University of Virginia Library

[Lewis:]

Monday June 10th. 1805.

The day being fair and fine we dryed all our baggage and
merchandize. Shields renewed the main-spring of my air-gun
we have been much indebted to the ingenuity of this man on
many occasions; without having served any regular apprenticeship
to any trade, he makes his own tools principally and
works extreemly well in either wood or metal, and in this
way has been extreemly servicable to us, as well as being a
good hunter and an excellent waterman. in order to guard
against accedents we thou[gh]t it well to conceal some ammunicion
here and accordingly buryed a tin cannester of 4 lbs. of
powder and an adequate quantity of lead near our tent; a
cannester of 6 lbs. lead and an ax in a thicket up the S. Fork
three hundred yards distant from the point. we concluded
that we still could spare more amunition for this deposit
Capt. Clark was therefore to make a further deposit in the
morning, in addition to one Keg of 20 lbs. and an adequate

proportion of lead which had been laid by to be buryed in
the large Cash. we now scelected the articles to be deposited
in this cash which consisted of 2 best falling axes, one auger,
a set of plains [planes], some files, blacksmiths bellowses and
hammers Stake tongs &c. 1 Keg of flour, 2 Kegs of parched
meal, 2 Kegs of Pork, 1 Keg of salt, some chissels, a cooper's
Howel, some tin cups, 2 Musquets, 3 brown bear skins,
beaver skins, horns of the bighorned anamal, a part of the
men's robes clothing and all their superfluous baggage of every
discription, and beaver traps. we drew up the red perogue
into the middle of a small Island at the entrance of Maria's
river, and secured and made her fast to the trees to prevent
the high floods from carrying her off. put my brand on
several trees standing near her, and covered her with brush
to shelter her from the effects of the sun. At 3 P.M. we
had a hard wind from the S. W. which continued about an
hour attended with thunder and rain. as soon as the shower
had passed over we drew out our canoes, corked, repared and
loaded them. I still feel myself somewhat unwell with the
disentary, but determined to set out in the morning up the
South fork or Missouri leaving Capt. Clark to compleat the deposit
and follow me by water with the party; accordingly
gave orders to Drewyer, Joseph Fields, Gibson and Goodrich
to hold themselves in readiness to accompany me in the morning.
Sah-câh-gâh, we â, our Indian woman is very sick this
evening; Capt. C. blead her. the night was cloudy with some
rain.

     

Observed Meridian Altitude of ☉'s. L. L with Octant by the Back observation	54°. 32′.
Latitude deduced from this observation	47°. 22′ 52″. 8.
Mean Latitude of the Entrance of Maria's river as deduced from three observations of ☉ Altd.	47° 25′ 17″ .2 North.

I saw a small bird today which I do not recollect ever
having seen before, it is about the size of the blue thrush or
catbird, and it's contour not unlike that bird. the beak is
convex, moderately curved, black, smoth, and large in proportion

to its size. the legs were black, it had four toes of
the same colour on ea[c]h foot, and the nails appeared long
and somewhat in form like the tallons of the haulk [hawk],
the eye black and proportionably large. a bluish brown
colour occupyed the head, neck, and back, the belly was
white; the tail was reather long in proportion and appeared
to be composed of feathers of equal length of which a part
of those in the center were white the others black. the wings
were long and were also varigated with white and black. on
each side of the head from the beak back to the neck a small
black stripe extended imbrasing the eye. it appeared to be
very busy in catching insects which I presume is it's usual
food; I found the nest of this little bird, the female which
differed but little in size or plumage from the male was seting
on four eggs of a pale blue colour with small black freckles
or dots.[6] the bee martin or Kingbird is common to this
country; tho' there are no bees in this country, nor have we
met with a honey bee since we passed the entrance of the
Osage River. (Kanzas river.)