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Journals of Lewis and Clark: Dates January 1806

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The Journals of Lewis and Clark: Dates January 1, 1806 - January 5, 1806
The following excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis and Clark. Dates: January 1, 1806 - January 2, 1806

January1, 1806
Wednesday, January 1, 1806. We were awaked at an early hour, by a discharge of a volley of small arms, to salute the new year. This is the only mode of doing honor to the day which our situation permits, for though we have reason to be gayer than we were at Christmas, our only dainties are the boiled elk and wappatoo, enlivened by draughts of pure water. We were visited by a few Clatsops, who came by water, bringing roots and berries for sale. Among this nation we have observed a man about twenty-five years old, of a much lighter complexion than the Indians generally: his face was even freckled, and his hair long, and of a color inclining to red. He was in habits and manners perfectly Indian; but, though he did not speak a word of English, he seemed to understand more than the others of his party; and, as we could obtain no account of his origin, we concluded that one of his parents, at least, must have been completely white.

These Indians staid with us during the night, and left the fort next morning,

January 1, 1806
Thursday 2, having disposed of their cargo for fishing-hooks and other trifling articles. The hunters brought in two elk, and we obtained from the traps another. This animal, as well as the beaver and the rackoon, are in plenty near the seacoast, and along the small creeks and rivers as high as the grand rapids, and in this country possess an extremely good fur.

The birds which most strike our attention are the large as well as the small or whistling swan, the sandhill crane, the large and small geese, cormorants, brown and white brant, duckaulnmallard, the canvass and several other species of ducks. There is also a small crow, the blue crested corvus, and the smaller corvus with a white breast, the little brown wren, a large brown sparrow, the bald eagle, and the beautiful buzzard of the Columbia. All these wild fowl continue with us, though they are not in such numbers as on our first arrival in this neighborhood.

January 3, 1806
Friday 3. At eleven o'clock we were visited by our neighbour the Fia, or chief Comowool, who is also called Croone, and six Clatsops. Besides roots, and berries, they brought for sale three dogs and some fresh blubber. Having been so long accustomed to live on the flesh of dogs, the greater part of us have acquired a fondness for it, and our original aversion for it is overcome, by reflecting that while we subsisted on that food we were fatter, stronger, and in general enjoyed better health than at any period since leaving the buffalo country eastward of the mountains. The blubber, which is esteemed by the Indians an excellent food, has been obtained, they tell us, from their neighbors the Kil-lamucks, a nation who live on the seacoast to the southeast, and near one of whose villages a whale had recently been thrown and foundered. Three of the hunters who had been dispatched on the 28th, returned about dark; they had been fifteen miles up the river to the east of us, which falls into Meriwether's bay, and had hunted a considerable distance to the east; but they had not been able to kill more than a single deer, and a few fowls, scarcely sufficient for their subsistence; an incident which teaches us the necessity of keeping out several parties of hunters, in order to procure a supply against any exigency.

January 4, 1806
Saturday 4. Comowool left us this morning with his party, highly pleased with a present of an old pair of satin breeches. The hunters were all sent in different directions, and we are now becoming more anxious for their success since our store of wappatoo is all exhausted.

January 5, 1806
Sunday 5. Two of the five men who had been dispatched to make salt returned. They had carefully examined the coast, but it was not till the fifth day after their departure that they discovered a convenient situation for their manufacture. At length they formed an establishment about fifteen miles southwest of the fort, near some scattered houses of the Clatsop and Killamuck nation, where they erected a comfortable camp, and had killed a stock of provisions. The Indians had treated them very kindly, and made them a present of the blubber of the whale, some of which the men brought home. It was white and not unlike the fat of pork, though of a coarser and more spongy texture, and on being cooked was found to be tender and palatable, and in flavor resembling the beaver. The men also brought with them a gallon of the salt, which was white, fine, and very good, but not so strong as the rock salt common to the western parts of the United States. It proves to be a most agreeable addition to our food, and as the saltmakers can manufacture three or four quarts a day, we have a prospect of a very plentiful supply. The appearance of the whale seemed to be a matter of importance to all the neighboring Indians, and as we might be able to procure some of it for ourselves, or at least purchase blubber from the Indians, a small parcel of merchandise was prepared, and a party of the men held in readiness to set out in the morning. As soon as this resolution was known, Charbonneau and his wife requested that they might be permitted to accompany us. The poor woman stated very earnestly that she had traveled a great way with us to see the great water, yet she had never been down to the coast, and now that this monstrous fish was also to be seen, it seemed hard that she should not be permitted to see neither the ocean nor the whale. So reasonable a request could not be denied; they were therefore suffered to accompany captain Clarke

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