Joan's Lewis & Clark Geek Page

Friday May 31st 1805.

[Lewis]   This morning we proceeded at an early hour. . . . soon after we got under way it began to rain and continued untill meridian when it ceased but still remained cloudy through the ballance of the day. The obstructions of rocky points and riffles still continue as yesterday; at those places the men are compelled to be <much> in the water even to their armpits, and the water is yet very could, and so frequent are those point that they are one fourth of their time in the water, added to this the banks and bluffs along which they are obliged to pass are so slippery and the mud so tenacious that they are unable to wear their mockersons, and in that situation draging the heavy burthen of a canoe and walking ocasionally for several hundred yards over the sharp fragments of rocks which tumble from the clifts and garish the borders of the river; in short their labour is incredibly painfull and great, yet those faithfull fellows bear it without a murmur. The toe rope of the white perogue, the only one indeed of hemp, and that on which we most depended, gave way today at a bad point, the perogue swung and but slightly touched a rock, yet was very near overseting; I fear her evil gennii will play so many pranks with her that she will go to the bottomm some of those days.—  Capt. C. walked on shore this morning but found it so excessively bad that he shortly returned.  at 12 OCk. we came too for refreshment and gave the men a dram which they received with much cheerfullness, and well deserved. . . . The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most romantic appearance.  The bluffs of the river rise to the hight of from 2 to 300 feet and in most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone. . . . The water in the course of time in decending from those hills and plains on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which with the help of a little immagination and an oblique view at a disance, are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone buildings, having their parapets well stocked with statuary; collumns of various sculpture both grooved and plain, are also seen supporting long galleries in front of those buildings; in other places on a much nearer approach and with the help of less immagination we see the remains or ruins of eligant buildings; some collumns standing and almost entire with their pedestals and capitals; others retaining their pedestals but deprived by time or accident of their capitals, some lying prostrate an broken othes in the form of vast pyramids of connic structure bearing a sereis of other pyramids on their tops becoming less as they ascend and finally terminating in a sharp point.    nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes are seen at different hights as we pass. . . . As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment would never have and end; for here it is too that nature presents to the view of the traveler  vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that I should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry had I not recollected that she had first began her work.

They are in the White Cliffs area of the Missouri River Breaks, in Chouteau County, Montana. Eighteen miles of rough going today.

Thursday May 30th 1805.

[Lewis]   The rain which commenced last evening continued with little intermission untill 11 this morning when we set out; the high wind which accompanied the rain rendered it impracticable to procede earlyer.  more rain has now fallen than we have experienced since the 15th of September last.  many circumstances indicate our near approach to a country whos climate differs considerably from that in which we have been for many months.  the air of the open country is asstonishingly dry as well as pure. I found by several experiments that a table spoon full of water exposed to the air in a saucer would avaporate in 36 hours when the murcury did not stand higher than the temperate point at the greatest heat of the day; my inkstand so frequently becoming dry put me on this experiment.  I also observed the well seasoned case of my sextant shrunk considerably and the joints opened. . . . this day we proceded with more labour and difficulty than we have yet experienced; in addition to the imbarrasments of the rappid courant, riffles, & rockey point which were as bad if not worse than yesterday, the banks and sides of the bluff were more steep than usual and were now rendered so slippery by the late rain that the men could scarcely walk.  the chord is our only dependance for the courant is too rappid to be resisted with the oar and the river too deep in most places for the pole.  the earth and stone also falling from these immence high bluffs render it dangerous to pass under them.  the wind was also hard and against us.  our chords broke several times today but happily without injury to the vessels.  we had slight showers of rain through the course of the day, the air was could and rendered more disagreeable by the rain.

Fun day, huh? They pass by an old encampment that is probably either Blackfoot or Atsina, but don't see recent signs of activity. The hunters killed two buffalo. With the late start and difficult going, they only made eight miles today.

Wednesday May 29th 1805.

[Lewis]   Last night we were all allarmed by a large buffaloe Bull, which swam over from the opposite shore and coming along side of the white perogue, climbed over it to land, he then alarmed ran up the bank in full speed directly towards the fires, and was within 18 inches of the heads of some of the men who lay sleeping before the centinel could allarm him or make him change his course, still more alarmed, he now took his direction immediately towards our lodge, passing between 4 fires and within a few inches of the heads of one range of the men as they yet lay sleeping, when he came near the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course a second time, which he did by turning a little to the right, and was quickly out of sight, leaving us by this time all in an uproar with our guns in or hands, enquiring of each other the case of the alarm, which after a few moments was explained by the centinel; we were happy to find no one hirt. The next morning we found that the buffaloe in passing the perogue had trodden on a rifle, which belonged to Capt. Clark's black man, who had negligently left her in the perogue, the rifle was much bent, he had also broken the spindle, pivit, and shattered the stock of one of the bluntderbushes on board, with this damage I felt well content, happey indeed, that we had sustaned no further injury.  it appears that the white perogue, which contains our most valuable stores, is attended by some evil gennii. . . . today we passed on the Stard. side the remains of a vast many mangled carcases of Buffalow which had been driven over a precipice of 120 feet by the Indians and perished; the water appeared to have washed away a part of this immence pile of slaughter and still their remained the fragments of at least a hundred carcases  they created a most horrid stench.  in this manner the Indians of the Missouri distroy vast herds of buffaloe at a stroke; for this purpose one of the most active and fleet young men is scelected and <being> disguised in a robe of buffaloe skin, having also the skin of the buffaloe's head with the years and horns fastened on his head in form of a cap, thus caparisoned he places himself at a convenient distance between a herd of buffaloe and a precipice proper for the purpose, which happens in many places on this river for miles together; the other indians now surround the herd on the back and flanks and at a signal agreed on all shew themselves at the same time moving forward towards the buffaloe; the disguised indian or decoy has taken care to place himself sufficiently nigh the buffaloe to be noticed by them when they take to flight and runing before them they follow him in full speede to the precepice, the cattle behind driving those in front over and seeing them go do not look or hesitate about following untill the whole are precipitated down the precepice forming one common mass of dead an mangled carcases; the <Indian> decoy in the mean time has taken care to secure himself in some cranney or crivice of the clift which he had previously prepared for that purpose.    the part of the decoy I am informed is extreamly dangerous, if they are not very fleet runers the buffaloe tread them under foot and crush them to death, and sometimes drive them over the precepice also, where they perish in common with the buffaloe. . . .

Just a good day for buffalo talk. Here's another remarkable incident in which the Corps was exceedingly lucky to escape with no injuries and no great loss or damage to the boats or the stores. Lewis's description of a buffalo jump is great, but Moulton thinks that these buffalo probably drowned in the Missouri. The surrounding country doesn't really provide the necessary high bluffs for a buffalo jump. I'd add to that the fact that it would be unlikely that so much of the meat had been left just to rot. They made 17¾ miles today.

Tuesday May 28th 1805.

[Lewis]   This morning we set forward at an early hour; the weather dark and cloudy, the are smokey, had a few drops of rain; we employed the chord generally to which we also gave the assistance of the pole at the riffles and rocky points; these are as numerous and many of them much worse than those we passed yesterday; arround those points the water drives with great force, and we are obliged in many instaces to steer our vessels through the appertures formed by the points of large sharp rocks which reach a few inches above the surface of the water, here sould [NB: Should] our chord give way the bough is instantly drivin outwards by the stream and the vessel thrown with her side on the rocks where she must inevitably overset or perhaps be dashed to peices; our ropes are but slender, all of them except one being made of Elk's skin and much woarn, frequently wet and exposed to the heat of the weather are weak and rotten; they have given way several times in the course of the day but happily at such places that the vessel had room to wheel free of the rocks and therefore escaped injury; with every precaution we can take it is with much labour and infinite risk that we are enabled to get around these points.    found a new indian lodge pole today which had been brought down by the stream, it was woarn at one end as if draged by dogs or horses; a football also, and several other articles were found, which have been recently brought down by the courant; these are strong evedences of Indians being on the river above us, and probably at no great distance; the football is such as I have seen among the Minetaries and therefore think it most probable that they are a band of the Minetaries of Fort de Prarie. . .  This evening we encamped on Stard. opposite to the entrance of a small Creek.  I beleive the bighorn have their young at a very early season, say early in March for they appear now to be half grown. One of the party saw a very large bear today but being some distance from the river and no timber to conceal him he did not think proper to fire on him.

Well, they've learned their lesson about the grizzlies. With their zeal to kill things, it must have taken great restraint not to go for the bear. Moulton speculates that the football is a buckskin ball used in a game that many Plains Tribes women played. Moulton also says that the tribe Lewis is speculating about were likely "Atsinas, a small nomadic tribe of the Algonquian language family, a separated branch of the Arapahoes, at this time closely allied with the Blackfeet." Early traders often called them Gros Ventre, which would cause the confusion with their being Minitaris or Hidatsas. Having escaped all the potential dangers the river provided today, they made 21½ miles.

Monday May 27th 1805.

[Lewis]   The wind blew so hard this morning that we did not sent out untill 10 A. M.    we employed the chord most of the day; the river becomes more rappid and is intercepted by shoals and a greater number of rocky points at the mouths of the little gulies than we experienced yesterday.  the bluffs are very high steep rugged, containing considerable quantities of stone and border the river closely on both sides; once perhaps in the course of several miles there will be a few acres of tolerably level land in which two or thre impoverished cottonwood trees will be seen. . . . the country more broken and barren than yesterday if possible. about midday it was very warm to this the high bluffs and narrow channel of the river no doubt contributed greatly. . . . This evening we encamped, for the benefit of wood, near two dead toped cottonwood trees on the Lard. side; the dead limbs which had fallen from these trees furnished us with a scanty supply only, and more was not to be obtained in the neighbourhood.

They are in the Missouri River Breaks in north-central Montana, one of the few areas of the trail that is essentially unchanged now from when the expedition was there. The link has some interesting information. They made just 14 miles today.

Sunday May 26th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out at an early hour and proceeded principally by the toe line, using the oars mearly to pass the river in order to take advantage of the shores. . . . In the after part of the day I also walked out and ascended the river hills which I found sufficiently fortiegueing.  on arriving to the summit one of the highest points in the neighbourhood I thought myself well repaid for any labour; as from this point I beheld the Rocky Mountains for the first time, I could only discover a few of the most elivated points above the horizon, the most remarkable of which by my pocket compass I found bore N. 65° W. being a little to the N. of the N. W. extremity of the range of broken mountains seen this morning by Capt. C.  these points of the Rocky Mountains were covered with snow and the sun shone on it in such manner as to give me the most plain and satisfactory view.    while I viewed these mountains I felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless Missouri; but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowey barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterballanced the joy I had felt in the first moments in which I gazed on them; but as I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road untill I am compelled to beleive differently.

He's waxing so poetic about the Rockies that you really want them to be the Rockies. Alas, they are probably the Highwood Mountains near the Great Falls. But it's still a nice thought. They made 18 miles today.

Saturday May 25th 1805.

[Lewis]   The Two canoes which we left behind yesterday to bring on the meat did not arrive this morning untill 8 A M. at which time we set out; the wind being against us we did not proceed with so much ease or expedition as yesterday. . . . as we ascended the river today I saw several gangs of the bighorned Anamals on the face of the steep bluffs and clifts on the Stard. side and sent drewyer to kill one which he accomplished; Capt. Clark and Bratton who were on shore each killed one of these anamals this evening.  The head and horns of the male which Drewyer killed weighed 27 lbs.  it was somewhat larger than the male of the common deer, the boddy reather thicker deeper and not so long in proportion to it's hight as the common deer; the head and horns are remakably large compared with the other part of the anamal; the whole form is much more delicate than that of the common goat, and there is a greater disparity in the size of the male and female than between those of either the deer or goat. . . . The horns are lagest at their base, and occupy the crown of the head almost entirely.   they are compressed, bent backwards and lunated; the surface swelling into wavy rings which incircleing the horn continue to succeed each other from the base to the extremity and becoming less elivated and more distant as they recede from the head. . . . this horn is used by the natives in constructing their bows; I have no doubt but it would eligant and ucefull hair combs, and might probably answer as many valuable purposes to civilized man, as it dose to the savages, who form their watercups spoons and platters of it.  the females have already brought forth their young   indeed from the size of the young I suppose that they produce them early in March.  they have from one to two at a birth.  they feed on grass but principally on the arromatic herbs which grow on the clifts and inaccessable hights which they usually frequent.  the places they gerally celect to lodg is the cranies or cevices of the rocks in the faces of inacessable precepices, where the wolf nor bear can reach them and where indeed man himself would in many instancies find a similar deficiency; yet these anamals bound from rock to rock and stand apparently in the most careless manner on the sides of precipices of many hundred feet.  they are very shye and are quick of both sent and sight. . . . We saw a Pole-cat  this evening it is the first we have seen for many days.  buffalow are now scarce and I begin to fear our harvest of white puddings are at an end.

This is their first opportunity to closely examine the bighorn sheep. It's a very lengthy and exhaustive description. But of course they had no cameras and only limited drawing skills. So their written descriptions of discoveries had to encompass everything. I often forget that, when one of the posts gets really long and boring to the modern mind. I have to put myself back two hundred years and try to imagine that I have no mental image of a bighorn sheep. To the reader back East, these descriptions must have been fascinating and bizarre. Anyway, while Lewis laments Charbonneau's great culinary masterpiece, I'll tell you that they travelled 18 miles today.

May 24th Friday 1805

[Clark]   a Cold night    the water in the Small vestles frosed ⅛ of an inch thick, and the thermometer Stood this morning at the freesing point.    we Set out at an early hour and proceeded on, at 9 oClock we had a Breeze from the S E which Continued all day.    This Breeze afforded us good Sailing, the river rising fast    Current verry rapid. . . . I walked on the high countrey on the Stard. Side found it broken & Dry  Some pine, Spruce & Dwarf Cedar on the hill sides, I Sent one man 10 mile out  he reports a Similarity of Countrey back    I killed a fat buffalow a Short distance below the place we dined  2 Canoes & 6 men we left to get the meat did not join us this evening.  we Camped on the Lard point.  the Cotton wood in this point is beginning to put out a Second bud, the first being killed by the frost

Not a whole lot to say about today. The river is continuing to get narrower and the current faster, as they move into higher ground and get closer to the mountains. They made 24¼ miles today.

Thursday May 23rd 1805

[Lewis]   Set out early this morning, the frost was severe last night, the ice appeared along the edge of the water, water also freized on the oars.  at the distance of one mile passed the entrance of a creek 15 yds. wide on Stard. side, this we call Teapot Creek, it affords no water at it's mouth but has runing water at some small distance above, this I beleive to be the case with many of those creekes which we have passed since we entered this hilley country, the water is absorbed by the earth near the river and of course appear dry; they afford but little water at any rate, and that is so strongly impregnated with these salts that it is unfit for uce; all the wild anamals appear fond of this water; I have tryed it by way of experiment & find it moderately pergative, but painfull to the intestens in it's opperation. . . .  just above the entrance of Teapot Creek on the stard. there is a large assemblage of the burrows of the Burrowing Squirrel they generally seelect a south or a south Easterly exposure for their residence, and never visit the brooks or river for water; I am astonished how this anamal exists as it dose without water,  particularly in a country like this where there is scarcely any rain during ¾ of the year and more rarely any due [dew]; yet we have sometimes found their villages at the distance of five or six miles from any water, and they are never found out of the limits of the ground which their burrows occupy; in the Autumn when the hard frosts commence they close their burrows and do not venture out again untill spring, indeed some of them appear to be yet in winter quarters. . . . The musquetoes troublesome this evening, a circumstance I did not expect from the temperature of the morning. The Gees begin to lose the feathers of their wings and are unable to fly. Capt Clark walked on shore and killed 4 deer and an Elk. We killed a large fat brown bear which took the water after being wounded and was carried under some driftwood where he sunk and we were unable to get him. Saw but few buffaloe today, but a great number of Elk, deer, some antelopes and 5 bear. The wild rose which is now in blume are very abundant, they appear to differ but little from those common to the Atlantic States, the leaves of the bushes and the bush itself appear to be of somewhat smaller size.

Mmmmm, purgative river water. What a treat! Teapot Creek is now Kannuck Creek, in Phillips County, Montana. The burrowing squirrel is the Prairie dog, Cynomys ludovicianus,, which does indeed get almost all of its water from its food and has a remarkable ability to retain it. Lewis is apparently the first person to record this observation for natural history. Cool, huh? They travelled 27 miles today.

Wednesday May 22cd 1805.

[Lewis]   The wind blew so violently this morning that we did not think it prudent to set out untill it had in some measure abated; this did not happen untill 10 A. M. when we proceeded principally by the toe lines. . . . 5½ miles above passed a large Island in a bend on Stard. side, and three miles further on the same side passed the entrance of grows Creek 20 yds wide, affords but little water.  this creek we named from seeing a number of the pointed tail praire hen near it's mouth, these are the fist we have seen in such numbers for some days. . . . we have caught but few fish since we left the Mandans, they do not bite freely, what we took were the white cat of 2 to 5 lbs. I presume that fish are scarce in this part of the river. We encamped earlyer this evening than usual in order render the oil of a bear which we killed. I do not believe that the Black bear common to the lower part of this river and the Atlantic States, exists in this quarter; we have neither seen one of them nor their tracks which would be easily distinguished by it's shortness of tallons when compared with the brown grizly or white bear. I believe that it is the same species or family of bears which assumes all those colours at different ages and seasons of the year.

Lewis's prairie hen is the sharp-tailed grouse and the fish are channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus. They aren't actually out of range of the black bear, but it's possible the competition from grizzlies might have made the smaller bear more scarce in the area. He is right about the "brown grizly or white bear" being the same species--in fact they are the same bear. Ordway calls them "yellow." There is a vast range of colors of grizzly from cream or silver color to almost black. These colors have nothing to do with age or seasons of the year, but just individualized color variations inherent in the species. At any rate, they apparently didn't have too much trouble with this particular bear they killed today (sorry there isn't a wild story to relate this time). In addition to the bear, Ordway another hunter killed a large buffalo, and Lewis a deer. They made 16½ miles today.

May 21st Tuesday 1805.

[Ordway]    a butiful morning.  wind from the west.  river falling a little.  we Set out at an eairly hour and proceeded on in the usal way by the assistance of the chord principally, but little use for the oars & less withe the poles, as the bottom are muddy. . . . The wind which moderately all the fore part of the day increased and about dusk Shifted to the N. W. and blew high & Stormed all night  Several loose articles were blown overboard, our Camp which was on a Sand bar on the Stard. Side at the lower point of an Island  we were obledged to move under the hills  the dust & Sand blew in clouds.  the bends of the river are Short and points covered with cotton wood under grooths wild rose bush. Capt. Clark killed 2 Elk to day. Several deer killed and a buffaloe cow.

Lewis says of the wind "we found ourselves so invelloped with clouds of dust and sand that we could neither cook, eat, nor sleep; and were finally compelled to remove our lodge about eight oClock at night to the foot of an adjacent hill where we were covered in some measure from the wind by the hills." They made 20 miles today.

Note: the Corps is now moving into the Missouri Breaks area of Montana. The link on the left side of the page to History, Maps, and Travel Information on the Lewis and Clark Trail, is updated every time they move into a new region, so you can see precisely where they are. The yellow dots are live links that provide information on the area and the dates that the Corps were there. The red dotted line shows their westward path, and the purple dotted line their return.

May 20th Monday 1805

[Clark]   a fine morning  wind from the N E.  river falling a little  We Set out at 7 oClock and proceeded on verry well as usial by the assistance of the Cord  passed Some verry Swift water, river narrow and Crooked, at 11 oClock arrived at the mouth of Shell river on the Lard Side and formed a Camp for the present.  haveing passed a large Creek about 4 miles below on the Ld Side which we call Blowing fly Creek from the emence quantites of those insects which geather on our meat in Such numbers that we are oblige to brush them off what we eate. . . . The Missouri at the mouth of Shell River is 222 yards wide with a Smoth Current    the Missouri water is not So muddey as below, but retains nearly its usial Cholour, and the Sands principally Confined to the points    I killed two Deer & an Elk, the hunters killed an Elk & Several deer mearly for their Skins to make Leagins

Very appetizing. Lewis has a very long and involved (and not particularly interesting) description of the Musselshell and the surrounding environs. The most significant note for the future daily progress of the Corps is the appearance of Opuntia polyacantha Haw. var. polyacantha, plains prickly pear. The cactus would make their journey through much of Montana a misery. They made just seven miles today, as Lewis wanted to stop to chart the rivers and to take navigational readings.

Sunday May 19th 1805.

[Lewis]   The last night was disagreeably could; we were unable to set out untill 8 oclock A. M. in consequence of a heavy fogg, which obscured the river in such a manner that we could not see our way; this is the first we have experienced in any thing like so great a degree; there was also a fall of due last evening, which is the second we have experienced since we have entered this extensive open country. . . . Capt Clark walked on shore with two of the hunters and killed a brown bear; notwithstanding that it was shot through the heart it ran as it's usual pace near a quarter of a mile before it fell.    one of the party wounded a beaver, and my dog as usual swam in to catch it; the beaver bit him through the hind leg and cut the artery; it was with great difficulty that I could stop the blood; I fear it will yet prove fatal to him.

Here's wishing the best for Seaman's speedy recovery. In Clark's walk he climbed a bluff and from there saw the Little Rocky Mountains in what are now Phillips and Blaine counties in Montana. He also saw the mouth of the Musselshell River. His journal entry provides the daily body count: "Capt Lewis walked on Shore this after noon & killed an Elk, Buck & a Beaver, I kiled three Deer at dinner, the hunters killed three other Deer to day Several beaver also killed." They made 20¼ miles today, again using the tow lines and dragging the boats.

May 18th Satturday 1805

[Clark]    A windey morning wind from the West    we proceeded on verry well with the assistance of the Toe Coard, river narrow but fiew Sand bars, & current jentle, but a few Cotton Trees Contained in the bottoms    willow is not common on the bears [bars] as usial . . . at about 12 oClock it began to rain and continued moderately for about 1½ hours, not Sufficient to wet a man thro' his clothes; this is the first rain Since we Set out this Spring . . . I walked on Shore and killed four Deer, 2 common & 2 mule deer, one of which had 3 fauns, 2 others had 2 each, those deer are fat, & their Skins tolerable good, which are now in demand with us for clothes Such as Legins & Mockersons, I Saw great numbers of Buffalows & Elk; Some of the party Shoot & Catch beaver every day & night

They're leaving orphans all over the place. Lewis noted yesterday that the female bear they killed appeared to have recently suckled a cub. All of the sergeants report that another rattlesnake, this time a big one, was killed. None of them manages to report who actually did the killing. It's interesting how many times it's just "one of the men" doing something. There weren't so many of them that they didn't all know one another's names. A few of the party are named relatively frequently: the captains of course, and the sergeants, as well as Charbonneau (mostly when he messes up) and Drouillard. But the bulk of the corps are never even mentioned in the journals by name. All that work and no recognition. Today those unrecognized men dragged the boats up river 21 miles.

May 17th Friday 1805

[Clark]   a fine morning    wind from the N W.    mercury at 60° a 0.    river falling a little.    we Set out at an early hour and proceeded on verry well by the assistance of the Toe rope principally . . . I was nearly treading on a Small fierce rattle Snake different from any I had ever Seen &c.    one man the party killed another of the Same kind. I walked on Shore after dinner & killed an Elk—    the party in my absence Killed a female Brown or yellow Bear which was meagre . . . we were roused late at night and warned of the danger of fire from a tree which had Cought and leaned over our Lodge, we had the lodge moved    Soon after the Dry limbs & top of the tree fell in the place the Lodge Stood, the wind blew hard and the dry wood Cought & fire flew in every direction, burnt our Lodge verry much from the Coals which fell on it altho at Some distance in the plain, the whole party was much disturbed by this fire which could not be extinguished &c

Clark's little snake is a prairie rattlesnake, Crotalus viridus viridus, a subspecies then new to science. In its honor, they named one of the streams they passed today "Rattlesnake Creek." Two lucky breaks in one day--Clark didn't get bit, and the burning tree didn't fall on them. According to Lewis, the tent they were in was right under the tree; "we had the loge removed, and a few minutes after a large proportion of the top of the tree fell on the place the lodge had stood; had we been a few minutes later we should have been crushed to attoms." They made 20½ miles today, dragging the boats with tow ropes.

Thursday May 16th

[Lewis]   The morning was fair and the day proved favorable to our operations; by 4 oClock in the evening our Instruments, Medicine, merchandize provision &c, were perfectly dryed, repacked and put on board the perogue. the loss we sustained was not so great as we had at first apprehended; our medicine sustained the greatest injury, several articles of which were intirely spoiled, and many others considerably injured; the ballance of our losses consisted of some gardin seeds, a small quantity of gunpowder, and a few culinary articles which fell overboard and sunk, the Indian woman to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution, with any person onboard at the time of the accedent, caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard  all matters being now arranged for our departure we lost no time in seting out; proceeced on tolerably well about seven miles and encamped on the Stard. side. In the early part of the day two of our men fired on a panther, a little below our encampment, and wounded it; they informed us that it was very large, had just killed a deer partly devoured it, and in the act of concealing the ballance as they discovered him. . . .

Thank you, Meriwether, for giving duly deserved props to Sacagawea. Without her quick action, a good part of their papers would have been lost forever. The "panther" is actually a cougar (my favorite predator, personally). Lewis ends with this somewhat cryptic note: "this morning a white bear toar Labuiche's coat which he had left in the plains." Why Labiche left his coat in the plains and how they knew a grizzly tore it is all rather mysterious. Another one of those stories we'll never hear.

Wednesday May 15th

[Lewis]   as soon as a slight shower of rain passed over this morning, we spread the articles to dry which had got wet yesterday in the white perogue; tho' the day proved so cloudy and damp that they received but little benifit from the sun or air; we were enabled to put them in such a state as to prevent their sustaining further injury. our hunters killed several deer, and saw three bear one of which they wounded.

Well, I suppose after all of yesterday's excitement, they're entitled to some down time. But what a boring day!

Tuesday May 14th 1805.

[Lewis]   Some fog on the river this morning, which is a very rare occurrence. . . . In the evening the men in two of the rear canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds about 300 paces from the river, and six of them went out to attack him, all good hunters; they took the advantage of a small eminence which concealed them and got within 40 paces of him unperceived, two of them reserved their fires as had been previously conscerted, the four others fired nearly at the same time and put each his bullet through him, two of the balls passed through the bulk of both lobes of his lungs, in an instant this monster ran at them with open mouth, the two who had reserved their fires discharged their pieces at him as he came towards them, boath of them struck him, one only slightly and the other fortunately broke his shoulder, this however only retarded his motion for a moment only, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight, the bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken them before they reached the river; two of the party betook themselves to a canoe and the others seperated an concealed themselves among the willows, reloaded their pieces, each discharged his piece at him as they had an opportunity they struck him several times again but the guns served only to direct the bear to them, in this manner he pursued two of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and pouches and throw themselves into the river altho' the bank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this anamal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man he had compelled take refuge in the water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him through the head and finally killed him. . . . I cannot recollect but with the utmost trepidation and horror; this is the upseting and narrow escape of the white perogue  It happened unfortunately for us this evening that Charbono was at the helm of this Perogue, in stead of Drewyer, who had previously steered her; Charbono cannot swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world; perhaps it was equally unluckey that Capt. C. and myself were both on shore at that moment, a circumstance which rarely happened; and tho' we were on the shore opposite to the perogue, were too far distant to be heard or to do more than remain spectators of her fate; in this perogue [blank with apparent erasures] were embarked, our papers, Instruments, books medicine, a great part of our merchandize and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprize <of the expedition> in which we are now launched to the distance of 2200 miles.  surfice it to say, that the Perogue was under sail when a sudon squawl of wind struck her obliquely, and turned her considerably, the steersman allarmed, in stead of puting her before the wind, lufted her up into it, the wind was so violent that it drew the brace of the squarsail out of the hand of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the perogue and would have turned her completely topsaturva, had it not have been from the resistance mad by the oarning against the water; in this situation Capt. C and myself both fired our guns to attract the attention if possible of the crew and ordered the halyards to be cut and the sail hawled in, but they did not hear us; such was their confusion and consternation at this moment, that they suffered the perogue to lye on her side for half a minute before they took the sail in, the perogue then wrighted but had filled within an inch of the gunwals; Charbono still crying to his god for mercy, had not yet recollected the rudder, nor could the repeated orders of the Bowsman, Cruzat, bring him to his recollection untill he threatend to shoot him instantly if he did not take hold of the rudder and do his duty, the waves by this time were runing very high, but the fortitude resolution and good conduct of Cruzat saved her; he ordered 2 of the men to throw out the water with some kettles that fortunately were convenient, while himself and two others rowed her as[h]ore, where she arrived scarcely above the water; we now took every article out of her and lay them to drane as well as we could for the evening, baled out the canoe and secured her; there were two other men beside Charbono on board who could not swim, and who of course must also have perished had the perogue gone to the bottom. while the perogue lay on her side, finding I could not be heard, I for a moment forgot my own situation, and involluntarily droped my gun, threw aside my shot pouch and was in the act of unbuttoning my coat, before I recollected the folly of the attempt I was about to make, which was to throw myself into the river and indevour to swim to the perogue; the perogue was three hundred yard distant the waves so high that a perogue could scarcely live in any situation, the water excessively could, and the stream rappid; had I undertaken this project therefore, there was a hundred to one but what I should have paid the forfit of my life for the madness of my project, but this had the perogue been lost, I should have valued but little.—  After having all matters arranged for the evening as well as the nature of circumstances would permit, we thought it a proper occasion to console ourselves and cheer the sperits of our men and accordingly took a drink of grog and gave each man a gill of sperits.

Big day! The men certainly needed the drink of grog, I imagine. In all his praise for Cruzatte, Lewis fails to mention the true hero of the day. From Clark's entry:

the articles which floated out was nearly all caught by the Squar who was in the rear. This accident had like to have cost us deerly; for in this perogue were embarked our papers, Instruments, books, medicine, a great proportion of our merchandize, and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprize in which, we are now launched to the distance of 2,200 miles.

Sacagawea certainly kept her wits about her, gathering up the precious materials before they floated away. I wonder if she got a gill of spirits. Probably not. They made 16½ miles before the near disaster struck.

Monday May 13th 1805.

[Lewis]   The wind continued to blow so violently this morning that we did not think it prudent to set out.    sent out some hunters. At 1 P. M. the wind abated, and altho' the hunters had not all returned we set out; the courant reather stronger than usual and the water continues to become reather clearer, from both which I anticipate a change of Country shortly. . . . Capt C. who was on shore the greater part of the day killed a mule and a Common deer, the party killed several deer and some Elk principally for the benefit of their skins which are necessary to them for cloathing, the Elk skins I now begin to reserve for making the leather boat at the falls.   the hunters joined us this evening; Gibson had wounded a very large brown bear but it was too late in the evening to pursue him.

Well that's kind of boring, except for the mention of the "leather boat," Lewis's brain child--an iron boat frame over which he planned to stretch animal skins. The frame was collapsible, and thus easy to transport and assemble when it was needed. Because of the wind delay, they only covered 7 miles. Oh, and when they say "brown bear" they mean grizzly. They are distinguishing it, I guess, from the black bears that they were accustomed to in the U.S.

Sunday May 12th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out at an early hour, the weather clear and Calm; I walked on shore this morning for the benifit of exersize which I much wanted, and also to examine the country and it's productions, in these excurtions I most generally went alone armed with my rifle and espontoon; thus equiped I feel myself more than an equal match for a brown bear provided I get him in open woods or near the water, but feel myself a little diffident with respect to an attack in the open plains, I have therefore come to a resolution to act on the defencive only, should I meet these gentlemen in the open country. . . . the choke cherry also grows here in the hollows and at the heads of the gullies; the choke Cherry has been in blume since the ninth inst.    this growth has freequently made it's appearance on the Missouri from the neighbourhood of the Baldpated Prarie, to this place. . . . The Indians of the Missouri make great uce of this cherry which they prepare for food in various ways, sometimes eating when first plucked from the trees or in that state pounding them <and> mashing the seed boiling them with roots or meat, or with the prarie beans and white-apple; again for their winter store they geather them and lay them on skins to dry in the sun, and frequently pound them and make them up in small roles or cakes and dry them in the sun; when thus dryed they fold them in skins or put them in bags of parchment and keep them through the winter either eating them in this state or boiling them as before mentioned.

Pretty boring day, so you get the chokecherry. But I spared you the botanical details in his entry because, well, they're just not all that interesting. They killed "Some Elk & deer &.c." and made 18¾ before having to stop for the wind.

Saturday May 11th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out this morning at an early hour, the courant strong; and river very crooked; the banks are falling in very fast; I sometimes wonder that some of our canoes or perogues are not swallowed up by means of these immence masses of earth which are eternally precipitating themselves into the river; we have had many hair breadth escapes from them but providence seems so to have ordered it that we have as yet sustained no loss in consequence of them. . . . About 5 P. M. my attention was struck by one of the Party runing at a distance towards us and making signs and hollowing as if in distress, I ordered the perogues to put too, and waited untill he arrived; I now found that it was Bratton the man with the soar hand whom I had permitted to walk on shore, he arrived so much out of breath that it was several minutes before he could tell what had happened; at length he informed me that in the woody bottom on the Lard. side about 1½ below us he had shot a brown bear which immediately turned on him and pursued him a considerable distance but he had wounded it so badly that it could not overtake him; I immediately turned out with seven of the party in quest of this monster, we at length found his trale and persued him about a mile by the blood through very thick brush of rosbushes and the large leafed willow; we finally found him concealed in some very thick brush and shot him through the skull with two balls; we proceeded dress him as soon as possible, we found him in good order; it was a monstrous beast, not quite so large as that we killed a few days past but in all other rispects much the same  the hair is remarkably long fine and rich tho' he appears parshally to have discharged his winter coat; we now found that Bratton had shot him through the center of the lungs, notwithstanding which he had pursued him near half a mile and had returned more than double that distance and with his tallons had prepared himself a bed in the earth of about 2 feet deep and five long and was perfectly alive when we found him which could not have been less than 2 hours after he received the wound; these bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all; I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indians than one bear; there is no other chance to conquer them by a single shot but by shooting them through the brains, and this becomes difficult in consequence of two large muscles which cover the sides of the forehead and the sharp projection of the center of the frontal bone, which is also of a pretty good thickness.  the flece and skin were as much as two men could possibly carry.  by the time we returned the sun had set and I determined to remain here all night, and directed the cooks to render the bear's oil and put it in the kegs which was done.  there was about eight gallons of it. . . .

Lewis is feeling considerably less cocky about grizzlies now that they've had a few close-up experiences. Poor old Bratton! Death toll today besides the bear: 2 bison, 2 deer, 1 beaver, all at Clark's hands. They  made 17 miles today before strong winds forced their halt.

Friday May 10th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out at sunrise and proceeded but a short distance ere the wind became so violent that we were obliged to come too . . . we sent out several hunters to scower the country, to this we were induced not so much from the want of provision as to discover the Indians whome we had reasons to believe were in the neighbourhood, from the circumstance of one of their dogs comeing to us this morning shortly after we landed; we still beleive ourselves in the country usually hunted by the Assinniboins, and as they are a vicious illy disposed nation we think it best to be on our guard, accordingly we inspected the arms and accoutrements the party and found them all in good order. The hunters returned this evening having seen no tents or Indians nor any fresh sign of them; they killed two Mule deer, one common fallow or longtailed deer, 2 Buffaloe and 5 beaver, and saw several deer of the Mule kind of immence size, and also three of the Bighorned anamals. . . . Boils and imposthumes have been very common with the party  Bratton is now unable to work with one on his hand; soar eyes continue also to be common to all of us in a greater or less degree.  for the imposthume I use emmolient poltices, and for soar eyes a solution of white vitriol and the sugar of lead in the proportion of 2 grs. of the former and one of the latter to each ounce of water

The bulk of Lewis's entry today is an exhaustive description of the mule deer which frankly isn't all that interesting. It's possible the men are suffering from scurvy, given their diet consists primarily of meat, or just malnutrition. As for Lewis's remedies, white vitriol is zinc sulphate and sugar of lead is lead acetate. He likely got the instructions for creating these treatements from Benjamin Rush. They managed just 4¼ miles today, before the wind stopped their progress.

Thursday May 9th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out at an early hour; the wind being favourable we used our sails and proceeded very well; the country in appearance is much as yester, with this difference that the land appears more fertile particularly of the Lard. hills which are not so stoney and less broken; the timber has also in some measure declined in quantity. . . . Capt. C. killed 2 bucks and 2 buffaloe, I also killed one buffaloe which proved to be the best meat, it was in tolerable order; we saved the best of the meat, and from the cow I killed we saved the necessary materials for making what our wrighthand cook Charbono calls the boudin blanc, [NB: poudingue] and immediately set him about preparing them for supper; this white pudding we all esteem one of the greatest delacies of the forrest, it may not be amiss therefore to give it a place. About 6 feet of the lower extremity of the large gut of the Buffaloe is the first mosel that the cook makes love to, this he holds fast at one end with the right hand, while with the forefinger and thumb of the left he gently compresses it, and discharges what he says is not good to eat, but of which in the squel we get a moderate portion; the mustle lying underneath the shoulder blade next to the back, and filletes are next saught, these are needed up very fine with a good portion of kidney suit [suet]; to this composition is then added a just proportion of pepper and salt and a small quantity of flour; thus far advanced, our skilfull opporater C—o seizes his recepticle, which has never once touched the water, for that would intirely distroy the regular order of the whole procedure; you will not forget that the side you now see is that covered with a good coat of fat provided the anamal be in good order; the operator sceizes the recepticle I say, and tying it fast at one end turns it inwards and begins now with repeated evolutions of the hand and arm, and a brisk motion of the finger and thumb to put in what he says is bon pour manger; thus by stuffing and compressing he soon distends the recepticle to the utmost limmits of it's power of expansion, and in the course of <the> it's longtudinal progress it drives from the other end of the recepticle a much larger portion of the [blank] than was prevously discharged by the finger and thumb of the left hand in a former part of the operation; thus when the sides of the recepticle are skilfully exchanged the outer for the iner, and all is compleatly filled with something good to eat, it is tyed at the other end, but not any cut off, for that would make the pattern too scant; it is then baptised in the missouri with two dips and a flirt, and bobbed into the kettle; from whence after it be well boiled it is taken and fryed with bears oil untill it becomes brown, when it is ready to esswage the pangs of a keen appetite or such as travelers in the wilderness are seldom at a loss for.—

I think this is my all-time favorite recipe, at least to read. I don't know how I'd manage to replicate it in my own kitchen. Lewis is quite the epicure. They made 24½ miles today, killed a few animals and saw many, many more, including buffalo, which "are now so gentle that the men frequently throw sticks and stones at them in order to drive them out of the way."

Wednesday May 8th 1805.

[Lewis]   Set out at an early hour under a gentle brieze from the East.  a black cloud which suddonly sprung up at S. E.  soon over shaddowed the horizon; at 8 A. M. it gave us a slight sprinke of rain, the wind became much stronger but not so much so as to detain us. we nooned it just above the entrance of a large river which disimbogues on the Lard. side; I took the advantage of this leasure moment and examined the river about 3 miles; I found it generally 150 yards wide, and in some places 200.  it is deep, gentle in it's courant and affords a large boddy of water . . . the water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonfull of milk.  from the colour of it's water we called it Milk river.  (we think it possible that this may be the river called by the Minitares the river which scoalds at all others . . . The white apple is found in great abundance in this neighbourhood; it is confined to the highlands principally. The whiteapple, so called by the French Engages, is a plant which rises to the hight of 6 or 9 Inchs. rarely exceeding a foot . . . the bulb covered with a rough black, tough, thin rind which easily seperates from the bulb which is a fine white substance, somewhat porus, spungy and moist, and reather tough before it is dressed. . . . This root forms a considerable article of food with the Indians of the Missouri, who for this purpose prepare them in several ways.  they are esteemed good at all seasons of the year, but are best from the middle of July to the latter end of Autumn when they are sought and gathered by the provident part of the natives for their winter store. . . . the white apple appears to me to be a tastless insipid food of itself tho' I have no doubt but it is a very healthy and moderately nutricious food. I have no doubt but our epicures would admire this root very much, it would serve them in their ragouts and gravies in stead of the truffles morella. . . .

Lewis names this the Milk River, the name it still has today. It begins in Glacier National Park in northwest Montana, flows into Alberta, Canada and from there descends to the Missouri. The Mandan name for this river was the "River Which Scolds at All Others." The white apple Lewis describes is Psoralea esculenta Pursh, or breadroot scurf pea. Not much else to report today, other than the easy acquisition of supper--"3 Beaver 1 Deer" and Clark killing both a wolf and a beaver. They made 28 miles today.

Tuesday May 7th 1805.

[Lewis]   A fine morning, set out at an early hour; the drift wood begins to come down in consequence of the river's rising; the water is somewhat clearer than usual, a circumstance I did not expect on it's rise.    at 11 A. M. the wind became so hard that we were compelled to ly by for several hours, one of the small canoes by the bad management of the steersman filled with water and had very nearly sunk; we unloaded her and dryed the baggage; at one we proceed on the wind having in some measure abated. . . . we continue to see a great number of bald Eagles, I presume they must feed on the carcases of dead anamals, for I see no fishing hawks to supply them with their favorite food.  the water of the river is so terbid that no bird wich feeds exclusively on fish can subsist on it; from it's mouth to this place I have neither seen the blue crested fisher nor a fishing hawk.  this day we killed 3 Buffaloe 1 Elk & 8 beaver; two of the Buffaloe killed by Capt Clark near our encampment  of this evening wer in good order dressed them and saved the meat, the Elk I killed this morning, thought it fat, but on examineation found it so lean that we took the tongue marrowbones and Skin only.

Lewis's fishing hawk is the osprey, Pandion haliaetus. Lewis refers to the fact that eagles are notorious for stealing the osprey's prey, something they must have witnessed regularly on the trip. His blue crested fisher is the belted kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon. Just 15 miles today because of the delay in the canoe accident.

Monday May 6th 1805.

[Lewis]   The morning being fair and pleasant and wind favourable we set sale at an early hour, and proceeded on very well the great part of the day; the country still continues level fertile and beautifull, the bottoms wide and well timbered comparitively speaking with other parts of the river; no appearance of birnt hills pumice stone or coal, the salts of tartar or vegitable salts continues to appear on the river banks, sand bars and in many parts of the plains most generally in the little revines at the base of the low hills. . . .  saw a brown bear swim the river above us, he disappeared before we can get in reach of him; I find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this anamal, the formidable appearance of the male bear killed on the 5th added to the difficulty with which they die when even shot through the vital parts, has staggered the resolution several of them, others however seem keen for action with the bear; I expect these gentlemen will give us some amusement shotly as they soon begin now to coppolate.  saw a great quantity of game of every species common here. Capt Clark walked on shore and killed two Elk, they were not in very good order, we therefore took a part of the meat only; it is now only amusement for Capt. C. and myself to kill as much meat as the party can consum; I hope it may continue thus through our whole rout, but this I do not much expect.

Bear mating season! Fun times out on the prairie. I'm still just so jealous of all the things they got to see and experience, though I'd probably be terrified out of my wits most of the time. It was a good day, 25 miles of progress.

Sunday May 5th 1805

[Lewis]   A fine morning. . . . soon after seting out the rudder irons of the white perogue were broken by her runing fowl on a sawyer, she was however refitted in a few minutes with some tugs of raw hide and nales. . . . Capt [X: we] Clark found a den of young wolves in the course of his walk today and also saw a great number of those anamals; they are very abundant in this quarter, and are of two species  the small woolf or burrowing dog of the praries are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually ascociate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take deer or goat they are rarely ever found alone but hunt in bands; they frequently watch and seize their prey near their burrows; in these burrows they raise their young and to them they also resort when pursued; when a person approaches them they frequently bark, their note being precisely that of the small dog.  they are of an intermediate size between that of the fox and dog, very active fleet and delicately formed; the ears large erect and pointed the head long and pointed more like that of the fox; tale long <and bushey>; the hair and fur also resembles the fox tho' is much coarser and inferior.  they are of a pale redish brown colour.  the eye of a deep sea green colour small and piercing. . . . The large woolf found here is not as large as those of the atlantic states.  they were lower and <heaver> thicker made shorter leged.  their colour which is not effected by the seasons, is a grey or blackish brown and every intermediate shade from that to a creen [cream] coloured white; these wolves resort the woodlands and are also found in the plains, but never take refuge in the ground or burrow so far as I have been able to inform myself.  we scarcely see a gang of buffaloe without observing a parsel of those faithfull shepherds on their skirts in readiness to take care of the mamed & wounded.  the large wolf never barks, but howls as those of the atlantic states do. Capt. Clark and Drewyer killed the largest  brown bear this evening which we have yet seen. it was a most tremendious looking anamal, and extreemly hard to kill notwithstanding he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts he swam more than half the distance across the river to a sandbar & it was at least twenty minutes before he died; he did not attempt to attact, but fled and made the most tremendous roaring from the moment he was shot. We had no means of weighing this monster; Capt. Clark thought he would weigh 500 lbs.  for my own part I think the estimate too small by 100 lbs.  he measured 8 Feet 7½ Inches from the nose to the extremety of the hind feet, 5 F. 10½ Inch arround the breast, 1 F. 11 I. arround the middle of the arm, & 3 F. 11 I. arround the neck; his tallons which were five in number on each foot were 4⅜ Inches in length.  he was in good order, we therefore divided him among the party and made them boil the oil and put it in a cask for future uce; the oil is as hard as hogs lard when cool, much more so than that of the black bear.  this bear differs from the common black bear in several respects; it's tallons are much longer and more blont, it's tale shorter, it's hair which is of a redish or bey brown, is longer thicker and finer than that of the black bear; his liver lungs and heart are much larger even in proportion with his size; the heart particularly was as large as that of a large Ox.  his maw was also ten times the size of black bear, and was filled with flesh and fish.  his testicles were pendant from the belly and placed four inches assunder in seperate bags or pouches.—  this animal also feeds on roots and almost every species of wild fruit.

Lewis's small, burrowing wolf is actually the coyote. The larger wolf he describes is indeed a wolf, probably Canis lupus nubilis, or a species of gray wolf which is now extinct. These animals were both "discoveries" of Lewis and Clark. I'm always amused at the thought of these so-called discoveries. Plenty of people knew about the existence of these animals and plants prior to L&C, but I guess it doesn't count until someone actually puts the description down in writing. Anyway, here's their first close examination of a full-grown grizzly. "Monster," indeed. Whitehouse reports that he had a whole fresh and undigested fish in his stomach. They rendered six gallons of grease from him. With the broken rudder delay, the Corps only made 17 miles today.

Saturday May 4th 1805.

[Lewis]   We were detained this morning untill about 9 OCk. in order to repare the rudder irons of the red perogue which were broken last evening in landing; we then set out, the wind hard against us. . . . I saw immence quantities of buffaloe in every direction, also some Elk deer and goats; having an abundance of meat on hand I passed them without firing on them; they are extreemly gentle  the bull buffaloe particularly will scarcely give way to you. I passed several in the open plain within fifty paces, they viewed me for a moment as something novel and then very unconcernedly continued to feed. . . . passed several old Indian hunting camps in the course of the day  one of them contained two large lodges which were fortifyed with old driftwood and fallen timber; this fortification consisted of a circular fence of timber lade horizontally <and> laping on and over laying each other to the hight of 5 feet.  these pounds are sometimes built from 20 to 30 feet in diameter and covered over with the trunks and limbs of old timber.  the usual construction of the lodges we have lately passed is as follows.  three or more strong sticks the thickness of a man's leg or arm and about 12 feet long are attatched together at one end by a with of small willows, these are then set on end and spread at the base, <to> forming a circle of ten twelve or 14 feet in diameter; sticks of driftwood and fallen timber of convenient size are now placed with one end on the ground and the other resting against those which are secured together at top by the with and which support and give the form to the whole, thus the sticks are laid on untill they make it as thick as they design, usually about three ranges, each piece breaking or filling up the interstice of the two beneath it, the whole forming a connic figure about 10 feet high with a small apperture in one side which answers as a door.    leaves bark and straw are sometimes thrown over the work to make it more complete, but at best it affords a very imperfect shelter particularly without straw which is the state in which we have most usually found them. . . . Joseph Fields was very sick today with the disentary had a high fever    I gave him a doze of Glauber salts, which operated very well, in the evening his fever abated and I gave him 30 drops of laudnum.

I suppose buffalo would be so unaccustomed to seeing humans on foot that they wouldn't be particularly concerned. I'm not brave enough to get that close to a bull buffalo, personally. The structure Lewis describes is probably a "Blackfeet war lodge, a structure which served Blackfeet war parties as a fortification, shelter from the weather, base for scouting, supply base, and a place to leave messages," according to Moulton. Glauber's Salts are sodium sulfate, and a major laxative, which seems an dangerous remedy for someone with dysentery, but they thought that purging the body of impurities was the key thing. The laudanum, however, probably helped a lot. At least the poor guy could get some sleep. They made 18 miles today.

Friday May 3rd 1805.

[Lewis]   The morning being very could we did not set out as early as usual; ice formed on a kettle of water ¼ of an inch thick.  the snow has melted generally in the bottoms, but the hills still remain covered.  on the lard side at the distance of 2 miles we passed a curious collection of bushes which had been tyed up in the form of a faciene and standing on end in the open bottom  it appeared to be about 30 feet high and ten or twelve feet in diameter, this we supposed to have been placed there by the Indians, as a sacrefice for some purpose. . . . after dinner Capt. Clark pursued his walk, while I continued with the party, it being a rule which we had established, never to be absent at the same time from the party. . . . we saw vast quantities of Buffaloe, Elk, deer principally of the long tale kind, Antelope or goats, beaver, geese, ducks, brant and some swan.  near the entrance of the river mentioned in the 10th course of this day, we saw an unusual number of Porcupines from which we determined to call the river after that anamal, and accordingly denominated it Porcupine river.  this stream discharges itself into the Missouri on the Stard. side 2000 miles above the mouth of the latter, it is a beatifull bold runing stream, 40 yards wide at it's entrance; the water is transparent, it being the first of this discription that I have yet seen discharge itself into the Missouri; before it enters a large sand bar through which it discharges itself into the missouri it's banks and bottom are formed of a stiff blue and black clay; it appears to be navigable for canoes and perogues at this time and I have no doubt but it might be navigated with boats of a considerable size in high water.  it's banks appear to be from 8 to ten feet high and seldom overflow; from the quantity of water furnished by this river, the appearance of the country, the direction it pursues, and the situation of it's entrance, I have but little doubt but it takes it's source not far from the main body of the Suskashawan river, and that it is probably navigable 150 miles; perhaps not very distant from that river.    should this be the case, it would afford a very favorable communication to the Athebaskay country, from whence the British N. W. Company derive so large a portion of their valuable furs.

Lewis's "faciene" is actually a fascine, "a cylindrical bundle of sticks bound together for use in construction, as of fortresses, earthworks, sea walls, or dams," according to the American Heritage Dictionary. You learn something new every day. What the Native Americans created it for is a mystery. The Porcupine River is now called the Poplar River. It's in Roosevelt County, Montana, and the town of Poplar is situated at its mouth. It rises near what is now the U.S.-Canada border, not nearly as far north as Lewis speculates, and thus not an avenue for incursion into the North West Company's territory. With their delayed start and unfavorable winds, they made just 18½ miles today.

Thursday May 2ed 1805

[Lewis]   The wind continued violent all night nor did it abate much of it's violence this morning, when at daylight it was attended with snow which continued to fall untill about 10 A. M.  being about one inch deep, it formed a singular contrast with the <trees> vegitation which was considerably advanced.  some flowers had put forth in the plains, and the leaves of the cottonwood were as large as a dollar.  sent out some hunters who killed 2 deer 3 Elk and several buffaloe; on our way this evening we also shot three beaver along the shore; these anamals in consequence of not being hunted are extreemly gentle, where they are hunted they never leave their lodges in the day, the flesh of the beaver is esteemed a delecacy among us; I think the tale a most delicious morsal, when boiled it resembles in flavor the fresh tongues and sounds of the codfish, and is usually sufficiently large to afford a plentifull meal for two men. Joseph Fields one of the hunters who was out today found several yards of scarlet cloth which had been suspended on the bough of a tree near an old indian hunting cam[p], where it had been left as a sacrefice to the deity by the indians, probably by the Assinniboin nation, it being a custom with them as well as all the nations inhabiting the waters of the Missouri so far as they are known to us, to offer or sacrefice in this manner to the deity watever they may be possessed off which they think most acceptable to him, and very honestly making their own feelings the test of those of the deity offer him the article which they most prize themselves. . . . the are was very piercing this evening    the [water] friezed on the oars as they rowed. . . . this morning one of the men shot the indian dog that had followed us for several days, he would steal their cooked provision.

Brrrr. Cold enough for the water on the oars to freeze as they rowed--that couldn't have been much fun.  A codfish "sound" is its air bladder. Yum. The Plains tribes, particuarly Mandan and Hidatsa, did trap beaver, but I guess not in great enough numbers to scare off the animals. Or maybe Lewis just doesn't know what he's talking about with regards to beaver behavior. I hesitated to add the snippet about the dog that had attached itself to the company. But since we rarely get information about what happens to the random animals they meet along the way (remember Drouillard's pet baby beaver?), I figured I'd better post it.

May the 1st Wednesday 1805

[Clark]   We Set out at Sun rise under a Stiff Breeze from the East, the morning Cool & Cloudy.  one man J. Shields Sick with rhumetism—  one of the men (Shannon) Shot a Gull or pleaver, which is about the Size of an Indian hen, with a Sharp pointed bill turning up & 4 Inches long, the head and neck of a light brown, the breast, the underfeathers of the 2nd and 3d joint of the wings, the Short feathers on the upper part of the 3rd joint of the wings, down the back the rump & tail white. The large feathers of the 1st joints of the wing the upper feathers of the 2d joints of the wings, on the body on the joints of the wing and the bill is black.—  the legs long and of a Skie blue. The feet webed &c. This fowl may be properly Stiled the Missouri Pleaver. . . .

Well that's not very eventful. Lewis spends a great deal of ink describing this bird, an American avocet, which was already known to science. They proceeded just 10 miles before the wind forced them to halt at midday.