oes at some distance below the junction of the _Columbia_ with
_Lewis's river_, after which they prosecuted their journey on horseback.
Proceeding in an easterly direction, they arrived, on the seventh of
May, within sight of the _Rocky Mountains_, and saw the tops of these
mountains completely covered with snow. Anxious, however, to cross them
as early as they could, they lost no time in recovering their horses
from the Chopunnish Indians, and in extracting their stores from the
hiding places in the ground. Still it was necessary for them to encamp
for a few weeks, that they might occupy themselves in hunting, and that
the health of the invalids might be reinstated.

Here Captains Lewis and Clarke practised physic among the natives, as
one means of supplying themselves with provisions. Their stock of
merchandise was reduced so low, that they were obliged to cut off the
buttons from their clothes, and to present them, with phials and small
tin boxes, as articles of barter with the Indians; and, by means of
these humble commodities, they were enabled to procure some roots and
bread, as provision during their passage over the Rocky Mountains, which
they commenced on the tenth of June.

Towards the middle of June the fall of the rivers showed that the great
body of snow on the mountains was at last melted; and they ventured to
leave their encampment, against the advice of several of the Indians.
They, however, soon found that they had been premature in their motions;
for, on the higher grounds, there was no appearance whatever of
vegetation. The snow, which covered the whole country, was indeed
sufficiently hard to bear the horses, but it was still ten or twelve
feet deep; so that a further prosecution of their journey was, at
present, impossible; and the travellers, after having deposited, in this
upper region, their baggage, and such provisions as they could spare,
reluctantly traced back their steps to the plain. There they remained
ten days; and, on the 26th, they again began to ascend the lofty ridge;
the snow on which had, in the interval, melted nearly four feet, leaving
still a depth of six or seven. They now implicitly followed the steps of
their guides, who traversed this trackless region with a kind of
instinctive sagacity: these men never hesitated respecting the path, and
were never embarrassed. In three days they once more reached the stream
which, in their former journey, they had named _Traveller's Rest Cre