Disasters many kept pace with the unhappy explorers on their way back
to Quamash flats after their rebuff at the base of the Bitter Root
Mountains. One of the horses fell down a rough and rocky place, carrying
his rider with him; but fortunately neither horse nor man was killed.
Next, a man, sent ahead to cut down the brush that blocked the path, cut
himself badly on the inside of his thigh and bled copiously. The hunters
sent out for game returned empty-handed. The fishermen caught no fish,
but broke the two Indian gigs, or contrivances for catching fish, with
which they had been provided. The stock of salt had given out, the
bulk of their supply having been left on the mountain. Several large
mushrooms were brought in by Cruzatte, but these were eaten without
pepper, salt, or any kind of grease,--“a very tasteless, insipid food,”
as the journal says. To crown all, the mosquitoes were pestilential in
their numbers and venom.
Nevertheless, the leaders of the expedition were determined to press on
and pass the Bitter Root Mountains as soon as a slight rest at Quamash
flats should be had. If they should tarry until the snows melted from
the trail, they would be too late to reach the United States that winter
and would be compelled to pass the next winter at some camp high up on
the Missouri, as they had passed one winter at Fort Mandan, on their way
out. This is the course of argument which Captain Lewis and Clark took
to persuade each other as to the best way out of their difficulties:--
“The snows have formed a hard, coarse bed without crust, on which the
horses walk safely without slipping; the chief difficulty, therefore, is
to find the road. In this we may be assisted by the circumstance that,
though generally ten feet in depth, the snow has been thrown off by the
thick and spreading branches of the trees, and from round the trunk;
while the warmth of the trunk itself, acquired by the reflection of the
sun, or communicated by natural heat of the earth, which is never frozen
under these masses, has dissolved the snow so much that immediately at
the roots its depth is not more than one or two feet. We therefore hope
that the marks of the baggage rubbing against the trees may still be
perceived; and we have decided, in case the guide cannot be procured,
that one of us will take three or four of our most expert woodsmen,
several of our best horses, and an ample supply of provisions, go on two
days’ journey in advance, and endeavor to trace the route by the marks
of the Indian baggage on the trees, which we would then mark more
distinctly with a tomahawk. When they should have reached two days’
journey beyond Hungry Creek, two of the men were to be sent back to
apprise the rest of their success, and if necessary to cause them to
delay there; lest, by advancing too soon, they should be forced to halt
where no food could be obtained for the horses. If the traces of the
baggage be too indistinct, the whole party is to return to Hungry Creek,
and we will then attempt the passage by ascending the main southwest
branch of Lewis’ River through the country of the Shoshonees, over to
Madison or Gallatin River. On that route, the Chopunnish inform us,
there is a passage not obstructed by snow at this period of the year.”
On their return to Quamash flats the party met two Indians who, after
some parley, agreed to pilot them over the mountains; these camped where
they were, and the party went on to the flats, having exacted a promise
from the Indians that they would wait there two nights for the white men
to come along. When the party reached their old camp, they found that
one of their hunters had killed a deer, which was a welcome addition
to their otherwise scanty supper. Next day, the hunters met with
astonishing luck, bringing into camp eight deer and three bears. Four of
the men were directed to go to the camp of the two Indians, and if these
were bent on going on, to accompany them and so mark, or blaze, the
trees that the rest of the party would have no difficulty in finding the
way, later on.
Meanwhile, the men who had been sent back for guides returned, bringing
with them the pleasing information that three Indians whom they brought
with them had consented to guide the party to the great falls of the
Missouri, for the pay of two guns. Accordingly, once more (June 26),
they set out for the mountains, travelling for the third time in twelve
days the route between Quamash flats and the Bitter Root range. For the
second time they ran up against a barrier of snow. They measured the
depth of the snow at the place where they had left their luggage at
their previous repulse and found it to be ten feet and ten inches deep;
and it had sunk four feet since they had been turned back at this point.
Pressing on, after they reached their old camp, they found a bare spot
on the side of the mountain where there was a little grass for their
horses; and there they camped for the night. They were fortunate in
having Indian guides with them; and the journal says:--
“The marks on the trees, which had been our chief dependence, are much
fewer and more difficult to be distinguished than we had supposed. But
our guides traverse this trackless region with a kind of instinctive
sagacity; they never hesitate, they are never embarrassed; and so
undeviating is their step, that wherever the snow has disappeared, for
even a hundred paces, we find the summer road. With their aid the snow
is scarcely a disadvantage; for though we are often obliged to slip
down, yet the fallen timber and the rocks, which are now covered, were
much more troublesome when we passed in the autumn. Travelling is indeed
comparatively pleasant, as well as more rapid, the snow being hard and
coarse, without a crust, and perfectly hard enough to prevent the horses
sinking more than two or three inches. After the sun has been on it for
some hours it becomes softer than it is early in the morning; yet they
are almost always able to get a sure foothold.”
On the twenty-ninth of June the party were well out of the snows in
which they had been imprisoned, although they were by no means over the
mountain barrier that had been climbed so painfully during the past few
days. Here they observed the tracks of two barefooted Indians who had
evidently been fleeing from their enemies, the Pahkees. These signs
disturbed the Indian guides, for they at once said that the tracks were
made by their friends, the Ootlashoots, and that the Pahkees would
also cut them (the guides) off on their return from the trip over the
mountains. On the evening of the day above mentioned, the party camped
at the warm springs which fall into Traveller’s-rest Creek, a point
now well known to the explorers, who had passed that way before. Of the
springs the journal says:--
“These warm springs are situated at the foot of a hill on the north side
of Traveller’s-rest Creek, which is ten yards wide at this place. They
issue from the bottoms, and through the interstices of a gray freestone
rock, which rises in irregular masses round their lower side. The
principal spring, which the Indians have formed into a bath by stopping
the run with stone and pebbles, is about the same temperature as the
warmest bath used at the hot springs in Virginia. On trying, Captain
Lewis could with difficulty remain in it nineteen minutes, and then was
affected with a profuse perspiration. The two other springs are much
hotter, the temperature being equal to that of the warmest of the hot
springs in Virginia. Our men, as well as the Indians, amused themselves
with going into the bath; the latter, according to their universal
custom, going first into the hot bath, where they remain as long as they
can bear the heat, then plunging into the creek, which is now of an icy
coldness, and repeating this operation several times, but always ending
with the warm bath.”
Traveller’s-rest Creek, it will be recollected, is on the summit of the
Bitter Root Mountains, and the expedition had consequently passed from
Idaho into Montana, as these States now exist on the map; but they were
still on the Pacific side of the Great Divide, or the backbone of
the continent. Much game was seen in this region, and after reaching
Traveller’s-rest Creek, the hunters killed six deer; great numbers of
elk and bighorn were also seen in this vicinity. On the thirtieth of
July the party were at their old camp of September 9 and 10, 1805,
having made one hundred and fifty-six miles from Quamash flats to the
mouth of the creek where they now camped. Here a plan to divide and
subdivide the party was made out as follows:--
“Captain Lewis, with nine men, is to pursue the most direct route to the
falls of the Missouri, where three of his party (Thompson, Goodrich, and
McNeal) are to be left to prepare carriages for transporting the baggage
and canoes across the portage. With the remaining six, he will ascend
Maria’s River to explore the country and ascertain whether any branch
of it reaches as far north as latitude 50'0, after which he will descend
that river to its mouth. The rest of the men will accompany Captain
Clark to the head of Jefferson River, which Sergeant Ordway and a party
of nine men will descend, with the canoes and other articles deposited
there. Captain Clark’s party, which will then be reduced to ten men and
Sacajawea, will proceed to the Yellowstone, at its nearest approach to
the Three Forks of the Missouri. There he will build canoes, go down
that river with seven of his party, and wait at its mouth till the rest
of the party join him. Sergeant Pryor, with two others, will then take
the horses by land to the Mandans. From that nation he will go to the
British posts on the Assiniboin with a letter to Mr. Alexander Henry,
to procure his endeavors to prevail on some of the Sioux chiefs to
accompany him to the city of Washington. . . .
“The Indians who had accompanied us intended leaving us in order to seek
their friends, the Ootlashoots; but we prevailed on them to accompany
Captain Lewis a part of his route, so as to show him the shortest road
to the Missouri, and in the mean time amused them with conversation and
running races, on foot and with horses, in both of which they proved
themselves hardy, athletic, and active. To the chief Captain Lewis gave
a small medal and a gun, as a reward for having guided us across the
mountains; in return the customary civility of exchanging names passed
between them, by which the former acquired the title of Yomekollick, of
White Bearskin Unfolded.”