Free Lewis and Clark by Ralph K. Andrist Page B

Dalles of the Columbia” – the Columbia River Gorge: “. . . a tremendious black rock Presented itself high and Steep appearing to choke up the river; . . . at this place the water of this great river is compressed into a chanel between two rocks not exceeding forty five yards wide and continues for a 1/4 of a mile when it again widens.”
    Clark saw at once that they could not possibly portage the heavy canoes over the difficult rock, but Cruzatte, their most experienced waterman, agreed with him that with good handling, the canoes could be taken through the dangerous waters: “. . . accordingly I deturmined to pass through this place notwithstanding the horrid appearance of this agitated gut swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction, which from the top of the rock did not appear as bad as when I was in it; however we passed Safe to the astonishment of all the Inds. . . .”
    Their progress was watched by local Indians from the rocks above. Once safely through, the Americans were entertained by another group of Indians who lived below The Dalles. These Indians wore clothes made from cedar bark, Clark noted, and lived in “the first wooden houses in which Indians have lived since we left those in the vicinity of Illinois.” They had no horses at all and navigated the river in canoes - hewn from the tallest trees the explorers had yet seen, and carved with intricate designs. Clark observed that their principal food was dried and pounded fish, and he counted “107 stacks . . . in different places on those rocks which must have contained 10,000 lb of neet fish.”
    The captains held peace talks between these Indians and their two Nez Percé guides, while the men danced to Cruzatte’s violin. Clark noted only one problem the next morning: “I could not sleep for the noise kept [up] by the swans [and] ducks. They were so immensely numerous and their cries horrid.”
    After they passed The Dalles area, Twisted Hair and Tetoharsky said goodbye to the captains, explaining that they could be of no further service because they did not understand the language of the tribes downriver. They bought horses from a nearby village, and after a parting smoke, set off for home.
    The expedition spent two days repairing the canoes, but was water-borne again on October 28. By November 2, they had passed the splashing waterfalls of the Cascade Mountains and were at last on tidewater, where they could feel the ebb and flow of the Pacific. But the fog and mist on the river was so dense the men could scarcely see past the end of their canoes.
    On November 7, the fog lifted, and Clark wrote in the notebook he kept open constantly on his knee: “Ocian in view! O! the joy!” That night he recorded in his journal: “Great joy in camp we are in view of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we been so long anxious to See. And the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores (as I suppose) may be heard disti[n]ctly.”
    It was not the ocean he had spotted, in fact, but the eastern end of Gray’s Bay, still more than twenty miles from the coast. The men’s elation did not last long.

 

Although they had nearly reached the Pacific, the captains and their men were far from the end of their troubles. They were still miles from the mouth of the Columbia, but the river was now so wide – some half a dozen miles - that the heaving and rolling ocean reached into the estuary, making the canoes bob like corks, and the men seasick.
    On November 8, the day after Clark mistakenly reported seeing the ocean, the expedition paddled another eight miles downriver but was finally forced ashore on the north bank of the estuary. They found little refuge there; the hills were so steep, they could not leave the beach, and the water was too salty to drink. To add to their misery, the rain that had been falling for days continued all night.
    The next day was worse. It continued to rain, and a brisk southerly wind sent waves directly