and a brown bear, all of which escaped them.  “Nothing was killed to-day,” it is recorded, “nor have we had any fresh meat except one beaver for the last two days; so that we are now reduced to an unusual situation, for we have hitherto always had a great abundance of flesh.”  Indeed, one reason for this is found in Captain Lewis’s remark:  “When we have plenty of fresh meat, I find it impossible to make the men take any care of it, or use it with the least frugality, though I expect that necessity will shortly teach them this art.”  We shall see, later on, that the men, who were really as improvident of food as the Indians, had hard lessons from necessity.

Anxious to reach the Indians, who were believed to be somewhere ahead of them, Captain Lewis and three men went on up the Jefferson, Captain Clark and his party following with the canoes and luggage in a more leisurely manner.  The advance party were so fortunate as to overtake a herd of elk, two of which they killed; what they did not eat they left secured for the other party with the canoes.  Clark’s men also had good luck in hunting, for they killed five deer and one bighorn.  Neither party found fresh tracks of Indians, and they were greatly discouraged thereat.  The journal speaks of a beautiful valley, from six to eight miles wide, where they saw ancient traces of buffalo occupation, but no buffalo.  These animals had now completely disappeared; they were seldom seen in those mountains.  The journal says of Lewis:—­

“He saw an abundance of deer and antelope, and many tracks of elk and bear.  Having killed two deer, they feasted sumptuously, with a dessert of currants of different colors—­two species red, others yellow, deep purple, and black; to these were added black gooseberries and deep purple service-berries, somewhat larger than ours, from which they differ also in color, size, and the superior excellence of their flavor.  In the low grounds of the river were many beaver-dams formed of willow-brush, mud, and gravel, so closely interwoven that they resist the water perfectly; some of them were five feet high, and caused the river to overflow several acres of land.”

Meanwhile, the party with the canoes were having a fatiguing time as they toiled up the river.  On the fourth of August, after they had made only fifteen miles, the journal has this entry:—­

“The river is still rapid, and the water, though clear, is very much obstructed by shoals or ripples at every two hundred or three hundred yards.  At all these places we are obliged to drag the canoes over the stones, as there is not a sufficient depth of water to float them, and in the other parts the current obliges us to have recourse to the cord.  But as the brushwood on the banks will not permit us to walk on shore, we are under the necessity of wading through the river as we drag the boats.  This soon makes our feet tender, and sometimes occasions severe falls over the slippery stones; and the men, by being constantly wet, are becoming more feeble.  In the course of the day the hunters killed two deer, some geese and ducks, and the party saw some antelopes, cranes, beaver, and otter.”