History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1. / To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6.

by Meriwether Lewis; William Clark

CHAPTER X.

Return of captain Lewis—Account of captain Clarke's researches with his exploring party—Perilous situation of one of his party—Tansy river described—The party still believing the southern fork the Missouri, captain Lewis resolves to ascend it—Mode of making a place to deposit provisions, called cache—Captain Lewis explores the southern fork—Falls of the Missouri discovered, which ascertains the question—Romantic scenery of the surrounding country—Narrow escape of captain Lewis—The main body under captain Clarke approach within five miles of the falls, and prepare for making a portage over the rapids.

Saturday 8. It continued to rain moderately all last night, and the morning was cloudy till about ten o'clock, when it cleared off, and became a fine day. They breakfasted about sunrise and then proceeded down the river in the same way as they had done yesterday, except that the travelling was somewhat better, as they had not so often to wade, though they passed some very dangerous bluffs. The only timber to be found is in the low grounds which are occasionally on the river, and these are the haunts of innumerable birds, who, when the sun began to shine, sang very delightfully. Among these birds they distinguished the brown thrush, robin, turtledove, linnet, goldfinch, the large and small blackbird, the wren, and some others. As they came along, the whole of the party were of opinion that this river was the true Missouri, but captain Lewis being fully persuaded that it was neither the main stream, nor that which it would be advisable to ascend, gave it the name of Maria's river. After travelling all day they reached the camp at five o'clock in the afternoon, and found captain Clarke and the party very anxious for their safety, as they had staid two days longer than had been expected, and as captain Clarke had returned at the appointed time, it was feared that they had met with some accident.

Captain Clarke on setting out with five men on the 4th, went seven miles on a course S. 25° W. to a spring; thence he went S. 20° W. for eight miles to the river where was an island, from which he proceeded in a course N. 45° W. and approached the river at the distance of three, five, and thirteen miles, at which place they encamped in an old Indian lodge made of sticks and bark. In crossing the plains they observed several herds of buffaloe, some muledeer, antelopes and wolves. The river is rapid and closely hemmed in by high bluffs, crowded with bars of gravel, with little timber on the low grounds, and none on the highlands. Near the camp this evening, a white bear attacked one of the men, whose gun happening to be wet, would not go off; he instantly made towards a tree, but was so closely pursued, that as he ascended the tree he struck the bear with his foot. The bear not being able to climb, waited till he should be forced to come down; and as the rest of the party were separated from him by a perpendicular cliff of rocks, which they could not descend, it was not in their power to give him any assistance: fortunately however at last the bear became frighted at their cries and firing, and released the man. In the afternoon it rained, and during the night there fell both rain and snow, and in the morning.

June 5, the hills to the S.E. were covered with snow, and the rain continued. They proceeded on in a course N. 20° W. near the river several miles, till at the distance of eleven miles they reached a ridge, from the top of which on the north side they could plainly discern a mountain to the S. and W. at a great distance covered with snow; a high ridge projecting from the mountains to the southeast approaches the river on the southeast side, forming some cliffs of dark hard stone. They also saw that the river ran for a great distance west of south, with a rapid current, from which as well as its continuing of the same width and depth, captain Clarke thought it useless to advance any further, and therefore returned across the level plain in a direction north 30° east, and reached at the distance of twenty miles the little river which is already mentioned as falling into the north fork, and to which they gave the name of Tansy river, from the great quantity of that herb growing on its banks. Here they dined, and then proceeded on a few miles by a place where the Tansy breaks through a high ridge on its north side and encamped.

The next day, 6th, the weather was cold, raw and cloudy, with a high northeast wind. They set out early, down the Tansy, whose low grounds resemble precisely, except as to extent, those of the Missouri before it branches, containing a great proportion of a species of cottonwood, with a leaf like that of the wild cherry. After halting at twelve o'clock for dinner, they ascended the plain, and at five o'clock reached the camp through the rain, which had fallen without intermission since noon. During his absence the party had been occupied in dressing skins, and being able to rest themselves were nearly freed from their lameness and swollen feet. All this night and the whole of the following day, 7th, it rained, the wind being from the southwest off the mountains: yet the rivers are falling, and the thermometer 40° above 0. The rain continued till the next day, 8th, at ten o'clock, when it cleared off, and the weather became fine, the wind high from the southwest. The rivers at the point have now fallen six inches since our arrival, and this morning the water of the south fork became of a reddish brown colour, while the north branch continued of its usual whitish appearance. The mountains to the south are covered with snow.

Sunday, 9th. We now consulted upon the course to be pursued. On comparing our observations, we were more than ever convinced of what we already suspected, that Mr. Arrowsmith is incorrect in laying down in the chain of Rocky mountains one remarkable mountain called the Tooth, nearly as far south as 45°, and said to be so marked from the discoveries of Mr. Fidler. We are now within one hundred miles of the Rocky mountains and in the latitude of 47° 24' 12" 8, and therefore it is highly improbable that the Missouri should make such a bend to the south before it reaches the Rocky mountains, as to have suffered Mr. Fidler to come as low as 45° along the eastern borders without touching that river: yet the general course of Maria's river from this place for fifty-nine miles, as far as captain Lewis ascended, was north 69° west, and the south branch, or what we consider the Missouri, which captain Clarke had examined as far as forty-five miles in a straight line, ran in a course south 29° west, and as far as it could be seen went considerably west of south, whence we conclude that the Missouri itself enters the Rocky mountains to the north of 45°. In writing to the president from our winter quarters, we had already taken the liberty of advancing the southern extremity of Mr. Fidler's discoveries about a degree to the northward, and this from Indian information as to the bearing of the point at which the Missouri enters the mountain; but we think actual observation will place it one degree still further to the northward. This information of Mr. Fidler however, incorrect as it is, affords an additional reason for not pursuing Maria's river; for if he came as low even as 47° and saw only small streams coming down from the mountains, it is to be presumed that these rivulets do not penetrate the Rocky mountains so far as to approach any navigable branch of the Columbia, and they are most probably the remote waters of some northern branch of the Missouri. In short, being already in latitude 47° 24' we cannot reasonably hope by going farther to the northward to find between this place and the Saskashawan any stream which can, as the Indians assure us the Missouri does, possess a navigable current for some distance in the Rocky mountains: the Indians had assured us also that the water of the Missouri was nearly transparent at the falls; this is the case with the southern branch; that the falls lay a little to the south of sunset from them; this too is in favour of the southern fork, for it bears considerably south of this place which is only a few minutes to the northward of fort Mandan; that the falls are below the Rocky mountains and near the northern termination of one range of those mountains: now there is a ridge of mountains which appear behind the South mountains and terminates to the southwest of us, at a sufficient distance from the unbroken chain of the Rocky mountains to allow space for several falls, indeed we fear for too many of them. If too the Indians had ever passed any stream as large as this southern fork on their way up the Missouri, they would have mentioned it; so that their silence seems to prove that this branch must be the Missouri. The body of water also which it discharges must have been acquired from a considerable distance in the mountains, for it could not have been collected in the parched plains between the Yellowstone and the Rocky mountains, since that country could not supply nourishment for the dry channels which we passed on the south, and the travels of Mr. Fidler forbid us to believe that it could have been obtained from the mountains towards the northwest.

These observations which satisfied our mind completely we communicated to the party: but every one of them were of a contrary opinion; and much of their belief depended on Crusatte, an experienced waterman on the Missouri, who gave it as his decided judgment that the north fork was the genuine Missouri. The men therefore mentioned that although they would most cheerfully follow us wherever we should direct, yet they were afraid that the south fork would soon terminate in the Rocky mountains and leave us at a great distance from the Columbia. In order that nothing might be omitted which could prevent our falling into an error, it was agreed that one of us should ascend the southern branch by land until we reached either the falls or the mountains. In the meantime in order to lighten our burdens as much as possible, we determined to deposit here one of the periogues and all the heavy baggage which we could possibly spare, as well as some provision, salt, powder, and tools: this would at once lighten the other boats, and give them the crew which had been employed on board the periogue.

Monday, 10. The weather being fair and pleasant we dried all our baggage and merchandize and made our deposit. These holes or caches as they are called by the Missouri traders are very common, particularly among those who deal with the Sioux, as the skins and merchandize will keep perfectly sound for years, and are protected from robbery: our cache is built in this manner: In the high plain on the north side of the Missouri and forty yards from a steep bluff, we chose a dry situation, and then describing a small circle of about twenty inches diameter, removed the sod as gently and carefully as possible: the hole is then sunk perpendicularly for a foot deep, or more if the ground be not firm. It is now worked gradually wider as they descend, till at length it becomes six or seven feet deep, shaped nearly like a kettle or the lower part of a large still with the bottom somewhat sunk at the centre. As the earth is dug it is handed up in a vessel and carefully laid on a skin or cloth, in which it is carried away and usually thrown into the river or concealed so as to leave no trace of it. A floor of three or four inches in thickness is then made of dry sticks, on which is thrown hay or a hide perfectly dry. The goods being well aired and dried are laid on this floor, and prevented from touching the wall by other dried sticks in proportion as the merchandize is stowed away: when the hole is nearly full, a skin is laid over the goods, and on this earth is thrown and beaten down until with the addition of the sod first removed the whole is on a level with the ground, and there remains not the slightest appearance of an excavation. In addition to this we made another of smaller dimensions, in which we placed all the baggage, some powder, and our blacksmith's tools, having previously repaired such of the tools we carry with us as require mending. To guard against accident, we hid two parcels of lead and powder in the two distinct places. The red periogue was drawn up on the middle of a small island at the entrance of Maria's river, and secured by being fastened to the trees from the effect of any floods. In the evening there was a high wind from the southwest accompanied with thunder and rain. We now made another observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, and found that the mean latitude of the entrance of Maria's river, as deduced from three observations, is 47° 25' 17" 2 north. We saw a small bird like the blue thrush or catbird which we had not before met, and also observed that the beemartin or kingbird is common to this country although there are no bees here, and in fact we have not met with the honey-bee since leaving the Osage river.

Tuesday 11. This morning captain Lewis with four men set out on their expedition up the south branch. They soon reached the point where the Tansy river approaches the Missouri, and observing a large herd of elk before them, descended and killed several which they hung up along the river so that the party in the boats might see them as they came along. They then halted for dinner; but captain Lewis who had been for some days afflicted with the dysentery, was now attacked with violent pains attended by a high fever and was unable to go on. He therefore encamped for the night under some willow boughs: having brought no medicine he determined to try an experiment with the small twigs of the chokecherry, which being stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two inches long were boiled in pure water, till they produced a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste; a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose an hour afterwards. By ten o'clock he was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration ensued, his fever abated and in the morning he was quite recovered. One of the men caught several dozen fish of two species: the first is about nine inches long, of a white colour, round in shape; the mouth is beset both above and below with a rim of fine sharp teeth, the eye moderately large, the pupil dark, and the iris narrow, and of a yellowish brown colour: in form and size it resembles the white chub of the Potomac, though its head is proportionably smaller; they readily bite at meat or grasshoppers; but the flesh though soft and of a fine white colour is not highly flavoured. The second species is precisely of the form and about the size of the fish known by the name of the hickory shad or old wife, though it differs from it in having the outer edge of both the upper and lower jaw set with a rim of teeth, and the tongue and palate also are defended by long sharp teeth bending inwards, the eye is very large, the iris wide and of a silvery colour; they do not inhabit muddy water, and the flavour is much superior to that of the former species. Of the first kind we had seen a few before we reached Maria's river; but had found none of the last before we caught them in the Missouri above its junction with that river. The white cat continues as high as Maria's river, but they are scarce in this part of the river, nor have we caught any of them since leaving the Mandans which weighed more than six pounds.