"The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They followed a descent
much steeper than that on the eastern side, and at the distance of
three-quarters of a mile reached a handsome, bold creek of cold, clear
water running to the westward. They stopped to taste, for the first
time, the waters of the Columbia; and, after a few minutes, followed the
road across steep hills and low hollows, when they came to a spring on
the side of a mountain. Here they found a sufficient quantity of dry
willow-brush for fuel, and therefore halted for the night; and, having
killed nothing in the course of the day, supped on their last piece of
pork, and trusted to fortune for some other food to mix with a little
flour and parched meal, which was all that now remained of their
provisions."
Chapter XIII -- From the Minnetarees to the Shoshonees
Travelling in a westerly direction, with a very gradual descent, Captain
Lewis, on the thirteenth of August, came upon two Indian women, a man,
and some dogs. The Indians sat down when the strangers first came in
sight, as if to wait for their coming; but, soon taking alarm, they
all fled, much to the chagrin of the white men. Now striking into a
well-worn Indian road, they found themselves surely near a village. The
journal says:--
"They had not gone along the road more than a mile, when on a sudden
they saw three female Indians, from whom they had been concealed by
the deep ravines which intersected the road, till they were now within
thirty paces of each other.
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