Which River Should Lewis and Clark Take?

On the third day after this remarkable pass they came to a fork in the river which completely perplexed them.

Continuing The Lewis and Clark Expedition,
our selection from an essay published in Great Events by Famous People, Vol. 15 by Robert Southey published in 1905. The selection is presented in 6.4000000000000004 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Time: 1805

Continuing from their Journal

As we advance there seems no end of the visionary enchantment which surrounds us. In the midst of this fantastic scenery are vast ranges of walls, which seem the productions of art, so regular is the workmanship: they rise perpendicularly from the river, sometimes to the height of one hundred feet, varying in thickness from one to twelve feet, being equally as broad at the top as below. The stones of which they are formed are black, thick, and durable, and composed of a large portion of earth, intermixed and cemented with a small quantity of sand and a considerable portion of talc or quartz. These stones are almost invariably regular parallelopipeds of unequal size in the wall, but equally deep, and laid regularly in ranges over each other like bricks, each breaking and covering the interstice of the two on which it rests; but though the perpendicular interstice be destroyed, the horizontal one extends entirely through the whole work. The stones too are proportioned to the thickness of the wall in which they are employed, being largest in the thickest walls. The thinner walls are composed of a single depth of the par allelopiped, while the thicker ones consist of two or more depths. These walls pass the river at several places, rising from the water’s edge much above the sandstone bluffs, which they seem to penetrate; thence they cross in a straight line on either side of the river to the plains, over which they tower to the height of from ten to seventy feet, until they lose themselves in the second range of hills. Sometimes they run parallel in several ranges near to each other; sometimes intersect each other at right angles, and have the appearance of ancient houses or gardens.” Gass also in his brief notes expresses his admiration of this scenery. “The cliffs,” he says, “seem as if built by the hand of man, and are so numerous that they appear like the ruins of an ancient city.”

On the third day after this remarkable pass they came to a fork in the river which completely perplexed them; for though the Minnetarees had, as they thought, minutely described the course of the Missouri, or the “Ahmateahza” as they called it, they had said nothing of this junction. The north branch was two hundred yards wide, the south three hundred seventy, but the north was the deepest stream; its waters had that muddiness which the Missouri bears into the Mississippi, and its “air and character,” in Captain Clark’s phrase, so much resembled the Missouri that almost all the men believed that was the course to be pursued. The two leaders thought otherwise; it was known that the Missouri came from the mountains, and they reasoned that this stream would probably be the clearest of the two. There was too much at stake to allow of their proceeding upon any uncertainty.

Captain Lewis, therefore, with six men, went to explore the northern river, while Captain Clark and five others went upon the same errand up the south; the remainder of the party were left to enjoy needful rest; their feet had been much bruised and mangled during the last days, and this respite came seasonably. The former having gone about three-score miles were convinced that the stream came too far from the north for their route to the Pacific. On their return they were exposed to the greatest dangers. The rain had made the bluffs slippery, which as they went gave them risky footing; at a narrow pass some thirty yards in length Captain Lewis slipped, and had he not recovered himself quickly, must have fallen over a precipice of about ninety feet, into the river. One of the men behind him lost his footing about the middle of the pass, and slipped to the verge, where he lay on his face, his right arm and leg over the precipice, while with the other arm and leg he was with difficulty holding on. Captain Lewis, concealing the fear which he felt, told him he was in no danger, and bade him take his knife out of his belt with his right hand, and dig a hole in the side of the bluff for his right foot. With great presence of mind the man did this, and thus raised himself on his knees; he was then directed to take off his moccasins and come forward on hands and knees, holding the knife in one hand and the rifle in the other. In this manner he crawled till he reached a secure spot. The other men who had not at tempted this pass were ordered to return and wade the river at the foot of the bluff, where they found it breast-high; and the party finding that any difficulty was preferable to the danger of crossing the slippery heights, continued to proceed along the bottom, sometimes in the mud of the low grounds, sometimes up to their arms in the water, and, when it became too deep to wade, they cut footholds with their knives in the sides of the bank.

Captain Clark meantime having examined the south branch as far as forty-five miles in a straight line, was satisfied that this was the Missouri; the Indians had told him that the falls lay a little to the south of sunset from them, and that the river was nearly transparent at that place. He thought also that if this, which was the wider stream, was not the Missouri, it was scarcely possible that the Indians should not have mentioned it. But all the men were of a contrary opinion; one of them, who was an experienced waterman on this river, gave it as his decided opinion that the north fork was the genuine Missouri; their belief rested upon this, and they said they would willingly follow the Captain wherever he pleased to lead, but they feared that the south fork would soon terminate in the Rocky Mountains, and leave them at a great distance from the Columbia.

James Davie Butler began here. Robert Southey began here.

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