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This morning we set out about sunrise after taking breakfast off our venison and fish. we again ascended the hills of the river and gained the level country. the country through which we passed for the first six miles tho' more roling than that we had passed yesterday might still with propryety be deemed a level country; our course as yesterday was generally S W. the river from the place we left it appeared to make a considerable bend to the South. from the extremity of this roling country I overlooked a most beatifull and level plain of great extent or at least 50 or sixty miles; in this there were infinitely more buffaloe than I had ever before witnessed at a view. nearly in the direction I had been travling or S. W. two curious mountains presented themselves of square figures, [1] the sides rising perpendicularly to the hight of 250 feet and appeared to be formed of yellow clay; their tops appeared to be level plains; these inaccessible hights appeared like the ramparts of immence fortifications; I have no doubt but with very little assistance from art they might be rendered impregnable. fearing that the river boar to the South and that I might pass the falls if they existed between this an the snowey mountains I altered my course nealy to the South leaving those insulated hills to my wright and proceeded through the plain; I sent Feels on my right and Drewyer and Gibson on my left with orders to kill some meat and join me at the river where I should halt for dinner. I had proceded on this course about two miles with Goodrich at some distance behind me whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arrise above the plain like a collumn of smoke which would frequently dispear again in an instant caused I presume by the wind which blew pretty hard from the S. W. I did not however loose my direction to this point which soon began to make a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri. here I arrived about 12 OClock having traveled by estimate about 15 Miles. I hurryed down the hill which was about 200 feet high and difficult of access, to gaze on this sublimely grand specticle. [2] I took my position on the top of some rocks about 20 feet high opposite the center of the falls. this chain of rocks appear once to have formed a part of those over which the waters tumbled, but in the course of time has been seperated from it to the distance of 150 yards lying prarrallel to it and forming a butment against which the water after falling over the precipice beats with great fury; this barrier extends on the right to the perpendicular clift which forms that board [bound? border?] of the river but to the distance of 120 yards next to the clift it is but a few feet above the level of the water, and here the water in very high tides appears to pass in a channel of 40 yds. next to the higher part of the ledg of rocks; on the left it extends within 80 or ninty yards of the lard. Clift which is also perpendicular; between this abrupt extremity of the ledge of rocks and the perpendicular bluff the whole body of water passes with incredible swiftness. immediately at the cascade the river is about 300 yds. wide; about ninty or a hundred yards of this next the Lard. bluff is a smoth even sheet of water falling over a precipice of at least eighty feet, the remaining part of about 200 yards on my right formes the grandest sight I ever beheld, the hight of the fall is the same of the other but the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in it's passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the hight of fifteen or twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them. in short the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present a sheet of the whitest beaten froath for 200 yards in length and about 80 feet perpendicular. the water after decending strikes against the butment before mentioned or that on which I stand and seems to reverberate and being met by the more impetuous courant they role and swell into half formed billows of great hight which rise and again disappear in an instant. this butment of rock defends a handsom little bottom of about three acres which is deversified and agreeably shaded with some cottonwood trees; in the lower extremity of the bottom there is a very thick grove of the same kind of trees which are small, in this wood there are several Indian lodges formed of sticks. a few small cedar grow near the ledge of rocks where I rest. below the point of these rocks at a small distance the river is divided by a large rock which rises several feet above the water, and extends downwards with the stream for about 20 yards. about a mile before the water arrives at the pitch it decends very rappidly, and is confined on the Lard. side by a perpendicular clift of about 100 feet, on Stard. side it is also perpendicular for about three hundred yards above the pitch where it is then broken by the discharge of a small ravine, down which the buffaloe have a large beaten road to the water, [NE: Qu.] for it is but in very few places that these anamals can obtain water near this place owing to the steep and inaccessible banks. I see several skelletons of the buffaloe lying in the edge of the water near the Stard. bluff which I presume have been swept down by the current and precipitated over this tremendious fall. about 300 yards below me there is another butment of solid rock with a perpendicular face and abot 60 feet high which projects from the Stard. side at right angles to the distance of 134 yds. and terminates the lower part nearly of the bottom before mentioned; there being a passage arround the end of this butment between it and the river of about 20 yardes; here the river again assumes it's usual width soon spreading to near 300 yards but still continues it's rappidity. from the reflection of the sun on the spray or mist which arrises from these falls there is a beatifull rainbow produced which adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery. after wrighting this imperfect discription I again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the scene that I determined to draw my pen across it and begin agin, but then reflected that I could not perhaps succeed better than pening the first impressions of the mind; I wished for the pencil of Salvator Rosa [EC: a Titian] or the pen of Thompson, [3] that I might be enabled to give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnifficent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless and vain. I most sincerely regreted that I had not brought a crimee obscura [4] with me by the assistance of which even I could have hoped to have done better but alas this was also out of my reach; I therefore with the assistance of my pen only indeavoured to trace [5] some of the stronger features of this seen by the assistance of which and my recollection aided by some able pencil I hope still to give to the world some faint idea of an object which at this moment fills me with such pleasure and astonishment, and which of it's kind I will venture to ascert is second to but one in the known world. I retired to the shade of a tree where I determined to fix my camp [6] for the present and dispatch a man in the morning to inform Capt. C. and the party of my success in finding the falls and settle in their minds all further doubts as to the Missouri. the hunters now arrived loaded with excellent buffaloe meat and informed me that they had killed three very fat cows about ¾ of a mile hence. I directed them after they had refreshed themselves to go back and butcher them and bring another load of meat each to our camp determining to employ those who remained with me in drying meat for the party against their arrival. in about 2 hours or at 4 OClock P. M. they set out on this duty, and I walked down the river about three miles to discover if possible some place to which the canoes might arrive or at which they might be drawn on shore in order to be taken by land above the falls; but returned without effecting either of these objects; the river was one continued sene of rappids and cascades which I readily perceived could not be encountered with our canoes, and the Clifts still retained their perpendicular structure and were from 150 to 200 feet high; in short the river appears here to have woarn a channel in the process of time through a solid rock. on my return I found the party at camp; they had butchered the buffaloe and brought in some more meat as I had directed. Goodrich had caught half a douzen very fine trout [7] and a number of both species of the white fish. these trout [NB: caught in the falls] are from sixteen to twenty three inches in length, precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout in form and the position of their fins, but the specks on these are of a deep black instead of the red or goald colour of those common to the U.' States. these are furnished long sharp teeth on the pallet and tongue and have generally a small dash of red on each side behind the front ventral fins; the flesh is of a pale yellowish red, or when in good order, of a rose red.—
I am induced to believe that the Brown, the white and the Grizly bear of this country are the same species only differing in colour from age or more probably from the same natural cause that many other anamals of the same family differ in colour. one of those which we killed yesterday was of a creemcoloured white while the other in company with it was of the common bey or rdish brown, which seems to be the most usual colour of them. the white one appeared from it's tallons and teath to be the youngest; it was smaller than the other, and although a monstrous beast we supposed that it had not yet attained it's growth and that it was a little upwards of two years old. the young cubs which we have killed have always been of a brownish white, but none of them as white as that we killed yesterday. one other that we killed sometime since which I mentioned sunk under some driftwood and was lost, had a white stripe or list of about eleven inches wide entirely arround his body just behind the shoalders, and was much darker than these bear usually are. the grizly bear we have never yet seen. I have seen their tallons in possession of the Indians and from their form I am perswaded if there is any difference between this species and the brown or white bear it is very inconsiderable. There is no such anamal as a black bear in this open country or of that species generally denominated the black bear
my fare is really sumptuous this evening; buffaloe's humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout parched meal pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is not considered the least of the luxuries.
a fair morning, Some dew this morning the Indian woman Verry sick I gave her a doste of Salts. We Set out early, at a mile & ½ passed a Small rapid Stream on the Lard Side which heads in a mountain to the S. E 12 or 15 miles, which at this time covered with Snow, we call this stream Snow river, [8] as it is the conveyance of the melted snow from that mountain at present. numbers of gees & goslings, the gees cannot fly at this Season— goose berries are ripe and in great abundance, the yellow Current is also Common, not yet ripe Killed a buffalow & Campd on the Lard Side near an old Indian fortified camp [9] one man Sick [10] & 3 with Swellings, the Indian woman verry Sick. Killed a goat & fraser 2 Buffalow
| miles | ||
| S. 45° W | 1 ½ | to the mouth of Snow river on the Lard. Side opsd. an Island passed 2 Islands |
| S. 60° W. | 1 ½ | to the lower point of an Island [overwritten, "Timber"] on the Stard. Side passed the Island |
| South | ¼ | on the Stard. Side to the point opposit a black Slate bluff. |
| S 45° W. | 1 ½ | to the upper part of a wood Stard Side |
| S. 20° W | 1 ¼ | to a black bluff on the Lard Side |
| S. 30° W | 1 | to the lower point of an Island |
| West | 1 ¾ | to a Bush on the Side of a bluff in the Stard. bend passed 2 Islds. & a Lard point |
| S 60° E | ¾ | to a hollow in the bluff in a Lard bend passed 2 Small Islands |
| South | ¼ | to a Lodge on a small Island |
| S. 80° W. | 1 | to the lower point of an Island |
| S. 40° W. | ¼ | to a Stoney bluff Stard. Side, at the head of the Island a rapid across R |
| South | 1 ¼ | to a tree on a Small Island in the Lard. bend under a high hill passed 2 Islands |
| S. 70° W. | 1 ½ | to the Lower point of an Island passed 2 Small Islands— Camped on the Lard Shore |
| 13 |
The river verry rapid maney Sholes great nos of large Stones passed Some bluffs or low cliffts of Slate to day
Thursday 13th June 1805. a beautiful pleasant morning. we Set out at an eairly hour a heavy diew. proceeded on. passed the mouth of a Small River [12] on the Lard. Side about 50 yds. wide at the mouth of a muddy coulour and verry rapid. bottoms of cotton timber for Some distance up we named it Snowey River as it heads in the mountain covred with Snow to our left. we passed verry high bluffs on each Side of the River. Some Small bottoms of cotton timber. Saw abundance of wild or choke cherrys, the Goose berrys are now ripe & abound in the River bottoms. also a yallow current [13] the kind I never Saw before. they are nearly as large as the goose berrys, but Sower & yallow when ripe we Came 14 miles to day and Camped on the South Side, Some of the hunters killed a buffalow and 2 Deer to day—
Thursday 13th. We set out early in a fine morning. Some dew fell last night. We passed a large creek on the south side, called Snow creek. The water of the river is very clear and the current very rapid. We passed a number of islands covered with timber; but there is none to be seen on the hills on either side. We went 14 miles and encamped on the south side.
Thursday 13th June 1805. a beautiful pleasant morning. we Set out at an eairly hour & proceeded on. passed the Mouth of a Small River on the South Side about 50 yards wide & rapid current & of a muddy coulour. I went over the River to See it. large bottoms of cotton timber for Some distance up. we named it Snowey River, as we expect it comes from the Snowey Mountain, to the South of us. passed verry high bluffs on each Side Some Small bottoms of cotton timber. we Saw abundance of wild or choke cherries & a kind of yallow current, [14] Such as I never Saw before. the Goose berrys are now ripe & abound in the River bottoms— we came 14 miles to day & Camped on the South Side. I was taken verry Sick to day, & a vilont head ack. 2 deer & [illegible] buffalow killed to day.
Thursday June 13th We had a Clear & pleasant morning, and set out on our Voyage at sun rise, we proceeded on, and passed the mouth of a small River lying on the South side called Smiths [15] River which was 〈and〉 about 50 Yards wide, 〈which was called Smiths River〉 the current in this River runs rapid and its water was muddy, I was sent over to this small River by Captain Clark in order to make what discoveries I could, I found large bottoms of land lying along the River, for some distance, and the Land very rich, the growth in those bottoms of Rich land being chiefly cotton wood.— Captain Clark called this River Smiths river, and we expect its source lay in the Mountains; we saw some days past, covered with Snow;— lying to the South west of us. we continued on our way and passed some very high bluffs, lying on both sides of the River, and small bottoms of cotton wood Timber, and found a large quantity of wild Artichokes, Cherries, and Yellow currants, the last of which none of our party had ever seen before, & also Goose berries growing in abundance which were ripe & grew in the River bottoms, The land that we passed through, as we passed along this day; was extreamly Rich, and fertile, The hunters that was out killed one Buffalo this day.— We came 14 Miles this day, and encamped in the Evening on the South side of the River.—
Created by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
in partnership with the University of Nebraska Press
and funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.