[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.
Hey, it looks like the site with the maps has switched over to PHP - the current link is busted. I wish the map would show exactly where they were each day, but I haven't found anything online that does that. I wanted to see how close they were to the mountains and the end of their favorite meal.
Posted by: Blue the Wild Dog | May 26, 2005 at 08:58 AM
Oops. That was me. I got the URL wrong when I updated last. It's fixed now. Thanks for the heads up!
Keep looking for the maps, Blue, I'd love to have that, too. Or you could start your own companion site. Heh.
Posted by: mcjoan | May 27, 2005 at 08:50 AM