Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/404

398 398 ANDREW T. LEWIS. Indians. They were like a flock of quail, ready to fly at the appearance of evil. On their way back the whole party was stampeded, and Lewis carried along on his horse with the rest for a mile before they learned that the Indian who was running toward them desired to inform them that one of the white men had killed a deer. They soon found Clark and the rest of the party with the canoes. The meeting between Sacajawea and her people was very touching; the chief who accompanied Lewis was her brother. From Shoshone Cove to Canoe Camp at the mouth of Clearwater was traveled with horses as pack animals, over the wildest and roughest part of the United States. They left Canoe Camp October 7, and on the 18th started down the Columbia River. Their trip was one continuous ova- tion with the Indian tribes from Canoe Camp to the Great Falls of the Columbia. Lewis gives an interesting de- scription of the horse of the great plains ; he ends by say- ing, "They resemble in fleetness and bottom, as well as in form and color, the best blooded horses of Virginia." On November 7, 1805, the expedition reached the ocean and went into winter quarters at Fort Clatsop on the south side of the Columbia, not far from the city of Astoria. On the 23d of March, 1806, they left Fort Clatsop. Their supplies and trinkets, excepting the salt and am- munition, could have been wrapped in two handkerchiefs. On their way back they discovered the Multnomah River, now called the Willamette. Clark ascended this river twelve miles to the city of Portland. The explorers esti- mated that this country bordering on the Columbia was capable uf supporting fifty thousand inhabitants. When the expedition reached the head of the Missoula at Three Rivers, the party divided, Clark going south with Sacajawea as the guide, and descended the Yellow- stone River; and Lewis with his party proceeded to the