Tuesday June 18th. 1805.
This morning I employed all hands in drawing the perogue
on shore in a thick bunch of willow bushes some little distance
below our camp; fastened her securely, drove out the plugs
of the gage holes of her bottom and covered her with bushes
and driftwood to shelter her from the sun. I now scelected a
place for a cash and set t[h]ree men at work to complete it,
and employed all others except those about the waggons, in
overhawling airing and repacking our indian goods ammunicion,
provision and stores of every discription which required
inspection. examined the frame of my Iron boat and found
all the parts complete except one screw, which the ingenuity
of Sheilds can readily replace, a resource which we have very
frequent occasion for. about 12 O'Clk. the hunters returned;
they had killed 10 deer but no Elk. I begin to fear that we
shall have some difficulty in procuring skins for the boat. I
wo[u]ld prefer those of the Elk because I beleive them more
durable and strong than those of the Buffaloe, and that they
will not shrink so much in drying. we saw a herd of buffaloe
come down to water at the sulpher spring this evening, I dispatched
some hunters to kill some of them, and a man also for
a cask of mineral water. the hunters soon killed two of them
in fine order and returned with a good quantity of the flesh,
having left the remainder in a situation that it will not spoil
provided the wolves do not visit it. The waggons are completed
this evening, and appear as if they would answer the
purpose very well if the ax[l]etrees prove sufficiently strong.
the wind blew violently this evening, as they frequently do in
this open country where there is not a tree to brake or oppose
their force. The Indian woman is recovering fast she set up
the greater part of the day and walked out for the fi[r]st time
since she arrived here; she eats hartily and is free from fever
or pain. I continue same course of medecine and regimen
except that I added one doze of 15 drops of the oil of vitriol
today about noon.
There is a species of goosberry which grows very common
about here in open situations among the rocks on the sides of
the clifts. they are now ripe of a pale red colour, about the
size of a common goosberry, and like it is an ovate pericarp
of soft pulp invelloping a number of smal whitish coloured
seeds; the pulp is a yello[w]ish slimy muselaginous substance
of a sweetish and pinelike tast, not agreeable to me. the surface
of the berry is covered with a glutinous adhesive matter,
and the frut altho' ripe retains it's withered corollar. this
shrub seldom rises more than two feet high and is much
branched; the leaves resemble those of the common goosberry
only not so large; it has no thorns. the berry is supported by
seperate peduncles or footstalks of half an inch in length.
[19]
immence quantities of small grasshoppers of a brown colour in
the plains, they no doubt contribute much to keep the grass
as low as we find it which is not generally more than three
inches, the grass is a narrow leaf, soft, and affords a fine
pasture for the Buffaloe.
