"The river is still rapid, and the water, though clear, is very much
obstructed by shoals or ripples at every two hundred or three hundred yards.
At all these places we are obliged to drag the canoes over the stones,
as there is not a sufficient depth of water to float them, and in
the other parts the current obliges us to have recourse to the cord.
But as the brushwood on the banks will not permit us to walk on shore,
we are under the necessity of wading through the river as we drag the boats.
This soon makes our feet tender, and sometimes occasions severe falls
over the slippery stones; and the men, by being constantly wet,
are becoming more feeble. In the course of the day the hunters killed
two deer, some geese and ducks, and the party saw some antelopes,
cranes, beaver, and otter."
Captain Lewis had left a note for Captain Clark at the forks
of the Jefferson and Wisdom rivers. Clark's journal says: -
"We arrived at the forks about four o'clock, but, unluckily, Captain Lewis's
note had been attached to a green pole, which the beaver had cut down,
and carried off with the note on it: an accident which deprived us
of all information as to the character of the two branches of the river.
Observing, therefore, that the northwest fork was most in our direction,
we ascended it. We found it extremely rapid, and its waters were
scattered in such a manner that for a quarter of a mile we were forced
to cut a passage through the willow-brush that leaned over the little
channels and united at the top. After going up it for a mile, we encamped
on an island which had been overflowed, and was still so wet that we
were compelled to make beds of brush to keep ourselves out of the mud.
Our provision consisted of two deer which had been killed in the morning."
It should be borne in mind that this river, up which the party
were making their way, was the Wisdom (now Big Hole), and was
the northwest fork of the Jefferson, flowing from southeast
to northwest; and near the point where it enters the Jefferson,
it has a loop toward the northeast; that is to say, it comes
from the southwest to a person looking up its mouth.
After going up the Wisdom River, Clark's party were overtaken
by Drewyer, Lewis's hunter, who had been sent across between
the forks to notify Clark that Lewis regarded the other fork -
the main Jefferson - as the right course to take. The party,
accordingly, turned about and began to descend the stream,
in order to ascend the Jefferson. The journal says: -
"On going down, one of the canoes upset and two others filled
with water, by which all the baggage was wet and several articles were
irrecoverably lost. As one of them swung round in a rapid current,
Whitehouse was thrown out of her; while down, the canoe passed over him,
and had the water been two inches shallower would have crushed
him to pieces; but he escaped with a severe bruise of his leg.
In order to repair these misfortunes we hastened [down] to the forks,
where we were joined by Captain Lewis. We then passed over to the left
[east] side, opposite the entrance of the rapid fork, and camped
on a large gravelly bar, near which there was plenty of wood.
Here we opened, and exposed to dry, all the articles which had
suffered from the water; none of them were completely spoiled except
a small keg of powder; the rest of the powder, which was distributed
in the different canoes, was quite safe, although it had been under
the water for upward of an hour. The air is indeed so pure and dry
that any wood-work immediately shrinks, unless it is kept filled
with water; but we had placed our powder in small canisters of lead,
each containing powder enough for the canister when melted into bullets,
and secured with cork and wax, which answered our purpose perfectly.
. . . . . . . .
In the evening we killed three deer and four elk, which furnished
us once more with a plentiful supply of meat. Shannon, the same
man who had been lost for fifteen days [August 28 to Sept. 11,
1804], was sent out this morning to hunt, up the northwest fork.
When we decided on returning, Drewyer was directed to go in quest of him,
but be returned with information that he had gone several miles up
the [Wisdom] river without being able to find Shannon. We now had
the trumpet sounded, and fired several guns; but he did not return,
and we fear he is again lost."
This man, although an expert hunter, had an unlucky habit
of losing himself in the wilderness, as many another good man
has lost himself among the mountains or the great plains.
This time, however, he came into camp again, after being
lost three days.
On the eighth of August the party reached a point now known
by its famous landmark, Beaver Head, a remarkable rocky formation
which gives its name to Beaverhead County, Montana. The Indian
woman, Sacajawea, recognized the so-called beaver-head, which,
she said, was not far from the summer retreat of her countrymen,
living on the other side of the mountains. The whole party
were now together again, the men with the canoes having come up;
and the journal says: -
"Persuaded of the absolute necessity of procuring horses to cross
the mountains, it was determined that one of us should proceed
in the morning to the head of the river, and penetrate the mountains
till he found the Shoshonees or some other nation who can assist
us in transporting our baggage, the greater part of which we shall
be compelled to leave without the aid of horses.". . .
Early the next day Captain Lewis took Drewyer, Shields, and M'Neal, and,
slinging their knapsacks, they set out with a resolution to meet some nation
of Indians before they returned, however long they might be separated
from the party.
