University of Virginia Library

[Lewis—apparently the second draft:]

Saturday August 3rd. 1805.

Set out early this morning, or before sunrise; still continued
our march through the level valley on the lard. side of the river.
the valley much as yesterday only reather wider; I think it
12 Miles wide, tho' the plains near the mountains rise higher
and are more broken with some scattering pine near the mountain.
in the leaveler parts of the plain and river bottoms
which are very extensive there is no timber except a scant
proportion of cottonwood near the river. the under wood
consists of the narrow leafed or small willow, the small honeysuckle,
rosebushes, currant, serviceberry, and goosbery bushes;
also a small species of berch in but small quantities, the leaf
of which is oval, finely indented, small and of a deep green
colour. the stem is simple ascending and branching, and seldom
rises higher than 10 or 12 feet. the Mountains continue
high on either side of the valley, and are but scantily supplyed
with timber; small pine apears to be the prevalent growth; it
is of the pi[t]ch kind, with a short leaf. at 11 A. M. Drewyer
killed a doe and we halted about 2 hours and breakfasted, and
then continued our rout untill night without halting, when we
arrived at the river in a level bottom which appeared to spread
to greater extent than usual. from the appearance of the timber
I supposed that the river forked above us and resolved to examine
this part of the river minutely tomorrow. this evening

we passed through a high plain for about 8 miles covered with
prickley pears and bearded grass, tho' we found this even better
walking than the wide bottoms of the river, which we passed
in the evening; these altho' apparently level, from some cause
which I know not, were formed into meriads of deep holes as
if rooted up by hogs; these the grass covered so thick that it
was impossible to walk without the risk of falling down at
every step. some parts of these bottoms also possess excellent
terf or peat, I beleive of many feet deep. the mineral salts
also frequently mentioned on the Missouri we saw this evening
in these uneven bottoms. we saw many deer, Antelopes,
ducks, gees, some beaver and great appearance of their work.
also a small bird and the Curlooe as usual. we encamped on
the river bank on Lard. side having traveled by estimate 23
Miles. The fish of this part of the river are trout and a
species of scale fish of a while [white] colour and a remarkable
small long mouth which one of our men inform us are the
same with the species called in the Eastern states bottlenose.
the snowey region of the mountains and for some distance
below has no timber or herbage of any kind; the timber is
confined to the lower and middle regions. Capt. Clark set out
this morning as usual. he walked on shore a small distance
this morning and killed a deer. in the course of his walk he
saw a track which he supposed to be that of an Indian from
the circumstance of the large toes turning inward, he pursued
the track and found that the person had ascended a point of a
hill from which his camp of the last evening was visible; this
circumstance also confirmed the beleif of it's being an Indian
who had thus discovered them and ran off. they found the
river as usual much crouded with islands, the currant more
rapid & much more shallow than usual. in many places they
were obliged to double man the canoes and drag them over the
stone and gravel. this morning they passed a small creek on
Stard. at the entrance of which Reubin Fields killed a large
Panther. we called the creek after that animal Panther Creek.[8] they also passed a handsome little stream on Lard. which is
form[ed] of several large springs which rise in the bottoms and
along the base of the mountains with some little rivulets from
the melting snows. the beaver have formed many large dams
on this stream. they saw some deer Antelopes and the common
birds of the country. in the evening they passed a very
bad rappid where the bed of the river is formed ent[i]rely of
solid rock and encamped on an island just above. the Panther
which Fields killed measured seven and 1/2 feet from the nose to
the extremity of the tail. it is precisely the same animal common
to the western part of our country. the men wer compelled to
be a great proportion of their time in the water today; they
have had a severe days labour and are much fortiegued.

Courses and distances as traveled by Capt. C. and party August 3.rd 1805.

                         

South	1/2	in a Lard. bend.
West	1 1/4	to a Stard. bend.
S. 45°. W.	1/2	to the entrance of a small creek in a Stard. bend this stream heads in the mountains at a little distance. we called it Panther Creek.
S. 20°. W.	1/2	in the Stard. bend.
S. 80°. E.	1 1/4	to the lower point of an island.
South	1/4	to a point of the Island on it's Stard. side
South. 30°. E.	1/4	to a bayou in the Island
South	1 1/2	to the upper point of the island having passed two point[s] and a Clift on Stard. and a point on Lard.
S. 10°. W.	4.	On a direct line to the entrance of a small creek on Lard. it being the dranes of a snowey mountain in view. river passing under this mountain leaving the bottoms to the Stard. and has several short bends in this course.
S. 25°. W.	1	to a small run in a Lard. bend
S. 60°. W.	1.	to a low stoney bluff in a Stard. bend, opposite an island having passed one other.
S. 20°. W.	1.	to the lower point of an Island Lard. passing one other, and a narrow rocky channel under a bluf. encamped on this island for the evening.
Miles	13