| OCR Text |
Show 144 JOUn.NAL. 4 of them as leading men of their nation ; - nd they remainad about our camp. The river below tht: fork is ubout 200 yard~ widt ; the water is cleat• as chrys. tal, from 2 to 5 feet deep, and abounding with salmon of an excellent quality. The bottom of the rh·er is .stony and the banks chiefly composed of a round hard spe<. ies of stone. Saturday 28th. ~~ e had a pleasant tnON1ing and all hands, that were able, employed at the canoes.GatnL is very scarce, and out· hunters unable to kill any meut. We are therdore obliged to live on fish and roots, that we procure from the natives ; and which do not appear a suitable diet for us. Salt also is scarce wiLhout which fish is but poor and insipid. Our huntL rs kill\.:d nothing to day. Su11day 29th. A fine day ; all our hunters went out, and all the men able to work, were employed at the Canoes. At noon two of our hunters CHrne in with S deer ; a very welcome sight to the most of us. Five or six of the men continue unwell. .Jl!fuuday 30rll. The weather continued ple~sant · an d our hunters lu.l led a deet·. ' Tue~day l.vt Octr. 1805. This was a fine pleasant warm day. A II the men arc now able to work ; but the gre-.ltt:r number at·e very we"k. To save them from hard .Iabonr, we have adopted the Indinn method of burmng o•1t the canoes. JVednesday 2nd. Two men "''ere sent to tte Indian villdgc tc: purchase some provisions, "s our huntt't's do not k1ll enough for liS to subsist on. And lt:ast the Indian provbions should not agree 1~ ith us ·wt killed one of onr horsce. ' On the third, the mfn wt.re employed as ust~al ; on the mm·ning of the foul'lh there was a wltlle frost, after it a fine day. In the cve11ing our t~vo mt..n return;d, with a good Sllpply of ~ucb prodilPils ~\s the nat1 vet have. JOURNAL. 145 Saturday 5th. !laving got pretty well fonvard in our canoe making·, we collected all our horses and branded them, in order to leave them with the Indians, the old chief having promised that they should be well taken ~are of. In the evening "e got two of out· canoes 1nto the water. During the sixth most of the l~ands were t-nr~aged at the other canoes ; an<l we buned om· saddles an(l some ammunition. The morning of the seventh was pleasant, and we put the last of our canoes into the water ; loaded them, and found that they carried all our baggage with conv~nienc'.!. \Ve had fou1· large ones; and one small one, to look ahead. About· J o'cloc_:k in the afternoon we began our voya~·c down the nver, and found the rapid~ in some places n~ry dangerous. One of our canoes sprung a Ic k. Vv~ • th~refor~ ,halte.d and mended her, aftel' going t \Venty· m1les. 1 he lulls come clo~c on the river on both sides; where th ere arc a few pine trees. B.lck from the river the tops of the hills, to a g;rc.tl distance a~·c prairie land ; •wd the country level. Tuesday 8th. At 9 o'clock in a fine morui:~~· w~ continueu out· voyage down the rivet·: p;.1sscd tln·ecislands and seYeral rapids ; and at noon stoppctl al some India? lodges, of which there are a ~rcat ma~1y along the 1'1\-e t·. At 2 we prot:ecdecl on again. In the evening, in passing throug-h a r apid, l h.td my cauoe stove, and sbe sunk. I<'ortunately the w ,ttcr W.lS not more than wa.ist dee11· so otu· lives and b<1u· ~ gage 'n'cre saved, though the latl r \vas wet. ' \/ ~ haltl·cl and encamped hei·e to r epair the canoe, after coming 18. miles. At this place there are; some locl;;es of the natt ves on both sides of the ri v~r ; a nnmbct• of whom keep about us, and we get some fi.,h from them. Two chiefs of the n ppe1· Yilla~e join~c1 m; here, and proposed to go on \\ ith us, until we should meet with white peoplt:; whi~h they say will be at no grent distance. N |
