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.
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