Tuesday March 11th. 1806.
Early this morning Sergt. Pryor arrived with a small canoe
loaded with fish which he had obtained from the Cathlahmah's
for a very small part of the articles he had taken with him.
the wind had prevented his going to the fis[h]ery on the opposite
side of the river above the Wackiacums, and also as we had
suspected, prevented his return as early as he would otherwise
have been back. The dogs at the Cathlahmahs had bitten the
trong [thong] assunder which confined his canoe and she had
gone a drift. he borrowed a canoe from the Indians in which
he has returned. he found his canoe on the way and secured
her, untill we return the Indians their canoe, when she can be
brought back. Sent Serg
t. Gass and a party in surch of a canoe
which was reported to have been sunk in a small creek on the
opposite side of the Netul a few miles below us, where she
had been left by Shields R. Fields and Frazier when they were
lately sent out to hunt over the Netul. They returned and
reported that they could not find the canoe she had broken
the cord by which she was attatched, and had been carried off
by the tide. Drewyer Joseph Fields and Frazier set out by
light this morning to pass the bay in order to hunt as they had
been directed the last evening. we once more live in
clover;
anchovies fresh Sturgeon and Wappetoe. the latter Serg
t. Pryor
had also procured and brought with him. The reptiles of this
country are the rattlesnake garter snake and the common brown
Lizzard. The season was so far advanced when we arrived on
this side of the rocky mountains that but few rattlesnakes were
seen I did not remark one particularly myself, nor do I know
whether they are of either of the four speceis found in the
different parts of the United states, or of that species before
mentioned peculiar to the upper parts of the Missouri and it's
branches. The garter snake so called in the United States is
very common in this country; they are found in great numbers
on the open and sometimes marshey grounds in this neighbourhood.
they differ not at all from those of the U'States.
the black or dark brown lizzard we saw at the rock fort Camp
at the commencement of the woody country below the great
narrows and falls of the Columbia; they are also the same
with those of the United States. The snail is numerous in
the woody country on this coast; they are in shape like those
of the United States, but are at least five times their bulk.
[87]
There is a speceis of water lizzard of which I saw one only just
above the grand rapids of the Columbia. it is about 9 inches
long and the body is reather flat and about the size of a mans
finger covered with a soft skin of a dark brown colour with an
uneven surface covered with little pimples the neck and head
are short, the latter terminating in an accute angular point and
flat. the fore feet each four toes, the hinder ones five unconnected
with a web and destitute of tallons. it's tail was reather
longer than the body and in form like that of the Musk-rat,
first rising in an arch higher than the back and decending
lower than the body at the extremity, and flated perpendicularly.
the belley and under part of the neck and head were of
a brick red, every other part of the colour of the upper part
of the body a dark brown. the mouth was smooth, without
teeth.
[88]
