Information of our route,
as well as to procure horses, it was thought best for one of us
to go forward with a small party and endeavor to discover them,
before the daily discharge of our guns, which is necessary
for our subsistence, should give them notice of our approach.
If by an accident they hear us, they will most probably retreat
to the mountains, mistaking us for their enemies, who usually
attack them on this side." . . . . . . . . .
Captain Clark was now in the lead with a small party,
and he came upon the remains of several Indian camps formed
of willow-brush, Traces of Indians became more plentiful.
The journal adds: -
"At the same time Captain Clark observed that the pine trees
had been stripped of their bark about the same season,
which our Indian woman says her countrymen do in order to obtain
the sap and the soft parts of the wood and bark for food.
About eleven o'clock he met a herd of elk and killed two of them;
but such was the want of wood in the neighborhood that he was unable
to procure enough to make a fire, and was therefore obliged to substitute
the dung of the buffalo, with which he cooked his breakfast.
They then resumed their course along an old Indian road.
In the afternoon they reached a handsome valley, watered by a large creek,
both of which extended a considerable distance into the mountain.
This they crossed, and during the evening travelled over a mountainous
country covered with sharp fragments of flint rock; these bruised
and cut their feet very much, but were scarcely less troublesome
than the prickly-pear of the open plains, which have now become
so abundant that it is impossible to avoid them, and the thorns
are so strong that they pierce a double sole of dressed deer-skin;
the best resource against them is a sole of buffalo-hide in
parchment [that is, hard dried]. At night they reached the river
much fatigued, having passed two mountains in the course of the day,
and travelled thirty miles. Captain Clark's first employment,
on lighting a fire, was to extract from his feet the thorns,
which he found seventeen in number."
The dung of the buffalo, exposed for many years to the action of sun,
wind, and rain, became as dry and firm as the finest compressed hay.
As "buffalo chips," in these treeless regions, it was the overland emigrants'
sole dependence for fuel.
The explorers now approached a wonderful pass in the Rocky Mountains
which their journal thus describes:
"A mile and a half beyond this creek [Cottonwood Creek] the rocks approach
the river on both sides, forming a most sublime and extraordinary spectacle.
For five and three quarter miles these rocks rise perpendicularly
from the water's edge to the height of nearly twelve hundred feet.
They are composed of a black granite near their base, but from the lighter
color above, and from the fragments, we suppose the upper part to be flint
of a yellowish brown and cream color.
"Nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of
these rocks, which project over the river and menace us with destruction.
The river, one hundred and fifty yards in width, seems to have forced
its channel down this solid mass; but so reluctantly has it given way,
that during the whole distance the water is very deep even at the edges,
and for the first three miles there is not a spot, except one of a few yards,
in which a man could stand between the water and the towering perpendicular
of the mountain. The convulsion of the passage must have been terrible,
since at its outlet there are vast columns of rock torn from the mountain,
which are strewed on both sides of the river, the trophies, as it were,
of its victory. Several fine springs burst out from the chasms of the rock,
and contribute to increase the river, which has a strong current,
but, very fortunately, we were able to overcome it with our oars,
since it would have been impossible to use either the cord or the pole.
We were obliged to go on some time after dark, not being able to find
a spot large enough to encamp on; but at length, about two miles above
a small island in the middle of the river, we met with a place on
the left side, where we procured plenty of light wood and pitch pine.
This extraordinary range of rocks we called the Gates of the Rocky Mountains."
Some of Captain Clark's men, engaged in hunting, gave the alarm
to roving bands of Shoshonee Indians, hunting in that vicinity.
The noise of their guns attracted the attention of the Indians,
who, having set fire to the grass as a warning to their comrades,
fled to the mountains. The whole country soon appeared to have
taken fright, and great clouds of smoke were observed in all directions.
Falling into an old Indian trail, Captain Clark waited, with his weary
and footsore men, for the rest of the party to come up with them.
The explorers had now passed south, between the Big Belt range of mountains
on the cast and the main chain of the Rocky Mountains on the west.
Meagher County, Montana, now lies on the cast of their trail, and on the west
side of that route is the county of Lewis and Clark. They were now -
still travelling southward - approaching the ultimate sources of the
great Missouri. The journal says: -
"We are delighted to find that the Indian woman recognizes the country;
she tells us that to this creek her countrymen make excursions
to procure white paint on its banks, and we therefore call it
Whiteearth Creek. She says also that the Three Forks of the Missouri
are at no great distance - a piece of intelligence which has cheered
the spirits of us all, as we hope soon to reach the head of that river.
This is the warmest day, except one, we have experienced this summer.
In the shade the mercury stood at eighty degrees, which is
the second time it has reached that height during this season.
We camped on an island, after making nineteen and three quarters miles.
