[Lewis:]
Tuesday February 25th. 1806.
It continued to rain and blow so violently that there was no
movement of the party today. the Indians left us in the
morning on their return to their village. Willard somewhat
worse the other Invalledes on the ricovery. I am mortifyed at
not having it in my power to make more celestial observations
since we have been at Fort Clatsop, but such has been the
state of the weather that I have found it utterly impracticable.
The Rackoon is found in the woody country on this coast in
considerable quantities. the natives take a few of them in
snars and deadfalls; tho' appear not to vallue their skins much,
and but seldom prepare them for robes. The large grey
squirrel appears to be a native of a narrow tract of country on
the upper side of the mountains just below the grand falls of
Columbia which is pretty well covered in many parts with a
species of white oak. in short I beleive this squirrel to be coextensive
with timber only, as we have not seen them in any
part of the country where pine forms the majority of the timber,
or in which the oak dose not appear. this animal is much
larger than the grey squirrel of our country it resembles it
much in form and colours. it is as large as the fox squirrel of
the Southern Atlantic states. the tail is reather longer than
the whole length of the body and head the hair of which is long
and tho' inserted on all sides reispect the horizontal ones only.
the eyes are black. whiskers black and long. the back, sides,
head, tail and outer part of the legs are of a blue leadcoloured
grey. the breast belley and inner part of the legs are of a
pure white. the hair is short as that of the fox-squirrel but is
much finer and intermixed with a proportion of fur. the
natives make great use of these skins in forming their robes.
this squirrel subsists principally on the acorn and filbird [filbert]
which last also grows abundantly in the oak country. The
small brown squirrel is a beautifull little animal about the size
and form of the red squirrel of the Eastern Atlantic states and
western lakes. the tail is as long as the body and neck, formed
like that of the red squirrel or somewhat flat. the eyes black.
whiskers long and black but not abundant. the back, sides,
head, neck and outer part of the legs are of a redish dark
brown. the throat, breast, belley and inner part of the legs are
of a pale brick red. the tail is a mixture of black and fox
coloured red in which the black predominates in the midle and
the other on the edges and extremity. the hair of the body is
about 1/2 an inch long and so fine and soft that it has the
appearance of fur. the hair of the tail is coarser and doubly as
long, this animal subsists principally on the seeds of various
species of pine, and are always found in the piny country they
are common to the tract of woody country on this coast. they
lodge in clifts of rocks, holes in the ground old stumps of trees
and the hollow trunks of fallen timber; in this rispect resembling
the rat, always having their habitati[o]n in or near the
earth, the small grey squirrel common to every part of the
rocky mountain which is timbered, difirs from the dark brown
squirrel just discribed only in it's colour. it's back, sides, neck,
head tail and outer side of the legs are of a brown lead coloured
grey; the tail has a slight touch of the fox colour near the
extremity of some of the hairs. the throat, breast, belley, and
inner parts of the legs are of the colour of tanner's ooze and
have a narrow stripe of black, commencing just behi[n]de each
sholder and exten[d]ing longitudinaly for about 3 inches betwen
the colours of the sides and belley. their habids are also the
same of the dark brown squirrel of this neighbourhood and like
them are extreemly nimble and active. the ground squirrel is
found in every part of the country, as well the praries as woodlands,
and is one of the few animals which we have seen in
every part of our voyage. it differs not at all from those of
the U'States. the barking squirrel and handsome ground
squirrel of the plains on the East side of the rocky mountains
are not found in the plains of Columbia.
