1805.] PASSAGE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 285 



ward, they, on the 19th of July, passed through the Gates of the 

 Rocky Mountains, where the Missouri, emerging from that chain, 

 runs, for six miles, in a narrow channel, between perpendicular 

 parapets of black rock, rising twelve hundred feet above its surface. 

 Beyond this place, the river is formed by the confluence of several 

 streams, the largest of which, named by Lewis the Jefferson, was 

 ascended to its sources, near the 44th degree of latitude, where the 

 navigation of the Missouri ends, at the distance of about three 

 thousand miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. 



Whilst the canoes were ascending the Jefferson River, Captains 

 Lewis and Clarke, with some of their men, proceeded through the 

 mountains, and soon found streams flowing towards the west, one 

 of which was traced in that direction, by Clarke, for seventy miles ; 

 they also met several parties of Indians belonging to a nation 

 called Shoshonee, from whose accounts they were convinced that 

 those streams were the head-waters of the Columbia. Having re- 

 ceived this satisfactory information, the commanders rejoined their 

 men at the head of the Jefferson ; and preparations were commenced 

 for pursuing the journey by land. For this purpose, the canoes 

 and a portion of the goods were concealed in caches, or covered 

 pits, and a number of horses, with some guides, being procured 

 from the Shoshonees, the whole body of the Americans, on the 30th 

 of August, entered on the passage through the Rocky Mountains. 



Up to this period, the difficulties of the journey had been com- 

 paratively light, and the privations few. But, during the three 

 weeks which the Americans spent in passing the Rocky Mountains, 

 they underwent, as Clarke says, " every suffering which hunger, 

 cold, and fatigue, could impose." The mountains were high, and 

 the passes through them rugged, and, in many places, covered with 

 snow ; and their food consisted of berries, dried fish, and the meat 

 of dogs or horses, of all which the supplies were scanty and preca- 

 rious. They crossed many streams, some of them large, which 

 emptied into the Columbia ; but their guides gave them no encour- 

 agement to embark on any, until they reached one called the 

 KoosJcoosJcee, in the latitude of 43 degrees 34 minutes, about four 

 hundred miles, by their route, from the head of navigation of the 

 Missouri. 



At this place, they constructed five canoes, and, leaving their 

 horses in charge of a tribe of Indians of the Chopunnish nation, 

 they, on the 7th of October, began the descent of the Kooskooskee. 

 Three days afterwards, they entered the principal southern branch 



