126 
JOURNAL. 
« 
caiigbt some small fish in the night. The natives^ 
take their fish by spearing them ; their spears for 
this purpose are poles with bones fixed to the ends 
of themvAvith which they strike the fish. They have 
but four guns in the nation, and catch goats and 
«ome other animals by running them down with . 
horses. The dresses of the women are a kind of 
shifts made of the skins of these goats and mountain 
sheep, which come down to the middle of the leg. 
Some of them have robes, but others none. Some of 
the men have shirts and some are without any. 
Some also have robes made of beaver and buflPaloe 
€kins ; but there are few of the former. I saw one 
anade of ground hog skins. 
Saturday 24ith, We had a pleasant 'morning and 
-some of the men went out to hunt. The river at 
this place is so confined by the mountai^is that it is not 
more than 20 yards wide, and very rapid. The moun- 
tains on the sides are not less than 1000 feet high and 
very steep. There are a few pines growing on them.* 
We caught some small fish to day, and our hunters 
killed 5 prairie fowls. These were all we had to 
subsist on. At 1 o'clock Captain Clarke and his 
party returned, after having been down the river 
about 12 miles. They found it was not possible to 
go down either by land or water, without much risk 
^nd trouble. The water is so rapid and the bed of^ 
the river so rocky, that going by water appeared im- 
practicable ; and the mountains so amazingly high^ 
steep and rocky, that it seemed impossible to go along 
the river by land. Our guide speaks of a way to sea,, 
by going up the south fork of this river, getting on 
to the mountains that way, and then turning :to the 
south west again. Captain Clarke therefore wrote a 
letter to Captain Lewis, and dispatched a man on 
horseback to meet him ; and vi^e all turned back up 
ihe river agvun, poor and uncomfortable enough, asr 
