Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Coast.

They reached the rain-shrouded forests of the coast before cold weather set in, and there they passed the winter; suffering somewhat from the weather, and now and then from hunger, though the hunters generally killed plenty of elk, and deer of a new kind, the blacktail of the Columbia.

    They Start Eastward Again.

In March, 1806, they started eastward to retrace their steps.  At first they did not live well, for it was before the time when the salmon came up-stream, and game was not common.  When they reached the snow-covered mountains there came another period of toil and starvation, and they were glad indeed when they emerged once more on the happy hunting-grounds of the Great Plains.  They found their caches undisturbed.  Early in July they separated for a time, Clark descending the Yellowstone and Lewis the Missouri, until they met at the junction of the two rivers.  The party which went down the Yellowstone at one time split into two, Clark taking command of one division, and a sergeant of the other; they built their own canoes, some of them made out of hollowed trees, while the others were bull boats, made of buffalo hides stretched on a frame.  As before they revelled in the abundance of the game.  They marvelled at the incredible numbers of the buffalo whose incessant bellowing at this season filled the air with one continuous roar, which terrified their horses; they were astonished at the abundance and tameness of the elk; they fought their old enemies the grizzly bears; and they saw and noted many strange and wonderful beasts and birds.

    The Adventure of Lewis and the Indians.

To Lewis there befell other adventures.  Once, while he was out with three men, a party of eight Blackfoot warriors joined them and suddenly made a treacherous attack upon them and strove to carry off their guns and horses.  But the wilderness veterans sprang to arms with a readiness that had become second nature.  One of them killed an Indian with a knife thrust; Lewis himself shot another Indian, and the remaining six fled, carrying with them one of Lewis’ horses, but losing four of their own, which the whites captured.  This was the beginning of the long series of bloody skirmishes between the Blackfeet and the Rocky Mountain explorers and trappers.  Clark, at about the same time, suffered at the hands of the Crows, who stole a number of his horses.

    He is Shot by one of his Own Party.

None of the party were hurt by the Indians, but some time after the skirmish with the Blackfeet Lewis was accidentally shot by one of the Frenchmen of the party and suffered much from the wound.  Near the mouth of the Yellowstone Clark joined him, and the reunited company floated down the Missouri.  Before they reached the Mandan villages they encountered two white men, the first strangers of their own color the party had seen for a year and a half.  These were two American hunters named Dickson and Hancock, who were going up to trap the head-waters of the Missouri on their own account.  They had come from the Illinois country a year before, to hunt and trap; they had been plundered, and one of them wounded, in an encounter with the fierce Sioux, but were undauntedly pushing forwards into the unknown wilderness towards the mountains.