Snake River rapids, near Lewiston — John Ordway: October 13, 1805
The party spent the morning carefully lining canoes one at a time down through rapids, with non-swimmers carrying baggage overland, finishing safely around noon. The weather cleared by 2 o'clock. Along the way they observed numerous Native fishing camps used each spring, with firewood rafted down the river and carefully stored on scaffolds. They passed through a narrow two-mile channel where the river ran swift like a mill race, saw two Indians swimming horses across to the north side, and passed a creek entering from the larboard side. Barren plains continued as usual.
untill about 10 oClock then took down one canoe at a time be-
low the rapids, all the men who could not swim carried each
a load of baggage by land, about 12 we got safe below the rapids
at 2 oClock cleared off. Saw a great number of fishing camps
where the natives fish everry Spring, they raft all their wood
down the River a long distance and they put it up on Scaffels and
take great care of it. towards evening we passed through a place
in the River where it was all confined in a narrow channel of
about 15 yards wide for about 2 miles and ran like a mill race
large fisherys below in the Spring. Saw 2 Indians Swim their
horses across the river to the N. Side and went on down the
River, passed a creek2 which came in on the Lard Side this
afternoon the current Swift, the barrons and plains continue
as usal.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Until about 10 o'clock, then we took down one canoe at a time below the rapids. All the men who could not swim each carried a load of baggage by land. About 12 we got safely below the rapids. At 2 o'clock it cleared off. We saw a great number of fishing camps where the natives fish every spring. They raft all their wood down the river a long distance, and they put it up on scaffolds and take great care of it.
Toward evening we passed through a place in the river where it was all confined in a narrow channel of about 15 yards wide for about 2 miles, and it ran like a mill race. There are large fisheries below in the spring. We saw 2 Indians swim their horses across the river to the north side and go on down the river. We passed a creek which came in on the larboard side this afternoon. The current was swift, and the barrens and plains continue as usual.
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