or they were convinced that their men could accomplish a
passage without enduring so much hardship as Indians, who are generally
accompanied by women and children.

Having ascertained that the accounts of the impractibility of navigating
the river were well founded, it became indispensable to take measures
for proceeding on horseback. The men had already begun to suffer from
want of food, for the country afforded very little except berries, and a
few river-fish.

Captain Lewis describes the ravenous propensities of the Indians who
reside in this part of America, to be very extraordinary. While some of
them were with the travellers, a deer was killed. They all hastened to
the spot, like so many beasts of prey, and actually tumbled over each
other, to reach the intestines which had been thrown aside. Each tore
away whatever part he could seize, and instantly began to devour it.
Some had the liver, some the kidneys; in short, no part was left, on
which we are accustomed to look with disgust. One of them, who had
seized about nine feet of the entrails, was chewing, at one end, while,
with his hand, he was diligently clearing his way by discharging the
contents at the other. Yet, though suffering from excessive hunger, they
did not attempt, as they might have done, to take by force the whole
deer, but contented themselves with what had been thrown away by the
hunters. After this, Captain Lewis gave one quarter of the body of the
deer to the Indians; and they immediately devoured it raw. A second deer
was killed, and nearly the whole of it was given to the Indians. This
they also devoured, even to the soft parts of the hoofs; and they
shortly afterwards ate nearly three quarters of a third.

It happened fortunately for the travellers, in the prosecution of their
journey by land, that the horses of the country were good, and that
there was no difficulty in purchasing as many as were necessary, for the
conveyance of themselves and their baggage. They were thus enabled to
set out about the end of August, under the guidance of an old man, who,
notwithstanding the dissuasion of his countrymen, undertook to conduct
them to the Indians who live westward of the mountains.

Arriving, soon afterwards, in a district where no tract could be
discovered, they were obliged to cut their way through thickets of trees
and brushwood, along the sides of hills. Here their horses suffered
great fatigue; and the season was still so little advanc