But Some Cakes Made Of Service-Berries And
Choke-Berries Dried In The Sun Were Presented To The White Men
"On which,"
says Captain Lewis, "we made a hearty meal." Later in the day, however,
an Indian invited Captain Lewis
Into his wigwam and treated him to a
small morsel of boiled antelope and a piece of fresh salmon roasted.
This was the first salmon he had seen, and the captain was now assured
that he was on the headwaters of the Columbia. This stream was what is now
known as the Lemhi River. The water was clear and limpid, flowing down
a bed of gravel; its general direction was a little north of west.
The journal says: -
"The chief informed him that this stream discharged, at the distance
of half a day's march, into another [Salmon River] of twice its size,
coming from the southwest; but added, on further inquiry, that there
was scarcely more timber below the junction of those rivers than in
this neighborhood, and that the river was rocky, rapid, and so closely
confined between high mountains that it was impossible to pass down it
either by land or water to the great lake [Pacific Ocean], where,
as he had understood, the white men lived.
"This information was far from being satisfactory, for there was
no timber here that would answer the purpose of building canoes, -
indeed not more than just sufficient for fuel; and even that consisted
of the narrow-leaved cottonwood, the red and the narrow-leaved willow,
chokecherry, service-berry, and a few currant bushes, such as are common
on the Missouri.
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