They Reached The Banks In A Handsome Open Low Ground
With Cottonwood, After Three Miles' Walk.
Here they saw two large
brown bears, and killed them both at the first fire - a circumstance
which has
Never before occurred since we have seen that animal.
Having made a meal of a part, and hung the remainder on a tree,
with a note for Captain Clark, they again ascended the bluffs into
the open plains. Here they saw great numbers of the burrowing-squirrel,
also some wolves, antelopes, mule-deer, and vast herds of buffalo.
They soon crossed a ridge considerably higher than the surrounding plains,
and from its top had a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains, which are
now completely covered with snow. Their general course is from S.E. to
N. of N.W., and they seem to consist of several ranges which successively
rise above each other, till the most distant mingles with the clouds.
After travelling twelve miles they again met the river, where there
was a handsome plain of cottonwood."
Again leaving the river, Captain Lewis bore off more to the north,
the stream here bearing considerably to the south, with difficult
bluffs along its course. But fearful of passing the Great Falls
before reaching the Rocky Mountains, he again changed his course and,
leaving the bluffs to his right he turned towards the river.
The journal gives this description of what followed: -
"In this direction Captain Lewis had gone about two miles, when his
ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water, and as
he advanced a spray, which seemed driven by the high southwest wind,
arose above the plain like a column of smoke, and vanished in an instant.
Toward this point he directed his steps; the noise increased as he approached,
and soon became too tremendous to be mistaken for anything but the Great Falls
of the Missouri. Having travelled seven miles after first hearing the sound,
he reached the falls about twelve o'clock. The hills as he approached
were difficult of access and two hundred feet high. Down these he hurried
with impatience; and, seating himself on some rocks under the centre
of the falls, enjoyed the sublime spectacle of this stupendous object,
which since the creation had been lavishing its magnificence upon the desert,
unknown to civilization.
"The river immediately at this cascade is three hundred yards wide,
and is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff on the left, which rises
to about one hundred feet and extends up the stream for a mile;
on the right the bluff is also perpendicular for three hundred
yards above the falls. For ninety or one hundred yards from
the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth, even sheet,
over a precipice of at least eighty feet. The remaining part
of the river precipitates itself with a more rapid current,
but being received as it falls by the irregular and somewhat projecting
rocks below, forms a splendid prospect of perfectly white foam,
two hundred yards in length and eighty in perpendicular elevation.
This spray is dissipated into a thousand shapes, sometimes flying
up in columns of fifteen or twenty feet, which are then oppressed
by larger masses of the white foam, on all of which the sun impresses
the brightest colors of the rainbow. Below the fall the water
beats with fury against a ledge of rocks, which extends across
the river at one hundred and fifty yards from the precipice.
From the perpendicular cliff on the north to the distance
of one hundred and twenty yards, the rocks are only a few feet
above the water; and, when the river is high, the stream finds
a channel across them forty yards wide, and near the higher
parts of the ledge, which rise about twenty feet, and terminate
abruptly within eighty or ninety yards of the southern side.
Between them and the perpendicular cliff on the south, the whole
body of water runs with great swiftness. A few small cedars grow
near this ridge of rocks, which serves as a barrier to defend
a small plain of about three acres, shaded with cottonwood;
at the lower extremity of which is a grove of the same trees,
where are several deserted Indian cabins of sticks; below which
the river is divided by a large rock, several feet above the surface
of the water, and extending down the stream for twenty yards.
At the distance of three hundred yards from the same ridge
is a second abutment of solid perpendicular rock, about sixty
feet high, projecting at right angles from the small plain on
the north for one hundred and thirty-four yards into the river.
After leaving this, the Missouri again spreads itself to its
previous breadth of three hundred yards, though with more than
its ordinary rapidity."
One of Lewis's men was sent back to inform Captain Clark of this
momentous discovery, which finally settled all doubt as to which was the
true Missouri. The famous Great Falls of the river had been finally reached.
Captain Lewis next went on to examine the rapids above the falls.
The journal says: -
"After passing one continued rapid and three cascades, each three
or four feet high, he reached, at the distance of five miles,
a second fall. The river is here about four hundred yards wide,
and for the distance of three hundred rushes down to the depth
of nineteen feet, and so irregularly that he gave it the name
of the Crooked Falls. From the southern shore it extends obliquely
upward about one hundred and fifty yards, and then forms an acute
angle downward nearly to the commencement of four small islands close
to the northern side. From the perpendicular pitch to these islands,
a distance of more than one hundred yards, the water glides down
a sloping rock with a velocity almost equal to that of its fall:
above this fall the river bends suddenly to the northward.
While viewing this place, Captain Lewis heard a loud roar above him,
and, crossing the point of a hill a few hundred yards, he saw one
of the most beautiful objects in nature:
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