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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates June 11, 1805 - June 13, 1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: June 11, 1805 - June 13, 1805
June 11,
1805
Tuesday 11. This morning Captain Lewis with four men
set out on their expedition up the south branch. They
soon reached the point where the Tansy river approaches
the Missouri, and observing a large herd of elk before
them, descended and killed several which they hung up
along the river so that the party in the boats might
see them as they came along. They then halted for dinner;
but Captain Lewis who had been for some days afflicted
with the dysentery, was now attacked with violent pains
attended by a high fever and was unable to go on. He
therefore encamped for the night under some willow boughs:
having brought no medicine he determined to try an experiment
with the small twigs of the chokecherry, which being
stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two
inches long were boiled in pure water, till they produced
a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste;
a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose
an hour afterwards.
By ten o'clock he
was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration
ensued, his fever abated and in the morning he was quite
recovered. One of the men caught several dozen fish
of two species: the first is about nine inches long,
of a white color, round in shape; the mouth is beset
both above and below with a rim of fine sharp teeth,
the eye moderately large, the pupil dark, and the iris
narrow, and of a yellowish brown color: in form and
size it resembles the white chub of the Potomac, though
its head is proportionably smaller; they readily bite
at meat or grasshoppers; but the flesh though soft and
of a fine white color is not highly flavored. The second
species is precisely of the form and about the size
of the fish known by the name of the hickory shad or
old wife, though it differs from it in having the outer
edge of both the upper and lower jaw set with a rim
of teeth, and the tongue and palate also are defended
by long sharp teeth bending inwards, the eye is very
large, the iris wide and of a silvery color; they do
not inhabit muddy water, and the flavor is much superior
to that of the former species. Of the first kind we
had seen a few before we reached Maria's river; but
had found none of the last before we caught them in
the Missouri above its junction with that river. The
white cat continues as high as Maria's river, but they
are scarce in this part of the river, nor have we caught
any of them since leaving the Mandans which weighed
more than six pounds.
Of other game they saw a great abundance even in their
short march of nine miles.
June 12, 1805
Wednesday 12. This morning Captain Lewis left
the bank of the river in order to avoid the steep ravines
which generally run from the shore to the distance of
one or two miles in the plain: having reached the opened
country he went for twelve miles in a course a little
to the west of southwest, when the sun becoming warm
by nine o'clock, he returned to the river in quest of
water and to kill something for breakfast, there being
no water in the plain, and the buffalo discovering them
before they came within gunshot took [259]to flight.
They reached the banks in a handsome open low ground
with cottonwood, after three miles walk. Here they saw
two large brown bears, and killed them both at the first
fire, a circumstance which has never before occurred
since we have seen that animal. Having made a meal of
a part and hung the remainder on a tree with a note
for captain Clarke, they again ascended the bluffs into
the open plains. Here they saw great numbers of the
burrowing squirrel, also some wolves, antelopes, mule
deer, and vast herds of buffalo.
They soon crossed
a ridge considerably higher than the surrounding plains,
and from its top had a beautiful view of the Rocky mountains,
which are now completely covered with snow: their general
course is from southeast to the north of northwest,
and they seem to consist of several ranges which successively
rise above each other till the most distant mingles
with the clouds. After traveling twelve miles they again
met the river, where there was a handsome plain of cottonwood;
and although it was not sunset, and they had only come
twenty-seven miles, yet Captain Lewis felt weak from
his late disorder, and therefore determined to go no
further that night. In the course of the day they killed
a quantity of game, and saw some signs of otter as well
as beaver, and many tracks of the brown bear: they also
caught great quantities of the white fish mentioned
yesterday. With the broad-leafed cottonwood, which has
formed the principal timber of the Missouri, is here
mixed another species differing from the first only
in the narrowness of its leaf and the greater thickness
of its bark. The leaf is long, oval, acutely pointed,
about two and a half or three inches long and from three
quarters of an inch to an inch in width; it is smooth
and thick sometimes slightly grooved or channeled with
the margin a little serrate, the upper disk of a common,
the lower of a whitish green. This species seems to
be preferred by the beaver to the broad-leaved, probably
because the former affords a deeper and softer bark.
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