Sunday June 23rd. 1805.
This morning early I scelected a place for the purpose of
constructing my boat, near the water under some shady willows.
Capt. Clark had the Canoe and baggage brought up,
after which we breakfasted and nearly consumed the meat
which he had left her[e]. he now set out on his return with
the party. I employed the three men with me in the forenoon
clearing away the brush and forming our camp, and puting
the frame of the boat together. this being done I sent Shields
and Gass to look out for the necessary timber, and with J.
Fields decended the river in the canoe to the mouth of Medicine
river in surch of the hunters whom I had dispatched
thither on the 19th. inst. and from whom we had not heard a
sentence. I entered the mouth of Medicine river and ascended
it about half a mile when we landed and walked up
the Stard. side. frequently [w]hooping as we went on in order
to find the hunters; at length after ascending the river about
five miles we found Shannon who had passed the Medecine
river & fixed his camp on the Lar
d. side, where he had killed
seven deer and several buffaloe and dryed about 600 lb
s. of
buffaloe meat; but had killed no Elk. Shannon could give
me no further account of R. Fields and Drewyer than that he
had left them about noon on the 19
th at the great falls and had
come on [to] the mouth of Medicine river to hunt Elk as he
had been directed, and never had seen them since. the evening
being now far spent I thought it better to pass the Medicine
river and remain all night at Shannon's camp; I passed
the river on a raft which we soon constructed for the purpose.
the river is here about 80 Y
ds. wide, is deep and but a moderate
current. the banks low as those of the Missouri above the
falls yet never appear to overflow. as it will give a better
view of the transactions of the party, I shall on each day give
the occurences of both camps during our seperation as I afterwards
learnt those of the lower camp from Cap
t. Clark. on his
return today he cut of[f] several angles of the rout by which
we came yesterday, shortened the portage considerably; measured
it and set up stakes throughout as guides to marke the
rout. he returned this evening to the lower camp in sufficient
time to take up two of the canoes from portage creek to the
top of the plain about a mile in advance. this evening the
men repaired their mockersons, and put on double souls to
protect their feet from the prickley pears. during the late
rains the buffaloe have troden up the praire very much which
having now become dry the sharp points of earth as hard as
frozen ground stand up in such abundance that there is no
avoiding them. this is particular[l]y severe on the feet of the
men who have not only their own weight to bear in treading
on those hacklelike points but have also the addition of the
burthen which they draw and which in fact is as much as they
can possibly move with. they are obliged to halt and rest
frequently for a few minutes, at every halt these poor fellows
tumble down and are so much fortiegued that many of them
are asleep in an instant; in short their fatiegues are incredible;
some are limping from the soreness of their feet, others faint
and unable to stand for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue,
yet no one complains, all go with cheerfullness. in evening
Reubin Fields returned to the lower camp and informed Cap
t.
Clark of the absence of Shannon, with rispect to whome they
were extreemly uneasy. Fields and Drewyer had killed several
buffaloe at the bend of the missouri above the falls and
had dryed a considerable quantity of meat; they had also
killed several deer but no Elk.
