Then they set out again on their journey, which presently became most
difficult. For nearly a month they painfully made their way through dense
forests, over steep mountains, and across raging torrents, whose icy water
chilled both man and beast. Sometimes storms of sleet and snow beat
pitilessly down upon them, and again they were almost overcome by
oppressive heat.
Game was so scarce that the men often went hungry, and were even driven to
kill some of their horses for food.
But brighter days were bound to come, and at last they reached a river
which flowed toward the west. They called it Lewis, and it proved to be a
branch of the Columbia, which led to the sea. With fresh courage they
built five canoes, in which the ragged, travel-worn but now triumphant men
made their way down-stream. The Indians whom they met were for the most
part friendly, welcoming them and providing them with food, though a few
tribes were troublesome.
Before the cold of the second winter had set in they had reached the
forests on the Pacific coast, and here they stayed until spring, enduring
much hunger and cold, but learning many things about the habits of the
Indians.
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