Lewis: August 1, 1805

August 1st 1805. At half after 8 A.M. we halted for breakfast, and as had been previously agreed on between Capt. Clark and myself, I set out with 3 men in quest of the Snake Indians. The men I took were the two interpreters, Drewyer (Drouillard) and Sharbono (Charbonneau), and Sergt. Gass, who by an accidental fall had so disabled himself that it was with much pain he could work in the canoes, though he could march with convenience. The route we took lay over a rough, high range of mountains on the north side of the river. The river entered these mountains a few miles above where we left it. Capt. Clark recommended this route to me from a belief that the river, as soon as it passed the mountains, bore to the north of west, he having a few days before ascended these mountains to a position from which he discovered a large valley passing between the mountains, which bore to the northwest. This, however, proved to be the inlet of a large creek which discharged itself into the river just above this range of mountains, the river bearing to the southwest. We were therefore thrown several miles out of our route. As soon as we discovered our mistake, we directed our course to the river, which we at length gained about 2 P.M., much exhausted by the heat of the day, the roughness of the road, and the want of water. The mountains are extremely bare of timber, and our route lay through the steep valleys exposed to the heat of the sun without shade and scarcely a breath of air; and to add to my fatigue in this walk of about 11 miles, I had taken a dose of Glauber salts in the morning in consequence of a slight dysentery with which I had been afflicted for several days. Being weakened by the disorder and the operation of the medicine, I found myself almost exhausted before we reached the river. I felt my spirits much revived on our near approach to the river at the sight of a herd of elk, of which Drewyer and myself killed two. We then hurried to the river and allayed our thirst. I ordered two of the men to skin the elk and bring the meat to the river, while myself and the other prepared a fire and cooked some of the meat for our dinner. We made a comfortable meal of the elk and left the balance of the meat on the bank of the river for the party with Capt. Clark. This supply was no doubt very acceptable to them, as they had had no fresh meat for near two days except one beaver, game being very scarce and shy. We had seen a few deer and some goats but had not been fortunate enough to kill any of them. After dinner we resumed our march and camped about 6 miles above on the starboard side of the river.

Thursday, August 1st 1805. This morning we set out early and proceeded on tolerably well until 8 o'clock, by which time we had arrived within a few miles of a mountain through which the river passes. We halted on the starboard side and took breakfast. After which, or at half after 8 A.M., as had been previously concerted between Capt. Clark and myself, I set out with three men in search of the Snake Indians, or Shoshones. Our route lay over a high range of mountains on the north side of the river. Capt. C. recommended this route to me, no doubt from a belief that the river, as soon as it passed this chain of mountains, bore to the north of west, he having on the 26th ultimo ascended these mountains to a position from whence he discovered a large valley passing between the mountains, which bore to the northwest, and presumed that the river passed in that direction. This, however, proved to be the passage of a large creek which discharged itself into the river just above this range of mountains, the river bearing to the southwest. We were therefore thrown several miles out of our route. As soon as we discovered our error, we directed our course to the river, which we at length gained about 2 P.M., much exhausted by the heat of the day, the roughness of the road, and the want of water. The mountains are extremely bare of timber, and our route lay through the steep and narrow hollows of the mountains, exposed to the intense heat of the midday sun without shade or scarcely a breath of air, to add to my fatigue in this walk of about 11 miles. I had taken a dose of Glauber salts in the morning in consequence of a slight dysentery with which I had been afflicted for several days. Being weakened by the disorder and the operation of the medicine, I found myself almost exhausted before we reached the river. I felt my spirits much revived on our near approach to the river at the sight of a herd of elk, of which Drewyer and myself soon killed a couple. We then hurried to the river and allayed our thirst. I ordered two of the men to skin the elk and bring the meat to the river, while myself and the other prepared a fire and cooked some of the meat for our dinner. We made a comfortable meal on the elk, and left the balance of the meat and skins on the bank of the river for Capt. Clark and party. This supply will no doubt be acceptable to them, as they had had no fresh meat when I left them for almost 2 days except one beaver, game being very scarce and shy above the forks. We had seen a few deer and antelopes but had not been fortunate enough to kill any of them.

As I passed these mountains, I saw a flock of the black or dark brown pheasants. The young pheasant is almost grown; we killed one of them. This bird is fully a third larger than the common pheasant of the Atlantic states. Its form is much the same. It is feathered nearly to the toes, and the male has not the tufts of long black feathers on the sides of the neck which are so conspicuous in those of the Atlantic. Their color is a uniform dark brown with a small mixture of yellow or yellowish brown specks on some of the feathers, particularly those of the tail, though the extremities of these are perfectly black for about one inch. The eye is nearly black; the iris has a small dash of yellowish brown. The feathers of the tail are rather longer than that of our pheasant or partridge, as they are called in the eastern states; they are the same in number, or eighteen, and all nearly of the same length, those in the intermediate part being somewhat longest. The flesh of this bird is white and agreeably flavored.

I also saw near the top of the mountain, among some scattering pine, a blue bird about the size of the common robin. Its action and form is somewhat that of the jaybird, and it never rests long in any one position but is constantly flying or hopping from spray to spray. I shot at one of them but missed it. Their note is loud and frequently repeated, both flying and when at rest, and is "char ah', char'ah, char ah'," as nearly as letters can express it. After dinner we resumed our march, and my pack felt much lighter than it had done about 2 hours before. We traveled about six miles further and camped on the starboard bank of the river, making a distance of 17 miles for this day. The mosquitoes were troublesome, but I had taken the precaution of bringing my bier (mosquito net).

Shortly after I left Capt. Clark this morning, he proceeded on and passed through the mountains. They formed tremendous cliffs of ragged and nearly perpendicular rocks. The lower part of this rock is of the black granite before mentioned, and the upper part a light-colored freestone. These cliffs continue for 9 miles and approach the river very closely on either side. He found the current very strong. Capt. C. killed a bighorn on these cliffs, which himself and party dined on. After passing this range of mountains, he entered this beautiful valley in which we also were. It is from 6 to 8 miles wide. The river is crooked and crowded with islands; its bottoms are wide, fertile, and covered with fine grass from 9 inches to 2 feet high, and possess but a scant proportion of timber, which consists almost entirely of a few narrow-leafed cottonwood trees distributed along the verge of the river. In the evening Capt. C. found the elk I had left him and ascended a short distance above to the entrance of a large creek which falls in on the starboard, and camped opposite to it on the larboard side. He sent out the two Fieldses to hunt this evening, and they killed 5 deer, which with the elk again gave them a plentiful store of fresh provisions. This large creek we called Field's Creek after Reubin Fields, one of our party. On the river about the mountains which Capt. C. passed today, he saw some large cedar trees and some juniper also. Just at the upper side of the mountain there is a bad rapid; here the towline of our canoe broke in the shoot of the rapids, and the canoe swung on the rocks and had very nearly overset. A small distance above this rapid, a large bold creek falls in on the larboard side, which we called Frazier's Creek after Robt. Frazier. They saw a large brown bear feeding on currants but could not get a shot at him.