Friday May 16th. 1806.
Drewyer's horse left his camp last night and was brought to
us this morning by an indian who informed us he had found
him a considerable distance towards the mountains. Hohâstillpilp
and all the natives left us about noon and informed us
that they were going up the river some distance to a place at
which they expected to find a canoe, we gave them the head
and neck of a bear, a part of which they eat and took the
ballance with them. these people sometimes kill the variagated
bear when they can get them in the open plain where
they can pursue them on horseback and shoot them with their
arrows. the black bear they more frequently kill as they are
less ferocious. our sick men are much better today. Sahcargarweah
geathered a quantity of the roots of a speceis of fennel
which we found very agreeable food, the flavor of this root
is not unlike annis seed,[6]
and they dispell the wind which the
roots called Cows and quawmash are apt to create particularly
the latter. we also boil a small onion which we find in great
abundance, with other roots and find them also an antidote
to the effects of the others. the mush of roots we find adds
much to the comfort of our diet. we sent out several hunters
this morning but they returned about 11 A.M. without success;
they killed a few pheasants only. at 5 P.M. Drewyer
and Cruzatte returned having killed one deer only. Drewyer
had wounded three bear which he said were as white as sheep
but had obtained neither of them. they informed us that the
hunting was but bad in the quarter they had been, the country
was broken and thickly covered in most parts with underbrush.
a little after dark Shannon and Labuish returned with one
deer; they informed us that game was wild and scarce, that a
large creek (Collins' Creek)
[7]
ran parallel with the river at the
distance of about 5 or 6 miles which they found impracticable
to pass with their horses in consequence of the debth
and rapidity of it's current. beyond this creek the Indians
inform us that there is great abundance of game. Sergt.
Pryor and Collins who set out this morning on a hunting
excurtion did not return this evening. I killed a snake near
our camp, it is 3 feet 11 Inches in length, is much the colour
of the rattlesnake common to the middle atlantic states, it has
no poisonous teeth. it has 218 scutæ on the abdomen and
fifty nine squamæ or half formed scutæ on the tail. the eye is
of moderate size, the iris of a dark yellowish brown and puple
black. there is nothing remarkable in the form of the head
which is not so wide across the jaws as those of the poisonous
class of snakes usually are. I preserved the skin of this
snake.
