We Might Suppose That When They Actually
Embarked Upon The Waters Of The Famous Stream, Variously Known
As "The River
Of the North" and "The Oregon," the explorers
would be touched with a little of the enthusiasm with which they
Straddled the headwaters of the Missouri and gazed upon the
snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains. But no such kindling
of the imagination seems to have been noted in their journal.
In this commonplace way, according to their own account,
Captain Clark entered upon the mighty Columbia: -
"In the course of the day [October 17, 1805], Captain Clark,
in a small canoe with two men, ascended the Columbia. At the distance
of five miles he passed an island in the middle of the river,
at the head of which was a small but not dangerous rapid.
On the left bank, opposite to this island, was a fishing-place
consisting of three mat houses. Here were great quantities of salmon
drying on scaffolds; and, indeed, from the mouth of the river upward,
he saw immense numbers of dead salmon strewed along the shore,
or floating on the surface of the water, which is so clear that
the fish may be seen swimming at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet.
The Indians, who had collected on the banks to observe him,
now joined him in eighteen canoes, and accompanied him up the river.
A mile above the rapids he came to the lower point of an island,
where the course of the stream, which had been from its mouth
north eighty-three degrees west, now became due west.
He proceeded in that direction, until, observing three house's
of mats at a short distance, he landed to visit them.
On entering one of these houses, he found it crowded with men, women,
and children, who immediately provided a mat for him to sit on,
and one of the party undertook to prepare something to eat.
He began by bringing in a piece of pine wood that had drifted down
the river, which he split into small pieces with a wedge made of elkhorn,
by means of a mallet of stone curiously carved.
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