[quote=John Monroe][quote=timshufflin] I'm afraid I can't quite agree that "pristine water was all around them". Pollution was everywhere there were people, even the indigenous. That is why we can discover so many camps along waterways...the pollution left behind.
Rainman one reason I say the waters were so pristine is from reading the Louis & Clark personal journals as they explored the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the Pacific and back, of the Louisiana Purchase as ordered by President Jefferson. They drank right from the rivers without disease, and only one man died from appendicitis. I never got the impression the Indians defecated in the streams, but that is hard information to find. Indians along the Columbia River caught lots of fish and as I remember they dried the meat and pounded it into a form of powder to be traded. What was a little disturbing was the expedition like to eat dogs and traded the Indians for them. The Journals are a free download if you have a Kindle at Amazon.com.
