As We Have Said,
They Are Now More Commonly Known As Bighorns.
The patience of the explorers was rewarded, on Sunday, May 26, 1806, by their
first view of the Rocky Mountains.
Here is the journal's record on that date: -
"It was here [Cow Creek, Mont.] that, after ascending the highest summit
of the hills on the north side of the river, Captain Lewis first caught
a distant view of the Rock mountains - the object of all our hopes,
and the reward of all our ambition. On both sides of the river,
and at no great distance from it, the mountains followed its course.
Above these at the distance of fifty miles from us, an irregular
range of mountains spread from west to northwest from his position.
To the north of these, a few elevated points, the most remarkable
of which bore N. 65'0 W., appeared above the horizon; and as the sun
shone on the snows of their summits, he obtained a clear and satisfactory
view of those mountains which close on the Missouri the passage
to the Pacific."
As they continued to ascend the Missouri they found themselves confronted
by many considerable rapids which sometimes delayed their progress.
They also set forth this observation: "The only animals we have observed
are the elk, the bighorn, and the hare common to this country."
Wayfarers across the plains now call this hare the jack-rabbit. The river
soon became very rapid with a marked descent, indicating their nearness
to its mountain sources. The journal says: -
"Its general width is about two hundred yards; the shoals are more frequent,
and the rocky points at the mouths of the gullies more troublesome to pass.
Great quantities of stone lie in the river and on its bank, and seem
to have fallen down as the rain washed away the clay and sand in which
they were imbedded. The water is bordered by high, rugged bluffs,
composed of irregular but horizontal strata of yellow and brown or black clay,
brown and yellowish-white sand, soft yellowish-white sandstone,
and hard dark brown freestone; also, large round kidney-formed irregular
separate masses of a hard black ironstone, imbedded in the clay and sand;
some coal or carbonated wood also makes its appearance in the cliffs,
as do its usual attendants, the pumice-stone and burnt earth. The salts
and quartz are less abundant, and, generally speaking, the country is,
if possible, more rugged and barren than that we passed yesterday;
the only growth of the hills being a few pine, spruce, and dwarf cedar,
interspersed with an occasional contrast, once in the course of some miles,
of several acres of level ground, which supply a scanty subsistence
for a few little cottonwoods."
But, a few days later, the party passed out of this inhospitable
region, and, after passing a stream which they named Thompson's
(now Birch) Creek, after one of their men, they were glad to make
this entry in their diary:
"Here the country assumed a totally different aspect:
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