[Lewis:]
Thursday (Wednesday) January 29th. 1806.
Nothing worthy of notice occurred today. our fare is the
flesh of lean elk boiled with pure water, and a little salt. the
whale blubber which we have used very sparingly is now
exhausted, on this food I do not feel strong, but enjoy the
most perfect health; a keen appetite supplys in a great degree
the want of more luxurious sauses or dishes, and still renders
my ordinary meals not uninteresting to me, for I find myself
sometimes enquiring of the cook whether dinner or breakfast is
ready.
The Sac a commis[12]
is the growth of high dry situations, and
invariably in a piney country or on it's borders. it is generally
found in the open piney woodland as on the Western side
of the Rocky mountain but in this neighbourhood we find it
only in the praries or on their borders in the more open woodlands;
a very rich soil is not absolutely necessary, as a meager
one frequently produces it abundantly. the natives on this
side of the Rocky mountains who can procure this berry invariably
use it; to me it is a very tasteless and insippid fruit.
this shrub is an evergreen, the leaves retain their virdure most
perfectly through the winter even in the most rigid climate as
on lake Winnipic. the root of this shrub puts forth a great
number of stems which seperate near the surface of the ground;
each stem from the size of a small quill of [to] that of a man's
finger; these are much branched the branches forming an
accute angle with the stem, and all more p[r]operly p[r]ocumbent
than creeping, for altho' it sometimes puts forth radicles
from the stem and branches which strike obliquely into the
ground, these radicles are by no means general, equable in their
distances from each other nor do they appear to be calculated
to furnish nutriment to the plant but reather to hold the stem
or branch in it's place. the bark is formed of several thin
layers of a smoth thin brittle substance of a dark or redish
brown colour easily seperated from the woody stem in flakes.
the leaves with rispect to their position are scatered yet closely
arranged near the extremities of the twigs particularly. the
leaf is about 3/4 of an inch in length and about half that in
width, is oval but obtusely pointed, absolutely entire, thick,
smoth, firm, a deep green and slightly grooved. the leaf is
supported by a small footstalk of proportionable length. the
berry is attatched in an irregular and scattered manner to the
small boughs among the leaves, tho' frequently closely arranged,
but always supported by seperate short and small peduncles,
the insertion of which p[r]oduces a slight concavity in the bury
while it's opposite side is slightly convex; the form of the
berry is a spheroid, the shorter diameter being in a line with the
peduncle. this berry is a pericarp the outer coat of which is a
thin firm tough pellicle, the inner part consists of a dry mealy
powder of a yellowish white colour invelloping from four to six
proportionably large hard light brown seeds each in the form
of a section of a spheroid which figure they form when united,
and are destitute of any membranous covering. the colour of
this fruit is a fine scarlet. the natives usually eat them without
any preperation. the fruit ripens in september and remains on
the bushes all winter. the frost appears to take no effect on it.
these berries are sometimes geathered and hung in their lodges
in bags where they dry without further trouble, for in their
most succulent state they appear to be almost as dry as flour.
