[Lewis:]
Thursday June 26th. 1806.
This morning we collected our horses and set out after an
early breakfast or at 6 A. M. we passed by the same rout
we had travelled on the 17th. inst. to our deposit on the top of
the snowey mountain to the N. E. of hungary Creek. here
we necessarily halted about 2 hours to arrange our baggage
and prepare our loads. we cooked and made a haisty meal
of boiled venison and mush of cows. the snow has subsided
near four feet since the 17th. inst. we now measured it accurately
and found from a mark which we had made on a tree
when we were last here on the 17th. that it was then 10 feet 10
inches which appeared to be about the common debth though
it is deeper still in some places. it is now generally about 7
feet. on our way up this mountain about the border of the
snowey region we killed 2 of the small black pheasant and
a female of the large dommanicker or speckled pheasant,
the former have 16 f[e]athers in their tail and the latter 20
while the common pheasant have only 18. the indians informed
us that neither of these speceis drumed; they appear
to be very silent birds for I never heared either of them make
a noise in any situation. the indians haistened to be off, and
informed us that it was a considerable distance to the place
which they wished to reach this evening where there was grass
for our horses. accordingly we set out with our guides who
lead us over and along the steep sides of tremendious mountains
entirely covered with snow except about the roots of the
trees where the snow had sometimes melted and exposed a few
square feet of the earth. we ascended and decended several
lofty and steep hights but keeping on the dividing ridge between
the Chopunnish and Kooskooske rivers we passed no
stream of water.
[24]
late in the evening much to the satisfaction
of ourselves and the comfort of our horses we arrived at the
desired spot and encamped on the steep side of a mountain
convenient to a good spring (
having passed a few miles our
camp of 18 Sepr 1805). there we found an abundance of
fine grass for our horses. this situation was the side of an
untimbered mountain with a fair southern aspect where the
snows from appearance had been desolved about 10 days.
the grass was young and tender of course and had much the
appearance of the greensward.
[25]
there is a great abundance
of a speceis of bear-grass which grows on every part of these
mountains it's growth is luxouriant and continues green all
winter but the horses will not eat it. soon after we had encamped
we were overtaken by a Chopunnish man who had
pursued us with a view to accompany me to the falls of the
Missouri. we were now informed that the two young men
whom we met on the 21
st. and detained several days are going
on a party of pleasure mearly to the Oote-lash-shoots or as
they call them Sha-lees a band of the Tush-she-pâh nation who
reside on Clark's river in the neighbourhood of traveller's rest.
one of our guides lost 2 of his horses, which he returned in
surch of; he found them and rejoined us a little before dark.
