The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its CommerceLyman, William Denison
History
The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce
Lyman, William Denison
Columbia River; Columbia River -- Description and travel; Columbia River -- History
With five large and well-filled canoes, and with a good supply of eatables
and all the other necessaries of life, the explorers now cast themselves
upon the clear, swift current of the Kooskooskie, and on the 10th of
October reached that striking and interesting place where the beautiful
modern town of Lewiston is located, at the junction of the Clearwater and
the Snake. The turbid, angry, sullen Snake, so striking a contrast with
the lesser stream, received from the explorers the name of Kimooenim, its
Indian name. Subsequently they christened it Lewis's Fork, but the still
less attractive name of Snake is the one by which it is universally known.
The journey of a hundred and twenty miles from the junction of the
Clearwater and the Snake to the junction of the latter stream with the
mighty Columbia, seems to have been a calm and uneventful journey, though
the explorers record every manner of event, whether important or
unimportant. Knowledge of their approach seems to have reached the Indian
world, and when on October 16th they reached the point where the modern
city of Pasco is located, they were met by a regular procession of two
hundred Indians. The two great rivers were then at their lowest point in
the year, and they found by measurement that the Columbia was 960 yards in
width and the Snake, 575 yards. In the glimmering haze of the pleasant
October day they noted how the vast, bare prairie stretched southward
until it was broken by the rounded summits of the Blue Mountains. To their
astonishment, they found that the Sohulks, who lived at the junction of
the rivers, so differed from other Indians that the men were content with
one wife and that they would actually assist her in the drudgery of the
family life. After several days spent in rest and getting fish, which
seemed to throng the river in almost countless numbers, they resumed their
journey upon the magnificent flood of the Columbia. Soon after passing
what we now call the Umatilla Highland, they caught their first glimpse,
clear-cut against the horizon of the south-west, of the bold cone of Mt.
Hood, glistening with its eternal snows. Landing upon the broad prairie
near where Umatilla is now located, Captain Clark shot a crane and a duck.
He then perceived a group of Indians who were almost paralysed with terror
and yet able to make their way with considerable expedition to a little
group of tepees. Having entered one of these, Captain Clark discovered
thirty-two Indians, men, women, and children, all of whom seemed to be in
the greatest terror, wailing and wringing their hands. Endeavouring by
kind looks and gestures to soothe their perturbation, Captain Clark held
up a burning glass to catch a stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe.
Whereupon the consternation of the Indians was redoubled, to be soothed
only by the arrival of the two Indian guides who were accompanying the
party. The terrified Indians explained to the guides that they knew that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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