Thursday May 15th. 1806.
This morning early Reubin Fields in surching for his horse
saw a large bear at no great distance from camp; several men
went in pursuit of the bear, they followed his trail a considerable
distance but could not come up with him. Labuish and
Shannon set out with a view to establish a hunting camp and
continuing several days, two others accompanyed them in order
to bring in the three bear which Labuish had killed. Drewyer
and Cruzatte were sent up the river; Sheilds R. Feilds and
Willard hunted in the hills near the camp they returned in the
evening with a few pheasants only and reported that there was
much late appearance of bear, but beleived that they had gone
off to a greater distance at 11 A.M. the men returned with
the bear which Labuich had killed. These bear gave me a
stronger evidence of the various coloured bear of this country
being one speceis only, than any I have heretofore had. The
female was black with a considerable proportion of white hairs
intermixed and a white spot on the breast, one of the young
bear was jut black and the other of a light redish brown or bey
colour. the poil of these bear were infinitely longer finer and
thicker than the black bear their tallons also longer and more
blont as if woarn by diging roots. the white and redish brown
or bey coloured bear I saw together on the Missouri; the bey
and grizly have been seen and killed together here for these
were the colours of those which Collins killed yesterday. in
short it is not common to find two bear here of this speceis
precisely of the same colour, and if we were to attempt to distinguish
them by their collours and to denominate each colour
a distinct speceis we should soon find at least twenty. some
bear nearly white have also been seen by our hunters at this
place. the most striking differences between this speceis of
bear and the common black bear are that the former are larger,
have longer tallons and tusks, prey more on other animals, do
not lie so long nor so closely in winter quarters, and will not
climb a tree tho' ever so heardly pressed. the variagated bear
I beleive to be the same here with those on the missouri but
these are not so ferocious as those perhaps from the circumstance
of their being compelled from the scarcity of game in
this quarter to live more on roots and of course not so much
in the habit of seizing and devouring living animals. the bear
here are for from being as passive as the common black bear
they have attacked and fought our hunters already but not so
fiercely as those of the Missouri. there are also some of the
common black bear in this neighbourhood.
Frazier, J. Fields and Wiser complain of violent pains in
their heads, and Howard and York are afflicted with the cholic.
I attribute these complaints to their diet of roots [to] which
they have not been accustomed. Tunnachemootoolt and 12
of his young men left us this morning on their return to their
village. Hohâstillpilp and three old men remained untill 5 in
the evening when they also departed. at 1 P.M. a party of
14 natives on horseback passed our camp on a hunting excurtion;
they were armed with bows and arrows and had decoys
for the deer these are the skins of the heads and upper portions
of the necks of the deer extended in their natural shape by
means of a fraim of little sticks placed within. the hunter
when he sees a deer conceals himself and with his hand gives
to the decoy the action of a deer at feed; and thus induces the
deer within arrowshot; in this mode the indians hunt on foot
in the woodlands where they cannot pursue the deer with
horses which is their favorite method when the ground will
permit. we had all of our horses driven together today near
our camp, which we have directed shall be done each day in
order to familiarize them to each other. several of the horses
which were gelded yesterday are much swolen particularly those
cut by Drewyer, the others bled most but appear much better
today than the others.
We had our baggage better secured under a good shelter
formed of grass; we also strengthened our little fortification
with pine poles and brush, and the party formed themselves
very comfortable tents with willow poles and grass in the form
of the orning of a waggon, these were made perfectly secure as
well from the heat of the sun as from rain. we had a bower
constructed for ourselves under which we set by day and sleep
under the part of an old sail now our only tent as the leather
lodge has become rotten and unfit for use. about noon the
sun shines with intense heat in the bottoms of the river. the
air on the top of the river hills or high plain forms a distinct
climate, the air is much colder, and vegitation is not as forward
by at least 15 or perhaps 20 days. the rains which fall in the
river bottoms are snows on the plain. at the distance of
fifteen miles from the river and on the Eastern border of this
plain the Rocky Mountains commence and present us with
winter at it's utmost extreem. the snow is yet many feet deep
even near the base of these mountains; here we have summer
spring and winter within the short space of 15 or 20 miles.
Hohâstillpilp and the three old men being unable to pass the
river as the canoe had been taken away, returned to our camp
late in the evening and remained with us all night.
