[Lewis:]
Wednesday February 26th. 1806.
This morning we dispatched Drewyer and two men in our
Indian canoe up the Columbia River to take sturgeon and
Anchovey. or if they were unsuccessfull in fishing we directed
them to purchase fish from the natives for which purpose we
had furnished them with a few articles such as the natives are
pleased with. we also Sent Shields, Joseph Fields and Shannon
up the NetuI to hunt Elk. and directed Reubin Fields and
some others to hunt in the point towards the praries of Point
Adams thus we hope shortly to replenish our stock of provision
which is now reduced to a mere minnamum. we have
th[r]ee days provision only in store and that of the most inferior
dryed Elk a little tainted, a comfortable prospect for good
living. Sewelel is the Chinnook and Clatsop name for a small
animal found in the timbered country on this coast. it is more
abundant in the neighbourhood of the great falls and rapids
of the Columbia than immediately on the coast. the natives
make great use of the skins of this animal in forming their
robes, which they dress with the fur on them and attatch together
with sinews of the Elk or deer. I have never seen the
animal and can therefore discribe it only from the skin and a
slight view which some of our hunters have obtained of the
living animal.[56]
the skin when dressed is from 14 to 18 inches
in length and from 7 to 9 in width; the tail is always severed
from the skin in forming their robes I cannot therefore say
what form or length it is. one of the men informed me that
he thought it reather short and flat. that he saw one of them
run up a tree like a squirrel and that it returned and ran into
a hole in the ground. the ears are short thin pointed and
covered with short fine hair. they are of a uniform colour, a
redish brown; tho' the
base of the long hairs, which exceed the
fur but little in length, as well as the fur itself is of a dark
colour for at least two thirds of it's length next to the skin.
the fur and hair are very fine, short, thickly set and silkey.
the ends of the fur and tips of the hair being of the redish
brown that colour predominates in the ordinary appearance of
the animal. I take this animal to be about the size of the
barking squirrel of the Missouri. and beleive most probably
that it is of the Mustela genus, or perhaps the brown mungo
itself. I have indeavoured in many instances to make the indians
sensible how anxious I was to obtain one of these animals
entire, without being skined, and offered them considerable
rewards to furnish me with one, but have not been able to
make them comprehend me. I have purchased several of the
robes made of these skins to line a coat which I have had made
of the skins of the tiger cat. they make a very pleasant light
lining. the
Braro so called by the French engages is an animal
of the civit genus and much resembles the common badger.
this is an inhabitant of the open plains of the Columbia as they
are of those of the Missouri but are sometimes also found in
the woody country. they burrow in the hard grounds of the
plains with surprising ease and dexterity an[d] will cover themselves
in the ground in a very few minutes, they have five
long fixed nails on each foot; those of the forefeet are much
the longest; and one of those on each hind foot is double like
those of the beaver. they weigh from 14 to 18 lb
s. the body
is reather long in proportion to it's thickness. the forelegs remarkably
large and muscular and are formed like the ternspit
dog. they are short as are also the hind legs. they are broad
across the sholders and brest. the neck short. the head is
formed much like the common fist dog only that the skull is
more convex. the mouth is wide and furnished with sharp
streight teeth both above and below, with four sharp streight
pointed tusks, two in the upper and two in the lower jaw. the
eyes are black and small. whiskers are plased in four points
on each side near the nose and on the jaws near the opening
of the mouth. the ears are very short wide and appressed as
if they had ben cut off. the apperture through them to the
head is remarkably small. the tail is about 4 inches long; the
hair longest on it at it's junction with the body and becoming
shorter towards it's extremity where it ends in an accute point.
the hairs of the body are much longer on the side and rump
than any other part, which gives the body an apparent flatness,
particularly when the animal rests on it's belley. this hair is
upwards of 3 inches in length particularly on the rump where
it extends so far towards the point of the tail that it almost
conceals the shape of that part and gives to the whole of the
hinder part of the body the figure of an accute angled triangle
of which the point of the tail forms the accute angle. the small
quantity of coarse fur which is intermixed with the hair is of
a redish pale yellow. the hair of the back, sides, upper part
of the neck and tail, are of a redish light or pale yellow for
about 2/3
rds. of their length from the skin, next black, and then
tiped with white; forming a curious mixture of grey and fox-coloured
red with a yellowish hue. the belley flanks and
breast are of the foxcoloured redish yellow. the legs black.
the nails white the head on which the hair is short, is variagated
with black and white. a narrow strip of white commences
on the top of the nose about 1/2 an inch from it's extremity
and extends back along the center of the forehead and neck
nearly to the sholders. two stripes of black succeed the white
on either side imbracing the sides of the nose, the eyes, and
extends back as far as the ears. two other spots of black of
a ramboidal figure are placed on the side of the head near the
ears and between it [
them] and the opening of the mouth.
two black spots also immediately behind the ears. the other
parts of the head white. this animal feeds on flesh, roots, bugs,
and wild fruits. it is very clumsy and runs very slow. I have
in two instances out run this animal and caught it. in this
rispect they are not much more fleet than the porcupine.
