As Far As The Eye Could Reach, The River Was
Walled In By Perpendicular Cliffs Two Hundred And Fifty Feet
High, Beetling Like Dark And Gloomy Battlements, While Blocks And
Fragments Lay In Masses At Their Feet, In The Midst Of The
Boiling And Whirling Current.
Just above, the whole stream
pitched in one cascade above forty feet in height, with a
thundering sound, casting up a volume of spray that hung in the
air like a silver mist.
These are called by some the Fishing
Falls, as the salmon are taken here in immense quantities. They
cannot get by these falls.
After encamping at this place all night, Captain Bonneville, at
sunrise, descended with his party through a narrow ravine, or
rather crevice, in the vast wall of basaltic rock which bordered
the river; this being the only mode, for many miles, of getting
to the margin of the stream.
The snow lay in a thin crust along the banks of the river, so
that their travelling was much more easy than it had been
hitherto. There were foot tracks, also, made by the natives,
which greatly facilitated their progress. Occasionally, they met
the inhabitants of this wild region; a timid race, and but
scantily provided with the necessaries of life. Their dress
consisted of a mantle about four feet square, formed of strips of
rabbit skins sewed together; this they hung over their shoulders,
in the ordinary Indian mode of wearing the blanket. Their weapons
were bows and arrows; the latter tipped with obsidian, which
abounds in the neighborhood.
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