[Lewis]
Thursday June 13th 1805
This morning we set out about sunrise after taking breakfast of
our venison and fish. We again ascended the hills of the river and
gained the level country. The country through which we passed for
the first six miles, though more rolling than that we had passed
yesterday, might still with propriety be deemed a level country.
Our course as yesterday was generally S.W. The river from the place
we left it appeared to make a considerable bend to the south. From
the extremity of this rolling country I overlooked a most beautiful
and level plain of great extent of at least 50 or sixty miles. In
this there were infinitely more buffalo than I had ever before witnessed
at a view. Nearly in the direction I had been traveling or S.W.
two curious mountains presented themselves of square figures, the
sides rising perpendicularly to the height of 250 feet and appeared
to be formed of yellow clay. Their tops appeared to be level plains.
These inaccessible heights appeared like the ramparts of immense
fortifications. I have no doubt but with very little assistance
from art they might be rendered impregnable. Fearing that the river
bore to the south and that I might pass the falls if they existed
between this and the snowy mountains, I altered my course nearly
to the south, leaving those insulated hills to my right, and proceeded
through the plain. I sent Field on my right and Drewyer and Gibson
on my left with orders to kill some meat and join me at the river
where I should halt for dinner. I had proceeded on this course about
two miles with Goodrich at some distance behind me when my ears
were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water, and advancing
a little further I saw the spray arise above the plain like a column
of smoke which would frequently disappear again in an instant, caused
I presume by the wind which blew pretty hard from the S.W. I did
not, however, lose my direction to this point, which soon began
to make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short
of the Great Falls of the Missouri. Here I arrived about 12 o'clock,
having traveled by estimate about 15 miles. I hurried down the hill,
which was about 200 feet high and difficult of access, to gaze on
this sublimely grand spectacle. I took my position on the top of
some rocks about 20 feet high opposite the center of the falls.
This chain of rocks appear once to have formed a part of those over
which the waters tumbled, but in the course of time has been separated
from it to the distance of 150 yards lying parallel to it and forming
an abutment against which the water, after falling over the precipice,
beats with great fury. This barrier extends on the right to the
perpendicular cliff which forms that board [bound? border?] of the
river but to the distance of 120 yards next to the cliff it is but
a few feet above the level of the water, and here the water in very
high tides appears to pass in a channel of 40 yards next to the
higher part of the ledge of rocks. On the left it extends within
80 or ninety yards of the larboard cliff which is also perpendicular.
Between this abrupt extremity of the ledge of rocks and the perpendicular
bluff the whole body of water passes with incredible swiftness.
Immediately at the cascade the river is about 300 yards wide. About
ninety or a hundred yards of this next the larboard bluff is a smooth
even sheet of water falling over a precipice of at least eighty
feet, the remaining part of about 200 yards on my right forms the
grandest sight I ever beheld. The height of the fall is the same
of the other but the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below
receives the water in its passage down and breaks it into a perfect
white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment, sometimes
flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the height of fifteen or
twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large rolling bodies
of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals
them. In short, the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present
a sheet of the whitest beaten froth for 200 yards in length and
about 80 feet perpendicular. The water after descending strikes
against the abutment before mentioned, or that on which I stand,
and seems to reverberate and being met by the more impetuous current
they roll and swell into half formed billows of great height which
rise and again disappear in an instant. This abutment of rock defends
a handsome little bottom of about three acres which is diversified
and agreeably shaded with some cottonwood trees. In the lower extremity
of the bottom there is a very thick grove of the same kind of trees
which are small. In this wood there are several Indian lodges formed
of sticks. A few small cedars grow near the ledge of rocks where
I rest. Below the point of these rocks at a small distance the river
is divided by a large rock which rises several feet above the water,
and extends downwards with the stream for about 20 yards. About
a mile before the water arrives at the pitch it descends very rapidly,
and is confined on the larboard side by a perpendicular cliff of
about 100 feet, on the starboard side it is also perpendicular for
about three hundred yards above the pitch, where it is then broken
by the discharge of a small ravine, down which the buffalo have
a large beaten road to the water, for it is but in very few places
that these animals can obtain water near this place owing to the
steep and inaccessible banks. I see several skeletons of the buffalo,
lying in the edge of the water near the starboard bluff, which I
presume have been swept down by the current and precipitated over
this tremendous fall. About 300 yards below me there is another
abutment of solid rock with a perpendicular face and about 60 feet
high, which projects from the starboard side at right angles to
the distance of 134 yards and terminates at the lower part nearly
of the bottom before mentioned, there being a passage around the
end of this abutment between it and the river of about 2 yards.
Here the river again assumes its usual width, soon spreading out
near 300 yards, but still continues its rapidity. From the reflection
of the sun on the spray or mist which arises from these falls there
is a beautiful rainbow produced, which adds not a little to the
beauty of this majestically grand scene. After weighing this imperfect
description I again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted with
the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the scene that I determined
to draw my pen across it and began again, but then reflected that
I could not perhaps succeed better than penning the first impressions
of the mind. I wished for the pencil of Salvatore Rosa [EC: a Titian]
or the pen of Thompson, that I might be enabled to give to the enlightened
world some just idea of this truly magnificent and sublimely grand
object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from
the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless and vain. I most
sincerely regretted that I had not brought a camera obscura with
me, by the assistance of which even I could have hoped to have done
better, but alas this was also out of my reach. I therefore with
the assistance of my pen only endeavored to trace some of the stronger
features of this scene, by the assistance of which and my recollection
aided by some able pencil I hope still to give to the world some
faint idea of an object which at this moment fills me with such
pleasure and astonishment, and which of its kind I will venture
to assert is second to but one in the known world. I retired to
the shade of a tree where I determined to fix my camp for the present
and dispatch a man in the morning to inform Capt. Clark and the
party of my success in finding the falls and settle in their minds
all further doubts as to the Missouri. The hunters now arrived loaded
with excellent buffalo meat and informed me that they had killed
three very fat cows about ¾ of a mile hence. I directed them
after they had refreshed themselves to go back and butcher them
and bring another load of meat each to our camp, determining to
employ those who remained with me in drying meat for the party against
their arrival. In about 2 hours or at 4 o'clock P.M. they set out
on this duty, and I walked down the river about three miles to discover
if possible some place to which the canoes might arrive or at which
they might be drawn on shore in order be taken by land above the
falls; but returned without effecting either these objects. The
river was one continued scene of rapids and cascades which I readily
perceived could not be encountered with our canoes, and the cliffs
still retained their perpendicular structure and were from 150 to
200 feet high. In short, the river appears here to have worn a channel
in the process of time through a solid rock. On my return I found
the party at camp; they had butchered the buffalo and brought in
more meat as I had directed. Goodrich had caught half a dozen fine
trout and a number of both species of the white fish. These [NB:
caught in the falls] are from sixteen to twenty three inches in
length, precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout in form
and position of their fins, but the specks on these are of a deep
black instead of the red or gold color of those common to the U.
States. These are furnished long sharp teeth on the pallet and tongue
and have generally a small dash of red on each side behind the front
ventral fins; the flesh is of a pale yellowish red, or when in good
order, of a rose red. I am induced to believe that the brown, the
white and the grizzly bear of this country are the same species,
only differing in color from age or more probably from the same
natural cause that many other animals of the same family differ
in color. One of those which we killed yesterday was of a cream
colored white, while the other in company with it was of the common
bay or reddish brown, which seems to be the most usual color of
them. The white one appeared from its talons and teeth to be the
youngest. It was smaller than the other, and although a monstrous
beast we supposed that it had not yet attained its growth and that
it was a little upwards of two years old. The young cubs which we
have killed have always been of a brownish white, but none of them
as white as that we killed yesterday. One other that we killed sometime
since, which I mentioned sunk under some driftwood and was lost,
had a white stripe or list of about eleven inches wide entirely
around his body just behind the shoulders, and was much darker than
these bear usually are. The grizzly bear we have never yet seen.
I have seen their talons in possession of the Indians and from their
form I am persuaded if there is any difference between this species
and the brown or white bear it is very inconsiderable. There is
no such animal as a black bear in this open country or of that species
generally denominated the black bear. My fare is really sumptuous
this evening; buffalo's humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout,
parched meal, pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is
not considered the least of the luxuries.
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