to see the Snake Indians. After advancing for several hundred
miles into this wild and mountainous country, we may soon expect that
the game will abandon us. With no information of the route, we may be
unable to find a passage across the mountains when we reach the head of
the river--at least, such a pass as will lead us to the Columbia. Even
are we so fortunate as to find a branch of that river, the timber which
we have hitherto seen in these mountains does not promise us any fit to
make canoes, so that our chief dependence is on meeting some tribe from
whom we may procure horses. Our consolation is that this southwest
branch can scarcely head with any other river than the Columbia; and if
any nation of Indians can live in the mountains we are able to endure
as much as they can, and have even better means of procuring
subsistence."

By the first days of August this fear for the scarcity of game had
become a reality; they were getting beyond the summer range of deer and
buffalo, which had been their chief reliance. Through their long season
of toil they had been plentifully fed; but they were now to know the
pains of hunger, and the ills which follow upon a meagre diet. The
hunters were daily reporting increasingly bad luck in the chase; some
days would yield nothing; upon other days the camp would heartily
welcome an owl, an eagle, or a bag of insignificant small birds of any
sort, or even a wolf--anything that had flesh on its bones.

But these deprivations did not one whit abate the zeal for discovery.
About this time they found the Jefferson River to be formed by three
minor streams, to which they gave the names of Philosophy,
Philanthropy, and Wisdom rivers, "in commemoration of those cardinal
virtues which have so eminently marked that deservedly selibrated
character." It is a pity to record that this complimentary intention
was thwarted by time; but Philosophy is now known as Willow Creek,
Wisdom is now the Big Hole, and Philanthropy bears the hard name of
Stinking Water.

Since leaving Fort Mandan, in the preceding April, they had seen no
Indians. They were now somewhat reassured by Sacajawea, the "Bird
Woman," who said that they were nearing the site of her old home with
the Snakes. She was as anxious as they for a meeting with her people,
which she told them must soon occur. But anxiety increased as the days
passed, and on the 9th of August Captain Lewis, accompanied by several
of the men, set out in advanc