Thursday April 17th. 1806.
This morning early I sent out the hunters, and set several
additional hands about the packsaddles. I find that the sturgeon
is not taken by any of the natives above the Columbean
valley. the inhabitants of the rapids at this time take a few of
the white salmon trout and considerable quantities of a small
indifferent mullet on which they principally subsist. I have
seen none except dryed fish of the last season in the possession
of the people above that place, they subsist on roots principally
with some dryed and pounded fish. the salmon not
having made their appearance proves a serious inconvenience
to us. but few of the natives visited my camp today and
those only remained a few hours. even at this place which is
merely on the border of the plains of Columbia the climate
seems to have changed the air feels dryer and more pure. the
earth is dry and seems as if there had been no rain for a week
or ten days. the plain is covered with a rich virdure of grass
and herbs from four to nine inches high and exhibits a beautifull
seen particularly pleasing after having been so long imprisoned
in mountains and those almost impenetrably thick
forrests of the seacoast. Joseph Feilds brought me today
three eggs of the party coloured corvus,[26]
they are about the
size and shape of those of the pigeon. they are bluish white
much freckled with dark redish brown irregular spots, in short
it is reather a mixture of those colours in which the redish
brown predominates, particularly towards the larger end. This
evening Willard and Cruzatte returned from Capt. Clark and
brought me a note in which Capt. C. informed me that he had
s[t]ill been unsuccessfull having not obtained a single horse as
yet from the natives and the state of our stores are so low that
I begin to fear we shall not be enabled to obtain as many
horses at this place as will convey our baggage and unless we
do obtain a sufficient number for that purpose we shall not
hasten our progress as a part of our baggage must still be conveyed
by water. Capt. C. informed me that he should proceed
as far as the Eneshur village today and would return tomorrow
and join me at the Skillute village to which place I mean to
proceed with the party tomorrow. I dispatched Shannon with
a note to Capt. Clark in which I requested him to double the
price we have heretofore offered for horses and if possible obtain
as many as five, by this means we shall be enabled to
proceed immediately with our small canoes and those horses to
the villages in the neighbourhood of the musselshell rapid
where horses are more abundant and cheaper; with the remainder
of our merchandize in addition to the canoes we can
no doubt obtain as many horses there as will answer our purposes.
delay in the villages at the narrows and falls will be
expensive to us inasmuch as we will be compelled to purchase
both fuel and food of the indians, and might the better enable
them to execute any hostile design should they meditate any
against us. all the hunters returned in the evening. Sheilds
had killed one deer which he brought with him. the packsaddles
were completed this evening. I had some Elkskins
put in the water today [to] make harnes for the packhorses
but shall not cut them untill I know the number we can obtain.
there is a species of hiasinth in these plains the bulb of which
the natives eat either boiled baked or dryed in the sun. this
bulb is white, not entirely solid, and of a flat form; the bulb of
the present year overlays, or crowns that of the last, and seems
to be pressed close to it, the old bulb is withered much thiner
equally wide with that of the present year and sends fourth
from it's sides a number of small radicles. this hiasinth is of a
pale blue colour and is a very pretty flower. I preserved a
specemine of it.
[27]
