Information was received that Captain Clark had
arrived five miles below, at a rapid which he did not think it prudent
to ascend, and that he was waiting there for the party above to rejoin
him.
After the departure of Captain Lewis, Captain Clark had remained a day
at Maria's River, to complete the deposit of such articles as they could
dispense with, and started on the twelfth of June.
Four days later, Captain Clark left the river, having sent his messenger
to Captain Lewis, and began to search for a proper portage to convey the
pirogue and canoes across to the Columbia River, leaving most of the
men to hunt, make wheels and draw the canoes up a creek which they named
Portage Creek, as it was to be the base of their future operations. The
stream is now known as Belt Mountain Creek. But the explorers soon
found that although the pirogue was to be left behind, the way was too
difficult for a portage even for canoes. The journal says:--
"We found great difficulty and some danger in even ascending the creek
thus far, in consequence of the rapids and rocks of the channel of the
creek, which just above where we brought the canoes has a fall of
five feet, with high steep bluffs beyond it. We were very fortunate in
finding, just below Portage Creek, a cottonwood tree about twenty-two
inches in diameter, large enough to make the carriage-wheels. It was,
perhaps, the only one of the same size within twenty miles; and the
cottonwood which we are obliged to employ in the other parts of the work
is extremely soft and brittle.
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