This was
the first we had met, although its nests are very frequent in the cliffs
of rocks and hollow trees, where we also found large quantities of the
shells and seed of the prickly-pear."
The queer rat discovered by Lewis and Clark was then unknown to science.
It is now known in the Far West as the pack-rat. It lives in holes and
crevices of the rocks, and it subsists on the shells and seeds of the
prickly pear, which is usually abundant in the hunting grounds of the
little animal. The explorers were now constantly in full view of the
Rocky Mountain, on which, however, their present title had not then been
conferred. Under date of July 2, the journal says:--
"The mosquitoes are uncommonly troublesome. The wind was again high
from the southwest. These winds are in fact always the coldest and most
violent which we experience, and the hypothesis which we have formed
on that subject is, that the air, coming in contact with the Snowy
Mountains, immediately becomes chilled and condensed, and being thus
rendered heavier than the air below, it descends into the rarefied air
below, or into the vacuum formed by the constant action of the sun
on the open unsheltered plains. The clouds rise suddenly near these
mountains, and distribute their contents partially over the neighboring
plains. The same cloud will discharge hail alone in one part, hail and
rain in another, and rain only in a third, all within the space of a few
miles; while at the same time there is snow falling on the mountains
to the southeast of us.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139