Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/39



our obscure path, and be compelled to pass the night without shelter or fire. We began unanimously to give expression to such fears, when we came suddenly upon the river, at a small grove of Willow bushes, and hastened to unload our animals and kindle fires. It was a long time before we succeeded in producing fire from the flint and steel; but, after many attempts, we at length obtained it, by sprinkling powder into the crown of a hat, together with whatever dry combustibles we could find, and discharging a pistol into it. To this we added the dry Willows which we had collected, and soon had a comfortable fire. We constructed frames of the green Willows, upon which we spread our blankets; and in this manner sheltered ourselves in some degree, from the snow and rain, which continued to fall during most of the night. The weather, previous to this, had been quite warm; and on the succeeding day, the clouds broke away, and it was again pleasant. Eighty-three miles below the American Falls, there is another tremendous perpendicular Fall in Snake River, over which the Salmon are unable to pass. Thirty-nine miles farther down, we saw, on the North side of the River, two very large Springs, bursting midway from the lofty precipices, rushing down like rivers, and foaming along over the piles of rock. They looked, at a distance, like banks of snow resting on the cliffs. Seventeen miles below these Springs, are the Salmon Falls. These Falls are not perpendicular, except in one or two small shoots, on the North side. The great body of the water, runs down an inclination of not more than twenty-five feet in three hundred yards. The river here is about one hundred and fifty yards wide, and divided by an Island, commencing at the lower end of the inclination, and extending down one fourth of a mile. The Salmon pass over the Falls with east, when there is sufficient water on them. –The surrounding country is very rough, broken, and entirely destitute of both grass and wood. The hills are, from the water in the River, about three hundred feet high. On the South Side, they are cut up by ravines; but on the North, they come bold and unbroken, up within a few hundred yards of the water. There is nothing very picturesque or wild about these Falls, compared with the world of waste and wreck around them. The Indians take immense quantities of Salmon here; which they cut into thin slices, dry in the Sun, and afterwards pack them up, in grass cases. The natives, along Snake River, live principally upon fish and roots; and are the filthiest, most depraved, and degraded creatures, any where to