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Updated: May 12, 2025
The day proved warm, 2 Chifs of Bands visited me to day- the hunters all returned without any thing, I collected a horse load of roots & 3 Sammon & Sent R Fields with one Indian to meet Capt Lewis at 4 oClock Set out with the other men to the river, passed thro a fine Pine Country decended a Steep ruged hill verry long to a Small river which comes from our left and I suppose it to be River passed down the river 2 miles on a Steep hill side at r r oClock P.M. arrived at a camp of 5 Squars a boy & 2 Children those people were glad to See us & gave us drid Sammon one had formerly been taken by the Minitarries of the north & Seen white men, our guide called the Chief who was fishing on the other Side of the river, whome I found a Cherfull man of about 65 I gave him a Medal.
Lewis by way of derision for our eating dogs and laughed very heartily at his own impertinence; Capt L. was So provoked at the insolence that he cought the puppy and threw it with great violence at him and Struck him in the breast and face, Seazed his tomahawk, and Shewed him by Sign that if he repeeted his insolence that he would tomahawk him, the fellow withdrew apparently much mortified and we continued our Dinner without further Molestation. after dinner we continued our rout 4 miles to the enterance of Colter's Creek about 1/2 a mile above the rapid where we Sunk the 1st Canoe as we decended the river last fall.
Soon after we arived at this Village the Grand Cheif and two others of the Chee-luck-kit-le-quaw Nation arived from below. they had with them 11 men and 7 womin and had been trading in the Columbia Vally for Wappato, beeds and dried Anchovies &c in exchange for which they had given pounded fish Shappalell, bear grass, acorns boiled berries &c. &c. and are now on their return to their village. as those people had been very Kind to us as we decended the river we gave them Smoke. at 2 oClock P. M we Set out and passed under the Beacon rock on the North Side of two Small Islds.
The red Charr are reather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon, the skales are also imbricated but reather large. the nostrum exceeds the lower jaw more and the teeth are neither as large nor so numerous as those of the salmon. some of them are almost entirely red on the belley and sides; others are much more white than the salmon and none of them are variagated with the dark spots which make the body of the other. their flesh roes and every other particular with rispect to their form is that of the Salmon. this fish we did not see untill we decended below the grat falls of the Columbia; but whether they are exclusively confined to this portion of the river or not at all seasons, I am unable to determine.
A little after dark last evening a violent storm arrose to the N. E. and shortly after came on attended with violent Thunder lightning and some hail; the rain fell in a mere torrant and the wind blew so violently that it was with difficulty I could have the small canoes unloaded before they filled with water; they sustained no injury. our situation was open and exposed to the storm. in attending to the canoes I got wet to the skin and having no shelter on land I betook myself to the orning of the perogue which I had, formed of Elkskin, here I obtained a few hours of broken rest; the wind and rain continued almost all night and the air became very cold. we set out early this morning and decended the river about 10 miles below Porcupine river when the wind became so violent that I laid by untill 4 P.M. the wind then abaiting in some measure we again resumed our voyage, and decended the river about 5 miles below our encampment of the 1st of May 1805 where we halted for the night on the S. W. side of the river. after halting we killed three fat cows and a buck. we had previously killed today 4 deer a buck Elk and a fat cow. in short game is so abundant and gentle that we kill it when we please. the Feildses went on ahead this evening and we did not overtake them. we saw several bear in the course of the day.
The long narrows are much more formadable than they were when we decended them last fall, there would be no possibility of passing either up or down them in any vessle at this time.
From this point I could see the S. E. fork about 7 miles. it is rapid and about 70 yards wide. throughout the distance I saw it, it passes through a smoth extensive green meadow of fine grass in it's course meandering in several streams the largest of which passes near the Lard. hills, of which, the one I stand on is the extremity in this direction. a high wide and extensive plain succeeds the meadow and extends back several miles from the river on the Stard. sade and with the range of mountains up the Lard. side of the middle fork. a large spring arrises in this meadow about 1/4 of a mile from the S. E. fork into which it discharges itself on the Stard. side about 400 paces above me. from E to S. between the S. E. and middle forks a distant range of lofty mountains rose their snow-clad tops above the irregular and broken mountains which lie adjacent to this beautifull spot. the extreme point to which I could see the S. E. fork boar S. 65° E. distant 7 ms. as before observed. between the middle and S. E. forks near their junctions with the S. W. fork there is a handsom site for a fortification it consists of a limestone rock of an oblong form; it's sides perpendicular and about 25 ft high except at the extremity towards the middle fork where it ascends gradually and like the top is covered with a fine terf of greenswoard. the top is level and contains about 2 Acres. the rock rises from the level plain as if it had been designed for some such purpose. the extream point to which I can see the bottom and meandering of the Middle fork bears S. 15 E distant about 14 miles. here it turns to the right around a point of a high plain and disappears to my view. it's bottoms are several miles in width and like that of the S. E. fork form one smoth and beautifull green meadow. it is also divided into several streams. betwen this and the S. W. fork there is an extensive plain which appears to extend up both those rivers many miles and back to the mountains. the extreme point to which I can see the S. W. fork bears S. 30 W. distant about 12 miles. this stream passes through a similar country with the other two and is more divided and serpentine in it's course than either of the others; it also possesses abundanly more timber in it's bottoms. the timber here consists of the narrowleafed cottonwood almost entirely. but little box alder or sweet willow the underbrush thick and as heretofore discribed in the quarter of the missouri. a range of high mountains at a considerable distance appear to reach from South to West and are partially covered with snow the country to the right of the S. W. fork like that to the left of the S. E. fork is high broken and mountainous as is that also down the missouri behind us, through which, these three rivers after assembling their united force at this point seem to have forced a passage these bottom lands tho not more than 8 or 9 feet above the water seem never to overflow. after making a draught of the connection and meanders of these streams I decended the hill and returned to the party, took breakfast and ascended the S. W. fork 13/4 miles and encamped at a Lard. bend in a handsome level smooth plain just below a bayou, having passed the entrance of the middle fork at 1/2 a mile. here I encamped to wait the return of Capt.
I employed the three men with me in the forenoon clearing away the brush and forming our camp, and puting the frame of the boat together. this being done I sent Shields and Gass to look out for the necessary timber, and with J. Fields decended the river in the canoe to the mouth of Medicine river in surch of the hunters whom I had dispatched thither on the 19th inst. and from whom we had not heard a sentence.
I observed that the men equally with the women engage in the labour of carrying. they all left their canoes below the rapids and took others above which they had left as they decended. those which were left below were taken down the river by the persons from whom they had been hired or borrowed. the natives from above behaved themselves in a very orderly manner.
Neal could not resist the afflatus which decended on him; an ethereal light dwelled, he thought, upon the face of nature; the colour of the cloth which he cut out from day to day was, to his enraptured eye, like the colour of Cupid's wings all purple; his visions were worth their weight in gold; his dreams a credit to the bed he slept on; and his feelings, like blind puppies, young and alive to the milk of love and kindness which they drew from his heart.
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