the base, two of the poles
being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream.
To these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally,
with willow bark and wythes, and willow sticks joined in with these
crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the
river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the
water. This is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in
some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them
to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs
being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the
fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, is provided
with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are
placed at the apertures of the weir. After examining these curious
objects, he returned to the lodges, and soon passed the river to the
left, where an Indian brought him a tomahawk which he said he had found
in the grass, near the lodge where captain Lewis had staid on his first
visit to the village. This was a tomahawk which had been missed at the
time, and supposed to be stolen; it was however the only article which
had been lost in our intercourse with the nation, and as even that was
returned the inference is highly honourable to the integrity of the
Shoshonees. On leaving the lodges captain Clarke crossed to the left
side of the river, and despatched five men to the forks of it, in search
of the man left behind yesterday, who procured a horse and passed by
another road as they learnt, to the forks. At the distance of fourteen
miles they killed a very large salmon, two and a half feet long, in a
creek six miles below the forks: and after travelling about twenty miles
through the valley, following the course of the river, which runs nearly
northwest, halted in a small meadow on the right side, under a cliff of
rocks. Here they were joined by the five men who had gone in quest of
Crusatte. They had been to the forks of the river, where the natives
resort in great numbers for the purpose of gigging fish, of which they
made our men a present of five fresh salmon. In addition to this food,
one deer was killed to-day. The western branch of this river is much
larger than the eastern, and after we passed the junction we found the
river about one hundred yards in width, rapid and shoaly, but containing
only a small quantity of timber. As captain L