[Lewis:]
Thursday February 6th. 1806.
Sent Sergts. Gass and Ordway this morning with R. Fields
and a party of men to bring in the Elk which Fields had killed.
Late in the evening Sergt. Pryor returned with the flesh of about
2 Elk and 4 skins the Indians having purloined the ballance
of seven Elk which Drewyer killed the other day. I find that
there are 2 vilages of Indians living on the N. side of the
Columbia near the Marshey Islands who call themselves
Wâch-kí-a-cum. these I have her[e]tofore Considered as
Cath-lâh-mâhs. they speak the same language and are the
same in every other rispect.
N°. 3. A species of fir which one of my men informs me is
precisely the same with that called the balsam fir of Canada.[21]
it grows here to considerable size, being from 2 1/2 to 4 feet in
diameter and rises to the hight of eighty or an hundred feet.
it 's stem is simple branching, ascending and proliferous. it's
leaves are sessile, acerose, one 1/8 of an inch in length and
1/16th. of an inch in width, thickly scattered on all sides of the
twigs as far as the growth of four preceeding years and rispect
the three undersides only the upper side being neglected and
the under side but thinly furnished; gibbous, a little declining,
obtusely pointed, soft flexible, and the upper disk longitudinally
marked with a slight channel; this disk is of a glossy
deep green, the under one green tho' paler and not glossy.
this tree affords considerable quantities of a fine clear arromatic
balsam in appearance and taste like the Canadian balsam.
smal pustules filled with this balsam rise with a blister like
appearance on the body of the tree and it's branches; the bark
which covers these pustules is soft thin smoth and easily punctured.
the bark of the tree generally is thin of a dark brown
colour and reather smooth tho' not as much so as the white
pine of our count[r]y. the wood is white and soft. (N°. 4) is
a species of fir which in point of size is much that of N°. 2.
the stem simple branching ascending and proliferous; the bark
of a redish dark brown and thicker than that of N°. 3. it is
divided with small longitudinal interstices, but these are not so
much ramifyed as in species N°. 2. the leaves with rispect to
their position in regard to each other is the same with the
balsam fir, as is the leaf in every other rispect except that it
not more than 2/3
ds. the width and little more than half the
length of the other, nor is it's upper disk of so deep a green
nor so glossey. it affords no balsam and but little rosin. the
wood also white soft and reather porus tho' tough.
[22]
N°. 5. is a species of fir which arrives to the size of N°.'s. 2 and
4, the stem simple branching, diffuse and proliferous. the
bark thin, dark brown, much divided with small longitudinal
interstices and sometimes scaleing off in thin rolling flakes. it
affords but little rosin and the wood is redish white [2/3ds. of the
diameter in the center, the ballance white,] somewhat porus and
tough. the twigs are much longer and more slender than in
either of the other species. the leaves [are acerose], 1/20th. of
an inch in width, and an inch in length, sessile, inserted on all
sides of the bough, streight, their extremities pointing obliquely
toward the extremities of the bough and more thickly placed
than in either of the other species; gibbous and flexable but
more stif than any except N°. 1. and more blontly pointed
than either of the other species; the upper disk has a small
longitudinal channel and is of a deep green tho' not so glossy
as the balsam fir, the under disk is of a pale green.
[23]
N°. 6 the
white pine; or what is usually so called in Virginia. I see no
difference between this and that of the mountains in Virginia;
unless it be the uncommon length of cone of this found here,
which are sometimes 16 or 18 inches in length and about 4
inches in circumpherence. I do not recollect those of virginia
perfectly but it strikes me that they are not so long. this
species is not common I have only seen it but in one instance
since I have been in this neighbourhood which was on the
border of Haley's bay on the N. side of the Columbia near
the Ocean.
[24]
