[Lewis:]
Saturday April 20th. 1805.
The wind continued to blow tolerably hard this morning but
by no means as violently as it did yesterday; we determined
to set out and accordingly departed a little before seven. I
walked on shore on the N. side of the river, and Capt Clark
proceeded with the party. the river bottoms through which I
passed about seven miles were fertil and well covered with
Cottonwood some Boxalder, ash and red Elm. the under
brush, willow, rose bushes Honeysuccles, red willow, goosbury,
currant and servicebury
& in the open grounds along the foot
of the river hills immence
quantities of the hisop.[29]
in the
course of my walk I killed two deer,
wounded an Elk and a
deer; saw the remains of some Indian hunting camps,
near
which stood a small scaffold of about 7 feet high on which were
deposited two doog slays with their harnis. underneath this
scaffold
a human body was lying, well rolled in several dressed
buffaloe skins and
near it a bag of the same materials conta[in]ing
sundry articles belonging to the disceased; consisting
of a pare of
mockersons, some red and blue earth, beaver's
nails, instruments for
dressing the Buffalo skin, some dryed
roots, several platts of the sweet
grass, and a small quantity of
Mandan tobacco. I presume that the body, as
well as the
bag containing these articles, had formerly been placed on the
scaffold as is the custom of these people, but had fallen down
by
accedent. near the scaffold I saw the carcase of a large dog
not yet decayed, which I supposed had been killed at
the time
the human body was left on the scaffold; this was no doubt the
reward, which the poor doog had met with for performing
the [blank
space in MS.] friendly office to his mistres of transporting
her corps to the place of deposit,
it is customary with
the Assinniboins, Mandans, Minetares &c who
scaffold their
dead, to sacrefice the favorite horses and doggs of their
disceased
relations, with a view of their
being servicable to them
in the land of sperits. I have never heard of any
instances of
human sacrefices on those occasions among them.
The
wind blew so hard that I concluded it was impossible
for the perogues and
canoes to proceed and therefore returned
and joined them about three in
the evening. Capt. Clark
informed me that soon after seting out, a part of
the bank of
the river fell in near one of the canoes and had very nearly
filled her with water, that the wind became so hard and the
waves so
high that it was with infinite risk he had been able
to get as far as his
present station, the white perogue and
several of the canoes had shiped
water several times but happily
our stores were but little injured; those
which were wet we
put out to dry and determined to remain untill the next
morning,
we sent out four hunters who soon
added 3 Elk 4 gees
and 2 deer to our stock of provisions. the party caught
six
beaver today which were large and in fine order. the Buffaloe,
Elk and deer are poor at this season, and of cours are not very
palitable, however our good health and apetites make up
every
necessary deficiency, and we eat very heartily of them.
encamped on
Stard side; under a high well timbered bank.
Courses and Distances of this
day.
|
|
Miles |
| South |
to the upper part of a timbered bottom at a bluff on
the
Lard. side |
1
1/2 |
| West |
to a point of high timber on the
Stad Sid. passing over
a large
sand point on Std. side |
1
1/2 |
| N. 45° W. |
to a large tree in a
bend on stard side opposite a large
sand
point |
1 1/2 |
| S. 45° W. |
to
a point of low willows on Stard.
side |
2 |
|
|
Miles 6
1/2 |
