Saturday April 5th. 1806.
This morning was so cloudy that I could not obtain any
lunar observations with a Aquilae as I wished. Joseph Fields
and Drewyer departed this morning agreeably to their orders
of last evening. at 9 A.M. we Sent Sergt. Ordway and a
party to assist Sergt. Pryor in bringing in the meat of four Elk
which he had dryed. at 1 P.M. the party returned with the
meat. it had been so illy dryed that we feared it would not
keep. we therefore directed it to be cut thinner and redryed over
a fire this evening, as we purpose setting out early in the morning.
the deerskins which we have had cased for the purpose
of containing our dryed meat are not themselves sufficiently
dryed for that purpose, we directed them to be dryed by the
fire also. the weather has been so damp that there was no
possibility of pounding the meat as I wished. we were visited
to day by several parties of the natives as usual; they behaved
themselves in a very orderly manner.
Observed Magnetic Azimuth and altitude of the ☉ with Circumferenter
and Sextant.
|
Time by
Chromometer |
Altitude of ☉'s U L.
with Sextant |
Azimuth of ☉ by Circumferenter |
|
h m s |
|
|
| A.M. |
6 . 58 . 3 |
51 . 33 . 30 |
S. 89° . E. |
|
7 . 2. 43 |
53 . 7 .—. |
S. 88° . E. |
immediately after this observation the sun was suddenly obscured by a
cloud and prevented my taking Equal Al[t]itudes. I therefore had
recourse to two altitudes in the evening which I obtained as the sun
happened to shine a few minutes together through the passing clouds.
|
Time |
Altitude of ☉'s L. L.
with sextant. |
|
h m s |
|
| P.M. |
0 . 35. 21. |
89 . 29. 15 |
|
3. 13. 24. |
43. 43. 30. |
Saw the Log cock, the humming bird, gees ducks &c. today.
the tick has made it's appearance it is the same with
those of the Atlantic States. the Musquetoes have also appeared
but are not yet troublesome. this morning at 10.
oClock Sergt. Gass returned with Collins and Windsor they
had not succeeded in killing the female bear tho' they brought
the three cubs with them. the Indians who visited us today
fancyed these petts and gave us wappetoe in exchange for
them. Drewyer informed me that he never knew a female
bear return to her young when they had been allarmed by a
person and once compelled to leave them. The dogwood
grows abundantly on the uplands in this neighbourhood. it
differs from that of the United States in the appearance of it's
bark which is much smoother, it also arrives here to much
greater size than I ever observed it elsewhere sometimes the
stem is nearly 2 feet in diameter.[3]
we measured a fallen tree
of fir N°. 1. which was 318 feet including the stump which was
about 6 feet high. this tree was only about 31/2 feet in diameter.
we saw the martin, small gees, the small speckled woodpecker
with a white back, the Blue crested Corvus, ravens,
crows, eagles Vultures and hawks. the mellow [melon] bug
and long leged spider have appeared, as have also the butterfly
blowing fly and many other insects. I observe not any among
them which appear to differ from those of our country or
which deserve particular notice.
