[Lewis:]
Wednesday (Tuesday) January 21st. 1806.
TWO of the hunters Shannon & Labuish returned having
killed three Elk. Ordered a party to go in quest
of the meat early tomorrow morning and the hunters
to return and continue the chase. the Indians left us about
12 OClk. The root of the thistle, called by the natives Shan-ne-tah-que[1]
is [a] perpendicular fusiform and possesses from
two to four radicles; is from 9 to 15 Inc[h]es in length and
about the size [of] a mans thumb; the rhind somewhat rough
and of a brown colour; the consistence when first taken from
the earth is white and nearly as crisp as a carrot; when prepared
for uce by the same process before discribed of the white
bulb or pashshequo quawmash, it becomes black, and is more
shugary than any f [r]uit or root that I have met with in uce
among the natives; the sweet is precisely that of the sugar in
flavor; this root is sometimes eaten also when first taken from
the ground without any preperation, but in this way is vastly
inferior, it delights most in a deep rich dry lome which has a
good mixture of sand. the stem of this plant is simple ascending
celindric and hisped. the root leaves yet possess their
virdure and are about half grown of a plale green. the cauline
leaf as well as the stem of the last season are now dead, but
in rispect to it's form &c it is simple, crenate, & oblong, reather
more obtuse at it's apex than at the base or insertion; it's
margin armed with prickles while it's disks are hairy, it's insertion
decurrent and position declining. the flower is also dry
and mutilated. the pericarp seems much like that of the
common thistle. it rises to the hight of from 3 to 4 feet.
[2]
