Friday May 31st 1805.—
This morning we proceeded at an early hour with the two
perogues leaving the canoes and crews to bring on the meat
of the two buffaloe that were killed last evening and which
had not been brought in as it was late and a little off the
river. soon after we got under way it began to rain and continued
untill meridian when it ceased but still remained cloudy
through the ballance of the day. The obstructions of rocky
points and riffles still continue as yesterday; at those places
the men are compelled to be in the water even to their armpits,
and the water is yet very could, and so frequent are those
point[s] that they are one fourth of their time in the water,
added to this the banks and bluffs along which they are obliged
to pass are so slippery and the mud so tenacious that they are
unable to wear their mockersons, and in that situation draging
the heavy burthen of a canoe and walking acasionally for
several hundred yards over the sharp fragments of rocks which
tumble from the clifts and garnish the borders of the river;
in short their labour is incredibly painfull and great, yet those
faithfull fellows bear it without a murmur. The toe rope of
the white perogue, the only one indeed of hemp, and that on
which we most depended, gave way today at a bad point, the
perogue swung and but slightly touched a rock; yet was very
near overseting; I fear her evil gennii will play so many
pranks with her that she will go to the bottomm some of those
days.
Capt. C. walked on shore this morning but found it so excessively
bad that he shortly returned. at 12 OC.M we came
too for refreshment and gave the men a dram which they
received with much cheerfullness, and well deserved.
The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a
most romantic appearance. The bluffs of the river rise to
the high of from 2 to 300 feet and in most places nearly
perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone
which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression
of water; two or thre thin horizontal stratas of white freestone,
on which the rains or water make no impression, lie
imbeded in these clifts of soft stone near the upper part of
them; the earth on the top of these Clifts is a dark rich
loam, which forming a graduly ascending plain extends back
from 1/2 a mile to a mile where the hills commence and rise
abruptly to a hight of about 300 feet more. The water in
the course of time in decending from those hills and plains
on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand clifts
and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which with the
help of a little immagination and an oblique view, at a distance
are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone buildings,
having their parapets well stocked with statuary; collumns
of various sculpture both grooved and plain, are also
seen supporting long galleries in front of those buildings; in
other places on a much nearer approach and with the help of
less immagination we see the remains or ruins of eligant buildings;
some collumns standing and almost entire with their
pedestals and capitals; others retaining their pedestals but
deprived by time or accident of their capitals, some lying prostrate
an broken othe[r]s in the form of vast pyramids of connic
structure bearing a serees of other pyramids on their tops
becoming less as they ascend and finally terminating in a sharp
point. nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes are seen
at different hights as we pass. a number of the small martin
which build their nests with clay in a globular form attatched
to the wall within those nitches, and which were seen hovering
about the tops of the collumns did not the less remind us of
some of those large stone buildings in the U. States. the thin
stratas of hard freestone intermixed with the soft sandstone
seems to have aided the water in forming this curious scenery.
As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment
would never have and [an] end; for here it is too
that nature presents to the view of the traveler vast ranges of
walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed are those
walls that I should have thought that nature had attempted
here to rival the human art of masonry had I not recollected
that she had first began her work. These walls rise to the
hight in many places of 100 feet, are perpendicular, with two
regular faces and are from one to 12 feet thick, each wall retains
the same thickness at top which it possesses at bottom.
The stone of which these walls are formed is black, dence and
dureable, and appears to be composed of a large portion of
earth intermixed or cemented with a small quantity of sand
and a considerable portion of talk or quarts. these stones are
almost invariably regular parallelepipeds, of unequal sizes in
the walls, but equal in their horizontal ranges, at least as to
debth. these are laid regularly in ranges on each other like
bricks, each breaking or covering the interstice of the two on
which it rests. thus the purpendicular interstices are broken,
and the horizontal ones extend entire throughout the whole
extent of the walls. These stones seem to bear some proportion
to the thickness of the walls in which they are employed,
being larger in the thicker walls; the greatest length of the
parallelepiped appears to form the thickness of the thinner
walls, while two or more are employed to form that of the
thicker walls. These walls pass the river in several places,
rising from the water's edge much above the sandstone bluffs,
which they seem to penetrate; thence continuing their course
on a streight line on either side of the river through the gradually
ascending plains, over which they tower to the hight of
from ten to seventy feet untill they reach the hills, which they
finally enter and conceal themselves. these walls sometimes
run parallel to each other, with several ranges near each other,
and at other times interscecting each other at right angles,
having the appearance of the walls of ancient houses or gardens.
I walked on shore this evening and examined these
walls minutely and preserved a specimine of the stone. I
found the face of many of the river hills formed of Clifts of
very excellent free stone of a light yellowish brown colour; on
these clifts I met with a species of pine which I had never
seen, it differs from the pitch-pine in the particular of it's
leaf and cone, the first being vastly shorter, and the latter considerably
longer and more pointed. I saw near those bluffs
the most beautifull fox that I ever beheld, the colours appeared
to me to be a fine orrange yellow, white and black; I endevoured
to kill this anamal but it discovered me at a considerable
distance, and finding that I could get no nearer, I fired
on him as he ran, and missed him; he concealed himself under
the rocks of the clift; it appeared to me to be about the size
of the common red fox of the Atlantic states, or reather smaller
than the large fox common to this country; convinced I am
that it is a distinct species.
[15]
The appearance of coal continu[e]s
but in small quantities, but litt[l]e appearance of
birnt hills or pumice stone. the mineral salts have in some
measure abated and no quarts. we saw a great number of the
Bighorn some mule deer and a few buffaloe and Elk, no antelopes
or common deer. Drewyer who was with me and
myself killed two bighorned anamals; the sides of the Clifts
where these anamals resort much to lodg, have the peculiar
smell of the sheepfolds. the party killed in addition to our
hunt 2 buffaloe and an Elk. the river today has been from
150 to 250 y
ds. wide but little timber today on the river.
Courses and distances of May 31st. 1805.
| N. 45°. W. |
2. |
to a few trees in a bend on Stard. side |
| S. 80°. W. |
1/2 |
to a few trees on a Stard. point |
| N. 80°. W. |
1/4 |
On the Stard. point |
| N. 60°. W. |
1 3/4 |
to the lower part of the timber in a Stard. bend |
| West |
1/4 |
to a few trees on the Stard. side. |
| N. 78°. W. |
2. |
to some trees on the Stard. side. |
| West |
2. |
to a point on the Stard. side. |
| N. 45°. W. |
1/4. |
Along the Stard. point. |
| N. 30°. W. |
1/4. |
Along the Stard. point passing a high wall of black rock
on Lard. rising from the water's edge above the river
clifts. |
| North |
1 1/2 |
to a tree in a bend on Stard. opposite to a high open
bottom. |
| N. 42°. W. |
1. |
to a point on the Stard. side |
| N. 10°. E. |
3/4 |
to a point on the Lard. side opposite to a wall of black
rock 200 feet high penetrating the bluff |
| N. 20°. W. |
2. |
to four trees in a bend on Lard. side |
| North |
3 1/2 |
to the upper part of a timbered bottom on the Stard. side
above the entrance of a stone wall creek affording
water and 28 Yds. wide just above the mouth of
which we encamped. at 1. M on this course passed
a high stone wall on Std. 12 feet thick and rising
200 feet. |
| Miles |
18 |
|
