Tuesday 10th: August 1806 (1800 Mile up Missouri)
had the flesh of the elk hung on poles to dry, and sent out
all the hunters. wind blew hard from the East all day. in
the after part of the day it was (cloudy) & a fiew drops of rain.
I finished a copy of my Sketches of the River Rochejhone.
Shields killed a black tail deer & an antilope. the other
hunters killed nothing. deer are very Scerce on this part of
the river. I found a Species of Chery in the bottom the
s[h]rub or bush [of] which are different from any which I have
ever Seen and not very abundant even in this Small tract of
country to which it seems to be confined. the Stem is compound
erect and subdivided or branching without any regular
order. it rises to the hight of 8 or 10 feet seldom putting out
more than one Stem from the same root not growing in cops
as the choke cherry does, the bark is Smooth and of a dark
brown colour. the leaf is petialate, oval accutely pointed at it's
apex, from 1 and a 1/4 to one and a 1/2 inch in length and from
a half to 3/4 of an inch in wedth, finely or Manutely Serrate,
pale green and free from pubessance. The fruit is a globular
berry about the Size of a buck Shot of a fine Scarlet red; like
the cherries cultivated in the U. States each is supported by a
Seperate celindric flexable branch peduncle which issues from
the extremities of the boughs. the peduncle of this cherry
Swells as it approaches the fruit being largest at the point of
insertion. the pulp of this fruit is of an agreeable ascid flavour
and is now ripe. the Style and Stigma are permanent. I have
never Seen it in blume. it is found on the high Stiff lands
or hill Sides. the men dug great parcel of the root which the
Nativs call Hankee and the engagees the white apple[69]
which they
boiled and made use of with their meat. This is a large insipid
root and very tasteless. the nativs use the root after it
is dry and pounded in their Scup.
