Monday June 30th. 1806
We dispatched Drewyer and J. Fields early this morning to
hunt on the road and indeavour to obtain some meat for us.
just as we had prepared to set out at an early hour a deer came
in to lick at these springs and one of our hunters killed it; this
secured us our dinners, and we proceeded down the creek
sometimes in the bottoms and at other times on the top or
along the steep sides of the ridge to the N. of the Creek. at
one mile from the springs we passed a stout branch of the creek
on the north side and at noon having travelled 13 ms. we
arrived at the entrance of a second Northe[r]n branch of the
creek where we had nooned it on the 12th. of Septr. last. here
we halted, dined and graized our horses. while here Sheilds
took a small tern and killed a deer. at this place a road turns
off to the wright which the indians informed us leads to Clarks
river some distance below where there is a fine extensive vally
in which the Shalees or Ootslashshoots sometimes reside. in
decending the creek this morning on the steep side of a high
hill my horse sliped with both his hinder feet out of the road
and fell, I also fell off backwards and slid near 40 feet down
the hill before I could stop myself such was the steepness of
the declivity; the horse was near falling on me in the first
instance but fortunately recovers and we both escaped unhirt.
I saw a small grey squirrel today much like those of the Pacific
coast only that the belly of this was white. I also met with
the plant in blume which is sometimes called the lady's slipper
or mockerson flower. it is in shape and appearance like ours
only that the corolla is white, marked with small veigns of pale
red longitudinally on the inner side.[34]
after dinner we resumed
our march. soon after seting out Sheilds killed another deer
and in the course of the evening we picked up three others
which Drewyer had killed along the road making a total of 6
today. Deer are very abundant in the neighbourhood of
travellers rest of both speceis, also some bighorns and Elk. a
little before sunset we arrived at our old encampment on the
south side of the creek a little above it's entrance into Clark's
river. here we encamped with a view to remain two days in
order to rest ourselves and horses & make our final arrangements
for seperation. we came 19 m
s. after dinner the road
being much better than it has been since we entered the mountains
we found no appearance of the Ootslashshoots having
been here lately. the indians express much concern for them
and apprehend that the Minnetares of fort de Prarie have
distroyed them in the course of the last winter and spring, and
mention the tracks of the bearfoot Indians which we saw yesterday
as an evidence of their being much distressed. our
horses have stood the journey supprisingly well, most of them
are yet in fine order, and only want a few days rest to restore
them perfectly.
