in sentiment
and imagination, for most of the names thus given by them have been
supplanted by others, but it cannot be said that these changes have
always been an improvement.

On the second day of summer the explorers had to face a puzzling
problem. A large branch flowing from the north was so similar to the
Missouri that it seemed it must be that river, while the one hitherto
accepted as such bore to the south. Which was the branch that,
according to the reports of the Indians, had its rise in the Rocky
Mountains, near the source of the Columbia? To settle the question the
party divided, one ascending either branch. Upon reuniting it was
agreed that the south branch was the real Missouri. The northern stream
was named the Maria. This was another of the few instances in which the
title given by the explorers stuck.

The rapids five miles below the Falls of the Missouri were reached on
June 15. These had to be passed by a portage. An idea can be formed of
the great difficulties encountered when it is stated that, although the
portage was hardly eighteen miles long, it took eleven days to make it.
The men, however, were in high spirits, and at night Peter Cruzatte
added to the "gayety of nations" by playing on his violin.

About the middle of August horses were obtained from the tribe from
which the Indian wife of the interpreter had been stolen. The passage
through the mountains or over the Divide caused the greatest suffering
of the expedition. The men had to cut their way in many places through
the brush, clamber over jagged stones and climb such precipitous walls
that several of their horses were crippled. Then snow began falling and
the nights became very cold. Game seemed to have deserted the country,
and the sufferers had to eat all their supply of flour and parched
corn. Beginning with September 14, they were obliged to kill and eat
some of their horses, and even at that had to be very sparing or the
supply would have been exhausted.

Descending the western side of the mountains, however, they found
abundant edible roots, dried salmon and dried berries at the Indian
villages. The famishing men feasted so ravenously that most of them
became ill. New canoes were constructed, and leaving their horses with
a chief they started down the Clearwater and reached the Columbia on
October 16. Ten days were occupied in making the portage of the falls
and rapids, and on the morning of November 7, when the fog lifted, the