It Was Not, However, Till After
Dark That The Whole Party Was Collected; And Then, As It Rained
And We
Had killed nothing, we passed an uncomfortable night.
The party had been too busily occupied with the horses to make
Any hunting excursion; and though, as we came along Fish Creek,
we saw many beaver-dams, we saw none of the animals themselves."
The Indian guide appears here to have lost his way;
but, not dismayed, he pushed on through a trackless wilderness,
sometimes travelling on the snow that now covered the mountains.
On the fourth of September, the party came upon a large
encampment of Indians, who received them with much ceremony.
The journal says: -
"September 5, we assembled the chiefs and warriors, and informed them
who we were, and the purpose for which we had visited their country.
All this was, however, conveyed to them through so many different languages,
that it was not comprehended without difficulty. We therefore
proceeded to the more intelligible language of presents, and made four
chiefs by giving a medal and a small quantity of tobacco to each.
We received in turn from the principal chief a present consisting
of the skins of a blaireau (badger), an otter, and two antelopes,
and were treated by the women to some dried roots and berries.
We then began to traffic for horses, and succeeded in exchanging seven
and purchasing eleven, for which we gave a few articles of merchandise.
"This encampment consists of thirty-three tents, in which
were about four hundred souls, among whom eighty were men.
They are called Ootlashoots, and represent themselves as one band
of a nation called Tushepaws, a numerous people of four hundred
and fifty tents, residing on the head-waters of the Missouri
and Columbia rivers, and some of them lower down the latter river.
In person these Indians are stout, and their complexion lighter
than that common among Indians. The hair of the men is worn
in queues of otter skin, falling in front over the shoulders.
A shirt of dressed skin covers the body to the knee, and over this is
worn occasionally a robe. To these are added leggings and moccasins.
The women suffer their hair to fall in disorder over the face
and shoulders, and their chief article of covering is a long shirt
of skin, reaching down to the ankles, and tied round the waist.
In other respects, as also in the few ornaments which they possess,
their appearance is similar to that of the Shoshonees:
there is, however, a difference between the languages of these
two people, which is still farther increased by the very extraordinary
pronunciation of the Ootlashoots. Their words have all a remarkably
guttural sound, and there is nothing which seems to represent
the tone of their speaking more exactly than the clucking of a fowl
or the noise of a parrot. This peculiarity renders their voices
scarcely audible, except at a short distance; and, when many
of them are talking, forms a strange confusion of sounds.
The common conversation that we overheard consisted of low,
guttural sounds, occasionally broken by a low word or two,
after which it would relapse, and could scarcely be distinguished.
They seemed kind and friendly, and willingly shared with us
berries and roots, which formed their sole stock of provisions.
Their only wealth is their horses, which are very fine, and so
numerous that this party had with them at least five hundred."
These Indians were on their way to join the other bands who were hunting
buffalo on the Jefferson River, across the Great Divide. They set
out the next morning, and the explorers resumed their toilsome journey,
travelling generally in a northwesterly direction and looking for a
pass across the Bitter Root Mountains. Very soon, all indications
of game disappeared, and, September 14, they were forced to kill a colt,
their stock of animal food being exhausted. They pressed on, however,
through a savage wilderness, having frequent need to recur to horse-flesh.
Here is an entry under date of September 18, in the journal:
"We melted some snow, and supped on a little portable soup, a few
canisters of which, with about twenty pounds' weight of bear's oil,
are our only remaining means of subsistence. Our guns are scarcely
of any service, for there is no living creature in these mountains,
except a few small pheasants, a small species of gray squirrel, and a blue
bird of the vulture kind, about the size of a turtle-dove, or jay.
Even these are difficult to shoot."
"A bold running creek," up which Captain Clark passed on
September 19, was appropriately named by him "Hungry Creek,"
as at that place they had nothing to eat. But, at about six miles'
distance from the head of the stream, "he fortunately found
a horse, on which he breakfasted, and hung the rest on a tree
for the party in the rear." This was one of the wild horses,
strayed from Indian bands, which they found in the wilderness,
too wild to be caught and used, but not too wild to shoot and eat.
Later, on the same day, this entry is made in the journal:
"The road along the creek is a narrow rocky path near the borders of very
high precipices, from which a fall seems almost inevitable destruction.
One of our horses slipped and rolled over with his load down the hillside,
which was nearly perpendicular and strewed with large irregular rocks,
nearly one hundred yards, and did not stop till he fell into the creek.
We all expected he was killed, but to our astonishment, on taking
off his load he rose, seemed but little injured, and in twenty
minutes proceeded with his load. Having no other provision,
we took some portable soup, our only refreshment during the day.
This abstinence, joined with fatigue, has a visible effect on our health.
The men are growing weak and losing their flesh very fast; several are
afflicted with dysentery, and eruptions of the skin are very common."
Next day, the party descended the last of the Bitter Root range and reached
level country.
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