581 MISSOURI. 
often defeated, with the lofs of one or more of their num¬ 
ber. Though to a Ikilful rifleman the danger is very much 
diminilhed, the bear is ftill a formidable enemy, as will 
appear from the following adventure. “ One evening the 
men in the hindmofcof the canoes dil'coveredalarge brown 
bear lying in the open grounds, about three hundred 
paces from the river. Six of them, all good hunters, fet 
out to attack him, and, concealing themfelves by a fmall 
eminence, came unperceived within forty paces of him. 
Four of them now fired, and each lodged a ball in his 
body, two of them diredlly through the lungs. The en¬ 
raged animal fprang up, and ran open-mouthed at them. 
As he came near, the two hunters who had referved their 
fire gave him two wounds, one of which, breaking his 
fhoulder, retarded his motion for a moment; but, before 
they could reload, he was fo near, that they were obliged 
to run to the river, and, before they reached it, he had 
almolt overtaken them. Two jumped into the canoe ; 
the other four feparated ; and, concealing themfelves in 
the willows, fired as fall as each could load. They flruck 
him feveral times, but they only exafperated him; and he 
at laft purfued two of them fo clofely, that they jumped 
down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the river. 
The bear fprang after them 5 and was within a few feet of 
the liindmoft, when one of the hunters on-lhore lhot him 
in the head and killed him. They dragged him to the 
fhore, and found that eight balls had palled through his 
body in different diredlions.” The bear of thefe regions, 
therefore, feems no lefs fierce, and no lefs tenacious of 
life, than his brother who lives amid the ice of Greenland. 
It feems a remarkable fa 61 in the hiftory of this country, 
that, even on the fide of fo large a river, dew is extremely 
rare. They remark having had a fall of dew in the even¬ 
ing of the 18th of May ; the lecond which they had feen 
in* all the open country through which they had palled. 
On the 24th of the lame month it was fo cold, that the wa¬ 
ter in the kettles froze one-fourth of an inch thick in the 
courfe of a night ; the ice appeared all along the margin 
of the river; and the trees of cotton-wood had loft all 
their leaves. 
They were now approaching to the Rocky Mountains, 
thole which form the partition between the waters of the 
eaft and of the weft ; and fome of the points of this re¬ 
markable chain were occafionally in view. The elevation 
at which they were, was certainly now very confiderable. 
There was no timber on the hills ; and only a few fcat- 
tered trees of cotton-wood, afli, box, alder, and willow, 
by the water-fide. They had feen no Indians from the 
time that they had left the Mandans ; though they had 
occafionally feen huts which had been lately inhabited. 
The rock of the country feems to be a foft fandftone, in- 
terfedled by walls of a black rock, which is nothing elfe 
than lome Ipecies of trap, moft probably bafalt. The fce- 
nery was very romantic ; and in the midft of it, fays the 
narrative, are “ vaft ranges of walls, which are fo lingular 
that they feem the produdtions of art. They rife perpen¬ 
dicularly from the river, l'ometimes to the height of a hun¬ 
dred feet, varying in thicknefs from one foot to twelve, 
but equally broad at top and bottom. Theftones of which 
they are formed are black, thick and durable, and are al- 
molt invariably regular parallelopipeds of unequal fizes, 
but equally deep, and laid regularly in ranges over each 
other like bricks, each covering the interftices of the two 
on which it refts.” A perlon who was no mineralogift 
could not better defcribe a vertical dike of trap or whin- 
ftone, compofed of regular columns, dil'pofed horizon¬ 
tally. Such a wall, a hundred feet high, and twelve feet 
broad, muff: be a very magnificent objedt, and feems in 
due proportion to the great fcale on which every thing in 
this country is laid down. The top of this wall muff: have 
once been level with the furface; fo we may judge from 
this of the quantity of ftrata worn away. It is a latisfac- 
tion to lee the fame charadters prevailing in the geologi¬ 
cal ftrudture of countries moft remote from one another, 
and to obferve bafaltic walls interfedlirig the ftrata of the 
Mifl'ouri, juft as they cut the wacken of the ifland of Mull, 
or the columnar rocks of the Giant’s Caufeway. 
As they approached the mountains, and had got confi- 
derably beyond the walls juft defcribed, at the "meridian 
nearly of no°, and the parallel of about 47 0 20', the fame 
almoft as that of the ftation of the Mandans, there was a 
bifurcation of the river, which threw them into confider¬ 
able doubt as to which was the true Mifl'ouri, and the 
courfe which it behoved them to purfue. The northern- 
moft poffefled moft ftrongly the charadters of that river; 
and the men feemed all to entertain no doubt that it was 
the ftream which they ought to follow. The commanders 
of the expedition, however, did not decide, till after they 
had reconnoitred the country from the higher grounds; 
and then determined to follow the fouthern branch. On 
the nth of June, Capt. Lewis fet out on foot with four 
men, in order to explore this river. They proceeded till 
the 13th ; when, finding that the river bore confiderably 
to the fouth, fearing that they were in an error, they 
changed their courfe, and proceeded acrofs the plains. In 
this diredlion Capt. Lewis had gone about two miles, 
when his ears were fainted with the agreeable found of a 
fall of water; and, as he advanced, a fp ray, which feemed 
driven by the high fouth-weft wind, rofe above the plain 
like a column of fmoke, and vaniflied in an inftant. To¬ 
wards this point he diredted his fteps ; and the noife, in- 
creafing as he approached, foon became too tremendous 
to be miftaken for any thing but the Great Falls of the 
Miffouri. Having travelled feven miles after firft hearing 
the found, he reached the falls about twelve o’clock. 
The hills, as he approached, were difficult of accefs, and 
about two hundred feet high. Down thefe he hurried 
with impatience; and, feating himfelf on fome rocks un¬ 
der the centre of the falls, enjoyed the fublime fpedtacle 
of this ftupendous cataradf, which fince the creation had 
been lavilhing its magnificence on the defert. Thefe falls 
extend, in all, over a diltance of nearly twelve miles ; and 
the medium breadth of the river varies from three hundred 
to fix hundred yards. The principal fall is near the lower 
extremity, and is upwards of eighty feet perpendicular. 
The river is here three hundred yards wide, with perpen¬ 
dicular cliff's on each fide, not lefs than a hundred feet 
high. For ninety or a hundred yards from the left cliff, 
the water falls in- one fmooth even fheet, over a precipice 
at leaft eighty feet high. The remaining part of the river 
precipitates itfelf alfo with great rapidity ; but, being re¬ 
ceived as it falls by irregular and projed'ting rocks, forms 
a fplendid profpedl of white foam, two hundred yards in 
length, and eighty in perpendicular elevation. The fpray 
is diffipated in a thoufand fhapes, flying up in high co¬ 
lumns, and colledfing into large mafles, which the fun 
adorns with all the colouring of the rainbow. The fall, 
juft defcribed, mull be one of the moft magnificent and 
pidturefque that is any where to be found. It has often 
been dii'puted, whether a cataradf, in which the water falls 
in one fheet, or where it is dafhed irregularly among the 
rocks, is the finelt objedf. It was referved for the Mifl'ouri 
to refolve this doubt, by exhibiting both at once in the 
greateft magnificence. 
There is another cafcade, of about forty-feven feet, 
higher up the river ; and the laft of all is twenty-fix feet; 
but the lucceflion of inferior falls, and of rapids of very 
great declivity, is aftonilhingly great; fo that, from the 
firft to the laft, the whole delcent of the river is 384 feet. 
“ Juft below the falls,” lays Capt. Lewis, “ is a little ifland 
in the river, well covered with timber. Here, on a cot¬ 
ton-wood tree, an eagle had fixed its neft, and feemed the 
undilputed miftrefs of a l’pot, to invade which, neither 
man nor beaft could venture acrofs the gulf that lurrounds 
it; while it is farther fecured by the mill that riles from 
the fltlls. This folitary bird has not efcaped the obferva- 
tion of the Indians, who made the eagle’s neft a part of 
their defcription of the falls, which they gave us, and 
which proves now to be corredt in almoft every particular, 
except that they did not do jultice to their height.” 
Captain 
