that greeted the eyes of the explorers on that early spring of has passed forever. note (page ) the fear sometimes felt by the explorers that the indians were using poisoned arrows was not unfounded, since it was well known that some of the tribes resorted to this fiendish practice, with the flint-tipped weapons intended for war purposes. their usual way of making the arrows deadly was to find a healthy looking rattlesnake, and provoke him by thrusts from a long stick. when the reptile had become sufficiently furious, and was lunging madly, a piece of raw meat would be fastened to the end of the pole, and this he was coaxed to strike again and again, until it was well saturated with the green virus from his fangs. when this infected meat had become a mass of poison, arrows were dipped in it, and allowed to dry. once these entered the flesh of an enemy, as a rule his death was certain. of course an entirely different lot of arrows would be used for hunting purposes, the deadly sort being kept only for war. history however does not record many deaths from this source, so it must be taken for granted that, as a rule, the indians disliked resorting to such a severe measure of defense. possibly it did not appeal to them as exactly fair, and they were more than ready to measure their tomahawks and knives and spears, as well as their ordinary arrows, against the guns owned by the white men. certainly no one of the lewis and clark party suffered from poisoned arrows during the long journey across the western country. selections from the page company's books for young people the blue bonnet series _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =a texas blue bonnet= by caroline e. jacobs. "the book's heroine, blue bonnet, has the very finest kind of wholesome, honest, lively girlishness and cannot but make friends with every one who meets her through the book as medium."--_chicago inter-ocean._ =blue bonnet's ranch party= by caroline e. jacobs and edyth ellerbeck read. "a healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every chapter."--_boston transcript._ =blue bonnet in boston;= or, boarding-school days at miss north's. by caroline e. jacobs and lela horn richards. "it is a fine story for girls, and is bound to become popular because of its wholesomeness and its many human touches."--_boston globe._ =blue bonnet keeps house;= or, the new home in the east. by caroline e. jacobs and lela horn richards. "it cannot fail to prove fascinating to girls in their teens, not to mention those of older growth, who still hold dear the memory of their youth."--_new york sun._ the young pioneer series by harrison adams _each mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =the pioneer boys of the ohio;= or, clearing the wilderness. "such books as this are an admirable means of stimulating among the young americans of to-day interest in the story of their pioneer ancestors and the early days of the republic."--_boston globe._ =the pioneer boys on the great lakes;= or, on the trail of the iroquois. "the recital of the daring deeds of the frontier is not only interesting but instructive as well and shows the sterling type of character which these days of self-reliance and trial produced."--_american tourist, chicago._ =the pioneer boys of the mississippi;= or, the homestead in the wilderness. "the story is told with spirit, and is full of adventure."--_new york sun._ =the pioneer boys of the missouri;= or, in the country of the sioux. "vivid in style, vigorous in movement, full of dramatic situations, true to historic perspective, this story is a capital one for boys."--_watchman examiner, new york city._ =the pioneer boys of the yellowstone;= or, lost in the land of wonders. "there is plenty of lively adventure and action and the story is well told."--_duluth herald, duluth, minn._ =the pioneer boys of the columbia;= or, in the wilderness of the great northwest. "the story is full of spirited action and contains much valuable historical information."--_boston herald._ the hadley hall series by louise m. breitenbach _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =alma at hadley hall= "the author is to be congratulated on having written such an appealing book for girls."--_detroit free press._ =alma's sophomore year= "it cannot fail to appeal to the lovers of good things in girls' books."--_boston herald._ =alma's junior year= "the diverse characters in the boarding-school are strongly drawn, the incidents are well developed and the action is never dull."--_the boston herald._ =alma's senior year= "incident abounds in all of miss breitenbach's stories and a healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every chapter."--_boston transcript._ the girls of friendly terrace series by harriet lummis smith _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =the girls of friendly terrace= "a book sure to please girl readers, for the author seems to understand perfectly the girl character."--_boston globe._ =peggy raymond's vacation= "it is a wholesome, hearty story."--_utica observer._ =school days on friendly terrace= the book is delightfully written, and contains lots of exciting incidents. famous leaders series by charles h. l. johnston _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =famous cavalry leaders= "more of such books should be written, books that acquaint young readers with historical personages in a pleasant, informal way."--_new york sun._ "it is a book that will stir the heart of every boy and will prove interesting as well to the adults."--_lawrence daily world._ =famous indian chiefs= "mr. johnston has done faithful work in this volume, and his relation of battles, sieges and struggles of these famous indians with the whites for the possession of america is a worthy addition to united states history."--_new york marine journal._ =famous scouts= "it is the kind of a book that will have a great fascination for boys and young men, and while it entertains them it will also present valuable information in regard to those who have left their impress upon the history of the country."--_the new london day._ =famous privateersmen and adventurers of the sea= "the tales are more than merely interesting; they are entrancing, stirring the blood with thrilling force and bringing new zest to the never-ending interest in the dramas of the sea."--_the pittsburgh post._ =famous frontiersmen and heroes of the border= this book is devoted to a description of the adventurous lives and stirring experiences of many pioneer heroes who were prominently identified with the opening of the great west. "the accounts are not only authentic, but distinctly readable, making a book of wide appeal to all who love the history of actual adventure."--_cleveland leader._ hildegarde-margaret series by laura e. richards eleven volumes the hildegarde-margaret series, beginning with "queen hildegarde" and ending with "the merryweathers," make one of the best and most popular series of books for girls ever written. _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . _the eleven volumes boxed as a set_ $ . list of titles =queen hildegarde= =hildegarde's holiday= =hildegarde's home= =hildegarde's neighbors= =hildegarde's harvest= =three margarets= =margaret montfort= =peggy= =rita= =fernley house= =the merryweathers= the captain january series by laura e. richards _each mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ cents =captain january= a charming idyl of new england coast life, whose success has been very remarkable. same. _illustrated holiday edition_ $ . same, french text. _illustrated holiday edition_ $ . =melody:= the story of a child. same. _illustrated holiday edition_ $ . =marie= a companion to "melody" and "captain january." =rosin the beau= a sequel to "melody" and "marie." =snow-white;= or, the house in the wood. =jim of hellas;= or, in durance vile, and a companion story, bethesda pool. =narcissa= and a companion story, in verona, being two delightful short stories of new england life. "=some say=" and a companion story, neighbors in cyrus. =nautilus= "'nautilus' is by far the best product of the author's powers, and is certain to achieve the wide success it so richly merits." =isla heron= this interesting story is written in the author's usual charming manner. =the little master= "a well told, interesting tale of a high character."--_california gateway gazette._ delightful books for little folks by laura e. richards =three minute stories= cloth decorative, mo, with eight plates in full color and many text illustrations by josephine bruce. _net_ $ . ; carriage paid $ . "little ones will understand and delight in the stories and poems."--_indianapolis news._ =five minute stories= cloth decorative, square mo, illustrated $ . a charming collection of short stories and clever poems for children. =more five minute stories= cloth decorative, square mo, illustrated $ . a noteworthy collection of short stories and poems for children, which will prove as popular with mothers as with boys and girls. =five mice in a mouse trap= cloth decorative, square mo, illustrated $ . the story of their lives and other wonderful things related by the man in the moon, done in the vernacular from the lunacular form by laura e. richards. =when i was your age= cloth, vo, illustrated $ . the title most happily introduces the reader to the charming home life of doctor howe and mrs. julia ward howe, during the childhood of the author. =a happy little time= cloth, vo, illustrated $ . little betty and the happy time she had will appeal strongly to mothers as well as to the little ones who will have this story read to them, and appeal all the more on account of its being such a "real" story. the boys' story of the railroad series by burton e. stevenson _each large mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =the young section-hand;= or, the adventures of allan west. "a thrilling story, well told, clean and bright. the whole range of section railroading is covered in the story, and it contains information as well as interest."--_chicago post._ =the young train dispatcher= "a vivacious account of the varied and often hazardous nature of railroad life, full of incident and adventure, in which the author has woven admirable advice about honesty, manliness, self-culture, good reading, and the secrets of success."--_congregationalist._ =the young train master= "it is a book that can be unreservedly commended to anyone who loves a good, wholesome, thrilling, informing yarn."--_passaic news._ =the young apprentice;= or, allan west's chum. "the story is intensely interesting, and one gains an intimate knowledge of the methods and works in the great car shops not easily gained elsewhere."--_baltimore sun._ "it appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at the same time teaches him some valuable lessons in honor, pluck, and perseverance."--_cleveland plain dealer._ "the lessons that the books teach in development of uprightness, honesty and true manly character are sure to appeal to the reader."--_the american boy._ the little colonel books (trade mark) by annie fellows johnston _each large mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume_ $ . =the little colonel stories= (trade mark) being three "little colonel" stories in the cosy comer series, "the little colonel," "two little knights of kentucky," and "the giant scissors," in a single volume. =the little colonel's house party= (trade mark) =the little colonel's holidays= (trade mark) =the little colonel's hero= (trade mark) =the little colonel at boarding-school= (trade mark) =the little colonel in arizona= (trade mark) =the little colonel's christmas vacation= (trade mark) =the little colonel, maid of honor= (trade mark) =the little colonel's knight comes riding= (trade mark) =mary ware: the little colonel's chum= (trade mark) =mary ware in texas= =mary ware's promised land= _these twelve volumes, boxed as a set_, $ . . special holiday editions _each small quarto, cloth decorative, per volume_ $ . new plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page drawings in color, and many marginal sketches. =the little colonel= (trade mark) =two little knights of kentucky= =the giant scissors= =big brother= the johnston jewel series _each small mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece and decorative text borders, per volume_ _net_ $ . =in the desert of waiting:= the legend of camelback mountain. =the three weavers:= a fairy tale for fathers and mothers as well as for their daughters. =keeping tryst:= a tale of king arthur's time. =the legend of the bleeding heart= =the rescue of princess winsome:= a fairy play for old and young. =the jester's sword= ------ =the little colonel's good times book= uniform in size with the little colonel series $ . bound in white kid (morocco) and gold _net_ . cover design and decorations by peter verberg. "a mighty attractive volume in which the owner may record the good times she has on decorated pages, and under the directions as it were of annie fellows johnston."--_buffalo express._ =the little colonel doll book--first series= quarto, boards, printed in colors $ . a series of "little colonel" dolls. each has several changes of costume, so they can be appropriately clad for the rehearsal of any scene or incident in the series. =the little colonel doll book--second series= quarto, boards, printed in colors $ . an artistic series of paper dolls, including not only lovable mary ware, the little colonel's chum, but many another of the much loved characters which appear in the last three volumes of the famous "little colonel series." =asa holmes= by annie fellows johnston. with a frontispiece by ernest fosbery. mo, cloth decorative, gilt top $ . "'asa holmes' is the most delightful, most sympathetic and wholesome book that has been published in a long while."--_boston times._ =travelers five: along life's highway= by annie fellows johnston. with an introduction by bliss carman, and a frontispiece by e. h. garrett. mo, cloth decorative $ . "mrs. johnston broadens her reputation with this book so rich in the significance of common things."--_boston advertiser._ =joel: a boy of galilee= by annie fellows johnston. mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "the book is a very clever handling of the greatest event in the history of the world."--_rochester, n. y., herald. the boys' story of the army series by florence kimball russel =born to the blue= mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "the story deserves warm commendation and genuine popularity."--_army and navy register._ =in west point gray= mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "one of the best books that deals with west point."--_new york sun._ =from chevrons to shoulder-straps= mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "the life of a cadet at west point is portrayed very realistically."--_the hartford post, hartford, conn._ doctor's little girl series by marion ames taggart _each large mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume_, $ . =the doctor's little girl= "a charming story of the ups and downs of the life of a dear little maid."--_the churchman._ =sweet nancy:= the further adventures of the doctor's little girl. "just the sort of book to amuse, while its influence cannot but be elevating."--_new york sun._ =nancy, the doctor's little partner= "the story is sweet and fascinating, such as many girls of wholesome tastes will enjoy."--_springfield union._ =nancy porter's opportunity= "nancy shows throughout that she is a splendid young woman, with plenty of pluck."--_boston globe._ =nancy and the coggs twins= "the story is refreshing."--_new york sun._ * * * * * transcriber's notes: punctuation errors repaired. page , "conquerers" changed to "conquerors" (were world conquerors in)