Tuesday August 5th. 1806.
Colter and Collins not having arrived induced me to remain
this morning for them. the hunters killed four deer this morning
near our encampment. I remained untill noon when I
again reimbarked and set out concluding that as Colter and
Collins had not arrived by that time that they had passed us
after dark the night of the 3
rd. ins
t. as Serg
t. Ordway informed
me he should have done last evening had not the centinel
hailed him. we continued our rout untill late in the evening
when I came too and encamped on the South side about 10
miles below little dry river. on our way we killed a fat cow
and took as much of the flesh as was necessary for us. The
Fieldses killed 2 large bear this evening one of them measured
nine feet from the extremity of the nose to that of his tail, this
is the largest bear except one that I have seen. we saw several
bear today as we passed but did not kill any of them. we also
saw on our way immence herds of buffaloe & Elk, many deer
Antelopes, wolves, geese Eagles &c. but few ducks or prarie
hens. the geese cannot fly at present; I saw a solitary Pillacon
[pelican] the other day in the same situation, this happens
from their sheding or casting the f[e]athers of the wings at this
season.