University of Virginia Library

Wednesday July 23rd. 1806.

I dispatched Drewyer an[d] Joseph fields this morning to
hunt. I directed Drewyer who went up the river to observe
it's bearings and the point at which it entered the mountains,
this he did and on his return I observed the point at which
the river entered to bear S. 50° W. distant about ten miles the
river making a considerable bend to the West just above us.
both these hunters returned unsuccessful and reported that
there was no game nor the appearance of any in this quarter.
we now rendered the grease from our tainted meat and made
some mush of cows with a part of it, reserving as much meal
of cows and grease as would afford us one more meal tomorrow.
Drewyer informed us that there was an Indian camp of eleven
leather lodges which appeared to have been abandoned about
10 days, the poles only of the lodges remained, we are confident
that these are the Minnetares of fort de prarie and suspect
that they are probably at this time somewhere on the main

branch of Maria's river on the borders of the buffaloe, under
this impression I shall not strike that river on my return untill
about the mouth of the North branch. near this place I observe
a number of the whistleing squirrel of the speceis common
to the plains and country watered by the Columbia river,
this is the first instance in which I have found this squirrel in
the plains of the Missouri. the Cottonwood of this place is
also of the speceis common to the Columbia. we have a
delightfull pasture for our horses where we are.

     

Observed Meridian altd. of ☉'s L. L. with
Octant by the back observation—	62°. 00′—″
Latitude deduced from this observation—	[blank space in MS.]

Observed Equal Altittudes of the sun with Sexta [n]t.

       

	h	m	s
A. M.	7.	40.	57	P. M.	4.	32.	40	Altd. of ☉
	".	42.	30		".	33.	13	56°. 8′ 45″
	".	43.	5		".	34.	43

The clouds obscured the moon and put an end to further observation.

the ro[c]k which makes its appearance on this part of the
river is of a white colour fine grit and makes excelle[n]t whetstones;
it lies in horizontal stratas and makes it's appearance
in the bluffs of the river near their base. we indeavoured to
take some fish but took only one smal trout. Musquetoes
uncommonly large and reather troublesome.