d
just time to grasp her child, before the net in which it lay at her feet
was carried down the current."

Such a storm is known in the West as a cloud-burst. Overland emigrants
in the early rush to California often suffered loss from these sudden
deluges. A party of men, with wagons and animals, have been known to
be swept away and lost in a flood bursting in a narrow canyon in the
mountains.

"Captain Clark now relinquished his intention of going up the river, and
returned to the camp at Willow Run. Here he found that the party
sent this morning for the baggage had all returned to camp in great
confusion, leaving their loads in the plain. On account of the heat,
they generally go nearly naked, and with no covering on their heads.
The hail was so large, and driven so furiously against them by the high
wind, that it knocked several of them down: one of them, particularly,
was thrown on the ground three times, and most of them were bleeding
freely, and complained of being much bruised. Willow Run had risen six
feet since the rain; and, as the plains were so wet that they could not
proceed, they passed the night at their camp.

"At the White Bear camp, also," (says Lewis), "we had not been
insensible to the hailstorm, though less exposed. In the morning there
had been a heavy shower of rain, after which it became fair. After
assigning to the men their respective employments, Captain Lewis took
one of them, and went to see the large fountain near the falls. . . . It
is, perhaps, the largest in America, and is situated in a pleasant level
plain, about twenty-five yards from the river, into which it falls over
some steep, irregular rocks, with a sudden ascent of about six feet in
one part of its course. The water boils up from among the rocks, and
with such force near the centre that the surface seems higher there than
the earth on the sides of the fountain, which is a handsome turf of
fine green grass. The water is extremely pure, cold, and pleasant to the
taste, not being impregnated with lime or any foreign substance. It is
perfectly transparent, and continues its bluish cast for half a mile
down the Missouri, notwithstanding the rapidity of the river. After
examining it for some time, Captain Lewis returned to the camp. . . ."

"Two men were sent (June 30) to the falls to look for the articles
lost yesterday; but they found nothing but the compass, covered with mud
and sand, at the mouth of the ravine. The place at w