Very few of the condors of the Andes
are much larger than this, though one measuring eleven feet from tip to
tip has been reported.
While camped at Quicksand, or Sandy River, the party learned that food
supplies up the Columbia were scarce. The journal says that the Indians
met here were descending the river in search of food. It adds:--
"They told us, that they lived at the Great Rapids; but that the
scarcity of provisions there had induced them to come down, in the hopes
of finding subsistence in the more fertile valley. All the people living
at the Rapids, as well as the nations above them, were in much distress
for want of food, having consumed their winter store of dried fish, and
not expecting the return of the salmon before the next full moon,
which would be on the second of May: this information was not a little
embarrassing. From the Falls to the Chopunnish nation, the plains
afforded neither deer, elk, nor antelope for our subsistence. The
horses were very poor at this season, and the dogs must be in the same
condition, if their food, the dried fish, had failed. Still, it was
obviously inexpedient for us to wait for the return of the salmon,
since in that case we might not reach the Missouri before the ice would
prevent our navigating it. We might, besides, hazard the loss of our
horses, as the Chopunnish, with whom we had left them, would cross the
mountains as early as possible, or about the beginning of May, and take
our horses with them, or suffer them to disperse, in either of which
cases the passage of the mountains will be almost impracticable.
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