Saturday May
4th. 1805.
We were detained this morning
untill about 9 OCk. in order
to repare the rudder
irons of the red perogue which were
broken last evening in landing; we
then set out, the wind
hard against us. I walked on shore this morning,
the weather
was more plesant, the snow has disappeared; the frost seems
to have effected the vegetation much less than could have been
expected the leaves of the cottonwood the
grass the box alder
willow and the yellow flowering pea seem to be
scarcely
touched; the rosebushes and honeysuckle seem to have sustaned
the most considerable injury. The country
on both
sides of the Missouri continues to be open level fertile and
beautifull as far as the eye can reach which from some of the
eminences is not short of 30 Miles. the river bottoms are
very
extensive and contain a much greater proportion of timber
than usual; the
fore part of this day the river was bordered
with timber on both sides, a
circumstance which is extreemly
rare and the first which has occurred of
any thing like the same
extent since we left the Mandans. in the after
part of the day
we passed an extensive beautifull plain on the Star
d. side which
gradually ascended from the river. I saw
immence quantities
of buffaloe in every direction, also some Elk deer and
goats;
having an abundance of meat on hand I passed them without
firing on them; they are extreemly gentle the bull buffaloe
particularly will scarcely give way to you. I passed several in
the
open plain within fifty paces, they viewed me for a moment
as something
novel and then very unconcernedly continued to
feed. Cap
t. Clark walked on shore this evening and did not
rejoin
us untill after dark, he struck the river several miles
above our camp and
came down to us. we saw many beaver
some [of] which the party shot, we
also killed two deer today.
much sign of the brown bear. passed several
old Indian hunting
camps in the course of the
day one of them contained
two large lodges which were fortifyed with old
driftwood and
fallen timber; this fortification consisted of a circular
fence of
timber lade horizontally laping on and over laying each other
to the hight of 5 feet. these pounds are sometimes built from
20 to
30 feet in diameter and covered over with the trunks
and limbs of old
timber. the usual construction of the lodges
we have lately passed is as
follows. three or more strong sticks
the thickness of a man's leg or arm
and about 12 feet long are
attatched together at one end by a with of
small willows, these
are then set on end and spread at the base, forming a
circle of
ten twelve or 14 feet in diameter; sticks of driftwood and
fallen timber of convenient size are now placed with one end
on the ground and the other resting against
those which are
secured together at top by the with and which support and
give the form to the whole, thus the sticks are laid on untill
they
make it as thick as they design, usually about three
ranges, each piece
breaking or filling up the interstice of the
two beneath it, the whole
forming a connic figure about 10 feet
high with a small apperture in one
side which answers as a
door. leaves bark and straw are sometimes thrown
over the
work to make it more complete, but at best it affords a very
imperfect shelter particularly without straw which is the state
in
which we have most usually found them.
Courses and distances of the 4th. of
May
| S. 80°. W. |
to a point of
timber on the Stard.
side |
3. |
| S. 72°. W. |
to a point of woodland on the Stard. side river
wide
and filled with sandbars |
5. |
| S.
50°. W. |
to the mouth of a small creek in a deep
bend on Lard.
side, a sand Island
opposite |
1 1/2 |
| N. 10°.
W. |
to a point of woodland on the Lard. side passing a
Stard. point at 1
1/4 miles |
3. |
| S. 45°. W. |
to a willow point on the Stard. side, the river
making
a considerable bend to the N. an open plain on
the Stard. |
4 |
| S. 70°.
W. |
to a point of timbered land on the Stard. where we
encamped. |
1
1/2 |
|
Miles |
18. |
At noon the
sun was so much obscured that I could not
obtain his maridian Altitude
which I much wished in order to
fix the latitude of the entrance of
Porcupine river. Joseph
Fields was very sick today with the disentary had
a high fever
I gave him a doze of Glauber salts, which operated very well,
in the evening his fever abated and I gave him 30 drops of
laudnum.
