Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/79



^6 A History of the Pacific Northwest

to frighten the beast off with his halberd. Other terrors were not wanting. A buffalo bull storming through camp after dark, a night fire and falling tree trunk, dangerous rapids, the upsetting of a boat — these are but hints to indicate the nature of the experiences with which the days and nights were filled, as the explorers pushed on through this wild but interesting region, toward the sources of the great Missouri.

The interlocking rivers. After some difficulty at the Three Forks, they ascended what they called the Jefferson branch, and on the 12th of August Captain Lewis, with one division of the party, arrived at the headsprings of the river, high up near the summit of the Rockies, in a spot "which had never yet been seen by civilized man." On the same day he crossed over to "a handsome bold creek of cold, clear water," -Halving westward. The interlocking rivers, one flowing to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific, had at last been found.

The Shoshones. Sacajawea. It was not long before he discovered a party of Shoshone Indians, from whom, after much delay, horses were procured for the journey to the navigable waters of the Columbia. At this point the Indian woman, Sacajawea, proved extremely helpful, for she belonged to the tribe of Shoshones and turned out to be the sister of a leading chief.

Character of the west slope of the Rockies; problem of the route. The explorers were now face to