But Fearful Of Passing The Great Falls
Before Reaching The Rocky Mountains, He Again Changed His Course And,
Leaving The Bluffs To His Right He Turned Towards The River.
The journal gives this description of what followed:
-
"In this direction Captain Lewis had gone about two miles, when his
ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water, and as
he advanced a spray, which seemed driven by the high southwest wind,
arose above the plain like a column of smoke, and vanished in an instant.
Toward this point he directed his steps; the noise increased as he approached,
and soon became too tremendous to be mistaken for anything but the Great Falls
of the Missouri. Having travelled seven miles after first hearing the sound,
he reached the falls about twelve o'clock. The hills as he approached
were difficult of access and two hundred feet high. Down these he hurried
with impatience; and, seating himself on some rocks under the centre
of the falls, enjoyed the sublime spectacle of this stupendous object,
which since the creation had been lavishing its magnificence upon the desert,
unknown to civilization.
"The river immediately at this cascade is three hundred yards wide,
and is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff on the left, which rises
to about one hundred feet and extends up the stream for a mile;
on the right the bluff is also perpendicular for three hundred
yards above the falls. For ninety or one hundred yards from
the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth, even sheet,
over a precipice of at least eighty feet.
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