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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates June 21, 1805 - June 24, 1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: June 21, 1805 - June 24, 1805
June 21,
1805
Friday, June 21. Having made the necessary preparations
for continuing our route, a part of the baggage was
carried across the creek into the high plain, three
miles in advance and placed on one of the carriages
with truck wheels: the rest of the party was employed
in drying meat and dressing elk skins. We killed several
mule deer and an elk, and observed as usual vast quantities
of buffalo who came to drink at the river. For the first
time on the Missouri we have seen near the falls a species
of fishing duck, the body of which is brown and white,
the wings white, and the head and upper part of the
neck of a brick red, with a narrow beak, which seems
to be of the same kind common in the Susquehanna, Potomac
and James' river. The little wood which this neighborhood
affords consists of the broad and narrow-leafed cottonwood,
the box alder, the narrow and broad-leafed willow, the
large or sweet willow, which was not common below Maria's
river, but which here attains the same size and has
the same appearance as in the Atlantic states. The undergrowth
consists of roses, gooseberries, currants, small honeysuckles,
and the redwood, the inner part of which the engages
or watermen are fond of smoking when mixed with tobacco.
June 22, 1805
Saturday, 22. We now set out to pass the portage
and halted for dinner at eight miles distance near a
little stream. The axletrees of our carriage, which
had been made of an old mast, and the cottonwood tongues
broke before we came there: but we renewed them with
the timber of the sweet willow, which lasted till within
half a mile of our intended camp, when the tongues gave
way and we were obliged to take as much baggage as we
could carry on our backs down to the river, where we
formed an encampment in a small grove of timber opposite
to the Whitebear islands. Here the banks on both sides
of the river are handsome, level, and extensive; that
near our camp is not more than two feet above the surface
of the water. The river is about eight hundred yards
wide just above these islands, ten feet deep in most
places, and with a very gentle current. The plains however
on this part of the river are not so fertile as those
from the mouth of the Muscleshell and thence downwards;
there is much more stone on the sides of the hills and
on the broken lands than is to be found lower down.
We saw in the plains vast quantities of buffalo, a number
of small birds, and the large brown curlew, which is
now sitting, and lays its eggs, which are of a pale
blue with black-specks, on the ground without any nest.
There is also a species of lark much resembling the
bird called the oldfield lark, with a yellow breast
and a black spot on the croup; though it differs from
the latter in having its tail formed of feathers of
an unequal length and pointed; the beak too is somewhat
longer and more curved, and the note differs considerably.
The prickly pear annoyed us very much to-day by sticking
through our moccasins. As soon as we had kindled our
fires we examined the meat which captain Clarke had
left here, but found that the greater part of it had
been taken by the wolves.
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