University of Virginia Library

[Lewis:][9]

Friday August 23rd. 1805.

This morning I arrose very early and despatched two hunters
on horseback with orders to extend their hunt to a greater
distance up the S. E. fork than they had done heretofore, in
order if possible to obtain some meet for ourselves as well as
the Indians who appeared to depend on us for food and our
store of provision is growing too low to indulge them with
much more corn or flour. I wished to have set out this
morning but the cheif requested that I would wait untill another
party of his nation arrived which he expected today, to this
I consented from necessity, and therefore sent out the hunters
as I have mentioned. I also laid up the canoes this morning
in a pond near the forks; sunk them in the water and weighted
them down with stone, after taking out the plugs of the gage
holes in their bottoms; hoping by this means to guard against
both the effects of high water, and that of the fire which is
frequently kindled in these plains by the natives. the Indians
have promised to do them no intentional injury and [I] beleive

they are too laizy at any rate to give themselves the trouble
to raise them from their present situation in order to cut or
birn them. I reminded the chief of the low state of our stores
of provision and advised him to send his young men to hunt,
which he immediately recommended to them and most of them
turned out. I wished to have purchased some more horses
of them but they objected against disposing of any more of
them untill we reach their camp beyond the mountains. the
Indians pursued a mule buck[10] near our camp I saw this chase
for about 4 miles it was really entertaining, there were about
twelve of them in pursuit of it on horseback, they finally rode
it down and killed it. the[y] all came in about 1. P. M. having
killed 2 mule deer and three goats. this mule buck was
the largest deer of any kind I had ever seen. it was nearly as
large as a doe Elk. I observed that there was but little division
or distribution of the meat they had taken among themselves.
some familes had a large stock and others none.
this is not custumary among the nations of Indians with whom
I have hitherto been acquainted. I asked Cameahwait the
reason why the hunters did not divide the meat among themselves;
he said that meat was so scarce with them that the men
who killed it reserved it for themselves and their own families.
my hunters arrived about 2 in the evening with two mule deer
and three common deer. I distributed three of the deer among
those families who appeared to have nothing to eat. at three
P. M. the expected party of Indians arrived, about 50 men
women and children. I now learnt that most of them were
thus far on their way down the valley towards the buffaloe
country, and observed that there was a good deel of anxiety
on the part of some of those who had promised to assist me
over the mountains to accompany this party; I felt some
uneasiness on this subject but as they still said they would
return with me as they had promised I said nothing to them
but resolved to set out in the morning as early as possible. I
dispatched two hunters this evening into the cove to hunt
and leave the meat they might kill on the rout we shall pass
tomorrow.

The metal which we found in possession of these people
consi[s]ted of a few indifferent knives, a few brass kettles some
arm bands of iron and brass, a few buttons, woarn as ornaments
in their hair, a spear or two of a foot in length and some iron
and brass arrow points which they informed me they obtained
in exchange for horses from the Crow or Rocky Mountain
Indians on the yellowstone River. the bridlebits and stirreps
they obtained from the Spaniards, tho these were but few.
many of them made use of flint for knives, and with this instrument,
skined the animals they killed, dressed their fish and
made their arrows; in short they used it for every purpose to
which the knife is applyed. this flint is of no regular form,
and if they can only obtain a part of it, an inch or two in length
that will cut they are satisfyed. they renew the edge by flecking
off the flint by means of the point of an Elk's or deer's
horn. with the point of a deer or Elk's horn they also form
their arrow points of the flint, with a quickness and neatness
that is really astonishing. we found no axes nor hatchets
among them; what wood they cut was done either with stone
or Elk's horn. the latter they use always to rive or split their
wood. their culinary eutensils exclusive of the brass kettle
before mentioned consist of pots in the form of a jar made
either of earth, or of a white soft stone which becomes black
and very hard by birning, and is found in the hills near the
three forks of the Missouri betwen Madison's and Gallitin's
rivers.[11] they have also spoons made of the Buffaloe's horn
and those of the Bighorn. Their bows are made of ceader or
pine and have nothing remarkable about them. the back of
the bow is covered with sinues and glue and is about 2 ½ feet
long. much the shape of those used by the Siouxs Mandans
Minnetares &c. their arrows are more slender generally than
those used by the nations just mentioned but much the same
in construction. Their sheild is formed of buffaloe hide, perfectly
arrow proof, and is a circle of 2 feet 4 I. or 2 F. 6 I. in
diameter. this is frequently painted with varios figures and
ornamented around the edges with feather[s] and a fringe of

dressed leather. they sometimes make bows of the Elk's
horn and those also of the bighorn. those of the Elk's horn
are made of a single peice and covered on the back with glue
and sinues like those made of wood, and are frequently ornamented
with a stran[d] wrought [of] porcupine quills and
sinues raped around them for some distance at both extremities.
the bows of the bighorn are formed of small peices laid flat
and cemented with gleue, and rolled with siniws, after which,
they are also covered on the back with sinews and glew, and
highly ornamented as they are much prized. forming the
sheild is a cerimony of great importance among them, this
implement would in their minds be devested of much of its
protecting power were it not inspired with those virtues by
their old men and jugglers. their method of preparing it is
thus, an entire skin of a bull buffaloe two years old is first
provided; a feast is next prepared and all the warriors old men
and jugglers invited to partake. a hole is sunk in the ground
about the same in diameter with the intended sheild and about
18 inches deep. a parcel of stones are now made red hot and
thrown into the hole water is next thrown in and the hot
stones cause it to emit a very strong hot steem, over this they
spread the green skin which must not have been suffered to
dry after taken off the beast. the flesh side is laid next to the
groround and as many of the workmen as can reach it take
hold on it's edges and extend it in every direction. as the
skin becomes heated, the hair seperates and is taken of[f] with
the fingers, and the skin continues to contract untill the who[l]e
is drawn within the compas designed for the shield, it is then
taken off and laid on a parchment hide where they pound it
with their heels when barefoot. this operation of pounding
continues for several days or as long as the feast lasts when it
is delivered to the propryeter and declared by the jugglers and
old men to be a sufficient defence against the arrows of their
enimies or even bullets if [the] feast has been a satisfactory
one. many of them beleive implisitly that a ball cannot penitrate
their sheilds, in consequence of certain superna[t]ural
powers with which they have been inspired by their jugglers.
The Pog̍gâmog̍gon is an instrument with a handle of wood
covered with dressed leather about the size of a whip handle
and 22 inches long; a round stone of 2 pounds weight is also
covered with leather and strongly united to the leather of the
handle by a throng of 2 inches long; a loop of leather united
to the handle passes arond the wrist. a very heavy blow may
be given with this instrument. They have also a kind of
armor which they form with many foalds of dressed a[n]telope's
skin, unite with glue and sand. with this they cover their
own bodies and those of their horses. these are sufficient
against the effects of the arrow. the quiver which contains
their arrows and implements for making fire is formed of
various skins. that of the Otter seems to be prefered. they
are but narrow, of a length sufficent to protect the arrow from
the weather, and are woarn on the back by means of a strap
which passes over the left sholder and under the wright arm.
their impliments for making fire is nothing more than a blunt
arrow and a peice of well seasoned soft spongey wood such as
the willow or cottonwood. the point of this arrow they apply
to this dry stick so near one edge of it that the particles of
wood which are seperated from it by the friction of the arrow
falls down by it's side in a little pile. the arrow is held between
the palms of the hand with the fingers extended, and being
pressed as much as possible against the peice is briskly rolled
between the palms of the hands backwards and forwards by
pressing the arrow downwards the hands of course in rolling
[the] arrow also decend; they bring them back with a quick
motion and repeat the operation till the dust by the friction
takes fire; the peice and arrow are then removed and some
dry grass or dooted [rotted] wood is added. it astonished me
to see in what little time these people would kindle fire in this
way. in less than a minute they will produce fire.[12]

Capt. Clark set out this morning very early and poroceeded
but slowly in consequence of the difficulty of his road which
lay along the steep side of a mountain over large irregular

and broken masses of rocks which had tumbled from the
upper part of the mountain. it was with much wrisk and pain
that the horses could get on. at the distance of four miles he
arrived at the river and the rocks were here so steep and juted
into the river [in] such manner that there was no other alternative
but passing through the river, this he attempted with
success tho' water was so deep for a short distance as to swim
the horses and was very rapid; he continued his rout one
mile along the edge of the river under this steep Clift to a
little bottom, below which the whole current of the river beat
against the Stard. shore on which he was, and which was formed
of a solid rock perfectly inaccessible to horses. here also the
little track which he had been pursuing, terminated. he
therefore determined to leave the horses and the majority of
the party here and with his guide and three men to continue
his rout down the river still further, in order more fully to
satisfy himself as to it's practicability. accordingly he directed
the men to hunt and fish at this place untill his return. they
had not killed anything today but one goose, and the ballance
of the little provision they had brought with them, as well as
the five salmon they had procured yesterday were consumed
last evening; there was of cour[s]e no inducement for his
halting any time, at this place; after a few minutes he continued
his rout clambering over immence rocks and along the
sides of lofty precepices on the border of the river to the distance
of 12 miles, at which place a large creek discharged itself
on the No[r]th side 12 yds. wide and deep. a short distance
above the entrance of this creek there is a narrow bottom
which is the first that he had found on the river from that in
which he left the horses and party. a plain indian road led up
this creek which the guide informed him led to a large river
that ran to the North, and was frequented by another nation
who occasionally visited this river for the purpose of taking
fish. at this place he saw some late appearance of Indians
having been encamped and the tracks of a number of horses.
Capt. C. halted here about 2 hours, caught some small fish, on
which, with the addition of some berries, they dined. the
river from the place at which he left the party to his present
station was one continued rapid, in which there were five shoals
neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes nor even
run with empty ones. at those several places therefore it
would be necessary to unload and transport the baggage for a
considerable distance over steep and almost inaccessable rocks
where there was no possibility of employing horses for the
releif of the men; the canoes would next have to be let down
by cords and even with this precaution Capt. C. conceived
there would be much wrisk of both canoes and men. at one
of those shoals the lofty perpendicular rocks which from [form]
the bases of the mountains approach the river so nearly on
each side, as to prevent the possibility of a portage, or passage
for the canoes without expending much labour in removing
rocks and cuting away the earth in some places. to surmount
These difficulties, precautions must be observed which in their
execution must necessarily consume much time and provision,
neither of which we can command. the season is now [too]
far advanced to remain in these mountains as the Indians
inform us we shall shortly have snow; the salmon have so
far declined that they are themselves haistening from the
country and not an animal of any discription is to be seen in
this difficult part of the river larger than a pheasant or a
squirrel and they not abundant; add to this that our stock of
provision is now so low that it would not support us more
than ten days. the bends of the river are short and the currant
beats from side to side against the rocks with great violence.
the river is about 100 yds. wide and so deep that it cannot
be foarded but in a few places; and the rocks approach
the river so near in most places that there is no possibility
of passing between them and the water; a passage therefore
with horses along the river is also impracticable. The sides
of these mountains present generally one barren surface of
confused and broken masses of stone. above these are white
or brown and towards the base of a grey colour and so hard
that when struck with a steel, yeald fire like flint. those he
had just past were scarcely releived by the appearance of a
tree; but those below the entrance of the creek were better
covered with timber, and there were also some tall pine near
the river. The sides of the mountains are very steep, and the
torrents of water which roll down their sides at certain seasons
appear to carry with them vast quantities of the loose stone
into the river. after dinner Capt. C. continued his rout down
the river and at ½ a mile pased another creek not so large as
that just mentioned, or about 5 yards wide. here his guide
informed him that by ascending this creek some distance they
would have a better road and would cut off a considerable
bend which the river made to the south; accordingly he pursued
a well beaten Indian track which led up this creek about
six miles, then leaving the creek on the wright he passed
over a ridge, and at the distance of a mile arrived at the river
where it passes through a well timbered bottom of about eighty
acres of land; they passed this bottom and asscended a steep
and elivated point of a mountain, from whence the guide
shewed him the brake of the river through the mountains for
about 20 miles further. this view was terminated by one of the
most lofty mountains, Capt. C. informed me, he had ever seen
which was perfectly covered with snow. the river directed it's
course immediately to this stupendous mountain at the bace
of which the gu[i]de informed him those difficulties of which
himself and nation had spoken, commenced. that after the
river reached this mountain it continued it's rout to the North
for many miles between high and perpendicular rocks, roling
foaming and beating against innumerable rocks which crouded
it's channel; that then it penetrated the mountain through a
narrow gap leaving a perpendicular rock on either side as high
as the top of the mountain which he beheld. that the river
here making a bend they could not see through the mountain,
and as it was impossible to decend the river or clamber over
that vast mountain covered with eternal snow neither himself
nor any of his nation had ever been lower in this direction,
than in view of the place at which the river entered this mountain;
that if Capt. C. wished him to do so, he would conduct
him to that place, where he thought they could probably arrive
by the next evening. Capt. C. being now perfictly satisfyed as
to the impracticability of this rout either by land or water,
informed the old man, that he was convinced of the varacity
of his assertions and would now return to the village from
whence they had set out where he expected to meet myself and
party. they now returned to the upper part of the last creek
he had passed, and encamped. it was an hour after dark
before he reached this place. a small river falls into this fork
of the Columbia just above the high mountain through which
it passes on the south side.