-
"They Then Continued Through The Low Bottom, Along The
Main Stream, Near The Foot Of The Mountains On Their Right.
For the first five miles, the valley continues toward the southwest,
being from two to three miles in width; then
The main stream,
which had received two small branches from the left in the valley,
turned abruptly to the west through a narrow bottom between the mountains.
The road was still plain, and, as it led them directly on toward
the mountain, the stream gradually became smaller, till, after going
two miles, it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the men,
in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the river,
thanked God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. As they
went along their hopes of soon seeing the Columbia [that is,
the Pacific watershed] arose almost to painful anxiety, when after four
miles from the last abrupt turn of the river [which turn had been
to the west], they reached a small gap formed by the high mountains,
which recede on each side, leaving room for the Indian road.
From the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains, which rises
with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issues the remotest
water of the Missouri.
"They had now reached the hidden sources of that river, which had never yet
been seen by civilized man. As they quenched their thirst at the chaste
and icy fountain - as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet,
which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean - they felt
themselves rewarded for all their labors and all their difficulties.
"They left reluctantly this interesting spot, and, pursuing the Indian
road through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge,
from which they saw high mountains, partially covered with snow,
still to the west of them.
"The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They followed
a descent much steeper than that on the eastern side, and at
the distance of three-quarters of a mile reached a handsome,
bold creek of cold, clear water running to the westward.
They stopped to taste, for the first time, the waters of the Columbia;
and, after a few minutes, followed the road across steep hills and
low hollows, when they came to a spring on the side of a mountain.
Here they found a sufficient quantity of dry willow-brush for fuel,
and therefore halted for the night; and, having killed nothing
in the course of the day, supped on their last piece of pork,
and trusted to fortune for some other food to mix with a little
flour and parched meal, which was all that now remained
of their provisions."
Chapter XIII
From the Minnetarees to the Shoshonees
Travelling in a westerly direction, with a very gradual descent,
Captain Lewis, on the thirteenth of August, came upon two Indian women,
a man, and some dogs.
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