Lewis: July 16, 1805

Tuesday, July 16th, 1805. We had a heavy dew last night. We sent one man back this morning for an ax that he had carelessly left last evening some miles below, and set out at an early hour. Early this morning we passed about 40 little booths formed of willow bushes to shelter the inhabitants from the sun; they appeared to have been deserted about 10 days. We supposed that they were Snake Indians. They appeared to have had a number of horses with them. This sight gives me much hope of meeting with these people shortly. Drewyer killed a buffalo this morning near the river, and we halted and breakfasted on it. Here for the first time I ate of the small guts of the buffalo, cooked over a blazing fire in the Indian style without any preparation of washing or other cleansing, and found them very good.

After breakfast I determined to leave Capt. C. (Capt. Clark) and party, and go on to the point where the river enters the Rocky Mountains and make the necessary observations before their arrival. Accordingly I set out with the two invalids, Potts and LaPage, and Drewyer. I passed through a very handsome level plain on the starboard side of the river, the country equally level and beautiful on the opposite side. At the distance of 8 miles, I passed a small stream on which I observed a considerable quantity of aspen. A little before 12, I halted on the river at a starboard bend and well-timbered bottom about 4 1/2 miles below the mountains and made the following observation.

After this observation, we pursued our route through a high rolling plain to a rapid immediately at the foot of the mountain where the Missouri first enters them. The current of the Missouri below these rapids is strong for several miles, though just above there is scarcely any current. The river is very narrow and deep, only about 70 yards wide, and seems to be closely hemmed in by the mountains on both sides, the bottoms only a few yards in width. An Indian road enters the mountain at the same place as the river on the starboard side and continues along its border under the steep cliffs. These mountains appear to be only about 800 feet above the river and are formed almost entirely of a hard black granite, with a few dwarf pine and cedar scattered on them. At this place there is a large rock 400 feet high which stands immediately in the gap which the Missouri makes on its passage from the mountains. It is isolated from the neighboring mountains by a handsome little plain which surrounds its base on 3 sides, and the Missouri washes its base on the other, leaving it on the larboard as it descends. This rock I called the Tower. It may be ascended with some difficulty nearly to its summit, and from it there is a most pleasing view of the country we are now about to leave. From it I saw this evening immense herds of buffalo in the plains below. Near this place we killed a fat elk on which we both dined and supped. The mosquitoes are extremely troublesome this evening, and I had left my bier (mosquito net), so of course I suffered considerably, and promised in my wrath that I never will be guilty of a similar piece of negligence while on this voyage.