OCR Text |
Show 396 Lewis and Clm·T~c' s Expedition placed a basket formed of willows. rightcrn or twenty feet iu length, of a cylindrical fot·m, and terminating in a conic sJ1ape at its lower extremity; this was situated with its mouth upwards, opposHe to an apct·tm·c in the weir. The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as the fish entered it they were ~o entangled with each other that they could not move, and wet·e taken out by untying the small end of the willow basket. The weiJ· in the main channel was formed in a manner somewhat different; there were in fact two distinct weirs formed of poles and willow sticks quite across the river, appt·oachins each other obliquely with an aperture in each side neat· the angle. This is made by tying a number of' poles together at tlae top, in parcels of three, which were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles being in the range desired fo1• the weir_. and the thil·d down the stream. 'ro these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally, with wiUow bal'l' and wythes, and willow sticks joined in with these crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. This is so tJ1ick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in some parts with the help of a little gt·avcl and some stone enables tlwm to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs ~eing placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catchlJlg the fish as they ascend, tlJe other as they g·o down the river~ is provided with two baskets made in the form already described, and which arc placed at the apertures of tbe weiJ·. After examining these curious objects, he returned to the lodges, and soon passed the river to the left, where an Indian brought him a tomahawk which be said he had found in the "rass, near the lodge where captain Lewis had staid on his fi.rst visit to the village. This was a tomahawk which had been missed, at the time, and supposed to be stolen; it was however the only article which had been lost in our iute1· .. course with the natiQn~ 3Jld as even that was returned the Up the .Missout·i. S97 inference is highly honourable to the integrity of' the Shoshonees. On leaving th('. lodgrs captain Clarke crossed to the left side of the river, and despatched five men to tho forks of it, in search of the man left hchind yesterday, who llro~ cured a hol'sc and passed by anothet· t•oad as they Jeat•nt, to the forks. At the di:5tancc of fout·tecn miles they killed a ' 'cry large salmon. two and a. half feci long, in a creek six miles brlow the forks: and after tt·avelling about twenty miles t1n·ougl1 the valley, foJiowing the course of the river, which runs ncal'ly northwest, halted in a small meadow on the l'ight side, under a clifr of t•ocks. lle1•e they were joined uy the flve men who had gone in 'l'!_cst of CJ'usatte. They bad been to the fot·ks of the river, wJtere the natives resort in great numbers fot• the pm·posc of gigging fish, or which they made our men a present of five fresh salmon. In ad(li-tion to this food, one deer was killed to-day. '.Fhe western branch. of this river is much lal'gct~ than the eastern, and af. ter we passed the junction we found the river about one hundred yards in width, rapid and shoa.ly, but containing only a small quantity of timber. As cn.ptain I .. cwis was the first white man who visited its waters, captain Clarke gave it the name of Lewis's river. The low grounds through which he bad passed to-day were rich and wide, but at his camp this evening the hills begin to assume a formidable aspct-.t. 'l'Jac cliifunderwhieh he lay is of a reddish brown colour, the rocks which have fallen from it area dark brown flintstone. Near the I> lace are gullies of white sandstone, and quantities of a fine sand, of a snowy whiteness: the mountains on each side are ltigh and rugged, with some pine ta·ecs scatt('.red over them. 'l'hursday 2~. lie soon began to perceive that the Indian accounts had not exaggerated: at the distance of a mile he passed a small creek, and the points of fout· mountains, which were rocky, and so high that it seemed almost impossible to cross them with horses. The road lay over the. sharp fragments of rocks which had fallen from the mountains, and were strewed in heaps for ailes together, yet the horses al- |