[Lewis:]
Thursday May 29th. 1806.
No movement of the party today worthy of notice. we have
once more a good stock of meat and roots. Bratton is recovering
his strength very fast; the Child and the Indian Cheif
are also on the recovery. the cheif has much more uce of his
hands and arms. he washed his face himself today which he
has been unable to do previously for more than twelve months.
we would have repeated the sweat today had [it] not been
cloudy and frequently rainy, a speceis of Lizzard called by
the French engages prarie buffaloe are native of these plains
as well as of those of the Missouri. I have called them the
horned Lizzard. they are about the size and a good deel of
the figure of the common black lizzard. but their bellies are
broader, the tail shorter and their action much slower; they
crawl much like the toad. they are of a brown colour with
yellowish and yellowish brown spots. it is covered with
minute scales intermixed with little horny prosesses like blont
prickles on the upper surface of the body. the belly and
throat is more like the frog and are of a light yelowish brown
colour. arround the edge of the belley is regularly set with
little homey projections which give to these edges a serrate
figure the eye is small and of a dark colour, above and
behind the eyes there are several projections of the bone
which being armed at their extremities with a firm black
substance has the appearance of horns sprouting out from the
head. this part has induced me to distinguish it by the appellation
of the
horned Lizzard.
[26]
I cannot conceive how the
engages ever assimilated this animal with the buffaloe for there
is not greater analogy than between the horse and the frog.
this animal is found in greatest numbers in the sandy open
parts of the plains, and appear in great abundance after a
shower of rain; they are sometimes found basking in the sunshine
but conceal themselves in little holes in the earth much
the greater proportion of their time. they are numerous about
the falls of the Missouri and in the plains through which we
past lately above the Wallahwallahs. The Choke Cherry has
been in blume since the 20
th. inst. it is a simple branching
ascending stem. the cortex smooth and of a dark brown with
a redish cast. the leaf is scattered petiolate oval accute at its
apex finely serrate smooth and of an ordinary green. from 2–1/2
to 3 inches in length and 1-3/4 to 2 in width. the peduncles
are cilindric common and from 4 to 5 inches in length and are
inserted promiscuously on the twigs of the preceeding years
growth. on the lower portion of the common peduncle are
frequently from 3 to 4 small leaves being the same in form as
those last discribed. other peduncles 1/4 of an inch in length
are thickly scattered and inserted on all sides of the common
peduncle at wrightangles with it each elivating a single flower,
which has five obtuse short patent white petals with short claws
inserted on the upper edge of the calyx. the calyx is a perianth
including both stamens and germ, one leafed fine cleft entire
simiglobular, inf[e]rior, deciduous. the stamens are upwards
of twenty and are seated on the margin of the flower cup or
what I have called the perianth. the filaments are unequal
in length subulate inflected and superior membranous. the
anthers are equal in number with the filaments, they are very
short oblong & flat, naked and situated at the extremity of the
filaments, is of a yelow colour as is also the pollen. one pistillum.
the germen is ovate, smooth, superior, sessile, very
small; the Style is very short, simple, erect, on the top of the
germen, deciduous. the stigma is simple, flat very short.
